Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week's shocking news! Mind-blowing Wizards of the Coast convention announcements! Unbelievable shake-up with Acquisitions Inc! The Top 10 Most Anticipated RPGs of 2017 (#3 will shock you)! Evil Hat's 2017 product line-up will make GMs hate you! You won't believe Rodney Thompson's new publishing company! Hilarious New Kickstarters you should check out! And maybe next time Morrus won't call my bluff when he makes a joke on Twitter and I say I'll do it multiple times!
Wizards of the Coast released their convention schedule and, just like last year, Gen Con isn’t on it. Instead, they’re focusing their marketing budget on PAX South in San Antonio, TX January 27-29, Winter Fantasy in Fort Wayne, IN February 1-5, PAX East in Boston, MA March 10-12, Gary Con in Lake Geneva, WI March 23-26, Origins in Columbus, OH June 14-18, PAX West in Seattle, WA September 1-4, HASCON (Hasbro’s new convention) in Providence, RI September 9-10, and Gamehole Con in Madison, WI November 2-5.
This year, all three PAX conventions will have an Acquisitions Incorporated stage show run by Chris Perkins (previously, PAX South did not have Acquisitions Incorporated shows). While our previous reporting on EN World stated that Scott Kurtz would continue his role as Binwin Bronzebottom, Kurtz announced on his website that he will no longer be involved in the Acquisitions Inc shows, with the recently released Acquisitions Incorporated Holiday Special being his last appearance with the group. Mike Krehulik, Jerry Holkins, and Patrick Rothfuss will still be attending, but it hasn’t been announced yet who will take over the fourth chair at the table.
The other big announcement from Wizards of the Coast involved a new Digital Games Studio headed by Jeffrey Steefel. This new department will immediately take over the management of Magic Online with more titles to be announced. The release teased a Magic: The Gathering MMO and a Dungeons & Dragons augmented reality game, but did not provide details on either. A new digital game tools line led by Arron Goolsbey also teased tournament tracking software and gameplay aids for both in-store and at-home play.
Evil Hat released an updated list of their forthcoming products. Blades in the Dark has had its manuscript delivered and will release in PDF on January 30 with a print version landing in April 2017. Karthun has been updated with a Q2 2017 release (and Brian Patterson has been releasing preview art on the D20 Monkey website). Tachyon Squadron has completed its first draft and is under review by the line developer. Dresden Files Accelerated is under license review with a scheduled release of July 2017. Shadow of the Century will be playtesting through April 2017. Fate of Cthulhu will begin alpha playtesting next month. Kaiju Incorporated RPG is printing and shipping through February. The Dystopian Universe RPG is undergoing a revision through March 2017. The update linked above also includes information on the current development stages of the Fate System Toolkits as well as Fate Worlds.
Evil Hat is also moving into the board game market with the Kaiju Incorporated Card Game available for pre-order with shipping beginning in February. The heavily anticipated Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game has been printed with delivery to backers taking place through March with a full retail release in June. Meanwhile, another Jim Butcher property, Cinder Spires, was announced through this list with design by Tim Rodrigues. The prototype is complete and internal playtesting on this game will continue through April 2017.
Rodney Thompson announced last week Scratchpad Publishing, a new game company with an initial release Dusk City Outlaws. Heavily inspired by many heist-focused fantasy novels, Dusk City Outlaws bands the player characters together as members of a criminal underground known as the “Right Kind of People”. To me, this game has too many elevator pitches to count: Fantasy version of Leverage, Renaissance version of Shadowrun, or even Lies of Locke Lamora as an RPG. Thompson is a veteran of Wizards of the Coast with credits in three editions of Dungeons & Dragons as well as the bestselling Lords of Waterdeep board game, Star Wars SAGA, and the forthcoming Thornwatch storytelling game from Penny Arcade and Lone Shark Games. This game is right up my alley and I can’t wait to get more information when the Kickstarter goes live later this year.
Legendary Entertainment’s co-founder and CEO Thomas Tull is leaving the company due to pressure from China’s Dalian Wanda Group, which purchased the company last year for $3.5 billion. Aside from being the studio behind geek favorite films such as Godzilla, Pacific Rim, Warcraft, Jurassic World, and others, Legendary is the parent company of both Nerdist Industries and Geek & Sundry. It’s been rumored that Tull was behind the acquisition of both properties, who have greatly expanded their presence in the tabletop gaming and roleplaying game arenas with the Tabletop, Grey Wolves, and Critical Role series. What impact this will have on those productions, we’ll have to wait and see.
