Top Five RPGs - Spring 2018 - From ICv2 - 5e #1 -Starfinder #2?

I'm not surprised by D&D 5e being in the #1 spot. I AM surprised by Starfinder in the #2 Spot. Not even sure I know about Genesys...

Link to original article: https://icv2.com/articles/markets/view/41009/top-5-roleplaying-games-spring-2018

Deadpool Has Some Cool RPG Homage Covers

With some of these covers I found it is easy to identify their inspiration. Others, not so much ;)

Below are the inspirations:

RPGs Are a 35 Million Dollar Market (out of a 1.19 Billion Dollar Hobby Game Market)

There's an interesting article over at ICv2 about the size of the Hobby Games Market and it's components.

Roleplaying Games make up 35 Million of the 1.19 Billion Hobby Games Market. Which is small, but grew 40% from 2014 to 2015 (from 25 Million). Hobby Games as a whole grew 29% over the same period.

As for the top 5 RPG game lines for the 2nd Quarter of 2016, D&D 5e tops the list. I'm surprised to see Shadowrun in the top 5 myself.

I suspect the drop off after the first 3 is huge.

All this is before Dungeons & Dragons finding it's way back into the public's eye this summer.

Still, the OSR is a niche of a niche.

I'll need to dig out the latest Roll20 report for some further analysis.

What is Your Favorite Non-OSR Game?

Obviously, if you are not a big fan of the OSR, this is probably an easier question to answer.  For the purpose of this question, I'm going to define OSR and OD&D, it's immediate offspring, their derivatives and clones.

What is your favorite Non-OSR type RPG and why?

For me, the answer would be probably have to be Savage Worlds.  It's a pretty flexible system that can cover most any genre.  It played much better than I expected (when I playtested for the guys at White Haired Man) and I'd gladly play it again.  Might even consider running it down the line.

For a less flexible system, I'd say Warhammer 40k: Dark Heresy, but I'm not sure if it's because of the system itself or if it's because it's the first game I played when I returned to gaming.

So, give me your answers if you would.  I'd like to learn about (and maybe learn to play) some of the other RPGs out there.

My Posting Has Slowed Down Due to Work...

But I'll find a way to fix that ;)

In any case, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are coming up fast.

I'll be keeping my eyes open for deals on Tablets, RPGs (both print and PDF offers) and anything else I feel my fellow gamers might have an interest in and will post them as I find them.  I'm off for 4 days (Gobble Gobble!) and i'll have my iPad with me on Turkey Day here in the States.

Oh, and for those with Android devices (phones and tablets), Amazon's free app for the day is Documents to Go.  Normally 15 bucks, still free for the next 6 hrs or so.

Old is New - Digging Through The Games

You know what the best thing about renovating / digging through crap that you haven't looked at in years is? Old becomes new again ;)

I've already spoken about rediscovering my AD&D 2e collection, or at least most of it, as some of it is mixed it with my general RPGs that are now boxed up (for the most part). Still, I've been digging out a few gems, like the D&D Cyclopedia, The MERP Softcover book (I have the earlier boxed set buried somewhere), Pendragon, GURPs Discworld, and some more GURPs sourcebooks (GURPs was THE universal system before Savage Worlds' simpler system took much of that corner of the hobby).

So, not only am I far behind in the new games that I need to review, but now I have the urge to reread some of the old games that I haven't touched in 15 years or more. I'll try and get a review up later tonight of one of the newer games. Then I want to spend some time with MERP and maybe compare it to the newly released LotR RPG.

Hardware Upgrade in Progress (and another week without gaming)

I've moved from a PC / MacMini shared peripherals setup to an iMac that I'll be dual booting with windows. Haven't gotten around to BootCamping windows just yet. Still trying to get Apple to give me my free upgrade to Lion. Sigh.

Enough tech talk. I noticed something over the weekend. My son's core group of friends at the age of 18 closely mirror my core group of friends from that age (and with whom I remain friends with to this day). For us, it was AD&D and other RPG's that helped forge the bond. For this generation, it seems to be the XBox 360. Still, I have hope for them yet. They enjoy games like Fable and Oblivion and Fallout on the 360 - surely they may one day graduate to "true" RPGs ;)

It looks like the sometimes weekly OD&D chat game is on indefinite hold. I may need to find a game to fill the gap. It's a noticeable gap, as its the only game I've been playing in recently. A well.

My First Time Was Magical

My first time playing AD&D was magical. There was something about the dice, the crude map on graph paper, killing skeletons and the like that just can't be recreated. Heck, my first time was a one-on-one session with just the DMG - my friend Kenny had to call another friend with the Player's Handbook just to find out when my fighter Cyrus leveled up.

I believe that was early in the summer of 81. For my birthday my mother got me copies of the DMG, the PH and a set of dice that I still have to this day. There was magic in having the world of RPGs opened up to me. Holy crap, I've been a gamer for 30 years!

Doing Less With More

Looking at my list of D&D games in one of my recent posts has led to the following decision:

It's time to pack up any and all that won't be seeing use from me anytime soon. Box them up and put them in the basement - above the flood line ;)

Those that will escape the purge:

Castles & Crusades - I do play it monthly - I'll pack up all but the Player's and the Monsters &Treasures books

Swords & Wizardry Complete - I like the rules presentation - Besides, its a recent purchase

Labyrinth Lord and the AEC - This is my current go to D&D variation

Everything else RPG related (aside from my Tunnels & Trolls and other solo gaming products) are going into storage. Besides, much of my gaming material is in PDF format these days anyway.

Maybe pruning the tree of RPG-ness will allow me to focus on - gaming. Go figure ;)