Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news! Hints at more Dungeons & Dragons releases for 2021, a new RPG based on the SCP web fiction, E3 news for D&D and Vampire: The Masquerade video games, 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 Travis Vengroff to talk about the Dark Dice podcast and playing D&D with Jeff Goldblum.
In case you missed it elsewhere on EN World this week:
So we got a lot more Dungeons & Dragons news this week. First, Wizards of the Coast D&D Executive Producer Ray Winninger announced that there will be three new major books this year and not just the two announced last week. Aside from September’s The Wild Beyond the Witchlight from Chris Perkins and November’s Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos from Amanda Hamon, a third book is on its way led by James Wyatt between those two books. Morrus’ speculation is that it will be a new Draconomicon possibly leading into Dragonlance, but we won’t know for sure until G4 D&D live event this July (unless Amazon decides to give us another unscheduled “sneak preview”).
Speaking of the D&D Live event, a new charity stream was announced benefiting Extra Life featuring host Kate Welch and featuring Jack Black, Reggie Watts, Lauren Lapkus, Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes, and one other special guest yet to be announced.
That wasn’t all of Ray Winninger’s Twitter announcements about Dungeons & Dragons books in development.
That means, in addition to previous announcements, there will be two classic settings returning in 2022 in a new format, two brand new non-M:TG settings, and one classic setting returning to Dungeons & Dragons. What does “in a new format” mean exactly? Well, Wizards of the Coast CEO Chris Cocks spoke with Games Industry that there will be six new video games coming out over the next five years for Dungeons & Dragons. Aside from Baldur’s Gate 3 currently in early access and Dark Alliance 3 coming out later this month, that leaves four games. My personal speculation (with no evidence to back it up so a complete educated guess on my part) is that at least one of these will be a mobile game in some way. As for the others, the Games Industry interview seems to imply that there will be a Dragonlance video game.
So that’s a lot of new book announcements that haven’t actually been announced. For a time, there may have been a place to get some idea, the new Wizards of the Coast survey over the future of Dungeons & Dragons. Possibly. I can’t tell you for sure as I did not take the survey since, in order to participate, you must agree to a Non-Disclosure Agreement under punishment of “fines and/or further liabilities” for discussing the contents. As a journalist working in tabletop RPGs, that’s not really an agreement I can make, so I have no idea what was in the survey. Why the past tense? The survey is already down. Whether Wizards of the Coast got everything they needed during the few days the survey was live or if they took it down due to backlash from the NDA is unclear.
Between all the new announcements, the Magic: The Gathering crossover set, the upcoming video games, and the film, Wizards of the Coast expects a lot of interest in the game from new players. And they want to prepare game stores for the influx of new players with free supplements. Each Wizards Play Network store will receive an introductory adventure set in the Forgotten Realms along with Adventures in Forgotten Realms Spellbooks for participants in the second pre-release event. Additionally, customers who purchase any Dungeons & Dragons products will receive a Welcome Booster card set. Stores will receive twenty copies of each of the three promotional items starting this week in the United States and on June 25 in Europe, Japan, and Asia-Pacific countries.
We’re still not done with Dungeons & Dragons news, as the video game conference E3 was this weekend (though in an online capacity). During the Microsoft/Bethesda showcase, we got a release date for Dark Alliance 3 of June 22, 2021 – Yes, this Tuesday. The game comes out for Windows PCs, Xbox One/Series X/S, and Playstation 4/5. Preorders are available now with pre-install (meaning you can download and install the game now so you’re ready to play when it unlocks on Tuesday) for the Standard Edition at $39.99, a Deluxe Edition with the Echoes of the Blood War expansions for $59.99, or the Steelbook Edition for consoles for $59.99. Holders of an Xbox Game Pass account (either for PC or for Xbox) will be able to play the game on the day of release as part of their subscription, and cross-play between systems will be available (at least between Xbox consoles and Windows PCs).
