It’s been another busy week, so let’s distract ourselves with TTRPG news.  

How do we do that? We start by summarising the summaries!

• Jeremy Crawford is quitting Wizards of the Coast.
• Mongoose had to delete AI art from their socials and bought the Dark Conspiracy TTRPG.
• Modiphius released the free quickstart for Space: 1999.
• Atlas Games’ Replay Workshop secured a $100K grant.
• There’s legal drama as potential buyers squabble over Diamond Comic Distributors.

This weekend, I’ll be at Scotland’s oldest tabletop games convention. Conpulsion returns to the Pleasance in Edinburgh, supported by Chaosium this year.

Convention season is heating up, and the length of the news column this week is an indicator, but there’s still uncertainty in the air. That said, there’s no significant international shipping news this week’s highlights.

On with this week’s news!

Spotlight: Keith DEdinburgh.

RPG news from Geek Native

• D&D’s Games Director, Jeremy Crawford, is to quit Wizards of the Coast.
• Likely a slip of the tongue, but Rebellion boss Jason Kingsley seemed to hint that Warlord Games was connected to a Judge Dredd TTRPG.
• The RPG Magnificio 2024 winner has been announced, and it’s Oceania 2084.
• The pre-release of Backwards Tabletop’s latest TTRPG is out and free for now. You can download Rust Never Sleeps.
• Mongoose Publishing had a busy week, supporting a fan convention and then deleting their social media comments due to a backlash, news which threatened to overshadow the company’s purchase of the Dark Conspiracy RPG.
• Mike Mearls, the former D&D 5e co-lead, admits the TTRPG is still broken.
• The quickstart is out and free. Modiphius edges closer to releasing Space: 1999.
• Conpulsion starts tomorrow, and Chaosium is helping out.
• There’s all sorts of legal drama and tension in the attempt to buy Diamond Comic Distributors.
• The World’s Largest Dungeon announces the Secret Doors contest.
• Atlas Games’ Replay Workshop landed a $100k grant.
• In the Bundle of Holding, there are two action-packed deals for Feng Shui and one for Green Ronin’s 3rd Era.

Support: Patreon

RPG news from around the web

• Paizo introduce new subscriptions.
• Wargamer says Dungeons and Dragons’ next book might be the prettiest one it’s ever produced.
• Nations Software released the Endless RPG Random Map Generator.
• On ScreenRant, Christian Hoffer notes that Dungeons & Dragons’ Next Anthology To Include Solo Adventures In Huge Departure.
• Mollie Russell got to have An inside look at Godfall, DnD star Matt Mercer’s newest charity RPG adventure.
• In a controversial take, Nerdbot runs with The Dungeon Master’s New Best Friend: How AI Is Changing Tabletop Gaming.
• Fantasy Grounds, the VTT, has a 20% off license sale.
• Mapping software Inkarnate has announced a second edition.
• PEG has released a SWADE 4.4 upgrade for the Foundry VTT.

RPG reviews and interviews from around the web

• Halfway Station reviews the Traveller Tripwire.
• Ill Met by Morrslieb reviews the Warhammer FRP 4e Blood and Bramble.
• My Flippin’ Pancake Day takes a look at D&D’s Night’s Dark Terror.
• Reviews from R’lyeh covers the Frightshow Classics The Blood Countess, Dungeon Crawl Classic’s The Sea Queen Escapes, The Case of the Shadow Traveller, the quickstart for Sisterhood and the English folk horror Grimsbury.
• The RPG Gazette reviews Blades in the Dark.
• Throat Punch Games published a ring side report of The Burning of Greensteeples.
• Alphastream isn’t keen on the latest PH and pens The Revised Player’s Handbook for 5E and its Future.
• The Kind GM reviews The Hell Gate & Dis Pater’s Place.
• Grognardia has a retrospective on Merc: 2000.
• Signals from Delta Pavonis writes up first impressions of Metro: Otherscape.
• Screen Rant and Ben Brososky have “I Don’t Know Why We Did That”: D&D’s James Wyatt Explains Why Dragon Delves Is Following The 2024 Rulebooks.

RPG new releases

• The Blackened Hand has published the horror Tethered Flesh: Survival Guide.
• Effekt released the Year Zero Engine TTRPG Tales of the Old West.
• Relentless Fiction published the first official adventure for Dungeons & Daikaiju with A Time of Titans.
• Lightspress Media published the system-agnostic, gentle and small mystery game A Lantern in the Ivy: Cozy Fantasy Roleplaying.
• Skinflint Games released a whole new edition of Apocalypse: Earth.
• Dark Rabbit published the Basic Roleplaying-powered Thorgal The Roleplaying Game.

