The best tabletop RPGs we played in 2022

The relentless pace of video game releases — even board game releases! — can make it feel like you’re always a step behind. Tabletop role-playing is a game that always seems to be open to you no matter where you may be. It’s timeless to tell stories and roll dice, and older TTRPGs can be brought around as many friends as a new player.

Twelve writers, artists, presenters and actors from the tabletop gaming world were asked by us to help identify which games they and their gamers liked this year. These are our top 10 tabletop RPGs of 2022.

Fiasco

Mats Andersson, lead combat designer at Fatshark (Warhammer 40,000: Darktide)

I don’t get to play as much as I’d like between adulting and work, so the choices usually fall on faster, more lightweight sessions. FiascoAs a single-session tabletop RPG,’is great for casual storytelling and taking the players to fascinatingly strange places.

Fiasco

These prices were correct at the time of publication.

This award-winning collaboration storytelling game makes it easy to play role-playing!

Dungeons & Drawings

Bianca “momatoes” CanozaDiana Jones, author and game designer.

It’s a pleasure to be able to draw new insights from system-agnostic sources. Gen Con was a wonderful opportunity to experience the unlimited joy of Gen Con. Dungeons & Drawings: An Illustrated Compendium of Creatures by Blanca Martínez and Joe Sparrow. This hardbound, lush book contains many fantasy creatures. Every creature has a rating according to its combat, magic and smarts. They would also be accompanied by lore description, which ran the gamut from amusing to imposing, an “adventurer’s tip” that gave advice on how to deal with the creature, and the centerpiece of each spread: a beautiful full-color illustration that gave life to imagination.

The book had everything you could need, from dragons to centaurs, eldritch monsters and psychopomps. It was a real treasure trove that inspired many great games. Dungeons & DrawingsAndrews McMeel has published it. It is also available as a hardcover on Amazon.

Ten Thousand Lightless

Chase CarterFreelance writer and news reporter at Dicebreaker.

Choosing an adventure might feel a bit like cheating, but Alfred Valley’s Ten Thousand LightlessThis is much more than a simple jaunt. Mothership RPG. Launched as part of this year’s independent Zinemonth initiative, the 36-page zine grabs Mothership’s Alien-esque themes of corporate hellscape in space and plunges instead to the inky nadir of an alien ocean where the player’s prime directive isn’t survival but maintaining the light.

Instructions look like a combination of technical manual and induction guide. Notecards, photocopied notes and scribbles found in margins hint at secret information that your predecessors may have discovered. Although classified Hazmos information is not available, it could have been faulty technology, local fauna or just the sheer weight of living so alone in the darkness.

Ten Thousand LightlessThis is about using mechanics, atmosphere and pre-sapient instinctual holdsovers that can transform every sound and shadow in to a threat. It’s a way of telling a story that reveals something more sinister than corporate evil: apathy.

Avery Alder’s The Quiet Year

Jay Dragon, Grub and Possum Creek Games

The Quiet YearThis is an enduring theme on such lists, and a favorite with all types of people: podcast listeners to community organizers and fans to the show. Wherever we go, from the mountains of Colombia to the hotel lobby of Indianapolis, it’s easy to introduce people and invite them into the creation of their own beautiful village. But it’s easy to miss the village for the trees — The Quiet Year is a game about leftist organizing, community discontent, and the challenges of caring for each other when sometimes your needs just don’t line up. There’s no game like it, in its elegance and effectiveness both as a delightful game and as a tool to understand each other.

Children on Brooms

Madison DurhamReviewed/USA Today senior writer and Polygon contributor

This year, Dimension 20’s Mischfits and magicThis led me to Children on Brooms, which has one of the best character creation systems I’ve played. It’s simple and delightfully collaborative, with an immediate emphasis on developing a space where players and game master will all get the most from the experience. If you opt for the “Complete Questions” character creation route, you’ll embark on an exploration of your character’s relationship with their peers, from the rumors others have heard about them to the times that your fellow players’ characters have stood up for your character. The game’s notes on inclusivity, player safety tools, and general sense of purpose make for nostalgic, whimsical gameplay that allows the player to experience a magical world on their own terms. The mechanics make it highly customizable, too — magic is magic is magic, after all.

