Professional TTRPG Year End Posts

I don’t have time tonight for the photo editing required for my Dice Envy advent calendar post, but I did have time to turn your attention to a couple professionals in the TTRPG space that have done some retrospectives on the year. They also happen to overlap with my 2024 a bit, which is what made me want to share them.

First up, game designer Richard Green shares his year in 2024 TTRPG gaming. Mr Green worked on the Labyrinth World Book for the Kobold Press kickstarter that I pledged to. I’m excited about the concept behind the campaign setting as described in the kickstarter. The titular Labyrinth not only ties together worlds created by Kobold Press, but they encourage DMs to also use this to tie into campaign settings from Wizards of the Coast (since ToV is currently pretty compatible with 2025 D&D 5e) or from any other publisher of D&D or ToV content. I know I already have some plans to have a lot of fun with my kids and the 5e Multiverse once this book comes out some time next year. (I’m also interested in his Parsantium world which is also now an official world in The Labyrinth)

Mr. Green also mentions working ont he Dungeons and Dragons Adventurer magazine. What I love about this TTRPG world is that it seems that, just like my former hobby of comics, most creators are not tied to any one company (no matter the size). They can just as easily do work for Kobold as they could do for WoTC. Mr. Green also did work for the ToV Monster Vault 2 which I plan to pledge for next year.

Mr. Green mentions that he played an enviable 11 different RPGs in 2024. I think that’s probably easier when you’re a freelancer who can make your own schedule, but I may be projecting a slight envy at Mr. Green’s gigantic amount of free time. (From where I’m sitting, that is)

Second, Wolfgang Baur (Kobold Press CEO and creator of Midgard) wrote up his State of Play. Learned Kobold Press has their own convention. I wasn’t into Kobold Press early enough to learn about that in 2024. But if they keep it free or low cost I may try and go next year. Also, I may check out Gen Con - which I’ve never been to.

It was neat to see that many indie/3rd party creators are jumping on the ToV bandwagon and publishing over on RPG Drive Thru. That’s really what’s going to breathe life into ToV and give it a fighting chance of becoming a long-standing D&D fork like Pathfinder.

I really liked Mr. Baur’s transparency around Kobold Press’ finances. I was not surprised that Kickstarter makes up such a large portion of their budget - that seems to be the main way that TTRPGs are funded nowadays (I’ll be writing about that later this year or early next year when I write my own 2024 retrospective blog posts)

Mr. Baur teased we’ll find out what their big Midgard thing will be in 2025. I also liked that he was honest about what potential tariffs might do to book prices. A small press like this one isn’t necessarily able to easily absorb cost increases and will need to pass those costs on to us gamers. I’m slightly worried about this sentence: “Kobold Press will continue to support 5th Edition D&D and Tales of the Valiant, and we’re also looking to try something entirely new. More about that in 2025!” Worried might be too strong a sentiment, but unlike Mr. Green I don’t have the free time to really support yet another game system (if that’s what this is). It’s why I passed on the amazing Pathfinder 2e Humble Bundle. Even at $30, it was too much money considering how much I’ve sunk into D&D and ToV that I haven’t even had time yet to DM for my kids. We could probably game for a few years on the material I’ve bought or that is coming in future Kickstarters. And that doesn’t even count the Cosmere TTRPG that I backed this year. On the other hand if this means that Kobold Press is going to try to make a ToV Baldur’s Gate (ie video game) then I might be interested as a way to play a TTRPG where I don’t have to be the DM.

• DnD
• D&D
• Tales-of-the-Valiant