Welcome home.
This is Audio EXP for the 4th of September 2021, and the title of this episode is “Tea, Time Travel and TV”
[The following is a transcript of Audio EXP: #112]
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Sanguine Productions is in the spotlight this month, as voted for by Patreons.
It’s the start of the month, and Sanguine are September’s winners. I emailed them before this podcast to try and arrange an interview.
There are five candidates for October, they are;
Now, two interesting stats for you.
Firstly, we’ve gone one whole week without an RPG designer calling Geek Native a clickbait blog.
Secondly, I’ve written up the Professor Elemental RPG poll results and can now reveal where and when time travelling tea drinkers would prefer to go to enjoy a nice cuppa.
Here’s the top three in reverse order;
- Third equal; the British Museum during the reign of Queen Victoria.
- That tied with; the top of the Great Pyramid in Egypt sometime during the Middle Kingdom.
- In the first place, with 28% of the votes, Stonehenge during the time of the druids.
I think that’s a lovely choice. Do you have a better idea for a place and time to go for a cup of tea? Pop over to the blog and let me know.
As it happened this week, I was also able to review issue one of Missy. Missy is a Doctor Who character.
She’s played by Michelle Gomez and while introducing any female character seems to upset people these days, and Missy had an extra twist, I really like her. So, the fact she’s her own spin-off is welcome news.
And I enjoyed issue one. Although it’s really a two-trick wonder. It’s mainly Missy pretending to be the Doctor as she breaks The Master out of jail. Then it’s a bit of a highlights reel.
But, it’s only the first issue, and it sets up issue two perfectly. The meta-question I have, and still, have despite writing the review, is, “Is Missy any good?”
I think if you get the chance to read Missy #1, you should take it.
It won’t be too long before Doctor Who is back on TV as well. We’ll have to see what the BBC has planned for it.
There are other TV plans in the geeky headlines this week.
In no particular order, there’s an Exalted TV show coming.
That’s Paradox Interactive’s anime RPG via White Wolf and Onyx Path. It’ll feature great houses struggling to take power when the Crimson Empress goes missing. Dragon Houses.
I think TV audiences will be familiar with that concept! I think they’ll get the super-powered wuxia layer too.
The series will be made by Jenkins and Tate Entertainment, and that’s the same company making TV series for Scion, the Onyx Path made RPG about people who are also gods.
Now, talk about timing because Warp Films also announced they’re making a Blades in the Dark TV show.
With so many Forged in the Dark games out there, it’s perhaps easy to forget for a minute that Blades in the Dark has its own occult industrial setting.
You’ve criminal gangs vying for power, butting heads with noble houses, guilds and even guards. All this is wrapped up against bleak industrialism and plenty of supernatural.
That’s not all. Amazon also gave us the first Wheel of Time trailer.
That’s a huge fantasy series, but the trailer is dividing people. Well, that’s to say I’ve seen lots of praise for it, but I’m far more cautious and worried myself.
It feels like there are touches of cheap and cheese fantasy in there. The trollocs, teased as they are, looked worrying.
I do like the Aes Sedai focus, and I hope that’s one the actual show takes.
There is, by the way, an old d20 Wheel of Time RPG. I should fish it out for a Tiktok or Instagram tour one day.
The jury is out whether there will be a new Wheel of Time RPG on the way. The chances are far above zero. I imagine we’ll have to see what gets negotiated and what partnerships around property rights are formed.
It’s negotiations and property rights that bring us to the next section of the podcast. Well, in so far as I ever manage to structure these highlights show into sections.
Chris McDowall of the Electric Bastionland has signed a deal with Free League Publishing. They’ll be doing a new edition of Into the Odd. It’ll be hardback and colour.
Johan Nohr of Mork Borg will do the visuals.
And on Intellectual Property rights, a release from American attorney Boyd Stephenson caught my attention., You can now pay what you want for a guide to Intellectual Property and RPGs from Boyd on DriveThruRPG.
Importantly, this does not make you Boyd’s client, and you don’t, therefore, have the client-attorney privilege.
I’m really pleased this 9-page guide has been created. It was basic enough for me to follow, and I know it’s not a replacement for a lawyer.
I saw other RPG sites cover the news too. Did we all notice the same thing, or is this a case of the echo chamber?
As I try and always say on the blog, I can’t give legal advice. Now, at least, I can recommend this guide. You can find links to it and anything else mentioned in the podcast, via the transcript link in the show notes.
Avoiding all sorts of drama around IP rights is the RPG There Once Were Dragons which I reviewed this week too.
It’s an OSR-style d20 game, but not that d20. It has its own light setting and lots of clever use of stock illustration. It’s also hundreds of pages long and cheap as chips. It’s a great example of pulling together a chunky RPG without much fanfare and certainly without commercial negotiations.
Dropping a “pay for me” requirement is the Excel-based The Other Sheet for Pathfinder 2e. There’s still the requirement to pay for all the features, but that character sheet builder is free to get started on. For Pathfinder 2e players, you can get loads of features before the paywall.
Also in the news this week is newly enhanced Call of Cthulhu character sheets. They’ve been released by Chaosium as part of the RPGs 40th birthday.
Some of the tweaks Chaosium has made to the released character sheets are around accessibility.
I had accessibility in mind when I checked out the free preview of The Horrible Guild’s One More Quest. This RPG is based on the board game Dungeon Fighter and has you throw dice as the system, trying to land as close to a target as possible.
Complications in the game are handled by difficulties to the throw, like doing it from under a table. Now, there was a time when I’d have been unable to get under a table. Would that prevent me from playing the game?
Short answer; no. In a sign of the times, even in this free quick start, The Horrible Guild remembers to talk about accessibility.
Yes, all they say is, well, do something else then, but that’s enough. It’s enough they acknowledge and give permission to do something else then.
Now, as usual, some bundles and a competition.
It’s not usually GRIMtember, but it is now. As a result, you can save over $100 on Zweihander titles at DriveThruRPG. The catch? You still have to spend $200 to get it. Nevertheless, if this is your system and you want to take your content from zero to hero, this bundle is the one for you.
The Bundle of Holding has a deal on The City of Mist. That’s a compellingly great narrative superhero game. Absolutely worth a look.
And, at Humble, there are hundreds of dollars worth of crime stories available for pennies. The partnership is with Hard Case Crime and you just have to deal with the fact that the covers are all sexy ladies in distress or kicking butt.
Lastly, and in total contrast to Hard Case Crime, for listeners in the UK, there’s a copy of the flower growing Blossoms card game up for grabs in a new Geek Native competition.
On that note, let’s wrap there. Keep safe, enjoy your tea, and we’ll see you next week.
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