Owlcat Games Brings Pathfinder and Rogue Trader to Steam Party-Based RPG Fest

Steam’s Party-Based RPG Fest is live from today until September 21, and if you’ve been circling a big, chunky CRPG, this is the week to jump in. Owlcat Games is one of the marquee names taking part, showing up with two of the best party-based RPGs of the last few years and a look at a slate that’s only getting bigger.

What you can play right now

The two headliners are Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous – Enhanced Edition and Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, and they pull in slightly different directions.

Wrath of the Righteous is the one to grab if you want the deepest build-crafting. It’s a classic CRPG about leading a Crusade against a demonic invasion, and its signature hook is the Mythic Paths: routes that let your hero ascend into something genuinely wild, from an Angel to a Lich to a literal demon lord, each one bending the story and your powers around it. It’s enormous, it’s reactive, and it rewards anyone who loves a full character sheet. It’s also running at a discount during the fest, so now is a good time to finally start it.

Rogue Trader is Owlcat’s first trip into Warhammer 40,000, and it’s a different flavour of power fantasy. You’re not a scrappy adventurer here, you’re a Rogue Trader: a dynastic ruler handed a warrant to explore and conquer on the Imperium’s frontier. As Owlcat has put it, you’re “less of an adventurer” and “more like a god,” running a void ship, a crew and whole worlds while the grim dark closes in around your choices. If 40k is your thing, this is the easiest way in.

What’s coming next

Owlcat used the fest to point players at what’s on the way, too. The big one is Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy, announced as a follow-up to Rogue Trader and built on the classic Dark Heresy tabletop RPG. This time you play an Imperial Inquisitor and their party, dispatched into the Calixis Sector to investigate a string of disappearances. That paranoid, investigative setup is exactly the kind of story a reactive CRPG can do well.

There’s also Shadow of the Road, an upcoming turn-based RPG that Owlcat is publishing rather than developing, currently dated for November 12. Both are open for wishlisting now. And for anyone tracking the studio’s slate, Owlcat still has The Expanse: Osiris Reborn in the pipeline, so the next couple of years look stacked.

Why Owlcat is worth the hours

If you’re newer to the studio, here’s the short version: Owlcat has quietly become one of the best CRPG developers working. It started with Pathfinder: Kingmaker back in 2018, sharpened the formula with Wrath of the Righteous, then jumped to the 41st millennium with Rogue Trader at the end of 2023. These are dense, systems-heavy, reactive RPGs with real party dynamics, the exact sort of thing Baldur’s Gate 3 sent a whole new audience looking for. A party-based RPG fest is basically Owlcat’s home turf.

Our steer: start with Rogue Trader if you love Warhammer, or Wrath of the Righteous if you want the deepest builds. Either way, a discount plus a themed sale is the excuse a lot of us have been waiting for. The fest runs until September 21, so you’ve got a week to pick a class. You can grab Rogue Trader and Wrath of the Righteous on Steam now.

Source: press release from Owlcat Games. Images courtesy of Owlcat Games.