Cauldron System Design Reference Library

The purpose of this thread is to collect examples of systems that have particularly strong design in a certain area, or are exemplars of their design lineage, or are otherwise interesting and compelling in a way worth becoming familiar with.

By design lineage

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Apocalypse World

Monsterhearts

Masks

Flying Circus

Fellowshp 2e

Forged in the Dark

Blades in the Dark and Deep Cuts

Band of Blades

Slugbusters

Belonging Outside Belonging

Dream Apart/Dream Askew

Wanderhome

Galactic 2e

By other priorities

Traditionally Mapped Tactical Combat

Panic at the Dojo

Lancer

Dawn

Alternative Combat Systems

Floria: The Verdant Way

Fabula Ultima

Wilderfeast

Campaign-Scale Narrative Scaffolding

Yazeba’s Bed and Breakfast

Triangle Agency

The Far Roofs

This is not a complete or authoritative list! That’s why I’m making this a thread here, so we can all contribute based on our own experiences and priorities.

(Creating this thread required a burst of energy and inspiration that wasn’t quite enough to extend to explaining why everything on my lists made the lists, but I plan to edit and add further explanations later)

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The “Arguably First RPG” List

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Poorly worded, but: OSR-Adjacent Fiction-Over-System Games

  • 2400 (Jason Tocci)
  • Into the Odd (Chris McDowall)
  • World of Dungeons (John Harper)
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Odd-likes in general are pretty strong design wise imho.

  • Into the Odd
  • Cairn
  • Electric Bastionland
  • Mythic Bastionland
  • Liminal Horror
  • Monolith

They also work to show how smaller changes in a more minimalist system have bigger impacts (imho).

I’m a Borg fan, Mork Borg, Cy_Borg and Death in Space are all systems I think are worth cutting into.

Last of all I’d say Salvage Union, for taking mechs and making a kind of NSR-y game about them.