ADAM: If you’d like to pick up any of the RPGs mentioned in this video, here are some links, including some of our Amazon Affiliate links, which help us out at no extra cost :) 10. Ten Candles : bit.ly/2TkyvHb 9. Fiasco US: amzn.to/3hjZsTt // UK: amzn.to/3h8ysrc 8. Call of Cthulhu US: amzn.to/3jqN06P // UK: amzn.to/3AoYRIS 7. Alice Is Missing bit.ly/3wbDcjU 6. Fate Core US: amzn.to/3h89Ped // UK: amzn.to/3du7Z4O 5. No thank You, Evil US: amzn.to/2TliMaQ // UK: amzn.to/3hp1bqi 4. Blades In The Dark US: amzn.to/3du6eoe // UK: amzn.to/3AgakdG 3. World Wide Wrestling : ndpdesign.com/wwwrpg 2. Honey Heist : gshowitt.itch.io/ 1. Golden Sky Stories US: amzn.to/3xa33Ke // UK: bit.ly/3h4QgTO
Shout-outs to Dread, a horror RPG with one simple but effective gimmick. Instead of rolling dice, all skill checks are decided using a single Jenga tower. When the tower inevitably falls, the player who pulled the critical piece is punished, often times with death. It's never a matter of if things go horribly wrong, but when.
Personally I've always thought D&D's largest, incurable flaw is its reliance on combat. Even Charisma has a combat application first, and trying to talk your way out of a situation basically means: if you're ugly, you ain't doin' it. That's something I REALLY thought World of Darkness did better than almost any other system: give you a basic way to socialize in the game world. Also GOD I LOVE FIASCO! I love playing it, I love listening to others play it, I would pay GOOD, LOUIS DANGOOR MONEY to see No Rolls Barred play it, bonus if you could PLEASE involve Austin Walker somehow. He's writing a comic with the New Day, there's your in! Also good LORD, Alice is Missing sounds BRILLIANT!!
My favorite TTRPG that I was hoping to see on this list is "Vampire: the Masquerade". I love it's lore and how heavy it is on role playing. Not to mention the fact that it is a story about you, the player, is the monster in this horror game and it's how you handle it that defines your character. Knowing that you're only ever one bad roll away from giving into the beast within and doing something you might latter regret.
I’m going to throw the newest Alien TTRPG in for consideration. Core system is rolling a dice pool of d6 based off Stat+Skill, 6 succeeds. The catch is that you have a Stress mechanic which accumulates as you progress, and for every point you have, you add an extra dice to your pool….. BUT if you roll a 1 on your stress dice, that’s a botch. If you’ve ever wanted to live out the short, painful and ultimately doomed life of a Colonial Marine, or play the William Gibson version of Alien 3, or anything like that, it’s your golden choice
I remember watching Adam play Call of Cthulhu on a Twitch livestream back in 2018. The chat roleplayed as ghosts watching the player characters. Good times.
My daughters love No Thank You Evil. Great thing about it is that NPC creation is incredibly easy and adaptable. Your kid into Transformers? Disney Princesses? The Paw Patrol? It’s as simple as coming up with a single stat and you can incorporate them into your games. They also like Adventure Maximus, where you create your adventure using a Mad Lib and some random cards. Great for one off adventures.
I severely miss CBW now after you've made this list. Maybe when the pandemic eases off we finally get CBW Season 2 and the Denimatrix title reign story we deserve.
I would love to see some oneshots of these games on the channel, especially Ten Candles with Adam being the DM, that just sounds amazing! Hard to do in the pandemic, but you could always turn the brightness down, or add in more spooky effects in post or something. Great content, and thank you for introducing me to the 'feel good' anime genre I never knew I needed so much.
I hate being “that guy” but I would personally swap Ten Candles for Dread. I love TC, but Dread is such a unique horror experience. A horror game where instead of dice rolls to resolve actions, you pull a block from a jenga tower. If the tower falls, your character is killed. It’s so wonderfully tense, and it really feels like the truest form of horror in an rpg form
Ryuutama is a fantasy based game originally from Japan described as Miyazaki meets Oregon Trail. The focus is on traveling and the gimmick is a character called a Ryuujin, a dragon character that is run by the GM and helps out the players. The overall mood of the game is whimsical and heartwarming with slight variation depending on the color of this Ryuujin character.
This list made me miss CBW so much. Come back soon Tony, Joe, Bro, Denim, Kid and Tom. Holy shit, Adam mentioned World Wide Wrestling! CBDub! CBDub! CBDub! Also, can NRB play Ten Candles with Tom as the DM?! Please!
I would love to see some one shot style games with Adam and the crew. I think the sheer potential of people like Sully, Rosie and the CBW regulars acting out so many varied, off the wall ideas would be wonderful. However, I'm sure that's not everyone's cup of tea and setting it up may be a nightmare. I really do want Sully in Honey Heist though.
I love D&D. I mean, finding Critical Role and then getting into the game was a life changing experience. Some of my best memories are around a gaming table. Blades in the Dark is the best game I've ever played.
Rather than Fate, I’d recommend GURPS for an open-ended system. It’s not as collaborative as Fate, but it is more customizable. Whereas Fate is only geared toward a “cinematic” tone, GURPS can be used for a variety of tones by picking what sorts of sub-systems or alternate rules you want to use, and it’s only as complex as you want it to be; you can even get GURPS Lite for free!
Deadlands was/is a brilliant game. Steampunk zombie cowboys, innovative mechanics with poker chips and playing cards, and lots of fun. I loved it. Although I also loved Traveller and Pendragon..
Deadlands was the first TTRPG system I ever played, and still return to once in a while. I love the card-based initiative system & “chipping” out of damage. Instead of a new Savage Worlds release, I wish they would remaster the old DL system, streamlining all of the updates they made in later compendiums.
You overlooked, in my opinion, the HERO System. A point-buy system that you can use for *any* genre of game you want, with one single unified set of mechanics.
Love seeing Ten Candles and Blades make this list. I’ve run both and adore both. Actually have a group getting together Mondays now, so I’m very much trying to work both of those into the rotation of games. I’ve been designing my own RPG based on the Ghostbusters universe, but I may need to break to play some Honey Heist, because that sounds like WAY too much fun.
Just got the FATE Core book a few weeks ago and, it's interesting having no guidelines for setting, available races or classes, equipment or abilities as a person who, 99% of his ttrpg experience is with D&D with one or two games of Call of Cthulhu in between. My perspective as a GM to be has shifted in expectation of what I HAVE to present to my players in terms of homebrew setting and towards what I CAN present to them, it's kind of liberating. And the system of Aspects leading to compels, leading to fate points, leading to the use of aspects is actually pretty simple to grasp which I love.
