Upcoming RPGs 2024: 14 tabletop roleplaying games you should play this year
Discover new worlds and tell new stories.
A new year could provide the opportunity for you to try out some exciting upcoming RPGs that are set to be released over the next 12 months.
If you haven’t had much experience playing any tabletop roleplaying games, 2024 may be the year you try something you’ve never done before. Considering the scores of tabletop RPGs that are slated for release this year, at least a few of them are bound to spark some interest. Whether you’re waiting for the next edition of your favourite TRPG or you’re looking to start playing another series - looking ahead can prepare you for what is to come
Best upcoming RPGs
- Dungeons & Dragons (2024)
- King Arthur Pendragon 6E
- Daggerheart
- Stormlight Archive RPG
- Wilderfeast
- Break!!
- Triangle Agency
- Through the Hedgerow
- Eat the Reich
- Shadow Scar
- The Hidden Isle
- Jukebox: The Karaoke Musical TTRPG
- Stonetop
- Shadow of the Weird Wizard
This list features a variety of tabletop roleplaying games, each with their own collection of gameplay mechanics and themes for you to delve into. From epic dives into fantasy, to strange sci-fi and more laid-back approaches: there are varied worlds waiting to be explored this year. Get ready to embark on some incredible adventures with the most exciting upcoming RPGs set to launch in 2024.
1. Dungeons & Dragons (2024)
The next version of the most-played tabletop RPG in the world finally arrives
The next version of Dungeons & Dragons is finally arriving this year. It’s been a long time coming, considering that D&D 5E released 10 years ago, but the newest iteration of the fantasy tabletop roleplaying game should be released in 2024, though there’s no confirmation as to when that will be exactly - with a recent leaked release date confirmed to be false.
Originally coined One D&D, the upcoming RPG doesn’t yet have a set name but could possibly be the last major version of the roleplaying game, with future content arriving via smaller updates. There aren’t expected to be any significant changes to the Dungeons & Dragons formula, though its publisher, Wizards of the Coast, has been unveiling the various potential alterations through playtest documents released to the public. As these are just playtest materials, nothing is confirmed to be in the new version until it’s fully published.
However, possible changes featured in the new TRPG could include removing playable species like half-elves and half-orcs, granting every first level character a feat, regardless of class, adding something called Weapon Mastery and enabling certain classes to swap out spells more easily. The most changes could definitely be felt in how D&D’s plethora of classes work, with the series of playtests giving players the option to try - sometimes - heavily revised versions of the classes they know and love.
Alongside the new iteration of the tabletop roleplaying game will be a “digital D&D play experience” that will possibly offer a virtual tabletop-esque platform, similar to Roll20, to play Dungeons & Dragons on as an alternative to in-person roleplaying.
Whilst there are still many unknowns about the newest version of D&D, we do know that it will be the most important tabletop roleplaying game released this year.
2. King Arthur Pendragon 6E
Become a knight of Camelot and explore an alternate take on the Arthurian Legends
King Arthur Pendragon is a RPG series that began life as a TRPG built on the same gameplay system as RuneQuest - the Basic Roleplaying system. Since then, it’s evolved into a beloved fantasy roleplaying game in its own right, offering a more philosophical and politically-focused alternative to the more traditional hack-and-slash style TRPGs.
The next iteration of King Arthur Pendragon will be its sixth edition and is being heralded as the “ultimate edition” of the roleplaying game. Chaosium, the publisher responsible for releasing the fantasy series, revealed that the title’s co-designer, Greg Stafford, had begun work on a revised version of Pendragon ten years ago before passing in 2018. Since then, the ruleset has gone through multiple stages of development including “subtle modifications reflecting the culmination of nearly three decades of refinement.”
Whilst the finalised version of the edition is yet to be released, several free quick-start scenarios for the RPG such as The Adventure of the Sword Tournament and The Adventure of the Great Hunt have been made available for players to get a feel of the game ahead of its official launch. Regardless of the changes, the soul of Pendragon is expected to remain - which is allowing players to roleplay as complex characters attempting to navigate a mediaeval world filled with difficult decisions.
