There's More Out There Than Dungeons & Dragons.

The world of role playing games is massive and you don't want to miss out!

The world of role playing games is in a great place. Dungeons & Dragons is the most viewed actual play game on Twitch and YouTube, and the podcast space is packed with images of 20 sided die next to microphones.

Dungeons & Dragon has been a constant in my life for the past decade. That doesn’t mean I play D&D exclusively. Like a role play buffet, I sample several games across the space. Dungeon World is fantasy set story driven gaming. Delta Green is designed to be an investigative mystery solving game with elements inspired by H.P. Lovecraft. The Fate Core system tells you to forget the system as soon as the story telling begins, no matter what genre, as long as you’re having fun.

My aim for this article is to give a brief introduction to some of the systems you may not have heard of and let you know how it could be a better fit than D&D.

Monster of the Week

As the name suggests, this game is built to play out like the “monster of the week” genre of television. Shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The X-Files are referred to frequently in the book, where each episode throws a new monster or mystery at the cast. Monster of the Week is designed to make each sit down session a complete mystery. Character creation pulls tropes from established archetypes like The Chosen (Buffy Summers), The Wronged (Winchester Brothers from Supernatural), The Crooked (Peter Bishop in Fringe) and The Flake (Fox Mulder from the X-Files).

The required dice are two standard 6 sided dice. Once you roll both, you add or subtract a number. It’s based on a system called “Powered by the Apocalypse” because the game Apocalypse World popularized this style of game play.

In a Sentence??
It’s a straightforward rule set and it’s story driven gameplay.

MorkBorg

The uptick in post apocalyptic media is reflecting how we’re observing the world lately, and MorkBorg cranks that up to 11. Described as “a doom metal album of a game”, Morkborg appeals to those who want to get darker than the blackest night, and go easy on the rules. It’s mostly flavor, and the flavor is burnt coffee and shadows.

Having played it once, I can’t find any fault with that description. It’s fast, it’s weird, it’s dangerous (for your character, you’ll be fine), and it’s some of the most fun I’ve had playing a game. Character creation is done with a series of die rolls and a table the Game Master uses. The world provided is a dark, dangerous, scary place. You don’t get attached to one character as death isn’t just possible, it’s guaranteed.

In a Sentence??
It’s like a throwback to the early days of D&D but easier to learn.

Pathfinder

The largest competitor with Wizard of the Coast since 2009, Paizo has been making a fantasy game with a robust rule set that occasionally feels like graduate work. Because of its depth and impressive variety of options Pathfinder typically scares off newer players.

It uses the same key stats as D&D, and many of the classes, races, and spells are similar in tone but still distinct from D&D. Pathfinder’s key standout is the turn based functionality, and the company has made an effort to keep all their published works in one setting. While D&D has a long tradition of multiple worlds with different rules and expectations, Paizo states in their lore Golarion is a single planet in a solar system.

In a Sentence??
If you’re looking for something with more mechanic crunch than D&D and is still fantasy themed, this is the one for you.

Blades in the Dark

Set in Duskvol, a vaguely Eastern European Post Industrial Revolution setting, is Blades in the Dark. The city of Duskvol is a breeding ground for crime, both mundane and spectral. That’s why you’ll often play a crew of crooks working on the next big score, playing a series of heists in a dark, dirty world.

Blades in the Dark is built to be a game where you pull off heists. One of the mechanics lets you put stress on your character to recall in a flashback how you prepared for a twist in the scenario. It literally lets you do the best part in heist movies. This system, like Monster of the Week, simplifies how many dice you need. A pair of standard six sided die and a story forward character sheet is all you need to jump into this grim world and take what isn’t yours yet.

In a Sentence??
If you want to commit heists in a dim, dank world, this is the game for you.

More Games?

Being a busy adult with a busy schedule I can’t speak to other game systems that are out at the moment. Hopefully I’ll carve out some time and come back with news of other systems to try out!