Welcome home.
This is Audio EXP for the 17th of June, 2023, and the episode title is “Winners, Losers and Star Wars”
[The following is a transcript of Audio EXP: #200]
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Lone Colossus Games is in the Spotlight this month, as voted for by Patreons.
I’ve got questions to Josh at Lone Colossus, so I’ll give him a nudge.
Now, this is the 200th episode of the podcast, and I’ve nothing special planned to celebrate it. As usual, though, freebies and bundles are mentioned at the end, so I suppose there’s a treat with most episodes anyway.
There is another treat for podcast Patrons, though, as Dias Ex Machina Games has whisked up a set of big discounts for the 5e-powered Biohazard. For only 20 cents, you too can be eaten by a zombie.
We’re giving the modern adventure out at the 20 cents tier first to patrons, then via Discord, as there are limited discount codes.
Why has Chris at Dias Ex Machina been so generous? There’s a crowdfunding campaign just launched for Ultramodern5, so it’s a publicity deal.
That’s also how I got him to write up his view on generative AI in the tabletop RPG publishing industry. A spicy topic. Chris currently bans AI art in his books but allows AI spell-checkers.
I think he tackles the topic sagely and essentially argues for collaboration and not substitution as if a digital artist wishes to use a tool, why couldn’t they?
This week, a more straightforward cut drama comes from the courts in America, where Wizards of the Coast’s counter-action against the so-called TSR has been paused.
The courts have to wait while TSR enters bankruptcy.
If you remember, TSR bought some rights to the name after the iconic trademark lapsed and then used crowdfunding and the anger of status-quo Clerics to sell books and raise money. It didn’t work.
However, it’s been noted that the owners are busy transferring the few book titles they have or say they have to a new company. As a result, I suspect we’ll continue to see the angry people involved and their attacks on anyone different from them, but I don’t think they’ll attack Wizards of the Coast again.
So, that’s a loser; we can now move on to the winners. I finally got around to writing up the two categories of winners in the UKGE 2023 Awards. The giant expo, and it was the biggest yet this year, have both the Judges Choice and the People Awards.
You can find the full list on the blog but I’ll do some highlights here.
The best board game American style in the Judges choice went to Oathsworn: Into the Deep by Shadowborn Games. Oathsworn won the People’s Choice too.
The best board game European style in the Judges choice went to Earth by Inside Up Games. Guess what? Earth also won the People’s Choice.
The best card game general was picked up by Viking Raiders by Neowulf Games. Could it be the People agreed with the Judges here too? Yes… they did, as Viking Raiders took home both prizes.
In the Judges Award, the best dice game went to Solar Sphere by Dranda Games, and, yes, the streak continues, with the People also awarding Solar Sphere the dice prize.
Also, in the Judges Award, the best miniatures rules went to Moonstone – The Airising Expansion by Goblin King Games. I don’t need to tell you that Moonstone also won the People’s Choice.
Finally, the Judges gave their Award for the best roleplaying game to Critical Foundation by Gigamic and… what’s this? Did the People disagree? They did! The People of UKGE gave the Best RPG of 2023 to Critical Kit’s Be Like a Crow.
Sticking with RPGs for a bit… Yeah, I know, hardly a change; let me brag that Geek Native got a sneak peek at Vortex Verlag’s forthcoming supernatural Renaissance Italy 5e-RPG called The Straight Way Lost.
Italy, Heaven and Hell are all in this generous preview available on the site now.
Another freebie is from Modphius, who continue their Mission Briefs for the Star Trek RPG. The latest free download is Lower Decks. And, as a reminder, the official Lower Decks RPG is coming later. This freebie is warming us up.
That’s not the only sci-fi news, as there’s Star Wars news in the podcast, too as there’s a bundle we’ll mention later.
First, from the publishers behind Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture is a horror game called Still Wakes the Deep which Bronwen noticed and wrote up.
It’s set in an oil rig off the Coast of Scotland, and here in Geek Native HQ, we can sometimes see the maintenance ships sail by. Not far away is Leith Docks, where they come to moor, so this particular horror has some connections here.
https://www.geeknative.com/158666/welcome-to-magical-edinburgh-a-look-inside-the-manga-witch-of-thistle-castle/Another Bronwen spot was the manga Witch of Thistle Castle from Titan Manga and by John Taarachine. That’s the English-sounding name given to the creator, he uses others, and Titan is calling Witch of Thistle Castle a manga mashup of Edinburgh and Harry Potter. There’s a lot borrowed from Edinburgh in Harry Potter already, but, well, Potter is kinda ruined for me due to the author’s views. Thankfully, the magical school genre is well established, and it will be cool to see a magical manga Scottish capital.
Completing a hat-trick of mentions, though just a highlight of the posts from the blog’s creative director – and more on that in future episodes – there’s the Easter egg Katamari on Google.
Do you remember the game? I certainly do! What mad fun.
Go to Google and search for Katamari. But not yet, we’re nearly at the end of this story.
Stories are in my mind because we’ve got that sprawling Star Trek story that Modiphius is bringing to their TTRPG license, and I’m missing the latest TV shows ever since they were taken off Netflix and went to Paramount+. There’s also Still Wakes the Deep, a horror story in computer game format, and I guess even the Easter Egg is a story in its own right.
Digital stories are an interesting topic, and that’s perhaps why the British Library has a new interactive technology exhibition on it.
As XR roles out, even if Apple’s Vision Pro costs thousands, I think we’ll see it playing a bigger role too.
There’s one last digital story headline to cover as we start the outro of bundle deals.
Kobo.com and Humble have a Star Wars deal. That’s the other Star Wars news I foreshadowed, and there are 40 Star Wars ebooks in the top tier.
We might be halfway through the year, but some of us could load our eReaders up with those and still have Star Wars to explore by Christmas.
Or we could be using cursed but powerful masks gifted to us by the fae to help slay our cruel vampire overlords in Brinkwood.
The Forged in the Dark-based RPG by Far Horizon is in the Bundle of Holding, but it’s a flash sale. You’ve until Wednesday.
There’s less rush to pick up Steamforged Games’ bundle of Epic Encounters and boost your DM resources.
Lastly, and unusually, I want to call out two bundles on DriveThruRPG because they’re huge.
The first is Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition which has $186 worth of World of Darkness cainite horror for only $45.
The second is the Everything bundle from Bloat Games, which has pretty much everything the publisher of games like A City Full of Sinners, Dark Places and Demogorgons and Survive This!! for $100. If you bought them all separately, it would cost you nearly $350.
And on that note, let’s wrap up there; enjoy well over $200 worth of savings for episode 200, and see you next week for 201.
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