What tabletop role playing game is right for you?

About: "Fiasco is a roleplaying game about ordinary people with powerful ambition and poor impulse control, inspired by cinematic tales of small time capers gone disastrously wrong – films like Blood Simple, Fargo, The Way of the Gun, Burn After Reading, and A Simple Plan."

Genre: Heist Film/Neo-noir

Players: 3-5 (No GM)

Skill Level: Beginner (adult content)

Time Commitment: One Shot

Cost: $20 + $20 for the Companion

Requirements: Game + Six-Sided Dice

Link: http://www.bullypulpitgames.com/games/fiasco/

About: ‘Dog Eat Dog is a game of colonialism and its consequences.’ One player assumes the role of the Occupation force and the others the Natives, ‘The game begins when the war ends. Through a series of scenes, you play out the inevitably conflicted relationship between the two parties, deciding what the colonizers do to maintain control, which natives assimilate and which run amok, and who ends up owning the island in the end.’

Genre: Historical Fiction

Players: 3-6

Skill Level: Beginner

Time Commitment: One Shot

Cost: $10

Requirements: Game + Pens and paper

Link: http://liwanagpress.com/dog-eat-dog/

About: ‘Monsterhearts lets you and your friends create stories about sexy monsters, teenage angst, personal horror, and secret love triangles. When you play, you explore the terror and confusion that comes both with growing up and feeling like a monster.

Genre: Supernatural Romance

Players: 3-6

Skill Level: Variable (sexual content)

Time Commitment: One Shot or Multiple Sessions

Cost: $10

Requirements: Game + Six-Sided Dice

Link: http://buriedwithoutceremony.com/monsterhearts/

About: ‘[I]n a small town in rural Japan, … players take on the role of henge (pronounced hen-gay…), animals with just a little magical power, including the ability to temporarily take human form. They do not fight great battles or unearth valuable treasures though; Golden Sky Stories adventures are all about helping others and becoming friends.’

Genre: Fantasy

Players: 3-5

Skill Level: Beginner (all ages)

Time Commitment: One Shot

Cost: $20

Requirements: Game + Six-Sided Dice

Link: http://starlinepublishing.com/our-games/golden-sky-stories/

By: Epidiah Ravachol

About: ‘[A] game of horror and hope. Those who play will participate in a mutual telling of an original macabre tale. The goal of Dread is to sustain the delicate atmosphere that invokes the hand quivering emotion that lends its name to the game. The thrill of a Dread game lies within the tension between desire and loss. You will take on the role of someone trapped in a story that is only as compelling as it is hostile—someone who will find themselves making decisions we hope never to face in real life.’

Genre: Horror

Players: 3-6

Skill Level: Beginner

Time Commitment: One Shot or Multiple Sessions

Cost: $12

Requirements: Game + Jenga Tower (or equivalent)

Link: https://dreadthegame.wordpress.com/about-dread-the-game/

By: Wizards of the Coast

About: The first Dungeons & Dragons game was played back when Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson chose to personalize the massive battles of their fantasy wargames with the exploits of individual heroes. This inspiration became the first fantasy roleplaying game, in which players are characters in an ongoing fantasy story. The core of D&D is storytelling. You and your friends tell a story together, guiding your heroes through quests for treasure, battles with deadly foes, daring rescues, courtly intrigue, and much more.

Genre: Fantasy

Players: 3-6

Skill Level: Expert

Time Commitment: Multiple Sessions

Cost: $20

Requirements: Game + Dice of Various Sizes (20, 8, 6, 4 sided) + Core Rulebook + Player Rulebooks

Links:

http://dnd.wizards.com/dungeons-and-dragons/what-is-dd
http://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/rpg_starterset

By: Greg Costikyan & Warren Spector

About: TOON is a different roleplaying game. Remember those great Saturday morning cartoons? Now they're back - and you're the star! TOON lets you be a rabbit, duck, mouse, moose, woodpecker, wombat, crocodile, caveman .. . whatever you want. In TOON, anything can happen, and nobody ever gets killed. Been punched? Blown up? Steamrollered? Don't worry - you'll bounce back in the next scene, ready for more!

Genre: Comedy/Cartoon

Players: 3-6

Skill Level: Beginner

Time Commitment: Multiple Sessions

Cost: $40

Requirements: Game + Six-Sided Dice

Link: http://www.sjgames.com/toon/

By: Council of Fools Productions

About: In Ehdrigohr you play a character struggling to survive in a recovering world. It is a fantasy game of high heroics, powerful magic, and survival horror. Every night at sunset, overwhelming darkness threatens the people's safety. Ehdrigohr takes inspiration from the myths and folklore of tribal and indigenous cultures around the world, with particular inspiration from the Lakota people. In this human-centric world, each of Ehdrigohr's cultures has its own magical flavor -- not "primitive," but interesting and unique paths to survival against the night's ravenous hordes.

Genre: Fantasy

Players: 3-6

Skill Level: Variable

Time Commitment: Multiple Sessions

Cost: $10

Requirements: Game + Six-Sided Dice

Link: http://council-of-fools.com/blog/?page_id=15