Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week's gaming news! Paizo's Twitch stream including a lot of Starfinder news, Wizards of the Coast announced their next D&D book, Acquisitions Inc delivers a holiday special for sale, Green Ronin announces their plans for 2017, Mongoose Publishing does the same for their Traveller line, and more!
Paizo ran a live stream on their Twitch channel which included several games of Pathfinder, but also a live stream of Starfinder with design team members and a Q&A following. For those unable to view the linked video (which includes other material but starts a couple of minutes before the Startfinder game), it will be uploaded to the Paizo YouTube channel later this week. A bit of information about the science-fantasy game came out, but the biggest has to be the announcement that Free RPG Day (which takes place a full two months before the Starfinder release) will include “First Contact”, a supplement of 12 aliens and monsters for Starfinder with complete Pathfinder rules conversions.
Other tidbits of information included three classes: Mechanic (a fighter-type class that can do things with machines), Technomancer (a spellcasting class whose magic interacts with technology), and Solarion (a Paladin-like class that has been compared to the Jedi which draws from one of two energy sources, black holes or supernovas). There will also be multiple “armor classes” including EAC (Energy Armor Class) and KAC (Kinetic Armor Class) with actual armor working as damage reduction, and Hit Points will be joined by Stamina Points and Resolve Points to measure health. There was also talk of the Core 20 deities with confirmation that only seven of the deities in Golorian’s Core 20 will remain in that capacity in Starfinder with the others made up of other deities “promoted” to the Core 20 as well as new deities, while others of the Core 20 will be relegated to lesser roles. The biggest one in the demo session was the frequently mentioned “Abadar Corp”, meaning that the interactions of deities may be very different in the more science fiction setting.
Paizo ran the stream in order to promote their new Humble Book Bundle, which includes several Pathfinder books as well as offerings from Dynamite Comics tied to the Pathfinder Worldscape comics. There are levels for pay-what-you-want, $8, $15, and $25 with the top tier including over $400 of gaming books and comics including physical comic books (shipping extra). Proceeds from the sales will go to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and Camden's Concert (which benefits Cystic Fibrosis research). If you want in, you've got until Wednesday, January 25 to get in.
Wizards of the Coast announced their next big product, Tales from the Yawning Portal. This anthology hardcover will include Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition conversions of several popular modules from previous editions: Against the Giants, Dead in Thay, Forge of Fury, Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, Sunless Citadel, Tomb of Horrors, and White Plume Mountain. These adventures will be playable with nothing more than the core Dungeons & Dragons books as all NPCs and monsters not included will have full stats presented, even those previously published in other material such as Volo’s Guide to Monsters. The book will be released on April 4 to all outlets (no information on whether game stores will get an early release yet) with a retail price of $49.95. Some outlets such as Amazon are already taking pre-orders.
Acquisitions Incorporated gave us a holiday surprise even after the end of the traditional gift-giving season as Acquisitions Incorporated: The Holiday Special became available this past week on Amazon. I’m watching it as I write this column and it’s the same style as the YouTube series of videos presented, with Dungeonmaster Chris Perkins, Jerry Holkins (Penny Arcade), Mike Krahulik (Penny Arcade), Scott Kurtz (PvP), and Patrick Rothfuss (Name of the Wind) playing in street clothes (rather than the costumes of the PAX stage shows) around a table. It’s as entertaining and funny as they ever are, and far more focused on the actual game than they are at the PAX performances. If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you can watch the video for free. Others can purchase the 3 hour 40 minute video for $4.99. For those outside Amazon’s area, you can also purchase the video for $4.99 through Vimeo.
Green Ronin announced their plans for 2017 with a new Ronin Roundtable post. They announced again their two newest hires, Crystal Fraiser as lead Mutants & Masterminds developer and Malcolm Sheppard for Adventure Game Engine (though he’s listed as “sort of a developer-at-large”). In product announcements, they announced Atlas of Earth-Prime as the first product for Mutants & Masterminds this year, giving a full campaign setting treatment to the world with new and updated information from other sources. This spring, Freedom City will get a new book updating it to third edition. AGE (Adventure Game Engine) will receive several new books this year, the first being Blue Roes this February, a “Romantic Fantasy” which was Kickstarted last year as Green Ronin’s most successful crowdfunding effort to date. Titansgrave will receive a second campaign book, Titansgrave: The World of Valkana which expands upon the previous Titansgrave book and gives more information that was only hinted at in the YouTube series or in the previous Titansgrave book.
