Welcome home.
This is Audio EXP for the 7th of October, and the episode title is “Is that weird?”
[The following is a transcript of Audio EXP: #213]
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Scoundrel Game Labs is in the Spotlight this month, as voted for by Patreons.
One of the Scoundrel team emailed me about a year ago, so rather than using contact forms and addresses off the website, I used that old email address to reach back out. Let’s see if that works because, as ever, it’ll be great to get the publisher on board with the piece.
By the way, note to all RPG publishers looking for PR, media or marketing help: please make it easy for bloggers, journalists and influencers to get in touch. Or, at least, possible.
I know there’s a tension between privacy, personal details and selling stuff, but even if you have a link page, or a Google site, or a one-page blog, and use a Gmail address that just forwards to your primary inbox and thus obscures your day to day email account, you can make yourself so much more approachable.
More important than a ‘by the way’ is this heartfelt thank you to Geek Native patrons for supporting the site, who now get to vote in the November poll.
The candidates for November are:
Let’s dig into this week’s “is that weird theme?” and start with Pictionary. If you don’t know Mattel’s best-seller, then it’s a game where you have a minute to draw a picture without letters or words and then teams try and guess what you’ve done.
In researching this piece, I’e also discovered Pictionary Air in which you have to draw with a light pen wand in the air while a smartphone app tracks that. You can broadcast to your TV but otherwise, you can’t see what you’re doing.
Now, that sounds a little weird!
However, the new Pictionary variant which sparked the question is Pictionary versus AI.
In this game, you draw, point your smartphone at the doodle, and an AI powered by Google’s “Quick, Draw!” system tries to guess what you’ve done. You score points by predicting whether the AI will get it right.
Mattel is saying this is the first board game to integrate AI technology. Do you agree?
Okay, I’m just going to hang a lantern on it. I’m looking at Pictionary vs AI and thinking about two dates. I’m thinking about October 10 when Amazon has its first ever second Prime Day event and, sorry, I’m thinking about Christmas and the festive gift-giving season. We’ve not had Halloween yet, but I suspect gifts and retail therapy will more than be a hint in the podcast.
First, though, let’s talk about The Mysteries, which feels very different.
Bronwen spotted this project from Bill Watterson. Yes, he of Calvin and Hobbes’ fame.
The Mysteries is out on October 10th, oh, that date again and yes you can pre-order from Amazon and is an illustrated fable for adults. It looks dark and is set in a cursed Kingdom.
The caricature artist John Kascht worked with Bill for several years, both trying something new and there’s a little preview on Geek Native to show you exactly how it looks.
Is it weird? You can get an official Dungeons & Dragons Christmas sweater.
Are all Christmas sweaters also sort of ugly jumpers? Is that a thing outside of the UK?
So many questions. Let me tell you about Merchoid’s D&D design. On the front, there’s the head of an evil-looking red dragon with stark white eyes peering out from the darkness. Below that and in a strip around the whole jumper are flames with dice and Christmas tree shapes, or d4s on sticks, you take your pick, and on the top is the D&D logo.
On the back, a hero stands silhouette in a castle courtyard. You can tell they’re a hero as they wear a cape. Above the castle, there’s a full moon with the D&D ampersand in red on it, and dragons fly in the sky.
I think it looks great, except for the Dungeons & Dragons logo. I think that’s too corporate for me and doesn’t add to the design, overloading it instead, but perhaps I’m just convincing myself not to buy it.
Bronwen spotted a better design, also from Merchoid, and it’s a Jurassic Park Christmas jumper.
Is a dinosaur Christmas design weird? Bronwen rated it as G.O.A.T. That’s hip person talk for Greatest of All Time which is high praise from someone with several mini-dinosaurs at home.
The Jurassic Park design also features the logo, that’s the black bone silhouette of the T-rex on the red circle with the Jurassic Park sign across the base. The sweater has a raptor chase around the lower half as a repeating design, and below that, skull fossils.
See, this time the logo is a central part of the design, while Jurassic Park is a franchise that’s the fictional park’s logo. It feels essential, it feels different.
The whole sweater is also decorated with ferns and greenery, which means the T-Rex face bursting out of the back in a gotcha fits in and is a surprise at the same time.
From memory, the T-Rex also got the goat.
Okay, would it be weird if Doctor Strange became a zombie and could not resist the flesh-eating urge to eat through the entire multiverse?
That’s the concept of The Hunger, which is an official Marvel Zombies story.
I didn’t know Marvel Zombies was a thing, but it is, and Aconyte Books runs it. Aconyte Books sells via DriveThruComics, and you can buy it there.
By the way, you can use DriveThruRPG or DMsGuild gift certificates across any of their sites, including DriveThruComics and DriveThruFiction. I don’t know whether they’ll work on Roll20, but I have asked.
By the way, do you think Deadpool would make the situation in Marvel Zombies’ The Hunger better or worse?
See what we did there? We actually went from superhero zombies to plotting festive gift coupons at RPG and geek sites back to zombies again. Weird?
Rather more traditionally, there’s Dungeons & Dragons Lore & Legends which is an official history book on 5e, not from Wizards of the Coast and published by Penguin Random House.
It looks great, will absolutely be a gift between gamers this year and is notable for three other reasons.
Firstly, we’ve names like Kyle Newman, Jon Peterson, and Michael Witwer attached. These are fantastic historians and D&D experts.
Secondly, it’ll be one of the last D&D books distributed by Penguin Random House. It’s not new news, but it’s on the agenda again as it’s happening now and is big news. Wizards of the Coast aren’t using the big name any more. There seems to be no big-name replacement, but there are several other distributors, including Diamond, that Wizards of the Coast works with, and perhaps Hasbro has other deals in place.
I suspect this separation isn’t due to some secret tabletop RPG project from Penguin Random House; Andrews McMeel and Osprey tried this, but it was probably just a commercial decision on distribution costs and logistics.
Lastly, Geek Native as a five-page Legends & Lore preview on the blog.
Now, there’s a cool competition to get to but that doesn’t mean we’re going to skimp on the bundle deals, certainly not when a Rhodesian Ridgeback needs our help.
The Scarred Lands are in the Bundle of Holding. Onyx Path’s 5e rules for a fantasy world torn up by the war between the gods and titans are included in the two-tier offer.
There’s also fiction on the site with Ellen Datlow’s Tales of Terror, both bundles expire the week before Halloween.
Then, on the DMsGuild, there’s Bite Club. Game designer Michael LaBossiere and their Rhodesian Ridgeback, Remy, were horribly caught in a dog attack, requiring medical assistance.
The Bite Club bundle is to pay for vet and emergency room fees.
Now, and with a timely pivot away from how awful real life can be, let’s escape to the wilds of fantasy and a competition from Fainting Goat games and Geek Native.
Earlier this year, and inspired by the movie Cocaine Bear, Fainting Goat released a Honey Heist-inspired tabletop RPG called Cocaine Owlbear. It was a hit!
There’s a Deluxe edition on the way, and the competition points you at the Kickstarter while also giving you a chance to win a print copy.
Cocaine Owlbears, are those weird?
And on that note, be weird, and I will see you next week.
Start up a conversation in the comments below.
