Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news! We finally know what the PlanEscape website is all about, Goodman Games is bringing us In Search of the Unknown at the Keep on the Borderlands, Friend Computer might be upset if you don't find out about a new pre-order available, RuneQuest gets a new line developer, and more!
Everyone’s been talking about a mysterious countdown clock on a website PlanEscape.com wondering what it will be. Will it be a D&D 5th Edition version of the Planescape campaign setting? Or a reprint of the now hard to find original boxed set? Could it—Of course not, Wizards of the Coast hasn’t done promotion for anything related to the tabletop D&D game in that manner. Instead, Beamdog announced Planescape: Torment Enhanced Edition. The new version of what’s been called by many the greatest roleplaying video game of all time will feature enhanced graphics supporting resolutions up to 4K, bug fixes, remastered music, restored content previously cut with assistance from original game designer Chris Avellone, and updated control features for both tablet and desktop versions. It’s available from Beamdog directly with no DRM, on Steam for the first time ever, and with no DRM from Good Old Games (who also give a 30% discount for those who previously purchased Planescape: Torment from the site) for $19.99, and Android and iOS versions will be available for $9.99 along with a Mac version at $19.99 coming soon.
Wizards of the Coast and Goodman Games announced a licensing deal at GaryCon to update and reprint classic Dungeons & Dragons modules, starting with B1: In Search of the Unknown and B2: The Keep on the Borderlands. The “commemorative editions” will be printed in hardback and include both the original versions of the modules restored from high-quality scans of the originals and include 5th Edition conversions of each. In addition, there will be commentary and interviews from Frank Mentzer, Luke Gygax, and Mike Carr on the history of the modules and all-new material for 5th Edition rules including information on the Cave of the Unknown from Keep on the Borderlands. The volume will release at Gen Con this year with a wide release coming in September.
Following the announcement of foreign language editions of Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition through Gale Force Nine, a controversy popped up with the Brazilian license for a Portuguese translation that I refuse to call “translategate”. It’s a slightly tangled mess of accusations and claims from several parties, but the short version is that a company called Fire on Board announced that they had the license for Dungeons & Dragons in Brazil from Wizards of the Coast and Gale Force Nine, with three other companies claiming that Fire on Board signed deals with them to help produce the edition. Except no one bothered to tell Gale Force Nine or even Wizards of the Coast, depending on whose statement you read. Because of the massive confusion over who has and hasn’t signed contracts with whom to do what, Gale Force Nine made an announcement on March 24 stating that plans for a Brazilian release are on hold “until we fully investigate and hopefully resolve this issue.” If you’re curious exactly how events unfolded, the full story is available in the two links above.
Some might say that Friend Computer is back in charge of Alpha Complex, but only a Mutant Commie Traitor would ever say such a thing because that implies that Friend Computer ever left. So unless you want to report to the nearest Termination Booth, make note that pre-orders have opened for Paranoia from Mongoose Publishing. Three products are listed, the Paranoia – Red Clearance Starter Set, the Interactive Screen, and Forms Pack. The Starter Set contains the Players Handbook, Gamemasters Handbook, Missions Book, 110 playing cards used for combat, and a set of custom six-sided dice for use in Paranoia (including a custom Computer Die new to this edition). There’s no release date or American prices, but the Mongoose Publishing website lists at £39.99 for the Starter Set, £14.99 for the GM Screen, and £9.99 for the Forms Pack.
Jason Durall will take over lead development of Chaosium’s new edition of RuneQuest. Durall was already a team member on the design team for the new edition, but is stepping into the role of line editor position as the book’s release draws near. His credits include work on the Conan: Adventures in an Age Unheard Of for Modiphius, The Laundry for Cubicle 7, and Basic Roleplaying’s “Big Gold Book” for Chaosium. He’s already been working alongside RuneQuest creator Steve Perrin on this new edition as well as writing the Quick Start rules that will be available on Free RPG Day this June. Chaosium’s creative director Jeff Richards said, “We are extremely excited to be working with Jason on developing the RuneQuest and other Basic Roleplaying lines. Jason is one of the most talented designers, editors, and writers I know – a true professional in the industry.” The new edition of RuneQuest is scheduled for a Gen Con release.
