Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news! Origins Online canceled, new Dungeons & Dragons adventure possibly leaked plus info on the official announcement, new BattleTech releases, and more!
And don’t forget, you can catch up on all the week’s gaming news with Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk! This week, Morrus and Peter are joined by James Introcaso to talk about the current Kickstarter for Fantastic Lairs: Boss Battles & Final Encounters for 5e D&D.
In case you missed it elsewhere on EN World this week…
It looks as though the new Dungeons & Dragons adventure/setting book leaked once again. This time, the reported leak comes from D&D Beyond, who apparently posted a video to YouTube publicly before deleting it, but not fast enough to prevent people from archiving it. An image from the video, posted above, shows the title of Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden with the tagline “Feel the cold touch of death in this adventure for the world’s greatest roleplaying game”.
We won’t have to wait very long for the official announcement as the next D&D Live weekend-long event is scheduled for June 18-20 featuring games with more celebrities than I can even count, plus the newly announced Reality RP which seems to be a combination of a LARP and reality TV show where the ten cast members will be eliminated until only three are left for the final day. More information about D&D Live can be found on the official web page.
Veteran game designer Owen KC Stephens started a new hashtag on social media, making posts on both Twitter and Facebook with the hashtag #RealGameIndustry speaking out on several issues within the roleplaying game industry. The series of posts goes into some the rarely spoken of aspects of the industry from fan entitlement and harassment to industry pay rates to product costs to overly-sexualized art to the difficulties breaking into the industry. Many of the tweets are reproduced in the link above, but Owen’s tweeted more since then with other industry professionals joining in, either to confirm Owen’s statements or to add their own experiences to the hashtag.
GAMA canceled their virtual convention Origins Online after multiple creators publicly pulled out, mostly BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color), following the organization’s lack of statement on Black Lives Matter. The GAMA Board of Directors posted a statement to their Facebook page (reproduced in the link above) announcing the cancellation and refunds to all participants. The statement also said it would match “amounts to exceed $100,000” to any exhibitor, sponsor, advertiser, or vendor who agreed to donate their fees to a selection of causes including the NAACP, Black Lives Matter Global Network, Black Trans Advocacy Coalition, and others. This statement was met with criticism by some of the creators who canceled their appearances, with Diana Jones award winner Eric Lang posting a response partially quoted below:
Edit: ICv2 is reporting that GAMA also announced the cancelation of the Origins Game Fair, the convention in Columbus, OH, previously scheduled for June and later postponed until October. The cancelation, per an email ICv2 quotes in their article, is due to ongoing concerns about COVID-19 and restrictions on large gatherings.
Paizo posted a statement Thursday night that all organized play games originally scheduled through Origins Online would now be handled through the ConCurrent Warhorn site with the event now a Partner Plus event for GM recognition/achievement point rewards.
Itch.io and DriveThruRPG/DM’s Guild posted bundles raising funds for Black Lives Matter. The DM’s Guild sale includes three charity bundles for $9.99 each that include over $150 worth of products, one benefiting Black Lives Matter, one for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and one for the National Police Accountability Project. DriveThruRPG has a spotlight collection of RPGs, sourcebooks, adventures, and more by black creators along with a total of six bundles, two for Black Lives Matter (1, 2), two for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (1, 2), and the National Police Accountability Project (1, 2) each for $9.99 and retail values ranging from over $470 to $580.
Itch.io though…just wow…the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality has already raised more than $5.2 million dollars for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Community Bail Fund. How did they manage this with a minimum $5 donation? The bundle includes a total of 1,637 items (with more being added as the fundraising goes) ranging from video games, tabletop roleplaying games, game creation assets, and more. I have spent at least six hours just looking through the list of games I got and that was before they added another more than 200 additional items. The RPG offerings for the bundle include Blades in the Dark, Atomic Robo, Glitter Hearts, Visigoths vs. Mall Goths, We Used to Be Friends, and so many more plus adventures, sourcebooks, and other additions for 5e, Lasers & Feelings, Apocalypse World, various OSR systems, and a lot more. This bundle will be available until the end of the day on Monday, June 15 and if you’ve already donated, you automatically get any new items added after you pledge so don’t worry about waiting for the end.