Freeport will get the Freeport Bestiary for Pathfinder rules, which will be a full color hardback with new and updated monsters from the original Freeport books. There will also be more adventures in the Return to Freeport series of PDFs, with three more released before all six adventures are collected into a printed book this June. Book of the Righteous for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition comes out this year will release in May, while the much anticipated Critical Role: Tal’Dorei Campaign Setting (co-written by Matt Mercer) book releases at Gen Con. Love 2 Hate will receive a new expansion, Love 2 Hate Comics which has 108 new cards for the party card game released last year. They also stated that both Dragon Age and Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying will have new books this year, but due to licensing approval they can’t make announcements at this time.
Finally, Green Ronin published their convention schedule with Gen Con obviously being their biggest show with an entire room dedicated just for Green Ronin. In addition, there will be a Green Ronin presence at OrcaCon this weekend in Everett, WA (near Seattle) and Green Ronin is a sponsor of the JoCo Crazy Cruise in March. The company will also have appearances at GTS, the Alliance Open House, the ACD Gamesday, and other shows to be announced.
Traveller has several new releases on the way in 2017 as Mongoose Publishing announced this week. The next hardback book will be the Vehicle Handbook which “pretty much does for vehicles what High Guard does for ships”, updating previous vehicles to Traveller Second Edition rules and streamlining the mechanics so they integrate more easily into the wider game. Yes, there will be giant stompy robots. There will also be a new Starter Boxed Set this year which will include a basic version of the rules (but “not…a cut-down version of its rules”) and a complete campaign set in uncharted space. They also teased the possibility of an “Advanced Rules Box Set” as well. The Pirates of Drinax is a book so big that they can’t contain it all to the printed page as they have more than 700 pages of material. This campaign will include multiple ebook downloads to expand on the information in the main book. The book itself will include a full campaign with one chapter devoted solely to the starting ship, the Drinaxian Harrier, and multiple encounters which have been expanded into full adventures, and a final trilogy encounter which is completely new called The Shadows of Sindal.
Coming this August, the Traveller Companion will work as an expansion of material from the core rulebook. The layout of the Companion will mirror the Core Rulebook, meaning that each chapter should line up with the corresponding chapter in the Companion giving you further options in the same area, such as character creation, encounters, spacecraft operations, and more. Expedition to Zhodane is getting an update to second edition as MJ Dougherty will turn the classic adventure into an eight episode mini-campaign, with events leading into the Fifth Frontier War in 2018. Finally, a new edition of 2300AD comes out this winter, making it compatible with Traveller Second Edition with a full color printing and an updated design led by Colin Dunn.
Twilight of the Gods: Age of Revelation is an “expandable card game” according to the description (basically a living card game) where you deck represents a deity dueling one to three other Gods for supremacy. Each deck is made of 50 cards for a core set of 204 cards (50 decks plus a deity card) with 50 card expansions coming soon after launch. This game has a lot of buzz around it as it was co-designed by former NFL football player and serious gaming geek Chris Kluwe, who has made appearances on Tabletop and other gaming-related shows. The core set plus stretch goals are available for a $39 pledge, with the other pricing tiers simply being price breaks for multiple copies. This Kickstarter is fully funded with one stretch goal listed left to unlock and runs until Thursday, January 26.
The Star on the Shore is a Call of Cthulhu adventure from Dark Cult Games under license from Chaosium set in the classic 1920s era. Set in a small coastal town with over 30 NPCs, the players will slowly uncover more and more dark secrets about this tourist town as the encounter a stolen statue, an odd astronomical event, an ominous murder of crows, and more. You can receive a PDF version of the adventure for a $15 pledge, a softcover version for $25, and a hardcover for $40. This project has already added a lot of stretch goal content such as pre-generated Investigators and a side quest adventure as it runs until Tuesday, January 31.
Crash Games has a unique pitch for their Kickstarter for two new games: Help save our company! A video attached explains the situation which goes into some dark territory, so I’ll focus on the happier aspects. Backyard Builders Treehouse is a game for ages six and up and includes a hammer token (to mark whose turn it is) and 52 cards that you’ll use to build your treehouse by matching numbers or colors. Fish Frenzy is for ages ten and up and is a match-making game where you try to collect sets of colored fish by bidding against the other players. Backyard Builder’s Treehouse is available for a $20 pledge, Fish Frenzy is available for $30, and both games are available for $45. This is also rather unique for a Kickstarter as the funds are needed solely to pay off debts to designers and artists who worked on the games as they’ve already been manufactured and will be shipping as soon as this (funded) Kickstarter ends, which happens on Thursday, January 19.
That’s all from me for 2016! Find more gaming news at the EN World News Network website, and don’t forget to support our Patreon to bring you even more gaming news content. If you have any news to submit, email us at news@enworldnews.com. You can follow me on Twitter @Abstruse where I'm trying to start being more positive really I swear honest, or you can listen to the archives of the Gamer’s Tavern podcast. Until next time, may all your hits be crits! Note: Links to Amazon and/or DriveThru may contain affiliate links with the proceeds going to the author of this column.
