Routinely Itemised: RPGs #279

Howdy folks, we’re approaching Halloween. Are you hyped, and will your GM throw a horror adventure at you? Here’s the RPG summary of summaries!

• Ars Magic is now open source.
• Chris Perkins is no longer D&D’s Product Lead.
• Organised Play Foundation has taken control of Warhorn (though they call it sponsoring)
• Chaosium opened up a Pendragon Community Content.
• Wizards of the Coast opened up a World of Greyhawk Community Content.
• Discworld is already a million-dollar crowdfunder.

Imagine I’ve not just eaten my body weight in cheese and popcorn. I’m writing this with a glass of whisky in my hand. It’s pitch as oil outside on this Scottish coastline, and it’s safe to say winter is here. That also means that the shopping season and holidays influence gameplay.

What do you think will happen in the tail-end of 2024? More or fewer TTRPG nights: What will that make for the hobby?

I’ve seen an uptick in Kickstarters, but many companies will be pushing their spooky games out. We won’t see a similar surge for Christmas. Meanwhile, we’re yet to see the impact of D&D 2024.

On with the news!

Competition: Red Dwarf – Discovering the TV Series.

RPG news from Geek Native

• Ars Magica is now an Open License RPG; Atlas Games is hoping to buy Holocubierta Ediciones art while Blagdaross is created.
• The Organised Play Foundation has taken over Warhorn.
• Free League has delayed ALIEN RPG Evolved Edition.
• Chaosium has launched a new Pendragon community content programme.
• Wizards of the Coast finally allow World of Greyhawk community content.
• In Humble, there’s a Call of Cthulhu encore.

Spotlight: Steve Hatherley

RPG news from around the web

• EN World picks up that Chris Perkins will no longer serve as a Product Lead for official D&D books..
• Mollie Russell argues DnD’s new Dungeon Master’s Guide apes other RPGs without giving due credit.
• Wargamer also runs Dungeons and Dragons’ new DM Guide has some surprise celeb consultants.
• Rascal’s Jayme Boucher pens Discord Celebrates Dungeons & Dragons’ 50th Anniversary With A Roll20-Exclusive Adventure.
• Roll20’s Director of Operations Dean Bigbee shares D&D 2024 One Month Later: New Features and the Road Ahead.
• At Rascal, Taylor Navarro covers that The PoC Lounge Returns to Dragonmeet UK.
• A new look but still insecure Roleplayers Chronicle runs Two New Expansions Are Coming to ‘Vaesen’: Mythic Carpathia and City of My Nightmares.
• Adi Tantimedh at Bleeding Cool notes New Stranger Things and Dungeons & Dragons Comic Features Eddie Munson.
• B-Town Blog and Scott Schaefer wrote up Dungeons & Dragons marathon raises over $111,000 for charity at Forestledge in Burien.
• The Badger Herald finds an angle with Dungeons & Dragons 2024 Player’s Handbook sparks complaints from players.
• If you have a (free) D&D Beyond account, you can download D&D Dossier: Vecna.

RPG reviews and interviews from around the web

• Reviews from R’lyeh looks at Space: 1999 and Achtung! Cthulhu’s Operation Falling Crystal.
• Throat Punch Games pen a ring side report on High School Cthulhu. The quickstart is just out.
• The Other Side reviews Ravenloft Gothic Earth Gazetteer and A Guide to Transylvania, Masque of the Red Death and a bunch of Van Richten’s Guides.
• Beth Rimmels shares her deep dive into D&D 2024’s Player’s Handbook.
• At CNET, Russell Holly says The Dungeons & Dragons 2024 DM Guide Update Is Exactly What It Needs to Be.
• Gizmodo’s Gordon Jackson covers The New Dungeon Master’s Guide Promises to Make D&D Accessible to Friends and Foes Alike.
• Aaron T Huss reviews The World of Symbaroum.
• Cavegirl interviews RPG designer and illustrator Sara Carapace.
• Polygon’s Hal Hewlett talks to Tom Bloom in Cain is tabletop gaming’s horror hit of the year.
• CNN interviews Shelly Mazzanoble about How to Dungeon Master Parenting.

