Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news! We’ll head once more to the Barrier Peaks and hope we don’t get caught in the Labyrinth as we take a glimpse of the Saltmarsh with the Wardlings and witness the Collapse of the Republic, and more!
Goodman Games announced the third of their Reincarnated series of licensed adventures for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, and this one is S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. Like the previous entries in the series, the book will feature a reprint of the original Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition module with a cleaned up scan and, while though there was only one version of Barrier Peaks released (unlike the entries for Into the Borderlands and Isle of Dread which included both editions), the handouts had different art between the first and second printing along with a renumbering of the card handouts. And because this is a collector’s piece as much as a new adventure, it will include both versions of the print-outs. Additionally, there will be not only a Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition conversion, but additional 5e material to “fill in some gaps” from the original module, according to the official announcement. For those who may not know about this classic adventure, this came during an experimental time for Dungeons & Dragons which has a high-level party from the Greyhawk setting investigating ruins in the Barrier Peaks mountain range which (spoilers) turns out to be a crashed alien spacecraft full of sci-fi technology. And, as part of the tournament module S-series, it’s also an incredibly difficult meatgrinder of an adventure. There’s no firm release date or pricing at this time, but the book is slated for a release this September.
You remind me of the game. What game? The game with the power. What power? The power of voodoo. Who do? You do. Do what? Remind me of the game. Yes, we’re finally getting a licensed roleplaying game based on the classic cult film by Jim Henson starring David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly, Labyrinth. The game itself isn’t set up like a traditional RPG, though. The players will work their way through a randomly-generated labyrinth trying to beat the 13-hour clock and overcome the challenges of 90 different scenes. The gamemaster (called the “Goblin King”) will roll randomly on a table to determine the order of the scenes, creating a unique experience with each playthrough. The game will be released by River Horse Games with adventure design from Ben Milton (who made the announcement on Twitter).
The Wizards of the Coast Twitch Stream previewed several maps from the upcoming Ghosts of Saltmarsh adventure. The preview includes the overhead map of Saltmarsh (seen above) along with the deck of an unnamed ship (including the bilges, hold, main deck, and upper deck with a side-view and diagram of the rigging). Finally, there’s two floors of an unnamed building. I’m sure that fans of the original modules are already speculating on what’s changed from the originals and what is new to this version. The Ghosts of Saltmarsh hardcover comes out to both hobby channels and mass market on May 21, 2019.
WizKids announced a deal with Renegade Game Studios to create a setting book based on their miniature line of kid adventurers, Wardlings. The campaign setting will use 5th Edition rules with design from Elisa Teague, allowing players to embark on enchanted adventures with their favorite magical animal companions. From the press release:
Wardlings brings an enchanting new campaign setting to life, where the minds of the youth, uncorrupted by the vices and responsibilities of their elders, are able to perceive magical creatures and events in the world around them that adults cannot. Here, children are the saviors of the land who embark on epic quests to protect their realm, and holding on to the virtues of youth has never been more imperative!
The Wardlings line of miniatures has had two waves of pre-painted figures of children as fantasy heroes along with their animal companions. The line was originally titled “Thistleguard” before a name change was required due to similarities in premise and theme to the Penny Arcade comic Thornwatch and the then-recently Kickstarted tile-laying board game Thornwatch: Eyrewood Adventures (which is now available). The campaign setting for Wardlings is currently scheduled for a fall release.
Fantasy Flight Games announced a new expansion for their Star Wars Roleplaying line of games, Collapse of the Republic. Compatible with all three games (Edge of the Empire, Age of Rebellion, and Force and Destiny), this book is all about the end of the Clone Wars and the fall of the Republic to the Galactic Empire. New player character options will be available including Death Watch Warrior and Nightsister, and there will be tools and options for gamemasters to run games through the events of Order 66 and stats for important characters in the final days of the Republic. No release date is available at this time, but the retail price for the book will be $39.95.
