Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news! New official D&D 24-hour streaming channel, Rebellion buys Tunnels & Trolls, new Doctor Who RPG books, and more!
For a quick summary of the week’s news, Jessica Hancock will bring you up to speed with EN Live's This Week in TTRPG every Friday.
Don’t forget, you can keep up with all the week’s gaming news in detail with Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk. This week, Morrus, Peter, and Jessica talk about the changes in the remaster of Pathfinder 2nd Edition.
In case you missed it elsewhere on EN World this week:
Entertainment One, the media company owned by Hasbro, announced a new streaming service Dungeons & Dragons Adventures. Reporting comes from Variety so I’ll try to translate the entertainment-speak in parentheses. The FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming Television) service will feature celebrity-focused unscripted content (D&D actual play series with famous people) along with back catalog content (the 1980s Dungeons & Dragons animated series and anything else they have rights to). The FAST channel will also feature third-party content from internet creators and influencers with a focus on live gameplay (archives of big-name Twitch and YouTube streamers). Three new series are listed as part of the “unscripted content”, Encounter Party featuring the cast from the podcast of the same name in a new video series adding on new cast member Khary Payton (Walking Dead). Faster, Purple Worm! Kill! Kill! is an “improv comedy spin” on a D&D actual play with a revolving cast including series co-creator Matthew Lillard (Hackers, Scream, Scooby Doo, co-founder of Beadle & Grimm’s). Heroes’ Feast will be part talk show, part cooking competition based on recipes from the official Dungeons & Dragons cookbook of the same name starring executive chef Mike Haracz and actor and “first level cook” Sujata Day (Insecure, The Guild). The network is expected to launch this summer.
Cubicle 7 announced two new books for The Doctor Who Roleplaying Game. First, we have The Thirteenth Doctor Sourcebook outlining the adventures of Jodie Whitaker’s 13th Doctor. The book covers multiple episodes from 13’s run on the show and how to integrate her adventures into your own game from playing them directly or spin-off adventures based on the events. It will also include statistics for her “extended fam” including the Thirteenth Doctor, Karvanista, Abby, Shawna, and Cleo. The PDF is available now on DriveThruRPG for $22.99, while the hardcover is available for pre-order for €41.99 (£36.99, US$44.99) with a scheduled Q4 2023 release.
Second, there’s the Alien Archive for the Doctor Who: Doctors and Daleks 5e roleplaying game. This sourcebook features over 60 monsters and aliens from The Doctor’s roster of enemies and allies across time and space from Axos to Zygons with complete 5e stats. So yes, you can bring the Weeping Angels to your D&D game if you really want to. The PDF is available now on DriveThruRPG for $22.99 while the hardcover is available for pre-order for €41.99 (£36.99, US$44.99) with a scheduled Q3 2023 release.
Critical Role announced a new actual play series titled Candela Obscura. The series will use the rules from their upcoming Illuminated Worlds system from the company’s publishing arm, Darrington Press, and follows “an esoteric order of investigators as they use centuries of knowledge to fight back a mysterious source of corruption and bleed.” This new show will feature Lightkeeper (the system’s term for the GM) Taliesin Jaffe with players Robbie Daymond, Laura Bailey, Anjali Bhimani, Ashley Johnson, and Matt Mercer. The show premiers on May 25 at 7:00 PM Pacific (10:00 PM Eastern, 3:00 AM BST) on Twitch and YouTube with a VOD and podcast available two weeks after.
Rebellion announced the acquisition of the rights to the entire game line of Flying Buffalo. Flying Buffalo’s catalog includes the early D&D competitor Tunnels & Trolls first published in 1975 along with the Grimtooth and Citybook series of sourcebooks, the spy game Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes, and many other RPGs products. Tunnels & Trolls was not only one of the first competitors to Dungeons & Dragons, but also innovated RPGs by creating a more player-focused system along with revolutionary solo play rules. The rights to the company’s games ended up with a holding company following the passing of founder and CEO Rick Loomis in 2019, with Rebellion Unplugged announcing the purchase of the rights this week. Rebellion has stated that previous Flying Buffalo products will remain available on DriveThruRPG while they work on the next chapter of Tunnels & Trolls releases. Rebellion is a video game developer and publisher best known for the Sniper Elite franchise along with their acquisition of the comic anthology series 2000 AD and its popular franchises like Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper. The company announced the launch of its tabletop gaming division, Rebellion Unplugged, in 2019 and began reissuing classic Judge Dredd and other 2000 AD related board games.
