Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news! This week’s column was delayed a day for a variety of reasons, including my mother having surgery (she’s okay), so I want to focus on some good news (and a lot of segues) before we get to the…fourth week in a row where I have to write about something bad. The Last Unicorn is getting a roleplaying game! A new Wizards of the Coast job posting may give hints for D&D’s future! Lots of news about movies, television, and games! And more!
Playground Adventures will release a roleplaying game based on The Last Unicorn. The classic fantasy novel by Peter S. Beagle was originally published in 1968 and ranked at number five in Locus Magazine’s greatest fantasy novels of all time in 1987, though it may be best known to many by the 1982 Rankin-Bass feature film. Few details have been announced about the game version other than a planned 2018 release, but Playground Adventures has a long track record of creating child-friendly roleplaying games that still have enough depth for adults to enjoy, such as their adventures for the My Little Pony- inspired Pathfinder game Ponyfinder. Also, I would like to apologize to all fans of the Rankin-Bass animated film for getting that song stuck in your head for the next week.
Wizards of the Coast published a job opening for a game designer for Dungeons & Dragons on the official Hasbro careers page. The actual job requirements are rather low if you’re a designer who has worked in the industry, so if you feel like relocating to Seattle to work on Dungeons & Dragons, I encourage you to apply. However, what’s interesting is specifically what they’re looking to hire someone for. “The positions creates D&D products, such as a book updating a setting to 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons.” The job category is also listed as “WOTC – Marketing, Brand & Community Management”. Finally, the qualifications include statements like “Have you been involved in a community of gamers that was inclusive and welcoming?” So I’ll leave you to speculate in the comments using these puzzle pieces what Living Greyhawk for Adventure League they’re planning for next year. Oops, think I gave my guess away.
Speaking of Hasbro, they signed a new five-year exclusive deal for both movie and television development with Paramount. This won’t affect either of the two largest Wizards of the Coast properties, as the Dungeons & Dragons film rights are still with Sweetpea Entertainment and their deal with Warner Bros and the Magic: The Gathering film rights are with Fox. Also currently tied up in other deals are the properties Hungry Hungry Hippos (Oasis Films), Tonka (Columbia and Sony Pictures), Play-Doh (Fox), Monopoly (Lionsgate), Candy Land (Columbia), and Furby (The Weinstein Company). The only film based on a Hasbro property that has almost universal acclaim is also tied up with another studio as Fox has the rights to make a film based on Clue.
Speaking films and gaming, Mondo Tees announced a new board game division, Mondo Games. Following up on their partnership with USAopoly and Project Raygun on The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31, the company best known for its unique and stylized t-shirts, posters, and collectibles for iconic cult and genre movies will be creating licensed board games with the first releases scheduled for 2018. They’ve already announced their first two licenses, Jurassic Park and Fight Club. A third game based on original intellectual property was also announced. Mondo’s contribution to the Kickstarter-funded The Thing board game included a special limited edition version of the game with additional components and alternative artwork, which they will also be selling on their website.
Speaking of film rights, the Patrick Rothfuss novel series The Kingkiller Chronicles has a home with Showtime. The show will be a prequel to the bestselling novel trilogy focusing on a group of Edema Ruh from “a generation before” the first book in the series, The Name of the Wind. Both the showrunner John Rogers (Leverage, The Librarians, and writer for the Dungeons & Dragons ICW comic series) and the composer Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton) will join Rothfuss as executive producers on the show along with industry veterans Robert Lawrence and Jennifer Court. No announcement has been made to casting or what characters will appear. There is also no news at this time about the feature film or video game products, both of which were acquired by Lionsgate last year. And no, there’s no news on Doors of Stone yet, I’m a moderator for Patrick Rothfuss’s Twitch chat and if I have one more person jokingly asking about book 3 I’m going to rip my hair out. Speaking of, disclosure: I’m a moderator for Patrick Rothfuss’s Twitch chatroom.
