The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying 5E (2023)

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.

Vagabond // Pulp Fantasy RPG is a d20-based OSR fantasy game designed by Taron "Indestructoboy" Pounds - an ENnie Award-winning designer previously known for third-party D&D 5e class content - and published through his own studio, Land of the Blind. It funded its development on Kickstarter in 2023, with a print run funded via Gamefound in 2024, and fans have taken to calling it "the Pathfinder of the OSR": an attempt to bring modern character-build depth to old-school-inspired dungeon crawling without losing the rulings-over-rules, low-prep philosophy that defines games like Knave, Cairn, and Into the Odd, several of which are explicitly credited as influences. Description Playing Vagabond means playing pulp-flavored fantasy adventurers - the kind of setting where a Goblin Gunslinger might delve a mummy's tomb alongside a Dwarf Witch hunting Excalibur - built specifically to keep GM prep and mental overhead low while still giving players a genuinely deep character-building toolkit. It's explicitly compatible with B/X-derived monsters, classic TSR modules, and Old School Essentials adventures, so existing OSR content drops in with little to no conversion. All rolls are player-facing, meaning players roll rather than the GM rolling against them, and creature stat blocks include a built-in "Action Gambit" describing exactly what a monster does in combat, aiming to strip improvised tactical decisions away from the GM entirely.

Ishanekon: World Shapers is the (probably) biggest free Indie TTRPG with over 2,500 character options. It has been mainly developed by Jan Luyken, aka Blaze Reason, with the aim of creating a game that can compete (if not surpass) the current biggest games on the market while remaining affordable for anyone. With its easily adaptable rules and wide range of options, from beginner-friendly to highly complex, it is designed to satisfy the needs of almost any story and play style. Description From epic fantasy and sci-fi to mundane humans facing everything from common threats to cosmic horror, Ishanekons: World Shapers’ modular design lets you easily adjust the rules to help you experience your stories. This game is designed with the idea that you bring the flavor, and the mechanics help you bring it to life. The 10 Archetypes with over 200 Sub-Archetypes, 1000+ Abilities, 600+ Talents, 300+ items and upgrades, and more allow you to build anything from a simple cat to a city-destroying kaiju. Role and complexity filters let you find what you need quickly while helping you avoid those features that might be too overwhelming for your liking.

Brute Force is a real-play comedic RPG podcast blended with in-character narration. We play a campaign of FATE Core (we started with World of Darkness) set in the high fantasy world of Eorith. Narrated by Jasper Spitwhistle, the resident bard of the Gilded Ram Groghouse and Tea Room, our campaign takes place in the high fantasy world of Eorith where magic sometimes works but seldom as expected. The party is composed of so-called "monstrous" characters like yetis, skeletons, harpies, or vampire bear children. Links bruteforcepodcast.com - Official website spotify.com - Spotify feed podcasts.apple.com - Apple Podcasts feed patreon.com - Patreon page

Nobody Wake The Bugbear is a finely crafted actual play experience for the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG. We are NOT a live stream, each episode is expertly edited for maximum audio quality and clarity so you can join us in the excitement and passion of a group of friends at the table, all the while aiming for the best listening experience. Links youtube.com - Youtube channel nwtb.podbean.com - Podbean feed

The Dungeon Crawler Carl Roleplaying Game is an officially licensed tabletop adaptation of Matt Dinniman's bestselling Dungeon Crawler Carl LitRPG novels, developed by Renegade Game Studios and launched via a BackerKit crowdfunding campaign in April 2026. The campaign became the most-followed TTRPG crowdfunding launch in history, pulling in over 27,000 backers and more than $6.6 million against an original $250,000 goal, putting it in the same company as Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere RPG and Avatar Legends among the biggest tabletop crowdfunders ever run.  The book series itself has an unusually indie-to-mainstream trajectory: Dinniman began posting it as a free web serial on Royal Road in 2020, and it grew organically into a multi-million-copy bestseller before Ace Books picked it up in 2024. Fulfillment for the RPG and its companion deck-building game, Dungeon Crawler Carl: Unstoppable, is expected in late 2026. Description Playing Dungeon Crawler Carl means playing a Crawler - a contestant, willing or otherwise - trapped in the World Dungeon, a lethal, alien-broadcast reality show where survival means keeping quadrillions of viewers across the galaxy entertained. The GM takes on the role of the System AI, the sardonic, rules-obsessed intelligence that narrates the dungeon, hands out achievements, and is never quite as fair as it claims to be.  Players can step directly into the shoes of characters from the novels - Carl, Donut, Katia, and others - or build an original Crawler from more than 30 species and a roster of gleefully absurd classes (Fire Mage Arcanist, Former Child Actor, Shotgun Messenger) that matches the source material's satirical, over-the-top tone. True to the books' obsession with loot, XP, and gamified progression, the ruleset leans hard into that same structure rather than smoothing it over for a more traditional fantasy feel.