RPGs by Genre

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If you are reading this, chances are you asked a question like "what kind of games are there that do X?" someplace and have been directed to a section of this page. The format and links here share a lot in common with the the wiki of the r/rpg subreddit, because I (as u/omnihedron) wrote most of content like this for that wiki. I don't use reddit anymore, though, so wanted a place for this sort of reference. It is not meant to be exhaustive, but rather to provide quality examples of particular types of gaming.

Games marked with ¤ are either free or pay-what-you-want. This page does not use affiliate linking.

Universal Systems

Minimalist

Minimalist systems attempt to use as few rules as possible to cover a wide range of genres.

  • Adventurers! – a free “two-page” engine “made for old school aficionados”. Also available in a more explanatory edition including two sample adventures.
  • ATRIM - a simple, four page RPG that focuses on 3 general traits with description-based PCs customization
  • The Bean Engine – a skill-based system using summed 2d6 (or best two of three for advantage/worst two of three for disadvantage), trying to hit 8+. (CC BY-SA 4.0)
  • Capriccio RPG - Easily adaptable, free, generalist two-page system with 4 attributes, powers and skills.
  • CORE Micro – a minimalist hybrid (trad/narr) SRD designed by Tod Foley, basis of “DayTrippers” and other games. (CC BY 3.0)
  • Cornerstone RPG – a dialog-heavy, simple d6-based system, intended to run zero-prep one-shots.
  • Elemental aims to be “a fast and flexible roleplaying game for any character, any setting, any story”. It is a skill-based system with free one-page rules, but deeper support materials.
  • Fast FU is a two-page minimalist version of Freeform Universal within the 2nd edition PDF.
  • Fudge Lite is a rules-light generic RPG that uses natural language to describe character traits (fair, good, great, etc.) The game is designed to let the mechanics fade into the background and allow the players to focus on playing the game.
  • Heroic Tales is a “genre-neutral, rules-light role playing game of heroic problem solving.”
  • Paper-Free RPG is a one-page RPG for situations in which character sheets are not very feasible, such as during nature hikes or night-time car-rides. (CC BY 4.0)
  • QAGS - “Quick-Ass Game System”. Minimalist RPG first published in 2001, notable (notorious?, infamous?) for its explicit use of edible tokens as a dice modifier currency called “Yum-Yums”.
  • Risus: The Anything RPG – a free four-page game with a large following, supporting a variety of play styles.
  • SHARP – a lightweight descriptive system, Simple Handy Adaptable Role-Playing claims to be a “love child” of WaRP, FitD, and Gumshoe. (OGL)
  • Septible (fka Alpha-7) – a lean, flexible system playable with pools of any type of 50/50 randomizer (dice, coins, etc.). (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
  • Simply6 – A simple d6 pool system.
  • Tricube Tales – a free “minimalist, narrative-driven” system using 3d6 and some tokens. Aims to be kid-friendly and is supported by a number of settings. (CC BY 3.0)
  • TWERPS - minimal system from Zocchi Games first published in 1987, “The World’s Easiest Role-Playing System”. Notable for being published by Lou Zocchi of GameScience “precision” dice fame.
  • Ultra Accelerated – a one-page simplification of the already streamlined Fate Accelerated. (CC BY 3.0)
  • Unbelievably Simple Roleplaying – three stats, simple dice, and a narrative currency, in two pages.
  • Universalis - token-based system to share out story-telling authority
  • 五德 (Wu De) - The Five Powers – a narrative RPG, system based on the east-asian philosophy of Yin & Yang and the 5 Elements. Requires 6 d6 in two different colors.

Hackable

Simple games intended to be (or, at least, in actuality) co-opted and hacked into other published games.