[video=youtube;sj3BCY2UWGA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj3BCY2UWGA[/video]
View attachment 90817
Speaking of Patrick Rothfuss, he participated in a live-streamed game of Dungeons & Dragons with DM Chris Perkins to raise money for ExtraLife. The stream also included Ed Greenwood (creator of the Forgotten Realms), Erin Evans (author and former editor for Wizards of the Coast), John Kovalic (artist for Munchkin and artist/writer of the comic Dork Tower), Tom Lommel (in his “Bill Cavalier, The Dungeon Bastard” character), and Gaurav Gulati (streamer and host on Saving Throw as well as his own Twitch channel). The game was made somewhat unique as each character in the game was a Tortle, a humanoid turtle race available for purchase through the DM’s Guild with all sales proceeds going to ExtraLife. Yes, it was Tortles all the way down. The stream is now available on the official Dungeons & Dragons YouTube channel.
Speaking of ExtraLife, Humble Bundle has the ExtraLife Bundle 2017 for just a short time more. The bundle includes at the $1+ level early enrollment in Pathfinder Online good for 30 days. The Bundle also includes several Pathfinder roleplaying game books with a total of 68 Pathfinder RPG products at the top $15 level, plus the video games Rain World, Leviathan: Warships, Kingsway, Guacamelee, Magesty Gold HD, Majesty 2, and Pac-Man Championship Edition 2. The bundle ends at 12 noon Pacific time on Saturday, November 11. In addition, a big sale is going on in the Humble Store for Games Workshop licensed games, including Total War: Warhammer, Blood Bowl, Talisman, and a total of 45 different games an expansions for as much as 90% off. This sale runs until 10:00 AM Pacific on Monday, November 13.
Speaking of miniatures, WizKids announced a “new” line of miniature terrain. The WizKids Miniatures: Fantasy Terrain – Painted Pools & Pillars Set 1 will include 24 assembled and pre-painted miniatures including five pillars (one fallen), three small pools, and a large pool with several interchangeable accessories including rock piles, torches, banners, and statues. The set releases in March and will have an MSRP of $39.99. While this is being announced as a new product (even on ICv2’s coverage linked above), some may find the specific sculpts familiar. They appear to be rescaled versions of the previous terrain sets available for Mage Knight 3D Dungeon, whose scale was slightly larger due to the increased size of the “clicky” bases compared to the normal 1” bases of standard miniatures. These terrain sets have been out of print for several years and, due to their pre-painted and fully-assembled nature, have been much sought after by lazy gamers who can’t paint (read: me), frequently fetching prices topping $100 on the secondary market.
And I’m out of segues and run out of good news to report, so it’s back to more controversy. Green Ronin released an announcement on Wednesday that they were severing their relationship with author CA Suleiman amid new allegations of sexual misconduct, with a further clarification of the statement released on Thursday. Suleiman worked on The Lost Citadel fantasy apocalypse fiction anthology and campaign setting which were Kickstarted previously this year. This statement follows the Horror Writers of America and StokerCon also releasing a statement permanently banning Suleiman from all future events.
Evil Hat Productions probably needs no introduction to you, but they’re the company behind the Fate systems, The Dresden Files Roleplaying Game, The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game, and Karthun: Lands of Conflict (the system-generic setting book based on Brian Patterson’s D20Monkey webcomic). So of course, the Evil Hat Patreon focuses on content for Fate, specifically a set of adventures released through the Patreon that work individually but can also be used together to create a campaign. A $4 monthly pledge gets you access to all the adventures released, while the $12 monthly pledge level also gets you access to design notes, early unedited drafts, and more behind-the-scenes information about the production of the product.
