Hello everyone, Darryl here with a heaping help of gaming news! Legend of the Five Rings has an open beta next week, Star Wars: Legion more diverse than it first appears, voice actor video game strike ends, and more!
Fantasy Flight Games announced an open beta for the new edition of the Legend of the Five Rings roleplaying game. The game set in the Japanese-inspired Rokugan focuses on seven Great Clans of samurai as they compete in political intrigue and honorable combat over the Chrysanthemum Throne and if I got any of that wrong, someone will assuredly comment as Legend of the Five Rings has one of the most dedicated and knowledgeable fanbases I’ve ever seen in a roleplaying game. The beta rules will be available sometime next week from Fantasy Flight’s online store at no charge in digital format and will run for twelve weeks.
In other Fantasy Flight news, many complaints came in after the Gen Con demo of the upcoming Star Wars: Legion miniature skirmish wargame as there were only male figures presented. Fantasy Flight, however, confirmed more gender diversity in the final production run. In an interview, lead designer Alex Davy said:
Of the Rebel team in the core set, there will be seven sculpts, two of which will be female and one of which will be an alien. It was further clarified that the promotional images make it more difficult to tell than holding the minis in-person as the proportions on female figures are not “exaggerated”, stating “They just look like people wearing ponchos and [protective] gear.” When asked about Stormtroopers, studio head Andrew Navaro said, “Stormtrooper armour means you can’t tell at all!”
Jeremy Crawford has been busy promoting Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, spilling so much new information I was tempted to make this my lead story solely to see if anyone noticed another picture of Crawford on the EN World front page. Crawford spilled the beans on the Cavalier Class originally from Unearthed Arcana, the Horizon Walker subclass for the Ranger, proof that Sherlock Holmes was a rogue with the Rogue Inquisitive subclass, the Circle of Dreams Druid subclass for a touch of the Feywild, and the Feywild-inspired College of Glamour for bards. Xanathar’s Guide to Everything will be available from retail outlets on November 21, with an earlier release and an exclusive limited edition cover for hobby stores.
SAG-AFRTA, the union representing actors in the United States, reached an agreement to end their strike against eleven video game companies that has been ongoing since October 21, 2016. The key concerns that led to the strike were pay rates for actors over long sessions, restricting the length of sessions for actor voice health, bonus payouts similar to residuals based on the success of the title, and transparency in the roles being performed. The latter came after complaints from some actors at performing sexual and otherwise offensive content without being told until finding out when the game was released, including at least one Jewish actor who did not know their character was an SS Officer in the Nazi army. In addition, many voice actors were not informed during contract negotiations that they were being hired to reprise previous roles. In addition, the union prevented clauses sought by the game companies from being implemented which included being able to “fine” performers for poor performance, the ability to force agents to submit actors for “atmospheric voice” sessions or face fines, and to hire non-actor staff outside of the Union agreement for acting roles. This strike affected multiple video game companies that refused the contract during negotiations last year, including Activision, Blindlight, Electronic Arts, Take 2 Interactive, WB Games, Insomniac Games, and others.
Tunnels & Trolls is getting an update courtesy of Japan early next year. Flying Buffalo is releasing T&T Adventures Japan on February 1 which compiles material from the Japanese language gaming magazine including manga-style fantasy comics, new adventures, and new rules. Also included will be an all-new introductory rules section from original designer Ken St. Andre so that the book can be used as a beginner’s guide to the system. All material from the sixty-page book will be completely new for English-language audiences. No pricing or pre-order information is available at this time.
This one is hot off the presses as designer Jamie Chambers just launched his Patreon this week. Chambers is best known for his work on the Cortex System and work on settings including Dragonlance, Serenity, Battlestar Galactica, and Supernatural. He was also the Vice President of the Board for Game Manufacturer’s Association for nearly a decade and the head of Signal Fire Studios with their setting Metamorphosis Alpha. A $1 pledge gets you access to all Patreon-exclusive material, while $5 gets you essays, blogs, game design brainstorming documents/drafts, and more.