RPG new releases

• Kids in the Attic releases their system-agnostic Sleepy Hollow: A Tabletop Roleplaying Game of Early 19th Century Folk Horror.
• Agamemnon Press has published their OSE-powered The Painted Wastelands.
• Cubicle 7 have found Gold quickly with Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Dwarf Player’s Guide.
• Green Ronin’s AGE System now sports Cthulhu Awakens: Brinkmanship.
• Black Cat Gaming published Cursed Captains of Cthulhu Core Rulebook.
• Creative Jam Tabletop RPGs have put a great cover on Nightbound.
• Just Insert Imagination have had nothing but five star reviews for Metal Gods of the Apocalypse.
• Blending cyberpunk with ancient Japan, W.R.K.S Games releases Katana-Ra: The World Book.
• Stillfleet hits the rad shields with Blister Critters! Rulebook.
• GearGames has an early five-star review with their new High School Cthulhu quickstart.
• GrubyBang also has a starter out, and it’s for the Aurora Roleplay Game.
• Deep Dark Games publishes HOME – Mech x Kaiju Mapmaking.
• Marshall-Andrew Reed promises a bold new take on TTRPG and releases Taleweaver.
• In physical pre-orders you can now secure your copy of Nerdvana Games’ Bunkers & Badasses RPG: Sourcebook.
• D&D fans can also grab Adventurer issue #61, #62, #63 and (without surprise) #64.

RPG bundle deals

• Save $140.40 (93%) in Wayward Rogues Publishing’s Complete Catalog Bundle
• Save $92 (80%) with Demons & Dungeoneers Gamebooks’ Demons & Dungeoneers! Halloween Bundle 2024.
• Save $30 (60%) in Gildor Games’ ELEMENTAL 2024 Bundle of Fear.
• Save $14.57 (65%) in Wyrd Science’s Wyrd Science Vol 1 bundle.
• Save $7.95 (15%) with Arion Games’ Advanced Fighting Fantasy Adventure bundle.
• Save $6.76 (31%) with Basuna’st Bloodtears Series bundle.

RPG ideas, tips and discoveries

• Ben Jackson and the Genre Police are developing a complex.
• Charles offers some insight into Worldbuilding Dolmenwood.
• Jared Rascher starts a series on Diegetic Rule and looks at Tales of the Valiant rituals.
• Goodman Games publish a retrospective of 11 years of their Yearbooks.
• Mollie Russell also points out that Dungeons and Dragons has a strange vendetta against bathrooms. Geek Native can confirm, cheekily, that I poked fun at an update to the D20 System Guide over a decade ago that banned ‘bathrooms’ .
• Sly Flourish shares The Simplest Way to Annotate a Map.
• You can (and should) cuddle a squig.

RPG Crowdfunding

You can see those Kickstarters and other crowdfunding campaigns that caught Geek Native’s attention over at Kickstarter watch. Here are some industry projects worth mentioning;

