Most-Anticipated RPG of 2026

 

EN World is doing their annual most-anticipated poll right now and I figured I would post some thoughts about some of the entries. Many of them I have no real opinion on but there are a few worth mentioning. It's a long list so let's just go alphabetically ...

• 7th Sea 3rd Edition - I always wanted to like this game but I've bounced off of it hard every time I've tried it. I owned 1st edition for a while but it's one of the few RPG's I've sold off after realizing it was just never going to work for me and my crew. I know 2E had a disastrous crowdfunding situation that hurt it badly from the start - maybe this one will set things right. I think my biggest problem is that the setting is super close to history, but pushes itself just far enough away to make it weird for a history buff (that would be me) but doesn't add enough fantastic elements to make it feel truly different. Something closer to, say, "Warhammer Pirates" for a setting would grab my attention, or strongly historical pirates, like Pirates of the Spanish Main for Savage Worlds, is viable. Right no I probably would just use Savage Worlds for something like this. I wish them luck on it though and I'll keep my eyes on it. This is easily the most I have ever written on 7th Sea on this blog so I have to watch it now.
• Apocalypse World Burned Over or "3rd Edition" - I have been interested in this game since I first heard about it and I have played -briefly- some other PBtA games but I'm curious to see what the originators of the system do with it now. It's definitely one of the most influential systems of the past 20 years so I want to check it out. I backed the Kickstarter- one of my few in 2025 - so we will see how it goes.
• Dark Conspiracy - I really liked the 90's version of this game, especially once they went with a d20 over the original d10 approach - but I'm not sure I really liked Mongoose's multi-era approach so this is another wait and see for me. Could be a lot of fun with an updated approach using new/old Traveller mechanics, could just be an excuse to dust off the original version.
• Diablo - Is there really that much demand out there for a tabletop Diablo RPG? Aren't there a dozen other systems out there that could do this without a licensing fee? 
• Discworld - love my Pratchett books but I've never felt the need to run it as an RPG. I suspect most of these will be shelf-dwellers for Discworld fans but hey, if someone can pull it off more power to them. I just don't see how one could capture the energy of the books short of having Robin Williams GM your game and, well, that's not happening anytime soon. 
• Dungeon Dwellers - yeah this is that one from the Kickstarter I backed in 2023. I have the PDFs. No I'm not particularly "looking forward to it" at this point.
• Heroes of Might & Magic RPG - I love the early versions of the computer game but I never really felt it was all that compelling of a setting on its own, especially for a tabletop RPG. There were very take-able ideas in them - monsters, etc.- but so much of it came from D&D that I don't know what it adds as a standalone RPG. Maybe if it emphasizes building/running/defending a kingdom as its main differentiator it could stand out but short of that ... I don't know. 
• Horus Heresy RPG - I'm a huge fan of 40K but I don't know what they're going to do with a HH PRG game line. The era certainly has potential but I'd say it needs to be designed as a war story from the very beginning and that could be tricky. I'll watch it but I'm probably not a day 1 guy here.
• Indominant - this is a superhero RPG that might be below a lot of peoples radar but it does look interesting.  I do tend to pick these up as I am a sucker for a new superhero game. They do seem to think they are doing something really new and different but ... we will see. 
• Invincible Superhero Roleplaying - well I like the show.  I've not read the comic to avoid spoilers for the show. There's really nothing in the show that would make me want to run an extended RPG campaign in the setting as it all seems to fit in pretty easily with any superhero system. I'm also not sure Free League's system is one I would have picked for a supers game but I should probably play around with it more to get a better feel for it. The weird thing here is that in interviews the people working on it keep referencing TSR's Marvel Super Heroes. Now I love my MSH but a lot has happened with superhero RPGs in the last 40 years so I wonder if that's really their primary reference point? Anyway it could be interesting so I'll be watching it.
• Justice League Unlimited  - yes, three superhero RPGs in a row! This is an odd one as there is not a ton out there about it yet and I suspect a lot of that is because it's being developed by a Brazilian company. I'm not sure it's even going to be translated to English or sold in the U.S. but I hope it does come here at some point. The other oddity here is that despite the name it's not based on the animation - it's tied to some kind of crisis event in the DCU and then the game picks up after that. I want to see where it goes but I don't read Portuguese so I'm going to have to rely on others to keep up with this one.
• Oath Hammer might be an interesting take on the Fantasy RPG using dice pools and it also sounds fairly Warhammer-ish so it could be fun but it's another fantasy RPG when I am feeling overladed with fantasy RPGs so I'm not going to make this one a priority.
• OSE Updated and OSRIC 3E - It's weird that these things start out wanting to be a reorganization or re-presentation of an older D&D rulebook but they just cannot resist the temptation to start modifying said rules. I don't get it but it keeps happening - Labyrinth Lord just came back from years of silence and is doing the same damn thing too. Not my cup of tea at this point and I have my originals if I want to go retro.
• Pioneer - It's Expanse-level Traveller, early tech, single solar system. I'm sure someone could make a really good game with this ... but it won't be me. I'm curious about how it will do though.
• Storypath Ultra - well I did the Kickstarter on this one in September 2024 because I like the modern Trinity system and figured I should keep up with a revised version. Not sure I still feel that way but one of these days it will show up and I'll take a look at it.
• WFRP 5th Edition - I played a lot of 1st, own almost all of 2nd, skipped 3rd, and held off on 4th as I just wasn't feeling it, but I have brushed up against this RPG multiple times in the last few years so I am interested in this one. I will probably end up with it and with The Old World in spite of the likelihood being that only one of them will get played but that happens sometimes. Actively watching this one.

One thing that struck me going through this list is how many of them are crowdfunded - it looks like most of them. Given my recent experiences with Kickstarters and Backerkits and the like that does not thrill me. I know it's just how a lot of this works now but it's still disheartening in some ways. There will be a lot more "wait and see" here for this kind of thing.

The other thing I realized is that no one nominated Mutants and Masterminds 4th edition! No one! Not even me! I'm on this sit pretty regularly and anyone can nominate but it just never occurred to me. Maybe because I already had the playtest document? Not sure but that's a huge miss for a lot of us as this is my most-interested-and-anticipated RPG release for 2026! 

Anyway there is my take on the list! Here is last year's top ten list if you want to compare.