  • 24XX – the system from 2400 prioritizes “description and narrative positioning over detailed rules processes”. (CC BY 4.0)
  • The Black Hack – an OSR fantasy game that spawned a vast number of games in other genres. (OGL)
  • D6xD6 – an open system using two d6 multiplied together and characters that can be written on a business card. Provides the framework for many games and settings. (D6xD6 OSL)
  • Forged in the Dark - SRD based on the award winning Blades in the Dark RPG, a game focusing on daring heists and building a criminal organization. Generally specializes in episodic, story-driven play with a set gameplay cycle. (CC BY 3.0)
  • FU: the Freeform Universal RPG – a lightweight system supporting degrees of success that “lends itself to a ‘seat of your pants’ style, where little preparation is needed.” (CC BY 4.0)
  • Fudge – supports a number of dice rolling systems, including using the eponymous Fudge dice, to drive a “rules-light role-playing game engine providing a common set of game mechanics that can be used to create any role-playing game you desire”. (OGL & FSTL)
  • Fuzion – a crunchy system that (somewhat quietly) forms the backbone of dozens of games (e.g. Artesia, Cyberpunk v3, Victoriana), built to unify “the best of the Hero System (Champions) and Interlock (Cyberpunk)”. (Currently unclear licensing. At one point, Action! was an OGL system mostly compatible with Fuzion, but it is no longer.)
  • Lasers & Feelings – originally a sci-fi game, but its many modifications tune its very simple system to widely different ends. (CC BY-SA 3.0)
  • Microlight d20 – the d20 system stripped as bare as possible, currently supporting over a hundred different games. (OGL)
  • Mini Six – a slimmed down version of the OpenD6 system (see below). (OGL)
  • minimalD6 – a minimalist game engine with over two dozen games written using it, by a variety of authors. (CC BY-SA 4.0)
  • Pip System – aimed at beginning role-players, but with scaling complexity, using opposing pools of black and white d6. Supported by a number of kid-friendly games using the system, as well as a number of genre-specific guides.
  • True World RPG - A rules-light freeform and narrative universal system designed to easily support any genre or setting. Free and open (CC BY 4.0)
  • Questworlds – A flexible system, with characters defined by key words and a resolution mechanic that covers all challenges, be they physical, mental or social. (Questworlds OGL) Based on HeroQuest, which was an alternate system to play in the Glorantha setting of RuneQuest.

Unusual dice/randomizer

Games that leverage atypical randomizers to support many genres of play.

  • Fastlane: Everything, All the Time - Uses American or European roulette wheels, though rules for dice are included as well.
  • Fate – uses Fudge dice (dice with equal numbers of blank, −, and + faces) to back “story-focused tools” that “puts the narrative and fiction first”. In addition to a number of published games and settings built on top of it, Fate comes in three “flavors”, divided by degree of complexity:
    • Fate Core – the full, medium-crunchy, version, with more options and examples. Also supports of line of world and toolkit books. (OGL & CC)
    • Fate Condensed – a compact, stand-alone version of Fate Core streamlined for clarity and ease of reference. (OGL & CC)
    • Fate Accelerated – a greatly simplified version of the system, designed to be quickly read and low prep. (OGL & CC)
  • Genesys - uses dice with customized symbols, “with a system so adaptable and expansive you can explore every popular roleplaying genre”. The main book contains five settings, and other games use the system for a particular setting. (Genesys Foundry)
  • Rosette Diceless – “dedicated to a consensus-based, story-first, and improvisational approach”, using no randomizers at all.
  • Sapio – “lightweight, flexible framework for telling the stories” making use of pools of d12s with combinations of three symbols on each face.
  • Silver Bullet RPG – A coin-based system that gets newbies playing quickly - building characters and learning as they play, and gives the PBTA crowd a generic that feels familiar and natural.
  • Unbound – features “session zero” tools for collaboratively figuring out what genre/setting/concept you want to play in the first place. The system itself uses decks of playing cards for randomization.

Toolkit

Toolkit systems offer numerous options or subsystems, with explicit guidance to mix and match a subset of the parts for a specific campaign or experience.

  • 4C – explicitly a toolkit “foundation for you to build upon”, using a lightweight percentile/chart lookup system, heavily influenced by FASERIP. The title is an abbreviation of “four color”, owing to the game’s superhero roots. (text is public domain)
  • Active Exploits - diceless generic rpg system from Precis Intermedia first published in 2002.
  • BaG – “The BaG RPG system is a modular, generic tabletop role-playing game designed to build new role-playing game communities. The system was created with three fundamental goals in mind: ease, excitement, and accessibility.”
  • Chimera RPG – a 64-page “framework for gaming in any conceivable genre” using d12 non-binary checks and opposed polyhedral rolls, that is “easy to learn and optimized for fast play”. (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
  • Cortex Prime – a mid-complexity, “multi-genre, modular, session-centered” toolkit, with explicit knobs for tuning the system for a desired campaign. Evolved from earlier iterations of Cortex that powered many games from Margaret Weis Productions.
  • FAST System – “a new generic setting gaming system based solely around a D10 mechanic from Art of the Genre. It is designed to be ‘anti-bloat’, with everything geared toward an easy gamemaster experience and quick resolution mechanics for the players.”.
  • Forge Engine – a mid- to high-crunch system using opposed d10 dice pools with degree of success. Tunes available skills and equipment to the genre. (CC BY 4.0)
  • Lumen - A lightweight toolkit for action packed, power fantasy games, providing the framework for several dozen games, and growing. Mixes a 2d6 degree of success system with tactical, fast, combat-heavy play. (Free to use, with credit given.)
  • OpenD6 – originally the house system for West End Games, now a free, open, mid-complexity system. Attributes and skills available to characters are defined based on genre/setting with actions resolved using a summed pool of d6. (OGL)
  • Solar System - based on the early 2000’s indie RPG The Shadow of Yesterday, the first game where a “Key”-based XP system was presented.
  • WOIN – “What’s OLD is NEW, three toolkit-oriented tabletop roleplaying games designed to work together”, using a fairly crunchy mechanics driving a summed d6 pool for resolution. (WCPS)
  • UGIS - the “Universal and Generic Imagination System”. Low complexity and rules-lite with a focus on character development and roleplay. Opportunity to create any setting and genre with numerous options for customization. Resolution works with d6 pools against difficulties. Has its license open to all types of hack or additional material.

