Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news! New releases for Starfinder and Pathfinder, new Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves merchandise, the Lone Wolf adventure books get an updated reprint, 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 how dice mechanics of an RPG influence how it feels to play.
In case you missed it elsewhere on EN World this week:
Paizo announced an update for Starfinder with the release of Starfinder Enhanced. Similar to the “Unchained” line for Pathfinder, this update is not a new edition but a collection of new options to update and revise several core classes and species. The book will include all new versions of the envoy, solarian, technomancer, and witchwarper classes along with new class features and options for every Starfinder class published to date. Twelve new playable species will be introduced or revised including kitsune and novians. There will also be new archetypes, spells, equipment, and feats plus rules for scalable equipment so your favorite gear can level up with your character. Optional subsystems for narrative starship combat, expanded creature companion options, and new uses for Resolve Points will also be included. The hardcover is available for preorder new with a release scheduled for October.
Paizo also announced a return to Tian Xia with a new adventure path and new sourcebooks. The adventure path Season of Ghosts will take characters from 1st to 12th level across four books, one for each season of the year. The first book, The Summer that Never Wars, is set for release in October and places the characters in the haunted lands of Shenmen after the small town of Willowshore celebrates the Season of Ghosts, a local festival meant to appease the evil spirits of the land and ensure the safety of the village for the coming year. Of course, something went wrong and the party must intervene and help protect the village from the vengeful ghosts.
Then coming in 2024 is not one but two books from the rules and lore team covering the region. Lost Omens Tian Xia World Guide covers the nations and cultures that inhabit Tian Xia with a look at the whole history of the region from the elemental hegemony and yaoguai wars in ancient times to the return of Hao Jin in the modern era and the secrets of the undying emperor Yixing. Then the Lost Omens Tian Xia Character Guide will include rules for six brand new ancestries and multiple backgrounds, heritages, and feats plus new options for existing ancestries that exist in Tian Xia. Announced so far are the Samsarans (beings that have been reincarnated many times and can draw on the skills from their past lives), wayangs (diasporic people who have sailed from the Shadow Planes to the oceans and forests of Tian Xia), and tanuki (fun-loving tricksters and shapeshifters who seek to get the most out of life before their luck runs out).
Paizo also announced the creative team for the line:
Paizo also became the latest tabletop RPG company to issue a statement against the use of algorithmically generated artwork. Paizo joins Chaosium and EN Publishing in take a stance against the use of artwork and text generated through algorithms sometimes called “AI art” in favor of human creators. From the statement:
With the release of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves coming later this month, the release of tie-in merchandise has exploded. First, there are new entries in the Dicelings line of toy monsters that transform into d20 dice, the Displacer Beast, Blue Beholder, and White Dragon available in June for $13.99 each. Next, we have the line of action figures including Edgin the Bard, Simon the Sorcerer, Holga the Barbarian, and Forge the Rogue. Each of these will be available in August for $24.99. And if you’re wondering where Doric the Druid is, her figure is of her owlbear wildshape form available for $44.99. Also, last fall Hasbro released a line of action figures based on the 1980s Dungeons & Dragons cartoon that seemed to lack a few members of the party. Well, this August Eric the Cavalier, Presto the Wizard, and Sheila the Thief will join the rest of the group at $24.99 each.
Holmgard Press announced paperback reprints of the classic Lone Wolf series of adventure books. The series by Joe Dever read similarly to the Choose Your Own Adventure or Fighting Fantasy novels where readers make decisions for the character to advance the story, only with an ongoing story spanning multiple volumes set in the world of Magnamund. This new paperback edition will feature new cover art along with additional material maps and expansions previously published in the hardcover Definitive Edition. The first three books in the series, Flight from the Dark, Fire on the Water, and The Caverns of Kalte, have been released with the remainder of the series scheduled for releases across 2023 into 2024. This marks the first time the entire series will be reprinted in paperback by a single publisher since its original release.
Fragging Unicorn Games launched the Kickstarter for their urban fantasy cyberpunk game Subversion. Set in Neo-Babylon, the same world as their miniature skirmish wargame Gangs of the Undercity, the game fuses fantasy with cyberpunk that attempts to twist the normal dystopian feel on its head by focusing on community, direct action, revolution, and hope. Players will work together to create their community and its goals along with the rivals and antagonists that will be the focus of the campaign. The game uses a d6 dice pool system with a beta document available for public preview which allows as much a focus on relationships as combat where getting worn down, broken, or betraying your principles is as much a danger as bleeding out in an alleyway. And if the setting sounds a bit like Shadowrun, that would be because much of the design team are current freelance developers on Shadowrun for Catalyst Game Labs who have set out to create a unique game within the same niche subgenre that focuses more on community and direct action than on mercenary freelance corporate espionage. This Kickstarter is fully funded and runs until Thursday, March 23.
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, follow me on Mastodon for RPG chat and general nonsense, 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, Peter, and Jessica talk about how dice mechanics of an RPG influence how it feels to play.
In case you missed it elsewhere on EN World this week:
- The finale of the EN Live series Against the Dragonlords aired this week with the climax of the DL1: Dragons of Despair module for Dragonlance played with Level Up: Advanced 5e rules.
- The EN Publishing Kickstarter for Keep Your Powder Dry is now live featuring full rules for firearms in your 5e games with more than 40 firearms, customization, magic items, feats, and more!
- EN5ider #501 is a new entry in the Monstrous Menagerie series with a collection of Unique Undead with four brand new horrors from beyond the grave.
- EN Publishing partnered with Bundle of Holding for a bundle of the adventure path War of the Burning Sky, a 12-part campaign for Dungeons & Dragons 5e set in the midst of a sprawling war.
