What’s Hot in Indie TTRPGs 2024
A compilation of data and opinionProduced by Epistolary Richard and with contributions from others as noted. Note that this is in the process of compilation and is not currently final.
Contributors
Josh Fox - Emergent Mysteries -What I’m calling emergent mystery is a game where the mystery is created by multiple people and multiple people have control over what the truth. If you consider a traditional mystery game to be where the GM is the one who knows what’s really going on and comes up with the clues for everybody to find and an improvised game is where the GM is making it up as they go along, but is still deciding what the mystery is, then an emergent mystery is where the players get to shape the mystery and decide what's really happening. Back in 2018, Oli Jeffries wrote Apocalypse By Moonlight, as a plug-in for Powered by the Apocalypse games and had been inspired by my game Lovecraftesque, which had been been where basically the players take turns to make up clues and then at the end their theory is used to define what the truth is. Apocalypse By Moonlight makes that a GMed emergent game so when the players want to investigate something they say I'm going to investigate something they roll some dice and if they roll well they get to decide what they find; if they roll badly the GM may tell them what they found or complicate what they were hoping to find. At the end when they've accumulated enough Clues then they are going to be rolling to see whether their theory as to what the mystery means is correct and again if they roll well it's true, if they roll less well than the GM complicates it, so it's taking what is traditionally this GM controlled thing and making it a story that nobody knows the answer to. So Apocalypse By Moonlight was the foundation of that idea and that inspired the game Brindlewood Bay which had a very big kickstarter in 2022 and now there are loads and loads of games happening in this space: there are dozens of hacks of Brindlewood Bay, there are other unique systems which are using the same idea. I literally cannot find them all never mind tell you about them all. A few of my favourites though are: Apocalypse Keys where you're playing sad monsters trying to prevent imminent apocalypses; Bump in the Dark, you’re small town cryptid hunters using a Forged in the Dark style system; Cryptid Creeks is almost the opposite so you're kids trying to prevent a curse in a small town and are helped by friendly cryptids; and Rosewood Abbey where you are medieval monks investigating scandal, rumour and superstitious gossip.
I really love emergent mystery: it’s a lot less work you can create a mystery on the fly with no prep at all; it removes the problem of players getting confused or looking at the wrong place because there is no such thing as the wrong place and they ultimately cannot be wrong; also as a GM I find it more exciting as I get to discover the mystery along with the players.
Will Rahman Daultrey - Narrative wargames / Tactical roleplay -
I think part of where the push for more narrative elements in wargames is actually a push back against a trend within the industry towards more competitive play. For example, Games Workshop, their games have gone very much into the competitive scene and there are players that don't want that. They don't want to turn up and play a game that is so rules-heavy and constrained within a points-based system of how you build your army so that the game can be competitive. Those players have looked at roleplaying games and I’m one of them. I played minis games more than I played roleplaying games, but the first game I created, Forbidden Psalm, I wanted it to tell a story, I wanted it to be narrative and I wanted it to be fun. So I created a game that I felt did that by being focused on the narrative.
There's kind of a theme in the game of fun through failure so if your guys are losing and dying in a competitive game the game stops being fun so designing games where it's actually fun to lose can become a part of it which again is something that you have in role playing games of that failure forward. That's where a lot of it's come from: taking that overly competitive nature of war games that has grown over the last few years and pushing back against it and bringing the fun and the narrative and the storytelling back in that war games originally had. Some of the most popular long-lasting war games like Mordheim have that; people spend hours making their warband, customising it, building a whole story around it and yet the play on the tabletop doesn't continue that story. These more narrative wargames use scenarios beyond just killing each other or king of the hill, their scenarios can be more like a roleplay adventure with more varied objectives and text that you read out to describe what’s happening in the world, they can have a campaign system that represents flaws and feats and your characters evolve and get new equipment and then players want to kit-bash a whole new model to represent it. Plus these games are not always competitive, in Forbidden Psalm and all the other games I’ve made since, each player has their own warband and you can attack each other, but there’s no actual benefit in doing so. There’s no extra XP, you don’t level up quicker. Instead, you’re up against monsters who have their own behaviour flow-chart so it’s kind of like a gmless ttrpg. You can play it solo as well so it's the idea that you can approach it how you want to approach it to tell a story.
(Compiler’s note) If you’re interested in narrative minis games then other games to check out are Necropolis28, Turnip28, and Trench Crusade. For an example of a similar game coming from the ttrpg angle then check out Lo! Thy Dread Empire which calls itself a tactical roleplay / narrative wargame.
Michael Duxbury -
2024, like 2023, has been an absolutely brutal year for personnel cuts in the field of games journalism. Happily, 2024 has also been a great year for new, reader-funded, tabletop journalism outlets filling the void left behind. In many instances, the latter has emerged directly out of the former, as displaced journalists outdo their former tech overlords, by constructing a sustainable model for high-quality tabletop journalism.
