While I love role playing games (RPGs), the reality is that these days I am more a collector than a player. Although I don’t keep good numbers on my RPG purchases like I do for wargames and boardgames, I tried hard this year to keep my collection a bit more up to date. Here is my “2022 Tabletop Role Playing Games By the Numbers”. and my selection for my RPG of the Year
By the Numbers
A complete, detailed listing of all my 2022 RPG acquisitions is found in my GeekList at RPGeek.
Total Roleplaying Game Acquisitions in 2022 – 27
Accessories – 10 / Boardgames – 22 / Roleplaying Games – 27 / Wargames – 31
30% of my Gaming Purchases (27 of 90 items)
Core Books 5 / Alternate Rules 1 /Sourcebooks or Supplements 17 / Quickstart or Primers 3 / Playtest Documents 1
While most of the RPG items acquired in 2022 were supplements to games, I did take in new game systems. In particular I added three (3) new-to-me games published in the last two years. The five (5) Core Books acquired in 2022 are:
- Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game (Free League, 2022) **NEW TO ME**
- Cepheus Engine Science Fiction Role Playing Game (Moon Toad Publishing, 2018)
- Cepheus Light (Stellagama Publishing, 2018)
- Code Warriors (NerdBurger Games, 2022) **NEW TO ME**
- Twilight: 2000 (4th Edition) (Free League, 2021) **NEW TO ME**
Of note, I have not included the Cowboy Bebop Roleplaying Game -Playtest Document (Mana Project Studio, 2022) nor Playing Solo Classic Traveller (Zozer Games, 2022) as Core Books as one is yet to be finalized and the other I categorize as “Alternate Rules.”
Publishers – 12
Cortex 1 / Free League 3 / Green Ronin 1 / Independence Games 1 / Magpie Games (Leder Games) 2 / Mana Project Studio 1 / Mongoose Publishing 1 / Moon Toad Publishing 11 / NerdBurger Games 1 / Stellagama 2 / Thunderegg Productions 1 / Zozer 2
In the past years I gave lots of attention to Independence Games, but this year it’s another Cepheus Engine publisher, Moon Toad Publishing, that rose to the top. That said, the four Free League products represent the lions share of my actual money spent…
Rules Systems – 9
AGE (Adventure Game Engine) 1 / Cepheus Engine System 16 / Cortex Prime 1 / Mongoose Traveller System 1 / Other 2 / Powered by the Apocalypse 2 / Traveller (Classic) 1 / Year Zero Engine 3
As you can tell, I am not wed to one particular game engine but certainly Traveller (in several forms old and new) dominates.
Settings – 13
- ALIEN (Free League) – 1
- Blade Runner (Free League) – 1
- Classic Traveller (Zozer Games) – 1
- The Clement Sector (Independence Games) – 1
- Code Warriors (NerdBurger Games) -1
- Cortex Generic (Cortex) -1
- Cowboy Bebop (Mana Project Studio) -1
- The Expanse (Green Ronin) – 1
- Root (Magpie Games/Leder Games) – 2
- These Stars Are Ours! (Stellagama Publishing) – 1
- Traveller/Cepheus Engine/2d6 Sci-Fi (Multiple) – 14
- Traveller Third Imperium (Mongoose Publishing) – 1
- Twilight: 2000 (Free League) – 1
Given that Classic Traveller/Cepheus Engine/2d6 Sci-Fi is my usual go-to rules system it should be no surprise that settings related to those rules—or sci-fi in general—dominate my purchases.
Deadtree vs. Digital – 4: 23
Unlike my boardgame and wargame acquisitions, my role playing game purchases are usually digital. The four deadtree products I added this year:
- Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game – Core Rules (Free League, 2022)
- Colonial Marines Operations Manual (ALIEN: The Roleplaying Game) (Free League, 2021)
- Cortex Codex (Cortex, 2022)
- Twilight: 2000 4th Ed. (Free League)
While it’s quite obvious that the majority of my RPG play utilizes digital materials I have NOT made the transition to online or virtual session play; I prefer to keep the “tabletop” in my tabletop RPGs.
Role Playing Game of the Year
I am choosing two winners this year; Best RPG Core Rule Book and Best RPG Supplement.
Best RPG Supplement
Chosen from among Alternate Rules, Sourcebooks, and Quickstarts of Primers.
Winner – Colonial Marines Operations Manual (Free League Publishing, 2021)
While I was initially turned a bit off to the horror setting of ALIEN: The Roleplaying Game (Free League, 2021) this supplement brings the Colonial Marines to life. There are missions beyond “just another bug hunt” that make for great adventure material.
Best RPG Core Rule Book
Chosen from among Core Books above.
Winner – Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game (Free League, 2022). While Cepheus Engine is a (now) traditional favorite of mine, and I really like the “Light” version, and Code Warriors is a “fresh” set of game mechanisms to me, I was really drawn this year to the Year Zero Engine implementations of Twilight: 2000 and Blade Runner. As a long-time Grognard (and military veteran) you may think that T2K would be my favorite, which is not a bad call to make. That said, I am giving the nod to Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game (Free League, 2022) as it is not only an incredible presentation and implementation of the Year Zero Engine and setting, it is also very interesting setting that is really spurring my imagination and makes me want to play.
Feature image courtesy RMN
RockyMountainNavy.com © 2007-2022 by Ian B is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
Rocky Mountain Navy Gamer 