of all of the pen-and-paper role-playing
games out there in the world the best
known by a country mile is almost
certainly Dungeons & Dragons that's kind
of to be expected the game launched all
the way back in 1974 and is widely
regarded as the first tabletop RPG the
one that launched an entire industry
that's all well and good but what if you
don't want to play Dungeons & Dragons
what if the setting doesn't appeal or
you can't get on with the ruleset or hey
what if you just fancy something a bit
different
not to worry there are in fact loads of
other RPGs out there for you to play and
I'm gonna run you through ten of the
best ones that aren't Dungeons & Dragons
okay so first up is blades in the dark
which is my favorite RPG at the moment
and to be honest with you it's a strong
contender for my favorite tabletop
role-playing game of all time it's set
in dusk vol which is a kind of
industrial almost steampunky City which
is surrounded by a wall of lightning
absolutely stuffed with ghosts and
basically every inch of this city is
controlled by a criminal faction and you
a dusk falls newest gang characters in
blaze in the dark are referred to as
scoundrels and basically the player
group will create a crew together and
they'll decide what flavor that crew is
are they smugglers are they assassins
are they shadows sneaking into places
and stealing things from the rich even
as they sleep in their beds or as they
warmly shake their hands and regard them
as friends now when he starts out in
blades in the dark you have nothing you
have no turf you have no reputation and
you almost certainly don't have any
money
obviously you want a healthy stock of
all three so in order to do that you're
going to need to go on some scores these
are effectively heists so as anyone
who's ever played a pen a paper
role-playing game can tell you when
you're gearing up to do something big in
an RPG there's this really big
temptation to plan and to cover every
eventuality by going all right what if
it goes this way well then I'll do that
if it happens this way we'll do this
this this and this the problem is that
always takes forever it's really really
tedious and often times
things just don't go the way you planned
I can't remember who it was he said no
plan ever survives the first combat
encounter and it's absolutely true
the beauty of blaze in the dark though
is you're not allowed to plan ahead
instead you plan in Reverse so when
you're doing a score in blades any
player can call for a flashback which is
kind of like a little scene that
represents some forward planning that
your character did let's say for example
our score requires us to sneak into a
society ball because we're going to
assassinate somebody and we get to the
gates and the guards are sort of giving
everyone a pat-down as they enter you
might say I call for a flashback and two
days ago I bribed this guard and I tried
to convince him to look out for me
because I was going to come to this
event and I wanted him to accidentally
miss the dagger that I'm going to secure
under my armpit let's say so they would
sort of describe that scene and then
roll some dice which determines how well
that persuasion attempt went and then we
cut straight back to the action and that
plan is sort of now in effect and
depending on the role the guard will
either give you a rubbish frisk and be
like in you go mate or the recogniz
and sound the alarm so it's a really
really quick way of getting back into
the action making sure that you have got
a plan which makes you feel very very
clever but it doesn't clog up the entire
system I've played games of blaze before
where we've managed to scores in an
evening and I've played other RPGs where
we've planned to do a thing and we've
spent two thirds of the session just
talking about what we might do if it
turns out there isn't a back door to the
place or whether there's windows on the
second floor it's just so so streamlined
and I think that's wonderful the
characters are pretty great as well you
don't really have set classes you have
what's called a playbook playbook is
kind of like a suggested play style with
a couple of special abilities they're
sort of a hound for example is a hunter
tracker type my favorite is the leech
who's comes like a mad scientist slash
tinkerer and if you buy one particular
power you can sweat poison you can just
sort just produce it from your skin
which is pretty cool if I was going to
level one criticism a blade in the dark
probably be the characters can level up
very very quickly and that kind of means
by the time they're ready to take on
even sort of mid tier factions they're
really really powerful and hard to stop
of course a GM can get around this by
say putting an XP cap on the players or
they limiting them too much really isn't
that much fun but there is a balance to
be struck there is it's kind of what I'm
saying because once you get really
powerful high level characters can just
sort of steamroll anything and it feels
like the sense of peril which is so
intrinsic to this game gets eroded but
all in all it's a super sleek it's fast
