Top 5 RPGs every roleplayer should try at least once:

1.D&D
2. Savage World
3. Rifts (for the sheer fuckery of it)
4. Dark Heresy
5.FATAL (to show that no matter how annoying any other game is, it could always be worse)

If you read and played the latest edition and you really think it's so skippable, I would be very interested in knowing what your favorite system is. I've played over 10 different systems and RQ6 is the best one for fantasy thus far.

We need more RQ Generals. I am very intrigued.

1. D&D
2. Vampire the Masquerade
3. Shadowrun
4. Champions
5. Call of Cthulhu

I agree, this game doesn't get the support it deservers. If you're interest, I would recommend you check their campaign settings, Mythic Britain and Monster Island. It's pure gold.

This is a pretty good variety

Call of Cthulhu (or Elric! or Rune Quest or WHFRP 2nd Edition or Unknown Armies)/BRP.
Ars Magica/Troupe.
Vampire the Masquerade/Storyteller.
FATE (pick a setting)/FUDGE.
Mutant Year Zero/A nice dice pool system and a great introduction to roleplaying.

Some close picks: Deadlands/Savage World and One Roll Engine for a great dice pool system specially for super heroe games.

But r'lyeh Call of Cthulhu is a must play, a must. It is the game that changed the tone of roleplaying (along with RQ/Elric/BRP) and made RPing what it has been for the past 30 years of the hobby.

1 OD&D
2 call of Cthulhu
3 vampire the masquerade
4 Traver
5 Rifts

Not all are so much recommendations for them all as recognition for them being the tent pegs for the hobby

Balls I didn't realize that image was rotated that way.

Thought I would have got more flack for not putting Mutants and Masterminds up ahead of Champions (Hero System)

Depends on the setting.

>deadlands
my nigga

I don't want to make full list, but I think everyone should try Through the Breach just for its card deck mechanics.

1: DnD Any edition really. But a personal preference for 5th.

2: Shadowrun. Any edition will do. But one should play it at least for a handful of runs.

3: Rifts. I know... I know there are those who disdain the system and setting BUT it is a very good setting to get out the powergaming tendencies early on.

4: WEG D6 Star Wars. In my ever so humble opinion I do believe it to be the best of the Star Wars systems. It offers a fairly clean set of mechanics where the emphasis is on the story over the RAW.

5: L5R, preferably 4th Edition, Though any of the previous ones are great. In my experience, though I've been forever GM'd for this game, it has been a wonderful experience to have to act in a vastly different mindset and culture. And lets face it almost every gamer has had a samurai fantasy at some point.

let's turn this into a poll

5 years into the hobby and I never got to play D&D. Plain fantasy setting just so unappealing to me.

It's hard to make a top 5 because compare RPGs with differents setting doesn't appear to be relevent. However this is mine :

1. Trail of Cthulhu (CoC basically, but I don't like CoC rules)
2. Fantasy Craft (my favourite D&D like)
3. Vampire the Masquerade
4. FFG's Star Wars RPGs
5. Sens (the french no-dice RPG with philosophy concepts)

In no particular order
1. 13th Age, as a representative of d20 Fantasy
2. World of Darkness
3. Star Wars FFG
4. Fate
5. Gurps

This will expose a player to a wide variety of genres and dice mechanics. I don't even like Gurps, but everyone should try it at least once because if you do like it, you've got a system for anything you'd want to run.

> DnD
Because it's by far the most common and go-to system, for whatever reason. It's a piece of history. Preferably play more than one edition.
> Fate
Because it's so different and weird to grasp for a lot of people. It forces you to think differently, and I think it's worth experiencing, though maybe I personally wouldn't play it much more than that.
> Call/Trail of Cthulhu
I personally find horror to be super difficult to run, and it's a pretty different experience for a player. Absolutely worth a try. Call of Cthulhu just happens to be the most played.
> Anima
This system really helped me appreciate a lot of other systems. Its rulebook is literally the worst I've ever read at explaining the game, and its organization is mostly nonexistent. Basic play forces you to constantly refer to charts instead of having readily obvious results. I'll give it that it has a huge range of character customization for such a heavy system, though.
> Your own system
Because I think it's a really great exercise for a few reasons. Pretty much anything is going to be shit, so it helps you appreciate all the other systems. It also places you into a mindset of critically thinking about systems you know and their individual pieces, and seeing how they fit together in design. On that note, it promotes investigating other systems you might not have heard of otherwise, expanding your knowledge base. Then, after its first draft is pretty much done, you now have a list of mechanics that you like, and know what to look for in the future.

Unknown Armies
Ars Magica
Runequest
Dungeons: the Dragoning
Your choice of Apocalypse Engine game

Between those five, you've covered a more or less representative example of all major play styles and have a great basis to build or find a game that matches what your group wants to play.

DtD is kind of a cheap choice since it combines many things by its very design, and it's not widely played, but I stand by it as useful. I considered Exalted, but it overlaps rather too much with Ars Magicka in scale of operations and DtD covers many of the reasons I would include it. Magical Burst also crossed my mind as an example of a simple single-purpose game with a system built to order, but the Apocalypse engine covers that passably well. FATE or Risus also have a good thing to work with, and if this was a list of six things, I would have included one of them.

ADnD2
Traveller
GURPS
WFRP1/2
Call of Cthulhu

That covers all the bases with good systems.

>Rifts

You are my brothers in torment. Only way to play Rifts and play your sanity is to house rule it extensively and stick to one particular setting. For the love of god, don't mix your Anvil Galaxy OOCs with relatively normal ones on Earth and then wonder why it's not balanced.

Why is everyone here saying world of darkness when anything by White Wolf is pretty much known for completely nonsensical mechanics and extremely convoluted rulesets? Is it because it's the most popular d10 system?

Because several White Wolf games manage to be great despite those problems