Routinely Itemised: RPGs #98

Hello, hello, and welcome to the RPGs news summary of Routinely Itemised.

Some Geek Native news first, as all Patreons (or those who sign-up soon) will get these not-for-retail Beowulf RPG pin-badges in the post. While stocks last, that is.

As we’re approaching the end of the month, it’s also time for Patreons to vote in the RPG Publisher Spotlight. You’ll find the voting form on Patreon itself, but that’s locked to backers, so this link takes you to our micro-site where you can see May’s candidates.

Does it feel like a busy week to you? Loads and loads of great-looking RPGs came out this week, especially on Itch.io, and many are making use of the challenger RPG store’s ability to theme entire pages.

Also kicking off this week is activity for Jasper’s Game Day a charity that helps use RPGs to tackle suicide. Help if you are able.

Right now, here’s the rest of the RPG news!

Win History Heroes – Children

RPG news from Geek Native

• You can help raise money for Jasper’s Game Day and save 90% off a whole load of D&D with this DMs Guild Bundle.
• One More Multiverse raises $17m for a virtual tabletop.
• Cubicle 7 announced they had renewed their Doctor Who RPG license.
• VoxStory a cinematic virtual tabletop for the big screen opened in beta.
• The World of Darkness RPG setting is getting movies and TV.
• Jeff Goldblum is joining the Dark Dice actual play horror podcast.
• Bandit Camp and Peter Rudin-Burgess published solo rules for the now free to download Wicked Ones. You can now buy Wickedly Solo.
• Publisher 1d10+5 released Solitary Defilement as free to download solo MORK BORG rules.
• Late Night Zen released the free to download ghost hunting Tension RPG.
• Geek Native reviewed the 5e-powered Hellboy RPG.
• Geek Native reviewed the minimalist sci-fi RPG RUSH.
• I also reviewed SR 16’s lightweight dystopian RPG Space Street.
• The Bundle of Holding launched their Starter Collection store.
• The Bundle of Holding has an offer for Destiny and D&D designer Rodney Thompson’s Dusk City Outlaws.

Spotlight LPJ Design

RPG news from around the web

• Green Ronin will publish a Fantasy Age edition of Trojan War.
• Also, Alexander Thomas officially joined the publisher as Assistant Developer on Mutants & Masterminds.
• Polygon covered Wyrmwood and Dispel Dice have survived the pandemic, now they’re collaborating, pushing the Kickstarter over $1m.
• ICv2 reports that Gale Force Nine brings back a classic D&D board game.
• The Nerdist also helped boost a Kickstarter, noting Sirens: Battle of the Bards is Bardcore Role-Playing.
• Ennead Games has a mega bundle on Itch where you can get $287.35 worth of their generators and games for $34.99.
• AAW teamed with up Shard Tabletop so that the VTT includes some of their Mini Dungeons.
• The Bell of Lost Souls can Get a Sneak Peek at the Stargrave Rulebook.

RPG reviews and interviews from around the web

• Morrus interviewed Travis Vengroff after the news broke that Jeff Goldblum would join the Dark Dice actual play podcast.
• Jonathan Hicks interview Simon Barns in The ‘Casket of Fays’ ezine for Dragon Warriors.
• Polygon’s Charlie Hall noted Pixar’s Onward spawned a surprisingly good D&D clone.
• Dicebreaker was full of praise with Call of Cthulhu’s epic Masks of Nyarlathotep shows the perfect way to run a RPG campaign over years.
• Cedric Chin reviews Loke Battle Mats’ Adventure Box.
• Thilo Graf at Endzeitgeist reviews Scenic Dunnsmouth (OSR), Shoony: Pug People (SFRPG), Whisper in the Crags (5e), and Monsterarium: An Ecology of the Cute and the Weird (OSR).
• Cannibal Halfling reviewed Dune: Adventures in the Imperium.
• Crucible Gaming reviewed the Fallout RPG.
• Throat Punch Games reviewed Pathfinder Lost Omens: Legends.
• Rolling Boxcars reviewed Symbaroum Starter Set – Treasure Hunts in Davokar.
• GMS Magazine reviewed Quests of Doom 4: The Covered Bridge (5e).
• Tribality reviewed M.T. Black’s Tomb of the Twilight Queen.
• The Wandering Gamist reviewed Traveller: Hostile.

