Here Are Your Official Top 10 Most Anticipated Tabletop RPGs Of 2018

40 tabletop roleplaying games were nominated. 14,241 votes were cast by 5,446 voters. Now I can finally reveal which are the most anticipated tabletop roleplaying games for 2018! We have a colourful mixture of sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and more, with some returning franchises and some which are brand new to roleplaying!

Previous winners include 13th Age (2013), Star Wars Force & Destiny (2015), Rifts for Savage Worlds (2016), and Trudvang Chronicles (2017). Who will join their ranks this year? Read on to find out!



10. Numenera 2: Discovery and Destiny (Monte Cook Games)
Kickstarted earlier this year, this pair of books updates Monte Cook Games' wildly successful Numenera RPG from 2013. Set a billion years in the future, after civilisations have risen and fallen, these two books replace the core rulebook and add new worldbuilding tools.

9. Legend of the Five Rings 5th Edition (Fantasy Flight Games)
Announced in 2015, the fifth edition of this RPG is in open beta testing. Set in a fictional world based on feudal Japan, this game was created by Alderac Entertainment Group in the 1990s and has gone through various iterations since. The setting is also the focus of a collectible card game, and has been a Dungeons & Dragons setting. The players take on the role of samurai who act as warriors, courtiers, priests, or monks.

8. The Expanse (Green Ronin Publishing)
Based on James SA Corey's popular novel series, which spawned a successful TV show, The Expanse is a hard-sci game powered by Green Ronin's existing Adventure Game Engine (AGE) ruleset.

7. Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory (Ulisses North America)
Not Warhammer's only entry in this list, this dark, 41st-century sci-fi game allows characters to adventure in the Dark Imperium. Brutal, immersive, and beset by endless war, this game will be brought to you by Ross Watson of Rogue Trader and Deathwatch fame.

6. The Witcher Roleplaying Game (R. Talsorian Games)
The Witcher is a Polish fantasy setting created by Andrzej Sapkowski, and which has spawned novels, a TV series, multiple video games, and now a tabletop roleplaying game! The series features a mutant assassin who hunts monsters, and the RPG will be powered by the same system as Cyberpunk 2020. Originally slated for a mid-2016 release, this one seems to be running late!

5. RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha (Chaosium)
This iconic game from Chaosium is the fourth, or seventh, edition of the game, depending on how you count it. Chaosium has gone with "RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha", building off the 1980 RuneQuest 2nd Edition ruleset. This iconic game was nearly as big as Dungeons & Dragons at one time.

4. Forbidden Lands: Retro Open-World Survival Fantasy RPG (Fria Ligan)
There's always a strong Scandinavian presence in these polls, probably because they produce some of the most beautiful roleplaying games in the world. This Swedish offering, from the team who brought us Tales from the Loop, and Mutant: Year Zero, lets you play raiders and rogues living in a cursed world. A gorgeous boxed set, rules for exploration and survival, and packed with art by legendary Swedish fantasy artists, this looks like a must-have.

3. Kult: Divinity Lost (Helmgast AB)
There's always a game which makes it into the list two years in a row (or, in Conan's case, three years). This year, it looks like it's Kult's turn! Another Swedish showing, and equally beautiful-looking, this horror game describes our world, trapped in an illusion, filled with nightmares, demons, and worse. This is a new edition of a game which launched 25 years ago!

2. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Fourth Edition (Cubicle 7)
Warhammer features twice in this list, which is a testament to the love that fans have for the iconic, venerable brand. Now set for release mid-2018, the system draws heavily on 1E and 2E. This grim world of perilous adventure launches with the core rules and a boxed starter set, and will also be accompanied by updated versions of classic campaigns like The Enemy Within.

1. Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition (White Wolf)
White Wolf is revisiting Vampire: The Masquerade with a bang! Announced earlier this year, the 5th edition is being spearheaded by veteran RPG designer Kenneth Hite. V:tM burst onto the scene back in 1991, and allowed players to adopt the role of vampires in a gothic, modern world, and went on to give us the entire World of Darkness setting, which featured companion games starring werewolves, mages, and more. And now, in 2018, it's coming back, and is officially the most anticipated tabletop roleplaying of the year!

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[TrippyHippy]

I had the opposite thought... I have whole floor-to-ceiling bookshelves of WoD stuff, but I'm actually NOT anticipating VtM 5. Everything they've put out so far indicates that it's going to be an Edgelord LARPer disaster that mostly serves to highlight how much better Requiem 2nd is.

I assumed most of the people voting for it are people who haven't been following the development. It's hard for me to imagine someone looking at the Pre-Alpha or documentary trailer and being like, "Oh yeah, this is in good hands."

(For what it's worth, I hope I'm wrong.)

I have been following the development and it's still something I'm anticipating as a good thing for gamers, generally.

I can relate to the jaded aspect in how you feel though, having followed Vampire for the last 25 years or so. I'm not entirely sold on the Alpha playtest, mechanically, as of yet but they may still make changes (they made a fair amount of changes from Beta to Alpha already). There are some aspects of Vampire: The Requiem coming into the system (the personality Virtue/Vice mechanics for example), but making comparisons between the two smacks a bit like edition warring in a way and, regardless, Vampire: The Requiem still exists as an Onyx Path game anyway. Ultimately, however, it's simply not as seminal or as popular a game as Vampire: The Masquerade is though.

