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.

My Life in Roleplaying Games: 2024 and 2025

As we head into 2025, here are some brief reflections on my role-playing activities in the recent past and near future.

I've been really enjoying running two Against the Darkmaster (VsD) campaigns, one in Middle-earth (“Against the Witch-King”), and one in my homebrew "Ukrasia" setting (“Against the Court of Urdor”). Both will continue into 2025, although I expect that the Middle-earth one will wrap up sometime this summer (but perhaps not, as these things are difficult to predict, at least for me).

Many of my fondest gaming memories are of the Middle-earth Roleplaying (MERP) and (to a lesser extent) Rolemaster adventures that I ran back in the day. These were mainly in high-school during the mid-late 1980s, but with sporadic sessions later, eventually petering out completely around 2000 (after a brief campaign that was aborted due to a problematic player). In recent decades, my collection largely sat on my shelves or in storage, although I would regularly flip through the books to mine for ideas or simply for the sake of nostalgia.

As I’ve explained before here, Against the Darkmaster plays a lot like a modified and updated MERP, especially with its vivid critical hits and its complex but immersive combat system. VsD streamlines some of MERP’s clunkier mechanics (especially regarding skills, combat, and experience) and introduces “drive points,” all changes I that like and hence my use of it instead of MERP. Nonetheless, the two systems are close enough that it’s easy to use MERP material for VsD. 

This experience made me realize that I was foolish to have ever shelved the original game simply because it was out-of-print. (That’s not to say that there aren’t new games that I like a lot and want to try out – but obviously that doesn't preclude cherishing and playing the older games as well.) My recent experience with VsD reminds me of how I felt almost two decades ago, when the “Old School Renaissance” (OSR) was really getting going, and I realized that it was perfectly fine to prefer “Gygaxian” Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (and “Basic/Expert” D&D) over the then-in-print 3rd edition, despite the widely touted “improvements” of the more recent version. After running two 3e campaigns and finding them to be slogs, especially once the player characters reached fifth level or so, this realization was liberating and exciting. (My recent experience running a 5th edition campaign made me decide never to do so again. If I run “D&D” in the future, I’ll likely just employ a tweaked version of good old Swords & Wizardry. Wanting to share my house rules for S&W is what inspired me to start this blog in the first place, almost fourteen years ago.)

So Against the Darkmaster has made me happy to be a Game Master again. I'm enjoying it enormously and look forward to seeing how things unfold this year!

Outside of my role as GM, I'm always excited to play Mythras, and look forward to (probably) doing more of that later this year. (Last summer I played in Mythic Greece and Lyonesse “one shot” sessions and had a blast. And last year one of my groups wrapped up a long-running Mythras adaptation of the Beyond the Mountains of Madness campaign.)

More generally, beyond the particular games I’m playing at the moment, I very much appreciate the two gaming groups I’m in and am grateful to have the friends who participate in them. I also delight in the ways that players’ decisions can make the role-playing games go off in entirely unanticipated, novel directions – that’s not something you can find in any other hobby of which I'm aware, and it can be magical!

Role-playing Games mystify those who have never played them

I think that this article, “The Most Dangerous Game: At 50, Dungeons & Dragons is more popular than ever — and still misunderstood” by Andrea Long Chu, is quite good. It’s really about role-playing games in general (which, for most people who don’t play them, and also — sadly — many who play only D&D, is synonymous with D&D). It does a solid job in explaining why the activity is so inscrutable to those who never try it. Next time some “normie” asks me about this crazy hobby of mine, I might just send them this article.

My grievances concerning 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons: a final statement

Let me start with some background about what “fantasy” means to me and hence what I generally look for in fantasy role-playing games (FRPGs).

I saw The Lord of the Rings animated movie when I was 9 or 10 at a repertory theatre. Then I read The Hobbit. That got me really interested in fantasy stuff. It’s what motivated me to then ask my parents for the Dungeons and Dragons Basic Set for my birthday. (It was the one written by Dr. Holmes – hence it had those annoying chits instead of dice.)

