Several high-profile tabletop role-playing games that have been in the works for years are scheduled to finally release in 2025, setting the stage for a year in which players and game masters will truly be spoiled for choice. As Wizards of the Coast wraps up its 50th anniversary, the rules are updated with the release of a new monster manualwill face competition from former collaborators including Darrington Press, Paizo and Critical Role's MCDM, as the fallout from Hasbro's attempted overhaul of the open gaming license continues years after the plan was abandoned.
Still, the pull of D&D remains powerful. While Wizards' publishing schedule is relatively light in 2025, with a large gap between the monster manual and an as-yet-unnamed adventure anthology due for release in the summer, outside editors continue to find new creative twists on the system. This year will offer Fifth Edition players the opportunity to hunt kaiju and delve into folk horror. Other new releases offer the opportunity to tell new stories in the worlds of two of the most beloved fantasy authors. Whatever you're looking for in a TTRPG, this alphabetical list offers a glimpse of the books we're most excited about.
Trevor Devall is publishing the gritty fantasy setting and skill-based system he developed over four seasons of real-world gaming on the TTRPG Me, Myself and Die! channel, culling mechanics from over 125 other games. The Broken Empires Role Playing Game promises to prioritize exploration and intrigue while offering a high level of flexibility for characters.
Image: Brotherwise Games and Dragonsteel Entertainment
Brandon Sanderson doesn't plan to return to the Stormlight Archive for another six years, but fans of the epic fantasy series will be able to have their own adventures in Roshar with the Cosmere RPG. The author worked closely with Brotherwise Games to develop a system that will begin there with an adventure that ties directly into his latest book, but the game promises to grow to include campaigns in Sanderson's Mistborn setting and the possibility of stories that move between worlds. .
Originally planned for release in 2024, The crooked moon was delayed until 2025 so Legends of Avantris could deliver a product worthy of its ambitions and $4 million Kickstarter campaign. The popular horror setting of Dungeons & Dragons 5e promises terrifying adventures, epic multi-stage boss fights, and twisted curses, while offering players many new species and spooky subclass options.
Critical roles dagger heart
Critical Role helped inspire a new generation of Dungeons & Dragons players, but now its Darrington Press imprint is releasing its own high fantasy role-playing game. While some early gamers think it's not distinctive enough, the dagger heart The open beta has hooked others with innovations like creating card-based characters and tracking both emotional stress and hit points. Changing the d20 to 2d12 also allows for more consistent player abilities, avoiding the frustration of failing too often.
draw steel (formerly MCDM RPG)
Image: MCDM
MCDM has created many excellent add-ons for D&D 5e, such as Flee, mortals! and Strengths and followersBut like so many third-party publishers, the company was rocked by the OGL fiasco. He has spent this time developing his own system, draw steel, which will focus on dynamic action, keeping fights moving quickly by bundling attack and damage into a single roll and granting resources to characters as they fight so fights become more intense as the rounds pass.
Wizards of the Coast will complete its overhaul of the D&D 5e core rulebooks in February with the release of its largest edition to date. monster manual. The book will feature over 90 new monsters along with hundreds of favorites that have been redesigned and rebalanced. It also promises to make things easier for DMs with a more intuitive organization system. The updated Dungeon Master's Guide and Player's Manual have helped propel the 50-year-old game forward, and hopefully their revamped dragons and owlbears will do the same.
Pathfinder Lost Omens: Rival Academies
Image: Paizo
Fans of magical school stories and anyone looking for inspiration for their next Pathfinder monk or wizard will want to continue. Pathfinder Lost Omens: Rival Academies when it comes out in March. Paizo has been doing a great job enriching its already complex setting with its Lost Omens series, and this promises to be a particularly fun entry, set in a meeting of six academies, each with its own specialty, from mad science to exploration of the fairy kingdoms. .
Ryoko's Guide to the Yokai Realms
Image: Loot Tavern
The highly anticipated sequel to Loot Tavern's D&D 5e book Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting, Ryoko's Guide to the Yokai Realms brings the publisher's dynamic crafting system and penchant for engaging in boss fights to a setting inspired by East Asian mythology and pop culture. Players will be able to hunt kaiju and learn to exploit their vulnerabilities, play a new class based on Avatar: The Last Airbenderand coordinate with your party members to unleash combined attacks.
Starfinder Player Core Second Edition
The Starfinder 2e playtest already seems like a huge accomplishment, thanks to its depth of character and monster options, creative changes to the world, and rich opening adventures, but it's actually designed to get feedback from players and game masters who They will shape the generation. With release of the Starfinder Player Core Second Edition and the books that come after. The rules of the scientific fantasy game have been made fully compatible with conqueror 2emaking it easy for groups of players to try to jump planets and deal with everything from political intrigue to cosmic horrors. You can still find the playtest materials right now, for free download online.
Terry Pratchett's Discworld Roleplaying Game: Adventures in Ankh-Morpork
Modiphius Entertainment has a great track record of high-profile TTRPG adaptations, including Dune: Adventures in the Empire and Fallout: the role-playing gameand is applying it to the irreverent world of Terry Pratchett's beloved fantasy series in Terry Pratchett's Discworld Roleplaying Game: Adventures in Ankh-Morpork. Instead of using Modiphius' signature 2d20 mechanic, the game employs a custom Narrativium system, keeping the mechanics simple so you can focus on making puns.