Welcome once again to this week’s tabletop RPG news with StartPlaying! The future is once again the topic here, as Hasbro aims to use the momentum of Baldur’s Gate 3 to direct the future of Dungeons & Dragons. Meanwhile, not-D&D systems made a great showing at Gen Con, while a certain video game franchise sets its sights on the TTRPG industry.
Around 70% Of Gen Con Event Tickets Were For Non-D&D Games
Gen Con is perhaps the biggest tabletop convention of the year, and as such is a great time to try games new and old. There are special previews of upcoming TTRPG systems as well as chances to finally find players for that indie system your friends refuse to learn. Many of these playtime slots are sold as event tickets. Due to this, we are able to see data on just how many people were playing a given system.
As the above table shows, 10,011 of the 33,745 tickets sold were for D&D events. This includes all editions, although 5E brought in the most with 8,963. It’s the largest number by far and takes up a sizable amount of the space with 29.7% of players. Pathfinder came in second with 2,486 and Dungeon Crawl Classics third with 1,184, then everything else comes in at less than 1,000. However, 35.1% of ticket buyers wanted to play “Other RPGs.” It goes to show that there is a wide range of interest in TTRPGs, but D&D is still the dominant single system.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Success Bolsters Hasbro Focus On D&D’s Digital Future
Hasbro’s quarterly investors call came up again, which means it’s time to see what the big bosses think is right for D&D. In this case, Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks talked about the digital future of the brand. It started, as reported by Comicbook.com, when Cocks was asked about the D&D movie’s disappointing performance. He dropped the fact that Habro will likely make more from Baldur’s Gate 3 alone than from the past 5-10 years of film licensing combined. He also responded that “...Baldur's Gate 3 is just the first of several new digital initiatives…” that are supposed to “transform tabletop roleplaying gaming to an even richer kind of theater-of-the-mind experience to more traditional video games.”
Play A Game In Baldur's Gate Today!
Assassin’s Creed RPG Pre-Orders Start September 5
CMON is bringing another big franchise to the TTRPG market: Assassin’s Creed. The Quickstart Guide is already available for the Match System, a house system that uses two sets of six special die. Players will take on the role of a modern day descendant of a historical Assassin, including beloved main characters like Ezio Auditore. Going into the Animus to relive history is a huge part of the gameplay, and campaigns might even find players visiting multiple pasts over the course of the story.
Phandelver Preview Talks Family Friendliness And Cosmic Horror
The D&D marketing machine is running at full speed for Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk. In an overview for the upcoming hardcover, lead designer Amanda Hammon went over how the adventure will handle its new cosmic horror spin. While the original Lost Mine starter adventure appears in the book with little changes, the new content that continues on to level 12 will get into the creepy secrets of Netherese obelisks. There will be guidance on adjusting the level of horror to suit the table and even a subsystem for corruption, according to ENWorld.
That brings this week to a close! Excited for cosmic horror in your D&D game? Looking to try a new system like the Gen Con folks? Check out StartPlaying’s upcoming schedule, where our professional GMs are running every kind of genre and game you can imagine!
