News Digest for the Week of April 9

Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news! Dune RPG released in PDF, defails about the Fallout 2d20 System RPG, a Twilight Imperium RPG announced, Critical Role goes Munchkin, Goodman Games remaking Dark Tower, and more!

Don’t forget, you can get all the news every week with Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk! This week, Morrus and Peter are joined by Joel Logan to talk about Hope Not Lost, a cleric solo origin adventure.

In case you missed it elsewhere on EN World this week:

• EN Publishing has a new Kickstarter for Here There Be Dragons, a collection of five unique dragons ready to use in your 5e games ranging from CR 9 to CR 27.
• EN5ider #385 is another entry in the Enchanted Trinkets series of low-powered magic items for 5e with “Spoils of War”, since the raiding monsters you find don’t just have what they’ve looted but also what they’ve created for themselves.
• Level Up 5e released Playtest Document #16: Combat Maneuvers with over 170 maneuvers across eleven traditions.
• Sean Hillman reviewed the OSR system Black Sword Hack with an updated take on the rules from classic RPGs inspired by the novels of Michael Moorcock and Karl Edward Wagner.
• Michael Tresca continues his journey through the meals of Heroes’ Feast: The Official Dungeons & Dragons Cookbook with the halfling meal of honeyed ham.
• M.T. Black has another look back at the periodicals of RPG past with The Dragon #40 featuring the magazine’s first Runequest article and a feature on little green things from outer space.
• Mike Myler’s Epic Monsters brings us the 5e stats for host of the tea party from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the Mad Hatter.
• Don’t miss out on any of the crowdfunding projects ending soon with Egg Embry’s RPG Crowdfunding News, and keep up with all the new releases in print with Charles Dunwoody’s RPG Print News.

It’s a big week for Modiphius with announcements about two of their biggest licensed games. First, Dune: Adventures in the Imperium: The Roleplaying Game is now available in PDF. The 336-page PDF has everything you need to play out your own adventures on Arrakis using the 2d20 System. There are rules for playing Mentats, Swordmasters, Spies, Bene Gesserit Sisters, Devious Advisors, and Fremen that can join your banner as one of the existing Houses or you can create your own Minor or Major House. There’s also an introductory adventure specifically designed to acclimate players to the political machinations of the Imperium. The PDF is available for $19.99, while the hardcover is available for pre-order for a May delivery for $59.99 or with a variety of limited edition covers for $109.99.

Though the release of the tabletop roleplaying game based on the video game that was meant to be based on a tabletop roleplaying game but ended up an original game is still a couple of months away, we’ve got a few looks at Fallout: The Post Nuclear Tabletop Roleplaying Game. Rob Wieland has a first look here at EN World with a quick overview of how the 2d20 System has adapted for the Fallout license. There have also been a series of developer blogs posted on Modiphius’s website from Nathan Dowdell with four posted so far. The first is on the core resolution mechanic and how SPECIAL fits in with the 2d20 System. The second involves character creation and goes over your options for building characters. The third goes over the combat system from how you make attacks, what happens during combat, how damage and injuries work, and how to recover. The fourth talks about the Action Point system (the Fallout version of the 2d20 System’s Momentum) and what you can do with your Action Points, both as characters and as the GM. While there is not currently any way to order the PDF on its own, you can get it now when you pre-order the hardcover from Modiphius’s website (though be prepared for sticker shock on shipment to the United States and Canada at the moment).

Goodman Games announced the upcoming release of Dark Tower originally published by Judges Guild in 1980. The original module is distinguished as the only third-party adventure for Dungeons & Dragons to make Dragon Magazine’s list of Greatest D&D Modules of All Time. The module will be updated for both 5e rules and for the Dungeon Crawl Classics system with original designer Jennell Jaquays on board in the design of the new versions. And as expected from Goodman Games, the original Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition module will be republished in its entirety with new high-quality scans with commentary from various tabletop RPG industry professionals. No price or firm release date has been announced at this time, but expect this reprint and redesign of the classic module later this year.