Toolkit + genre book

Toolkit systems that go a step further, offering products tuned to specific genres or settings.

  • GURPS – the original “generic universal role-playing system” has accumulated a huge number of supplements over the years, each adapting the basic concepts of the game to particular genre or setting. A 32-page “distillation of the basic GURPS rules” is available for free.
  • 6d6 – combines characters defined by a collection of “advantages” with a token system measuring their “potential” (how many advantages they can actually use at a particular time) to build a summed dice pool. Adapts to different genres with setting and adventure books. (CC BY-SA 3.0)
  • Everywhen – a medium-crunch system “designed for high action roleplaying and suitable for campaigns in any era or background”, based on Barbarians of Lemuria. Setting books provide examples of using the system for particular genres. (custom license)
  • Index Card RPG – a system that “throws out all the clunky parts” while providing numerous choices for characters. Class-based, but with available classes tailored to the genre. Provides a number of “world” books which customize the game for a given setting or genre. (CC BY 4.0)
  • JAGS – Just Another Gaming System claims to be “rules-heavy”, and interested in a very wide power scale, a “variance in lethality”, and nice production. Several setting books tune it to particular genres.
  • OneDice – a system based on rolling a single d6, with dozens of genre-specific variations.
  • Saga – a low- to mid-crunch storytelling system, with several setting books as examples of use for particular genres. While it contains “a deadly and believable combat system, it is not combat focused”. (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
  • TinyD6 – a very light system using descriptors and a pool of one to three d6, with genre specific books (e.g. Tiny Wastelands, Tiny Frontiers) to expand it into specific genres.

Comprehensive

Systems aiming to offer options for every possibility at once.

  • HERO System - The 400 pound gorilla of point-buy, crunchy, high character customization systems, originally extracted from the Champions superhero game. Resolution pits a summed d6 pool (usually 3d6) against a target.
  • Cosmic Cutthroats – a complex, “kitchen sink” sort of system built to support multi-genre dimension-hopping. (CC BY-SA 4.0)
  • EABA – stands for “End All Be All” and routes everything through a universal chart, taking the sum of the best three d6 from a pool. (Custom open license)
  • Open Legend – a mid-complexity system using pools of exploding dice. Claims to be “open-source”, by which it means using a license reminiscent of the OGL. (Open Legend Community License)
  • True20 – a simplified (three-class) version of the d20 system (the open portions of D&D 3.5), liberated from some of d20’s license restrictions. (OGL/True20)

Specific

Systems that support a particular type of play in a genre-agnostic way.

  • 3Deep – a lightweight system “designed to emulate the episode structure” of TV, and also dedicating a significant section of the book to support solo play.
  • Arium – two books, Arium: Discover is a streamlined RPG system that is built to run games in any world built with Arium: Create.
  • Blackwind – might be what would have happened if RPGs were originally made by novelists instead of wargamers. Uses lots of the technical tools of writing.
  • DOGS – “a genre and setting agnostic” interpretation of the now out-of-print Dogs in the Vineyard, using a dice pool and wagering system that is “heavily intertwined with the narrative… ideal for games where the players are solving mysteries, settling disputes, and making moral and/or ethical decisions”.
  • Forthright – a mid-complexity system based on non-binary results of a d20 roll. Heavy emphasis on expectation setting (both for the game as a whole, and for each die roll), collaboration, and GM guidance. (CC BY 4.0)
  • Gumshoe – offers an engine designed for building investigative, mystery-solving games, regardless of genre. A kickstarter opened the SRD for the system. (CC BY 3.0)
  • Narrative Game System – rules-light, heavily targeting narrative, collaborative play. Bulk of the book details fifteen example settings.
  • The Pool – a free, simple system using a “dice pool gambling mechanic” to decide narrative control, and advancement is handled by adding words to your character’s story.
  • Primetime Adventures - designed to create games that feel like television shows of any genre.
  • Spark – “purpose-built to foster creating dynamic, custom settings” where play is “about challenging values and beliefs”. The main book contains example settings for “shogunate science fiction”, “montreal police drama”, and “fantasy under siege”. (CC BY 3.0)
  • Strike! – a medium-complexity system built around grid-based tactical combat, aiming for “variety without complexity” and non-binary resolution using a single d6.
  • Theatrix - originally published in 1993, this diceless system leans into many theatrical metaphors in its structure.
  • Vivid – a lightweight d6-based system targeted at cinematic, pulpy, low-prep adventure.

