RPG Print News – The Arcane Library, Free League, Chaosium, and More

Not new RPGs this week, but collections of core rules and supplements that work well together. If you want to start a new campaign with some support, these RPGs have you covered.

Note: RPG Print News covers recent RPG releases and some classics, reprints, and sales available from retailers. It does not cover products that are available directly to customers only through Kickstarter or as print on demand.

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Shadowdark RPG (2024 four gold ENNIEs: Product of the Year and more) | Shadowdark Cursed Scroll Zine 3: Midnight Sun by The Arcane Library

• SYSTEM: D20 fantasy
• PRODUCT TYPE: hardcover core rulebook/softcover zine
• RETAIL PRICE: $59/$14.99
• OTHER RPG NEWS: Shadowdark Interview and 2024 ENNIE Award Winners
• DESCRIPTION: In the ENNIE award winning Shadowdark, PCs are dungeon crawlers using magic, steel, and wits to delve into mysterious ruins, lost cities, and monster-infested depths seeking wondrous treasures and long-forgotten secrets. But time passes quickly and if an hour of real time passes, the torches all go out. And no PC can see in the dark. Another way to explore the rules is in the Viking inspired Midnight Sun. PCs are fierce sea wolves who sail their dragon prow longboats over the dark waves as the midnight sun rises above the frozen northern isles. Inside: a 0-level gauntlet adventure; mountainous islands ruled by drakes, warrior clans, and the enigmatic Old Gods; two new classes: seer and sea wolf; rules for new spells, boats, swearing oaths, arctic sea encounters, and a raid into the unsuspecting Wortwick Monastery; and 12 monsters including the angelic warrior Valkyrie.

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Twilight: 2000 | Hostile Waters by Free League Publishing

• SYSTEM: Year Zero Engine
• PRODUCT TYPE: boxed sets
• RETAIL PRICE: $59.93/$41.80
• OTHER RPG NEWS: review of Twilight: 2000
• DESCRIPTION: These two box sets can be combined to link three maps depicting the world of Twilight: 2000 from Poland to Sweden. The PCs are survivors of World War III in a world that took a different turn of history. The setting is bleak, but there is still hope. In the midst of so much destruction, the PCs might build something new. Twilight: 2000 includes: a Player’s Manual (and the machine gunner is wearing a Dio shirt, so extra points there), a Referee’s Manual, an 864 x 558mm double-sided full-color hexagon travel map, 15 dice, 6 modular battle maps, four battle maps, 108 cardboard tokens including fighters and vehicles, 52 encounter cards, 10 initiative cards, and five blank character sheets. Inside Hostile Waters: combat and travel rules for marine environments, military watercraft large and small, new factions, new scenario site: the USS Maine Ohio-class nuclear submarine, two sample waterways the Vistula river and the Göta Canal, 26 encounter cards, 16 modular battle maps, six scenario site battle maps, battle map tokens for boats and ships, and a double-sided full-color 864x558mm travel map for northern Poland and southern Sweden, connecting the maps in the core set.

Old-School Essentials Classic Fantasy Rules Tome | The Hole in the Oak | The Incandescent Grotto by Necrotic Gnome

• SYSTEM: D&D Basic and D&D Expert
• PRODUCT TYPE: hardcover supplement
• RETAIL PRICE: $40/$15/$15
• OTHER RPG NEWS: review of The Hole in the Oak
• DESCRIPTION: Old-School Essentials Classic Fantasy Rules Tome combines D&D Basic and D&D Expert by Moldvay and Cook with exceptional layout and readability. Seven classes, 34 cleric spells, 72 magic-user spells, rules for adventuring (dungeons, the wilderness, and at sea), stronghold rules, over 200 monsters, and over 150 wondrous magic items. The Hole in the Oak and The Incandescent Grotto presents the Mythic underworld for beginning PCs and can be played separately or combined into a large three level dungeon with over 115 keyed encounter areas. The Hole in the Oak tree leads PCs down to a maze of root-riddled passageways, the former chambers of a wizard, and an underground river where a reptile cult once built their temples. Covers 60 keyed areas in a quick-reference, bullet point format. A bubbling stream cascades into a hole in the earth, leading to a series of underground watercourses and The Incandescent Grotto. PCs who delve within discover odd mosses and fungi, a ruined temple complex, and the lair of a crystal-eating dream dragon. Includes 57 keyed areas.

