Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news! New releases for Dungeons & Dragons, a preview of the finalized rules for Pathfinder 2nd Edition, free upgrade for the Shadowrun Sixth Edition Beginner Box, and a lot more!
Two products hit store shelves this week for Dungeons & Dragons. First is Acquisitions Incorporated, the sourcebook based on the podcasts and live streams from Penny Arcade. The book features an adventure called “The Orrery of the Wanderer” that sends you around the Sword Coast as new members of the Acquisitions Inc. team. There’s also new backgrounds, character options, optional rules, and more to get that humorous style from the streams and events into your game. EN World has a first-look preview and a full review online now.
The other big product available only in Target stores is the Dungeons & Dragons Essentials Kit, a new beefed-up starter set with all new components. The new adventure “Dragon of Icespear Peak” takes characters from Level 1 to 6 and acts as a follow-up to “Lost Mines of Phandelver” (though playing that first isn’t required). There’s also a new set of starter rules that includes character creation rules, a GM screen, two mini-poster sized maps of the area the adventure takes place in, several reference cards, a full set of dice with extras, and everything needed to play. The kit will be available worldwide this October following the Target exclusive period.
The classic 90s game SLA Industries (pronounced “Slay” and not related to various political factions and/or terrorist groups with the same initials) is getting a second edition after over twenty-five years. Originally released in 1993, SLA Industries is a rather over-the-top sci-fi satire that takes elements familiar with other movies, novels, and TV shows and turns them up to eleven. Oh, your setting has a megacity? Mort City is a densely populated sprawl the size of both Europe and Asia together. A mere dragon running a megacorp? SLA Industries itself is ruled by the immortal terror “Mr. Slayer” whose teeth are as sharp as a shark’s and hands end in long, razor-sharp talons. Operatives aren’t running the shadows, they’re high-profile celebrities and your ability to draw ratings is just as important as your ability to draw your weapon. The new edition will feature a brand new rules system when it comes to Kickstarter this September.
After making its debut at Origins Game Fair and soon to be hitting store shelves, Catalyst Game Labs has already made an expansion to the Shadowrun Sixth World Beginner Box, the starter set for the new edition of Shadowrun. Emu the Human Rigger adds a fifth pre-generated character and rounds out the team with a secondary tech support character. For those who aren’t as familiar with Shadowrun, riggers are the pilots and drivers of the Sixth World, directly controlling vehicles with their minds using specialized cyberware called control rigs. But they’re not just the driver, they also are able to use drones in combat and in support (which Emu has a dozen different ones ready for various tasks). The PDF is available for free and, if you attempted to get it immediately after it was announced, it no longer lists the free digital product as “sold out”.
Paizo released the first big look we’ve seen of Pathfinder 2nd Edition since the release of the playtest. However, these rules are now fixed since, as you can see in the photo above, the new edition is already in Paizo’s warehouses waiting to be packed for stores and pre-order customers (with a good chunk also going to Gen Con for the big launch I’m sure). The series of articles, starting with the first linked above on the core task resolution mechanic, will go into detail on the rules with this one starting from scratch explaining how the Pathfinder system works. The massive 640-page core rulebook releases on August 1st with a retail price of $59.99.
The last couple of years, there have been a lot of “Kid Adventure” roleplaying games based on the interest generated by Stranger Things. This year seems to be the year of the “Teen Adventure Sequel”. The sequel to Kids on Bikes is on its way later this year and is, of course, Teens in Space. Using the same system as Kids on Bikes, this new game expands that out to fill a 122-page rulebook allowing you to take your teenage space aces around the galaxy. While the description doesn’t give much indication of the particular genre of sci-fi aside from “based on a variety of sci-fi tropes”, the cover seems to indicate a distinct 80s anime influence from Voltron, Space Battleship Yamato, Gundam, Macross, and others with just a hint of The Last Starfighter. The game will be released in August with a retail price of $25.
Origins Game Fair released their attendance numbers, showing an 11% increase over last year with 20,000 unique attendees. This wasn’t quite enough to leapfrog back into the number three spot for tabletop gaming conventions, leaving UK Games Expo in that slot behind Essen Spiel at second and Gen Con as the largest convention in the world. Andrew Peregrine wrote a long summary of his impressions (along with a lot of pictures) of his trip to Origins this year for EN World. Next year’s event will be held in Columbus, OH, from June 14-17, 2020.
English miniature terrain company 4ground Limited posted noticed they are going into liquidation, but there are questions as to the fate of the company. The company has been a long-time mainstay of miniature wargaming (as well as model trains) due to their highly detailed models in a wide variety of scales. The notice of liquidation was posted on June 13, but the company is still updating their Facebook page as of June 21 with advertisements and their website is still taking orders. This leads credence to speculation that the company is reorganizing their assets and simply closing down subsidiaries to streamline the corporate structure. The Kickstarter for The Legends of Fabled Realms received an update this past Wednesday, but it is backer-only and the contents have not been made public. The company has not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.
