MUST Play RPG's in 2024 

Dragonbane is absolutely great, not just because of it's art. It's by no means revolutionary but maaaan does it have just a boatload of little tweaks to common ttrpg mechanics that play so smoothly with each other. -Encumbrance genuinely matters and is simple enough that you don't just want to ignore it. -Equipment is treated almost as a secondary character progression track, every bit of gear you buy is super impactful and buying the good stuff is really worth it. -Darkness is actually scary. -The 1 action/reaction combat reeeeaally speeds up how long each individual turn takes, encourages teamwork to accomplish things and keeps players engaged. -The initiative and waiting systems introduce a gambling element to every strategic decision you make in combat that i just love. -The conditions along with the resting mechanics bring a much needed semi-long-term way to show that the characters are growing weary without necessarily forcing them to take a long rest after just 15min of adventuring. -Being a level-less system your monsters will ALWAYS feel threatening, which sets a really nice tone for the entire game and encourages non-combat resolutions or even fleeing. -WP being a universal resource allows for some looser design limitations for abilities and magic items, no more "once per long rest" abilities to keep track of is soooo nice. -It being a roll-under system as opposed to roll-over-with-DC means there's way less mental load on me as the DM and players always have a good understanding of how likely they are to succeed, plus not having to do any actual math for regular rolls makes my smooth little brain very happy. -The monster design is just so elegant. Minimal little boxes for the stats and then about 3-6 unique attacks that make sure your fights never become just a back and forth slog. NPC fights a bit less so but then again those fights are over so quickly that it never really becomes a problem, combat always stays quick and snappy. Things(including you) can die in like 2 hits a lot of the time. Now, are there faults? Ofc. The book is a bit of a mess when it comes to how it's organized it's rules and you'll sometimes find pivotal information about how some mechanics work in the section of an entirely different mechanic. First example i can think of is how in order to take a Shift Rest(long rest) while outside of a town you need to succeed on a roll against Bushcraft in order to gain any benefits of the rest at all as that roll determines how well you set up your sleeping spot and how well you actually managed to rest. This is not, as one would suspect, in the Resting rules. It's instead in the Camping rules nestled at the very back of the book... Once you've actually gotten a grasp of all the rules however, they play so so well together! I would also say that it's probably best played in shorter bursts with a recurring cast of characters rather than a full long campaign. Not saying it CAN'T be played long-form, just that it feels like it's best played short-form. A Westmarch style campaign would be absolutely perfect, that's actually kinda how the accompanying adventure book in the starter set is structured. Short unrelated treks into the wilderness around a central hub-town.

Saying you'd buy someone's used toilet paper is a good way to start an objective breakdown of that persons product. So to clarify Dragonbane doesn't have "classes". It's a skill based game. These "classes" are actually just "professions" and they basically explain what your character did before they started adventuring. This game doesn't lock you out of anything.

03:25 - Yikes.. no way, no thanks. 03:45 - If you are waiting like 20 mins for your turn and are bored in the meantime, it sounds like either your DM sucks or the system sucks and it really has nothing to do with the potential to miss your attack roll, crunchy modern systems make combat take too long, thats bad. MCDM sounds pretty bad so far. What a lot of modern TTRPGs, and other games in general, forget is that when you design to smooth out the "rough" parts too much, you sometimes end up losing some things that added to the experience. Turns out that Torches and rations and hex crawling actually mattered in D&D, turns out that emergeant sandbox story was actually a good thing instead of rail roading modules, it turns out that danger and dying was good for the game, and it wouldnt surprise me if half the stuff MCDM is going to get rid of is actually not a good to remove (like missing). Also... I'd suggest checking out Dolmenwood for 2024, looks dope.

Always a delight to see you post bro! and as a swede i appriciate the free legaue rep. I feel you on the part of wanting to be real with expectations of how many new games i am able to play. I have so many i wanna play but realistically i might be able to get a few oneshots of the grounds besides my regular games. My new years resolution was to atleast sucessfully run a mini campaign or oneshot in a brand new system for me. Which probably will be Household the rpg which i have ready materials in the book with ready modules,but I am also super interested in wilderfeast if they get out the full ruleset 2024, the minicampaign we played with the quickstart was an absolute blast. I know my players are also eying Good society for some good dramaaaa so w emight be able to squeeze in some regency era politics during a dead week or two. Also, i am so happy to see someone mention fellowshipm man I wanna play that so badly.

Great list. I hadn't heard of Urban Shadows, and it sounds dope. Thank you for bringing it to my attension. Have a great time rping in 2024.

