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This is Audio EXP for the 15th of June, and the episode title is “Dicebroken”
[The following is a transcript of Audio EXP: #245]
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Ganesha Games won the RPG Publisher Spotlight this month.
As noted last week, Ganesha are publishing games, but they’re also in Ukraine. I’ll do my best to get in touch, but I’m sure Geek Native isn’t a priority for them, and we can always push on with a Spotlight without a Q&A.
Last week’s podcast I toured through some UK Games Expo recaps and I was sitting on not-secret-but-not-well-known news. UK Games Expo 2025 will be different.
Someone with more money has booked Hall One at the NEC for years. UK Games Expo will have to move, and on the blog, you can see the proposed new layout of Halls 2, 3, 3a and 4. I think it works. These huge halls face each other in a horseshoe ring, making sure there’s less distance between anyone standing and the way in.
I wrote up the story last week, since publishers and vendors were beginning to talk about it in public. Not that it was ever secret. I guess it’s just not consumer-facing news, and nor are UK Games Expo keen to make it a talking point. In theory, the only people with much of a vested interest are people buying a stall and worrying about where in the small village of tabletop games they’ll be located.
However, I’m getting conflicting feedback on whether the new design has more or less floorspace. I’ve not tracked down NEC’s specs to do the math myself. Given the ring of halls, I suspect it’ll feel smaller.
In different convention news, the 2023 Origins Awards finalists have been listed. Yes, 2023.
I won’t list all of them or we’ll be here for minutes but the candidates for best RPG core rules are;
- Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game Core Book (Magpie Games)
- Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game: Core Rulebook (Marvel)
- Star Trek Adventures: Captain’s Log (Modiphius Entertainment)
- The Devil’s Dandy Dogs (Monte Cook Games)
- DIE: The Roleplaying Game (Rowan, Rook and Decard)
The title of this episode, Dicebroken, relates to bad news from Dicebreaker.
Launched in 2019, which feels like yesterday and a million years ago, Dicebreaker was all about tabletop games and staffed with professional writers. It was like the hobby had finally made it.
Now, the family of sites that Dicebreaker belongs to have been taken over by IGN and there have been many layoffs.
The editor-in-chief, Matt Jarvis, senior staff writer, Alex Meehan and head of video, Michael Whelan, are all gone. The last article on the site was posted on June 10th and was a sponsored post.
Michael Whelan tweeted to say;
No idea what IGN will do with the brand in the future but if you haven’t already been able to tell from the multiple lay offs and no posts, the Dicebreaker as you knew it is no more.
It’s pretty much impossible to make money by writing about tabletop games. Geek Native doesn’t make a penny. I support it is through my day job.
I’m sure tabletop game content do make money, and some of the figures video influencers charge for supporting board games are impressive, but that’s not the same thing as donning the editorial hat and writing up news.
It’s important to say that Dicebreaker is still alive. There are still full-time staff who might be there, at least. Not everyone has said publicly that they’re leaving.
It also feels important to mention Rascal News again. That’s the site set up by Chase Carter, an ex-Dicebreaker, Lin Codega and Rowan Zeoli. If anyone can earn cash by keeping an indie eye on tabletop news; it’s that crew.
In better news, Pendragon 6e is finally out.
This is the tabletop RPG created by Greg Stafford set in a mythical world of King Arthur, where you can end up playing your first character’s children or their children.
The sixth edition was announced in 2020 to mark the second anniversary of Stafford’s death.
There’s been some debate about this release, though, and some gamers are asking whether a book called ‘core rulebook’ should have mass battle rules given how important they were in previous editions or whether a following GMs guide might do that.
This week, I reviewed Two Little Mice’s Outgunned, was impressed and even more so at all the comments from fans stepping forward. Is this a sleeper hit?
In Outgunned, your TTRPG is like an action flick or TV series. You’re rolling pairs, three or more of a kind rather than high or low, and you manage an economy of drama and grit. If you do poorly, and your hero runs out of oomph, then rather than death, you don’t get to be part of that episode any more. Perhaps your character is too wounded. Then, like in any movie sequel, you can return to the action next time.
It was the Outgunned Adventure BackerKit that put me back onto Outgunned. I had assumed Adventure was a supplement. It is and isn’t because it’s also full of rules if all you care about are pulp adventures like Indiana Jones or Uncharted.
A third RPG worth talking about is Dragon Age. There’s a new Dragon Age computer RPG coming out called The Veilguard and on the blog we’ve gameplay footage.
Dragon Age is also a tabletop RPG from Green Ronin. The original quickstart for that is still on DriveThruRPG and free. Links are, of course, via the shownotes.
Alternatively, if you don’t have anyone handy for a tabletop game and are bored right now then I want to highlight the animation Bronwen found called The Last Seed. It’s just a few minutes long, but it’s a fun little sci-fi.
I know. We must keep our short movie discoveries linked up for the Roulette game.
For our outro, there are two bundles to mention. The first is the gonzo fantasy of Operation Unfathomable which is in the Bundle of Holding.
The last is Still Not Done With Pathfinder 1 which gets you hundreds of dollars of downloads for less than $30. The money supports Owen K.C. Stephens, who is battling cancer.
On that note, good luck in your Grail quest, and see you next week.
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