Are there any pencil-and-paper games that are completely self-contained?

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>>48431834
Maelstrom (the original, not sure about the recent reprint)

There are shitloads of games like that, but if they're successful they always end up putting out supplements because why not.

>>48431834
Yes, every game but D&D/PF.

>>48431834
Shinobigami, Ryuutama, Golden Sky Stories, Double Cross, Tephra, Anima, Apocalypse World, Dungeon World, Monsterhearts, 13th Age, Eoris Essence, Last Stand, Maid RPG, Dungeons the Dragoning, Fantasy Craft, Ironclaw, Nechronica, Splittermond, Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, Kobolds Ate My Baby, Numenera, Log Horizon, Ratten!, Burning Wheel, Torchbearer, Chuubo's Marvelous Wish Granting Engine, Super Console and I left out a lot of games because of and in spite of technicalities.

D20 Modern has the rules, a bestiary, optional magic and psionics, and 3 different campaign settings all in 1 book. Unfortunately, it's D20 Modern.

>>48431924
>Eoris Essence
Technically that needs two books, the rules and the fluff

>>48431942
FATAL fits the bill, too, doesn't it?

>>48431957
I chose to ignore that technicality because the rulebook contains enough fluff to run the game and the other book is more of an optional interpretative bonus LSD trip put on paper.

>>48431987
Also, both books come in the same box and cannot actually be purchased separately.

>>48431963
Technically yes, but it's as long as 3 normal rulebooks.

>>48431834
The Player's Handbook, DM Guide, and Monster Manual being all separate books is pretty exclusive to D&D and its derivatives, honestly.

>>48431877

This sounds interesting enough, but I can't find a free PDF anywhere. I would strongly prefer to preview anything before I actually go out and buy it.

>>48432058
You could probably find a copy sitting in a second-hand shop for $1

>>48431963
FATAL has an expansion. Yes, someone looked at it and thought "the world needs more of this."

>>48431877
Loved that book, got it as a plane book along with the second Cretan adventure game book. Totally changed my opinion on how to make and run games.

>>48431877
I would kill for the supplements and Domesday to actually be uploaded somewhere.

Can never find them anywhere online.

>>48431834
The 40k RPGS are all like this.

>>48431834
This list only account for 'playable out of the box' and things I remember on top of my head. Sure they are inevitably better with more options but I'm pretending their other books don't exist as of writing this:
-Any 40k RPG
-Any Old World of Darkness (assuming your game has no crossover between different supernatural critters)
-Gamma World (the D&D 4e-derived version)
-Dungeons: The Dragoning
-All Flesh Must Be Eaten
-Kult
-Doublecross
-Most OSR games

>>48433663
>Any Old World of Darkness

I don't remember these being complete references. For instance, I think some editions mentioned that characters could cast spells, but didn't provide a list of spells, or rules for how spells might be created.

They also lacked a bestiary / encounter tables, and some editions might have had only vague details about the campaign setting. You most certainly needed to grab additional supplements.

>>48433727
>For instance, I think some editions mentioned that characters could cast spells, but didn't provide a list of spells, or rules for how spells might be created.
What, old Mage? Yeah, that was intentional. Magic could do literally anything you could convince your DM fit within the dots.

>They also lacked a bestiary / encounter tables
They lacked them because those by and large didn't exist for oWoD. It's not that you needed a supplement, it's that they weren't part of the game at all.

I think all of like 10 enemies got statted up for all of Werewolf, for example.

>>48433765

I thought something like that might be the case, but I still prefer rulebooks to provide *some* example material to work with instead of requiring the DM to make up everything as they go along.

>>48433765
>They lacked them because those by and large didn't exist for oWoD.
Yeah I'm looking at my 1st edition oMage and there's about 20 pages of monsters and statted NPC's in the back but even then the NPC's take up about 2 per page for half of that.

>>48433663
>Doublecross
>MFW I want to own this but it's out of print and super expensive to find.
Sure I could get a PDF but I prefer books in my hand when possible.

>>48434043
Don't bother with Double Cross.
The concept is neat, but the execution is rather garbage, even before the translator fucked it up further.
Not to mention that you wouldn't get any coherent errata if you bought the book, like I did.

>>48431892
There's the answer you want, OP

I think most games have "supplements" but the game can be run out of one book, almost every time

>>48432140
It also has a second edition.
Admittedly it fixes nearly half the problems, but at what cost?

An extra hundred pages.