The best new tabletop RPG books of 2023

polygon.com:

The January leak of Wizards of the Coast’s plans to amend the Open Gaming License rocked the tabletop role-playing game industry in ways that have been felt throughout 2023. Wizards’ misstep was good for the hobby overall, turbocharging the sales of other games and exposing players to a wide variety of different systems, settings, and styles of gaming. But Dungeons & Dragons continues to dominate the market, riding the success of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thievesand Baldur’s Gate 3 to introduce new players to the game and reassure existing ones, many of whom were happy to go back to business as usual once Wizards backed down.

This list of the best tabletop gaming books of 2023 reflects the shifting status quo, including a mix of D&D books and excellent alternatives that allow players to explore original worlds and ones based on hit TV shows, video games, and even podcasts. Third-party publishers continue to put out rich supplements that prove why the OGL is so powerful, even as some companies have focused on developing new rules to fully disentangle themselves from Wizards’ shenanigans.

2024 is sure to be tumultuous as well, as several of those new systems are set for release along with revised versions of the D&D core ruleset. Hopefully this alphabetical list will provide a starting place for anyone interested in trying something new or improving your existing game as the hobby continues to rapidly grow and change.

Magpie Games understands that what made Avatar: The Last Airbenderso good isn’t just its amazing fights but the depths of its characters and their emotional arcs. Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Gameuses the accessible Powered by the Apocalypse ruleset for a book that avoids getting into the minutiae