Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news! Gen Con sells out, but doesn’t, but kinda does, but you can still get in. ENnie Award voting opens and find out who’ll be telling us the winners! Dice Tower Award winners announced! Star Trek Adventures released in digital format! An update on HyperRPG’s copyright claims and the HUGE legal quagmire it was a part of! And more!
Gen Con 50 has officially sold out of 4-day badges as of Thursday afternoon. One-day passes are still available for all four days (though Saturday passes are about to sell out as well), but the standard 4-day badge is completely sold out for this year’s event. If you had plans to attend but didn’t get a pass yet, there are still other options. Many game companies are looking for people to demo games in exchange for passes, so if you’re well versed in a particular game system and are willing to spend time running games during the event, check the websites and social media pages of the companies who make those games and see if they still have room on their various demo teams. This is the first year that Gen Con has ever capped attendance figures for either 4-day or single day passes. If you are having issues viewing the Gen Con website, it is currently configured to require all users to agree to the Terms of Service before viewing any content.
Voting for the ENnie Awards is open until July 21. The awards ceremony itself will be on Friday, August 18 at 8 PM at Union Station, and the Mistress of Ceremonies will be Stacey Dellorfano, game designer and founder of ConTessa. And if you’re attending, don’t forget the Dream Date Auctions to get a seat at the table with your favorite game designer including Sean Patrick Fannon, Owen KC Stephens, Pelgrane Press, Cubicle 7, Chaosium, Monte Cook Games, and more. But make sure to hurry, the auctions end on Friday at 3 PM Eastern.
The Dice Tower Awards were announced at Dice Tower Con this weekend. You can view the full list of winners at the link, but the biggest winners were Scythe by Jamey Stegmaier and Alan Stone from Stonemaier Games for Game of the Year and Best Artwork, with Terraforming Mars by Jacob Fryxelius from Stronghold Games and Captain Sonar by Roberto Fraga and Yohan Lemonier from Asmodee took home three awards each.
Star Trek Adventures from Modiphius is available to purchase from Drive Thru in PDF. The core rulebook is available for $15.47 and is 374 pages long including full rules for running and playing the game. If you check the description, there’s much focus on Deep Space Nine and Voyager, but the rules are present for all eras of the game from the 22nd Century era of TOS all the way through to the most advanced series, with future expansions adding Enterprise-era ships such as the NX Class according to developer comments on the file. You can still pre-order the hardcover rulebook directly from Modiphius for $58.99 to ship in August. Orders from Modiphius will also include an immediate PDF download of the core rulebook and, for every 500 copies pre-ordered, a new bonus PDF adventure is unlocked for all purchases through Modiphius.
Several weeks ago, I reported on the shutdown of the HyperRPG Twitch channel due to a copyright claim. The channel, which features a mix of tabletop RPG and video game content streamed and on VOD, was taken down for 24 hours during their live E3 coverage as punishment for a copyright content violation. It’s since come to light that the copyright violation report came from musician and composer Alex Mauer. Mauer issued the claims because she feels she was underpaid for work under a work-for-hire contract on an independent video game called Starr Mazer: DSP from Imagos Softworks. She issued the DMCA takedown requests and copyright claims against any channel featuring any gameplay footage from video games she worked on (including one against Time-Warner for an Adult Swim game she worked on), stating she would remove them if the channels would speak out on her issue.
Because of how content disputes are handled for Twitch, there are few avenues available to dispute these claims. With YouTube, it’s even worse as there isn’t even a staffed department or a single live person the representative of a channel can speak to. Therefore, the only thing a channel can do is file a dispute and wait, in some cases as long as a month, for the other side to respond. Because of the abuse of these systems, a court case in 2015, Lenz v Universal Music Corp, ruled that a copyright holder must take fair use into consideration before issuing a DMCA claim.
Which means that all of Alex Mauer’s hundreds of DMCA claims and copyright violation claims filed across Twitch and YouTube are not legally valid because Mauer does not hold the copyright (a work-for-hire contract specifies that the copyright to the creative work belongs to the company paying for it, not to the creator). On top of that, not only did not consider fair use, but she actively exploited the DMCA copyright system in order to “raise awareness” of her complaints against a completely different company by her own admission. Yet neither Twitch nor YouTube are taking action to prevent this sort of abuse, nor are they taking action against the newest round of copyright claims which started this past Monday.
