Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news! Monte Cook returning to 5e, Critical Role going solo, more Endless Quest books, Roll20 hacked, a huge bundle of Pathfinder PDFs from Humble Bundle, and more!
After last week’s curiosity of hand-written 5e notes in the margins of pages ripped out of Numenera books, it looks like Monte Cook Games has officially announced what that was all about. Coming to Kickstarter next month is Arcana of the Ancients, a sourcebook for 5e under OGL covering science-fantasy creatures, races, items, character options, and other rules. While they can’t call it “Numenera for Dungeons & Dragons” due to a tangled mess of legal reasons, that’s essentially what this book is going to be as it provides all the tools needed to convert the setting. Or you can just mine the book for ideas and concepts to bring more science fiction into your fantasy world a la the classic Expedition to Barrier Peaks module. The project will launch on Kickstarter in mid-March with an expected release in early 2020.
Critical Role is officially separated from Geek & Sundry effective today. While this split was announced last year, it officially takes place starting with tonight’s stream of Critical Role. From this point forward, all episode of Critical Role and Talks Machina (the Tuesday evening “after-show” talk show for Critical Role) will be streamed on Critical Role’s Twitch channel with the VODs available to subscribers via Twitch and episodes available for everyone on the Critical Role YouTube page the following Monday. Talks Machina, previously only available to Alpha subscribers, will now be streamed on the Critical Role Twitch page on Tuesdays at 7 PM Pacific with archives (starting with episode 101) going to the YouTube channel at noon Pacific the following Thursday. For those who listen to the audio podcast version, all new episodes will be distributed on the Critical Role Podcast Network while previous episodes (the first campaign and the first 51 episodes of the second campaign) will remain on the Geek & Sundry podcast feed.
The Endless Quest series of branching-path adventure books for Dungeons & Dragons is living up to its name as two more books in the series have been announced. Both new books are also by the author of the original four of the relaunch series, Matt Forbeck. The new Cleric adventure, Escape from Castle Ravenloft, has you awaken after traveling the mists to Ravenloft locked in the bottom of Strahd’s castle, forcing you to escape before he turns you into a vampire thrall. The new Rogue adventure, The Mad Mage’s Academy, has you sealing the spellbook of Halaster Blackcloak by posing as a new student to the mage academy. I’m not sure which idea I find more frightening, to be honest. Both books have a release date of September 3, 2019, and a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $16.99.
Speaking of Wizards of the Coast and MSRPs, Magic: The Gathering will no longer have them. From the announcement:
Starting with War of the Spark and moving forward, Wizards of the Coast will no longer be giving Magic products manufacturer's suggested retail prices, or MSRPs.
We're making this change to streamline our communications around new products. MSRPs are not favored in many parts of the world, which led to some confusion among our global player base. As Magic becomes more and more global, it makes less and less sense to suggest a retail price.
Don't worry—this isn't some big disruption to our products or the company. We believe the elimination of MSRP will simply help us communicate better to our players and the places where those players shop.
This change has been met with worry from retailers, who fear that the lack of MSRP will further allow larger chains such as Amazon, Wal-mart, Target, Barnes & Noble, and others to undercut prices of independent game stores. The largest concern voiced on social media by store owners was that any future price raises would be invisible to customers, meaning that stores forced to take losses or raise prices per pack could be further undercut.
Over four million accounts with Roll20 were reported as hacked by the virtual tabletop site. Roll20 was just one victim of a large cyberattack that affected hundreds of sites from video streaming to cryptocurrency to travel bookings. Attackers were able to retrieve only limited personal information: account name, name, email address, last login IP address and time of login, the last four numbers of any credit cards saved on file, and hashed passwords (meaning the password file was encrypted and would be difficult if not impossible to crack). No full credit card numbers or clear passwords were lost, but Roll20 recommends all users change their passwords as soon as possible to be safe.
Fantasy Flight Games posted more information about the new sourcebook for Legend of the Five Rings, Shadowlands. The 144-page book explores the horrors that lurk in the shadows south of the Kaiu Wall in the domain of Fu Leng. The link above previews the False Lantern Grove, The Festering Pit of Fu Leng, and the Forgotten Tomb of Fu Leng. In another post, you can learn about the Falcon Clan, one of the minor clans sworn to fight the spiritual threats of the Shadowlands and more about the gifts and curses the land can provide…or inflict. While no release date has been announced yet, the book is available for pre-order now from some retailers and from Fantasy Flight’s website with a retail price of $39.95.
