Top 5 Tabletop RPGs to Play Before a Zombie Apocalypse
Nerdarchist Dave here to give you my Top 5 Tabletop RPG Games to Play Before The Zombie Apocalypse. This is going to be a list of games I haven’t gotten a chance to play, a little bit about the game and why I want to play them.
Top 5 Tabletop RPG Games
#5 Icons Superpowered Role-playing
Created by Steve Kenson. Steve has created and worked on every edition of Mutants and Masterminds. M&M is one of my favorite tabletop RPG games. Our group has played Mutants and Masterminds for years and enjoyed it. Icons is a rules light game for a supers RPG. It is meant for fast play and is inspired by the F.A.T.E system RPG I’ve heard.
All that being said I want to play it for three reasons:
- Steve Kenson wrote it
- I know Steve draws a lot of inspiration from TSR’s Marvel Super Heroes game
- Loved F.A.T.E Accelerated
The only reasons this game isn’t higher on my top 5 list is because I’ve played several tabletop RPG superhero games before and I’ve played a supers game specifically from Mr. Steve Kenson.
Genre — Superheroes/Comic Book
#4 Shadow Run
This is a game and setting that has fascinated me for decades yet I haven’t managed to play it as of yet. What’s not to love about fantasy races like elves, dwarves, and trolls in a cyberpunk setting? This game is now in it’s 6th edition and has spun off into several other forms of media. Shadowrun first appeared on the RPG games scene in 1989. I believe our own Nerdarchist Ted has played a little of the game, but alas I have not.
Genre — Fantasy/Cyberpunk
#3 Star Wars Edge of the Empire
I’ve always wanted to play in a Star Wars RPG game. I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. As for this game well, it’s Star Wars — space ships, droids, wookies, Sith and Jedi. Do I really need to say more? I have heard from some of my friends in the RPG online community that it plays and feels a lot like Firefly. If by some chance you don’t know what that is think space cowboys.
Genre — Science Fantasy
#2 Numenera
Like Icons this is a newer game. The core book launched in 2013 with a record busting Kickstarter. The first thing that drew me to this game was the fact it was penned by the one and only Monte Cook. I’ve always enjoyed his work throughout the editions of Dungeons & Dragons. Monte has always done weird and strange stuff which I love. Numenera is a mix of science fiction and fantasy with a lot of cool unique setting features. The Ninth World campaign setting sounds amazing. The description for magic seems to be a combination of sorcery and technology — technomancy.
The description of the rules again reminds me of the F.A.T.E system a good thing.
Genre — Fantasy/Science Fiction
#1 F.A.T.E Core System
The closest I’ve come to the F.A.T.E Core System is F.A.T.E Accelerated. Nerdarchist Ted and I were at Yo Yo Club where we met a fellow gamer who offered to run a game of it for Nerdarchy. We had a great time and loved the story driven mechanics of the game. My understanding is F.A.T.E Core and F.A.T.E Accelerated differ in that core has more crunch and mechanics to it. While I really enjoyed the rules lighter version of Accelerated I think I will enjoy the Core System as much or more. One of the great things about FATE is the game will work with any setting or genre. They’ve even made a Dresden Files tabletop RPG based off of the FATE Core System. If you’re not familiar with Dresden it would be considered urban fantasy.
Genre — Any
Feel free to give me your opinion of any or all of these games down in the comments below or maybe you’d like to give me your top 5 picks.
Until next time, stay nerdy.
Ashton Smyth
January 9, 2015 at 3:24 pmInteresting Dave for sure…. Learned of this Numenera very recently I still need more data on this 🙂
Nevertheless here’s my list of games I feel one should play before that zombie situation.
#5 Cyberpunk ( I mean shadow run is great I always liked Cyberpunk an ounce more)
#4 Traveller (so good soo old school)
#3 Warhammer
#2 Werewolf The Apocalypse
#1 Vampire the Masquerade
Dave Friant
January 9, 2015 at 5:04 pmGreat list. I love the idea of the World of Darkness setting, but I hate you can’t mix things up.
Ashton Smyth
January 9, 2015 at 7:43 pmWhat do you mean by not being able to mix things up?
Dave Friant
January 9, 2015 at 10:35 pmYou are all mages, werewolves, or vampires apposed to mixed group of characters.
Ashton Smyth
January 10, 2015 at 8:19 amAhhh, Yeah gotcha. Its hard/impossible but rules are a reference. So a GM could gray the lines and make a good story. I’ve ran Gangrel-centric stories with both vampire and werewolfs allied for a common goal (this case common enemy). Players comp. was two Gangrel and two Werewolf. Really fun to GM and the interplay was steeped in paranoia and mystery. It worked.
Lex Starwalker
January 12, 2015 at 11:32 pmNumenera is my favorite game right now. It’s a lot of fun, easy to learn, easy to teach, and a joy to DM. It’s extremely easy to create NPCs and monsters on the fly while running the game.
I’ve only run Star Wars Edge of the Empire a little bit, but I really enjoyed it. I’ve played West End Games’ old d6 Star Wars and the iterations of d20 Star Wars, and this one’s definitely my favorite. If you ever want to play Star Wars via Google Hangouts, here’s a free dice rolling app (using the EotE dice!). 🙂
Dave Friant
January 13, 2015 at 7:47 amThanks for the app. checking us out, and weighing in. So many awesome games so little time.
Lex Starwalker
January 12, 2015 at 11:33 pmoops, forgot the link! http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/80113-playing-remotely-try-hangout-eote-tools/