News Digest: Empyrea Canceled, New Stranger Things Game, Warhammer 40K Comics, and more!

Hello, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news. The Empyrea Kickstarter has been canceled amid controversy, statistical analysis of what we're playing on D&D, Stranger Things gets a card game, a new Warhammer 40K comic book, and more!

Hello, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news. The Empyrea Kickstarter has been canceled amid controversy, statistical analysis of what we're playing on D&D, Stranger Things gets a card game, a new Warhammer 40K comic book, and more!


First, a correction. Last week I reported on a controversy involving comments from The Dice Tower founder Tom Vasel. I wrote that The Dice Tower shares ownership with online retailer Cool Stuff Inc. This is inaccurate. Cool Stuff Inc. only shares ownership with the yearly convention Dice Tower Con and is a sponsor, not an owner, of The Dice Tower podcasts and video shows. I apologize for the error.


Late on the evening of October 18, the third update was posted to Frank Mentzer’s Empyrea Fantasy Setting Kickstarter announcing its cancellation. The full update is available in the link, and while there are no specific reasons given for the cancellation, the post speaks of many issues frequently brought up with Kickstarters and crowdfunding in the tabletop game industry. From support for local game stores to variety of content to vague talk of “hostilities” regarding different game systems, the post comments on much but doesn’t give a definitive answer to why the project is being cancelled outside the statement “Thus, I will not use crowdfunding to circumvent the hobby for my personal benefit.”

However, at the time of cancellation, the project only managed to raise $61,887 of a $250,000. To be so far from a base funding goal in such a large campaign is usually a sign to pull the plug and it’s frequent for many companies to cancel campaigns rather than risk them completing without funding due to the time and cost to promote a crowdfunding campaign and the “bad look” of a failed campaign. Usually, such campaigns are repackaged and reworked with either a lower funding goal (especially with projects as ambitious as the Empyrea project) or the projects move forward with different revenue streams if at all.

The cancellation also comes shortly after former Paizo Project Manager and Gen Con Industry Insider Jessica Price posted a Twitter thread speaking of Frank Mentzer’s 2015 interactions with her and an unnamed friend. The thread describes and has screenshots of Mentzer’s “gross” interactions on Facebook following a convention and a later interaction where he reportedly blamed the victim of a sexual assault for her own attack, describing her as “sick” and needing to “get help”. After blocking Mentzer on Facebook, he made a vague public post referencing the interaction with “an established industry professional” blocking him, further stating, “Be sure your Great Cause is worth it. If you’re going to slam and lock a door, be sure you’re never going to need it again.” After this thread was posted, several members of the Empyrea team resigned, including designer Ted Fauster (who wrote a long blog post about his resignation), crowdfunding engineer Mike Myler, and Kevin Wilson (who was credited on the Kickstarter page only as “Business”)

Update: Mike Myler resigned from the Empyrea project before Jessica Price's posts for unrelated reasons. This is the statement from his website: All of my campaign settings are the result of crowdfunded projects and I’m 6/6 (thank you awesome backers!!!) There was one hiccup that people are probably going to be curious about–I am (despite requests from before launch and afterwards) credited as “Crowdfunding Engineer” for the Empyrea Kickstarter. This is not accurate. It would be unseemly for me to speak on it at length but I will share this small snippet of my contract because its intent was clear: I knew that decisions beyond my power to control or influence had fatally flawed the project, with such a high level of confidence that I demanded an amendment to my contract specifically detailing the primary element I knew was the biggest problem. I sent my resignation letter the morning of October 17th and wish them the very best of luck.

There is no announced timeframe for when or even if the Empyrea campaign setting will relaunch, either through crowdfunding or through traditional funding methods.


In a move that seems very “How was this not already a thing?”, Hasbro has signed a deal with Netflix to produce games based on the television series Stranger Things. Considering the prominent placement of Dungeons & Dragons in the show, it seems a shoe-in of a cross-promotional deal. However, there has not yet been any announcement of a D&D book involving any of the show’s elements. We are getting an Eggo-themed card game featuring Eleven on the cover (pictured above) where each player takes on the role of one of the show’s characters attempting to be the first to discard their entire hand with the various “gimmick” cards themed around the Upside Down and Demogorgon. The game will be available for an MSRP of $15.00 this fall, timed to the release of the second season of the show.