Another game that uses the Powered by the Apocalypse engine is The Warren by Bully Pulpit Games. If you've ever watched the movie or read the book Watership Down, it's basically Watership Down: The Roleplaying Game but without the license. Players play as one of several rabbits living in an underground community. You try to find food while trying to avoid becoming food yourself. Tired of keeping track of those those pesky inventory lists? Well, you're a rabbit so you have neither the ability nor the inclination to carry equipment or weapons. What you do have are your eyes, nose and ears to help you detect danger and four legs to help you dig or flee. Every rabbit has a Panic score so if it gets too high, make sure you Relax at your earliest convenience or else risk freaking out, attacking anything in sight or becoming paralyzed with fear at the worst possible time. Character moves are chosen at the beginning of the game (the Seer move is available so you could recreate Fiver from Watership Down should you choose) and are unique to your specific rabbit until it dies - which doesn't necessary spell the end of the game for a player. If you produced (or sired) a litter back home, you can return at a later interval as your own son or daughter. Making it through "chapters" will earn you further Character moves to give your rabbit more in-game options and personality traits for roleplaying versatility but ultimately, your rabbit isn't going to live forever. This is a storytelling game at its heart and if you should happen to see an opportunity to go out as a hero by making the ultimate sacrifice, you're absolutely encouraged to pursue that course of action for the sake of creating the kind of memorable gaming moment that makes roleplaying so much fun.
Oh Adam, you missed out three of my favourite RPGs in that list : 1) Vampire : The Masquerade. A wonderful dark supernatural where you play a member of several clans where you have to do what you have to do to survive each night. Yes the in game politics system can get very complicated, but the fun thing is, it doesn't matter how much you desperately try to hold on to your humanity, your character is a monster at heart, and that will always win out. Cyberpunk : Come on, how the hell could this gem be left out in the cold?! Shadowrun : Very similar to Cyberpunk since it's set in the future where megacorps rule the world, but with a fantasy twist where your characters can be orcs, elves and dwarves with cybernetic enhancements hired to bring down a company run by a dragon. Yes that's right, futuristic dragons!
I'm amazed that there's no mention of Paranoia, would've thought that be right up you guys street. Also, if you can find a copy, how about something as daft as Toon?
Also any of the Year Zero Engine games, such as Tales from the Loop, Things from the Flood, or the Alien RPG. Although Vaesen is one of my favourites at the mo
What a lovely list. I've had the pleasure of playing some of the games on this list, & our local tabletop RPG club has run most of these at some point. We're currently halfway through Masks of Nyarlathotep, which we started playing in... January 2019. So aye, it's a pretty epic campaign. We tend to break up our campaigns into blocks, with one-shots in between. 10 Candles would be great when we get back to some semblance of normality, & Honey Heist sounds exactly like what we're looking for too.
My top 10 RPG's so far, 1-Cypher, 2-Teenagers From Outer Space, 3-Gamma World 4E(not based on D&D 4E), 4-All Flesh Must be Eaten, 5-Battlelords of the 23rd Century, 6-Pathfinder, 7-5E, 8-Palladium system, 9-AD&D, and 10-Star Frontiers
I'm throwing Paizo's Starfinder out there for folks who (like me) enjoy the core mechanics and gameflow of 5e but feel like 5e's class/specializations are a bit same-y and are looking for a slightly more crunchy game system. Starfinder isn't 5e (or Pathfinder) in space, so I think it counts as a non D&D experience. You can really go nuts with making your character exactly what you want them to be in a way that 5e's simpler system doesn't really allow. Not that simple is bad, 5e is super approachable and fun - I love running and playing it. Plus if there are new folks at my table, I'm probably going to introduce them to TTRPG with a 5e campaign. Starfinder will feel comfortable to 5e folks, but is different enough that I think folks looking for a more option heavy/sophisticated take on D&D will appreciate it.
Going to give a quick recommendation for Monster of the Week. It's a very social RPG system that combines ideas from great shows like Buffy, Supernatural, and X-Files into one very flexible and fun system
the camping Anime is quite wholesome and I approve Adams choices because of it..... thought I'm surprised that vampire and werewolf aren't on this list some where
Currently playing City of Mist, seems pretty fun so far. My first breakaway from D&d was World of Darkness. Like a crunchier Powered By the Apocalypse had a baby with Fate?
For one shots I like Lasers & Feelings, though when I run it, I tweak it with some FATE aspects. I love the Dresden Files RPG, which is based on the FATE system. GURPS is a classic. It's fairly heavy, but extremely flexible. The second RPG I ever played was Mage: The Ascension. And I still have a fondness for the old World of Darkness system.
Ok, same, BUT. Serious level of BUUUUUUUUUUT the old DeadLands. I miss THAT. it had the card hands, and more stuff to it. I GET it got streamlined to play different games in system, but I miss that old feel
I hadn't heard of Blades in the Dark before now, and now that I have, I NEED that game in my life and to find a group to play it as soon as possible. Thank you, Adam!
I would also like to recommend Masks: A New Generation. A PBTA style game where you play as a team of teenage superheroes trying to save the world but also experiencing all the drama and emotional stress of being a teenager. Each playbook doesn’t necessarily determine what powers you have (some do place limits) but mostly about what your core conflict is. And the best part, all your stats change based on how the city sees you and how you see yourself. It’s an excellent game with excellent theming for telling action-packed and emotionally charged stories.
For the Spanish folks here: Vieja Escuela. Sumpersimplified DnD, perfect for both oneshots and campaigns. Easy to master and ideal to introduce to new people as long as one of the group is mildly aware of how RPGs works.
After finishing a 5e campaign of 1-2 years I changed to running a blades in the dark game, inspired by Outside Xtra's Oxventures series. Its a lot of fun and people picked it up quickly and a definite recommendation
Grant Howitt also has a podcast where he and his friend improvise insane games. There's one where they make a dungeon on wheels that you have to break into AND then explore.
I don’t want to make it sound easier than it is or sound too desperate but I need more NRB content. It’s like the only content I watch anymore, this is easily my favorite channel
Grant Howard's games are truly the best to start with. I personally love The Witch is Dead where you play several witch's familiars hunting down a witch hunter. And I ran several games of Sexy Battle Wizards. Can confirm it gets very chaotic and absurd and it's wonderful.
As a long time tabletop RPG fan, I was honestly disappointed that only 2 of my many favorite systems showed up on the list (Fiasco and Blades in the Dark). However, this is a pretty good list of recommended RPGs that I've never heard of and want to play. Especially Ten Candles Shout out to: -World of Darkness -Fantasy Flight's Warhammer 40,000 games (such as Dark Heresy, DeathWatch, Rogue Trader, etc) before they lost the license -Warhammer Fantasy -Chronicles of Darkness -Ryuutama -KULT Anyways, great list Adam. Get on board!
