272 thoughts on “Indie RPGs for Tabletop Season Three”

1. A couple of my previous suggestions are already on the list, but what the heck…

   I know it sounds like a joke suggestion, but I think the Leverage RPG would be a good fit and a good intro to Cortex+

   Also, Shooting the Moon by Emily Care Boss, a game about playing out a love triangle.

2. My Life With Master is a fun one. (If somebody has mentioned it already, I missed it.)

3. The Quiet Year and Dread for sure. Would be interested in seeing Carolina Death Crawl too.

4. I would +1 Fate, Microscope, A Taste of Murder, and Kingdom. Spark is another great story game, though possibly too long form for format you are working with.

   http://www.genesisoflegend.com/spark/

   Mars Colony, and it’s soon to be released follow up Mars Colony 39 Dark are really interesting games as they are small, self-contained games for two people, which should be great for when half the gaming group couldn’t make it at the last moment.

   http://tckroleplaying.com/marscolony/

5. How about Our Last Best Hope – should take about a couple of hours or so. It is heroic sacrifice in the face of an impossible burden with a disaster movie-ish setting (different settings are included with the game).

   Or maybe Perfect, Unrevised – a dystopic steampunk where everyone plays criminals (and the law for one of the other player’s scenes). Maybe a bit longer than OLBH, and certainly will need the players prepping a bit before play (but that can be done off camera over a bottle of wine right?)

   Both are GM-less.

   Finally how about Dream Askew – Avery McDaldno’s game about the Queer Apocalypse. Based on Apocalypse Word but without a GM. A session should take 3-4 hours.

   But a +1 on Microscope, Durance, Kingdom, The Quiet Year.

   Monsterhearts too, but that is a longer game and has a GM.

   1. I’ve been wanting to try Our Last Best Hope – thanks for the recommendation! Moving it up the “to try” list.

6. Pantheon might be a viable option for the relatively-short, GM-less game.

   1. Now there’s a game I haven’t heard mentioned in a while. I wonder if copies can even be had any more? Sadly, other than some used copies, doesn’t look like it.

7. I always enjoyed Polaris.

8. Quick thought on making Dread work. Don’t let anyone pull their own pieces. Make them choose someone else to pull them in their place. So, kinda like in Tsuro of the Seas, where you left players in play as far as rolling was concerned, there’s a mechanical reason for them to stick around. And, of course, the Player Hivemind. And how it can work both directions. “Dammit, Bob, stop giving the GM ideas!” “Too late.”

9. If you’re looking for short, accessible, smart, and appealing in a video format, the list you have is a pretty good one!

   I’d also consider:
   – Ben Robbins’ other recent game, Kingdom
   – Morningstar and Holter’s “Love in the Time of Seið” or its followup, “Love in the Time of Khvarneh” – both very focused, intense story games
   – Inspectres, which is a fun off-brand-Ghostbusters/reality TV mashup

   1. I second Inspectres.

10. All good, but Microscope is awesome.

11. NICE LIST! I saw it and I just…love every pick on there.

    Sagas of the Icelanders is a really neat game that’s similar to Monsterhearts, but it’s about Icelandic settlers (VIKINGS!) and blood feuds and relationships and things like that. There is a GM, but the action is focused heavily on the players’ conflict, with the GM providing outside threats and world-level changes that the players have to cope with.

    I would absolutely love it if you could get John Rogers (and maybe some of the actors?) to play the Leverage RPG. xD It’s a tight game, too. On the flipside, well, it’s GM’d.

    Golden Sky Stories would also be a really fun (and different) game; it’s about magical animal creatures (who can transform into kids) helping the humans in a town with their everyday personal problems. The whole game is about being creative and finding cool ways to use your magical abilities to help people. As an example, here’s a game I ran at a convention recently. https://plus.google.com/+AndyHauge/posts/VJ25a52NTbQ

    Finally, Swords Without Master is an absolute fantasy storytelling blast. It’s very simple and straightforward: it has specific phases that the game goes through, and the die-rolling determines one thing–the tone of the story when the dice are rolled. It’s a unique way of approaching storytelling, and it’s a rollicking good time.

