Morrus' Daily RPG News Updates

Dungeons & Dragons News

• Check out my exclusive 23-page preview of the D&D 5th Edition Player's Handbook! It's EXCLUSIVE! (Well, you've probably seen all the bits before, but not exclusively put together in one place like that!)
• The Escapist has put together a list of the specializations from the 5E Player's Handbook, so here's my exclusive link to it! [21 comments]
• Venger posted some exclusive thoughts on 5E.
• Harbinger of Doom exclusively discusses magic and spells in D&D Basic.
• Be sure to check out my exclusive forums, where hundreds of people are also posting their thoughts on D&D 5th Edition!
• The Escapist also has an exclusive look at the exclusive WizKids D&D miniatures, including the invisible characters! Click on the exclusive image below!

Pathfinder RPG News

• Paizo CEO Lisa Stevens was interviewed by Dave Gross about her Gen Con memories, which I can exclusively report here.
• A new customer service job has been posted exclusively at Paizo.com.
• Erik Mona has sent along another exclusive Pathfinder Minimate goblin reveal. About this one, he says: "The Pathfinder Goblin Hunt at Gen Con features several goblin-themed promotional items. Some of the most exciting are 2-inch Minimates figurines, created by Diamond Select Toys. The second goblin reveal is Konkrud, who is feeling a bit under the weather due to too much gaming. This is the Minimate version of last year's popular promotional Pathfinder Battles figure of the same name, and he comes complete with his very own dogslicer and a bunch of scabs on his ashen skin. Konkrud will be available as a prize in the Pathfinder Society Organized Play program in the Sagamore Ballroom in the convention center's second floor, where more than 1000 gamers will be playing Pathfinder all weekend long. After each event, players receive a special wooden token they can turn in at a prize station for a d20 roll that qualifies them for cool prizes. Roll high enough, and Konkrud could be yours! After the convention, we'll be selling a few hundred Konkruds held back from the convention for folks who do not get a chance to attend, but Gen Con will be the only opportunity to take this guy home for FREE!"

ENnies Voting Ends Today!

If you haven't yet voted in the 2014 Gen Con EN World RPG Awards, you have just the rest of today to do so. After that, the voting booth closes, and we start tallying up the votes ready to announce them live at our grand ceremony at Gen Con in a couple of weeks, on Friday 15th August. Be sure to be there at the event, hosted by Bill Cavalier aka the Dungeon Bastard, and Jen Page. I'll be presenting a couple of awards, too! Anyway, click on the logo below and VOTE NOW!

Exclusive Pathfinder Goblin Minimate

Erk Mona sent along this awesome picture of Paizo's preview goblin Minimate! It will be available FREE to folks who purchase $100 or more at the Paizo booth (#203) at this year's Gen Con Indy. It's a preview of the standard goblin that will come in the Pathfinder Minimates Boxed Set (October). This goblin is different than the goblin in the boxed set in that his facial expression is unique, and he has a torch in addition to his dogslicer. They will also release three additional goblin Minimates at the show, which I will be able to show over the next few days.

Check Out The D&D 5th Edition Barbarian!

Courtesy of the Dungeon Bastard! [146 comments]

Did anybody order a Paladin? D&D 5th Edition flavour, of course! [107 comments]

Pathfinder RPG News

• Death to Alignment! is a newbook for Pathfinder designed for gamers dissatisfied with the current morality system. "Death to Alignment not only has the tools every Game Master needs to remove it from their games, but a selection of cool and intriguing new options!"
• Meet the Shaman from the upcoming Advanced Class Guide. "For many years now, roleplaying games have used the term shaman to mean a lot of different things. Most often, the term is used to describe the spiritual leader of a primitive people or tribe. The shaman would commune with the spirits to beseech them for aid or guidance. The only problem with this was that it did not closely match any of the classes we have in the game. Until now." Click on the picture for more!

Dungeons & Dragons News

• If you enjoyed my From TSR to WotC: A History of D&D pages, you'll also enjoy this superb telling of the way Gary Gygax lost control of TSR by the always excellent Jon Peterson. It's a fascinating read.
• WotC has a new website.

What's O.L.D. is N.E.W. News

Download this FREE 80-page character creation guide for the upcoming N.E.W. roleplaying game.

This character generation guide is an excerpt from the N.E.W. core rulebook (latest playtest version). It is designed as a handout for players, so they don't need to buy an entire hardcover themselves. It contains the first 80 pages of the 300+ page N.E.W. core rulebook and takes a player through the character generation process. It also includes the Iconic pregenerated characters. Character sheets can be downloaded from the character sheets area here at EN World (use the latest version).

N.E.W. is a science fiction roleplaying game set in future. Containing entire chapters of worldbuilding advice, it is designed for you to play in your sci-fi setting. It has two companion games, O.L.D. (medieval fantasy) and N.O.W. (80s action) which use the same rules and are 100% compatible. Put your wizard on a starship and have him engage in a martial arts fight with Mr T!

Pathfinder RPG News

• Paizo recently did something really, really cool. Someone was struggling with the process of coming out as transgender, and they sent along an awesome gift package. It looks like Wes Schneider was the brains behind the plan. The package included a whole bunch of books, some signed, and a personal note.
• Erik Mona's latest miniatures blog shows off the treacherous Cult of Lamashtu, the Mother of Monsters. As always, click on the image for more!