RPG bundle deals

• Save $65.67 (25%) in Schwalb Entertainment’s Shadow of the Weird Wizard Spell Cards Print bundle.
• Save $12.99 (20%) with Evil Hat Productions’ Band of Blades Roll20 VTT+ PDF bundle.
• Save $7.47 (50%) through Mark Richard Francis’s 71 Homebrew Cantrips for DnD 5e bundle.
• Save $5.00 (25%) in Robin Fjarem’s Dragonbane Adventure Pack.
• Save $4.68 (20%) with Darkhand’s 5E Threefold Compendium.

RPG ideas, tips and discoveries

• I noticed that Etsy boutique MicroArtStudioPL has the rights to resell these Discworld minis.
• DungeonSolvers’ James Griffin writes up Starspawn in Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition.
• Dungeons & Dragons Fanatics pen How to Handle a DnD TPK (Total Party Kill).

RPG Crowdfunding

There’s more! You can catch up with Kickstarter campaigns we’ve written up in more detail at Kickstarter watch. Here are some noteworthy industry projects to mention:

The Fair of the Dead

• PHM 45 — The Fair of the Dead from Todd crowdfunds “Issue 45 of Populated Hexes Monthly”
• JACK from Marco Salogni is working on “A Print and play, Roll and write maze game.”
• Hunted from Greg pitches “100 deadly ready-to-use adventures of predator and prey — from forest to dungeons, mountains to urban One-shots your party won’t forget”
• Horned Skull Dice Holders: Bison, Deer & Muflon from Million Miniatures Studios proposes “💀The Ultimate Skeletal Throne for Your Dice (D6 & D20) for D&D & More🎲 🛡️Track wounds and health points with legendary style.”
• Sugar & Dice 2 from Random Encounter Dice pitches “Because gaming should always be a treat!”
• Dice Bags – The D20 Range from Alice nominates “The launch of a new range of designs on our handmade dice bags”
• Rainsporest Odyssey: Mushroom Mayhem for D&D 5e from Nat Two Press introduces “Explore an ancient jungle full of mushroom monsters. Battle them. Befriend them? Harvest their mushrooms for supernatural sandwiches!”
• Red Dust, a Sci-Fi D&D 5e Adventure on Mars from Supernova Press raises funds for “After a fierce storm silences a Martian mining colony, elite troubleshooters uncover secrets buried beneath red dust.”
• “Secrets of the Wild” MapForge-Add-Ons from Battlegrounds Games, LLC crowdfunds “Help us bring Black Scrolls Games’ new “Secrets of the Wild” map tiles to MapForge”
• Vydal City: A 5E Cyberpunk Fantasy Setting from Imp Games suggests “A Neon-soaked campaign setting that exchanges high fantasy for cyberpunk action!”
• The Emperor’s Dream | D&D 5e |Osmoria Adventure from Matthew Rosta submits “The Emperor of the Jing Ke Dynasty has been trapped in an eternal dream for days. Can you get him out?”
• Tabletop Recorder: Automated TTRPG Notes from Tabletop Recorder submits “Your personal scribe for taking notes during your TTRPG sessions. Free players to stay immersed without losing a single detail.”
• Introducing the Liquid Core Shimmer: The Moonlit Night Dice from Desiree Stovall offers “Moonlit Night DnD Dice: Illuminate Your D&D Adventures with Magic and Mystery”
• The Secret of the Night Market from Outrider Creative offers “A fairy tale role-playing adventure for Perils & Princesses”
• Maps for TTRPGs – Underground Expeditions from RealmCrafters offers “304+ Underdark Maps for Every Tabletop and VTT System (e.g., D&D, Pathfinder) Plus Commercial Use Included! (Grid & Gridless)”
• The Gunslinger’s Guide to Rexfald from GneissGames crowdfunds “Duel legendary gunslingers, wrangle epic mounts, and explore the endless frontier in this Wild West 5e Campaign Setting & Adventure!”
• Humblewood: Beyond the Canopy from Hit Point Press offers “Animal adventures await with new playable races, lands, monsters, and a globe trotting adventure! What kind of hero will you become?”
• NEON HOPE – Cyberpunk meets Solarpunk from Hopeful Games crowdfunds “A storytelling game in a glitched utopia.”
• Trail of the Behemoth 2nd Ed. + NEON HOPE Role-Playing Game from Village on Stilts proposes “Two TTRPGs that are ideal for bringing to board game night. Hunt enormous monsters & topple dystopian corporate power.”
• Sun Rot: Illuminate Your Oblivion from Matt Ross (@totally_not_panicking) kickstarts “A GM-led, card-flipping, survival TTRPG where players race against time to escape a city consumed by a dying sun.”