Let’s get back to news that hopefully won’t get the comments on the post locked. Paizo, Owlcat Games, and Deep Silver announced the release date for Pathfinder Kingmaker Definitive Edition. This Definitive Edition will include the base game plus all six DLC and include a new turn-based mode to more closely replicate the tabletop feel. This mode will be in addition to the “real-time with pause” of the original game and players can switch between the two anytime they want. The game will be available on PC, Playstation 4, and Xbox One on August 18 with a retail price of $49.99.
Catalyst Game Labs announced several new product releases for BattleTech through the rest of the year along with a State of the Game post updating on the current status of development. The announcement most people were dreading happened, a confirmation of fulfillment delays of the Clan Invasion Kickstarter due to COVID-19 and production shutdowns. “Wave 1 products are nearing production now, and we’ve made substantial progress on the Wave 2 miniatures designs and other products.” That hasn’t stopped other products from making their way through development. The scenario pack Turning Points: Tyrfing set during the First Succession War is due for release Friday, June 12 (that would be today). Starting next week is the release of the Recognition Guide: ilClan Volume 1 each featuring a brand new BattleMech but also updated designs for other mechs and vehicles for the Dark Age era post-3085, with new volumes released every two weeks and a total of 22 volumes planned. Two new Technical Readouts are coming out too, the TRO: Golden Century focused on Clan designs during the first 100 years after Kerensky’s exodus from the Inner Sphere due June 26 and the TRO: Irregulars featuring the cobbled-together, misfit mechs pressed into service when nothing else was available following the destructive Secession Wars of the Inner Sphere due July 10. The full list of releases includes new campaigns, turning points, unit sourcebooks, and more plus more than half a dozen new novels.
The Dungeons, Mazes, and Burrows Bundle from Humble Bundle features 5e content from multiple publishers. This collection features campaign settings, DM aid books, adventures, sourcebooks, and more in three tiers priced at $1, $8, and $15 featuring a total of 37 products worth $349. Some of the DRM-free PDFs included are Deck of Dirty Tricks, The Book of Taverns, Quick Threats and Side Treks, and a lot more. This bundle benefits the Book Industry Charitable Foundation and runs until Wednesday, July 1.
There’s a pair of products currently on Kickstarter meant to help you develop your home game. The first, Roll & Play: The Game Master’s Tabletop Toolkit is a 94-page spiral-bound book to help add life to your games with a series of tables to create taverns, local games and contests, holidays and festivals, NPCs, bard songs, critical hit and miss tables, magic items, quest ideas, and a lot more. The PDF version is available for £9 (about US$12) or the physical version for £14 (about US$18). This project is fully funded and runs until Thursday, June 18.
The second, Worldbuilder’s Notebook, is a notebook journal perfect for chronicling the world you’re creating. The book features 192 pages divided into five sections meant for different maps from world maps to regional to cities to individual locations with hex, square, and dot options available. There are also tips and hints for creating your world in the book as well. A PDF version is available for $15 while the physical version is available for $20. This project is fully funded and runs until Friday, June 19.
Want some options to expand that world for your players? There’s the 5e Urban Developments sourcebook. This book focuses on city-based character options with new races, backgrounds, subclasses, feats, spells (including cantrips), and more to build characters more suited for the cities than dungeon dives. The PDF is available for a $24 (with a bare-bones no-art version also available for $12) and a limited hardcover print version available for $40 (at the time of writing, only six are left out of fifty). This Kickstarter is fully funded and runs until Sunday, June 21.
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 Twitch where I’ll hopefully resume streaming soon, 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.
And don’t forget, you can catch up on all the week’s gaming news with Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk! This week, Morrus and Peter are joined by James Introcaso to talk about the current Kickstarter for Fantastic Lairs: Boss Battles & Final Encounters for 5e D&D.
In case you missed it elsewhere on EN World this week…
- EN5ider #336 has a new Villain Spotlight for Venger the Reader, a goblin necromancer ready to bring some new undead horrors to your 5e game.
- Don’t forget that EN Publishing’s Mythological Figures & Maleficent Monsters launches on Kickstarter soon! Like Tuesday, June 30 soon! Sign up now to get notified when the project goes live!