We knew this trend was coming, so here is the third Kickstarter this year I’ve listed for the “kid adventure” genre following the success of Stranger Things. This time, it’s Kids on Bikes RPG from Infectious Play and Jon Gilmour. Two things set this game apart. The first is the line-up of talent, including Scott Woodard, Elisa Teague, Kevin Kulp, Banana Chan, Epidiah Ravachol, Matthew Colville, Jim Zub, Sen-Foong Lim, Amanda Hamon Kunz, and, someone that’s rather familiar to those who follow my work, Ross Watson (who was the host of the Gamer’s Tavern podcast that I co-hosted and produced). The other unique aspect is how they handle the “mascot superpower” character. Every kid adventure movie had one: ET had ET, Monster Squad had Frankenstein, Goonies had Sloth. This game re-creates the fish-out-of-water aspects of those characters combined with their unbalanced abilities by making the character one controlled by all of the players rather than having them as a GM-controlled NPC. The PDF is available for a $10 pledge, while the softcover book is added for $20 and a hardcover edition (which includes all the stretch goal adventures from the designers listed above) is available for $35. This project is fully funded and runs until Tuesday, November 28.
Now this one is an idea that I’m surprised is new. Dungeon in a Box is a subscription box service sends you a complete adventure in a box every month with everything you need to run it. Each month, you’ll get two unpainted plastic minis, a 24” battle map, a 20-page adventure module, miniature terrain, dungeon tile terrain, and plastic flat stand-up tokens (similar to the kind in the Pathfinder Bestiary Box sets only clear plastic with the art painted on instead of cardboard). Each backer level covers you for different time periods of subscription (shipping is extra) with price breaks for the longer you pre-purchase. You get one month for $21, three months for $60, six months for $114, and the full year (plus a bonus 13th adventure) for $210. I normally don’t list shipping date estimates, but in this case it’s a bit more appropriate to note that the first month’s box comes out in February of 2018. This project is fully-funded and runs until Tuesday, December 5.
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 I’ve been…ugh…this week…I tweeted some cute pictures of kitties and puppies though, follow Gamer’s Tavern on YouTube featuring videos on gaming history and Let’s Plays, 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, Humble Bundle, and/or DriveThru may contain affiliate links with the proceeds going to the author of this column.
Playground Adventures will release a roleplaying game based on The Last Unicorn. The classic fantasy novel by Peter S. Beagle was originally published in 1968 and ranked at number five in Locus Magazine’s greatest fantasy novels of all time in 1987, though it may be best known to many by the 1982 Rankin-Bass feature film. Few details have been announced about the game version other than a planned 2018 release, but Playground Adventures has a long track record of creating child-friendly roleplaying games that still have enough depth for adults to enjoy, such as their adventures for the My Little Pony- inspired Pathfinder game Ponyfinder. Also, I would like to apologize to all fans of the Rankin-Bass animated film for getting that song stuck in your head for the next week.
Wizards of the Coast published a job opening for a game designer for Dungeons & Dragons on the official Hasbro careers page. The actual job requirements are rather low if you’re a designer who has worked in the industry, so if you feel like relocating to Seattle to work on Dungeons & Dragons, I encourage you to apply. However, what’s interesting is specifically what they’re looking to hire someone for. “The positions creates D&D products, such as a book updating a setting to 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons.” The job category is also listed as “WOTC – Marketing, Brand & Community Management”. Finally, the qualifications include statements like “Have you been involved in a community of gamers that was inclusive and welcoming?” So I’ll leave you to speculate in the comments using these puzzle pieces what Living Greyhawk for Adventure League they’re planning for next year. Oops, think I gave my guess away.
Speaking of Hasbro, they signed a new five-year exclusive deal for both movie and television development with Paramount. This won’t affect either of the two largest Wizards of the Coast properties, as the Dungeons & Dragons film rights are still with Sweetpea Entertainment and their deal with Warner Bros and the Magic: The Gathering film rights are with Fox. Also currently tied up in other deals are the properties Hungry Hungry Hippos (Oasis Films), Tonka (Columbia and Sony Pictures), Play-Doh (Fox), Monopoly (Lionsgate), Candy Land (Columbia), and Furby (The Weinstein Company). The only film based on a Hasbro property that has almost universal acclaim is also tied up with another studio as Fox has the rights to make a film based on Clue.