As an adolescent I became interested in other works of fantasy – especially, in the early-mid 1980s, Michael Moorcock and Robert E. Howard (along with a lot of related pastiche “Conan” stories) – because of D&D and AD&D. The “Melnibonéan Mythos” in the Deitites and Demigods was one of my favourites in the book even before I read anything by Moorcock. 

 

Given these influences, I would say that Tolkien, Moorcock, and Howard had the most influence in shaping how I interpreted D&D/AD&D when I got into FRPGs in the early-mid 1980s. (I eventually would go on to play games directly based on the writings of Tolkien and Moorcock; indeed, these eventually supplanted AD&D in my high-school group.) Perhaps this is why – more than any particular set of rules – the more recent Wizards of the Coast versions of the game leave me cold. Over the past 25 years the game has felt more like “fantasy superheroes” than the kind of fiction that I had associated with it – and, I suppose, still do, when I think of “classic D&D.”

Turning to my experience running a “World of Greyhawk” campaign using the fifth edition rules – and leaving aside the game’s overall “ethos” and “aesthetics” (including its unfortunate recent turn towards “twee”) – there are three elements of the game that especially came to vex me:

a. Its “superhero” “no-wounds-are-serious” system of rest and recovery; 

b. Its “unmagical” magic system; and

c. Its flavourless, often tedious combat system.

(For further explanation of each of these points, go to the posts to which I’ve linked above.)

I recently managed to sell most of my WotC 5e D&D collection (I kept the core rules and a few books I liked, such as Saltmarsh and Yawning Portal). I used a local used bookstore for the sake of convenience. It felt good to free up the shelf space. I don't know why I bothered getting most of those books originally – even when I was playing 5e, I barely used most of them. (I stopped buying WotC stuff years ago when I realized this, as well as the declining quality of the line.)

I will say this for 5e D&D: it’s far better than 3e was. I mean, if 5e D&D were the only FRPG available, I would play it – whereas I would just abandon the hobby if 3e was the only option. And I would not rule out occasionally playing 5e D&D in the future (say, running a game for a friend’s kids or something like that). And I would be happy to play the Middle-earth variant, The Lord of the Rings RPG (indeed, I greatly enjoyed that game’s predecessor, Adventures in Middle-earth, having run a successful campaign about seven years ago).

But as for my “main” FRPG, I’ll never use 5e D&D again. Hence, I don’t have any interest in the new 2024 books. There are just too many superior alternatives (including, of course, earlier editions of D&D/AD&D, and related “retro-clones” and “near clones”).

Combat should be interesting

Combat obviously is an important element in most fantasy role-playing games. At its best, it’s exciting and dramatic. After all, the protagonists’ lives are at risk! And surprising things can happen – either because of chance (the rolls of the dice) or because of players’ inventiveness (or even inspiration on the part of the Game Master in the midst of a session). 

In the two campaigns that I currently am running – both using the Against the Darkmaster (VsD) system, one set in Middle-earth, the other in my home setting of Ukrasia – I rarely have more than one combat in any given session. Thanks to its “critical hits” system, combat in VsD can easily become quite deadly or debilitating, so players tend to avoid it when possible. Hence, two or more sessions (if not more) typically will pass between combats. I like this kind of pacing, as it ensures that when combat does take place, it is noteworthy and memorable.  

The two games that I play the most these days – VsD and Mythras – both have involved and colourful combat systems. While VsD has vivid critical hits, fumbles, and the like, Mythras has hit locations and exciting “special effects” (previously called “combat manoeuvres”) that allow for a wide range of tactical options, including defensive ones. They definitely are not “rules light” systems! 

Almost two decades ago (!), when I finally realized that I disliked 3rd edition Dungeons and Dragons, I thought that that was because I disliked “rules heavy” FRPGs. But that wasn’t really the case. I’ve always liked certain “rules heavy” – or at least “rules medium” – systems, like Middle-earth Roleplaying and Stormbringer. What I disliked was how tedious the rules for 3e D&D were – both in terms of prep work and its combat system. Running and playing 3e D&D involved a lot of work – and there was very little pay-off for that, as combats in 3e were frequent but usually quite boring. For the most part, characters and their opponents were “blocks of hit points” that would be chipped away during combats that involved a lot of rather flavourless options (and ubiquitous, bland “attacks of opportunity”). 

