Pop Culture | Roleplaying Games | Movies
8 D&D Rivals Will Thrive in 2023
I predicted Henry Cavill’s Warhammer series. Now I’m predicting 2023’s TTRPG zeroes-to-heroes.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is going to attract a lot of new eyes to the tabletop roleplaying game space, even more than Critical Roll and Stranger Things combined. There’s no way Wizards of the Coast can capture all that traffic, despite its best efforts.
The mainstream audience will become aware of games outside of D&D, and they’ll see that there were much better options available the whole time. And gamers will shout “we told you so!”
The injection of new players will have a knock-on effect. The new traffic will elevate certain games on Amazon, RPGGeek, DriveThruRPG, and Itch.io, and those games will end up taking up more mindshare in the current scene.
The drama with D&D and third-party creators will also contribute to other games climbing the ladder. One game in particular will see a spike in third-party material.
None of these games will beat D&D sales-wise, but they will become go-to games for more players than ever before. Some may even win the grand prize of getting a TV or movie deal.
Because everything will basically be “a D&D” to these new gamers, they’ll have to be pitched as “D&D but…” or “D&D meets…”.
Avatar: Legends
“Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game brings you and your friends into the beloved setting of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra — as new heroes of your own stories! Weave tales of self-discovery and action with your team of friends, and go penguin-sledding while you’re at it!”
Avatar: Legends is D&D but with bending arts and neoliberal politics.
Avatar: Legends’ Kickstarter was crazy-successful, yet there are still more Avatar fans to be reached. The new interest in TTRPGs will let Magpie Games take another swing at the Avatar fandom.
This is one of the few licensed RPGs that was made with new gamers in mind. Too many licensed RPGs are made for old-school gamers, and thus fail to capture the property’s vibe. The Transformers and Marvel RPGs are too crunchy, but Avatar: Legends is way easier to grok.
The game is also for sale on DriveThruRPG, unlike other licensed games. Transformers and Marvel are only available on certain platforms, and you can’t buy the Star Wars RPG digitally at all! That accessibility gives Avatar: Legends another advantage over competitors.
Avatar fans are beyond enthusiastic. Now that the game is in their hands just as the general audience is getting familiar with TTRPGs, these new game masters are going to recruit mightily.
Castle Falkenstein
“It’s a novel. It’s a game. It’s both. It’s Castle Falkenstein, an amazing journey into another universe just a few steps away from our own: a place where Dragons and Steampower rule the skies, Faerie Lords duel atop the battlements, and where the forces of Wizardry and Magick meet the gaslight streets of the Victorian Age.
But with Castle Falkenstein, the story never ends, as you too take up saber and spell to adventure in a distant world on the other side of the mysterious Faerie Veil: a world of Swashbuckling Fantasy, High Romance, and Magickal Technology. The world of — Castle Falkenstein”
Castle Falkenstein is D&D but steampunk and in Victorian England.
Most of the games listed here are new or recently updated, but this one is practically a classic. It scratches some of the same fantasy itches D&D does but from a different angle.
Both new and old gamers will mistake Castle Falkenstein’s Victorian setting for Bridgerton’s Regency era, but no one will care. All that matters is that it’ll bring some new eyes to the gaming scene.
Castle Falkenstein was ahead of its time. It’s rules-lite and uses poker cards instead of dice. It plays nothing like other games published the same year. This could lead Castle Falkenstein to an even greater surge in digital sales as older gamers rediscover it.
R. Talsorian might have another RPG worthy of a video game and a streaming show.
Cy_Borg
“A Nano-infested doomsday RPG about cybernetic misfits and punks raging against a relentless corporate hell.
— — — —
The world is ending. ⸐
Again and again and again and again and again a̶n̴͗d̵̥͒ ̸̎ă̶ġ̸a̵̢͗i̶͙̓n̸̡̔ ă̵̢̫̥̺̻̞n̵͔̽̿̏̓͋͠͝d̴̢̪̟͊ ̵̡̺̖̰̯͖̞̓̑̐̈́̍̋a̶̤̘̖͗͐̀̔̚̚g̴̛͇̻̦̻͇̲̈́̏à̷̩̫͒ḯ̷̡̱̀̀̀͠ṇ̶̦̔͜.”
Cy_Borg is like D&D but totally the opposite: it’s in the future, there’s no fantasy at all, and it’s easy to play.
The game’s artpunk style is sure to grab attention from comic book fans and graphic design enthusiasts. It’s the sort of book you can leave out on your table and someone will want to open it. It’s anti-corporate angle will also chisel a few receptive gamers away from the dragon game once it has a wider pool of players.
Cy_Borg also has a third-party license that’s way less stingy than D&D’s. There’s already plenty of good supplements compatible with Cy_Borg. More creators will abandon the OGL and DM’s Guild and give Cy_Borg a shot. That’ll lead to more supplements scratching itches that D&D doesn’t, which will lead to a wider exodus from WotC’s clutches.
Cy_Borg is the game of our time. Lots of people will be in the mood for an environmentally nihilistic anti-corporate game in 2023.