One system im keeping an eye on for 2024 is Legend in the Mist RPG it describes itself as a RPG system with no stats. Apparently you instead will use descriptor tags to influence both player Roleplay and Game Master narration. So how I understand it you announce a tag and how it would aid in a situation you get a bonus to your roll. and as your character progresses through a story they tags can evolve or gain new one or even lose some. example if your character has the bold tag. And is trying to stand up to someone you announce you have the bold tag and GM says you get a +2 or something same with magic apparently, so spells can have tags like, Touch, Fire, Minor. So its a minor fire damage touch spell. (Im not positive if either of these is how it works but thats how i understood it from how little is out right now as it preps for Kickstarter) It’s apparently for more cinematic roleplaying games which I adore so much over gritty numbers and stat games. for me to enjoy a system with stats, they need to by simple to grasp and work fast.

Your content is so freaking good G! Glad to see another drop!

Love this video we all have pressure to try a thousend new games, to be honest this year I just wanna keep playing basic dnd and dungeon world and maybe check out lancer

Asa counter point for the MCDM game there are tons of ways to make your turn matter that doesn't mean ditching the to hit roll. Simply dialing back the modifiersand health of hit points a lot, but the main reason I'm against it is how much drama it will take out of a game. If all you want to do is make sure everyone canfeel like they are acomplishing something add more possible compbat options (Which it does sound like they are doing) and don't run a game that is dependant upon it. I've been in too many games where the drama of being able to just hit the bad guy when you need to or in a right way added a ton to the enjoyment of the combat to simply take it out. All that being said, it does come down to preferance and play style. :)

One game on my list for 2024 is Fabula Ultima. If you like PBtA-ish style, narrative-centric games, relatively quick, but still tactical combat, and JRPGs, this is a great game to create those kinds of stories about a ragtag group of heroes saving the world. Character creation is like creating your own custom PBtA playbook from a list of jobs. The game uses checks with two dice allocated to any of your four stats against an established DC. Everyone in the group has a hand in creating the world, so they all feel intrinsically connected to it. The game also uses Bonds like Dungeon World, but to greater effect, in my opinion. Players are encouraged to form bonds between their characters, and even with NPCs, which can be invoked to have certain effects during the session. Oh, and... Levels start at 5 and end at 50. It is an inherently high fantasy game, but it feels perfect for long-term epic campaigns.

I know one that has interested me is Mage Hunter, which is a randomless TTRPG where you have action points and you spend it towards performing actions. Which is a concept that I've thought about for a while - except instead, what I'd do is a pool of tokens that the party draws from, and those tokens are Fail, Pass tokens. BUt when you spend the token, it goes the Storyteller to then use. So, if you want to make sure you pass x task, you have to give him a pass token, which he can then use to make sure one of his NPCs passes. It's a rough idea in my head, nothing concrete, but I like the possible application of it

My group is currently playing Dragonbane and it is great fun. Nothing really game changing about it, but just a good solid game. Last session my character almost died fighting a giant lava filled robot and it was awesome.

I can't blame you for being excited for dragonbane, I bought vasen just for the art. I'm looking foward to getting a play group together for Starfinder this year myself.

I hope you get to play the games you have listed, good times must be haved in order to survive the week ahead! Corny comment aside here's what i hope to play as soon as possible. Avatar Legends, my first pbta game and i haven't bee able to play it yet, despite having it for over 6 months now. 😅 Tiny Taverns, it looks cute as heck. EZD6, i was supposed to run this game for one of my groups, but life happened.

Have you checked out Urban Modern Fantasy? (It's based on DW and it set in modern times) and it has many of the same things. Werewolves, Vamps and all sorts of neat stuff. I happen to have a copy of Fellowship 2E. Don’t ask when I ordered cause I 100% did not order it after watching this video (You would be wrong I ordered it while you were talking about it). YOU DON’T KNOW ME!?!? I also got Morkborg also. Maybe once you are done with yours I can hook you up. Thanks for making content for us. You rock my socks!

I’ve played Fellowship as both Hero and Overlord and it’s really fun! Overlord is really fun in particular, you’ll love it. On Dragonbane, after playing it honestly it just reminded me of marginally better 5e. I had a lot of the same problems with Dragonbane as with 5e (rolls feeling arbitrary, few procedures for not combat, combat being kinda boring). Good luck getting your list done! I’m mostly here to play D&D 4e this year, maybe run Forbidden Lands but in Torchbearer if I luck out.