The problem isn’t nearly as bad in 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons. But it’s still there: the game assumes that combat is common (which the DM can ignore, of course) and that it rarely threatens the lives of the characters (thanks to all their abilities, inflated hit points, “death saves,” and the like). (Yes, there are options to make the game more “gritty” and deadly hidden in the Dungeon Master's Guide, but the default mode is very much “fantasy superheroes,” wherein player characters rarely face serious risks.) Combat in 5e D&D is pretty dull in my experience – at least when compared to the alternatives with which I am familiar, such as Mythras and VsD.

So what my recent 5e D&D campaign taught me was that what I dislike are “rules heavy” or “rules medium” systems in which combat is insipid and (usually) not that risky (at least to the characters). I had to work hard to ensure that at least some of the combats in my campaign were novel. In contrast, no such work is needed for Mythras or VsD, given the intrinsic qualities of those combat systems. Even an encounter with some “vanilla” bandits or orcs can be risky and interesting.

That said, sometimes one doesn’t want to engage in a lot of book-keeping when running a game. That’s certainly fine. This is where older (TSR era) editions of D&D and AD&D shine (at least when one isn’t using all the rules outlined by Gary Gyax in the AD&D rules – which almost no one ever did or does). In old school D&D (and associated “retro-clones” like Swords and Wizardry, OSRIC, and Crypts & Things), combat is fast. So while it lacks the colourfulness and tactical depth of other systems, at least it rarely takes more than 20 minutes to resolve (unlike even trivial combats in 3e or 5e D&D). And of course, combat can be more deadly in older versions of D&D, given the lower hit points of characters, the absence of “death saves,” the relative rarity of healing spells, etc.

In short, my view is that combat should be either interesting or fast. One of my gripes with 5th edition D&D is that combat typically is neither (although sometimes it can be), at least in comparison to the other FRPGs that I play.  

My original fantasy sandbox: ICE’s Middle-earth

One reason why I have such affection for Iron Crown Enterprise’s line of Middle-earth campaign and adventure modules, is that I learned how to run genuine “sandbox” campaigns (decades before that term was a thing) by using them. This was during the mid-late 1980s, when TSR increasingly released “story-driven” modules like their Dragonlace series. Somewhat ironically, given their literary source, the Middle-earth campaign and adventure modules typically were quite open-ended and location-based in nature, not at all focused on a predetermined “plot” or necessary sequence of events. (The one exception of which I know, and which was published quite late in ICE’s Middle-earth tenure, is their Palantir Quest ‘adventure path’.) 

What happened in my Middle-earth games back in the day, essentially, is that the players would create characters in Esgaroth, Bree, Tharbad, or wherever. I would contrive some reason why they all knew each other (usually something like: “you meet at an inn and intuit that you’re all solid, trustworthy fellows looking for adventure and to protect the free peoples of Middle-earth”). The characters then would simply wander around, following whichever adventure hooks they liked. While I added hooks, encounters, and adventures to what was provided in the Middle-earth campaign modules, the books typically provided very solid frameworks for such campaigns. Or at least the ones that I used did so. As I think I’ve mentioned before here, I ran a summer-long campaign during high-school (we probably played at least 12 hours every week in those halcyon days) using the Rangers of the North (Arthedain) book, building on the adventure notes in the back (years later, these notes would be expanded by ICE into their Palantir Quest book).

I learned a lot from using ICE’s Middle-earth campaign modules. Indeed, trying to figure out how to use them, and doing what I could as a teenager to run challenging and fun sessions in a Middle-earth “sandbox” was a formative experience. (Beyond gaming, I think running MERP helped me to learn how to “think on my feet” far more than running D&D/AD&D adventures – whether published modules or my own creations – ever did.)

Yes, the books varied in quality – well, not the maps by Pete Fenlon or the covers by Angus McBride, which were always amazing. And yes, some didn’t really belong in Middle-earth, like the (totally awesome) Court of Ardor. Nonetheless, overall, I loved MERP, and I still do to this day. Hence my present joy in running the MERP-influenced Against the Darkmaster, both in 20th century Eriador (“Against the Witch-King”) and in my “homebrew” world of Urkasia (“Against the Court of Urdor”).

