As the year comes to a close, DriveThruRPG and Geek Native have been looking back at RPGs published this year and which sold well.
Yesterday, we looked at sci-fi RPGs and today we travel back in time to historical settings.
What counts as a historical setting? Well, it looks a lot like real-life Earth, but the presence of monsters does not disqualify it. A setting that uses medieval technology and is clearly not Earth would count as fantasy. Games set 20 years ago are also historical. That’s right; Stranger Things would count as a historical game rather than a modern one.
Best selling historical RPGs of 2020
(That were published in 2020)
- Wolves of God: Adventures in Dark Ages England by Sine Nomine Publishing.
- Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying by Free League Publishing.
- Aquelarre by Nocturnal Media.
- Deadlands: The Weird West by Pinnacle Entertainment.
- Kids on Brooms: Core Rulebook by Hunters Entertainment.
- Brindlewood Bay by The Gauntlet Gaming Community.
- AGON by One Seven.
- Mansions of Madness: Vol 1 – Behind Closed Doors by Chaosium.
- They Came From Beneath the Sea! by Onyx Path Publishing.
- Lex Arcana RPG – Corebook Core Rulebook 2nd Edition by Quality Games.
As with all previous lists, this top ten has been lightly edited by DriveThruRPG and Geek Native to remove games tagged “historical” in the marketplace but which aren’t really appropriate to the setting/genre.
This top ten is more diverse than the previous ones. We see familiar names like Chaosium and Onyx Path, but no one publisher dominates.
Wolves of God take the top spot, and that’s now become another Sine Nomine Publishing game I need to check out.
Creative Commons credit: Viking Raiders by skunk257.
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