Here They Are! Your 10 Most Anticipated TTRPGs For 2024!

The nominations were nominated, and the votes were voted, and now we have the final results: this year's official most anticipated TTRPGs--as voted by you! Well, a few thousand of you.

Just like we do every year, the EN World community votes on the games they are looking forward to. Here is last year's Top 10 (spoiler: the winner was Chaosium's Pendragon 6E). Previous winners include 13th Age (2013), Star Wars Force & Destiny (2015), Rifts for Savage Worlds (2016), Trudvang Chronicles (2017), Vampire: the Masquerade 5th Edition (2018), Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (2019), Dune (2020 & 2021), and Twilight 2000 (2021), Blade Runner (2022), and Pendragon 6E (2023). What will be the most anticipated RPG of 2024?

Let's find out!

10 Tales of the Valiant (Kobold Press)
1st appearance
Kobold Press joins the 'alternate 5E' club with this rewritten, non-OGL version of the game! A million dollar Kickstarter last year, and a new one for the GM's book going on right now, Kobold Press announced this as 'Project Black Flag' during the OGL crisis of 2023, but being unable to trademark that name opted for Tales of the Valiant instead. The system, however, is still called the Black Flag Roleplaying System.

9. Mothership 1E (Tuesday Night Games)
3rd appearance
On this list three years running, the boxed Mothership 1E game should be coming out this year! This is sci-fi horror at its best -- you can play scientists, teamsters, androids, and marines using the d100 'Panic Engine'. Yep, it's Alien(s), pretty much.

8. Monty Python's Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Program (Exalted Funeral)
2nd Appearance
Exalted Funeral made quite a splash when they announced this game last year, which went on to make neary $2M on Kickstarter. And how could they not? It's Monty Python fergoodnessake! A rules-lite gaming system, spam, a minigame with catapults, spam, coconut dice rollers, spam, and an irrepressible Python-eque sense of humour. Did I mention the spam? It was at #10 on this list last year, but it's claimed to #8 this year.

7. Daggerheart (Darrington Press)
1st appearance
From the Critical Role folks, Daggerheart is a new fantasy TTRPG with its own original system coming out this year with "A fresh take on fantasy RPGs, designed for long-term campaign play and rich character progression."

6. Cohors Cthulhu (Modiphius)
1st appearance
It's Ancient Rome. It's Cthulhu. It uses Modiphius' in-house 2d20 System. You can be a gladiator, a centurion, or a Germanic hero. Did I mention Cthulhu?

5. Dolmenwood (Necrotic Gnome)
1st appearance
The British Isles, a ton of folklore, and a giant Kickstarter--Dolmenwood is a dark, whimsical fantasy TTRPG drawing from fairy tales and lets you "journey through tangled woods and mossy bowers, forage for magical mushrooms and herbs, discover rune-carved standing stones and hidden fairy roads, venture into fungal grottoes and forsaken ruins, battle oozing monstrosities, haggle with goblin merchants, and drink tea with fairies."

4. Pendragon 6E (Chaosium)
4th appearance
Last year's winner was on this list waaaaay back in 425 AD, and it's still here! Well, maybe not that far back, but it's shown up in 2021 at #4, 2022 at #3, 2023 at #1, and now 2024 at #4! What can we say? People are clearly anticipating it... still.

3. 13th Age 2nd Edition (Pelgrane Press)
2nd appearance
13th Age is over a decade old now, and was our most anticipated game way back in 2013. Now the new edition is coming! It's compatible with the original, but revised and with a ton more... stuff! 13th Age 2E was #3 in last year's list!

2. The Electric State Roleplaying Game (Free League)
1st appearance
Free League is always on these lists, and for good reason. This gorgeous looking game is described as "A road trip on the verge of reality in visual artist and author Simon Stålenhag's vision of an apocalyptic alternate 1990s".

1. Shadow of the Weird Wizard (Schwalb Entertainment)
3rd appearance
First announced by Rob Schwalb a couple of years ago, this is a more family-friendly version of his acclaimed RPG, Shadow of the Demon Lord. 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 old, ancient evils stir once more. If the displaced people would rebuild their lives, they need heroes to protect them. Finally at the top of the list after being #7 in 2022, and #6 in 2023!

