Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news! Eberron coming to Adventure League, tabletop gaming sales figures and rankings, Munchkin Warhammer 40K announced, Asmodee NA CEO leaving, and more!
Eberron comes to Adventure League officially starting September 21 with the Embers of the Last War campaign. The exploratory campaign will start with the DDAL-ELW00: What’s Past is Prologue, an adventure for 0-level characters who will be retired at the end of the adventure and new 1st level characters created for the next eleven adventures. Each adventure in the campaign will be Tier 1 and optimized for each level, with the culminating two adventures both optimized for Level 10. This campaign will use the new rules from the Wayfinder’s Guide to Eberron available now, and can be used alongside the adventures published in Encounters at Sharn, which will soon also be available for Adventure League play.
Time to talk about the size of the tabletop gaming industry and how it breaks down for a bit. The image above comes from Fantasy Grounds and is the chart breakdown of the games played by system using the digital platform. Additionally, consulting firm ICO Partners analyzed crowdfunding efforts on Kickstarter and showed that, in the six months so far in 2018, tabletop games (board games, card games, and roleplaying games) have raised almost $80 million representing 30% of all money raised on Kickstarter during this time period.
ICv2, the tabletop gaming industry’s biggest source for market information, released their numbers for both the fiscal year of 2017 as well as the quarterly sales rankings from Spring 2018. The tabletop gaming market accounts for a total of $1.5 billion, which is gross sales for all physical products across all outlets (online, big-box retail, hobbyist/game stores, and crowdfunding). Collectible games sold $725 million, non-collectible miniature games sold $270 million, hobby board games sold $345 million, hobby card and dice games sold $150 million, and tabletop roleplaying games sold $55 million.
In the sales rankings for Spring of 2018, the top five roleplaying games in order are Dungeons & Dragons, Starfinder, Pathfinder, Star Wars, and Genesys. Non-collectible miniature games were dominated with no surprise by Warhammer 40K, with the rest of the top five being D&D Nolzur’s Marvelous Minis, Warmachine, Star Wars Legion, and Age of Sigmar. The top ten hobby channel board games are Gloomhaven, Catan, Pandemic, Scythe, Fallout: The Board Game, Terraforming Mars, Dark Crystal, Ticket to Ride, Azul, and Clans of Caledonia. The top ten card and dice games (non-collectible) are Codenames, Rick and Morty, Smash Up!, Cards Against Humanity, Marvel Legends, Exploding Kittens, Superfight, Boss Monster, Bang!, and Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle. Finally, the top ten collectible games are Magic: The Gathering, Pokemon TCG, Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, Marvel and DC HeroClix, D&D Fantasy Miniatures, Cardfight!! Vanguard, Force of Will, Dragon Ball Super, Pathfinder Battles, and Star Wars Destiny.
Steve Jackson Games announced the newest licensed property to join the Munchkin brand: Warhammer 40,000. The game will launch in 2019 with art from John Kovalic and be cross-compatible with all other Munchkin games. The deluxe core set will be available for $29.95 with two expansions of 112 cards each coming later in the year for $19.95 each. A card count for the core set was not listed in the press release, but it was announced that combined with the expansions, it would be “almost 400 cards” which indicates that the core set will be close in size to the main edition of Munchkin which comes with 168 cards. The line itself will be designed by Andrew Hackard, the line editor for Munchkin, in consultation with Games Workshop.
Robotech is getting a new roleplaying game from Strange Machine Games, Robotech Roleplaying Game. The game system will be a hybrid between simulation and narrative play and will include rules for personal, mecha, and naval combat. Additionally, there will be roles for officers who stay behind and coordinate the fight while the other players take on the role of Valkyrie pilots. Strange Machine Games previously announced board games based on the Robotech license, the first of which is the dice game Robotech Ace Pilot. This is relevant as Strange Machine Games has offered a free copy of the dice game to anyone who purchases Robotech Roleplaying Game directly from them who was also a Wave 2 backer of the Palladium Robotech RPG Tactics Kickstarter. The game is anticipated for release in the second quarter of 2019.