Paizo announced their April releases including details for the Bestiary 3 for Pathfinder 2nd Edition. The new book features over 300 new monsters, and you can find out if your favorite is included as Paizo has included the full listing of included creatures in alphabetical order. Yes, you can finally get PF2e stats for the flumph. The Bestiary 3 will come out in three versions at the same time, the standard hardcover, a softcover pocket edition, and a limited edition hardcover. Also coming this month is Crash & Burn (part five of six of the Fly Free or Die Adventure Path for Starfinder), Eyes of Empty Death (the final part of the Abomination Vaults Adventure Path for Pathfinder 2nd Edition), Pathfinder Bounty #8: The Tireless Path (a repeatable 1st level bounty board style adventure), flip maps and tiles for Stafinder Solar Temple and Pathfinder Wildness Perils Expansion, the Pathfinder Magic Armaments Deck with 100 cards of every magic weapon and armor from the Pathfiner Core Rulebook, and the cardboard pawn collection for Pathfinder: Agents of Edgewatch.

Fantasy Flight Games announced a new roleplaying game based on Twilight Imperium from partner company Edge Studios. The announcement came via an update in the Twilight Imperium Codex, a periodic expansion and update to the board game’s rules and lore. The update features what looks like an advertisement page for Twilight Imperium: Embers of the Imperium with the logos for Fantasy Flight, Edge Studios, and the Genesys System logo with the following text:

In the years following the rise of the Mahact, the Galactic Council was forced make some effort to defend against this, and other, pan-galactic threats. In a moment of cooperation, the various great powers agreed to empower an organization to serve as that defense. This organization would be the Keleres.

The Keleres are the Council’s agents, dispatched to serve as ambassadors, soldiers, spies, and assassins.

Their mandate is to protect the Council’s member governments against threats that imperil the entire galaxy.

Due to mistrust and political infighting amongst the great powers, their authority is ill-defined; their ranks are full of malcontents, double-agents, and failures; and they are given cast-off equipment begrudgingly donated by the Council’s members.

If they succeed, they will see few rewards for their victories, but may well reap great blame for the methods forced upon them.

For the sake of the galaxy, they cannot fail.

The only other information so far is a vague post on Twitter from Edge Studio pointing at the Twilight Imperium Codex and saying there is a “special proclamation” included. Edit: I somehow missed the text "Summer, 2021" in the image I personally screengrabbed from the PDF and posted in this article, so we do have a timeframe for the release.

ICv2 reports new details for the Magic: The Gathering expansion Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms. The set will be the Core Set for 2021, meaning it replaces the typical Core Set released each year. For those unfamiliar with Magic, this means that you can play the game using only cards from the Forgotten Realms set without needing to add cards from other sets or expansions. This typically also means a full product line for new players with pre-constructed starter decks. However, all that has been announced so far are Collector Boosters (as opposed to booster packs optimized for draft tournaments) and all new Commander Decks (pre-constructed decks for the Commander format of 100-card decks with a “Commander” creature card). The expansion is set for release on July 16 with implementation into the online video game Magic: The Gathering: Arena coming around the same time (plus the usual pre-releases and early release events).

The OP and Steve Jackson Games released Munchkin: Critical Role: A Might Nein Game based on the second campaign of Critical Role. The core set features character cards for each of the PCs from the campaign (Beauregard Lionett, Caduceus Clay, Fjord Stone, Jester Lavorre, Nott the Brave, Yasha Nydoorin, Veth Brenatto, and Caleb Widogast) which has special abilities that give them advantages. The set also features 172 new cards with the classic Munchkin feel applied to the world of Wildemount. The set is making its way to stores now and includes everything you need to play for a retail price of $24.99, or you can mix-and-match with your favorite Munchkin expansions.


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@enpublishingrpg.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 to get notifications when I go live, 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.