I’ve played a ton of DND, but after running a campaign for Tales from the Loop, I’ve found so much more fun in many random systems, 10 candles, Call of Cthulhu, monster of the week, vaesen, so many options
I’ve run Ten Candles twice. It was genuinely wonderful, because it is such a shared narrative experience. Even when the game ended, we spent hours afterwards talking about the story we crafted. It’s brilliantly simple to get started, but the experience is complex and frightening in the best way. Our second game had a candle go out mid chapter, which automatically ends that chapter, and the players begged me to light a replacement because they weren’t ready to end the game yet. Some of my best RPG memories.
Adding the out of print Marvel Heroic Role-playing for consideration. The core books and a couple supplements are still floating around the aftermarket and the entire run can be downloaded. MHR is simply the finest narrative-based RPG out there, bar none. Deceptively simple mechanics with surprisingly deep nuances of play that encourages creativity and storytelling. The system is toolbox oriented and lends itself to a fair amount of tweaks and adjustment without breaking the game and the rules can be very easily adapted to other setting, with several publi actions specifically supporting this. It's easily the best game people don't know about.
I do like that there are more and more games now that de-emphasize violence. We've got plenty of monster killers, but there are other challenges in life. Like wrasslin'!
Great video, and plenty of great games that will get missed because the genre is so wide. Hopefully we get a second top 10 at some point, if not just to include some of the wonderful games that got a miss this time around. Like City of Mist, which is absolutely brilliant.
Love this list as well as this channel. You guys have really opened my eyes to a broader spectrum of gaming. A couple of rpg's I would have loved to see make this list (but not complaining) would be They Came From Beneath The Sea and Vampire The Masquerade or pretty much anything from the World of Darkness and/or Chronicles of Darkness settings.
YES!!!! I am a massive fan of TTRPGs and am trying to get into more non DnD games also I love Blades in the Dark and have so far run only one game of it but it was very fun. Am also watching an actual play of it on Outside Xtra I have yet to actually play a session of Eidolon: Become Your Best Self but it is very anime and I have a character and honestly a style of system I've been looking for for ages
Legend of the 5 Rings 4th edition is my favourite RPG of all time. You play fantasy samurai in fantasy not-Japan and the game is fantastic for either playing out Princess Mononoke or basically any Kurosawa film and i love it. Also it has the best dice system ever and i will never forgive FFG for what they did to it.
@@Frisbeehat L5R prior to FFG buying the IP used a dice system called roll&keep. Where each roll was a dice pool of d10s. You rolled a number of d10s equal to your relevant stat + your relevant skill, but you only kept the results of your revelant stat in dice. So, for example, if you swung at someone with your katana, you rolled agility + kenjutsu, let's say 3+4 for 7 dice rolled, but of those 7 you only kept the results of the top 3. It made for really dynamic progression, as it was easier to level up skills than stats, and also reflected well a dynamic between stat and skill, as your stat illustrated your potential, but your skill increased your reliability. Then, for L5R 5th edition, FFG replaced this with the generic Genesys dice system they use for all of their RPGs and I hate it so much
@@marsupialmole3926 I appreciate the reply and explanation! Really does sound unique and a shame it was done away with. Going to look into the 4th edition, then. Cheers
I've been so frustrated for so long trying to get other RPG players to try anything -- anything at all -- that isn't D&D (and Pathfinder still counts as D&D, don't kid yourself). I love D&D, but I don't get the "one game to rule them all" mentality of so many players. It's like saying "Rick and Morty is my favorite TV show, therefore I'm never going to watch any other show, ever," and also Rick and Morty is the one and only show you've ever actually seen.
I never felt like playing D&D again after playing the White-Wolf Storyteller system. Combination of setting, and also the flow of the rules, it just felt so much richer
@@ishoottheyscore8970 oh wow, world of darkness was my gateway too. Placing more emphasis on rpg and theatre of the mind it is REALLY hard to go back to something like d&d. D&d will always have a special place in my heart, but it is in the past for me.
@@ZoeAlleyne I won't lie, I'd still love to see a TV show that adopted some of the ideas in Mage - a Euthanatos anti-hero would be fascinating. It's a shame that Kindred: The Embraced was so limp, and that they've never tried to do something with Werewolf. That was a thing for me - with D&D the stories were essentially like a computer game. You'd grind to get levels, and the bad guys would escalate too, but it felt like a much more mechanical contest. The WW settings just had richer stories where yes, characters did progress, but it just felt like the stories developed more in to deeper antagonists, like eventually trying to take down a major wyrm corporation in Werewolf
@@ishoottheyscore8970 in April this year, Variety announced the people behind The Witcher have signed a deal with Paradox Interactive to make tv and movies based on World of Darkness properties so you could be in luck there. World of Darkness was my gateway out of D&D as well. These days I play PbtA or Genesys games and would never go back to a rigid level system, miniatures based game.
BOOK THE EGG, BLAMPIED. Also, good list. Rules for including Fiasco and FATE. I'd toss in Scion 2e, Chuubo's Marvelous Wish Granting Engine, and Paranoia.
Have you guys tried Inspectres? It's a simple goofy Ghostbusters-like RPG about running a paranormal investigation franchise and it has a similar mechanism to BitD's Flashback mechanic.
I know they are bigger games but surprise there was no mention of Rifts or World of Darkness. Plus if you want a crunchier version of D&D, check out Pathfinder 2.0.
I'm really happy to see Grant's one-page RPGs get some love. I've not run Honey Heist yet, but it sounds as funny as Goat Crashers - a similar game where you're goats crashing a party, but there's a twist at the party. I also really like the one he designed with Nate Crowley (full disclosure, I know Nate personally) called Reverse Beastmaster, not least of which because it involves the use of a sock puppet and players take turns to be the foul animals at a rather decrepit zoo. Another RPG I love is Paranoia, not least because it has multiple modes of play and absurdity is encouraged in the 1984 universe.
I'm still yet to invest in or play a TTRPG in any capacity other than YT campaigns, but of the ones I've narrowed my interest down to, 7th Seas seems quite good (because who doesn't like pirates?!).
Solid list, but I honestly would have loved to hear you mention Troika. Troika is a very rules lite science fantasy RPG. It's super easy to get into, really only requiring a few d6 and some counters to play. And best of all there's a huge community of creators making content for it. It's probably my favorite TTRPG.
Rifts it’s DND on crack. Don’t like a rule change it. Don’t like a character class make something you do like. GM pissing you off revolt against the power. Every time I by an expansion book it’s always been worth it.