Free RPG Day has new owners in a brand new company, Gaming Days LLC. Free PRG Day was originally founded by Aldo Ghiozzi with organization handled by distributor Impressions Game Distribution Service until Impressions was sold to Flat River Group last year. The rights to Free RPG Day stayed with Ghiozzi after the sale, and now the organization will pass to the new company founded by Paul Alexander Butler (Overlight, Adventures in Middle-earth Player’s Guide, Shadowrun: Anarchy), Steve Ellis (Dicey Goblins, the just-announced The Aquicorn Cove Board Game), and Travis Severance (owner of Millennium Games in Rochester, New York) formed specifically to take over Free RPG Day. Ghiozzi will stay on to manage Free RPG Day 2019 (which is Saturday, June 15 this year) and be available in an advisory capacity for at least a few years as the new company starts planning for Free RPG Day in 2020.
The Horus Heresy Bundle 2019 is still going at Humble Bundle, featuring over $300 worth of DRM-free ebooks and audio plays set in the Warhammer 40K world. The $1 level includes ebooks for Horus Rising, False Gods, Galaxy in Flames, the audio drama The Sigillite and more, while the $8 level features Legion, The Flight of the Eisenstein, Leman Ross: The Great Wolf, the audio drama Templar plus others, and the $15 level includes The First Heretic, Lorgar: Bearer of the Word, Know No Fear, audio dramas for Thief of Revelations and Hunter’s Moon for a total of twenty-four novels and dramas. This bundle runs until Wednesday, March 20. And if comics are more your thing, there’s the Gaming Comics 2019 Bundle featuring Warhammer 40K comics in every level plus comics from Assassin’s Creed, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Dishonored, The Evil Within, Blood Bowl, and more. This bundle runs until Monday, March 18.
You know you’re a *insert decade of choice* kid if you know exactly what sort of game Jinkies! The Roleplaying Game is. This Powered by the Apocalypse game is what you’re thinking, a game about kid investigators with their mascot solving mysteries and going on adventures, inspired by cartoons like Scooby-Doo, Jabberjaw, Josie and the Pussycats, and others. Set in the 1970s (though it could be easily set in the revivals from the 80s, 90s, or 00s), this game is focused on the comedy and cleverness that was the hallmark of these classic animated series with just a hint of over-the-top goofiness. The PDF is available for a $10 pledge, the paperback for $15, and a signed copy for $40. This Kickstarter is just shy of its $3,500 funding goal (currently at $2,654 at time of writing) but has until Tuesday, March 19 to cross find out who was really behind the haunted sushi bar!
Shades of Vengeance has a Fifth Anniversary version of their sci-fi RPG, Era: The Consortium with an updated rulebook and new miniatures line. The easiest way to describe Era: The Consortium is a science fiction sandbox, but that’s not quite accurate because, while you can play in pretty much any genre of sci-fi you can think of using the rules, it’s all in one setting as it covers a 500 year history of technological development. Whether you want sublight travel in the solar system or a vast intergalactic hyperspace empire, you can find it somewhere in the history of Era: The Consortium. The 400+ page PDF of this new edition is available for £21 (about US$27), the hardback for £62 (about US$81), a single unpainted resin hero miniature for £7 (about US$9), the full set of minis for £69 (about US$90), and multiple other pledge levels offering several combinations (plus an exclusive 5th anniversary t-shirt). This Kickstarter is funded and runs until Sunday, March 17.
Everyone is John in the roleplaying game Everyone is John, which is funding a new edition. Each player takes on one of the “voices” inside the head of John and struggles against one another via their willpower to make John do what they want him to do. Of course, the appeal to the original game was how fast and light the system was, making it perfect for filler games and for playing in convention hallways waiting for a panel to start. This new edition is still just as streamlined, but gives you even more options from different genres like fantasy, science fiction, horror, superheroes, and more with ready-to-use character and GM sheets, new art, gameplay examples, adventure seeds, and more. The $5 level gets you an immediate copy of the PDF, while a $10 pledge gets you the paperback and $20 a hardcover. This project is well beyond its modest goal and knocked out all of its stretch goals, just in time for funding on Monday, March 18.
