Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news! Free RPG Day is this weekend! Star Trek Adventures pre-orders and Modiphius’s response to pricing criticisms, big changes to Magic: The Gathering releases, drama on Twitch with one of the largest tabletop streaming channels, and more!
Free RPG Day is this Saturday, June 17, at game store locations worldwide. Celebrating its eleventh year, Free RPG Day is a promotional event including companies from all over the tabletop RPG industry to bring people into their Friendly Local Game Store to try out new games and get free products. Highlights from this year’s selection include:
· Starfinder: First Contact from Paizo
· A unique dice set from QWorkshop
· Steam Train to Salem Cthulhu Mythos Soundset from Syrinscape
· RuneQuest quickstart and adventure from Chaosium
· Dungeon Crawl Classics quickstart and adventure from Goodman Games
· Conan: The Pit of Kutallu Adventure (plus quickstart rules) from Modiphius
· Numenera: The Spire of the Hunting Sound from Monte Cook Games
· TORG Eternity (which is currently on Kickstarter) “Free RPG Day Special” from Ulisses Spiele
Selection varies and each store will have their own policy on distribution of the products, so check the store locator to find the store nearest you and make sure you’re first in line if there’s something specific you’ve got your eye on.
Modiphius announced their full release schedule and pre-order prices for Star Trek Adventures, but the announcement came in two stages due to initial criticisms. The controversy came in the form of the Star Trek Adventures Borg Cube Collector’s Edition Boxed Set, which had a price listing of $503.99. Some outlets criticized the high price point in articles and on social media, despite this being a limited collector’s edition which includes all material being published at launch for the game including miniatures, maps, dice, and more. The Core Rulebook was also announced at the same time with two price points, a standard edition for $57.99 and a Collector’s Edition with a variant cover from the Star Trek: The Next Generation effects team and a fold-out poster map of the Alpha and Beta quadrants for $76.99.
Following the criticism of the high price point, Modiphius announced less than a day later additional pre-order bundles for all Wave 1 miniatures, several book bundles, and a Borg Drone bundle for $318.99 which includes only the Borg Cube collector’s box, custom dice, poster map, reference sheets, and GM screen. This bundle does not include the miniatures, tokens, miniature tray, and limited edition numbering. All individual components are also available a la carte from the Modiphius pre-order website.
Geek Chic, makers of luxury game tables, is closing after nine years of operation. The announcement came both on their website as well as their social media outlets:
It is with great sadness that I must announce Geek Chic has ceased operation. Despite heroic efforts by many, this outcome is out of our hands. While I am certain there are many outstanding questions, we are currently limited in our ability to respond. I will update this page with appropriate contact information and procedures as they become available.
I am forever indebted to those who joined us on this adventure, and am absolutely gutted about it's end.
Robert Gifford
At this time, no further information is available about the status of the company. Due to legal issues with a business closing, it is unlikely there will be any official statements for days if not weeks concerning the status of orders in progress, refunds of deposits, or other issues.
Hyper RPG’s Twitch channel went offline suddenly in the middle of a broadcast on Tuesday evening. The Twitch stream, which was created with a partnership with Hairbrained Schemes featuring content from Shadowrun, BattleTech, and other tabletop RPG and miniature games, was taken offline due to a Terms of Service violation in the middle of a discussion of the Black Panther trailer. Producer Zac Eubank made a statement on Twitter that the channel was taken offline due to a year-old video-on-demand archive from an early access Kickstarter video game which had licensing issues with music. The ban lasted for just under 24 hours and the channel was back online on Wednesday.
Magic: The Gathering is undergoing several big changes to their block releases heading up to their 25th Anniversary celebration. Starting in Spring 2018 with the just-announced expansion Dominaria, Wizards of the Coast moving away from the “two block” release schedule and starting the “three-and-one” model. Previously, this meant that each expansion block released with a large set followed by a small set with four total releases per year. Now, it will be three large sets released in Spring, Fall, and Winter each drafted independently with an updated Core Set released every Summer. In storyline terms, the Core Set will be a sort of “flashback” telling the backstories to established characters while the three expansions will explore new or existing worlds to advance ongoing storylines without being forced to do “two worlds per year” as previously. In game terms, the Core Set will focus as a beginner-friendly somewhat “evergreen” Standard-legal set to allow the designers to keep specific cards in print without having to worry about a new block’s storyline “world” fitting in the creature or creature type.