Cyberpunk Red Chronicles of Darkness - Mage the Awakening 2E, or Vampire the Requiem 2E, but any are good. Some would substitute in Vampire the Masquerade 5E Traveller (This, Cyberpunk, Blades and Mage are the games I run at the moment.) Dread Blades in the Dark Runequest (Because of the Glorantha setting) Numenera (Or the Strange. Unmasked and Predation are excellent too.) Trail of Cthulhu, Mutant City Blues, or Night's Black Agents. Pathfinder 2E Shadow of the Demon Lord OSRIC (or another of the excellent games in its wake, like Mothership. The Rules Cyclopedia for BECMI Moldvay is excellent too.) Bluebeard's Bride or Thousand Year Old Vampire (To see the frontiers of gaming) Lancer (for innovation. I personally don't like it) Android Netrunner Shadow of the Beanstalk, or FFG Star Wars. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. (The current version, or the original) Fiasco
All great choices. From my personal collection I'd also add Better than Angels - One of my favorite comic book games. YOu play super villians with the catch being that the player next to you plays the demon inside of you that makes you such an evil person. Cypher /Numenera - Monte Cooke doesnt get enough credit for being the person who spear headed the rejuvenation of dungeons and dragons. The creator of third edition, this was his followup for that. IT's a true evolution of dungeons and dragons, eliminating most of the fiddly adding and bonuses to a simple d20 roll for every obstacle . Adaptable for any genre, it allows for players to narrate the story by using player intrusions and forcing the GM to provide xp anytime th GM goes too far into the raelm of his own intrusions Honeslty DNDs biggest issues is it relies on sacred tropes that prevent it from evolving.
Better than Angels sounds a bit like White Wolf's Wraith: The Oblivion, where you play as a ghost using special powers to influence the living world or to survive ancient kingdoms of the damned. But the catch is that other players get to play your "shadow", the self destructive part of your psyche that wants to sabotage you so that you're both gone for good.
@@neighslayer768 Wraith had such a rich setting - you could do really personal stories about letting go and moving on, or you could do a campaign based on trying to become 'risen', or you could delve in to the politics of the afterlife. It's a shame it never seemed to sell as well as the other WoD titles
@@ishoottheyscore8970 Yeah, a macabre atmosphere even by WoD standards paired with an adversarial system of role play is gonna be a tough sell. I'm amazed there was enough interest to even get those Orpheus novels off the ground.
@@neighslayer768 The tough sell in my group at the time is the fact they weren't that powerful! That maybe speaks to some issues of insecurity to be honest, but the players wanted games were they were running around destroying things. They had a similar negative reactive to Hunter, with the characters becoming deranged as they grew more powerful. Most of that group went back to playing D&D, if that says something...
The updated versions of White Wolf games like Vampire the Masquerade, Werewolf the Apocalypse, and Geist the Soul Eater are great games, but are kinda jank when it comes to set up. The settings and ideas are great. And with a little tweaking it can lead to great stories
For some odd reason I would love to see a monster hearts play with you all of you. It's is one of my favorites. But another table top I like to play is a bit older horror rpg called "Dread" it uses the Jenga tower so if you want to do something outside your character wheel house you have to pull from the tower. It uses your own dexterity since you choose what piece to pull from the tower. It can get very anxious and nervous cause that jenga tower lol. It's a fun game I love it.
I can highly recommend the Kids on Bikes system. It's incredibly easy to teach, as you've only got six stats, to each you're gonna assign on of six dice between a D4 and a D20 to. It definitely is not a mechanics heavy system, but it's great for inexperienced players and a perfect tool for more story driven, role playing heavy campaigns/one shots. If you wanna check it out, I can't reccomend HyperRPG's Kollok 1991 series enough, it's basically Twin Peaks meets Stranger Things the RPG and it's got both incredible role play as well as a super impressive production value.
Great list still want to get Blades in the Dark and might look into a few others. For my own addition: I feel needing to recommend Savage Worlds Deadlands, Hollow Earth Expedition, and for those on a budget who want some light nostalgic fun Kids on Bikes. Savage Worlds can be pricey but Kids on Bikes can be picked up for under 20 dollars and is extremely easy to pick up and play.
ADAM: If you’d like to pick up any of the RPGs mentioned in this video, here are some links, including some of our Amazon Affiliate links, which help us out at no extra cost :)
10. Ten Candles : bit.ly/2TkyvHb
9. Fiasco US: amzn.to/3hjZsTt // UK: amzn.to/3h8ysrc
8. Call of Cthulhu US: amzn.to/3jqN06P // UK: amzn.to/3AoYRIS
7. Alice Is Missing bit.ly/3wbDcjU
6. Fate Core US: amzn.to/3h89Ped // UK: amzn.to/3du7Z4O
5. No thank You, Evil US: amzn.to/2TliMaQ // UK: amzn.to/3hp1bqi
4. Blades In The Dark US: amzn.to/3du6eoe // UK: amzn.to/3AgakdG
3. World Wide Wrestling : ndpdesign.com/wwwrpg
2. Honey Heist : gshowitt.itch.io/
1. Golden Sky Stories US: amzn.to/3xa33Ke // UK: bit.ly/3h4QgTO
Please play Ten Candles with all the people from No Rolls Barred,Adam. I would love to see if.
@@MrBrknsyt Sadly, that would require the group to be together, IRL, for the full effect.
@@CaitiffFTW yeah. When all this is over then. I hope.
Sully was born to play Honey Heist 🍯🐻🐨🐻❄️🐼
what if you really wanna learn to play D&D, but can't find anyone nearby willing to help you learn?
Imagine Honey Heist with Sully in it
Sullivan? Or "The Sullivan"?
Either way, this comment needs to be signal boosted. Make this a Board Game Club video.
YOU THROW OFF YOUR CLOAK TO REVEAL YOU ARE...THE HONEY BADGER.
This!!!!!!
'Im a bear... A honey, honey bear'
I believe he goes by "B B B B B" now
Shout-outs to Dread, a horror RPG with one simple but effective gimmick. Instead of rolling dice, all skill checks are decided using a single Jenga tower. When the tower inevitably falls, the player who pulled the critical piece is punished, often times with death. It's never a matter of if things go horribly wrong, but when.
Pleeeeeease do a 10 Candles session for Halloween! That would be incredibly awesome
Personally I've always thought D&D's largest, incurable flaw is its reliance on combat. Even Charisma has a combat application first, and trying to talk your way out of a situation basically means: if you're ugly, you ain't doin' it. That's something I REALLY thought World of Darkness did better than almost any other system: give you a basic way to socialize in the game world.
Also GOD I LOVE FIASCO! I love playing it, I love listening to others play it, I would pay GOOD, LOUIS DANGOOR MONEY to see No Rolls Barred play it, bonus if you could PLEASE involve Austin Walker somehow. He's writing a comic with the New Day, there's your in!
Also good LORD, Alice is Missing sounds BRILLIANT!!
My favorite TTRPG that I was hoping to see on this list is "Vampire: the Masquerade". I love it's lore and how heavy it is on role playing. Not to mention the fact that it is a story about you, the player, is the monster in this horror game and it's how you handle it that defines your character. Knowing that you're only ever one bad roll away from giving into the beast within and doing something you might latter regret.
I’m going to throw the newest Alien TTRPG in for consideration. Core system is rolling a dice pool of d6 based off Stat+Skill, 6 succeeds. The catch is that you have a Stress mechanic which accumulates as you progress, and for every point you have, you add an extra dice to your pool….. BUT if you roll a 1 on your stress dice, that’s a botch.
