Welcome to the first TTRPG news and routinely itemised summary of 2025.
Let’s start with a summary of the summaries.
- The mainstream media got into D&D’s races versus species change
- We’ve continued to publish Roll20 / DTRPG / DMsGuild / WarGameVault best sellers
- Legend in the Mist in the most anticipated TTRPG of 2025
- The Monster Manual 2024 (due 2025) will have 85 new monsters.
We’ve had a winner in the RPG Publisher Spotlight poll last month! They are Sad Fishe Games.
The candidates for the February spotlight are;
Amazing people who can proudly call themselves Geek Native patrons can vote at a private poll.
On with the news!
Spotlight: Sad Fishe Games.
RPG news from Geek Native
- We’ve been continuing the lists of top selling products that the Roll20 team has kindly shared. This week;
- Raising money for the Trans Youth Emergency Project, Graham Gentz published the RPG Breaking the Vault of Viditya Voleti.
- Geek Native wrote up the free, but not new, Dragonslayer quickstart.
- We also highlighted the twin freebies of DayLITE Fantasy and Sci-Fi Core Lite.
- Bat in the Attic Games confirmed a return to and a Kickstarter for The Majestic Fantasy RPG.
- In the Bundle of Holding, there’s a Fabula Ultime deal.
Support: Patreon
RPG news from around the web
- The mainstream media splash this week was about D&D terminology. We’re linking to the Guardian and Chris Osuh’s coverage with Orcs, elves and culture wars: how diversity in D&D met a rightwing backlash. The Guardian gets 100/100 on NewsGuard, easily the best of the newspapers that picked up the story.
- Legend in the Mist by Son of Oak Games has won EN World’s Most Anticipated TTRPG of 2025, beating Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere.
- Christian Hoffer notes 2025 Monster Manual Will Contain Over 85 New Monsters.
- EN World covers the struggle of an under-monetised gaming brand as Dungeons & Dragons Pinball Machine Announced.
- Chaosium Unveiled looked inside the Pendragon Core Rules (available via DTRPG too)
- The Providence Journal ran Can Dungeons & Dragons bring people to God? Why one Providence church is a believer.
- In a mature article, Wargamer covers How one DnD player’s death created a community for grieving gamers.
- A widely syndicated article goes with 50 years later, Dungeons & Dragons still brings in millions of dollars — including nearly $110,000 in 2024 for one small Brooklyn business.
RPG reviews and interviews from around the web
- Throat Punch Games penned a ring side report of SagaBorn.
- Reviews from R’lyeh got tendrils into Pendragon’s core rules, the 1984 Paranoia, and the Dungeon Crawl Classic Beyond the Black Gate
- The Alexandrian reviewed Mothership Adventure Sphere.
- Wayspell wrote up Barkeep on the Borderlands.
- Jared Rascher turned their gaze to Glory to the High One.
- On EN World, Charles Dunwoody interviewed Brendan Davis about the forthcoming Strange Tales of New England.
RPG new releases
- Black Lodge Games has released the Shadowdark location setting The Shucked Oyster.
- Night Owl Workshop’s Hawkmoor Campaign Setting Primer is out for a grand total of $1.
- Keith D’Edinburgh has published the grimdark Pictish RPG called Children of the Wyrd.
- Praxis Studio has released their $4.50 Oof! Pow! Zocko! Quickstart Guide.
- Lightspress Media has put together the Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest Roleplaying Game.
- Creature Curation has published the Roll20 module for A Grimm Outlook.
- Zozer Games has released the 2nd edition of the dark fantasy RPG Clash of Steel.
RPG bundle deals
- Save $24.95 (28%) with BRW Games’ Core Rulebook Print Upgrade bundle.
- Save $6.93 (50%) in Posthuman Studios’ Eclipse Phase Fiction bundle.
- Save $6.04 (11%) with Andrew Geesy’s Into The Pickleverse (Complete) bundle.
- Save $3.00 (18%) on the Penny Arcade Acquisitions Incorporated 2 Novella bundle.
- Save $2.40 (29%) with the DMsGuild The Thieves of Moonlight Bay bundle.
RPG ideas, tips and discoveries
- Ben and the Genre Police explore how to cope when players’ choice of an RPG blindsides the GM.
- For Hogmanay, we dug into how Dungeons & Dragons made this obscure Scottish word well-known.