• Tethered Flesh RPG from The Blackened Hand by Ada Hatton proposes “Dark Fantasy Body Horror RPG”
• Tempest Tides – 3D-printables & adventure for RPG & tabletop from Josef Kujawski submits “Embark on a coastal quest and discover treasures (and award-winning 3D-printable miniatures!) amidst the tempestuous tides in your RPG.”
• Christmas 2024 – Dice Advent Calendars & Selection Boxes from Robert Melrose kickstarts “The 2024 edition of our dice advent calendars and selection boxes. Christmas Treats for dice fans!”
• The Frozen Throne, 5e Adventure of a frozen Dwarven Empire from Matthew David submits “A high-stakes adventure to uncover the secrets of a lost dwarven empire, and decide whether to awaken the Slumbering King.”
• No Place Like Homebrew: Build epic fantasy worlds for DnD from Roll & Play Press offers “Easily create epic worlds. Over 500 locations, NPCs and factions all in one stunning book. For 5E, 5.5E and all fantasy RPGs.”
• A Tome of Consumables for D&D from CraftRiot kickstarts “A tome of consumables to enrich your tabletop RPG campaigns with unique potions, poisons, and mystical meals. Compatible with DnD 5e!”
• DnD 5e Tome of Terrors Vol 7: Monsters of the Dark! from The Eldorium Archives nominates “A D&D 5e supplement containing new creatures of the Dark, each accompanied by a Mini and a One-Shot adventure featuring them!”
• Eldritch Eternity: Frostbite (and Minis) from RadiationBurn crowdfunds “A SARIL Tabletop RPG adventure”
• DUNGEON DUUMHAVEN – 3 Adventures in Print for DnD 5e/OSE/OSR from Laidback Dungeon Master proposes “3 Shotglass Adventures: Dungeon Duumhaven for D&D 5e & Old School Essentials / OSR now available in print!”
• Unsinkable! A DnD Adventure from Dunmore Rolls Rocks suggests “A Titanic 5E Adventure!”
• The Excalibur Game Table from Arcadia Game Tables kickstarts “It’s time for your next adventure!”
• GRAB’n’GO – Road Encounters from HeroicHouse Creations suggests “Three tomes packed full of detailed and exciting encounters to turn you PCs travel from boring to brilliant.”
• Adventures in Teaching and Learning with TTRPGs: from Tabletop EDU suggests “A Compendium of Enlightening Design Resources, Essays, and Modules for GM’s Looking to Level-up Their Applied TTRPG Skills”
• Maps of Tellest, Volume 2: 50+ more maps for TTRPGs from Mike DeAngelo suggests “50+ High-Quality Digital Fantasy Battlemaps for Tabletop RPGs (D&D, Pathfinder, Roll20, and Beyond)”
• Mycologist’s Primer by Double Proficiency from Hunters Books offers “A magical mixture of science, folklore, and world-building for your tabletop role-playing adventure.”
• The Howl of the Chimeras from Shadowlands Games submits “A Victorian Era Scenario for Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition (seal of Chaosium).”
• Atlantis: War of the Tridents for 5E from Mythos Chronicles suggests “An underwater adventure module for 5E, also featuring new character options, treasures, monsters, and mechanics.”
• The Deck of Dynamic Dungeons | DELVE Part DEUX from Gemhammer Games raises funds for “A complete 5E DnD dungeon crawl in deck form. Flip, fight, & loot your <3 out—then wander, rinse, and repeat for pocket-sized RPG fun!”
• Necromancers of Monastis from Brave Alice submits “A new Unique Class inspired by the Diablo franchise; A True Summoner for your 2E & 5E games, followed by new spells and detailed STLs.”
• Avalon Rising: The Tabletop Role-Playing Game from Black Site Studios nominates “In the heart of a sprawling megacity, will you rise above the shadows or be consumed by its dark power?”
• Neo Goblins from Theokyd nominates “A 5e guide to making goblins a high-level threat in your campaign.”
• Talismans in the mist from TrashMaxGames submits “A Solo RPG adventure, roll and click, in the world of the lost shaman”
• Ministry of Lost Things: Lint Condition – A Puzzletale from PostCurious [Rita Orlov] suggests “Discover the secret lives of lost objects in a whimsical tabletop adventure full of beautifully illustrated, tactile puzzles.”
• Royal Blood – A Tarot Heist RPG from Rowan, Rook and Decard kickstarts “Cast the cards. Don your crown of lead and silver. Tonight you’re going to take them for everything they’ve got.”
• The Undergoblin Heist – RPG adventure & minis for 5E and DCC from Weird Works suggests “A sandbox heist adventure featuring goblin-on-goblin hijinks. Written for Dungeons & Dragons 5E and Dungeon Crawl Classics.”
• Populated Hexes Monthly Issue 39 from Todd introduces “Begin the Exploration of Tyeld, the Shadowed City”
• Artifex’ One Shot Bundle from Artifex Worlds raises funds for “A collection of 6 One Shots for D&D 5e. Made for levels 1 to 5 with a crab-themed festival, magic items, memorable NPC’s and more!”
• Nightlife Manual, A D&D Guide to Explore the Night from Bradley Horton pitches “A comprehensive guide to mysteries of the night, NPCs, events, locations, and nocturnal creatures, compatible with DnD 5e!”