Paizo ran a live stream on their Twitch channel which included several games of Pathfinder, but also a live stream of Starfinder with design team members and a Q&A following. For those unable to view the linked video (which includes other material but starts a couple of minutes before the Startfinder game), it will be uploaded to the Paizo YouTube channel later this week. A bit of information about the science-fantasy game came out, but the biggest has to be the announcement that Free RPG Day (which takes place a full two months before the Starfinder release) will include “First Contact”, a supplement of 12 aliens and monsters for Starfinder with complete Pathfinder rules conversions.
Other tidbits of information included three classes: Mechanic (a fighter-type class that can do things with machines), Technomancer (a spellcasting class whose magic interacts with technology), and Solarion (a Paladin-like class that has been compared to the Jedi which draws from one of two energy sources, black holes or supernovas). There will also be multiple “armor classes” including EAC (Energy Armor Class) and KAC (Kinetic Armor Class) with actual armor working as damage reduction, and Hit Points will be joined by Stamina Points and Resolve Points to measure health. There was also talk of the Core 20 deities with confirmation that only seven of the deities in Golorian’s Core 20 will remain in that capacity in Starfinder with the others made up of other deities “promoted” to the Core 20 as well as new deities, while others of the Core 20 will be relegated to lesser roles. The biggest one in the demo session was the frequently mentioned “Abadar Corp”, meaning that the interactions of deities may be very different in the more science fiction setting.
Paizo ran the stream in order to promote their new Humble Book Bundle, which includes several Pathfinder books as well as offerings from Dynamite Comics tied to the Pathfinder Worldscape comics. There are levels for pay-what-you-want, $8, $15, and $25 with the top tier including over $400 of gaming books and comics including physical comic books (shipping extra). Proceeds from the sales will go to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and Camden's Concert (which benefits Cystic Fibrosis research). If you want in, you've got until Wednesday, January 25 to get in.
Wizards of the Coast announced their next big product, Tales from the Yawning Portal. This anthology hardcover will include Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition conversions of several popular modules from previous editions: Against the Giants, Dead in Thay, Forge of Fury, Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, Sunless Citadel, Tomb of Horrors, and White Plume Mountain. These adventures will be playable with nothing more than the core Dungeons & Dragons books as all NPCs and monsters not included will have full stats presented, even those previously published in other material such as Volo’s Guide to Monsters. The book will be released on April 4 to all outlets (no information on whether game stores will get an early release yet) with a retail price of $49.95. Some outlets such as Amazon are already taking pre-orders.
Acquisitions Incorporated gave us a holiday surprise even after the end of the traditional gift-giving season as Acquisitions Incorporated: The Holiday Special became available this past week on Amazon. I’m watching it as I write this column and it’s the same style as the YouTube series of videos presented, with Dungeonmaster Chris Perkins, Jerry Holkins (Penny Arcade), Mike Krahulik (Penny Arcade), Scott Kurtz (PvP), and Patrick Rothfuss (Name of the Wind) playing in street clothes (rather than the costumes of the PAX stage shows) around a table. It’s as entertaining and funny as they ever are, and far more focused on the actual game than they are at the PAX performances. If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you can watch the video for free. Others can purchase the 3 hour 40 minute video for $4.99. For those outside Amazon’s area, you can also purchase the video for $4.99 through Vimeo.
Green Ronin announced their plans for 2017 with a new Ronin Roundtable post. They announced again their two newest hires, Crystal Fraiser as lead Mutants & Masterminds developer and Malcolm Sheppard for Adventure Game Engine (though he’s listed as “sort of a developer-at-large”). In product announcements, they announced Atlas of Earth-Prime as the first product for Mutants & Masterminds this year, giving a full campaign setting treatment to the world with new and updated information from other sources. This spring, Freedom City will get a new book updating it to third edition. AGE (Adventure Game Engine) will receive several new books this year, the first being Blue Roes this February, a “Romantic Fantasy” which was Kickstarted last year as Green Ronin’s most successful crowdfunding effort to date. Titansgrave will receive a second campaign book, Titansgrave: The World of Valkana which expands upon the previous Titansgrave book and gives more information that was only hinted at in the YouTube series or in the previous Titansgrave book.
Freeport will get the Freeport Bestiary for Pathfinder rules, which will be a full color hardback with new and updated monsters from the original Freeport books. There will also be more adventures in the Return to Freeport series of PDFs, with three more released before all six adventures are collected into a printed book this June. Book of the Righteous for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition comes out this year will release in May, while the much anticipated Critical Role: Tal’Dorei Campaign Setting (co-written by Matt Mercer) book releases at Gen Con. Love 2 Hate will receive a new expansion, Love 2 Hate Comics which has 108 new cards for the party card game released last year. They also stated that both Dragon Age and Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying will have new books this year, but due to licensing approval they can’t make announcements at this time.
