Five Fantasy RPGs That Deliver Dungeon Crawls With or Without D20s
There is a wide world of RPGs out there. These five are great for playing dungeon-delving fantasy heroes if you’re looking for a new one.
One of the best things about the RPG community is how open and creative it can be. Turn to any nook or cranny, and you’ll find people pushing the envelopes of storytelling with dice. Sometimes without.
If you’re curious about the wide world out there and looking to brave the murky waters further out from the coast, so to speak, we’re here to help. Here are five fantasy RPGs that deliver a dungeon crawling / fantasy hero experience in a new or exciting way.
Pathfinder 2E
Pathfinder 2nd Edition might be the most familiar of these fantasy RPGs. If you’re looking to crawl through some dungeons, maybe fight off a dragon, it doesn’t get much more dungeony or crawly than Pathfinder 2E. It builds off of a familiar die, the humble d20, but adds in a ton of crunch. It’s a great jumping-off point if you’re looking to try a new system because you’ll find a lot of familiar elements. There are characters with classes, levels, six ability scores, and so on and so forth.
But there’s so much more depth. Every skill has an expanded list of actions you can take. Weapons have special qualities that make a short sword feel distinct from a scimitar, and so on. If you want crunchy, delicious fantasy fun, Pathfinder 2E is a great place to start.
Ironsworn
Do you yearn for something a little different? Ironsworn is a tabletop RPG of perilous quests. Built off of the Powered-by-the-Apocalypse framework, it runs a little differently from the RPGs you might be familiar with.
But the rules are pretty easy to pick up. And what’s more, they’re available for free online right here. It’s Powered by the Apocalypse and designed with dungeon delving in mind. This is what one of the accessories, Delve, expands even greater. If you want to play warriors who might be Viking-adjacent, or who could easily be voiced by Sean Bean, Ironsworn is a great way to do exactly that.
Mausritter
Mausritter, as the name implies, is a game of brave mouse adventurers. This is a rules-light fantasy game, with core rules just big enough for its mice-sized heroes! The game is also absolutely beautiful. But you might not notice because it’s the quickest and easiest of these games to pick up and play.
For being as rules-light as it is, the game is surprisingly robust. With the included GM resources, you can have expansive, sandbox-style campaigns. Or adventure in Stumpsville and find what challenges await a brave mouse willing enough to face them.
Mörk Borg
Okay but if you want your fantasy to be absolutely apocalyptic and drenched in doom, Mörk Borg is the way to go. This is self-described as “a doom metal album of a game, a spiked flail to the face.” And that’s an accurate descriptor.
This award-winning fantasy RPG is a pitch-black fantasy world that has no time for heroes mucking about. Bold, decisive action is the only thing that can help you survive in this bleak, dying world. This is dungeon crawling in the style of the Old School Renaissance. Where combat can be unforgiving. And failure lurks around the corner of any dice roll.
But don’t let the streamlined rules fool you, this game will absolutely destroy you if you let it. The world might well end in the middle of a session, with nothing for you to do but lament your fate or rage against the dying of the light.
Troika
Do you prefer a little less bleakness and a little more humor in your RPG session? Troika! is for you. This is a science-fantasy RPG in which you and your cosmopolitan, cosmos-hopping fellow travelers explore a strange and wondrous multiverse.
It’s cosmic fantasy at its finest. If you want to fly on mystic barges, explore vast cities that sit at the heart of a multiversal hub, if you want a decadently rich game of storytelling with hundreds of options and no prior knowledge or skill required, Troika is a phenomenal way to jump in.
It’s esoteric and strange, but if you like the sort of adventures that might take you from plane to plane, landscape to landscape, Troika will open up whole weird worlds within you that you never knew existed.
Happy Adventuring