If you’ve ever wanted to live out the short, painful and ultimately doomed life of a Colonial Marine, or play the William Gibson version of Alien 3, or anything like that, it’s your golden choice
I remember watching Adam play Call of Cthulhu on a Twitch livestream back in 2018. The chat roleplayed as ghosts watching the player characters. Good times.
I NEED to see that! Any chance it hasn't been deleted from Twitch and is on UA-cam?
My daughters love No Thank You Evil. Great thing about it is that NPC creation is incredibly easy and adaptable. Your kid into Transformers? Disney Princesses? The Paw Patrol? It’s as simple as coming up with a single stat and you can incorporate them into your games.
They also like Adventure Maximus, where you create your adventure using a Mad Lib and some random cards. Great for one off adventures.
I severely miss CBW now after you've made this list. Maybe when the pandemic eases off we finally get CBW Season 2 and the Denimatrix title reign story we deserve.
DE NIM MATRIX!!!!
Oh I would pay good money for Sully Bo Brown to be the one to dethrone her
@@RagingSnorlax you mean BBBBB? Yeah, that's a prospect I would be down for.
I would love to see some oneshots of these games on the channel, especially Ten Candles with Adam being the DM, that just sounds amazing!
Hard to do in the pandemic, but you could always turn the brightness down, or add in more spooky effects in post or something.
Great content, and thank you for introducing me to the 'feel good' anime genre I never knew I needed so much.
I hate being “that guy” but I would personally swap Ten Candles for Dread.
I love TC, but Dread is such a unique horror experience. A horror game where instead of dice rolls to resolve actions, you pull a block from a jenga tower. If the tower falls, your character is killed. It’s so wonderfully tense, and it really feels like the truest form of horror in an rpg form
Problem: if I do recall, Adam shares most board game café employees' (past or present) perfectly reasonable dislike of Jenga.
@@edatthegovernance you recall correctly
We play Dread (murder jenga) every Halloween. My boyfriend spends the months leading up to it planning the prefect story.
@@edatthegovernance true. Which is perfectly fair. I'd say give it a try with any variant dexterity game that has a similar mechanic maybe
Ryuutama is a fantasy based game originally from Japan described as Miyazaki meets Oregon Trail. The focus is on traveling and the gimmick is a character called a Ryuujin, a dragon character that is run by the GM and helps out the players. The overall mood of the game is whimsical and heartwarming with slight variation depending on the color of this Ryuujin character.
This list made me miss CBW so much. Come back soon Tony, Joe, Bro, Denim, Kid and Tom.
Holy shit, Adam mentioned World Wide Wrestling! CBDub! CBDub! CBDub!
Also, can NRB play Ten Candles with Tom as the DM?! Please!
I would love to see some one shot style games with Adam and the crew. I think the sheer potential of people like Sully, Rosie and the CBW regulars acting out so many varied, off the wall ideas would be wonderful. However, I'm sure that's not everyone's cup of tea and setting it up may be a nightmare.
I really do want Sully in Honey Heist though.
I love D&D. I mean, finding Critical Role and then getting into the game was a life changing experience. Some of my best memories are around a gaming table. Blades in the Dark is the best game I've ever played.
Rather than Fate, I’d recommend GURPS for an open-ended system. It’s not as collaborative as Fate, but it is more customizable. Whereas Fate is only geared toward a “cinematic” tone, GURPS can be used for a variety of tones by picking what sorts of sub-systems or alternate rules you want to use, and it’s only as complex as you want it to be; you can even get GURPS Lite for free!
Wow was not expecting to see After School Dice Club getting mentioned here. Such a nice little anime
Not gonna lie... TEN CANDLES sounds amazing! I wish I could play it with other people here in Thailand.
Deadlands was/is a brilliant game. Steampunk zombie cowboys, innovative mechanics with poker chips and playing cards, and lots of fun. I loved it. Although I also loved Traveller and Pendragon..
Deadlands was the first TTRPG system I ever played, and still return to once in a while. I love the card-based initiative system & “chipping” out of damage. Instead of a new Savage Worlds release, I wish they would remaster the old DL system, streamlining all of the updates they made in later compendiums.
You overlooked, in my opinion, the HERO System. A point-buy system that you can use for *any* genre of game you want, with one single unified set of mechanics.
Great stuff! Now, when do we get NRB plays 10 Candles? I need that in my life.
Love seeing Ten Candles and Blades make this list. I’ve run both and adore both. Actually have a group getting together Mondays now, so I’m very much trying to work both of those into the rotation of games. I’ve been designing my own RPG based on the Ghostbusters universe, but I may need to break to play some Honey Heist, because that sounds like WAY too much fun.
Just got the FATE Core book a few weeks ago and, it's interesting having no guidelines for setting, available races or classes, equipment or abilities as a person who, 99% of his ttrpg experience is with D&D with one or two games of Call of Cthulhu in between. My perspective as a GM to be has shifted in expectation of what I HAVE to present to my players in terms of homebrew setting and towards what I CAN present to them, it's kind of liberating.
And the system of Aspects leading to compels, leading to fate points, leading to the use of aspects is actually pretty simple to grasp which I love.
Another game that uses the Powered by the Apocalypse engine is The Warren by Bully Pulpit Games. If you've ever watched the movie or read the book Watership Down, it's basically Watership Down: The Roleplaying Game but without the license. Players play as one of several rabbits living in an underground community. You try to find food while trying to avoid becoming food yourself. Tired of keeping track of those those pesky inventory lists? Well, you're a rabbit so you have neither the ability nor the inclination to carry equipment or weapons. What you do have are your eyes, nose and ears to help you detect danger and four legs to help you dig or flee. Every rabbit has a Panic score so if it gets too high, make sure you Relax at your earliest convenience or else risk freaking out, attacking anything in sight or becoming paralyzed with fear at the worst possible time. Character moves are chosen at the beginning of the game (the Seer move is available so you could recreate Fiver from Watership Down should you choose) and are unique to your specific rabbit until it dies - which doesn't necessary spell the end of the game for a player. If you produced (or sired) a litter back home, you can return at a later interval as your own son or daughter. Making it through "chapters" will earn you further Character moves to give your rabbit more in-game options and personality traits for roleplaying versatility but ultimately, your rabbit isn't going to live forever. This is a storytelling game at its heart and if you should happen to see an opportunity to go out as a hero by making the ultimate sacrifice, you're absolutely encouraged to pursue that course of action for the sake of creating the kind of memorable gaming moment that makes roleplaying so much fun.
Oh Adam, you missed out three of my favourite RPGs in that list :
1) Vampire : The Masquerade. A wonderful dark supernatural where you play a member of several clans where you have to do what you have to do to survive each night. Yes the in game politics system can get very complicated, but the fun thing is, it doesn't matter how much you desperately try to hold on to your humanity, your character is a monster at heart, and that will always win out.
