Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news. More Dungeons & Dragons movie casting news, miniature previews from WizKids for Starfinder and D&D, PaizoCon Online 2021 announced, Roll20 user statistics for Q4 2020, and more!
Don’t forget, you can get all the news every week with Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk! This week, Morrus and Peter are joined by Theodore Bergquist to talk about Trudvang Chronicles.
In case you missed it elsewhere on EN World this week:
Regé-Jean Page has joined the cast of the Dungeons & Dragons film. Page is best known for his work on the Regency-era drama Bridgerton and for supporting roles in the American legal drama For the People and the remake miniseries of Roots. We still don’t know much else about the project other than previous casting announcements of Chris Pine (Star Trek, Wonder Woman), Michelle Rodriguez (The Fast & The Furious, Avatar, Resident Evil), and Justice Smith (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Pokemon Detective Pikachu) along with writer/director team John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein (Spider-man Homecoming, Game Night). The film is currently set for a 2022 release, though this may change depending on production.
The latest report from The Orr Group is out covering user statistics over Q4 2020 for Roll20 accounting for more than 8 million users. As expected, Dungeons & Dragons 5e is at the top of the charts with 52.9% of campaigns and 58.44% of user accounts. “Uncategorized” for homebrew and unlisted games (or just ones where no game has been set) accounts for 14.96% of campaigns and 13.44% of user accounts. In third place is Call of Cthulhu (any edition with 10.3% of campaigns and 6.57% of user accounts. Pathfinder 1e and 2e come in in third and fourth with, respectively, 3.69% and 1.58% of campaigns and 3.98% and 1.66% of user accounts. Other top games include Warhammer (all versions and editions including WFRP and 40K), World of Darkness (all versions and editions), D&D 3.5, Star Wars (any version and edition), Starfinder, Savage Worlds, and Shadowrun. You can read the full report for all the statistics from the Roll20 blog.
EN Publishing released another preview of the upcoming Level Up 5e with a detailed look at the exploration pillar. Whether it’s deep in the wilderness, underground in a dungeon, or stalking the alleyways of the city, the enhanced exploration rules will give you more options as you travel. We get a look at the Exploration Challenges as well as a full example of the CR10 Tornado. But there’s more to exploring than the hazards you face as there are also Boons and Discoveries that give you advantages and the Monster Signs which give you clues as to what enemies you may face in an area or the ability to track down a specific monster. You can keep up with all the development updates of Level Up 5e including new playtest material on the website.
Modiphius announced The Spy Game, an action and espionage roleplaying game using the 5e rules. The game has all-new classes, backgrounds, skills, and more to fit the theme of pulp spy adventure. Play as a military operative, martial artist, infiltration specialist, con-artist, hacker, and more. There’s also a setting filled with covert agencies and colorful worldwide organizations to work for or plot against. The game, originally Kickstarted and published on DriveThruRPG by Black Cat Games, is now available on the Modiphius store (link above) with a physical edition due in April with a retail price of $42.00.
Paizo officially announced PaizoCon Online 2021 this week taking place on Memorial Day Weekend. The online convention will take place from May 28-31, 2021, and feature nightly live streamed games of Pathfinder and Starfinder, seminars and interviews with Paizo designers, giveaways on the PaizoCon Discord channel, demo games starting every hour, and more. Of course, part of that “more” is a selection of organized play games on multiple virtual tabletops including three brand new Starfinder Society scenarios and two Pathfinder Society scenarios with a total of more than 70 games between Pathfinder 1e, Pathfinder 2e, and Starfinder. Badges will be available starting on February 22 for $25 for access to all events (GMs who run four or more blocks will receive a free badge), while player registration for games opens on April 1.
We got three new previews from WizKids for miniatures coming out for three different lines. First, Paizo published yet another look at the Starfinder Battles: Planets of Peril release of pre-painted Starfinder miniatures due this month. The line features a total of 32 miniatures in random three-mini boxes for $14.99 each with a special terrain pack of docking bay equipment for $59.99. For fantasy miniatures, WizKids is expanding the D&D Nolzur’s Marvelous Miniatures line of unpainted minis to include two-packs of low-level and high-level versions of the same character for six different race/class/gender combinations plus four more pairs of minis of unusual player races such as lizardfolk, goblins, bugbears, and hobgoblins. These minis are set for a release in July with a retail price of $4.99 per two-mini blister pack. Finally, the unbranded WizKids Deep Cuts line expands with two new options, the Bounty Hunter and the Plague Doctor.
Fantasy Flight Games announced Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game will come to an end following the release of the Under Fu Leng’s Shadow expansion. In addition to the final expansion, Fantasy Flight will end the organized play program for L5R as soon as it is safe to complete (FFG has suspended all organized play since last year due to the pandemic). Since 2017, the game has produced a core boxed set, three premium expansions, seven Clan packs, and five cycles of Dynasty packs each containing six expansion packs. The roleplaying game from Edge Studio (who, along with Fantasy Flight, is owned by Asmodee) will continue along with the novel series from Asmodee’s fiction imprint Aconyte Books.