If you’re itching for the latest take on the Arthurian Legends or you just want a high-fantasy tabletop roleplaying alternative to Dungeons & Dragons, be sure to keep your eyes peeled for the King Arthur Pendragon 6E.
3. Daggerheart
A fantasy roleplaying game from Critical Role publisher Darrington Press
Darrington Press is a studio that is intrinsically connected to the popular actual play series Critical Role - with its cast members involved in its founding and it becoming the primary publisher of Critical Role themed games. As well as Critical Role licensed titles, Darrington is also releasing several tabletop roleplaying games, including the horror RPG Candela Obscura and upcoming roleplaying game Daggerheart.
From the creator of Alice is Missing, Spenser Starke, Daggerheart looks to be a fantasy RPG that focuses on collaborative storytelling and accessibility first-and-foremost. The title will be launched as a sort of RPG in a box - with players getting various accessories alongside the game’s rulebook, all of which are intrinsically tied to how Daggerheart works. Players use cards as well as dice to create their characters and play the game, as well as a collection of modifier tokens designed to help keep track of events and changes.
The upcoming RPG is intended to be very accessible to less-experienced players, with the collection of tools offering people guidance on making and playing their characters. Whilst it’ll certainly be appealing to fans of Critical Role, considering the pedigree involved in its creation, Daggerheart isn’t set within the world of the actual play and doesn’t require players to have watched the series. Instead, the setting appears to be largely flexible - with players free to implement their own worlds onto the gameplay system if they want.
Starke has stated that the goal of Daggerheart is to ensure that players wont need to leaf through the game’s rulebook to do things like level-up, instead using the game’s detailed character sheets and cards to find that information. If you’re a fan of Critical Role but find Dungeons & Dragons too intimidating, then Daggerheart might just be the RPG for you.
4. Stormlight Archive RPG
Brandon Sanderson’s book series gets its own roleplaying adaptation
The Stormlight Archive is a series of fantasy books written by lucrative author Brandon Sanderson. Currently on its fourth book, with several more in the works, the franchise takes place in a shared Cosmere universe on the planet of Roshar - wherein a group of people find themselves connected when they unlock extraordinary powers by bonding with otherworldly beings called Spren. The series is epic, featuring huge amounts of detailed worldbuilding that seem ripe for adaptation into a tabletop RPG.
2024 looks to be the year when this finally happens as a Stormlight Archive TRPG is set to be released by Brotherwise Games and Dragonsteel Entertainment. The upcoming roleplaying game will enable players to create their own characters within the world of Roshar, before taking them through their own personal narratives. The Stormlight Archive RPG will be based on the d20 gameplay system, with players rolling a d20 die before adding any modifying numbers to the result, whenever they attempt to overcome challenges.
On top of this, the system will feature a “plot die” that will affect any events wherein a character is attempting to perform an especially dangerous feat or there’s a lot of potential for drama to occur. The outcome of the plot die is intended to open new opportunities or create complications for players to manage.
When creating their character, players will be able to choose from a variety of classes and use a magic system that involves surgebinding - the abilities that characters from the original book series use. Players can select from 10 different Orders of Knights Radiant, each of which grant their initiates unique abilities depending on the types of Spren they choose to bond with. Characters can also join factions such as the Artifabrians, Assassins and Shardbearers.
Lovers of The Stormlight Archive series should not miss this upcoming RPG adaptation.
5. Wilderfeast
Grab your lunch by battling gigantic creatures in this Monster Hunter-esque TRPG
Though there’s not an official Monster Hunter tabletop RPG out there, yet!, Wilderfeast offers fans of the series the next best thing. The upcoming roleplaying game sees players stalking and defeating enormous monsters, all in service of securing themselves a delicious meal. As in Monster Hunter, these creatures won’t go down easy meaning that players will have to carefully plan and execute their hunt.
