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This is Audio EXP for the 27th of July, and the episode title is “Deadpool & Friend”
[The following is a transcript of Audio EXP: #250]
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The OG GM Adventures won the RPG Publisher Spotlight this month.
The OG GM, Michael Straus, wrote A Fistful of Goblins, a $6 RPG which is now a Black Flag and system-agnostic setting which merges goblins, goblin magic into the weird west with cryptids and gunfights at high noon.
Just so I don’t forget, Geek Native’s podcast is expected to return on Saturday, the 17th of July.
Why the two-week break? It’s no break at all. Birdy and I will be running around the Edinburgh Festivals, writing for Geek Native’s sister site, Edinburgh Reviews, covering cabaret to comedy, science to scandalous drag shows.
Every year this clashes with Gen Con, but every year it makes it an easy decision not to spend the small fortune I don’t have to get myself from Scotland to the States for that tabletop gaming giant.
That said, sometimes there’s overlaps and last year I reviewed the The Magic of Terry Pratchett and the year before that The Twenty-Sided Tavern.
The Twenty-Sided Tavern is now a big success and announced a global tour this week.
Also, this week, Deadpool & Wolverine is out and Bronwen blogged about Deadpool & Friend. Have you heard about that movie?
It’s the same movie, and that blows my mind. The story is that while on Jimmy Kimmel Live that Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman revealed the movie title was going to be Deadpool & Friend.
There was an immediate backlash, but the movie was due to launch the next day.
Now, to accept this story, we need to define ‘launch’ carefully. In this case, the launch is the Super Bowl ad. The leak happened in February.
By then, much of the promo material had been made; American theatres already had nearly 10,000 standees with Deadpool & Friend. I imagine they all become collectable now.
The powers at be were not keen on changing the movie’s name, but the two stars persisted, deals were made, and we were given Deadpool & Wolverine instead.
Phew.
Everyone says avoid spoilers, don’t spoil it, and if I’m a productive geek at work on Monday, I’ll go see it that evening.
Okay, back to Gen Con while I remain totally cool about not being there.
R. Talsorian Games will be there and at booth 249. If you visit them, then you’ll be able to buy Shadow Scar Starter Set.
That box set is for Cody Pondsmith’s new IP. Inspired by anime and video games, this new world is set after a divine war, with characters being Ninjutsu-trained agents working across a multiverse.
There’s a free adventure sample already called Eyes in the Darkness, and you can get that via the link to the transcript in the show notes.
Gen Con is also where the first D&D 2024 books will be sold but the D&D news I want to highlight this week is that there’s still a way to get the rare D&D LEGO Mimic Dice Box.
How, that’s less good news. The dice box is a freebie with the impressive put expensive D&D: Red Dragon’s Tale set. That’s $360 for 3,745 pieces of LEGO.
The D&D news that Bronwen wrote up is that Jon Hamm will be in a D&D podcast and I think the idea is great.
The series will be directed by David Kushner, and it will be a D&D-themed real-life crime style. In my head, I imagine a retelling of a murder in Baldur’s Gate and the investigation of who might be behind it. However, rather than it turning out to be Bob the angry plumber, it’ll be Bob the angry chaos Cleric.
A more peaceful TTRPG is ION Heart. This solo game has broken Parable Games’ crowdfunding record and is still live at BackerKit.
The game is a sci-fi one set after a war, and you are a pilot, and the war mech joined with them. What do these two mentally linked warriors do in a galaxy at peace?
Geek Native was given the lo-down on the shady corporations who are the villains in this setting.
Roll20’s Christmas in July sale is on at DriveThruRPG, DriveThruComics and DriveThruFiction.
Discounts are hugh, up to 80% and generously applied to big titles so I did a bit of research into what’s selling the best.
When I looked the OSR title Knave: Second Edition was doing the best but not part of a trend.
The trend I noticed was the success of Italian publishers. They had 50% of the top ten spots, with Need Games doing especially well.
I’ve noticed this in Geek Native’s Kickstarter coverage; lots of good ideas for games, and clever innovation is coming from Italy.
As we sign off for two weeks, hopefully only because the festival chaos in Edinburgh lasts a full month, I’ll point out that the All About Gaming bundle is live at Humble.
These books are from MIT Press, a publisher affiliated with the famous Institute of Technology, and Jon Peterson’s Game Wizards is in that top tier.
On that note, avoid Cassandra Nova and Bob the Cleric; see you later this month.
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