That’s not the only tabletop RPG-related video game that got an update at E3, as Paradox Interactive released a trailer for Vampire: The Masquerade: Swansong. The narrative-focused game is scheduled for a release this year and weaves between the stories of three different Kindred in Boston, the Ventrue Galeb, the Toreador Emem, and the Malkavian Leysha (the focus of the new trailer). The trio is investigating a shootout that could endanger the goals of the new Prince Hazel Iverson’s attempts to strengthen the Camarilla on the East Coast. No firm release date was announced, but previously Paradox has stated that the game, designed by Big Bad Wolf (The Council), will release on Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4/5, and Xbox One/Series X/S.
Do you have what it takes to best the Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master Challenge? Wizards of the Coast have launched a design contest that is live now (started Thursday, June 17) with the challenge of a 1000-word entry due in 72 hours for the ultimate Complex Trap. The entries will be judged and the best ten designers will move on to the next challenge this July, with three of those becoming finalists for the September stage of the contest. The final winner will be announced during the D&D Celebration live stream broadcast on September 26, 2021. You’ll have to hurry if you want to enter as the deadline for entry is 12:16 PM Pacific Time on Sunday, June 20. Note that all entries, whether you are selected to advance or not, can be used by Wizards of the Coast with or without credit in any future product and you cannot publish the material yourself outside the Dungeon Master’s Guild and then only with permission of Wizards of the Coast.
Chaosium announced that all of their HeroQuest titles will soon be unavailable to purchase. Following the transfer of the “HeroQuest” trademark to Hasbro, all products using that branding will have to be taken out of print. They shouldn’t stay gone long as Chaosium intends to bring back the material from the books in the Questworlds lines using the same rules as the HeroQuest books. The last day to purchase any of the HeroQuest line will be July 15, so if there are any books you’ve wanted for your collection, now is the time to get them.
A new roleplaying game from 26 Letter Publishing seeks to go into the paranormal realm of SCP this Monday with SCP: The Tabletop RPG. SCP (which stands for “Secure, Contain, Protect”) is a communal internet fiction project focused on the secretive SCP Foundation who investigates supernatural phenomena. An evolution of “creepypastas”, SCP stories are similarly short horror fiction about the things, people, and events the SCP investigates or has in their possession to study. The SCP Foundation draws influences from shows like X-Files, Twin Peaks, and Warehouse 13 while the SCP fiction itself inspired the video game Control. The new roleplaying, which was funded on Kickstarter last year, will use the same system as the CreepyPasta the Role-Playing Game released in 2018, a buy-dice system using a standard 7-die set. The SCP: The Tabletop RPG will be available on Monday, June 21 on DriveThruRPG (though there are several maps and accessories available for purchase now).
The Virtual Tabletop Bundle from HumbleBundle is a godsend for anyone playing tabletop roleplaying games online. This bundle over forty-five asset packs ready for use on any virtual tabletop with city/overland maps, battle-scale maps, tokens, markers, accessories, and more with a top pledge level to get everything at only $18. This bundle benefits the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society and runs until Thursday, July 1.
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.
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 Travis Vengroff to talk about the Dark Dice podcast and playing D&D with Jeff Goldblum.
In case you missed it elsewhere on EN World this week:
- EN5ider #396 is another Dangerous Scenario for 8th level characters, “Wyvern’s Apprentice” that pits the party against desert kobolds!
- EN5ider #397 is an adventure for 10th level characters continuing from To Stake a Vampire as a mage’s experiments go awry in To Smite a Fiend: Part One.
- EN Publishing now has a weekly update on everything coming from What’s OLD is NEW, Judge Dredd & the Worlds of 2000 AD, Awfully Cheerful Engine, and more!
- We have another look behind the scenes of the Dungeons & Dragons movie as a picture published by The Daily Mail shows actor Hugh Grant in costume.
- Renegade Games announced a new deluxe edition of the vampire “holy” text The Book of Nod for the World of Darkness as well as The Second Inquisition sourcebook for Vampire: The Masquerade.
- James Ward is auctioning off memos from his days in the TSR fiction department about the Ravenloft fiction line.