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 have been complaining about Star Wars: The Old Republic missions that are just cheap, follow me on Twitch where I will be finishing up Shadowrun Returns before starting a Level 1 playthrough of Star Wars: The Old Republic story mode with a Chiss Jedi Knight, 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.
Goodman Games announced the third of their Reincarnated series of licensed adventures for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, and this one is S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. Like the previous entries in the series, the book will feature a reprint of the original Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition module with a cleaned up scan and, while though there was only one version of Barrier Peaks released (unlike the entries for Into the Borderlands and Isle of Dread which included both editions), the handouts had different art between the first and second printing along with a renumbering of the card handouts. And because this is a collector’s piece as much as a new adventure, it will include both versions of the print-outs. Additionally, there will be not only a Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition conversion, but additional 5e material to “fill in some gaps” from the original module, according to the official announcement. For those who may not know about this classic adventure, this came during an experimental time for Dungeons & Dragons which has a high-level party from the Greyhawk setting investigating ruins in the Barrier Peaks mountain range which (spoilers) turns out to be a crashed alien spacecraft full of sci-fi technology. And, as part of the tournament module S-series, it’s also an incredibly difficult meatgrinder of an adventure. There’s no firm release date or pricing at this time, but the book is slated for a release this September.
You remind me of the game. What game? The game with the power. What power? The power of voodoo. Who do? You do. Do what? Remind me of the game. Yes, we’re finally getting a licensed roleplaying game based on the classic cult film by Jim Henson starring David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly, Labyrinth. The game itself isn’t set up like a traditional RPG, though. The players will work their way through a randomly-generated labyrinth trying to beat the 13-hour clock and overcome the challenges of 90 different scenes. The gamemaster (called the “Goblin King”) will roll randomly on a table to determine the order of the scenes, creating a unique experience with each playthrough. The game will be released by River Horse Games with adventure design from Ben Milton (who made the announcement on Twitter).
The Wizards of the Coast Twitch Stream previewed several maps from the upcoming Ghosts of Saltmarsh adventure. The preview includes the overhead map of Saltmarsh (seen above) along with the deck of an unnamed ship (including the bilges, hold, main deck, and upper deck with a side-view and diagram of the rigging). Finally, there’s two floors of an unnamed building. I’m sure that fans of the original modules are already speculating on what’s changed from the originals and what is new to this version. The Ghosts of Saltmarsh hardcover comes out to both hobby channels and mass market on May 21, 2019.
WizKids announced a deal with Renegade Game Studios to create a setting book based on their miniature line of kid adventurers, Wardlings. The campaign setting will use 5th Edition rules with design from Elisa Teague, allowing players to embark on enchanted adventures with their favorite magical animal companions. From the press release:
Wardlings brings an enchanting new campaign setting to life, where the minds of the youth, uncorrupted by the vices and responsibilities of their elders, are able to perceive magical creatures and events in the world around them that adults cannot. Here, children are the saviors of the land who embark on epic quests to protect their realm, and holding on to the virtues of youth has never been more imperative!
Fantasy Flight Games announced a new expansion for their Star Wars Roleplaying line of games, Collapse of the Republic. Compatible with all three games (Edge of the Empire, Age of Rebellion, and Force and Destiny), this book is all about the end of the Clone Wars and the fall of the Republic to the Galactic Empire. New player character options will be available including Death Watch Warrior and Nightsister, and there will be tools and options for gamemasters to run games through the events of Order 66 and stats for important characters in the final days of the Republic. No release date is available at this time, but the retail price for the book will be $39.95.
