Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news! More speculation on the next D&D setting, more Pathfinder 2nd Edition announcements, Asmodee looking at mass media licenses, big news for Warhammer 40K fans, and more!
Back at the GAMA Trade Show, there was a strong indication that Spelljammer would be the next setting in Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition based on the art from the forthcoming Modenkainen’s Tome of Foes. And thus speculation began on how exactly the space-fantasy setting would translate to 5e rules. But now, things aren’t quite as sure on that front. At Gary Con, Mike Mearls stated that the Psionic Mystic wouldn’t be needed “until we do Dark Sun”. Well, it was about a year ago that the Mystic Class was posted to Unearthed Arcana, the backdoor playtest column from Wizards of the Coast’s D&D team, which seems to be just about the turnaround time for concepts to go through playtesting in this edition, so maybe we’re going back to Athas after a trip through the cosmos…or maybe the one plane locked off from visitation will come first.
Pre-orders are live for the Pathfinder 2nd Edition Playtest along with a special Deluxe Hardcover edition. MSRP on the standard rulebook is $44.99 and the Deluxe Edition is $59.99, both due for release on August 2. The Amazon description has a bit of information about the playtest:
“The evolution of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game begins here! This 416-page rulebook contains everything you need to create and advance your Pathfinder Playtest character from level 1 to 20, as well as hundreds of new and updated spells, magic items, feats, and Game Master rules necessary to run a complete Pathfinder Playtest campaign! Delve the deepest dungeons with a brand-new goblin alchemist hero, or convert your favorite existing characters to the new system! With gorgeous interior art from Pathfinder cover artist Wayne Reynolds and new rules concepts on nearly every page, the Pathfinder Playtest Rulebook is your gateway to the future of Pathfinder. The only thing missing is your playtest feedback! (Note: The public playtest begins August 2 and runs through the end of 2018. Due to this limited time window, this book will NEVER be reprinted!)”
More Pathfinder 2nd Ed news has come out, including information about critical hits, changes to the game’s “language” for consistency and ease of understanding, what it would take to make an OGL “Pathfinder 1.5” from a third party publisher, hints from what we’ll see in the Rogue class, and a lot more. There will also be brand new weekly streams from Paizo’s official Twitch channel, the first starting tomorrow (Friday, March 30) at 4 PM Pacific time with Paizo’s Director of Game Design Jason Bulmahn doing a Q&A with chat. While you wait to spam your question in the Twitch chat, you can watch Bulmahn speaking with Game Trade Media at the GAMA Trade Show in a video with a lot of information about the new rules. If you want to keep track of Pathfinder 2nd Edition news as it breaks, make sure to bookmark the EN World Pathfinder news page and you can always catch up on the compiled information wiki thread.
Asmodee announced the launch of Asmodee Entertainment, a new branch of the company specifically for licensing their intellectual property for feature films, television, comics, and graphic novels. Andy Jones was named the head of this new department, which shouldn’t be a stretch for him as he has handled licensing for Games Workshop since 2002. In the press release, Jones stated:
The current tentpole of this new venture appears to be the Settlers of Catan film which is currently in development with Sony Pictures, as Sony Pictures executive Darren Kyman has also been appointed Senior Vice President of Business Development at Asmodee Entertainment.
Additionally, Asmodee announced that they are acquiring UK distributor Coildspring Games who, like most of their recent acquisitions, will continue to run as an independent branch of the ever-growing Asmodee family of companies.
BattleTech, the long-awaited video game from Harebrained Schemes, finally has a release date: April 24, 2018. To celebrate, the company founded by BattleTech co-creator Jordan Weisman released a brand new story trailer describing the mercenary-based campaign mode for the turn-based strategy game. The game will be available for PC and Mac, and it’s been confirmed that multiplayer will work regardless of platform. Kickstarter backers will receive an email via BackerKit a few days prior to release (with possible pre-loading before the official launch to be announced closer to the release day), while retail purchasers have the choice between the standard edition for $39.99 or the Digital Deluxe Edition with artbook, wallpapers, and soundtrack for $49.99 with a special Shadowhawk BattleMech available for pre-orders and Kickstarter backers.