12. EPOCH might be a nice fit. 🙂

13. Well from Scotland can I recommend Best Friends and 3:16 by Gregory Hutton. Or for something a bit more intense, Cold City by Malcolm Craig.

    1. Definitely 3:16 (think Aliens or Starship Troopers) or even Remember Tomorrow (like a William Gibson novel). These games run in a style that would work for the show with the relatively small number of rolls and clear scene framing. Lots of other cool games listed here, but unfotunately I don’t think most of them would work.

14. Ribbon Drive (Avery McDaldno)
    > The mechanic is a playlist and you can play a game in about 3 hours. Love it.
    Becoming (Brian Engard)
    > A hero bargains with/sacrifices to the Fates in order to complete the journey
    Polaris (Ben Lehman)
    > A tragedy of fallen and falling knights

    All are GMless. I’m fond of all of them.

15. Hey, this is a shameless plug, but I made a GM-less story-telling game to introduce people to role-playing while still allowing for some strategy and clever play.

    http://schirduans.com/david/my-creations

    1. I did not mean to leave that comment. Please ignore.

16. Everyone is John might be an interesting fit.

    It’s really simple, it is often recommended for new RPG players, it can be played in a short(ish) time, and it can be as silly, as dark or as bizarre and inappropriate as you want.

17. Polaris
    Burning Wheel
    Mountain Witch
    In a Wicked Age

18. Inspectres and Fate, please!

19. As co-creator of Dread, I’m happy to correspond with you about how to make it work, without misrepresenting the game. Right off the bat:
    1: Start with a few pre-pulls to shorten the game, if you don’t want to shorten it in post-production.
    2: Don’t plan on running much past the 1st death. You can semi-calibrate these things with a little planning and a little luck and a little adaptation.
    3: I’m not sure about for filming, but certainly in real life I’ve almost always seen players happily stick around after their character died, so it might not be as much of a problem as you think.
    4: If there’s an unexpectedly early death, don’t forget the “walking dead” optional rule.

    As for games I don’t have a vested interest in, I strongly recommend My Life With Master. It’s a good length, has awesome mechanics, is very recognizable (everybody knows Frankenstein and probably Young Frankenstein). and is very flavorful. And the perfect opportunity for some overacting–er, I mean, roleplaying.

    1. Oh, and in response to your “don’t mount a campaign” request–I hope my offer and brief suggestions don’t cross a line. I’ll shut up now.

    2. Guess this is a good opportunity to ask a question then:
       I remember a rule in Dread, whereby a player can always refuse to pull a piece from the tower. IIRC refusing to pull results in a failed test, but cannot result in character death? If so, how are you supposed to handle deadly situations in the game (“the bridge is falling apart, can you make it to the other side or will you plunge into your death” or “the eldritch horror tries to decapitate you using its scythe-like tongue. Can you dodge it?”)

       1. I own Polaris but haven’t gotten to play/run it. I would really love to. It’s such a great premise.

20. Dungeon World would be fun. It allows players to add to the narrative in creative ways.

21. I think GxB is really well suited to your format.
    http://atarashigames.wordpress.com/teachers-lounge/925-2/

    It’s 4 players
    GM-less
    No character creation or set-up
    A full game in about an hour
    A little out of the usual setting for an rpg (high school dating) but very accessible for a wide audience
    Most importantly for me, all the players are ‘active’ all the time (either as their primary characters or playing NPCs). No one’s ever left on the sideline because it isn’t their go or their character isn’t in the scene.

    Have a look at a short fan-made intro video here:
    

    Of the other ones you’re considering, only Penny, Durance, The Quiet Year and Microscope are actually GM-less (I don’t know Carolina Death Crawl). I definitely think GM-less is the way to go as, just like Fiasco, you don’t need one player to take a ‘special’ role. They’re just as accessible as a board game. I adore all these games and would love to see them on Tabletop, but IMO they’re not ideal for the format: Penny is a bit slow and intense and doesn’t have character interaction, Durance and Quiet Year are restricted to a single setting. Microscope is my favourite indie rpg and is an awesome story-making tool, but the restriction on suggestions (which is very important restriction) cuts down on the interaction between the players and makes for a quieter game.

