Routinely Itemised: RPGs #237

Happy Hogmanay from Scotland and the last Routinely Itemised RPG news of 2023. 

Let’s end the year with the summary of summaries!

• Geek Native has published DriveThruRPG, Storytellers Vault, Dungeon Master Guild, Pathfinder Infinite and Starfinder Infinite’s best sellers.
• Hasbro has sold, at a huge loss, their movie business eOne.
• Pundits look back at a rocky year for D&D
• The Lost Adventures of Gary Con I and II is donating some of its profits to support Rach Tenkar.
• British local gaming stores like Forbidden Planet are stocking up with an Exalted Funeral RPG deal.

We’re planning on doing our own end-of-year round-up. Bronwen has started and I, um, um, will try and finish up with my own contributions! 

Comments are enabled, so why not let us know what you think your RPG 2023 highlights or what you think the industry’s big news has been? 

Trends in RPGs in 2023 might include;

• Licenses and license drama
• The rise of artificial intelligence
• A competitive VTT market
• Solo RPGs on the rise, even post-lockdown

Rightyo, let’s roll with the end of year RPG news!

Support: Patrons.

RPG news from Geek Native

• Repeating some of last week to have the complete 2023 collection, here’s a list of new RPGs, supplements RPG and publishers who have a good year? Once again, thanks to OBS/Roll20, we have the charts. So far;
  • The best selling fantasy RPGs published in 2023.
  • The best selling sci-fi RPGs published in 2023.
  • The best selling horror RPGs published in 2023.
  • The best selling modern RPGs published in 2023.
  • The best selling historical RPGs published on DriveThruRPG 2023.
  • The best selling miscellaneous RPGs published on DriveThruRPG 2023.
  • The best selling family gaming RPGs published on DriveThruRPG 2023.
  • The best selling community content published on the DMsGuild in 2023.
  • The best selling community content on Pathfinder and Starfinder Infinite in 2023.
  • The best selling community content from the Storytellers Vault in 2023.
  • The best selling new publishers on DriveThruRPG in 2023.
• The Organised Play Foundation has secured not-for-profit tax status and partnered with Evil Genius Games.
• After years of legal battle, the computer game based on the tabletop RPG Paranoia is finally out.
• Forbidden Planet is leaning into their exclusive deal with Doctor Who for more merch and Doctors & Daleks 5e.
• The Bundle of Holding has a deal on the dark (and gold) Trophy RPG.
• Humble has 9 cinematic adventures for the ORC-licensed Everyday Heroes RPG, including Highlander, Pacific Rim, Kong and The Crow.

Spotlight: DR Games

RPG news from around the web

• Hasbro sells the D&D movie studio, eOne, for $375 million to Lionsgate – a loss since they paid about $4 billion for it.
• A portion of the profit from The Lost Adventures of Gary Con I and II will support Rach, wife of Erik Tenkar, and her breast cancer costs.
• ICv2 reports that RPG stores in the USA and Canada are beginning to report that sales are mixed with more downs than ups.
• Chaosium shared stats from their Community Content programs Jonstown Compendium and the Miskatonic Repository.
• Goodman Games had a host of teammates write up 2023 reflections, including Harley Stroh, who touches on Dying Earth, Chris Doyle and the 5e team.
• Goodman Games has also announced an Indie RPG Creator Summit session on RPG Distribution.
• /Film writes up The Modern Star Wars Universe Owes Its Existence To An RPG Most Fans Have Never Played.
• Rob Wieland’s Forbes article is on 60 Years Of Doctor Who Adventure; Four New RPG Books.
• Pinnacle released a free one-sheet adventure for the Flash Gordon RPG called The Cave of Fire.
• Pelgrane Press also offered up a Christmas Special hook for A Yellow King RPG called The Dream Clone.
• World building site WorldAnvil shares their top 10 articles in 2023.
• John Farrell of GamingTrend looks back at the RPGs in PAX Unplugged with the conclusion All hail the indie scene.
• Wargamer’s Mollie Russell doesn’t hold back with DnD fifth edition ends not with a bang, but a whimper.
• Bell of Lost Souls has a summary of the year with From License Woes To Employees Let Go, 2023 Was A Rollercoaster Of A Year For RPGs.