In celebration of the tenth anniversary of Pathfinder, Humble has partnered with Paizo for a Pathfinder Humble Bundle! The base level of $1 includes the Pathfinder Beginner Box, Pathfinder Core Rulebook, Bestiary, GameMastery Guide, Player Character Folio, all four We Be Goblins adventures, and more. There’s an $8 level featuring the Advanced Player’s and Class guides, all three Codex books (NPC, Monster, and Villain), and the first two adventures on the Shattered Star Adventure Path. The $15 level has the Advanced Race Guide, Ultimate Magic, Combat, Equipment, Campaign, and Intrigue, Bestiary 2 and 3, and the middle two Shattered Star adventures. The top tier $18 level (which is cheaper than almost any one of these books purchased on their own) adds Bestiary 4 and 5, Occult Adventures, Unchained, Strategy Guide, race guides for Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, Halflings, Humans, Kobolds, and Orcs, plus the final two Shattered Star adventures and, as a cherry on top of the fifty total Pathfinder books, the Starfinder Core Rulebook. This bundle runs until Wednesday, March 6.
For the nostalgic out there, Steve Jackson Games has just over a week left on their Pocket Box Kickstarter. For those who don’t remember, the Pocket Box game line was one of Steve Jackson Games’s first and featured many of their most iconic games including Car Wars, OGRE, Illuminati, and others all in a small plastic box that can fit in a coat pocket. These reprints are almost identical to the original, only with minor fixes for printing and an updated box with a latch that’s less likely to break. While there is a chance that some of these products may make it to stores following the Kickstarter, Steve Jackson Games said there’s no guarantee that will happen but many of the expansions will be Kickstarter exclusive. The games are $20 each with price breaks for four, eight, and ten games, while a special $200 bundle has Car Wars and all of the unlocked expansions (including Truck Stop and Crash City) plus seven other games. This Kickstarter is fully funded and runs until on Friday, March 1.
Ever wanted a tabletop RPG to recreate games like Monster Hunter, Attack on Titan, Shadow of the Colossus, and other puzzle-combat monster hunting games? Then Reach of Titan has you covered with a new system built specifically around the concept of a party of monster hunters tracking down giant monsters roaming the lands and figuring out how to take them down in order to protect and help grow your settlements. The 300-400 page core book is available in PDF or ready for Roll20 for $25, both for $40, $60 for the PDF and hardcover, and $80 for all three versions. This Kickstarter is fully funded and runs until Thursday, February 28.
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 Twitter @Abstruse where I’ve been posting pictures and videos of cute animals and nothing else controversial or anything, follow me on Twitch where I’ll be streaming a tutorial on podcast editing later today, subscribe to 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.
After last week’s curiosity of hand-written 5e notes in the margins of pages ripped out of Numenera books, it looks like Monte Cook Games has officially announced what that was all about. Coming to Kickstarter next month is Arcana of the Ancients, a sourcebook for 5e under OGL covering science-fantasy creatures, races, items, character options, and other rules. While they can’t call it “Numenera for Dungeons & Dragons” due to a tangled mess of legal reasons, that’s essentially what this book is going to be as it provides all the tools needed to convert the setting. Or you can just mine the book for ideas and concepts to bring more science fiction into your fantasy world a la the classic Expedition to Barrier Peaks module. The project will launch on Kickstarter in mid-March with an expected release in early 2020.
Critical Role is officially separated from Geek & Sundry effective today. While this split was announced last year, it officially takes place starting with tonight’s stream of Critical Role. From this point forward, all episode of Critical Role and Talks Machina (the Tuesday evening “after-show” talk show for Critical Role) will be streamed on Critical Role’s Twitch channel with the VODs available to subscribers via Twitch and episodes available for everyone on the Critical Role YouTube page the following Monday. Talks Machina, previously only available to Alpha subscribers, will now be streamed on the Critical Role Twitch page on Tuesdays at 7 PM Pacific with archives (starting with episode 101) going to the YouTube channel at noon Pacific the following Thursday. For those who listen to the audio podcast version, all new episodes will be distributed on the Critical Role Podcast Network while previous episodes (the first campaign and the first 51 episodes of the second campaign) will remain on the Geek & Sundry podcast feed.
The Endless Quest series of branching-path adventure books for Dungeons & Dragons is living up to its name as two more books in the series have been announced. Both new books are also by the author of the original four of the relaunch series, Matt Forbeck. The new Cleric adventure, Escape from Castle Ravenloft, has you awaken after traveling the mists to Ravenloft locked in the bottom of Strahd’s castle, forcing you to escape before he turns you into a vampire thrall. The new Rogue adventure, The Mad Mage’s Academy, has you sealing the spellbook of Halaster Blackcloak by posing as a new student to the mage academy. I’m not sure which idea I find more frightening, to be honest. Both books have a release date of September 3, 2019, and a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $16.99.