Speaking of the 25th Anniversary, plans are being announced for the celebration of the milestone of the game that launched the collectible card game market starting at this year’s HasCon (Hasbro’s company-wide convention in Providence, RI, taking place this September 8-10). There will be new Duel Deck releases, a new From the Vault set, a 25th Anniversary Edition Masters set, the new core set, and a special silver-bordered “wacky” release set called Unstable. Related to the new release schedule, the first expansion under this release schedule will be Dominaria with an official date of April 27, 2018. Not many details (not even art or a logo) are available for this new set beyond the event dates for the release and that the set will contain 269 cards.
Before I get to the crowdfunding this week, one final story from criminal justice reporter CJ Ciaramella, who used a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain the FBI files on Dungeons & Dragons creator Gary Gygax. A portion of the file was posted as an image on Twitter and includes warnings to investigators that Gygax “is known to carry a weapon and was proud of his record of personally answering any letter coming from a prison”. It also gives insight to the FBI’s opinion of gamers at the time, as it states “war gamers are very loyal to one another and interviewees should be selected carefully so that the investigation is not jeopardized”.
The Arcology Podcast is one of the premiere Shadowrun related podcasts out there with two main weekly shows, a discussion show and an actual play. If you’re wondering how on point Vox and Mr. Johnson are with their shows, both have done freelance work for Catalyst Game Labs on the Shadowrun game thanks to the podcast. If you back at the $2 monthly level or higher, you get access to an additional monthly actual play campaign focused on a Texas-based SWAT/HTR Lone Star team as well as “voting rights” to the direction of the actual play podcasts. A $5 pledge gives you access to the adventure notes for each campaign podcast including maps, NPCs, equipment, and other material created for the campaign. There are higher levels offering the ability to enter a voice chat during streams and listen live over a month in advance, custom physical dice built for Shadowrun 4th/5th editions, or (when they’re open) the ability to play in games run by the hosts of the show.
Ever wanted to put the fear of a specific deity into everyone else at your table? How about rolling a 4.6 inch tall, 4.8 pound solid aluminum twenty-sided die? The aptly named Tablebreaker is made using 6063 architectural aluminum using military-specification anodization process to color and number the dice. This means good luck breaking it and the color won’t come off. Available in blue, black, or red, you can get the full-size Tablebreaker for a $249 pledge, or the “Tablebreaker Mini” which is still 3 inches tall and 1.4 pounds, for $99. This campaign is fully-funded and runs until Tuesday, July 11.
Wester: The Roleplaying Game is a Swedish roleplaying game set in the wild-west, being translated into English for the first time. No gimmicks, no merged genres, no fantasy elements, just straightforward Western genre action and adventure in the Wild West. The game won multiple awards and extensive playtesting in its original Swedish language version for its rules and its faithfulness to the genre of the Western. The core set includes two books, a player’s book titled Your Story and a gamemaster’s book titled Law of the West. The set is available in PDF for SEK 350 (about US$40), in hardback for SEK 750 (about US$86), and in limited edition artificial leather cover for SEK 1800 (about US$207). This project is fully funded and unlocking stretch goals to translate additional books and create brand new English language ones until it closes on Thursday, June 29.
Triten is a brand new modular, multi-genre game system that attempts to combine the numerical balance of modern statistical game design with highly adaptable and easy to learn mechanics targeted at new players. The system gets its name from using three 1-10 numbers in order to determine success for actions, the combination of two attributes and/or skills and the roll of a ten-sided die. The first book in the series will focus on the Fantasy genre, but the designers plan to move into other genres with future releases. You can get a PDF version for $20 or add on a softcover copy for $40, with other pledge levels to receive price breaks on multiple copies for the entire group. This project is closing in on its first stretch goal and has until Thursday, June 29 to unlock it before the project funds.
That’s all from me for this week! Find more gaming crowdfunding news at the EN World RPG Kickstarter News 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’ll be retweeting a lot of Origins news over the weekend, or you can listen to the archives of the Gamer’s Tavern podcast. Until next time, may all your hits be crits!