Brindlewood Bay

It’s the third consecutive year. Brindlewood Bay My favorite role-playing game is still it. Whether I’m putting it in front of longtime role-players or brand-new players, this cozy, spooky game appeals to just about every gaming group. This is how it was inspired Murder, She Wrote, H.P. Lovecraft is the most famous television detective. The players, a retired group, solves mysteries in the title town.

The creation of characters is fast, tasty, collaborative and rewarding for creativity. It is possible to save yourself from a perilous situation by using a role-played advertisement or taking a walk down the memory lane.

Each of the game’s mysteries are contained in just two to seven pages of setup, vivid NPCs, and clues. The mystery mechanic developed by Jason Cordova means there’s no one solution. Instead, the group “meddles” to collect clues, then works together to craft a plausible solution. It is easier to roll the dice to find out if your Mystery Mavens are able to capture the villain and save the day – the more clues you have, the simpler it will be. These results can be hilarious and bizarre, making them suitable for conspiracy boards of any color.

It’s one of my favorite games to get to know a new group, or shake a long-established group out of its rut.

One Ring Starter Set

Charlie HallTabletop editor at Polygon:.

2021 was the 20th anniversary of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings films, and it was also the year that we decided to share them all with our kids. Following an epic movie marathon over the holidays, we returned in January to find Polygon’s review copy of a rebooted version of One Ring Starter Set You can find it in our mail box.

Free League Publishing produces some of the finest and most beautiful artwork in the industry. This is no exception. After a giddy few hours playing hobbits roaming around the Shire as a family, the set’s gorgeous map now adorns our living room wall.

The Wagadu Chronicles

Gabriel HicksSenior game developer, Steamforged Games, Mythic Grove Productions

It is rare that I get the chance to live in fantasy realms heavily inspired by African mythology. The Wagadu ChroniclesIt was the best thing I have ever done. With lore focused around spirits and leaning into magic that isn’t simply European arcana, it’s a whole new side to tabletop role-playing games. It hopes it inspires people to think about how others can apply their cultural experience and historical knowledge to create worlds that are truly amazing. It’s also such an interesting experience because you can both play through this game as a video game, and then also use the free 5th edition supplement to play at the table — so you not only get to experience it as a pen-and-paper game, but you can experience it digitally at home on your own.

Bathwater Heights at a Specific Tuesday

Timothy Hutchings, game designer, author of Apollo 47,Assistant professor of Game Design at Bradley University

Bathwater Heights at a Specific TuesdayJackson Tegu allows remote players to collaborate on a Google document that is not very well structured. This creates a story of a group of individuals having a normal, but surreal, day at Cafe Bon Temps located at the corner Giaever Street & Mouth Avenue.

It sounds so simple!

As you play the game, about a dozen people simultaneously type in various parts of the document. The words are popping up everywhere, fast and slow, in misspellings, or otherwise. It’s like watching a dozen knowledgeable monkeys fly a plane — they are hopping all over and it is beautifully anarchic, but the plane stays aloft because it is the good sort of anarchism where the people love each other and want to see everything succeed.

It is easy to shift gears during the game — feverishly type, then sit back, and read, and enjoy. Because reading exposes the questions and bumps, the passive reader rarely stays that way for very long. “I better steady the plane by adding in why Ms. Ng’s scooter disappeared between the Dinner and Night sections.”

It’s the best half-hour I spent playing games during my pal Rainbow’s birthday this year (and every year).

Bathwater Heights at a Specific Tuesday is currently in development, and only available to members of Jackson Tegu’s Patreon. It will soon be available on itch.io.

The Game of Necromancy: Dead Friend

Jess Kung, production assistant, NPR’s Code Switch

The Game of Necromancy: Dead FriendLucian Kahn created a storytelling game for two that takes on the shape of a resurrection ritual. The game is played as a friendship, with one of the players raising the dead. A focus on dramatic tension keeps the game on track as players answer prompts determined by tarot card draws, developing the characters’ stories up to their current conflict. Although the structure may be tight, textures like setting and tone can remain open-ended. We set one favorite scene in the dumpster in a deserted casino. The other was inside a drug-tour in a ventilation shaft in a space station.

