Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news. New Unearthed Arcana for Dungeons & Dragons, more previews and playtests for Level Up 5e, Terminator RPG Kickstarter launches, Lasers & Feelings gets a public license, 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 Cassandra MacDonald to talk about DIESEL and Level Up 5e.
In case you missed it elsewhere on EN World this week:
Wizards of the Coast released a new Unearthed Arcana with four playtest races for Dungeons & Dragons all with a Fey-based origin. The Fey is a Small-sized flying, well, fey that has innate spellcasting and can squeeze through a space as narrow as one inch. The Hobgoblin of the Feywild is a variation on the Hobgoblin that is Medium-sized with an advantage against being charmed and the ability to use Help as a bonus action. Owlfolk are either Small or Medium sized (your choice at character creation) who can cast detect magic as a ritual and can fly. Rabbitfolk are also either Small or Medium sized, has a hopping ability to add extra movement, can use their reaction to add a d4 to any failed Dexterity save, and add their proficiency bonus to initiative thanks to an ability called…sigh…”hare-trigger”. Following the rapid announcement of Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft following the undead and gothic themed Unearthed Arcana, social media speculation immediately went to two places: An updated Planescape/Manual of the Planes, and a re-imagining of the two-part modules for AD&D 1st Ed by Gary Gygax, EX1 Dungeonland and EX2 The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror.
Speaking of playtest material, EN Publishing released not one, not two, but three new looks at the upcoming Level Up 5e. First, there’s a new playtest document for the wizard class with the first ten levels available. The biggest changes from the base class are the Level Up wizard gets “Wizard’s Flair” that can add some extra oomph to spells cast and the class’s Exploration Knacks which are keenly tuned to the arcane spellcaster’s flavor. Also, wizards get the cantrip prestidigitation for free, which allows all wizards to use minor magical effects without spending one of their choices just to make illusionary glitter and add a reverb effect to their voice. We also got a new look at one of the biggest expansions in Level Up, the exploration pillar and how the challenges, boons, monster signs, supplies, and safe havens all come together to create an interesting system for storytelling dangerous exploration. And as an added bonus, we got a look at one of those monsters in the green dragon who has become an incredibly dangerous and deceptive ambush predator.
Nightfall Games officially launched the Kickstarter for the Terminator Roleplaying Game based on the James Cameron film series. The 192-page hardcover will feature rules using the S5S System (previously used in SLA Industries 2nd Edition) to cover the history of the present day and the future war and rules to play in multiple eras. There are also specific weapons rules so that your party in the early 1990s doesn’t have to worry about a Terminator with an M-25 Phased Plasma Pulse-Gun in the 40-watt range. The PDF is available for a £12 (about US$17) pledge, the hardcover for a £40 (about US$56) pledge, and the “Come With Me If You Want to Live” pack featuring the hardcover, GM’s guide, and GM’s screen for £55 (about US$77). This Kickstarter is fully funded and runs until Monday, April 5.
John Harper, the creator of the early microRPG Lasers & Feelings, has updated the license for the game to allow monetization of hacks of the system. Inspired by the music of The Doubleclicks, Lasers & Feelings is a game where your characters have two scores: Lasers and Feelings. The game was originally released under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial Share-A-Like 3.0 license which allowed other creators to make their own versions of the game so long as they did not sell them commercially and released their version under a Creative Commons license as well. Harper has now changed the license to a Creative Commons Attribution license, meaning that creators can now sell their versions of the game so long as they credit Harper for the original design. The original Lasers & Feelings is available as pay-what-you-want from John Harper’s Itch.io page.
Coyote & Crow is a science fantasy roleplaying game in an alternate history where colonialism never happened with a Native American design team. Seven hundred years ago, a purple streak shot across the sky leaving two remnants behind, a centuries-long ice age and purple marks on some people, animals, and plants that gave supernatural abilities. Now that the ice sheets are fading, the world is beginning to recover with new technologies and old grudges. The game uses a custom d12 dice pool system where combat is only one way of resolving a conflict. The PDF is available for a $20 pledge, while the hardcover is available for $50. This Kickstarter is closing in on half a million dollars and will fund on Thursday, April 1.
Paizo unveiled a new line for their Pathfinder 2nd Edition digital adventures, One-Shots. Each adventure will have everything for a single session of adventuring both at your home table and sanctioned for use in the Pathfinder Society organized play. The first of these adventures is Sundered Waves by Pathfinder creator Jason Bulmahn featuring a puzzle-filled pirate’s dungeon. The adventure is available from the Paizo store for $5 and has a Fantasy Grounds version for $4.99 with other virtual tabletop modules coming soon.
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 Cassandra MacDonald to talk about DIESEL and Level Up 5e.
- EN5ider #380 once again brings us more of the low-powered magic items in Enchanted Trinkets, this time trinkets focused on arcane study and learning.
- The second adventure from the Zeitgeist adventure path for 5e, The Gears of Revolution, is now available on Roll20 as a fully-featured module.
- Beth Rimmels has a review of the Dungeons & Dragons adventure anthology collection Candlekeep Mysteries.
- The D&D 5e-based video game Solasta: Crown of the Magister currently in early access added a new feature, a dungeon builder mode to allow players to create their own levels.
