Dungeon Crawl Classics (2012)

Novissa Spola is a tabletop tactical RPG being developed for VR, mixed reality, and PC. Inspired by classic tactical RPGs and the physical experience of playing around a tabletop, Novissa Spola combines strategic turn-based combat, character building, exploration, and a fantasy campaign designed to be played solo or with friends. The game is currently in development, but a playable demo is already available. The demo gives you a chance to experience the tabletop-style gameplay and tactical combat that form the foundation of Novissa Spola. Visit the official website www.honestcabbage.com to play the demo, view the trailer, and stay up to date on development. Development is ongoing, with the full game planned to expand the campaign, characters, world, combat systems, and cooperative experience.

Dragonbane is a classic fantasy tabletop roleplaying game published by Free League Publishing in 2023. It is a modern English translation and reimagining of Drakar och Demoner, Scandinavia's first and longest-running TTRPG, originally released in 1982. The game carries over four decades of Swedish gaming heritage into a sleek, accessible package designed around the philosophy of "mirth and mayhem": fast-paced adventures with minimal prep, where danger is real, luck matters, and even a humble merchant can become a legend. Unlike many modern fantasy RPGs, Dragonbane deliberately avoids the power-escalation treadmill of level-based systems. Characters are capable but mortal from session one, and the game works equally well for a single one-shot evening or a sprawling long-term campaign. It was a strong contender for TTRPG of the year on release, praised widely as one of the most accessible entry points into tabletop fantasy roleplaying. Description In Dragonbane, players take on the role of adventurers in the Misty Vale, a hidden mountain valley, ancient and full of ruins from fallen kingdoms, only recently cleared of orc and goblin occupation. The world is shaped by the eternal cosmic struggle between two great powers: the Dragons and the Demons, rival godlike forces whose conflict bleeds into mortal life. Players choose from six playable Kins: Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Halflings, the duck-like Mallards, and the feral Wolfkin and one of ten Professions (Fighter, Mage, Hunter, Thief, Artisan, Merchant, Mariner, Scholar, and others), each providing a distinct set of skills and heroic abilities. One player takes the role of the Game Master (GM), who builds the world, voices NPCs, and runs the dangers the adventurers face. The tone balances genuine peril and dark fantasy with moments of levity and absurdity.

Scarlet Heroes is an old-school tabletop role-playing game designed by Kevin Crawford and published by Sine Nomine Publishing in 2014. Built on the chassis of early fantasy role-playing games, it is explicitly engineered to support "duet" play (one Game Master and one player) or completely un-GMed solo play. The system functions both as a standalone game and as a mechanical conversion overlay, allowing a single player character to survive and conquer classic modules written for a full party of four to six adventurers without any structural modifications to the adventure itself. Description The default setting for Scarlet Heroes is the Red Tide, a dark, sword-and-sorcery fantasy world where the remnants of humanity have fled to an isolated archipelago known as the Sunset Isles to escape a world-devouring crimson mist. In this setting, players choose from traditional fantasy heritages and step into classic archetypes: the Fighter, Cleric, Thief, or Magic-User. However, the true focus of the ruleset is its revolutionary math-rebalancing engine. Traditional early-edition fantasy games are notoriously lethal for solo characters due to the "action economy" favoring groups of monsters. Scarlet Heroes alters how standard numbers are interpreted, transforming a single baseline character into a legendary epic hero who can cleave through hordes of lesser foes while preserving the danger of boss monsters. Links sine-nomine-publishing.myshopify.com - Official website drivethrurpg.com - Drive Thru RPG shop page

LoreMonkey is a Windows app that records and transcribes D&D and other tabletop RPG sessions on your own PC. Connect the Discord desktop app and every line is labelled with the character who said it. No bot joins the call and no audio leaves your computer. For in-person games you can record the room with a microphone instead. After each game it writes a recap in your group's own style.  During play it offers short, well-timed prompts drawn from your campaign notes. It also keeps a compendium of your party, NPCs, places, factions and open threads. Ask LoreMonkey answers campaign questions between sessions and cites the sessions each answer came from. Recording and transcription are free and unlimited, it works for both players and GMs, and it supports any game system. Pricing The free tier is free forever. It includes unlimited recording, transcription and speaker labels for one campaign, plus a trial of the AI features (live prompts and recaps). Paid plans are monthly: Lite is $9.99 for one campaign, Standard is $19.99 for unlimited campaigns and adds Ask LoreMonkey, and Pro is $39.99 for several weekly tables. Notes Only one person at the table needs to install it. Speaker labels come from the Discord desktop app, so no bot joins the call. Audio and transcripts stay on the user's PC, and only the AI features send text out. It works with any game system and has separate Player and GM modes.

