10 RPGs I am Excited for in 2024 (Patreon)

Working in ttrpgs has not dimmed my love for the form, but instead made me more aware of the breadth of amazing work being done in the space. Here's a roundup of 10 ttrpgs I am excited for in 2024. Most are releasing this year or are getting a crowdfunding campaign this year with a playable version.

1) Gubat Banwa - Southeast Asian Fantasy Tactics RPG - Lead designer: Joaquin Aavedra - GubatBanwa.com

This is an action-focused tactical fantasy RPG, but with its cultural influences firmly rooted in southeast Asia. The graphic design and art shown in the Kickstarter campaign was breathtaking and distinct, and while I don't tend to go to ttrpgs for tactical combat, I'm very excited to see what this team is bringing to the table and how it will be received. I don't get to play games in person very often, but I'd leap at the chance to try this one out with everyone around a table with minis and terrain and the whole shebang.  

2) Jukebox: The Karaoke Musical Tabletop Roleplaying Game - Creator: Lyla McBeath Fujiwara - Kickstarter campaign 

Currently on Kickstarter, Jukebox is described as "a rules-lite, no-game-master-required, roleplaying game for 3-4 players. Over three acts and four hours, you and your friends sing karaoke and create a musical story full of drama, passion, and spectacular showstoppers." As a former show-choir kid and musical theater fan, I was befuddled (positive) when I heard about this and backed the KS on the first day. 

3) Dusk - Spencer Campbell - Gila RPGs - Itch.io page

Dusk is a diceless science fiction action game about everyday people using incredible technology powered by the shards of a shattered sun to protect and rebuild their post-apocalyptic community. Dusk is set in the same world as Campbell's game NOVA, which is another action game but where you play as mech-suit-wearing heroes that face larger-than-life dangers. If NOVA is the 40k Space Marines, Dusk is more like the Imperial Guard. The basic rules for Dusk are already out, but Campbell is using a modular release system, with a stripped-down basic ruleset and then a variety of modular rules additions meant to be mixed and matched at the table's preference.

4) Luna - Spencer Campbell - Gila RPGs - Kickstarter page (forthcoming project)

Two Spencer Campbell games! Campbell is a prolific designer, and what's especially interesting to me about Dusk and Luna together is that they're in the same setting but using entirely different design traditions. Dusk is a Lumen 2.0 game, the second iteration of Campbell's power-fantasy action rpg system used in LIGHT and NOVA. But Campbell has said that LUNA is going to be a Sparked by Resistance game, derived from Rowan, Rook, and Decard's Spire: the City Must Fall and Heart: the City Beneath. In LUNA you play members of a lunar cult trying to undermine and sabotage a settlement of the sun-worshipers played in NOVA and Dusk. So in one of these games, you're explicitly playing the enemies of the protagonists in the other two games. I'm very curious to see how the shift in system changes the feel of that game compared to the Lumen 1.0/2.0 games NOVA and Dusk.

5) Case & Soul - Briar Sovereign - Itch.io 

Briar is the designer of the very cool science fantasy mech rpg Armor Astir, as seen in Friends at the Table's current season PALLISADE. Her lightweight Forged in the Dark game Case & Soul is getting a re-launch via itchfunding this March. Sovereign is a very thoughtful and innovative designer and I'm excited to see what they do next with the FitD design style.

6) Daggerheart - Lead Designer Spenser Starke - Darrington Press - Website 

Daggerheart is a forthcoming fantasy adventure rpg from Darrington Press (the game design house of Critical Role). I had the opportunity to play a one-shot with lead designer Spenser Starke at Pax Unplugged last month, and though the game is still in development, I've been excited about the game since I heard the first inklings about the specifics from GenCon last summer. Daggerheart (as of PAXU) is a story-forward player-driven ttrpg with a focus on collaboration and a very interesting 2d12 core mechanic where you roll a Hope die and a Fear die. You count the total of the dice +/- modifiers for success and then compare Hope to Fear to generate five possible results - Miss with Fear (worst), Miss with Hope (less bad), Success with Fear (mixed success), Success with Hope (full success), and, if the Hope & Fear dice match, a critical success. I immediately saw a lot of promise in Daggerheart and am excited for more to be shared publicly.

7) Exiles - Ema Acosta - Pocket Compass Co. Backerkit - Itch.io 

Called a “Feelings-delving RPG”, Exiles started as a playset/expansion for Acosta’s game Crescent Moon and became its own full-fledged "dark fantasy sister game". In Exiles, you play teens driven out of society to a place called The Below, a "folktale land carved out of patchwork nightmares and full of whimsical, grim creatures." I've read through the latest playkit and watched an Actual Play on the Fiction First Network and I'm very interested in getting a chance to play it myself. Latest word from Acosta's Discord server is that the game has changed even since the latest playkit, and I'm curious what that further iteration looks like. The version I've seen feels like an interesting melding of PbtA moves and FitD core mechanics. Updates on the crowdfunding campaign suggest backers may get the pdf in April.

8) Triangle Agency - Lead Designer Caleb Zane Huett - Haunted Table Games - Website

Triangle Agency is part of a wave of games drawing inspiration from Remedy's Control, the SCP collaborative fiction project, and other mundane/workplace horror stories. The team also cites Severance and X-Files as touchstones. The Kickstarter page for the game is stunning and like Gubat Banwa, this game has a strong visual style that is immediately clear. I loved Control and I continue to hear really positive things about this from their public Delta Test to podcast discussions like this one from Talk of the Table.

9) Deathmatch Island - Creator Tim Denee - Evil Hat Productions - Website 

This is a forthcoming game using the PARAGON system (derived from AGON 2e by John Harper and Sean Nittner). Deathmatch Island is a "fast-paced game about a deadly gameshow on a mysterious island chain. The competitors don’t know how they got here. They have been selected and recruited, forced to risk their lives in a deadly series of games for the vague promise of a big reward for the sole survivor." We're talking Battle Royale, Squid Game, Survivor, Hunger Games, etc. But this game has a strong satirical/critical angle, where the absurd cruelty is not unquestioned but can be faced directly by having your group band together instead of competing with one another. Denee does the graphic design of the game, and it's got an amazing retro technical manual kind of style. I backed this one and have skimmed the most recent pdf, but haven't gotten to play it just yet.

10) Urban Shadows 2e - Project Lead Mark Diaz Truman - Magpie Games - Kickstarter page

Urban Shadows 2e is my most anticipated game I've already played but is stuck (temporarily?) in development/production hell. Magpie Games has been growing in prominence through games like Masks: A New Generation and the ROOT ttrpg, but when they raised 10 million dollars for the Avatar Legends RPG (based on Avatar: the Last Airbender and Avatar: the Legend of Korra), the overwhelming success caught them off-guard, and they've struggled to keep their other balls in the air while fulfilling the juggernaut crowdfunder. I got to play an earlier draft a couple of years ago via Magpie's Discord, and really enjoyed the political urban fantasy vibe using the Powered by the Apocalypse style (Magpie's speciality). I'm keeping my fingers crossed that when finished, this will be my rules-light political urban fantasy go-to.


What ttprgs are you excited for this year? As we know, collecting ttrpgs and playing ttrpgs are two distinct, if intersecting, hobbies. ;)