My Top-5 Roleplaying Games of All Time

Over at the “RPG Pub” there is a thread asking people to post their top-five favourite role-playing games of all time.

Here’s my list. Reflecting on the role-playing games that I’ve played over the past forty-five years or so, I’d say that my top five have to be the following:

Middle-earth Roleplaying (MERP)/Against the Darkmaster (VsD)

My first “real” campaign involved MERP and ICE’s beautiful maps and detailed campaign modules. MERP – and its descendant VsD – captures what I like the most about Rolemaster – the flexible class-based character development system; the detailed, vivid critical hit charts; the overall coherent rules framework – but without the large volume of charts and details that (IME) bogged down RM in actual play.

Some of my fondest memories of playing RPGs involve MERP and my two favourite campaigns of all time as GM (one still ongoing) use VsD.

Mythras 

I started playing this in 2011 – back when it was still being published by Mongoose and was called RuneQuest II (i.e., MRQII) – and haven’t stopped since. I’ve played in campaigns set in the Young Kingdoms (“Elric”), Mythic Britain, Mythic Babylon, Beyond the Mountains of Madness (the CoC campaign adapted to Mythras), and now Lyonesse, as well as in several “one-shots” or short campaigns (Mythic Greece, Luther Arkwright, Meeros, etc.). A really excellent system overall.

Call of Cthulhu

I haven’t played CoC since 2017 and I’m in no rush to do so again soon. But I’ve run a lot of CoC over the years – almost always as GM (er, “Keeper”) – and I’ve always really enjoyed it. I’m pretty sure it’s the game I’ve run the third most often (after MERP/VsD and AD&D). The scenarios are generally excellent (although some needed work). My only regret is that I have yet to run one of the “classic” campaigns for it (although I did play through BMoM using Mythras).

Dungeons & Dragons/Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (TSR era)

Like most RPGers, I started with D&D and spent a lot of my early gaming days (the early 1980s) playing and running AD&D (and I’ve returned to it from time to time since then). Reading Gygax’s hardbound volumes not only improved my vocabulary as a wee lad, but also sparked my imagination. They were the works of a disorganized creative genius. I still treasure the classic modules from that era as well. Although aspects of the system never failed to frustrate me, the game will always have a special place in my heart.

Stormbringer/Elric!/Hawkmoon/Corum 

(i.e., BRP “Eternal Champions” games)

I don’t really have any interest in running these BRP RPGs now – Mythras has largely filled that space for me – but I still have these books and really enjoyed these (closely related) games back in the day. 

There are other games that I like and other games I hope to try – but these are the games that I consider my all-time favourites.

Feel free to post your "top-5" lists in the comments, if you like. I'd be curious to learn what games have stood "the test of time" for you.