Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of

HackMaster is a crunchy, old-school fantasy tabletop roleplaying game published by Kenzer & Company, created by Jolly R. Blackburn and David Kenzer. It began as a fictional game, a parody of Dungeons & Dragons played by the characters in Blackburn's comic strip Knights of the Dinner Table, and became a real product when the comic's fictional third edition turned into the published Fourth Edition in 2001. That edition won the 2002 Origins Award for Game of the Year 2001. HackMaster Fifth Edition followed in 2011, bringing a Player's Handbook and Gamemaster's Guide, and the line has since grown to more than forty add-ons and supplements. Kenzer and Company announced a 25th anniversary edition, HackMaster XXV, in March 2026 through a Kickstarter campaign. The Fifth Edition directly evolved from HackMaster Fourth Edition, which is a custom system derived from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D). Description Players create characters from a race and a class, as in the older editions of Dungeons & Dragons, in a low-magic world that reads as strongly old-school. The default setting is the Kingdoms of Kalamar. The Game Master (GM) runs combat, exploration and the consequences of both, and the game's rules back up a harder, more simulationist style than the parody that started it. The game asks a table to accept a lot of detail. The rules are described as crunchy, with many optional combat moves and fighting styles and wound-by-wound healing that takes real time. It suits groups who enjoy knowing exactly how a fight works and don't mind reference tables, and it is a poor fit for anyone who wants a quick, rules-light evening.

Ironsworn is a low-fantasy tabletop roleplaying game of perilous quests in the Ironlands, a Norse-inspired frontier, designed by Shawn Tomkin with illustrations by Joshua Meehan. It was released in 2018 by Tomkin Press, and Modiphius Entertainment also publishes it. The game is built for solo, co-op and guided play, and its rules were designed for refereeless play. The Digital Edition is a free download that includes a rulebook of about 270 pages, a play kit and printable asset cards. It won the 2019 Gold ENNIE for Best Free Game/Product, and Forbes named it a top RPG product of 2022 and a leading fantasy solo RPG. It has been translated into German (System Matters, 2021) and French (500 Nuances de Geek, 2024). The system loosely evolved from Powered by the Apocalypse, and it was followed by the science fiction sequel Ironsworn: Starforged (2022). Description Players take on a lone hero or a small group in the Ironlands, with vows that drive each quest, whether it is protecting a village or hunting a monster. Players assign points to five stats (edge, heart, iron, shadow and wits) and track health, spirit and supply. In guided play a Game Master (GM) moderates, in co-op play players work together without a GM, and in solo play one player controls a lone character. The game asks a table to tell the story as well as roll for it. Results often have mechanical effects, but the players work out the narrative outcome, and oracle tables answer questions and generate story details. One reviewer praised the elegant mechanics but found progression "a little stingy", and another criticised the stock-photo-heavy rulebook. It suits solo players and groups without a GM.

Ars Magica is a troupe-style tabletop roleplaying game about wizards and their allies in Mythic Europe, a version of medieval Europe around the year 1200 in which folklore and religious belief are literally true. It was created by Jonathan Tweet and Mark Rein-Hagen and first published by Lion Rampant in 1987.  The Fifth Edition, written by David Chart and published by Atlas Games in 2004, won the Origins Award for Best Role Playing Game of 2004 and took Gold for Best Rules at the 2005 ENnie Awards. Atlas Games has since released the Definitive Edition, a revised and expanded version of the Fifth Edition with over 600 pages, new art and a new layout. It was funded on BackerKit in 2024 and shipped to backers in 2026, and it keeps the Fifth Edition rules. The Fifth Edition directly evolved from Ars Magica Fourth Edition (Atlas Games, 1996), which in turn descends from the original 1987 game. Description Players portray magi, powerful wizards of the Order of Hermes, alongside companions, skilled specialists who go out into the world, and grogs, the hired hands and retainers who do the dangerous legwork. Most players run one of each, and the group's real shared character is the covenant, the wizards' home base, often built on a place of power.  A Game Master, called the Storyguide (SG), frames the stories, which can span decades or centuries of in-game time. The game asks a table to think in long arcs. Magi spend most of their time studying and working in a laboratory, and many of the best stories come from what that research costs the covenant and its neighbors. It also asks for a fair amount of reading and bookkeeping: the magic system rewards players who plan spells and lab projects, and a character's progress is measured in seasons rather than adventures.

Sufficiently Advanced is a transhuman roleplaying game of the far future. Humanity has been reconstructed by time and technology. Wield incredible technological enhancements and thousands of years of expertise, or the ability to mold the story of the game. Play a digital intelligence with remote-controlled robot drones, a diplomatic team that shares a group-mind, a soldier infused with nanotechnology, or even a living starship. Play an Old-Worlder witnessing our fantastic universe for the first time, or a Masquerader taking on different identities each day. Description This second edition runs on an entirely new diceless system. What consequences you are willing to accept in order to win? Or, when you are outmatched, can your failure help your team succeed? Use Plots and Projects to change the world, and force Complications on your characters now to warp the plot in their favor later on. Discover five different futures: To The Stars, where you form a first-contact team reconnecting with the lost seeds of humanity. The Divide, full of espionage and intrigue, where trust is hard to find and the sides are ever shifting. The Powder Keg, a universe tumbling into a war that may mean the end of everything. Sublight, where secret societies champion their causes by transmitting their operatives across the stars. The Patent Office, where your team of Inspectors seeks to protect humanity from its own worst excesses. The future is bright, but not without danger. Come explore it with us. Links suffadv.wikidot.com - Official wiki & System Reference Document drivethrurpg.com - DriveThruRPG store page

Twilight: 2000 is a post-apocalyptic military tabletop roleplaying game of survival after a limited nuclear war, first published by Game Designers' Workshop (GDW) in 1984. The original was designed by Frank Chadwick, Dave Nilsen, Loren K. Wiseman and Lester W. Smith. Players usually portray American soldiers stranded in Central Europe after the Twilight War, which began as a Sino-Soviet conflict in 1995. The game received the H.G. Wells Award for Best Roleplaying Rules of 1984 at Origins 1985. The current edition, the fourth, was published by Free League Publishing in 2021 on the Year Zero Engine, and its setting options include Poland and Sweden. The system is the fourth edition of Twilight: 2000, following editions published in 1984, 1990 and 1993, and it replaced the earlier rules with the Year Zero Engine, which also runs Tales from the Loop. Description Players take on the remains of a military unit, cut off from their command and trying to get home across a ruined continent. The Game Master (GM) runs a sandbox in which the group scavenges, trades, fights and tracks supplies, and the original adventure "Escape from Kalisz" and the Free City of Krakow module sent players through Poland. The game asks a table to value survival over glory. Ammunition, fuel and food are limited and combat is dangerous, so a party has to choose its fights. It suits groups who like logistics and grim, grounded stories more than heroic action.

The Kind GM Blog is a place you visit when you're on the hunt for Tabletop RPG content. It provides articles and ideas in various formats, including reviews, analysis of newly-released content, and more. Links thekindgm.com - Official website patreon.com - Patreon page