Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week's gaming news! A game store exclusive D&D adventure, a new campaign setting from one of Pathfinder's creators, Fading Suns gets a new home, Wizard World involved in a nasty lawsuit, Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game release information, and more!
In support of Volo’s Guide to Monsters, Wizards is releasing an in-store exclusive D&D Adventure League module titled In Volo’s Wake written by Monica Valentinelli. Set in Phandalin, the village at the center of the Starter Set adventure Lost Mines of Phandelver, we see not only the aftermath of the events of that adventure, but Volothamp Geddarm himself paying the small town a visit. Game stores that are part of the Wizards Play Network can download the adventure for free. If you don’t have a store in your area, you can still get your hands on it soon enough. The module will be available on the DM’s Guild website in February once the exclusive period ends. This is a new and interesting approach I applaud, as it promotes gaming at local stores that act as the glue for our hobby, but at the same time doesn’t leave out those in rural areas who may not have a store nearby.
While the official releases for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition have been slow compared to other editions, that doesn’t mean Wizards of the Coast doesn’t have a plan to expand the game. At Gamehole Con this past weekend, Jeremy Crawford addressed the idea of a Player’s Handbook II – namely, that there won’t be one. While a book may be in the works with a similar concept, they will not be releasing iterations of the core books due to influence from the video game market on purchasing. Consumers see “Player’s Handbook II” and think it’s the update of the first one and will buy it thinking it’s the core rulebook, as opposed to an expansion of what’s in the core rulebook. As usual, the EN World discussion on the original story came up with some great alternate titles but missed the most obvious, Player’s Handbook: Electric Boogaloo.
Jason Bulmahn launched a new project through his company, Minotaur Games, in the form of a Patreon-supported campaign setting for Pathfinder. Edge of Eventide will be told over three acts, each one consisting of three adventures (for nine adventures total) with one adventure released every four to six weeks. The trick is that this campaign requires that you play one of the six premade characters with complete backstories in order to participate, as their stories are interwoven through the campaign story. What makes this even more unique is the funding method used, which is Patreon. For those not familiar, it’s basically like Kickstarter but for ongoing projects (typically webseries, live streamers, podcasts, or websites like EN World (with obligatory plug for our own Patreon)). Most are monthly donations, but others, like Edge of Eventide, are by release so you only pay when a new product comes out. A $1 pledge gets you all the files for every adventure for one of the player characters, $5 gets all of the Gamemaster material (but none of the PCs or their material), and $10 gets you all the material. This way, you can either have one person purchase the material for everyone or you can have each player at the table responsible for paying their own share. The project is live now, so check out the full description in the link for more information.
Fading Suns is moving to Ulisses Spiele. Holistic Designs has licensed the setting to the German game company, joining Torg and The Dark Eye among their catalog. If you missed this game in the 90s, it’s basically a science fiction game with a very classic era feel to it, bringing to mind the words of Isaac Asimov, Dan Simmons, and Frank Herbert with its mixture of sci-fi tech and medieval trappings painting a backdrop of feuding noble houses. It’s unclear at this time if Ulisses Spiele plans to design a new edition or if they will reprint and release new material for the third edition (listed as the “Revised Edition”) released by FASA Games in 2012.
Wizard World Inc. filed a lawsuit on October 28 against former Chief Marketing Officer Steve Shamus alleging over one million dollars in misappropriations, including autographs from celebrity guests. The lawsuit alleges that Shamus booked celebrities for events and received autographs without payment to the convention solely for the purpose of reselling the signed material through the use of his extended family. There is also an implication in the lawsuit that Shamus reached “fixed fee” deals with guests (meaning the convention paid a set fee to the guest rather than setting a guarantee of a sales minimum for photographs and signings) in exchange for autographs. Additionally, the lawsuit claims that Shamus presented a forged paper from his brother, former Wizard World Inc. CEO Gareb Shamus, stating it was an employment agreement and demanding payment under the terms.
Shamus’s lawyer, Michael L. Ferch, responded to the claims to ICv2, stating that the claims had “no basis” and that the “allegations are meritless”. “Wizard World owes Stephen unpaid compensation and, when he asked to be paid, unfortunately Wizard World ran to the courthouse claiming Stephen diverted company property for his personal gain.”
Evil Hat Productions set a release date for the Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game. After a very successful crowdfunding effort, the game will be released in the summer of 2017 after backer orders have been fulfilled. The card game follows the story of the Dresden Files novels by Jim Butcher as you work together as characters from the novels to defeat the plot elements as they arise. The base game will feature Harry Dresden, Karrin Murphy, Susan Rodriguez, Michael Carpenter, and the Alphas (a pack of college-aged werewolves led by Billy Borden) and have the Book Cards for the first five novels in the series. The expansions will add two new characters and two new book cards to the game each along with other cards, with the first three expansions releasing at launch. Expansion One features Thomas Raith and Waldo Butters and the novels Blood Rites and Dead Beat (my personal favorite in the series), Expansion Two has Sanya (a Knight of the Cross who wields the holy sword Esperacchius) and Molly Carpenter and cards for Proven Guilty and White Knight, and Expansion Three contains Carlos Ramirez and Anastacia Luccio with the book cards Small Favor and Turn Coat. Evil Hat did an amazing job bring the Dresden Files world to life with the roleplaying game, and I cannot wait to see how they handle the card game version. The core set will be available for a retail price of $39.99 with the expansions available for $9.99 each.