RPG reviews and interviews from around the web

• Gnome Stew’s Jared Rascher reviewed the core rules for Candela Obscura.
• Reviews from R’lyeh wrote up;
  • Tales from the Smoking Wyrm No. 1,
  • Black Pudding,
  • Imperium Maledictum,
  • Call of Cthulhu: Japan – Empire of Shadows,
  • Book of Erotic Fantasy (which really is an RPG(ish) book!)
• GeekTyrant offers Review: Learn to Make Monsters for POWER RANGERS RPG from Finster.
• Signals from Delta Pavonis shares first impressions on Vaults of Vaarn Deluxe Edition.
• On RPGPub, A Fiery Flying Roll writes up a review of Tales from the Floating Vagabond 2e.

RPG new releases

• Blood and Spectacles Publishing releases No Dice: Diceless Role-Playing Game System.
• Pressmaze has a digital solo RPG you play with an app and paper out in the shape of The Lost Shaman.
• Long Games has a solo RPG out now called Quill and Quest.
• Polish publisher Red Square Games have released an English Edition of SibirPunk.
• Chamomile Has Adventures has published a Roll20 version of Petals and Thorns: Strangers in Ramshorn.
• Siren’s Song Games has released Sanctuary and Sentinel.
• In physical releases, Forbidden Planet and others are taking pre-orders for;
  • Darrington Press’ Candela Obscura.
  • Kids on Bikes 2e.
  • Ultraviolet Grasslands & The Black City.
  • ARC: Doom Tabletop.
  • Forbidden Psalm: Core Rules from Exalted Funeral.
  • Runecairn: Wardensaga, also from Exalted Funeral.
  • Old-School Essentials: Advanced Fantasy: Referees Tome.
  • Shadowrun: Sixth World: Core Rulebook: City Edition: Berlin.

RPG bundle deals

• Save $106.73 (60%) with the DMsGuild’s End of the Year Mega Bundle.
• Save $44.30 (47%) with Hugh Lashbrooke’s Mausritter Campaign Collection (Hardcover) bundle.
• Save $6 (18%) on The Tabletop Engineer’s Delver – Guild Collections bundle.

RPG ideas, tips and discoveries

• CBR’s Robert Vaux makes the case that A D&D Sequel May Be Just What Hollywood Needs.
• ScreenRant predicted D&D In 2024: A Never-Ending Dungeons & Dragons Edition Is A Major Problem.
• Tom Van Winkle’s return to gaming offered up A Reality Check for Language Rules in Your Fantasy Game (and rationalizing alignment languages).
• Gnome Stew’s Phil Vecchione shared Five GMingThings I learned in 2023.
• The Angry GM insists Why You Can’t Interrupt Your Players.
• At Sly Flourish, Mike addresses Hard Conversations.
• The Alexandrian shares thoughts on Spell Component Roleplaying.
• Erik Schmidt introduces Setting First.
• Gizmodo’s Rob Bricken digs up 22 Ridiculous Tables From the 1979 Advanced Dungeons & Dragons DM’s Guide.
• Dicebreaker’s Chase Carter has 7 indie tabletop RPGs released this year that you shouldn’t miss.
• We’re not listing everyone’s lists, but Rob Wieland is a tastemaker, and on Forbes, he shared My favourite 2023 role playing game products.

RPG Crowdfunding

You can see those Kickstarters and other crowdfunding campaigns that caught Geek Native’s attention over at Kickstarter watch. Here are some industry projects worth mentioning;

• Dreadmist. (FP3 add-on Avaible) from 3DPZstudio kickstarts “32mm elite undead models, customizable modular Drakkar ships, a 5ED adventure with monster tokens, stats, magic items and more!”
• Eclipse of the Magus-King, A solo 5E dungeon crawl from DMDenz kickstarts “A 5E compatible solo adventure gamebook. A dungeon crawl with a custom map-less combat system, multiple paths and tiered encounters.”
• Trinket Hunters from Diego Pisa Artworks raises funds for “Curious, funny, and weird trinkets to spice up your games. For use with fantasy RPGs such as DnD 5E, Pathfinder, and OSR.”
• D100 Events Lists from Jason DM submits “400+ Events and situations for your RPG games. dnd 5e compatible!”
• Giant Foam Dice from Dark Elf Dice kickstarts “Fun and Squishy Jumbo Dice Sets — Bring Amazing Dice to Your Gaming Table”
• Under the Indigo Moon from Mountainland Games is working on “A TTRPG one-shot written for 5e. Includes game-stats and mechanics compatible with 5e, PF2, d20, PF1, and Shadowdark.”

Do you know of an RPG news source that we don’t? Let us know, or leave a comment below.