My Top Ten TTRPGs

Happy 2026. Dusting off the old blog and dropping one that a lot of Dungeon Tubers are doing. In spite of being a Caucasian Male TTRPG player over the age of 50, I have yet to set up a Dungeon Tube of my own, so I'm dropping it here. For my dozen or so I hope you are all doing well. I can't believe I had over a hundred views on the last Astroprisma one. I haven't played it in a while now, but it remains a fun game that I enjoyed and it makes the list.

10. Deadlands (Pinnacle Entertainment Group): This one is weird west setting and a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I didn't play it enough for it to go any further up the chain. I remember a few characters I ran--"Stone Cold" Ken Masters who was me doing a piss-poor Steve Austin getting blown away by a rifleman is very memorable and there was a gambler I played at a convention one time when I lived out in the UAE--for me the best mechanic was using the poker cards. I never tried the D20 or Savage Worlds version, so I can't speak to those but the original was fun.

09. Vampire: The Masquerade (White Wolf): For a time there in the 90's, this was the go to. My group played in a lot of the old World of Darkness and the various supplements. Dice pool system, but it felt like an easy one compared to some of the things I've encountered today. I still have the first edition of the core rule book and may revisit it someday. 08. Heroes Unlimited (Palladium): It's a super hero game with the Palladium engine. I also had plenty of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the various supplements. I remember reading the books like crazy and playing a few games in high school and as a recent graduate, but not enough to place it any higher on the list. Nowadays when I want rules light and just can't keep up with what characters can do even in 5th edition, I just don't think Palladium books can make the cut. 07.Marvel Super Heroes (TSR): You know and love FASERIP. This is the main supers game we played at a time in my life when Marvel was doing now wrong. I recently re-acquired them and hope to play again soon. My Mandela Effect affected brain doesn't remember if I started with this or with some half-hearted attempt at D&D, but as I remember it today, this is what started me on the journey. 06. Ryuutama:Natural Fantasy RPG (Kotodama Heavy Industries): For quite some time this was the number one RPG in Japan. It was billed as "Miyazaki meets The Oregon Trail" and that pretty much covers it. Two unique elements to this game: 1. Travel is the focus 2. The GM has his own character--a dragon called a Ryuujin. It grows along along with the players and tries to help them succeed. It's very rules light and a lot of fun. (I put two newer games on my list which may prove to be usurpers as time goes on. I used to proselytize for Ryuutama all the time. It's a really light-hearted fun game worth a shot. I'm sure it would be a great one to solo) 05.Cyberpunk 2020 (R. Talsorian Games) I don't want to separate things by edition too much, but RED--the current edition--could be up here in about the same spot. RED is a little easier to learn as I understand, but I really haven't played or run it, so 2020 it is. A lot of fun to be had here and I have both played and run online. The setting is what makes this game for me. Everyone should watch Edgerunners if they haven't. 04.Astroprisma (Crescent Chimera) another new one which is kind of a sister game to Shadow Dark in my mind. It has a similar creation backstory and creator--another young woman who jumped on the shoulders of giants and surpassed them streamlining some of the tedium of games that came before. It was a successful Kickstarter...it just didn't quite break the bank like Shadow Dark did. This is Sci-Fi space exploration geared for solo play with later expansion for groups to play together. Build a ship, explore a sector and get into trouble with various factions in the dystopian future. 03. The Roleplaying Game of the Planet of the Apes (Magnetic Press/West End): I love the ruleset, the supplements and the setting. This is a new one and I haven't been able to run one for the group. This is a variant of the D6 West End games like Star Wars. It looks so good and I'm working on my campaign/one shot planning now. The little solo part in the book was more like a Choose Your Own Adventure, but a more complex Solo expansion is on the way. 02. Shadow Dark (Arcane Library): I've run this a few times. I haven't quite gotten a continuous campaign out of it, but it's fun to read, has interesting art, and is supported by a growing community. Everyone in the Dungeon Tube audience has to know about it unless they've been living under a rock. 01. D&D 5E (WOTC 2014): Unpopular opinion in these circles, but for better or for worse, I've played it more than anything else. The mechanics are solid and easy enough for anyone to play who has an interest. I prefer Shadow Dark. I honestly had more fun with 4E and I grew up with 2E and played in a cool OSRIC campaign just before Wuhan Flu, but at the end of the day, I've played more 5E with more people in person and online than I've ever played in any of the other games over the previous 40-ish years of playing. It comes down to who is running the game and who you're playing with as far as the cringy/woke bits are concerned and the 2024 update is a bridge too far, but this version has been the most popular for a reason.

Take care...hopefully, I won't make it a complete ghost town in here in 2026..Also, Happy Year of the Horse...CNY is on the way you know!

RPG a Day 2023: The 10th Anniversary Edition--Day 15 Favorite Con Module/One-Shot

 I've written about my times in the United Arab Emirates before in previous years, so I hope I'm not retelling too many stories. I taught out there for nine years at the same high school. I read a lot of PDFs and tried to introduce TTRPGs in my classroom. It was mixed success at best. At some point I did find the Gulf Roleplaying Community (GRC) which continues on to this very day. As I mentioned yesterday, there are big conventions out in the area much like the cons in the States, but the better thing was when GRC ran mini-cons. They were usually held on  Fridays only, but we played the whole day, so we could fit in two game sessions and a big lunch. 

My favorite con game was one I played at one of these sessions. It was a module from the original--as far as I know--version of Deadlands. I played as a gambler and I remember the module taking place on a train. I believe it was titled 'Ghost Train' because I distinctly remembered there being a poker game involved in the module and that my gambler had lots to do. I don't know if that module is actually an old one or not, but it was presented using the old system I remembered. The best thing about this system for me was the mechanics involving playing cards. In this game there were premade characters that we picked at random as if drawing from a deck of cards. We also had a few simple costume props provided by the marshal. They call the DM/GM the Marshal in this game to go along with the Western vibe. It made for a memorable experience. It didn't feel like a generic run of the mill session.

There are a lot of games coming out nowadays that also employ different gimmicks and I think that's the way it should be, and I welcome the return of such. For a long while there during the D20 system and 5E centric years, a lot of the different games were released under that banner and they lost a lot of their own originality and charm. Very few really have the time or inclination to learn dozens of new systems, but for me,  when I play Deadlands or any other classic, I want to play with the original mechanics. Of course, at the table YMMV and if you don't like a thing then just toss it and use house rules, but there comes a point when you throw out so many of the things that made a system special, that you're no longer playing an alternative ruleset/setting, but just reskinned D&D.