House systems

Systems that back a particular company’s line of games, usually extracted into their own setting-agnostic book.

  • 2d20 – the backbone of a large number of games produced by Mōdiphiüs, though they have never produced a “generic” book for the system.
  • AGE – powers a number of Green Ronin’s games, using complex system built around a 3d6 pool where one of the dice is special and determines degree of success and some other factors.
  • Amazing Engine - genre-neutral system published by Wizards of the Coast in 1993 primarily used to drive a series of genre-specific supplements.
  • Cypher System – drives the various titles of Monte Cook Games using an “I’m a blank blank who blanks” approach to character building and “GM intrusions”.
  • Era d10 – an extraction of the pool of exploding d10s system behind the Era: … games from Shades of Vengeance.
  • Fragged Rules System – a high-crunch 3d6, system using “tactical miniature combat” and “best for long sandbox games”, supporting several games from Design Ministries. They treat the first half of the Fragged Empire Core Rules as the baseline rules engine.
  • Masterbook - originally a house generic system from West End Games from 1993, still available via DTRPG. Made extensive use of custom cards called Masterdeck
  • Mythic D6 – based on the idea that all RPGs are basically superhero games with different trappings, using a modified d6 success pool. House system for Khepera Publishing.
  • PDQ Sharp! - A generic version of the house system used by Atomic Sock Monkey press in games such as Truth and Justice and *Swashbucklers of the Seven Skies
  • RuneQuest descendants – first published in 1978, RuneQuest has gone through a number of revision and more than its fair share of legal maneuvering. Out of all this have come a number of generic games:
    • Basic Role-Playing – a common distillation of the games produced by Chaosium. A fairly crunchy percentile skill-based system. (BRP OGL)
    • Mythras Imperative – a “free introduction to the Mythras system, and geared towards generic adventures”. A fairly crunchy percentile skill-based system. (Mythras Gateway License)
    • OpenQuest – more explicitly “a game of fantasy adventure”, but similar to the two above. A fairly crunchy percentile skill-based system. (OGL)
    • Revolution D100 – “proposes a new approach to percentile-based role-playing games, while keeping the unique flavour of the classic D100 engine”. A fairly crunchy percentile skill-based system.
    • Note that QuestWorlds (listed in the “Hackable” section above) is based on Heroquest, which was an alternate rules system for playing in the Glorantha setting of Runequest.
  • Savage Worlds powers Pinnacle Games. It has a liberal (though not open) license as well, so many settings have been published for it.
  • Tri-Stat dX is the free, generic expression of the games first made by Guardians of Order, revived with the latest edition of Big Eyes, Small Mouth.
  • WaRP – for the 20th anniversary of Over the Edge, Atlas Games released the “Wanton Role-Playing System”, an open expression if its system. (OGL)
  • Cortex was once the house system of Margaret Weis Productions, when they still produced RPGs, now supplanted by Cortex Prime (see above).
  • The D6 System formed the basis of games by the bankrupted West End Games like Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, and now lives on as OpenD6 (see above).

Historical

Systems that are no longer available but were notable in their time.

Science Fiction

Broad-focused sci-fi

  • 2300 AD – Originally released under the Traveller name, and now again. In between, it was a hard sci-fi game intended to continue the setting of Twilight 2000.
  • Coriolis – Middle Eastern-inspired sci-fi setting, described as “Arabian Knights in space”.
  • DayTrippers – A CORE-based game of surreal reality-hopping science-fiction. Low prep, high collab, universal Yes/No/And/But mechanic.
  • Diaspora – based on an older edition of Fate, won the gold ENnie for best rules in 2010. It contains a number of interesting approaches to sci-fi exploration play. (Fate 3)
  • FrontierSpace – an action/adventure OSR-type game highly influenced by Star Frontiers. (d00Lite, CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)
  • Infinite Galaxies – broad focus system with a setting that “presents a positive and engaging future state of the universe”. (CC BY-SA 4.0)
  • Shadows Over Sol – hard sci-fi horror set in our own solar system.
  • Star Frontiers – an early general sci-fi system from TSR.
  • Stars Without Number¤ – an OSR sci-fi game built “to encourage sandbox play”. Has both a free and paid version.
  • Traveller – one of the earliest sci-fi games, has seen nearly a dozen different versions, all of which still have their adherents. Some versions are famous for cases where your character can die while being generated. The OGL portion of Mongoose Traveller Version 1 is known as the Cepheus Engine.
  • Vast Grimm - A Brutal Sci-Fi Horror OSR RPG - essentially Mork Borg in post-apoc space!

