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 – The first in a long line of products from White Wolf where you played the role of ‘the bad guy’. This game explored what it was like to be a vampire in the modern world and lead the way for products such as Werewolf, Mage, Changeling, Wraith, and many other great games.  Remember to use some Vampire Music to get yourself in the mood when playing this game.

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 – This was the original comic book / super hero roleplaying game. Many others have followed, like Marvel Super Heroes, Mutant’s and Masterminds, Heroes Unlimited, and more. But Champions was the first game to break the mold and put the player in control of a comic book super hero.

6 – Tunnels & Trolls – This game was created in 1975 making it older than the author of this article, as well as older that all other roleplaying games (except for one!). Also known by its shortened name of T&T, this game has long played second fiddle to the original fantasy roleplaying game.

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 – May perhaps be the most popular roleplaying setting of all time. It definitely is the most popular setting that was derived from a movie and placed into roleplaying game form. You have to pick which edition you like though! There is d6, d20, and Saga Edition.

3 – Traveller – Not as famous as its other space opera buddy, Star Wars. This game, however, did come out as a roleplaying system before George Lucas’s creation did. Traveller was first created in 1977 and has been going strong ever since. The game is definitely considered one of the ‘original’ RPGs.

2 – Call of Cthulhu – A unique entry into this list. This horror-based roleplaying game is based off of the works of H.P. Lovecraft. There really isn’t a popular, comparable game out on the market now. Instead, different gaming companies have chosen to create Call of Cthulhu in a variety of different systems under a variety of different publishers.

1 – Dungeons & Dragons – The most famous pen and paper roleplaying game of all time. This fantasy game still dominates the market with all of its various incarnations, from the original D&D to 4th Edition. D&D creators Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson are legends in the industry, just as the game itself is.

This list tends to be a little bit more biased towards older games. If you split up the different editions and counted each edition, for each game, as a separate game, this list would look very different. Overall, it gives you a good idea of the general popularity of specific pen and paper roleplaying games since the creation of pen and paper roleplaying games many years ago. What do you think of our list of the ten top RPG games of all time?