and it's atmospheric and I just I love
it you should play it but do keep
watching this video because we've got
more to talk about the next game on this
list which annoyingly I forgot to bring
into the office the game called Simba
room which is set in this dark forest
and recently I fell in love with it just
because of the art style you look at it
and it's just so dense and dark and kind
of cloying it really gets across the
sense that you're in this dense forest
that's sort of wrapped all around you
and has weird terrible secrets lurking
in it because oh yeah the forest of
Simba room is waking up says the manual
which is kind of a terrifying idea I
mean if you look at some of this art it
is gorgeous but it's not the kind of
place you'd feel very safe and that's
borne out in the game as well because
the system is super easy to pick up but
the combat hits really really hard so
this is kind of a very it's a very
gritty very atmospheric very serious
game has got a real Dark Souls vibe to
it to be honest although I don't think
it's really aiming to kill the players
as much as you would die in a game like
Dark Souls but there it is nonetheless
it's absolutely gorgeous I've not
actually run it yet but I'm really
looking forward to it we're gonna
hopefully feature it on the channel very
soon so I want this base now I feel like
I've been banging on about this next one
for years and years and years so
apologies if you've been following me
for all this time because you're about
to hear about dead lands reloaded all
over again I think the thing is you
never forget your first RPG and this is
the game that got me into pen and paper
role-playing in the first place it's set
in the weird West which is basically an
alternate history and
where there was this great earthquake
that in California revealed masses of
this this resource called ghost rock
which has an incredible power but it
also glows a weird iridescent green and
it screams when you burn it hence ghost
rock so basically it's Cowboys it's
Native Americans and it's a lot of
monsters because there are all sorts of
weird creepy crawly nasty things in the
darkness and there's also magic you can
have people called hucksters who make
deals with the devil and who gamble
against these weird sort of demons
called mana twos in order to draw power
and power their magics and they also
like throw playing cards while they do
it which is super like gambit from the
x-men it's just awesome
and I don't know I just I'm absolutely
in love with it it's not without its
problems it runs off the savage worlds
rule system which is kind of like a it's
a game agnostic system it's super super
easy to pick up it's really really good
for beginners but a combat can be a bit
inconsistent so one time you're doing
two points of damage or you know you're
failing to even scratch somebody's but
the fact you shot them and then the next
thing that happens you absolutely blow
their head off and eradicate them from
the plane of existence but if you can
get past that and to be fair it is quite
easy to get past cuz it's kind of funny
doing inconsistent damage all the time
it's just a really really really good
game and I don't know I'm completely
biased I just I love it very much the
next one we want to talk about on the
bottom and it's some of Ice and Fire
role-playing obviously this is a song
light and fire the game of thrones RPG
if that little intro didn't tip you off
and it's dead good normally I'm not wild
about playing games set in sort of
existing universes like souls
role-playing stuff like that because
well I think it is fun I think people
get too fixated on kind of the hero
narratives that they're used to and they
sort of want to go find them but the
nice thing about this game is that it
gives you your own hero narrative
because you design your own house
basically the players are all from the
same house together they choose which
region they want to start in they decide
how old their house is and they roll on
a table
to determine what events there were like
there was a plague or like a sudden
windfall or whatever and as you create
these things you sort of discussed what
they were how they changed the house and
how they made up its character and you
get a real sense of of the house you've
made coming to life it really feels like
it's part of the Song of Ice and Fire
cannon it's you know you could have just
just basically pulled the house out of
your bum but it feels like you know it's
as real as the the Tully's of Riverrun
and the Lannisters and other ones from
that very well TV series the game itself
takes place basically before a game of
Thrones it takes place during the reign
of Robert Baratheon where everything's
sort of stable but obviously Cersei
Lannister hates her husband and you just
sort of a sandbox we are free to do what
you want and the nice thing about it is
the characters you make can be at any
level in society so if you wanted to you
could be lesser Bannerman to the Starks
for example and you could spend your
entire time trudging about and fighting
wildlings and sort of just doing