Broad-focused transhumanist sci-fi

  • Eclipse Phase – a post-singularity game of transhuman horror. (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
  • Farflug – “about the ends of the universe, where nothing has been undone and everything is permitted”. (PbtA)
  • FreeMarket – a post-scarcity, transhumanist game set aboard a space station, asking the question “what will you do with forever?”. The box set of this game is hard to find.
  • Mindjammer – takes place in an award-winning far-future, transhumanist setting. (Fate)
  • Nova Praxis – “a post-singularity sci-fi setting that explores transhumanism and post-scarcity societies against a backdrop of action, adventure, conspiracy and intrigue”. (Fate, Savage Worlds)

Broad-focused space opera

  • Archives of the Sky – “a tabletop story game of galactic scope and threatened ideals” won a Judges’ Spotlight ENnie in 2019.
  • Baroque Space Opera – “Enter a fantastic universe beyond time and space… filled with strange technology, stranger cultures, exotic locations, and incredible danger.” (Fate)
  • Blood in Space – minimal rule set with a fully realized setting. (Fudge)
  • Fading Suns – a game of heavy combat, vicious politics, weird occultism, alien secrets and artifacts, from the makers of Das Schwarze Auge. Recently kickstarted second edition.
  • Faith is a space opera RPG “of epic adventures, where starfaring alien civilizations race to explore a dangerous, unknown universe; while the Gods compete for followers; and the Ravager threaten civilization as a whole”.
  • Galactic – “tell the character-driven, relationship-focused space opera stories you want to see in the world” in this GM-less RPG inspired by Star Wars (Belonging Outside Belonging)
  • Hellas – a “fusion of high drama, action-adventure, romance, mythology-infused space opera”
  • Rebel Scum – “a cinematic RPG about a war in the stars inspired by a deep love of old school action figures and of punching Nazis in the face”.
  • Space Opera – “an old school RPG including complete rules for character and planet generation, human and alien races, skills and professions, starships, individual and ship combat, etc.”.
  • Thousand Suns – RPG that takes its inspiration from the classic literary “imperial” science fiction of the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s. (OGL)
  • Tiny Frontiers – a “minimalist space opera” game based. (TinyD6)
  • Trinity Continuum: Æon – Psions in a Mass Effect-ish galaxy, in recovery 60 years after a devastating war. Extrasolar colonies, aliens, space weirdness, jumpships. (Storypath)
  • Uncharted Worlds – a wide-scope “space opera of discovery and adventure”. (PbtA)

Starship crew

  • Ashen Stars – Investigative game about freelance law enforcement on the fringe of civilized space. Described aptly as the crew of Serenity tasked with the job of the Enterprise. (Gumshoe)
  • Bulldogs! – is high action space adventure about a crew hauling cargo to the most dangerous places in the galaxy. (Fate)
  • Burn Bryte – The galaxy is being consumed by the Burn, and the players along with their living ship adventures across the galaxy. Exclusively available through Roll20.
  • explorers - a crew-game of planet exploration SciFi, moderate rules, focus on teamwork and limited resources.
  • Impulse Drive – focused on a ship crew “making a living on the fringe of civilized space”. (CC BY-SA 3.0, PbtA)
  • Lasers & Feelings¤ – a free one-page game about a starship crew, is about as rules-light as you can get, and has spawned literally hundreds of hacks to different genres. (CC BY-SA 3.0)
  • Offworlders – as “owners of a small starship”, a group of “adventurers, outlaws, and guns for hire make their fortune on the rough end of the galaxy”. (CC BY 3.0 US, PbtA)
  • Rust Hulks – a game about “playing space truckers in a grimy science-fiction future.” (PbtA)
  • Scum and Villainy – a game ”about a spaceship crew trying to make ends meet under the iron-fisted rule of the Galactic Hegemony”. (FitD)
  • Teens in Space – a spinoff of Kids On Bikes. A relatively lightweight system with cooperative storytelling elements about a crew of alien teens and their spaceship exploring space.