Some of the highest profile entries into this space include Rascal News (founded by former io9, Polygon, and Dicebreaker writers), Just For Fun (founded by former Dicebreaker journalists), and Second Wind (founded by the Escapist Magazine’s video team – predominantly a video game website, but with RPG Actual Play content too). More amicably, we’ve seen a former host of Shut Up and Sit Down step down to establish the similarly Patreon-funded Quinn’s Quest, providing high profile exposure to indie RPGs.
Reader funding doesn’t just preserve the livelihoods of these creators, but also the journalistic independence their outlets need to thrive. I’m hopeful this trend continues into the new year and far beyond it. I’m also hoping that the mass firings of industry personnel will, as a tiny shred of silver lining, remind remaining employees of the importance of collective bargaining in resisting corporate overreach. The expansion of the Game Workers branch of the IWGB to accept tabletop members suggests tentative progress in this direction as well.
Sharang Biswas -
For last year’s Year in Review, my thoughts dwelled on resistance and rebellion. Well, it’s been an exhausting year politically, so this time, I thought I’d focus on something both more personal, and a little lighter in tone.
Playing Jack Harrison’s ENNIE-award-winning KORIKO: A MAGICAL YEAR has been has been my favourite game experience this year. I’m playing it somewhat unusually; rather than as a solo journalling game, I’m playing it with a friend, the two of us discussing and co-writing each entry. I confess that most journalling RPGs don’t work for me. Possibly because I make worlds and stories for a living, the act of playing one of these games tends to feel like work, leaving me exhausted. Having another person present has transformed the experience entirely. The social, co-creative aspect of RPGs rises to the top, and I’ve found that I can write pages upon pages in longhand without growing tired. We’ve filled 50 journal pages already (okay disclaimer, they’re quite sticker-filled), and we’re only halfway through the game!
Of course, the game’s own merits more than contribute to the enjoyment I’m getting out of it. From the excellent instructions about housekeeping and journal organisation, to the guided manner in which new characters are introduced and incorporated, to the wonderfully inspirational prompts each accompanied by a metered rhyming couplet, to the font and colour choices—so much care and thought has gone into the game’s design. The dice and tarot mechanics are offbeat too, together creating a wonderful structure for storytelling. It helps that the themes of learning and growing up, as well as the Ghibli-inspired story frame of trainee witch in a new city, appeal to me immensely.
I don’t really know how to end this note, so I’ll just leave you with a couple of the game’s rhymes. Maybe they’ll transport you somewhere inspirational too?
reeking sigil, monstrous mane,
mouthy goblin, spectral flames.
mystic pickles, haunted breads,
talking teddies, dazzling threads.
mountain peak, forest glade,
sunken grotto, broken blade.
Jonathon 'Starshine' Scribbles -
2024 was defined by growth. This year, I've had the pleasure of seeing loads of new creators enter the industry, be they releasing their first games or becoming part of the game design community. 2024 has also seen creators stretch the medium of TTRPGs in new ways, crafting new and unique mechanics or making games about themes and topics that have not been covered before.
This is especially obvious in the solo game space, as 2024 has been blessed with a massive number of memorable and creative games that use the medium to tackle a vast number of topics, from personal struggles to global crises. For example, The Rock Limpet" by RobotFrancis used the solo game format to explore the often messy nature of political revolutions and their ensuing fallout. While Magikya Studios' I Don't Speak French, But They Do!" used puppetry and ventriloquism to discuss communication barriers and how they can be overcome.
Even outside the solo game space, 2024 was packed with highly creative titles that pushed the medium in new directions. For example, Deep Dark Games's A Perfect Rock" used gathered rocks and sci-fi worldbuilding to get players thinking about environmental issues and the need to protect Earth's climate.
The year has also seen many TTRPGs incorporate props and LARP-inspired elements, adding to player immersion and making games more accessible. This includes games like glitterbandemissary's Roadtrip Radio," which uses real-world radio stations and player position to recreate the feeling of an old-school road trip, and Chuck & Noodles" by Kurt Refling and Kathleen Hartin, which uses two walkie-talkies to drop players into the middle of a moving story about the pain of growing up.
If nothing else, 2024 proves that the TTRPG industry never sits still. It is constantly growing, changing, and evolving.
Epistolary Richard - GenAI and ttrpgs -
Generative AI has been a buzzy term for this year across a lot of disciplines. GenAI is a blanket term for types of AI that generate something new including those based on Large Language Models (LLMs) like Chat GPT as well as diffusion models that can create images based on text prompts. Big Tech is all-in on GenAI and Venture Capitalists are chasing hot GenAI startups with even greater fervour than they chased crypto start-ups a few years before. GenAI has found its way into a lot of different areas of life including now being mandated in some people’s work and the TTRPG space is no exception and I’d like to talk through some of those impacts.
Just as a side-note however I’m not going to talk here about the ecological impact of the broad implementation of GenAI here. But if you weren’t already then please know that it does have one and should go learn about it.
I’d like to split the impacts into the personal level, what I’m going to call the table level, which is impacts to how people play ttrpgs and then the business level which is where money is more involved.