RPG new releases

• Catalyst Game Labs published the Shadowrun Runner resource book Power Plays.
• Storm Bunny Studios released the 468-page and occult-themed The Bloodlines & Black Magic core rulebook.
• Handiwork Games publishes the Beowulf supplement The Witches and the Wyrm.
• Michael Whelan published an RPG of risk and revolution with The House Doesn’t Always Win.
• Weird Age Games published the retrofuture cyberpunk RPG Hard Wired Island.
• The Other Tracy published the PtbA RPG of warriors, giants, and holdfasts with Iron Edda: World of Metal and Bone.
• Zak Barouh published a tabletop RPG about kids and their monster friends with Animon Story.
• Raging Swan Press published the 5e adventure Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands.
• Onyx Path Publishing released the Dystopia Rising sourcebook Evolution Heroes of the Wastes.
• Modiphius published the Achtung! Cthulhu adventure and A Quick Trip to France sequel Operation Vanguard.
• Cubicle 7 released the Warhammer FRP adventure Something Knocking.
• Long Tail Games has published the spring edition of their “play and destroy” RPG A Divorce of Druids.
• Basilisk Online published the sci-fi RPG Legacy of the Lost.
• Monkey’s Paw Games published the sci-fi RPG that uses the PINKHACK system Into the Black.
• Flying Buffalo published their Beginners Bundle for Tunnels & Trolls.
• Green Ronin published the Mutants & Masterminds adventure Green Thumb, Black Heart.
• Curatrix Ribston published the personal horror RPG Fears and Fathoms.
• Sandy Pug Games has an RPG where the whole planet is the baddie. It’s the Ten Million HP Planet.

RPG ideas, tips and discoveries

• In a feature with Tom Hart and Nathan Adler, we asked Sensitivity reading: What does it do, and does it make RPGs better?
• Shaun Sunday shared some tips with The walls are closing in! – or How to wrangle players and puzzles when the time is running out.
• Storm Crow has tiny little skull dice.
• Nor Cal Mythos helped Geek Native publish this darkness encounter table.
• Daratlix shared this isometric D&D Aztec city design.
• Paul Baldowski shared the first design diary for The Dee Sanction.
• D&D Beyond’s Jeremy Blum wrote up Embracing Your Wild Side: Playing As a Lycanthrope in D&D
• CBR’s Josh Render shared Dungeons & Dragons: 5 Tips for Role-Playing Better at the Table.
• Writing on Sweat Pants and Coffee, Dr. Megan Connell got into How Dungeons & Dragons can bring your family together.
• Fred Hicks posted some alternative FATE rules with Diminishing Returns on Defense.

RPG Crowdfunding

You can see those Kickstarters and other crowdfunding campaigns that caught Geek Native’s attention over at Kickstarter watch. Here are some industry projects worth a mention;

• This superstar of a campaign is approaching $1.5 million in funding. It’s Dice By Wyrmwood & Dispel
• Gaudreau Steve has funded the production of some 24×36 Double sided Vinyl Battle-Mats with dry erase surface.
• MS Edizioni has smashed targets for the English and Italian Powered by the Apocalypse Fantasy World.
• Autumn Court Productions is an indie studio raising funds for a module of 5e scenarios called Adventures of Ravenwater.
• Mad Hermit Games Publishing is also raising funds for a good-looking 5e adventure module for 3 to 6 characters called Knight of the Sun. 5e Fantasy TTRPG module.
• Silvia Torress is offering a line of handcrafted and sharp edge RPG dice and jewelry. It’s Mini Planet Sharp Edge Dice & Jewelry.
• Juxtagames’s first Kickstarter is for a 5e ruleset suitable for modern action and adventure games. The name? Modern5E Core Rulebook.
• Sveinn Olafur Arnorsson is a lifelong DM who has funded a 5e compatible campaign that features an underground sea. It’s the Sailors of the Sunken Sea 5E Campaign Setting.
• Tollenkar, a Steve Jackson Games fan, is funding The Fanzine Trip: Issue 1.
• Legendary Games has put together and hit funding goals for a killer compendium of character options, magic items, paths, feat, and more in Battlemasters & Berserkers: A DnD 5E class expansion.
• Cassandre Loiseau wants to make your 32mm encounters much scarier with Dangerous Monsters – 3D printable STL files.
• Darkraven Game has a 24-inch centerpiece for your gaming table in the shape of Tower of the Necromancer – 3D Printable Terrain.
• Lizzie Worrall’s designs are for lovers of D&D, Harry Potter, and other magical fantasies. They are Rainbow Potion Pins by Express Your Fandom.
• Goodman Games has a solution for keeping track of your zines and soft covers. What’s the magic solution? The Shelf File of Holding.
• Daniel Games’ first Kickstarter is a 5e supplement full of Terrors, Treasures, Tyrants & Towns.
• FenrisGames is offering a whole village worth of characters with The Toadstool Brownies. 28mm miniature goblins and kobolds.
• Warehouse 23, the retail arm of Steve Jackson Games, has funded a collection of Steve Jackson Games Button Packs.
• Zan’s Adventures has funded an adventure to find a lost temple, survive traps, and find The Golden Hand of Kreltor – 5E DND and Pathfinder 1E.
• Ethan has been inspired by classic children’s stories to create and fund the RPG Garden of the Giants Returns.
• James Paese is close to funding a FUDGE RPG called Blood, Sweat & Steel, a Sword & Sorcery Tabletop RPG.
• DieselShot has hit funding goals and looks likely to reach far higher with ChangedStars – A Sci-fi TTRPG.

If there’s a source or news you think is worth monitoring, please get in touch or leave a comment below.