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This is Audio EXP for 25th March, 2023, and the episode title is “The market evolves”.
[The following is a transcript of Audio EXP: #190]
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Of Gods and Gamemasters is in the Spotlight this month, as voted for by Patreons.
The interview is live, a blog post to read, and in it, we touch on the great successes both Black Flag and ORC have had. Black Flag is Kobold Press’ rallying of the troops and ORC one from Paizo.
Why have both projects attracted so much interest? I asked Jack, who owns Of Gods and Gamemasters, and he puts it down to timing and Wizards of the Coast’s mistake. The big publisher dropped the ball, and the others are agile enough to pick it up.
ICv2’s round-up of sales conversations with US retailers has some insight into how dominant Wizards of the Coast and parent Hasbro are.
- The RPG figures for Fall 2023 put D&D in the bestseller position.
- Pathfinder, from Paizo, is second.
- However, OGL 5e, a whole family separate from D&D, is third, and ICv2 mentions Kobold and Darrington as example publishers in that space. Darrington is Critical Role’s studio.
- Then, Vampire: The Masquerade is fourth, and that’s good news for Paradox, who own the license and for Renegade Game Studios who have been working on the RPG in recent years.
- Lastly, and somewhat surprising to me, is the Transformers RPG. I guess the Michael Bay films haven’t put everyone off. That’s also from Renegade Game Studios, and here they’re also a Hasbro licensee.
Thinking about indies? As it happens, and as the month comes to a close, Geek Native’s patrons have the chance to vote for one of five to feature next month. They are;
A nice example of RPG publishers helping other RPG publishers comes from my coverage of Princes of the Universe RPG.
That’s a free-to-download and rules-light fan-made tabletop roleplaying game based on the Highlander movies and series.
I had wondered whether there might be opposition from, well, lawyers or Evil Genius the tabletop RPG publisher behind Everyday Heroes the d20 Modern and 5e mashup but the latter looks unlikely.
Sigfried Trent got in touch to say he supported the project. Sigfried is the lead developer for Evil Genius Games’ official and upcoming The Highlander game.
That was an excellent effort, as Sigfried could have stayed silent.
While we’re talking freebies, why not mention the Rapscallion Quickstart.
That’s another upcoming game, and this time it’s from the artist Whistler and Magpie Games. So, yeah, it’s a Powered by the Apocalypse one.
According to Whistler, the inspiration touches on finding a family to stop you from making stupid decisions and then making those silly choices anyway.
And then there’s Exit, Pursed by a Bear. That’s on Kickstarter right now, funding and while I don’t frequently mention Kickstarters on the Audio EXP podcast of RPG and geek news, I did want to mention this.
This zine game is inspired by the story of Pablo Escobear, that bear which went on a chemically enhanced rampage through the mountains in the 80s. There’s a movie based on that story out right now. I think you know the one.
Exit, Pursed by a Bear isn’t a free download but a low-cost investment.
The following two games are from the multi-creator end of the RPG publisher spectrum and, with so many people on the project, come with higher price tags.
The first is the latest Warhammer 40K-based tabletop RPG and that’s Imperium Maledictum from Cubicle 7.
You can get the PDF of that now from DriveThruRPG for $29.99 or pay $55.99 to pre-order the hardback from C7 and get the PDF for free.
The second game is coming soon, and that’s Chaosium’s Basic Roleplaying which is getting a new release, an update of the BRP system and which will be part of the ORC license. That’s the new Creative License project that Paizo kicked off.
Lastly, let’s outro with the usual bundles.
I’ve one noted on the Bundle of Holding, and that’s Goodman Games’ D&D 4e library.
The other is software, and on Humble, that’s the encore of Maps Bonanaza from Campaign Cartographer.
So, let’s finish there; buy a range of games, and keep safe.
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