And as I was writing this up, there were a few breaking events this morning. So here’s a quick timeline of updates: On June 30, Imagos Softworks filed suit against Alex Mauer over the copyright claims and contract dispute. It was amended on July 7 and a Temporary Restraining Order filed on July 11, per the website of the lawyer for Imagos. As of this morning, the Retraining Order was granted meaning that any further DMCA claims from Mauer against channels are in violation of this court order. There are also reports that Alex Mauer retained Frank Mazzeo as her attorney, but Alex posted a screenshot this morning via Twitter indicating she fired him. Neither YouTube nor Twitch responded to a request for comment about this story.
The Other Cast is a gaming podcast by Tracy Barnett. You might recognize that name from Karthun: Lands of Conflict, Iron Edda, School Daze, or various Exalted and Fate products over the years. The Other Cast is really three weekly podcasts in one, actual play sessions featuring homebrew mash-ups of popular systems and settings including Star Wars: Rogue Trader, Fate of the Planes (a FateCore version of Planescape), and The Zakros Span (a D&D 5e campaign). A $1 pledge monthly gets you a social media shout-out, $2 gets a personalized thank you from Tracy, $5 gets access to outtakes from the recorded shows every month, $10 gets you custom micro-fiction or character backgrounds, and more going from there.
I know random character generation has a distinctive retro feel, but this is something else entirely. For Dungeon Crawl Classics, Scratch-off Character Sheets. Each pack of character sheets includes at least ten (depending on stretch goals) character sheets for 0-level characters for DCC which you scratch off to reveal their stats and equipment. And this is the third time they’ve done it! Each sheet is randomized from a database of 50,000 characters and each is ready to start play as soon as you find a coin to scratch with. Each pack is available for a $10 pledge with different pledge levels for multiple purchases (2 packs for $20, 3 packs for $30 and so on), with the number of sheets in each pack tied to the total number of packs sold (at time of writing, it’s 13 sheets per pack). This Kickstarter is fully funded and expanding the size of each packet until Tuesday, July 25.
Traveller is getting a boxed set expansion for the Great Rift and Deep Space. The boxed set includes two large double-sided sector maps, two 96 page rulebooks covering the unexplored areas of deep space and the Great Rift, and another 32 page book with rules for deep space exploration and new ships designed specifically for that purpose. You can get the PDF version for £25 (about US$32), the physical boxed set for £50 (about US$65) or add on the existing core rulebooks in digital or physical format at discounted prices at higher levels. This Kickstarter is fully funded and runs until Saturday, August 5.
Onyx Path is revisiting the history of Chronicles of Darkness in the prestige edition for Dark Era 2. The book will feature rules for different New World of Darkness games set in each of six historical time periods: French Revolution (Vampire: The Requiem and Demon: The Descent) from 1789-1799, The Great War Western Front (Geist: The Sin-Eaters and Werewolf: The Forsaken) from 1914 to 1918, Light of the Sun (Deviant: The Renegades and Mage: The Awakening) during the 1600s in Europe, Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (Changeling: The Lost and Promethean: The Created) from 100 to 50 BCE in Greece, Rise of the Last Imperials (Mummy: The Curse and Hunter: The Vigil) from 1644 to 1911 China, and One Thousand and One Nights (Beast: The Primordial and Vampire: The Requiem) from 750BCE to Present in the Middle East. Stretch goals will unlock up to four new chapters featuring different eras, or will expand existing chapters/eras with additional information and rules based on a poll of backers. A $20 pledge gets you a PDF copy, a $50 pledge gets you a physical copy, and it’s an Onyx Path Kickstarter so there’s a ton of different pledge levels and add-ons to choose from to get exactly what you want. This project is a hair’s breadth from its funding goal and has until Saturday, August 5 to start working on stretch goals.