Cyberpunk : Come on, how the hell could this gem be left out in the cold?!
Shadowrun : Very similar to Cyberpunk since it's set in the future where megacorps rule the world, but with a fantasy twist where your characters can be orcs, elves and dwarves with cybernetic enhancements hired to bring down a company run by a dragon. Yes that's right, futuristic dragons!
I'm amazed that there's no mention of Paranoia, would've thought that be right up you guys street.
Also, if you can find a copy, how about something as daft as Toon?
I’ve seen enough BotC on here to know that under no circumstances should you play Paranoia with any of the NRB gang.
Never Toon.
@@MultiClassGeek you know that makes us want to play it with them even more, correct?
Also any of the Year Zero Engine games, such as Tales from the Loop, Things from the Flood, or the Alien RPG. Although Vaesen is one of my favourites at the mo
@@danielmiller3596 Of course
What a lovely list. I've had the pleasure of playing some of the games on this list, & our local tabletop RPG club has run most of these at some point. We're currently halfway through Masks of Nyarlathotep, which we started playing in... January 2019. So aye, it's a pretty epic campaign.
We tend to break up our campaigns into blocks, with one-shots in between. 10 Candles would be great when we get back to some semblance of normality, & Honey Heist sounds exactly like what we're looking for too.
My top 10 RPG's so far, 1-Cypher, 2-Teenagers From Outer Space, 3-Gamma World 4E(not based on D&D 4E), 4-All Flesh Must be Eaten, 5-Battlelords of the 23rd Century, 6-Pathfinder, 7-5E, 8-Palladium system, 9-AD&D, and 10-Star Frontiers
I love the Fate Accelerated System. Played an ongoing campaign of it it set in a superhero world & it was just an easy game to play & DM.
I'm throwing Paizo's Starfinder out there for folks who (like me) enjoy the core mechanics and gameflow of 5e but feel like 5e's class/specializations are a bit same-y and are looking for a slightly more crunchy game system. Starfinder isn't 5e (or Pathfinder) in space, so I think it counts as a non D&D experience. You can really go nuts with making your character exactly what you want them to be in a way that 5e's simpler system doesn't really allow. Not that simple is bad, 5e is super approachable and fun - I love running and playing it. Plus if there are new folks at my table, I'm probably going to introduce them to TTRPG with a 5e campaign. Starfinder will feel comfortable to 5e folks, but is different enough that I think folks looking for a more option heavy/sophisticated take on D&D will appreciate it.
Going to give a quick recommendation for Monster of the Week. It's a very social RPG system that combines ideas from great shows like Buffy, Supernatural, and X-Files into one very flexible and fun system
Nvm just watched the whole video! That'll teach me to make a comment based off the video description alone lmao. (Still gets my recommendation)
the camping Anime is quite wholesome and I approve Adams choices because of it..... thought I'm surprised that vampire and werewolf aren't on this list some where
Never heard of it before, but Alice Is Missing sounds like it could be genuinly incredible.
I'm a big fan of the Cypher System myself, been running all my games in that for the last few years.
Currently playing City of Mist, seems pretty fun so far. My first breakaway from D&d was World of Darkness. Like a crunchier Powered By the Apocalypse had a baby with Fate?
City of Mist is CHOICE!
Bought ‘No Thank You, Evil’ to play with my 6!year old daughter. We’ve had one adventure so far and she really enjoyed it.
ADAM: That's wonderful! So glad to hear it :)
I've got to shout out for Kobolds Ate My Baby! And their beer and pretzel engine.
For one shots I like Lasers & Feelings, though when I run it, I tweak it with some FATE aspects.
I love the Dresden Files RPG, which is based on the FATE system.
GURPS is a classic. It's fairly heavy, but extremely flexible.
The second RPG I ever played was Mage: The Ascension. And I still have a fondness for the old World of Darkness system.
Vampire the Masquerade and World of Darkness altogether is amazing for horror lovers. Highly recommend!!
Teared up a bit during the #1 entry
Damn, that was sweet
I personally have always loved Savage Worlds.
Never played, heard great things
Ok, same, BUT. Serious level of BUUUUUUUUUUT the old DeadLands. I miss THAT. it had the card hands, and more stuff to it. I GET it got streamlined to play different games in system, but I miss that old feel
I’m excited about Savage Worlds Pathfinder and the new Atlantis book for Savage Rifts.
@@robintunkel4717
Savage Rifts! Ahhhh....now THAT is something I've been aching to play.
I don't think it was out at the time but Coriolis: The Third Horizon is something that has captured my attention now.
I hadn't heard of Blades in the Dark before now, and now that I have, I NEED that game in my life and to find a group to play it as soon as possible. Thank you, Adam!
I would also like to recommend Masks: A New Generation. A PBTA style game where you play as a team of teenage superheroes trying to save the world but also experiencing all the drama and emotional stress of being a teenager. Each playbook doesn’t necessarily determine what powers you have (some do place limits) but mostly about what your core conflict is. And the best part, all your stats change based on how the city sees you and how you see yourself. It’s an excellent game with excellent theming for telling action-packed and emotionally charged stories.
For the Spanish folks here: Vieja Escuela. Sumpersimplified DnD, perfect for both oneshots and campaigns. Easy to master and ideal to introduce to new people as long as one of the group is mildly aware of how RPGs works.
After finishing a 5e campaign of 1-2 years I changed to running a blades in the dark game, inspired by Outside Xtra's Oxventures series.
Its a lot of fun and people picked it up quickly and a definite recommendation
Welp, we need a Golden Sky Stories game on NRB gawking yesterday, lads.
Grant Howitt also has a podcast where he and his friend improvise insane games. There's one where they make a dungeon on wheels that you have to break into AND then explore.
Ten Candles sounds awesome! I know what I'm playing around Halloween.
I don’t want to make it sound easier than it is or sound too desperate but I need more NRB content. It’s like the only content I watch anymore, this is easily my favorite channel
Grant Howard's games are truly the best to start with. I personally love The Witch is Dead where you play several witch's familiars hunting down a witch hunter.
And I ran several games of Sexy Battle Wizards. Can confirm it gets very chaotic and absurd and it's wonderful.
As a long time tabletop RPG fan, I was honestly disappointed that only 2 of my many favorite systems showed up on the list (Fiasco and Blades in the Dark). However, this is a pretty good list of recommended RPGs that I've never heard of and want to play. Especially Ten Candles
Shout out to:
-World of Darkness
-Fantasy Flight's Warhammer 40,000 games (such as Dark Heresy, DeathWatch, Rogue Trader, etc) before they lost the license
-Warhammer Fantasy
-Chronicles of Darkness
-Ryuutama
-KULT
Anyways, great list Adam. Get on board!
Is anyone making 40k RPGs now?