TTRPGs as a hobby is pretty well decentralised. While there are big companies and big games, no group is dependent on them to be able to play their game. We don’t have to worry about centrally run servers like MMORPGers do or the factory line production and shipment of specific game pieces for board games or even the creation of new content like the book industry. One ttrpg can last a lifetime. Each table is quite self-reliant and so how one table plays can be very different from another. So in terms of GenAI, at that table level, it really comes down to each individual as to extent that they want to use generic chatbots to write elements of a campaign or contents of a dungeon or brainstorm new characters or create AI images to for PCs or NPCs. For some people that stuff, that creation is part of the fun of the game; for other people it’s not. A different use I’ve read about is someone who used AI to take notes of their games because their table found note-taking a drag and summarising a transcript of a 4 hour game was something an AI definitely could do. For other potential uses I’ve read, like training a chatbot to talk like an innkeeper and then uploading audio files so the chatbot can use it as a voice… sounds cool in theory, but is this really why I got together with my fellow gamers so that we can all talk to ye olde chatbot together? No. And I think there is a risk there that, especially if those kinds of bells and whistles are held out as best practice GMing, it’s actually going to lead to GMs having to put in more preparation and be even less comfortable with being flexible. I know that when I was starting out as a GM I relied too much on prep and too little on rolling with what the players actually wanted to do. And if I had a bunch of players who were expecting full motion video NPCs every way they turned then I would never have bothered.
So, bottom line, the use of generic GenAI tools (by which I mean those that weren’t tailored to TTRPGs) as part of prep or other game-related admin it’s going to be person by person, table by table decision. And I think the only way that that wouldn’t happen is if when Big Tech shifts from growing the GenAI market to then trying to make a profit on it and then pushes the full cost of it onto consumers it will be too expensive for this kind of use.
So onto the business level where people are trying to make money out of GenAI specifically related to TTRPGs. Here again I want to split it between platforms, tools, game text and art. Yes, don’t worry, I’ll get to art.
Platforms first, and here I mean websites like Friends and Fables or AI Dungeon where the deal is that you go to the website and you play the game there with their AI acting as GM. I have not played any of these, they’re not my scene, but they’re an implementation.
Then tools: these are almost aimed at GMs because obviously in the traditional roleplaying stereotype, the GMs are always the ones overloaded with work and having to pour their creativity out to a bunch of ungrateful players who just want to seduce the bartender and hit something with an axe. These are mainly generators for things like encounters, dungeons, stat blocks, I mean I don’t know what any of these things are because I only play indie games, but apparently they are things that GMs of mainstream games have to create.
I can’t claim to say anything more about these as again, it’s not my scene. My only thought is that they’re kind of relying on the generic GenAI tools not getting too good – because if I can generate encounters, dungeons and stat blocks with Chat GPT then why do I need a TTRPG specific tool? If Chat GPT gets good enough to just be able to DM a game of D&D then why do I need to subscribe to an AI GM platform?
Fundamentally, though, both of these trying to sell their customers on a GenAI experience. The AI nature of it is part of the sales pitch and then it’s down to the value proposition for each individual customer. For the last two, however: game text and art, the AI nature is not customer facing.
Game text, by which I mean TTRPG designers and writers using GenAI in their creation of their TTRPGs either as part of drafting, editing or playtesting. For drafting and editing at least this is kind of bread and butter stuff for LLMs. Again this is something that’s going to impact more mainstream games than indie games, after all I don’t really need Chat GPT to generate large amounts of text for my 100 word rpg. Taking a leaf from fiction publishing, places like the Authors Guild produced best practice notes for use of AI which does imply a widespread use of GenAI in fiction writing. In that business, the concern is more on the legal side about whether the author has transformed the AI text sufficiently to claim copyright in it because that’s what their contract with their publisher says. But in TTRPG space where almost everyone self-publishes that’s less of a concern. While I’ve not heard mention of GenAI usage in writing ttrpgs I think it’s reasonable safe to assume that it’s likely happening at a similar rate to fiction writing.
Lastly, we get to art. After a bunch of controversies, the second half of 2023 and 2024 saw the roll out of policies around the use of AI-generated content including Kickstarter, OneBookShelf and itch.io requiring the disclosure of AI generated content (OBS also added it as a filter), WOTC saying they don’t want their creatives using GenAI in creating final products, on reddit r/osr and r/dnd have both put out rules against posting AI generated content. At the same time, I have seen several blog posts pointing ttrpg designers who want to include art towards public domain, open source, creative commons or inexpensive stock art. Will it make any difference? We will have to see. Large corporations will use GenAI art if they think they can make money without blowback (they have that fiduciary obligation to their shareholders after all); for that to happen they will have to able to normalise its use in the eyes of their audience and be confident in actually having the copyright to what they produce. If there’s a significant change or clarification of copyright law in relation to GenAI creative works then I wouldn’t be surprised if publishers quietly amend their policies and chance it.
