It was another week of excitement for us data nerds, with some fascinating information coming to light from the Director of Events at Gen Con on the Discord for Buried Giant Studios. He shared a list he’d compiled of the top games that had “underserved demand” at this year’s convention, by which he meant you had players wanting to play these games but insufficient event capacity to accommodate them all.
Here’s the list, kindly posted on Reddit by u/johnny0neal on Reddit, with the RPG’s in boldface:
Dungeon Crawler Carl RPG
Dungeons & Dragons1
Call of Cthulhu
Dungeon Crawler Carl Unstoppable
Kingdom Death: Monster
Cosmere RPG
Daggerheart
One Piece Card Game
Pathfinder
Shadowdark
Delta Green
Dungeon Crawl Classics
Alien
Mistborn: The Deckbuilding Game
Draw Steel
Savage Worlds
Clank!
The One Ring
Vaesen
Lancer
Blades in the Dark
Mothership
Shadowrun
Starfinder
Vantage
SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
Arcs
Cypher: Old Gods of Appalachia
While interesting, the list is a bit difficult to properly contextualize. After all, there are a number of reasons that might contribute to “underserved demand.” The first and probably most obvious is popularity. Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl property is having its moment right now, one that is sure to endure with the release up the upcoming television adaption. Not only that, but the game is currently in preorder, meaning this was the first chance most would have had to even play it.
This was surely the case for DCC2, which apparently had over a hundred scheduled games.
On the other hand, there’s surely a logistical component here too, given that games cannot run without proper coordination. Gaming tables require reservations, scheduling, and of course a sufficient quantity of GM’s to run each table.
If we imagine that Renegade Studios (DCC’s publisher) had managed to line up 150 tables, making sure everyone who wanted to play had a chance to, the game wouldn’t even make the list.
As a result, it’s difficult to know whether I should be disappointed or relieved to note the absence of any Warhammer RPG’s on the list, though I suspect not having enough tables to meet player demand could safely be filed under “nice problems to have.”
With the recent launch of Cubicle 7’s Warhammer: The Old World RPG, it’s difficult to get a sense of how the launch is going. C7 certainly will have their own internal metrics and benchmarks to gauge by, but for those of us out here in the general public we must try and figure all this out the hard way. This is one reason I’ve been tracking how Warhammer RPG’s have been performing each week on DriveThruRPG’s Top 200, but that too is a bit like reading the tea leaves.
With the release of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay’s 5th Edition right around the corner, the questions loom even larger. It’s a topic I’ll be returning to in the columns ahead, and for today if I had to distill it down to a single point of focus, it would be this one:
How can we know if our favorite games are healthy?
Inching Closer
Speaking of the upcoming new edition of WFRP, this week Cubicle 7 posted a Q&A on its blog focused on what’s coming up. Issues touched on include:
Why make a new edition?
Backwards compatibility
Edition change resistance in the playerbase
Dice and mechanics
Status of Warhammer: The Old World
Product array
While there aren’t any concrete timelines given for things like product release and pre-orders, it’s certainly clear that the chatter around the game is intensifying. That suggests a release is imminent, so we shouldn't have much longer to wait.
Welcome Codex Discordia
Ordo Discordia is a Discord server dedicated to developing and sharing homebrew and fan-made content for the various Warhammer 40K TTRPG’s, and this week they kicked off an ambitious new project. Just as Dragon Magazine used to carry all sorts of additional optional rules and content for Dungeons & Dragons, so their new zine, Codex Discordia, will for Warhammer.
The debut issue dropped this week, with a wide spectrum of content for various Warhammer 40,000 RPG systems, including:
Minotaur and Carcharodon Specialties (Deathwatch)
First Aid Overhaul (Black Crusade, Only War and Dark Heresy 2nd)
Tomb Worlds Awakening (All FFG)
Trau’s Tech Tweaks (Dark Heresy 2nd and Only War)
Scorpion-class Grand Clipper (Rogue Trader)
On Black Crusade: An Essay (Black Crusade)
Indomitus Terminator Armor (Deathwatch)
Leman Russ Krankheit (Only War)
Umanoid Abhumans (Dark Heresy 2nd and Only War)
Enhanced Called Shots (FFG Systems)
Capes in Only War (Only War)
The Labourer Background (Dark Heresy 2nd)
Mythodes Akmon (Custom d100 RPG)
Reinforcements from Ouros-Senn (FFG Systems)
The Mesotherach (FFG Systems)
Warriors of the Star Child: Sensei Patrons (Imperium Maledictum)
House Peregrine (Rogue Trader)
Something Had Gone Terribly Wrong (Art & Fiction)
Armamentarium Discordiae (FFG Systems)
While necessarily a bit plain in terms of presentation (those pesky licenses and all), I’m very excited to see where they go from here, this idea has a ton of potential!
