This is a list of the ten pen and paper roleplaying games. They are widely considered the best RPG games ever. As you can see, the list is a little bit skewed towards older games. But all of these games have huge fan bases and have been time-tested. Without further ado, here is the ten best pen and paper RPG games ever.

10 – Gamma World – It’s a post-apocalyptic game, but not in the style of Mad Max. This game fit more into the style of a science fantasy game. You could play all sorts of random mutant creatures, in addition to playing people that were mostly normal.

9 – Vampire the Masquerade – This was the flagship product of White Wolf’s World of Darkness setting. Since its inception, the game has spawned numerous other similar games, such as Werewolf, Mage, Changeling, and many others.

8 – RuneQuest – This game was considered as one of the ‘Big Three’ at some point. The big three being D&D, Traveller, and RuneQuest. It provided a different setting and system than other fantasy roleplaying games at the time.

7 – Champions – Comic books and super heroes defined this game. It was the first roleplaying game to allow the player to play a comic book super hero. Some of them were heroes that the players were already familiar with, and others were super heroes of their own design.

6 – Tunnels & Trolls – Also called T&T, this was the second modern roleplaying game ever created. It was published in 1975 and was created to be an easier to play game than its predecessor, D&D.

5 – GURPs – Any setting you can possibly think of, this game probably has a supplement book for it to fit the rules system. GURPs stand for the Generic Universal RolePlaying System. Although quirky and not without its flaws, the system was probably the first ‘rules-lite’ system ever invented that could be used with multiple settings.

4 – Star Wars – Based on the movies carrying the same name, the Star Wars Roleplaying Game was first created by West End Games using the d6 system. Eventually it moved on to other companies and saw some play time under the d20 system, and then finally the Saga Edition. It is the premiere sci-fi, or space opera, themed roleplaying game due to George Lucas dominating the minds of nerds all over the world.

3 – Traveller – It was the original space opera roleplaying game, but it definitely isn’t necessarily the most well known. That distinction belongs to a product George Lucas created. Despite this, Traveller was one created in 1977 making it one of the first roleplaying games ever made.

2 – Call of Cthulhu – The most famous horror-themed pen and paper roleplaying game. This setting is based off the horror fiction writings of H.P. Lovecraft. This game has many different editions, using many different systems, and has won multiple awards.

1 – Dungeons & Dragons – This game is bar far, the number one pen and paper roleplaying game in the world. It first claimed dominance in the roleplaying niche by being the first game in the niche, before it was a niche! Got it?! Since that beginning, the game hasn’t lost any stride and continues to be the number one best-selling roleplaying game of all time.

If you count the different editions from each game as separate games, then this list would turn out to be a very different list. In general, there were specific editions to each game that were vastly preferred over others. Sometimes it was the newer edition and sometimes it was the older edition. But this list is a good representation of the best pen and paper roleplaying games ever.

Hans Verbeck writes about Role-Playing and the Best Online RPGs.

A great way to expand your roleplaying abilities in Dungeons & Dragons, or any other roleplaying game, is to try and make better characters. Developing a background and personality for your character will give you a better guideline on how to play your character and it will also give your Dungeon Master more hooks for their story and opportunities to role-play. We’re going to discuss a few ideas on how to easily create a better D&D character background by using simple plot hooks and personality traits. These methods can be altered to work with other roleplaying games as well.

Choose one thing that your character will die for. This is a focal point to the character. It could be any attack on a religious member of his church causes him to go into a blind rage against the attacker. Or maybe he is fighting to save his people from an evil overlord. Anything that will help his people or hurt the evil overlord is good enough for him to die for.

Pick three things that your character will always fight for. These three things are things that will instantly cause the character to go into fight mode. He may not fight to the death over these, but he will always address them appropriately. Perhaps the player just can’t stand it when people insult him about his short stature. Or maybe he hates it when people make fun of any one of his adventuring comrades.

Pick one thing that your character absolutely fears. This fear can alter an adventure if a character runs into one of the fearsome obstacles that he feels he must avoid. This could be an extremely large fear of something that you don’t common run into. Or, it could be a small fear of something that is a lot more common. The player will have to choose what they think is correct for the character.

Decide on one characteristic, or trait, that defines how other people see your character. Maybe your character is always calm no matter what the situation is. Or perhaps your character is the comedian. He is always cracking jokes, even while in the court of a king or the lair of a dragon. You can take this character trait and write it at the top of your character sheet, so you will always be subtly reminded to play your character in that way.

Decide on one supplementary character that is somehow connected with your character and very important. For example, perhaps your character is a distant relative of the king of a foreign land. Although you’ve never met the king, you bear the same last name and if you really needed it he may help you. Or, you might be the enemy of a powerful politician. You could have spoiled his election one year by casting light on misdeeds he had done, and he has still not forgotten of this.

With these seven different characteristics, then one thing that you would die for under any circumstances, picking three reasons you will always fight for, and one thing that you are deathly afraid of, and one characteristic that defines your character personality to other players and NPCs, and designed one character that is important to you, you’ve instantly created a good start for a D&D character background. It includes your personality and helps with your character’s play style. Answering these questions increases the chance for fun and dramatic roleplaying opportunities, without spending hours and hours writing a huge D&D character background.

Espen writes articles about Role-Playing Games Games and Dungeons & Dragons Character information.