Geek Native, once again, is fortunate enough to work with DriveThuRPG to reveal the best selling RPGs from genres and categories that were published this year.
If you’re new to these tables, the main gotcha is that publishers and authors get to categorise their games. You might disagree with the genre. The second gotcha is that we’re only looking at games published through DriveThruRPG this year; they may have been available elsewhere first.
Next year is D&D’s anniversary, but they’ve had a rocky year, and the refrain of “there are other fantasy RPGs” has been seen in places online. So, let’s take a look at some of those alternatives.
Best selling fantasy RPGs of 2023
- Fabula Ultima Atlas: High Fantasy by Need Games.
- Sandbox Generator by Atelier Clandestin.
- Exalted: Essence by Onyx Path Publishing.
- DRAGONLOCK Lost Dungeons: Master Set by Fat Dragon Games.
- Rolemaster Spell Law (RMU) by Iron Crown Enterprises.
- The Monster Overhaul by Skerples.
- Dragonbane Core Set by Free League Publishing.
- Fantasy AGE Core Rulebook by Green Ronin Publishing.
- Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Lustria by Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd..
- EZD6 Book of Quests by RUNEHAMMER GAMES.
- M20 Victorian Age Mage by Onyx Path Publishing.
- Dragonix’s Deadly Denizens by Dragonix Books.
- Crucible of Legend by Onyx Path Publishing.
- Campaign Builder: Cities & Towns by Kobold Press.
- Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy (for Foundry VTT) by Necrotic Gnome.
- Whitehack Fourth Edition by WhitehackRPG.
- Megadungeon Monster Manual by OSR Publishing.
- Nochet: Queen of Cities (RuneQuest) by Chaosium.
- The Lair of the Leopard Empresses RPG by Mindjammer Press.
- Raiders of the Serpent Sea Campaign Guide (PDF Version) by Modiphius.
Congratulations to Need Games for their 5/5 star-rated Fabula Ultima Atlas: High Fantasy. It’s not the first time we’ve seen Need Games do well in the Fantasy RPG charts.
FABULA ULTIMA ATLAS: HIGH FANTASY will guide you into a world of ancient mysteries, breathtaking views, incredible magic, and powerful beings. Like the heroes of legend and myth, your characters will start from humble origins and set off towards a glorious fate, eventually rising high enough to challenge the gods in true JRPG style!
The supplement offers four new classes (Chanter, Commander, Dancer, and Symbolist), ten new locations, and Quirks and is 200 pages long.
Image credit: Floating fantasy world by Katenizola.
What are your thoughts? Strike up a discussion and leave a comment below.
Notice that D&D isn’t there because it stubbornly doesn’t want to offer PDFs. And since they don’t offer PDFs, we tend to gravitate to RPGs that do offer PDFs. Right now D&D is just one of several options considered when planning a campaign in my group. Others run in Fate (or FAE), PBTA (Masks, Brindlewood Bay and Dungeon World), PathFinder, Numerera, Ironsworn.
If D&D do PDFs then, like the old editions, they’d probably be on DMsGuild.
It’s a good point, though. Marvel isn’t here and they don’t do PDFs and nor do these charts account for vtts or Kickstarters.