Morrus' Daily RPG News Updates

Hello everyone! Darryl here with a slightly delayed News Digest that I’m blaming on a tropical storm. We’ve got new details on Tomb of Annihilation and D&D Beyond, news on the Critical Role sourcebook's release, Origins Awards winners, a huge charity stream from Saving Throw, the new Warhammer 40K edition, and more!

New on EN5ider, the 5th Edition Patreon! Meet five colourful new underground denizens ready to insert into your game world: Ruby, the smirking component-seeking campion; Black Bones, the former cat familiar; Prince Velm Ducroix, the corpulent vampire gossip; Satuiel, wandering wererat salesman; and Adrian Alexa, the last daughter of an ancient sea goddess. By Khaldoun Khelil; illustrated by Indi Martin.

This past weekend was Free RPG Day, the red-headed step child of Free Comic Book Day, where gamers descend upon shops for free SWAG. This year I spent part of the day at a local gaming store, Serenity Games, running a Fate Accelerated game for a busy table, connecting with some friends that I don't get to see often enough, talking about future events and meeting new people. I picked up a few of the items available (the store is much more generous about how much people can pick up than a lot of stores).

A couple of weeks ago, UK Games Expo overtook Origins Game Fair to become the world's third largest tabletop games convention. That a victory was short-lived, however, as Origins this week announced its latest unique visitor and turnstile figures, which put it back in third place again, relegating UKGE back down to fourth. The difference is very close, though - there's just 500 unique attendees in it, and both conventions seem to be growing right now (UKGE especially fast), so this leap frogging might occur for a while. Gen Con and Essen Spiel are, of course, 3-4 times the size of both.

Turn Order: Warped, the official stream of the WOIN roleplaying game system, is back with a new episode! "The group meets some resistance as they try to rescue the remainder of the crew of The Merry Hind." Join GM of Doom "wacksteven" and the crew of the Black Fang in their intrepid science-fiction adventures! As always, you can get video or audio version of the show - simply subscribe to the YouTube channel or to the official podcast! Or, of course, you can watch the show live on Twitch as it goes out every Saturday! Note that the show features adult language.

The fireball is a staple of Dungeons & Dragons-style magic that clearly distinguishes its modern wargaming roots from the fantasy dress it adopted. As such, the history of the fireball spell is a history of D&D itself.

Welcome back to our weekly look at tabletop roleplaying game, and accessories, crowdfunding roundup! Each week we’ll be looking at a few campaigns currently running that have caught our eye as well as occasionally speaking to some of the creators about their campaigns, or looking at some of the ‘behind the scenes’ business aspects of putting together, launching, operating and then delivering a crowdfunded project. If you have anything you’d like us to cover, or questions about anything we talk about, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or contact me directly. This week we look at a selection of settings, adventures and supplements for 5th Edition and Pathfinder.

Origins Game Fair is taking place, and WotC held a What's Next For D&D? panel, featuring Christopher Lindsay, Chris Perkins, Shelly Mazzanoble, and Curse's Adam Bradford (represent D&D Beyond). Special thanks goes to Kato Katonian over on Twitter who live-tweeted the panel. This first part covers Tomb of Annihilation, and touches on accessories (dice, mats, screen) and Xanathar's Guide to Everything. D&D Beyond will be in a separate post.

White Wolf has just announced the Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition "pre-alpha" playtest, which you can download and play right now! The company also has an attached survey for playtest feedback. "Today we are sharing with you the Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition (V5) pre-alpha playtest kit, which includes the V5 pre-alpha rules and a special V5 pre-alpha scenario, The Night After. We invite you to download the kit and try it out: invite a few friends to play through the scenario together, talk about it, and then share your opinions with us through the online survey. We appreciate your feedback and value your input." The survey closes on August 1st, so you have about six weeks, after which WW will release the next iteration, the "alpha playtest".