My favourite non-D&D RPGs that you NEED to play

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[frankb]

Instead of a Call of Cthulhu game being set in the 1920s you could run it in the 1970s with a gang of youths who travel around in a van and solve mysteries. Once they start going mad they might start hallucinating that their dog is talking. That would be fun.

[testtest]

#1 1:03 Call of Cthulu
#2 6:30 Pathfinder 2e
#3 8:08 Blades in the dark
#4 13:00 Shadow of the Demon Lord (my #2)
#5 15:29 The Fantasy Trip (my #1)

[richardmoreno]

Call of Cthulhu has been Chaosium's number one game for decades. Good game.

[MisterDragon]

I love that Paizo sold out 8 months of stock in 2 weeks because of just how absurdly hard the sales spiked.

[rangda_prime]

Great list! For anyone interested in Call of Cthulhu, I can recommend Delta Green, the roleplaying game. It's basically Call of Cthulhu, but with an X-files twist. You play as members of a secret, off the books organization which is aware that there are terrible gods and monsters lurking under the veneer of ordinary life. The organization recruits from all sorts of investigative and military branches of governments and NGOs.

So yeah, you can basically play Scully and Mulder vs the Chtulhu Mythos, or a Ghost Hunting TV show which finds things it never thought it would, etc, etc. It takes one of the problems of traditional CoC and turns it on its head - instead of trying to gain access to the supernatural crime scene, you are trying to keep it covered up and safe. While at the same time having to figure out which door not to open. :)

The classic CoC experience is great as well, but if you don't know jack shit about the 1920s, going modern with Delta Green can be a more accessible experience for a new group of players.

[testtest]

We switched to Old School Essentials and we been having a blast!

I've also been using Basic Fantasy RPG by Chris Gonnerman (free online!) To play original Basic D&D adventure modules!

[InvaderHelpUnit]

Other great TTRPG's: Stars Without Number, Conan 2d20, Tales from the Loop/Flood, Cyber Punk Red, Shadowrun, and Starfinder.

[eitherorlok]

For those who like CoC and its d100 system, but want to play in a fantasy setting, there are three great options. "RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha" by Chaosium is probably the most approachable of the game's editions, and has decades of material to support it. "Mythras" is based on an earlier edition of RQ, and is more of a toolbox for creating your own fantasy settings, and "OpenQuest" is a wonderful rules-light version of the game.

[ad-mc]

I've just picked up Blades In The Dark. I can't see us switching away from 5e for our current campaign but this has given me the kick up the ass that I needed to try something new alongside

[yuvalne]

A system I've really enjoyed recently is Fabula Ultima, based on JRPG, where "but with the power of friendship you succeed" is literally a built-in mechanic. Super fun.

[Drppl]

My group has been having an absolute blast with the Alien RPG. Pulse rifles, motion trackers and Xenomorphs! GET SOME!!

[keyanblyler]

My go to game other than d&d is Dungeon Crawl Classics and Mutant Crawl Classics, it has that retro old-school d&d feel but with updated mechanics like spell checks, mighty deeds, spell burn, and corruption. It's so good.

[fuloran]

Ive never played a TTRPG. I somehow saw a vid on this whole thing and was fascinated. Bought the Pathfinder beginner box and I'm playing it with my daughters this saturday. Thanks WotC!!

[printandplaygamer]

Cidri. The world that The Fantasy Trip is set in was called Cidri, an extra-dimensional planet supposedly so large that every GM's campaign could be set on it without bumping into one another. There's actually a couple of pages of backstory on Cidri that encourages GMs to lift heavily from any historical era, as well as fantastic worlds, to create anachronistic pastiche settings in which Roman legionnaires could do battle with medieval knights and Renaissance samurai. TFT was created during an era in which every DM's Dungeons and Dragons campaign was considered to be in the same larger world, or at least the same multiverse, and players could bring established characters from one DM's dungeon directly into another DM's campaign; Cidri was an attempt to rationalize that portable-character, all-campaigns-are-one concept.

Fun fact: My friends and I lived in Austin in the late 1970s, and we were actually playing Melee and Wizard, the skirmish microgames that evolved into the full RPG, The Fantasy Trip, *before* we got our hands on the D&D White Box edition. So I love that you included this on your list of five RPGs for people to try.

[Actalzy]

The Indiana Jones clip would have been a great intro into talking about Pulp Cthulhu. Also for those thinking that CoC is just 1920ish Era, it can so easily be set during any time period. Even have a supplement called Cthulhu through the ages going from Roman times to Dark Ages, Victorian England if you want more Sherlock Holmes vs Mythos. All the way up to post apocalyptic setting.

Existing pre-made stuff can usually easily be converted to one of these settings or modern day. Dungeon Dudes just did a pre-made set in the 1920's New England and moved it to 1990's Ontario Canada. Worked perfectly. So sky is the limit really.

[briansmaller]

My favs are Barbarians of Lemuria and Savage Worlds (have used this for pulp, horror, scifi and fantasy). I prefer class/level-less game so these suit me. To that end Hero System and GURPS are also good. With those systems you do not need to fit your concept into a set of rules, You can fit the rules to your concept.

[Tewhill]

Mysterious hooded figure in the darkest corner of the tavern whispers, "Burning Wheel."

[ironknight]

I'd love to see more videos shining a light on lesser known RPGs! (Not that all these aren't well known, seems like already I knew more pathfinder people than D&D)

[katecritt]

I have heard Blades in the Dark recommended everywhere and I really want to try it. I love games that are built from the ground up with mechanics that support the theme and narrative style. One of these I recently tried is the Alien RPG, which is fantastic. It has a mechanic where you get to add more dice to your pool the more stressed you are (adrenaline and all that), but if any of your stress dice roll a one, you have a freak out.

I've seen a few people in the comments recommending Savage Worlds, which I also heartily recommend. It's a good generic system that can support a lot of genres and has a lot of supplements published for different settings and genres, and the system is simple enough to make it a good introduction to the hobby for new gamers.

But the games nearest and dearest to my heart are the White Wolf/Onyx Path games. First you have the World of Darkness and its little sister Chronicles of Darkness, two different takes on modern horror in which you can play as the monsters, those who hunt them, or the everyday schmucks caught in the middle of this supernatural bullshit. Seriously, "You're a pack of werewolves in a territorial dispute with some death cultists who have taken over the local PTA" is a perfectly normal campaign pitch. Vampire the Masquerade comes from this family of games.

Then there is the transcendently glorious mess that is Exalted. The system is a learning curve, character creation is daunting, officially published adventures are practically non-existent, it's difficult to find a group for, and I love it more than anything. The setting feels to me like a mash-up of Greco-Roman and East Asian mythology, with a half dozen anime genres sprinkled in. You play as emotionally unstable demigods trying to carve out your legend as you change/save/destroy the world. You can totally run it as a light-hearted, larger than life adventure through a colourful setting full of colourful characters, but the game encourages you to deal with themes like oppression, social change, and the consequences of your own god damn actions. I've been running Exalted games for years, it was the first game I ran because I'm crazy, and if you're crazy too you might just want to run it for your group.

[couver]

Definitely a respectable list for sure. I would honestly suggest Mutants and Masterminds if you want to play a game filled with superheroes and superpowered beings of all power scales. You might get a kick out of it if that's your style.