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PREVIOUS WINNERS OF THE ANNUAL EN WORLD MOST ANTICIPATED TABLETOP RPG OF THE YEAR

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#​	2013​	2015​	2016​	2017​	2018​	2019​	2020​	2021​	2022​	2023​
1​	13th Age​	Star Wars Force & Destiny​	Rifts for Savage Worlds​	Trudvang Chronicles​	Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition​	Savage Worlds Adventure Edition​	Dune​	Dune/ Twilight2000 (joint)​	Blade Runner​	King Arthur Pandragon 6E​
2​	Numenera​	Deluxe Exalted 3rd Edition​	Mutant Crawl Classics​	Tales from the Loop​	Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Fourth Edition​	Pathfinder 2nd Edition​	Vaesen - Nordic Horror Roleplaying​	-​	Broken Tales​	Dragonbane​
3​	Star Wars Edge of the Empire​	Unified Rolemaster​	7th Sea 2nd Edition​	Kult: Divinity Lost​	Kult: Divinity Lost​	Lex Arcana​	Cyberpunk Red​	The One Ring (2nd Edition)​	Pendragon 6E​	13th Age 2nd Edition​
4​	Shadowrun 5th Edition​	Conan Adventures In An Age Undreamed Of​	Conan Adventures In An Age Undreamed Of​	Star Trek Adventures​	Forbidden Lands: Retro Open-World Survival Fantasy RPG​	The Expanse​	Fallout​	King Arthur Pendragon 6th Edition​	Avatar Legends​	Household​
5​	Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition​	Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls​	DCC Lankhmar​	Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of​	RuneQuest: Role-playing in Glorantha​	Eclipse Phase 2nd Edition​	Warhammer: Age of Sigmar: Soulbound​	Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition (A5E)​	Mothership 1E​	Mothership 1E​
6​	Firefly​	Barbarians of Lemuria: Mythic Edition​	RuneQuest 4​	Starfinder​	The Witcher Roleplaying Game​	Dune RPG​	Swords of the Serpentine​	Rivers of London​	Rivers of London​	Shadow of the Weird Wizard​
7​	Fate Core​	Feng Shui 2​	Torg: Eternity​	The Witcher Roleplaying Game​	Warhammer 40,000 Wrath & Glory​	John Carter of Mars​	Rivers of London​	Pathfinder for Savage Worlds​	Shadow of the Weird Wizard​	The Walking Dead Universe​
8​	Hillfolk​	Fantasy AGE​	Blue Rose AGE​	Coriolis​	The Expanse​	Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition​	Stargate​	Brancalonia - The Spaghetti Fantasy RPG​	Cy-Borg​	Warhammer 4Ok Imperium Maledictum​
9​	Torchbearer​	Paranoia​	Paranoia​	Delta Green Roleplaying Game​	Legend of the Five Rings 5th Edition​	Things from the Flood​	Fading Suns 4E​	Werewolf: The Apocalypse 5th Edition​	Swords of the Serpentine​	Old Gods of Appalachia​
10​	-​	Shadows of the Demon Lord​	Delta Green​	Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea 2E​	Numenera 2: Discovery & Destiny​	Judge Dredd & The Worlds of 2000 AD​	Cortex Prime​	SLA Industries, 2nd Edition​	Werewolf: The Apocalypse 5e​	Monty Python's Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Programme​

 

[SlyFlourish]

Do we know how many votes there were in total?

 

[Grendel_Khan]

A bunch of good games here, but none have me as eager as Deathmatch Island, which holy moley, am I pumped for.

Yeah I'm not really interested in any of these! Oh well. Lots of exciting stuff coming this year (Deathmatch included).

 

[EthanSental]

well, it is the most anticipated one now, not sure that qualifies as a loss of steam. The KS was last year, the launch date has always been 8/2024, nothing has slipped yet, and that is for the printed books, the PDFs should be out sooner

The august 20202 date was its first mention as an rpg game forth coming, then in March 2023 he talks about how he thought be bang it out in a few months but 50 drafts later is now March 2023. Then the Kickstarter was in June and physical in August 2024, pdf before that like you mentioned. 4000 backers and 400k does not seem like a big haul from a known quantity like him, so I think it and tales of the valiant both could have had better marketing to pull in potential buyers if YouTube first timers get 1M plus. Plus again I’m biased now toward A5E model of having it ready Kickstarter begins so when it ends the PDFs are in my email Box

 

[mamba]

The august 20202 date was its first mention as an rpg game forth coming, then in March 2023 he talks about how he thought be bang it out in a few months but 50 drafts later is now March 2023. Then the Kickstarter was in June and physical in August 2024, pdf before that like you mentioned.

yes, certainly took longer to get to the KS than anticipated, whether that affected it, who knows

4000 backers and 400k does not seem like a big haul from a known quantity like him, so I think it and tales of the valiant both could have had better marketing to pull in potential buyers if YouTube first timers get 1M plus.

SotWW still made more on day one than Shadow of the Demon Lord in its full run. I understand that the KS grew since then, but it is hard to gauge what contributed how much in what way, positive or negative.

