As we approach the end of the year Geek Native has been sifting through data from DriveThruRPG to see which games sold the best from which genre. As it happens, games can belong to many genres, and we’re starting to see some overlaps.
In this chapter, we look at games tagged ‘modern’ by the publisher or author.
Best selling modern genre RPGs of the year
- Genesys Core Rulebook, by Fantasy Flight Games.
- V20 Beckett’s Jyhad Diary, by Onyx Path Publishing.
- Shadowrun: Kill Code (Advanced Matrix Rules), by Catalyst Game Labs.
- Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition, by Onyx Path Publishing.
- Shadowrun: Street Lethal (Advanced Combat Rules), by Catalyst Game Labs.
- Shadowrun: Fifth Edition Core Rulebook (Master Index Edition), by Catalyst Game Labs.
- Changeling: The Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition, by Onyx Path Publishing.
- Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition, by Onyx Path Publishing.
- Chronicles of Darkness, by Onyx Path Publishing.
- Mage the Awakening 2nd Edition, by Onyx Path Publishing.
Genesys is the best selling modern genre RPG
Fantasy Flight Games have done it again. Genesys already appears in our list of best selling superhero RPGs. That makes sense, right? Most superhero games are set in the modern genre.
Genesys itself is designed to be a set of rules that can be used in many genres; from weird wars to steampunk.
The question might be; why isn’t the overlap between the modern genre and superheroes greater? It depends on two things; on how publishers tag their games in DrivethruRPG’s system and sale volumes in each category.
Geek Native was able to ask Sam Gregor-Stewart, Fantasy Flight Games’ RPG Manager, some questions about Genesys and we asked what it took to make a good genre product.
What do gamers tend to want from a ‘genre’ product?
If I understand your question right, I think that when it comes to genre products, a lot of gamers want products that evoke an expected set of emotions, both through the setting and information presented, and through the mechanics. This is something we’ve tried to enable in Genesys through the use of tones. Tones, in Genesys, are basically a set of guidelines coupled with a few evocative mechanics that create the feel of a specific genre of stories. So the Horror tone can turn an adventure into a horror story, the Drama/Romance tone can emphasize character-interaction adventures, and the Superhero tone can turn your game into larger-than-life heroes fighting supervillains. The best part of all of these is that they’re designed to work with any setting. After all, you can have horror stories set in a fantasy gothic castle just as well as the dark, gritty streets of a modern day city.
How much should you pay for a best selling modern genre RPG?
The average price of a top 10 best selling modern RPG on DriveThruRPG is $30.49. That makes Genesys look like a good deal as it comes in at only $19.95.
Creative Commons credit: The Broken Soldiers by Ken Blackwell.
Genesys shouldn’t be the best selling RPG of all genres just because it’s a multi-genre RPG. I suggest next year that you set up a best selling multi-setting RPG category and do a better job weeding out the generic RPGs.
We’re just replaying the DriveThruRPG genre tags here. Anything else is subjective and Geek Native can neither create rules for DriveThruRPG nor insist publishers stick to them. I agree on the Genesys multi-listing in problematic in this case but no more so than Shadowrun being listed as modern.
So Geek Native scraped data from another source and posted it up as content. Again, I suggest a revision in the future in your process. Otherwise, I can just look at Drive Thru RPG. I assume this site hopes to add value to that core data in some way?
No. Geek Native did not scrape any data from DrivethruRPG. This project is done in collaboration with them, with data provided by them and while they do show best sellers in publisher pages they don’t provide year-long data for those tables or provide it by genre on the site.
It’s my understanding that the individual publishers, self-select tags. DriveThru itself does not select them.
Yes, that’s right. Publishers pick the tags for their own products.