Thematic approaches

  • 3:16 Carnage Amongst the Stars – a mechanically simple, low-prep campaign game about being a member of a self-serving military tasked with wiping out alien threats.
  • Blue Planet – “offers hard sci fi adventure on the ecologically wild, sociopolitically contentious frontier of Earth’s first extrasolar colony world: a distant waterworld named Poseidon”.
  • Cosmic Patrol – built to be more “golden age scifi”, using a simple rule-set. (Cue, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
  • Danger Patrol¤ – captures some of the aesthetic of 1930’s sci-do serials, mixed with a more modern cinematic vibe. Has evolved through several versions, including a two-page “pocket” approach. (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)
  • Exilium – a game of “of science fiction adventure and intrigue set against a backdrop of post-human loss and redemption”. (Mini Six)
  • Flatline – “a near-future dystopian roleplaying game about armed EMTs who execute intensive medical ops to protect the richest clients”. (Fate)
  • Hello World – set in a digital utopia where only memory is in short supply. (FitD)
  • Hostile – “a gritty, near future roleplaying setting for the 2D6 Cepheus Engine rules… inspired by movies like Outland and Alien”. (Cepheus Engine)
  • Hunt the Wicked – focusing on “bounty Hunters: peacekeepers, gunslingers, saviors, and assassins, the heroes and mercenaries that go after the bad guys”.
  • Mothership – “a sci-fi horror roleplaying game where you and your crew try to survive in the most inhospitable environment in the universe: outer space”.
  • Never Tell Me the Odds – a “space-scoundrel RPG about risking it all”.
  • The Nullam Project – A hard sci-fi RPG about humans who have arrived at a distant world in a generation ship only to find 2 warring species already there, forcing them to build an orbitol colony.
  • Obsidian: the Age of Judgement – in 2299, “a desperate humanity wages war against the manifested legions of Hell itself”.
  • ORUN, Post-Apotheosis Space Opera RPG – A rich and fully realized, and immersive Afrocentric science fiction setting in the Post- Apotheosis Age
  • Paranoia – As a Troubleshooter, an elite force, you’re tasked with finding trouble and shooting it, you will be hunting mutants, terrorists, traitors, [CLASSIFIED], secret societies and renegade bots. You look worried, citizen. Relax! It’s still Paranoia. The year is still 214. You still have six clones and a laser pistol. The Computer is still your friend.
  • Predation – A desparate future uses time-travel to build a colony 66 million years in the past, stranding them there. High tech meets dinosaurs. (Cypher)
  • Shock: Social Science Fiction – a “fiction game of culture and future shock. Inspired by the works of Bruce Sterling, Kim Stanley Robinson, Ursula K. LeGuin, and Philip K. Dick, the game pushes the players to make stories that matter to them — stories about politics, philosophy, love, and death.” A variation of it, Shock: Human Contact is pretty much the Star Trek Federation with the serial numbers filed off.
  • Star World – intends to emulate Star Trek and “includes PC playbooks, ship playbooks and a special set of ship moves for interstellar combat and maneuvers”. (PbtA)
  • Sufficiently Advanced – a distant-future, somewhat optimistic game. The most recent edition uses a diceless system.
  • Synthicide – makes use of tactical grid combat, in a grim semi-cyberpunk setting where the machines have taken over.
  • Vast and Starlit – a “complete nano-game of interstellar crime & rebellion” using diceless mechanics and minimal verbiage.
  • The Void – a “hard sci-fi survival horror setting with Lovecraftian elements”.

Mechs

  • ArCS – “try and outrun debt collectors, fight space battles, and try to destabilize warring corporations for pay… all from the cockpit of a giant robot”. (PbtA)
  • Beam Saber – a “game about the pilots of powerful machines in a war that dominates every facet of life”. (CC BY 3.0, FitD)
  • Firebrands – is a casual game about pilots in the universe of the lego mech fighting game Mobile Frame Zero. (PbtA)
  • LAST SENTINELS - a GM-less storytelling game about a doomed mech pilot, inspired by Polaris
  • Lancer RPG – centered on shared narratives, customizable mechs, and the pilots who crew them in the future.
  • Mecha – designed specifically to emulate both the combat and the drama of mecha anime. Core book contains three different settings, and advice on building your own.
  • Mecha Aces – a more minimalist, generic approach to mech gaming. The book includes four different settings. (Fudge)
  • The Mecha Hack – a standalone game “of titanic warmachines and their intrepid pilots, made with The Black Hack.”
  • Mecha vs Kaiju – Mechs vs giant monsters, both for Fate Core and Cypher.
  • Mechasys for Genesys - Genesys Foundry supplement by Studio 404 Games. Uses the Genesys Narrative Dice system. Able to handle most genres of mecha (big, stompy robots to agile mecha like Gundams and NGE). Mecha are constructed via a system that parallels player characters, and earn XP over time to tweak or build up their abilities.
  • Mechwarrior: Destiny – the latest in a line of (very different) games for role-playing in the BattleTech universe. (Cue)
  • Mekton Zeta – “enter a world of high adventure and mechanized combat”.
  • Too Good to Be True – A one-shot/short campaign game of “mercenary combat in a gritty future”, also known as 2G2BT. Still in beta.
  • Tiny Frontiers: Mecha and Monsters – you take on the role of jockeys who pilot massive robots, defending the world and cities of man from threats, giant aliens or monsters (Tiny Frontiers)
  • The Anime-page lists some other mech-related titles