Free RPG Day is this Saturday, June 17, at game store locations worldwide. Celebrating its eleventh year, Free RPG Day is a promotional event including companies from all over the tabletop RPG industry to bring people into their Friendly Local Game Store to try out new games and get free products. Highlights from this year’s selection include:
· Starfinder: First Contact from Paizo
· A unique dice set from QWorkshop
· Steam Train to Salem Cthulhu Mythos Soundset from Syrinscape
· RuneQuest quickstart and adventure from Chaosium
· Dungeon Crawl Classics quickstart and adventure from Goodman Games
· Conan: The Pit of Kutallu Adventure (plus quickstart rules) from Modiphius
· Numenera: The Spire of the Hunting Sound from Monte Cook Games
· TORG Eternity (which is currently on Kickstarter) “Free RPG Day Special” from Ulisses Spiele
Selection varies and each store will have their own policy on distribution of the products, so check the store locator to find the store nearest you and make sure you’re first in line if there’s something specific you’ve got your eye on.
Modiphius announced their full release schedule and pre-order prices for Star Trek Adventures, but the announcement came in two stages due to initial criticisms. The controversy came in the form of the Star Trek Adventures Borg Cube Collector’s Edition Boxed Set, which had a price listing of $503.99. Some outlets criticized the high price point in articles and on social media, despite this being a limited collector’s edition which includes all material being published at launch for the game including miniatures, maps, dice, and more. The Core Rulebook was also announced at the same time with two price points, a standard edition for $57.99 and a Collector’s Edition with a variant cover from the Star Trek: The Next Generation effects team and a fold-out poster map of the Alpha and Beta quadrants for $76.99.
Following the criticism of the high price point, Modiphius announced less than a day later additional pre-order bundles for all Wave 1 miniatures, several book bundles, and a Borg Drone bundle for $318.99 which includes only the Borg Cube collector’s box, custom dice, poster map, reference sheets, and GM screen. This bundle does not include the miniatures, tokens, miniature tray, and limited edition numbering. All individual components are also available a la carte from the Modiphius pre-order website.
Geek Chic, makers of luxury game tables, is closing after nine years of operation. The announcement came both on their website as well as their social media outlets:
It is with great sadness that I must announce Geek Chic has ceased operation. Despite heroic efforts by many, this outcome is out of our hands. While I am certain there are many outstanding questions, we are currently limited in our ability to respond. I will update this page with appropriate contact information and procedures as they become available.
I am forever indebted to those who joined us on this adventure, and am absolutely gutted about it's end.
Robert Gifford
At this time, no further information is available about the status of the company. Due to legal issues with a business closing, it is unlikely there will be any official statements for days if not weeks concerning the status of orders in progress, refunds of deposits, or other issues.
Hyper RPG’s Twitch channel went offline suddenly in the middle of a broadcast on Tuesday evening. The Twitch stream, which was created with a partnership with Hairbrained Schemes featuring content from Shadowrun, BattleTech, and other tabletop RPG and miniature games, was taken offline due to a Terms of Service violation in the middle of a discussion of the Black Panther trailer. Producer Zac Eubank made a statement on Twitter that the channel was taken offline due to a year-old video-on-demand archive from an early access Kickstarter video game which had licensing issues with music. The ban lasted for just under 24 hours and the channel was back online on Wednesday.
Magic: The Gathering is undergoing several big changes to their block releases heading up to their 25th Anniversary celebration. Starting in Spring 2018 with the just-announced expansion Dominaria, Wizards of the Coast moving away from the “two block” release schedule and starting the “three-and-one” model. Previously, this meant that each expansion block released with a large set followed by a small set with four total releases per year. Now, it will be three large sets released in Spring, Fall, and Winter each drafted independently with an updated Core Set released every Summer. In storyline terms, the Core Set will be a sort of “flashback” telling the backstories to established characters while the three expansions will explore new or existing worlds to advance ongoing storylines without being forced to do “two worlds per year” as previously. In game terms, the Core Set will focus as a beginner-friendly somewhat “evergreen” Standard-legal set to allow the designers to keep specific cards in print without having to worry about a new block’s storyline “world” fitting in the creature or creature type.
