Call of Cthulhu is a horror fiction role-playing game based on H. P. Lovecraft's story of the same name and the associated Cthulhu Mythos. The game, often abbreviated as CoC, is published by Chaosium; it was first released in 1981 and is in its seventh edition, with licensed foreign language editions available as well. Its game system is based on Chaosium's Basic Role-Playing (BRP) with additions for the horror genre. These include special rules for sanity and luck.
RuneQuest is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game originally designed by Steve Perrin, Ray Turney, Steve Henderson, and Warren James, and set in Greg Stafford's mythical world of Glorantha. It was first published in 1978 by The Chaosium. Beginning in 1984, publication passed between a number of companies, including Avalon Hill, Mongoose Publishing, and The Design Mechanism, before finally returning to Chaosium in 2016. RuneQuest is notable for its system, designed around percentile dice and an early implementation of skill rules, which became the basis for numerous other games. There have been several editions of the game.
Tunnels & Trolls is a fantasy role-playing game designed by Ken St. Andre and first published in 1975 by Flying Buffalo. The second modern role-playing game published, it was written by Ken St. Andre to be a more accessible alternative to Dungeons & Dragons and is suitable for solitaire, group, and play-by-mail gameplay.
Spelljammer is a campaign setting originally published for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, which features a fantastic outer space environment. Subsequent editions have included Spelljammer content; a Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition setting update was released on August 16, 2022.
Middle-earth Role Playing (MERP) is a 1984 tabletop role-playing game based on J. R. R. Tolkien'sThe Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit under license from Tolkien Enterprises. Iron Crown Enterprises (I.C.E.) published the game until they lost the license on 22 September 1999.
Monte Cook is an American professional tabletop role-playing game designer and writer, best known for his work on Dungeons & Dragons.
David John Morris is a British author of gamebooks, novels and comics and a designer of computer games and role-playing games.
Big Eyes, Small Mouth (BESM) is a tabletop role-playing game originally produced by Guardians of Order in 1997 that was designed to simulate the action of anime and manga. The title alludes to the common anime drawing style of characters with large expressive eyes and comparatively small mouths.
Sorcery!, originally titled Steve Jackson's Sorcery!, is a single-player four-part adventure gamebook series written by Steve Jackson and illustrated by John Blanche. Originally published by Penguin Books between 1983 and 1985, the titles are part of the Fighting Fantasy canon, but were not allocated numbers within the original 59-book series. Sorcery! was re-published by Wizard Books in 2003 and recreated as the Sorcery! video game series by Inkle.
The Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game is a fantasy role-playing game published by Palladium Books in 1983.
Aftermath! is a role-playing game created by Paul Hume and Robert Charette and published in 1981 by Fantasy Games Unlimited.
The Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game is a role-playing game originally written by John Wick and published by Alderac Entertainment Group, under license from Five Rings Publishing Group, in 1997. The game uses the Legend of the Five Rings setting, primarily the nation of Rokugan, which is based on feudal Japan with influences from other East Asian cultures.
Mongoose Publishing is a British manufacturer of role-playing games, miniatures, and card games, publishing material since 2001. Its licenses include products based on the science fiction properties Traveller, Judge Dredd, and Paranoia, as well as fantasy titles.
Scarred Lands is a post-apocalyptic fantasy campaign setting in which characters live in a world recovering from a devastating war between gods and titans. Initially published by White Wolf Publishing under its Sword & Sorcery brand using the d20 System, Scarred Lands is now owned by Onyx Path Publishing. In 2017 Onyx Path Publishing released an updated version of the setting using the 5th Edition Open Game License system along with a version of the core setting book using the first edition of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game rules. Scarred Lands draws inspiration from Greek mythology.
True20 is a role-playing game system designed by Steve Kenson and published by Green Ronin Publishing. The system was first published as a part of the Blue Rose RPG before being published as a standalone universal generic role-playing game, True20 Adventure Roleplaying.
Bushido is a Samurai role-playing game set in Feudal Japan, originally designed by Robert N. Charrette and Paul R. Hume and published originally by Tyr Games, then Phoenix Games, and subsequently by Fantasy Games Unlimited. The setting for the game is a land called Nippon, and characters adventure in this heroic, mythic, and fantastic analogue of Japan's past.
The following is a timeline of tabletop role-playing games. For computer role-playing games see here.
Ree Soesbee is an American game designer of collectible card games, role-playing games, and massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), as well as a writer of primarily fantasy novels.
Free RPG Day is an annual promotional event by the tabletop role-playing game industry. The event rules are fairly simple: participating publishers provide special free copies of games to participating game stores; the game store agrees to provide one free game to any person who requests a free game on Free RPG Day.
