Tabletop role-playing games

My journey into TTRPGs began in the summer of 2021, with an offer from a friend to "play DnD." After reading more about it, I was really excited about the idea. In the end, this "DnD" turned out to be a couple of games based on GM's homemade system, in which development participated most of the players. I still remember these games with warmth, and there could not have been a better introduction to the hobby for me. Fantasy, storytelling, and complex schemes and systems - I finally found what I had been looking for for a long time. Actively participating in rule discussions and reading rule books from other RPGs allowed me to quickly understand that I should run the games myself, and in December I started a DnD 5e campaign in my setting and with my own homemade rules. It was definitely a success, but the campaign was not completed, since this time I was the burned-out GM.

Then I discovered GURPS. Although DnD 5e provides a choice of classes and subclasses, in any case this entails either limitations or crutches in the form of house rules. It is impossible to talk about the legendary attempts to implement firearms in DnD 5e without laughing. GURPS turned out to be an ideal choice for me, due to its modularity, bell-shaped curve of probabilities of success or failure of the roll, and the ability to implement any setting (I mainly prefer technomagic ones). All my subsequent games were run using this system, in several different settings. Here are maps from some of my games, created in RPG map editor 2:

I decided to make a list of characters that I have played (my experience as a player, fortunately, did not end with one game):
1. Race: human. Archetype: something between a bard, a wizard and an artificier. The character was the lucky owner of a steam jetpack and a repeating crossbow. Campaign: my first RPG, described above.
2. Race: human. Archetype: a wizard-illusionist with a disease of random magic and a reliable rifle. Campaign: dark fantasy one-shot.
3. Race: half-elf. Archetype: a sorcerer with good stealth and lockpicking skills. Campaign: it is very difficult to describe, but relatively speaking, it is fantasy with bits of the Internet of Y2K and whatever the GM was interested in at the moment of the game session.
4. Race: human. Archetype: wizard. Campaign: one-shot about magic academy.
The pattern is pretty obvious.
(Perhaps I'll draw portraits for this article someday)

I should add that RPGs are also an incredibly good tool for fantasy writers, as players always find questions that draw attention to details of the world or story that you might otherwise miss or find unimportant. If you create your own maps and character tokens, you will definitely develop your drawing skills (everyone in your gaming group will be happy with even the worst drawing, regardless of whether you are a GM or a player). The social factor can be discussed endlessly. So if you haven't played any TTRPGs yet, why not give it a try?