WizKids announced two new miniature sets to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Drizzt Do’Urden. The sets of prepainted miniatures with characters from the novels split into Family & Foes (which for Drizzt is mostly synonymous) and Companions. Families & Foes comes with Guenhwyvar, Gromph Baenre, Jaraxle Baenre, Triel Baenre, Zaknafein Do’Urden, and Malice Do’Urden. The Companion boxed set features Drizzt Do’Urden, Guenhwyvar, Wulfgar, Artemis Entreri, Bruenor Battlehammer, Cattie-brie Battlehammer, and Regis. Yes, Guenhwyvar is listed twice, but the animated black panther is in two different poses in the different sets. Each set will retail for $49.99 with an expected retail release date of October 2023.
Catalyst Game Labs is launching a line of plushies toys for the BattleTech game titled PlushyTech. Each stuffy will be 12” tall and the line features an UrbanMech in House Liao colors and the Phoenix Hawk from House Kurita and from the mercenary company 21st Centauri Lancers. Slightly larger are the 18” plushies of the Archer in colors of the mercenary companies Kell Hounds and Wolf’s Dragoons, plus the dreaded Atlas standing at 18” tall in House Davion colors and from the mercenaries Eridani Light Horse. The price for the plushies ranges from $34.99 to $49.99 and will be available on May 31.
That’s all from me for this week! Don’t forget to support our Patreon to bring you more gaming news content. 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.
For a quick summary of the week’s news, Jessica Hancock will bring you up to speed with EN Live's This Week in TTRPG every Friday.
Don’t forget, you can keep up with all the week’s gaming news in detail with Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk. This week, Morrus, Peter, and Jessica talk about the changes in the remaster of Pathfinder 2nd Edition.
In case you missed it elsewhere on EN World this week:
- Notice the changes here on EN World? Morrus goes over the reorganization efforts and how you can easily find the TTRPG news and columns you’re looking for.
- EN Publishing released the hardcover for Dungeon Delver’s Guide, the dungeon and encounter creation sourcebook for Level Up: Advanced 5e.
- EN5ider #514 is a new Dangerous Scenario that pits the party against the guardians of the Tomb of Scythrax ready to insert into any adventure.
- WizKids revealed a few of the monsters coming in Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants in their announcement of tie-in miniatures.
- Hasbro released the “instruction booklet” (aka the rules) for the Stranger Things Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set for free in PDF format. Dice, Demogorgon miniature, and adventure not included.
- Free League officially released the 5e-powered Lord of the Rings Roleplaying with the core rulebook, Shire Adventures, and Loremaster’s Screen available now.
- Paizo announced a new Starfinder sourcebook, Ports of Call, featuring new spaceports and settlements, hyperspace rules, new species, and more available May 24.
- Speaking of Starfinder, Paizo and Humble have partnered for the Starfinder Solidarity Bundle benefiting the Trevor Project. More details will be in this weekend’s Freebies, Sales, and Charity Bundles column.
- Rob Wieland reviewed the OSR-inspired roleplaying game Shadowdark that made over one million dollars on Kickstarter.
- Egg Embry interviewed Philip Reed about the trio of RPG zines on Kickstarter now and his recent change in position at Steve Jackson Games.
- Egg also spoke with Craig Campbell from Nerdburger Games about the Good Strong Hands supplement What is Light without Dark currently on Kickstarter.
- More information about the Wizards of the Coast Dungeons & Dragons Community Update discussed in last week’s column.
- Lewis Pulsipher’s newest Worlds of Design discusses how to determine your objective in designing a game.
- Michael Tresca asks an important question: Are RPGs art? Spoiler: Yes. Yes they are. And the Museum of Modern Art agrees.
- Don’t miss out on the newest RPG crowdfunding projects ending soon with Egg Embry’s RPG Crowdfunding News.
- Keep up with all the new print RPG releases with Charles Dunwoody’s RPG Print News.
- Find the big TTRPG sales, bundles, and charity fundraisers with the Freebies, Sales, and Charity Bundles News.
Entertainment One, the media company owned by Hasbro, announced a new streaming service Dungeons & Dragons Adventures. Reporting comes from Variety so I’ll try to translate the entertainment-speak in parentheses. The FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming Television) service will feature celebrity-focused unscripted content (D&D actual play series with famous people) along with back catalog content (the 1980s Dungeons & Dragons animated series and anything else they have rights to). The FAST channel will also feature third-party content from internet creators and influencers with a focus on live gameplay (archives of big-name Twitch and YouTube streamers). Three new series are listed as part of the “unscripted content”, Encounter Party featuring the cast from the podcast of the same name in a new video series adding on new cast member Khary Payton (Walking Dead). Faster, Purple Worm! Kill! Kill! is an “improv comedy spin” on a D&D actual play with a revolving cast including series co-creator Matthew Lillard (Hackers, Scream, Scooby Doo, co-founder of Beadle & Grimm’s). Heroes’ Feast will be part talk show, part cooking competition based on recipes from the official Dungeons & Dragons cookbook of the same name starring executive chef Mike Haracz and actor and “first level cook” Sujata Day (Insecure, The Guild). The network is expected to launch this summer.
