Kobold Press CEO and Kobold-in-Chief, Wolfgang Baur, is here to give you some insight on the state of the industry!
The work of delivering worthy titles for the holidays has a long and mostly honorable tradition in both book publishing and games publishing. “Gift books” are a staple under the Baur family tree, with each gift chosen trying to match the recipient’s tastes and reading level, from young adult to elder scientist with a love of old-SF-not-your-newfangled-cyberpunks.
Holiday Magic
Same goes for games, from please-run-this-RiverBank-game-dad to retired-people-enjoy-coop-and-two-player games. It’s wonderful when you walk into a shop and say, “I am looking for a journaling game about vampires,” or “I need a board game for the in-laws,” and there’s something right there, waiting to be wrapped and brought out during that week before New Year’s, when new campaigns twinkle and when board game meeples are devoured by the local pets and toddlers.
Holiday magic doesn’t just happen, of course. There’s elves and kobolds involved in getting to that point. But how MANY elves exactly, and why are they stealing jobs from hard-working kobolds?
If you want my suggestions for a last-minute gift game, skip to the end. First though: how did those games GET to the friendly local game shop?
‘Twas the Year Before Xmas
Getting a game out in time for “Christmas” or “holiday gift season” means planning positively ages in advance. When I ask people when they think I start planning for holiday 2026 sales, the usual answer is anywhere from “April before” to “right after this year’s holidays are done—maybe January 1?”
Not even close.
For a holiday in December, games need to be on the retailer shelf by October 1, so people can hear about it and look at it and buy it in time. That means the game needs to be done and in a warehouse in early September.
Walking back from there, a hardcover RPG title takes 5 months to go from files to printed book. And most hardcovers of any quality take a year to produce. So I start planning for Xmas in July of the year before. Roughly speaking, Kobold Press started work on December 2026 titles in July 2025.
But it doesn’t always go to plan.
The Wreckage of a Workshop
What happens to products that miss a milestone? Perhaps a designer wants a few more weeks (or months) to get the player options tighter for critical core rules, or a developer needs time to clarify a couple of vital mechanics based on playtest, or an artist gets sick and there’s no cartography. The proofreader can be overloaded and miss the schedule because they took on too much work.
Of course, that NEVER happens at Kobold Press. But the world is chaotic! Sometimes the best efforts fall short of the mark. What then?
The usual answer is, “release it in January and pray for good word of mouth.” That’s the dreaded first-quarter doldrums, up until March conventions and winter blahs combine to stir interest again. Games that miss the holidays usually suffer a serious sales collapse (meaning inventory sits in a warehouse).
Red ink is great for Christmas cards and festive garlands. But if you miss the holiday sales, there’s no way to really recover. Happily, all Kobold Press holiday books showed up this year!
Get the Tales of the Valiant RPG Bundle of Holding from now until January 7, 2026!
It’s a great time to get into ToV! Get the Player’s Guide, Monster Vault, Game Master’s Guide, and more, all for one low price!
Somewhat Suspect Poll Results
Back on December 2, I wrote about a publisher’s work and asked people to weigh in on a poll about what kinds of games they might like, and (surprise!) readers of the Kobold blog tend to like the kind of games that Kobold Press already publishes.
Let’s take a quick look at the results, and answer some thoughts from the “I have specific opinions” option (you had to be logged in to add text into that last poll option).
1. High Fantasy for ToV and D&D
This is our bread and butter, and it got the largest vote count by a large margin, over 200 votes! Not a surprise, but it’s great to see that we’re in the business of doing what our customers like. We will continue to support ToV and 5E D&D 2014, offering player options, shipping our Kickstarters on time, and creating adventure paths and standalone scenarios for the gaming genre we love best.
2. Moar Midgard!
Second largest was a surprise, with Midgard at 160 votes. Midgard content has a long, deep history going back 15 years, and we’re always going to support it.
Midgard often fails to attract the same wide audience that the more universal releases do. So these days, Midgard content is less frequent or tucked into a larger project (like the Midgard Appendix in Wastes of Chaos or the Midgard planar lore in Labyrinth Worldbook.
I was surprised because this voting seems at odds with the sales history. Recent Midgard and Midgard-adjacent titles, The Old Margreve, Great Race of Trombei, and Northlands all did fine from a sales perspective, but didn’t set the world on fire.
This stonking large vote count makes me happy. And it makes me wonder. Maybe it indicates that a small, highly motivated fanbase might (MIGHT) show up for a boutique/hardcore fan release.
3. Lost and Afraid
Then we come to Horror and Dark Fantasy at 140 votes, and Labyrinth adventures at 130 votes. All solid topics with a big following.
4. Honorable Mentions
Then we get to the minority tastes, which the current audience requested in smaller numbers. That would be Science Fiction at 90 votes, and then the nice-but-not-quite-ToV trio of D&D 2024, Shadowdark, and Daggerheart tied at about 70 votes each. I was really, really hoping one of those three would stand out from the rest, but they’re statistically all about the same. I’ll keep watching them.
And then there’s the less popular critic’s darling. Sadly, the absolutely terrific RiverBank RPG drew just 30 votes. I’m sad to see that this fun, flavorful game has a small audience, at least among those who answer the poll. I’ll keep playing it with my family, and perhaps the audience for it is just different from the poll audience. Shame.
I’ll leave you with a short pitch for it: the RiverBank RPG is a fun game for adults, and it also appeals to teens and even younger kids who want to play funny animals and wreak merry havoc without mastering a 300-page rulebook. The minimal number of dice rolls (all resolved as tasks/challenges rather than round-by-round) makes it narrative-centric, and the haphazardry timing elements introduce a twist every few minutes.
In short, RiverBank can be more fun per-minute than longer, grindier RPGs for a table that isn’t looking for a long campaign, and it’s an absolute gem for bringing curious non-gamers into the gaming circle!
Comments on the Comments
Thank you to the many, many respondents who added their two cents to the “specific opinion” question—that was all food for thought! I’m not going to address every one, but here are some standouts:
As always, I especially enjoy comments requesting things that are already available. No seriously, sometimes that’s the greatest thing! When people ask for a book of new player options for ToV, and I can say “Look at Player’s Guide 2! It’s out in a month!” It’s a good time.
For folks who asked for 5E-only material—the Tales of the Valiant RPG is 100% 5E compatible, so your wish is granted. Every ToV title is built with the 5E D&D 2014 engine and power curve for just that r
People who asked us to do more horror/dark fantasy? Your wish shall be granted in January with Night Hunters.
Requests for more adventure paths? We did two APs in the last year: Labyrinth Adventures and Northlands Sagas. We like to increase utility in our adventure hardback books by presenting the contents as separate adventures, but they are written with campaign play in mind. Explanation for which adventures to link and how to do it are included in the book. They don’t say ADVENTURE PATH on the cover, but that’s what they are. And there are more to come, so your wish is granted!
Then there were requests that I certainly understand, and yet appear to be commercially unfruitful in the current market. A standalone ToV science fiction game, a ToV PC/video game, Tier 4 adventures, and Draw Steel support are all neat ideas that are probably not happening soon because the audience is too small. (I will note that we did higher-tier-monsters in Dungeons Deep, but it’s only part of that title, not the whole thing.)
Thanks to everyone who voted or weighed in. We looked at all of it, and even if I didn’t address your comment directly, I’m paying attention.
Happy Holidays!
That’s all for this year, I’m off to play games with friends and family in the next week or two. The next State of Play will come your way in 2026!
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