Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news! Preview of Spelljammer, Roll20 and DriveThruRPG merging, ENnie Award nominations announced, 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 and Peter talk about the NODES dungeon design system from the Dungeon Delver’s Guide.
In case you missed it elsewhere on EN World this week:
Wizards of the Coast gave us quite a few teases and previews this week. First, it appears the 2024 update for Dungeons & Dragons is already underway as the D&D Executive Producer Ray Winninger tweeted about a meeting with Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford over the redesign. And according to the thread, “you’ll get a first look at some of the new design work soon.”
But in something a bit more concrete though, we also got a big preview of the Spelljammer ships from the upcoming Spelljammer: Adventures in Space boxed set. The art preview features seven new splash pages of different style of ships highlighting the range of Spelljammers you can find in the game.
Also in more Spelljammer news, D&D Beyond released Spelljammer Academy, a series of four adventures meant to introduce those unfamiliar to the concepts of the Spelljammer setting. The first adventure, Orientation, is available now with the three more coming soon.
You can get Spelljammer Academy free on D&D Beyond, and the boxed set Spelljammer: Adventures in Space is set for release on August 16 with a retail price of $69.99.
Roll20 and OneBookShelf, the parent company of DriveThruRPG, announced a merger deal this week. This deal brings the largest digital storefront for tabletop RPGs and the largest virtual tabletop under the same corporate umbrella. From the announcement:
The statement goes on to say that Ankit Lal will continue in his role as CEO of Roll20 which he took on in January of this year, while OneBookShelf CEO Steve Wieck will join the governing board and executive team at Roll20. You can read the full statement here for more details.
The nominees for the 2022 ENnie Awards were announced this week. The Judge’s Spotlight winners are:
Modiphius announced the “2d20 Summer of Gaming” with a big announcement: The 2d20 System is getting an SRD. The SRD will open the system up to third parties to create their own games and variations of the core system along with the ability to monetize and publish their works. The SRD will be available for download on July 20. In addition, Modiphius is having a 20% off sale on all their 2d20 core products from their webstore lasting just two days starting at 2:20 PM BST July 20 and ending 2:20 PM BST July 22. Finally, in partnership with StartPlaying.Games, Modiphius is running a contest for gamemasters. All GMs running at least two games on the StartPlaying.Games player finding platform will be entered to win one of three $100 gift certificates for the Modiphius store with one additional grand prize winner receiving $1000 to spend on Modiphius games. More information and information on how to sign up will be available at the “2D20 Day” website.
A new blog post from Steven Marsh of Steve Jackson Games is as much a warning as an update for the RPG industry. Like many materials, paper prices have increased sharply over the past couple of years with a sharp increase recently. This will have the most immediate impact on print-on-demand titles, which includes much of the GURPS back catalogue as POD releases are keeping much of the product line in print. In an addition to the post, Phil Reed confirms that manufacturing costs have risen in just the past two months for several products. Both recommend that if there are any print-on-demand products customers want, it would be better to purchase them sooner rather than later before the market forces a raise in cover prices.
Catalyst Game Labs partnered with Humble Bundle for a Shadowrun Sixth World bundle. While there are three levels, the first two are more for those who already have the core rules and are looking to fill out books they’ve missed. However, the top tier of $18 includes the Shadowrun Sixth World Core Rules City Edition along with fifteen other sourcebooks, event books, character option books, gear books, and adventures which counts for almost all of the books released so far for the newest edition of Shadowrun. This bundle benefits Action Against Hunger and runs until Thursday, August 4.
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.
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 and Peter talk about the NODES dungeon design system from the Dungeon Delver’s Guide.
In case you missed it elsewhere on EN World this week:
- EN Publishing’s newest Kickstarter is the adventure compilation Til Death Do Us Part five different adventures focusing on romance, love, and the consequences thereof.
- EN5ider #463 features the Reforged, being created through powerful magic that fuses metal and flesh into a formidable opponent or invaluable ally.
- Tired of the grim, dank, depressing underworlds? Well the Dungeon Delver’s Guide for Level Up has an alternative in this new preview with the brightly colored fantastic world of Underland.
- Rob Weiland reviewed the newest entry in the World of Darkness setting, the updated rulebook for Hunter: The Reckoning.
- Egg Embry looked at the new Advanced Player’s Guide expanding the worlds for the crossover RPG using the Savage Worlds rules system for Pathfinder.
- Beth Rimmels reviewed the highly anticipated history book on the rise and fall of TSR from Ben Riggs, Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons.
- Lewis Pulsipher’s newest Worlds of Design talks about the dirty little secret that makes RPG writing good: Editors.