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The statistics website FiveThirtyEight, which rose to prominence during the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections with their predictive algorithms, turned their eye to Dungeons & Dragons data available from the D&D Beyond app for character class and race choices. The dataset includes all race/class combinations from August 15 to September 15, 2017, and showed that the by far most popular race/class combination is the Human Fighter with 4,888 characters created out of every 100,000, with Elf Ranger coming in at second with 3,076. The least popular race/class combination is Aasimar Ranger, which had only 60 characters created per 100,000. The most popular class overall is Fighter and race is Human, while the least popular is Druid and Aasimar.


A new licensed comic series, Warhammer 40K: Deathwatch, is on its way this January from Titan Comics. The four-issue miniseries will be written by Aaron Dembski-Bowden (author of multiple licensed Warhammer 40K novels) and art from Wagner Reis (artist on multiple Dynamite Comics lines including Vampirella, Warlord of Mars, and Red Sonja). The first issue will ship with three variant covers, while the series will focus on a fight between the Deathwatch defending an entire sector from hordes of Orks. The first issue releases January 3.


Speaking of Dynamite Comics and artist Wagner Reis, the Humble RPG Book Pathfinder Worldscape Ultimate Crossover Bundle is still available. This bundle features both game books for Pathfinder as well as comic books from the series and from other Dynamite Comics titles including ones Reis has worked on previously. There are different levels with even the $1 level getting you five game books, six maps, twenty-seven comics, and it goes up from there with more Pathfinder rulebooks, Pathfinder Society adventures, and Dynamite Comics graphic novels and comics. The $45 level has a total retail value of $667 and includes all four physical print comics for the crossovers with The Traveler, Reanimator, Vampirella, and Dejah Thorin set in the Pathfinder world as well as physical unpainted miniatures for Red Sonja, John Carter of Mars, Tarzan, Tars Tarkas, and a Starfinder human envoy miniature. If you want in on this bundle, you’ve got until Wednesday, October 25.


Undead is the third sourcebook for Chill 3rd Edition focusing on ponies. No, I’m kidding, it’s the undead obviously. Lots of undead. Zombies, vampires, liches, and more with enough variations of each to keep them fresh and interesting. And they’ve just broken the stretch goal for a special case written by Steve Kenson, who will be joining Chris Spivey, Sarah Richardson, Morgan A. McLaughlin McFarland, and more working on cases for this project, plus a brand new comic from Leonard O’Grady. The PDF is available for a $15 pledge, while the softcover is added on for $25. If you missed out on Chill 3rd Edition’s release, there’s the $35 level to get the core rulebook and the new Undead sourcebook and the $70 to get both in physical copy as well (Chill is a hardcover while Undead is a softcover printing). This campaign has not yet funded but still has until Halloween, Tuesday, October 31 (fitting for Chill) to hit its $16,000 goal.

Endure the Stars is a science fiction dungeon crawler game where 1-6 players take on the roles of the surviving crew of a planet colonization ship attempting to survive a catastrophe. This is a second printing of the original game listed as a “1.5 edition” that updates and streamlines the rules and upgrades the components. The game itself focuses on tracking down escaped genetic lifeforms meant to assist in planetary colonization that have escaped on the ship, which is represented by a variable game board you explore as the game progresses. The game plus all expansions and stretch goals is available for a £72 pledge (about US$96) while those who already own the game can get the upgrades alone for £28 (about US$37) or the expansions as well for £48 (about US$64). This Kickstarter is fully funded and runs until Tuesday, October 24.

A narrative cooperative board game themed around 1940s noir mystery? I am at a loss for how much this presses my buttons. But yes, Detective: City of Angels actually is a thing no matter how much I pinch myself to make sure I’m not dreaming. Each of the 1-5 players takes on the role of a LAPD police detective trying to crack the case by interviewing witnesses and gathering evidence all over the city of Los Angeles. While this is not a Flying Frog game, you can see the clear influence as well as the works of Raymond Chandler, James Elroy, and the video game L.A. Noire. You can get the game alone for a $64 pledge, or add on the first expansion Bullets Over Hollywood with a $89 pledge. This project is at four times its funding goal and I couldn’t be more thrilled to see a genre of gaming I’ve felt is far too neglected getting this much attention, and hopefully gets even more until it closes on Thursday, November 2.

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 be posting polls for what to cover next in my videos because I am far too indecisive, 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, and/or DriveThru may contain affiliate links with the proceeds going to the author of this column.
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Darryl Mott

Darryl Mott

jedijon

Explorer
I can't believe there's a story here beyond a crappy looking setting and overly ambitious poorly realized business plan. This had train wreck written on it from the start.

I'm glad to see the end of it, as a blight on the rest of the hobby.

