Could you carry on if someone you trusted stole a million dollars from you?
Last month, Geek Native’s Patreons voted Palladium Books into the RPG Publisher Spotlight and this week we’ve shared a look at them, with the help of Alex Marciniszyn.
The poll for March is open and all Patreons, even at the $1 tier, can take part. The shortlist is entirely composed of Itch.io publishers, and that’s the first time that has happened. Is Itch.io on your radar for RPGs?
Last weeks Routinely Itemised was the largest ever. The reason? Kickstarter’s Zine Quest 2 which has encouraged an impressive number of imaginative one-shot adventures, micro settings and supplements.
It looks like another busy week over at the crowdfunding platform, but Geek Native is going to try and keep up and include all appropriate projects in this weekly summary.
Right, let’s get on with our weekly RPG news round-up!
RPG news from Geek Native
- Sad news, as Fantasy Flight Games appear to be getting out of RPGs altogether.
- Fandom, the company behind D&D Beyond, announced they would be building a new RPG marketplace for Cortex Creator Studio.
- DriveThruRPG launches LGBTQ+ and romance genres.
- The Summit of Kings one-shot gives us a first look at the Afropunk RPG Swordsfall.
- The dark sci-fi Black Void gets a free to download Quickstart.
- The free to download Ironsworn RPG has a new supplement in the form of Ironsworn: Delve.
- Humble Bundle has an offer for Monte Cook’s Cypher System and The Strange.
- The Bundle of Holding had a flash sale for its 7th birthday, and if you’re very quick, you might still get it.
RPG news from around the web
- R Talsorian Games addressed rumours that Cyberpunk Red might be out in June. They said it depends.
- EN World’s Sean Hillman shared an early look at the Lex Arcana RPG.
- At the same site, Michael Tresca wrote up a review of the first chapter of Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons.
- Cubicle 7 has started to talk about how combat works in Warhammer Soulbound.
- Pelgrane Press shared the story of the transforming but always superb Crown of Axis cover. Robin Laws also shared some nastier Shock and Injury cards for The Yellow King Roleplaying Game.
- Evil Hat shared these actual play samples of reviews of their Agon RPG.
- Green Ronin finished their introductory series to Modern AGE’s Enemies & Allies. Team GR also published a free Mutants & Masterminds Novella called Love Bites.
- Paizo shuffled the borders of Organised Play Regions and introduced some new people.
- Dicebreaker’s Rob Wieland looked at Mutant Year Zero: How the end of the world created one of the tabletop’s brightest companies.
RPG ideas, tips and discoveries
- Check out Mike Faille’s imps of the Nine Hells of D&D.
- Eldadres at Dungeon Solvers helps out by Taking A Look at Shadow of the Demon Lord’s Corruption Mechanic.
- Over at Tribality, Tomas Gimenez Rioja wrote up How to Create Tension in Your Game.
- Yochai Gal shared insights on how they build a world.
- More Winter Fantasy 2020 musings from AlphaStream and the three qualities the event’s best DM had.
- Merric’s muses on Dungeons & Dragons Lore: Old-School Golems.
- At Xaisitects, Medraut talks about Using D&D 5E Downtime Rules to Add Verisimilitude.
- Richard J Compton discusses How to Make Magic Prominent in Your D&D Setting.
- Molten Sulfur Blog shared a great write-up on Folkloric Villains.
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 a mention;
The RPG Zine season is in full swing thanks to Zin Quest 2.
- Viditya Voleti has successfully hit Kickstarter target for the RPG Zine Space Goblins!
- Justin Kahler is funding a tabletop RPG about magical ninja teenagers with Kunai Academy.
- Jack is raising funds for an RPG Zine about angels and demons falling in love. It’s Heaven Has No Taste; And Other True Statements.
- Aven McConnaughey has a diceless and GMless TTRPG of dark fairy tales with Thistle and Hearth.