Ninja Division has an entire line of deluxe licensed Starfinder unpainted miniatures. Hopefully, you all know what Starfinder is so I can spend the rest of the time explaining the multiple pledge levels available. For $100 you get the “Adventure Level” with six legendary heroes, a space goblin gang, Seelah the Paladin exclusive, six “Hero slots”, and four “Encounter packs”. A $180 pledge adds on six “Hero slots”, two “Encounter packs”, two “Fleet slots”, and four “Creature slots”. Okay, what does that mean? Instead of offering you a package with minis you don’t want, you get to choose which minis you get in addition to the Kickstarter exclusives. Currently, there are 26 Hero Slot minis, seven Encounter Pack minis of 4-5 minis per pack, six Creatures, and two Fleets of three ships each. Also note that the Hero Slot minis include not only character minis but also ship and drone minis. On top of the pledge levels, there are more free miniatures unlocked via stretch goals and you can add-on to buy more “slots” to add on more minis to your pledge. This Kickstarter is fully funded and runs until Tuesday, October 17.
Let’s get this out of the way: You have not missed another Resident Evil board game. This Kickstarter is called Resident Evil 2: The Board Game not because it’s a sequel to another game, but because it’s based specifically on the second video game in the Resident Evil series. The board game attempts to recreate the tension and supply-hoarding of the original game that helped define the survival horror genre. It also features miniatures of iconic characters like Ada Wong, Leon Kennedy, Claire Redfield, and Robert Kendo plus the various zombies, mutants, and T-virus empowered creations you’d expect with some special add-ons you can pick up as well. There’s one pledge level for this one, and it’s £70 for the game (about US$94). This Kickstarter is already at over half a million dollars (in US$) and runs until Monday, October 23.
Did I try to hide the new Steve Jackson Games project for Conspiracy Theory because I’m an agent for the INWO, or did I put it at the end to highlight it because I’m an agent for the INWO? There’s no way to be sure. However, this Illuminati-inspired twist on the party card game genre is all about uncovering conspiracies where the black cards in the game are the setup and each player tries to get the others to vote for their completion of the conspiracy theory using white cards. You can get the game and its Kickstarter-exclusive expansion for a $25 pledge, or two copies for $50. If you want to be in on the secret, make sure to pledge before Monday, October 9. Fnord.
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 will finally be making a big announcement about a personal project, 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, Humble Store, and/or DriveThru may contain affiliate links with the proceeds going to the author of this column.
Fantasy Flight Games announced an open beta for the new edition of the Legend of the Five Rings roleplaying game. The game set in the Japanese-inspired Rokugan focuses on seven Great Clans of samurai as they compete in political intrigue and honorable combat over the Chrysanthemum Throne and if I got any of that wrong, someone will assuredly comment as Legend of the Five Rings has one of the most dedicated and knowledgeable fanbases I’ve ever seen in a roleplaying game. The beta rules will be available sometime next week from Fantasy Flight’s online store at no charge in digital format and will run for twelve weeks.
In other Fantasy Flight news, many complaints came in after the Gen Con demo of the upcoming Star Wars: Legion miniature skirmish wargame as there were only male figures presented. Fantasy Flight, however, confirmed more gender diversity in the final production run. In an interview, lead designer Alex Davy said:
“Certainly in the Rebel forces we want to continue to push that diversity; to have not only more women in the forces but also aliens of every species that you can imagine. That's a big part of what's so cool about the Rebel Alliance: you look around in the Battle of Endor, you have that big meeting before the battle and it's incredibly diverse. Not just in terms of gender, but also in terms of species, race, ethnicity... That's part of what makes Star Wars so cool, is that there are all of these different creatures and people from all over the galaxy. We're definitely going to present that in Legion, because who doesn't want to sculpt a bunch of cool aliens and have all that stuff represented on the tabletop? That's definitely something we're going to continue to do and perhaps do even more emphatically going forward.”
Of the Rebel team in the core set, there will be seven sculpts, two of which will be female and one of which will be an alien. It was further clarified that the promotional images make it more difficult to tell than holding the minis in-person as the proportions on female figures are not “exaggerated”, stating “They just look like people wearing ponchos and [protective] gear.” When asked about Stormtroopers, studio head Andrew Navaro said, “Stormtrooper armour means you can’t tell at all!”
Jeremy Crawford has been busy promoting Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, spilling so much new information I was tempted to make this my lead story solely to see if anyone noticed another picture of Crawford on the EN World front page. Crawford spilled the beans on the Cavalier Class originally from Unearthed Arcana, the Horizon Walker subclass for the Ranger, proof that Sherlock Holmes was a rogue with the Rogue Inquisitive subclass, the Circle of Dreams Druid subclass for a touch of the Feywild, and the Feywild-inspired College of Glamour for bards. Xanathar’s Guide to Everything will be available from retail outlets on November 21, with an earlier release and an exclusive limited edition cover for hobby stores.