Stranger Things and waffles...hmm?
 

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jedijon

Explorer
And hey Frank - if you're reading this, with all your talk of "I" and "you"...meaning the actual me, I'd be happy to have a conversation with you regarding why you think it's cool to ask for money when you haven't yet created anything substantive, and you perceive yourself to be persecuted by those who demand to see a polished presentation before opening a wallet.

It's pretty simple. Figure the proportion of people that drive by a guy with a sign on the corner. There's a reason not everybody wants to give them ten bucks. If you think you should--great. If you think EVERYBODY should, then I can't help ya man. I just can't.
 

Coffey Kin

First Post
I believe Jessica Price. ...

I believe them both. I have also seen Rashômon, FWIW. It seems most if not all of the actions (of both) at the heart of the matter took place on facebook threads (aka a game of textual telephone that nearly always ends in a hot mess) which I'm sure only exacerbated the Rashomon effect. But Rashomon only speaks to their respective accountings of what happened.

As for Mentzer's views, I liken it to my 5th grade teacher (if only to pick a non-sensitive & apolitical example). She was older, probably near to retirement. She thought Greenland was a continent, likely because that was what she was taught herself (or maybe she simply misinterpreted a Mercator projection). Didn't make her a bad person, or ignorant on the whole. That didn't mean that everything she taught or was involved with academically was invalid, or that she should be drummed out of polite society. 50 years from now, it is almost guaranteed each of us will still believe something that was always wrong, was proven wrong or simply changed after we learned it, or something right or wrong that is no longer fashionable. Maybe it will be about something as inconsequential as whether Greenland is a continent. Maybe about something more consequential, or of a more sensitive topic.

5th grade me was much more concerned with accuracy at the time. She was wrong! (Yes, I was that kid.) So I spoke up and told her so in front of the class. I wasn't rude ...exactly... but I certainly could have handled it better, with more compassion, empathy and humility. Some may object that there are some things that are so egregious, that such only enables others. We should all face the consequences of our actions, and we leave ourselves open to judgment of others by our words and acts. Even so, I'd point to Daryl Davis and his work with members of the KKK as one example of dealing with people who hold or once held the most egregious and odious of views. We can't all be like Daryl, but it can be done. And successfully, I'd note, as Daryl has changed minds. At the very least, can't we just let someone be wrong on the internet on occasion? Well, unless they believe Greenland is bigger than Africa, or Antarctica isn't a continent.

But if we must correct, compassion, empathy and humility are more likely to sway hearts and minds than other tactics. I have seen Mr. Mentzer called a predator, comparisons to Harvey Weinstein, and seen actions elsewhere intended to harm his livelihood such as having cons disinvite him (I assume he'd be paid) -- mostly on teh Twitters, so par for course. These folks too deserve compassion, though they are wrong in going much too far, I believe. I will also note that this is not directed at Ms. Price -- from what I have seen, I find little to fault with her on the whole concerning this.

Lastly, I'll add my +1 to those who give kudos Enworld as an oasis of civility. BravoZulu!
 


Michael Dean

Explorer
No point in getting defensive mate - I just said I couldn't find those said screenshots. I also found one of Frank saying he didn't call anyone 'sick' and that it was all misconstrued. If you could kindly link me to the actual screen shot of him calling that girl sick, I'd greatly appreciate it. As I said, I don't use social media, so navigating that heap of crap called twitter is rather challenging. Any direct link to the actual screenshot of him saying those things would be more than acceptable for me to condemn his words, I just said I can't find it - feel free to link =)

As an aside about 'Believe' I don't believe anyone on the internet, which is why I only care about proof. I don't know Frank, nor any of those other people, aside from 'they make game stuff'. Thus why my only concern is finding proof of comments that, would make me not want to fund that man, or existing as is without proof. It's a simple binary.

EDIT: Allow me to explain what I mean by Twitter. In the link in your post, it shows all those comments, but only 5 pictures, and none of those are of Frank saying anything untoward except telling Jessica he was wrong about his original assessment of her. If I have to click anything or look elsewhere for the actual picture of proof, I'm not sure how to do that - reiterated, I don't 'Twitter.'

Dude, why are you commenting on a topic that you admittedly won't do even the most basic research for, and then demand that everyone else do the work for you? Why don't you just say you're not going to do any analysis whatsoever and stick with your own pre-conceived opinion? Innocent until proven guilty does not mean what you think it does, btw.
 