- Egg Embry interviewed Elaine Lithgow about Cubicle 7’s new post-apocalyptic fantasy game Broken Weave.
- Rob Wieland has a new retro review of the new hardback edition of Monster of the Week from Evil Hat Productions.
- Following a record-breaking crowdfunding effort, Magpie Games announced the new starter set for Avatar Legends will be available exclusively at Target stores in the United States.
- Dawn Dalton rounds up all the Paizo news for the week including a rundown of all the new releases for Pathfinder and Starfinder.
- Egg Embry gives a rundown of the Andrews McMeel Universal exit from the roleplaying game market and the complications it caused for several game lines.
- Egg Embry also spoke with Michael Best about the all-ages crafting roleplaying game Kids Arcanum: A Crafty Quest Box.
- Chappy Thoughts discusses the place of quickstart rules by looking at some examples from different systems.
- 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.
Paizo announced an update for Starfinder with the release of Starfinder Enhanced. Similar to the “Unchained” line for Pathfinder, this update is not a new edition but a collection of new options to update and revise several core classes and species. The book will include all new versions of the envoy, solarian, technomancer, and witchwarper classes along with new class features and options for every Starfinder class published to date. Twelve new playable species will be introduced or revised including kitsune and novians. There will also be new archetypes, spells, equipment, and feats plus rules for scalable equipment so your favorite gear can level up with your character. Optional subsystems for narrative starship combat, expanded creature companion options, and new uses for Resolve Points will also be included. The hardcover is available for preorder new with a release scheduled for October.
Paizo also announced a return to Tian Xia with a new adventure path and new sourcebooks. The adventure path Season of Ghosts will take characters from 1st to 12th level across four books, one for each season of the year. The first book, The Summer that Never Wars, is set for release in October and places the characters in the haunted lands of Shenmen after the small town of Willowshore celebrates the Season of Ghosts, a local festival meant to appease the evil spirits of the land and ensure the safety of the village for the coming year. Of course, something went wrong and the party must intervene and help protect the village from the vengeful ghosts.
Then coming in 2024 is not one but two books from the rules and lore team covering the region. Lost Omens Tian Xia World Guide covers the nations and cultures that inhabit Tian Xia with a look at the whole history of the region from the elemental hegemony and yaoguai wars in ancient times to the return of Hao Jin in the modern era and the secrets of the undying emperor Yixing. Then the Lost Omens Tian Xia Character Guide will include rules for six brand new ancestries and multiple backgrounds, heritages, and feats plus new options for existing ancestries that exist in Tian Xia. Announced so far are the Samsarans (beings that have been reincarnated many times and can draw on the skills from their past lives), wayangs (diasporic people who have sailed from the Shadow Planes to the oceans and forests of Tian Xia), and tanuki (fun-loving tricksters and shapeshifters who seek to get the most out of life before their luck runs out).
Paizo also announced the creative team for the line:
Paizo also became the latest tabletop RPG company to issue a statement against the use of algorithmically generated artwork. Paizo joins Chaosium and EN Publishing in take a stance against the use of artwork and text generated through algorithms sometimes called “AI art” in favor of human creators. From the statement:
With the release of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves coming later this month, the release of tie-in merchandise has exploded. First, there are new entries in the Dicelings line of toy monsters that transform into d20 dice, the Displacer Beast, Blue Beholder, and White Dragon available in June for $13.99 each. Next, we have the line of action figures including Edgin the Bard, Simon the Sorcerer, Holga the Barbarian, and Forge the Rogue. Each of these will be available in August for $24.99. And if you’re wondering where Doric the Druid is, her figure is of her owlbear wildshape form available for $44.99. Also, last fall Hasbro released a line of action figures based on the 1980s Dungeons & Dragons cartoon that seemed to lack a few members of the party. Well, this August Eric the Cavalier, Presto the Wizard, and Sheila the Thief will join the rest of the group at $24.99 each.
Holmgard Press announced paperback reprints of the classic Lone Wolf series of adventure books. The series by Joe Dever read similarly to the Choose Your Own Adventure or Fighting Fantasy novels where readers make decisions for the character to advance the story, only with an ongoing story spanning multiple volumes set in the world of Magnamund. This new paperback edition will feature new cover art along with additional material maps and expansions previously published in the hardcover Definitive Edition. The first three books in the series, Flight from the Dark, Fire on the Water, and The Caverns of Kalte, have been released with the remainder of the series scheduled for releases across 2023 into 2024. This marks the first time the entire series will be reprinted in paperback by a single publisher since its original release.
Fragging Unicorn Games launched the Kickstarter for their urban fantasy cyberpunk game Subversion. Set in Neo-Babylon, the same world as their miniature skirmish wargame Gangs of the Undercity, the game fuses fantasy with cyberpunk that attempts to twist the normal dystopian feel on its head by focusing on community, direct action, revolution, and hope. Players will work together to create their community and its goals along with the rivals and antagonists that will be the focus of the campaign. The game uses a d6 dice pool system with a beta document available for public preview which allows as much a focus on relationships as combat where getting worn down, broken, or betraying your principles is as much a danger as bleeding out in an alleyway. And if the setting sounds a bit like Shadowrun, that would be because much of the design team are current freelance developers on Shadowrun for Catalyst Game Labs who have set out to create a unique game within the same niche subgenre that focuses more on community and direct action than on mercenary freelance corporate espionage. This Kickstarter is fully funded and runs until Thursday, March 23.
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, follow me on Mastodon for RPG chat and general nonsense, 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.