SAG-AFRTA, the union representing actors in the United States, reached an agreement to end their strike against eleven video game companies that has been ongoing since October 21, 2016. The key concerns that led to the strike were pay rates for actors over long sessions, restricting the length of sessions for actor voice health, bonus payouts similar to residuals based on the success of the title, and transparency in the roles being performed. The latter came after complaints from some actors at performing sexual and otherwise offensive content without being told until finding out when the game was released, including at least one Jewish actor who did not know their character was an SS Officer in the Nazi army. In addition, many voice actors were not informed during contract negotiations that they were being hired to reprise previous roles. In addition, the union prevented clauses sought by the game companies from being implemented which included being able to “fine” performers for poor performance, the ability to force agents to submit actors for “atmospheric voice” sessions or face fines, and to hire non-actor staff outside of the Union agreement for acting roles. This strike affected multiple video game companies that refused the contract during negotiations last year, including Activision, Blindlight, Electronic Arts, Take 2 Interactive, WB Games, Insomniac Games, and others.
Tunnels & Trolls is getting an update courtesy of Japan early next year. Flying Buffalo is releasing T&T Adventures Japan on February 1 which compiles material from the Japanese language gaming magazine including manga-style fantasy comics, new adventures, and new rules. Also included will be an all-new introductory rules section from original designer Ken St. Andre so that the book can be used as a beginner’s guide to the system. All material from the sixty-page book will be completely new for English-language audiences. No pricing or pre-order information is available at this time.
This one is hot off the presses as designer Jamie Chambers just launched his Patreon this week. Chambers is best known for his work on the Cortex System and work on settings including Dragonlance, Serenity, Battlestar Galactica, and Supernatural. He was also the Vice President of the Board for Game Manufacturer’s Association for nearly a decade and the head of Signal Fire Studios with their setting Metamorphosis Alpha. A $1 pledge gets you access to all Patreon-exclusive material, while $5 gets you essays, blogs, game design brainstorming documents/drafts, and more.
Ninja Division has an entire line of deluxe licensed Starfinder unpainted miniatures. Hopefully, you all know what Starfinder is so I can spend the rest of the time explaining the multiple pledge levels available. For $100 you get the “Adventure Level” with six legendary heroes, a space goblin gang, Seelah the Paladin exclusive, six “Hero slots”, and four “Encounter packs”. A $180 pledge adds on six “Hero slots”, two “Encounter packs”, two “Fleet slots”, and four “Creature slots”. Okay, what does that mean? Instead of offering you a package with minis you don’t want, you get to choose which minis you get in addition to the Kickstarter exclusives. Currently, there are 26 Hero Slot minis, seven Encounter Pack minis of 4-5 minis per pack, six Creatures, and two Fleets of three ships each. Also note that the Hero Slot minis include not only character minis but also ship and drone minis. On top of the pledge levels, there are more free miniatures unlocked via stretch goals and you can add-on to buy more “slots” to add on more minis to your pledge. This Kickstarter is fully funded and runs until Tuesday, October 17.
Let’s get this out of the way: You have not missed another Resident Evil board game. This Kickstarter is called Resident Evil 2: The Board Game not because it’s a sequel to another game, but because it’s based specifically on the second video game in the Resident Evil series. The board game attempts to recreate the tension and supply-hoarding of the original game that helped define the survival horror genre. It also features miniatures of iconic characters like Ada Wong, Leon Kennedy, Claire Redfield, and Robert Kendo plus the various zombies, mutants, and T-virus empowered creations you’d expect with some special add-ons you can pick up as well. There’s one pledge level for this one, and it’s £70 for the game (about US$94). This Kickstarter is already at over half a million dollars (in US$) and runs until Monday, October 23.
Did I try to hide the new Steve Jackson Games project for Conspiracy Theory because I’m an agent for the INWO, or did I put it at the end to highlight it because I’m an agent for the INWO? There’s no way to be sure. However, this Illuminati-inspired twist on the party card game genre is all about uncovering conspiracies where the black cards in the game are the setup and each player tries to get the others to vote for their completion of the conspiracy theory using white cards. You can get the game and its Kickstarter-exclusive expansion for a $25 pledge, or two copies for $50. If you want to be in on the secret, make sure to pledge before Monday, October 9. Fnord.
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 will finally be making a big announcement about a personal project, 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, Humble Store, and/or DriveThru may contain affiliate links with the proceeds going to the author of this column.
