Beyond Dungeons and Dragons: Roleplay Systems Every DM Should Explore to Level Up Their Skills
If you are a Dungeon Master (DM) looking to truly master the art of storytelling, player engagement, and world building, it is essential to look beyond Dungeons and Dragons. While Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) is the most popular tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG), many other roleplay systems offer unique mechanics, themes, and approaches that can dramatically improve your skills as a DM. This guide explores key systems every DM should learn from, explaining how each one can help you become a more versatile, creative, and confident game master.
Why Look Beyond Dungeons and Dragons?
D&D is a fantastic system, but it is designed for a particular type of fantasy adventure. Other roleplay systems can teach you different narrative techniques, pacing strategies, and player management skills. By exploring these systems, you will:
Gain fresh ideas for your campaigns
Learn new mechanics that can enhance your D&D games
Build confidence in improvisation and flexible storytelling
Understand how to cater to different player styles and preferences
Now, let’s explore some of the most valuable TTRPGs that every DM should study.
1. Mothership RPG… Master Suspense and Horror
Mothership is a sci-fi horror roleplaying game that excels at creating tension, dread, and moments of true terror. The system’s design encourages fast, high-stakes decision making, and player vulnerability is at the heart of its experience. As a DM, Mothership teaches you:
How to build and maintain suspense over long sessions
How to create a sense of isolation and dread through setting and encounter design
How to use scarcity of resources to drive player tension
How to balance mystery, horror, and action effectively
Learning from Mothership will help you run more gripping scenarios, whether in space or in your own homebrew D&D world.
2. Call of Cthulhu… Perfect Your Mystery and Investigation Skills
Call of Cthulhu focuses on cosmic horror, investigation, and psychological tension. As a DM, running or studying this system helps you develop:
Skills in pacing clues and red herrings to drive an investigation
Techniques for building atmospheric and immersive locations
Approaches for creating flawed, memorable NPCs
Methods for handling player fear, paranoia, and emotional engagement
Even if you are running a high-fantasy D&D campaign, learning how to weave subtle mysteries and chilling environments from Call of Cthulhu will add powerful layers to your storytelling.
3. Blades in the Dark… Learn the Art of Heists and Downtime
Blades in the Dark is set in a dark industrial city full of crime, politics, and ghosts. The system focuses on crew-based heists, territory management, and narrative consequences. What you will gain as a DM:
Tools to run heist scenarios with high energy and tension
A framework for managing player-driven downtime activities
Understanding of how to let players shape the world’s factions and power balance
Ideas for running dynamic, consequence-driven campaigns
If you want to introduce criminal intrigue, rival gangs, or morally grey choices to your D&D game, Blades in the Dark is a goldmine of inspiration.
4. Fate Core… Embrace Narrative Freedom and Player Driven Stories
Fate Core is a system that encourages collaborative storytelling. It moves away from strict rules and stats, focusing instead on character aspects and narrative-driven conflict resolution. Studying Fate Core teaches you:
How to work with players to co-create the world and its challenges
How to run games where story and theme take precedence over rules
How to improvise conflicts that fit your players’ goals
How to build flexible encounters that adapt as the story evolves
This will help you run D&D sessions that feel less railroaded and more like a shared adventure.
5. Savage Worlds… Discover Fast-Paced, Pulp Action
Savage Worlds is known for its quick resolution system and focus on cinematic action. As a DM, learning from Savage Worlds can teach you:
How to keep the pace of combat and exploration fast and exciting
How to use simple mechanics to produce big action moments
How to manage large groups of NPCs or minions without bogging down the game
How to structure high-energy, serial-style adventures
This system will help you inject more excitement into your D&D combats and chases.
6. Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) Games… Strengthen Collaborative Play
PbtA systems like Apocalypse World, Monster of the Week, and Masks are designed for narrative-first gameplay. Moves are designed to drive the story forward rather than simulate the world. From PbtA systems, you will learn:
How to set up scenes that encourage player creativity
How to use soft and hard moves as DM tools to steer tension
How to build a world through play rather than pre-designed content
How to create focused, theme-heavy adventures
PbtA games will make you a more responsive and flexible DM.
7. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay – Bring Grit and Dark Realism
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay offers a gritty, dangerous world where heroes are flawed and survival is uncertain. It teaches you:
How to design campaigns where consequences matter deeply
How to introduce grim themes and moral ambiguity
How to create worlds where politics, disease, and social class shape the story
How to run gritty, low magic settings effectively
You can use these lessons to add realism and darker tones to your D&D settings.
Final Thoughts: A Better DM Is a Broader DM
The best Dungeon Masters are those who continuously study, experiment, and learn from different systems. Each of these roleplay games offers valuable tools and perspectives that will help you craft richer stories, create more memorable characters, and design unforgettable adventures. Take the time to read, play, or watch actual demonstrations of these systems. Your players will appreciate it.
Explore Further
Would you be interested in taking your DM skills to the next level? Check out our Pro DM Course designed to help you become a confident, professional Dungeon Master. Learn from experts and apply the lessons from systems like Mothership, Call of Cthulhu, and more.