- Rob Wieland examines a selection of affordable 3D terrain with short reviews of four different lines of papercraft terrain.
- Charles Dunwoody reviewed the action-focused Pulp Cthulhu rules supplement for Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition and how it integrates into the cosmic horror game.
- Iconic Dungeons & Dragons artist Jeff Easley is selling prints of his some of his most famous pieces from the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition and 2nd Edition era.
- Lewis Pulsipher’s newest Worlds of Design column takes a look at the differences in storytelling approaches between novels and roleplaying games and how they can help you strengthen your games.
- Michael Tresca continues his culinary journey through Heroes’ Feast: The Official Dungeons & Dragons Cookbook with the meatless burgers from the Barrier Peaks.
- Have you ever been curious about who visits EN World? We’ve got the annual update of the anonymous user statistics for the site.
- M.T. Black looks back at the roleplaying periodicals in with Dragon Reflections #44 covering the December 1980 issue of The Dragon Magazine.
- Mike Myler’s newest Epic Monsters is 5e stats the Greek sea god and lord of the ocean depths, the original merman Triton.
- Don’t miss out on the newest RPG crowdfunding projects ending soon with Egg Embry’s RPG Crowdfunding News and keep up with all the new print RPG releases with Charles Dunwoody’s RPG Print News.
So we got a lot more Dungeons & Dragons news this week. First, Wizards of the Coast D&D Executive Producer Ray Winninger announced that there will be three new major books this year and not just the two announced last week. Aside from September’s The Wild Beyond the Witchlight from Chris Perkins and November’s Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos from Amanda Hamon, a third book is on its way led by James Wyatt between those two books. Morrus’ speculation is that it will be a new Draconomicon possibly leading into Dragonlance, but we won’t know for sure until G4 D&D live event this July (unless Amazon decides to give us another unscheduled “sneak preview”).
Speaking of the D&D Live event, a new charity stream was announced benefiting Extra Life featuring host Kate Welch and featuring Jack Black, Reggie Watts, Lauren Lapkus, Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes, and one other special guest yet to be announced.
That wasn’t all of Ray Winninger’s Twitter announcements about Dungeons & Dragons books in development.
That means, in addition to previous announcements, there will be two classic settings returning in 2022 in a new format, two brand new non-M:TG settings, and one classic setting returning to Dungeons & Dragons. What does “in a new format” mean exactly? Well, Wizards of the Coast CEO Chris Cocks spoke with Games Industry that there will be six new video games coming out over the next five years for Dungeons & Dragons. Aside from Baldur’s Gate 3 currently in early access and Dark Alliance 3 coming out later this month, that leaves four games. My personal speculation (with no evidence to back it up so a complete educated guess on my part) is that at least one of these will be a mobile game in some way. As for the others, the Games Industry interview seems to imply that there will be a Dragonlance video game.
So that’s a lot of new book announcements that haven’t actually been announced. For a time, there may have been a place to get some idea, the new Wizards of the Coast survey over the future of Dungeons & Dragons. Possibly. I can’t tell you for sure as I did not take the survey since, in order to participate, you must agree to a Non-Disclosure Agreement under punishment of “fines and/or further liabilities” for discussing the contents. As a journalist working in tabletop RPGs, that’s not really an agreement I can make, so I have no idea what was in the survey. Why the past tense? The survey is already down. Whether Wizards of the Coast got everything they needed during the few days the survey was live or if they took it down due to backlash from the NDA is unclear.
Between all the new announcements, the Magic: The Gathering crossover set, the upcoming video games, and the film, Wizards of the Coast expects a lot of interest in the game from new players. And they want to prepare game stores for the influx of new players with free supplements. Each Wizards Play Network store will receive an introductory adventure set in the Forgotten Realms along with Adventures in Forgotten Realms Spellbooks for participants in the second pre-release event. Additionally, customers who purchase any Dungeons & Dragons products will receive a Welcome Booster card set. Stores will receive twenty copies of each of the three promotional items starting this week in the United States and on June 25 in Europe, Japan, and Asia-Pacific countries.