Hasbro announced the winner of the 2016 Fall Gaming Challenge and, with guest judge Daymond John of Shark Tank joining in, chose Cloud Control from designer Eugene Bryant as the winner. Bryant will receive a $25,000 cash prize and a trip to Hasbro to help refine his game and get it to market. The game itself is a card laying game where one player attempts to twist, flip, and overlap various cloud shapes on cards to create recognizable shapes on their clue cards for the other players to guess before time runs out. Hasbro Gaming Labs runs two gaming contests each year, one in the spring for general games and one in the fall specifically for family games, with the finalists launching a crowdfunding campaign on IndieGoGo. Cloud Control raised $6,772 against an $8,000 and did not fund in its IndieGoGo campaign.
Arcanis: The World of Shatter Empires is getting a massive 400+ page rulebook for 5th Edition. Originally released in 2001 as a D20 System campaign setting, Arcanis is a fantasy world built on shades of grey with a grimdark feel and an aesthetic born from the Roman Empire. This new edition promises twenty-nine new races and subraces, several brand new classes, a stretch goal for psionics rules, and new spells, feats, and more for the setting. You can get the core rulebook in PDF format for $25, or a print copy for $50 along with many other add-ons and pledge levels. This project funded on day one and has already unlocked a Sorcerous Pacts stretch goal as it runs until Saturday, April 22.
An officially licensed version of Lankhmar is coming to Dungeon Crawl Classics. Based on the novels by Fritz Leiber following the adventures of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, this new boxed set recreates the classic feel of the original Lankhmar setting and adventure. The boxed set includes The Compendium of Secret Knowledge (rules options for DCC), Judge’s Guide to Nehwon, Lankhmar: City of the Black Toga, and a first level adventure No Small Crimes in Lankhmar. The PDF version of the boxed set’s books is available for a $25 pledge, while a $50 pledge gets you a print version. There are also add-ons for the DCC RPG Core Rulebook plus the previous DCC Lankhmar adventures already in print. This project is fully funded and running until Wednesday, April 26.
Rising Sun is the newest game from Cool Mini or Not and has already raised more than $3 million. The game puts three to five players in charge of rival clans in feudal Japan as you wage war, both through politics and through battlefield might, seeking the favor of the Kami, and recruiting monsters of legend to add to your strength. There is exactly one pledge level for this project, $100 to get the game. There are, however, many add-ons which have been unlocked via stretch goals. I’d say with $3.2 million at time of writing, this Kickstarter is fully funded, but if you want in, you’ve only got until this Monday, April 3.
That’s all from me 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 I'm actually going to make a big announcement early next week, 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 and/or DriveThru may contain affiliate links with the proceeds going to the author of this column.
Everyone’s been talking about a mysterious countdown clock on a website PlanEscape.com wondering what it will be. Will it be a D&D 5th Edition version of the Planescape campaign setting? Or a reprint of the now hard to find original boxed set? Could it—Of course not, Wizards of the Coast hasn’t done promotion for anything related to the tabletop D&D game in that manner. Instead, Beamdog announced Planescape: Torment Enhanced Edition. The new version of what’s been called by many the greatest roleplaying video game of all time will feature enhanced graphics supporting resolutions up to 4K, bug fixes, remastered music, restored content previously cut with assistance from original game designer Chris Avellone, and updated control features for both tablet and desktop versions. It’s available from Beamdog directly with no DRM, on Steam for the first time ever, and with no DRM from Good Old Games (who also give a 30% discount for those who previously purchased Planescape: Torment from the site) for $19.99, and Android and iOS versions will be available for $9.99 along with a Mac version at $19.99 coming soon.
Wizards of the Coast and Goodman Games announced a licensing deal at GaryCon to update and reprint classic Dungeons & Dragons modules, starting with B1: In Search of the Unknown and B2: The Keep on the Borderlands. The “commemorative editions” will be printed in hardback and include both the original versions of the modules restored from high-quality scans of the originals and include 5th Edition conversions of each. In addition, there will be commentary and interviews from Frank Mentzer, Luke Gygax, and Mike Carr on the history of the modules and all-new material for 5th Edition rules including information on the Cave of the Unknown from Keep on the Borderlands. The volume will release at Gen Con this year with a wide release coming in September.
Following the announcement of foreign language editions of Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition through Gale Force Nine, a controversy popped up with the Brazilian license for a Portuguese translation that I refuse to call “translategate”. It’s a slightly tangled mess of accusations and claims from several parties, but the short version is that a company called Fire on Board announced that they had the license for Dungeons & Dragons in Brazil from Wizards of the Coast and Gale Force Nine, with three other companies claiming that Fire on Board signed deals with them to help produce the edition. Except no one bothered to tell Gale Force Nine or even Wizards of the Coast, depending on whose statement you read. Because of the massive confusion over who has and hasn’t signed contracts with whom to do what, Gale Force Nine made an announcement on March 24 stating that plans for a Brazilian release are on hold “until we fully investigate and hopefully resolve this issue.” If you’re curious exactly how events unfolded, the full story is available in the two links above.
