your 5 (6) essential RPGs

[Martyr]

btw. does anyone know if Hillsfar was a Gold Box game??
afaik it was sort of a interlude between Azure Bonds and Silver Blades, can anyone confirm that?

 

[Comte]

1. Grimoire
2. Wasteland
3. Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures
4. Dark Queen of Krynn
5. Dark Sun Shattered Lands
6. Buck Rogers Countdown to Doomsday

 

[moleman]

btw. does anyone know if Hillsfar was a Gold Box game??
afaik it was sort of a interlude between Azure Bonds and Silver Blades, can anyone confirm that?

Almost, it was an interlude between Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds. I would consider it a spin-off, but not a part of the series.

 

[santino27]

VtM: Bloodlines
Planescape: Torment (Sad I can't just write Torment thanks to those fuckers at InXile)
Fallout 1
BG 2 (suck it, haters!)
Betrayal at Krondor
Goldbox: Buck Rogers: CtD (Honorable mention to CotAB, which wasn't great, but I played to death at the time.)

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

Kenshi
Xcom or AoW (can't decide)
Forza 7
Dota 2
SC2

Goldbox: MTGA

 

[Diggfinger]

Fallout 1
Arcanum
Might & Magic VI
Dark Souls
Bloodlines

 

[Irgsarzh]

Kenshi
Xcom or AoW (can't decide)
Forza 7
Dota 2
SC2

Goldbox: MTGA

excuse me what the fuck

 

[AW8]

Fallout
Fallout 2
Fallout 3
Fallout 4
Fallout 5

 

[Dux]

This list has been made for fucking variety's sake: in bold italics to make it official.

Fallout
Might and Magic Book One: The Secret of the Inner Sanctum
Planescape: Torment
Anachronox
Pools of Radiance
Gothic II

 

[Baron Dupek]

Fallout Tactics (if that include editor)
Deus Ex (played other liked RPGs back and forth but this one? Don't need a reason for another playthrough)
Wizardry 6/7/8/W&W (don't care if that's not a part of the series)
Temple of Elemental Evil (also with editor)
World of Baldur's Gate project
Diablo (with mods)

man I love cheating in threads like these

 

[Neanderthal]

Gold Box: Pool of Radiance. Phlan's a lovely little location in an interesting situation and I always liked that it changed due to your actions.

1. Fallout. An almost perfectly designed short but sweet game, it succeeds in almost everything it tries to achieve. Flawed of course, but what isn't.

2. The Temple of Elemental Evil. For the tactical turn based combat of course.

3. Ultima VII. World building and simulation, a far too often overlooked feature of rpgs that gives the setting a life of its own and the ability to interact with it and do something other than the usual cycle.

4. Betrayal at Krondor/Torment. A narrative that is reinforced and reinforces the gameplay.

5. The Witcher. For the monocled inventory management and fantastic loot progression, one of the few games where gaining a new sword or armour feels significant rather than getting a new piece of crop every ten minutes.

 

[Melcar]

RPGs? The ones I always have installed:

ToEE
IWD
BG
Diablo
Fallout
Fallout 2

 

[The Great ThunThun*]

I would like to preserve the games which have the best of some mechanic:

Gothic 2: Factions and open world design
Blackguards: set piece based full ruleset TB combat
Morrowind: the sense of exploration and wonder
Dark Messiah: Authentic melee fantasy combat
PST: Integrating the game mechanic with the story

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

Kenshi
Xcom or AoW (can't decide)
Forza 7
Dota 2
SC2

Goldbox: MTGA

excuse me what the fuck

What? All great games

 

[Farewell into the night]

imagine this: a gaming nuclear holocaust is happening, all games that have ever been made will perish. but you have been granted the divine power to save 6 RPGs

I'd refuse.
Btw. why save games when a nuclear holocaust is happening?

 

[Martyr]

imagine this: a gaming nuclear holocaust is happening, all games that have ever been made will perish. but you have been granted the divine power to save 6 RPGs

I'd refuse.
Btw. why save games when a nuclear holocaust is happening?

a "gaming" nuclear holocaust !
the world outside of gaming remains the same, but all existing games perish !

 

[Darth Canoli]

Btw. why save games when a nuclear holocaust is happening?

I guess i just read the title, i missed that part.

I would "save" a couple of cRPG developers, chain them in my basement and feed them enough roots to make new turn-based cRPG !
As i have plenty of ideas, it'd be the real incline era !

I can't wait for the nuclear holocaust ...

 

[PrettyDeadman]

Pathfinder:Kingmaker
Silent Storm
Dark Sun: Shattered Lands
VTM:Bloodlines
Knights of the Chalice
Arcanum&Troika's Greyhawk game

 

[Whiny-Butthurt-Liberal]

1. Planetscape: Tournament
2. Arcanum
3. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
4. Morrowind
5. Witcher II & III
6. Zelda: Breath of the Wild

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

This is always subject to change, but:

1 Kenshi
2 Pathfinder: Kingmaker
3 Baldur's Gate 1
4 Morrowind
5 Gothic 1

Gold Box game - FRUA, since you can download adventures for it.

