Monster-hunting is a major aspect of tabletop roleplaying. Games likeDungeons & Dragonsare well-known for their rogues gallery of beloved monsters. However, the monster hunting in those games isn’t always the focal point. Perhaps you’re looking for a game that more precisely mimics a TV show’s monster-of-the-week formula. These are shows,usually in an urban fantasy setting, where a group of heroes does battle with new and unique monsters every single episode. Shows like the X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Supernatural. If you’re looking to go on adventures in a game designed with monster slaying in mind, these are the ones you should play.
Updated July 13, 2025, by Davis Collins:Hunting monsters isn’t just the core of a subgenre of Urban Fantasy. It’s one of the most fundamental duties of heroes throughout mythology and literature the world over. The oldest surviving work of literature, the Epic of Gilgamesh, involves heroes hunting monsters, as did the deeds of many classical heroes. We’ve come back to this list to make additions reflecting this diversity, bringing games with monster-hunting dynamics from a variety of genres.
Carnival Of Monsters
Capture monsters to capture monsters to capture monsters
From one of the creators of Magic the Gathering comes an excellent deckbuilding game about traveling a fantasy realm and capturing as many monsters as possible, competing to make the most impressive collection.
There are a variety of reasons to hunt monsters. Throughout fiction and mythology, it’s common for heroes to slay monsters in order to prevent them from hurting ordinary people, and we will explore plenty of games along those lines on this list. However, there are other reasons to kill, or, for that matter, capture, monsters.
This game is about gathering monsters for the sake of collecting them. To accomplish this, you must use deckbuilding mechanics designed by one of the creators of Magic the Gathering, one of the most popular card games in the world. It’s a very satisfying game, with fun and well-drawn monsters to collect.
Free League Blade Runner RPG: Core Rulebook
Hunt for monsters hiding among us
Based on one of the most beloved works of science fiction of all time, the Bladerunner TTRPG allows you to explore the gritty, urban world of androids that played a major role in founding the cyberpunk genre.
Based on the popular science fiction franchise, itself derived froma classic work of sci-fi literature, the Bladerunner TTRPG puts you inside this sci-fi world of secret androids and gives you the morally ambiguous task of hunting them down. This job is sure to foster plenty of paranoia, because anyone, even you, could secretly be an android. They might not even know it.
Other games on this list feature a wider variety of “monsters,” but this game gets a lot of mileage out of a single one, and reproduces a lot of the same dynamics that can be accomplished with other games on this list.
Monster of The Week: Hardcover Edition
Easy for newbies to understand
True to its name, this book exists to help you and your friends play a group of monster slayers who fight against new and interesting supernatural creatures in episodic adventures. The game is admirably simple, while still allowing you to create characters matching a wide variety of archetypes.
This urban fantasy TTRPG by Evil Hat games casts the players as a group of monster hunters, each with unique traits, and tasks them with slaying a succession of villainous monsters. Character creation in this game is built around a series of archetypes somewhat similar to D&D classes, and there are enough of these archetypes to encompass most of the characters you’ll likely want to play in a monster-hunting campaign.
The rules allow you to be anything from an angel to a redeemed monster, as well as a destined hero, bookish expert, roguish outlaw, or overwhelmed everyman. For how simple this system is, it’s shockingly easy to play exactly the character you want, all while empowering your GM to make all the monsters they need to keep you on your toes. The system is consciously influenced by all three of the monster of the week shows mentioned in the intro, so if you’re looking for a game that will pull off one of those feels, this is the one for you.
Hunter: The Reckoning
This one will stick with you
Part of the renowned World of Darkness line of TTRPGs, most of which place player characters in the role of monsters, Hunter: The Reckoning casts you as an ordinary human fighting to protect humanity in a world ruled by vampires, werewolves, and other creatures.
TheWorld of Darknessline of TTRPGs generally has its players take the role of monsters. Games like Vampire the Masquerade have the main characters’ existence defined by their inhumanity and struggle with the darkness within their own nature. However, this game follows those who, having found themselves in a world that belongs to the monsters, have taken it upon themselves to slay them to protect and avenge ordinary people.
This is a dark game with a gritty tone. You might think the PCs being human means they have less inner darkness to deal with, but a Hunter’s struggle with their own rage and bloodlust is just as strong and compelling as a vampire’s. If you want something dark where the odds are against you and your world shows little sign of changing, this is the game for you, as are some of the picks in our guide tothe best horror TTRPGs.
This strategy game casts its players as hunters working to slay terrifying beasts in the world ofBloodborne. The hunters work together against the monsters in this game, but each of them collects points from the damage they do, and in the end, only the monster hunter with the most damage and the best trophies will ultimately triumph.
This game does a wonderful job recreating Bloodborne in terms of tone, spirit, and brutality, allowing players to become extremely immersed in the dark world of monster-slaying that makes that game, and this one, such a joy.
SCP: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game
One of the greatest fictional worlds ever made
Set in the SCP Universe, one of the mainstays of internet culture, this TTRPG places PCs in the role of Foundation Agents, whose job is to hunt down and capture anomalous creatures and other objects in the name of preserving normalcy.
