Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news! NuTSR files for bankruptcy, new Pathfinder video game announced, new trailers for Baldur’s Gate III, and more!
For a quick summary of the week’s news, Jessica Hancock will bring you up to speed with EN Live's This Week in TTRPG every Friday.
Don’t forget, you can keep up with all the week’s gaming news in detail with Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk. This week, Morrus, Peter, and Jessica take you behind the scenes of working a convention as a publisher.
In case you missed it elsewhere on EN World this week:
The business entity known as “TSR LLC” owned by Justin LaNasa has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. For those unfamiliar with commercial bankruptcy types in America, Chapter 7 bankruptcy is the going-out-of-business bankruptcy. All assets of the company will be sold off to pay the listed creditors. In this case, the creditors include Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum LLC (LaNasa’s RPG museum), Hardwire Tattoo LLC (LaNasa’s tattoo parlor), Justin LaNasa himself, Immix Law Group PC (the law firm representing TSR, DHSM, and LaNasa in the lawsuit and counterlawsuit with Wizards of the Coast), the Department of Revenue of two different states (North Carolina and Wisconsin), the IRS, and Wizards of the Coast among other individuals. A trustee has been appointed by the court to oversee the liquidation of assets in order to pay the approximately $400,000 in debt for the company. The document also states the gross revenue for TSR LLC so far for the year 2023 was $621.93. As of the time of writing, the bankruptcy has not been granted yet and could be denied by the court, with one such cause being attempt to defraud creditors or the bankruptcy court (one such situation would be shuffling assets between companies and/or back to the owner personally in order to avoid damages from a lawsuit). Meanwhile, several products from TSR LLC have been slightly modified and are still for sale on the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum website with images cropped to remove TSR branding and attributed to “OSR Games”.
The lawsuit between TSR LLC and Wizards of the Coast is stayed with all dates stricken from the schedule, meaning the trial is on hold until the resolution of the bankruptcy petition. If the bankruptcy is granted, it is possible that the lawsuit with Wizards of the Coast over the TSR trademark could continue as both the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum LLC and Justin LaNasa personally are both listed as defendants in the countersuit filed by Wizards of the Coast. For the entire history of the NuTSR Saga, Morrus has compiled a timeline of events here on EN World.
It's the week of “Not E3” where all the video game companies make their big announcements, including several tie-ins for tabletop RPGs! Paizo and BKOM Studios announced the second of the two games under their partnership, Pathfinder Gallowspire Survivors. The action game is part of the burgeoning “bullet haven” genre of games pioneered by Vampire Survivors with a mostly top-down view of a field full of enemies with your character in the middle of them all trying to defeat the horde. Players will choose between the Fighter, Wizard, or Rogue to control with your choice of the remaining two classes available as a companion to face the gauntlet of enemies. Each run will feature four sections capped by a boss, which will earn you experience to gain permanent new benefits for future runs as you level up. Pathfinder: Gallowspire Survivor is available to wishlist on Steam now with a planned release date sometime this year. The other licensed Pathfinder game from BKOM, Pathfinder: Abomination Vaults, is currently on Kickstarter with just over CA$350,000 pledged toward a CA$410,000 goal and an end date of Friday, June 30.
In other video game news, Larian Studios released several new trailers for Baldur’s Gate 3. A 2D animated short titled “The Greatest Foe” premiered at the PC Gaming Show featuring the party of adventurers returning to face down a foe that had defeated them in the past with comedic results. Another video gives a tour of the city of Baldur’s Gate, going into the development process in creating the city for the game with a detailed look at many areas and features. And a week ago, a new trailer premiered debuting the leader of the city of Baldur’s Gate with behind-the-scenes footage of Jason Isaacs recording his lines for the character of Lord Enver Gortash. Baldur’s Gate 3 launches on August 31st on PC, Mac, PS5, and Nvidia GeForce NOW.
