Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news! Release details are starting to come out from Star Trek Adventures, one of Gen Con’s biggest exclusive attractions is expanding to Origins, Green Ronin launches a new fiction line, a brand new weekly Patreon Highlight, Kickstarters, and a whole lot more
The open playtest for Star Trek Adventures is apparently going well as Modiphius announced pre-orders for the new book will open this May. There will be two core books, a limited edition “1701-D” version and a standard art cover “Starfleet Edition”. Along with this will be a Mission Book, ship deck plans, and multiple sets of miniatures including crews from Kirk’s USS Enterprise, Picard’s USS Enterprise-D, plus Romulan and Klingon crews. Q-Workshop will be releasing customer dice themed to each division. Plans are also in the works for sourcebooks for each Division, each Quadrant, and for full Campaign books. If you’re interested in getting in on the playtest, there’s still time to sign up at Modifphius’s website.
For many years one of the most unique attractions at Gen Con has been True Dungeon, a LARP dungeon crawl using heavily modified D20 System style rules and using D&D classes. In fact, this year will be the 14th year at Gen Con, but it will also be the first year expanding outward. True Dungeon will be at Origins Game Fair from June 14-18. From the press release:
"At Origins 2017, True Dungeon will be offering two completely different two-hour, live-action D&D events that will immerse players in adventures featuring amazing sets, animatronic monsters, costumed NPCs and high-quality props. The two adventures have sequential background stories, but they can be played in any order and enjoyed.”
This is a great opportunity for Origins attendees to get in on the remarkable action, and for dungeoneering veterans this is an excellent opportunity to get their hands on 2017 loot tokens before the main event at Gen Con 50. Origins 2017 will take place June 14-18 and is already shaping up to be a convention to look forward to. Be sure to follow the Origins website for more information and announcements, and visit the True Dungeon website itself for more information on other 2017 events, loot tokens, and more.
Green Ronin officially launched a new fiction line, starting with the mass market release of Tales of the Lost Citadel anthology. Headed by industry veteran editor Jaym Gates, Green Ronin Publishing will begin to release fiction from several of its properties including Aidea from the Blue Rose roleplaying game as well as Earth-Prime from Mutants & Masterminds. From the official announcement:
“I always said that if we started a fiction line, we needed to do it the right way, and that’s precisely why we’ve brought Jaym on board,” says Green Ronin President Chris Pramas. “She has the chops and the experience to make this line sing.”
“I’m excited and honored to work with the Green Ronin team,” says Gates. “I’ve been a fan of their stories for a long time, and look forward to the opportunity to help bring new stories to life in their worlds.”
Super Mario Bros is getting the board game treatment from USAopoly in an original game. The game will include a 3D game board, 18 Vote Up cards, 26 Line Up cars, 28 ?-Block cards, 15 Power Up cars, 13 character movers, a scorepad, and instructions for a retail price of $19.95. This is the first original game using the Super Mario Bros license since USAopoly picked it up several years ago, though they did release Super Mario Bros themed versions of Monopoly, Checkers, Tic-Tac-Toe, and Connect 4. There’s no release date announced at this time, but it should be arriving on game store and toy section shelves soon.
Fantasy Flight Games announced the Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game Core Set will release at Gen Con this year, turning the 1995 CCG into a Living Card Game. The core set will have a retail price of $39.95, but very few other details are available at this time. What we do know is that the core set will feature all seven Clans from the original game and that there will be some mechanical differences between this LCG and the original CCG (which will prevent those cards from being used in this game). The announcement link also makes it clear that, while the Core Set will include enough cards to make at least two decks, certain deck builds may require two or even three Core Sets to obtain all the copies of certain cards required to make those decks effective.
Ari Marmell has started a Patreon. You may know Ari Marmell from his work in game design on Dungeons & Dragons, Vampire: The Masquerade, Vampire: The Requiem, from his tie-in fiction novels for Magic: The Gathering, Darksiders, or others. Or perhaps you know him from his Mick Oberon “fantasy-noir” series or the Widdershins YA fantasy. But somewhere, somehow, you’ve run across his work. And, if you back now, there’s already special exclusive short stories posted only for backers, including a preview of future The Lost Citadel fiction.
Gloomhaven is entering its second printing with upgraded components and is Kickstarting its efforts, having already raised an impressive $2.3 million dollars. If you’re a previous owner of the cooperative card-based tactical game, you can pick up various upgraded components at different reward levels peaking with a $25 “upgrade kit”. If you’re brand new to Gloomhaven, you can pick up the core game of the new printing for $99. This Kickstarter is fully funded and runs until Monday, May 1.
Some of you may know game designer Mike Shae, but others of you may know him better by the title of his blog, Sly Flourish. Either way, Sly Flourish’s Fantastic Adventures is a collection of ten short adventures for Fifth Edition. Considering that the original Sly Flourish blog is basically a master class in adventure design on its own, it’s worth checking out the free sample adventure, The Night Blades, to get a taste. The PDF is available for a $15 pledge, a print-at-cost voucher plus the PDF for $20, or you can get a bundle with Sly Flourish’s Fantastic Locations for $25 in PDF or $35 to add on a print-at-cost option. This project is fully funded and runs until Tuesday, May 2.
Shaintar: Thundering Skies Campaign is the long-term ongoing Living World campaign from Shaintar, originally created by Sean Patrick Fanon and now from Savage Mojo. Thundering Skies is the first event of the Justice & Life living world, a massive world-shattering series of adventures that will let you participate and help forge the path of the future of Shaintar. This campaign has raised 70% of their funding goal and just need a final push to break through their funding by Tuesday, April 25.