So while I was looking for the D&D Essentials on the Target website, I found another Target exclusive board game: Kenny G’s Keepin’ It Saxy. This game for ages 12+ has the 2-5 players work to keep Kenny G stay smooth throughout the day and overcome uncool events like tangled hair, traffic, or an elevator without jazz music playing. The game comes from the same creators of the Bob Ross: Art of Chill Game about the painting instructor with the world’s most calming voice. If I must live with the knowledge that these things exist, so must you.
Humble Bundle launched the Beast of a Bundle featuring more than forty OGL books plus accessories for your Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition games. The bundle has three tiers from $1, $8, and $15 each packed with adventures, sourcebooks, character options, drop-in encounters, magic items and treasure, maps, GM options, and a lot more. And all the options are available in DRM-free downloads ready right away. This Bundle benefits RAINN (Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network) and runs until Wednesday, July 10.
Ken Spencer’s Rocket Age is an atomic age sci-fi game that’s already collected a slew of awards for its depiction of golden age adventure sci-fi full of ray guns, silver jumpsuits, and rocket boots – and now it’s getting translated to 5e. Inspired by the 30s-50s serial age of sci-fi, the game draws heavily from Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, John Carter, and others as you choose between seventeen playable species and five brand-new classes (plus modifications of others) for adventures across the solar system and beyond. The PDF is available for a $10 pledge and the hardcover for $50, with several other pledge levels for retailers and luxury levels like a custom adventure written just for you or Rocket Age creator Ken Spencer running a game for your group. This Kickstarter is fully funded and runs until Thursday, July 4.
Everyone knows that a camp councilor’s most important job is to protect the children from the supernatural slasher horrors of the woods, and Sleepaway puts you in that role as you make sure your charges aren’t taken by the nightmarish Lindworm. This diceless roleplaying game uses the Belonging Outside Belonging engine where you get tokens by making a Weak Move (something that makes your life more difficult) so you can later spend the tokens you’ve acquired for a Strong Move (which is an incredibly success). The game even uses a conspiracy theory style corkboard to track the plot of the adventure as you build the narrative. The PDF is available for $15, the softcover for $25, and the limited edition hardcover for $65. There are also options at the $50 and $95 levels to add-on a donation copy of the game to be donated to those who can’t afford it, and there is a $7 PDF level for those who can’t afford the higher options, particularly those from marginalized groups. This Kickstarter is fully funded with a few stretch goals left before it closes on Friday, July 5.
That’s all from me for this week! 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, and you can get more discussion of the week’s news on Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk every week. You can follow me on Twitch where I’ll be streaming several times this weekend including Shadowrun Dragonfall, Star Trek Online, and maybe some more Star Wars: The Old Republic, subscribe to Gamer’s Tavern on YouTube for videos on gaming history, RPG reviews, 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.
Two products hit store shelves this week for Dungeons & Dragons. First is Acquisitions Incorporated, the sourcebook based on the podcasts and live streams from Penny Arcade. The book features an adventure called “The Orrery of the Wanderer” that sends you around the Sword Coast as new members of the Acquisitions Inc. team. There’s also new backgrounds, character options, optional rules, and more to get that humorous style from the streams and events into your game. EN World has a first-look preview and a full review online now.
The other big product available only in Target stores is the Dungeons & Dragons Essentials Kit, a new beefed-up starter set with all new components. The new adventure “Dragon of Icespear Peak” takes characters from Level 1 to 6 and acts as a follow-up to “Lost Mines of Phandelver” (though playing that first isn’t required). There’s also a new set of starter rules that includes character creation rules, a GM screen, two mini-poster sized maps of the area the adventure takes place in, several reference cards, a full set of dice with extras, and everything needed to play. The kit will be available worldwide this October following the Target exclusive period.
The classic 90s game SLA Industries (pronounced “Slay” and not related to various political factions and/or terrorist groups with the same initials) is getting a second edition after over twenty-five years. Originally released in 1993, SLA Industries is a rather over-the-top sci-fi satire that takes elements familiar with other movies, novels, and TV shows and turns them up to eleven. Oh, your setting has a megacity? Mort City is a densely populated sprawl the size of both Europe and Asia together. A mere dragon running a megacorp? SLA Industries itself is ruled by the immortal terror “Mr. Slayer” whose teeth are as sharp as a shark’s and hands end in long, razor-sharp talons. Operatives aren’t running the shadows, they’re high-profile celebrities and your ability to draw ratings is just as important as your ability to draw your weapon. The new edition will feature a brand new rules system when it comes to Kickstarter this September.
After making its debut at Origins Game Fair and soon to be hitting store shelves, Catalyst Game Labs has already made an expansion to the Shadowrun Sixth World Beginner Box, the starter set for the new edition of Shadowrun. Emu the Human Rigger adds a fifth pre-generated character and rounds out the team with a secondary tech support character. For those who aren’t as familiar with Shadowrun, riggers are the pilots and drivers of the Sixth World, directly controlling vehicles with their minds using specialized cyberware called control rigs. But they’re not just the driver, they also are able to use drones in combat and in support (which Emu has a dozen different ones ready for various tasks). The PDF is available for free and, if you attempted to get it immediately after it was announced, it no longer lists the free digital product as “sold out”.