Very nice

Coriolis is the game Im gonna play. Interesting to see how the new version differs from the old

I think my group is only playing basic roleplaying (call of cthulu) this year. It's our groups go to. One of the members of our group might run brindlewood bay though, its a pbta game, and the theme is funny.

For me, im super excited to play ;otherscape! Cyberpunk with optional magic! AND its pbta game/City of mist creators!

3:50 no, what sucks is the player who isn’t paying attention to the other PC actions when it is not his or her “turn” sucks. That shows a lack of engagement and a selfishness on the part of the player. That is the kind of player who has to be reminded when it is his turn. What a player should be doing is pay attention when it isn’t his “turn” and be ready to modify his actions to address what has occurred during the round thus far. On rare occasions when I had a player not know it was his turn, or know what his character was going to do, he got pushed back to the end of the initiative order or if last already spent that round being “indecisive” losing his turn.

Forbidden Lands is brutal, but it takes a while for players to realize it. It EXHAUSTS you, fail a camp roll? You lose some stats. Fail a check crossing a stream? Lose some stats. Fight a minor threat? Lose some stats. Oh, time for a big battle! Oh...your stats suck now. Also: when rolling a 1 is really bad and you roll a TON of D6s for every check...yeah lose some stats or have a crit fumble.

Oh man I miss my game of urban shadows, really wanted to see what would happen in the next session and the game fell apart because of scheduling issues 😢

Check out Pirate Borg. A very slick version of the MB system. Vaguely Historical, vaguely supernatural.

I’ll run Fellowship for you

Yes, please. No more. “My turn? Cool! I use my ultimate spleen ventilation strike… I miss. Okay see you in 20 minutes.”

Dragonbane FREEKING RULES!! BY THE WAY!!! If you're going to play Dragonbane, my PRO TIP: - Buy a deck of playing cards, remove the Jokers, kings and queens, then number each Suit. (example All Spades are 1, all Hearts are 2, Clubs are 3, Diamonds 4) - Use them as initiative cards instead. Once you start playing, you'll figure out why this is a pro tip. You're welcome, bro!

You could add Death In Space and Pirate Borg to your list.

The thing (well, two things) that got me to play D&D in 2024 were Baldur's Gate 3 and that I got an invite into a D&D game with folks I haven't gamed with in over 12 years. At first, I was really reticent about not playing D&D, but i haven't gamed with a group in months and I wanted to try playing as a warlock (thanks to playing as Wyll from BG3). Even though it's not my game of choice and this group only plays D&D 5e, they're serious about it and play campaigns. Consistency and longevity matter big-time in this hobby.

Wait…you’re not my dad?

Excited for PF2E supplements this year, notably the Wild book and the remaining remaster. I think MCDM looks interesting but I ultimately think the changes to the attack resolution being one roll will end up having a lot of actual play issues long term. It's not the first system to move toward a one roll resolution, (famously chronicles of darkness did this, though its resolution was simplifying the damage as opposed to the 'to hit'). It comes with balance and staleness issues, and ultimately results in a system with fewer hooks for you to add mechanics onto. If they can pull it off, awesome, but I won't hold my breath. I think the waiting 20 minutes for your turn and missing tends to be more an issue with 5e than anything else, because turns take SO LONG. PF2E, but actually a whole lot of other games (including even dnd 4e) just had faster turns for experienced parties I found/find, and turns resolve a lot quicker. A combat in pf2e might still take 3-4 turns like it does in 5e but the same combat will resolve in half the time (even faster due to not being overbloated with bosses having legendary actions, mythic actions, lair actions, or all the other actions MCDM themselves introduced in their Flee Mortals book). Beyond the fantasy trope, Urban Shadows looks *really* good, and I'm very excited to try it.

Forbidden Lands and Dragonbane are two of the best games out there.

DC20!

Bump

Took 6 weeks for me to get my stuff from free league, but when stuff could not be tracked they refunded me the items that were out of stock and when it arrived 2 days later (it was being shipped from sweden to be fair) I notified them so they wouldn’t ship me a second box. They let me keep the items that had been refunded without any issues. Their customer support is top notch.

Dragonbane is indirectly based on RuneQuest, which is what drakkar and demonar was based on. It's a good enough system but if you don't like missing your skill or attack roll then you won't like this.

I've tried a lot of PbtA games before and I think Urban Shadows isn't the best iteration of this system. I'd rather recommend Apocalypse Keys, which is an "unlicensed" Hellboy setting and shares some mechanics with Urban Shadows - but focuses on the investigative parts, monster drama, and co-op storytelling.