Tabletop role-playing game

Tabletop role-playing games (RPGs) are a particular (and arguably, the original) form of role-playing game.

Participants play characters which consist of different numerical attributes describing their abilities, skills and various other parts of their personality and guide them through a world described by the system's setting and the system's rules, which form the game mechanics. One person is responsible for telling the story, presenting plotlines to the characters and who interacts there are some diceless system, too.

Game systems usually consist of a set of rules and a description of the setting, i.e. of the game world and the different peoples. In most RPGs, Player Charcters (PCs) can be of different races (more properly, species, although most games use the term 'race'), depending on the setting Elves, Humans, Dwarfs or all sorts of aliens) and of different Character Classes (in fantasy settings these might be Barbarians, Druids, rogues etc. while in Science Fiction settings they might be Space Craft Pilots, Street Samurai or Hackers, etc.).

Apart from commercial systems there are countless homemade systems written by gamers for themselves and their friends.

---

Table of contents showTocToggle("show","hide") 1 Games 1.1 Fantasy settings 1.2 Science Fiction settings 1.3 Contemporary settings 1.4 Historical/Period settings 1.5 Steam Punk/Steam Fantasy 1.6 Wild West settings 1.7 Pulp adventure settings 1.8 Superhero settings 1.9 Time travel settings 1.10 Miscellaneous 1.11 Generic games with multiple settings 2 Magazines 3 Old magazines 4 Comics 5 Fanzines 6 Major Websites 7 Companies

Games

Fantasy settings

• Amber Diceless Roleplaying
• Aria
• Ars Magica
• Chivalry and Sorcery
• Corum: an expansion sourcebook for the Elric! game
• Dangerous Journeys[?]
• Das Schwarze Auge: A very popular german RPG (translates to "the black eye", but the meaning is quite different)
• DragonQuest
• Dungeons & Dragons
• Dying Earth
• Earthdawn
• Elric! (later revision of the 'Stormbringer' game)
• Empire of the Petal Throne[?]: Set in M. A. R. Barker's world of Tekumel.
• Everway
• Fantasy Hero[?]
• The Fantasy Trip
• Hackmaster
• Harnmaster[?]
• Hawkmoon[?]
• Hero Wars
• Jorune (also known as "Skyrealms of Jorune")
• Lands of Adventure[?]
• Legend of the Five Rings[?]: Japanese flavoured setting
• Middle Earth Role Play : Set in the world of J. R. R. Tolkien, based on simplified Rolemaster rules.
• Midgard
• Pendragon
• Rolemaster: A rules heavy system (sometimes uncomplimentarily referred to as 'Rulesmonster') with a fanatically loyal but small following
• RuneQuest
• Stormbringer
• Tekumel
• Tunnels and Trolls
• Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP)

Science Fiction settings

• 2300AD (Traveller 2300)[?]
• Aftermath[?]
• Blue Planet[?]
• Cyberpunk[?]/Cyberpunk 2020[?]
• Cybergeneration[?]
• Fading Suns[?]
• Gamma World
• Metamorphosis Alpha[?]
• Paranoia: A comedy take on Brave New World and other dystopian science fiction futures. The fifth edition directly followed the second, being 'so new and exciting we had to skip two editions'.
• Shadowrun
• Shatterzone[?]
• SLA Industries[?]
• Space Opera[?]: Fantasy Games Unlimited's attempt to rival Traveller.
• Spacemaster[?]: Rolemaster in space.
• Star Frontiers
• Star Hero[?]
• Star Wars[?]: The famous film has received two RPG treatments, the West End Games (WEG) version covers the original trilogy while the more recent Wizards of the Coast version (based on the d20[?] system) has been expanded to cover "Episode One" as well.
• Star Trek[?]
• Tales from the Floating Vagabond[?]
• Teenagers From Outer Space[?]: Original anime based game, players take on the role of high-school characters who are from Outer Space or have weird powers etc. Very possibly ahead of its time.
• Traveller: The original science-fiction RPG
• Trinity (Aeon)[?]
• Twilight 2000
• Universe[?]: SPI's DragonQuest rules in space.