Speaking of the 25th Anniversary, plans are being announced for the celebration of the milestone of the game that launched the collectible card game market starting at this year’s HasCon (Hasbro’s company-wide convention in Providence, RI, taking place this September 8-10). There will be new Duel Deck releases, a new From the Vault set, a 25th Anniversary Edition Masters set, the new core set, and a special silver-bordered “wacky” release set called Unstable. Related to the new release schedule, the first expansion under this release schedule will be Dominaria with an official date of April 27, 2018. Not many details (not even art or a logo) are available for this new set beyond the event dates for the release and that the set will contain 269 cards.
Before I get to the crowdfunding this week, one final story from criminal justice reporter CJ Ciaramella, who used a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain the FBI files on Dungeons & Dragons creator Gary Gygax. A portion of the file was posted as an image on Twitter and includes warnings to investigators that Gygax “is known to carry a weapon and was proud of his record of personally answering any letter coming from a prison”. It also gives insight to the FBI’s opinion of gamers at the time, as it states “war gamers are very loyal to one another and interviewees should be selected carefully so that the investigation is not jeopardized”.
The Arcology Podcast is one of the premiere Shadowrun related podcasts out there with two main weekly shows, a discussion show and an actual play. If you’re wondering how on point Vox and Mr. Johnson are with their shows, both have done freelance work for Catalyst Game Labs on the Shadowrun game thanks to the podcast. If you back at the $2 monthly level or higher, you get access to an additional monthly actual play campaign focused on a Texas-based SWAT/HTR Lone Star team as well as “voting rights” to the direction of the actual play podcasts. A $5 pledge gives you access to the adventure notes for each campaign podcast including maps, NPCs, equipment, and other material created for the campaign. There are higher levels offering the ability to enter a voice chat during streams and listen live over a month in advance, custom physical dice built for Shadowrun 4th/5th editions, or (when they’re open) the ability to play in games run by the hosts of the show.
Ever wanted to put the fear of a specific deity into everyone else at your table? How about rolling a 4.6 inch tall, 4.8 pound solid aluminum twenty-sided die? The aptly named Tablebreaker is made using 6063 architectural aluminum using military-specification anodization process to color and number the dice. This means good luck breaking it and the color won’t come off. Available in blue, black, or red, you can get the full-size Tablebreaker for a $249 pledge, or the “Tablebreaker Mini” which is still 3 inches tall and 1.4 pounds, for $99. This campaign is fully-funded and runs until Tuesday, July 11.
Wester: The Roleplaying Game is a Swedish roleplaying game set in the wild-west, being translated into English for the first time. No gimmicks, no merged genres, no fantasy elements, just straightforward Western genre action and adventure in the Wild West. The game won multiple awards and extensive playtesting in its original Swedish language version for its rules and its faithfulness to the genre of the Western. The core set includes two books, a player’s book titled Your Story and a gamemaster’s book titled Law of the West. The set is available in PDF for SEK 350 (about US$40), in hardback for SEK 750 (about US$86), and in limited edition artificial leather cover for SEK 1800 (about US$207). This project is fully funded and unlocking stretch goals to translate additional books and create brand new English language ones until it closes on Thursday, June 29.
Triten is a brand new modular, multi-genre game system that attempts to combine the numerical balance of modern statistical game design with highly adaptable and easy to learn mechanics targeted at new players. The system gets its name from using three 1-10 numbers in order to determine success for actions, the combination of two attributes and/or skills and the roll of a ten-sided die. The first book in the series will focus on the Fantasy genre, but the designers plan to move into other genres with future releases. You can get a PDF version for $20 or add on a softcover copy for $40, with other pledge levels to receive price breaks on multiple copies for the entire group. This project is closing in on its first stretch goal and has until Thursday, June 29 to unlock it before the project funds.
That’s all from me for this week! Find more gaming crowdfunding news at the EN World RPG Kickstarter News 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’ll be retweeting a lot of Origins news over the weekend, or you can listen to the archives of the Gamer’s Tavern podcast. Until next time, may all your hits be crits!
