My Favorite RPGs

 “In our leisure we reveal what kind of people we are.”

— Ovid

Goodness knows I’ve played a good number of roleplaying games over the years. Sometimes I dabbled by reading rule- and sourcebooks, drafting some characters, jotting down adventure notes, even writing entire scenarios. Other times, after all the preparatory play activities, I brought a game to the table with friends or even strangers at a convention. I’ve played one-shots and lengthy campaigns. Along the way I tried numerous rules systems in various genres, with varying degrees of success and satisfaction. Although I’ve enjoyed it all — and some stand out as pleasant memories of my gaming past — I’ve come to admire a few games, both systems and settings, I’d default to if I had more chances to run roleplaying games.

In my halcyon high school days I had time to freely explore the roleplaying game offerings of the day, primarily from TSR but also from other companies developing their own innovative games. I explored the various boxed sets TSR published, from Top Secret and Gangbusters to Gamma World and Star Frontiers. I went through a spell immersing myself in classic little-black-book Traveller. I sent my characters through numerous solitaire Tunnels & Trolls adventures. Summertime in college gave me opportunities to explore other games, indulging in my and my friends’ free time to run weekly campaign games. More recently, with the boom in the Old School Renaissance (OSR) I explored different games and their settings that catered to that trend, though few, if any, made it to the game table.

Looking back over more than 40 years in the adventure gaming hobby — many of which I spent immersed in, and sometimes writing for, roleplaying games — a few excellent games stand out. Most roleplaying games draw me into the setting; the game mechanics sometimes prove an impediment to immediate engagement creating compelling characters and exploring the novel new game world. My favorites represent a confluence of accessible rules system and engaging setting. For me the former tend to skew away from the overly complex and toward the concise and elegant, especially given my lifelong urge to introduce roleplaying games to new players and draw them into the hobby. The settings, whether presented in the games or adapted on my own, reflect my own interests. Though I’ll admit I admire most of the games featured below for rules easily adaptable to almost any genre.

I have long admired the concise elegance and flexibility of S. John Ross’ Risus: The Anything RPG. It uses cliches to define character abilities, which naturally reflect whatever setting one uses for games. ince it relies on cliches players devise themselves, they can tailor the game to whatever style and genre they want. I’ve used it to run various customized genres, including a pulpy World War II super spy adventure, some solitaire Tékumel gaming, and adaptation to the darkly humorous Paranoia setting (between publication and support of two different official versions). Since it merges an intuitive rules system and adapts to any genre, it remains one of the easiest games to use introducing newcomers to roleplaying games. You can download Risus for free from DriveThruRPG, where you’ll also find other free resources like character sheets, a solitaire adventure, the thought-provoking Big List of RPG Plots to inspire yoiur adventures, and two rich fantasy scenarios — Toast of the Town and Slimes of Blossom Grove — demonstrating the essence of Ross’ “High Trust Trad” game design (both with pregenerated characters to get you started).

My affinity for Prince Valiant, The Storytelling Game might strike some folks as odd. It’s a relatively obscure roleplaying game in the vast galaxy of such games, tied to a lesser-known intellectual property in our electronic-media-dominated 21st century. The rules system seems simple yet open to degrees of complexity...and to my knowledge never really appeared in any other published game. The game enticed me with its grounding in Arthurian legend — like its far more involved predecessor from Chaosium and Greg Stafford, Pendragon — the amazing Hal Foster artwork, and its intuitive, patient approach to introducing roleplaying games to newcomers. Task resolution hinges on “throwing coins” to determine the number of successes and failures against opponent rolls or a difficulty scale; one jangly, skittering coin toss was enough to convince me to use dice instead, with results of 4-6 counting as successes. I particularly liked how two traits, Brawn and Presence, defined abilities on a 1-6 scale; additional skills could add a few coins/dice to specific rolls where relevant, depending on whether the situation related to Brawn or Presence; something I found offered some flexibility in its simplicity. I ran a short campaign for some friends in my younger days, including a few non-gamers.* Most had some knowledge of Arthurian legend from various media. The game system didn’t intrude too much into the storytelling and offered enough flexibility to adjudicate most game situations. The rulebook emphasizes thematic elements of the setting, especially from the character perspective. One could easily adapt the concise game mechanics to any genre. Despite praise as an exemplary introductory roleplaying game, the original game (1989) quickly went out of print; Nocturnal Media published a slick, full-color edition in 2019 funded through Kickstarter. No doubt one can find used copies at collector’s prices in various secondary markets like Noble Knight Games, Wayne’s Books, and eBay.

