A list of games for people who want to play dragon game-esque games.
A lot of these do the dragon game better than it does itself.
Some are more tactical, some more narrative, some more exploratory, some more crunchy, some less, and there's a bunch of in-betweens.
Send this to anyone you'd like to stop supporting white billionaire corpos.
just drop a comment on the Curated TTRPG collections page and I'll add it here, even if it's not on itch.
Games not on itch.io.
A minimalist tabletop RPG system based on exploding and imploding dice.
It uses 3 familiar Attributes and 3 Resource pools. The task resolution mechanic is inspired on exploding dices, but with a twist!
A Social Justice Warrior, an Intersectional Paladin, a Rogue Worker... this can be you in Rules & Roberts! Engage in collective decision making while exploring perilous dungeons and fantastical realms.
Rules & Roberts is a lightweight storytelling game that will introduce players to Robert's Rule of Order, a set of parliamentary procedures used by a wide range of democratic organizations.
Fantasy EMERGE is a version of my EMERGE8 SRD tuned specifically for fantasy roleplaying games.
Suitable for simple old-style roleplaying faire—my synthesis of “dragon games” into the one I want to play and run. This is not a complete system. There are gaps, though fewer than ever before. You can fill them. I believe in you.
The new version of Bastards. includes:
This the SRD open Licensed for MiniBX, Hack it, create content and let me know if you need any resource.
A disruption, subversion or even a profanity against D&D B/X.
This is an attempt to make this game our own. More than a minimalistic hack, this is a new rule set, with insights and new, fast, quick, and easy to run combat and spell rules.
It seems important to mention that Minibx already has a hack by Guax (BX Kids) and its draft inspired the rule set that Tiago used in NUMA.
BInAS is a System Reference Document used as the basis for Pivotal Destinies.
It is a d12-based system built around pairs of attributes between which the player chooses a balancing or pivot point at which the two meet.
The system is inspired by a variety of sources and intentions. It draws on concepts related to the yin-yang dichotomy and mutual co-existence, and personality tests like the Five Factor Model and the Kiersey Temperament Sorter.
The SRD is licensed under CC BY 4.0 terms.
Fantasy Location Exploration Encounters is a 36 page rules light adventure games, inspired by traditions of modern OSR such as Errant, Into the Odd, Knave, DURF, and Mausritter.
This game has been in development since 2020 and was first introduced as a one page rules reference titled 0.6e. After 2 years of development, FLEE is a return to the original vibe I was going for, but in an expanded and polished format.
A hack of 6e by Batts, 6e GMless is a generic framework system to run any adventure without a Game Master. Built for interesting avenues of storytelling with consequences and evolution that last between sessions.
GMless has players build Canvases that take on the role of anything possible in the story or world. Your Canvas could be a traditional Wizard in an adventuring party, the Villain terrorizing the city from behind the throne, the Townsfolk themselves or even the Town itself. Your Canvas could be the Questline you are on, or even the Genre of story you want to evoke. Play the Wind, or The Dreams of the People. Or play an adventuring party. All is welcome and possible in 6e GMless!
This game was submitted to the 6e Game Jam
The Gold Hack is a hack of The Burning Wheel RPG, by Luke Crane. It takes ideas from other BWHQ games to simplify the system, trying very hard to bring the same themes into play: the burning passion, the tragedy, the comedy, the fantasy.
You won’t need to use or know any BWHQ game to enjoy this hack. Still, you’ll still find it useful to be familiar with at least one of them (The Burning Wheel, Burning Empires, Mouse Guard or Torchbearer) to extract every inch of fun this hack can offer.
This document won't teach you how to play RPGs. It assumes you already played some, and know, for example, what a GM is, or why she is not called a "player" although of course she plays the game like everybody else, or why the first step to play the game is creating characters.
Pacts and Blades is a Minimalist TTRPG inspired by the OSR movement and Michael Moorcock fantasy.
Welcome to a miserable world of precarious adventure!
No unwieldy Zweihanders here, only the quick and deadly shortsword will keep you alive in the Archipelago.
Grab a couple of six sided die and embark on this journey with a rules light system inspired by grim TTRPGs of old.
Backpack & Dream is all the core rules you need to play exploration games focusing on resource management, creating ties with new people and enjoying the moment.
In this game, players pretend they are kids pretending to be fantasy TTRPG characters.
Knave by Ben Milton (aka Questing Beast) is a rules light RPG system designed to be compatible with most classic OSR material. This version reformats that work, minus designer notes, and compiles it with the amazing art of Perplexing Ruins. An updated character sheet is also included. The sheet is based on the work of Reddit user DJKane and restyled to match the look of this zine and the classic feel of Knave.
