Some of us are a lot burned out on discussions of Dungeons & Dragons.
I’m just going to cut right to it this time. I’m tired of the hobby overall being referred to as “D&D.” I’m tired of the assumption that every Game Master should be referred to as a “Dungeon Master.” I’m half tempted to sell all of my D&D 5E stuff (with a few exceptions) for pennies on the dollar plus shipping. Tempted, anyway. Might throw in Pathfinder 2E for a few bucks more.
I’m tired of Wizards of the Coast and their various sock puppets like Paizo, Renegade, Kobold, and others basically thinking they run the hobby as they are portrayed on DungeonTube, DriveThruRPG, and elsewhere. While D&D (and all of its various offshoots) are a big part of the hobby, they sure as Hell ain’t everything. I don’t think people realize there’s a much, much large hobby as a whole out there.
I know there are some people who already know what I’m going to say, think I’m whining about D&D again, or I’m just going to talk about Dragonbane. They’ll be partially right, but not completely. I can bust out a huge list of games that aren’t D&D. We’ve all seen them.
Back in my day…
In the olden days, there weren’t that many companies in the industry here in the USA. A lot of the bigger names in gaming didn’t really come along until the late 1980s or early 1990s. We had T$R in all their glory with D&D and some other really banger titles like Marvel Superheroes, Boot Hill, Gamma World, Top Secret S.I. and Star Frontiers. We had Chaosium with Call of Cthulhu, Basic Roleplaying, Pendragon, and Elfquest. Steve Jackson Games started with The Fantasy Trip and moved onto make GURPS. We had Traveller and its storied production history just starting out. White Wolf entered the fray in the late 1980s with Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse. Hero Games made Champions and that whole Hero franchise. Then there are a host of what I would call small classics like Villains & Vigilantes and Tunnels & Trolls.
Palladium Games got my attention with Rifts, Heroes Unlimited, TMNT, and my favorite—Ninjas & Superspies. Before D20 Modern came out, N&S was my jam. My only regret was not getting to run more of it. It’s still in my all-time favorites. Covert Ops from DWD Games came close, and I pray there’s never a second edition because I’m super happy with first.
I should also mention West End Games’ Star Wars RPG D6. That was the game before Wizards of the Coast got a hold of the game and ruined it. It was also the game before Disney acquired the whole franchise and ruined it. I ran the bajeezus out of that game and would still gladly do so.
Likewise Mayfair Games’ DC Heroes probably didn’t get enough acclaim. That game changed hands multiple times over the years. Second Edition was okay, but I ran so much of the first edition and still have characters that have carried over through countless other games into ICONS. I still love DC comics and I’m excited to see what comes of the new Justice League game.
The other thing that really got my attention back in the day was Cyberpunk 2020. FASA’s Shadowrun was cool and all, but R. Talsorian’s Cyberpunk was hot, sleek, and a blast to run. Still the best GM’s advice guide ever, a book called “Listen Up You Primitive Screwheads…” which also happens to be part of a line from Army of Darkness. (One of the greatest movies ever.) I got to run a lot of Cyberpunk back then. Such good times.
When Dungeons & Dragons 3E rolled around, I reluctantly switched over. I missed AD&D2E. but D&D 3rd Ed promised to be good time. It was certainly easier to teach and run initially. It was a lot of fun creating new everything for, almost like the past 26 years hadn’t happened. It was bright, new, and highly entertaining.
Then the Open Game License was born and with it came a deluge of Third-Party Publications. Some were good. Others were great. A few have survived the ages. Then the Internet happened. Suddenly everything was everywhere all the time, to coin a phrase. Suddenly it got easier than ever to exchange all kinds of information globally. 3.5E D&D did pretty well, too. 4E not so much. But I will give some props to 4E because it had some really nice sourcebooks.
I dipped out of gaming for a while except for some ICONS.
I took a little vacation from basically everything at one point. World of Warcraft was my thing for a while. Then I got into my spirituality really heavily. I spent a lot of time in meditation. I kept tabs on the gaming industry, but I didn’t jump right on D&D 5E right away. I think all of my rulebooks say 10th printing or thereabouts. If I had known what 5.5E was going to look like, I would have stayed out. If I had predicted the Great Wizards of the Coast Dungeons & Dragons Open Game License Debacle of 2023, I definitely would have stayed away.
The third-party content wasn’t quite as prolific as 3/3.5E was originally, although it got worse before the OGL debacle. Which was another sign that official 5E was falling apart. I got out in late 2021/early 2022 because I noticed the slide at about that time as well. ICONS, a superhero game remained at the top of my list pretty much the whole time.
That’s not to say there wasn’t plenty of dabbling going on.
I liked Barebones Fantasy, another DWD property. There is also FATE; W.O.I.N; Big Eyes, Small Mouth; OVA; Anime Hack; Cortex; Savage Worlds; Index Card RPG; and a bunch I’m probably forgetting. I’m a sucker for a good generic, often anime-based system. I love giant robots and cyberpunk drama almost as much as other genres. I also missed the old D&D Rules Cyclopedia a lot. Luckily there are reprints.
There was also an indie game called Singularity which was a space/cyberpunk game that I really like. Likewise I spent a lot of time with Cartoon Action Hour Season 3 and Mecha vs Kaiju. In all of this, I was still on the search for the perfect TTRPG, especially one with an open license that I could finally adapt a bunch of fantasy settings to.
I’ve been holding onto fantasy settings since AD&D 2nd Edition.
In 2023 I had kind of hitched my wagon onto Dungeon Crawl Classics, but this other game was brought to my attention. Shadowdark was the passion project of my friend Kelsey Dionne, who I had corresponded with during COVID for a while. She’s a really great lady and I wanted to get behind her game. Turns out the game did pretty well.