- Jason Brown’s Kickstarter is a storytelling game of magic, revenge and death. It’s Our Queen Crumbles.
- Dragons Claw Tabletop wants to build a large wooden dice for you to store your dice in. Check out The Nautilus wood d20 dice case.
- Jeremy Hart Illos has 15 new monsters in an RPG zine called Creature Feature Quarterly volume 2.
- New Newport of D101 Games is funding two RPG Zines: Grogzilla #1 and Sky Raiders of the Floating Realms.
- Daniel M. Perez is taking funds for a fantasy RPG zine that explores ioun stones. It’s The Ioun Codex.
- Fish in the Pot is Kickstarting a zine called TTRPG Characters Collection.
- Eugene Marshall is offering an alternative to Races in D&D 5e with Ancestry and Culture.
- The Department of Whimsical Printings is offering the rules-light and ad-libbing Dump Quest.
- Pendertainment has an RPG Zine for a simple tabletop system called Snakeeyes Gaming System.
- David Schirduan is Kickstarting two RPG Zines: Marsh Goons & Tempered Legacy.
- Nick Consola has a hexcrawl sandbox sci-fi RPG called Science Vessel of Dr. Uaerom.
- Derek Kinsman’s RPG Zine deals with a specific RPG problem. It’s Mishaps of Extraplanar Interiors of Infinite Storage Boxes.
- CatDragon Games has an RPG Zine for a 12-page adventure and bestiary in the shape of Storming the Castle: Issue #1.
- Steve Jackson Games’ CEO Philip Reed is funding a deck of cards called Outdoor Encounter Cards 4.
- Adam Cowlin is on Kickstarter with a GM-shifting survival tabletop game called Home: Survival.
- Mare Baixa’s RPG Zine is about pigeons! It’s Dirty Town.
- Andrew D Devenney is collecting funds for a system-agnostic RPG Zine called Gourmet Street: Fantasy Street Food Adventure Zine.
- Michael Cooper Jr has a bug sized RPG with a big adventure in the shape of Hivesworn: Queensfall.
- Big Bald Games has an educational sci-fi RPG for kids aged 4-12. It’s Space Kids.
- Michael Dunn O’Connor has a roleplaying game of courtly intrigue, ambition and feudal conflict with Rebel Crown.
- Quinn Milton has a scary-storytelling RPG in which fear keeps you alive. Don’t Look.
- Nick Milton has a two-shot RPG Zine inside an Elderwolf! It’s Madam Maze’s Cabaret of Carrion Delights.
- Nor Cal Mythos are raising funds for prebuilt game decks in the shape of Mission Decks.
- RPGCrate is mixing cooking with encounters with Recipe for Adventure Cards for 5e.
- Chris Longhurst has a system-agnostic hexcrawl called Sunlands: A Hexcrawl Zine.
- Derek Sotak has a supernatural game called Grey Seas Are Dreaming Of My Death: William Hope Hodgson RPG.
- Steve Johnson is collecting funds for a fantasy tavern guide in zine format. It’s Tales from the Lusty Minotaur.
- Thomas Carter has an open world mapcrawl RPG zine in the form of Lost in the Shrouded Lands.
- The Warden is crowdfunding four RPGs at once with StoryHunter Aphas.
- Kevin Petker is on Kickstarter for a tabletop RPG about girls who rule. It’s Princess World.
- Olivia Montoya has a zine which is half DIY and half storytelling game about trading zines called In Our Own Wor(l)ds.
- Ulisses Spiele has, by popular demand, taken the gorgeous leatherbound World of Myth back to Kickstarter.
- Eli Seitz’s RPG zine is that of determination and hubris at the South Pole. It’s The Last Place on Earth.
- Absurdist Productions has a dark fairy tale of a 5e adventure with The Forest of Lost Children.
- Alexei Vella has an RPG zine in which you play the horror. They Feed on Fear.
- Spellsword Home Entertainment is raising funds for the 64-paged The Evils of Illmire: A mini-mega hexcrawl adventure zine.
