Summary
- Mörk Borg and Call Of Cthulhu offer challenging, grimdark settings with high character mortality rates.
- Axis & Allies and Eclipse Phase provide global strategy and futuristic tech, respectively, with varying levels of difficulty.
- Rifts, Continuum, GURPS, Synnibar, and Phoenix Command offer complex rules, lore, and gameplay, catering to different preferences and challenges.
With tabletop roleplaying games becoming more and more popular as the years go by, it's easy to find the games that are rule-lite, easy to newcomers, or just flashy enough to catch your eye early on. But, what about the other TTRPGs?
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PostsThe ones that require you to read entire tomes, where charts and tables are the mainstay, or that are just so brutal that your characters have no chance of surviving? Whether you're looking for a challenge, or what to avoid, here are some of the hardest TTRPGs out there.
9 Mörk Borg
Absolutely Brutal
CloseHard doesn't always mean difficult rules to learn or a lot of lore to memorize, sometimes the game is just out to get the player. Through the setting, monsters, and combat, Mörk Borg is a TTRPG equivalent to the soulsborne games.
That is to say that your adventuring party is hard-pressed to survive their ordeals. It's a grimdark setting like no other, with plenty of things that are all too keen on taking down your players' characters. But, overcoming those obstacles can be quite a fun challenge.
8 Call Of Cthulhu
Horror And Intrigue
CloseAnother game that is surprisingly lax on the rules, Call Of Cthulhu, is more focused on putting your characters through the wringer than it is about you reading through a long list of "how to's." But, what would you expect from cosmic horror?
From normal humans, to mutant fish people, to elder gods whose machinations you meddle in; there are plenty of ways for your characters to meet an untimely end, or just be driven mad in the process. It's a horror game unlike most others out there.
7 Axis & Allies
A War Gone Global
There are few games, if any, out there better for roleplaying a WW2 general than Axis & Allies. There's a reason that this game has been a fan favorite of table-top players since the 80s. Technically, it does lean more toward wargaming than TTRPG, but there's enough of both to earn a place on this list.
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PostsThe RPG elements, and the difficulties, both come from the same facets, and that's all the different strategies you can employ. It's like chess on a global scale... Oh, but with tech trees, varying units, economies, dice rolls, and plenty of negotiation.
For added RPG benefits, some players find it beneficial to make deals and alliances between other players during rounds. Who says wargaming can't have a diplomacy check every so often?
6 Eclipse Phase
Death In Space
CloseNo matter what kind of difficulty you're looking for (or looking to avoid), Eclipse Phase has a little bit of it all. Set in a cyberpunk-esque future, your crew gets to travel the stars, use futuristic tech, and maybe meet an alien or two.
The difficulty comes from the fairly detailed setting and lore, a pretty thick rulebook, and the plenty of different ways for your adventure to go bad (it is space, after all). Altogether, it can be a daunting task to jump into, but it's one of the better sci-fi games out there.
5 Rifts
Classic Meets Modern
CloseWhile it doesn't have the thickest rulebook out there, there definitely has to be some rules to reign in such an open-ended TTRPG as Rifts. The lore is the other half of the difficulty of this game, but that can be the fun part, too.
The short version is that your characters can travel through different timelines to accomplish your goals. Sounds simple enough, and it is if you keep it short. But experiencing a full campaign can be quite a task of note-taking, keeping time straight, and making sure your characters don't go completely off the rails.
It helps to play Rifts with some skills in thinking on the spot and with a rough idea of the storyline already planned out. No need to railroad them completely, but a little doesn't hurt.
4 Continuum
Jumping Through Time
Wings Of The Twilight by Michael KalutaContinuum takes the difficulty of Rifts and turns it up another notch. As part of a secret force of time police, your goal is to travel through history, and a bit of the future, to stop evildoers throughout time itself.
It's not incredibly rules-heavy, until time gets in the way. There are a lot of things to prepare for and avoid in a long-term campaign if you want to avoid a game-ending (or "fragging") paradox to arise. Most of this stress is put on the game master, though, so keep that in mind.
3 GURPS
A Classic Era
CloseGURPS, by any estimation, is a lot. But, it has some die-hard fans out there ever since it first came up as a rule system back in 1985. That comes from the sheer amount that you can do with the system.
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PostsSpace age explorers, desperadoes, ninjas, you can do all of it and more. You just have to pick a genre and dive into the rules. There are a lot of them, too, but that sort of makes sense considering its age and how open-ended it is in this setting.
Thankfully, there is now GURPS Lite and plenty of other work-arounds people have made over the decades if you want a simpler approach.
2 Synnibar
Lore Like No Other
Synnibar Rulebook Cover Art by Andrew and Alex PosadaSynnibar is one of the more difficult to parse TTRPGs out there currently. Part of that comes from sheer size alone. The core book is nearly 500 pages of lore, rules, and the author's ideas on how to play the game.
The rest of it is how it's put together; it bounces back and forth, a lot, and it's easy to get everything mixed up doing that as you go from one idea to another. If you want a read and a challenge, it is an interesting concept though with a mix of genre elements that takes from some of the greats.
1 Phoenix Command
Wargaming Like No Other
Irawaddy Ambush by Stuart Brown via Phoenix CommandIf you have played Axis & Allies and thought about diving more into the wargaming side of RPGs, then you're in luck. Phoenix Command has everything you could want. It's a rule and math-heavy game like no other.
Where else can you get a detailed chart of bullet velocity, damage based on body part, bone, organ, and armor, and then calculate the damage with a calculator based off that and three more tables? If that sounds like a joke, it isn't. But, if you like math, and want to really dive into wargaming, then this is the game.
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