News Digest for the Week of August 26

Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news! Dragonlance miniature line coming soon, Marvel Multiverse release details announced, Learn to Play D&D events in local game stores, new Star Trek Adventures mission, 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 talk about the changes coming to Dungeons & Dragons with OneD&D!

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

• The EN Publishing Kickstarter for the Level Up: Advanced 5e sourcebook Dungeon Delver’s Guide is on its way next week and we’ve got a preview of the new character backgrounds from the book.
• EN5ider #570 is “Queue Branch”, a collection of items for spies and all those who look to uncover the secrets of others.
• Egg Embry interviewed Connor Alexander about the upcoming expansion Coyote & Crow: Stories of the Free Lands crowdfunding soon on Backerkit.
• Rob Wieland talks about his five favorite things about the recently released Dungeons & Dragons boxed set Spelljammer: Adventures in Space.
• Charles Dunwoody reviewed the new setting book for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, Pirates of the East Isles Volume I.
• Michael Tresca delves back into the past of roleplaying games to talk more about the “Satanic Panic” and its effects on the hobby.
• Lewis Pulsipher’s newest Worlds of Design talks about armies and the different types of military organizations that can exist in a historical setting.
• Mike Myler’s newest ENterplanetary DimENsions explores a plane where nature runs rampant concealing terrifying monsters, the Xenial Xyclione.
• 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 RPG Bundles, Freebies, and Sales News.

WizKids is preparing for the upcoming release of Dragonlance for 5e with several new miniature products. The Icons of the Realms: Dragonlance will feature 49 pre-painted plastic miniatures sold in blind boosters with four figures. Yes, I know, but Icons of the Realms is the name of their entire pre-painted random mini line. Anyway, the boosters will contain either three Medium or Small minis plus one Large mini or four Medium or Small minis with a retail price of $19.99. There will also be Super Booster Packs with two Huge minis for $49.99. There will also be four Warband sets of pre-painted minis that are the same for every pack:

• The Dragonlance Kensaldi on Red Dragon set with a large Red Dragon mini and a removable Kensaldi miniature to ride the dragon and a stand-alone miniature to represent the Kensaldi when not mounted. March 2023 release, $89.99
• The Draconian Warband has seven draconian footsoldiers: 1 Aurak, 2 Baaz, 2 Bozak, 1 Kapak, and 1 Sivak. March 2023 release, $44.99
• The Dragon Army Warband with six human Dragon Army warriors: 3 soldiers, 2 knights, and 1 officer. April 2023 release, $44.99
• The Kalaman Military Warband with six human Kalaman warriors: 3 soldiers, 2 knights, and 1 officer. April 2023 release, $44.99

And while not directly Dragonlance related, there will be another new Icons of the Realms line titled D&D Voices of the Realms inspired by existing D&D art. The pre-painted minis will launch with Band of Heroes, a boxed set featuring a Fighter, Druid, Ranger, Paladin, Wizard, and Warlock. This set is scheduled for a February 2023 release with a retail price of $49.99.

Details about the full release of the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game were announced this week. The core rulebook will release in June 2023 featuring the final version of the core rules. The following month will see the release of the first adventure, Cataclysm of Kang. In the Marvel comics, Kang the Conquerer is a time-travelling supervillain that frequently battles The Avengers and Fantastic Four using his genius intellect and access to highly advanced technology from the future. MCU fans will recognize the character from the finale of the Loki television series. Both the core rules and the adventure will be written by Matt Forbeck, who was a guest on Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk podcast in November of last year and talked (very, very) briefly about the game. The playtest rulebook is still available on Amazon in both Kindle and paperback format.

Modiphius released a new adventure for Star Trek Adventures titled Better Days. The ship’s crew is sent through the Bajoran wormhole into the Gamma Quadrant but suffers damage that forces them to return to the planet Bajor. While seeking the means to repair the ship, the crew is drawn into the delicate politics of Bajor balancing the future of the planet with Starfleet directives of non-interference in local politics. The book also features a mission brief to continue the story afterward and guidance for adjusting the adventure to other time periods outside the Next Generation/Deep Space Nine era. The 22-page PDF is available now for $4.99.

