It's more often about prevention - battling cults, dark magic, madmen and the occasional envoy of the void - though the specifics are always up to the Gamemaster. Even simply witnessing an elder god could drive a character irreparably insane. Don't expect climatic battles with powerful gods here the focus is very much on horror and individual weakness. Set in the 1920s, the players are investigators and academics who study the mystical and the malevolent in whatever form it reveals itself. Call of Cthulhu might be named after his most famous story, but it draws upon all manner of inspiration for setting its tone and world. Shadowrun Sixth World (6th Edition) Core Rulebok for £31.49 at Magic MadhouseĪh, the creeping, drippy, cosmic horror of Lovecraft.
Meanwhile your allies are piloting drones, summoning monsters, wielding nuanced cybernetic enhancements and adding to the delightful chaos of techmagic conflict around you. Magic is not a simple resource you burn up for spells - instead you fight the mental feedback that can threaten to knock you unconscious, overcharging your spells to dangerous effect for more powerful effects. It's a more complex system, but not without good reason, as the creators use the chance to flex some more unique ideas. Human mercenaries hang out with elf street samurai, troll mages, and dwarf hackers, all the while working for mega corporations run by scheming dragons and AI. A slightly deeper, more nuanced system is used here to portray a classic cyberpunk dystopia, but this time the twist is that there's fantasy elements threaded throughout. Savage Worlds Rulebook (Deluxe Edition) for £11.68 at Amazon UKĪnother genre-mixer, some might also know Shadowrun from its video game successes as well.Deadlands Reloaded Marshal's Handbook for £85.42 at Amazon UK.Deadlands Reloaded Player's Guide for £54 at Amazon UK.Books can be a little expensive, but grab the three below and you and your friends will be set to ride the trail forever. It's a superb world that draws you in and refuses to let go. Now gunslingers walk across a ruined frontier alongside spellcasting hucksters and steampunk inventors, watched from the shadows by bandits, monsters and the undead. It's an alternate history where a new fuel source has opened up new technological advances, but brought with it calamitous ruin and supernatural terror. Put simply, Deadlands is a Western unlike any you've seen before.
Best tabletop rpgs 2017 full#
We here at Jelly Deals love Dungeons & Dragons, but the world of tabletop roleplaying goes so far beyond that! You can explore worlds of fantasy, science fiction, horror and more, all with your friends and family and drawing upon beautiful books full of inspiration and artwork, as we lay out the best tabletop RPGs that aren't D&D!ĭeadlands is a game that's gone through numerous incarnations over the decades, >with a revived version on the way soon - but the easiest version to buy and leap into right now is likely the Savage Worlds version, which mixes a fascinating world with an easy-to-grasp system.