Cyberpunk

  • Adrenaline – a crew-based heist game with “optional rules for cyber, bio, and pharmaceutical augmentations”. (FitD)
  • Aetherium – a d10 pool system, set in a cyberpunk world that puts heavy emphasis on virtual reality.
  • Altered State – a cyberpunk supplement for the Index Card RPG which brings cyberpunk to that system.
  • Axon Punk – “Hip hop inspired cyberpunk in the megacities of 2085”.
  • Black Code – a transhuman cyberpunk game “set in a future where humanity and technology are intermingled so closely we don’t know where we are going next”, using a toolkit approach.
  • Bleeding Edge – create characters “with the limitless potential of next-gen technology, yet weighted down with the legacy of greed, lies, and hate”. (OGL)
  • Blood Chrome Neon – a “relatively lightweight” game that is “pretty straightforward to hack”.
  • Carbon 2185 – uses a class-based approach, and a better than average visual aesthetic. (5e OGL)
  • CBR+PNK – designed for one-shot sessions, where a crew makes their last run. (FitD)
  • CRASH//CART – play “a paramedic crew in a near-future Californian coastal metropolis.” Uses playing cards instead of dice. (FitD)
  • Chrome Shells & Neon Streets – a two-page rpg “inspired by popular cyberpunk fiction”. (Tricube Tales)
  • Cities without Number cyberpunk RPG built for sandbox adventures in a dystopia of polished chrome and bitter misery. Old-school inspired game system, fully compatible with the sci-fi Stars Without Number game and it’s fantasy sister-game Worlds Without Number
  • Corporation – leans into the megacorp notion, to the point that nations no longer exist.
  • Cyberblues City – “offers a lighter take on the cyberpunk genre, both in terms of system and tone” and supplies a number of free adventures. (Fudge)
  • CyberFUDGE – cyberpunk meets fantasy meets post-apocalypse. Author claims “it sucked”. (Fudge)
  • Cyberpunk is Dead – A rules-light Forged in the Dark-hack of playing a faceless corporate hit squad in a dystopian cyberpunk world.
  • Cyberpunk RED – the latest version of the early Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0., advancing the timeline to the year 2045.
  • CYBER//PUNK¤ – a Lasers & Feelings hack.
  • Cyberspace – an early cyberpunk game. Like many Iron Crown Enterprises games, never took off the way its contemporaries did.
  • d20 Cyberscape – the (perhaps inevitable) WotC d20 Modern expansion for cyberpunk play. (OGL)
  • Daring Tales of the Sprawl – a somewhat generic cyberpunk setting. (Savage Worlds)
  • Ex Machina – contained a trio of quite nice cyberpunk settings for the now-defunct Tri-Stat dX.
  • Hack the Planet – has particular focus on arcologies and environmental activism. (FitD)
  • Hard Wired Island – anti-capitalist cyberpunk inspired by 90s anime
  • IDENTICO – brings classes, levels, and hit locations to 2099.
  • Interface Zero – a well supported cyberpunk setting that has gone through a number of systems. The current version is a setting using a Savage Worlds license. (Savage Worlds)
  • Neon Black – anticapitalist game about “a community of poor people fighting back against tyrannical corporations and the indifference of the rich”. (FitD)
  • Neon City Outlaws – presents an alternate setting for Dusk City Outlaws, “a dystopian cyberpunk city where the crew takes on Jobs targeting the monolithic corporations and the execs that run them”.
  • Neon City Overdrive – Forged in the Dark mixed with Freeform Universal. Fast, player-facing, tag based, a focus on heists/jobs/missions but with longer term goals for PCs that tie things together.
  • Polychrome – a setting bringing cyberpunk elements to Stars Without Number.
  • Remember Tomorrow – rules-lite and GM-less.
  • Shadow of the Beanstalk – a cyberpunk setting built around a space elevator and link to the Android board and card games. (Genesys)
  • SIGMATA: This Signal Kills Fascists – a cyberpunk RPG about ethical insurgency against a fascist regime, taking place in a dystopian vision of 1980’s America.
  • The Sprawl – turns up the mission-based, genre-simulation dials. (PbtA)
  • System Shutdown – a one-page one-shot, features a burned cyberoperative trying to extract vengeance before his implants fail.
  • TechNoir – correctly dubs itself as “high-tech, hard-boiled roleplaying”, with unusual mechanics to match.
  • Uprising – explores the tradeoff of freedom for technology. (Fate)
  • The Veil – focuses more on character emotional drives and the impact of secondary realities (AR, VR, etc.). (PbtA)
  • vs. MIRRORSHADES – a fast-playing game that uses standard playing cards. (vsM)
  • Wired Neon Cities – “minimalist cyberpunk roleplaying” in five pages.
  • History of Cyberpunk RPGs

Cyberpunk plus…

Cyberpunk worlds with fantastical elements, without quite reaching “science fantasy”.

Science Fantasy

A (usually pulpy or over the top) mix of fantasy/magic with technology.