Wizards of the Coast will send out “Learn-to-Play D&D Weekend” demo kits and related promotional items to Wizard Play Network member game stores. The event is planned for October 7-9 to coincide with the full release of the Dungeons & Dragons: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle Starter Set, which is currently exclusive to Target stores. The kit will include a poster, two sets of DM guides, pre-generated characters, encounter cards for the event, 20 advertisements for new players to know what to buy, 20 dice pouches, and an instruction sheet for event organizers. The demo games are set to last for half an hour but can be expanded into two hours depending on the store’s schedule and needs, plus there will be instructions for stores wishing to run an ongoing weekly campaign of Dragons of Stormwreck Isle to run from October 10 through November 20 in two-hour sessions. Wizards of the Coast also recently partnered with the printing company R.R. Donnelley to provide print-on-demand promotional and marketing material for WPN stores.

TCG Player, a leading secondary market for collectible card games, announced a deal with eBay to purchase the company. The deal reportedly for $295 million will place TCG Player under the eBay corporate umbrella but the site will continue to run independently. From the press release:

"This new chapter allows us to continue operating independently within eBay, while also benefiting from their decades of industry experience and resources to deepen the connection between hobbyists and their communities," said Chedy Hampson, Founder and CEO of TCGplayer. "With eBay's support, we will advance our Purpose, and expand our tools and services to improve the collecting experience online and in your favorite local hobby store."

The deal is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in Q1 2023.

UK Games Expo in partnership with All About Games Consultancy announced a new gaming trade show, Games Industry Conference. The event is targeted at retailers, publishers, designers, distributors, licensing and brand executives, game cafes, and other industry professionals. From the announcement:

G.I.C. will feature these key elements:

A) Publisher Summit. Publishers will be able to book a table to show information about their titles to buyers, retailers and distributors.

B) Games Industry business track where industry figures present seminars and workshops on key aspects of the tabletop games industry.

C) Opportunities for industry networking. Ample opportunity during registration, coffee breaks and over lunch to make new contacts and network. There will also be potential for 1:1 meetings and breakout sessions and an informal games evening.

The first event will take place at the NEC Hilton Hotel in Birmingham on Monday, February 13, 2023, with delegate tickets costing £50 + VAT and includes a two-course meal. A website for the event is available with more details but at the time of writing had an error with its security certificate.



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.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Will ENWorld be sending someone to cover the Games Industry Conference?

 

[Abstruse]

Will ENWorld be sending someone to cover the Games Industry Conference?

If anyone's covering the event, it would likely be Morrus and/or Jessica there as representatives of EN Publishing. And that's assuming there's anything TO cover at the event. Trade shows like this are more industry-focused so, like at the GAMA Trade Show here in the US, you're not likely to get big product announcements. At most you'll get release details because the product is being solicited to distributors - specific dates, product contents, stuff like that.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

It is nice to see someone mention the big news from Marvel for their Multiverse RPG. I saw the official announcement on Monday on both Reddit and Twitter, but did not have the time to make a thread for it here. And apparently, all the folks here who do normally make the individual discussion threads for new game announcements and releases never saw this new info.

 

[Abstruse]

It is nice to see someone mention the big news from Marvel for their Multiverse RPG. I saw the official announcement on Monday on both Reddit and Twitter, but did not have the time to make a thread for it here. And apparently, all the folks here who do normally make the individual discussion threads for new game announcements and releases never saw this new info.

I can't speak for anyone else on the site, but the issue I had covering it is there really wasn't a lot of news. They're moving forward with the core rules, we have a general window for the release, and we know what the follow-up adventure book's title will be. That's...basically it. We didn't learn anything new about the system, anything that's been changed from the playtest, how large the core rulebook or the adventure will be, the plot of the adventure beyond the title, any of the other stuff we'd normally get with a new product announcement. Also, because it's being published by Marvel, the news isn't hitting the normal tabletop gaming channels until it filters in through sites that do comic book news as well.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

If anyone's covering the event, it would likely be Morrus and/or Jessica there as representatives of EN Publishing. And that's assuming there's anything TO cover at the event. Trade shows like this are more industry-focused so, like at the GAMA Trade Show here in the US, you're not likely to get big product announcements. At most you'll get release details because the product is being solicited to distributors - specific dates, product contents, stuff like that.

I am not sure I agree with your point that there are not big announcements at GAMA Trade Show (GTS); but we can agree to disagree. I haven't been to a GTS in over 15 years, so things may have changed. I can always pay attention on ICV2. What I am curious about is how what news comes out of Games Industry Conference will be more UK/Europe focused rather than North America. That will be refreshing and interesting I expect.