Tabletop Roleplaying Games

Shadowrun is a science fantasy tabletop roleplaying game that mixes cyberpunk, urban fantasy and crime fiction in a near-future world where cybernetics, magic and fantasy creatures coexist. FASA first published it in 1989 and ran the line until closing in 2001, after which the property passed to WizKids and later to Fantasy Productions and Catalyst Game Labs. Catalyst published the Fifth Edition (SR5) in 2013, with Jason Hardy as Shadowrun line developer, and the sixth edition followed in 2019, set in 2080. SR5 builds on the Fourth Edition rules, makes combat deadlier, streamlines the Matrix, expands the gear options and speeds up character creation. The franchise also includes the living campaign Shadowrun Missions, more than 50 novels, a trading card game and several video games. The system directly evolved from Shadowrun Fourth Edition, and it was succeeded by Shadowrun Sixth World (2019), which removed limits and cut the skill list from 80 to 19. Description Players take on shadowrunners, deniable operatives hired by megacorporations to do data theft and break-ins. Street samurai, mages, adepts, riggers and hackers each handle a part of the job, and the Game Master (GM) runs missions, with Seattle as the main setting. Magic has returned to the world, bringing metahumans such as orks, trolls and elves, and dragons hold high corporate and political posts. The game asks a table for system knowledge. Characters are defined by skills, not classes, with large pools of options for gear, magic and cybernetics, and reviewers have found the rules awkward or fuzzy in places. It suits groups who like planning a heist, optimising a build and playing in a layered, gritty world, and who are happy to read.

Eclipse Phase is a detailed science-fiction exploration of uncertain futures. It investigates the nature of transhumanity as it transforms itself, physically and mentally, into something posthuman. It balances the immense dangers of advanced technologies with a vision of how we can negate these risks and enhance our capabilities to improve and prosper as a species. Description Transhumanity stands on the terminus of evolution and extinction. With the ability to upload our minds and nanofabricate almost anything, death and scarcity were nearly defeated. Then a war against super-intelligent AIs infected with an alien virus wiped out 95% of the population. Earth is a ruined wasteland, overrun by machines. The remnants of transhumanity—bio-engineered humans, uplifted animals, and infolife—expanded throughout the Solar System. The AIs left behind a network of wormhole gates that we now use to explore and occupy distant exoplanets. A new cabal of hypercorps and oligarchs seek to preserve outmoded political and economic systems, while patchwork factions of radical scientists and techno-anarchists experiment with new social models, from each according to their imagination and to each according to their need. /images/general-media/1779972799_ox7h9OdI.jpg Characters switch their bodies—called a morphs—at will. Choose from genetically-modified transhumans, synthetic robotic shells, uplifted animals, or digital infomorphs, optimizing your capabilities for specific missions. Your character’s mind and memories are backed up and can be restored if you die—a built-in system of “save points” and functional immortality. Characters are skill-based, with no classes, so players can customize their team roles and specialize in fields of their choosing. A package-buy system enables quick character creation and customization while also defining elements of your character’s background. Gear and morph tracking is simplified with the use of gear packs and points for each mission. Links eclipsephase.com - Official website eclipsephase.com - Quick-Start Rules discord.gg - Discord server patreon.com - Patreon page

Lancer is a science fiction mech tabletop RPG created by Miguel Lopez and Tom Parkinson-Morgan (better known online as Tom Bloom, creator of the webcomic Kill Six Billion Demons), first published by their own studio Massif Press in 2019 after a Kickstarter that raised over $430,000. A second-edition hardcover followed in 2024 in partnership with Dark Horse Comics. Lancer calls itself "mud-and-lasers": hard science fiction and military detail blended with high science-fantasy weaponry, set in a deliberately optimistic future - Union - that its creators built as a direct reaction against the cynicism common to a lot of modern sci-fi.

Starfinder Second Edition is Paizo's sci-fi/science-fantasy tabletop RPG, a full rebuild of the original 2017 Starfinder Roleplaying Game announced at Gen Con 2023 and released across 2025 following a year-long public playtest. Rather than running on its own separate rules the way 1st edition did, Starfinder 2E is built to be fully cross-compatible with Pathfinder Second Edition and its 2023 Remaster, sharing the same three-action economy and switching from Wizards of the Coast's Open Game License to Paizo's own Open RPG Creative (ORC) License. The line launched with Starfinder Player Core in July 2025 and Starfinder GM Core that September, with an Alien Core rounding out the initial trio of core rulebooks. Description Playing Starfinder 2E means playing across the Pact Worlds and beyond, a galaxy-spanning science-fantasy setting where mystic spellcasters and laser-rifle-toting soldiers operate side by side, using rules deliberately built to share a common language with Pathfinder 2E. Since it launched on the same PF2E chassis, a GM comfortable with one system can pick up the other with relatively little relearning, and material can be ported between the two settings with GM permission. Reviewers have noted the 2E launch trimmed the class list to six at release - with the Mechanic and Technomancer, mainstays of 1st edition, still finishing their own playtest for a later release - while significantly expanding species and other player options compared to the original core book.