Finally, Green Ronin published their convention schedule with Gen Con obviously being their biggest show with an entire room dedicated just for Green Ronin. In addition, there will be a Green Ronin presence at OrcaCon this weekend in Everett, WA (near Seattle) and Green Ronin is a sponsor of the JoCo Crazy Cruise in March. The company will also have appearances at GTS, the Alliance Open House, the ACD Gamesday, and other shows to be announced.
Traveller has several new releases on the way in 2017 as Mongoose Publishing announced this week. The next hardback book will be the Vehicle Handbook which “pretty much does for vehicles what High Guard does for ships”, updating previous vehicles to Traveller Second Edition rules and streamlining the mechanics so they integrate more easily into the wider game. Yes, there will be giant stompy robots. There will also be a new Starter Boxed Set this year which will include a basic version of the rules (but “not…a cut-down version of its rules”) and a complete campaign set in uncharted space. They also teased the possibility of an “Advanced Rules Box Set” as well. The Pirates of Drinax is a book so big that they can’t contain it all to the printed page as they have more than 700 pages of material. This campaign will include multiple ebook downloads to expand on the information in the main book. The book itself will include a full campaign with one chapter devoted solely to the starting ship, the Drinaxian Harrier, and multiple encounters which have been expanded into full adventures, and a final trilogy encounter which is completely new called The Shadows of Sindal.
Coming this August, the Traveller Companion will work as an expansion of material from the core rulebook. The layout of the Companion will mirror the Core Rulebook, meaning that each chapter should line up with the corresponding chapter in the Companion giving you further options in the same area, such as character creation, encounters, spacecraft operations, and more. Expedition to Zhodane is getting an update to second edition as MJ Dougherty will turn the classic adventure into an eight episode mini-campaign, with events leading into the Fifth Frontier War in 2018. Finally, a new edition of 2300AD comes out this winter, making it compatible with Traveller Second Edition with a full color printing and an updated design led by Colin Dunn.
Twilight of the Gods: Age of Revelation is an “expandable card game” according to the description (basically a living card game) where you deck represents a deity dueling one to three other Gods for supremacy. Each deck is made of 50 cards for a core set of 204 cards (50 decks plus a deity card) with 50 card expansions coming soon after launch. This game has a lot of buzz around it as it was co-designed by former NFL football player and serious gaming geek Chris Kluwe, who has made appearances on Tabletop and other gaming-related shows. The core set plus stretch goals are available for a $39 pledge, with the other pricing tiers simply being price breaks for multiple copies. This Kickstarter is fully funded with one stretch goal listed left to unlock and runs until Thursday, January 26.
The Star on the Shore is a Call of Cthulhu adventure from Dark Cult Games under license from Chaosium set in the classic 1920s era. Set in a small coastal town with over 30 NPCs, the players will slowly uncover more and more dark secrets about this tourist town as the encounter a stolen statue, an odd astronomical event, an ominous murder of crows, and more. You can receive a PDF version of the adventure for a $15 pledge, a softcover version for $25, and a hardcover for $40. This project has already added a lot of stretch goal content such as pre-generated Investigators and a side quest adventure as it runs until Tuesday, January 31.
Crash Games has a unique pitch for their Kickstarter for two new games: Help save our company! A video attached explains the situation which goes into some dark territory, so I’ll focus on the happier aspects. Backyard Builders Treehouse is a game for ages six and up and includes a hammer token (to mark whose turn it is) and 52 cards that you’ll use to build your treehouse by matching numbers or colors. Fish Frenzy is for ages ten and up and is a match-making game where you try to collect sets of colored fish by bidding against the other players. Backyard Builder’s Treehouse is available for a $20 pledge, Fish Frenzy is available for $30, and both games are available for $45. This is also rather unique for a Kickstarter as the funds are needed solely to pay off debts to designers and artists who worked on the games as they’ve already been manufactured and will be shipping as soon as this (funded) Kickstarter ends, which happens on Thursday, January 19.
That’s all from me for 2016! Find more gaming news at the EN World News Network website, and don’t forget to support our Patreon to bring you even more gaming news content. If you have any news to submit, email us at news@enworldnews.com. You can follow me on Twitter @Abstruse where I'm trying to start being more positive really I swear honest, or you can listen to the archives of the Gamer’s Tavern podcast. Until next time, may all your hits be crits! Note: Links to Amazon and/or DriveThru may contain affiliate links with the proceeds going to the author of this column.