Castles & Crusades Adventurer’s Backpack is a massive expansion to the Castles & Crusades games. Troll Lord describes the book as “essentially a second Player’s Handbook” as it adds thirteen new classes, new spells for all classes (including brand new spells not derivative from previous editions), new equipment, new magic items, and optional rules. While the page count of 144-160 pages (depending on stretch goals) may not sound like a lot in this day and age, that is a lot of information for an old school style game as C&C. The PDF of the book and the included Equipment Deck is available for $20 and $40 gets you both the PDF and the hardcover edition with many other pledge levels as well for custom dice bags, physical Equipment Decks, and more. This project is fully funded and runs until Tuesday, November 22.
Author Brian McClellan is bringing his Powder Mage books to the Savage Worlds system. Not only will the book include everything you need (not counting the Savage Worlds core rulebook) to play in the colonial era fantasy world of the novels. Designer Alan Bahr and Gallant Knight Games have been brought on board to help cement the rules, while McClellan himself wrote brand new canonical material for the world just for this game. The PDF is available for $15, the softcover book for $25, and a set including Powder Mage dice, Action Deck, and Poker Chips for $50 (and at time of writing, there were still limited spots left for unsigned and signed Limited Hardcover versions at $40 and $70 respectively). This project has just hit its funding goal and will start working on stretch goals until Tuesday, November 22.
Stay Out of My Dungeon is a 4-6 player worker placement game with hidden identities as the players take on the roles of goblins protecting their lair from the greedy King Flumperdump. While the aesthetic of the game is very, for lack of a better word, “Kiddy”, the game itself is solidly designed as you work together to create traps and obstacles to keep King Flumperdump and his royal guard away from your treasures. Also, it’s fun to say “Flumperdump”. The game is available for $45 and is just getting better as the stretch goals unlock adding more content. This project is fully funded and runs until Monday, November 28.
That’s all for this week. Find more gaming news at the EN World News Network 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...actually, probably not a good time to follow me on Twitter honestly, just listen to the archives of the Gamer’s Tavern podcast instead. Until next time, may all your hits be crits! Note: Links to Amazon and DriveThru may be affiliate links with a portion of the sales proceeds going to the column’s author.
In support of Volo’s Guide to Monsters, Wizards is releasing an in-store exclusive D&D Adventure League module titled In Volo’s Wake written by Monica Valentinelli. Set in Phandalin, the village at the center of the Starter Set adventure Lost Mines of Phandelver, we see not only the aftermath of the events of that adventure, but Volothamp Geddarm himself paying the small town a visit. Game stores that are part of the Wizards Play Network can download the adventure for free. If you don’t have a store in your area, you can still get your hands on it soon enough. The module will be available on the DM’s Guild website in February once the exclusive period ends. This is a new and interesting approach I applaud, as it promotes gaming at local stores that act as the glue for our hobby, but at the same time doesn’t leave out those in rural areas who may not have a store nearby.
While the official releases for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition have been slow compared to other editions, that doesn’t mean Wizards of the Coast doesn’t have a plan to expand the game. At Gamehole Con this past weekend, Jeremy Crawford addressed the idea of a Player’s Handbook II – namely, that there won’t be one. While a book may be in the works with a similar concept, they will not be releasing iterations of the core books due to influence from the video game market on purchasing. Consumers see “Player’s Handbook II” and think it’s the update of the first one and will buy it thinking it’s the core rulebook, as opposed to an expansion of what’s in the core rulebook. As usual, the EN World discussion on the original story came up with some great alternate titles but missed the most obvious, Player’s Handbook: Electric Boogaloo.
Jason Bulmahn launched a new project through his company, Minotaur Games, in the form of a Patreon-supported campaign setting for Pathfinder. Edge of Eventide will be told over three acts, each one consisting of three adventures (for nine adventures total) with one adventure released every four to six weeks. The trick is that this campaign requires that you play one of the six premade characters with complete backstories in order to participate, as their stories are interwoven through the campaign story. What makes this even more unique is the funding method used, which is Patreon. For those not familiar, it’s basically like Kickstarter but for ongoing projects (typically webseries, live streamers, podcasts, or websites like EN World (with obligatory plug for our own Patreon)). Most are monthly donations, but others, like Edge of Eventide, are by release so you only pay when a new product comes out. A $1 pledge gets you all the files for every adventure for one of the player characters, $5 gets all of the Gamemaster material (but none of the PCs or their material), and $10 gets you all the material. This way, you can either have one person purchase the material for everyone or you can have each player at the table responsible for paying their own share. The project is live now, so check out the full description in the link for more information.
