Dungeons & Dragons is the game I started with and the game I’ll always enjoy. You can do a lot of things with the system to make the game that’s the most fun for you and your players.

D&D is one of the most popular tabletop role-playing games, but there are many other options as well! We can learn a lot from playing other TTRPGs. This post discusses how you can pull inspiration from other games to help improve your game.

Why look at other games?

You can learn a lot about TTRPGs and game design by, well, reading and playing a lot of TTRPGs. This is the same across other types of media—you can infer things about art (or, perhaps more accurately, a specific genre of art) by looking at a lot of art. You can learn about fantasy fiction by reading a lot of fantasy fiction. You can learn about dogs by interacting with many different dogs.

This helps you understand the structures and assumptions underlying the larger group that individual instances belong to. There are many different approaches to design and, more specifically, TTRPG design. What dice do players roll most often? How are characters created? How much narrative control to the players/GMs have? Is there a GM at all?

I think that by understanding what other games do, I can make my D&D game more fun for my players. I can understand what options I have and maybe even learn about separate mechanics or ideas I can incorporate into how I DM.

How do I find other games?

There are many ways you can expose yourself to a variety of different tabletop systems. From one-page RPGs on itch.io to sourcebooks you can find in your local bookstores, to actual play podcasts and streams, there are many ways to get acquainted with D&D’s siblings/great-granddaughters/long-lost cousins/other familial term.

There are many games you can read up on without even having to leave the comfort of your laptop screen. Several are published under the Open Gaming License (OGL) and have a System Reference Document (SRD) available online (for example, the Pathfinder and d20 Modern SRD).

An SRD contains all content that isn’t “product identity,” but that’s usually enough for you to familiarize yourself with a game’s basics. For example, the D&D SRD contains most of the information regarding creating a character and running a game, but it excludes certain spells, monsters, subclasses, et cetera.

For example, I heard about Shinobigami and Ryuutama while at Animazement a couple years ago. These are both Japanese TTRPGs that are being/have been translated to bring over to an English-speaking audience by Kotodama Heavy Industries.

I’ve purchased both of these TTRPGs, but I’ve only played Shinobigami so far, so I’ll use that as my example.

Shinobigami is a “Modern Ninja Battle RPG” that generally uses 2d6 rolls to resolve checks. It’s set in an alternate-reality version of modern day Japan where six ninja clans exist in a tense equilibrium, where ninjas carry out secretive missions away from the eyes of average people.

The system allows for both player-versus-player (PVP) and players-versus-environment (PVE) scenarios. PCs might split into two teams that pursue opposing goals, they might all team up against a common enemy, or they might end up in a more… uh, complicated situation. Play is split up into Scenes where a single check is made to determine whether the Scene Player accomplishes what they set out to do.

It’s helpful to think about what kind of stories the game facilitates and what design choices in the game emphasize those stories. In Shinobigami, each character is given a mission and a secret—everyone knows the mission, only the character’s player knows the secret.

I love the potential for drama and how much narrative power the Scene Player gets (though they still work with the GM for rules decisions). So in D&D, I like to give my NPCs secrets. Some D&D sessions lend themselves better to this than others, but I really enjoy the idea of giving a scene over to a player when it focuses on an aspect of their character’s background or specialty.

At the same time, there are parts of Shinobigami that are pretty brutal: you get a limited amount of Scenes to find out information and accomplish your mission, and just one failed roll can put your character in a bad spot. I’ve found that I prefer D&D’s method, where each action a player takes in a scene is determined by a roll.

So things to think about:

  • What kind of stories do people create when they play this game?
  • How are those stories facilitated by the design of this game?
  • What do I/my players like/dislike about this game?
    • Can I incorporate elements of this game into my other games?

You can draw inspiration from a variety of sources, so go forth and run fun games!

Any thoughts? Other TTRPGs you’d recommend? Questions? Drop them in the comments below!