TTRPGs Beyond D&D: The Best Indie Systems Changing the Game

For decades, Dungeons & Dragons has reigned supreme as the face of tabletop roleplaying games. Its cultural impact, boosted by shows like Stranger Things and actual plays like Critical Role, has ushered in a renaissance for TTRPGs. Yet beneath the shadow of the d20, a rich and innovative indie scene is thriving—pushing boundaries, breaking molds, and telling stories D&D never could.

From radically inclusive systems to genre-defying mechanics, indie TTRPGs are reshaping how players engage with narrative, identity, and imagination. Here’s a deep dive into the indie wave, and the systems at the forefront of this transformation.

The Indie Advantage: Innovation Unbound

While D&D offers a familiar foundation for fantasy adventure, it’s also weighed down by legacy design and a focus on combat and class structure. Indie games, by contrast, are often passion projects—tight, focused, and deliberately experimental. Many are rules-light, narrative-first, and designed for short campaigns or one-shots. But more than that, they reflect the voices of marginalized creators, niche fandoms, and radical ideas.

Some indie TTRPGs prioritize emotional catharsis over combat. Others simulate heists, cosmic dread, romance, or slice-of-life drama. They ask different questions—what if players built a community instead of a character sheet? What if a story had no heroes, only survivors?

Let’s spotlight the games rewriting the rules.

1. MÖRK BORG: Death Metal Apocalypse in a Book

• Tone: Grimdark, nihilistic, visually arresting

• Notable For: Its rulebook is a piece of avant-garde art

MÖRK BORG is a doom metal dungeon crawler drenched in despair and printed like a cursed zine from another reality. It’s rules-light, with a focus on brutal lethality, dark humor, and unapologetic style. The world is ending—slowly, painfully, and inevitably—and you’re just trying to survive long enough to steal something beautiful before the rot devours you.

What makes MÖRK BORG special isn’t just its tone. It’s how it invites community expansion. The third-party license has spawned hundreds of modules, hacks, and fan-built mini-settings. Even the core mechanics—simple d20 rolls with a “powers and problems” ethos—are fertile ground for weird homebrew creativity.

2. Thirsty Sword Lesbians: Romance, Drama, and Queer Heroics

• Tone: Emotional, inclusive, melodramatic

• Notable For: Winning the Nebula Award for Best Game Writing

Thirsty Sword Lesbians proves that romance, not violence, can be the engine of compelling storytelling. Characters are archetypes like the Devoted, the Scoundrel, or the Chosen, each with mechanics centered around emotional entanglement and social tension. Conflicts are often resolved not by who swings first, but who opens up first.

Every mechanic is built to reinforce consent, safety, and emotional expression—something sorely lacking in traditional systems. It’s a triumph of tone meeting design, allowing queer players to see themselves not only represented, but centered.

3. Brindlewood Bay: Murder, Mystery, and the Mythos

• Tone: Cozy mystery meets cosmic horror

• Notable For: “Murder, She Wrote” with Cthulhu

In Brindlewood Bay, players take on the role of elderly women in a quaint New England town, solving cozy mysteries while gradually uncovering a Lovecraftian cult hidden beneath their world. Think Golden Girls meets The Call of Cthulhu.

What sets this game apart is its “shared mystery” mechanic. Clues are discovered through play, but the solution isn’t pre-written. Players collaboratively decide how the pieces fit—creating satisfying, emergent narratives where the story organically unfolds.

It’s a brilliant twist on the detective genre, inviting storytelling over stat-crunching, and cozy vibes with creeping dread.

4. Orbital Blues: Sad Cowboys in Space

• Tone: Space Western, melancholic, nostalgic

• Notable For: An emotional tone that rivals Cowboy Bebop

Orbital Blues drops you into the retro-future—rusty ships, neon lights, and debts you’ll never pay off. This game isn’t about winning; it’s about surviving and finding beauty in the melancholy of the void.

Players build characters defined by “blues,” their emotional baggage, which can be triggered for narrative or mechanical effect. The game encourages flashbacks, mood-setting playlists, and introspective scenes over prolonged combat. It’s TTRPG storytelling through a cinematic lens—every session feels like a lost VHS episode of a forgotten show you love.

5. Trophy Dark / Trophy Gold: Descent Into Madness

• Tone: Grim, fatalistic, psychological horror

• Notable For: Genre subversion of the classic dungeon crawl

In Trophy Dark, players aren’t heroes—they’re doomed treasure hunters descending into a cursed forest that will break them. Every roll pushes them closer to ruin. Every success is tinged with corruption.

Its sister game, Trophy Gold, blends the same psychological horror with more traditional OSR dungeon mechanics, creating a flexible system that can pivot between one-shots and campaign play. Trophy’s strength is its devotion to tone. Every mechanic supports themes of decay, obsession, and tragedy.

It’s perfect for players who want The Witch or Annihilation as a TTRPG.

The Community Factor: Zines, Crowdfunding, and Accessibility

Indie TTRPGs thrive not just because of bold design, but because of how they reach their audiences. Crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and itch.io allow creators to publish directly to fans. Zine Month (ZiMo) and TTRPG bundles (like the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality) have helped raise millions and bring new voices to the fore.

Because many indie systems are short (20-80 pages), they’re easier to read, teach, and play. And with digital distribution, accessibility has skyrocketed. Many include safety tools, content warnings, and modular rules—designed with player experience, not just lore, in mind.

Why It Matters: A Broader Table for All

The boom of indie TTRPGs is more than an aesthetic rebellion against mainstream systems. It’s a response to decades of design that privileged a narrow playstyle—white, cis-male power fantasies about conquest and domination. Indie games show us that TTRPGs can be:

• Romantic and kind

• Cathartic and weird

• Small-scale and intimate

• Fierce and political

• Experimental and poetic

They expand what a game can be, and who a game can be for.

Conclusion: Roll Different, Tell Better Stories

While D&D may be the industry giant, it’s far from the only path forward. Indie TTRPGs are crafting bold new spaces in the tabletop world—where rules serve emotion, character drives conflict, and narrative is king. Whether you want to duel with heartbreak, solve mysteries with grandma, or wander space in a fugue of loneliness, there’s an indie game for you.

So next time you gather your group, maybe ask:
“What do we want to feel?”
Then choose a system that builds that feeling from the ground up.