Xaelvaen

Stuck in the 90s
Dude, why are you commenting on a topic that you admittedly won't do even the most basic research for, and then demand that everyone else do the work for you? Why don't you just say you're not going to do any analysis whatsoever and stick with your own pre-conceived opinion? Innocent until proven guilty does not mean what you think it does, btw.

No, the most basic research would have been you reading the entire thread before commenting. In a later post, once an actual screenshot of Frank saying such remarks was directly linked, I condemned his actions unequivocally - just read the other posts.

I just do not subscribe to mob mentality, and in the original link in this article, there was no such evidence without clicking all the random people's names and trying to dig through their own posts to find the screenshots. As in I do not have a Twitter account, it's very difficult to search through that crap.

So, once someone very kindly linked an -actual- bit of evidence instead of hearsay, I was quick to denounce the man's words. In essence, next time finish reading before posting, thank you.

EDIT: I am offering you the same courtesy someone else offered me - a link.
 
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Rygar

Explorer
The argument where feelings hardened is now removed. Based on hearsay, the argument centered on a reallife incident where a woman was groped on a bus. The sexual aggression was clearly unwanted, but she didnt know how to respond, and froze up.

The debate seems to have polarized. Both seeming to take extreme positions. Mentzer ended up in the position of actually saying it was her fault that she failed to defend herself. In other words, blaming the victim.

Yet the opposite extreme is equally idiotic.

Is Price actually arguing that women are incapable of thinking for themselves, and that men must take all responsibility and make all decisions about women, on behalf of women, because women are delicate, helpless, hapless creatures?

Obviously women are capable, and can make decisions for themselves and assert their own interests.

Women, like men, are fully capable. And a self-defense class or two wouldnt hurt.

The truth is somewhere between the extremes.




I am a man. By my personality I dont really flirt. By I have friends who flirt, I envy them, and they make the world a more beautiful fun place. I like it when people flirt with me − heh, both women and men − as long as it is light and fun, it is flattering. But the trick to flirting is knowing when it isnt working. When it isnt working, its not working. A few times in my life, someone crossed lines. And I have to say, I froze. So I get why that woman on the bus froze. On the one hand, I honestly didnt want to hurt the feelings of the person doing it. On the other hand, the advance was viscerally unwanted. Fortunately, in my case, these persons realized the pass was unreciprocated and relented. And their feelings got hurt anyway. In hindsight, I can look back on the situation with some sympathy and amusement. But only because they stopped. I dont know what I would do if they had failed to stop. So, I froze. Yet, I am also a capable person. It wouldnt hurt if I learned a trick or two to deal with this kind of situation.

Heh, and I am including one time I was out of town, and went to a religious service there − and a woman there was aggressively, publicly, was trying to get me to meet and marry her daughter. The truth is, this elderly woman was intelligent and elegant, and if the daughter was anything like her, I might be interested. But when it is not working, it is not working. And no, means, no.

I'm pretty confused at this stage. Was this woman a "Sexual assault survivor", meaning someone whose life was nearly lost during a sex assault, or was she someone that was groped on a bus? The phrase "Sexual assault survivor" is being used on this topic pretty extensively, but I'm not able to find any indication of how her life was in immediate danger. Every time I try and find what happened I'm just hitting references to her being groped.
 

Yaarel

🇮🇱He-Mage
I'm pretty confused at this stage. Was this woman a "Sexual assault survivor", meaning someone whose life was nearly lost during a sex assault, or was she someone that was groped on a bus? The phrase "Sexual assault survivor" is being used on this topic pretty extensively, but I'm not able to find any indication of how her life was in immediate danger. Every time I try and find what happened I'm just hitting references to her being groped.

The argument was an abstract debate on facebook/twitter, concerning a woman who was groped on a bus.

Some of the participants in the debate were survivors of sexual abuse.
 

mcmillan

Adventurer
It was not an abstract discussion, but a report of an actual event including a picture of the person who did the groping to help identify who the person was. Also questioning if something was sexual assault or groping is the wrong question since groping would be a form of sexual assault.
 

God

Adventurer
I'm pretty confused at this stage. Was this woman a "Sexual assault survivor", meaning someone whose life was nearly lost during a sex assault, or was she someone that was groped on a bus? The phrase "Sexual assault survivor" is being used on this topic pretty extensively, but I'm not able to find any indication of how her life was in immediate danger. Every time I try and find what happened I'm just hitting references to her being groped.

I have a feeling it's manufactured, but just in case the obnoxious ignorance is genuine, take thyself to Google and join the rest of us in the 21st century. This is all standard nomenclature.
 

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