Troika! Intro Bundle by Melsonian Arts Council

• SYSTEM: unique 2d6
• PRODUCT TYPE: softcover core rulebook and a hardcover adventure
• RETAIL PRICE: $40.35
• OTHER RPG NEWS: Troika!: An Interview with Daniel Sell
• DESCRIPTION: In Troika! a cosmopolitan group of PCs explore a science-fantasy multiverse. They fly on golden barges across the humpbacked sky, help dying gods, solve confounding crimes, plunder dead worlds, and meet strange and Baroque people. Includes: 36 backgrounds like the thinking engine (robot with amnesia), more than 70 spells, 36 enemies with a random mien, and a hotel adventure filled with unusual and sometimes dangerous guests. Slate & Chalcedony is adventure that possess a transdimensional threat. Two towers appeared from nowhere and now sit at the center of a growing circle of blight where the rivers have soured and the circle of dying grows. Armies have been sent to the towers to topple them and none have returned. The whole world will soon be a blackened desert unless the PCs intervene. Contains over 70 weird rooms, new and unpleasant spells, a cast of NPC wizards that delved too deep into arcane excess, Gentle Hurmin the pig, no fewer than two dark lords of apocalyptic proportions, and a classic dungeon crawl. Many additional adventures are available as well.

Call of Cthulhu RPG | Arkham by Chaosium

• SYSTEM: Basic Roleplaying
• PRODUCT TYPE: hardcovers
• RETAIL PRICE: $54.95/$59.99
• DESCRIPTION: Based upon the worlds of H.P. Lovecraft, in Call of Cthulhu the PCs are investigators who travel to strange and dangerous places, uncover foul plots, and stand against the terrors of the Cthulhu Mythos. Within strange and forgotten tomes of lore the PCs discover revelations that man was not meant to know. They may very well decide the fate of the world or they might die horribly or go insane as the secrets they uncover and monsters they encounter take their toll. Or the PCs could be trapped in one location like the haunted town of Arkham. With 290 locations like Miskatonic University detailed across nine neighborhoods, the city cries out for a sandbox-style campaign. Also contains Gossip & Rumors to use as scenario seeds and over 80 fully-detailed NPCs with their own secrets. A GM could run this for a large group of players who come and go weekly. If at least four PCs are available, then something haunting that has to be investigated begins. Includes two Arkham city map posters (one designed for players and one for the GM), a poster-sized copy of the front page of the Arkham Advertiser to use as a prop, and new rules and skills for PCs.

Charlie Dunwoody participates in the OneBookShelf Affiliate Program and the Noble Knight Games’ Affiliate Program. These programs provide advertising fees by linking to DriveThruRPG and Noble Knight Games respectively. If you like the articles at EN World please consider supporting the EN World Patreon.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Anyone have any idea how to get ahold of Shadowdark or OSE if you own a physical store, and aren't just trying to buy it for yourself?

Kelsey is telling people to email her directly.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

Ah. I thought for a moment that your article was for newly released books and that I'd somehow missed another update.


Yeah, I'll give that a shot. I find it a little frustrating these days the number of good and popular TTRPGs there are that I can't order from any of my already overblown SIX games distributors.

Add ones that are only ever Kickstarted and it's a full time job just tracking down where all the good games are hiding.

Usually all new RPGs but: "Not new RPGs this week"

 

[Theory of Games]

In the ENNIE award winning Shadowdark, PCs are dungeon crawlers using magic, steel, and wits to delve into mysterious ruins, lost cities, and monster-infested depths seeking wondrous treasures and long-forgotten secrets.

False advertising: PCs only might get to use magic because if the player fails their roll (as I'm seeing repeatedly in a current game) there is no magic.

Really bad hype with Shadowdark. Don't waste your money.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

False advertising: PCs only might get to use magic because if the player fails their roll (as I'm seeing repeatedly in a current game) there is no magic.

Really bad hype with Shadowdark. Don't waste your money.

That is a huge accusation, false advertising. Of course, by your "logic" there is no steel or wits in the game either because of missed attacks or saving throws. Did you think through your accusation or absurd conclusion before posting? It is one thing to have an opinion, it is another to write something that isn't internally consistent and lacks basic logic and makes baseless accusations of falsehood and purposeful ill will with zero facts to back it up.

If you don't like Shadowdark post that you don't like it if you want, but you don't need to make personal attacks. Or better yet, don't post at all, find an RPG you do like, run that, and then post about how great it is here so others can hear about it.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Exactly! My store is 2/3 a Comic Store and 1/3 a Game Store.

