Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news! More info about Dragonlance, tie-in books for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves announced, new location book for Pathfinder 2e coming soon, new Shadowrun sourcebook released, an update on the TSR lawsuit, 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 religion and myth in tabletop roleplaying.
In case you missed it elsewhere on EN World this week:
Wizards of the Coast have started to pick up their promotion for Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen with a series of videos about the Dragonlance setting and the world of Krynn. First we have the pre-order trailer which came out last week along with a short primer titled “Everything You Need to Play Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen”. Now the official Dungeons & Dragons YouTube channel is going piece by piece with new details about what to expect from the book. On Tuesday, they posted pair of videos titled “Who Are the Knights of Solamnia” and “Who Are the Mages of High Sorcery” explaining the two iconic organizations within Krynn and the new feat chains that will allow you to play them. On Wednesday game the new video “Lunar Sorcery Subclass” describing the Sorcerer subclass based on the phases of the world’s three moons. The 224-page hardcover adventure that takes a party from Level 1-10 during the early parts of the War of the Lance is set for a December 6 release and is available for pre-order now.
If you’ve been confused about what to get for the update of the Pathfinder Kingmaker Adventure Path, Paizo made a convenient post describing that’s in every product included with the release. The short version: Pathfinder Kingmaker Adventure Path contains all six chapters of the original adventure plus hundreds of pages of new content for Pathfinder 2nd Edition, to play in 5e you’ll also need the Pathfinder Kingmaker Bestiary (Fifth Edition) or if you want to go old school you’ll need the Pathfinder Kingmaker Bestiary (First Edition) for the 1st edition of Pathfinder. For fans of the video game adaptation who want to add the seven companion characters into their adventure, the Pathfinder Kingmaker Companion Guide includes full stats, rules, and additional quests to integrate those characters into the campaign along with extended rules for camping and weather. The Pathfinder Kingmaker: Kingdom Management Tracker is a 16-page folio to keep notes on your kingdom’s abilities, skills, resources, and events plus a blank map to draw your kingdom. Then there’s the typical accessories including a poster map folio, three sets of battle flipmaps, and a box of stand-up cardboard pawns. Pathfinder Kingmaker Adventure Path is available now from the Paizo store and hobby game stores and will be available in mass-market outlets starting November 14.
Paizo also announced details about the upcoming release Pathfinder Lost Omens Impossible Lands, the third regional expansion for Pathfinder 2nd Edition. The hardcover will work in concert with the Book of the Dead and Guns & Gears books and describes the land of the dead Geb, the land of steel and spell Nex, the land where wishes become wonders Jalmeray, the wild magic world Mana Wastes, and city of artisans who make weapons to kill gods Alkenstar. In addition to new location information, the book will include five new player character heritages (with my descriptions of them): Ghoran (plant people), Kashrishi (rhino people), Nagaji (snake people who look like snakes but with arms and legs), Vanara (monkey people), and Vishkanya (snake people who look like normal people but they’re made of venom). The 344-page hardcover is set for a November 2022 release with a retail price of $59.99 for the standard edition and $79.99 for the blue-colored faux-leather special edition.
Finally from Paizo for the week, they’re promoting three different crowdfunding campaigns live now from licensed partners. First from Campaign Coins is the Pathfinder Coins of Absalom project featuring replica “copper”, “silver”, and “gold” coins in different denominations. The second is the absolutely massive Ultimate Faeries Kickstarter from Legendary Games featuring over 1300 pages of content for Pathfinder 1st Edition, Pathfinder 2nd Edition, and Dungeons & Dragons 5e split into two hardcover books, Faerie Campaigns and Faerie Bestiary. Finally is the Savagesparrow Studios launch of the Kit and Kaboomle line of apparel including t-shirts, hoodies, dresses (with pockets!), and pins featuring Pathfinder’s iconic goblins. But that’s not all as Paizo also has a new bundle available on Humble Bundle featuring a total of 42 items for Pathfinder 2nd Edition and Starfinder – including a physical boxed set copy of Pathfinder 2nd Edition Beginner Box – available for $45 at the top tier benefitting the charity The Carl Brandon Society.