I also discovered this absolutely amazing game called Dragonbane. Unfortunately I had become jobless in 2021 due to some, uh, unforeseen circumstances. (We’ll just go with that.) I didn’t get to back either Kickstarter for Shadowdark or Dragonbane. Luckily the actual print release for Dragonbane had come around.
Dragonbane was love at first sight.
I don’t think I’ve ever gone quite as bonkers over a game as I have over Dragonbane. The hardcover core rules were all I ever truly needed, but everything else was the most delicious icing on that proverbial cake. I mean, the boxed set was like opening the Red BECMI D&D box all over again for the first time, only Dragonbane had the figure standees.
Technically Drakar och Demoner has been around as long as BECMI, but not so much here in the USA. Thank goodness someone at Free League Publishing was kind enough to bring it over here. This game has been fun to solo, to create content for, to teach… I can’t think of another game that has really come close. I’m truly happy with it and plan to keep going with it for years to come.
I did mention a penchant for anime games, though.
If I have one weakness, it’s for TTJRPGs. I was a Big Eyes, Small Mouth fan back in the first edition of that game and everything since. I got into Fabula Ultima when it came out. I’m still fascinated by the idea that Italians can do Japanese games so very well. Then there’s Twilight Sword.
The Created At Twilight license is going to make or break my creator ambitions for Twilight Sword. I always wanted an 8-Bit mecha/anime game. Final Fantasy V pushed the sci-fi envelope a bit. Phantasy Star did much the same. Twilight Sword might be my chance to go all-in on a setting I’ve always wanted to produce but could never find the right TTRPG for. We’ll see where it goes.
Back under the flag of fantasy games, there’s Ruttigers Almanac.
I used to love Earthdawn RPG from FASA. Before that there was Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, which still sits on my shelf. Both were excellent games. Now Ruttigers Almanac promises that same sort of darker, dystopian fantasy with some wild new races, magic, and monsters. I’m looking forward to it. I think Richard Whitters and the crew at Cawood Publishing are probably going to do an outstanding job. It’s definitely in the hands of experienced game designers and publishers.
On top of being an old school style TTRPG, Ruttigers is going to be a toolbox for other fantasy games like Dragonbane for instance. That’s part of the reason I’ve delayed some of my sourcebook ideas for Dragonbane, in fact. I don’t see much point in writing a sourcebook for Dragonbane that will compete with a game similar that which I’m promoting and believe wholeheartedly in.
It’s just about making money, though.
If I were a scummy grifter I could pump out three products per day on DriveThruRPG using AI for it all and very little editing. I’m glad DTRPG really only limits us to three products at a time or else it would be insane. Although I have a feeling that someday these guys who aren’t disclosing their AI use are going to suffer the wrath of Roll20 and be stricken down for being dishonest. I know I would never use AI without disclosure, but I see plenty of people who probably are. (Either that or they don’t eat, sleep, or do anything else.)
I could do the same on YouTube if I really didn’t care and just wanted a get-rich-quick scam. I could create one of those AI revenge drama channels my wife likes to listen to all the time. You know. The ones that are basically the same story with the names and some of the relationships changed around. I had some other kinda sketchy YouTube ideas, but that’s another article.
Grifters in the hobby are going to be an upcoming topic that we’ll cover very soon. There’s a particular scam I discovered on Instagram. The worst part is, I almost did the exact same thing, just charging a fraction of the price. Glad I dodged that bullet.
Fantasy will probably always be in my list of Top 3 genres.
Supers.
Space/mecha/cyberpunk.
Fantasy.
Other things come close. We’ve seen variations and hybrids of all the above over the years now. Horror pops up there occasionally as it would be a close fourth. Modern combat, spies, etc. are also close, but cyberpunk usually scratches that itch.
I don’t always play elves with sticks, but it’s never far from my stream of consciousness. It’s certainly the easiest genre to work with because there are no real-world physics or canon trademarked intellectual properties to avoid. Contrary to what Wizards of the Coast likes to think, they don’t own the notion of fantasy roleplaying. They’re not even close to the only game in town.
This series will cover all kinds of fantasy games going forward, because we haven’t even scratched the surface on all of the games I’ve had experience with over the years. We also haven’t truly covered one of my favorite fantasy subgenres—martial arts. Ninjas, samurai, and lots of anime action are always on my mind. I have lots of thoughts and some cool books on the subject.
We also haven’t begun talking about settings yet. Sure, there are some pretty epic official AD&D settings out there. There were also a ton that came up during the third-party publishing bloom under the 3/3.5E OGL let alone more recently. Since the OGL Debacle of 2023 we’ve seen even more settings pop up. Without a doubt there are more settings and fantasy games now in 2026 than ever before that have nothing to do with D&D.
I keep going back to the notion we wouldn’t need so many indie works if official D&D wasn’t so bad. Fortunately other creators keep plugging away, steadily putting out their games month after month, year after year. I think we will have plenty of fantasy projects to talk about for decades to come. Maybe by then some people will have abandoned D&D completely and come over to join us at the table.
I say it every year, but I think 2026 bears repeating it. This year I intend to write more, read more, and discuss cool TTRPGs as well as supplements. Most of all, let’s just have more fun. Let’s explore. Let’s save the kingdom from the evil warlord. Let’s discuss all the fun stuff in gaming that we love.
With the world in the state it finds itself in today, please be kind. Please be considerate to one another even if we don’t agree. Lastly, please pursue the thing that brings you the most joy without harm to others. Thank you!
