Top 10 Roleplaying Games Of All Time

I’ve seen several top ten and top twenty-five lists on the internet that talk about roleplaying games. Well, here are my top ten pen and paper roleplaying games of all time, starting with number ten and working all the way down to number one!

Number 10 – Rifts – If you want to talk about overpowered classes, this game is for you. There are so many classes that were created and balance was completely thrown to the wind. The system, much like Palladium FRPG’s system, sucked. But the game kept players coming back for more and more of those crazy robots, dragons, mechanoids, and more.

Number 9 – Marvel Superheroes RPG – Combine spectacular superheroes with an incredibly fun character generation system and you have Marvel Superheroes. The chart that was required to essentially play the game sucked, but the characters you could make with it were awesome.

Number 8 – Palladium FRPG – Another love it or hate it game. Palladium was one of those games where the world and stories you could create with it were spectacular. Too bad both the first and second editions of the games sucked. The rules never were really able to capture the gaming power that the actual Palladium FRPG storyline seemed to.

Number 7 – Mechwarrior (Battletech) – I probably have a personal bias with ranking this game so high. It was the first miniatures game that I played when I began roleplaying. The truth of the matter though, is that their miniature-based battlemech system is a very good miniatures combat system.

Number 6 – Deadlands – Originally came out with an award winning system that later became the Savage Worlds system. The game itself is a unique and interesting take of the Wild West. However, I believe it was the creative and inventive new game system they brought to the table that sets Deadlands and Savage Worlds apart from other games.

Number 5 – Delta Green – An incredibly underrated game in my opinion. If you really understand the world and the lore they put together for this game, you will realize how phenomenal it is. They mixed the best of conspiracy theory lore with creative ideas on what could’ve happened versus what did happen.

Number 4 – Call of Cthulhu – The ultimate game in providing player death. This game should come with a warning on the front that says, “Your characters are weak and will most likely be eaten, killed, mind controlled, and removed from the face of the planet.” This is the only roleplaying game that I can honestly say scared me at one point while I was playing it.

Number 3 – Star Wars (D6) – The only way to roleplay Star Wars is under the D6 rules system. It was the original gaming system that put Star Wars on the roleplaying map. Although it probably will never come back, there are enough old books and fan sources to keep this game going for a long time.

Number 2 – Shadowrun – Despite their game system continually evolving from one edition into another and not truly resolving any major problems, the Shadowrun world still combines cyberpunk, urban magic, and fantasy in a way that no other game could. It spawned several video games and computer games off of it. And, to this day, I think a Shadowrun movie that was well made could potentially be a summer blockbuster hit.

Number 1 – Dungeons & Dragons – Love it, hate it, but you definitely have an opinion on it. It doesn’t matter what edition you choose, D&D still is and will always be the premiere roleplaying game. Odds are pretty good that you and all of your friends have played it at some point or another, whether you liked it or not.

There are many others that I can think of right now that could have made the list for various reasons. However, these are my personal top ten roleplaying games.

What are your top ten pen and paper roleplaying games?

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