Are the dragons in the dungeon with us now?

Earlier this week, RPG news forum NL World have announced their annual community-based list of the Top 10 Most Anticipated Tabletop Roleplaying Games. While some of these selections overlap with Polygon’s own list, overall it seems predictable that 2025 will be a year of building on the foundations of a consumer base that wants a familiar TTRPG experience from someone other than Wizards of the Coast. The games on this list are largely divided into three categories: new editions, IP adaptations, and fantasy heartthrobs.

At the top of EN’s list is Son of Oak’s Legend in the mist as the most anticipated game of 2025. A more story-oriented approach to the fantasy RPG genre, Legend in the mist uses a version of the tag-based system created for Son of Oak’s City In The Fog game. After crowdfunding over $855,000 in March 2024, Legend in the mist claims to provide one D&D-like experience that prioritizes player choice and character development; instead of using a series of stats and ability scores, players use a varying series of story tags that reflect their narrative priorities to add modifiers to a 2d6 roll system.

In a year where D&D is trying to push its own updated edition amid a series of shifting priorities – such as a push for more IP integration in video games, pinball and online gambling products – in addition to the growing shift away from the brand since the 2021 OGL crisis, audiences appear to be looking for their imaginative fix in other places. However, if this list is to be believed, they mainly want to go to a place they already trust. This includes the new edition of the story-oriented fantasy game 13th age (which according to the list has been highly anticipated for at least three years) and another repeat performance of Dolmen wood from Necrotic Gnome, the publisher behind the critically acclaimed Old school essentials system.

Three sci-fi games, moving somewhat away from fantasy and into other genres, made it onto the list, though they all have something different that supports their expected status. The second edition of Star Seeker by Paizo, the science fiction brother of Scoutperhaps the most popular D&D competitor. The last two on the list are both new editions of sci-fi games from Swedish publisher Free League: their original system Coriolis: The Great Darkand an updated edition of the Stranger RPG, based on the iconic film of the same name.

While this is just one segment of the tabletop audience, there appears to be room for other games to grow in the shadow of the world’s most popular tabletop role-playing game.