A third post on opening? Yes.

Preface

I've run 16+ systems this year (which is so much reading, cause it doesn't even include the systems I read, but didn't run, like Avatar Legends, Brambletrek, and Death Match Island). I'm gonna talk about my 5 favorite systems from 2025. Rules for these are that I've run the game at least 3 times to get a good feel and average rating across different groups of people. I would have liked to have raised this number to something insane like 10 but it just takes time to run that many games. Different styles and preferences are important - not everybody is in for the vibe of hyper violent action that Eat the Reich provides, and not everybody can take things slow and chill with little directed guidance as with Wanderhome. 

Also obviously, I'm gonna skip the hard hitter D&D5e cause it's popular enough. Most of my games are D&D5e due to it's sheer popularity and yada yada.

The List

Eat the Reich

I can't stop talking about this game enough. Punny name? Check. Easy to understand goal? Everybody wants a specific dictator dead. Mechanics that match the story they wanna tell? Roll xd6s and carry on. This game feels so fast that at the end of each 3 to 4 hour session, the players have gone, "Hey, wait, what? It's late already?".

Grant Howitt is a genius in writing games, and I encourage everyone to check out all the other games written by him. I really don't wanna say much more to spoil the game.

Triangle Agency

I heard the writers of this game call it the anti-gm game (I might be paraphrasing a bit), and it totally feels like it nonetheless. Play-walled material exists in the book that nobody can read until instructed to. This is absolute insanity to me having come from a primarily D&D background where the norm is to read everything you can. How did they pull this off? I'm not sure. 

I'm starting a campaign of this in January and I'll update you all if I die of an aneurysm from the play-walled material. This is a list of the games I've loved this year, so I want to emphasize that I love this game. The over-the-top wackiness and corporate humor/horror combination is something that I live for having been an office man at one point of my life.

Definitely not for the faint of heart. 

CBR+PNK

This game (along with the trifold series of Mothership modules) have enlightened me to the world of compact modules and TTRPGs. These games pack so much punch in very little. 

CBR+PNK is a variant of Blades in the Dark with a strong CBR+PNK flavor, meant to recreate a runner's last run. You're already a veteran. You've already done many missions. You're already cool. Blades flashback mechanics work really well here, allowing you to have the right augmentations and items and die in a flash of epic-ness at the end. The post-mission mechanics are really cool too, allowing everyone to have closure with their characters. Most games I've run I feel kind of leave it to the GM to run the epilogue, but it's nice to see some direction. 

Alice is Missing

This entry is purely for the amazing self-contained design. This game runs on a timer as a mechanic with some cards, as opposed to dice rolls. It's almost 2 hours of pure roleplay but without a single word being spoken. I've run this game completely via discord (as it's easy to set up chats/names and open up histories post-game). This is less a system and more an experience in a box. Music is on youtube that coincides with all the key hitting emotional points of the game and amps up the emotions. There are mechanics for the early or lull periods of the game to make people feel active instead of reactive to the timer. The art style is reminiscent of Life is Strange and has a similar vibe. 

I really do hope the designers (or someone who's truly inspired) writes something using a similar system one day. I will definitely gobble up a kickstarter if it pops up. It's hard to believe such strong emotions can be contained in such a tiny box of cards. Sure, any TTRPG could make me cry, but it usually takes emotional investment over dozens of sessions and character building. AiM just hits hard and hits fast.

Honorable Mentions

I've really enjoyed Mothership a lot, and you should definitely check it out. Horror isn't really one of my strong suits, but I've leaned into the whacky antics and it honestly becomes more comedic for me.  

Break!! and Fabula Ultima have been my JRPG entries for this year, and it was truly interesting to feel my childhood video games come to life in some form in TTRPG format.

Stewpot

Last on this list, is Stewpot. I've got the book ordered, and it's stuck somewhere in Canada right now for me. Stewpot is a totally upgraded and less raunchy version of Firebrands, offering a more fantasy element. You play as adventurers who have retired, and start up a tavern. It inspired me enough to write a game about running a library. It's still in it's v0.1 version, so do let me know if you like or dislike stuff!

Stewpot is really great at training improv, since the whole system is basically a series of prompt-based mini-games. I truly do believe that when playing TTRPGs, the story writes themselves, and this game truly does let the players play out tales quite fluidly. Just like with CBR+PNK, there is a clear end to the game. I truly appreciate games that have these sorts of features to offer closure to players for their fictional lives.

End

Well, that's all. Do let me know if there are more games that I should try. I'm super excited to start jumping into more games in 2026. Shoot systems that have special mechanics, cool features, fancy looking items. Tell me more about systems from Southeast Asia. Tell me about your favorite modules. Game mastering is an eternally iterative process and I think that's why it's captivated me for so long.

Don't forget, who's awesome? You're awesome.

- Josh :B