Catalyst Game Labs released Shadowrun Hack & Slash, the much-anticipated (or maybe just by me) core sourcebook covering hacking, technomancers, and the Matrix. The digital world of our timeline has changed since Shadowrun was originally conceived in 1989 and the digital world of Shadowrun itself has evolved as well. This book functions not just as a rules expansion but also a guide to how different the Matrix is following its reconstruction by the Corporate Court and placed under the authority of the Grid Overwatch Division. There’s plenty of fluff and explanations of how the world functions along with new rules for creating custom cyberdecks and agents, new Matrix actions, new programs, new positive and negative qualities for characters, new options for technomancers who use the Matrix like magic, and new digital “creatures” of artificial intelligence roaming the wilds of the Matrix on servers that weren’t quite upgraded. The PDF is available now on DriveThruRPG for $19.99 and the hardcover hitting store shelves in a matter of days with a retail price of $49.99.
Several tie-in products for the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons movie popped up this week. From comic book publisher IDW, we have Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves – The Feast of the Moon telling the events leading up to the film. Written by Jeremy Lambert and Ellen Boener with art from Eduardo Ferigato and Guillermo Sanna, the graphic novel features Edgin, Forge, Holga, and Simon stranded in a town besieged by The Bandit King along with a second story about the paladin Xenk’s journey into the Underdark to protect a dangerous artifact. The 96-page graphic novel will be available in stores for $14.99 and can be pre-ordered on Amazon’s Comixology for $9.99 for a February 22, 2023 release.
For those wondering about the druid Doric, her origin will come through the YA novel Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: The Druid’s Call by E. K. Johnston. Additionally, there will be one further prequel novel titled Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: The Road to Neverwinter by Jaleigh Johnson. Very few details are available about these two titles, but both will release on February 7, 2023.
Q Workshop announced an interesting product, a system-neutral RPG Starter Kit. This piqued my interest as it fills a niche in the market with the increasing move to digital books and products by allowing new players to get all the physical accessories they need in one easy set regardless of their system of choice. The kit features a set of Elvish-themed Q Workshop dice along with matching dice bag, a player’s notebook, an automatic pencil with eraser, and a wooden tablet to keep track of…well it says for your level, but it could work for hit points, FATE points, Edge points, or anything else you’d need to keep track of at the table. The RPG Starter Kit is available for $25.00 and is available from the Q Workshop website now and retailers soon.
We have another update on the lawsuit between Wizards of the Coast and Justin LaNasa, “TSR LLC”, and The Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum. We now know what the hearing reported on last week was about, and it was the second speculated option: Wizards of the Coast has filed a protective order governing conduct toward witnesses. If approved, it will prevent Justin LaNasa or anyone else associated with TSR LLC or the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum from posting any “public, limited audience, or private statements intended to or likely to have the effect of harassing, intimidating, threatening, or otherwise improperly influencing witnesses in this litigation”. Additionally, the order will prevent LaNasa from posting any personal information about witnesses even if it’s publicly available information, using a witness’s name or likeness in a “derogatory or harassing manner”, and the rather specific order against “false or harassing reports to law enforcement about a witness”. The latter may be a reference to LaNasa’s attempts to have people report Wizard Tower Games owner Don Semora for “stolen valor” by making claims he falsely represented himself as a veteran of the United States Armed Services. The order will also prevent LaNasa from attempting to solicit or encourage others to harass any witnesses on his behalf. While the order applies to both parties in the lawsuit, there is no current evidence that Wizards of the Coast have engaged in any similar behavior. The protective order, if granted, will apply to “traditional media, blogs, public statements, and social media, including but not limited to Facebook, YouTube, Discord, Twitter, EN World, and any other internet forum.” LaNasa has until November 2 to respond to the request.
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, Peter, and Jessica talk about religion and myth in tabletop roleplaying.
In case you missed it elsewhere on EN World this week:
- EN Publishing announced that late pledges are open for the Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition sourcebook Dungeon Delver’s Guide.
- EN5ider #480 is a collection of new spells, “Tribwil’s Troublesome Illusions” with seven new illusion spells to distract foes, fool opponents, or just cause general chaos.