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

Dune: Adventures in the Imperium is a tabletop roleplaying game of political intrigue, feudal warfare, and desert survival set in Frank Herbert's Dune universe, published by Modiphius Entertainment with lead designer Nathan Dowdell heading a large credited design team. It released in 2021, timed alongside Denis Villeneuve's Dune film, running on a version of Modiphius's house 2d20 System adapted specifically for the setting's politics-first, duel-heavy tone. The system is a setting-specific adaptation of Modiphius's 2d20 System, the same engine family behind Star Trek Adventures and Fallout: The Roleplaying Game. Description Players build elite agents in service to a noble House - Mentats, Swordmasters, Bene Gesserit Sisters, Spies, devious Advisors, or Fremen of the deep desert - and, before a single character is even built, the whole table designs that House together in a dedicated House-creation mini-game, deliberately keeping play away from the canon Houses Atreides or Harkonnen.  The Game Master runs missions where combat is only one of several ways a scene can go wrong: duels, skirmishes, open warfare, espionage, and courtly intrigue all resolve through the same underlying system, and a table can just as easily spend a session at a negotiating table as on a battlefield. The game leans hard into its source material's core promise - that plans, loyalty, and leverage usually matter more than a blade - and asks players to think as much about their House's long game as their character's next roll.

Rogue Trader is a science fiction tabletop roleplaying game of exploration, trade and profit at the edge of the Imperium of Man, set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe and published by Fantasy Flight Games in 2009. Ross Watson was its lead designer. Players take on a Rogue Trader, a ship captain licensed to trade and explore beyond the Imperium's borders, and the crew who serve them. It is the second of five independently playable Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay games from Fantasy Flight, which ran from Dark Heresy (2008) to Only War (2012). A limited release sold out at Gen Con 2009, with a wider store release in October 2009. Fantasy Flight lost the Warhammer 40,000 licence, and official support ended in September 2016. The system directly evolved from Dark Heresy, the first game in the Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay line, and it was succeeded by Wrath & Glory. Description Players take on an explorer's dynasty: the Rogue Trader, the officers and specialists who crew their ship, and the retinue that follows them. The Game Master (GM) runs voyages into uncharted space, deals with alien species and hostile worlds, and the party earns a fortune doing it. The career paths include Arch-Militant, Navigator, Explorator and Void-master, and sourcebooks add alien player characters such as Kroot, Ork and Dark Eldar. The game asks a table to run a business as well as a crew. The rules cover interplanetary trade, ship operation, travel and combat, and a group that enjoys managing a ship, a fortune and their reputation will get more out of it than one that wants a single dungeon crawl. The 41st Millennium is a grim setting, and the book does not soften it.

Shadowrun Fourth Edition (SR4) is the fourth edition of Shadowrun, a science fantasy tabletop roleplaying game that mixes cyberpunk, urban fantasy and crime fiction in a near-future world where cybernetics, magic and fantasy creatures coexist. FASA first published Shadowrun in 1989 and ran it until closing in 2001, after which WizKids took the property and licensed the roleplaying rights to Fantasy Productions, and the fourth edition appeared in 2005. A 20th Anniversary Edition followed in 2009, after Catalyst Game Labs had licensed the rights from Topps, and it won three Silver ENnie Awards in 2010, for Best Interior Art, Best Production Values and Best Game. The fourth edition itself won ENnies for Best Rules and Best Product in 2006. The system directly replaced Shadowrun Third Edition, and it was succeeded by Shadowrun Fifth Edition (2013). Description Players take on shadowrunners, deniable operatives hired by megacorporations to steal data and break into secure sites, and the Game Master (GM) runs missions in a world where magic has returned. Metahumans such as orks, trolls and elves live alongside humans, dragons hold high corporate and political posts, and Seattle is the main setting. Street samurai, mages, adepts, riggers and hackers, once called deckers, each cover a part of the job. The game asks a table for system knowledge. Characters are defined by skills, not classes, with large pools of options for gear, magic and cybernetics, and some reviewers have found the series' rules awkward or fuzzy. It suits groups who like planning a heist and building a character in detail.