- Modiphius announced the release of the 2d20 rules system for the Achtung! Cthulhu setting this week.
- Speaking of Cthulhu, Michael Tresca has a review of the Cthulhu Dice Tower available from CZYY.
- And even more Cthulhu, Rob Wieland reviewed the two-volume sourcebook Malleus Monstrorum, a Mythos bestiary for Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition.
- And sticking with Chaosium, we have a new column focusing on the Jonstown Compendium highlighting the newest additions to the Runequest and Questworld community content program.
- With the conclusion of The One Ring 2nd Edition Kickstarter closing at over $2 million, Morrus rounded up all the roleplaying game Kickstarters that broke the million dollar mark.
- Lewis Pulsipher’s newest Worlds of Design talks about the simple but easy to forget step of writing down and backing up your ideas.
- Mike Myler expands the Epic Monsters with the angel most commonly misrepresented in modern art who serve as attendants to God and the guardians of the Gates of Eden, the Cherub.
- 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.
Wizards of the Coast released a new Unearthed Arcana with four playtest races for Dungeons & Dragons all with a Fey-based origin. The Fey is a Small-sized flying, well, fey that has innate spellcasting and can squeeze through a space as narrow as one inch. The Hobgoblin of the Feywild is a variation on the Hobgoblin that is Medium-sized with an advantage against being charmed and the ability to use Help as a bonus action. Owlfolk are either Small or Medium sized (your choice at character creation) who can cast detect magic as a ritual and can fly. Rabbitfolk are also either Small or Medium sized, has a hopping ability to add extra movement, can use their reaction to add a d4 to any failed Dexterity save, and add their proficiency bonus to initiative thanks to an ability called…sigh…”hare-trigger”. Following the rapid announcement of Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft following the undead and gothic themed Unearthed Arcana, social media speculation immediately went to two places: An updated Planescape/Manual of the Planes, and a re-imagining of the two-part modules for AD&D 1st Ed by Gary Gygax, EX1 Dungeonland and EX2 The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror.
Speaking of playtest material, EN Publishing released not one, not two, but three new looks at the upcoming Level Up 5e. First, there’s a new playtest document for the wizard class with the first ten levels available. The biggest changes from the base class are the Level Up wizard gets “Wizard’s Flair” that can add some extra oomph to spells cast and the class’s Exploration Knacks which are keenly tuned to the arcane spellcaster’s flavor. Also, wizards get the cantrip prestidigitation for free, which allows all wizards to use minor magical effects without spending one of their choices just to make illusionary glitter and add a reverb effect to their voice. We also got a new look at one of the biggest expansions in Level Up, the exploration pillar and how the challenges, boons, monster signs, supplies, and safe havens all come together to create an interesting system for storytelling dangerous exploration. And as an added bonus, we got a look at one of those monsters in the green dragon who has become an incredibly dangerous and deceptive ambush predator.
Nightfall Games officially launched the Kickstarter for the Terminator Roleplaying Game based on the James Cameron film series. The 192-page hardcover will feature rules using the S5S System (previously used in SLA Industries 2nd Edition) to cover the history of the present day and the future war and rules to play in multiple eras. There are also specific weapons rules so that your party in the early 1990s doesn’t have to worry about a Terminator with an M-25 Phased Plasma Pulse-Gun in the 40-watt range. The PDF is available for a £12 (about US$17) pledge, the hardcover for a £40 (about US$56) pledge, and the “Come With Me If You Want to Live” pack featuring the hardcover, GM’s guide, and GM’s screen for £55 (about US$77). This Kickstarter is fully funded and runs until Monday, April 5.
John Harper, the creator of the early microRPG Lasers & Feelings, has updated the license for the game to allow monetization of hacks of the system. Inspired by the music of The Doubleclicks, Lasers & Feelings is a game where your characters have two scores: Lasers and Feelings. The game was originally released under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial Share-A-Like 3.0 license which allowed other creators to make their own versions of the game so long as they did not sell them commercially and released their version under a Creative Commons license as well. Harper has now changed the license to a Creative Commons Attribution license, meaning that creators can now sell their versions of the game so long as they credit Harper for the original design. The original Lasers & Feelings is available as pay-what-you-want from John Harper’s Itch.io page.
Coyote & Crow is a science fantasy roleplaying game in an alternate history where colonialism never happened with a Native American design team. Seven hundred years ago, a purple streak shot across the sky leaving two remnants behind, a centuries-long ice age and purple marks on some people, animals, and plants that gave supernatural abilities. Now that the ice sheets are fading, the world is beginning to recover with new technologies and old grudges. The game uses a custom d12 dice pool system where combat is only one way of resolving a conflict. The PDF is available for a $20 pledge, while the hardcover is available for $50. This Kickstarter is closing in on half a million dollars and will fund on Thursday, April 1.
Paizo unveiled a new line for their Pathfinder 2nd Edition digital adventures, One-Shots. Each adventure will have everything for a single session of adventuring both at your home table and sanctioned for use in the Pathfinder Society organized play. The first of these adventures is Sundered Waves by Pathfinder creator Jason Bulmahn featuring a puzzle-filled pirate’s dungeon. The adventure is available from the Paizo store for $5 and has a Fantasy Grounds version for $4.99 with other virtual tabletop modules coming soon.
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.
