D&D Beyond

Owlbear Rodeo

“Roleplay Heavy” games place the focus on the story, the characters, and the world they live within, and tend to lean hard into the various roleplaying elements of the game. These games will frequently find the party talking with NPCs, exploring the personal elements of their backstories, or even having emotional moments around the camp fire. 

Roleplay Heavy

“Combat Heavy” games emphasize the combat mechanics within their systems over roleplay or puzzle solving. There are frequent and longer battles with enemies and a greater emphasis on tactical game play.

Combat Heavy

“Theater of the Mind” uses little to no visuals for scene settings and combat. Instead, the narrative imagery comes from the Game Master’s descriptions and character action and movement comes from Players’ descriptions. 

Theater of the Mind

“Rule of Cool” emphasizes creative story beats over sticking to a system’s rules as written. Players have the ability to push the limits of the rules or even break core rule mechanics at times if the Game Master thinks it is interesting, fun, or cool enough.

Rule of Cool (RoC)

In "Sandbox" or "Open World" games, players are given a tremendous amount of freedom to pursue their stories without the restrictions of a more linear game style. Players are encouraged to explore and engage with the world, and find their own story as they do so. These games offer the players the opportunity to help drive the narrative, and allow for the story to evolve organically through the choices they make.

Sandbox / Open World

“Roleplay Lite” games typically include some story and character interactions but keep the emphasis on other gameplay elements like exploration or combat. While these games can still feature character-driven moments, they tend to favor quicker scenes with less focus on extensive backstories or dramatic roleplay.

Roleplay Lite

“Combat Lite” games typically focus less on combat encounters and more on roleplay, storytelling, and exploration. Combat tends to be shorter, less frequent, resolved in a more narrative style, or absent altogether, while keeping the story as the primary focus.

Combat Lite

Dungeons & Dragons 5e

Call of Cthulhu

Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition

Cyberpunk Red

Dark Conspiracy

Cyberpunk 2020

Starship Troopers: The Roleplaying Game

Pulp Cthulhu

Gothic Horror

Horror

Fantasy

Gritty Fantasy

Scifi

Post-Apocalyptic

Cyberpunk

Modern

Futuristic

Imaginative

Supernatural

Steampunk

Cosmic Horror

Comedy

Eldritch Horror

Dark Fantasy

Espionage

Urban Fantasy

Sci-fi

J. W. Lanning (GrimTask)

Edward Kabara

Locke

J. W. Lanning (GrimTask)

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