[This post is a modified version of a comment I posted over at the blog Grognardia, in response to a rather negative, but not unfair, review of the original Iron Crown Middle-earth module, Southern Mirkwood.]

[The pictures are by the great Angus McBride. The top one is from the cover of the Lost Realm of Cardolan campaign module, the bottom one is from the cover of the Rogues of the Borderlands adventure module.]

The Unmagical Magic of 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons

Time for another “airing of grievances” with respect to 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons!

I previously complained about the way resting and healing work in 5e – as well as noting some options for ‘fixing’ these problems, including options from the 5e Dungeon Master’s Guide and the Into the Unknown 5e variant. (I suspect that 99% of 5e players either ignore or are ignorant of these options in the DMG. But it’s only fair to note that they are indeed there; the designers of 5e were not oblivious to the possibility that some groups might not like the default “cartoon superhero” mode of the 5e rules.)

My other big complaint about 5e D&D concerns the magic system. Magic, and spellcasting in particular, is laughably common and easy. Spellcasters can cast cantrips without end, as well as the “ritual” versions of spells, including ones like “Identify,” “Detect Magic,” and “Alarm.” Moreover, magic-users … er, wizards, recover a number of spells following a short rest (one hour in the standard 5e rules) thanks to their “Arcane Recovery” ability.

The upshot of this is a game in which spells are ridiculously common. In my experience, no magic item goes unidentified for more than a few minutes, characters communicate via magical iPhones (the “Message” cantrip), campsites are surrounded with “Alarm” spells (making it almost impossible for the party to ever be surprised, except for attacks from the air or from below), and so forth. I certainly don’t blame my players for using their characters’ spells in these ways – they’re making intelligent use of the resources available to them! I applaud their excellent playing of the game – it’s the game itself that annoys me.

Hence its spell system is another reason why 5e D&D does not resemble at all “old school” D&D or AD&D, wherein spells were a precious commodity (at least until characters were of very high level) and “short rests” did not exist. 

If I were to “fix” 5e D&D so that it had more of a classic feel, I would: 

• Either eliminate cantrips altogether or allow them to be cast only a limited number of times per day (perhaps equal to the character’s proficiency bonus).
• Require that spells with the “ritual tag” be cast as “rituals” (i.e., take 10 minutes to cast) and take up spell “slots” (so no endless casting of Alarm, Identify, etc.). 

I note (yet again) my positive experience with the Adventures in Middle-earth roleplaying game based upon 5e D&D (the second edition of which is called The Lord of the Rings RPG). That experience led me to have a high opinion of the 5e core mechanics. And I do think that the core of 5e can make for an excellent game. But the way in which 5e D&D handles rest, recovery, and spells – all elements entirely reworked by AiME/LotR – has made me conclude that I never want to run 5e D&D RAW again.

[Trampier's classic "Emirikol" picture from the 1e AD&D DMG]

[2023-08-01: Edited to add the reference to wizards’ “Arcane Recovery” ability in the third paragraph.]

Reflection on the Old School Renaissance

There’s a very interesting and detailed “historical look” at the Old School Renaissance (OSR) at the blog “Simulacrum: Exploring OSR Design.” It’s quite long and consists of five posts: part 1 (the 1^st edition-era AD&D adventure modules, and developments away from “old school” style play), part 2 (post-Gygaxian rules developments in AD&D), part 3 (second edition AD&D), part 4 (3^rd edition D&D and the early OSR), and part 5 (the OSR over the past decade or so). I heartily recommend it to anyone interested in the history of D&D and the OSR (but unless you have a free afternoon, you probably will not be able to read all five posts in a single sitting).

 

I was somewhat engaged in the OSR in its “early years” (this blog is on the list of “pivotal early OSR blogs” in part 5 of the “historical look”). I even have a post at Dragonsfoot in what I believe is the first thread in which the term “Old School Renaissance” was used (coined – appropriately enough – by an anonymous poster). (However, T. Foster referred to the “Old School Revival” in an amazingly prescient post a year earlier [2004].)

