There is an undeniable magic to TTRPG rulebooks like those of Dungeons & Dragons. Something about the heft, the elaborate worlds and intricate systems developed over hundreds of pages, that beckons players over the threshold. Yet the very scope that makes these games so inviting can be a barrier. The free hours in a player's life are few, and many games gobble them up.
Not so with one-page RPGs. Here, rules and worlds fit a single piece of paper, and stories can begin and end in an evening. Free of the large teams and fat wallets needed to publish most rulebooks, one-page RPGs can be truly indie, exploring ideas and mechanics untried elsewhere. Here are a few self-contained adventures that TTRPG fans will love.
Updated December 22, 2021 by Patrick Armstrong: The smaller scale and tighter playtime of one-page TTRPGs grant game creators incredible freedom to explore new ideas. Whether inverting classic JRPG mechanics or riffing on 19th century Victorian literature, the world of one-page games now has more opportunities than ever for players and Game Masters to flex their creative muscles. Because these games take a fraction of the time to write and illustrate as standard-length RPGs, the list of those available has grown exponentially, from the wildest sci-fi adventures to the coziest slice-of-life pieces. With that in mind, we've updated this list to include a few more of the brightest stars in the one-page constellation.
Please note that the following games were created by Grant Howitt. If someone is interested in following up with any of these titles, please check out Howitt's Patreon or Itch.io pages.
14 Adventure Skeletons
Veteran and newbie RPG players alike have seen more than their fair share of skeletons lurking around necromancers' crypts, guarding treasure, and harassing adventurers. Adventure Skeletons asks a simple but profound question: what happens when the skeletons want to do something else?
Players take control of said skeletons, venturing into villages in the name of questin, hoping to win for themselves some of the glory and riches typically reserved for elves and dwarves. If things take a turn for the worse, skeletons can just stick their leg back on if some meddling barbarian knocks it off. The game is lean, clever, and takes full advantage of its premise in terms of mechanics.
13 Pride And Extreme Prejudice
As well-to-do sisters living on their family's English estate when the French invade, players have only one logical response: jump into their giant, tandem war machine and fight back. Pride and Extreme Prejudice is a tongue-in-cheek homage to both Jane Austen and mecha anime.
Balancing the very different threats posed by a "piano recital from some relative's awful sister" and French forces "experimenting with clockwork power armor" is the draw here, and it doesn't disappoint. Pair that with innovative relationship and turn mechanics and Pride and Extreme Prejudice is one page with a lot to offer.
12 Crash Pandas
When one pictures illegal street racing in Los Angeles, they probably don't picture raccoons. Crash Pandas exists to correct this error. A game based on raccoon street racers is an inherently fun idea, for one obvious reason: raccoons are terrible drivers.
Better yet, all of the raccoons are driving the same car: players secretly decide whether to break, turn, accelerate, or take another action. Only then are their collective decisions revealed and resolved. Crash Pandas is the purest kind of nonsense, recommended for anyone with a strong whimsical streak.
11 Reverse Beastmaster
Beastmasters command animals, so naturally, Reverse Beastmasters must obey any command that an animal gives. Players are just such a group, sent to Saint Beef's Zoo For The Brave by a spider.
Reverse Beastmaster exists to amuse Pokemon and sock puppet enthusiasts as much as casual roleplayers. Why sock puppets? By putting on a special sock puppet, players take on an alternate role: that of the lazy, command-giving zoo animals intent on manipulating the humans into helping them escape. Reverse Beastmaster is one of the most innovative TTRPGs out there.
10 The Beast
It is 18th century Europe, and good work is hard to find. That is how a bunch of vagabonds end up in the service of a Baron that they hate, trying to track and destroy The Beast, a monster that will almost certainly kill them. It's part pre-industrial mystery, part monster-hunting escapade, all bad news for a team of vagabonds just trying to make a few pounds sterling.
As for things the GM will need, the system uses d3-d20. Best of all is the list of the Beast's mundane weaknesses. It's hard not to be compelled by a monster that's "in love with a villager (not the first)" or that speaks with a child's voice.
9 Kaiju Girls
High school is hard enough for teenagers without them becoming skyscraper-punching, helicopter-chomping monsters when they get stressed. Kaiju Girls is simple but flexible, making it an excellent entry point for RPG players that need a little guidance.
Players roll for their schoolgirl talents, monstrous abilities (such as laser eyes, bone sword, and rows upon rows of teeth), and drama (e.g. "you're tutoring your crush, but they're really dumb"). The fusion of settings gives the GM limitless opportunities to whiplash players between high school awkwardness and monster brawls that squash city blocks, keeping everyone on their toes and laughing.
8 Sad Vampire Boyfriend
Sad Vampire Boyfriend is the delicious lovechild of Vampire: The Masquerade and Twilight, allowing players to choose their role as either mortal or vampire. In a twist, the game can be played without a GM, if everyone can come to a consensus about how critical scenes revolve and threats arise. No need for extensive third-party books here.
