The 10 Most Anticipated Tabletop RPGs of 2021

Enevhar Aldarion · Jan 4, 2021

opacitizen said:
See, I'm also from Europe. In fact, I'm an hour ahead of Scotland. I simply thought the makers of this list/contest weren't aware of SLA2 having been released. I also thought the producers of SLA2 weren't aware of this contest. (Don't ask me why I thought that possible. I was probably damn tired or something. I still am.) Finally, as I've said, I didn't even consider a late December release date could somehow disqualify a game. I simply thought it a strange and happy coincidence that a long-awaited game on this list got released just a few days prior to the publication of this list, and is already available.

The owner of this site is also in the UK, so I think he knows about the time zone stuff. Right @Morrus ?

MarkR · Jan 4, 2021

opacitizen said:
Yes, it does, thanks, especially the bit where you explain that you held back the release, and that this contest had, in fact, a release date restriction.

See, I'm also from Europe. In fact, I'm an hour ahead of Scotland. I simply thought the makers of this list/contest weren't aware of SLA2 having been released. I also thought the producers of SLA2 weren't aware of this contest. (Don't ask me why I thought that possible. I was probably damn tired or something. I still am.) Finally, as I've said, I didn't even consider a late December release date could somehow disqualify a game. I simply thought it a strange and happy coincidence that a long-awaited game on this list got released just a few days prior to the publication of this list, and is already available.

It's never been my intent to work against SLA2. I'm glad it's been released, and I'm rather glad it's on this list now.

That's why I didn't understand why you said "Nice try!", and why I didn't understand why my initial comment seemed... I don't know... antagonistic?

So: sorry about the misunderstanding, congrats, and good luck with your release!

Thanks for explaining. It did seem like you were trying to derail us, and that was sad and took a bit of the joy from making this list.

we are well aware of this comp, having discovered it last year. I’m a big fan of Judge Dredd so know EN well.

Any way we have over 1200 backers now with the PDF and have just won the Copper award on Drivethru and just overtaken WHFB on the bestselling list, so all is gravy!

cheers
Mark

stadi · Jan 4, 2021

I wonder if people will actually play Dune. They will definitely buy it, but I wonder how many will actually play it regularly.

TrippyHippy · Jan 4, 2021

stadi said:
I wonder if people will actually play Dune. They will definitely buy it, but I wonder how many will actually play it regularly.

Well, I have played/ran the playtest/intro scenario.

I think our group might play a modified version of the game in time, but we do have a Call of Cthulhu campaign to finish, a Vampire game in the offing and also a Traveller game planned.

So many games, so little time.

Ilgiallomondadori · Jan 4, 2021

TrippyHippy said:
Well, I have played/ran the playtest/intro scenario.

I think our group might play a modified version of the game in time, but we do have a Call of Cthulhu campaign to finish, a Vampire game in the offing and also a Traveller game planned.

So many games, so little time.

I bought and have the intro PDF, but feel pretty overwhelmed at actually running it. Would love an overview / examples of combat, and advice on running it. I'd love to listen/watch and actual play, as at this point...this might stay on the shelf.

RSIxidor · Jan 4, 2021

Ulfgeir said:
Exactly. I do not expect it to have happened though.

It definitely happened as some of us didn't see the voting was up. Whoops.

TrippyHippy · Jan 4, 2021

Ilgiallomondadori said:
I bought and have the intro PDF, but feel pretty overwhelmed at actually running it. Would love an overview / examples of combat, and advice on running it. I'd love to listen/watch and actual play, as at this point...this might stay on the shelf.

Ok. Our group played it as is, but we felt it got a bit complicated with the meta currencies. There are three of them:

Momentum - the player group pool, which starts at zero and has a maximum of 6.
Threat - the GM/NPC pool, which starts at two per player.
Determination - An individual score, which starts at one, and is replenished by challenging the Drives.

So, if you want to strip the game down to a simpler engine, as baby steps, my advice is to pull the GM pool, Threat, and just have the single Determination point replenished every session. The Momentum pool is the only one you need to keep, in my view. If you get confident in using Momentum, then you can add Threat and Determination rules later.