As Asmodee is preparing for its sale reported on last week, other changes are happening within the company as Christian T. Petersen is stepping down as CEO of Asmodee North America. Petersen is the founder of Fantasy Flight Games and, following the acquisition of FFG by Asmodee, became the CEO of their North American branch. In a statement, Petersen said:
The games to be released from our U.S. studios over the next 6-12 months, represent the final game products in which I have played a part. I could not have hoped for a more innovative, more commercially exciting, or more satisfying finale.
I leave to focus on family, health, and the pursuit of other interests. My departure has been long-planned with the Asmodee Group CEO, and my friend, Stephane Carville.
In case you’re wondering why the internal developments at Asmodee are important, it dovetails nicely with the industry sales reporting from ICv2 linked above as, across all five categories, Asmodee owns a full quarter of those games and handles European distribution for a large number of the others.
The Game Design and Puzzlecraft Humble Book Bundle is all about game design with a large focus on tabletop gaming. In fact, I’m pretty sure that the authors of the nineteen books in the bundle will either be familiar to you or will be if you check your game shelf: Justin Gary, James Lowder, Elisa Teague, Monte Cook, Shanna Germain, Mike Selinker, Robin J. Laws, Wolfgang Baur, and a lot more. Even at the $1 level, the bundle has books on the theory behind game design, storytelling through theme in a board game, crowdfunding for tabletop, and other useful topics for any fan of gaming or aspiring game designer, and all nineteen books (a $270 retail value) are available for just $15. This bundle benefits two charities, Girls Make Games and Girls Who Code and runs until August 15.
Over the Edge is the new edition of the classic narrative-focused roleplaying game from Jonathan Tweet and Atlas Games. Set in the Edge, a city in the Atlantic ocean filled with conspiracies, mad scientists, secret agents, paranormal entities, and more, this new version reimagines the setting from the ground-up keeping all the major players and plots but molding them to fit the modern era and to allow more gripping stories and adventure hooks. The core rulebook is available in PDF for $20 (with a “retro-pack” of all earlier editions available for $45), in print for $40 (or $65 with the retro-pack), in a deluxe edition for $100 (or $125 with retro-pack), and each option is available at a $10 higher level to include a special set of dice. This project is fully-funded and runs until Tuesday, August 14.
I just realized writing this now that there is a portion of the audience that’s too young to remember Homestar Runner and may be wondering why Trogdor!! The Board Game has raised almost a million dollars so far. It seems only yesterday that one of the first web-original series was bouncing across Myspace and BBSes. But for those who remember, the game features the legendary wingaling dragon Trogdor the Burninator as you work as cultists as part of the Keepers of Trogdor assisting him in burning down the village. The game is available for $40 with wooden meeple versions of the game pieces, $60 for an upgraded version with screen-printed meeples and fully-painted miniatures, or deluxe editions from Wyrmwood Gaming available for $200, $500, or $1800 depending on options. This Kickstarter funds and then some on Wednesday, August 15.
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 you can help convince me to finally get back to streaming on Twitch and finishing up Dragon Age: Origins before deciding which game to play next, follow Gamer’s Tavern on YouTube featuring videos on gaming history 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.
PS. The Pathfinder 2nd Edition Playtest is available now as a free download. I figured there’s not much else to say about it at this point news-wise and if I put it anywhere else in the column, you’d stop reading to go download it.
Eberron comes to Adventure League officially starting September 21 with the Embers of the Last War campaign. The exploratory campaign will start with the DDAL-ELW00: What’s Past is Prologue, an adventure for 0-level characters who will be retired at the end of the adventure and new 1st level characters created for the next eleven adventures. Each adventure in the campaign will be Tier 1 and optimized for each level, with the culminating two adventures both optimized for Level 10. This campaign will use the new rules from the Wayfinder’s Guide to Eberron available now, and can be used alongside the adventures published in Encounters at Sharn, which will soon also be available for Adventure League play.