At first, two-player role playing games intimidated me. I tend toward lighter games for bigger groups, and these seemed intense — too intimate, too small. Dead friendI was able to see the attraction through it. It isIntimate, providing space to share ideas and not be overwhelmed. Also, allowing for well-balanced agency among players with asymmetrical roles. And this was in an year where it was hard to fit games into my busy schedule. Dead friendI found that playing on deck was a two-to three-hour, self-contained experience which helped me regain my abilities to play.

Monster of the Week

Cody Pondsmith (game designer), R. Talsorian GamingCyberpunk Red, The Witcher TRPG)

This year I’ve been lucky enough to be part of a lot of great games, but the standout has to be Monster of the WeekEvil Hat Productions. This rules-light RPG follows a variant of the Powered by the Apocalypse system. It tells the story of a group of eclectic monster slayers, who employ their diverse tricks, tools, magical powers and other means to defeat all sorts of creatures. The game’s playbooks (pre-generated character templates) allow you to create a wide range of characters by making a series of set choices and start playing in minutes.

Growing up with system-heavy RPGs such as Cyberpunk 2020 Pathfinder, it’s a nice change of pace to play a system-light game with a heavy focus on storytelling sometimes. Monster of the Week’s streamlined resolution system allows you to focus on playing your character and moving the story forward without getting slowed down by additive math and complex rules. Although the game is heavily dependent on the game master for decisions about when and how to roll, it’s worth the compromise. The open-ended system provides solid guidance in difficult situations.

For Queen

Elise RezendesShe is co-founder and CEO of Mythic Grove Productions

I’ve never defended the queen; not once. You have probably played if that sentence makes you feel giddy and eager for more collaboration storytelling. For Queen,Evil Hat Productions’ card-based improv RPG. I’ve become ensorcelled by the mechanic of turn-based role-play that this game definitively masters. Before a card can be turned, and the question asked, no one will know what their character is. You can only then create a whole-cloth around you character, and all of the people in your trusted circle. The queen is the one leading the journey. However, the character they play does not act except in the scenes that are described by the players. These questions can be very poignant and have become almost prophetic. They are perfect to help drive the story forward. It is a fact that when something is stated, it becomes true. This makes for endless storytelling possibilities. Sometimes the most interesting plot twists I have seen for my characters came from the stories told by others at the table. Your party must face betrayal and love as it struggles to decide if your queen is worthy to be protected.

Blades in Dark

Abubakar SalimactorAssassin’s Creed Origins, Wolves raise the childrenSilver Rain Games

Blades in DarkThis is an extremely tense and beautiful game that’s also very accessible. It is a game that will challenge players. The Dungeon Master is sitting on their edge. What’s so brilliant about it is just how easy it is to pick up and feel like you’re in control. It’s easy to get involved, but difficult to master. Fantastic game design.

The Quiet Year

Keerthi Shridharan freelance writer, contributor to Polygon

The Quiet YearAlthough it has been popular in TTRPG circles over the years, I just started to play it recently. It was intended to be used as an introduction to new campaigns and a way for our group of world builders. The story quickly evolved into something beautiful, moving, and unique. We spent four hours arguing between surfer wizards or cowboy skaters. Sketching cursed mountain ranges was our final task, before finally crying about a mysterious illness that claimed the lives of all children on the list. The Quiet Year deserves its flowers as a stand-alone play experience, guiding players through the game with a deck of gorgeously illustrated cards, appropriately creepy skull tokens, and prompts that put the weight of a world — your world — on your shoulders. You can play the game with any standard playing card deck. OracleA reference sheet which tells you the prompt for each card.

B. Dave WaltersAuthor, editor, producer of content, and lead designer To The Mother Lands

My favourite TTRPG for the year was “My beloved” Battlelords in the 23rd Century.

I’ve been playing Battlelords since 1st edition when I was in high school, and the current 6th edition is the best one yet. The original Battelords tagline was “roleplaying something besides elves,” but I have often described it as “Aliens meets The Fifth Element,” where an incredible assortment of fascinating alien races are waiting to explore, such as:

• Eridani Sword saints: Klingon-space samurai, my favourites.
• Phentari is a murderous squid that eats humans as delicacy.
• Cizerak: Smart big cats who can mount cannons onto their backs and act like tanks.
• Fott: Redneck redneck bunnies that have been genetically modified to be ultimate warriors

And so Very Many more.

You should definitely check out this site if you are looking for a different approach to sci-fi. Battlelords in the 23rd Century!