We know Wizards of the Coast had a good sales year and D&D Beyond had a record-setting Cyber Monday but what about other fantasy RPGs?
DriveThruRPG has kindly pulled some data from their vast marketplace of RPG goodness, and we can now see which RPG titles have come out top.
This top 10 lists RPGs published in 2020 and which sold the best. The list includes everything creators have tagged “fantasy” with just some light editing from Geek Native to remove any product that is clearly not fantasy.
Best selling “other” fantasy RPGs of 2020
(That were published in 2020)
- Ancestry & Culture: An Alternative to Race in 5e by Arcanist Press.
- Ironsworn: Delve by Shawn Tomkin.
- Legend of the Five Rings: Path of Waves by Edge Studio (via Fantasy Flight Games).
- Flying Circus – Core Rulebook by Newstand Press.
- The Halls of Arden Vul Complete by Expeditious Retreat Press.
- A Witcher’s Journal by R. Talsorian Games Inc.
- Dishonored: The Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook by Modiphius.
- Wolves of God: Adventures in Dark Ages England by Sine Nomine Publishing.
- Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed by Onyx Path Publishing.
- Lunars: Fangs at the Gate by Onyx Path Publishing.
Our attempt to look at fantasy outside of the D&D lens has brought us back to D&D. The most popular 2020 “other fantasy” product is Arcanist Press’ Ancestry & Culture: An Alternative to Race in 5e.
On the other hand, you could also argue that Ancestry & Culture: An Alternative to Race in 5e is an effort to take a system as well known as 5e and expand it out of traditional D&D routes and off in other directions.
In June, Geek Native had a long look at the download and talked to the creator Eugene Marshall. We covered plenty of topics and, most of all, why the game seemed to benefit from the proposed changes.
Just a note of clarity on Legend of the Five Rings: Path of Waves. At the start of the year, Fantasy Flight Games was published L5R RPG material, but mid-year this was transferred over to Edge.
Onyx Path is the only publisher to appear twice, a feat they did last year as well.
Creative Commons credit: Commissions character sheet half orc by Ioana-Muresan.
Which fantasy RPG published this year, that isn’t a D&D book, would you recommend?