 

After a decade away from D&D (and relatively little in the way of other RPG activity during that time, despite frequent visits to gaming shops), 3^rd edition lured me back in 2001. But by 2004 I had DM’ed two campaigns with 3^rd edition D&D and had come to find it rather tedious. Once the characters reached 6^th or 7^th level (which took about 10-11 months in my groups, as I was deliberately giving out “stingy” rewards in order to keep things sane) the game simply became a joyless chore. My experiences did not match the fun I remembered having during the 1980s. (I also was a fan of Middle-earth Roleplaying back in the day – indeed, as much of a fan as I was of AD&D. But MERP had gone away with ICE’s loss of the Middle-earth license in 1999, and Rolemaster had evolved into a rules-heavy behemoth in its “Standard System” edition. Of course, I could’ve played MERP again anyway. But I did not consider that option at the time.)

 

So, disillusioned with 3e, I began looking for something different...

 

I was an early Castles and Crusades enthusiast, especially when it promised to be a vehicle for the publication of Gary Gygax’s Castle Zagyg (a version of his original Castle Greyhawk mega-dungeon). That project proceeded quite slowly, alas, and only saw one release directly related to the mythical dungeon: Castle Zagyg: The Upper Works (co-authored by Jeffrey Talanian). Then Gygax shuffled off this mortal coil, at which time the entire project ended. (I still have that box set, which I believe is now quite valuable, along with the other CZ-related products – all carefully packed in a box in storage somewhere. For an excellent, comprehensive review of The Upper Works, see this one by Grodog.) But I eventually drifted away from C&C. One reason was the end of Castle Zagyg. Another, entirely independent of the system itself, was the terrible editing by Troll Lord Games. While Upper Works was fine, almost everything else I read from them (including the core rulebook) was simply too badly edited for me to enjoy.

 

During this same period, fortunately, I also had dusted off and reacquainted myself with 1^st edition AD&D, B/X D&D, the Rules Cyclopedia D&D, and the like. I played in some online (play-by-post) 1e AD&D games (in a Greyhawk one as a cleric of Trithereon). Unlike C&C, this interest in AD&D and D&D persisted. Then came along OSRIC (the 1e AD&D clone), Labyrinth Lord (the B/X D&D clone), Swords & Wizardry (the 0e D&D clone), the fanzines, and so forth. The OSR was well underway – and I signed on.

 

This blog started out as a place for me to talk about old school D&D/AD&D-based games, including especially Swords & Wizardry. I contributed articles to Knockspell and Fight On! back in the day. Having reread many of R. E. Howard’s “Conan” and “Kull” stories in the years immediately before I started this blog, I was interested in house-ruling S&W in order to play some “swords and sorcery” flavoured games. (Those house-rules remain available here; many were later incorporated into Crypts and Things.) I eventually became interested again in more “conventional” modes of play, including especially 1^st edition AD&D, and made a minor contribution back in 2013 to the OSRIC supplement Dangerous Dungeons (“background professions”). I also ran a brief AD&D campaign around that time (2013-14).

 

But I’ve drifted away from active participation in the “OSR scene” in recent years. I never was active on Google+. I sporadically followed what was happening through forums and blogs. But in terms of actual gaming, I have spent more time playing Mythras, Call of Cthulhu, Adventures in Middle-earth, and the like, over the past seven years or so.

 

However, I never abandoned my interest in “old school” Dungeons and Dragons. So I found part 5 of the “historical look” quite informative. It filled me in on what has been happening over the past several years. In a nutshell: it’s largely been fragmentation, decadence, and degeneracy.* I guess not paying attention was beneficial – at least for my mental health. (Unsurprisingly, the pre-OSR, old “old school” communities seem to be carrying on just fine.)

 

 * I should add some caveats to this generalization. An exception seems to be Old School Essentials, which is both quite recent and very much a "clone" of B/X D&D (even more so than Labyrinth Lord was). It seems to be enjoying quite a bit of success. Swords & Wizardry continues to be quite popular (indeed, I received the most recent "box set" edition last year). Crypts and Things continues to enjoy support. And material for AD&D/OSRIC continues to be created, including free material at Dragonsfoot (which of course started before the "OSR"). [Note added 14:35 ET 20 January 2022]