• If you're heading to Gen Con this year, be sure to stop in at Scotty's Brewhouse for some Pathfinder-themed food! Here's the menu!

Dungeons & Dragons News

• The negative reviews are starting to trickle in. John Dodd wrote a fairly detailed unfavourable comparison between the D&D starter set and the Pathfinder Beginner Box, concluding that "So in the Game of Games, D&D may indeed be Tywin to Pathfinders Tyrion, and both sides will have those that prefer them for different reasons, but in this test, Tyrion has certainly caught Tywin with his pants down..."
• d20 Monkey previewed the Bard class from the 5E Player's Handbook.
• According to WotC's Greg Bilsland. here will be no PDF bundled with the 5th Edition core rulebooks or Tyranny of Dragons adventures. That doesn't mean there won't be PDFs of the books at all, just that they won't be bundled with the hardcovers.
• Mike Mearls lists all the classes and subclasses from 5E. [161 comments]
• The Spellwyrm's Search -- Not every dragon likes the Cult of the Dragon, but the Spellwyrm is interested in the concept of immortality. Learn more about this dragon and his Hands, who serve him.
• ICv2 has some preview photos of the Tiamat and Bahamut miniatures, similar to those we've already seen.

Today, WotC previewed the D&D 5th Edition bard over at d20 Monkey. [78 comments]

A bit of early weekend AM D&D previewage! Equipment pages! It's been a heck of a day - make sure you check out all the other previews today/yesterday! [24 comments]

The news keeps flooding in today! If it's not the D&D 5E Player's Handbook Table of Contents and Sorcerer, or D&D Spell Cards, it's Zadim, Pathfinder's new Iconic Slayer! This time it's WizKids' official D&D miniatures, courtesy of scooper Ben. Crit to Hit has a gallery of all of WizKids' offerings at the show, but here's the D&D stuff - including that Gargantuan Tiamat we've all be waiting to see and added Bahamut! [40 comments]

NOTE - I was out of town all day yesterday for family reasons, so there are TWO big news updates today. This one is WotC, but this morning I also posted a big Pathfinder RPG update covering a new Goblin Vinyl Bank from Comic-Con, Zadim the Iconic Slayer, the Optimized Character Contest ending today, and more! Be sure to check that out!

Dungeons & Dragons News

• Want to see ALL the 5E Player's Handbook previews I've shown you on this very page so far? I've collected them all together here. There may be more than you think!
• The Mary Sue interviewed WotC's Mike Mearls and Jeremy Crawford about the important and sometimes divisive topic of diversity and sexuality in the new game. "For example, in the section on the human race in the Player’s Handbook, the [illustration representing humans] is a black woman. The illustration makes me smile every time I see it. ... Very early on, we decided that we were going to avoid bare midriffs, cleavage, and other common gaming tropes. We only use those if a specific character would actually dress that way. For instance, our incubus is depicted with six-pack abs and a come-hither smile. That makes sense, because as a supernatural creature of seduction and corruption, that’s how he would present himself in the world of D&D." [118 comments]
• An interview with WotC's Mike Mearls about D&D 5th Edition! "We found that many people in the audience wanted a fast, flexible, and easy-to-play game. That feedback went against nearly 15 years of conventional wisdom in the D&D business. It also stretched across all editions. Even people who loved 4e’s depth were interested in seeing a fast, simple core that they could expand to include deep combat when they wanted it." [86 comments]
• Official Conversion Guides! Also from the above article: "We’ve already had DMs cook up conversion guides for earlier editions. We’ll be producing official ones that will be freely available in the fall, once we dig ourselves out from beneath the three core rulebooks." [30 comments]
• Petros Papalianos created an encounter builder based on one of Mike Mearls' articles.
• If you want to see all the stuff in the D&D Encounters: Tyranny of Dragons Kit, you should click right here. Because that's where you'll find it, courtesy of Dungeon's Master.com.
• Play Board Games has reviewed the D&D Starter Set.
• Fantastical though it sounds, someone has rolled up 1,000 characters using the D&D 5E Basic Rules: [9 comments]

Player's Handbook Table of Contents & Sorcerer

WotC sent these over to The Escapist -- the full Table of Contents [38 comments] and the Sorcerer two-page spread! [114 comments]

Dungeons & Dragons Spell Cards Coming Soon!

Gale Force 9, a long-time official licensee for D&D products, will be producing a series of D&D "Spellbook Cards" for the new edition of the game. No release date or price has yet been announced, but I'll let you know as soon as I hear anything. "These decks of spell cards are an invaluable resource for any magic-user. Consult the entire deck when selecting new spells to learn, and after a long rest you can set aside those spells you want to prepare for the day. Each deck is made from thick laminated card so they will stand the test of time." So far arcane, paladin, ranger, druid, cleric, and bard have been mentioned. [37 comments]
GF9 is also producing licensed miniatures. "Sneak peak from Gale Force 9's Tyranny of Dragons minis. Watch out for these 2 in Hoard of the Dragon Queen!"