Speaking of Wizards of the Coast and MSRPs, Magic: The Gathering will no longer have them. From the announcement:
Starting with War of the Spark and moving forward, Wizards of the Coast will no longer be giving Magic products manufacturer's suggested retail prices, or MSRPs.
We're making this change to streamline our communications around new products. MSRPs are not favored in many parts of the world, which led to some confusion among our global player base. As Magic becomes more and more global, it makes less and less sense to suggest a retail price.
Don't worry—this isn't some big disruption to our products or the company. We believe the elimination of MSRP will simply help us communicate better to our players and the places where those players shop.
Over four million accounts with Roll20 were reported as hacked by the virtual tabletop site. Roll20 was just one victim of a large cyberattack that affected hundreds of sites from video streaming to cryptocurrency to travel bookings. Attackers were able to retrieve only limited personal information: account name, name, email address, last login IP address and time of login, the last four numbers of any credit cards saved on file, and hashed passwords (meaning the password file was encrypted and would be difficult if not impossible to crack). No full credit card numbers or clear passwords were lost, but Roll20 recommends all users change their passwords as soon as possible to be safe.
Fantasy Flight Games posted more information about the new sourcebook for Legend of the Five Rings, Shadowlands. The 144-page book explores the horrors that lurk in the shadows south of the Kaiu Wall in the domain of Fu Leng. The link above previews the False Lantern Grove, The Festering Pit of Fu Leng, and the Forgotten Tomb of Fu Leng. In another post, you can learn about the Falcon Clan, one of the minor clans sworn to fight the spiritual threats of the Shadowlands and more about the gifts and curses the land can provide…or inflict. While no release date has been announced yet, the book is available for pre-order now from some retailers and from Fantasy Flight’s website with a retail price of $39.95.
In celebration of the tenth anniversary of Pathfinder, Humble has partnered with Paizo for a Pathfinder Humble Bundle! The base level of $1 includes the Pathfinder Beginner Box, Pathfinder Core Rulebook, Bestiary, GameMastery Guide, Player Character Folio, all four We Be Goblins adventures, and more. There’s an $8 level featuring the Advanced Player’s and Class guides, all three Codex books (NPC, Monster, and Villain), and the first two adventures on the Shattered Star Adventure Path. The $15 level has the Advanced Race Guide, Ultimate Magic, Combat, Equipment, Campaign, and Intrigue, Bestiary 2 and 3, and the middle two Shattered Star adventures. The top tier $18 level (which is cheaper than almost any one of these books purchased on their own) adds Bestiary 4 and 5, Occult Adventures, Unchained, Strategy Guide, race guides for Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, Halflings, Humans, Kobolds, and Orcs, plus the final two Shattered Star adventures and, as a cherry on top of the fifty total Pathfinder books, the Starfinder Core Rulebook. This bundle runs until Wednesday, March 6.
For the nostalgic out there, Steve Jackson Games has just over a week left on their Pocket Box Kickstarter. For those who don’t remember, the Pocket Box game line was one of Steve Jackson Games’s first and featured many of their most iconic games including Car Wars, OGRE, Illuminati, and others all in a small plastic box that can fit in a coat pocket. These reprints are almost identical to the original, only with minor fixes for printing and an updated box with a latch that’s less likely to break. While there is a chance that some of these products may make it to stores following the Kickstarter, Steve Jackson Games said there’s no guarantee that will happen but many of the expansions will be Kickstarter exclusive. The games are $20 each with price breaks for four, eight, and ten games, while a special $200 bundle has Car Wars and all of the unlocked expansions (including Truck Stop and Crash City) plus seven other games. This Kickstarter is fully funded and runs until on Friday, March 1.
Ever wanted a tabletop RPG to recreate games like Monster Hunter, Attack on Titan, Shadow of the Colossus, and other puzzle-combat monster hunting games? Then Reach of Titan has you covered with a new system built specifically around the concept of a party of monster hunters tracking down giant monsters roaming the lands and figuring out how to take them down in order to protect and help grow your settlements. The 300-400 page core book is available in PDF or ready for Roll20 for $25, both for $40, $60 for the PDF and hardcover, and $80 for all three versions. This Kickstarter is fully funded and runs until Thursday, February 28.
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 Twitter @Abstruse where I’ve been posting pictures and videos of cute animals and nothing else controversial or anything, follow me on Twitch where I’ll be streaming a tutorial on podcast editing later today, subscribe to 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.
