DCDL Role Playing Game Collection

"If you’ve ever read a book, seen a movie, or watched a television show where, upon finding a character saying or doing something really dangerous or foolish, you thought, “I wouldn’t have said/done that!” then you have a good idea of what makes up the core premise of a roleplaying game. While the actions of a character in a comic book, movie, or television program may be beyond your control, in a roleplaying game, you control the actions of your character. You determine the character’s fate, through decisions and actions whose outcomes range from spectacular success to tragic failure." -Valiant Universe Role Playing Core Book

New as of May 2019, the RPG books we have in our collection now are lendable through CLC and Search Ohio. The exception to this will be our Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder books. Those titles remain exclusive for our DCDL patrons.

Roleplaying games, or RPGs, are a collection of games defined by the players taking on the role of a character and describing their actions as they seek to accomplish a goal. Typically played with books, paper, pens, and dice, role playing games can come in a wide variety of genres and levels of detail.

Some of these games have what's called a Game Master, or GM, that places one player in control of the characters in the story not being played by another person at the table. They help direct the story and respond to the other players goals and actions. Other games are played without GMs and allow all players to play together in their chosen setting.

Some of our games are what are known as 'one shots.' A one shot is a game you sit down and play through the whole game in one sitting. Mars Colony for instance takes up to 3 hours to play the whole game. When the time is over, you've played the entire story and the game ends. On the other hand, some of our games are known as 'campaigns.' A campaign is a type of game that is designed to play out over several sessions. The characters you create in Fate: Core will likely go on continuing their adventures and stories each time you play the game, picking up the story where you left off last time. That doesn't mean that a campaign game can't be a one shot. It is entirely possible to sit down to a game of Fate: Core and just play one evening's worth of it and be done there. But usually a one shot isn't designed to be campaign.

Thanks to the generosity of the game publishers, we also have copies of most of our RPG collection available in digital format on OverDrive. Visit the Ohio Digital Library and search for any of our games in the digital collection, or find the link on each game page of this wiki.

Some of our games require the use of special polyhedral dice sets, or d20 sets. These are sold at many game and comic stores, or you can find websites and apps for many smartphones and tablets that can simulate the dice rolls. A few suggested apps are listed below along with some local stores you an purchase dice at. Additionally, a couple of games use what are known as Fate Dice, or Fudge Dice. These are special six sided dice, but those can be substituted for regular six sided dice using a set of rules found in the front of each book.