Era IV: 2007; Back to a LOT of Basics

2007 was the first year that more people lived in cities than in rural areas and thus can be seen as the end of the Agrarian Age.

Dragon and Dungeon magazines licenses are allowed to lapse and are not renewed by WotC. Paizo launches the Pathfinder RPG using the 3.5 SRD (via WotC’s OGL).
NeoExodus: A House Divided is an OGL campaign setting for use for the D&D game. This is the world of Exodus and is a place of fantasypunk and political intrigue.
Necromancer Games goes on ‘indefinite hiatus’ after announcing that Paizo would publish their products following the end point of a deal with White Wolf Publishing.
Human Head Studios catches fire! Fortunately, the HQ is rebuilt and up and running again within four months.
FanPro gives up all RPG licenses this year, focusing on publishing novels only.
Cheapass Games goes into ‘hibernation’.
Catalyst Game Labs is created by InMediaRes Productions as a publishing unit for

Punk

Tenra War, a ‘triple genre’ game that mixed science-fantasy, steampunk wild west, and mecha elements into a single ‘world’. This is a combination of earlier publications set within the same world.

Sci Fi

Septimus by West End Games. In this sci fi univserse, you investigate the region of Septimus, where starships disappear ala the Bermuda Triangle.

Fading Suns by RedBrick. Sci fi in the sixth millennium in this second edition.
Starcluster III by Flying Mice. A hard science space opera set in a time after Sol has gone supernova.
Traveller Hero by Comstar Media / Avenger Enterprises. This is a core ruleset for the fifth edition of the popular game.
CthulhuTech by Mongoose Publishing / WilfFire. Sci fi meets Lovecraft horror! Welcome to the Aeon War riding in a thirty-foot war machine against the unknown.
Classic Battle Tech and Shadowrun books. Licenses are tranferred from FanPro in 2008.
Battlestar Galactica RPG is released by Margaret Weis Productions. Based upon the most recent version of the television show.

Modern / Past Century

Changeling: The Lost by White Wolf Publishing. Play a modern-era fey seeking to find their identity against adversity.

Grey Ranks by Evil Hat Productions. In the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, play a teen ‘scout’ who must balance personal needs against the pulls of the national army.
Dirty Secrets by Dark Omen Games. In this modern generic game, everyone has a secret and will do anything to keep them secret.
Scion: Hero by White Wolf Publishing. In this modern fantasy, the Titans have escaped their prison and the Overworld battle rages!
Nemesis II by Bards and Sages. A d20 modern game system verses serial killers.
Aces & Eights by Kenzer & Co. The Western real-life game system.
Poison’d by Lumpley Games. A pirate rpg for adults.
In Harm's Way: Aces and Angels was released on December 7, 2007 by Flying Mice. This game is specifically designed for roleplaying fighter pilots in World War II. It uses the base StarCluster system, but has several additional genre-specific game mechanics overlain. Its emphasis is on emulating the feel of the many novels and films about WWII fighter pilots

Historic-esque

Savage World: Solomon Kane by Pinnacle. Playing in the Robert E Howard world of Solomon Kane.

Witch Hunter: The Invisible World by Paradigm Press. Set in 1698 alternate horror history.
Pirates of the Spanish Main by Great White Games. A swashbuckling pulpy game of pirates!

Horror / Thriller

Unhallowed Metropolis by Eos Press. In this horror game, two hundred years has passed since the zombie plague. Now the world is in a new Dark Age.

Fear Itself by Pelgrane Press. Play an ‘everyperson’ against the horrors of the Outer Black.
Book of Unremitting Horror by Pelgrane Press. Deal with horrors of a far more intimate nature, spawned by vice itself.
Code Black by BTRC. A generic modern horror setting.
Grimm by FFG. The hardcover book to the 2003 boxed game of the same name.
Monte Cook’s World of Darkness by White Wolf Publishing. This is the d20 version of the World of Darkness world.
Monsters and Other Childish Things RPG by Arc Dream Publishing and using the One-Roll Engine.  Not a kids game, but play a child in an action-packed game where the monsters rise and must be dealt with.

Science-Fantasy

Lesser Shades of Evil by Eos Press. In this science fantasy game where the players are disembodied god-beings in a world gripped in a new Dark Age.

Fantasy

Elric of Melnibone by Mongoose Publishing. Fight for Law, Chaos, or Cosmic Balance in this version of the Michael Moorcock world.