Free RPG Day has new owners in a brand new company, Gaming Days LLC. Free PRG Day was originally founded by Aldo Ghiozzi with organization handled by distributor Impressions Game Distribution Service until Impressions was sold to Flat River Group last year. The rights to Free RPG Day stayed with Ghiozzi after the sale, and now the organization will pass to the new company founded by Paul Alexander Butler (Overlight, Adventures in Middle-earth Player’s Guide, Shadowrun: Anarchy), Steve Ellis (Dicey Goblins, the just-announced The Aquicorn Cove Board Game), and Travis Severance (owner of Millennium Games in Rochester, New York) formed specifically to take over Free RPG Day. Ghiozzi will stay on to manage Free RPG Day 2019 (which is Saturday, June 15 this year) and be available in an advisory capacity for at least a few years as the new company starts planning for Free RPG Day in 2020.
The Horus Heresy Bundle 2019 is still going at Humble Bundle, featuring over $300 worth of DRM-free ebooks and audio plays set in the Warhammer 40K world. The $1 level includes ebooks for Horus Rising, False Gods, Galaxy in Flames, the audio drama The Sigillite and more, while the $8 level features Legion, The Flight of the Eisenstein, Leman Ross: The Great Wolf, the audio drama Templar plus others, and the $15 level includes The First Heretic, Lorgar: Bearer of the Word, Know No Fear, audio dramas for Thief of Revelations and Hunter’s Moon for a total of twenty-four novels and dramas. This bundle runs until Wednesday, March 20. And if comics are more your thing, there’s the Gaming Comics 2019 Bundle featuring Warhammer 40K comics in every level plus comics from Assassin’s Creed, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Dishonored, The Evil Within, Blood Bowl, and more. This bundle runs until Monday, March 18.
You know you’re a *insert decade of choice* kid if you know exactly what sort of game Jinkies! The Roleplaying Game is. This Powered by the Apocalypse game is what you’re thinking, a game about kid investigators with their mascot solving mysteries and going on adventures, inspired by cartoons like Scooby-Doo, Jabberjaw, Josie and the Pussycats, and others. Set in the 1970s (though it could be easily set in the revivals from the 80s, 90s, or 00s), this game is focused on the comedy and cleverness that was the hallmark of these classic animated series with just a hint of over-the-top goofiness. The PDF is available for a $10 pledge, the paperback for $15, and a signed copy for $40. This Kickstarter is just shy of its $3,500 funding goal (currently at $2,654 at time of writing) but has until Tuesday, March 19 to cross find out who was really behind the haunted sushi bar!
Shades of Vengeance has a Fifth Anniversary version of their sci-fi RPG, Era: The Consortium with an updated rulebook and new miniatures line. The easiest way to describe Era: The Consortium is a science fiction sandbox, but that’s not quite accurate because, while you can play in pretty much any genre of sci-fi you can think of using the rules, it’s all in one setting as it covers a 500 year history of technological development. Whether you want sublight travel in the solar system or a vast intergalactic hyperspace empire, you can find it somewhere in the history of Era: The Consortium. The 400+ page PDF of this new edition is available for £21 (about US$27), the hardback for £62 (about US$81), a single unpainted resin hero miniature for £7 (about US$9), the full set of minis for £69 (about US$90), and multiple other pledge levels offering several combinations (plus an exclusive 5th anniversary t-shirt). This Kickstarter is funded and runs until Sunday, March 17.
Everyone is John in the roleplaying game Everyone is John, which is funding a new edition. Each player takes on one of the “voices” inside the head of John and struggles against one another via their willpower to make John do what they want him to do. Of course, the appeal to the original game was how fast and light the system was, making it perfect for filler games and for playing in convention hallways waiting for a panel to start. This new edition is still just as streamlined, but gives you even more options from different genres like fantasy, science fiction, horror, superheroes, and more with ready-to-use character and GM sheets, new art, gameplay examples, adventure seeds, and more. The $5 level gets you an immediate copy of the PDF, while a $10 pledge gets you the paperback and $20 a hardcover. This project is well beyond its modest goal and knocked out all of its stretch goals, just in time for funding on Monday, March 18.
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 have been complaining about Star Wars: The Old Republic missions that are just cheap, follow me on Twitch where I will be finishing up Shadowrun Returns before starting a Level 1 playthrough of Star Wars: The Old Republic story mode with a Chiss Jedi Knight, 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.
