Most common RPGs of today?

neceros · Feb 20, 2026

I've been out of the tabletop loop for a decade.

I've dabbled in 5e, savage worlds, dungeon worlds (apoc system), and now I want to try pathfinder 2e.

But what is popular?

Deset Gled · Feb 20, 2026

Most popular RPG: D&D 5e

Second most popular RPG: Old versions of D&D

Popular RPGs that aren't D&D:
Pathfinder 2e
Daggerheart
Shadowdark
Mork Borg (and variants, e.g. Pirate Borg)
Draw Steel
Call of Cthulhu (especially in Japan)

There's lots more, obviously. I'm sure you'll get dozens more names. But that's my short list. I think it covers a lot of what's "popular".

If you're looking for anything in particular, it will help to give more guidance than just "popular". There's so much niche content out there. Old School Renaissance stuff, story based stuff, mini based stuff, VTT based stuff. What do you like?

neceros · Feb 20, 2026

Thanks for response.

Honestly I have no niche in mind. I am looking for systems to potentially make character sheets for. Many are so simple it's not really needed, but I still find it fun.

Deset Gled · Feb 20, 2026

Sounds like a fun way to branch out in the hobby.

In that case, I recommend looking at Draw Steel first. It's on the crunchier side, so you'll have more bits to fiddle with on a character sheet. It has a number of counters and class abilities that will probably keep you busy for a little while.

neceros · Feb 20, 2026

Deset Gled said:
Sounds like a fun way to branch out in the hobby.

In that case, I recommend looking at Draw Steel first. It's on the crunchier side, so you'll have more bits to fiddle with on a character sheet. It has a number of counters and class abilities that will probably keep you busy for a little while.

I find it amazing the PDF is $60

thank you none the less

zarionofarabel · Feb 20, 2026

Dragonbane!
Mausritter!
Pendragon!

Crusadius · Feb 20, 2026

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay! New edition out soon (in case you desire a hard copy now).

aramis erak · Feb 20, 2026

zarionofarabel said:
Pendragon!

Chaosium C&D's pendragon character sheets.

500 Toads · Feb 20, 2026

neceros said:
I find it amazing the PDF is $60 thank you none the less

If you're particularly curious about Draw Steel mechanics, you could look at the Steel Compendium site ( Rules Index - Steel Compendium: Draw Steel Rules ). The Heroes book is under a rather generous license that permits the use of much of its text, although neither art nor layout.

I'd agree with the D&D 5E / PF2e / CoC 7E being the largest ones, with D&D 5E definitely the 800-pound gorilla in terms of market. Regarding PF2e, it might be interesting to create sheets that are intended for certain variant rules (notably, Free Archetype and Ancestry Paragon, because these increase the number of feats that characters take; and Dual-Class, which complicates things further).

If you want something slightly different.... well, you could always look into designing sheets for ships and crews of Traveller. There's probably space for an autocalc sheet that tracks the numerous properties of Traveller ships, heh; or even an autocalc sheet that would compute planetary stats and properties, because that system (at least in Classic Traveller) is a bit crazy and involves a decent amount of math.

Cergorach · Feb 20, 2026

neceros said:
But what is popular?

That really depends on who you ask and why.

The next level down to D&D is most likely Pathfinder 2e Core, after that people will probably throw up more stuff they like...

Why do you ask? Because there's a LOT of D&D being sold to folks that would never look on the Internet for a character sheet (outside of possibly the official site). Players/GMs of the Lancer RPG would be a lot more Internet savvy...

Even lists like these: https://boardgamegeek.com/browse/rpg/page/1 are only a slice of a certain community.