 

[Paragon Lost]

Wonder if they'll be able to include a pdf/physical combo for Dark Tower. One of the turn offs for me with the other classic modules were the lack of pdf in regards to the TSR/WotC releases like their Keep on the Borderland.

 

[Abstruse]

Wonder if they'll be able to include a pdf/physical combo for Dark Tower. One of the turn offs for me with the other classic modules were the lack of pdf in regards to the TSR/WotC releases like their Keep on the Borderland.

It's possible. The announcement didn't outright state it, but it seemed to imply Goodman Games bought the rights to Dark Tower outright rather than licensing them. I mean it's possible it's a license and thus will have restrictions on it like the WotC material, but they say "Goodman Games has acquired Dark Tower from the Judges’ Guild..." which implies to me an outright acquisition rather than a license. If so, that means they'd have carte blanche to do whatever they want with the property (well, within the 5e OGL anyway...I don't believe the DCC RPG even has those restrictions).

 

[Paragon Lost]

It's possible. The announcement didn't outright state it, but it seemed to imply Goodman Games bought the rights to Dark Tower outright rather than licensing them. I mean it's possible it's a license and thus will have restrictions on it like the WotC material, but they say "Goodman Games has acquired Dark Tower from the Judges’ Guild..." which implies to me an outright acquisition rather than a license. If so, that means they'd have carte blanche to do whatever they want with the property (well, within the 5e OGL anyway...I don't believe the DCC RPG even has those restrictions).

I'm gonna hope it does indeed go that route. I find reading from a tablet much easier these days but I still love to own the physical item as well. Thanks for the reply Darryl.

 

[Stacie GmrGrl]

Twilight Imperium rpg... Sold. Not sure if Genesys is the best system for it but it's nice to see it still being supported.

 

[Earth2Carnifex]

Honestly, I hope they do an almost complete rewrite of Dark Tower. It is one of those modules that I have great memories about playing in it and running it back in the day, but rereading it today, it just does not stand up well. There many great ideas to be mined from the original, but it really needs to be modernized.

 

[aco175]

I saw this for a magic combo called party instead of bonuses for having wizards or clerics. Although it also says that FR is not part of the Magic universe. We all knew this was bound to happen though. It also mentioned a Drizzt commander who uases both white and black.

 

[John Crothers]

Goodman Games did an updated version of Dark Tower for 3.5 back in 2007. It was much needed as the original was bonkers, but hey, that's 1st edition Judges Guild stuff for you. I have included the Introduction from the 3.5 version so you can have an idea of what changes they were able to make from the 1980 original. The conversion was for levels 8-10.

"Dark Tower was originally written by Paul Jaquays and published by The Judges Guild in 1980. It quickly became one of the most beloved adventures ever published for the classic game. It was intended for use for the new first edition, and it continues to inspire writers and designers of fantasy role playing adventures to this day. As we are also big fans of this classic adventure, we’ve attempted to make only the most minor updates and modifications to it in this edition. Any such updates, modifications, or new material were done with great reverence for the original
work. Some of the key updates we’ve added were actually suggestions from Paul Jaquays from The Dungeoneer issue #12, pp 22-23, and 57-58 in which Mr. Jaquays suggests the most appropriate location within the Judges Guild Wilderlands world to set the adventure, corrects some printing mistakes, and proposes some rumors to help adventurers get started with the adventure. Other changes and modifications (other than updating the stats) were added to clear up inconsistencies from the original, or to enhance places or characters from the original. It is a very difficult task to make any alterations to such a cherished work, but our modifications were done with great care and respect, and we hope that those who loved the original will appreciate the minor changes we’ve made.