Speaking films and gaming, Mondo Tees announced a new board game division, Mondo Games. Following up on their partnership with USAopoly and Project Raygun on The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31, the company best known for its unique and stylized t-shirts, posters, and collectibles for iconic cult and genre movies will be creating licensed board games with the first releases scheduled for 2018. They’ve already announced their first two licenses, Jurassic Park and Fight Club. A third game based on original intellectual property was also announced. Mondo’s contribution to the Kickstarter-funded The Thing board game included a special limited edition version of the game with additional components and alternative artwork, which they will also be selling on their website.
Speaking of film rights, the Patrick Rothfuss novel series The Kingkiller Chronicles has a home with Showtime. The show will be a prequel to the bestselling novel trilogy focusing on a group of Edema Ruh from “a generation before” the first book in the series, The Name of the Wind. Both the showrunner John Rogers (Leverage, The Librarians, and writer for the Dungeons & Dragons ICW comic series) and the composer Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton) will join Rothfuss as executive producers on the show along with industry veterans Robert Lawrence and Jennifer Court. No announcement has been made to casting or what characters will appear. There is also no news at this time about the feature film or video game products, both of which were acquired by Lionsgate last year. And no, there’s no news on Doors of Stone yet, I’m a moderator for Patrick Rothfuss’s Twitch chat and if I have one more person jokingly asking about book 3 I’m going to rip my hair out. Speaking of, disclosure: I’m a moderator for Patrick Rothfuss’s Twitch chatroom.
[video=youtube;sj3BCY2UWGA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj3BCY2UWGA[/video]
View attachment 90817
Speaking of Patrick Rothfuss, he participated in a live-streamed game of Dungeons & Dragons with DM Chris Perkins to raise money for ExtraLife. The stream also included Ed Greenwood (creator of the Forgotten Realms), Erin Evans (author and former editor for Wizards of the Coast), John Kovalic (artist for Munchkin and artist/writer of the comic Dork Tower), Tom Lommel (in his “Bill Cavalier, The Dungeon Bastard” character), and Gaurav Gulati (streamer and host on Saving Throw as well as his own Twitch channel). The game was made somewhat unique as each character in the game was a Tortle, a humanoid turtle race available for purchase through the DM’s Guild with all sales proceeds going to ExtraLife. Yes, it was Tortles all the way down. The stream is now available on the official Dungeons & Dragons YouTube channel.
Speaking of ExtraLife, Humble Bundle has the ExtraLife Bundle 2017 for just a short time more. The bundle includes at the $1+ level early enrollment in Pathfinder Online good for 30 days. The Bundle also includes several Pathfinder roleplaying game books with a total of 68 Pathfinder RPG products at the top $15 level, plus the video games Rain World, Leviathan: Warships, Kingsway, Guacamelee, Magesty Gold HD, Majesty 2, and Pac-Man Championship Edition 2. The bundle ends at 12 noon Pacific time on Saturday, November 11. In addition, a big sale is going on in the Humble Store for Games Workshop licensed games, including Total War: Warhammer, Blood Bowl, Talisman, and a total of 45 different games an expansions for as much as 90% off. This sale runs until 10:00 AM Pacific on Monday, November 13.