Each Character is defined by their Drives (Duty, Faith, Justice, Power, Truth) and Skills (Battle, Communicate, Discipline, Move, Understand). Each of these can have specializations - Statements and Focuses respectively - which customizes them. They are all rated from 4 to 8, and you add a Drive and Skill number together to get a Target Number (from 8-16).

When a player rolls their D20 pool (which is a default of 2D20), they gain a success whenever they roll under their Target Number. This is compared to a Difficulty which is the required number of successes to carry out an action. The default average Difficulty is 1, but it can be lower (a really unchallenging 0) or higher (up to 5 which is ‘Epic’). When you roll dice, you can convert any excess successes to the Momentum Pool (up to a maximum of 6).

You earn a Critical Success whenever a die rolls a 1, or when the task lies within your Skill speciality in which case the Critical Range is equal to the Skill Score. A Critical Success is worth two successes. You also get a Complication whenever a die rolls a 20, which is sort of like a fumble except it doesn’t mean that the Task can’t be completed from other dice rolled.

Any player can make use of the Momentum Pool, and the simplest way of using them is to simply allow players to dip into it to get more D20s to roll in their pool, when it is their turn. Players can work in teams, to set up Momentum for other characters to get an advantage on their turn. Momentum points can also be used to buy off Complications or possibly adjust the scene or create some other narrative advantage (like Fate). If you want to keep it simple, ignore the narrative uses.

Determination points, of which players can just have one to spend per session, allow players to re-roll a pool if they like.

In a Conflict, (duels or skirmishing particularly), the Action order is, by default, a nominated player first. A GM can use Threat to take the initiative, but if we aren’t using it, it doesn’t matter. The first player can keep the initiative by spending 2 points of Momentum and either go again one more time, or nominate another player to act. If they don’t spend Momentum, it alternates to a GM controlled character. This continues to alternate unless somebody spends Momentum (or Threat).

Each attack is a contested roll, where the defender rolls their dice to set the Difficulty for the attacker to overcome. If they hit a mook, then the book is out of combat. If they hit a named character, then it becomes an extended task to reduce the appropriate skill score (Battle in the case of a physical conflict) to zero by increments equal to the number of Success in each attack.

Combat also has range Zones and Assets (weapons) to consider, but I’ll just leave it at this for the moment. It’s worth noting that there is no difference, rules wise between physical conflict or mental or social conflict rules.

imagineGod · Jan 4, 2021

TrippyHippy said:
Ok. Our group played it as is, but we felt it got a bit complicated with the meta currencies. There are three of them:

Momentum - the player group pool, which starts at zero and has a maximum of 6.

Threat - the GM/NPC pool, which starts at two per player.

Determination - An individual score, which starts at one, and is replenished by challenging the Drives.

So, if you want to strip the game down to a simpler engine, as baby steps, my advice is to pull the GM pool, Threat, and just have the single Determination point replenished every session. The Momentum pool is the only one you need to keep, in my view. If you get confident in using Momentum, then you can add Threat and Determination rules later.

Each Character is defined by their Drives (Duty, Faith, Justice, Power, Truth) and Skills (Battle, Communicate, Discipline, Move, Understand). Each of these can have specializations - Statements and Focuses respectively - which customizes them. They are all rated from 4 to 8, and you add a Drive and Skill number together to get a Target Number.

When a player rolls their D20 pool (which is a default of 2D20), they gain a success whenever they roll under their Target Number. This is compared to a Difficulty which is the required number of successes to carry out an action. The default average Difficulty is 1, but it can be lower (a really unchallenging 0) or higher (up to 5 which is ‘Epic’). When you roll dice, you can convert any excess successes to the Momentum Pool (up to a maximum of 6).

You earn a Critical Success whenever a die rolls a 1, or when the task lies within your Skill speciality in which case the Critical Range is equal to the Skill Score. You also get a Complication whenever a die rolls a 20, which is sort of like a fumble except it doesn’t mean that the Task can’t be completed from other dice rolled.