- Scott Wegener is on Kickstarter for a rules toolkit called GLAIVE.
- ENnie nominated Chris Bissette is funding an RPG about tiny people in a giant and hostile world. It’s Under The Floorboards.
- Dicebro has a fanzine inspired by D&D fanzines of the 1970s. The project? It’s Wizard Funk 2.
- Chris S. Sims is raising funds for an RPG about little monsters making their spooky world a better world. It’s the Draculola Roleplaying Game.
- James Millichamp has a surreal sci-fi RPG that uses the Altered World system called Treasures of T’urokk.
- Adam Meyers of Drop Dead Studios has made the campaign target for a 5e conversion for Spheres of Power and Spheres of Might.
- Adam Dixon has a roleplaying game about being bored to the bone. It’s Small Town: Skeletons.
- Andi Licht is raising money for a tabletop RPG about wielding arcane weapons which are bound to you. It’s Soulbound.
- Nik F’s RPG zine is about encounters and accompanying tarot cards base on buildings you might find around a village. Villot Cards & Encounters.
- Lance Runke is on Kickstarter to fund an RPG zine and game system for YourVerse.
- M Blake is providing 100 fantasy portraits for TTRPG characters and NPCs with Face Folio.
- Shades of Vengeance continues their Era games zine with The Era Zone 2020.
- Appendix N Entertainment features previous Octhorrorfest articles from the Gamers & Grognards blog in Octhorrorfest RPG Zine #1.
- The Great Cycle Publishing is on Kickstarter raising money for a tabletop ROG set within The Great Cycle. It’s the Linen Tapestry Roleplay Game.
- Christopher Casey and Edge-On Gaming are collecting funds for the GMless, collaborative and competitive All-State Fantasy: The RPG.
- Josh Dixon as an RPG zine scenario of survival for the horror RPG The Mothership with The Black Pyramid.
- Blind Visionary Publications are exploring the DCC system with new classes, patrons and monsters in Tales from the Smoking Wyrm.
- Sivad Nahtanoj is offering up rules for western games with In the Light of a Setting Sun.
- Kade Tanner is Kickstarting Touch of Power: Core Rule book 2.
- Tadeo Menichelli has an RPG zine in which you play horny fruit who just want to die. No, really, it’s a Fruitless Existence.
- Courtney is offering skilled Dungeon Masters Artifices, Deceptions & Dilemmas.
- Brendan Barnett has a collection of six zines for running mini adventures in 5e D&D. Check out Pocket Sized Perils.
- James Kennedy is offering up a creature collection and combat RPG zine in the evolving shape of Battle Beasts.
- Chalk Horse has a Middarmark artbook and campaign supplement called Sagas of Rimholm.
- An RPG zine about three sled-dogs on a trip home? 1000% more bork in every zine! It can only be The Great Bork Team.
- DMDave is offering up monthly fifth edition adventure books with BroadSword Monthly Extra Attack.
- QT Games wants to tempt you with dodgy dice in the shape of Overkill custom dice.
- Jesse Ephraim’s RPG zine is Other Magic #2: Monsters of the Americas.
- John G Compton wants to spice things up with Lunch Break TTRPG.
- Ty Hulse knows Ragnarok is coming and is raising crowdfunds for Deities Handbook from Mythology for 5th Edition.
- Bryce Duzan has an RPG zine that will teach you to play tabletop RPGs. It’s Command?.
- Ninjacat is trying again with an RPG of emotional angst in the spirit of a teen-drama TV show. It’s I Was A Teenage Creature RPG.
- Amalie McKee ha a game of fairytale horror in the form of Climbing the Witch’s Tower.
Gamerati News Update
Marcelo Ferrari of Gamerati catches you up with their deal with Yarro Studios, Odyssey of the Dragon Lords and other highlights from the week before.
If there’s a source or news you think is worth monitoring, please get in touch or leave a comment below.
