Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news! New D&D class in playtesting next month, new Star Trek and Star Wars products coming soon, Alexa wants to play a game…of murder, and more!
You may have noticed that there hasn’t been an Unearthed Arcana column from Wizards of the Coast yet this month. The bad news is that’s because there won’t be one in January. The good news is because they’re putting all their efforts into the release of a whole new class for Dungeons & Dragons 5e for February, the Artificer! The artificer class was first introduced into 3.x via the Eberron campaign setting and was part of the 4e class lists, an arcane-powered class that treats magic as technology with a focus on crafting magic items. Since 5e lacks a system currently for magic item crafting, this may be a further peek into plans for new rules in 2020 and beyond, as the Unearthed Arcana playtests tend to be a year out from any major release version. This follows up the release late last year of Wayfinder’s Guide to Eberron, which is also considered “playtest material” the same way Unearthed Arcana articles are (which only really matters to those participating in the Adventure League organized play).
Modiphius opened up pre-orders for another version of the Borg Cube deluxe edition of Star Trek Adventures. This new version features a lot of the same things as the original Borg Cube (which was priced at a hefty $500) but is lacking the miniatures. However, this $257.99 set includes a sturdy cardboard Borg Cube box with several drawers meant for storage, a poster map of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants of the galaxy with political boundaries, three sets of division-colored custom dice (command gold, security/operations red, and science/medicine blue…or swap the red and gold for TNG-era), tokens, a gamemaster’s screen, five different rules reference cards, and a copy of the limited edition “NCC-1701-D” cover core rulebook. This edition will be available starting this March. And a shout-out to user sstacks from the Morrus' Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk Discord for putting me onto this story.
In more Star Trek news, the best Star Trek series (yes DS9 is the best don't @ me) is coming to Fluxx! Star Trek Deep Space Nine Fluxx is a base set for the constantly rules-changing card game featuring a complete game with new cards and art featuring Sisko, Kira, Quark, Odo, Dax, Bashir, and everything else you’d expect from Looney Labs. This isn’t the first time Looney Labs has dipped its toes into Star Trek, as they’ve previously produced Fluxx variants for Star Trek (the original series) and Star Trek: The Next Generation along with the second version of Fluxx, the no-trademarks-were-harmed science fiction game Star Fluxx. The new Star Trek Deep Space Nine Fluxx is due for release in Q2 2019 with a retail price of $20.
In more Modiphius news, everyone remembers Conan the Barbarian, but do you remember Conan the Brigand? The new supplement for Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of focuses on skullduggery, nomads, and outlaws. This 120-page book features a gazetteer covering Khauran, Turan, and Zamboula with several new NPCs from the Conan books, new monsters, the gods and magic of the nomadic lands, and rules for running a brigand-focused campaign from new equipment to fortifications and castles. The PDF is available now on DriveThru and on Modiphius’s website.
And because what’s talk of Star Trek without talk of Star Wars, Fantasy Flight games announced Allies and Adversaries for the Genesys-system based Star Wars RPG. The book collects profiles and stat blocks for major characters throughout all eras of the Star Wars fiction, which makes this a great accessory for any of the Star Wars games. Over 130 NPCs are profiled in the book, including Emperor Palpatine, Boba Fett, Jyn Erso, Wicket, and more. The book goes beyond simple stat blocks and gives gamemasters full backgrounds, motivations, tips, and everything else needed to utilize these characters to their fullest potential. The book will be available in the second quarter of 2019 with a retail price of $39.95.
Nolan Bushnell, one of the co-founders of Atari, still has his hands in the gaming world and teamed with Zai Ortiz, a film professional with credits including Mission Impossible, Sherlock Holmes, Iron Man, and more. Together, they’ve created X2 Games which brings a game night staple into the 21st century with St. Noire, a murder mystery puzzle game for Amazon’s Alexa. Available as a “skill” for Alexa-enabled devices (including the mobile app) along with the board game elements, St. Noire is a deductive mystery game you can play alone or with a group as you try to deduce who killed the victim where and with what (yes, like Clue/Cluedo), only with a time limit: Too many wrong guesses or too much messing around can let the killer escape justice. The game will launch with six different scenarios in the noir-inspired St. Noire, each with randomized solutions. The game will be released toward the end of February and, while no price has been announced, it’s expected to cost between $30 and $40.
If you’re looking for inspiration for your games, Humble has the Fan Faves and New Hits Bundle from Dynamite Comics. Dresden Files, Red Sonja, Battlestar Galactica, Game of Thrones, John Carter, and more tabletop stables are well-represented in this bundle. And if you’re killing time trying to get schedules back together after the holidays, you can feed your fix for tabletop gaming through video games in the Humble Winter Sale still going on. There’s a lot of tabletop games like BattleTech, Shadowrun Returns Collection, Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara (yes, the original arcade game), Talisman, Torment: Tides of Numenera, and just so many different Warhammer games. Plus there’s tabletop-inspired games like Darkest Dungeons, Conan Exiles, Pillars of Eternity, and Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire. The Humble Winter Sale ends January 24, while the Dynamite Comics bundle ends January 30.