Any player can make use of the Momentum Pool, and the simplest way of using them is to simply allow players to dip into it to get more D20s to roll in their pool, when it is their turn. Players can work in teams, to set up Momentum for other characters to get an advantage on their turn. Momentum points can also be used to buy off Complications or possibly adjust the scene or create some other narrative advantage (like Fate). If you want to keep it simple, ignore the narrative uses.

Determination points, of which players can just have one to spend per session, allow players to re-roll a pool if they like.

In a Conflict, (duels or skirmishing particularly), the Action order is, by default, a nominated player first. A GM can use Threat to take the initiative, but if we aren’t using it, it doesn’t matter. The first player can keep the initiative by spending 2 points of Momentum and either go again one more time, or nominate another player to act. If they don’t spend Momentum, it alternates to a GM controlled character. This continues to alternate unless somebody spends Momentum (or Threat).

Each attack is a contested roll, where the defender rolls their dice to set the Difficulty for the attacker to overcome. If they hit a mook, then the book is out of combat. If they hit a named character, then it becomes an extended task to reduce the appropriate skill score (Battle in the case of a physical conflict) to zero by increments equal to the number of Success in each attack.

Combat also has range Zones and Assets (weapons) to consider, but I’ll just leave it at this for the moment. It’s also worth noting that there is no difference, rules wise between physical conflict or mental or social conflict rules.

That is a pretty neat one page summary of the Dune RPG. So why was Modiphus charging exorbitant prices for the pre-orders?

Eyes of Nine · Jan 5, 2021

TrippyHippy said:
Ok. Our group played it as is, but we felt it got a bit complicated with the meta currencies. There are three of them:

Momentum - the player group pool, which starts at zero and has a maximum of 6.

Threat - the GM/NPC pool, which starts at two per player.

Determination - An individual score, which starts at one, and is replenished by challenging the Drives.

So, if you want to strip the game down to a simpler engine, as baby steps, my advice is to pull the GM pool, Threat, and just have the single Determination point replenished every session. The Momentum pool is the only one you need to keep, in my view. If you get confident in using Momentum, then you can add Threat and Determination rules later.

Each Character is defined by their Drives (Duty, Faith, Justice, Power, Truth) and Skills (Battle, Communicate, Discipline, Move, Understand). Each of these can have specializations - Statements and Focuses respectively - which customizes them. They are all rated from 4 to 8, and you add a Drive and Skill number together to get a Target Number (from 8-16).

When a player rolls their D20 pool (which is a default of 2D20), they gain a success whenever they roll under their Target Number. This is compared to a Difficulty which is the required number of successes to carry out an action. The default average Difficulty is 1, but it can be lower (a really unchallenging 0) or higher (up to 5 which is ‘Epic’). When you roll dice, you can convert any excess successes to the Momentum Pool (up to a maximum of 6).

You earn a Critical Success whenever a die rolls a 1, or when the task lies within your Skill speciality in which case the Critical Range is equal to the Skill Score. A Critical Success is worth two successes. You also get a Complication whenever a die rolls a 20, which is sort of like a fumble except it doesn’t mean that the Task can’t be completed from other dice rolled.

Any player can make use of the Momentum Pool, and the simplest way of using them is to simply allow players to dip into it to get more D20s to roll in their pool, when it is their turn. Players can work in teams, to set up Momentum for other characters to get an advantage on their turn. Momentum points can also be used to buy off Complications or possibly adjust the scene or create some other narrative advantage (like Fate). If you want to keep it simple, ignore the narrative uses.

Determination points, of which players can just have one to spend per session, allow players to re-roll a pool if they like.

In a Conflict, (duels or skirmishing particularly), the Action order is, by default, a nominated player first. A GM can use Threat to take the initiative, but if we aren’t using it, it doesn’t matter. The first player can keep the initiative by spending 2 points of Momentum and either go again one more time, or nominate another player to act. If they don’t spend Momentum, it alternates to a GM controlled character. This continues to alternate unless somebody spends Momentum (or Threat).

Each attack is a contested roll, where the defender rolls their dice to set the Difficulty for the attacker to overcome. If they hit a mook, then the book is out of combat. If they hit a named character, then it becomes an extended task to reduce the appropriate skill score (Battle in the case of a physical conflict) to zero by increments equal to the number of Success in each attack.

