Morrus' Daily RPG News Updates

What are the most anticipated tabletop roleplaying games of 2016? Last week I held a massive poll and collected thousands of votes based on a list of a few dozen nominations submitted by EN World members. The voting took place over a period of a week. This week, I reveal to you what the Top 10 Most Anticipated RPGs of 2016 are, plus four Honorable Mentions which came close but didn't quite make it into the Top 10. In some places, the votes were close, but there were - fortunately - no ties. So, without further ado, I offer you in reverse order the games voted for by you! Note that some of these upcoming games do not have cover art yet, so I may have used older editions or other placeholder images.

The day has finally come! WotC has just announced a Dungeon Master's Guild. "There’s a new way to buy and share D&D adventures. With the Dungeon Master’s Guild, you’ll be able to self-publish material set in the Forgotten Realms using monsters, spells, characters, and locations." You can self-publish D&D materials, and buy, sell, and share it. It's a partnership between WotC and OBS (the company which runs DTRPG and RPGNow) and they take 50% of the revenue. The guild is only accepting 5E material set in the Forgotten Realms. Not only that, but there's also a new SRD (System Reference Document) for use with the Open Gaming License (OGL)!

It's a big day for EN5ider fans! Today marks the start of a new series called 'The Holdenshire Chronicles'. A 5E adaption of Russ Morrissey's TO SLAY A DRAGON, the PCs will start their adventuring careers in the sandbox village of Hengistbury, in the county of Holdenshire, before embarking on a quest to travel across the land and slay a dragon. But first, before the adventuring can begin, we launch with this 23-page Holdenshire Primer which introduces you to the county, its peoples, and locations of note. By Russ Morrissey, Jacob Driscoll, Christopher J. Herbert, and Brian Casey. Illustrated by Claudio Pozas. Cartography by Sean MacDonald.

New for TRAILseeker patrons! James Wylie takes a close look at the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game's flame blade spell, with new archetypes and feats designed to enhance or complement the flaming sword. The Oasis Guardian is a druid who calls on the burning blade; the Burning Wanderer is a ranger who gains the flame blade in his repertoire; and feats like Divine Flames, Elven Fire Duelist, Lingering Flames, and Soul of Fire extend the flame blade's abilities. Illustrated by Egil Thompson and Phil Stone.

My two favorite types of supplements for fantasy games are books of magic and bestiaries. Settings and adventures don’t really get me going, but I will get books of spells and monster manuals until the cows come home. Now that I am preparing for to start a new fantasy campaign (at least it will be a campaign by my standards, probably 2-3 months of play time) I am going through some of my newer bestiaries, looking for things to hit the players characters with during the game.

If you have enjoyed Jason Thompson's previous walkthrough posters, you'll get a kick out of this one. This time he has tackled Vault of the Drow, an adventure originally produced for AD&D 1st Edition back in 1978. Artist Jason Thompson has produced several of these posters now, and EN World columnist Christopher Helton interviewed him just last week - you can read that right here. His complete list of walkthrough posters is now Tomb of Horrors, White Plume Mountain, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, Slave Pits of the Undercity, The Isle of Dread, Ravenloft, Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, The Village of Hommlet, Out of the Abyss, and Vault of the Drow.

It's a momentous day. I just received the last 4 art pieces from Savage Mojo (who was acting as art director) for the WOIN (What's OLD is NEW) Bestiaries! Aside from some weapon illustrations coming in over the next week or two, that's the art now finally done. And there's a LOT of art, and it has been going for about 18 months. Anyhow, here are those last four monsters - three for fantasy, one for modern.

Big news out in the larger world of tabletop gaming, as Mayfair Games announces that Asmodee North America has acquired the English language license for Catan from Mayfair Games. Asmodee North America is the umbrella company that consolidates the productions of previous Asmodee acquisitions Fantasy Flight Games and Days of Wonder.

If you want 200 pages of NPCs for your game - and by game, I mean D&D 5E, Pathfinder, or Swords & Wizardry - Nord Games looks like it has you covered. Ultimate NPCs has NPCs galore at levels 1, 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20. It's a Kickstarter, already funded, and they've kindly sent me along a couple of pages from the book to share with you. I had the choice of 5E, Pathfinder, or S&W, and figured 5E would gather the most attention, but if you're a fan of those other two awesome games, just imagine these with suitable stat blocks. Anyhow, on with the preview! This is Jana, a gladiator, at levels 1 and 4.