Time to talk about the size of the tabletop gaming industry and how it breaks down for a bit. The image above comes from Fantasy Grounds and is the chart breakdown of the games played by system using the digital platform. Additionally, consulting firm ICO Partners analyzed crowdfunding efforts on Kickstarter and showed that, in the six months so far in 2018, tabletop games (board games, card games, and roleplaying games) have raised almost $80 million representing 30% of all money raised on Kickstarter during this time period.
ICv2, the tabletop gaming industry’s biggest source for market information, released their numbers for both the fiscal year of 2017 as well as the quarterly sales rankings from Spring 2018. The tabletop gaming market accounts for a total of $1.5 billion, which is gross sales for all physical products across all outlets (online, big-box retail, hobbyist/game stores, and crowdfunding). Collectible games sold $725 million, non-collectible miniature games sold $270 million, hobby board games sold $345 million, hobby card and dice games sold $150 million, and tabletop roleplaying games sold $55 million.
In the sales rankings for Spring of 2018, the top five roleplaying games in order are Dungeons & Dragons, Starfinder, Pathfinder, Star Wars, and Genesys. Non-collectible miniature games were dominated with no surprise by Warhammer 40K, with the rest of the top five being D&D Nolzur’s Marvelous Minis, Warmachine, Star Wars Legion, and Age of Sigmar. The top ten hobby channel board games are Gloomhaven, Catan, Pandemic, Scythe, Fallout: The Board Game, Terraforming Mars, Dark Crystal, Ticket to Ride, Azul, and Clans of Caledonia. The top ten card and dice games (non-collectible) are Codenames, Rick and Morty, Smash Up!, Cards Against Humanity, Marvel Legends, Exploding Kittens, Superfight, Boss Monster, Bang!, and Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle. Finally, the top ten collectible games are Magic: The Gathering, Pokemon TCG, Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, Marvel and DC HeroClix, D&D Fantasy Miniatures, Cardfight!! Vanguard, Force of Will, Dragon Ball Super, Pathfinder Battles, and Star Wars Destiny.
Steve Jackson Games announced the newest licensed property to join the Munchkin brand: Warhammer 40,000. The game will launch in 2019 with art from John Kovalic and be cross-compatible with all other Munchkin games. The deluxe core set will be available for $29.95 with two expansions of 112 cards each coming later in the year for $19.95 each. A card count for the core set was not listed in the press release, but it was announced that combined with the expansions, it would be “almost 400 cards” which indicates that the core set will be close in size to the main edition of Munchkin which comes with 168 cards. The line itself will be designed by Andrew Hackard, the line editor for Munchkin, in consultation with Games Workshop.
Robotech is getting a new roleplaying game from Strange Machine Games, Robotech Roleplaying Game. The game system will be a hybrid between simulation and narrative play and will include rules for personal, mecha, and naval combat. Additionally, there will be roles for officers who stay behind and coordinate the fight while the other players take on the role of Valkyrie pilots. Strange Machine Games previously announced board games based on the Robotech license, the first of which is the dice game Robotech Ace Pilot. This is relevant as Strange Machine Games has offered a free copy of the dice game to anyone who purchases Robotech Roleplaying Game directly from them who was also a Wave 2 backer of the Palladium Robotech RPG Tactics Kickstarter. The game is anticipated for release in the second quarter of 2019.
As Asmodee is preparing for its sale reported on last week, other changes are happening within the company as Christian T. Petersen is stepping down as CEO of Asmodee North America. Petersen is the founder of Fantasy Flight Games and, following the acquisition of FFG by Asmodee, became the CEO of their North American branch. In a statement, Petersen said:
After nearly twenty years with FFG and four years with Asmodee, I’ve seen our market go through tremendous change and amazing growth. Tabletop games have been accepted into the fabric of society and represented in pop-culture more positively than anyone could have hoped for when I joined the industry. I feel fortunate to have experienced this phenomenon first-hand, and to have been part of such an incredible journey.