22. I think the idea of indie RPGs sounds really great! We picked up Fiasco this summer and it now will be replacing a our Murder Mystery October Staff Get Together. And not having to have a GM can be preferable. As I’m finding. . . it’s super intense and I’d love to be able to get my rpg fix without having to write a novella once a week (teacher, mother, wife over here!!!). I am so seriously excited for the RPG show! WOOT! Carolina Death Crawl sounds particularly awesome.

23. Have you looked at the new streamlined D&D 5th ed?

24. Hej,

    I would love to see something 40k related. They have great rpg’s by ffg and there is a talisman like boardgame.

25. While I’m here, have to tell you to read the HORUS HERESY novels… Read and than imagine how to bring this on screen.. its stuff that would fit even to an opera

26. You really should have a look at Umlaut – The heavy metal RPG. I think the premise is hilarious 🙂

27. Danielle Lewon’s “Kagematsu”!
    It’s easy on the rules, deep in gameplay, emotionally intense, friendly for non-gamers, innovative and unique…

    Some info here: https://sites.google.com/site/creamaliengames/Home/kagematsu-the-rpg

    1. That’s such an awesome looking game!

28. Is Heroquest still around? JK. Keep up the great work… my kids, wife and I love the show! Can’t wait to see what you come up with!

29. Hey Wil! That is an excellent idea to show you alll playing the games!!:) As much as I will miss Skeletor answering angry tweets on the the WIl Wheaton Project…this would be an awesome watch to see!!!

30. The Warriors Adventure Game … FREE from Harper Collins Children’s Books.

    http://www.warriorcats.com/games-and-extras/games/adventure-game

31. I vote for Dresden Files RPG or anything using the Fate Core System.

32. That is a fantastic list, of course.

    For the comment above recommending my own game Spark, thank you very much! That said, it wouldn’t be the best fit and there are a number of better candidates that deserve some love.

    +1 “Microscope”, excellently visual game that is very different from the standard RPG model.

    +1 “Dread”, also excellent as a seemingly beautiful game from a visual perspective. Playing with the black jenga blocks would be fantastic, and I think player elimination would be less of an issue.

    While “The Mountain Witch” is a fantastic game, it’s currently out of print which may make it less desirable.

    As a counterpoint, I would strongly recommend that “Primetime Adventures” be considered. Not only would that be a delightfully recursive game, the fan mail mechanic would be lovely and there would be a lot of screenwriting talent who could jump in. More importantly, it’s just now getting back in print, and will be available for viewers. It is kinda fantastic.

    Also, Mythender. Because everyone needs to End Santa sometimes.

33. Dungeon World. Please.

    It’s all the fun of D&D, but lightning fast and built on collaboration.

34. +1 to Microscope, it is pretty awesome. http://www.unwrittenrpg.com/ should be hitting DTRPG before the end of the year, too.

35. Aromic Robo RPG – Runs on the Fate system, based in the “Atomic Robo” comic universe (if you’ve never read Atomic Robo, please do. It’s like Indiana Jones of super science).

    1. This would be helpful: http://www.evilhat.com/home/atomic-robo/

36. Dread is soo delightfully evil

37. Dread would be fun as a two parter for the main show or a special livestream for Tabletop Day. Penny for Your Thoughts sounds pretty awesome (that’s the one where you have everyone else’s memories but your own, right?)

    One indie RPG that I would love to see (hell, I really want to play it more), even though it’s not really GM-less, is Wandering Monsters High School. The concept is amazing, as is character creation. You follow all the tropes of D&D as well as the tropes of Clone High/Buffy the Vampire Slayer/DeGrassi/Saved By The Bell. Nothing would make the very special caffiene pill episode better than if Jessie Spano was an 8 foot tall iron golem.

