Four non-D&D games that show the breadth of TTRPGs

[zarionofarabel]

Very nearly included Pendragon in my own list but, if I did, I'd feel obliged to remove both Mythras (BRP) and Mythic Bastionland (Questing Knights).

Well, I agree that Mythras and Pendragon have some similarities as they are BRP/RQ family games, I think they highlight different things. Mythras completely lacks Pendragon Personality Traits, the generational play loop, and a Winter Phase. All 3 of those things are actually mechanically reinforced in Pendragon. Plus, while deadly, Pendragon combat is far more abstracted than Mythras combat. Mythras combat is an intricate blow-by-blow affair with hit locations, special effects, multiple actions per turn, weapon range effects, fatigue effects, and specific damage effects. Pendragon doesn't really feature any of those things, being almost completely abstract. Which is why I put them both on my list as they offer up very different experiences.

Mythic Bastionland? You know, you are the second person in the last couple of days to point to Mythic Bastionland as comparable to Pendragon. I am not familiar with the system, what about it makes it comparable to Pendragon?

 

[pemerton]

Classic Traveller

Burning Wheel

Wuthering Heights

In A Wicked Age

 

[Argyle King]

This popped up on BlueSky this week...

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and has got a bunch of answers from that site's denizens. Some of the answers reshared by Shannon Appelcline included:

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I don't think I have four that far from D&D and each other that I played more than two sessions. If you had to pick four what would you go with?

GURPS 4th Edition (After the End)
Star Wars: Edge of the Empire
Dread
Toon

 

[Tonguez]

Fate Accelerated
Gurps
Pendragon
Burning Wheel

 

[SableWyvern]

Mythic Bastionland? You know, you are the second person in the last couple of days to point to Mythic Bastionland as comparable to Pendragon. I am not familiar with the system, what about it makes it comparable to Pendragon?

Both games focus on PCs who are playing questing knights. Mythic Bastionland focuses more on strange, nearly dreamlike questing and exploration in a fantasy realm, whereas Pendragon tends to be a lot more grounded and spends a lot more time exploring a knight's place in a rigidly feudal, quasi-historical society.

I wouldn't say they're comparable, just that they cover some similar ground (ie, questing knights). They are similar enough that it certainly wouldn't make much sense to choose both in a set of four games designed to showcase variety, but they each have a very distinct flavour. You could certainly use them as a way of showing off, "Here are two quite different ways to run a game about questing knights in an Arthurian or quasi-Arthurian setting."

 

[Cadence]

In order of play:

• Fantasy: Dragonbane
• Horror Investigation: Vaesen
• Post-apocalyptic survival: Mutant Year Zero
• Sci-Fi: Coriolis The Great Dark.

Why?
1) Because while the system is similar, it is tailored to the logic of each setting.
2) The strength of the settings.
3) Low crunch
4) Contemporary sensibility of the writing.

Hadn't seen the Year Zero system before. Thanks for posting and leading me to search up it's SRD!

https://freeleaguepublishing.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/YZE-Standard-Reference-Document.pdf

 

[Celebrim]

Pendragon, Traveler, Dogs in the Vinyard, and Dread

Arguments could be made for Twilight: 2000, Fiasco, Toon, and My Life with Master

 

[Truename]

Let’s go for some serious breadth.

Microscope for collaborative world-building
Alice is Missing for unique text-based roleplaying
Fall of Magic for cooperative storytelling
Draw Steel for rules-heavy tactical crunch
Mausritter for rules-light traditional gameplay in a unique setting

Edit: the thread says five, right? I’m sure it says five.