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submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

If someone was interested in understanding as much as possible what the world of TTRPGs and story games had to offer, which 5 games would you suggest they play first, and why?

Ideally this would include a broad array of mechanics, themes and settings.

Inspired by a discussion over at [email protected] : https://lemmy.world/post/33918016/18604654

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[-] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago

That's a tricky question, but let's try-it

  1. A D20, level based, high fantasy game, so let's say D&D/Pathfinder or one of the many clones

  2. A prompt based, narrative immersive game with a lot of bleed potential let's say Alice is missing

  3. A horror games, I would say Call of Chtulhu because it's the classic one, but also to show player a percent-based skill mechanic

  4. Iron-sworn in GM-less mode, as it ticks both the narrative consequence driven game (PBTA) and the GM-less box

  5. A sci-fi game, in order to get a recent design, and a sample of dice pool I would say Coriolis

Only 5 games is actually quite restrictive, especially to show different game type and mechanics. I am a bit annoyed that I didn't found any slot for Vampire/World-of-Darkness (considering how popular is the franchise) and that Iron sworn is the only PBTA (especially considering it's not the classical PBTA) I would also love to add a Cyberpunk game (Shadowrun or Red) as it's also a popular franchise, extend the D&D clones with OSR, and add Blade in the Dark considering it's massive influence on the recent RPG scene

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Excellent list but Call of Cthulhu is tapping the same old vein of horror since the 80s and it doesn't carry the same weight. Delta Green is a very good update on the genre that has some really weird stuff to shock and amaze.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Indeed, I am old enough to remember the time when delta green was just a COC sourcebook but it's a great take on COC. There is also a couple of modernized Chtulhu games, let alone non mythos horror games (Kult ๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ˜)

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this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2025
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