- I had a bash at an academic article with Your dice aren’t random, and probability probably does not exist.
- Allow us some festive whimsy as we explore The benefits of being a forever GM.
- Roleplaying Tips has new advice on Mastering the Moment
RPG Crowdfunding
You can see those Kickstarters and other crowdfunding campaigns that caught Geek Native’s attention over at Kickstarter watch. Here are some industry projects worth mentioning;
- Dice Bags- Viking Lore – Kickstarter Make 100 from BoardGameSolutions offers “Tabletop drawstring storage bag for dice, coins, tokens, tiles, gems, crystals etc with a Viking design”
- Monsters of the Month: Mindless Devastation from Ben Meadows from Periapt Games submits “A compendium of foul swarms, rampaging beasts, and other unreasoning horrors for Fifth Edition D&D!”
- Museum Dice – the art of precision machining from Museumdice submits “Every dice is made with precise details – a combination of calculated decisions that often go unobserved”
- Lucky Fortune Dice from Scatter Games introduces “Featuring a Unique ‘Fortune’ Twist for the Chinese New Year”
- Runic Dice: Tabletop Role Playing Game Dice for Rune Magic from David Savedge introduces “A collection of handcrafted resin, iron, and brass dice for games and magic!”
- Alien Encounter and Personnel Forms for Mothership 1e from Pancóga Games raises funds for “A set of simple horror, enemy, and NPC creation tools for the Mothership Horror RPG.”
- The Amulet of Shadows: An Artifact That Evolve with You, STL from One Dragon Coin_Companion crowdfunds “Playable Necklage Prop that Evolves with the Character, Printable STL, D&D Adventure PDF and Digital items Cards”
- Legends of the Ashen Shield – The Gathering Storm (5e D&D) from Anthony David offers “A legendary campaign of knights, witches, dragons and valour!”
- A Tome of Cursed Curiosities for D&D from CraftRiot submits “A tome to enrich your tabletop RPG campaigns with unique cursed items, artifacts, and objects, fully compatible with 5e!”
- Deck(s) of Curses – By Angry Dwarf Games from Victor Dorso submits “The Deck(s) or Curses – We have curated a GM’s dream and every players nightmare of cards to add life to your gaming tables.”
- Gods & Avatars, Norse Gods in D&D from Bradley Horton pitches “22 Norse Gods for DnD 5e. 44 Cleric Domains & Paladin Oaths. Priests, Temples & their Followers.”
- Dice Bags – Elements – Kickstarter Make 100 from Alice introduces “Storage bag for dice, coins, tokens, tiles, etc with an element design”
- 100 Urban Scenarios for your Adventures from A4 Play submits “A collection of 100 plothooks for RPGs based on myths and legends.”
- D&D 5e: Blights, Catastrophes & Scourges on the Realm from Felix S introduces “A collection of global catastrophic events impacting society that can be incorporated into dungeons and dragons 5e storylines.”
- Make 100: Mystic Medallions: Enchanted Creatures Collection from Midnight Mica Art pitches “Magickal pocket medallions inspired by your favorite mystical beings.”
- Dice Towers – STL / 28MM from InfinitePrint 3D submits “STL files for 3D printing, landscape for board games, role-playing games, wargames and RPGs. Dice Towers, RPGs,28MM”
- 100 Amazing Events for D&D 5e from Midnight Arcana proposes “A line-up of 100 Amazing Events, a DnD 5E supplement packed w/ 100+ unique moments, twists, and challenges to bring your World to Life!”
- Renegade Realms: Raven’s Reach (5e / OSR compatible) from Bart Wynants kickstarts “An endlessly expandable hex map for 5e, Pathfinder, Shadowdark, Forbidden Lands, Mörk Borg & other fantasy tabletop role-playing games!”
- Shadowstone Hollow – 3 Adventure Collection! from Dren Productions Games raises funds for “3 brand new D&D adventures set within the village of Shadowstone Hollow.”
- Xenosalvage: Dark Sci-Fi RPG Compatible with Shadowdark from William Murakami-Brundage kickstarts “Crawling deadly alien ruins and xenobeast-infested crashed UFOs on a ravaged Earth in search of precious artifacts.”
Do you know of an RPG news source that we don’t? Let us know, or leave a comment below.