Speaking of miniatures, WizKids announced a “new” line of miniature terrain. The WizKids Miniatures: Fantasy Terrain – Painted Pools & Pillars Set 1 will include 24 assembled and pre-painted miniatures including five pillars (one fallen), three small pools, and a large pool with several interchangeable accessories including rock piles, torches, banners, and statues. The set releases in March and will have an MSRP of $39.99. While this is being announced as a new product (even on ICv2’s coverage linked above), some may find the specific sculpts familiar. They appear to be rescaled versions of the previous terrain sets available for Mage Knight 3D Dungeon, whose scale was slightly larger due to the increased size of the “clicky” bases compared to the normal 1” bases of standard miniatures. These terrain sets have been out of print for several years and, due to their pre-painted and fully-assembled nature, have been much sought after by lazy gamers who can’t paint (read: me), frequently fetching prices topping $100 on the secondary market.
And I’m out of segues and run out of good news to report, so it’s back to more controversy. Green Ronin released an announcement on Wednesday that they were severing their relationship with author CA Suleiman amid new allegations of sexual misconduct, with a further clarification of the statement released on Thursday. Suleiman worked on The Lost Citadel fantasy apocalypse fiction anthology and campaign setting which were Kickstarted previously this year. This statement follows the Horror Writers of America and StokerCon also releasing a statement permanently banning Suleiman from all future events.
Evil Hat Productions probably needs no introduction to you, but they’re the company behind the Fate systems, The Dresden Files Roleplaying Game, The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game, and Karthun: Lands of Conflict (the system-generic setting book based on Brian Patterson’s D20Monkey webcomic). So of course, the Evil Hat Patreon focuses on content for Fate, specifically a set of adventures released through the Patreon that work individually but can also be used together to create a campaign. A $4 monthly pledge gets you access to all the adventures released, while the $12 monthly pledge level also gets you access to design notes, early unedited drafts, and more behind-the-scenes information about the production of the product.
We knew this trend was coming, so here is the third Kickstarter this year I’ve listed for the “kid adventure” genre following the success of Stranger Things. This time, it’s Kids on Bikes RPG from Infectious Play and Jon Gilmour. Two things set this game apart. The first is the line-up of talent, including Scott Woodard, Elisa Teague, Kevin Kulp, Banana Chan, Epidiah Ravachol, Matthew Colville, Jim Zub, Sen-Foong Lim, Amanda Hamon Kunz, and, someone that’s rather familiar to those who follow my work, Ross Watson (who was the host of the Gamer’s Tavern podcast that I co-hosted and produced). The other unique aspect is how they handle the “mascot superpower” character. Every kid adventure movie had one: ET had ET, Monster Squad had Frankenstein, Goonies had Sloth. This game re-creates the fish-out-of-water aspects of those characters combined with their unbalanced abilities by making the character one controlled by all of the players rather than having them as a GM-controlled NPC. The PDF is available for a $10 pledge, while the softcover book is added for $20 and a hardcover edition (which includes all the stretch goal adventures from the designers listed above) is available for $35. This project is fully funded and runs until Tuesday, November 28.
Now this one is an idea that I’m surprised is new. Dungeon in a Box is a subscription box service sends you a complete adventure in a box every month with everything you need to run it. Each month, you’ll get two unpainted plastic minis, a 24” battle map, a 20-page adventure module, miniature terrain, dungeon tile terrain, and plastic flat stand-up tokens (similar to the kind in the Pathfinder Bestiary Box sets only clear plastic with the art painted on instead of cardboard). Each backer level covers you for different time periods of subscription (shipping is extra) with price breaks for the longer you pre-purchase. You get one month for $21, three months for $60, six months for $114, and the full year (plus a bonus 13th adventure) for $210. I normally don’t list shipping date estimates, but in this case it’s a bit more appropriate to note that the first month’s box comes out in February of 2018. This project is fully-funded and runs until Tuesday, December 5.
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 I’ve been…ugh…this week…I tweeted some cute pictures of kitties and puppies though, follow Gamer’s Tavern on YouTube featuring videos on gaming history and Let’s Plays, 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, Humble Bundle, and/or DriveThru may contain affiliate links with the proceeds going to the author of this column.
I now won't try any series book until the full set is released, after A Wheel of Time, A Game of Thrones and Kingkiller - amongst many others