The SCP Foundation is a fictional organization that’s tasked itself with containing all kinds of anomalous objects, including a wide variety of monsters. Thereal-life wikicatalogs thousands of objects they have contained, and there are many iconic monsters among them, including statues that move when you don’t look at them, a monster with the power to kill anyone who sees his face, and a lizard whose invincibility overrides even the most foundational laws of the universe. Foundation agents have a lot of awesome creatures to go after, and on the off chance none of them quite suit you, this system makes it easy to design your own anomalies too.
One thing that separates this game from the others on this list is its emphasis on containment rather than killing. The Foundation wants to capture monsters, not slay them, and their agents are expected to act accordingly. As capturing something alive is almost always more difficult than killing it, this can add an extra layer of challenge to your players’ hunts, and even turn what would otherwise be trivial encounters with weak monsters into intriguing problem-solving adventures.
Delta Green
The Cthulhu mythos never did have enough military ordinance
Set in the iconic Cthulhu mythos, the Delta Green Tabletop RPG casts the players as elite government agents more equipped than anyone else in the world to deal with its threats.
The Cthulhu mythos isn’t usually associated with monster slaying. For the most part, stories and games set inside it are less about killing monsters and more about being killed by them. However, while the horrors of the Cthulhu mythos are powerful, there are a few mortals who are just about able to combat them. These elite agents are members of the Delta Green organization, a paramilitary group dedicated to combating Cthulhu mythos threats and protecting the ordinary people of the world.
If you’re looking to be skilled and powerful while facing up against enemies who are so much more powerful they manage to horrify you anyway, this is the game for you. A litany of weapons are at your disposal designed for battling these beasts from the deep.
Ultimate Werewolf Deluxe Edition
Brilliant Experience for a large gathering of players
This social deduction party game allows a large group of players to enjoy a classic hidden-identity experience. Players in this game are assigned hidden roles as either werewolves or humans, and it’s up to the humans to identify the wolves among them before they’re all eaten!
Though it was originally derived from the similar game Mafia, Werewolf has cemented its place asthe definitive social deduction game. This game is intended for as many as 75 players, and, while you don’t need that many, you’ll get the best experience out of it if you have a dozen or more. Each of these players will be assigned a hidden role, be they a werewolf, human. The werewolves pick off players one by one while the humans scramble to deduce their identities.
Eventually, the werewolves will either be discovered or will manage to pick off the entire population of the village. The roleplay element of this game comes from the way it places the players inside this scenario. Though you have a choice as to how in-character you go, the town councils in this game are most enjoyable if you do them entirely in character.
Dungeons and Dragons 5e
A classic for a reason
The current edition of the most popular TTRPG in history requires no introduction. This is the founder of the genre, with decades of history behind it, and an enormous stock of iconic monsters that has accumilated over the decades.
If you’re reading this article, you already know whatD&Dis. It’s the most popular fantasy RPG of all time, and it’s the reason monster-hunting is such a big part of tabletop gaming. Though that is not the exclusive focus of this game, it’s easy to make a campaign centered around it.
D&D’s core gameplay loop is about entering dungeons and slaying the monsters inside of them. All you have to do to make that a Monster of the Week story is make sure there’s enough emphasis on the monsters and their unique properties, and D&D gives you tons of iconic monsters to choose from. Monsters as diverse as mind-flayers, beholders, and the demogorgon originated in this game, and many of them can be found nowhere else.
Paizo Pathfinder Core Rulebook
One of the best names in Tabletop Roleplaying
A fruit of D&D’s tree that rivals the original trunk, this game, descended from the third edition of D&D, has further evolved into another amazing fantasy game with unparalleled character customization.
For all the same reasons D&D deserves to be on this list, so does its geekier cousin,Pathfinder.Which of these games is ultimately better is the subject of fierce debate, but they’re similar enough that they both belong here.
Though this game’s shorter history means it doesn’t have quite as many iconic monsters, it more than makes up for it with the unparalleled customizability of the player characters. Where creating a D&D 5e character involves a handful of choices, creating a Pathfinder character involves dozens. You will have multiple options at nearly every step of character creation, and be able to create the character in your head more precisely than any other game, in any genre, could ever allow.
The Witcher RPG
Witchers hunt monsters, after all
Based on the same universe as the hit video games and TV show, The Witcher TTRPG places you in the midst of this dark fantasy setting and tasks you with doing a Witcher’s duty by slaying the monsters that hunt the common folk.
If you’re looking for a high fantasy TTRPG specifically designed for monster hunting, the Witcher TTRPG is here for you. Witchers are monster hunters, after all, and this game allows you to play as one, fighting to defend the… well, innocent isn’t really the right word for people in this world, but you’re fighting to defend people from big scary monsters using your own supernatural powers.
The game has rules for both custom character creation and the recreation of the series’ protagonists, leaving you free to reimagine the existing stories or tell new ones.
FAQ
Is there an Officially Licensed Supernatural TTRPG?
Yes, but it’s out of print. You can still get it if you really want to explore the Supernatural universe, but the core book will set you back a few hundred dollars. The game is well-made, but no more so than any of the other games on this list which cost much less.
What is the most popular TTRPG system?
The D20 system employed by Dungeons & Dragons is the most popular in the world of TTRPGs and is one used by a lot of other games. Versions of it crop up in derivative games like Mutants & Masterminds and Pathfinder.
