What is a TTRPG?

A table top role-playing game, like the ever-popular Dungeons & Dragons, is a collaborative storytelling experience where friends get together to roll dice, improvise actions, and have fun. 

One player takes on the role of the Game Master or GM. While the other players create custom characters to interact with the story. The GM guides the story, describing the settings and characters that the players encounter. The players work together playing in the GM's world to flesh out the story, making decisions, fighting battles, and completing quests. Actions succeed or fail based on dice rolls and character ability scores. 

Popular TTRPG systems include Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and Warhammer 40,000. There are hundreds of indie TTRPGs available that can be just as fun as the big-name games.

Popular Systems

Dungeons & Dragons - Arguably the most well-known RPG system. Designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, the first edition of the game was published in 1974. The current owning party of D&D, Wizards of the Coast, have gone on to publish the most recent edition of the game 5th edition (5e) in 2014. There are dozens of settings and adventure books available for D&D in print and online.

Pathfinder/Starfinder - Both systems are published by Paizo. While Pathfinder is fantasy inspired, Starfinder is a science-fiction/space exploration themed world. The most recent version of Pathfinder (2nd Edition) was released in 2019. While Pathfinder has origins rooted in the 3rd edition of Dungeons & Dragons, Starfinder was created in 2016 as a response to the success of the 2012 science-fiction supplement for Pathfinder, Distant Worlds.

Warhammer 40,000 -  Created by Games Workshop, Warhammer 40K is the most popular miniature wargame in the world! Set in a world engaging in a constant state of war, players enact battles using mini models of warriors and fighting vehicles. “In the wake of that great calamity, Humanity faces existential threats from traitors, heretics, and xenos empires on all sides.”