We expect that each referee will alter, expand and illuminate areas that they wish. The setting may be changed to fit your individual campaign (Wilderlands-based or no). If the deities Set and Mitra are not part of your campaign world, you may either consider adding them as isolated cults of strange deities, or you may substitute your own good vs. evil rivalry in their place (but you will need to modify many of the characteristics of the followers detailed herein). Inspiration may require deleting, shrinking and modifying areas of your choice and is desirable in personalizing this
area of your campaign. It is important for you to add and delete treasures that are appropriate to your campaign flavor. Likewise, the mix of creatures might be modified to suit your world mythos. And, finally, consider replacing some characters here with important characters (heroes or villains) from your own campaign to create an adventure thread. Whether you change it extensively or use it as is, we hope you enjoy this updated version as much as we have enjoyed the original for nearly 30 years."

Just for those that might be interested on other 3.5 revisions that Goodman Games did back then, they also were able to convert 'Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor' levels 10-12, and 'Citadel of Fire' levels 12-14. These were JG1, JG2, and Dark Tower being JG3.

 

[Paragon Lost]

Goodman Games did an updated version of Dark Tower for 3.5 back in 2007. It was much needed as the original was bonkers, but hey, that's 1st edition Judges Guild stuff for you. I have included the Introduction from the 3.5 version so you can have an idea of what changes they were able to make from the 1980 original. The conversion was for levels 8-10.

"Dark Tower was originally written by Paul Jaquays and published by The Judges Guild in 1980. It quickly became one of the most beloved adventures ever published for the classic game. It was intended for use for the new first edition, and it continues to inspire writers and designers of fantasy role playing adventures to this day. As we are also big fans of this classic adventure, we’ve attempted to make only the most minor updates and modifications to it in this edition. Any such updates, modifications, or new material were done with great reverence for the original
work. Some of the key updates we’ve added were actually suggestions from Paul Jaquays from The Dungeoneer issue #12, pp 22-23, and 57-58 in which Mr. Jaquays suggests the most appropriate location within the Judges Guild Wilderlands world to set the adventure, corrects some printing mistakes, and proposes some rumors to help adventurers get started with the adventure. Other changes and modifications (other than updating the stats) were added to clear up inconsistencies from the original, or to enhance places or characters from the original. It is a very difficult task to make any alterations to such a cherished work, but our modifications were done with great care and respect, and we hope that those who loved the original will appreciate the minor changes we’ve made.

We expect that each referee will alter, expand and illuminate areas that they wish. The setting may be changed to fit your individual campaign (Wilderlands-based or no). If the deities Set and Mitra are not part of your campaign world, you may either consider adding them as isolated cults of strange deities, or you may substitute your own good vs. evil rivalry in their place (but you will need to modify many of the characteristics of the followers detailed herein). Inspiration may require deleting, shrinking and modifying areas of your choice and is desirable in personalizing this
area of your campaign. It is important for you to add and delete treasures that are appropriate to your campaign flavor. Likewise, the mix of creatures might be modified to suit your world mythos. And, finally, consider replacing some characters here with important characters (heroes or villains) from your own campaign to create an adventure thread. Whether you change it extensively or use it as is, we hope you enjoy this updated version as much as we have enjoyed the original for nearly 30 years."

Just for those that might be interested on other 3.5 revisions that Goodman Games did back then, they also were able to convert 'Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor' levels 10-12, and 'Citadel of Fire' levels 12-14. These were JG1, JG2, and Dark Tower being JG3.

Good info. Yeah the original Judges Guild stuff could be pretty bonkers. hehe. I adapted Badabaskor and Citadel for my ongoing campaign back in the 80's. Worked well over all, but there was a lot I ended up discarding and other stuff I added. Something I did a lot back in those days with game modules. Dark Tower I owned but never used though. Anyhow thanks for sharing this info about Goodman Games previous versions.

 

[ProfessorDetective]

I saw this for a magic combo called party instead of bonuses for having wizards or clerics. Although it also says that FR is not part of the Magic universe. We all knew this was bound to happen though. It also mentioned a Drizzt commander who uases both white and black.
View attachment 135366

Yeah, if any non-evergreen mechanic was going to show up, it'd be Parties. But since this is effectively Core Set 2021 and those tend to keep things, well, basic...