Wilderfeast’s One Land is home to an entire ecosystem of huge wildlife who will put up a serious fight against anyone stupid enough to go toe-to-toe with them. The players’ party happens to be the right level of brave, and dumb, to take these monsters on - using their various kitchen utensils and existing pantry of foods to power them. Characters will get different buffs depending upon what they consume before a hunt, with each monster presenting their own unique challenge.
If successful, players can harvest their prey in a variety of ways - from cooking meals to crafting equipment. Alongside tracking and fighting monsters, players are free to explore the world using a pool of d6 dice which they’ll apply to different situations and approaches depending on what their character chooses to do. During combat, players will each have three actions on their turn: with the option to attack with both melee and ranged weapons, as well as doing things like taunting their enemy.
To balance the effect the party’s hunting has on the environment, players will also be encouraged to feed and rehabilitate any monsters they encounter outside of combat - which offers a positive message of sustainability. Fans of the Monster Hunter series, Shadow of the Colossus and other stories wherein people fight gigantic creatures will surely enjoy Wilderfeast.
6. Break!!
A fantasy roleplaying game inspired by anime and classic Japanese RPGs
If you’re a fan of the likes of Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger and Dragon Quest, then Break!! is definitely a 2024 tabletop RPG you should be paying attention to. Inspired by classic Japanese JRPG video games and anime, Break!! has players exploring a world inhabited by all sorts of strange and wonderful people and creatures. From magical sages to raiders to princesses, the setting of Break!! is a paradise for players who love fantasy stories originating from Japan.
Built on a D20 gameplay system, Break!! sees players rolling a d20 die in order to roll under aptitude checks whenever they want their character to overcome a challenge. Ability modifiers are based on things like mighty, grit and insight, with every characters’ proficiency deriving from their chosen profession - which can include classes like heretics, champions and even murder princesses.
Along the way, the player characters will be encountering all sorts of creatures: like adorable little Pudge Grubs and even mountable animals such as the Chocobo-like Rokko-Do. Should they ever come across any aggressive creatures, they’ll engage in a simple combat system that sees both hits and damage being combined into a single roll. During fights, players will be able to move between battle zones, which will enable and disable certain actions and abilities.
Throughout their adventures, players can interact with a wide variety of different cultures and civilisations like the robotic Bio-Mechanoids and Rai-Neko - cat people - as well as classic fantasy species like dwarves, elves and goblins.
If you have a deep fondness for JRPG video games and anime, then Break!! could be your new favourite tabletop roleplaying game.
7. Triangle Agency
A satirical paranormal investigative TRPG inspired by Control and The X-Files
If your real-life job is failing to provide the thrills and chills you seek? Then why not apply to work for the Triangle Agency. In this horror roleplaying game, players become employees of a strange and exploitative company that offers investigative services to people plagued by paranormal goings-on. As members of the Triangle Agency, players are responsible for finding and solving the root of any weird events - all whilst attempting to survive the dangers they’ll encounter.
Triangle Agency is inspired by the likes of the 2019 video game Control, as well as classic science fiction show The X-Files and the online horror phenomenon of The SCP Foundation. The setting mixes corporate and capitalist satire with reality-bending horror to enable players to tell stories of attempting to find work/life balance whilst dealing with otherworldly threats. The RPG’s rulebook features several unreliable narrators who dispute each other’s contributions and promote their own perspectives.
As agents, players will be collaborating with the GM, or general manager, to tell stories about their various investigations. Along the way, they’ll be rolling a pool of d4s to decide the outcome of events - with threes counting as successes and everything else generating chaos resources for the GM to use. Every character has their own bonded Anomaly that grants them a roster of extraordinary powers they’ll need to use to tackle both the paranormal and more mundane aspects of their role.
Campaigns of Triangle Agency generally last around 10 to 15 sessions, with storylines focusing on the strange tension between capturing and containing strange entities and the drudgery of corporate employment. For a satirical twist on the paranormal investigative setting, take a deeper look at Triangle Agency.
