A tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) is a game where players take on the roles of fictional characters in a shared story, most often facilitated by a Game Master (GM) who describes the world, sets challenges, and referees the rules. Unlike board games with fixed outcomes, TTRPGs allow for limitless possibilities—players can explore, solve mysteries, engage in combat, and participate in social encounters; shaping the story through their decisions.
In the world of collaborative storytelling, TTRPGs offer a unique and immersive way for players to step into different characters and worlds. These games blend structured mechanics with open-ended creativity, making each session a mix of storytelling, strategy, and calculated chance.
Note: Game Master is just one of many titles you may encounter, as the term for the referee varies from game to game. Most famously there is the Dungeon Master (DM) of Dungeons & Dragons, but you might also run into Storytellers, Lore Keepers, Facilitators, etc.
Key Features of TTRPGs
• Collaborative Storytelling: Players work together to build a unique narrative, responding to challenges set by the GM and shaping the world around them.
• Character-Driven Gameplay: Each player creates and controls a character with specific skills, abilities, and personality traits, influencing how the game unfolds.
• Dice and Game Mechanics: Most TTRPGs use dice rolls to determine the success of actions, adding an element of chance and strategy.
• Expansive Settings: From medieval fantasy to sci-fi dystopias, TTRPGs can take place in any setting, with many games providing rich lore and pre-built worlds.
• Modular and Flexible Play: Sessions can be one-shot adventures or part of long-running campaigns, allowing groups to play at their own pace.
Why Are TTRPGs So Popular?
The rise of TTRPGs in mainstream culture has been fueled by media and roleplaying's emphasis on social interaction. Shows, movies, and games like Critical Role, Dimension 20, Stranger Things, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, and Baldur's Gate 3 have introduced the hobby to new audiences, while digital tools and virtual tabletops (VTTs) have made it easier than ever to play remotely. Whether gathering in person or online, TTRPGs provide a creative, engaging, and deeply personal gaming experience.
Popularity Beyond D&D
While D&D remains the most well-known TTRPG, and a starting point for many, countless other systems cater to different play styles, genres, mechanics, and topical exploration. As the saying goes, “Variety is the very spice of life, that gives it all its flavor.” Here are some standout options to consider:
- Shadowdark RPG - Shadowdark RPG is old-school gaming, modernized.
- MÖRK BORG - MÖRK BORG is a pitch-black apocalyptic fantasy RPG about lost souls and fools seeking redemption, forgiveness or the last remaining riches in a bleak and dying world.
- Eat the Reich - The year is 1943. You are a team of crack vampire commandos with one mission: drink all of Hitler’s blood.
- Lancer - A futuristic sci-fi RPG, Lancer features a deep, story-rich setting for players to engage with if they so choose. Every choice they make, every system they mount, every weapon they wield — all of it has lore attached, just waiting for a story to develop...
- Blades in the Dark - Blades in the Dark is a tabletop role-playing game about a crew of daring scoundrels seeking their fortunes on the haunted streets of an industrial-fantasy city.
- Pendragon - This is a game of Arthurian legends. Pendragon is a world of brutal medieval realism, that focuses on the emotional impact of play, and strives to make the players feel as invested, loving, and frightened about their characters as their characters themselves would feel.
- 13th Age - 13th Age combines the best parts of traditional d20-rolling fantasy gaming with new story-focused rules, designed so you can run the kind of game you most want to play with your group.
- Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC) RPG - Using modern game-play, while paying homage to the origins of role-playing, DCC RPG is a fast-paced, open-feeling rules set allowing for epic game experiences without unnecessary tethers.
- Pathfinder - Pathfinder is a fantasy tabletop roleplaying game where you tell heroic tales in a world of quests, magic, monsters, and treasures. Your choices, and the roll of the dice, determine how the story unfolds.
- Mouse Guard RPG - Mouse Guard is a pseudo-medieval setting about an order of anthropomorphic mouse rangers.
- Mausritter - Take up the sword and don the whiskers of a brave mouse adventurer in Mausritter, the rules-light fantasy adventure roleplaying game.
- Root: The RPG - In Root: The RPG, you play vagabonds, individual outlaws whose adventures and alliances define the Woodland forever.
- Call of Cthulhu RPG - In Call of Cthulhu, you take on the role of everyday people who become investigators of the unknown—whether they are prepared or not.
- Delta Green - In Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game, players are agents fighting to keep terrors from beyond space and time from infecting the world and claiming human lives and sanity.
There has never been a better time to jump into TTRPGs. Grab some dice, find a table, build a character, and start your adventure!