Now it’s time to hand the reins to a new generation of leaders who along with the amazing staff at Asmodee North America and its studios (Catan, Days of Wonder, FFG, Heidelbär, Plaid Hat, and Z-Man), will move forward with their own unique energy and vision. I have no doubt that they’ll be better, burn brighter, and achieve ever more fantastic things. I can’t wait to see what they’ll do, and to play what they’ll make.
Now it’s time to hand the reins to a new generation of leaders who along with the amazing staff at Asmodee North America and its studios (Catan, Days of Wonder, FFG, Heidelbär, Plaid Hat, and Z-Man), will move forward with their own unique energy and vision. I have no doubt that they’ll be better, burn brighter, and achieve ever more fantastic things. I can’t wait to see what they’ll do, and to play what they’ll make.
The games to be released from our U.S. studios over the next 6-12 months, represent the final game products in which I have played a part. I could not have hoped for a more innovative, more commercially exciting, or more satisfying finale.
I leave to focus on family, health, and the pursuit of other interests. My departure has been long-planned with the Asmodee Group CEO, and my friend, Stephane Carville.
In case you’re wondering why the internal developments at Asmodee are important, it dovetails nicely with the industry sales reporting from ICv2 linked above as, across all five categories, Asmodee owns a full quarter of those games and handles European distribution for a large number of the others.
The Game Design and Puzzlecraft Humble Book Bundle is all about game design with a large focus on tabletop gaming. In fact, I’m pretty sure that the authors of the nineteen books in the bundle will either be familiar to you or will be if you check your game shelf: Justin Gary, James Lowder, Elisa Teague, Monte Cook, Shanna Germain, Mike Selinker, Robin J. Laws, Wolfgang Baur, and a lot more. Even at the $1 level, the bundle has books on the theory behind game design, storytelling through theme in a board game, crowdfunding for tabletop, and other useful topics for any fan of gaming or aspiring game designer, and all nineteen books (a $270 retail value) are available for just $15. This bundle benefits two charities, Girls Make Games and Girls Who Code and runs until August 15.
Over the Edge is the new edition of the classic narrative-focused roleplaying game from Jonathan Tweet and Atlas Games. Set in the Edge, a city in the Atlantic ocean filled with conspiracies, mad scientists, secret agents, paranormal entities, and more, this new version reimagines the setting from the ground-up keeping all the major players and plots but molding them to fit the modern era and to allow more gripping stories and adventure hooks. The core rulebook is available in PDF for $20 (with a “retro-pack” of all earlier editions available for $45), in print for $40 (or $65 with the retro-pack), in a deluxe edition for $100 (or $125 with retro-pack), and each option is available at a $10 higher level to include a special set of dice. This project is fully-funded and runs until Tuesday, August 14.
I just realized writing this now that there is a portion of the audience that’s too young to remember Homestar Runner and may be wondering why Trogdor!! The Board Game has raised almost a million dollars so far. It seems only yesterday that one of the first web-original series was bouncing across Myspace and BBSes. But for those who remember, the game features the legendary wingaling dragon Trogdor the Burninator as you work as cultists as part of the Keepers of Trogdor assisting him in burning down the village. The game is available for $40 with wooden meeple versions of the game pieces, $60 for an upgraded version with screen-printed meeples and fully-painted miniatures, or deluxe editions from Wyrmwood Gaming available for $200, $500, or $1800 depending on options. This Kickstarter funds and then some on Wednesday, August 15.
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 you can help convince me to finally get back to streaming on Twitch and finishing up Dragon Age: Origins before deciding which game to play next, follow Gamer’s Tavern on YouTube featuring videos on gaming history 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.
PS. The Pathfinder 2nd Edition Playtest is available now as a free download. I figured there’s not much else to say about it at this point news-wise and if I put it anywhere else in the column, you’d stop reading to go download it.
