@andrewbeauman.bsky.social's amazing Battle School and its Entwine system. No one else is doing what Andrew is doing with teamwork-centric mechanics. It's hot. https://andrewbeauman.itch.io/battle-school
I so appreciate the love man. The changes I'm making to Entwine are gonna be so killer. It's shaping up to be kinda modular for when I release the full system.
The Ars Magica definitive edition Kickstarter caught my eye (and money), though it's more a re-release than a debut. Though the open content licensing should really invigorate the space!
does it count if this was the year it finally released in English? Shin Megami Tensei: Tokyo Conception finally hit English this year after 20 years of existence.
It's not fully out yet but my friends and I played the playtest materials for The Seven Part Pact and it's great. Characters are a sorta 50/50 mix of weird freaky wizards and greek gods and the system moves seamlessly between high level cosmic drama and gentle moments between individuals. Awesome!
I've been in the mood for 1920's/Edwardian world investigative horror, so I'm curious his year to try a mix of the Candela Obscura/Our Brilliant Ruin/Arkham Horror RPG. But the rules for the AH have intrigued me the most for general play.
MOTHERSHIP it was a long road but it’s here and it’s incredible. The rules are punchy and straight forward. The art is some of the best I’ve ever seen in an RPG if Sci-Fi horror is your jam oh man. https://www.tuesdayknightgames.com/pages/mothership-rpg
The only new one I played was Arkham Horror the Role playing game. Had a ton of neat ideas but ultimately wasn't engaging enough to buy into for the long term.
SLUGBLASTER by @wilkiescandylab.com is so great. The two-phase adventure->home life session structure lends a rhythm and variety that I’m really excited about. https://slugblaster.com/
If you haven't checked out Triangle Agency it is well worth it. Damn gorgeous and such thoughtfully creative design.
Also deeply fascinated with plasmodics specifically the actual setting implementation. Strikes perfectly a living, open-world without being complex, awkward, or restraining in use.
eidolon: become your best self for sure. jojo/persona inspired heartfelt superpower stuff with a really fun tarot system. crescent moon 2e is also really cool
Shadowdark is so good! Old school dnd dungeon delving but the rules are simple and intuitive! I'd never run a game like it before and making rolls rare and getting rid of perception checks finally made the dungeon crawl format click for me.
Lately my friends have been playing Fantasy World by Alessandro Piroddi, which I don’t know whether it released this year or not, but it is really fun and a bit more freeform than most other TTRPGs I’ve played in a really special way.
Good call! I really like what Exigents add to the setting and love all the cool ones I've seen (since Essence, really). But homebrew is generally out of my comfort zone. Plus, it's a little too open-ended for my imagination to properly kick into high gear.
Well it’s not a full ttrpg, but a #OSR campaign setting I backed a while ago. It’s called The Shrike and it’s basically an isolated shard of hell. It’s pretty much an island filled with devil courts and a massive spire with an impaled god at the tip.
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The system of Dimension 20 " Never stop blowing up" is incredibly cool too !
Excellent and simple mechanics, cool premise, lots of heart poured into this.
https://tombloom.itch.io/cain
Also deeply fascinated with plasmodics specifically the actual setting implementation. Strikes perfectly a living, open-world without being complex, awkward, or restraining in use.
d&d 5e is extremely Not My Jam and it's been nice to have a d&d-alike to run for my normie friends
You can write a character on a sheet of paper, and be Read's play in 30 minutes.
*debatable