Epistolary Richard - From forums to Plexodus to TweXit to BlueSky -
From the 2000s, while indie TTRPG folk have always been, well, independent as to their digital space, it’s often been useful to have a central touchpoint (a town square if you like) where you can actually find people. A lot of that was originally based around a couple of key forums, then Google Plus gained favour thanks to its better timeline controls and its integration with Hangouts. When Plus was shut down for non-commercial use, Twitter became that place kind of by default because that’s where a lot of people already had networks. But with its transformation to X and the recent US election, a bunch of indie TTRPG folk have moved onto BlueSky (with its Starter Packs functionality especially assisting folk to quickly create networks).
Selected TTRPGs
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2024 Level 1 Anthology
Alt link: An annual collection of TTRPGs published in time for Free RPG Day. The indie RPG scene is a diverse, fascinating, and vibrant part of the TTRPG community. With Level 1: The Indie RPG Anthology, 9th Level Games brings together choice games from the world of indie RPGs in an annual collection published in time for Free RPG Day. The 2024 edition of Level 1 is themed around "Command Line." This year's designers take us to the internet, the future, and other worlds. We have abandoned Discord servers, viruses, robots, and even golems. We have hacking simulations and a simulation of hacking. You can become a god, an outer space pet, or, as predicted, a hacker. So strap on your keyboard, and get ready to jack into the net, chummer! |
This won silver Best Free Game / Product at the Ennies 2024
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Afterglow
Alt link: It started when a WIZARD cleaved apart the temple into two. Because, in the cyclical way of things, one ideology eventually wins out over the other. The Celestial Cycles shatter and pour away, blending into the colour of their worship into tones of soft purple and creamy orange hues. Now there is no more day or night, no rising or setting of the Godly tombs that float in carefully calculated arches through the sky: there is only the AfterGlow and the wake of a different world. AfterGlow is a solo or co-operative play journaling TTRPG game. Become a Dawncarver Acolyte of the Light, Imefelga, or a Nightweaver Acolyte of the God of the Night, Elestrell. |
This won Best GMless TTRPG at the CRIT awards
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Against the Wind
Alt link: In the lands where the wind howls like a beast untamed, you forge your path. They say the gales here shape not just the land, but the very spirit of those who walk it. You are one of those souls, a wanderer amidst the churning skies and the earth that bites with frost. Against the Wind is a solo/coop fantasy-adventure sandbox game in a land ravaged by fierce winds and biting cold, all infused with a subtle pinch of fairy tale ambiance. In this world, players step into the roles of magical nomad heroes, confronting the relentless climate, traversing diverse landscapes, and following their own unique paths. The game blends traditional and modern styles of play, merging the classic elements of fantasy adventure — like wilderness exploration and dungeon delving — with contemporary, narrative-driven mechanics. |
This was named as a favorite solo TTRPG of 2024 by Pop Cult
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Becoming The Villain
Alt link: Becoming The Villain is a solo or multiplayer tabletop roleplaying game for players who love character, choices and storytelling. Create characters, and give them hopes, dreams, and ambitions. Use Tarot cards to see how their story unfolds and Become The Villain! |
This was named as a favorite solo TTRPG of 2024 by Pop Cult
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Between Clouds
Alt link: Between Clouds is a colorful, biopunk, tabletop RPG about a family of misfits navigating the open skies atop their beloved flying beast |
This won Best Multiplayer TTRPG at the CRIT awards
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BREAK!!
Alt link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/576526373/break-a-trpg-inspired-by-classic-videogames-and-anime BREAK!!'s setting and aesthetics are inspired by classic anime and SNES era videogames, along with wistful fantasy novels and movies! BREAK!! is a 470 page, full-color book loaded with diagrams and infographics to make learning and playing the game as fast and fun as possible. |
This won Best Family Game / Product at the Ennies 2024
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Cepheus Universal
Alt link: https://www.paulelliottbooks.com/cepheus-universal.html This universal science fiction RPG allows players and Game Master to emulate most kinds of sci-fi gaming, from time travel or near future cyberpunk, to space opera; from modern-day Solar System exploration to a far future that enjoys antimatter power, matter transportation and food replicators. As much attention is given to low-tech societies as mid-tech and far future, high-tech societies. You'll find options for gunpowder weapons, disintegrators, fusion power, portable shield generators, flint tool production and using beasts of burden. The scope of Cepheus Universal is huge. The 2D6-based Cepheus rules are adaptable but not complex, and easy enough for players new to sci-fi gaming (or to roleplaying in general). Character creation is purely by design, and features a life path system that adds depth and which connects them to the setting. Create a character in 5 minutes or less. Packed with material that you can use to build your setting, or adapt your favourite setting from a novel or movie, it includes systems for building not just characters, but starships, animals, robots, vehicles, AI machines, star systems, spacesuits … you name it. Pick the parts you need to build the type of setting you desire. No setting is included, but three examples are provided to give you an idea of the scope of these rules. |
