Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news! New tidbits for Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden, Paizo apologizes for police-themed adventure path, new gameplay demo for Baldur’s Gate III, and more!
Don’t forget you can get all the week’s gaming news at Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk. This week, Morrus and Peter are joined by Jon Hodgson from Handiwork Games to talk about the new Beowulf RPG currently on Kickstarter.
In case you missed it elsewhere on EN World this week…
Chris Perkins released some new details about Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden and spills the adventure’s primary inspiration. Drawing inspiration from the John Carpenter horror classic The Thing, Perkins said that the adventure will include a “traitor mechanic” in order to foster a sense of mistrust and paranoia among the party. Each player will get a card with some secret about their character and it’s up to the player to decide when or if to reveal the secret to the rest of the party. But if you decide to keep yours secret, it may come up during the adventure and force your hand, revealing all to the rest of the characters.
Another reveal, this one coming from the live streams over the weekend, is the announcement that kobolds will receive a new stat block for Rime of the Frostmaiden. This statblock will adhere to the new guidelines on humanoid creatures and alignment and have kobolds as a humanoid of any alignment. Individual characters within the adventure will have individual alignments based on their character rather than having it prescribed to them by nature of being a kobold. Also, in a bit of humor, they released an unofficial stat block for Three Kobolds in a Trenchcoat that’s exactly what you think it is.
The new adventure Rime of the Frostmaiden is due for release in September with a retail price of $49.95.
Paizo released an apology for the upcoming Agents of Edgewatch adventure path for its police theme. The adventure places the party in the role of agents of Edgewatch, a new division of the city watch of Absalom, as they attempt to “crack the case and bring these villains to justice”. With the current political climate in America with daily protests against police violence and polls showing majority support of major reforms or a complete overhaul of police in the United States, the adventure path became the subject of controversy for placing characters in the role of police in a fantasy setting. Erik Mona wrote a long apology (which is reproduced in full in the link above):
Larian Studios debuted another gameplay demo of Baldur’s Gate III at the D&D Live event. Lead designer Swen Vincke played the beginning of the game giving commentary on the design as he went in a presentation lasting an hour and a half. Not only do we get to see the full opening cinematic in its current state, but the demo shows off exploration, skill checks, dialogue options (and how skills affect them), and of course combat. Changes of note from the previous gameplay demo is that dialogue is presented in present-tense rather than the past-tense of Divinity: Original Sin and more directly reflects the dialogue, NPC companions can interact among themselves during downtime scenes similar to previous Baldur’s Gate games, more action options are available in combat, and many of the character models have received overhauls. Oh, and there’s at least one plot spoiler in the demo so don’t say I didn’t warn you. Early access for Baldur’s Gate III is currently slated for August 2020 and is expected to cover the complete first act with at least 10 hours of gameplay and possibly more than 15, though both the release date and the scope are subject to change.
Paizo released a preview of the new Starfinder pre-painted miniature set from WizKids. In a pair of posts, Paizo showed off the new miniature sets for Starfinder Battles: Galactic Villains and Starfinder Battles: Galactic Heroes. Each set features a blister pack of six pre-painted minis, so there’s no random chance here. You see exactly what you’re getting and every package is the same. The blog posts make it clear that this is more or less a test run to see if there is a demand for more Starfinder miniatures in the future. Paizo’s website lists a release of late July, but WizKids says pre-orders will be fulfilled in September, but in either case the two miniature sets will be available for a retail price of $34.95 each.
Publisher Services Inc. (PSI), one of the largest sales and fulfillment services companies in the United States for gaming, reduced their roster of hobby game distributors from five down to just three. ACD Distribution, Alliance Game Distributors, and Peachstreet Hobby Distribution remain on the list, while GTS Distribution and Southern Hobby Supply are no longer serviced by the company. PSI holds distribution deals with several board game companies as well as RPG publishers like Asmodee, Wizards of the Coast, Cubicle 7, Monte Cook Games, Catalyst Game Labs, Steve Jackson Games, and accessory companies like Chessex and Q Workshop. This means that going forward, hobby stores may have to switch distributors in order to maintain stock and get new releases from some of RPG’s largest publishers or risk not being able to carry them at all.