Combat also has range Zones and Assets (weapons) to consider, but I’ll just leave it at this for the moment. It’s worth noting that there is no difference, rules wise between physical conflict or mental or social conflict rules.

What are you supposed to do? In what way do these rules encourage that type of play?

Again, I don't see Dune as being an adventure game, where you go with your band of Fremen and capture spice ships. I mean I guess it could be? But that's not really what caught my fancy with Dune back in the day.

I've ordered the book (Dune the novel) at the library, so maybe after I read it again I'll have a clearer picture of the core loops available in the game.

TrippyHippy · Jan 5, 2021

Eyes of Nine said:
What are you supposed to do? In what way do these rules encourage that type of play?

Again, I don't see Dune as being an adventure game, where you go with your band of Fremen and capture spice ships. I mean I guess it could be? But that's not really what caught my fancy with Dune back in the day.

I've ordered the book (Dune the novel) at the library, so maybe after I read it again I'll have a clearer picture of the core loops available in the game.

The Dune game is more about intrigue than out and out adventure. Your characters are either Architects (strategists) or Agents of a particular House. You can play both simultaneously, potentially, in a scenario set up that way (with alternating scenes). The players can collectively design a House together if they want. The use of Drives rather than Ability scores as in D&D means that your stories can alternate between different scales of conflict. The game play is based upon high level tactical maneuvering between Houses (Architect) down to carrying out low level missions (Agents).

As I say, all conflicts essentially work with the same sort of system, using Momentum and Threat and so on at different levels (Dueling, Skirmish, Warfare, Espionage, Intrigue), but utilizing different maneuvers and assets respectively. It doesn’t play like Traveller or Star Wars, and not really like Star Trek either.

#	2013	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
1	13th Age	Star Wars Force & Destiny	Rifts for Savage Worlds	Trudvang Chronicles	Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition	Savage Worlds Adventure Edition	Dune: Adventures in the Imperium
2	Numenera	Deluxe Exalted 3rd Edition	Mutant Crawl Classics	Tales from the Loop	Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Fourth Edition	Pathfinder 2nd Edition	Vaesen - Nordic Horror Roleplaying
3	Star Wars Edge of the Empire	Unified Rolemaster	7th Sea 2nd Edition	Kult: Divinity Lost	Kult: Divinity Lost	Lex Arcana	Cyberpunk Red
4	Shadowrun 5th Edition	Conan Adventures In An Age Undreamed Of	Conan Adventures In An Age Undreamed Of	Star Trek Adventures	Forbidden Lands: Retro Open-World Survival Fantasy RPG	The Expanse	Fallout: Wasteland Warfare
5	Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition	Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls	DCC Lankhmar	Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of	RuneQuest: Role-playing in Glorantha	Eclipse Phase 2nd Edition	Warhammer: Age of Sigmar
6	Firefly	Barbarians of Lemuria: Mythic Edition	RuneQuest 4	Starfinder	The Witcher Roleplaying Game	Dune RPG	Swords of the Serpentine
7	Fate Core	Feng Shui 2	Torg: Eternity	The Witcher Roleplaying Game	Warhammer 40,000 Wrath & Glory	John Carter of Mars	Rivers of London
8	Hillfolk	Fantasy AGE	Blue Rose AGE	Coriolis	The Expanse	Changeling the Lost 2nd Edition	Stargate Roleplaying Game
9	Torchbearer	Paranoia	Paranoia	Delta Green Roleplaying Game	Legend of the Five Rings 5th Edition	Things from the Flood	Fading Suns 4th Edition
10	-	Shadows of the Demon Lord	Delta Green	Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea 2E	Numenera 2: Discovery & Destiny	Judge Dredd & The Worlds of 2000AD	Cortex Prime

The 10 Most Anticipated Tabletop RPGs of 2021

Enevhar Aldarion

Hero

MarkR

Villager

stadi

Explorer

TrippyHippy

Hero

Ilgiallomondadori

Explorer

RSIxidor

Adventurer

TrippyHippy

Hero

imagineGod

Legend

Eyes of Nine

Everything's Fine

TrippyHippy

Hero

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