This ttrpg was added to DriveThruRPG in 2024 and achieved Platinum rating before end of the year
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CHEW: The Roleplaying Game
Alt link: The award-winning Image comic book series and New York Times Best Seller, CHEW, is cooking for a game table near you! Take a bite out of crime in a foodie crime drama about cops, crooks, cooks, cannibals, and clairvoyants in a clucked-up world. We're building off the popular fiction-first game mechanics of Forged in the Dark to bring the action-packed comic series of food crimes, over-the-top characters, and out-of-this-world conspiracies to life. |
This was a 2024 Ennies Judges' Spotlight Winner
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Coffee & Chaos
Alt link: Coffee & Chaos is a comedy tabletop roleplaying game about running a cafe, bar, restaurant or other establishment as everything goes very, very wrong around you. It has been built on a rules-lite framework that facilitates two major things: 1. Allows the game to be played with any characters and work especially well with pre-existing characters for one-off comedy sessions within longer campaigns. 2. Allows for the game to pull away from the idea of winning and instead focus on telling hilarious stories. |
This won Best Indie TTRPG at the CRIT awards
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Dead Gods
Alt link: After the Cataclysm of Heaven it all changed. Murdered gods fell from the sky, sundering the land and casting their sacred relics about the world. From the woodwork crawl Warcults, scavengers of god-relics to further their own twisted gains. The Eternal seek power over death itself. The Order of the Stars seek relics to unlock god-like omniscience. The Pale Druids imbibe relics to acquire power over nature itself. The Black Maw will create a new, hungrier god under their control. Dead Gods is a fast-paced skirmish game for 28mm fantasy models where players control Warcults to secure the sacred relics left behind by the Cataclysm. |
This won Best 1 Page TTRPG at the CRIT awards
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Dragonslayer Role-Playing Game
Alt link: Step into the Golden Age of Role-Playing Games with Dragonslayer, an OSR (Old-School Renaissance) game system that brings the classic magic, adventure, and wonder of 1980s tabletop RPGs to life! Built for fans of D&D-inspired OSR gameplay, Dragonslayer combines the streamlined rules of B/X with the tactical depth and flair of First Edition, offering a single-volume ruleset packed with everything needed to fuel your fantasy TTRPG campaigns. Dragonslayer includes all the core elements of the classic fantasy RPG experience: distinct races, iconic classes, powerful spells, terrifying monsters, and hoards of treasure — all meticulously curated for OSR-style adventures. Immerse yourself in a world where myths come alive, terrifying monsters roam, and every quest could be your last. Unleash the true spirit of old-school RPGs with Dragonslayer, the OSR ruleset that brings high-fantasy adventures and timeless dungeon delves to your table. |
This ttrpg was added to DriveThruRPG in 2024 and achieved Platinum rating before end of the year
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Dreams And Machines: Starter Set
Alt link: https://modiphius.us/collections/dreams-and-machines/products/dreams-and-machines-starter-set A vast distance from Earth, a human colony bearing the scars of a self-inflicted apocalypse survives on the distant world of Evera Prime. In the shadow of ruined megacities humanity rebuilds, scavenging technology from the Old World and returning to a simpler way of life. Among the mountains and valleys of New Mossgrove, the mechs of the Old World dot the landscape, deadly tools of a corrupt A.I.. Since the war that finally defeated the machines, they have been locked in a slumber that’s lasted hundreds of years — but occasionally, they awaken, and when they do, these ‘Wakers’ continue their programming to wreak havoc across the world. |
This was named as a best new ttrpg book of 2024 by Polygon
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Eat the Reich
Alt link: https://rowanrookanddecard.com/product/eat-the-reich/ The year is 1943. You are a team of crack vampire commandos with one mission: drink all of Hitler’s blood. Eat the Reich is a tabletop roleplaying game in which you, a vampire commando, are coffin-dropped into occupied Paris and must cut a bloody swathe through nazi forces en route to your ultimate goal: drinking all of Adolf Hitler’s blood. It’s written by Grant Howitt (Honey Heist, Spire, Heart) and illustrated by Will Kirkby (Critical Role, Image, Darkhorse, Boom). This over-the-top, ultraviolent game is designed to be played from beginning to end in one to three sessions of carnage, blood magic, meaningful flashbacks and hundreds upon hundreds of extremely dead fascists. It tells one story, it tells it loud, and it tells it brilliantly. Think Wolfenstein crossed with Danger 5 and you’re not far off the mark. |
This was named as a best new ttrpg book of 2024 by Polygon
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If I Were A Lich, Man
Alt link: If I Were a Lich, Man is a trilogy of funny Jewish roleplaying games about creative resistance against authoritarianism. The villains in the stories of our oppressors become the heroes in our play. Written and illustrated by a team of avant-garde Jewish designers, this box set includes rules for all three games, game cards & a set of wooden dreidels. Recommended for fans of What We Do in the Shadows, Russian Doll, and Young Frankenstein. |
This won silver Best Family Game / Product at the Ennies 2024
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Ker Nethalas: Into the Midnight Throne