Renegade Game Studio announced pre-orders for the Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition sourcebook Blood-Stained Love. From the product description:
Modiphius announced the acquisition of two titles from Nordic Weasel Games, Five Parsecs from Home and Five Leagues from the Borderlands. Modiphius previously acted as publisher for the solo adventure games designed by Ivan Sorensen, but the new deal will now see Modiphius taking ownership of the IP for both settings and the Five Core game system. Sorensen will remain as the lead writer on the series with several new products announced for the lines including Five Parsecs: Tactics and Five Parsecs: Planetfall. From the press release:
The announcement also stated plans for more releases for Five Parsecs from Home, new expansions for Five Leagues from the Borderlands, and a new retail edition of the WWII-era game Five Men from Normandy.
Embracer Group CEO Lars Wingefors announced the company will enter a restructuring program following last month’s disappointing financial report. The restructuring program will attempt to shift the company from a “heavy-investment mode” to a “highly cash-flow generative business”. The company has been on a buying spree the last two years, purchasing the tabletop game company Asmodee, the comic book company Dark Horse Comics, several video game studios from Square-Enix, and the intellectual property rights to the Middle Earth setting and related books including The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. This restructuring will include closing or selling some game studios, postponement or cancellation of in-development game products, and layoffs among the company’s 17,000 employees. At the end of May, Embracer Group released their annual fiscal report to shareholders which showed a 6% growth in the tabletop gaming segments of the company but a “below expectations” performance in most other areas along with the loss of an estimated $2 billion partnership deal.
That’s all from me for this week! Don’t forget to support our Patreon to bring you more gaming news content. 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.
For a quick summary of the week’s news, Jessica Hancock will bring you up to speed with EN Live's This Week in TTRPG every Friday.
Don’t forget, you can keep up with all the week’s gaming news in detail with Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk. This week, Morrus, Peter, and Jessica take you behind the scenes of working a convention as a publisher.
In case you missed it elsewhere on EN World this week:
- EN Publishing released the newest issue of Gate Pass Gazette, the official zine of Level Up: Advanced 5e, featuring airships, new cleric archetypes, a new adventure, and more!
- EN5ider #519 is a new Dangerous Scenarios featuring the tomb of the long-slain sorcerer-king Solor whose immense power still echoes, slaying any who dare trespass.
- Egg Embry interviewed Chris Dias about the near-future 5e RPG Ultramodern5 coming soon to Backerkit to fund a new printing.
- Rob Wieland reviews the sports drama RPG Fight With Spirit inspired by shows like Ted Lasso and the numerous anime and manga series in the genre.
- Lewis Pulsipher’s newest Worlds of Design talks about the player characters’ base of operations and how to expand on the concept for something interesting and original.
- Michael Tresca’s RPG Evolution is about how to talk to people who don’t play games about your hobby.
- Mike Myler’s ENterplantary DimENsions features the desert planet of Dunesia where survival is a struggle on a brutal an unforgiving world cast in the shadows of horrors past.
- Don’t miss out on the newest RPG crowdfunding projects ending soon with Egg Embry’s RPG Crowdfunding News.
- Keep up with all the new print RPG releases with Charles Dunwoody’s RPG Print News.
- Find the big TTRPG sales, bundles, and charity fundraisers with the Freebies, Sales, and Charity Bundles News.
The business entity known as “TSR LLC” owned by Justin LaNasa has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. For those unfamiliar with commercial bankruptcy types in America, Chapter 7 bankruptcy is the going-out-of-business bankruptcy. All assets of the company will be sold off to pay the listed creditors. In this case, the creditors include Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum LLC (LaNasa’s RPG museum), Hardwire Tattoo LLC (LaNasa’s tattoo parlor), Justin LaNasa himself, Immix Law Group PC (the law firm representing TSR, DHSM, and LaNasa in the lawsuit and counterlawsuit with Wizards of the Coast), the Department of Revenue of two different states (North Carolina and Wisconsin), the IRS, and Wizards of the Coast among other individuals. A trustee has been appointed by the court to oversee the liquidation of assets in order to pay the approximately $400,000 in debt for the company. The document also states the gross revenue for TSR LLC so far for the year 2023 was $621.93. As of the time of writing, the bankruptcy has not been granted yet and could be denied by the court, with one such cause being attempt to defraud creditors or the bankruptcy court (one such situation would be shuffling assets between companies and/or back to the owner personally in order to avoid damages from a lawsuit). Meanwhile, several products from TSR LLC have been slightly modified and are still for sale on the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum website with images cropped to remove TSR branding and attributed to “OSR Games”.