If you’re looking to spruce up your Waterdeep: Dragonheist game, artist Daniel Pryor is here to help you out with a series of maps and art assets for the adventure. The Kickstarter is three different art packs and two map packs with everything you need to give a unique artistic spin to your virtual tabletop like Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds. The files are ready to use and created by the artist based on the descriptions from the adventure. You can get one pack for $15, two for $25, three for $35, or all five for $50, and there’s a $100 pledge level for commercial use for aspiring designers looking for art assets (so long as you don’t resell them as a similar “art pack” format). This project is fully funded and runs until Monday, February 4.
I can’t paint minis. I am absolutely terrible at it every time I try. But I’m also in awe of people who have the artistic talent and steady hand to do so. And if you’re one of those who loves paining minis, Redgrass Games has the perfect tool to up your game with the RGG 360 Miniature Painting Handle. The handle is specifically designed to hold onto 25mm and 32mm miniatures to allow you to move them around easily while painting in a more comfortable way than leaving them on the table or trying to hold them by the base. It also includes a mechanism to rotate the mini while you’re painting so you can approach it from every angle. You can get one for €10 (about US$11), two plus sticky putty for €20 (about US$23), three for €29 (about US$33), or a bundle at €36 (about US$41) that includes one handle, putty, and custom designed miniature painting brushes. This project is fully funded and runs until Thursday, January 31.
Metal dice. Brand new custom designs that are easy to read while still being stylish. What more could you want? Available in several colors (note that these are not descriptions of the metal used) including silver, gold, bronze, and copper with custom inked numbers in white, black, blue, red, and more like green and pink as stretch goals unlock. You can get a full seven-dice set (d4, d6, d8, d10, d00, d12, and d20) for $39, two for $78, and three for $117 plus options to include custom leather cases for the dice. This project is fully funded with a few more colors left to unlock before the campaign ends on Tuesday, January 22.
That’s all from me for this week! Don’t forget to support our Patreon to bring you more gaming news content. If you have any news to submit, email us at news@enworldnews.com, and you can get more discussion of the week’s news on Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk every week. You can follow me on Twitter @Abstruse where I’ve been randomly griping about video production issues for a new video I’m working on, follow me on Twitch where I’ll get started streaming again very shortly, subscribe to Gamer’s Tavern on YouTube featuring videos on gaming history and gaming 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.
You may have noticed that there hasn’t been an Unearthed Arcana column from Wizards of the Coast yet this month. The bad news is that’s because there won’t be one in January. The good news is because they’re putting all their efforts into the release of a whole new class for Dungeons & Dragons 5e for February, the Artificer! The artificer class was first introduced into 3.x via the Eberron campaign setting and was part of the 4e class lists, an arcane-powered class that treats magic as technology with a focus on crafting magic items. Since 5e lacks a system currently for magic item crafting, this may be a further peek into plans for new rules in 2020 and beyond, as the Unearthed Arcana playtests tend to be a year out from any major release version. This follows up the release late last year of Wayfinder’s Guide to Eberron, which is also considered “playtest material” the same way Unearthed Arcana articles are (which only really matters to those participating in the Adventure League organized play).
Modiphius opened up pre-orders for another version of the Borg Cube deluxe edition of Star Trek Adventures. This new version features a lot of the same things as the original Borg Cube (which was priced at a hefty $500) but is lacking the miniatures. However, this $257.99 set includes a sturdy cardboard Borg Cube box with several drawers meant for storage, a poster map of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants of the galaxy with political boundaries, three sets of division-colored custom dice (command gold, security/operations red, and science/medicine blue…or swap the red and gold for TNG-era), tokens, a gamemaster’s screen, five different rules reference cards, and a copy of the limited edition “NCC-1701-D” cover core rulebook. This edition will be available starting this March. And a shout-out to user sstacks from the Morrus' Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk Discord for putting me onto this story.
In more Star Trek news, the best Star Trek series (yes DS9 is the best don't @ me) is coming to Fluxx! Star Trek Deep Space Nine Fluxx is a base set for the constantly rules-changing card game featuring a complete game with new cards and art featuring Sisko, Kira, Quark, Odo, Dax, Bashir, and everything else you’d expect from Looney Labs. This isn’t the first time Looney Labs has dipped its toes into Star Trek, as they’ve previously produced Fluxx variants for Star Trek (the original series) and Star Trek: The Next Generation along with the second version of Fluxx, the no-trademarks-were-harmed science fiction game Star Fluxx. The new Star Trek Deep Space Nine Fluxx is due for release in Q2 2019 with a retail price of $20.
