7 most anticipated new tabletop RPGs coming out in 2023

Last year around this time, I began my list of hotly anticipated tabletop role-playing games by saying the industry existed “in an interesting space,” and the same could be said as we plod into 2023. All you need to do is trade discussions of international logistics and NFTs with concerned whispers and louder dissent against Wizards of the Coast’s Open Gaming License, a draft of which is is spreading panic among smaller creators.

That being said, there is no better time to swing the TTRPG spotlight onto titles created by individuals and those teams not tied to established publishing routes — the land of provocative convention-busters, earnest artistic expression, and flat-out cool ideas that contain neither dragons nor dungeons. Here are seven games that you should keep in mind for 2023, but not necessarily in order.

Apocalypse Keys

What do you get when you throw Mike Mignola’s HellboyPowered by the Apocalypse Rules (PbtA), and complex queer relationships into a design mixer? The surprisingly delicious answer is Rae Nedjadi’s Apocalypse KeysThis is a stylish and elegant vehicle to tell stories. Diverting the apocalypse might require that the player-controlled Omen Class Monsters embrace the part of themselves they fear most.

Each character has a playbook, a type of pre-built character category that can be used in other PbtA games. These focus on the little known powers and emotional bonds between outcasts who have created a kind of family within the secret occult organization Division. What is your support system as you traverse the depths and hell? You can trust someone to get you from the edge of oblivion.

Apocalypse Keys’ digital core book is currently available to pre-order, and physical books will be published by Evil Hat later this year.

Koriko: The Magical Year

Please see the description of this campaign Koriko: The Magical YearJack Harrison was the designer who claimed to have identified the emotional beats, touchstones and inspirations. Kiki’s Delivery ServiceThe Studio Ghibli film had penetrated his soul over many viewings. Once expressed through Harrison’s contemplative creative sensibilities, the result is tarot-based solo tabletop game about a single year spent abroad by a young witch as they discover their place within a wider world.

Ostensibly cribbing much of the film (and Eiko Kadono’s original novel) for flavor, Koriko’s gameplay borrows more from JRPGs and SimsAs players write letters home, they play a series of video games in the ’80s style. Harrison promises that the book is robust enough to fulfill this promise.

Koriko: The Magical YearBackerkit is offering the opportunity to pre-order this item.

Rebels of Outlaw Wastes

I was bought on Rebels of Outlaw Wastes the moment the design team listed My Chemical Romance’s Danger DaysIt is an inspiration. Imagine my delight, then, when I discovered the tabletop RPG’s dustpunk aesthetic and post-apocalyptic setting came attached to a game engine that tells players to slap stickers onto the character sheet when they earn new skills.

Sometimes play groups just want to be a bit tougher than the men by racing scrapyard automobiles through a landscape post-climate collapsing in the grips of doomer fascism and swinging guns, guitars, and middle fingers. Sometimes the rules can be familiar enough — a mixture of Blades in Dark and Powered by the Apocalypse, here — but shine thanks to the novelty of decorating your character sheet with sticky little badges that I can’t believe more games haven’t yet adopted.

Rebels of Outlaw Wastes’ crowdfunding campaign is expected to be fulfilled in September, and a digital version will be available through Nerdy Pup Games’ Itch.io page.

The Most Inscrutable Cities

The second solo tabletop role-playing game on the list requires its players to create entries in a journal while they navigate through streets in incomprehensible towns. Heavily inspired by Italo Calvino’s novel Invisible Citiesand meditations on existential subjects, as well as trips to foreign metropolises. Unusual CitiesAs it gives players the information they require to create a world and find the right situational prompts, Jarboe’s writing will play a large part.

The Most Inscrutable Cities doesn’t get more complicated than a coin flip, instead leveraging the innate imagination of its players as they wander the shared dreams within its pages. Possum Creek Gaming, which is behind WanderhomeAnd the future Yazeba’s Bed & BreakfastIt has been granted publishing rights and has an excellent track record in games that are more narrative-oriented than mechanically.

The Most Inscrutable CitiesIt will soon be available to pre-order through the Backerkit crowdfunding site.

Songs for Dusk

Tabletop RPGs can be so bizarre that a truly great game could simmer on an internet corner for years, before anyone actually discovers it. This was true in the case with Songs for DuskPlease see: Blades in Dark-Inspiring title that replaces the steam-punk sounds with something that is closer to the struggles to create community and foster hope after the end of the last post-postapocalypse. Wanderhome.

KavitaPoduri is the Lead Designer and has been refining the world ruleset for many years. She is planning to launch a crowdfunding campaign this spring. You might like the cohort-based mission storytelling. BladesBut wished that there was more cats, ancient vine-choked ruin ruins and magical magic. Songs for DuskWe are here to impress.

Find out more Songs for DuskYou can find it on the Itch.io website.

Relic

A core team responsible for the highly acclaimed Dungeon Minion-Simulator Wicked OnesA new tabletop role-playing game (RPG) is being developed by the company. It sounds quite a bit like Monster Hunter with massive automatons in place of Rathaloses. Deviljhos. The universe of Relic is filthy with Titans, most of which are the direct or indirect product of humans’ greed for natural resources and war. But they have survived their creators and must be hunted down by small, elite teams in order to bring some measure of peace — or, at least, atone for past sins.

Sessions RelicThis will give the hunt a cinematic vibe and remind you of Monster Hunter’s hunts. Titans have to first be located in the wilderness. Successful hunts can be made by using a variety of tactics and traps. With three different settings, there is plenty of adventure potential.

RelicIt accepts late pre-orders via its Backerkit webpage.

Hollows

Ok, that’s right, I know you are asking. But, what if your monster hunting includes a healthy dose self-loathing as well as descriptions of rot? Rowan, Rook and Decard, who are the crackerjacks responsible for this, have a solution. Heart, Spire, and editing Kieron Gillen’s DIEThe RPG is offering an answer through the form Hollows. They are huge, their heroes are corrupted and all of their weapons are hateful, telepathic simulacra toxic masculinity.

Hollows is a left turn from what we’ve broadly come to expect from the U.K.-based team. It’s heavy on the tactical combat in a similar manner to its earlier work in UnboundThis grid is used to guide the player. Massive enemies will broadcast their attacks like Dark Souls bosses. Everyone is monitoring the minute-to-moment positioning in order to decide who emerges victorious from the blood, the mud and the dross.

HollowsIt is still being tested, so the team keeps its cards close. However, you can expect to learn more. Hunt: Showdown-meets-BloodborneTabletop RPG will be available later in the year.