Welcome home.
This is Audio EXP for March 22nd, and the episode title is “Whisky and horror”.
[The following is a transcript of Audio EXP: #280]
[Also on Stitcher | Spotify | Apple | YouTube]
Stonehome Games won the RPG Publisher Spotlight this month.
In the interview with Drew, I asked how important Patreon was to the business. I get the feeling it’s somewhat important but also a challenge. Like many things in this hobby, Patron eats time. However, Drew also mentioned Ko-fi as a storefront, and I think that’s worth exploring.
I remember when Ko-fi launched. It’s spelt “k.o. hyphen f.i.” but pronounced, I think, coffee, which gives us the notion of buying someone a coffee. It’s like an electronic tips jar.
What Drew and Stonehome Games noticed, and I did not, was that it’s added a shop front. You can buy Stonehome Games’ PDFs from it and, frankly, if Ko-fi has found a way to do a no-fuss and easy-to-maintain PDF for-money model, then it’s a site more RPG publishers should be looking at.
I’m recording the podcast a few hours later than usual tonight as I’m just back from watching the Canadian bluegrass band The Dead South play in Edinburgh’s Usher Hall. It was a boot-stomping affair with no shortage of songs about whisky. That’s a topic likely to do well here in Scotland.
We had a whisky story on Geek Native this week, too. Critical Role have teamed up again with Find Familiar Spirits for Courage. To mark Critical Role’s 10th anniversary, Find Familiar Spirits will make a somewhat limited edition whisky called Courage. That’s also the name of a drink from Critical Role lore.
I think it’s a great idea, but whisky takes years to mature, so I do wonder when all this started. I imagine, just as the Scotch Malt Whisky Society does that Courage is either rebottled or perhaps blended and rebottled. Absolutely no harm in that but it’s not quite the same as distilling liquid with a particular celebration or brand in mind.
On that note, Bronwen blogged about a game partnership which did make me wonder how bold the food brand would be. McDonalds have teamed up with Minecraft. It’s for the movie, and I’ve mixed feelings about the film but I was hoping we’d get square burgers.
Sadly, no, I don’t think we will. I think we’ll get adult Happy Meals, but the toys in them don’t look impressive. I haven’t had a McDs in years, and I’m not saying I won’t try the adult Happy Meal, I can’t say I’m feeling compelled to right now.
Bronwen also wrote up the news about Ocean Waves which looks more appetising.
The 1990s made-for-tv anime from Studio Ghibli is coming to the big screen. It’s due out in Japan on the 4th of July. Bronwen thinks it will come to the UK, and it’s true to say that between Crunchyroll and Anime Limited, we are getting more big-screen action but I’m not sure. I don’t think either of those two have a relationship with Studio Ghibli. Let’s hope I’m wrong.
Being wrong, I fear, might also be the theme of this week’s main RPG news. The sad news broke that Wizards of the Coast have laid off the majority of Sigil’s developers.
Sigil is their newly launched and Unreal Engine-powered virtual tabletop. Reports are circulating that Wizards of the Coast are already admitting that they got it wrong and that gamers aren’t going to flock to the 3D virtual tabletop.
You needed a D&D Beyond account and couldn’t use your browser to play. I suspect, also, most VTT gamers already have their platform of choice so Wizards of the Coast would have to settle in for a long slow battle.
Are you surprised that WotC’s VTT hasn’t succeeded? I think it raises pretty awkward questions.
One way or another, the future of the platform is in doubt and won’t encourage more people to try it.
A game that caught my eye this week is Black Powder and Brimstone. It’s an arty RPG being published by Free League Publishing. Ben Tobbit’s game blends folk horror with swashbuckling adventure.
We also had news of horror coming to UK Games Expo. Parable Games will run The Recruitment Gauntlet as an epic game. This means more than one table plays the game at once as PCs battle to become interns at the dodgy Cornwell corporation.
Lastly, I’ve three bundles to tell you about.
There’s the mashup of cyberpunk and Viking-influenced fantasy with Shield Maidens.
There’s also the chainsaw-powered weird fantasy of The Wildsea in which you can play as a sentient colony or fungus.
The final bundle brings us back to horror, and this time it’s of World War and with Wet Ink Games’ Never Going Home. In this game, demons are loose on the battlefields.
On that note, keep safe, drink up and see you next week.
