Audio EXP Podcast: #223 – The best selling TTRPGs of the year

Welcome home.

This is Audio EXP for the 23rd of December, and the episode title is “The best selling TTRPGs of the year”

[The following is a transcript of Audio EXP: #223]

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DR Games is in the Spotlight thanks to votes from Geek Native’s fantastic patrons.

Toby Lancaster spent a little time talking to me about the lure of cartography. He thinks about creative narrative and being able to draw it; I think that’s spot on. There are stories in maps.

And what stories do we have for you today? Well, as we approach the big festive break, Bronwen is ill. A head cold, or it was, the germ warfare seems to be moving around.

Bronwen also found a story that might do things to your head too. One Piece is getting an anime remake.

Netflix has got allies Wit Studio back to make The One Piece to avoid confusion and base it off the live-action show the streaming platform has been showing.

Some jellyfish are essentially immortal because they can replace their body blobs with younger blobs. I wonder if that’s what One Piece is.

My own anime discovery was a bit less mindblowing but still quirky. Crunchyroll and the food brand The Alley have teamed up for a Jujutsu Kaisen.

What’s odd is that Jujutsu Kaisen’s opening scene has our hero wolf down a dead murderer’s fingers. It’s this untasty food treat that gives him powers. The Alley hasn’t made it to Scotland, but I suspect their food is better than that, minus the curse powers.

Ahem, right, let’s talk about the best-selling tabletop roleplaying games of the year. We’ve been publishing them again, one a day, straight from DriveThruRPG’s database.

It’s an honour to be allowed to do this, and thank you to DriveThruRPG. Each year, though, there are questions, and I don’t always have the answers because it’s not always clear why one download published this year did or did not do better than another. The usual gotchas are that we’re only looking at productions that DriveThruRPG saw for the first time in 2023 and that the genre types are up to the designer. You might disagree with the classifications.

I won’t go through every place on every table, and there’s more to come next week, but let’s do the top three.

In the best selling fantasy RPGs the top three are;

1. Fabula Ultima Atlas: High Fantasy by Need Games.
2. Sandbox Generator by Atelier Clandestin.
3. Exalted: Essence by Onyx Path Publishing.

For the best selling sci-fi RPGs of 2023 the top three are;

1. Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Core Rulebook by Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd..
2. Cities Without Number by Sine Nomine Publishing.
3. Danger Gal Dossier by R. Talsorian Games Inc.

Then, in horror, the top three this year are;

1. Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Core Rulebook by Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd.
2. Delta Green: God’s Teeth by Arc Dream Publishing.
3. Public Access by The Gauntlet.

Yep, that’s Imperium Maledictum again because it’s both sci-fi and horror.

Moving backwards in time from sci-fi and to modern settings, alternative or otherwise, we have;

• Delta Green: God’s Teeth by Arc Dream Publishing.
• Tome of the Pentacle by Onyx Path Publishing.
• Whitehack Fourth Edition by WhitehackRPG.

The last one for this podcast is the list of best-selling historical RPGs. That’s topped by;

• M20 Victorian Age Mage by Onyx Path Publishing.
• Old Gods of Appalachia Roleplaying Game by Monte Cook Games.
• Japan – Empire of Shadows: A Call of Cthulhu sourcebook for 1920s Imperial Japan by Chaosium.

This week we’ve also looked at some quick starts and new releases from outside the best-selling charts. You know; let’s spread the attention around.

One to call out is Birds & Boroughs, which looks pretty good and from Bootleg Bird. The quickstart has been out a little while now, so perhaps the author will notice a pickup and get some welcome end-of-year motivation for the project.

While we’ve been focusing on games, there’s been a bit of drama in the world of games. You can find the summary links in this week’s Routinely Itemised: RPGs but the summary is this; a YouTuber and game designer called out Wizards of the Coast employed artist for using AI art.

The catch? The artist hadn’t and could prove it. The YouTuber has apologised. WotC has updated their policies on AI to be crystal clear, but I know artists are worried about the trend.

There might be reason for concern because Nightfall Games challenged a freelance artist on whether they had used an AI; it was denied at first, but then the freelancer conceded they had.

Nightfall had to strip the art from the Terminator 2 RPG book and explain what had happened to the license owner. Awkward.

Nightfall, though, picked now to confirm and do the cover reveal for Maggot Machine. That’s their new RPG, which will feel different from SLA and Demon Dog, and more significantly, it will not use the S5S system.

Nightfall with a new system is a bit of a surprise, but perhaps my biggest surprise this week was how much I enjoyed Godzilla Minus One.

It flirts but avoids cheese, harks back to old Toho movies and is doing very well in the cinema here in the UK.

There’s even a possibility of a sequel, as Bronwen wrote up.

We’ve some bundles and freebies to mention in the outro. Starting with a double set of offers from Monte Cook Games at the Bundle of Holding and for Numenera. It’s a zero-to-hero deal.

If you want to be a better GM, worldbuilder or game designer next year, then the Kobold Guides deal might be of interest.

As something of a seasonal gift, I suppose, Modiphius has given us a free to download Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Quickstart Pack.

Chaosium had the great idea of taking the solo game from the core River of Londons RPG and bundle that with quickstart rules. The result is the adventure The Domestic, which is free, and a great way to learn the game by yourself.

Oh, one last thing before I sign off, and to pay the bills and I hope to be helpful, there’s a Boxing Day sales megathread on the site, and places like Zatu, Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, and D&D Beyond are being generous.

On that note, prepare for food and see you next week.