We’re still not done with Dungeons & Dragons news, as the video game conference E3 was this weekend (though in an online capacity). During the Microsoft/Bethesda showcase, we got a release date for Dark Alliance 3 of June 22, 2021 – Yes, this Tuesday. The game comes out for Windows PCs, Xbox One/Series X/S, and Playstation 4/5. Preorders are available now with pre-install (meaning you can download and install the game now so you’re ready to play when it unlocks on Tuesday) for the Standard Edition at $39.99, a Deluxe Edition with the Echoes of the Blood War expansions for $59.99, or the Steelbook Edition for consoles for $59.99. Holders of an Xbox Game Pass account (either for PC or for Xbox) will be able to play the game on the day of release as part of their subscription, and cross-play between systems will be available (at least between Xbox consoles and Windows PCs).
That’s not the only tabletop RPG-related video game that got an update at E3, as Paradox Interactive released a trailer for Vampire: The Masquerade: Swansong. The narrative-focused game is scheduled for a release this year and weaves between the stories of three different Kindred in Boston, the Ventrue Galeb, the Toreador Emem, and the Malkavian Leysha (the focus of the new trailer). The trio is investigating a shootout that could endanger the goals of the new Prince Hazel Iverson’s attempts to strengthen the Camarilla on the East Coast. No firm release date was announced, but previously Paradox has stated that the game, designed by Big Bad Wolf (The Council), will release on Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4/5, and Xbox One/Series X/S.
Do you have what it takes to best the Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master Challenge? Wizards of the Coast have launched a design contest that is live now (started Thursday, June 17) with the challenge of a 1000-word entry due in 72 hours for the ultimate Complex Trap. The entries will be judged and the best ten designers will move on to the next challenge this July, with three of those becoming finalists for the September stage of the contest. The final winner will be announced during the D&D Celebration live stream broadcast on September 26, 2021. You’ll have to hurry if you want to enter as the deadline for entry is 12:16 PM Pacific Time on Sunday, June 20. Note that all entries, whether you are selected to advance or not, can be used by Wizards of the Coast with or without credit in any future product and you cannot publish the material yourself outside the Dungeon Master’s Guild and then only with permission of Wizards of the Coast.
Chaosium announced that all of their HeroQuest titles will soon be unavailable to purchase. Following the transfer of the “HeroQuest” trademark to Hasbro, all products using that branding will have to be taken out of print. They shouldn’t stay gone long as Chaosium intends to bring back the material from the books in the Questworlds lines using the same rules as the HeroQuest books. The last day to purchase any of the HeroQuest line will be July 15, so if there are any books you’ve wanted for your collection, now is the time to get them.
A new roleplaying game from 26 Letter Publishing seeks to go into the paranormal realm of SCP this Monday with SCP: The Tabletop RPG. SCP (which stands for “Secure, Contain, Protect”) is a communal internet fiction project focused on the secretive SCP Foundation who investigates supernatural phenomena. An evolution of “creepypastas”, SCP stories are similarly short horror fiction about the things, people, and events the SCP investigates or has in their possession to study. The SCP Foundation draws influences from shows like X-Files, Twin Peaks, and Warehouse 13 while the SCP fiction itself inspired the video game Control. The new roleplaying, which was funded on Kickstarter last year, will use the same system as the CreepyPasta the Role-Playing Game released in 2018, a buy-dice system using a standard 7-die set. The SCP: The Tabletop RPG will be available on Monday, June 21 on DriveThruRPG (though there are several maps and accessories available for purchase now).
The Virtual Tabletop Bundle from HumbleBundle is a godsend for anyone playing tabletop roleplaying games online. This bundle over forty-five asset packs ready for use on any virtual tabletop with city/overland maps, battle-scale maps, tokens, markers, accessories, and more with a top pledge level to get everything at only $18. This bundle benefits the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society and runs until Thursday, July 1.
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.
