Fantasy RolePlaying is undergoing a renaissance of its own right now.

Recently I recommended 5 Alternatives to Dungeons & Dragons. The reason I created that article is simple: I’m getting a bit burned out on million dollar Kickstarters and everyone trying to “kill” Dungeons & Dragons. While I totally support games rising in popularity over Wizards of the Coast’s current model for D&D, I think some of these games are a flash in the pan without any signs of longevity.

I think there’s a lot of potential for your humble narrator to get in trouble with the #ttrpgcommunity on this one. I’m going to drop some hot takes that might not be received well by some people. This is just my opinion and while I’ve seen many games come and go over the years, I could be wrong about this.

Disclaimer: Statements expressed in this article are strictly my opinion. If you disagree or have a different opinion, that’s okay. I’m not an expert on everything. I’m not always right. I’m just writing from my experience as I know it. Your mileage may vary.

Here is my list of fantasy TTRPGs that I think are going to fizzle out eventually:

  • Daggerheart: Part of me wants to be wrong about this one. The playtest still looks good, but I’m not holding my breath for this one to be a huge seller. It’s not looking like the D&D killer everyone originally thought it was going to be.

    Before a massive mob of Critical Role fans lights the torches and sharpens the pitchforks, hear me out. I don’t think Daggerheart will be a fad any more than Critical Role is a fad. The fans that get into this game are going to stick with it as long as Mercer and crew still support it actively. I love what CR has done for the hobby.

    I know Matt Mercer takes a lot of grief from the TTRPG community in general, and he deserves better. I think he’s a great Game Master. We owe him for the thousands of people who discovered Dungeons & Dragons as a result of Critical Role’s popularity. My only question is: Will Critical Role fans stick to D&D or move over and stay with Daggerheart?

    My only real criticisms of the Daggerheart mechanics so far is that it seems gimmicky with all of the cards, tokens, dice, etc. I would also like to see a hard and fast initiative system in the game. That having been said, I think Daggerheart may have been trying to emulate Dragonbane. Look at the anthropomorphic animal characters, cards, and dramatic combat. It’s not totally Dragonbane, but there are a few outstanding similarities. (*Possibly to be covered in a future article.)
  • DC20: Look, I love the Dungeon Coach on YouTube as much as anyone. I’ve been watching his YouTube channel as far back as I can remember, before it really took off. He’s a brilliant guy. DC20 shows he knows what he’s doing when it comes to game mechanics and publicity.

    Honestly, I think that’s what the Dungeon Coach does best. I’ve seen more DC20 previews and reviews in the last couple of weeks than I’ve seen new Dragonbane content on YouTube. I’m impressed with the reach Dungeon Coach seems to have on TTRPG YouTube. While I did not buy into the playtest, it sounds like a good game.

    Kudos to Dungeon Coach for hitting the million dollar plus mark on Kickstarter. I’m downright amazed at how many people are backing this game. My big question is: Will the excitement last beyond the KS fulfilment?

    Once upon a time there was this neato mosquito game called “Alternity” that was supposed to be the next D&D killer. The game had hype. I playtested it at Gen Con with Shane Hensley of Deadlands fame sitting next to me. (*Major nerd moment for me. He’s a really cool guy.) Alternity had massive hype and lots of potential just like DC20 minus social media and YouTube which weren’t a thing yet. Where’s Alternity now?

  • MCDM: (Or whatever they end up calling it.) This game, still being developed and playtested cashed in heavily on Matt Colville’s popularity. Yes, he’s a good GM and much like Matt Mercer brought a lot of people into D&D 5E.

    Then it gets weird. Flee, Mortals! while a good book along with another MCDM title went live on D&D Beyond. I’m not putting the tinfoil hat on, but it looks a bit sus to me that suddenly MCDM is kinda in bed with WotC. What the heck is going on there? Is the MCDM game going to just be a clone of whatever SRD comes with the next iteration of D&D?

    What happened to the cinematic mechanics reminiscent of 4th Ed D&D? This game was hyped all over social media and YouTube with  $4.5 Million on BackerKit just like DC20 is doing on Kickstarter. It’s going to be huge if/when it’s finally finished sometime in the future! And then there was resounding silence. I’ve heard so little since the major BackerKit campaign ended. You can still preorder the game, though.

  • Tales of the Valiant: This Kobold Press book was a response to The Great D&D Open Game License Debacle of 2023. Much like MCDM, Kobold put a bunch of stuff on D&D Beyond. What are these game companies signing up for that we don’t know about? Was the OGL Debacle just a plan to make a bunch of other companies money or get them to sign some sort of deal?

    ToV looks fabulous. The game itself is awesome. I signed onto Project Black Flag when it was originally floated in 2023. I kinda wish they’d kept the pirate theme. It looks like a good game that is highly reminiscent of D&D 5E for all the people who want to still play after the SRD and the new/not-new edition drops.