Fading Suns is moving to Ulisses Spiele. Holistic Designs has licensed the setting to the German game company, joining Torg and The Dark Eye among their catalog. If you missed this game in the 90s, it’s basically a science fiction game with a very classic era feel to it, bringing to mind the words of Isaac Asimov, Dan Simmons, and Frank Herbert with its mixture of sci-fi tech and medieval trappings painting a backdrop of feuding noble houses. It’s unclear at this time if Ulisses Spiele plans to design a new edition or if they will reprint and release new material for the third edition (listed as the “Revised Edition”) released by FASA Games in 2012.
Wizard World Inc. filed a lawsuit on October 28 against former Chief Marketing Officer Steve Shamus alleging over one million dollars in misappropriations, including autographs from celebrity guests. The lawsuit alleges that Shamus booked celebrities for events and received autographs without payment to the convention solely for the purpose of reselling the signed material through the use of his extended family. There is also an implication in the lawsuit that Shamus reached “fixed fee” deals with guests (meaning the convention paid a set fee to the guest rather than setting a guarantee of a sales minimum for photographs and signings) in exchange for autographs. Additionally, the lawsuit claims that Shamus presented a forged paper from his brother, former Wizard World Inc. CEO Gareb Shamus, stating it was an employment agreement and demanding payment under the terms.
Shamus’s lawyer, Michael L. Ferch, responded to the claims to ICv2, stating that the claims had “no basis” and that the “allegations are meritless”. “Wizard World owes Stephen unpaid compensation and, when he asked to be paid, unfortunately Wizard World ran to the courthouse claiming Stephen diverted company property for his personal gain.”
Evil Hat Productions set a release date for the Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game. After a very successful crowdfunding effort, the game will be released in the summer of 2017 after backer orders have been fulfilled. The card game follows the story of the Dresden Files novels by Jim Butcher as you work together as characters from the novels to defeat the plot elements as they arise. The base game will feature Harry Dresden, Karrin Murphy, Susan Rodriguez, Michael Carpenter, and the Alphas (a pack of college-aged werewolves led by Billy Borden) and have the Book Cards for the first five novels in the series. The expansions will add two new characters and two new book cards to the game each along with other cards, with the first three expansions releasing at launch. Expansion One features Thomas Raith and Waldo Butters and the novels Blood Rites and Dead Beat (my personal favorite in the series), Expansion Two has Sanya (a Knight of the Cross who wields the holy sword Esperacchius) and Molly Carpenter and cards for Proven Guilty and White Knight, and Expansion Three contains Carlos Ramirez and Anastacia Luccio with the book cards Small Favor and Turn Coat. Evil Hat did an amazing job bring the Dresden Files world to life with the roleplaying game, and I cannot wait to see how they handle the card game version. The core set will be available for a retail price of $39.99 with the expansions available for $9.99 each.
Castles & Crusades Adventurer’s Backpack is a massive expansion to the Castles & Crusades games. Troll Lord describes the book as “essentially a second Player’s Handbook” as it adds thirteen new classes, new spells for all classes (including brand new spells not derivative from previous editions), new equipment, new magic items, and optional rules. While the page count of 144-160 pages (depending on stretch goals) may not sound like a lot in this day and age, that is a lot of information for an old school style game as C&C. The PDF of the book and the included Equipment Deck is available for $20 and $40 gets you both the PDF and the hardcover edition with many other pledge levels as well for custom dice bags, physical Equipment Decks, and more. This project is fully funded and runs until Tuesday, November 22.
Author Brian McClellan is bringing his Powder Mage books to the Savage Worlds system. Not only will the book include everything you need (not counting the Savage Worlds core rulebook) to play in the colonial era fantasy world of the novels. Designer Alan Bahr and Gallant Knight Games have been brought on board to help cement the rules, while McClellan himself wrote brand new canonical material for the world just for this game. The PDF is available for $15, the softcover book for $25, and a set including Powder Mage dice, Action Deck, and Poker Chips for $50 (and at time of writing, there were still limited spots left for unsigned and signed Limited Hardcover versions at $40 and $70 respectively). This project has just hit its funding goal and will start working on stretch goals until Tuesday, November 22.
Stay Out of My Dungeon is a 4-6 player worker placement game with hidden identities as the players take on the roles of goblins protecting their lair from the greedy King Flumperdump. While the aesthetic of the game is very, for lack of a better word, “Kiddy”, the game itself is solidly designed as you work together to create traps and obstacles to keep King Flumperdump and his royal guard away from your treasures. Also, it’s fun to say “Flumperdump”. The game is available for $45 and is just getting better as the stretch goals unlock adding more content. This project is fully funded and runs until Monday, November 28.
That’s all for this week. Find more gaming news at the EN World News Network 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...actually, probably not a good time to follow me on Twitter honestly, just listen to the archives of the Gamer’s Tavern podcast instead. Until next time, may all your hits be crits! Note: Links to Amazon and DriveThru may be affiliate links with a portion of the sales proceeds going to the column’s author.
