5 TTRPG’s To Try After Dungeons and Dragons

If you’re an avid Dungeons and Dragons player, but keen to see what other games are out there and aren’t sure where to start, look no further! Here’s a look at the top five TTRPG’s that provide fun alternatives for your playgroup: Call of Cthulhu, Kids on Bikes, Cyberpunk Red, Vampire: The Masquerade, and Root (a Powered By The Apocalypse game).

Before we get into the games themselves however, I think it’s important to put Dungeons and Dragons into the wider context of all TTRPGs. 

Dungeons and Dragons, compared to some other games, has pretty extensive rules. There are mechanics for shoving people, how spells interact, how far you can jump, and what weapons you can use. A lot of other games aren’t as mechanically involved. Such systems are referred to as ‘rules-light’ games, the alternative being ‘rules-heavy’ games. Each approach has its pros and cons. Some people like the structure of rules-heavy games; it puts more of an emphasis on strategy and realism, though this can also potentially limit your creativity. Rules-light games, on the other hand, often emphasise imagination and thinking outside the box, though this can also mean you’re left to your own devices when a problem arises. Both are interesting and fun in their own ways and determining which option is best usually comes down to the playstyle of the group in question.

 

Another point to highlight is Dungeon Masters. For a start, that’s a D&D term. Generally, if you’re discussing a TTRPG other than D&D, the person running the game is referred to as a Game Master, or GM. That being said, lots of games have their own bespoke term; Call of Cthulhu has ‘Keepers’ and Vampire the Masquerade has ‘The Storyteller’, for example. However. Some games don’t have a GM and instead the story is told collaboratively by all the players. They decide what the world will be like and how the story will move forward through discussion and mechanics. Naturally, this style of game is very different to Dungeons and Dragons, so we won’t really be talking about any like that today, but once you’ve had a go at some on this list, I highly recommend trying out some GM-less systems. They are a very fun and delightfully unrestricted way to tell stories, which is a very enriching experience if you don’t want to risk the climax of your character’s story arc with a random roll.

1. Call of Cthulhu

Call of Cthulhu is inspired by classic Lovecraftian Horror. The game is designed to be set in either the 1920’s or in the present (though you could likely make something different work with a bit of planning and homebrewing).  It’s primarily an investigation game, where all characters are normal people who’ve suddenly been thrown into a bizarre scenario or setting and are trying to find their way back to safety and normalcy - or delving deeper into these eldritch mysteries.

They’re quite likely to never return to a normal life though. Call of Cthulhu is famous for character deaths and mental peril. The Eldritch realms and beings of this genre are horrifying and unfathomable, so the average person tends to react poorly upon encountering them. The mechanics of the game reflect this. Characters don’t level up. They don’t gain health or improve their skills. Your goal is to figure out what’s going on, get out, and stay alive at all costs. Fights are most often deadly. Coming to this from D&D can be a shock. Dungeons and Dragons is all about getting stronger, often to the point of near Godhood, but Call of Cthulhu is about playing an everyday person, not a hero, and the game does an excellent job of building a sense of danger and terror to reflect this. 

Out of all the TTRPG’s I’ve played, this system is one of my favourites. The only dice you’ll use are percentile, a d10 and d100. All your stats and skills are a percentage, which represents the likelihood of you successfully performing that skill. Say I’m pretty good with cars and I have a 75% chance of successfully repairing one if we crash. If I roll my percentile dice and I get under 75, I fix the car. The lower the result of your roll, the better you do. Aiming for low numbers rather than high is a bit jarring at first but after a bit of time, it proves to be a streamlined and intuitive system. Not to mention, it’s fun finally being able to use percentile dice. 

I love this game for how grounded it feels. Damage is very significant and your skills feel substantial. This is probably one of my favourite games to recommend to people looking to expand. It has a similar mechanical level to D&D but is still pretty easy to pick up, not to mention, it has a very different tone and genre to the fantasy stuff you’re likely used to, so it’s a great way to get a taste for what other games are out there. 

2. Kids on Bikes / Kids on Brooms / Teens in Space

Kids on Bikes is inspired by the 80’s teen mystery genre, the classic comparison being Stranger Things. You’ll play as a group of teens; exploring town and solving mysteries. There are two spin offs you can try as well; Kids on Brooms (where you play at a Magic School) and Teens in Space (pretty self-explanatory). All use roughly the same mechanic setup, with a couple changes here and there to reflect the setting.