Alt link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ker-Nethalas-Into-Midnight-Throne/dp/B0CT8F47QM Condemned to death. Executed. Yet somehow, you survived. Now you roam the endless tunnels of the City Below, the Midnight Throne: Ker Nethalas. Will your skills and wits save you once again, or will you join the countless restless dead? Welcome to Ker Nethalas: Into the Midnight Throne, a single player dungeon crawler set in an endless necropolis. With the tools presented in the book you’ll tell the story of your character who, after miraculously surviving an execution, wakes up to realize that their problems have just begun, and that there are fates worse than death. When you sit down to play Ker Nethalas: Into the Midnight Throne, you, the player, take on the role of a single character. Your PC is your avatar in the dark tunnels of the necropolis, and your decisions (and luck!) will determine their fate. Ker Nethalas: Into the Midnight Throne uses a simple D100 ruleset to resolve all tasks. Whenever a PC tries to do something and the result isn't evident, or there is something at stake, you will need to perform a check. This is done by rolling D100, and comparing the result to the corresponding skill on the character’s sheet. If the result is equal or lower than the skill’s score, the check is a success. |
This ttrpg was added to DriveThruRPG in 2024 and achieved Platinum rating before end of the year
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Kids on Bikes: Second Edition Core Rulebook
Alt link: https://www.board-game.co.uk/product/kids-on-bikes-core-rulebook-second-edition-deluxe/ Kids on Bikes is a Collaborative World Building RPG set in small towns with big mysteries. Written and created by celebrated game designers Jon Gilmour (Dead of Winter, Atari: Centipede/Missile Command/Asteroids) & Doug Levandowski (Gothic Doctor, Seven Minutes in Hell, Home: The Haunted House Map Building RPG). Kids on Bikes is a rules-light storytelling system that gets players into the action fast. The Adventures of Kids on Bikes take place in small towns at any point in history before: everyone had a camera phone that could catch video of a ghost, use GPS to track a homicidal maniac roaming around town, research an old creaky house in seconds using the internet. Kids on Bikes takes place in a more mysterious time, where anything and everything could happen. Kids on Bikes is a 138-page, rules-light, fast-paced storytelling game in the spirit of games like Dread, Perseverant, Monsterhearts, and other great indie titles. Kids on Bikes is perfect for game nights in which you want to get a game in RIGHT NOW. Using stats like GRIT, CHARM, FIGHT, FLIGHT, BRAINS and BRAWN, you’ll jump into the action. Each skill is represented by a polyhedral die based on your character’s competence. More sides = better chance of success. |
This ttrpg was added to DriveThruRPG in 2024 and achieved Platinum rating before end of the year
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Knave: Second Edition
Alt link: https://questingbeast.itch.io/knave-second-edition Knave 2e is an exploration-driven fantasy RPG and worldbuilding toolkit, inspired by the best elements of the Old-School DnD movement. This edition expands on the intuitive core of the original game, featuring elegant, modular subsystems for hexcrawling, dungeon delving, potion making and downtime activities, all in a 80-page digest-sized hardcover lavishly illustrated by Peter Mullen. |
This ttrpg was added to DriveThruRPG in 2024 and achieved Platinum rating before end of the year
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KUROI
Alt link: From the author of the bestselling games ENTITY and Campfire Story comes a new solo cyberpunk game, KUROI. In addition to simple but rich rules, the game also features top-notch artwork from world-renowned illustrators to visualize its own unique world. Kuro is a cyberpunk setting which pays homage to the greatest giants of the Cyberpunk genre, of which the author has been a die-hard fan since the early 90s. The game is played on a 6x6 inch grid and is a so-called micro wargame. You progress from level to level of a heavily guarded corporate building, trying to fulfill the objectives of your Heist. The game uses a unique Action roll system with two rerolls (Yatzee style) that you must tactically manage in your turn by using these dice to buy various actions and enhance them. In the game, you can choose several ways to progress through each level, you can be stealthy or manipulate enemies or go all out with your entire arsenal. Permanently improve your character from Heist to Heist with cyberware and try to complete Heists in the buildings of the most influential and dangerous megacorporations. Kuro also offers various tables and generators to support storytelling, such as different factions, corporations, events, complications, rewards, weapons, items, cyberware, and different types of Heist levels. |
This ttrpg was added to DriveThruRPG in 2024 and achieved Platinum rating before end of the year
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OBSCURE: Found Footage Inspired Horror TTRPG
Alt link: OBSCURE is a tabletop role-playing game inspired by the genre "found-footage horror" known from movies and video games like The Blair Witch Project, Outlast and V/H/S. The game is made for one-location horror one-shots and survival horror campaigns, where storytelling is weighted above rules, and horror above action. The Player Characters are not heroes, just regular everyday people caught up in horrifying situations, where death is always lurking around the corner. This roleplaying game is designed to match the unnerving experience of watching a horror movie or telling a ghost story around a campfire. To capture the atmosphere of urban legends in a time before the internet was a common thing. OBSCURE is about solving mysteries. It is about running and hiding. It is about confronting your worst fears and overcome them. And above all, it is about getting through the night - alive. |