For me, as someone who is also a teeny bit jaded, I'm just going to wait and see when it gets released. I am excited by the potential of a new audience, considering the expressed intent to make the game more accessible through slimmer core books (rather than the biblically proportioned, thick, bricks that have been released for the various 20th Anniversary editions).

 

[PMárk]

Ultimately, however, it's simply not as seminal or as popular a game as Vampire: The Masquerade is though.

That's the most important thing, IMO.

Also, some people's "edgelord" is another's "WoD as intended". Also-also, while the people disgruntled with it were very vocal on several sites, I think the majority of WoD fans are at least partially okay with the direction, even if critical with other parts and/or just happy to see things on WW's part getting into motion and the suspect of WoD reclaiming the place it held for so long.

Naturally, the Requiem crowd won't like it anyway, but they didn't like it from essentially day one, since WW announced that they will roll with VtM. However, it's a much smaller crowd, especially worldwide.

 

[TrippyHippy]

I think, given a few years from now, the whole 'Classic WoD vs NWoD/CoD' thing will fade away anyway.

If we are honest, the Chronicles of Darkness line is running a bit thin these days, with titles like Beast and Deviant really stretching it out. The Onyx Path will probably put more focus on game lines it actually owns, like The Trinity Continuum and Scion, while White Wolf have indicated that they are only really interested in the Classic titles building into "One World of Darkness". This doesn't mean they can't incorporate a lot of the ideas from CoD games though - indeed, I think this will be half the point.

 

[PMárk]

Yeah, I'm curious about how Onyx Path will fair in this, since, let's face it, CofD has a very dedicated fanbase, but OPP's main thing was the CWoD 20ths for a long time (basically, almost from the beginning). Okay, there were several personal hardships on the CofD side, but still, it shows just which sells better. I think they'll either ramp up the CofD line, which would be good for that fanbase (I think it's just not the best approach to putting out newer and newer whole splat games, while the amount of supplements for existing games is very, very low) and maybe putting out supplements for V5 if WW will be partner on that, or as you said, they'll focus on their owned properties.

 

[Simon Crafter]

With Mekton being 4 years behind schedule and Witcher being a year and a half behind schedule, I am a little surprised Witcher even made the list. Knowing R. Talsorian's track record, I doubt we will see Witcher in 2018 at all.

I need to take a look at the L5R beta. I love my 10k10. I'll keep an open mind but that is one thing I wanted them to keep around.

Numenera! Woot!

yeah def look into L5r i was quite dubious about FFG doing it but they seem to be listening to feed back and there are a few aspects that are awesome .

 

[Jennifer Fuss]

I assumed most of the people voting for it are people who haven't been following the development.

I find it a bit daring to basically assume that everyone who doesn't share your opinion and taste votes in, essentially, ignorance.

For and since the release I've been four times to the USA and once to Helsinki, with the focus of keeping up with Vampire: The Masquerade. I do got all English and German VtM print products of the V20 edition and a decent collection of the other x20 line (plus some more WoD/CofD).
I did watch not only the trailer but the actual documentary. I did play the Pre-Alpha Playtest once and ST'ed it four times. I ran the Alpha Playtest four times.
Next to that I do try to keep at the pulse of things, whether it's the Storytellers Vault, the WorldOfDarkness.com project or other ventures.

I am anticipating the release of the V5 eagerly, do think the IP is at White Wolf in sound hands and basically got my tickets for GenCon almost booked (I am waiting for the ticket release to maybe get a better room).

I do assume that there are other people like me, who actually followed the development, interacted with the material provided and thus are anticipating the V5.

 

[aramis erak]

This is somewhat of a confusion about system here. The website refers to the Fuzion system being used and mentions that this was the same system that powered Cyberpunk 2020. This is not true.

Cyberpunk 2020 used the Interlock system, based on Stat+Skill+D10 vs Target number. The Fuzion system came later, as an attempt to build a generic system that 'fused' together aspects of the Interlock system and the Hero system (which powered Champions). It uses either D10 or 3D6, and works a little different. There were a few game releases that used the Fusion system, including an edition of Champions and a 3rd edition of Cyberpunk (only released sometime into the 2000s).

I'm not sure what the final ruleset of The Witcher will look like.

Fuzion is a superset of Interlock. All the interlock games' core PC mechanics can be done within the Fuzion system ...
Several published Fuzion games were only not Interlock because the license says "Fuzion"...

Meanwhile, some others (Sengokyu) are almost to the point of Hero System Light.

 

[TrippyHippy]

Fuzion is a superset of Interlock. All the interlock games' core PC mechanics can be done within the Fuzion system ...
Several published Fuzion games were only not Interlock because the license says "Fuzion"...

Meanwhile, some others (Sengokyu) are almost to the point of Hero System Light.

Fuzion was written some years after Cyberpunk 2020 came out and while it is similar and clearly a development from it, they are not identical. There are conversion notes provided in v3 (Fuzion). The Fuzion system was meant to be adaptable for different games, sure, but I'm not sure that 'Interlock' was even coined as a term until Fuzion came out in any case. Cyberpunk 2020 (and 1st edition Cyberpunk) just had it's own system, that was given the 'Interlock system' name in retrospect.

 

[Morrus]

I'm surprised with these results too and very surprised as well that Empyrea came out with a big splash but at the end it isn't in the list of 2018 products.

It's a setting, not a standalone roleplaying game.

 

[Akodoken]

yeah def look into L5r i was quite dubious about FFG doing it but they seem to be listening to feed back and there are a few aspects that are awesome .

Good to know. Thank you for the heads up.