@@Jubei66666 I'm not sure. Last I heard was Wrath and Glory, but I hear the game isn't sold in the US markets anymore? No idea.
@@DeadHierophant ah well thanks for the reply, a guy with an eight pointed star profile picture is probably way more up to date than I.
I would love to see a full on NRB playthrough of Alice is Missing
I’ve played a ton of DND, but after running a campaign for Tales from the Loop, I’ve found so much more fun in many random systems, 10 candles, Call of Cthulhu, monster of the week, vaesen, so many options
The latest version of Fiasco uses decks of themed cards rather than rolling on tables. It makes it even easier to set up and run and is a ton of fun.
A card based RPG sounds badass!
That #1 entry threw a curveball at me. I think I need a hug now.
That game? Hug in game form.
One of the best horror rpg systems I’ve used is Dread. No dice, just the players making pulls off of a Jenga tower. It gets super tense.
Hell yeah, fuckin’ love me some After School Dice Club!
You Know, I'd be willing to bet if you guys starting a DND Campaign is how you guys would get to a Million Subscribers.
With a good narrative GM, 10 candles is terrifying.
I’ve run Ten Candles twice. It was genuinely wonderful, because it is such a shared narrative experience. Even when the game ended, we spent hours afterwards talking about the story we crafted. It’s brilliantly simple to get started, but the experience is complex and frightening in the best way. Our second game had a candle go out mid chapter, which automatically ends that chapter, and the players begged me to light a replacement because they weren’t ready to end the game yet. Some of my best RPG memories.
Adding the out of print Marvel Heroic Role-playing for consideration. The core books and a couple supplements are still floating around the aftermarket and the entire run can be downloaded. MHR is simply the finest narrative-based RPG out there, bar none. Deceptively simple mechanics with surprisingly deep nuances of play that encourages creativity and storytelling. The system is toolbox oriented and lends itself to a fair amount of tweaks and adjustment without breaking the game and the rules can be very easily adapted to other setting, with several publi actions specifically supporting this. It's easily the best game people don't know about.
I do like that there are more and more games now that de-emphasize violence. We've got plenty of monster killers, but there are other challenges in life. Like wrasslin'!
I kind of assumed the World of Darkness would've showed up in the list. Still a good list though.
Thanks to this video I grabbed Alice is Missing. I'm hoping this video means we might see a little Alice is missing video from you guys
10 Candles sounds really, really cool.
Great video, and plenty of great games that will get missed because the genre is so wide. Hopefully we get a second top 10 at some point, if not just to include some of the wonderful games that got a miss this time around. Like City of Mist, which is absolutely brilliant.
"Make a wallet saving throw with disadvantage." Awesome.
Love this list as well as this channel. You guys have really opened my eyes to a broader spectrum of gaming.
A couple of rpg's I would have loved to see make this list (but not complaining) would be They Came From Beneath The Sea and Vampire The Masquerade or pretty much anything from the World of Darkness and/or Chronicles of Darkness settings.
Adam at 13:53: "Play the type of game you want to play."
Me: "Bears it is."
YES!!!! I am a massive fan of TTRPGs and am trying to get into more non DnD games
also I love Blades in the Dark and have so far run only one game of it but it was very fun. Am also watching an actual play of it on Outside Xtra
I have yet to actually play a session of Eidolon: Become Your Best Self but it is very anime and I have a character and honestly a style of system I've been looking for for ages
Legend of the 5 Rings 4th edition is my favourite RPG of all time.
You play fantasy samurai in fantasy not-Japan and the game is fantastic for either playing out Princess Mononoke or basically any Kurosawa film and i love it. Also it has the best dice system ever and i will never forgive FFG for what they did to it.
What did they do to it? Otherwise sounds like something I need to check out
@@Frisbeehat L5R prior to FFG buying the IP used a dice system called roll&keep. Where each roll was a dice pool of d10s. You rolled a number of d10s equal to your relevant stat + your relevant skill, but you only kept the results of your revelant stat in dice. So, for example, if you swung at someone with your katana, you rolled agility + kenjutsu, let's say 3+4 for 7 dice rolled, but of those 7 you only kept the results of the top 3. It made for really dynamic progression, as it was easier to level up skills than stats, and also reflected well a dynamic between stat and skill, as your stat illustrated your potential, but your skill increased your reliability.
Then, for L5R 5th edition, FFG replaced this with the generic Genesys dice system they use for all of their RPGs and I hate it so much
@@marsupialmole3926 I appreciate the reply and explanation! Really does sound unique and a shame it was done away with. Going to look into the 4th edition, then. Cheers
god i hope this means we'll see some TTRPGs covered on this channel, i would LOVE a fiasco with, like, Adam, Sully, Rosie, and Tom
I've been so frustrated for so long trying to get other RPG players to try anything -- anything at all -- that isn't D&D (and Pathfinder still counts as D&D, don't kid yourself). I love D&D, but I don't get the "one game to rule them all" mentality of so many players. It's like saying "Rick and Morty is my favorite TV show, therefore I'm never going to watch any other show, ever," and also Rick and Morty is the one and only show you've ever actually seen.
I never felt like playing D&D again after playing the White-Wolf Storyteller system. Combination of setting, and also the flow of the rules, it just felt so much richer
I do like me some Honey Heist and other games by that creator. Nice and simple and easy to play and just plain fun.
@@ishoottheyscore8970 oh wow, world of darkness was my gateway too. Placing more emphasis on rpg and theatre of the mind it is REALLY hard to go back to something like d&d. D&d will always have a special place in my heart, but it is in the past for me.
@@ZoeAlleyne I won't lie, I'd still love to see a TV show that adopted some of the ideas in Mage - a Euthanatos anti-hero would be fascinating. It's a shame that Kindred: The Embraced was so limp, and that they've never tried to do something with Werewolf.
That was a thing for me - with D&D the stories were essentially like a computer game. You'd grind to get levels, and the bad guys would escalate too, but it felt like a much more mechanical contest. The WW settings just had richer stories where yes, characters did progress, but it just felt like the stories developed more in to deeper antagonists, like eventually trying to take down a major wyrm corporation in Werewolf
@@ishoottheyscore8970 in April this year, Variety announced the people behind The Witcher have signed a deal with Paradox Interactive to make tv and movies based on World of Darkness properties so you could be in luck there.
World of Darkness was my gateway out of D&D as well. These days I play PbtA or Genesys games and would never go back to a rigid level system, miniatures based game.
BOOK THE EGG, BLAMPIED.
Also, good list. Rules for including Fiasco and FATE. I'd toss in Scion 2e, Chuubo's Marvelous Wish Granting Engine, and Paranoia.
I bought world wide wrestling thanks to your cbw game play. Can't wait for season 2 adam!
You had me at Cohen Brothers. I need to give Fiasco a go.
Mothership! Give this game a go. Its awesome. I have played Alice is MIssing! Highly recommended!