    One intriguing thing about character creation is that you make your own character, then you “sign off” on someone else’s character. You end up playing two characters: the harpy vice president of the Chastity Club, and the high wizard-scientist-lunatic responsible for creating your best friend, a two ton Minotaur ballerina.

    Then there is the “goals” creation: once you make up your character, you set four social goals of different types for them. What makes this so intriguing is because you basically pull a Gloom on them; the more difficult and insane the goal is, the more fun your character will have. For example, my gelatinous cube freshman wants to become the lead singer in the Glee club (which is funny, seeing as gelatinous cubes use telepathy to communicate because their natural speaking voices sound like a pteranadon with the Hershey Squirts.)

    Overall, I’d suggest that game, even if not on Tabletop, as something you could try personally with your own friends, Wil.

38. Oh MAN, should you be playing Monsterhearts.

39. I found the episode of “Fiasco” one of the lesser episodes. I do not think Indy RPG games are something for Tabletop. I would prefer something more ‘mature’ for lack of a better word. If you do decide to go with them, please do not overdo it. But reading the comments above I guess I am a minority. Anyway, just thought I would give my two cents.

40. If you’re considering Monsterhearts as a system, then this link to a four hour podcast campaign in that system might interest you- http://thesewarriorsareterrible.com/dear-dark-journal-monsterhearts-drama/

41. Another +1 for all the games in your post, Wil. Also +1 for Kingdom and +infinity for Dungeon World.

    I love love love Dungeon World! It is the indie/story D&D. It has a GM but is doable for a really fun 4 hour one shot. It’s accurately described as “what you remember D&D being like” when you first played. Highly recommended.

    If you’re looking for a FATE game maybe Atomic Robo? Haven’t played yet but looks like a good implementation and works for quick play.

    Really excited for this 🙂

42. I think the Tabletop Crew would rock a session of Kaleidoscope. It’s a Microscope hack where you sit around discussing a (imaginary) foreign film that you just finished watching with your film critic friends. The hack hasn’t been fully released yet, but it should be easy enough to get a beta copy for TT. Reid ran it for us at PAX Games On Demand and we had a great time with it.

    http://www.photographsoflightning.com/kaleidoscope/

43. I am completely without objectivity but I’ll put in a word for my game that’ll be kickstarting soon, No Country For Old Kobolds – a game about surviving as kobolds in a world that wants nothing more than to destroy your village. All the beta docs can be found at https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B3bDRz-B9Fj7VG1wYkpJcmhTcUk&usp=sharing

    Kickstarter will start probably next month. :)f

    1. Also, sorry. I hope you don’t take this as wholly mounting a campaign. All of the games on your list are outstanding and some of my favorites from some of my favorite people 🙂

44. Oh, fyi it’s a Dungeon World hack. So should be familiar for you.

45. Also, Dread is freaking amazeballs. Carolina Death Crawl is absurdly great and Durance is one of my favorites. All of these are outstanding options.

46. No Country for Old Kobolds for the win…. Unique story and premise..

47. Ohhh geez, and I’m running Atomic Robo right now and it’s also awesome. Seriously, so much awesome to run – you have so many options to fill your schedule.

48. Dungeon World … its a good pick up game, its mechanics are dead simple and the structure will create a great narrative to film.

49. Microscope is amazing fun and did some great things with the genre, not to mention it’s a standout example of excellent game writing. The rules are tight and encourage the kind of play you want for a GMless game. Anything can happen in a game of Microscope.

50. Planning to run Dread soon, and my solution for premature character death is to just have spare characters and some plans for how to include them into the story at any given time.
    Of course, the scenario I have in mind would get progressively harder as more characters die. It’s going to be about an evil dark magic ritual to basically destroy all existence, relying on parts of human bodies to get completed – once all the spare characters are used up and the next character dies, the game ends with the completion of the ritual and a fate worse than death for the remaining group…and mankind itself, I guess xD

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