• Uneasy Lies the Head 2e from Adam Bell proposes “Embroil yourself in royal court intrigue in this competitive GMless tabletop roleplaying game.”
• Lemurian Chronicles, volume 1 from Ludospherik crowdfunds “Adventures and Background for Barbarians of Lemuria, Mythic+ Edition”
• Terror at Murkwell – 5E Adventure from Patrick E. Pullen raises funds for “An Adventure of Mystery and Intrigue. Ready for PDF, Roll20, and Print-on-Demand. 5E D&D Compatible.”
• Zaman’s Guide to the End of Time (And How to Fix It) from Loot Tavern kickstarts “A time-traveling, gun-slinging, paradox-inducing expansion for D&D 5e. Jump into the next 5e bending book from loot tavern”
• Amazing Encounters & Spots from CZRPG introduces “A 5e encounter book with 12 locations, presenting 48 encounters tied into a campaign module, all that supported by 60 beautiful maps”
• Epic Journeys: 100 Travel Encounters for any TTRPG from Side Quest raises funds for “A compendium to make traveling unforgettable for your players, with rich lore, ethical challenges, strategic encounters, and 3D STLs.”
• Simply Savage Bestiary for Savage Worlds from BPB Games is working on “A collection of over 140+ brand new and re-imagined monsters for use with the Savage Worlds roleplaying game!”
• You Are the Wilds from Tracy Barnett proposes “a solo journaling game about the spaces between civilization”
• Gary’s Appendix: Hardcover Omnibus from Jeffrey Jones is working on “Six Issues of Collected Gaming Goodness for OSE and the wider OSR!”
• Traveler’s Guide to the City of Dark Gods from Chamomile Has A Project nominates “A 5e ‘zine-size book of witches resisting the inquisition of the dark gods of the city of Dammerung”
• Pay What You Want: Northern Realms – Iceborn from Golt Velis crowdfunds “Pay what you want for these high-quality STL files for 3D printers, D&D, TTRPG & Wargames files of Vikings of the North and Ice Props.”
• 101 Useless Trinkets for D&D 5e from Green Faun Project proposes “A collection of tiny, useless objects that will bring randomness and curiosity to your gaming sessions”
• Galactic Pantheon: Gods of the Future [5e] from Yellowbyte Workshop offers “A 5E supplement introducing a new cosmic pantheon, where gods of technology, time and the void shape the fate of the universe.”
• Pocket RPG from Pocket RPG offers “A Travel-Sized Mini Map Book & Play Set. Magnetic & Wet-Erase. All you need for TTRPG. For Beginners & RPG Enthusiasts. Patent Pending.”
• Nomora: The Seventh Age (5e & 2024e setting) from Legacy srl proposes “Welcome to Nomora: A Dystopian Fantasy Universe compatible with D&D 5e and D&D 2024!”
• Be Dragon from Truthfool offers “A 5e compatible book to play a dragon at your favorite RPG tables”
• Fen’s Guide to Myriad Realms – #humanart from SkaavArt is working on “Four Realms, Endless Adventure: Explore new Species, Classes, NPCs and Monsters in this 5th edition supplement! 100% #humanart”
• Viking Style Dice | D6 and D3 from Miniature Evolution crowdfunds “Get a set of unique Viking style acrylic dice in bone or coral optic for your games. Both designs are available as D6 or D3.”
• Call to Ascension from DrakGamestein crowdfunds “A fast-paced high fantasy TTRPG where your character rises up to vanquish the creatures invading your formerly peaceful world.”
• Mystic Realms: Fantasy Wizard Book Nooks – 3D Printable STL from Digital Creative Works is working on “Transform your bookshelf with stunning 3D printable (STLs) wizard book nooks bringing fantasy worlds to life for every book lover!”
• Cyberpunk Scenarios: Corpo [Second Book] from A4 Play suggests “An anthology of mission scenarios featuring cyber puzzles and random events. Everyday strife in a cyberpunk utopia.”
• Starship Scavengers: Gorgon’s Wake from The Grinning Frog proposes “Solo play sci-fi adventure for our easy to learn Starship Scavengers RPG”
• Legends in Miniature: Samurai and Ninja STL Files from Mad Hawk Miniatures proposes “3D Printable Miniatures for RPG, Tabletop, Wargames and Collectibles 75/120mm Scale”

Do you know of any RPG news sources we might not know? If so,” please let us know or leave a comment below.