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This is Audio EXP for September 21st, and the episode title is “The Count mwahahaha!”
[The following is a transcript of Audio EXP: #254]
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Tin Star Games won the RPG Publisher Spotlight this month.
The interview with Steve Dee, Tin Star’s President, is live, and in it Steve argues that the RPG scene hasn’t changed much over the years.
I think, however, he’s talking about the design scene and game principles. If then games like Ghostbusters and Buffy are high benchmarks.
I’ve called this episode “The Count mwahahaha!” because, embarrassingly, I noticed one of this month’s podcasts was missing from the RSS feed on Geek Native. Why? I had tagged it wrong. Easily fixed. The corrected feed had two episodes called 252. Last week was episode 253. This week, which pretends there’s been no error, is episode 254.
Another incident in which I lost count of things was with the ticket release for Scotland Loves Anime. Geek Native will be at the Edinburgh showing, but not Glasgow and not London. That’s right, Andy and the team are taking this charity festival of Japanese animation down south to the English and British capital. What a great expansion for them.
I had a week of tickets to book, and Picturehouse, the cinema company, seemed to resist every attempt to do so. At nearly midnight, I had to do them all one by one, piling pressure on the credit card and my small, weak brain. This is frustrating because the Picturehouse is fighting for survival. Only a week of anime can help me recover from the drama.
Saturday looks intense with The Colours Within and Sand Land scheduled, the first surely competition contender.
We’re also still getting through Tabletop Scotland entries. I’ve written up my pre-Essen Spiel look at Medusa Games and Richard Denning’s Oranges and Lemons.
The board game will be Medusa’s first Euro game, but it’s not their first board game based on British history or nursery rhymes, as they’ve done both before. The thing is, I researched the origins of this rhyme, and while it’s well known that it’s about church bells in London, there are also theories that track the little playful tune back to public executions. Gosh!
Outside of Tabletop Scotland, Ravensburger got in touch, and Bronwen won the reviewer lotto to get a freebie copy of Horrified: World of Monsters.
Bronwen’s review does have a small note of game issues, such as some instructions coming a bit too early in the sequence, but overall, she rates it highly. I note she and Murdo seemed to have Lady Luck with them, and perhaps that helped form good first impressions.
Bronwen also noticed The Waves of Madness and this looks bonkers.
It’s a black-and-white horror, perhaps a bit like those oldies from the 30s, but it looks far more intense. The main quirk with The Waves of Madness is that it’s a side-scrolling movie! The hero always seems to be moving from left to right when he’s moving at all.
Jason Trost of All Superheroes Must Die is both writer and director.
Beating me to the punch, Bronwen also pounced on Netflix’s news that there’s a new Cyberpunk anime on the way. It’s set in Night City, but I’m unsure if it’s a prequel or a sequel. A prequel makes more sense given, well, the fate of so many in the show in the people have been clear that those stories have been told.
The newish Cyberpunk Edgerunners TTRPG is set after the anime so perhaps that holds clues.
Let’s stick with entertainment speculation for a bit as long time Geek Native ally and sometime writer Paul shared some thoughts on Henry Cavill’s Warhammer project.
There are dozens of Warhammer 40K stories to turn into a TV series. The smart money is on Eisenhorn by Dan Abnett. In fact, I’ve listened to some of the audiobooks, expecting this to be the case.
Paul counters that a true Warhammer 40K fan, like Cavill, would want to tell one of the big stories, like The Horus Heresy.
Would Paul bet a pint that he was right? No, but I see his logic.
I also tried to use logic to work out how well D&D 2024’s Player’s Handbook was selling.
It’s not in the top 5 trending modules on Fantasy Grounds, and as a Roll20 module on the DMsGuild, it’s only a copper bestseller, which means fewer than 100 downloads. However, most Roll20 people would surely get it from the marketplace.
Amazon reviews are mixed, with the book getting about 3.5/5 stars, and in the US it’s not listed as a best seller yet. In the UK it’s 5th in the ‘Hobbies and Games’ chart, behind some colouring in books.
The money markets, though, are currently treating Hasbro well. I also cop out and suggest it’s really too soon to tell.
A 5e game that I’m looking forward to is Handiwork’s FiveEvil. That’s going to be a horror that subverts some of 5e and TTRPG tropes we expect with horror games. The good news is that while the core rules aren’t out yet there is an intro that’s free to download called FiveEvil Splinters.
Now, as we approach the outro, let me tell you there’s loads of bundles. We’re catching up so buckle up for some deals.
If you’re a Roll20 user and not just playing D&D then there’s great news as Roll20Con is due and there are two bundles out with hundreds of dollars of content in them for about twenty bucks each.
Look for Roll20Con 2024 Doctors Without Borders 1 and bundle 2. Doctors Without Borders are an excellent charity.
In the Bunle of Holding, there’s a detective deal on Baker Street, two on Level Up! for advanced D&D and one trippy offer for Troika!
Lastly, on Humble, there’s time left to go Hellboy with the B.P.R.D. series deal and Pathfinder’s ready for Halloween Bundle of the Dead.
On that note, I can only count to four, and see you next week.
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