Ave Molech by Morbidgames. This is a re-release of the 2002 game, after a full re-work of the line.
Labyrnith Lord published by Goblinoid Games. It is a D&D clone, allowing virtually any OGL based game to be run in this environment.
Beast Hunters by Berengad Games. In this fantasy game, hunt magical beasts to use their blood for magical tattoos of power.
Epic Role Playing Game Manual by  Dark Matter Studios. A rules medium fantasy game that is focused on long-term growth.
NeoExodus: A House Divided is an OGL campaign setting for use for the D&D game. This is the world of Exodus and is a place of fantasypunk and political intrigue.
Blood Games II was released on June 26, 2007 by Flying Mice. This game is a complete rework of the earlier Blood Games, with a new dice pool task resolution system, refined magic systems, new Paths, and all new illustrations by the game's authors.
Forward... to Adventure! was released on July 29, 2007 by Flying Mice. This game is an old-fashioned fantasy romp with several new-style twists, and much random table action.
Broadsword by Deep7. A burly and robust fantasy game system.
Reign by Schroedinger’s Cat Press. A fantasy game from the national and international POV.
Rolemaster Express by I.C.E. is also a republishing of the previous rules, but in a streamlined format.
HARP: The Essentials by ICE. This is a CD-ROM of the five core volumes for HARP.
Warhammer the seventh edition of the wargame RPG side.
In a Wicked Age by Lumpley Games. A fantasy game using personal character motivations to drive the story forward.

Anime

BESM (Big Eyes Small Mouth) is published by ArtHaus Games and White Wolf using an updated Tri-Stat System. An anime game.

Child-oriented

The Princess Game by Valent Games. A fantasy game for kids!

Generic / All-genre

Basic RolePlaying by Chaosium. This is the introduction of the second edition of this generic rpg.

Suzerain by Talisman Studios. This is a generic core rule system.

GURPS Supers: A genre toolkit designed to help folks create superhero campaigns.

GURPS 3: Superiors: Asmodeus by SJG.
GURPS High-Tech: From gunpowder through present day handbook
GURPS Ultra-Tech: From near-future onwards handbook that provides
GURPS Spaceships (var): spaceship design, construction and combat. 8 volumes.
GURPS Creatures of the Night (var): A bestiary of 6 volumes
GURPS Dungeon Fantasy (var): 17 handbooks on how to reduce GURPS to essential abilities and rules for Dungeon Crawl games.

Tumblr is launched.

Online RPG games offer game altering choices such as the interlocking, five-story-arc / protagonist Odin Sphere RPG. Also, World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade drops this year.
The use of intellectual property licensing, common in other video game genres, has also appeared in MMORPGs. 2007 saw the release of The Lord of the Rings Online, based on J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. Other licensed MMOs included The Matrix Online, based on the Matrix trilogy of films, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, based on Games Workshop's table top game, Star Wars Galaxies, Star Wars The Old Republic, Champions Online and Age of Conan. A RPS (Role Play Shooter) game titled Mass Effect begins its publication series this year.

Era IV: 2006: Deux Mix-o-rama-gamma-blamma!

There is a little bit of… EVERYTHING released this year. Wow. Lots of break-away products for niche markets found here. Mixing genre and new styles of old faves as well.

AEG is quietly “closing its doors”, but still publishes the Worlds Largest City.

Guardians of Order closes its doors and the BESM property is acquired by ArtHaus Games.
Margaret Weis Productions takes over production of Dragonlance d20 supplements.
Destruction Games is formed in India after HGII game engine (published by PH Games) produced few supplements.
FanPro releases Total Warfare, the first in a series of revised full-color books for Classic BattleTech. FanPro GmbH continued to translate these books into German, along with German-only Shadowrun books. FanPro LLC also published an English translation of The Dark Eye, but it did not fare well in the marketplace.
Mind Storm Labs opens in Houston, Texas. This company will kick off the Ethan Haas Was Right marketing campaign; which will kick off Alpha Omega in 2008.
Exile Games Studio opens its doors and releases Hollow Earth Expedition.
Precis Intermedia Gaming evolves out of Politically Incorrect Games and Spectre Press.

Punk

Forgotten Futures by Heilograph. The second edition of this Victorian Era Steampunk RPG.