- Charles Dunwoody interviewed Christina Lea, co-author of the one-short horror adventure TerrorHog: A Crawlspace Event.
- Charles also spoke with JM about Elemental and the new zombie horror campaign for the system, Outbreak.
- Rob Wieland looks back at the retro RPG Star Frontiers: Alpha Dawn boxed set originally published in 1982 by TSR Inc.
- Lewis Pulsipher’s newest Worlds of Design talks about the issues adapting a story or setting between different mediums and how it affects tabletop roleplaying games.
- Michael Tresca addresses the most dangerous foe of modern tabletop gaming. No, not an archdemon or tarrasque, but…scheduling issues and an incomplete group!
- 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 have started to pick up their promotion for Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen with a series of videos about the Dragonlance setting and the world of Krynn. First we have the pre-order trailer which came out last week along with a short primer titled “Everything You Need to Play Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen”. Now the official Dungeons & Dragons YouTube channel is going piece by piece with new details about what to expect from the book. On Tuesday, they posted pair of videos titled “Who Are the Knights of Solamnia” and “Who Are the Mages of High Sorcery” explaining the two iconic organizations within Krynn and the new feat chains that will allow you to play them. On Wednesday game the new video “Lunar Sorcery Subclass” describing the Sorcerer subclass based on the phases of the world’s three moons. The 224-page hardcover adventure that takes a party from Level 1-10 during the early parts of the War of the Lance is set for a December 6 release and is available for pre-order now.
If you’ve been confused about what to get for the update of the Pathfinder Kingmaker Adventure Path, Paizo made a convenient post describing that’s in every product included with the release. The short version: Pathfinder Kingmaker Adventure Path contains all six chapters of the original adventure plus hundreds of pages of new content for Pathfinder 2nd Edition, to play in 5e you’ll also need the Pathfinder Kingmaker Bestiary (Fifth Edition) or if you want to go old school you’ll need the Pathfinder Kingmaker Bestiary (First Edition) for the 1st edition of Pathfinder. For fans of the video game adaptation who want to add the seven companion characters into their adventure, the Pathfinder Kingmaker Companion Guide includes full stats, rules, and additional quests to integrate those characters into the campaign along with extended rules for camping and weather. The Pathfinder Kingmaker: Kingdom Management Tracker is a 16-page folio to keep notes on your kingdom’s abilities, skills, resources, and events plus a blank map to draw your kingdom. Then there’s the typical accessories including a poster map folio, three sets of battle flipmaps, and a box of stand-up cardboard pawns. Pathfinder Kingmaker Adventure Path is available now from the Paizo store and hobby game stores and will be available in mass-market outlets starting November 14.
Paizo also announced details about the upcoming release Pathfinder Lost Omens Impossible Lands, the third regional expansion for Pathfinder 2nd Edition. The hardcover will work in concert with the Book of the Dead and Guns & Gears books and describes the land of the dead Geb, the land of steel and spell Nex, the land where wishes become wonders Jalmeray, the wild magic world Mana Wastes, and city of artisans who make weapons to kill gods Alkenstar. In addition to new location information, the book will include five new player character heritages (with my descriptions of them): Ghoran (plant people), Kashrishi (rhino people), Nagaji (snake people who look like snakes but with arms and legs), Vanara (monkey people), and Vishkanya (snake people who look like normal people but they’re made of venom). The 344-page hardcover is set for a November 2022 release with a retail price of $59.99 for the standard edition and $79.99 for the blue-colored faux-leather special edition.
Finally from Paizo for the week, they’re promoting three different crowdfunding campaigns live now from licensed partners. First from Campaign Coins is the Pathfinder Coins of Absalom project featuring replica “copper”, “silver”, and “gold” coins in different denominations. The second is the absolutely massive Ultimate Faeries Kickstarter from Legendary Games featuring over 1300 pages of content for Pathfinder 1st Edition, Pathfinder 2nd Edition, and Dungeons & Dragons 5e split into two hardcover books, Faerie Campaigns and Faerie Bestiary. Finally is the Savagesparrow Studios launch of the Kit and Kaboomle line of apparel including t-shirts, hoodies, dresses (with pockets!), and pins featuring Pathfinder’s iconic goblins. But that’s not all as Paizo also has a new bundle available on Humble Bundle featuring a total of 42 items for Pathfinder 2nd Edition and Starfinder – including a physical boxed set copy of Pathfinder 2nd Edition Beginner Box – available for $45 at the top tier benefitting the charity The Carl Brandon Society.