The EN World survey of most anticipated games of 2017 is complete with almost 5000 voters choosing the full game they’re looking forward to most this year. While not a scientific survey, it should give a good idea of demand as the poll was set up so you could vote for as many as you like. The results were very surprising as, if I’m being honest, I never would have called the top three games. There were also several games on the 2016 most anticipated list that have not yet been released which were not on the 2017 list. You can get more details at the link above, but the list is:
10. Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea 2E
9. Delta Green Roleplaying Game
8. Coriolis
7. Witcher
6. Starfinder
5. Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of
4. Star Trek Adventures
3. Kult: Divinity Lost
2. Tales from the Loop
1. Trudvang Chronicles
Hasbro has launched a new promotion for the classic source of group counselling sessions, Monopoly. They want the internet to choose the next eight tokens to be in the core version of Monopoly coming this August. Choices include the current standards of Cat, Scottie Dog, Boot, Battleship, Racecar, Top Hat, Wheelbarrow, and Thimble but also include over fifty other choices such as jet ski, helicopter, hashtag, T-Rex, money clip, several different emojis, rubber ducky, cell phone (which looks like a 1980s style brick phone), flip-flops, and television. Voting ends on January 31 with the winners announced on World Monopoly Day on March 19.
The Burning Wheel is bringing a new sourcebook for Torchbearer, The Middarmark. This setting is inspired by Scandinavian myth and folktales with nature descriptors and questions for six human tribes, a new skald class, rules for steadings, new rules for weather conditions, and much more. The 100 page rulebook also includes new settlements, lairs, and other “harrowing places” for adventure seeds as well as new spells, magic items, and monsters. The PDF is available for a $10 pledge, adding the softcover book for $20, and further adding a 11x17 cloth map for $38 plus several other options including the original Torchbearer core rules for those who need that. This project is fully funded and runs until Thursday, February 2.
Myth: Dark Frontier is a new game in the Myth series from MERCS Miniatures. Like the original Myth, the “GM-less” cooperative board game pits characters against the Darkness with strict rules for how the enemies work against the players as they attempt to complete their quest. You don’t need the original Myth game to play this one, but some of the heroes can be used between both games. You can get the core game for a $50 pledge, or you can pledge $100 to get the Agents & Allies expansion along with an additional Swordsworn hero plus unlocked stretch goals. This Kickstarter still has a few stretch goals left to unlock for more and better quality miniatures and other expansions until it funds on Monday, January 30.
Tao Long is a “circular abstract-like game” where each player takes on the role of a dragon bound together, meaning that each choice you make opens up different options for your opponent. Heavily themed to the Taoism influences, this game looks absolutely gorgeous in its elegance. Even the base set looks just beautiful and as much a piece of art as a game. The retail version is available for E17 (about US$18), the Deluxe version for E28 (about US$29), and the Golden version for E100 (about US$105). This project is already at almost twenty times its original funding goal with more stretch goals left to unlock for art upgrades and more. The Kickstarter closes on Friday, February 3.
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 probably going to rant a lot about substandard homemade lattes, 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.
Wizards of the Coast released their convention schedule and, just like last year, Gen Con isn’t on it. Instead, they’re focusing their marketing budget on PAX South in San Antonio, TX January 27-29, Winter Fantasy in Fort Wayne, IN February 1-5, PAX East in Boston, MA March 10-12, Gary Con in Lake Geneva, WI March 23-26, Origins in Columbus, OH June 14-18, PAX West in Seattle, WA September 1-4, HASCON (Hasbro’s new convention) in Providence, RI September 9-10, and Gamehole Con in Madison, WI November 2-5.
This year, all three PAX conventions will have an Acquisitions Incorporated stage show run by Chris Perkins (previously, PAX South did not have Acquisitions Incorporated shows). While our previous reporting on EN World stated that Scott Kurtz would continue his role as Binwin Bronzebottom, Kurtz announced on his website that he will no longer be involved in the Acquisitions Inc shows, with the recently released Acquisitions Incorporated Holiday Special being his last appearance with the group. Mike Krehulik, Jerry Holkins, and Patrick Rothfuss will still be attending, but it hasn’t been announced yet who will take over the fourth chair at the table.
The other big announcement from Wizards of the Coast involved a new Digital Games Studio headed by Jeffrey Steefel. This new department will immediately take over the management of Magic Online with more titles to be announced. The release teased a Magic: The Gathering MMO and a Dungeons & Dragons augmented reality game, but did not provide details on either. A new digital game tools line led by Arron Goolsbey also teased tournament tracking software and gameplay aids for both in-store and at-home play.
Evil Hat released an updated list of their forthcoming products. Blades in the Dark has had its manuscript delivered and will release in PDF on January 30 with a print version landing in April 2017. Karthun has been updated with a Q2 2017 release (and Brian Patterson has been releasing preview art on the D20 Monkey website). Tachyon Squadron has completed its first draft and is under review by the line developer. Dresden Files Accelerated is under license review with a scheduled release of July 2017. Shadow of the Century will be playtesting through April 2017. Fate of Cthulhu will begin alpha playtesting next month. Kaiju Incorporated RPG is printing and shipping through February. The Dystopian Universe RPG is undergoing a revision through March 2017. The update linked above also includes information on the current development stages of the Fate System Toolkits as well as Fate Worlds.