• Spine Tinglers: All Ages Horror RPG from Sixpence Games crowdfunds “Spine Tinglers is aall-ageses horror RPG inspired by Goosebumps, FNAF, and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark”
• Trash to Treasure – A Trash Goblin Magical Girl RPG from Jonathon Boyle offers “Get feral, fight pollution. A lightweight, high-action tabletop roleplaying game about trash goblin magical girls and their familiars.”
• My IMPISH! Little Storybook – A Witty D&D Adventure from Neuron Games suggests “A fun & crazy 5e adventure designed & written by an Infernal creature with a unique & weird imagination, for GMs and players to enjoy.”
• Seven Sealed Spirits from WatcherDM submits “A micro-campaign setting zine made for Knave 2e. OSR hex crawl and dungeon delve.”
• NEMESIS – Custom handmade RPG dice sets from Nemesis nominates “The first NEMESIS Kickstarter promoting Giulia Mella dices…”
• Vellum: The Game Master’s workbench from Christopher Ashley suggests “Empowering every GM to be a great GM with sophisticated AI-powered software to create and manage your worlds, campaigns and characters.”
• Cold As Clay from Chamomile Has A Project kickstarts “A sourcebook for 5e and 5.5e of ghosts and haunted houses”
• TwistBit 2.0 from Board Game Alchemy suggests “Gear-driven storage solution for your board gaming bits”
• Delta dice from LunaDice is working on “Exclusive cnc anodized aluminum dice for collectors, tabletop, dnd, board game, geeks, enthusiasts.”
• Pocket Monster Manual I from Niki van Stein pitches “Capture, Train, and Battle with 150+ Unique Monsters in This Fully Illustrated RPG Supplement”
• Dice’s Edge (TTRPG and STLs) from Theodore crowdfunds “A spells and space suits fantasy Table top role play game with accompanying 3D printable miniatures.”
• DieRing: The Dice Ring for Gamers from The BoardGame Zone is working on “Carry Your Fate on Your Finger: A Magic Ring with Seven Mini Dice for Every Tabletop Hero.”
• Tales & Tastes – Quick Bites for Adventurers from Tales & Tastes nominates “A Book that combines D&D and cooking, featuring easy recipes for the hungry adventurer along with plenty of 5E-compatible content!”
• Witchfyre: A Dark Fantasy RPG for 5E+ & Pathfinder from Witchfyre raises funds for “An RPG world of enthralling dark fantasy awaits. Bring new witchy classes, spells, crafting, and more to your table.”
• Adventurer’s Of Explorers Cove from Justin Coulombe kickstarts “An introductory game to DnD lets players battle out in explorers Cove. This turn based RPG style rolling game is fun, and easy to play.”
• Wilstrom’s Wondrous Locations: locales to liven up your RPG from Punchboard Publishing proposes “A set of 8 exotic locales to bring awe and wonder to any fantasy RPG setting”
• +313 Dark magical items for Dnd 5e and any ttrpg from Ana the halfling is working on “Discover the Magic. Embrace the Curse”
• DarkMyth Dungeon from Saucermen Studios pitches “An immersive set of modular fantasy terrain – 3D Printable, stl, modular terrain for tabletop games, wargames, and fantasy RPG”
• NUKED!: Totally Radical Tales Issues #4 from Sean “Mac” McClellan crowdfunds “The Secrets of Paradise Springs – A brand new NUKED! Adventure.”
• Rue From Ruin – Lone Werewolf Solo TTRPG from Adept Icarus kickstarts “Solo werewolf roleplaying. Struggle against your rage, uncover your betrayer’s motives, and weave a tale of vengeance or redemption.”
• Secrets of the Drowned City for D&D 5e from Adventurica suggests “A 25+ page underwater adventure packed with ancient mysteries for DnD 5e. Includes detailed maps, immersive lore, and exciting rewards!”
• Temple of the Green Devil: Deluxe Edition for Shadowdark RPG from Trident Gamebooks pitches “Head to head deathtrap dungeon inspired by RPG tournaments of the 70’s and 80’s”
• The Threat of the Dungeon | 3D Printable Monsters & Terrains from Matthieu MARTIN suggests “STL Dungeon, Heroes, NPCs, Monsters & an Immersive Dungeon Crawler 5e Adventure for your TTRPG & Wargames!”
• Roaring Dice from Scatter Games pitches “Call of the Wild Felidae – Dice with Big Cat Head Core for $9.9 USD”
• Funky Fresh Fables: Quick-adventures for 5e D&D – $1 from Luna Publishing kickstarts “3 – 80’s Horror themed short adventures. Designed generic with 5e-compatibility in mind!”
• Hinterlands: The Deadly Flora and Fauna of Western Cyzica from Ben Thompson crowdfunds “An illustrated RPG monster manual in the style of the expedition journals of the early explorers.”
• Mythos Rising from The Grinning Frog suggests “Fight cultists and creatures from beyond our realm in this card driven, Lovecraftian inspired solo play game”
• DnD: The Wyrmslayer (5E Class) from Andrew Dale pitches “Seize the power of dragons with this high mobility martial class for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition.”

Do you know of an RPG news source that we don’t? Let us know, or leave a comment below.