Kids on Bikes is a rules-light game, with much of the focus aimed towards role-play. Rather than picking a Class you’ll pick a ‘Trope’ (e.g. The Leader, The Bookworm, The Athlete, The Weirdo etc.) which will give you your stats and additional abilities. Kids on Bikes doesn’t have set actions you can take, as many RPG’s do. The game mostly progresses through discussion and dice checks, with the GM setting a number to beat. This system isn’t really designed for drawn out combat, with the focus being on the story.

One of my favourite elements of this game is character stats. Rather than having a static number assigned to each trait, each is assigned one of your six dice and whenever you make a check with a given stat, you roll its associated die. Each of the Tropes has different dice assigned to each stat, and of course, the bigger the die, the better you are with that skill. For example, the ‘Funny Sidekick’ Trope has a d20 for Charm, a d12 for Brawn, a d10 for Flight, a d8 for Brains, a d6 for Grit, and a d4 for Fight. Naturally, you’re going to do better rolling a d20 than a d4. 

Interestingly however, whenever you roll the highest possible number on a die, you get to reroll and add the results together, which is going to be more likely on smaller dice. This mechanic helps to reinforce the game’s themes of overcoming adversity and allows for those unexpected moments of triumph that are so important to the genre. Plus, you gain Adversity Points whenever you fail a roll, which can be used to increase roll results in later checks. 

The mechanics of Kids on Bikes and its off-shoots do such a fantastic job of reflecting the tone of their genres and do so in a way that encourages creative story-building and character development. The system is unique, engaging, and dynamic, and the well-established themes make these games an excellent choice for those wanting to give rules-light games a try.

3. Cyberpunk Red

Cyberpunk Red is the Fourth edition in the Cyberpunk Roleplaying-Game franchise and revises/expands on both the mechanics and lore of the series. The first Edition was released in 1988 and the world has since expanded into video games, an anime series, and card game. Following the events of the Second Edition - Cyberpunk 2020, Cyberpunk Red is set in 2045 after the Fourth Corporate War. As you can gather, the world is very important to the Cyberpunk games and is often ingrained in the sourcebooks and mechanics. Dungeons and Dragons has its lore of course (The Sword Coast, Ravenloft, and The City of Doors for example), but they are presented as more of an optional addition to the game. In Cyberpunk, the world is often the draw for players and is much more ingrained in the game itself than in D&D. 

During gameplay, you’ll use a ten-sided dice and pick from the 10 different roles, with the option of switching roles throughout the campaign. The combat system, known as Friday Night Firefight, puts a focus on danger and the threat of damage, with detailed weapon options and damage types. There are also mechanics for Netrunning (this world’s term for hacking cybernetic devices), which has been heavily revised in the Red edition to make it more approachable. 

One of the larger mechanics of the game is the ‘Humanity Cost’ which is spent when buying different cybernetic weapons and implants. If you spend too much Humanity and become more machine than meat (that’s the term the game uses), your character falls into “Cyberpsychosis”, where they essentially lose themselves and become an NPC, controlled by the GM. The threat of your character becoming an NPC was present in earlier editions of Dungeons and Dragons, usually as a result of Alignment changes (back when Alignment was a more prominent mechanic), but in 5th edition, your character, at most tables, will remain your own. The threat of not just being unable to play your character anymore but having them potentially become an adversary is such a fascinating element of the game to me and adds a level of danger that reinforces the gritty realism of the 80’s cyberpunk fiction that inspired the game. 

The Cyberpunk Red mechanics can definitely be used for your own homebrew stories. It’s a fantastic system to pick if you want to run something inspired by The Matrix, Bladerunner, or Neuromancer, or indulge your own original setting and story. That being said, the pre-built world is a very popular element of the game. The setting is extensive and well established, with a lot of canon and fan-made materials to explore a unique story with. If you’re looking to try out a new game but are unsure about building a world for a system you’re not used to, this is a great place to start. 

4. Vampire: The Masquerade

Vampire: The Masquerade is one of a handful of games in the ‘World of Darkness’ setting, though it is by far the most well-known. It explores vampire society in a modern setting and is particularly focused on politics and social tension. A point of importance that makes Masquerade stand out for me is the emphasis on monstrosity. Your character is inherently a creature that feeds on people and is a member of a dangerous secret society, and the mechanics and tone of the game reflect this. 