Full Light, Full Steam by Kallisti Press. This is a Victorian era sci-fi game encompassing the Earth and inner solar system.
Corporation: The RPG by Core Games Publishing. A cyberpunk game using the Decima System.

Sci Fi

FTL Now is released by Flying Mice. It is the sequel game to Cold Space, set between 1990 and 2006.It focuses on the Interstellar War on Terrorism, ignited when terrorists re-directed a massive Mars-terraforming comet to slam into New York City on September 11, 2001, incinerating Megalopolis - the area between Maine and northern Virginia, triggering massive tsunamis and earthquakes, and setting off the Pacific's Ring of Fire. This plunged the Earth into a 'nuclear winter' of five years duration. All told, some four billion Earth humans were killed. The colonies were left to fend for themselves.

Classic BattleTech RPG is a second printing of the third edition.
Paranoia by Mongoose Publishing. Need that SIXTH edition?
Burning Empires by Luke Crane. Based upon the Iron Empires sci fi novels.
Shock: Social Science Fiction by glyphpress. The impact of new technology from the POV of politics, philosophy, love, and death.
Midway City by  Z-Man Games. A sci-fi planetary colony in the far future where the style of the day is 1920 / 1940’s America. Tech-noir style with cyber-detectives and mutant mobsters.

 Modern / Past Century

 

Wilderness of Mirrors by Wicked Dead Brewing Company. This espionage game system is light on rules and heavy on spy / heist actions.
Spirit of the Century by Evil Hat Productions. Set in a pulp 1920’s where the characters are ‘potent individuals of action’. The setting is created as part of the character generation.
Normal, Texas by Human Head Studios. B-movie sci fi with a little magic tossed in to the 1950-esque mix!
Gunslingers and Gamblers by FJGaming. A wild west RPG is rules light.
Coyote Trail Expanded by Politically Incorrect Games. This western game system is quick and easy to learn; designed for one-shot games.
Wild Talents by Arc Dream Publishing. The successor to Godlike where the WWII game is advanced to the modern era.
Panty Explosion by Atarashi Games. Really? OK, this is a Japanese schoolgirl battling demons game. ‘Nuff said.
Cold City by Contested Ground Studios. 1950’s Cold War / horror game.
Contenders by Prince of Darkness Games. Play a boxer, with all the pains, loves, and losses.
Spirit of the Century: by Evil Hat Productions. 1920’s pulp action!
Best Friends by Box Ninja. Play among the other girlfriends and all those petty hatreds.
Cat by Wicked Dead brewing Company. Play a cat who protects humans from things that they cannot see in this modern fantasy game.
Drowning and Falling by Evil Hat Productions. Eliminate blindness in a developing world from your mobile med DC-10.
Conspiracy X by Eden Studios. The second edition of the X-Files-esque game published using the Unisystem 2.

Historic-esque

Qin: The Warring States by 7eme Cercle. This is a historical fiction of 240 B.C. China.

Also released by Flying Mice is In Harm's Way: A Napoleonic Naval Roleplaying Game. As the subtitle states, the game is specifically designed for roleplaying in the napoleonic naval wars of the early 19th century. It uses the base StarCluster system, but has several additional genre-specific game mechanics overlain. Its emphasis is on emulating the feel of the 20th and 21st century genre novels by Patrick O'Brian, C. S. Forester, Dewey Lambdin, and many others.
Mythic Russia by Firebird Productions. A historic fantasy game taking the HeroQuest engine to ancient Russia.
Passages by Blue Devil Games. This historical fantasy game set in the Victorian Era literature.
WGON by one.seven design. A competitive, Ancient Greece setting game where players seek to win the most Glory Points!

Horror / Thriller

Exalted by White Wolf Publishing. The second edition of the Exalted RPG.

Promethean: The Created by White Wolf Publishing. You have been made, without a soul.
The Shab-al-Hiri Roach by Evil Hat Productions. Sumerian chanting, crazed one-upmanship, and furious stake-setting.
The Escoterrorists by Pelgrane Press. Introducing the GUMSHOE system in a modern horror game system where occult terrorists seek to tear the fabric of our world’s reality.
Don’t Rest Your Head by Evil Hat Productions. Play an insomniac who see the secret entry points into Mad City. A game of modern horror.
Deadlands: Reloaded by Great White Games. A new edition of the western-horror themed game of Deadlands.
Shab-al-Hiri Roach by Bully Pulpit Games. A dark humor / horror game that is GM free and single-night playable.
Lacuna PartI. by Memento Mori Theatricks. A near-future horror single adventure game.
NEMESIS by Arc Dream Publishing. Incorporating the One-Roll Engine from Godlike and the Madness Meters from Unknown Armies into a contemporary horror setting.
In Dark Alleys by Vajra Enterprises. A modern horror game where players become ‘the Touched’.