northern boots on the ground sword in
the hand stuff however you can also
raise entire armies in this game so if
you wanted to you could just have a war
be happening in the game but all of your
role-playing takes place in those small
council meetings you basically you get
to be one of the Lannisters or you know
just sat there with a glass of wine
discussing things they're gonna have
massive implications for the fate of
thousands and thousands of people or you
could do both you could have your small
council members and be like send the
army over to there and then boom you cut
and you're with your other character
who's a soldier in this army and so it
just gives you a tremendous amount of
influence over the world and I'll be
honest with you the Song of Ice and Fire
a bit is sort of incidental to the rest
of the world you could easily take this
game and set it anywhere or you could
play entirely in world but never
encounter anything that happened during
the books I've been itching to run a
campaign of this game for years and
years and years I want to spend about 20
hours doing background work to plan one
and it was going to be amazing and then
the players fell out and
got to do it so yeah I think this is a
really really good smart RPG and if you
like ice on ice and fire it's probably
one for you
and if you don't it's still really good
so maybe just sort of ignore all the
bits where it says Westeros alright
that's enough about Song of Ice and Fire
or let's talk about hot war hot war is
set in an alternate history in 1963 in
London after the cold war wait for it
went hot so most of the country has been
bombed back into the Stone Age and also
it's kind of covered in horrible
horrible monsters that the Russians just
sort of unleashed via portals on the UK
because the idea is after the Second
World War
everyone started doing secret research
based on some of the stuff the Nazis
have been looking at and now it's kind
of come to fruition so horrible horrible
mutants and also hydrogen bombs
so with society hanging on by a thread
you all play as members of the special
situations group which is kind of a
conglomerate of Army Navy RAF Secret
Service and they're kind of just a team
of people who go around completing
missions taking out targets doing
political intrigue and generally try and
keep the country running and getting one
over on the bloody Russians the thing I
really really love about this game is
how important the dice rolls are to your
characters development because you've
only got three stats in this game you've
got action influence and insight and you
have a value for that which can go up
and down instead of you taking damage
you just get worse at stuff or you can
get better at stuff but if you roll
really well you can gain new traits so
for example if I did a daring maneuver
in a car and I rolled well enough I'd be
allowed to add a new trait for my
character which would be good at driving
or hot drift skills or something like
that and that would be a positive trait
so whenever I rolled dice and I was
using a car I can add that trait in get
an extra die for my dice pull and roll
it
however traits can also be negative so
if you really screw up a roll the gym
can punish you and make that good
driving thing bad for you instead
because if you rolled that trait and did
poorly basically it
kind of like a critical fail so the
things you do in the game really inform
who your character is and it's always
changing I just think that's fascinating
it's a really light system that's not
too hard to get your head around but it
just it really makes you focus on the
characters and it's brilliant for
encouraging good roleplay and to be
honest with you I miss it I used to play
in a wonderful campaign where my
character died actually he got blown up
trying to defuse a bomb he had not only
built but had set and then he realized
he didn't need it to go off anymore so
he's trying to stop it and it didn't
work so r.i.p Loxley basically sort of
cheating with this next one because
we're actually just gonna take two RPGs
and talk about them at the same time
because I really want to talk about
cyberpunk and shadow run because so far
we've had quite a few fantasy ones we've
had a sort of 60s intrigue whan we've
had rootin tootin cowboy shootin but
we've not had anything futuristic yet
and cyberpunk and Shadowrun are just
about the best-known and let's face it
probably the best RPGs set in the near
future
you can get cyberpunk of course you're
probably familiar with because there's a
lot of hype about it at the moment what
with cyberpunk red coming out that's the
new edition this year and also cyberpunk
2077 the video game coming out in 2020
which is a good fun joke for anyone
who's familiar with the original games
and also shadow runs got a new addition
out this year basically they're both
games that are really gritty and
cyberpunk II where it's a cold harsh
neon lit world often times dominated by
corporations and people have just
dubious moral character and you play as
these really edgy figures you can play
as you know somebody who's an expert in