  • Pathfinder Remastered: As time goes on, I get more and more annoyed with Paizo. These four books came as a response to The Great D&D OGL Debacle of 2023. The first reason I’m annoyed is if I wanted to play Pathfinder 2E again I’d have to replace my 600+ page $60 Core rulebook, Bestiary, Advanced Player’s Guide and GM’s Handbook. Paizo was “nice” enough to revise their pricing scheme to make the new core rulebooks run $60 each PLUS another $20 for each PDF. So, I would have to throw another $320 at a company who looks to be in bed with WotC.

    I know they allegedly did this remastered thing to get away from all of the WotC D&D Intellectual Property. No one will blame them for that. Again, there was massive hype for these four books, but it got awfully quiet when they came out. I have not heard nearly as much about PF2E as I used to.

    I can hear it now. “But…but you can get everything for free on Archives of Nethys and everything is backwards compatible. Just play Pathfinder.”

    I know the Pathfinder fan base is rabid akin to the Critters. Yes, I fully endorsed and even enjoy Pathfinder 2E. It’s still a good game. It’s still sort of competitive with D&D. Maybe?

    Let’s look at what Paizo did in 2023-2024 for just a minute. First, the OGL Debacle caused Pathfinder 2E Core books to sell out an entire warehouse and print run in less than a week. Yay, right? Then, less than six months later two of the four new, shorter $60 core books drop. A year later the other two $60 core books come out. So they were basically expecting people to empty their wallets twice for what is essentially the same material with a slightly different coat of paint if the rabid PF2E fans are to be believed.

    Finally, where is that massive hype engine now? Where are all of the YouTubers who dropped D&D and bought every single PF2E book they could get their hands on? (There was more than one.) Oh, they’ve gone back to WotC D&D because that’s where the popularity on YouTube remains.

    Oh, and while I’m on my Paizo rant- What’s with all the employee flipping between WotC and Paizo? Who’s actually writing all of this material for literally both games now? What’s more astonishing to me is that Paizo goes out of their way to have a union and make a huge deal out of it. Yet the guy who pushed for the Paizo union went over and wrote a book about D&D for WotC?!? WtAF over? Shouldn’t there be a union rule against crap like that?

    I see WotC employees aren’t loudly unionized. I wonder why. Maybe because their union organizer, Jason Tondro, is working for both companies? Am I the only one who sees this? Okay, putting the tinfoil hat away before I get into my OGL Debacle conspiracy theory.

  • Dungeons & Dragons (WtF ever) Edition: I don’t think they’ve even settled on a name for this project. It’s the 50th Anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons and the company who is in charge of the IP has done jack diddly shit with it. (Here’s what I would have done.) The new Player’s HandBook doesn’t even drop until September and last we heard they’re still making massive revisions. The new Dungeon Master’s Guide is supposedly coming in November just in time for the holiday sales. Then, wait for it, the new Monster Manual is slated for February of 2025.

    I’d be laughing my butt off if this wasn’t so tragic. I hope the new WotC CEO has a degree from a clown school as part of their resume because they’re walking into a damned circus. I’m starting to think former WotC CEO Cynthia Williams might have had the right idea when she bailed out. The D&D ship looks to be going down.

    What has their IP branding done for them? Do I, as a tabletop gamer, really care about their stupid “lifestyle brand?” I don’t need D&D Converse High Tops. I want the game! Further, I want a game that’s not a raging trash fire every time we turn around in TTRPG news. The way they run this company, I’m beginning to think these people are the reason why we have warning labels on ladders and hair dryers.

    Don’t even get me rolling on D&D YouTube or DnD Tube. WotC sends free product to these guys by the truckload so they can shill it. Meanwhile they charge $50+ per book to the rest of us only to have them end up at a discount store for 30% of MSRP three short months later. It’s like WotC just doesn’t care about their product or their customers.

    WotC is D&D’s worst enemy at this point. It’s like they’re in a race with the big ttrpg companies to see who can get to the bottom first. This new “edition” of D&D might be the worst thing coming out this year and we haven’t even seen it yet. Further, I refuse to believe any of the YouTube shills with regards to quality of the new products. (Please don’t get me going on AI.)

That’s not even the whole list.

Castles & Crusades Reforged is on Kickstarter. The new Brian Sanderson Stormlight thing hasn’t appeared yet as far as I know. Plus the heap of games that are still somewhere in the process of being revised, revisited, or remastered. Haven’t heard about The Fantasy Trip or Tunnels & Trolls in a while. I think someone said Chivalry & Sorcery was getting a new edition this year. I’m actually a fan of that game.

My point is, a lot of these “big name” TTRPGs have been a big, expensive flash in the pan. At an average of $50-$60 per book, or $20-$30 per PDF, I can’t afford to keep up on the stuff I already own much less all the new crowdfunding projects and rereleased stuff. The market is going to be oversaturated by the time the new D&D Monster Manual drops. Even if I wanted to buy it, I think I’ll wait.

That’s all for now. I’m sure we’ll be revisiting this topic in a matter of months. Some of these bigger name releases are at least newsworthy, if not hard on the budget. Some of these games might not even make it to the shelf until 2026, which might be good for them. The hype train gets really loud for some games, then $4.5 million later- silence. Wonder why?

Thank you for being here today with me. I appreciate you. Please embrace the things that bring you the most joy.