RPG Bestsellers
Bookwriters get their New York Times bestseller lists, so why shouldn’t we enjoy the same thing? While we don’t have any aggregated sales lists, we can use DriveThruRPG’s top-seller list as a reasonable barometer- and here’s this week’s snapshot!
Warhammer RPG Titles in the Top 200:
#11 (-6). Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Sylvania: The Cursed County
#51 (-8). Warhammer The Old World: Talagaad Adventures
#57 (-16). Wrath & Glory: Lex Imperialis
#99 (-4). Wrath & Glory: Core Rulebook
#146 (-22). Imperium Maledictum: Core Rulebook
#192 ( - ): Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition: Core Rulebook
Total Books in Top 200: 6 ( -1 )
Cubicle 7 lost ground this week, but not a lot. Indeed, any single-digit movement in either direction is more or less ‘holding firm,’ given the steady influx of products than come in and out of the site on a weekly basis.
Sadly, the two books of Imperium Maledictum’s Adeptus Mechanicus guides have slipped off the table, but we did get an unexpected burst of activity from WFRP’s 4th Edition Core Rulebook, so some good with the bad.
ICYMI
Looking for more characters to fill your Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay world? Ill Met by Morrslieb offered up a review of Patrons of the Old World II this week.
Meanwhile, AngelAnvar of Careless Conjuration has 5e on his mind, sharing three elements of the setting he’d love to see explored in the next edition.
Not directly Warhammer related, but I really enjoyed this piece by Mollie Russell over at Wargamer, discussing Paizo’s treatment of metaplotting. If you’re not familiar with that term, it refers to RPG’s having big, major events that move the narrative of the game world forward- with or without your player characters.
Coming Attractions
Here’s a list of the known upcoming physical releases from Cubicle 7 based on the available preorder information we have. Note that Cubicle 7’s own delivery estimates appear to be just that- estimates- which is why many products have an upcoming delivery listed for Q1 while we’re already past that.
This section will be updated weekly in this column, with new or updated info presented in boldface.
Shipping Q3
Limited Edition Warhammer Fantasy Map Bundle 1 (July 2026)
Limited Edition Warhammer Fantasy Map Bundle 2 (July 2026)
Shipping Q4
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Temple of Spite (Q4)
Shipping 2027
Sylvania: The Cursed Country
Shipping Q2
Warhammer: The Old World Roleplaying Game, Grand Duchy of Talabec Map Pack (May 2026)
Shipping Q4
Warhammer: The Old World Roleplaying Game Starter Set (Q4)
Warhammer: The Old World Roleplaying Game Gamemaster’s Screen (Q4)
Shipping 2027
Talagaad Adventures
Shipping Q1
Warhammer Age of Sigmar Soulbound, Champions of Chaos: Dark Gifts Card Pack (Q1)
Warhammer Age of Sigmar Soulbound, Champions of Chaos: Spells Lore Card Pack (Q1)
Warhammer Age of Sigmar Soulbound, Champions of Chaos: Artefacts & Wargear Card Pack (Q1)
Warhammer Age of Sigmar Soulbound, Champions of Chaos: Core Rulebook (Standard and Collector’s Edition) (Q1)
Warhammer Age of Sigmar Soulbound, Champions of Chaos: Bloodwind Spoil Map (Q1)
Shipping Q3
Limited Edition Age of Sigmar Map Bundle (July 2026)
Shipping Q1 2027
Warhammer Age of Sigmar Soulbound: Champions of Chaos: Carngrad Adventures
Shipping Q4
Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory, Adventures in Gilead
Shipping Q3
Limited Edition Imperium Maledictum Macharian Sector Map (July 2026)
Shipping Q4
Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay, Imperium Maledictum: Adeptus Mechanicus Collector’s Edition
Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay, Imperium Maledictum: Adeptus Mechanicus Player’s Guide
Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay, Imperium Maledictum: Adeptus Mechanicus Gamemaster’s Guide
Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay, Imperium Maledictum: Adeptus Mechanicus Character Sheet Pad (Q4)
Undated
(Nothing at this time)
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u/johnny0neal notes that much of the underserved D&D volume was for specialty groups like Avantris and Baldman Games
Between Dungeon Crawler Carl and Dungeon Crawl Classics, the “DCC” acronym just got a lot more confusing.
I just want this Horus Heresy RPG to come out already!!!!!!!!