As you can see in the video above, even Games Workshop knows the demand for plastic Sisters of Battle miniatures. Following an official announcement at AdaptiCon this past weekend, that wait is…well, another year or so. But yes, plastic miniatures for the Battle Sisters of the Adepta Sororitas will be released in 2019. Other big announcements include the next three Codex books, Imperial Knights, Harlequin, and Deathwatch to be released over “the next few months”. The Warhammer Community link above has all the news, but also announced were a new Age of Sigmar collectible card game, new warbands for Warhammer Underworlds, and a new Warhammer Legends website which will feature updated rules to classic units and “made to order” waves designed to help long-time fans finish collections of out-of-print miniatures.
Speaking of Warhammer, Humble Bundle launched the Black Library: Tales from the Worlds of Warhammer bundle. This ebook bundle includes several novels from Warhammer properties with six books plus an audio drama available at the Pay What You Want price, seven more books and another audio drama at the $8 price point, and another seven books and a third audio drama at the $15 level. Each pledge level also includes discounts on Warhammer licensed video games from the Humble Store up to 75% off plus exclusive DLC, wallpapers, and more for a total retail value of over $263. The ebooks are available in PDF, ePUB, and MOBI formats for easy reading on any device, and the audio dramas are in MP3 and FLAC. The bundle ends at 11 AM Pacific time on Wednesday, April 11.
Torg Eternity – The Living Land is the first major expansion for Torg Eternity continuing the game’s Possibility War. More than just expanding the metanarrative of the new edition, the book includes new perks and miracles for advancing characters, new gear (ridable dinosaurs…ridable dinosaurs!!), new threats from the undead hordes, generation tables to speed prep time, and a lot more. It’s also not just a new book, but a GM screen, adventures, drama deck cards, possibility chips, and more. There are a lot of options available for backing this Kickstarter especially counting the add-ons, but the PDFs of the new books and stretch goal unlocks are available for a $40 pledge, the print copy of just the new rulebook for $50, or the “Survival Box” set with all print products, a soundtrack, threat cards, counters, poster map, and a lot more for $180. This Kickstarter is unlocking stretch goals until Tuesday, April 24.
So who wants to play in a superhero game set in Prohibition Era America as superpowered gangsters and law enforcement battle it out? CAPERS uses a standard deck of playing cards for task resolution with some press-your-luck elements that make this system pretty interesting as not only the card rank but the suit affect how well you succeed or fail at a task. And, of course, the setting is pretty interesting as well if you’ve ever been curious whether a speedster bootlegger could get away from a flying federal agent. The PDF is available for a $15 pledge with a link to an at-cost print-on-demand version as well, and at the time of writing there’s still one more space left in the $79 level to have a four-player online game run for you and your friends by the game’s designer. This game still has several stretch goals to go before it funds on Thursday, April 5.
Remember a while back when I mentioned that there’s going to be a Red Dragon Inn crossover with Munchkin? Well now you can get Spyke and Flower from the Munchkin universe as playable characters in the Red Dragon Inn game as a stand-alone Allies expansion. This edition will have everything you need for a two-player game with brand new cards and rules for integrating them into existing Red Dragon Inn sets. The set is available for $25, or for $35 you can add on the Munchkin expansion featuring new treasure and door cards, because they couldn’t just have one game crossover when they could have two. This project is fully funded and runs until Saturday, April 7.
That’s all from me for this week! Find more gaming crowdfunding news by following our Kickstarter news tag, and 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. You can follow me on Twitter @Abstruse where I’m probably going to be whining a bit about Fallout 4 mods not working right as I get ready to play it again with over 200 mods, follow Gamer’s Tavern on YouTube featuring videos on gaming history and 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.