Catalyst Game Labs released Shadowrun Hack & Slash, the much-anticipated (or maybe just by me) core sourcebook covering hacking, technomancers, and the Matrix. The digital world of our timeline has changed since Shadowrun was originally conceived in 1989 and the digital world of Shadowrun itself has evolved as well. This book functions not just as a rules expansion but also a guide to how different the Matrix is following its reconstruction by the Corporate Court and placed under the authority of the Grid Overwatch Division. There’s plenty of fluff and explanations of how the world functions along with new rules for creating custom cyberdecks and agents, new Matrix actions, new programs, new positive and negative qualities for characters, new options for technomancers who use the Matrix like magic, and new digital “creatures” of artificial intelligence roaming the wilds of the Matrix on servers that weren’t quite upgraded. The PDF is available now on DriveThruRPG for $19.99 and the hardcover hitting store shelves in a matter of days with a retail price of $49.99.
Several tie-in products for the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons movie popped up this week. From comic book publisher IDW, we have Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves – The Feast of the Moon telling the events leading up to the film. Written by Jeremy Lambert and Ellen Boener with art from Eduardo Ferigato and Guillermo Sanna, the graphic novel features Edgin, Forge, Holga, and Simon stranded in a town besieged by The Bandit King along with a second story about the paladin Xenk’s journey into the Underdark to protect a dangerous artifact. The 96-page graphic novel will be available in stores for $14.99 and can be pre-ordered on Amazon’s Comixology for $9.99 for a February 22, 2023 release.
For those wondering about the druid Doric, her origin will come through the YA novel Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: The Druid’s Call by E. K. Johnston. Additionally, there will be one further prequel novel titled Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: The Road to Neverwinter by Jaleigh Johnson. Very few details are available about these two titles, but both will release on February 7, 2023.
Q Workshop announced an interesting product, a system-neutral RPG Starter Kit. This piqued my interest as it fills a niche in the market with the increasing move to digital books and products by allowing new players to get all the physical accessories they need in one easy set regardless of their system of choice. The kit features a set of Elvish-themed Q Workshop dice along with matching dice bag, a player’s notebook, an automatic pencil with eraser, and a wooden tablet to keep track of…well it says for your level, but it could work for hit points, FATE points, Edge points, or anything else you’d need to keep track of at the table. The RPG Starter Kit is available for $25.00 and is available from the Q Workshop website now and retailers soon.
We have another update on the lawsuit between Wizards of the Coast and Justin LaNasa, “TSR LLC”, and The Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum. We now know what the hearing reported on last week was about, and it was the second speculated option: Wizards of the Coast has filed a protective order governing conduct toward witnesses. If approved, it will prevent Justin LaNasa or anyone else associated with TSR LLC or the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum from posting any “public, limited audience, or private statements intended to or likely to have the effect of harassing, intimidating, threatening, or otherwise improperly influencing witnesses in this litigation”. Additionally, the order will prevent LaNasa from posting any personal information about witnesses even if it’s publicly available information, using a witness’s name or likeness in a “derogatory or harassing manner”, and the rather specific order against “false or harassing reports to law enforcement about a witness”. The latter may be a reference to LaNasa’s attempts to have people report Wizard Tower Games owner Don Semora for “stolen valor” by making claims he falsely represented himself as a veteran of the United States Armed Services. The order will also prevent LaNasa from attempting to solicit or encourage others to harass any witnesses on his behalf. While the order applies to both parties in the lawsuit, there is no current evidence that Wizards of the Coast have engaged in any similar behavior. The protective order, if granted, will apply to “traditional media, blogs, public statements, and social media, including but not limited to Facebook, YouTube, Discord, Twitter, EN World, and any other internet forum.” LaNasa has until November 2 to respond to the request.
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.