DURF is a rules-light dungeon-fantasy RPG in the vein of games like Knave, Troika! and Into the Odd.
This game uses the OSR elements I personally like (risky combat, simple stats, and prepping before an expedition) but also uses more modern ideas (reduced bookkeeping, quick character generation, a simple advantage system etc.) to make the game easy to pick up and move along smoothly.
Cairn is an adventure game for one facilitator (the Warden) and at least one other player. Players act as hardened adventurers exploring a dark & mysterious Wood filled with strange folk, hidden treasure, and unspeakable monstrosities.
Here's some starter rules, now go make and play YOUR game.
It's a simple fantasy tabletop roleplaying game designed to act as a basic chassis on which to construct one's own home game with supplements, homebrew, and house rules. It is Powered By The Apocalypse and Forged In The Dark, though to a very stripped down degree. It aims to be a successor to DungeonWorld and be as OSR compatible as possible.
A one-page dungeon diving game inspired by Pasión de las Pasiones. Choose from a variety of classes and get an adventurer going in minutes.
This is a roleplaying game for four players and no GM. Each room of this dungeon is different and has its own rules. Each of us crawling this dungeon is different and has our own rules. This is a kaleidoscopic game of an increasingly complicated dungeon from which there is no escape, and what happens to us as we die within its walls.
Venture & Dungeon is a book of two tabletop roleplaying games inspired by traditional high fantasy rpgs like Dungeons & Dragons.
Thirsty Sword Lesbians is a roleplaying game for telling queer stories with friends. If you love angsty disaster lesbians with swords, you have come to the right place.
QuestFellows is a GM-less collaborative story-telling and role-playing game for 2 or more players, based on the Four Points RPG System. QuestFellows combines the atmosphere and themes of classic high fantasy adventure, with a narrative, player-driven and fully cooperative role-playing experience.
There are lots of games about dragons and adventure. This is the second edition of one of them.
The best way to read this game is on the web at dungeon.loottheroom.uk. New content like monsters, adventures, and the like will be added to the website periodically.
There are lots of games about dragons and adventure. This is one of them.
Ten pages. Simple rules. Endless fun.
No money goes to Hasbro but you can steal their adventures and use this to play them.
Make stuff for this dragon game without having to pay me royalties, if you want.
Pivotal Destinies is a fantasy-fiction-based table-top roleplaying game for a GM and any number of players.
To play Pivotal Destinies, you will need two to three d12, one or two d6, and one or two d4.
The game idea was inspired by personality tests that have different scales of attributes (5 Factor Model, MBTI, etc), and the yin-yang symbol in which each side contains a seed of the other.
Did the latest Computer Role-Playing Game release got you nostalgic for those isometric tales of infinity engine adventure? Do you want to take your turn-base time to grind some kobolds, recruit companions and complete quests? It's just a matter of gathering your party & Venture Forth.
A Powered by the Apocalypse fantasy Tabletop Role-Playing Game based on World of Dungeons that will take you and your friends back to those late nights of exploration and adventure in front of your computer.
In World of Blades you play the lowest of the low: cutpurses, thugs, dregs and initiates, quickly learning the hard lessons of the streets and grasping for a holding into the criminal underworld of Doskvol.
Start your career of petty theft and misdemeanor. Build up your criminal career from the twisting alleys inside the Dark Jewel of Akoros.
A disruption, subversion or even a profanity against D&D B/X.
This is an attempt to make this game our own. More than a minimalistic hack, this is a new rule set, with insights and new, fast, quick, and easy to run combat and spell rules.
Initially, this project will be made by four hands, if it is funded we are using Bruno Prosaiko fantastic art being layouted by M. A. Guax, C. A. Berlitz worked on the first draft edition and will make my poor English easier to read for you all.
The Indie Hack (TIH) is a minimalist fantasy roleplaying game, build up from the ideas in The Black Hack, that is played with pencils, paper, dice, and imagination. It takes OSR-style gaming and gives it an indie edge. That is, it takes dungeon delves with heroes, magic, traps, and monsters and gives the players more control over the richness of the story. The characters are ruled not by abstract ideas of goodness and order, but by Masters (who they need to try to impress) and Goddesses (who they try to appease when they are near death). The characters have relationships with each other and NPCs that mechanically evolve. Players answer class-centric questions about the world during character creation, to help the GM develop the setting and tone of the adventure.
World of Dungeons is a simple, quick-play, dungeon crawling game, using one of the core mechanics from the Powered by the Apocalypse rules system.
It's compatible with Old School Renaissance and original D&D monsters, dungeons, and adventure modules.
