Fantasy Grounds Top RPGs (Last 12 Months)

Fantasy Grounds has sent along its latest figures for RPG rulesets used in the last 12 months. 5E dominates with 70%, of course (up by 1%); Pathfinder 2E has snuck onto the chart at 6th place (though it's only been available for a couple of months), and Starfinder has taken 4th place.

As always, "MoreCore" is FG's default generic module used when there isn't a specific game package available.

 

[Parmandur]

But wait, that is 1e AD&D and 2e AD&D. Isn’t it?

I don’t really care about it being played more than 4e though.

IIRC, the "AD&D" product for Fantasy Grounds & Roll20 is using the 2E rules, but includes 1E modules, etc.

 

[Reynard]

Do we know anything about FG vs Roll20 relating to player base, etc.. I'm just curious. I am a FG GM but only because I have sunk A LOT of money into it over the years.

 

[LordEntrails]

As always, "MoreCore" is FG's default generic module used when there isn't a specific game package available.

Sorry @Morrus, you are wrong on this one. "CoreRPG" is the generic ruleset available with FG. "MoreCore" is actually a community ruleset for generic play. But, the community has made all sorts of character sheets, themes, and such for MoreCore hence it's popularity.

Also, is there official support for PF2e for Fantasy Grounds yet or is this all used input at this point?

Their is official support for PF2E. But the numbers of users are pretty tiny.

I think it's hilarious that 2nd edition has more players than 4th edition.

Agreed. But to help clairy the other 2E comments/questions. The 2E ruleset also supports 1E AD&D play. And part of its popularity is that you can get the core books and adventures and more in FG so you can get all the automation etc. You can not get any 4E D&D 'books' in FG (though you might still be able to automatically parse D&D Insider if you have a subscription.)

Do we know anything about FG vs Roll20 relating to player base, etc.. I'm just curious. I am a FG GM but only because I have sunk A LOT of money into it over the years.

No. Roll20 used to report on number of players, as counted by number of accounts, but since the NolanT scandal they no longer report number of players. Instead they report percentages so we don't know numbers. But, FG doesn't report numbers of players either. Instead they report number of online games that either use an Ultimate license or their "alias" feature (i.e. games that are hosted by standard licenses and do not use the alias feature, and/or local only/offline games do not show up).

 

[Sunsword]

Starfinder.

Thank you, I should have seen that.

 

[DMV Dragon]

Curious that L5R and Genesys don't show up. I see Star Wars.

 

[aramis erak]

I got to think this is a high water mark for this edition. It can't get higher than 70% can it?

At one point, AD&D1E was 90% of all RPG sales worldwide... it's unlikely to ever get that high again, due to Star Trek, Star Wars, Marvel, DCU, and other longstanding licensed settings that draw new players from outside the natural word of mouth.

I don't think it will ever exceed 75% again on sales. If it ever gets above 90% again, it's a really bad sign for the industry as a whole.

Why? 4E is a dead RPG. PF2 just came out.
That so many are still playing a dead RPG compared to something that just came out speaks highly of the dead RPG.

Roll20 and FG have different featuresets, and different usage profiles for various games and editions...

Roll20 shows more 4E players than AD&D 1&2 combined, while FG shows way more AD&D players than 4E players. Probably because Roll20 has better 4E oriented assets than FG. And neither matches the top 10 of current sales.

 

[aramis erak]

duplicate deleted.

 

[GrahamWills]

I got to think this is a high water mark for this edition. It can't get higher than 70% can it?

Sure. It could be 100% in a single day all that fantasy grounds needs do is stop supporting other systems -- remember this is not a graph of "how many people play system X"; this is a chart of "how many people play system X using a single online method".

There is almost certainly a high correlation between the two questions, but it's not 100%. D&D is particularly good for online play; as a data point, from an online point of view, 100% of my play is D&D. However, it's actually about 10% of my total gaming.

Systems that are better F2F, like Fate for example, will be represented poorly.

T

 

[LordEntrails]

Curious that L5R and Genesys don't show up. I see Star Wars.

They do not have dedicated rulesets. Therefore people playing them on FG will either be using CoreRPG or MoreCore.

 

[Hussar]

The players handbook is 68 out of all books on Amazon right now. The GIFT set is 498.

a couple days ago it broke the 40s.

it is growing.

That is freaking INSANE. A five year old book, never minding RPG book, that has sat in the top 100 for five straight years? Incredible.

There's one thing about it, there will not be even a whisper of 6e until we see the PHB drop out of the top 1000.

/snip

Roll20 shows more 4E players than AD&D 1&2 combined, while FG shows way more AD&D players than 4E players. Probably because Roll20 has better 4E oriented assets than FG. And neither matches the top 10 of current sales.

Age of the platform might matter as well. Fantasy Grounds has been around a lot longer than Roll20. Lots of users got into it in the 3e days, and you'd have a fair chunk of AD&D users at that time as well. Roll20 didn't really come out until well into 4e time, so, it's likely going to reflect the player base at that time.