RPG Print News – Hero Games, Onxy Path Publishing, and More

This month brings more monsters to D&D from DMDave, one on one adventures for Call of Cthulhu, dark historical settings for Chronicles of Darkness, and NPCs and an adventure for Champions. Also, books for Heart - The City Beneath are available again and four sci-fi minis finish the week.

RPG Print News covers new RPG releases and some classics and sales available from online retailers. It does not cover products that are only available to customers through kickstarter, directly from a publisher website, or as print on demand.

BroadSword Monster Compendium Spring 2021 by DMDave

• SYSTEM: Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition
• PRODUCT TYPE: softcover monster book
• RETAIL PRICE: $25
• DESCRIPTION: Contains over 180 new monsters from the pages of DMDave’s BroadSword Monthly, including full descriptions and 5E stat blocks in an easy-to-read and easy to reference format. Game masters can find the monsters they need using a full index that covers terrain type, Challenge Rating, and monster type. Some of the monsters include: nightmare orb (CR 10), sharkmanbot (CR 16), werecrocodile (CR 5), Doctor Calamity (CR 14), horror soul (CR 9), heir of Kong (CR 3), the eight-legged horror (CR 4), and Uncle Skeleton (CR 15).

Does Love Forgive? by Chaosium

• SYSTEM: Call of Cthulhu
• PRODUCT TYPE: two one on one adventures
• RETAIL PRICE: $12.99
• DESCRIPTION: Two adventures for one player and one Keeper which can be played over the course of one to two sessions. Both are is suitable for Keepers of all experience levels. Love You to Death takes place in Chicago on February 15th, 1929. The investigator’s good friend Hattie May appears in their office at the detective agency. Her beloved pet dog, Highball, is scheduled to be destroyed later today and she needs the investigator’s help getting him back from the Chicago Police Department. Mask of Desire happens in New York in September, 1932. The investigator’s friend Anna is distracted by her audition tomorrow with Nancy Turner, the famous jazz orchestra conductor. When a mysterious parcel arrives the investigator believes a link exists between the audition and the parcel. And many people seem to be interested in the contents of the parcel.

Chronicles of Darkness - Dark Eras | Chronicles of Darkness - Dark Eras 2 Storyteller Screen by Onyx Path Publishing

• SYSTEM: Chronicles of Darkness
• PRODUCT TYPE: hardcover setting/GM screen
• RETAIL PRICE: $50/$20
• DESCRIPTION: Dark Eras 2 explores 13 new eras scattered throughout the history of the Chronicles of Darkness. Includes historically inspired settings and story hooks, character-creation tips and gameplay advice, and new Tilts, Conditions, and era-appropriate rules. Some of the settings include: Hunger in the Black Land (Werewolf: The Forsaken, Promethean: The Created, & Beast: The Primordial, 1806 BCE), The Seven Wonders (Promethean: The Created & Changeling: The Lost, 286-226 BCE), One Thousand and One Nightmares (Vampire: The Requiem & Beast: The Primordial, 832 CE), Empire of Gold and Dust (Hunter: The Vigil & Demon: The Descent, 1337-1347), The Scandinavian Witch Trials (Geist: The Sin-Eaters & Mummy: The Curse, 1608-1698), and The Great War (Werewolf: The Forsaken, Promethean: The Created, & Geist: The Sin-Eaters, 1914-1918). Dark Eras 2 Storyteller Screen features art on the player-facing side and charts and tables on the Storyteller-facing side.

Hero System Book of Templates | The Island of Doctor Destroyer by Hero Games

• SYSTEM: Hero System Champions
• PRODUCT TYPE: softcover supplement/softcover adventure
• RETAIL PRICE: $10/$15
• DESCRIPTION: The Book of Templates includes 25 ready to use in a Champions Campaign right now with no preparation. Provides generic comic book character ideas explained in Hero System 6th Edition terms and an easy way for experienced players to start playing immediately. The Island of Doctor Destroyer is the first Champions adventure ever published now available again, updated to Sixth edition. Includes updated content matching modern times and game play such as a new introductory scenario, updated enemies, and new artwork. Also provides tips and variants for making the adventure different but still challenging even for those who have played it before.

Burned and Broken | Doors to Elsewhere | Sanctum | Vermissian Black Ops by Rowan, Rook & Decard

• SYSTEM: Heart - The City Beneath
• PRODUCT TYPE: softcover sourcebooks available again
• RETAIL PRICE: $12 each
• DESCRIPTION: The Burned and Broken explains how to bring characters from Spire into Heart and how to use the themes of the Ministry in regular campaigns. The PCs flee the Ministry after they’ve been betrayed and make their way into the City Beneath. Includes new origins for each Spire character class that allow them to function as characters in Heart, information on the City Between and explore it as though it were a series of landmarks and delves, he Minister calling, four new spells for those devoted to the dark goddess, and Active Operations of the Ministry in the Heart. Doors to Elsewhere is a campaign frame designed to pull characters into the City Elsewhere. It covers places to go and people to see in this land between worlds, rules for surviving the city at night, details on major and minor dimensional links, and spells like Summon Bridge which are specific to the culture of Elsewhere. Build fantastical, tragic settlements under threat from within and without using Sanctum. Includes a guide to building havens and defending them, advice on running haven-based campaigns, special fallout results that reflect a settlement’s trials and tribulations, and ways to create and reinforce bonds with the people within. It wraps up with rules for four new types of angel, the fell-handed messengers of the Heart Itself which infiltrate and smash apart havens. Vermissian Black Ops contains expanded and alternative rules for sending undercity delvers on dangerous missions for the dark elf revolutionary front. The PCs are part of the Throne Division: Ministry cells of black ops paramilitary assets drawn from the people of the Heart who undertake vital missions using the miles of twisting tunnels to move secretly through the city. Includes find information on the factions that make the Vermissian their home, details on Throne Division equipment, a guide to building operations, and a line-by-line breakdown of the network.

Magnetar Marvels by Mantic Entertainment

• SYSTEM: Dreadball
• PRODUCT TYPE: unpainted and unassembled sci-fi minis
• RETAIL PRICE: $29.99
• DESCRIPTION: While these minis are designed for the game Dreadball, they would work well in a post-apocalyptic or sci-fi game like Gamma World or Traveller.

 

[Morrus]

I wonder if 2e is even inside the OGL license?

I'd struggle to think of a game term, spell name, or monster name in 2E that isn't in the 3E or 5E SRD. THAC0, maybe? But that's about it. And you'd probably want to update that anyway.

It's not a 2E product though. It's just using the 2E Monstrous Manual and Monstrous Compendium trade dress (which is problematic technically but I don't know if it's important enough for WotC to bother about; I doubt they have plans to use it again).

 

[aramis erak]

I'd struggle to think of a game term, spell name, or monster name in 2E that isn't in the 3E or 5E SRD. THAC0, maybe? But that's about it. And you'd probably want to update that anyway.

It's not a 2E product though. It's just using the 2E Monstrous Manual and Monstrous Compendium trade dress (which is problematic technically but I don't know if it's important enough for WotC to bother about; I doubt they have plans to use it again).

Several critters aren't covered under the OGL, having been intentionally left out of the 3.x SRDs (and the 5E one)... Beholders, Illithids, Baatezu and Ta'anari, and a few others.

Paizo's versions don't share the names... and US law explicitly denies copyright protection to game rules, while explicitly protecting only the singular literal expression of them, and that's not even true if rewording changes the meaning. The OGL actually removes the licensee's rights under US copyright by placing some mechanics off-limits. (Chaosium's is even more restrictive than Wizards'.)