ICv2 Fall/Winter 2014 Hobby Game Rankings: D&D Up To #1

ICv2 has released its quarterly hobby game rankings. No surprises here - Dungeons & Dragons has taken the top spot back after several years at #2, as expected, though how long it can hold it without an aggressive release schedule remains to be seen. Pathfinder follows at #2, and Numenera, Fate, and Star Wars all make showings in the top 5. As always, the charts are based on interviews with retailers, distributors, and manufacturers. This is for Fall/Winter 2014.

1	Dungeons & Dragons	Wizards of the Coast
2	Pathfinder	Paizo Publishing
3	Star Wars	Fantasy Flight Games
4	Numenara	Monte Cook Games
5	Fate	Evil Hat Games

You can see the list on iCv2. And check out the historical compilation here.

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[TrippyHippy]

There's nothing wrong with cunning marketing ploys.

I didn’t say there was…although if I did feel compelled somehow to buying all three core rule books, for whatever reason, I’d be paying three times as much for a lot of duplicate rules…

 

[Staffan]

All of which is true, although I would beg the question as to how WEG managed to include all those things in one core rulebook, while still feeling like it had provided more source material in it’s page count that was less than a third of the three FFG SW corebooks put together?

WEG's core books were focusing pretty heavily on the rebel side of things, and made it rather hard to play a jedi or jedi wannabe - you had to give up one to three (out of eighteen) starting ability score dice in order to start with Force skills, using a lightsaber as a starting character was nigh impossible (because of the base difficulty of 20 in using it), and in order to advance your Force skills you needed a trainer - which, of course, were in short supply in the era of the original movies.

Of course, you could run a lowlifes campaign using WEG, but the core books had rather little support specifically for that angle. But there's nothing stopping you from playing rebels using the Edge of the Empire book, just like there's nothing stopping you from playing smugglers using the WEG core book.

And of course, FFG's Star Wars has a lot more mechanical weight than WEG. WEG basically just had skills as a mechanical thing for PCs, whereas FFG also has talents which take up quite a lot of space, plus more detailed combat rules, rules for minion groups, fluffier layout, more art, and so on and so forth.

 

[AmerginLiath]

While D&D has the three Core books out, that doesn't mean that this next quarter will be a drop; lots of folks who will buy them haven't done so yet. Think of folks joining up at tables and picking up PHBs or those fans of the rules who merely haven't gotten the books yet for time and/or money reasons (I'm one of those myself). Plus, once colleges start winding down and kids get home, you're going to see new purchases as games reconstitute there. With WOTC working to keep D&D in the zeitgeist in 2015, I could see a few quarters of continued top-tier purchases at the head of the chart just off the Core Ruleset (and Starter Box).

 

[Shasarak]

I wanna know how the heck they released a Star Wars RPG with no Jedi rules and there wasn't rioting in the streets!

Probably because everyone is still trying to figure out what all the funny dice mean.

 

[exile]

I really like the way FFG split up the Star Wars rules. In the last few years, I have played in both Star Wars Saga and Edge of Empire games. While both were fun, in the Saga game, all of the non-force users were completely outclassed by the force users (as is thematically appropriate). The Edge of Empire game still felt very much like Star Wars, but none of our characters were force users.

Besides, with D&D's limited release schedule, I have money to spend on three core rulebooks for Star Wars. ;-)

 

[Queer Venger]

[H][/H]

As a World of Darkness fan, I think these numbers are incomplete as they don't factor in the work that Onyx Path is doing.

Onyx Path Publishing is print on demand, so it would not be reflected on this chart as they have no presence in FLGS or other online retailers except for drive through. Also, they are primarily kickstarter based, not traditional publishing model. This is one of my issues with OPP, they seem to not want a store presence based on the model they currently use, thereby not attracting new players.

 

[TrippyHippy]

[H][/H]
Onyx Path Publishing is print on demand, so it would not be reflected on this chart as they have no presence in FLGS or other online retailers except for drive through. Also, they are primarily kickstarter based, not traditional publishing model. This is one of my issues with OPP, they seem to not want a store presence based on the model they currently use, thereby not attracting new players.

It’s true that they are no longer aiming anything at the retail market. However, in the markets they do participate in they are arguably the leaders - in Kickstarter, for example, they’ve quite possibly sold in excess of $3million in the last few years. Moreover, there aren’t actually that many specialist RPG outlets anymore.

 

[Uchawi]

It would be interesting to see if any RPG has gained in the market place, versus two or three predominant RPGs just re-cycling the same customers. At that point who is first just reflects who has new stuff.

 

[Queer Venger]

It’s true that they are no longer aiming anything at the retail market. However, in the markets they do participate in they are arguably the leaders - in Kickstarter, for example, they’ve quite possibly sold in excess of $3million in the last few years. Moreover, there aren’t actually that many specialist RPG outlets anymore.

No doubt. And I play their games extensively. But almost everytime I am approached by a player saying that they thought White Wolf went under and didnt know they had new editions of their games. I show them my shiny new Mummy the Cursed and they ask where I got it: kickstarter. They cant go to the store to buy this. Some players want to purchase something right away, not order a POD that takes 2-3 weeks to print and ship.

 

[Morrus]

Some players want to purchase something right away, not order a POD that takes 2-3 weeks to print and ship.

Patience is a virtue. Sometimes people can't immediately have what they want. And that's OK.