hacking or somebody who just knows a guy
or you can play as the street tough who
nobody would ever dare mess with because
he's been augmented to within an inch of
his life and he's just super super
powerful and to be honest you can't go
wrong picking either of these games the
difference between them is that one is a
bit more magical than the other because
in cyberpunk you've got a bunch of
different augmentations and if you're a
net runner which is to say like a
super-powerful hacker
that's about as close as that game gets
to giving you magic powers net running
is basically cyberpunks version of magic
now shadow run does have hacking in net
running but it also just has magic
so in shadow run you can be a mage or
you can be a hacker or you can be both
it because multi classing is super super
important and there are also fantasy
races you can be a dwarf you can be a
half elf it's a really interesting spin
on what we would think of as traditional
fantasy and I just think it's it's a
really cool idea to take you know what
we think of is a very typical fantasy
experience like in D&D and just punt it
into the future where everyone's able to
just hack into computers and stuff I
just think it's really cool so cyberpunk
and shadow run two games talked about at
the same time both great just depends
how much magic you want in your near
future really from the bright and shiny
promise of the near future now we're
going to the pits of despair where
everything is darkness and the only
certainty is death because we're going
to talk about ten candles which I've
only played once to be honest but Wheels
has played an awful lot so through the
magic of magic and video editing here's
him hello so ten candles is one of my
favorite RPGs in the world it's a one
shot in which the world is essentially
ending the Sun has gone dark and a group
of would-be survivors are clambering to
try and find some last desperate attempt
and making the world right again
however designer Steven Dewey describes
ten candles as a tragic horror RPG which
essentially means at the end of the game
all of the player characters will die
which on the face of it seems quite
bleak which it is it's a apocalyptic
world in which everyone's dying it was
gonna be a little bit bleak but it's
also kind of freeing because ten
counters is what's known as a one-shot
RPG which means that you do one session
one cohesive story and then it ends
forever
and you will never see those characters
again and usually with a one-shot RPG
that means because they've completed
whatever they wanted to do and they move
on with their lives in this one you'll
never see those characters again because
they don't exist anymore which means
that you have a real sense of finality
to the arc that you're creating with the
character that you're playing now that
sounds like something that'd be quite
difficult to get into for a first-time
player but actually it's very very easy
to get hold of the central premise of
the game is that you have ten candles in
the center of the table as the name
suggests in the middle of those is a
bowl in which you're burning things and
then each character also has four pieces
of paper which have a vise which is
something that you're not proud of a
virtue which is something that you are
proud of and it's gonna help you out
you've also got something that you're
trying to find hope with which is
essentially a moment that you wish to
have at some point in the game maybe
you're finding a long or sidling or
having a quiet moment of Prayer and then
the last piece of paper at the bottom of
the stack in front of you is called the
old brink this is essentially the depths
of your character the worst thing that
they could possibly do as the world
burns around them the law is pretty
straightforward the Sun has gone black
and all forms of electricity and celeea
communication all of that jazz is
failing the world is dying and lying in
the shadows is a force known only as
then your characters in whatever setting
you choose will be trying to have some
kind of last desperate attempt to remain
alive or just to do one thing before
they inevitably pass there's a very
central goal to tank handles everyone
knows what they're in for everyone knows
what the stakes are and what's really
interesting about tank handles is that
it moves away from that central idea of
the games master providing the
difficulties and the characters trying
to overcome them the book itself says
you are as much your own adversary as
you are your own champion you have to
understand
that your character is going to die and
once you get past that roadblock you can
create some incredible stories because
you might find yourself in a position
where yeah actually I'm pretty set up
and I think we could probably survive
this thing and as a good player
character flame tank handles you all
know that it's time to mess that up
and it gives players a nice taste of
what it's like to put a spanner in the
works it's one of the most enjoyable
things about being a DM providing that
challenge to the players providing that
