Promotional banner for G4’s ‘Invitation to Party’.

Roleplaying Games

So You’ve Discovered Tabletop Roleplaying Games

What to Avoid and Embrace in Your New Hobby/Addiction

If you’ve just now discovered tabletop roleplaying games, welcome to the circus. Here are some Red, Yellow, and Green Flags to help you find the good games and avoid the bad games. No game is all good or all bad, but a game with 4 Red Flags and 1 Green Flag might not be great.

But first we need to do a quick public service announcement. In the event that your first exposure to tabletop RPGs was watching G4’s ‘Invitation to Party’, know that D&D is NOT the only RPG on the market. D&D is basically the “Kleenex” of roleplaying games. D&D is only one of many, many, MANY tabletop RPGs. Other TTRPGs are NOT different “kinds” of D&D. Unless a game has “OGL” or “OSR” or “old school” printed on it, it has NOTHING to do with D&D.

Red Flags — Avoid Unless It is Exactly What You Want

The 3-page character sheet for Cyberpunk RED. There is a new 2-page character sheet, but it saves room by making you write in the skills you have yourself.

Character Sheets Longer than Two Pages

If a game’s character sheet is three or more pages, making a character probably takes…