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 let’s be honest I’ll just be retweeting news stuff intermixed with cute animal pictures, or you can listen to the archives of the Gamer’s Tavern podcast. Until next time, may all your hits be crits!
Gen Con 50 has officially sold out of 4-day badges as of Thursday afternoon. One-day passes are still available for all four days (though Saturday passes are about to sell out as well), but the standard 4-day badge is completely sold out for this year’s event. If you had plans to attend but didn’t get a pass yet, there are still other options. Many game companies are looking for people to demo games in exchange for passes, so if you’re well versed in a particular game system and are willing to spend time running games during the event, check the websites and social media pages of the companies who make those games and see if they still have room on their various demo teams. This is the first year that Gen Con has ever capped attendance figures for either 4-day or single day passes. If you are having issues viewing the Gen Con website, it is currently configured to require all users to agree to the Terms of Service before viewing any content.
Voting for the ENnie Awards is open until July 21. The awards ceremony itself will be on Friday, August 18 at 8 PM at Union Station, and the Mistress of Ceremonies will be Stacey Dellorfano, game designer and founder of ConTessa. And if you’re attending, don’t forget the Dream Date Auctions to get a seat at the table with your favorite game designer including Sean Patrick Fannon, Owen KC Stephens, Pelgrane Press, Cubicle 7, Chaosium, Monte Cook Games, and more. But make sure to hurry, the auctions end on Friday at 3 PM Eastern.
The Dice Tower Awards were announced at Dice Tower Con this weekend. You can view the full list of winners at the link, but the biggest winners were Scythe by Jamey Stegmaier and Alan Stone from Stonemaier Games for Game of the Year and Best Artwork, with Terraforming Mars by Jacob Fryxelius from Stronghold Games and Captain Sonar by Roberto Fraga and Yohan Lemonier from Asmodee took home three awards each.
Star Trek Adventures from Modiphius is available to purchase from Drive Thru in PDF. The core rulebook is available for $15.47 and is 374 pages long including full rules for running and playing the game. If you check the description, there’s much focus on Deep Space Nine and Voyager, but the rules are present for all eras of the game from the 22nd Century era of TOS all the way through to the most advanced series, with future expansions adding Enterprise-era ships such as the NX Class according to developer comments on the file. You can still pre-order the hardcover rulebook directly from Modiphius for $58.99 to ship in August. Orders from Modiphius will also include an immediate PDF download of the core rulebook and, for every 500 copies pre-ordered, a new bonus PDF adventure is unlocked for all purchases through Modiphius.
Several weeks ago, I reported on the shutdown of the HyperRPG Twitch channel due to a copyright claim. The channel, which features a mix of tabletop RPG and video game content streamed and on VOD, was taken down for 24 hours during their live E3 coverage as punishment for a copyright content violation. It’s since come to light that the copyright violation report came from musician and composer Alex Mauer. Mauer issued the claims because she feels she was underpaid for work under a work-for-hire contract on an independent video game called Starr Mazer: DSP from Imagos Softworks. She issued the DMCA takedown requests and copyright claims against any channel featuring any gameplay footage from video games she worked on (including one against Time-Warner for an Adult Swim game she worked on), stating she would remove them if the channels would speak out on her issue.
Because of how content disputes are handled for Twitch, there are few avenues available to dispute these claims. With YouTube, it’s even worse as there isn’t even a staffed department or a single live person the representative of a channel can speak to. Therefore, the only thing a channel can do is file a dispute and wait, in some cases as long as a month, for the other side to respond. Because of the abuse of these systems, a court case in 2015, Lenz v Universal Music Corp, ruled that a copyright holder must take fair use into consideration before issuing a DMCA claim.
Which means that all of Alex Mauer’s hundreds of DMCA claims and copyright violation claims filed across Twitch and YouTube are not legally valid because Mauer does not hold the copyright (a work-for-hire contract specifies that the copyright to the creative work belongs to the company paying for it, not to the creator). On top of that, not only did not consider fair use, but she actively exploited the DMCA copyright system in order to “raise awareness” of her complaints against a completely different company by her own admission. Yet neither Twitch nor YouTube are taking action to prevent this sort of abuse, nor are they taking action against the newest round of copyright claims which started this past Monday.