Evil Hat is also moving into the board game market with the Kaiju Incorporated Card Game available for pre-order with shipping beginning in February. The heavily anticipated Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game has been printed with delivery to backers taking place through March with a full retail release in June. Meanwhile, another Jim Butcher property, Cinder Spires, was announced through this list with design by Tim Rodrigues. The prototype is complete and internal playtesting on this game will continue through April 2017.
Rodney Thompson announced last week Scratchpad Publishing, a new game company with an initial release Dusk City Outlaws. Heavily inspired by many heist-focused fantasy novels, Dusk City Outlaws bands the player characters together as members of a criminal underground known as the “Right Kind of People”. To me, this game has too many elevator pitches to count: Fantasy version of Leverage, Renaissance version of Shadowrun, or even Lies of Locke Lamora as an RPG. Thompson is a veteran of Wizards of the Coast with credits in three editions of Dungeons & Dragons as well as the bestselling Lords of Waterdeep board game, Star Wars SAGA, and the forthcoming Thornwatch storytelling game from Penny Arcade and Lone Shark Games. This game is right up my alley and I can’t wait to get more information when the Kickstarter goes live later this year.
Legendary Entertainment’s co-founder and CEO Thomas Tull is leaving the company due to pressure from China’s Dalian Wanda Group, which purchased the company last year for $3.5 billion. Aside from being the studio behind geek favorite films such as Godzilla, Pacific Rim, Warcraft, Jurassic World, and others, Legendary is the parent company of both Nerdist Industries and Geek & Sundry. It’s been rumored that Tull was behind the acquisition of both properties, who have greatly expanded their presence in the tabletop gaming and roleplaying game arenas with the Tabletop, Grey Wolves, and Critical Role series. What impact this will have on those productions, we’ll have to wait and see.
The EN World survey of most anticipated games of 2017 is complete with almost 5000 voters choosing the full game they’re looking forward to most this year. While not a scientific survey, it should give a good idea of demand as the poll was set up so you could vote for as many as you like. The results were very surprising as, if I’m being honest, I never would have called the top three games. There were also several games on the 2016 most anticipated list that have not yet been released which were not on the 2017 list. You can get more details at the link above, but the list is:
10. Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea 2E
9. Delta Green Roleplaying Game
8. Coriolis
7. Witcher
6. Starfinder
5. Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of
4. Star Trek Adventures
3. Kult: Divinity Lost
2. Tales from the Loop
1. Trudvang Chronicles
Hasbro has launched a new promotion for the classic source of group counselling sessions, Monopoly. They want the internet to choose the next eight tokens to be in the core version of Monopoly coming this August. Choices include the current standards of Cat, Scottie Dog, Boot, Battleship, Racecar, Top Hat, Wheelbarrow, and Thimble but also include over fifty other choices such as jet ski, helicopter, hashtag, T-Rex, money clip, several different emojis, rubber ducky, cell phone (which looks like a 1980s style brick phone), flip-flops, and television. Voting ends on January 31 with the winners announced on World Monopoly Day on March 19.
The Burning Wheel is bringing a new sourcebook for Torchbearer, The Middarmark. This setting is inspired by Scandinavian myth and folktales with nature descriptors and questions for six human tribes, a new skald class, rules for steadings, new rules for weather conditions, and much more. The 100 page rulebook also includes new settlements, lairs, and other “harrowing places” for adventure seeds as well as new spells, magic items, and monsters. The PDF is available for a $10 pledge, adding the softcover book for $20, and further adding a 11x17 cloth map for $38 plus several other options including the original Torchbearer core rules for those who need that. This project is fully funded and runs until Thursday, February 2.
Myth: Dark Frontier is a new game in the Myth series from MERCS Miniatures. Like the original Myth, the “GM-less” cooperative board game pits characters against the Darkness with strict rules for how the enemies work against the players as they attempt to complete their quest. You don’t need the original Myth game to play this one, but some of the heroes can be used between both games. You can get the core game for a $50 pledge, or you can pledge $100 to get the Agents & Allies expansion along with an additional Swordsworn hero plus unlocked stretch goals. This Kickstarter still has a few stretch goals left to unlock for more and better quality miniatures and other expansions until it funds on Monday, January 30.
Tao Long is a “circular abstract-like game” where each player takes on the role of a dragon bound together, meaning that each choice you make opens up different options for your opponent. Heavily themed to the Taoism influences, this game looks absolutely gorgeous in its elegance. Even the base set looks just beautiful and as much a piece of art as a game. The retail version is available for E17 (about US$18), the Deluxe version for E28 (about US$29), and the Golden version for E100 (about US$105). This project is already at almost twenty times its original funding goal with more stretch goals left to unlock for art upgrades and more. The Kickstarter closes on Friday, February 3.
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 probably going to rant a lot about substandard homemade lattes, 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.