- Michael Tresca talks about halflings and their evolution in the game over time, and how that’s to their own detriment.
- Mike Myler starts a new series highlighting different locations in space for Level Up sci-fi games, ENterplanetary DimENsions with the first world: Corzcunath
- 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.
Wizards of the Coast gave us quite a few teases and previews this week. First, it appears the 2024 update for Dungeons & Dragons is already underway as the D&D Executive Producer Ray Winninger tweeted about a meeting with Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford over the redesign. And according to the thread, “you’ll get a first look at some of the new design work soon.”
But in something a bit more concrete though, we also got a big preview of the Spelljammer ships from the upcoming Spelljammer: Adventures in Space boxed set. The art preview features seven new splash pages of different style of ships highlighting the range of Spelljammers you can find in the game.
Also in more Spelljammer news, D&D Beyond released Spelljammer Academy, a series of four adventures meant to introduce those unfamiliar to the concepts of the Spelljammer setting. The first adventure, Orientation, is available now with the three more coming soon.
You can get Spelljammer Academy free on D&D Beyond, and the boxed set Spelljammer: Adventures in Space is set for release on August 16 with a retail price of $69.99.
Roll20 and OneBookShelf, the parent company of DriveThruRPG, announced a merger deal this week. This deal brings the largest digital storefront for tabletop RPGs and the largest virtual tabletop under the same corporate umbrella. From the announcement:
The statement goes on to say that Ankit Lal will continue in his role as CEO of Roll20 which he took on in January of this year, while OneBookShelf CEO Steve Wieck will join the governing board and executive team at Roll20. You can read the full statement here for more details.
The nominees for the 2022 ENnie Awards were announced this week. The Judge’s Spotlight winners are:
- Dwelling by Seb Pines published by Good Luck Press
- Stack of Goblins by Jack Milton published by CobblePath Games
- Shanty Hunters by Tristan Zimmerman published by Molten Sulfur Press
- Kobold Guide to Monsters by Monte Cook, Wolfgang Baur, Mike Mason, Crystal Frasier, Mike Shea, Shanna Germain, Steve Winter, and many more published by Kobold Press
- Wickedness by M. Veselak published by Possum Creek Games.
- Call of Cthulhu Classic Prop Set from the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society
- Colostle: A Solo RPG Adventure from Nich Angell
- Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Core Rulebook Atreides Collector’s Edition from Modiphius Entertainment
- Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall from Wet Ink Games
- Odd Jobs from MacGuffin & Co.
- Putrescence Regnant from Exalted Funeral Press
- Root: The RPG from Magpie Games
- The Troubleshooters from Helmgast
- Thirsty Sword Lesbians from Evil Hat Productions
- Uncaged: Goddesses from Unseelie Studios
Modiphius announced the “2d20 Summer of Gaming” with a big announcement: The 2d20 System is getting an SRD. The SRD will open the system up to third parties to create their own games and variations of the core system along with the ability to monetize and publish their works. The SRD will be available for download on July 20. In addition, Modiphius is having a 20% off sale on all their 2d20 core products from their webstore lasting just two days starting at 2:20 PM BST July 20 and ending 2:20 PM BST July 22. Finally, in partnership with StartPlaying.Games, Modiphius is running a contest for gamemasters. All GMs running at least two games on the StartPlaying.Games player finding platform will be entered to win one of three $100 gift certificates for the Modiphius store with one additional grand prize winner receiving $1000 to spend on Modiphius games. More information and information on how to sign up will be available at the “2D20 Day” website.
A new blog post from Steven Marsh of Steve Jackson Games is as much a warning as an update for the RPG industry. Like many materials, paper prices have increased sharply over the past couple of years with a sharp increase recently. This will have the most immediate impact on print-on-demand titles, which includes much of the GURPS back catalogue as POD releases are keeping much of the product line in print. In an addition to the post, Phil Reed confirms that manufacturing costs have risen in just the past two months for several products. Both recommend that if there are any print-on-demand products customers want, it would be better to purchase them sooner rather than later before the market forces a raise in cover prices.
Catalyst Game Labs partnered with Humble Bundle for a Shadowrun Sixth World bundle. While there are three levels, the first two are more for those who already have the core rules and are looking to fill out books they’ve missed. However, the top tier of $18 includes the Shadowrun Sixth World Core Rules City Edition along with fifteen other sourcebooks, event books, character option books, gear books, and adventures which counts for almost all of the books released so far for the newest edition of Shadowrun. This bundle benefits Action Against Hunger and runs until Thursday, August 4.
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.
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