Humble’s Map Extravaganza Bundle is still going, featuring over $300 worth of assets for maps and tokens plus licenses for Campaign Cartographer 3, City Designer 3, Dungeon Designer 3, and more programs perfect for creating your own custom maps. This bundle runs until Wednesday, July 8, and benefits Doctors Without Borders. We’re also in the final days of the Dungeons, Mazes, & Barrows Bundle featuring over thirty DRM-free digital books for 5e including adventures, maps, campaign settings, DM toolboxes, and more. This bundle runs until Wednesday, July 1, and benefits Book Industry Charitable Foundation.
You don’t have too much time to grab the two Kickstarters this week, so make sure to check them out fast. The first is Beowulf: Age of Heroes, which draws inspiration from the oldest stories in Western Europe to create a duet-play variation of 5e. While you can easily use the book as a standard campaign setting book, where it really shines is how it adapts 5e’s rules to a one-player, one-DM game thanks to a brand new take on classes and an overhauled follower system that replicates the feeling of old heroic epics. The PDF is available for a £15 (about US$19) pledge while the print book is £36 (about US$45). This project is fully funded and working on its last few stretch goals before it ends on Tuesday, June 30.
If you want to add some unique flavor and challenge to your boss fights, Fantastic Lairs brings exactly that. The book features twenty unique settings for a climactic battle of an adventure or campaign covering with options for encounters from 1st to 20th level. And to make it even easier to run, both reward tiers include virtual tabletop ready artwork to cut down on prep time. You can get the digital version for $15 in both PDF and ePub formats or add on a voucher for an at-cost print version for $20. There are still a few stretch goals left on this project before it funds on Wednesday, July 1.
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 test out my new Playstation 4 and capture card (as soon as I get it working), 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.
Don’t forget you can get all the week’s gaming news at Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk. This week, Morrus and Peter are joined by Jon Hodgson from Handiwork Games to talk about the new Beowulf RPG currently on Kickstarter.
In case you missed it elsewhere on EN World this week…
- EN5ider #338 Intriguing Organization brings us the Readers of War, a sect of warriors that fastidiously study history and combat to further perfect the art of war.
- EN Publishing has a playtest for the Awfully Cheerful Engine, an action comedy RPG due for release later this year.
- Egg Embry interviewed Spenser Starke from Hunters Entertainment for their new silent RPG Alice is Missing currently on Kickstarter.
- Then Egg went an interviewed Steffie De Vaan from Onyx Path about the cancellation of the Legendlore Kickstarter in March and the current state of OPP’s crowdfunding efforts.
- Richard Jansen-Parkes has a quick review of Cubicle 7’s Warhammer: Age of Sigmar: Soulbound RPG.
- WizKids previewed a new line of pre-painted miniatures licensed for Dungeons & Dragons Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden including a massive 200mm Chardalyn Dragon.
- Jonathan Tweet continues his look back at the development history of the 3rd and 3.5 editions of Dungeons & Dragons with a look at the Miniatures Handbook and its unique take on monster design.
- Michael Tresca has not one but two new articles covering the plastic toy origins of D&D monsters with the Umber Hulk and the bane of every armored fighter and paladin, the rust monster.
- Mike Myler brings us an entry that lives up to the Epic Monsters title, the Irish legend of the Balor.
- Last but not least, Egg Embry checks all the crowdfunding websites to unearth all the RPG projects ending soon in this week’s RPG Crowdfunding News.
Chris Perkins released some new details about Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden and spills the adventure’s primary inspiration. Drawing inspiration from the John Carpenter horror classic The Thing, Perkins said that the adventure will include a “traitor mechanic” in order to foster a sense of mistrust and paranoia among the party. Each player will get a card with some secret about their character and it’s up to the player to decide when or if to reveal the secret to the rest of the party. But if you decide to keep yours secret, it may come up during the adventure and force your hand, revealing all to the rest of the characters.
Another reveal, this one coming from the live streams over the weekend, is the announcement that kobolds will receive a new stat block for Rime of the Frostmaiden. This statblock will adhere to the new guidelines on humanoid creatures and alignment and have kobolds as a humanoid of any alignment. Individual characters within the adventure will have individual alignments based on their character rather than having it prescribed to them by nature of being a kobold. Also, in a bit of humor, they released an unofficial stat block for Three Kobolds in a Trenchcoat that’s exactly what you think it is.
The new adventure Rime of the Frostmaiden is due for release in September with a retail price of $49.95.
