Role-playing games without game masters are growing in popularity. Designers are really leaning into innovative game mechanics and the types of new RPGs increasing.
Once unheard of, RPGs without GM are now available options at your gaming table. Here’s a list of some of the best.
The Quiet Year
From the DriveThruRPG description: “The Quiet Year is a map game. You define the struggles of a post-apocalyptic community, and attempt to build something good within their quiet year. Every decision and every action is set against a backdrop of dwindling time and rising concern.”
Microscope
From the DriveThruRPG description: “You won’t play the game in chronological order. You can defy the limits of time and space, jumping backward or forward to explore the parts of the history that interest you. Want to leap a thousand years into the future and see how an institution shaped society? Want to jump back to the childhood of the king you just saw assassinated and find out what made him such a hated ruler? That’s normal in Microscope.
“You have vast power to create… and to destroy. Build beautiful, tranquil jewels of civilization and then consume them with nuclear fire. Zoom out to watch the majestic tide of history wash across empires, then zoom in and explore the lives of the people who endured it.”
Thousand Year Old Vampire
From the DriveThruRPG description: “A creaking hunter among dust and cobwebs, you prowl the night places, seeking the souls on which you feed. You have done this since time immemorial, or so you believe; you have no memories of living as a man-thing like those you catch and eat. But human traces linger; your fingers trace clever arabesques in the dirt of your grave-place and with the flourishes come whispered songs in a language you’ve forgotten. Far away, in a museum, hangs your portrait in oil by a master five hundred years dead–you might have been lovers but the diary you kept then is long lost.”
Alice Is Missing: A Silent Roleplaying Game
From the DriveThruRPG description: “From the creative mind behind Icarus: A Storytelling Game About How Great Civilizations Fall, comes Spenser Starke’s next project Alice is Missing, a silent role-playing game about the disappearance of Alice Briarwood, a high school junior in the small town of Silent Falls.
“Developed by Hunters Entertainment and published & distributed by Renegade Game Studios, Alice Is Missing is a unique kind of roleplaying game in which players only communicate using their phones, sending text messages to each other as they unearth clues about what happened to Alice.” (Ages 16+)
Fiasco Classic
From the DriveThruRPG description: “Fiasco is inspired by cinematic tales of small time capers gone disastrously wrong – inspired by films like Blood Simple, Fargo, The Way of the Gun, Burn After Reading, and A Simple Plan. You’ll play ordinary people with powerful ambition and poor impulse control. There will be big dreams and flawed execution. It won’t go well for them, to put it mildly, and in the end it will probably all go south in a glorious heap of jealousy, murder, and recrimination. Lives and reputations will be lost, painful wisdom will be gained, and if you are really lucky, your guy just might end up back where he started.”
Ironsworn: Starforged
From the DriveThruRPG description: “In Ironsworn: Starforged, you are a spaceborne hero sworn to undertake perilous quests. You will explore uncharted space, unravel the secrets of a mysterious galaxy, and build bonds with those you meet on your travels. Most importantly, you will swear iron vows and see them fulfilled—no matter the cost.
“Starforged is a standalone follow-up to the Ironsworn tabletop roleplaying game. Experience with Ironsworn is not required. Starforged builds on Ironsworn’s award-winning innovations (including its famed solo play!) to chart a path into an exciting new frontier.”
Ironsworn
From the DriveThruRPG description: “In the Ironsworn tabletop roleplaying game, you are a hero sworn to undertake perilous quests in the dark fantasy setting of the Ironlands. You will explore untracked wilds, fight desperate battles, forge bonds with isolated communities, and reveal the secrets of this harsh land.”
Buy Ironsworn (free)
Tabletop RPG without GMs
There’s a list of great GMless RPGs. Check them out you won’t regret it. They all can provide hours and even years of imaginative adventures.