- We have a preview of the map included with the Swords of the Serpentine roleplaying game coming soon from Pelgrane Press (plus links to the podcasts from 2019 previewing the game including a demo game with Morrus and Peter).
- Egg Embry interviewed Will Sobel (Director of Sales for Green Ronin) about the Book of Fiends 5e which recently completed funding via Game On Tabletop.
- Morrus looks at two new software tools for tabletop roleplaying, one a video conferencing system built from the ground-up for remote roleplaying and one a tool to animate your live streams and let’s play podcasts.
- Richard Jansen-Parkes has a review of the updated version of Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory from Cubicle 7.
- Michael Tresca goes deeper into the origins of iconic D&D monsters from the cheap plastic toys for the show Ultraman, this time talking about the Bulette.
- Mike Myler has another entry in the Epic Monsters, this one the…unique…creature known as the Onocentaur, a…umm…it’s…seriously, just go look at it, I can’t describe it.
- Every week, Egg Embry does the hard work scouring all the crowdfunding sites to find the roleplaying related projects ending soon and collecting them in one place for the weekly RPG Crowdfunding News.
It looks as though the new Dungeons & Dragons adventure/setting book leaked once again. This time, the reported leak comes from D&D Beyond, who apparently posted a video to YouTube publicly before deleting it, but not fast enough to prevent people from archiving it. An image from the video, posted above, shows the title of Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden with the tagline “Feel the cold touch of death in this adventure for the world’s greatest roleplaying game”.
We won’t have to wait very long for the official announcement as the next D&D Live weekend-long event is scheduled for June 18-20 featuring games with more celebrities than I can even count, plus the newly announced Reality RP which seems to be a combination of a LARP and reality TV show where the ten cast members will be eliminated until only three are left for the final day. More information about D&D Live can be found on the official web page.
Veteran game designer Owen KC Stephens started a new hashtag on social media, making posts on both Twitter and Facebook with the hashtag #RealGameIndustry speaking out on several issues within the roleplaying game industry. The series of posts goes into some the rarely spoken of aspects of the industry from fan entitlement and harassment to industry pay rates to product costs to overly-sexualized art to the difficulties breaking into the industry. Many of the tweets are reproduced in the link above, but Owen’s tweeted more since then with other industry professionals joining in, either to confirm Owen’s statements or to add their own experiences to the hashtag.
GAMA canceled their virtual convention Origins Online after multiple creators publicly pulled out, mostly BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color), following the organization’s lack of statement on Black Lives Matter. The GAMA Board of Directors posted a statement to their Facebook page (reproduced in the link above) announcing the cancellation and refunds to all participants. The statement also said it would match “amounts to exceed $100,000” to any exhibitor, sponsor, advertiser, or vendor who agreed to donate their fees to a selection of causes including the NAACP, Black Lives Matter Global Network, Black Trans Advocacy Coalition, and others. This statement was met with criticism by some of the creators who canceled their appearances, with Diana Jones award winner Eric Lang posting a response partially quoted below:
Edit: ICv2 is reporting that GAMA also announced the cancelation of the Origins Game Fair, the convention in Columbus, OH, previously scheduled for June and later postponed until October. The cancelation, per an email ICv2 quotes in their article, is due to ongoing concerns about COVID-19 and restrictions on large gatherings.
Paizo posted a statement Thursday night that all organized play games originally scheduled through Origins Online would now be handled through the ConCurrent Warhorn site with the event now a Partner Plus event for GM recognition/achievement point rewards.
Itch.io and DriveThruRPG/DM’s Guild posted bundles raising funds for Black Lives Matter. The DM’s Guild sale includes three charity bundles for $9.99 each that include over $150 worth of products, one benefiting Black Lives Matter, one for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and one for the National Police Accountability Project. DriveThruRPG has a spotlight collection of RPGs, sourcebooks, adventures, and more by black creators along with a total of six bundles, two for Black Lives Matter (1, 2), two for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (1, 2), and the National Police Accountability Project (1, 2) each for $9.99 and retail values ranging from over $470 to $580.