This was a 2024 Ennies Judges' Spotlight Winner
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Outgunned
Alt link: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/449021/outgunned Outgunned is a cinematic action RPG inspired by the classics of the action and heist genre, from Die Hard to True Lies, passing through James Bond, Lethal Weapon, Kingsman, Ocean’s Eleven, Hot Fuzz, and the latest John Wick. In Outgunned, Players take on the role of action Heroes facing terrible odds. They will be constantly surrounded by enemies while trying to carry out their mission, be it robbing a casino or saving the day. Outgunned features a game system called Director’s Cut, a set of mechanics using small pools of six-sided dice to determine the outcome of the Heroes’ actions. When rolling dice, your goal is not to score the highest or lowest possible number, but to roll two-, three-, and four-of-a-kind. |
This won silver Best Game and silver Product of the Year at the Ennies 2024
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Psychic Trash Detectives
Alt link: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/478875/psychic-trash-detectives Psychic Trash Detectives is a shared-GM game inspired by guidebook-style TTRPGs and a pulpy, punk ethos that demands a shift in how games and literature are defined. You do not need roleplaying experience to play—just open the book and start to read. If you have played a TTRPG before, you'll find that Psychic Trash Detectives offers an immersive storytelling experience unlike any other. You and the other players will use actual trash to generate elements of the game world, resolve questions, and push the story forward. You'll use whatever trash you bring to the game space (or whatever trash is there already). Plus, you'll create the setting of the game together too, mapping out on a hand-drawn map the weird places where your characters find their favorite trash. And when it comes to the psychic trash visions, you'll play weird, surrealist mini-games to determine the supernatural messages and memories |
This won Best Indie TTRPG at the CRIT awards
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Shadow of the Weird Wizard
Alt link: https://schwalbentertainment.com/shadow-of-the-weird-wizard/ Shadow of the Weird Wizard® is a fantasy roleplaying game in which you and your friends assume the roles of characters who explore the borderlands and make them safe for the refugees escaping the doom that has befallen the old country. Unsafe are these lands: the Weird Wizard released monsters to roam the countryside, cruel faeries haunt the shadows, undead drag themselves free from their tombs, and ancient evils stir once more. If the displaced people would rebuild their lives, they need heroes to protect them. A brand new game built using the system powering Shadow of the Demon Lord, this game gives you everything you need for you and your friends to champion the innocent, to brave grave dangers, and right terrible wrongs, all while exploring the wild frontier of the borderlands! Some saw him as a mad sorcerer who commanded eldritch powers of staggering might. As proof, one only has to look at all the abominations he set loose in the lands—the hybrid beasts, the multilegged hulking collectors, floating eyes that hang in the air trailing their nerve endings. And then, far, far beyond the edges of the new lands rose the walls of the Forbidden City and the clockwork peoples who dwelled there in seeming servitude to the dread mage who ruled over all he surveyed. But the Weird Wizard is gone. His shadow remains, but the figure casting it disappeared and none, not even his closest servants, know where he went. It might be coincidence that his absence preceded the bloody civil war that tore the Great Kingdom apart and that precipitated the violent struggle between the other nations in the west, or the Weird Wizard might have had some stabilizing influence that enabled civilization to flourish once more following a far older, nastier decline. Too, he could have been the source of the conflict and abandoned the world to its fate. Either way, the instability sends people by the thousands spilling into the borderlands. As this territory grows more and more crowded, refugees are looking to the east to make their homes. The first forays into the strange place have ended with disappearances and death, and the few people who have returned carry tales of hostile inhabitants, cruel faeries, and hideous, ravenous monsters. If the new lands would be tamed, there must be peace with the inhabitants. |
This ttrpg was added to DriveThruRPG in 2024 and achieved Platinum rating before end of the year and was covered as part of Sly Flourish's 2024 TTRPGs Year in Review
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Shadowdark
Alt link: Old-school gaming, modernized. Shadowdark RPG is a critically-acclaimed tabletop fantasy RPG that raised $1.3 million on Kickstarter in March 2023. It won the 2024 Three Castles Award for best game design, as well as four gold ENNIEs: Product of the Year, Best Game, Best Rules, and Best Layout & Design. |
This won Best Game, Best Rules and Product of the Year at the Ennies 2024, was named as a best new ttrpg book of 2024 by Polygon and was covered as part of Sly Flourish's 2024 TTRPGs Year in Review
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Swyvers
Alt link: https://www.swyvers.com/ Swyvers is a tabletop role-playing game about bastards. You and your gang of criminals scarper through heists and sewers, stalk through the filth of The Smoke and, if you’re lucky, you’ll make it out with a few extra shillings. The whole of this city is your filthy, sickly oyster. Swyvers is a light-weight set of rules married to a full set of tools and tables for running a game in the chaotic sprawl of The Smoke, its many districts and The Midden. What a city it is — corrupt officials, looming war, rogue sorcerors, monsters below and nobs above. Violence rests as thick as the smog, nothing is sacred and it’s always bloody raining. A brand-new game built from the ground up to give you a grotty system for running a grotty game. |