8. Through the Hedgerow
Step into a world of Neil Gaiman and Phillip Pullman-esque dark fantasy
Through the Hedgerow is a dark fantasy RPG inspired by authors like Neil Gaiman - Coraline, The Sandman, Good Omens - and Phillip Pullman, who wrote the His Dark Materials series. The upcoming RPG has players becoming a Knight of the Briar Company, an ancient organisation duty-bound to protect humanity against sinister otherworldly forces. As a Champion of Light, players will need to work together against the agents of the Dark who seek to spread chaos and destruction across the land.
This battle will take place across the annals of British history: from the mediaeval Dark Ages to the societal upheaval of the 17th Century to the modernisation of the Industrial Revolution and the Second World War. Each era players explore will come with its own unique challenges, both from the dark forces players will be fighting and the natural chaos of human society. Players can control characters who are part of the strange Fay: magical creatures that can range from talking birds to animated scarecrows and friendly spiders, or a mortal who has found themselves spirited away from their own world and into that of the Knights of Briar Company.
When playing Through the Hedgerow, players will be using a Checks & Challenges gameplay system that has players collaborating to tell their story together. Using this system, wits, imagination, charm and mysticism are as essential to solving problems as any martial or combat-focused skill. In order to stave off the darkness, players will be searching for powerful artefacts, protecting important locations and generally outsmarting their enemies - who could be anyone from Fay lords, witch hunters, hags and a necromancer called Raven Margrave.
If you’re a fan of things like The Sandman, His Dark Materials, Legend of the Guardians and Alice in Wonderland, then Through the Hedgerow is an RPG that’s worth paying attention to.
9. Eat the Reich
Hunt down Hitler and his cronies across an alternate World War II
In this RPG you have one main mission - to drink all of Hitlers blood. You play as vampire commandos working together to carve a bloody path across occupied Paris in World War II. Although this version of Paris is totally made up, which means you can have action-packed sessions across iconic landmarks as well as whatever feels fun.
Characters are all pre-generated, meaning you can jump into a game instantly and cover everything from undead cowboys to demonologist socialites and a man who’s more bat than anything else. Games are intended to be quick, with a full campaign only taking three gloriously gory sessions to complete. Along the way you’ll be hunting fascists and feeding on their leaders to level up, dabbling in blood magic and other ways to bring your enemies to a creatively bloody end.
It looks to be fast to get to the table with fun, frantic action that’ll make you feel like a deadly vampire as a player, and a lively, freaky world to let loose on players if you want to run it. Eat the Reich comes from designer Grant Howitt who’s known for the likes of Honey Heist, Spire and Heart plus absolutely incredible art that sucks you into the comic-style universe of a weird war.
10. Shadow Scar
Fight against interdimensional monsters inspired by Japanese yokai
The studio behind the Cyberpunk and The Witcher RPGs - R Talesorian - are back with a brand new game about multiverse-hopping ninjas that shrugs off some of the crunch of previous titles in favour of jumping into the action quickly.
Shadow Scar sees you step into a high-fantasy setting inspired by 17th Century Japan as secret agents, tasked with stopping interdimensional monsters. It draws on yokai and other Japanese myths to pack its bestiary with weird and deadly foes that are now spread across multiple worlds after the Japanese goddess of death tore a rift in reality. As agents you need to track down and stop the demons in every dimension: from the Fifth Street noir setting of Great Depression America, with a meta presence that sees rain pour and music play like you’re in an old film, to the steampunk Steel Court that sees fantasy tech spur on the industrial revolution or the near future moon base of Refuge where humanity escaped after nuclear disaster.
With all this Shadow Scar combines strange tales from Japanese folklore with anime-style action and adventure. We don’t have an exact release date yet but can expect to jump from our universe into Shadow Scar sometime in 2024.
11. The Hidden Isle
Play cards to tell stories in this globetrotting roleplaying game
Set in an alternate 16th Century, this swashbuckling adventure sees you journey across Mediterranean seas, the Middle East and beyond in a story driven by tarot cards. You’ll be sneaking texts out from under oppressive regimes, using ancient magic to protect an island of outcasts and fighting to topple empires.