Itch.io though…just wow…the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality has already raised more than $5.2 million dollars for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Community Bail Fund. How did they manage this with a minimum $5 donation? The bundle includes a total of 1,637 items (with more being added as the fundraising goes) ranging from video games, tabletop roleplaying games, game creation assets, and more. I have spent at least six hours just looking through the list of games I got and that was before they added another more than 200 additional items. The RPG offerings for the bundle include Blades in the Dark, Atomic Robo, Glitter Hearts, Visigoths vs. Mall Goths, We Used to Be Friends, and so many more plus adventures, sourcebooks, and other additions for 5e, Lasers & Feelings, Apocalypse World, various OSR systems, and a lot more. This bundle will be available until the end of the day on Monday, June 15 and if you’ve already donated, you automatically get any new items added after you pledge so don’t worry about waiting for the end.
Let’s get back to news that hopefully won’t get the comments on the post locked. Paizo, Owlcat Games, and Deep Silver announced the release date for Pathfinder Kingmaker Definitive Edition. This Definitive Edition will include the base game plus all six DLC and include a new turn-based mode to more closely replicate the tabletop feel. This mode will be in addition to the “real-time with pause” of the original game and players can switch between the two anytime they want. The game will be available on PC, Playstation 4, and Xbox One on August 18 with a retail price of $49.99.
Catalyst Game Labs announced several new product releases for BattleTech through the rest of the year along with a State of the Game post updating on the current status of development. The announcement most people were dreading happened, a confirmation of fulfillment delays of the Clan Invasion Kickstarter due to COVID-19 and production shutdowns. “Wave 1 products are nearing production now, and we’ve made substantial progress on the Wave 2 miniatures designs and other products.” That hasn’t stopped other products from making their way through development. The scenario pack Turning Points: Tyrfing set during the First Succession War is due for release Friday, June 12 (that would be today). Starting next week is the release of the Recognition Guide: ilClan Volume 1 each featuring a brand new BattleMech but also updated designs for other mechs and vehicles for the Dark Age era post-3085, with new volumes released every two weeks and a total of 22 volumes planned. Two new Technical Readouts are coming out too, the TRO: Golden Century focused on Clan designs during the first 100 years after Kerensky’s exodus from the Inner Sphere due June 26 and the TRO: Irregulars featuring the cobbled-together, misfit mechs pressed into service when nothing else was available following the destructive Secession Wars of the Inner Sphere due July 10. The full list of releases includes new campaigns, turning points, unit sourcebooks, and more plus more than half a dozen new novels.
The Dungeons, Mazes, and Burrows Bundle from Humble Bundle features 5e content from multiple publishers. This collection features campaign settings, DM aid books, adventures, sourcebooks, and more in three tiers priced at $1, $8, and $15 featuring a total of 37 products worth $349. Some of the DRM-free PDFs included are Deck of Dirty Tricks, The Book of Taverns, Quick Threats and Side Treks, and a lot more. This bundle benefits the Book Industry Charitable Foundation and runs until Wednesday, July 1.
There’s a pair of products currently on Kickstarter meant to help you develop your home game. The first, Roll & Play: The Game Master’s Tabletop Toolkit is a 94-page spiral-bound book to help add life to your games with a series of tables to create taverns, local games and contests, holidays and festivals, NPCs, bard songs, critical hit and miss tables, magic items, quest ideas, and a lot more. The PDF version is available for £9 (about US$12) or the physical version for £14 (about US$18). This project is fully funded and runs until Thursday, June 18.
The second, Worldbuilder’s Notebook, is a notebook journal perfect for chronicling the world you’re creating. The book features 192 pages divided into five sections meant for different maps from world maps to regional to cities to individual locations with hex, square, and dot options available. There are also tips and hints for creating your world in the book as well. A PDF version is available for $15 while the physical version is available for $20. This project is fully funded and runs until Friday, June 19.
Want some options to expand that world for your players? There’s the 5e Urban Developments sourcebook. This book focuses on city-based character options with new races, backgrounds, subclasses, feats, spells (including cantrips), and more to build characters more suited for the cities than dungeon dives. The PDF is available for a $24 (with a bare-bones no-art version also available for $12) and a limited hardcover print version available for $40 (at the time of writing, only six are left out of fifty). This Kickstarter is fully funded and runs until Sunday, June 21.
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 Twitch where I’ll hopefully resume streaming soon, 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.