Some might say that Friend Computer is back in charge of Alpha Complex, but only a Mutant Commie Traitor would ever say such a thing because that implies that Friend Computer ever left. So unless you want to report to the nearest Termination Booth, make note that pre-orders have opened for Paranoia from Mongoose Publishing. Three products are listed, the Paranoia – Red Clearance Starter Set, the Interactive Screen, and Forms Pack. The Starter Set contains the Players Handbook, Gamemasters Handbook, Missions Book, 110 playing cards used for combat, and a set of custom six-sided dice for use in Paranoia (including a custom Computer Die new to this edition). There’s no release date or American prices, but the Mongoose Publishing website lists at £39.99 for the Starter Set, £14.99 for the GM Screen, and £9.99 for the Forms Pack.
Jason Durall will take over lead development of Chaosium’s new edition of RuneQuest. Durall was already a team member on the design team for the new edition, but is stepping into the role of line editor position as the book’s release draws near. His credits include work on the Conan: Adventures in an Age Unheard Of for Modiphius, The Laundry for Cubicle 7, and Basic Roleplaying’s “Big Gold Book” for Chaosium. He’s already been working alongside RuneQuest creator Steve Perrin on this new edition as well as writing the Quick Start rules that will be available on Free RPG Day this June. Chaosium’s creative director Jeff Richards said, “We are extremely excited to be working with Jason on developing the RuneQuest and other Basic Roleplaying lines. Jason is one of the most talented designers, editors, and writers I know – a true professional in the industry.” The new edition of RuneQuest is scheduled for a Gen Con release.
Hasbro announced the winner of the 2016 Fall Gaming Challenge and, with guest judge Daymond John of Shark Tank joining in, chose Cloud Control from designer Eugene Bryant as the winner. Bryant will receive a $25,000 cash prize and a trip to Hasbro to help refine his game and get it to market. The game itself is a card laying game where one player attempts to twist, flip, and overlap various cloud shapes on cards to create recognizable shapes on their clue cards for the other players to guess before time runs out. Hasbro Gaming Labs runs two gaming contests each year, one in the spring for general games and one in the fall specifically for family games, with the finalists launching a crowdfunding campaign on IndieGoGo. Cloud Control raised $6,772 against an $8,000 and did not fund in its IndieGoGo campaign.
Arcanis: The World of Shatter Empires is getting a massive 400+ page rulebook for 5th Edition. Originally released in 2001 as a D20 System campaign setting, Arcanis is a fantasy world built on shades of grey with a grimdark feel and an aesthetic born from the Roman Empire. This new edition promises twenty-nine new races and subraces, several brand new classes, a stretch goal for psionics rules, and new spells, feats, and more for the setting. You can get the core rulebook in PDF format for $25, or a print copy for $50 along with many other add-ons and pledge levels. This project funded on day one and has already unlocked a Sorcerous Pacts stretch goal as it runs until Saturday, April 22.
An officially licensed version of Lankhmar is coming to Dungeon Crawl Classics. Based on the novels by Fritz Leiber following the adventures of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, this new boxed set recreates the classic feel of the original Lankhmar setting and adventure. The boxed set includes The Compendium of Secret Knowledge (rules options for DCC), Judge’s Guide to Nehwon, Lankhmar: City of the Black Toga, and a first level adventure No Small Crimes in Lankhmar. The PDF version of the boxed set’s books is available for a $25 pledge, while a $50 pledge gets you a print version. There are also add-ons for the DCC RPG Core Rulebook plus the previous DCC Lankhmar adventures already in print. This project is fully funded and running until Wednesday, April 26.
Rising Sun is the newest game from Cool Mini or Not and has already raised more than $3 million. The game puts three to five players in charge of rival clans in feudal Japan as you wage war, both through politics and through battlefield might, seeking the favor of the Kami, and recruiting monsters of legend to add to your strength. There is exactly one pledge level for this project, $100 to get the game. There are, however, many add-ons which have been unlocked via stretch goals. I’d say with $3.2 million at time of writing, this Kickstarter is fully funded, but if you want in, you’ve only got until this Monday, April 3.
That’s all from me 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 I'm actually going to make a big announcement early next week, 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 and/or DriveThru may contain affiliate links with the proceeds going to the author of this column.
