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
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"
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."
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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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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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
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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
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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 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