The lawsuit between TSR LLC and Wizards of the Coast is stayed with all dates stricken from the schedule, meaning the trial is on hold until the resolution of the bankruptcy petition. If the bankruptcy is granted, it is possible that the lawsuit with Wizards of the Coast over the TSR trademark could continue as both the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum LLC and Justin LaNasa personally are both listed as defendants in the countersuit filed by Wizards of the Coast. For the entire history of the NuTSR Saga, Morrus has compiled a timeline of events here on EN World.
It's the week of “Not E3” where all the video game companies make their big announcements, including several tie-ins for tabletop RPGs! Paizo and BKOM Studios announced the second of the two games under their partnership, Pathfinder Gallowspire Survivors. The action game is part of the burgeoning “bullet haven” genre of games pioneered by Vampire Survivors with a mostly top-down view of a field full of enemies with your character in the middle of them all trying to defeat the horde. Players will choose between the Fighter, Wizard, or Rogue to control with your choice of the remaining two classes available as a companion to face the gauntlet of enemies. Each run will feature four sections capped by a boss, which will earn you experience to gain permanent new benefits for future runs as you level up. Pathfinder: Gallowspire Survivor is available to wishlist on Steam now with a planned release date sometime this year. The other licensed Pathfinder game from BKOM, Pathfinder: Abomination Vaults, is currently on Kickstarter with just over CA$350,000 pledged toward a CA$410,000 goal and an end date of Friday, June 30.
In other video game news, Larian Studios released several new trailers for Baldur’s Gate 3. A 2D animated short titled “The Greatest Foe” premiered at the PC Gaming Show featuring the party of adventurers returning to face down a foe that had defeated them in the past with comedic results. Another video gives a tour of the city of Baldur’s Gate, going into the development process in creating the city for the game with a detailed look at many areas and features. And a week ago, a new trailer premiered debuting the leader of the city of Baldur’s Gate with behind-the-scenes footage of Jason Isaacs recording his lines for the character of Lord Enver Gortash. Baldur’s Gate 3 launches on August 31st on PC, Mac, PS5, and Nvidia GeForce NOW.
Renegade Game Studio announced pre-orders for the Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition sourcebook Blood-Stained Love. From the product description:
The book is scheduled for a Q4 2023 release and is marked with a mature audience advisory for violence, sexual themes, and strong language. The hardcover is available for $45.00 and for a limited time will include a copy of the PDF at no additional cost.
Modiphius announced the acquisition of two titles from Nordic Weasel Games, Five Parsecs from Home and Five Leagues from the Borderlands. Modiphius previously acted as publisher for the solo adventure games designed by Ivan Sorensen, but the new deal will now see Modiphius taking ownership of the IP for both settings and the Five Core game system. Sorensen will remain as the lead writer on the series with several new products announced for the lines including Five Parsecs: Tactics and Five Parsecs: Planetfall. From the press release:
The announcement also stated plans for more releases for Five Parsecs from Home, new expansions for Five Leagues from the Borderlands, and a new retail edition of the WWII-era game Five Men from Normandy.
Embracer Group CEO Lars Wingefors announced the company will enter a restructuring program following last month’s disappointing financial report. The restructuring program will attempt to shift the company from a “heavy-investment mode” to a “highly cash-flow generative business”. The company has been on a buying spree the last two years, purchasing the tabletop game company Asmodee, the comic book company Dark Horse Comics, several video game studios from Square-Enix, and the intellectual property rights to the Middle Earth setting and related books including The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. This restructuring will include closing or selling some game studios, postponement or cancellation of in-development game products, and layoffs among the company’s 17,000 employees. At the end of May, Embracer Group released their annual fiscal report to shareholders which showed a 6% growth in the tabletop gaming segments of the company but a “below expectations” performance in most other areas along with the loss of an estimated $2 billion partnership deal.
That’s all from me for this week! Don’t forget to support our Patreon to bring you more gaming news content. 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.