The d6 system modifies rolls based on how much Angst the character is feeling. Over time characters develop a series of flaws, from "let your hair down and misbehave" to "hunt for blood." Its most interesting mechanic allows mortals to gain vampire moves, and vice versa, as love lures each character further into a dangerous world not their own. Throw in draconic elders, a bloodpox, and the looming threat of insurrection. Sad Vampire Boyfriend is not only one of the shortest vampire stories in gaming but also one of the best.
7 We That Remain
We That Remain is a survival horror RPG in which monsters are trying to kill the players, but its best features are its collaborative story mechanics. A player can use cards to buff their actions, but when they do, the player to their left reveals a secret about the character in question, which the player to the right then further twists.
The game concentrates on its exceptional rule development, leaving the development of its setting to the GM and players. In the hands of an experienced group unafraid of worldbuilding, We That Remain is a fantastic one-page RPG, tense, cagey, and freeform enough to support repeated playthroughs.
6 Sexy Battle Wizards
When the designer only has a page to work with, adding art to an RPG is tricky, because every image takes real estate that could be used for rules. In Sexy Battle Wizards, the trade is worth it. The illustrations perfectly capture the setting, in which wizards cruise around the world in a flying castle, looking for villains to beat up. The wizards are also wanted by police, and numerous countries, for collateral damage while saving the world.
In a game where ghost-wolves and majestic mustaches are considered equally worthy of a roll during character creation, the tongue-in-cheek vibe is obvious. Also, failure when too stressed causes wizards to explode, leading to more hilarity.
5 Trashkin
Human-animal hybrids that eat out of the trash are no one's first pick for epic fantasy quests. Enter Trashkin. Being a cigarette-smoking pigeonkin or a goatgirl (depending on whose birthday it always is) delivers on its promise at every level. The rules are solid, but it is the descriptions that elevate Trashkin to low-fantasy glory.
Bin-Wizardry includes such spells as Meld With Trash, Vorpal Tin Lid, and Find Grot. The flavor text for A Wand with One Charge Left in It ("Hope it's a good spell!") is telling of how poorly equipped the trashkin are to survive their adventures. That's a blessing for comedy, if not for their mission's success. Find a place to play, and get in there.
4 Wake
When someone falls into a coma, where do they go? In Wake, the answer is the Ward, a sinister realm of hospital corridors, waiting rooms, temples, and — if characters venture deep enough — caves, all ruled over by the mysterious Sleepers. Wake's mechanics beautifully meld form and function, ensuring that every action feeds the atmosphere, and the atmosphere always drives the action
At the end of the game, the players and GM compare cards, and the one with the best poker hand wins. For the GM, this means the characters fall victim to the Sleepers and die, delivering grim consequences like other horror tabletops. For the players, this means waking up.
3 This Is Not A Place Of Honour
This Is Not a Place of Honour: Two timelines, two sets of characters, one glorious exploration of what RPG storytelling can be. In the Now, gamers play as gods living out their celestial origin story, confronting demons, and at last, descending to the mortal realm. In the Then, players play as the frail and very much mortal people upon whom the godly tales of the Now are based. The gods' mortal antecedents include a stowaway, a drug-addicted doctor, and "the only officer unaffected by cryosleep psychosis," all trapped on a colony ship tumbling towards a planet.
This rules-light, narrative-intensive RPG cuts back and forth between realities to explore how different perceptions can be from the reality upon which they are based. If that isn't enough, there are haywire harvesting bots and malfunctioning cloning facilities.
2 Nice Marines
Genetically modified supersoldiers, power armor the equivalent of wearing a tank, and an oath sworn to a galaxy-wide, Imperial empire. No, the game is not Warhammer: 40,000, but Nice Marines, a parody of the 40k universe and other Games Workshop games. When a diplomatic support team fails to reach the planet the marines have just liberated, it's up to the galaxy's most lethal and socially awkward soldiers to win the people's hearts.
The system uses a variety of dice (d6-d20), to determine how confident the characters are in tasks like holding parades and being nice to civilians. Characters automatically succeed at all combat actions, which are borderline useless given that the mission is a diplomatic one. Worse, every d20 roll except 5-6 means either some kind of failure or collateral damage. Sometimes it's hard being nice.
1 The Witch Is Dead
The tagline to The Witch is Dead is "An RPG About Murder," which is a good early warning that the premise is dark. After a witch is unceremoniously dragged out of her hut and murdered, her familiars (the players) must exact revenge upon the witch-hunter by killing him. If they return his eyes to the witch, she will be resurrected.
The familiars face several problems: 1) they're animals, 2) the hedge magic they know is almost useless, and 3) the witch-hunter isn't about to lie down and be murdered by a bunch of angry woodland creatures. Quick, brutal, and satiric, The Witch is Dead becomes what most one-page RPGs wish to be: an accomplished piece of storytelling supported by fun and easy-to-grasp mechanics.