Back at the GAMA Trade Show, there was a strong indication that Spelljammer would be the next setting in Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition based on the art from the forthcoming Modenkainen’s Tome of Foes. And thus speculation began on how exactly the space-fantasy setting would translate to 5e rules. But now, things aren’t quite as sure on that front. At Gary Con, Mike Mearls stated that the Psionic Mystic wouldn’t be needed “until we do Dark Sun”. Well, it was about a year ago that the Mystic Class was posted to Unearthed Arcana, the backdoor playtest column from Wizards of the Coast’s D&D team, which seems to be just about the turnaround time for concepts to go through playtesting in this edition, so maybe we’re going back to Athas after a trip through the cosmos…or maybe the one plane locked off from visitation will come first.
Pre-orders are live for the Pathfinder 2nd Edition Playtest along with a special Deluxe Hardcover edition. MSRP on the standard rulebook is $44.99 and the Deluxe Edition is $59.99, both due for release on August 2. The Amazon description has a bit of information about the playtest:
“The evolution of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game begins here! This 416-page rulebook contains everything you need to create and advance your Pathfinder Playtest character from level 1 to 20, as well as hundreds of new and updated spells, magic items, feats, and Game Master rules necessary to run a complete Pathfinder Playtest campaign! Delve the deepest dungeons with a brand-new goblin alchemist hero, or convert your favorite existing characters to the new system! With gorgeous interior art from Pathfinder cover artist Wayne Reynolds and new rules concepts on nearly every page, the Pathfinder Playtest Rulebook is your gateway to the future of Pathfinder. The only thing missing is your playtest feedback! (Note: The public playtest begins August 2 and runs through the end of 2018. Due to this limited time window, this book will NEVER be reprinted!)”
More Pathfinder 2nd Ed news has come out, including information about critical hits, changes to the game’s “language” for consistency and ease of understanding, what it would take to make an OGL “Pathfinder 1.5” from a third party publisher, hints from what we’ll see in the Rogue class, and a lot more. There will also be brand new weekly streams from Paizo’s official Twitch channel, the first starting tomorrow (Friday, March 30) at 4 PM Pacific time with Paizo’s Director of Game Design Jason Bulmahn doing a Q&A with chat. While you wait to spam your question in the Twitch chat, you can watch Bulmahn speaking with Game Trade Media at the GAMA Trade Show in a video with a lot of information about the new rules. If you want to keep track of Pathfinder 2nd Edition news as it breaks, make sure to bookmark the EN World Pathfinder news page and you can always catch up on the compiled information wiki thread.
Asmodee announced the launch of Asmodee Entertainment, a new branch of the company specifically for licensing their intellectual property for feature films, television, comics, and graphic novels. Andy Jones was named the head of this new department, which shouldn’t be a stretch for him as he has handled licensing for Games Workshop since 2002. In the press release, Jones stated:
“I am honored to lead this new strategic initiative to bring our fantastic IPs to many different forms of media. The success of our previous ventures into books and graphic novels, set in Asmodee worlds, demonstrated our fans’ desire to engage with their favorite stories in formats beyond the board games they love. Through these new forms of content, our vibrant characters and engaging narratives can also reach new audiences around the world.”
The current tentpole of this new venture appears to be the Settlers of Catan film which is currently in development with Sony Pictures, as Sony Pictures executive Darren Kyman has also been appointed Senior Vice President of Business Development at Asmodee Entertainment.
Additionally, Asmodee announced that they are acquiring UK distributor Coildspring Games who, like most of their recent acquisitions, will continue to run as an independent branch of the ever-growing Asmodee family of companies.
BattleTech, the long-awaited video game from Harebrained Schemes, finally has a release date: April 24, 2018. To celebrate, the company founded by BattleTech co-creator Jordan Weisman released a brand new story trailer describing the mercenary-based campaign mode for the turn-based strategy game. The game will be available for PC and Mac, and it’s been confirmed that multiplayer will work regardless of platform. Kickstarter backers will receive an email via BackerKit a few days prior to release (with possible pre-loading before the official launch to be announced closer to the release day), while retail purchasers have the choice between the standard edition for $39.99 or the Digital Deluxe Edition with artbook, wallpapers, and soundtrack for $49.99 with a special Shadowhawk BattleMech available for pre-orders and Kickstarter backers.