Wizards of the Coast won a legal dispute with distributor ACD Distribution this week. After Wizards of the Coast announced they would cease distribution through ACD in 2018, the distributor filed suit in Wisconsin citing the Wisconsin Fair Dealership Law to prevent termination of the distribution agreement. The lawsuit changed venue to the US District Court and later to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The final decision found in favor of Wizards of the Coast removing a court injunction that will allow WotC to end distribution with ACD and, in a second ruling, ordered ACD to pay over $250,000 for legal fees. ACD Distribution has appealed this decision.
Modiphius teamed with Humble Bundle to offer the Fallout RPG and 3D Miniature Bundle worth over $300 in rulebooks and 3D printer files for the Fallout universe. The bundle is separated into three tiers with the $1 level getting you the Fallout Rules of Play and Getting Acclimated books for the miniature skirmish game, two scenario books, the STL files for terrain of a ruined Red Rocket station, and more. The $10 includes the roleplaying expansion book for Fallout: Wasteland Warfare with more scenario books and STL files. The top tier for only $18 gets you even more STLs including a multiple files for Vault terrain, two vehicle minis including a vertibird, a Vault Girl mini, and more expansions for the Wasteland Warfare RPG book. Note: This is not the Fallout RPG using the 2d20 System due for release later this year, but the miniature skirmish wargame and its associated campaign-based roleplaying expansion. This bundle benefits the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and runs until Wednesday, May 10. It’s also the final week for the Warhammer Black Library bundle featuring English, French, and German language editions of novels in the Warhammer Fantasy, Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, and Warhammer 40,000 universe and the Asmodee Tabletop 2Gether bundle featuring video game versions of several popular Asmodee board games. The Warhammer bundle runs until Wednesday, February 24, while the Asmodee bundle runs until Thursday, February 25.
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@enpublishingrpg.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 Twitch to get notifications when I go live, subscribe to Gamer’s Tavern on YouTube for videos on gaming history, RPG reviews, 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.
Don’t forget, you can get all the news every week with Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk! This week, Morrus and Peter are joined by Theodore Bergquist to talk about Trudvang Chronicles.
In case you missed it elsewhere on EN World this week:
- EN Publishing has a new Kickstarter for One-Page Adventures, a collection of 25 adventures for 5e each on a single page!
- EN5ider #376 is a mini-adventure “Devil in the Details” for a 4th level party as they explore the odd Coffin’s Curios shop at the behest of its new owner to check for any unforeseen dangers.
- The Zeitgeist Adventure Path for 5e concludes with “Avatar of Revolution”, the thirteenth adventure for 20th level characters.
- Rob Wieland has a review of Sentinel Comics, the superhero RPG based on the Sentinels of the Multiverse card game from Greater Than Games.
- The Our Shores Kickstarter just funded, bringing to life three RPGSEA titles: the slice-of-life GM-less Capitalites, the science-fantasy Maharlika, and art deco inspired epic fantasy Navathem’s End.
- Egg Embry interviewed Crystal Frasier and Steve Kenson from Green Ronin about the Mutants & Masterminds Patreon.
- Michael Tresca continues his look at the recipes of Heroes’ Feast Cookbook for Dungeons & Dragons with an elven strawberry dessert called Meal’s End.
- Andrew Peregrine encourages RPG players to try running the game by dismissing the common concerns of new GMs.
- Mike Myler’s Mythological Figures continues with a 5e version of the original Brothers Grimm version of the classic Snow White.
- Don’t miss out on any of the crowdfunding projects ending soon with Egg Embry’s RPG Crowdfunding News, and keep up with all the new releases in print with Charles Dunwoody’s RPG Print News.
Regé-Jean Page has joined the cast of the Dungeons & Dragons film. Page is best known for his work on the Regency-era drama Bridgerton and for supporting roles in the American legal drama For the People and the remake miniseries of Roots. We still don’t know much else about the project other than previous casting announcements of Chris Pine (Star Trek, Wonder Woman), Michelle Rodriguez (The Fast & The Furious, Avatar, Resident Evil), and Justice Smith (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Pokemon Detective Pikachu) along with writer/director team John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein (Spider-man Homecoming, Game Night). The film is currently set for a 2022 release, though this may change depending on production.
The latest report from The Orr Group is out covering user statistics over Q4 2020 for Roll20 accounting for more than 8 million users. As expected, Dungeons & Dragons 5e is at the top of the charts with 52.9% of campaigns and 58.44% of user accounts. “Uncategorized” for homebrew and unlisted games (or just ones where no game has been set) accounts for 14.96% of campaigns and 13.44% of user accounts. In third place is Call of Cthulhu (any edition with 10.3% of campaigns and 6.57% of user accounts. Pathfinder 1e and 2e come in in third and fourth with, respectively, 3.69% and 1.58% of campaigns and 3.98% and 1.66% of user accounts. Other top games include Warhammer (all versions and editions including WFRP and 40K), World of Darkness (all versions and editions), D&D 3.5, Star Wars (any version and edition), Starfinder, Savage Worlds, and Shadowrun. You can read the full report for all the statistics from the Roll20 blog.