problem and you as the play character
I'll also get to revel in that as well
10 candles is a world in which you will
all collaboratively create together and
it can be set pretty much anywhere you
can have modern day you could literally
be in your own house you could be in
World War 1 or ancient Greece or in
space or you can be dogs so 10 candles
is a really interesting RPG and I think
it deserves your attention it's super
easy to get into the book is very very
cheap and you can grab it as a PDF
online and you can just get playing grab
some candles grab some friends and grab
the dice and see what happens when the
world goes dark back to you Johnny now
listen I know earlier I said I'm not
that keen on game set in existing
universes but at the same time
shut up me because the expanse is really
really really good I don't know if
you've read the books by James sa Corey
they're just tremendous pulpy sci-fi and
there's also a TV show which is still
running I believe that it's just it's
brilliant basically it's set in the
far-flung future whereby humanity has
pushed out to colonize other parts of
the solar system so Mars is its own
planet in its own right with tremendous
tension with earth always on the brink
of war those two basically because
humans they're awful but also there are
the outer planets and an area called the
belt which is basically people living on
asteroids and on these weird little
space stations that have been carved
into just massive rocks of ice hurtling
through space and they're really
different to the people who live down
gravity wells like Earth and Mars
because they've grown up on the float or
in zero
gravity so there their physiology is
completely different in the TV show
obviously they look very similar to
other humans because they're humans
playing the roles but in the books
they've got really elongated heads
they're a lot longer and they just can't
go to worlds like earth because the
gravity is too much for their frail
bodies anyway
they feel like they've constantly been
exploited by everyone in the inner
planets and so they're pretty pissed off
and there's kind of like a guerrilla
warfare aspect to it because the outer
planets they won independence and all of
this is an RPG now and it's just it's I
think it's really really nice character
creation is really thorough so it does
take quite a while
but then you come out of it with a
really good sense of who your character
is the dye system is pretty simple it's
kind of you just rolled 3d6 with every
roll and then you add your modifiers and
you see if you beat the the difficulty
check so in that way it's kind of
similar to the way D&D rolls except this
one has a drama die which is just 1 d6
which is a different color and when you
roll well or poorly on that die
different things happen so it's it's
kind of a really fluid system and I just
think for me the real sell on this was
the world because I absolutely loved the
expanse and when I started running a
campaign of this for my friends I was
really nervous because I thought I love
this world it's really good science
fiction it's kind of very well grounded
in reality like there aren't sort of
alien races that you can go and talk to
or kiss if you're a weird philanderer
like Captain James T Kirk but the nice
thing about this book is it makes it
really really easy to translate that
world into tabletop play which is just
great and it's easy to give characters a
drive because well you know they'll have
strong opinions about what do you think
of Mars what do you think of Earth what
do you think of belters and it's just I
just think it's great you can have big
adventures small adventures like any
role-playing game I guess but there's
just something about this world that
really appeals to me even though I'm not
actually as big on sci-fi as I am on
fantasy so even if you've not checked
out the books
seen the telly show I can really
recommend the expense to you it's
relatively new it only came out this
year I believe and it's well worth a
look in if you fancy it like stuff on
this list is another book that I forgot
to bring to the office actually no I
left my copy to a friend and he's still
not giving it back Tom gave me my copy
of Call of Cthulhu back it's really good
I mean obviously HP Lovecraft they're
problematic because he was pretty racist
but if you just ignore that and you
don't act like a racist this is a really
really good game oh that's not a good
way to start talking about anything Call
of Cthulhu is dark gothic horror set in
a Lovecraftian world you have characters
who to be honest don't gain skills that
quickly so you have a few things that
you're pretty good at moderately good at
and the rest you're kind of not great
it's a game where you feel super super
vulnerable and you're basically no
matter who you are whether you're you
know someone who's really rich an
aristocratic or whether you're just a
man who gardens for some people in their
stately home everyone is an investigator
you're kind of playing as detectives and
trying to uncover the secrets behind the
weird goings-on in the world around you