This ttrpg was added to DriveThruRPG in 2024 and achieved Platinum rating before end of the year
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The Electric State
Alt link: https://freeleaguepublishing.com/shop/the-electric-state-rpg/core-rulebook/ The Electric State Roleplaying Game is a tabletop RPG based on the art book The Electric State by acclaimed visual artist and author Simon Stålenhag soon to be adapted into a major motion picture by the Russo brothers (Avengers: Endgame), starring Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things) and Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy). The Electric State RPG, featuring art by Simon Stålenhag originally made for the art book project but never published before, is written by Nils Hintze (Tales From the Loop RPG) in collaboration with the Free League core team and based on Free League’s award-winning Year Zero Engine. This is a game about a group of travelers heading out on a journey through a strange America in an alternate 1997. The ruins of gigantic battle drones litter the countryside, heaped together with the discarded trash of a high tech consumerist society in decline. The game is not about the goal but the journey – what the characters experience and how it changes them. This is a game of exploration, but that which is explored is yourself and your friends, and what you are willing to do when the world collapses around you. |
This was named as a favorite solo TTRPG of 2024 by Pop Cult
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The Librarian's Apprentice
Alt link: Infinite, ever-shifting, and sometimes dangerous, the Library exists in the space between worlds and times. Among the many who call it home are the Librarians, and only those who truly understand it may join their ranks. You seek to do so. The path of a Librarian’s apprentice is a long one. Your current task is designed to test your skills at traversing the Library and finding information. Retrieve the six documents requested by your Librarian before the day is out and you will have completed one more step on your journey. The Librarian's Apprentice is a solo journaling game created with the Firelights Creator Kit by Fari RPGs. The rules will guide you, but you are in control of where the story goes. |
This won Best Solo TTRPG at the CRIT awards
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The Wassailing of Claus Manor
Alt link: https://clearkeep.itch.io/thewassailing Serve the Claus family during a descent into yuletide bedlam. The Wassailing mashes together: - The Edwardian estate drama of Downton Abbey - The atmospheric horror of Mike Flanagan shows - The festive antics of every Christmas movie you’ve ever seen Quick to play with wild twists and turns, The Wassailing is a roleplaying game perfect for raucous holiday sessions. |
This was a 2024 Ennies Judges' Spotlight Winner
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Triangle Agency
Alt link: Welcome to the first job of the rest of your life! Triangle Agency is a tabletop role-playing game in a present-day setting about wielding enormous, reality-warping power, navigating bureaucratic red tape, and juggling your everyday responsibilities. Player characters work at the Triangle Agency, an international corporation with influence in every industry. As Field Agents, players investigate and capture supernatural Anomalies that threaten the lives and comfort of normal citizens. |
This was named as a best new ttrpg book of 2024 by Polygon
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Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast
Alt link: Yazeba’s Bed & Breakfast is many things. It’s a bed and breakfast, of course, but it’s also this book. And this book is a book, of course, but it’s also a role-playing game—the sort of game we can play with our friends around a table, or on a voice call while hanging out, or even very, very slowly by mail. Yazeba’s Bed & Breakfast is played over the course of 48 chapters, each of which is a 1 to 2-hour scenario with its own unique but quick-to-learn rules. Players can take control of one of the 7 long-term residents of the B&B or choose from a cast of 50 quirky guests, each of whom has their own ongoing storylines. |
This was a 2024 game named as a game of the year by Indie RPG newsletter
Selected TTRPG crowdfunding
Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere RPG
Beginning with The Stormlight Archive and expanding to Mistborn, this original tabletop RPG will grow to support the entire Cosmere!
Terry Pratchett's Discworld RPG: Adventures in Ankh-Morpork
A tabletop roleplaying game set on Terry Pratchett's Discworld
DC20
The Next Great Evolution in Fantasy TTRPGs: A Fresh System with Epic Combat, Intuitive Gameplay, and Characters as Unique as Your Group
Adventure Time: The Roleplaying Game
Experience your own adventure in the Land of Ooo in this epic 5E RPG based on Cartoon Network's Adventure Time!
Legend in the Mist RPG
A rustic fantasy tabletop RPG based on the acclaimed City of Mist. Spin a tale of journey and peril where choices transform gameplay.
Ember
Ember is an online tabletop roleplaying game of unprecedented scope from the creators of Foundry Virtual Tabletop.
Coriolis: The Great Dark RPG – Explore A Lost Horizon
Free League's original sci-fi RPG returns. Join expeditions to faraway stars and delve deep into ancient ruins.
The Broken Empires RPG: Sim-Lite d100 Skills-Based TTRPG
Dramatic fantasy setting and Success Level System built for speed, detail and immersion! Live (or die) with your choices.
Conan: The Hyborian Age - The Roleplaying Game
Take part in days of high adventure in this glorious and official Conan tabletop roleplaying game.
ASTROPRISMA
A solo sci-fi RPG of space exploration and faction conflict set in a retrofuturistic universe.