After School Dice Club is gold.
Have you guys tried Inspectres? It's a simple goofy Ghostbusters-like RPG about running a paranormal investigation franchise and it has a similar mechanism to BitD's Flashback mechanic.
I know they are bigger games but surprise there was no mention of Rifts or World of Darkness. Plus if you want a crunchier version of D&D, check out Pathfinder 2.0.
Ribbon Drive, Love in the time of Seið, Montsegur 1244, Witch: The Road to Lindisfarne, Grey Ranks
I'm really happy to see Grant's one-page RPGs get some love. I've not run Honey Heist yet, but it sounds as funny as Goat Crashers - a similar game where you're goats crashing a party, but there's a twist at the party. I also really like the one he designed with Nate Crowley (full disclosure, I know Nate personally) called Reverse Beastmaster, not least of which because it involves the use of a sock puppet and players take turns to be the foul animals at a rather decrepit zoo.
Another RPG I love is Paranoia, not least because it has multiple modes of play and absurdity is encouraged in the 1984 universe.
The Dark Eye and Lancer are two of my favorite "off-brand" RPG's
Fate of Cthulhu, Call of Cthulhu crossed with the Terminator. Truly great and truly bonkers.
I'm still yet to invest in or play a TTRPG in any capacity other than YT campaigns, but of the ones I've narrowed my interest down to, 7th Seas seems quite good (because who doesn't like pirates?!).
Yes! I love it that you mentioned a recent and underrated anime called After School Dice Club!!
Was waiting for Pathfinder to pop up, but on second thought, definitely not an easy one to recommend.
Solid list, but I honestly would have loved to hear you mention Troika.
Troika is a very rules lite science fantasy RPG. It's super easy to get into, really only requiring a few d6 and some counters to play. And best of all there's a huge community of creators making content for it. It's probably my favorite TTRPG.
Rifts it’s DND on crack. Don’t like a rule change it. Don’t like a character class make something you do like. GM pissing you off revolt against the power. Every time I by an expansion book it’s always been worth it.
"don't like a rule change it" is D&D with a confident GM, though. But you're right, totally worth it!
I like the Savage Worlds version of Rifts. They just released the Atlantis conversion.
Cyberpunk Red
Chronicles of Darkness - Mage the Awakening 2E, or Vampire the Requiem 2E, but any are good. Some would substitute in Vampire the Masquerade 5E
Traveller (This, Cyberpunk, Blades and Mage are the games I run at the moment.)
Dread
Blades in the Dark
Runequest (Because of the Glorantha setting)
Numenera (Or the Strange. Unmasked and Predation are excellent too.)
Trail of Cthulhu, Mutant City Blues, or Night's Black Agents.
Pathfinder 2E
Shadow of the Demon Lord
OSRIC (or another of the excellent games in its wake, like Mothership. The Rules Cyclopedia for BECMI Moldvay is excellent too.)
Bluebeard's Bride or Thousand Year Old Vampire (To see the frontiers of gaming)
Lancer (for innovation. I personally don't like it)
Android Netrunner Shadow of the Beanstalk, or FFG Star Wars.
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. (The current version, or the original)
Fiasco
All great choices. From my personal collection I'd also add
Better than Angels - One of my favorite comic book games. YOu play super villians with the catch being that the player next to you plays the demon inside of you that makes you such an evil person.
Cypher /Numenera - Monte Cooke doesnt get enough credit for being the person who spear headed the rejuvenation of dungeons and dragons. The creator of third edition, this was his followup for that. IT's a true evolution of dungeons and dragons, eliminating most of the fiddly adding and bonuses to a simple d20 roll for every obstacle . Adaptable for any genre, it allows for players to narrate the story by using player intrusions and forcing the GM to provide xp anytime th GM goes too far into the raelm of his own intrusions
Honeslty DNDs biggest issues is it relies on sacred tropes that prevent it from evolving.
Better than Angels sounds a bit like White Wolf's Wraith: The Oblivion, where you play as a ghost using special powers to influence the living world or to survive ancient kingdoms of the damned. But the catch is that other players get to play your "shadow", the self destructive part of your psyche that wants to sabotage you so that you're both gone for good.
@@neighslayer768 Wraith had such a rich setting - you could do really personal stories about letting go and moving on, or you could do a campaign based on trying to become 'risen', or you could delve in to the politics of the afterlife. It's a shame it never seemed to sell as well as the other WoD titles
@@ishoottheyscore8970 Yeah, a macabre atmosphere even by WoD standards paired with an adversarial system of role play is gonna be a tough sell. I'm amazed there was enough interest to even get those Orpheus novels off the ground.
@@neighslayer768 The tough sell in my group at the time is the fact they weren't that powerful! That maybe speaks to some issues of insecurity to be honest, but the players wanted games were they were running around destroying things. They had a similar negative reactive to Hunter, with the characters becoming deranged as they grew more powerful.
Most of that group went back to playing D&D, if that says something...
@@ishoottheyscore8970 Sounds like your crew are more Roll players than Role players.
I knew you would reference after school dice club at some point. Speaking of I really need to finish it
The updated versions of White Wolf games like Vampire the Masquerade, Werewolf the Apocalypse, and Geist the Soul Eater are great games, but are kinda jank when it comes to set up. The settings and ideas are great. And with a little tweaking it can lead to great stories
For some odd reason I would love to see a monster hearts play with you all of you. It's is one of my favorites. But another table top I like to play is a bit older horror rpg called "Dread" it uses the Jenga tower so if you want to do something outside your character wheel house you have to pull from the tower. It uses your own dexterity since you choose what piece to pull from the tower. It can get very anxious and nervous cause that jenga tower lol. It's a fun game I love it.
I can highly recommend the Kids on Bikes system. It's incredibly easy to teach, as you've only got six stats, to each you're gonna assign on of six dice between a D4 and a D20 to. It definitely is not a mechanics heavy system, but it's great for inexperienced players and a perfect tool for more story driven, role playing heavy campaigns/one shots. If you wanna check it out, I can't reccomend HyperRPG's Kollok 1991 series enough, it's basically Twin Peaks meets Stranger Things the RPG and it's got both incredible role play as well as a super impressive production value.
Thanks for this Adam 😊 I've been wondering what me and my kids first RPG should be to play together and "no thankyou evil" looks great 👍
Adam narrating my bookshelf, the video.
GSS in first place makes up for the omission of Maid: The RPG. ;)
I played honey heist with my dnd group and I've honestly never laughed so much and we managed to succeed, all of us!!! We got our honey!!!
Great list still want to get Blades in the Dark and might look into a few others. For my own addition: I feel needing to recommend Savage Worlds Deadlands, Hollow Earth Expedition, and for those on a budget who want some light nostalgic fun Kids on Bikes. Savage Worlds can be pricey but Kids on Bikes can be picked up for under 20 dollars and is extremely easy to pick up and play.