ToV made over 1M. I think what this really shows is the power of being a popular youtuber.

Plus again I’m biased now toward A5E model of having it ready Kickstarter begins so when it ends the PDFs are in my email Box

That is ok, I did not ask you to like ToV or something

I think ToV started out intentionally close to 5e. No idea what the final version looks like though, now that 2024 moved so little from 2014 (and imo less than expected back then), maybe they did make bigger changes to separate themselves a bit more, I sure hope so. In any case I remain interested in the 5e alternatives, the 2024 PHB is not impressing me so far.

 

[Yora]

Shadow of the Weird Wizard is a high fantasy version of Shadow of the Demon Lord, right?
Is there any good resource for someone who knows nothing about the game to get an overview of the basic resolution and character systems?

 

[Aldarc]

A bunch of good games here, but none have me as eager as Deathmatch Island, which holy moley, am I pumped for.

That's how I feel about Stonetop. But the main difference is that the game is about 80% done, and backers already have access to a more than functional playable game.

Shadow of the Weird Wizard is a high fantasy version of Shadow of the Demon Lord, right?

Yes. There are still some minor alterations between games.

Is there any good resource for someone who knows nothing about the game to get an overview of the basic resolution and character systems?

There are a number of YouTube videos talking about SotDL. Pick your poison.

There was a Quickstart for SotWW, but I can't seem to find a copy online. So I will give you what I know from the last playtest of Shadow of the Weird Wizard that I did but major systems are basically the same between SotDL and SotWW.

It's basically a modified d20 resolution system. You roll a d20, add attribute modifiers, add highest boon/subtract lowest bane (this game's advantage/disadvantage), and try to equal or exceed either (a) an opponent's Defense score or (b) a 10 for Challenge rolls.

Character options involve a lot of mix-and-match customization and building your own character through ancestry and three different tiers of paths: basic, expert, and master. Abilities for these three paths are gained across ten levels:

• Basic Path: Levels 1-2, 5
• Expert Path: Levels 3-4, 6, 9
• Master Path: Levels 7-8, 10

Each tier adds new, more specialized paths, and character are not limited by their prior choices in what paths they take. There are only four Basic paths: Fighter, Mage, Priest, Rogue. But there are more Expert paths: e.g., Berserker, Ranger, Commander, Cleric, Paladin, Inquisitor, Elementalist, Druid, Wizard, Artificer, Witch, etc. Likewise, there are an even greater number of Master paths: e.g., Fencer, Sharpshooter, Magister, High Priest, Diabolist, Geomancer, etc.

But again we can choose whatever combination of Basic/Expert/Master path that we want. We are not limited to being a Priest/Cleric/High Priest, though we could if wanted to. So you could be a Fighter/Witch/Oblivionist or a Mage/Berserker/Gunsmith or a Priest/Psychic/Mariner or a Rogue/Commander/Chaotician.

Where you may not like it, if I recall your preferences correctly, is that the game uses something of milestone leveling. Characters level after completing an adventure module of an appropriate tier: starting, novice, expert, master.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

Two interesting things in this list:

1. 50% of the entries have appeared on last year's list. That's the biggest number of repeated appearances, and the trend seems to be moving to ever lengthening development times.
2. 3 of the new entries are consequences of last year's OGL debacle. 2 of these (Tales of the Valiant and Daggerheart, but not Dolmenwood) probably wouldn't have appeared and along with Shadowdark (already out) and MCDM (not due until 2025) constitute a fair dent in WotC's future RPG earnings. Indeed, Tales of the Valiant, Shadowdark and MCDM were all million dollar plus kickstarters, and Daggerheart by Critical Role may outsell them all.

I guess you could be correct. However, TotV, MCDM rpg, & shadowdark had about 50,000 backers combined. That is about 1/1000 of the D&D market (maybe). I am not sure that is much of a dent (at least yet).

 

[Rebel Mage]

Ohh, two of my three votes made it on there! My votes went to Cohors Cthulhu, Pendragon, and Triangle Agency, but if I'd had more votes, I would've voted for SotWW as well.

 

[mamba]

I guess you could be correct. However, TotV, MCDM rpg, & shadowdark had about 50,000 backers combined. That is about 1/1000 of the D&D market (maybe). I am not sure that is much of a dent (at least yet).

First of all, you should probably multiply the 50k by four or five to get the number of players, not DMs. Second, the 50M D&D number is all time players, not current active ones.

Either way it is a few % of D&D players at best

 

[bedir than]

Looking forward to the people who insist Critical Role's Daggerheart will be the death knell for WotC D&D looking at it being outside of the top 3 here.