Instead of leading players on heroic adventures, some TTRPGs cut their own path and craft narratives that highlight criminal endeavors.

The protagonists players create for TTRPGs are usually conventional storytelling heroes. Even if one player creates an evil or villainous character, the party typically plays good, law-abiding people. In some games, this isn't the case. Some TTRPGs forefront crime and criminals in their storytelling.

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Almost any RPG can tell a crime story. There's nothing in Dungeons & Dragons to stop players carrying out elaborate heists or running a criminal enterprise. Some games take a step further and prioritize crime, featuring storytelling, mechanics, and themes that highlight criminality and lawbreaking as the game's core concept.

Blades in the Dark is one of the most iconic RPGs of recent years. It's found unexpected traction in many groups, and launched the Forged in the Dark umbrella. Many still consider the base game to be the system's best. Blades in the Dark is a game of criminal gangs in an industrial city powered by demon blood.

Players choose what sort of criminal they want to be, and what sort of gang they want to form. The party can be smugglers, assassins, burglars, cults, and more. Blades in the Dark uses structured play to get players to carry out elaborate scores. Its signature mechanic is "flashbacks", where players don't plan ahead of time. Instead, they retroactively alter the story to handle complications.

Crime is at the heart of the cyberpunk genre. Cyberpunk focuses on the negative implications of technology and humanity's usage of it, but commonly uses crime to do so. Cyberpunk RED is the latest version of the seminal Cyberpunk 2020 and proves no different. Players control various characters, but cyberpunks are typically criminals.

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Its setting of Night City is a lawless place. The police are privately owned. Corporations run everything. Gangs battle over any scrap of territory. Players must throw themselves into the chaos to find any success in life. Cyberpunk RED emphasizes quick wits and stubborn attitude over careful planning. As such, it's a fast-paced and fun criminal RPG.

Crime TTRPGs often take themselves seriously. They tell gritty, tense stories of theft and treachery. Honey Heist is about a group of bears trying to steal a lot of honey. It takes the complete opposite tack and has found a very warm reception as a result.

Honey Heist is an RPG within a single page. Players create a bear through random dice rolls that determine its species, descriptor, and role within the heist group. They only have two stats: Criminal and Bear. They have one objective: steal a lot of honey from Honeycon 2017. Honey Heist features a surprising amount of fun baked into a very small number of rules.

A lot of crime RPGs use historical or fictional settings to distance themselves from real-world crime. Instead, Cartel focuses on drug trade in Mexico. Players control hardened criminals, their spouses caught-up in the trade, and the corrupt cops turning a blind eye.

Cartel uses the Powered by the Apocalypse system, also used in games like Monsterhearts and Apocalypse World. The game focuses on weaving a story that lets every player act as an author. Cartel takes itself seriously, but allows for genuinely powerful roleplaying as a result.

Star Wars has always had an element of criminality to it. Its universe has as much room for bounty hunters and smugglers as it does Jedi and rebels. Edge of the Empire is the first gameline in Fantasy Flight Games' Star Wars Roleplaying Game. Where Force and Destiny focuses on Jedi, and Age of Rebellion focuses on rebels, Edge of the Empire looks at the seedier side of the galaxy.

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Edge of the Empire takes place in the furthest reaches of the Empire's power, where crime and corruption flourish. Players don't have to control criminals. Mercenaries, settlers, and other legitimate careers are available. However, much of the game's storytelling deals with debt, obligation, and criminal careers, providing a great look at one of Star Wars' more compelling aspects.

Any form of Dungeons & Dragons seems like an unusual choice for a crime RPG. However, Gangbusters B/X makes it work by using a heavily modified version of the old-school Dungeons & Dragons Basic rules. Gameplay is very similar, but with crime dens and gangsters replacing dungeons and bandits.

Gangbusters B/X is designed to be simple and to reward player ingenuity. Players have few abilities, and they must learn to use them well. Gangbusters lets players control criminals or those investigating them. However, it emphasizes the overall grittiness and criminality of the 1920s and 1930s, crafting a unique scenario where nobody is morally pure.

Fiasco is an unusual roleplaying game, emphasizes the storytelling and roleplaying above everything else. There is no focus on attempting to overcome challenges or survive threats. Instead, players craft a scenario together, and then roleplay characters in that scenario.

As the name Fiasco implies, the scenarios are disastrous. The game goes out of its way to ensure things go wrong, and the focus is on the players reacting when they do. Fiasco can be used for any sort of catastrophic storytelling. However, it's designed for criminal capers gone wrong, in the vein of Reservoir Dogs or A Simple Plan.

Shadowrun is the other big name in cyberpunk roleplaying. However, it clearly differentiates itself from Cyberpunk through the inclusion of heavy fantasy elements. Player characters can be orks, dwarves, gnomes, elves, and more. However, they're also hardened cyberpunks, hackers, and street samurai.

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Shadowrun forefronts crime as much as any cyberpunk story. Its very name, Shadowrun, refers to a successful form of cyber heist. The game is infamous for its dense system and complex rules, but beloved for its unique setting and storytelling.

Noir World wears its influences on its sleeve, even in its name. It strives to tell the same sort of stories as classic film noir. Noir World goes further than most other TTRPGs to emulate a genre of fiction. It doesn't, however, nail down a single setting. Noir World attempts to bring the tropes and conventions of film noir to any conceivable crime setting.

Another notable thing is that the game doesn't have a single Game Master. Instead, each Scene has a different player acting as the Director, guiding the story using specific "Moves" to drive things along. Noir World is one of the more unique Powered by the Apocalypse games, one that goes out of its way to feel cinematic.

Most crime RPGs are somewhat grounded. Even as players commit heists, scores, and murders, there is a sense of grittiness and realism to them. Black Crusade deviates from this form. It's set in the infamous Warhammer 40,000 universe, with the scale and chaos that implies. In Black Crusade, players control worshippers and cultists of Chaos.

Black Crusade can focus on their conflicts with other Chaos worshippers. However, it also presentsthe option of setting a campaign in the Imperium, where Chaos worship is the most heinous crime possible. In those games, players control underground dissidents and heretics. They seek to bring about the downfall of an almost unstoppable power and will commit horrific crimes to do so.''

NEXT: 10 Best Dungeon Crawling TTRPGs (That Aren't D&D)

Isaac Williams is a movie-goer, TV watcher, journalist, blogger, gamer, comic book-fan, and roleplayer. He's been a bartender and a waiter, and now he writes lists for CBR. He focuses on TV shows and movies. In his free time, Isaac can be found gaming, reading, playing D&D, walking Birmingham's lengthy canals, and catching up on movies.

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