Talislanta is a fantasy tabletop roleplaying game created by Stephan Michael Sechi, first published by Bard Games in 1987. It draws its inspiration from Jack Vance's Dying Earth novels and the travelogue spirit of the Arabian Nights rather than from Tolkien. It built its identity around a single blunt promise printed right on the box: "no elves". No dwarves, no halflings, no standard-issue fantasy races at all - just dozens of original cultures found nowhere else in the genre.  The game has passed through five editions and nearly as many publishers, including a stint at Wizards of the Coast in the early '90s, and creator Stephan Michael Sechi now makes the entire back catalogue - every edition, every supplement - available for free through the official Talislanta Library. Description Playing Talislanta starts with a choice. Instead of creating a character from separate race, class, and skill lists, players pick one of well over a hundred archetypes. Things like the Cymrilan Rogue Magician, the Jaka Beastmaster, or the Mandalan Mystic Warrior - each one a fully realised character tied to a specific culture. Complete with attributes, skills, gear, and a place in the world already worked out. A little light customisation (a point moved here, a skill added there) and the character is ready to play.  What makes the game distinct isn't its mechanics, which are deliberately light, but the scale of its setting: the continent of Talislanta is home to more than a hundred distinct peoples, and the rulebooks spend far more pages on culture, custom, and worldview than on combat math. It rewards players who want to explore a genuinely alien fantasy world over chasing mechanical optimisation. System Overview & Key Features Archetype-Based Character Creation Character creation isn't a build process, it's a selection process. Every archetype in the book arrives fully statted, dressed, and equipped, tied to a named culture and a defined role in Talislantan society. Archetypes are deliberately unbalanced against one another, since staying true to the setting mattered more to Sechi than parity between character options. The Unified Action Table Skill checks, combat rolls, and magic all resolve on a single d20 chart. Attacking works exactly like any other skill roll: add a skill rating, compare to a target number. There's no separate combat subsystem to memorise, which keeps the rules themselves down to a few dozen pages even in the densest editions. Modes and Orders Magic runs on two interlocking pieces: Modes (twelve broad effect categories like Attack, Heal, or Illusion) and Orders (culturally rooted schools of magic, from Cartomancy to Elemental Magic). A magician's Order shapes how a Mode behaves and looks when cast, so the same underlying effect plays out completely differently in different hands - which lets a short list of Modes support a near-endless variety of actual spells. A World Built Without Tolkien Every culture in Talislanta was designed to avoid genre default: no elves, no generic barbarians, no standard dragons. In their place are peoples like the Thralls (identical clone-warriors distinguishable only by tattoo), the sky-sailing Phantasians, and the shapeshifting Sindarans. The setting material - not the rules - is where most of the page count and most of the game's reputation live. Links talislanta.com - Official Talislanta website talislanta.com/talislanta-library - Free official PDFs of every edition and supplement ever published

One D&D session, three connected screens. Lumen VTT gives game masters and players a shared place to run maps, music, combat, dice, character actions, and table-facing moments without turning the session into admin work. What Lumen VTT is for Lumen is designed for D&D 5e groups that want the structure of a modern VTT while keeping play moving. It focuses on combat flow, animated tabletop feedback, live session tools, music, and fast GM setup. A VTT for active tables The app supports a GM view, player views, and a live table display, so a group can play online or around a real table with a TV. Players can use phones while the GM manages the encounter. Automation where it helps Combat features are built around common 5e tasks such as attack rolls, saves, damage, healing, conditions, initiative, movement, and area effects. The goal is to reduce bookkeeping while keeping decisions visible. What to compare in any virtual tabletop When comparing VTT software, look at how quickly a session starts, how much rules work is automated, whether players need heavy setup, how the map feels during combat, and whether the tool supports your actual table format. Links lumenvtt.com - Official website