2025’s best TTRPG books, from Critical Role, MCDM, Paizo, and more

Several high-profile tabletop role-playing games that have been in the works for years are scheduled to finally be released in 2025, setting the stage for a year where players and game masters will truly be spoiled for choice. As Wizards of the Coast finishes its 50th-anniversary rules refresh with the release of a new Monster Manual, it will face competition from former collaborators, including Critical Role’s Darrington Press, Paizo, and MCDM, as the fallout from Hasbro’s attempted revisions to the Open Gaming License continues years after the plan was abandoned.

Even still, D&D’s pull remains powerful. While Wizards’ publication schedule is relatively light in 2025, with a long gap between the Monster Manual and an as-yet-unnamed adventure anthology being released in the summer, third-party publishers continue to find creative new spins on the system. This year will offer 5th edition players the chance to hunt kaiju and delve into folk horror. Other new releases offer the opportunity to tell new stories in the worlds of two of the most beloved fantasy authors. Whatever you’re looking for in a TTRPG, this alphabetical list offers a glimpse of the books we’re most excited about.

Trevor Devall is publishing the gritty fantasy setting and skill-based system he developed over the course of four seasons of actual plays on the TTRPG channel Me, Myself and Die!, picking and choosing mechanics from more than 125 other games. The Broken Empires RPG promises to prioritize exploration and intrigue while offering a high level of flexibility for characters.

Brandon Sanderson isn’t planning on returning to the Stormlight Archive for six years, but fans of the epic fantasy series will be able to have their own adventures on Roshar with the Cosmere RPG. The author worked closely with Brotherwise Games to develop a system that will begin there with an adventure that ties directly into his latest book, but the game promises to grow to include campaigns in Sanderson’s Mistborn setting and the possibility of stories that move between worlds.

Originally expected for release in 2024, The Crooked Moon was delayed until 2025 so that Legends of Avantris could deliver a product worthy of its ambitions and its $4 million Kickstarter campaign. The folk horror setting for Dungeons & Dragons 5e promises terrifying adventures, epic multiphase boss fights, and twisted curses, while offering players plenty of spooky new species and subclass options.

Critical Role’s Daggerheart

Critical Role helped inspire a new generation of Dungeons & Dragons players, but now its Darrington Press imprint is launching its own high fantasy RPG. While some early players think it’s not distinct enough, the Daggerheart open beta has hooked others with innovations like card-based character creation and tracking both emotional stress and hit points. Swapping the d20 for 2d12s also allows for more consistent player abilities, avoiding the frustration of missing too often.

Draw Steel (formerly the MCDM RPG)

MCDM has made plenty of excellent supplements for D&D 5e, like Flee, Mortals! and Strongholds & Followers, but like so many third-party publishers the company was shaken by the OGL fiasco. It has spent the intervening time developing its own system, Draw Steel, that will focus on dynamic action, keeping combats moving quickly by lumping attack and damage into a single roll and granting characters resources as they fight so that combats get more intense as the rounds pass.

Wizards of the Coast will complete the revision of the D&D 5e core rulebooks in February with the release of its largest-ever Monster Manual. The book will feature more than 90 brand-new monsters along with hundreds of favorites that have been redesigned and rebalanced. It also promises to make things easier on DMs with a more intuitive organization system. The updated Dungeon Master’s Guide and Player’s Handbook have helped push the 50-year-old game forward, and hopefully its refreshed dragons and owlbears will do the same.

Pathfinder Lost Omens: Rival Academies

Fans of magical school stories and anyone looking for inspiration for their next Pathfinder monk or wizard will want to pick up Pathfinder Lost Omens: Rival Academies when it comes out in March. Paizo has been doing a great job at enriching its already complex setting with its Lost Omens series, and this promises to be a particularly fun entry, set at a gathering of six academies each with their own specialty, from mad science to exploring the fae realms.

Ryoko’s Guide to the Yokai Realms

The highly anticipated follow-up to Loot Tavern’s D&D 5e book Heliana’s Guide to Monster Hunting, Ryoko’s Guide to the Yokai Realms takes the publisher’s dynamic crafting system and penchant for engaging boss fights into a setting inspired by East Asian mythology and pop culture. Players will be able to hunt kaiju and learn how to exploit their vulnerabilities, play a new class based on Avatar: The Last Airbender, and coordinate with their party members to unleash combo attacks.

Starfinder Second Edition Player Core

The playtest for Starfinder 2e already feels like a huge achievement, thanks to its depth of character options and monsters, creative changes to the world, and rich initial adventures, but it’s really designed to get feedback from players and game masters that will shape the Gen Con release of the Starfinder Second Edition Player Core and the books that come after. The science fantasy game’s rules have been made fully compatible with Pathfinder 2e, making it easier for gaming groups to try their hand at planet hopping and dealing with everything from political intrigue to cosmic horrors. You can still find the playtest materials right now, free to download online.

Terry Pratchett’s Discworld RPG: Adventures in Ankh-Morpork

Modiphius Entertainment has a great track record of high-profile TTRPG adaptations, including Dune: Adventures in the Imperium and Fallout: The Roleplaying Game, and it’s applying it to the irreverent world of Terry Pratchett’s beloved fantasy series in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld RPG: Adventures in Ankh-Morpork. Rather than using Modiphius’ signature 2d20 mechanics, the game employs a custom Narrativium system, keeping the mechanics simple so you can focus on making puns.