Cubicle 7 announced two new books for The Doctor Who Roleplaying Game. First, we have The Thirteenth Doctor Sourcebook outlining the adventures of Jodie Whitaker’s 13th Doctor. The book covers multiple episodes from 13’s run on the show and how to integrate her adventures into your own game from playing them directly or spin-off adventures based on the events. It will also include statistics for her “extended fam” including the Thirteenth Doctor, Karvanista, Abby, Shawna, and Cleo. The PDF is available now on DriveThruRPG for $22.99, while the hardcover is available for pre-order for €41.99 (£36.99, US$44.99) with a scheduled Q4 2023 release.
Second, there’s the Alien Archive for the Doctor Who: Doctors and Daleks 5e roleplaying game. This sourcebook features over 60 monsters and aliens from The Doctor’s roster of enemies and allies across time and space from Axos to Zygons with complete 5e stats. So yes, you can bring the Weeping Angels to your D&D game if you really want to. The PDF is available now on DriveThruRPG for $22.99 while the hardcover is available for pre-order for €41.99 (£36.99, US$44.99) with a scheduled Q3 2023 release.
Critical Role announced a new actual play series titled Candela Obscura. The series will use the rules from their upcoming Illuminated Worlds system from the company’s publishing arm, Darrington Press, and follows “an esoteric order of investigators as they use centuries of knowledge to fight back a mysterious source of corruption and bleed.” This new show will feature Lightkeeper (the system’s term for the GM) Taliesin Jaffe with players Robbie Daymond, Laura Bailey, Anjali Bhimani, Ashley Johnson, and Matt Mercer. The show premiers on May 25 at 7:00 PM Pacific (10:00 PM Eastern, 3:00 AM BST) on Twitch and YouTube with a VOD and podcast available two weeks after.
Rebellion announced the acquisition of the rights to the entire game line of Flying Buffalo. Flying Buffalo’s catalog includes the early D&D competitor Tunnels & Trolls first published in 1975 along with the Grimtooth and Citybook series of sourcebooks, the spy game Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes, and many other RPGs products. Tunnels & Trolls was not only one of the first competitors to Dungeons & Dragons, but also innovated RPGs by creating a more player-focused system along with revolutionary solo play rules. The rights to the company’s games ended up with a holding company following the passing of founder and CEO Rick Loomis in 2019, with Rebellion Unplugged announcing the purchase of the rights this week. Rebellion has stated that previous Flying Buffalo products will remain available on DriveThruRPG while they work on the next chapter of Tunnels & Trolls releases. Rebellion is a video game developer and publisher best known for the Sniper Elite franchise along with their acquisition of the comic anthology series 2000 AD and its popular franchises like Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper. The company announced the launch of its tabletop gaming division, Rebellion Unplugged, in 2019 and began reissuing classic Judge Dredd and other 2000 AD related board games.
WizKids announced two new miniature sets to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Drizzt Do’Urden. The sets of prepainted miniatures with characters from the novels split into Family & Foes (which for Drizzt is mostly synonymous) and Companions. Families & Foes comes with Guenhwyvar, Gromph Baenre, Jaraxle Baenre, Triel Baenre, Zaknafein Do’Urden, and Malice Do’Urden. The Companion boxed set features Drizzt Do’Urden, Guenhwyvar, Wulfgar, Artemis Entreri, Bruenor Battlehammer, Cattie-brie Battlehammer, and Regis. Yes, Guenhwyvar is listed twice, but the animated black panther is in two different poses in the different sets. Each set will retail for $49.99 with an expected retail release date of October 2023.
Catalyst Game Labs is launching a line of plushies toys for the BattleTech game titled PlushyTech. Each stuffy will be 12” tall and the line features an UrbanMech in House Liao colors and the Phoenix Hawk from House Kurita and from the mercenary company 21st Centauri Lancers. Slightly larger are the 18” plushies of the Archer in colors of the mercenary companies Kell Hounds and Wolf’s Dragoons, plus the dreaded Atlas standing at 18” tall in House Davion colors and from the mercenaries Eridani Light Horse. The price for the plushies ranges from $34.99 to $49.99 and will be available on May 31.
That’s all from me for this week! Don’t forget to support our Patreon to bring you more gaming news content. 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.
