Other Role-playing Games

As a new player to the genre, my experience is mostly limited to Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition which I feel is an excellent option for beginners; it only requires a basic knowledge of the rules to get started playing and the rest naturally develop over time. Everyone has their own needs and tastes however, and there are other games out there which are worth taking a look at.

To begin with, as the name suggests, D&D 4th Edition is not the only version of D&D available. Many people still play older versions of D&D; some don't want to buy a new set of rulebooks or learn a new set of rules, others simply feel that the old rules are superior. You can find out information on all of the versions of D&D with a list of differences here: Editions of Dungeons & Dragons

Wizards of the Coast released the d20 System used in Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition under the Open Game License, which allowed other companies to use the system to create and publish their own games. One popular example is Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, which is an adaptation of the D&D 3.5 rules. The design goals of the game were to improve upon the existing D&D 3.5 rules, add new options for players and attempt to be compatible with material already available for D&D 3.5.




Venturing away from the D&D systems entirely, we can find things such as the Generic Universal RolePlaying System. GURPS is purposely designed to be generic and universal so that players can apply the core rules to whatever setting they might want to role-play in. This means that if the traditional fantasy setting doesn't suit you, GURPS should work equally with guns and spaceships as it does with swords and magic.



Shadowrun is a game with a less traditional, cross-genre setting; a mixture of cyberpunk and fantasy in a near-future Earth where magic has returned. Mega-corporations, governments and even crime syndicates hire specialists known as Shadowrunners to do their dirty work. The game mechanics are based on a custom 6-sided dice system and characters are skill-based rather than class-based.



Lastly, I want to mention the World of Darkness and the Storytelling System by White Wolf. The World of Darkness is a setting and core rulebook used by (at least) 3 games; Vampire: The Requiem, Werewolf: The Forsaken and Mage: The Awakening. The games are set in a modern-day Earth where the supernatural is real, though generally hidden from human awareness. The Storytelling System is used in many games by White Wolf and uses 10-sided dice to roll successes or failures for various tasks.




It's a good idea to investigate and discuss the options with your group before diving in head-first. I'm definitely glad that my group began with D&D 4th Edition, but I would certainly like to try some of these other games in the future.