I have been planning to write a post listing my picks for the 5 best tabletop rpgs for a few days now, as a response to a Facebook item that Sean Patrick Fannon posted last week. But I decided that instead of trying to list and justify why I would consider any particular RPG “the best”, I am going to create a list of games based upon a different premise – that being, what are my five most essential games?

In other words, If I were told by some higher power that for the rest of my life, I could only choose five rpgs that I would ever be allowed to play again, which five would I pick? Honestly, this turned out not to be as easy as I thought. I did a lot of weighing and pondering. And lets just say that I hope nobody ever tries to force me to only ever play only five games for the rest of my life. There are lots of games that I love being left off this list. Not to mention games that could well be on this list if I ever actually get to play them.

But, here they be – right now, at this stage of my life these are the five most essential roleplaying games I would not want to live without if I were forced to make the choice.

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