And as I was writing this up, there were a few breaking events this morning. So here’s a quick timeline of updates: On June 30, Imagos Softworks filed suit against Alex Mauer over the copyright claims and contract dispute. It was amended on July 7 and a Temporary Restraining Order filed on July 11, per the website of the lawyer for Imagos. As of this morning, the Retraining Order was granted meaning that any further DMCA claims from Mauer against channels are in violation of this court order. There are also reports that Alex Mauer retained Frank Mazzeo as her attorney, but Alex posted a screenshot this morning via Twitter indicating she fired him. Neither YouTube nor Twitch responded to a request for comment about this story.
The Other Cast is a gaming podcast by Tracy Barnett. You might recognize that name from Karthun: Lands of Conflict, Iron Edda, School Daze, or various Exalted and Fate products over the years. The Other Cast is really three weekly podcasts in one, actual play sessions featuring homebrew mash-ups of popular systems and settings including Star Wars: Rogue Trader, Fate of the Planes (a FateCore version of Planescape), and The Zakros Span (a D&D 5e campaign). A $1 pledge monthly gets you a social media shout-out, $2 gets a personalized thank you from Tracy, $5 gets access to outtakes from the recorded shows every month, $10 gets you custom micro-fiction or character backgrounds, and more going from there.
I know random character generation has a distinctive retro feel, but this is something else entirely. For Dungeon Crawl Classics, Scratch-off Character Sheets. Each pack of character sheets includes at least ten (depending on stretch goals) character sheets for 0-level characters for DCC which you scratch off to reveal their stats and equipment. And this is the third time they’ve done it! Each sheet is randomized from a database of 50,000 characters and each is ready to start play as soon as you find a coin to scratch with. Each pack is available for a $10 pledge with different pledge levels for multiple purchases (2 packs for $20, 3 packs for $30 and so on), with the number of sheets in each pack tied to the total number of packs sold (at time of writing, it’s 13 sheets per pack). This Kickstarter is fully funded and expanding the size of each packet until Tuesday, July 25.
Traveller is getting a boxed set expansion for the Great Rift and Deep Space. The boxed set includes two large double-sided sector maps, two 96 page rulebooks covering the unexplored areas of deep space and the Great Rift, and another 32 page book with rules for deep space exploration and new ships designed specifically for that purpose. You can get the PDF version for £25 (about US$32), the physical boxed set for £50 (about US$65) or add on the existing core rulebooks in digital or physical format at discounted prices at higher levels. This Kickstarter is fully funded and runs until Saturday, August 5.
Onyx Path is revisiting the history of Chronicles of Darkness in the prestige edition for Dark Era 2. The book will feature rules for different New World of Darkness games set in each of six historical time periods: French Revolution (Vampire: The Requiem and Demon: The Descent) from 1789-1799, The Great War Western Front (Geist: The Sin-Eaters and Werewolf: The Forsaken) from 1914 to 1918, Light of the Sun (Deviant: The Renegades and Mage: The Awakening) during the 1600s in Europe, Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (Changeling: The Lost and Promethean: The Created) from 100 to 50 BCE in Greece, Rise of the Last Imperials (Mummy: The Curse and Hunter: The Vigil) from 1644 to 1911 China, and One Thousand and One Nights (Beast: The Primordial and Vampire: The Requiem) from 750BCE to Present in the Middle East. Stretch goals will unlock up to four new chapters featuring different eras, or will expand existing chapters/eras with additional information and rules based on a poll of backers. A $20 pledge gets you a PDF copy, a $50 pledge gets you a physical copy, and it’s an Onyx Path Kickstarter so there’s a ton of different pledge levels and add-ons to choose from to get exactly what you want. This project is a hair’s breadth from its funding goal and has until Saturday, August 5 to start working on stretch goals.
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 let’s be honest I’ll just be retweeting news stuff intermixed with cute animal pictures, or you can listen to the archives of the Gamer’s Tavern podcast. Until next time, may all your hits be crits!
