The Top 50 Tabletop RPG News Stories of 2016

Darry posted an excellent News Digest Year In Review 2016 the other day, which takes a look at some of the biggest news stories of the year. I thought it would be fun to look at what were the most popular news items here on EN World over the last twelve months. Listed were the 50 most popular tabletop RPG news items on EN World of 2016. It's interesting to see that 27 of them - just over half - were about D&D 5th Edition specifically. The top item was my original scoop about Curse of Strahd, which shows that folks still come to the EN World for the rumours - which is, of course, how the site started.

1. [UPDATED AGAIN!] CURSE OF STRAHD Will Be Available March 15th
2. CURSE OF STRAHD: Here's The Official Announcement & Cover Image!
3. Do You Know Your Glaive-Guisarme From Your Bohemian Earspoon?
4. The Day Has Come! It's An OGL! And A Store To Buy & Sell D&D 5E Products!
5. The 10 Most Anticipated Tabletop RPGs Of 2016 Are....
6. All Change At WotC: New President Arrives From Microsoft As Greg Leeds Resigns
7. 7th Sea Hits ONE MILLION DOLLARS (AKA The Top 100+ RPG Kickstarters Ever!)
8. D&D comes to Middle Earth (from Cubicle 7)
9. What Did Medieval Items Really Cost? And How Much Did An Archer Make?
10. Take Your D&D Adventures Into The Realms Of Middle-earth
11. ZENDIKAR -- Where Magic: The Gathering and D&D Collide!
12. D&D Movie Takes Cues From GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
13. DM's Guild: One Week In - The Best & The Worst
14. New Gothic D&D Storyline To Be Announced On Monday
15. Strahd Castle Ravenloft in 3d glory!
16. The War on Imagination
17. WotC Being Sued By Magic: the Gathering Judges
18. The End of a D&D Campaign Was the Beginning of Doom
19. Your Options For D&D 5E Electronic Tools
20. D&D 5E Up 4% In Latest Orr Group Industry Report
21. A Million Answers From Mearls & Lindsay About DM's Guild, DDAL, and the OGL (Compiled AMA)
22. How a RPG Changed the Star Wars Universe
23. D&D's Lead Increases; Stars Without Number Surges In Latest Orr Group Report
24. RPG Creator Relief Fund Entering 2017
25. Unearthed Arcana Fighter: Samurai, Sharpshooter, Arcane Archer & Knight
26. New Year Unearthed Arcana Brings Back Those Old 2E Kits
27. Unearthed Arcana: Psionics and Mystics Take Two
28. D&D Psionics Survey; Plus "First Major Mechanical Expansion" Coming?
29. Check Out This Beefed-Up CR17 Strahd!
30. Classic D&D of All Eras Back In Print
31. Can Wizards Avoid Another OGL Glut?
32. [UPDATED] Looking At Savage Worlds Rifts
33. Product page for Volo's Guide to Monsters updated
34. There's A New Online Gaming Store In Town
35. Monte Cook On Fumble Mechanics
36. Is TOMB OF HORRORS the Worst Adventure Of All Time?
37. Preview VOLO'S GUIDE TO MONSTERS
38. Check Out These Peeks At CURSE OF STRAHD
39. VOLO'S GUIDE - Check Out This Froghemoth Preview
40. No WotC At Gen Con This Year?
41. Unearthed Arcana: Revenant Subrace, Monster Hunter, and Inquisitive
42. Was Gandalf Just A 5th Level Magic User?
43. Who's Playing What on Fantasy Grounds?
44. Which Games Were Most Played On FANTASY GROUNDS In 2015? (Hint: D&D!)
45. UA to Become Weekly! Pendleton Ward Helped On New AP!
46. Why OD&D Is Still Relevant
47. Your most anticipated games of 2016?
48. Check Out CURSE OF STRAHD'S Table of Contents!
49. Perkins AMA Compiled; Haunted One Background Preview
50. [UPDATED] The Archmage (aka Ed Greenwood) Returns to the Forgotten Realms

If you look at the list of those 27 D&D 5E items, Curse of Strahd was a popular topic. It grabbed 7 of the top 50 news items. Volo's Guide to Monsters grabbed 3 of the top 50, and WotC's Unearthed Arcana column swept up 5 of them. Of course, this site gets a lot of traffic to older articles via Google and the like, which means that articles from earlier in the year have an advantage.

There is one important caveat - we did lose 3 months of data from the middle of the year. This included things like Paizo's Starfinder anouncement, and the initial announcement of Modiphius' Star Trek RPG. It seems likely that both of those would have featured. And, of course, WotC's Storm King's Thunder announcement was extensively covered here both before and after the official announcement, and would likely have ranked highly.

 

[Desh-Rae-Halra]

I actually liked #35 best, as it presented a great discussion about a common instance in gaming. Thanks Morrus and staff for another great year!

 

[TerraDave]

I remember something about the star trek announcement slowing the sight down.

 

[JeffB]

Nevermind..

 

[Queer Venger]

Wizards released 2 of the best adventure module series this year: Curse of Strahd and Storm King's Thunder. Really, they are delivering the best adventure products on the market, even the famous PF AP's can't keep up with these award winners.