Paizo released an apology for the upcoming Agents of Edgewatch adventure path for its police theme. The adventure places the party in the role of agents of Edgewatch, a new division of the city watch of Absalom, as they attempt to “crack the case and bring these villains to justice”. With the current political climate in America with daily protests against police violence and polls showing majority support of major reforms or a complete overhaul of police in the United States, the adventure path became the subject of controversy for placing characters in the role of police in a fantasy setting. Erik Mona wrote a long apology (which is reproduced in full in the link above):
Larian Studios debuted another gameplay demo of Baldur’s Gate III at the D&D Live event. Lead designer Swen Vincke played the beginning of the game giving commentary on the design as he went in a presentation lasting an hour and a half. Not only do we get to see the full opening cinematic in its current state, but the demo shows off exploration, skill checks, dialogue options (and how skills affect them), and of course combat. Changes of note from the previous gameplay demo is that dialogue is presented in present-tense rather than the past-tense of Divinity: Original Sin and more directly reflects the dialogue, NPC companions can interact among themselves during downtime scenes similar to previous Baldur’s Gate games, more action options are available in combat, and many of the character models have received overhauls. Oh, and there’s at least one plot spoiler in the demo so don’t say I didn’t warn you. Early access for Baldur’s Gate III is currently slated for August 2020 and is expected to cover the complete first act with at least 10 hours of gameplay and possibly more than 15, though both the release date and the scope are subject to change.
Paizo released a preview of the new Starfinder pre-painted miniature set from WizKids. In a pair of posts, Paizo showed off the new miniature sets for Starfinder Battles: Galactic Villains and Starfinder Battles: Galactic Heroes. Each set features a blister pack of six pre-painted minis, so there’s no random chance here. You see exactly what you’re getting and every package is the same. The blog posts make it clear that this is more or less a test run to see if there is a demand for more Starfinder miniatures in the future. Paizo’s website lists a release of late July, but WizKids says pre-orders will be fulfilled in September, but in either case the two miniature sets will be available for a retail price of $34.95 each.
Publisher Services Inc. (PSI), one of the largest sales and fulfillment services companies in the United States for gaming, reduced their roster of hobby game distributors from five down to just three. ACD Distribution, Alliance Game Distributors, and Peachstreet Hobby Distribution remain on the list, while GTS Distribution and Southern Hobby Supply are no longer serviced by the company. PSI holds distribution deals with several board game companies as well as RPG publishers like Asmodee, Wizards of the Coast, Cubicle 7, Monte Cook Games, Catalyst Game Labs, Steve Jackson Games, and accessory companies like Chessex and Q Workshop. This means that going forward, hobby stores may have to switch distributors in order to maintain stock and get new releases from some of RPG’s largest publishers or risk not being able to carry them at all.
Humble’s Map Extravaganza Bundle is still going, featuring over $300 worth of assets for maps and tokens plus licenses for Campaign Cartographer 3, City Designer 3, Dungeon Designer 3, and more programs perfect for creating your own custom maps. This bundle runs until Wednesday, July 8, and benefits Doctors Without Borders. We’re also in the final days of the Dungeons, Mazes, & Barrows Bundle featuring over thirty DRM-free digital books for 5e including adventures, maps, campaign settings, DM toolboxes, and more. This bundle runs until Wednesday, July 1, and benefits Book Industry Charitable Foundation.
You don’t have too much time to grab the two Kickstarters this week, so make sure to check them out fast. The first is Beowulf: Age of Heroes, which draws inspiration from the oldest stories in Western Europe to create a duet-play variation of 5e. While you can easily use the book as a standard campaign setting book, where it really shines is how it adapts 5e’s rules to a one-player, one-DM game thanks to a brand new take on classes and an overhauled follower system that replicates the feeling of old heroic epics. The PDF is available for a £15 (about US$19) pledge while the print book is £36 (about US$45). This project is fully funded and working on its last few stretch goals before it ends on Tuesday, June 30.
If you want to add some unique flavor and challenge to your boss fights, Fantastic Lairs brings exactly that. The book features twenty unique settings for a climactic battle of an adventure or campaign covering with options for encounters from 1st to 20th level. And to make it even easier to run, both reward tiers include virtual tabletop ready artwork to cut down on prep time. You can get the digital version for $15 in both PDF and ePub formats or add on a voucher for an at-cost print version for $20. There are still a few stretch goals left on this project before it funds on Wednesday, July 1.
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 test out my new Playstation 4 and capture card (as soon as I get it working), 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.