Contemporary settings

• Call of Cthulhu: A game based on H. P. Lovecraft's novels
• Champions: Superhero game
• Changeling: The Dreaming[?]
• Chill[?]
• Feng Shui
• Ghostbusters[?]: By West End Games, based on the successful 1984 film of the same name.
• Hong Kong Action Theater[?]: Game that seeks to recreate Hong Kong action movies
• James Bond[?]
• Kult: Biblical based horror game
• Mage: The Ascension
• Nephilim: Occult Roleplaying, with secret societies, Fortean themes, Tarot, Kabbalah and other esoterica; players are near-immortal entities forced to incarnate in humans down the ages in a quest to transcend the physical world
• Over the Edge[?]
• Top Secret: Espionage based game
• Twilight 2000
• Unknown Armies[?]: Horror game focusing on modern "sorcerors" competing to ascend to a higher-plane
• Vampire: The Masquerade
• Werewolf: The Apocalypse[?]
• Wraith: The Oblivion[?]

Historical/Period settings

• Baron Munchausen[?]
• Bushido
• Dark Continent[?]
• Wuthering Heights

Steam Punk/Steam Fantasy

• Castle Falkenstein[?]
• Forgotten Futures
• Space 1889[?]

Wild West settings

• Boot Hill[?]
• Deadlands[?]
• Werewolf - The Wild West[?]

Pulp adventure settings

• Adventure![?]
• Daredevils[?]
• GURPS Cliffhanger[?]
• Justice, Inc.[?]
• Mercenaries, Spies, and Private Eyes[?]

Superhero settings

• Aberrant (game)
• Blood of Heroes[?]
• Champions
• DC Heroes[?]
• Godlike[?]
• Golden Heroes
• GURPS Supers
• Marvel Super Heroes
• PowerGame
• Super Squadron[?]: Australian game which strongly resembles 1st edition Villains and Vigilantes
• Superhero 2044[?]
• Superworld
• Villains and Vigilantes

Time travel settings

• Continuum
• Doctor Who[?]: FASA's Star Trek[?], but in time!
• GURPS Time Travel[?]
• Time Lords[?]: BTRC[?]
• Timelord: Doctor Who-themed game, post-dating FASA's.
• Timemaster[?]: Pacesetter[?]

Miscellaneous

• Bunnies and Burrows
• Human Occupied Landfill[?]
• Macho Women with Guns[?]
• Toon[?]

Generic games with multiple settings

• Amazing Engine[?]
• Basic Role-Playing
• Big Eyes, Small Mouth[?]
• d6: West End Games[?] generic version of their Star Wars[?] rules.
• d20[?]
• FUDGE
• Hero System
• GURPS
• Masterbook[?]
• OSIRIS RPG[?]
• Risus
• TWERPS
• Jags[?]

Magazines

• Dragon
• Dungeon
• Pyramid[?]
• The Unspeakable Oath[?]
• Warpstone
• White Dwarf - a British magazine which originally covered all games, these days is purely a house magazine (sometimes not too far removed from a catalogue) for Games Workshop.
• Valkyrie
• The Excellent Prismatic Spray

Old magazines

• Imagine[?]
• The Gryphon[?]
• Journal of the Traveller's Aid Society
• The Last Province[?]
• The Space Gamer[?]
• White Wolf[?]

Comics

• Dork Tower
• Knights of the Dinner Table

Fanzines

• Alarums & Excursions
• Aslan
• carnel
• Demons Drawl[?]
• The Guildsman[?]
• Imazine[?]
• Tales of the Reaching Moon
• Telegraph Road[?]
• Tradetalk[?]
• The Whisperer[?]

Major Websites

• RPG.NET (http://rpg.net/)

Companies

• Atlas Games[?]
• Avalon Hill
• Brittannia Game Designs
• Chaosium
• Cumberland
• Daedaleus[?]
• Darcsyde Productions
• Decipher
• Digest Group Publications[?]
• Fantasy Games Unlimited
• Far Future Enterprises[?]
• FASA
• Game Designers Workshop[?]
• Games Workshop
• Guardians of Order[?]
• Green Knight Publishing[?]
• Hero Games[?]
• Hogshead
• Iron Crown Enterprises
• Issaries
• Judges Guild[?]
• Kenzerco[?]
• Last Unicorn Games[?]
• Living Room Games
• Mayfair
• Metagaming[?]
• Multisim[?]
• Pagan Publishing[?]
• Pacesetter[?]
• Partisan Press
• R. Talsorian[?]
• SPI
• Steve Jackson Games
• Target Games[?]
• TSR
• West End Games[?]
• White Wolf
• Wizards of the Coast