Fantasy

 

Mythic Role Playing by World Mill Games. A non-prep, off-the-cuff, fast-play fantasy RPG.
Riotminds released Drakar & Demoner, as a seventh edition based upon a customization of Basic Role-Playing game system. This release altered the core abilities and introduced specializations. It also came in a ‘box set’ format.
Warlords of the Accordlands by AEG. A fantasy world in turmoil where once-allied races and countries now battle across the globe, spurred on by the secretive Medusan Lords.
Defensores de Toquio – Manual 4D&T by Editora JBC. A pun of the D&D system in its 4^th incarnation using the SRD.
Earthdawn by RedBrick. A new edition of the high magic / fantasy game.
Mazes & Minotaurs by Legendary Games Studio. Think D&D, but inspired by Greek rather than northern Euro mythology. A nostalgic pastiche of early RPGs.
The Chronicles of Ramlar by White Silver Publishing. Traditional fantasy setting based upon the A/B System.
The Great Pendragon Campaign by White Wolf / ArtHaus. Although considered to be an adventure for Pendragon 5, this is a fully immersive Arthurian world covering 80 years of detailed year-by-year events.
Hollow Earth Expedition, using the Qbiquity system published by Exile Game Studio.
Noumenon by Abstract Nova. Set in the psychological realm called Silhouette Rouge the players are insect-like Sarcophagi in this domino-based RPG fantasy setting.
Alshard GAIA is published by F.E.A.R using the Standard RPG System. This is an anime look at Midgard and other aspects of Norse mythology in a techno-fantasy world.
Mortal Coil by Galileo Games. A modern fantasy game about magic and passions.

Child-oriented

The Princes’ Kingdom by CRN Games. A child-oriented fantasy game where all players are princes and princesses from various (local) islands.

The Zorcerer of Zo by Atomic Sock Monkey Press. A fairytale RPG aimed at young players.
Faery’s Tale by Firefly Games. A child-friendly fantasy introductory RPG.
The Secret Lives of Gingerbread Men by Wicked Dead Brewing Company. A humor / fantasy RPG for families where players are gingerbread men alive during the 12 days of Christmas.

Generic / All-genre systems

HG II by PH Games and Destruction Games. This second edition out of India utilized unconventional game mechanics (non-turns, reaction time, real-time storytelling) and had few releases.

OVA: Open Versatile Anime RPG by Wise Turtle Publishing. A d6 system to recreate any Japanese anime story you might come across.
Story Engine Universal Rules by Politically Incorrect Games. A generic game system designed for “story games” using a relative scale system (rather than linear).

You’re up, Steve!

GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars, set in the earlier history of the Traveller universe.

GURPS 3: Litheroy by SJG.
GURPS Mysteries: A genre toolkit designed to help folks create detective fiction.
GURPS Space: A genre toolkit designed to help folks create Sci Fi campaigns, beginning with star systems, worlds, and alien races.
GURPS Shell-Tech: Additional cybershell for Transhuman Space handbook that provides GURPS stats.
GURPS Bio-Tech: Modifying and medical tech handbook that provides GURPS stats.
GURPS Lands Out of Time: Humans verses dinosaur. Part of the fictional settings set of design.
GURPS Reborn Rebirth: World Trees grow across the globe. Part of the fictional settings set of design.

From the self-published realms…

OSRIC First Ed by Ronin Arts. This is a retro-clone of the AD&D system using the OGL and SRD. More than 20 different publishers will create over 100 products under this system clone.

The Kingdom of Glass by Ben Wright. Shape an Egyptian kingdom and forge a god to rule over it.
Roanoke using the Wushu Open OGL game system. Action horror set in the English colonies of the New World; late 1500’s.

Online RPG games offer game altering choices: Gothic 3 reenter the fantasy world as the Nameless Hero.  The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion battle against the Mythic Dawn!