The Hidden Isle draws from the real world, taking you from London to Istanbul as you stop tortuous inquisitors and European colonists, and fantasy as you wield blood magic, open the mysteries of the stars and peer into the future. You play as an agent of Discordia, stepping into the middle of it all and trying to help those who need it. The classes are derived from classic fantasy tropes with swordsmen, occultists, sharpshooters and roguish scoundrels giving you a familiar footing as you step into a new adventure. Everything you do in the game is guided by tarot - character creation, skill checks, peering into the future, it’s determined by card draws instead of dice rolls.
And if you’re inclined to picking up pretty tarot decks, there’s one up for grabs alongside the RPG too. The art on the cards and throughout the book is truly breathtaking. Each piece has a lively, ornate style that draws you into the world instantly. So if you’re looking for the most beautiful adventure you can have in 2024, The Hidden Isle has to be it.
12. Jukebox: The Karaoke Musical TTRPG
Sing your heart out in front of your fellow players
Jukebox: The Karaoke Musical TTRPG does pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. A tabletop RPG that has players bursting into their favourite musical numbers and pop hits, in order to progress in a rules-light GMless story in the vein of jukebox musicals like Mamma Mia! or We Will Rock You.
What started as a module for D&D 5E has now grown into a three year labour of love for a full standalone experience wrapped in some really pretty broadway themed art in lush colours. If you’ve ever wondered what the musical episode of your long running campaign would be like, or if you’ll take any opportunity to force your friends to listen to you sing, then this game was essentially made for you. It promises a quick and easy learning experience that requires only bits you already have at home like paper, pencils, and laptop or phone - presumably to play your backing tunes.
For those who have always lusted for the spotlight, or are just massive fans of musicals and singing songs, Jukebox is crowdfunding toward the end of January but you can try out the ashcan version on jarofeyes.itch.io.
13. Stonetop
This slower fantasy TRPG sees players building their own village.
A lot of TTPRGs, especially those in fantasy settings, tend to focus on the game’s protagonists going on grand adventures - traipsing across the fantastical realm their game is set upon with new vistas and locales to gawp at almost every session. Players might stop in a town to help with their problems for a few weeks, or even spend an extended period in dungeons under the earth, but it’s rare for a game of this genre to have players root themselves in a single, small settlement for an entire campaign’s run time.
Stonetop describes itself as a “hearth fantasy” wherein players take the roles of protectors of a single, isolated village in an iron age-esque low fantasy setting. Community is the name of the game in Stonetop, focussing on the tight knit villagers of this small and quaint place beset by dangers from all sides and only prospering through continued collaboration. Stonetop itself has a playbook, much like the player characters, and will evolve and develop over time to show the progress of its civilisations and the scars of past traumas your players will have faced.
Built on a Powered by the Apocalypse gameplay system, Stonetop should be simple enough to learn for newer players but sounds as though it really rewards those that like to build the setting around them as they play. After already funding on Kickstarter, Stonetop is set to release this year and is available for pre-order right now.
14. Shadow of the Weird Wizard
A D&D-alternative with lighter gameplay mechanics and deep lore
If a brand new edition of D&D has you more worried than excited and you’re looking for a new system to fill a similar shaped hole on your game’s table then this new TTPRG from ex-D&D 5E designer Robert J Schwalb might tickle your fancy.
Using a similar D20 based system, D&D fans shouldn’t have too much trouble sliding over to Shadow of the Weird Wizard. Based on the hard as nails and dripping dark fantasy of Shadow of the Demon Lord, Schwalb’s previous title that he described tonally as Evil Dead meets Diablo, Weird Wizard looks to deliver a slightly lighter and more heroic tone to the tabletop. Fans of the mechanics from the former, but not necessarily the vibes, might be better placed with this new setting.
As far as the game goes from an outsider’s perspective, you can expect your standard fantasy fair with monsters, magic, and dungeons. The book contains what you might guess from an ex D&D developer: with numerous schools of magic, a full bestiary and equipment tables galore. If you’re looking for a game that delivers on what D&D attempts to bring to the table but from a slightly less monolithic developer, then Shadow of the Weird Wizard might be one to put on your radar for 2024.