This is a list of ten pen and paper RPGs that are good, but probably aren’t on most people’s top ten list. As we’ve stated, the games are good, maybe even great, but not great enough to be at the elite Top Ten level.
1. Vampire - The lead game for the World of Darkness setting by White Wolf. It’s been around a long time and has spawned multiple different types of follow-up games in the same genre. Still, even with all the evil creatures out there, Vampires tend to attract us the most.
2. Mage - One of the follow-up games to Vampire. It also lives in the World of Darkness setting. The game introduced a free flow set of magic that allowed players to do virtually anything they could think of.
3. Werewolf - Probably one of the toughest and baddest creatures in White Wolf’s World of Darkness setting. Playing a Werewolf was badass because you could go from normal people mode to crazy killer mode in the blink of an eye.
4. Paranoia - One of the only games where the pre-made adventures were often better than player created adventures. This game had the unique idea to give characters clones of themselves so death meant even less than it normally does in a roleplaying game (which isn’t much).
5. Spycraft - This game advanced leaps and bounds from the 1st edition to the 2nd edition. I believe they could be poised to advance up there with WotC’s D&D and White Wolf’s World of Darkness. Only time will tell, but the game has a ton of potential.
6. Gamma World - I always thought this game should have gotten more props than it did. The random character generation charts were awesome. What other game could you play a poison spewing plant-thingy?
7. Cyberpunk 2020 - A very lethal, near future game. The game is cool because it is pure cyberpunk. No trolls, orks, or magic, just pure guns and chrome. Yet another game which system completely falters in the face of the world setting, but a great game.
8. Warhammer FRPG - I don’t know which came first, the miniatures game or the roleplaying game. But the Warhammer roleplaying game is a nice alternative to D&D. It also has a lot of backing with being the biggest miniatures game out there, as well as tons of video games and computer games further enhancing the world.
9. Earthdawn - Now has a Third Edition being produced by RedBrick Limited. The game is a great alternate fantasy setting with a lot of background and support. It also has a very unique and streamlined dice system and combat system.
10. Hackmaster - Come on critical hit! This game is all about the critical hit table. There is a lot of other cool stuff about the game as well, but essentially it is just another D&D clone. Not that being a D&D clone is a bad thing