Alternity / Ask The Readers / Blogging / Call of Cthulhu / D&D Next / D&D4e / D&D5e / d20 Modern / D6 / Fading Suns / FATE / Feature / GURPS / HERO System / Heroquest / Legacy D&D / Mutants & Masterminds / Other Systems / Pathfinder / PbtA / Rifts / Risus / RPG / Savage Worlds / Shadowrun / Star Wars Saga Edition / Stars Without Number / Storyteller / Traveller / WR&M

40 Years a Gamer – A Life in 100 Games

by January 16, 2026

Hello friends! Welcome back.

Continuing my celebration of 40 years in this hobby, today I want to move from the “proto-history” I wrote about in my last post to the actual history. The meat and potatoes. The games themselves.

As I prepared for this anniversary, I decided to do something I hadn’t done in a long time: I sat down and reviewed the list of every single tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) system I have played at least once. Not just the ones I ran campaigns for, but the one-shots, the playtests, the convention games, and the indie games.

I went through my memory, old character sheets, and the blog archives. I counted them. Then I recounted them.

The total came to exactly 100!

When I first tallied the list, I thought I was stuck at 98, as I had said previously. I was a little frustrated—just two short of a perfect number! But then I took a closer look and realized I had missed two. The total is exactly 100. It feels like the stars aligned for this anniversary—a perfect century of systems to celebrate four decades of rolling dice. I couldn’t have planned it better if I tried. I couldn’t have planned it better if I tried.

Before I share the list, I want to offer a caveat, much as I did in my last post. Looking at a list this long might seem like a flex, or an attempt to claim some “guru” status. It is neither.

Having played 100 systems doesn’t make me a better gamer than someone who has played D&D exclusively for five years. This list doesn’t mean I’m claiming to be a grandmaster of any game; it reflects curiosity. It represents a restless imagination and, more importantly, it represents the incredible friends—from my early days playing with my classmates and neighbors, to the connections made via Stargazers World and Puerto Rico Role Players—who were willing to say, “Sure, Roberto, I’ll try this weird game where we play cats/space explorers/movie characters.”

Every entry on this list is a memory of a table, a group of friends, and a story shared.

So, for the curious, the nostalgic, and the completists, here is the log of my 40-year voyage, thus far, organized by the eras and genres that defined my time as a gamer and Game Master.

The Foundation: Dungeons & Dragons, D20 & Retro-Clones

It started with the Red Box in 1986. D&D, and the evolution and variations of that ruleset, have remained the spine of my gaming life. From the Gygaxian prose of AD&D 1e, to the complexity of 3.5, to the sleekness of Shadowdark, D20 is a gaming language I speak fluently. Unlike the other lists included in this post, this one is roughly in chronological order of how I played them.

The TSR Era (Non-D&D)

If you grew up gaming in the 80s and 90s, TSR was the biggest elephant in the room. I have a deep love for these systems, especially the FASERIP chart of Marvel Super Heroes, Star Frontiers, and Alternity.

Palladium Books

Many of us played them. We struggled with the rules. We loved the settings. Rifts, Robotech, and Heroes Unlimited were absolute staples of my early gaming years.

World of Darkness

I didn’t play as much WoD as some of my friends in the early 90s, but I did play these three.

BESM & Tri-Stat (Guardians of Order)

Sci-Fi, Cyberpunk, Steampunk & Space Opera

As you know from the blog, Sci-Fi is my other great love alongside Fantasy. From the hard sci-fi of Traveller to the space opera of Star Wars, I’ve tried to travel to as many stars as possible.

Fantasy (Non-D&D)

There is life beyond the D20! Some of my most evocative gaming memories come from teaching my high-school girlfriend’s little brother to role-play with HeroQuest, or from the narrative beauty of Lady Blackbird.

Horror, Dark & Post-Apocalyptic

Action, Pulp & Cult Classics

Superheroes

Universal & Narrative Systems

Homebrewed Systems

Finally, the tinkerer’s workshop. These are the systems my friends and I built. They might not be famous, but they work for us.

  • Attack/Defend/Know (homebrew d10-based system)
  • Bieber Fever! (That’s exactly what it sounds like, a Justin Bieber-based game, filled with pop icons and references. See the character sheet above!)
  • Edwin’s Simple D20 system (a friend’s homebrewed system)
  • MODS (Lao & Fernan’s system playtest)
  • MUGeS (Homebrewed system in development)
  • Oldchester (Kirk’s free-form narrative Play-By-Post)
  • Simple D6 (homebrewed narrative system)
  • Three Attributes & Fate (a quick homebrew I put together for a pick-up game)

So, there you have it. 100 systems.

It’s been a wild ride from the rudimentary mechanics of the 80s to the narrative-forward indie games of today. I have loved (almost) every minute of it.

If you want to keep up with these celebrations, share your own stories, or just chat about gaming in smaller bites, I’ve launched a new Facebook page to connect with friends and readers: Sunglar’s Musings.

I’ll be sharing shorter ideas, updates on the “40 Years a Gamer” series, and probably a few more old pictures of our games, I’d love to see you there.

Now, the big question remains: What should be game #101?

If you have a suggestion for a system that is glaringly missing from this list, let me know in the comments. Or, better yet, tell me how many systems you have played—whether it’s 5 or 500—I’d love to hear about your journey.

Tags:

Sunglar

Welcome, reader; thanks for taking the time to discover who I am! My name is Roberto, although I usually go by Sunglar online. I am a longtime tabletop RPG player, primarily a GM for the better part of that time; some will say that’s because of my love of telling a good story, others because I’m a control freak, but that’s debatable. I was born and raised in Puerto Rico, an island in the Caribbean with a small but active gaming community. I’ve played RPGs for almost 40 years, and for most of that time, I played D&D in all its permutations, including Pathfinder and D&D 5th edition. Other games our regular gaming group plays include Mutants & Masterminds, Castles & Crusades, Savage Worlds, Stars Without Number, Alien, and more. I have played many games through the years and plan to play many more. I am a compulsive homebrewer and rarely play a campaign I have not created myself. You can follow me on social media as Sunglar, and I’m regularly active on Facebook where you can find me posting regularly in the Puerto Rico Role Players group. I am looking forward to hearing from you!

You may also like...

2
News & Reviews / Reviews & First Looks / RPG / RPG tools

Dicebook review

2
Other Systems / Random musings / RPG / Traveller

New Traveller Starter Set

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.