  • Adventures on Dungeon Planet – a science fantasy supplement for Dungeon World. (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0, PbtA)
  • Cryptomancer – The inevitable Age of Information which magick would bring to a Tolkienesque high-fantasy setting. “Made by hackers, for hackers.”
  • Equinox – A space RPG; action, intrigue, and mystical powers in a war-ravaged dark future. System-agnostic setting guide and choice of two system books: Match system and rules-lite Storygame system (the latter being a permutation of Freeform Universal).
  • Gatecrasher – Light-hearted mash-up of science fiction and fantasy set in the 24th century.
  • Numenera – Set a billion years in our future, it’s a game of exploration and discovery. Abilities and artifacts of the past seems like sci-fi, magic, or both, depending on how you look at it. (Cypher)
  • Otherworlds – a “future fantasy” game, which aims to provide lots of variability without overcomplicating.
  • Space Wurm vs Moonicorn – “Space Wurm and Moonicorn are rivals, fighting over the future of galactic civilization.” Two players play them, while others play characters caught in their web, while GM is tasked with undermining them all. (CC BY-SA 4.0, PbtA)
  • Starfinder is a “science fantasy adventure” game derived from the Pathfinder rule set. (OGL)
  • Titansgrave – a setting inspired by Heavy Metal, The Land of the Lost, Akira, and Thundarr. (AGE)
  • Troika – science-fantasy universe in the spirit of works such as Dying Earth, Viriconium, and Book of the New Sun.

Franchises

Games officially based on existing science fiction franchises.

  • Alien – brings the universe of the Alien franchise to life, “a universe of body horror and corporate brinkmanship, where synthetic people play god while space truckers and marines serve host to newborn ghoulish creatures”. (Year Zero)
  • Altered Carbon – aims for the neo-noir, bod-swapping feel of the TV series.
  • Dune: Adventures in the Imperium – “a journey through the storied worlds of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi masterpiece”. (2d20)
  • Elite Dangerous – brings the world of the popular MMO to the gaming table.
  • The Expanse – brings the setting of James S.A. Corey’s bestselling fiction series to your table. (AGE)
  • Farscape is a d20 system that can still be purchased, but is no longer supported. (OGL)
  • Flash Gordon – “Do you have what it takes to join the Freemen, defy the rule of Ming the Merciless, and become the savior of the universe?” (Savage Worlds)
  • The Gaean Reach – based on the “legendary cycle of science fiction classics” by Jack Vance. (Gumshoe)
  • Girl Genius – Based on the comics and graphic novels by Phil and Kaja Foglio. Kaja and Phil are listed among the authors and have done the art for the book.
  • John Carter of Mars – created “under license and with the cooperation of the estate of Edgar Rice Burroughs”. (2d20)
  • Star Trek
  • Star Trek Adventures – the latest in a long line of official Star Trek games. (2d20)
  • Prime Directive has a contract with Paramount, but can’t actually use the phrase “Star Trek”. (OGL, GURPS)
  • Games listed above that directly emulate Star Trek include: Shock: Human Contact, Star World
  • Star Wars
  • Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game (WEG)(1987) – the original D6-based game, which in 2019 got a reprint
  • Star Wars Roleplaying Game(2012) (Fantasy Flight Games, 2012) – Uses a unique dice system for determining outcome. The dice system was later adopted as the core for the universal Genesys RPG.
  • Star World: Streets of Los Eisley – A free, rule-lite, playset, based on World of Dungeons.
  • Games listed above that directly emulate Star Wars include: Never Tell Me the Odds, Rebel Scum, Scum and Villainy, Galactic.
  • Stargate SG-1 Roleplaying Game – (published Summer 2021). (5e OGL)
  • The Starship Troopers line contained over a dozen titles, but is no longer supported. (OGL)
  • The Terminator RPG – Kickstarter funded in 2021, quick start has been released. (S5S)
  • Vorkosigan Saga offers the science-fiction stories of Lois McMaster Bujold. (GURPS)

Adaptive approaches

Some generic systems offer sci-fi-specific variations or guidebooks:

  • Cortex Prime contains some serviceable advice for running “starship crew” style games in that system. Cortex excels at ensemble mission-driven play and was used to drive the Firefly and Serenity games, when they were still available.
  • D6 Space – uses the OpenD6 to approach many different types of science fiction. This is the same system that powered West End’s Star Wars game.
  • Genesys – Grew out of the Star Wars Roleplaying Game by Fantasy Flight Games and offers the Shadow of the Beanstalk setting book for cyberpunk adventures in the Android setting.
  • GURPS
    • GURPS Cyberpunk – a line of books provide a toolkit for cyberpunk play in that generic system. It also has a somewhat infamous history.
    • GURPS Space – a whole line of books for bringing GURPS to space.
    • GURPS Tech – a whole line of books for bringing technology to GURPS.
  • N.E.W. is the future-focused component of the What’s Old is New system (W.O.I.N), a generic system.
  • The Science Fiction Companion tunes the Savage Worlds system for science fiction, as do settings like The Last Parsec and Slipstream.
  • The Stars Are Fire – Extends and optimizes the Cypher System for science fiction.
  • Ultramodern5 – a toolbox which brings various genres of sci-fi to the 5e ruleset. (5e OGL)
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