In more Modiphius news, everyone remembers Conan the Barbarian, but do you remember Conan the Brigand? The new supplement for Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of focuses on skullduggery, nomads, and outlaws. This 120-page book features a gazetteer covering Khauran, Turan, and Zamboula with several new NPCs from the Conan books, new monsters, the gods and magic of the nomadic lands, and rules for running a brigand-focused campaign from new equipment to fortifications and castles. The PDF is available now on DriveThru and on Modiphius’s website.
And because what’s talk of Star Trek without talk of Star Wars, Fantasy Flight games announced Allies and Adversaries for the Genesys-system based Star Wars RPG. The book collects profiles and stat blocks for major characters throughout all eras of the Star Wars fiction, which makes this a great accessory for any of the Star Wars games. Over 130 NPCs are profiled in the book, including Emperor Palpatine, Boba Fett, Jyn Erso, Wicket, and more. The book goes beyond simple stat blocks and gives gamemasters full backgrounds, motivations, tips, and everything else needed to utilize these characters to their fullest potential. The book will be available in the second quarter of 2019 with a retail price of $39.95.
Nolan Bushnell, one of the co-founders of Atari, still has his hands in the gaming world and teamed with Zai Ortiz, a film professional with credits including Mission Impossible, Sherlock Holmes, Iron Man, and more. Together, they’ve created X2 Games which brings a game night staple into the 21st century with St. Noire, a murder mystery puzzle game for Amazon’s Alexa. Available as a “skill” for Alexa-enabled devices (including the mobile app) along with the board game elements, St. Noire is a deductive mystery game you can play alone or with a group as you try to deduce who killed the victim where and with what (yes, like Clue/Cluedo), only with a time limit: Too many wrong guesses or too much messing around can let the killer escape justice. The game will launch with six different scenarios in the noir-inspired St. Noire, each with randomized solutions. The game will be released toward the end of February and, while no price has been announced, it’s expected to cost between $30 and $40.
If you’re looking for inspiration for your games, Humble has the Fan Faves and New Hits Bundle from Dynamite Comics. Dresden Files, Red Sonja, Battlestar Galactica, Game of Thrones, John Carter, and more tabletop stables are well-represented in this bundle. And if you’re killing time trying to get schedules back together after the holidays, you can feed your fix for tabletop gaming through video games in the Humble Winter Sale still going on. There’s a lot of tabletop games like BattleTech, Shadowrun Returns Collection, Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara (yes, the original arcade game), Talisman, Torment: Tides of Numenera, and just so many different Warhammer games. Plus there’s tabletop-inspired games like Darkest Dungeons, Conan Exiles, Pillars of Eternity, and Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire. The Humble Winter Sale ends January 24, while the Dynamite Comics bundle ends January 30.
If you’re looking to spruce up your Waterdeep: Dragonheist game, artist Daniel Pryor is here to help you out with a series of maps and art assets for the adventure. The Kickstarter is three different art packs and two map packs with everything you need to give a unique artistic spin to your virtual tabletop like Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds. The files are ready to use and created by the artist based on the descriptions from the adventure. You can get one pack for $15, two for $25, three for $35, or all five for $50, and there’s a $100 pledge level for commercial use for aspiring designers looking for art assets (so long as you don’t resell them as a similar “art pack” format). This project is fully funded and runs until Monday, February 4.
I can’t paint minis. I am absolutely terrible at it every time I try. But I’m also in awe of people who have the artistic talent and steady hand to do so. And if you’re one of those who loves paining minis, Redgrass Games has the perfect tool to up your game with the RGG 360 Miniature Painting Handle. The handle is specifically designed to hold onto 25mm and 32mm miniatures to allow you to move them around easily while painting in a more comfortable way than leaving them on the table or trying to hold them by the base. It also includes a mechanism to rotate the mini while you’re painting so you can approach it from every angle. You can get one for €10 (about US$11), two plus sticky putty for €20 (about US$23), three for €29 (about US$33), or a bundle at €36 (about US$41) that includes one handle, putty, and custom designed miniature painting brushes. This project is fully funded and runs until Thursday, January 31.
Metal dice. Brand new custom designs that are easy to read while still being stylish. What more could you want? Available in several colors (note that these are not descriptions of the metal used) including silver, gold, bronze, and copper with custom inked numbers in white, black, blue, red, and more like green and pink as stretch goals unlock. You can get a full seven-dice set (d4, d6, d8, d10, d00, d12, and d20) for $39, two for $78, and three for $117 plus options to include custom leather cases for the dice. This project is fully funded with a few more colors left to unlock before the campaign ends on Tuesday, January 22.
That’s all from me for this week! Don’t forget to support our Patreon to bring you more gaming news content. If you have any news to submit, email us at news@enworldnews.com, and you can get more discussion of the week’s news on Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk every week. You can follow me on Twitter @Abstruse where I’ve been randomly griping about video production issues for a new video I’m working on, follow me on Twitch where I’ll get started streaming again very shortly, subscribe to Gamer’s Tavern on YouTube featuring videos on gaming history and gaming 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.
