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.

Get your table playing in minutes, not hours.   GATEWAY RPG is a free, rules-lite d20 system built for zero-prep adventures, sudden one-shots, and seamless intro sessions. Familiar 5E-style mechanics with all the bloat stripped out, so you can run any genre instantly: neon-soaked cyberpunk streets, grit-filled noir alleys, high fantasy, cosmic horror, and everything in between. The Definitive Edition is now the main book. This is the complete, current version of GATEWAY RPG: updated core rules, solo play, a starter bestiary, and homebrew variants, character sheets all combined into one source. New artwork, professional layout, and everything players and GMs need in a single 132 page PDF. Want the history? Every older version of the rulebook, spanning 2017 to 2026, is bundled in the Legacy Zip below for collectors and the curious. Download the complete PDF bundle. AI Disclosure: This Enhanced Edition of Gateway RPG features some AI-generated artwork and layout assistance. The rules were still hand written by me and human proofread/playtested since 2017. As a one-man passion project with $0 budget, and $0 revenue gain from this game, this edition utilizes AI imagery only to provide a visually richer and cohesive experience while keeping the game entirely FREE. The original Classic Edition from 2017, featuring human-created artwork, is included as a bonus in the download files. However, if you are only looking for a gaming experience completely free of AI-generated assets, the standalone Classic Edition can be found exclusively on its own dedicated product page at https://gatewayrpg.itch.io/gateway-rpg-classic-edition. What’s Inside? Definitive Edition (Main Book): The complete game in one volume. Updated rules, solo play engine, starter bestiary, and homebrew variants. Legacy Zipfile (2017-2026): Every prior version of the rulebook, character sheet, supplement preserved as released. For archivists, returning players, and anyone who wants to see how the game evolved. Core Rules: The streamlined engine for players and Game Masters, in both English and Spanish (Reglas en Español). Character Sheets: Multiple Printable and Form Fillable Character Sheets Ready-to-Play Content: Pregenerated characters and one-shot adventure modules spanning multiple genres. Jump straight into the action. Player's Toolkit: Printable and form-fillable character sheets, a one-page quick reference guide, and the d20 Oracle for solo play. Starter Bestiary: 25 adversaries across 11 settings, from High Fantasy to Space Opera to Lovecraftian Horror. Homebrew Variants: Over 20 pages of optional mechanics, including Spark of Heroism (Inspiration), Pushing for Success (partial success), and genre modifiers for Survival and Cosmic Horror. Pocket Character Sheets: Compact sheets designed for portability. Solo Play Quickstart Zine: A portable, zine-style guide for on-the-go solo adventures. NEW: Android Player Companion App Character Builder: Create custom characters or select from 30 curated pre-mades. Pocket Rules: Quickly search core mechanics and references on the fly. Sheet-Integrated Dice: Roll checks directly from your sheet. Solo Engine: Built-in oracle for quick, on-the-go solo adventures. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aistudio.gatewayrpg.app Designer's Note: GATEWAY RPG grew out of a personal passion for tabletop gaming. Back in 2015, I discovered S. John Ross’s classic 1993 game, Risus: The Anything RPG. It was free, modular, ultra-flexible, and simple to pick up, but as I played more TTRPG's like DND5e, I missed the iconic d20 and the drama of critical hits and misses. I created GATEWAY RPG to capture that same beginner-friendly spirit while bringing back the thrill of the twenty-sided die and being able to use it for any setting. Whether you are running quick one-shots, playing standalone adventures, diving into solo sessions, or modularly introducing advanced rules as your group learns, GATEWAY adapts seamlessly to your table. GATEWAY RPG and Aurican's Lair are a Not-For-Profit Tabletop Roleplaying Game publisher.

Blades in the Dark is a heist-themed tabletop roleplaying game system about a crew of daring misfits  on the streets of an industrial fantasy city. Published by Evil Hat Productions in 2017 and designed by John Harper, it introduced the highly influential Forged in the Dark rules engine. BitD revolutionized the heist genre in tabletop gaming by pushing players straight into the act, eliminating the "planning phase". The system it loosely evolved from is Apocalypse World Description In Blades in the Dark, players are part of a criminal organization in Doskvol, a grim Victorian era city. The city is protected by a wall of lightning, to keep any threat on the outside. Players create their characters as either smugglers, thieves, assassins or cultists and explore the criminal underworld, perform dangerous heists, manage gang warfare and grow their criminal organization. The game focuses heavily on narrative momentum and failing forward. Characters are competent but flawed, constantly accumulating stress, trauma, and heat from the law as their gang rises to power. System Overview & Key Features Action Roll (d6 Dice Pool) The core mechanic uses a pool of six-sided dice(d6) based on a character's action rating. The highest die result will determine the outcome of the action. 6 is considered a full success, 4-5 is a partial success with a consequence, and 1-3 is a failure. Rolling multiple full successes is considered a critical success. Position and Effect Before every roll, the Game Master explicitly states the character's Position (Controlled, Risky, or Desperate) and Effect (Limited, Standard, or Great). This transparently communicates the exact stakes and potential fallout of the action before the dice hit the table. Stress and Resistance Characters have a Stress track. Players can spend Stress to give themselves for extra dice when rolling. They can also use it to assist an ally, or fuel their special abilities. Players can also spend Stress when facing any situation or consequence the GM throws at them, this makes the characters very skilled, but forces them to consider when to spend it. The Flashback Mechanic Instead of spending hours planning a heist, the crew simply chooses a target, picks a detail, and jumps right into the action. Later, they can use Stress, to envoke a flashback moment, where they explain how they had already planned for such a situation, or had "solved" it beforehand. Progress Clocks The game uses circular progress tracks called Clocks to visually represent approaching danger or the progress of a complex task. A clock might represent the alert level of the city watch, the structural integrity of a safe vault, or the patience of a rival gang leader. The Crew as a Character The criminal organization the players run has its own character sheet. The organization gains experience, levels up, claims territory, and unlocks special abilities, ensuring that the gang's rise to power is just as mechanically significant as the characters'