By far the game I’ve played the most remains West End Games’ Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, including five years writing and editing material for the game line before the company’s sudden bankruptcy. The D6 System on which it’s based remains my go-to for running games with both newcomers and experienced gamers. Dice pools define characters’ abilities and associated skills, with some interesting mechanics to influence dice rolls, all wrapped up in cinematic Star Wars atmosphere. The rules promote a cinematic narrative style where game mechanics can emerge at the table to varying degrees depending on one’s play style: use rules only when absolutely necessary, rely on them for a more “crunchy” game experience, or explore degrees of complexity in between...your mileage may vary. I’ve managed to teach newcomers the mechanics in less than 15 minutes; obviously the setting speaks for itself (though these days I must define when exactly the game takes place in the sprawling, ever-expanding continuity). I have adapted the D6 System for use in other settings, notably my own Pulp Egypt and Heroes of Rura-Tonga, though I once developed a fantasy system for it (before the trilogy of D6 rulebooks emerged in the early 2000s). Between the original Star Wars setting and others adapted to the rules I’ve long ago lost count of the number of games I’ve run: numerous one-shots and campaigns with friends; in-store demonstrations; and countless games at conventions. I regret the game remains out of print and unsupported through official publishers, though one can find PDFs of most rule- and sourcebooks online and used print editions in various secondary markets like Noble Knight Games, Wayne’s Books, and eBay.

If anyone approached me to run a roleplaying game for them I’d default to one of the three noted above. With a few adjustments they’re easy enough to adapt to different genres and specific settings and easy enough to explain the essentials of how roleplaying games work, both in the narrative and rules senses. I’ve come to believe a game’s theme matters more to players than rules mechanics...especially for newcomers. The theme entices them to try a game, gets them to the table, and sustains their interest long enough to engage with the mechanics for a well-rounded roleplaying game experience.

Fun in Their Time, But Not Today

I had plenty of fun with other roleplaying games in my younger years. But for some of them the sheen has worn off in our more enlightened mores of the 21st century, tainting their memory and relegating them to fond nostalgia. I played a great deal in my younger days, with memorable characters and campaigns, yet they don’t seem quite appropriate or tolerable today.

R. Talsorian’s Cyberpunk 2020, set in a dystopian near-future, just doesn’t work for me anymore. Probably because we’re living in an unbelievable dystopian near-future right now. The game system was a little heavy and intrusive, but we still enjoyed various misadventures in the Night City setting. I drafted a few programmed solo adventures for it. One year I ran a campaign for friends home from college, then a later campaign with gamers when I first moved to Virginia, including newsfeed screamsheet player handouts setting the tone (and current events) for each scenario. Having lived through our descent into dystopia has soured me on the near-future cyberpunk genre.

GDW’s Space 1889 inspired my exploration of colonial British history in the Victorian era, including a detour into miniature wargaming. I didn’t care for the game system, but the general skeleton of attributes and skills made it easy for me to overlay the mechanics from the D6 System with which my players were already familiar. I ran a summertime campaign for our gaming group, focusing on various colonial intrigues on Mars. Although we enjoyed playing it back in the early 1990s, the specter of colonialism that continues to haunt our 21st century world makes it far more problematic (along with my Victorian-era wargaming). I appreciate that it informed me of British colonial history, and the issues of colonialism in general...but I couldn’t imagine running it today.

The rich, exotic setting of Tékumel remains a tricky setting for me. I’ve tried exploring it in most of its roleplaying game incarnations, some more than others, and a few times adapting the setting to a rules system with which I was more comfortable. It is, however, forever blemished by its creator’s antisemitism that emerged in 2022. I still enjoy exploring Tékumel — through publications and my own game activities — but it carries an uncomfortable tinge of cringe. Thankfully James Maliszewski, publisher of the Tékumel fanzine The Excellent Travelling Volume, is developing his own roleplaying game and setting, Secrets of sha-Arthan, evocative of Tékumel with his own interpretations and embellishments into a wholly original, more accessible setting.

I’m sure if I looked over my shelves I’d find a few more roleplaying games I enjoyed back in the day that I probably wouldn’t play today. They remain as nostalgic relics of my gaming past, evoking fond memories as well as reflection on what they might have taught me and how they relate to issues today, gaming and otherwise.

“A memory is a beautiful thing, it’s almost a desire that you miss.”

— Gustave Flaubert

* My best memory running Prince Valiant, The Storytelling Game came from the non-player character of Marcus, the heroes’ personal servant and guide once they’d established themselves in what I described as the sprawling city-castle of Camelot. He miraculously appeared anytime they had a question, needed something, or required direction (or even spoke his name), seemingly existing just out of earshot waiting to serve. The heroes once tried tying a string to him to find out where he disappeared to when not needed; he stymied this attempt, though not before some misadventures leading them into the obscure corners and dusty depths of the castle.