EN Publishing released another preview of the upcoming Level Up 5e with a detailed look at the exploration pillar. Whether it’s deep in the wilderness, underground in a dungeon, or stalking the alleyways of the city, the enhanced exploration rules will give you more options as you travel. We get a look at the Exploration Challenges as well as a full example of the CR10 Tornado. But there’s more to exploring than the hazards you face as there are also Boons and Discoveries that give you advantages and the Monster Signs which give you clues as to what enemies you may face in an area or the ability to track down a specific monster. You can keep up with all the development updates of Level Up 5e including new playtest material on the website.
Modiphius announced The Spy Game, an action and espionage roleplaying game using the 5e rules. The game has all-new classes, backgrounds, skills, and more to fit the theme of pulp spy adventure. Play as a military operative, martial artist, infiltration specialist, con-artist, hacker, and more. There’s also a setting filled with covert agencies and colorful worldwide organizations to work for or plot against. The game, originally Kickstarted and published on DriveThruRPG by Black Cat Games, is now available on the Modiphius store (link above) with a physical edition due in April with a retail price of $42.00.
Paizo officially announced PaizoCon Online 2021 this week taking place on Memorial Day Weekend. The online convention will take place from May 28-31, 2021, and feature nightly live streamed games of Pathfinder and Starfinder, seminars and interviews with Paizo designers, giveaways on the PaizoCon Discord channel, demo games starting every hour, and more. Of course, part of that “more” is a selection of organized play games on multiple virtual tabletops including three brand new Starfinder Society scenarios and two Pathfinder Society scenarios with a total of more than 70 games between Pathfinder 1e, Pathfinder 2e, and Starfinder. Badges will be available starting on February 22 for $25 for access to all events (GMs who run four or more blocks will receive a free badge), while player registration for games opens on April 1.
We got three new previews from WizKids for miniatures coming out for three different lines. First, Paizo published yet another look at the Starfinder Battles: Planets of Peril release of pre-painted Starfinder miniatures due this month. The line features a total of 32 miniatures in random three-mini boxes for $14.99 each with a special terrain pack of docking bay equipment for $59.99. For fantasy miniatures, WizKids is expanding the D&D Nolzur’s Marvelous Miniatures line of unpainted minis to include two-packs of low-level and high-level versions of the same character for six different race/class/gender combinations plus four more pairs of minis of unusual player races such as lizardfolk, goblins, bugbears, and hobgoblins. These minis are set for a release in July with a retail price of $4.99 per two-mini blister pack. Finally, the unbranded WizKids Deep Cuts line expands with two new options, the Bounty Hunter and the Plague Doctor.
Fantasy Flight Games announced Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game will come to an end following the release of the Under Fu Leng’s Shadow expansion. In addition to the final expansion, Fantasy Flight will end the organized play program for L5R as soon as it is safe to complete (FFG has suspended all organized play since last year due to the pandemic). Since 2017, the game has produced a core boxed set, three premium expansions, seven Clan packs, and five cycles of Dynasty packs each containing six expansion packs. The roleplaying game from Edge Studio (who, along with Fantasy Flight, is owned by Asmodee) will continue along with the novel series from Asmodee’s fiction imprint Aconyte Books.
Wizards of the Coast won a legal dispute with distributor ACD Distribution this week. After Wizards of the Coast announced they would cease distribution through ACD in 2018, the distributor filed suit in Wisconsin citing the Wisconsin Fair Dealership Law to prevent termination of the distribution agreement. The lawsuit changed venue to the US District Court and later to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The final decision found in favor of Wizards of the Coast removing a court injunction that will allow WotC to end distribution with ACD and, in a second ruling, ordered ACD to pay over $250,000 for legal fees. ACD Distribution has appealed this decision.
Modiphius teamed with Humble Bundle to offer the Fallout RPG and 3D Miniature Bundle worth over $300 in rulebooks and 3D printer files for the Fallout universe. The bundle is separated into three tiers with the $1 level getting you the Fallout Rules of Play and Getting Acclimated books for the miniature skirmish game, two scenario books, the STL files for terrain of a ruined Red Rocket station, and more. The $10 includes the roleplaying expansion book for Fallout: Wasteland Warfare with more scenario books and STL files. The top tier for only $18 gets you even more STLs including a multiple files for Vault terrain, two vehicle minis including a vertibird, a Vault Girl mini, and more expansions for the Wasteland Warfare RPG book. Note: This is not the Fallout RPG using the 2d20 System due for release later this year, but the miniature skirmish wargame and its associated campaign-based roleplaying expansion. This bundle benefits the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and runs until Wednesday, May 10. It’s also the final week for the Warhammer Black Library bundle featuring English, French, and German language editions of novels in the Warhammer Fantasy, Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, and Warhammer 40,000 universe and the Asmodee Tabletop 2Gether bundle featuring video game versions of several popular Asmodee board games. The Warhammer bundle runs until Wednesday, February 24, while the Asmodee bundle runs until Thursday, February 25.
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@enpublishingrpg.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 Twitch to get notifications when I go live, subscribe to Gamer’s Tavern on YouTube for videos on gaming history, RPG reviews, 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.