 

[grom]

1. Arcanum. My idea of what a RPG should strive to be. A large, intricate open world where you can create any character you can think of, within reason for the setting, and the game will react appropriately.

2. Fallout 2. For the same reasons as Arcanum.

3. Torment. Hard to express why I would pick this one. Usually I feel a sense of accomplishment when I finish a game, but when I finished this I felt sort of empty and aimless. The only field this game does not excel in is gameplay. Everything else is perfect.

4. Deus Ex. Questionable RPG status IMO, but I'll take it anyway. The greatest gameplay of all time. Cheesy conspiracy theory plot. Highly replayable.

5. Gothic II with NotR. The best action-RPG of all time. Packed with content.

As for my Gold Box choice. I haven't played any of them. FRUA if I'm allowed fan-made content, PoR if not.

By the way, Martyr, PtD seems like a strange choice for one of the only RPGs you will ever get to play again. It's a very interesting game, almost fantastic, but if it was one of the only RPGs I could spend my time with, the bugs, extremely slow pace, and general clunkiness would drive me up the wall.

 

[Zer0wing]

As the OP implies, there's a limited amount of space for RPGs so only the finest examples should stay. Finest examples fo doing different, often contradictory things right. Also, I don't find it right including D&D-related stuff since one can just sit and play a D&D campaign with a better story than what Bioware ever came up with written by your co-players. OP you didn't think about non-computer RPGs aren't you?
And this is what I'm coming from while listing these:

1. Fallout 2: RP 2.3.3 - the client mainly for Fallout: Nevada and possibly for F 1.5: Resurrection but on its own merits has some fine moments and was fine tuned by fans. This applies to a lot of RPGs actually, did you consider fan made patches and mods that often contain games within said 5 games OP? RPGs don't exist in a vacuum, they're always under fans sight
2. Arcanum multiverse edition - does core concept of an open-world RPG better than Fallout and has greater length filled with glorious stuff
3. 7.62+Hard life - a fine example of RTwP combat-centric game. You'll need at least one good of those and there's nothing better than a russian game for this
4. Silent Storm - because you need at least one good turn-based game and you know the rest from point 3
5. Vampire the Masqurade: Bloodlines unofficial patch 10+CQM 4.1 - I like ARPGs with decent writing. I don't need other explanation for this one to exist
(6) The Witcher 3 Enhanced Edition/Cyberpunk 2077 Quescarza Ellaine Edition(/Fallout New Vegas Ultimate Edition+2019/2020/2077/4.000.000.000+modlist+sexout) - Okay, this one is in precarious situation, it's not like ths p.6 is even needed. Usually sequels in such situations as game apocalypse are a no-no. But Twitcher 3 has more in common with the books than previous games and you'd need at least one modern AAA RPG and they all are shit not worth saving it has decent enough worldbuilding. CP2077 is not a sequel to anything but PnP timeline which is potentially better for the spot. It also can potentially omit F:NV, setting wise post-apoc is covered by F2. SkyrimEnderal+DLC is a potential candidate since there's no Gothic-like AAA on the list yet. Personally I want to include Космические Рейнджеры 2(reviewed by Vince himself) in the list but it's not an RPG and the list would make it russian-centric. It's almost makes it like no one else liked computer RPGs... Wait.

To make up for the loss I chose games that include an editor with them to not just replay and study but create new stuff on top of the base five games. This one culls CD Projekt RED efforts unless they comply and release an SDK under such circumstances.

 

[Martyr]

OP you didn't think about non-computer RPGs aren't you?

clever question!
all the pen & paper RPGs stay intact, only digital RPGs go extinct.

 

[Bigg Boss]

Of course the more RPG's that are moddable, the better, since they will be the only games in existence.

Fallout 2 - more shit to do, so it would win. Fallout 1 would last a couple hours.

Morrowind - You can mod it to be a post apocalyptic Fallout if you want.

Superhero League of Hoboken - near as I can tell, nearly nobody talks about this game, because the people that played it when it came out either committed suicide due to lack of games, or died from cancer due to lack of games. I have not played it much, so I would save it for that reason, plus it is unique. This game is not Fallout.

Arcanum - this game is good. Those that dislike it should be dropped from a Zeppelin onto rocky sharp rocks. Made by Fallout guys.

That game they will ruin with a sequel soon. The one with vampires in it. Not Fallout 3.

RPG Maker - One of the good ones. So you can make new RPG's for people to fawn over. Then become a God. Maybe make Fallout.

 

[Lurker47]

KOTOR 2
Deus Ex
Fallout
Planescape: Torment
[INSERT WIZADRY HERE.]