As far as I can tell from the outside, comics aren't a whole lot better when it comes to distribution these days. My FLGS owner is having to order from three different distributors (one of them actually in the trad publishing field with comics as a sideline) to get his weekly orders, and the new arrivals are spread over two-three weekdays now, which vastly complicates staffing issues. He's fortunate enough to have an entirely separate gaming space, but without that I can't see how could run events while also managing the comic end of things on top of gaming shipments. That work times time and space, and the better your sales the more it takes of both.

The last time I had to deal with comic retail was during the 90s speculator boom and bust cycle, and I still think that whole debacle was less of a mess than what I'm seeing these days. You're a braver man than I choosing to do this stuff for a living in the modern environment.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

As far as I can tell from the outside, comics aren't a whole lot better when it comes to distribution these days. My FLGS owner is having to order from three different distributors (one of them actually in the trad publishing field with comics as a sideline) to get his weekly orders, and the new arrivals are spread over two-three weekdays now, which vastly complicates staffing issues. He's fortunate enough to have an entirely separate gaming space, but without that I can't see how could run events while also managing the comic end of things on top of gaming shipments. That work times time and space, and the better your sales the more it takes of both.

You've described it exactly. The pandemic managed to break DC's contract with Diamond, and they decided that they would leave because they could but I don't think that they ever gave much thought to if they should (and what it would do to the industry). Of course, Marvel saw DC doing something stupid and said, "Hold my beer!" which caused a cascade of dominoes.

Despite all the continued attempts to spin it as a good decision, the comic industry is significantly poorer for the breakup of Diamond's "monopoly" (it wasn't really).

The industry likes to pretend that us Retailers are resistant to change, but most of those guys went out of business decades ago. Those that are left have been asking for change for years and years, but we'd like change that actually makes things better rather than worse. The US comic industry has been colossally mismanaged for most of its history - it's been filled with self-loathing since that idiot Wertham took a shot at it in the 50's. It absolutely could be a big deal, but it's held back by a lot of backward thinking.

The last time I had to deal with comic retail was during the 90s speculator boom and bust cycle, and I still think that whole debacle was less of a mess than what I'm seeing these days. You're a braver man than I choosing to do this stuff for a living in the modern environment.

Thanks. It's got its problems, but I still like doing it more than I like working for other people. (To be fair, I barely know what working for other people is like, I was 19 when I started my store... which also means that I probably wasn't "brave" so much as young and foolish!) But I've done alright!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

There's so much to talk about with the comics industry -- all the time -- that we could and maybe should have a full time thread in Geek Talk about it.

It's bizarre that a business as big as it still is tends to have people running the business end of things who don't seem to take it seriously or really want it to succeed, but since everyone else just wants to focus on creating, selling or consuming comics, you mostly just end up with a bunch of jerks in charge. And even folks who seem to have a good head on their shoulders, like Jim Lee, mostly know just one end of the business (creating comics) which doesn't give them all the information they'd need to fully run a company that also has to worry about distribution and managing the health of the industry as a whole.

Ideally, places like DC and Marvel and the distribution companies would have people who came up on the creative side working alongside people with experience in the retail end working alongside people with lots of distribution experience and all of whom would have a demonstrated interest in everyone thriving. But that kind of holistic thinking has never been the norm, throughout the modern industry's nearly 100 year history.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Yes, I apologize for anyone disinterested that we created a side-convo in this utterly unrelated thread.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Yes, I apologize for anyone disinterested that we created a side-convo in this utterly unrelated thread.

Quite.

I've started a comics industry thread over here to continue this.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

Yes, I apologize for anyone disinterested that we created a side-convo in this utterly unrelated thread.

No problem. I appreciate both your enthusiasm and being polite about moving the topic.

If you're interested in doing an interview for EN World about owning a (1/3) game store in 2024 drop me some contact info please. We'd have to concentrate on RPGs and hopefully you see some game play in your store, but I think it would be a worthy conversation. I think my editor would accept the submission.

I started this series trying to only link to online game stores but that has gotten difficult. Many online game stores list RPGs as new when it is new to their store, but the RPG may have been out for months. If I miss it and post it here someone politely or sometimes not so politely asks why I'm covering old RPGs. And a few publishers won't send RPGs to game stores at all, which I honestly can't understand. And a huge number are print on demand for logistical and cost reasons which this column doesn't normally cover.