Paizo released the first big look we’ve seen of Pathfinder 2nd Edition since the release of the playtest. However, these rules are now fixed since, as you can see in the photo above, the new edition is already in Paizo’s warehouses waiting to be packed for stores and pre-order customers (with a good chunk also going to Gen Con for the big launch I’m sure). The series of articles, starting with the first linked above on the core task resolution mechanic, will go into detail on the rules with this one starting from scratch explaining how the Pathfinder system works. The massive 640-page core rulebook releases on August 1st with a retail price of $59.99.
The last couple of years, there have been a lot of “Kid Adventure” roleplaying games based on the interest generated by Stranger Things. This year seems to be the year of the “Teen Adventure Sequel”. The sequel to Kids on Bikes is on its way later this year and is, of course, Teens in Space. Using the same system as Kids on Bikes, this new game expands that out to fill a 122-page rulebook allowing you to take your teenage space aces around the galaxy. While the description doesn’t give much indication of the particular genre of sci-fi aside from “based on a variety of sci-fi tropes”, the cover seems to indicate a distinct 80s anime influence from Voltron, Space Battleship Yamato, Gundam, Macross, and others with just a hint of The Last Starfighter. The game will be released in August with a retail price of $25.
Origins Game Fair released their attendance numbers, showing an 11% increase over last year with 20,000 unique attendees. This wasn’t quite enough to leapfrog back into the number three spot for tabletop gaming conventions, leaving UK Games Expo in that slot behind Essen Spiel at second and Gen Con as the largest convention in the world. Andrew Peregrine wrote a long summary of his impressions (along with a lot of pictures) of his trip to Origins this year for EN World. Next year’s event will be held in Columbus, OH, from June 14-17, 2020.
English miniature terrain company 4ground Limited posted noticed they are going into liquidation, but there are questions as to the fate of the company. The company has been a long-time mainstay of miniature wargaming (as well as model trains) due to their highly detailed models in a wide variety of scales. The notice of liquidation was posted on June 13, but the company is still updating their Facebook page as of June 21 with advertisements and their website is still taking orders. This leads credence to speculation that the company is reorganizing their assets and simply closing down subsidiaries to streamline the corporate structure. The Kickstarter for The Legends of Fabled Realms received an update this past Wednesday, but it is backer-only and the contents have not been made public. The company has not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.
So while I was looking for the D&D Essentials on the Target website, I found another Target exclusive board game: Kenny G’s Keepin’ It Saxy. This game for ages 12+ has the 2-5 players work to keep Kenny G stay smooth throughout the day and overcome uncool events like tangled hair, traffic, or an elevator without jazz music playing. The game comes from the same creators of the Bob Ross: Art of Chill Game about the painting instructor with the world’s most calming voice. If I must live with the knowledge that these things exist, so must you.
Humble Bundle launched the Beast of a Bundle featuring more than forty OGL books plus accessories for your Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition games. The bundle has three tiers from $1, $8, and $15 each packed with adventures, sourcebooks, character options, drop-in encounters, magic items and treasure, maps, GM options, and a lot more. And all the options are available in DRM-free downloads ready right away. This Bundle benefits RAINN (Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network) and runs until Wednesday, July 10.
Ken Spencer’s Rocket Age is an atomic age sci-fi game that’s already collected a slew of awards for its depiction of golden age adventure sci-fi full of ray guns, silver jumpsuits, and rocket boots – and now it’s getting translated to 5e. Inspired by the 30s-50s serial age of sci-fi, the game draws heavily from Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, John Carter, and others as you choose between seventeen playable species and five brand-new classes (plus modifications of others) for adventures across the solar system and beyond. The PDF is available for a $10 pledge and the hardcover for $50, with several other pledge levels for retailers and luxury levels like a custom adventure written just for you or Rocket Age creator Ken Spencer running a game for your group. This Kickstarter is fully funded and runs until Thursday, July 4.
Everyone knows that a camp councilor’s most important job is to protect the children from the supernatural slasher horrors of the woods, and Sleepaway puts you in that role as you make sure your charges aren’t taken by the nightmarish Lindworm. This diceless roleplaying game uses the Belonging Outside Belonging engine where you get tokens by making a Weak Move (something that makes your life more difficult) so you can later spend the tokens you’ve acquired for a Strong Move (which is an incredibly success). The game even uses a conspiracy theory style corkboard to track the plot of the adventure as you build the narrative. The PDF is available for $15, the softcover for $25, and the limited edition hardcover for $65. There are also options at the $50 and $95 levels to add-on a donation copy of the game to be donated to those who can’t afford it, and there is a $7 PDF level for those who can’t afford the higher options, particularly those from marginalized groups. This Kickstarter is fully funded with a few stretch goals left before it closes on Friday, July 5.
That’s all from me for this week! 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, and you can get more discussion of the week’s news on Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk every week. You can follow me on Twitch where I’ll be streaming several times this weekend including Shadowrun Dragonfall, Star Trek Online, and maybe some more Star Wars: The Old Republic, subscribe to Gamer’s Tavern on YouTube for videos on gaming history, RPG reviews, 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.