of course the problem with that is the
more you know about eldritch stuff the
worse it is for you because this game
has a mechanic called sanity points
which is an interesting way of game of
firing mental health but stick with me
on this one your sanity points can go
down it's very very hard for them to go
back up so oftentimes you'll sort of
descend into the point where you have
you're convinced of something you get
you gain like a paranoid delusion for
example or you can go as the game calls
it indefinitely insane so it's a game
that really encourages you to play
against what might be in the interests
of your character because they're being
driven into a really really dark place
by all of these horrible dark forces
beyond their comprehension so playing it
I'm not gonna lie can be quite taxing
however it is just super super
atmospheric I mean there's a reason HP
Lovecraft works have continued to be so
culturally central and and powerful all
of these
because they're just that it taps into a
weird kind of reptilian part of the
brain it's just sort of an instinctive
fear of the unknown and that that is
rendered in a game that really works
quite well this or the dark horror
mystery exploration is pretty good like
hats off to call the Cthulhu it is a
really really good game to the point
where I am talking about it and
recommending it despite again HP
Lovecraft kind of not being a very nice
man and very very finely on this little
list of ten RPGs that aren't Dungeons &
Dragons we've got a game called night
witches now night witches tells a story
of some very real women who fought for
the Soviets in world war ii they were
they were pilots and they were bombers
and they were doing bombing runs into
Germany but the problem is because of
the incredible amounts of sexism in the
Red Army at the time they were given
first world war biplanes seriously
outdated technology and they were meant
to go take these on bombing runs and
fight an enemy despite the fact they
weren't just you know really really
taking their head their lives into their
hands with these old planes that were
sort of barely flying and you know what
the Nazis were really afraid of the
night witches who've got their name by
the way because as they were going over
the target they cut their engines to
mask the sound of their approach so you
only heard the wind rustling through the
wings which sounded like the wind going
through the sticks on a witch's
broomstick they went on these bombing
runs
they threw bombs threw bombs out of the
windows they weren't pulling a lever or
anything
they were chucking bombs out and when
they ran out of bombs they threw like
railroad spikes down to hurt the enemy
they absolutely terrorized the enemy in
the face of some just really horrible
prejudice they were really inspiring
women and this game gets you to play as
them so you're each a pilot and you can
get promoted and stuff like that and
it's all about I mean embracing failure
is something that's written down here
being everybody else is another thing
for the geometry but you've got sort of
agendas you're really principled and
it's just it's a really interesting game
of exploring these what it's like to be
one of these courageous women in the
face of some really long odds and you
have to deal with the fact that not
everyone might make it back from a
mission and it kind of there's a note in
the game it's like hey these these women
face a lot of sexism you can you can
roleplay that or you can not like it's a
pretty hefty task a game of night
witches but at the same time it's just
fascinating there's no other RPG really
like this I think anyway and I just I
adore it I just think it's it's shining
a light on a super interesting part of
history and it's doing it in a really
considered really nice way and the game
itself is absolutely bloody gorgeous so
I would definitely check that one out if
you're kind of if you fancy something a
bit different I don't know if it's
really made for like long campaign play
but if you wanted to do like a one-off
like a one shot or maybe two or three
linked sessions then you would do so
well yeah I mean you could do a lot
worse is what I'm trying to say then
night which is it's really bloody lovely
so anyway those were 10 great RPGs that
are not Dungeons & Dragons hopefully you
enjoyed it thank you for putting up with
my slightly weird rambling all the way
through this video but I love RPGs and I
thought I just want to talk about them
so there we go but if you have any
recommendations for RPGs of your own
stick them in the comments if you've
played any area games we talked about
tell us about what you got up to what
are your best memories what's the worst
thing your character ever did and if you
enjoyed this video hopefully you did
there were loads more from dice breaker
for you to watch some of them should be
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we're just getting started and we're
trying to build a lovely big old
audience that loves tabletop games as
much as we do so thank you very much for
watching and have a lovely day