That’s all from me for this week! 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, 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.
The open playtest for Star Trek Adventures is apparently going well as Modiphius announced pre-orders for the new book will open this May. There will be two core books, a limited edition “1701-D” version and a standard art cover “Starfleet Edition”. Along with this will be a Mission Book, ship deck plans, and multiple sets of miniatures including crews from Kirk’s USS Enterprise, Picard’s USS Enterprise-D, plus Romulan and Klingon crews. Q-Workshop will be releasing customer dice themed to each division. Plans are also in the works for sourcebooks for each Division, each Quadrant, and for full Campaign books. If you’re interested in getting in on the playtest, there’s still time to sign up at Modifphius’s website.
For many years one of the most unique attractions at Gen Con has been True Dungeon, a LARP dungeon crawl using heavily modified D20 System style rules and using D&D classes. In fact, this year will be the 14th year at Gen Con, but it will also be the first year expanding outward. True Dungeon will be at Origins Game Fair from June 14-18. From the press release:
"At Origins 2017, True Dungeon will be offering two completely different two-hour, live-action D&D events that will immerse players in adventures featuring amazing sets, animatronic monsters, costumed NPCs and high-quality props. The two adventures have sequential background stories, but they can be played in any order and enjoyed.”
This is a great opportunity for Origins attendees to get in on the remarkable action, and for dungeoneering veterans this is an excellent opportunity to get their hands on 2017 loot tokens before the main event at Gen Con 50. Origins 2017 will take place June 14-18 and is already shaping up to be a convention to look forward to. Be sure to follow the Origins website for more information and announcements, and visit the True Dungeon website itself for more information on other 2017 events, loot tokens, and more.
Green Ronin officially launched a new fiction line, starting with the mass market release of Tales of the Lost Citadel anthology. Headed by industry veteran editor Jaym Gates, Green Ronin Publishing will begin to release fiction from several of its properties including Aidea from the Blue Rose roleplaying game as well as Earth-Prime from Mutants & Masterminds. From the official announcement:
“I always said that if we started a fiction line, we needed to do it the right way, and that’s precisely why we’ve brought Jaym on board,” says Green Ronin President Chris Pramas. “She has the chops and the experience to make this line sing.”
“I’m excited and honored to work with the Green Ronin team,” says Gates. “I’ve been a fan of their stories for a long time, and look forward to the opportunity to help bring new stories to life in their worlds.”
Super Mario Bros is getting the board game treatment from USAopoly in an original game. The game will include a 3D game board, 18 Vote Up cards, 26 Line Up cars, 28 ?-Block cards, 15 Power Up cars, 13 character movers, a scorepad, and instructions for a retail price of $19.95. This is the first original game using the Super Mario Bros license since USAopoly picked it up several years ago, though they did release Super Mario Bros themed versions of Monopoly, Checkers, Tic-Tac-Toe, and Connect 4. There’s no release date announced at this time, but it should be arriving on game store and toy section shelves soon.
Fantasy Flight Games announced the Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game Core Set will release at Gen Con this year, turning the 1995 CCG into a Living Card Game. The core set will have a retail price of $39.95, but very few other details are available at this time. What we do know is that the core set will feature all seven Clans from the original game and that there will be some mechanical differences between this LCG and the original CCG (which will prevent those cards from being used in this game). The announcement link also makes it clear that, while the Core Set will include enough cards to make at least two decks, certain deck builds may require two or even three Core Sets to obtain all the copies of certain cards required to make those decks effective.
Ari Marmell has started a Patreon. You may know Ari Marmell from his work in game design on Dungeons & Dragons, Vampire: The Masquerade, Vampire: The Requiem, from his tie-in fiction novels for Magic: The Gathering, Darksiders, or others. Or perhaps you know him from his Mick Oberon “fantasy-noir” series or the Widdershins YA fantasy. But somewhere, somehow, you’ve run across his work. And, if you back now, there’s already special exclusive short stories posted only for backers, including a preview of future The Lost Citadel fiction.
Gloomhaven is entering its second printing with upgraded components and is Kickstarting its efforts, having already raised an impressive $2.3 million dollars. If you’re a previous owner of the cooperative card-based tactical game, you can pick up various upgraded components at different reward levels peaking with a $25 “upgrade kit”. If you’re brand new to Gloomhaven, you can pick up the core game of the new printing for $99. This Kickstarter is fully funded and runs until Monday, May 1.
Some of you may know game designer Mike Shae, but others of you may know him better by the title of his blog, Sly Flourish. Either way, Sly Flourish’s Fantastic Adventures is a collection of ten short adventures for Fifth Edition. Considering that the original Sly Flourish blog is basically a master class in adventure design on its own, it’s worth checking out the free sample adventure, The Night Blades, to get a taste. The PDF is available for a $15 pledge, a print-at-cost voucher plus the PDF for $20, or you can get a bundle with Sly Flourish’s Fantastic Locations for $25 in PDF or $35 to add on a print-at-cost option. This project is fully funded and runs until Tuesday, May 2.
Shaintar: Thundering Skies Campaign is the long-term ongoing Living World campaign from Shaintar, originally created by Sean Patrick Fanon and now from Savage Mojo. Thundering Skies is the first event of the Justice & Life living world, a massive world-shattering series of adventures that will let you participate and help forge the path of the future of Shaintar. This campaign has raised 70% of their funding goal and just need a final push to break through their funding by Tuesday, April 25.
That’s all from me for this week! 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, 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.
