Looking Back: TTRPG Industry Professionals on the Takeaways of 2025

“From tariffs to increased friction crossing borders, I'll remember 2025 as a year where geopolitical developments much bigger than our tiny industry created uncertainties that cost us time, money, and opportunities.”

“The rise of AI in RPG, how various industry groups and big conventions have responded to it and the simultaneous rise of RPG declaring they are 'human made'. AI works are flooding the market, have a low entry cost but are mediocre content at best. However, the flood of them is making it harder for human made art to be heard above the noise. This issue really started becoming a bigger problem in 2025, I expect in 2026 we will see that trend continue until the AI bubble bursts and then we see what happens in the fallout for that.”

“I think 2025 was the year that the OGL fiasco finally bore fruit. ToV was an early small step but Daggerheart and Draw Steel hitting in the same year feels like one of the biggest outside challenges to the WotC D20 empire in quite a while (maybe since Pathfinder 1E). Radically different styles of game attached to big personalities who made their names in D&D. Big dollar kickstarters, well orchestrated media and social media blitzes, hoovering up major d20 developers (not just freelance but snagging folks like Perkins and Crawford). Not only are they bolstering their own projects but they are pulling developers with WotC credits out of the freelance ecosystem which will be a recurring problem as D&D 2024 tries to get a foothold and figure out new titles past their core book development era.”

“The launch of the 2024 DnD 5e rules were definitive for the hobby. While sales numbers were communicated in the vaguest terms possible, it appears that the 2024 PHB was the best-selling PHB in DnD’s history. Players are moving quickly despite loud vocal complaints (Including from me) about the new rules at WotC’s general behavior.”

“The change in price point for DnD’s source books also raises the ceiling on prices for 3rd-party DnD content. Selling third-party content that’s more expensive than official content is a hard proposition, and the higher price point means that 3rd-party creators have more room to work with. While rising prices are never fun, I do think this is a good change for the 3rd-party content space.”

“One player games continued to be really popular this year, but I feel like I saw some of the best duo games come out as well. HUNT(er/ed) by Siren's Song Games, The Time We Have by Elliot Davis, and Glatisant by Graftbound Press are a couple of my favorites and are all games that feel very thoughtfully designed around two players specifically.”

“There's also been a movement towards more rules-heavy TTRPGs. Rules-heavy meaning both that there are more rules and mechanics to keep track of, as well as that the rules hold more weight within the games.”