Outgunned is a cinematic action tabletop roleplaying game about heroes in the style of 1980s and 1990s action movies, designed by Riccardo Sirignano and Simone Formicola of the Italian studio Two Little Mice, with illustrations by Daniela Giubellini.  It was funded on Kickstarter in May 2023, reaching its goal within five minutes, and won two Silver ENNIE Awards in 2024 for Best Game and Product of the Year. It was originally published in Italian and English by Two Little Mice, and since December 2024 Free League Publishing has published it worldwide under its Free League Workshop label, which covers games it did not develop in-house. The line has grown through the standalone Outgunned Superheroes and the pulp spin-off Outgunned Adventure, all built on the same dice-pool system and compatible with one another. It is a loose evolution of the matching-dice system of Broken Compass, Two Little Mice's earlier game. Description Players take on Heroes, each combining a Role (such as Commando, Spy or Nobody) with a Trope, a behavioral archetype such as Diehard or Cheater.  The Game Master is called the Director, and a story is framed as a season of an action series. Missions run as heists, chases, brawls and showdowns with a villain, and the game's own advice for the Director is "tools, not rules". The game wants a table that enjoys big set pieces and dramatic failures. Heroes are tough, but they run on a finite supply of energy, and when it runs out the rules push the table towards a near-death moment rather than a quiet exit.

Shadowrun Sixth World (SR6) is the sixth 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. Catalyst Game Labs published it in 2019 for the game's 30th anniversary, with Jason Hardy as Shadowrun line developer, and it is set in 2080, about 60 years from the present day. FASA first published Shadowrun in 1989, and the property later passed to WizKids, Fantasy Productions and Catalyst. The edition was announced as easier to learn and play than earlier versions, and the core rulebook is 322 pages, down from 466 in Fifth Edition. The Beginner Box came out in June 2019, with an introduction to the setting, quick-start rules, the Seattle adventure "Battle Royale" and four pregenerated characters. The system directly replaced Shadowrun Fifth Edition (2013), and it keeps that edition's six-sided dice pools while removing limits. 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 the Sixth World, mostly in Seattle. Magic has returned to the world, bringing metahumans such as orks, trolls and elves, and the roles of street samurai, mage, decker and rigger give a team distinct jobs. A character can be built in minutes through a priority table, with 50 Karma to spend. The game asks a table to learn a layered setting, though it is lighter than Fifth Edition. The design goal was a core book of no more than 300 pages, and a reviewer found it well organised but with missing or hard-to-find rules, such as starting Essence, and with scattered gear rules. It suits groups who like planning a heist and a mix of magic and technology, and who are happy to keep a book open.

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.

Scum and Villainy is a space opera tabletop roleplaying game about a crew of outlaws getting by on a ship under the Galactic Hegemony, written by Stras Acimovic and John LeBoeuf-Little. It is a stand-alone game based on the Blades in the Dark system, using the Forged in the Dark engine, and its setting draws on Star Wars, Firefly and Cowboy Bebop. Evil Hat Productions published the hardcover edition on 2 August 2018, produced in partnership with Off Guard Games, the studio behind the original. The Evil Hat book runs to 368 pages in black and white. A 2018 Gnome Stew review recommended it for players who want narrative play with enough rules to support a story arc. The system is a Forged in the Dark game built on Blades in the Dark, and it is the space version of that heist game. Description Players take on a ship's crew in the Procyon Sector, a region of four star systems with factions grouped as Hegemony, Weirdness and Criminal. Their jobs involve dealing with syndicates, noble families, aliens and mystics, and exploring ruins. The Game Master (GM) runs the jobs and the crew's progress from a struggling outfit to a well-known one. The Way, an energy field, underpins the rules for artifacts. The game asks a table to improvise and to commit to a plan late. Jobs start in the middle of the action through an engagement roll, so a group does not spend a session planning. The ship has its own sheet and upgrades, and the crew's rise through the sector is part of the game. It suits groups who like heists, found-family crews and a space setting without a fixed plot.