DIE: The Roleplaying Game
“In DIE: The Roleplaying Game, you play a group of authentically flawed people from the real world who gather together to play a game and are trapped in a magical realm. What are they prepared to sacrifice to escape? What are they prepared to sacrifice to stay?”
DIE is D&D meets Jumanji, or a gritty reboot of the D&D cartoon from the 80s.
DIE is a game within a game designed by the author of the gorgeous comic book that inspired it, also called DIE. Players play fairly ordinary people, who in turn play characters in a fantasy game.
DIE explores why people play roleplaying games. The game is painfully meta. This could be every gamer’s new go-to game if only because it hurts to play, but in a good way.
DIE has plenty of runway because the comic book will eventually be a Netflix show. I wouldn’t be surprised if something gets announced after D&D: Honor Among Thieves releases, regardless of whether it’s a hit or a bomb. That will ripple back to the game, leading to an even bigger player base.
2023 will be the year of Anti-Escapism. People will think more about why they feel the need to escape. DIE will be a part of that movement.
iHunt: The RPG
“#iHunt is a story telling game about killing monsters in the gig economy. In it, you play millennials scraping by paycheck to paycheck to make ends meet. A gig app called #iHunt offers them more money than they’ve ever made to hit the streets and kill vampires, werewolves, demons, and anything else that goes bump in the night.”
iHunt is like D&D but it’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Uber.
This exceedingly on-the-nose game is a few years old, but this year more people on the political left will notice both the novels and the game. Combined with the sort of resentment a recession can cause, iHunt’s themes will hit hard for more people than ever.
Some gamers shy away from games that don’t have a lot of material. iHunt has plenty. There are a ton of supplements covering everything from different apps in the same hypercapitalistic world to monster hunting in the 1930s.
Like Cy_Borg, iHunt is legitimately gorgeous.
iHunt sadly mirrors our winner-take-everything economy. Hard working people shouldn’t have to scrape by to survive. iHunt will let players explore what that means and what to do about it. When they come out the other side, they’ll get it.
The Means of Magick
“The Means of Magick is a tabletop RPG set in the aftermath of the Magick-Industrial Revolution. Megacorps are vying for control of the economy by extracting mass amounts of magick from the earth, which is slowly killing the planet. Players will have to face off against magickal natural disasters, corrupted flora and fauna, and the insidious corporations themselves.”
The Means of Magick is D&D meets Final Fantasy 7.
Gary Gygax would have hated this game. The Means of Magick subverts classic fantasy with its pro-environment, anti-corporate angle. This might be the first explicitly eat-the-rich game D&D and OSR players will ever play.
If The Means of Magick sees a boost in popularity, it might get attention from right-wing OSR types who think any fantasy that isn’t purely escapist is bad. That will further elevate its visibility. That right wing attention could put it on left-wing media’s radar, just like iHunt.
People are done with entertainment with no connection to the real world. Only the people lucky enough to be “winning” get to ignore reality, and there are way fewer people who can do that nowadays.
Shadowrun: Anarchy
Shadowrun. The Sixth World. Orks in pinstripe suits with uzis; mohawked dwarves jacked into vehicles racing through megasprawls at breakneck speed; humans casting fireballs at corporate-trained paracritters; elves hacking the Matrix for a datasteal of the latest tech or working to topple an upstart corp. It’s where man meets magic and machine.
Shadowrun: Anarchy is D&D meets Cyberpunk RED, but with half the rules.
Shadowrun: Anarchy is perfectly positioned for a fairly big cross section of current and future gamers.
Anarchy’s lightweight rules are a godsend to new gamers and current gamers who hate crunch. The mix of lowlife sci-fi and magical fantasy makes it visually irresistible. And Shadowrun’s ongoing focus on political meddling makes it more than a little culturally relevant.
Elves with glocks are cool.
Shadowrun already has multiple video game tie-ins, which shows that there’s wide interest in the IP. If Honor Among Thieves does well, Catalyst will start shopping for someone to develop a Shadowrun show.
Vampire: The Masquerade — Fifth Edition (V5)
“Vampire: The Masquerade is the original and ultimate roleplaying game of personal and political horror. You are a vampire, struggling for survival, supremacy, and your own fading humanity — afraid of what you are capable of, and fearful of the inhuman conspiracies that surround you.”
Vampire is like D&D but it’s Interview with the Vampire in John Wick’s universe.
If there’s one game that could overtake D&D, it’s Vampire. It buried D&D back in the 90s and it might do it again, because vampires are sexy and the books are visually exquisite.
Vampire has some dense lore, but the Lore Sheet mechanic on-boards new players better than most other games. No one has to drown themselves in backstory to play.
I expect news about a Vampire show or movie to leak around the time of Honor Among Thieves’ release. That news will prompt some “Remember Kindred: The Embrace?” essays on YouTube, which will drive more unique traffic Vampire’s way.
These are the games to watch in 2023. With a little luck, they’ll herald the end of Dungeons & Dragons’ monopoly and hasten its slide to a horrible and well-deserved death. D&D won’t actually die this year. We’ll be stuck with it for at least two more movies.
Still, fresh eyes and tastes will flood the TTRPG scene in 2023, and most of them will not glom on to D&D. There are too many better alternatives.