Rather than picking a character type that you adhere to, you choose a Clan, essentially, what type of vampire you are (e.g. Gangrels, Toreador, Ventrue etc.). You and your party form a Coterie, a group with territory and traditions, through which you’ll navigate daily life and social rigor. This game, rather than being about the actual act of hunting, is about how your character interacts with the people around them and how these interactions affect their world. 

While Masquerade is reasonably combat light, there is an extensive system for ‘Disciplines’, which are your vampire powers. The wide range of Disciplines and Skills you can choose from allow for very creative and unique character building and give all interactions a sense of strategy, potential, and risk. A vampire with Level 3 ‘Celerity’ can essentially teleport, but a high level in ‘Presence’ can allow extreme influence over others, even through technology.

Another mechanic I love is ‘Humanity’. Your Humanity tracks where you fall on the scale between the human and the beastial, influenced by the actions you take in the game. If you completely succumb to the Beast, you are consumed by your bloodlust and are placed under the control of the GM. Like with Cyberpunk Red, I love the threat of losing your character Finding the balance between human and beast is an ever-present tension during gameplay. Not to mention, you’re granted bonuses or penalties depending on where you currently fall on the scale, which keeps gameplay constantly shifting. 

The aesthetic of this game is powerful and unique. The lore in the book is interesting and supportive but can still exist in an original setting. The rules are pretty extensive, even compared to D&D, but once you get used to them, they support the game’s themes extremely well and make for some fantastic character work. This is a great game for those who love some social and political intrigue and want to sink their teeth into some excellent mechanics. 

5. Powered by the Apocalypse - Root

 

Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA), rather than being a game itself, is a set of mechanics that have been used in a wide array of standalone games. PbtA’s mechanics are reasonably light and are very adaptable for use in different settings and game types, to the point where you can probably build your own PbtAstyle game if you want. But today, I want to highlight one game using this system, whose name you might recognise. 

Root (The Roleplaying Game) is inspired by the abstract board game of the same name and follows a band of roguish woodland creatures as they go adventuring. Playing as foxes, badgers, ravens, and mice, you explore the woods as a cunning wanderer of some kind, picking one of nine different character options (e.g. Scoundrel, Ronin, Tinker, Vagrant etc.).

In PbtA-type games, gameplay revolves around Moves and dice rolls. For any check, you’ll roll 2 six-sided dice and add the results together. 10 or above is a total success, 7 to 9 is a partial success, and 6 or below is a failure. Both in and out of combat you’ll have a set of Moves you can perform, some physical skills, some social or emotional actions. All characters (or ‘Vagabonds’ in Root) have access to Basic Moves (e.g. Attempt a Roguish Feat, Figure Someone Out, Wreck Something etc.). There are also additional Moves characters will have access to, which range depending on the game. Often, each character type will have their own unique Move Set (e.g. The Adventurer in Root might get Well-Read, Fast Friends, or Subduing Strikes). Root also has a number of other Move types; Weapon Moves, Reputation Moves, Travel Moves, and Session Moves. Moves in PbtA aren’t as strict as attacks or spells in D&D and usually behave more like prompts for action. The effect a Move actually has on the story is usually shaped through conversation between the player and GM and acts as structured inspiration. 

The Powered by the Apocalypse system is beautifully streamlined and easy to learn. Plus, once you know it, you’ll be able to pick up one of many PbtA games and start playing straight away (I highly recommend Dungeon World, Masks, Monster of the Week, and Thirsty Sword Lesbians). Root itself is a fantastic interpretation of the system, with a beautiful and rich aesthetic, and strong use of additional mechanics. If you’re keen to learn a system that has a game for just about any story you’ll want to tell, I highly encourage you to give Powered by the Apocalypse a try, and the Root RPG is a beautiful and approachable place to start. 

 

All these games are fantastic doorways to enter the wider TTRPG world. In general, they either have similar mechanical involvement to Dungeons and Dragons or are quite approachable for new players. 

But they’re also just the tip of the iceberg. There are thousands of incredible games out there, all with genres, settings, and systems shaped to tell unique stories. There’s a system out there for every player and every adventure. 

Happy Storytelling!

      - Alyshia