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[video=youtube;smqK5cHSxMA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smqK5cHSxMA[/video]
[video=youtube;smqK5cHSxMA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smqK5cHSxMA[/video]
As you can see in the video above, even Games Workshop knows the demand for plastic Sisters of Battle miniatures. Following an official announcement at AdaptiCon this past weekend, that wait is…well, another year or so. But yes, plastic miniatures for the Battle Sisters of the Adepta Sororitas will be released in 2019. Other big announcements include the next three Codex books, Imperial Knights, Harlequin, and Deathwatch to be released over “the next few months”. The Warhammer Community link above has all the news, but also announced were a new Age of Sigmar collectible card game, new warbands for Warhammer Underworlds, and a new Warhammer Legends website which will feature updated rules to classic units and “made to order” waves designed to help long-time fans finish collections of out-of-print miniatures.
Speaking of Warhammer, Humble Bundle launched the Black Library: Tales from the Worlds of Warhammer bundle. This ebook bundle includes several novels from Warhammer properties with six books plus an audio drama available at the Pay What You Want price, seven more books and another audio drama at the $8 price point, and another seven books and a third audio drama at the $15 level. Each pledge level also includes discounts on Warhammer licensed video games from the Humble Store up to 75% off plus exclusive DLC, wallpapers, and more for a total retail value of over $263. The ebooks are available in PDF, ePUB, and MOBI formats for easy reading on any device, and the audio dramas are in MP3 and FLAC. The bundle ends at 11 AM Pacific time on Wednesday, April 11.
Torg Eternity – The Living Land is the first major expansion for Torg Eternity continuing the game’s Possibility War. More than just expanding the metanarrative of the new edition, the book includes new perks and miracles for advancing characters, new gear (ridable dinosaurs…ridable dinosaurs!!), new threats from the undead hordes, generation tables to speed prep time, and a lot more. It’s also not just a new book, but a GM screen, adventures, drama deck cards, possibility chips, and more. There are a lot of options available for backing this Kickstarter especially counting the add-ons, but the PDFs of the new books and stretch goal unlocks are available for a $40 pledge, the print copy of just the new rulebook for $50, or the “Survival Box” set with all print products, a soundtrack, threat cards, counters, poster map, and a lot more for $180. This Kickstarter is unlocking stretch goals until Tuesday, April 24.
So who wants to play in a superhero game set in Prohibition Era America as superpowered gangsters and law enforcement battle it out? CAPERS uses a standard deck of playing cards for task resolution with some press-your-luck elements that make this system pretty interesting as not only the card rank but the suit affect how well you succeed or fail at a task. And, of course, the setting is pretty interesting as well if you’ve ever been curious whether a speedster bootlegger could get away from a flying federal agent. The PDF is available for a $15 pledge with a link to an at-cost print-on-demand version as well, and at the time of writing there’s still one more space left in the $79 level to have a four-player online game run for you and your friends by the game’s designer. This game still has several stretch goals to go before it funds on Thursday, April 5.
Remember a while back when I mentioned that there’s going to be a Red Dragon Inn crossover with Munchkin? Well now you can get Spyke and Flower from the Munchkin universe as playable characters in the Red Dragon Inn game as a stand-alone Allies expansion. This edition will have everything you need for a two-player game with brand new cards and rules for integrating them into existing Red Dragon Inn sets. The set is available for $25, or for $35 you can add on the Munchkin expansion featuring new treasure and door cards, because they couldn’t just have one game crossover when they could have two. This project is fully funded and runs until Saturday, April 7.
That’s all from me for this week! Find more gaming crowdfunding news by following our Kickstarter news tag, and 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. You can follow me on Twitter @Abstruse where I’m probably going to be whining a bit about Fallout 4 mods not working right as I get ready to play it again with over 200 mods, follow Gamer’s Tavern on YouTube featuring videos on gaming history and 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.
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