Hello everyone, Darryl here after a week off moving with this week’s tabletop gaming news digest! New information on Volo’s Guide to Monsters, Modiphius and Fantasy Flight working together, a Munchkin coloring book, new CCG releases for Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh, Barnes & Noble expanding their gaming meet-up, and more!
Wizards of the Coast has updated its product page for Volo’s Guide to Monsters with further information about the release. Similar to previous Volo’s Guide books from other editions, this book will have annotations from Elminster as he corrects what he believes Volo gets wrong. The first chapter covers Monster Lore for creatures such as beholders, mind flayers, yuan-ti, orcs, gnolls, kobolds, and more. The second chapter presents new Character Race options including goblins, orcs, and firbolg. The third chapter is a Bestiary containing stats for nearly 100 new monsters including the froghemoth, the neogi, and the vargouille. The book is 224 pages and releases on November 15 with a retail price of $49.95. While you can pre-order from Amazon, the cover above is an alternate cover only available at hobby stores in limited supplies.
While there hasn’t been a trading card game for D&D in print since Spellfire, Ultra PRO is nonetheless bringing us a series of Dungeons & Dragons themed card accessories featuring art of a Fire Giant, a Beholder, and Count Strahd von Zorovich. The release includes three different sets of card sleeves with one of the three themes containing 50 sleeves at a retail price of $5.99, deck boxes capable of holding 80 sleeved cards with a deck divider for $2.99, and a playmat featuring artwork Storm King’s Thunder for $21.95. This series is expected in stores this November.
Modiphius Entertainment signed a deal with Fantasy Flight Games to distribute their miniature game Mutant Chronicles: Siege of the Citadel. Development will still be in the hands of Modiphius and their designers, Richard Borg, Eric M. Lang, and Kevin Wilson; but distribution, translation and localization, and publishing will be handled by Fantasy Flight. This deal was announced on October 5, just days before the closing of the game’s Kickstarter campaign on October 8, which raised over $600,000 from over 4300 backers.
Steve Jackson Games has added yet another store exclusive to their catalog for Munchkin, this one for Books-a-Million. The Munchkin Alphabet Activity Kit includes a coloring book with original art from John Kovalic, ten new Munchkin cards themed after the coloring book, three bookmarks ready to color, a mini-poster, and six colored pencils for a retail price of $11.99. There is also a contest running until October 18 to win one of three copies of the Activity Kit signed by Steve Jackson. To enter, you must print out the sample page (available in the link above) and share on social media using the hashtag #ColorAMunchkin. The Munchkin Alphabet Coloring Book, which includes only the book itself and the ten associated Munchkin cards, will be available in hobby stores for a retail price of $6.95.
Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn from Plaid Hat Games has been difficult to obtain recently, and a creative post from Plaid Hat founder Colby Dauch explains why. While I encourage fans to read the release for yourself (as Dauch did a great job turning a dry update into something entertaining), the summary is that the game and its expansions have sold far beyond expectations, causing delays in restocking. New expansions and the organized play rules are being delayed as Plaid Hat’s parent company, F2Z, is in negotiations to be purchased by Asmodee. Due to legal issues surrounding those negotiations, Plaid Hat is waiting for them to be finalized before releasing any new products, according to the press release.
The Pokemon collectible card game is still rolling along with new releases for the holiday season and beyond. Special boxed sets focusing on the pokemon Moloetta and Snorlax release on December 1st and December 14th respectively, each containing exclusive foil cards of the featured pokemon and a number of booster packs, two from the Pokemon TCG: Generations expansion for Moloetta and four from the core set for Snorlax. The Break Evolution Box comes out on January 6th featuring five core set booster packs plus exclusive foil BREAK versions of Arcanie, Crobat, and Mandibuzz. Decks themed around the new video game Sun and Moon release on January 20th featuring three new decks built around Rowlet, Litten, and Poppilo. All of these sets will also include code cards for the online version of the game.
Yu-Gi-Oh made its presence known at New York Comic Con as Konami showed off five new expansions for the trading card game coming out in February and March of 2017. The Raging Tempest booster set releases on February 10, Darkside of Dimensions 9-Pocket Duelist Portfolio releases on February 17 (follow the film’s January 20 limited theatrical run), Fusion Enforces (an all-foil set) releases on February 24, Raging Tempest Special Edition releases on March 17, and Duelist Saga (which includes cards from every Yu-Gi-Oh series) releases on March 31.
Barnes & Noble is expanding its Tabletop Meet-ups nationwide starting this Saturday, October 15 at 7PM local time. Exclusive promo cards will be available to those attending to demo games such as Red Flags, Onitama, Warehouse 51, World’s Fair 1893, Boss Monster, and Kitty Paw. Barnes & Noble started the meet-ups in April of this year as a way to promote social gaming. Andrew Lupp of distributor Publisher Services Inc. states, “Gamers nationwide will be able to gather together in the spirit of strategic thinking, healthy competition, and, most importantly, fun. Barnes & Noble’s expertly curated selection of games and community-centric environments create a gamer ‘place of worship’ for both new and experienced gamers throughout the country.”
EN World Publishing announced an open call for adventure writers for EONS Magazine, the official magazine of the What’s OLD is NEW roleplaying game system. Specifically, they’re looking for submissions for their top-selling science fiction system NEW. This is the perfect chance to start building a resume as a game writer for those looking to break into the industry as this is a paying job. Submissions are for 7000 word adventures paid at a rate of $0.03/word. However, don’t jump into writing just yet! Make sure to read the submission guidelines and submit a proposal as full unsolicited manuscripts will be deleted unread.
Never has a game title more accurately described me: Pretending to Grownup. A casual card game where you face challenges such as doing taxes or eating kale by seeing who has managed to be the best at adulting (yes, spellcheck, that is a word!). Art for the cards is by Megan McKay of the webcomic Doodle for Food and, while you may not be directly familiar with her work, you’ve definitely seen it as many of her comics have gone viral. Stretch goals include additional art from a lot of big names in webcomics with the current locked goal being a personal favorite of mine, Sarah Andersen from Sarah’s Scribbles. A CAD$10 (about US$8) pledge gets you the print-and-play version, while CAD$26 (about US$20) gets you the physical game. This project is fully funded and runs until Monday, October 31.
Back in 2009, the band The Decemberists produced a photo shoot with a mysterious game called ILLIMAT which fans have speculated about ever since. Partnering with veteran game designer Keith Baker (Gloom, Eberron), the game is finally becoming a reality. A fast-playing strategy card game that’s all about timing. You can get the game for a $45 pledge, though a pledge level for non-gamer fans of the band exists at $20 for a Knights of Summer tote bag (at least I assume it’s related to the band). This project is fully funded and has many stretch goals left based on the number of backers rather than amount of backing until it ends on Thursday, November 3.
Frog God Games is merging the OSR movement with modern gaming with their third printing of Swords & Wizardry. Rather than simply reprint the previous book (based on Basic Dungeons & Dragons rules from the 1974-1978 era), they’re redesigning it to be more accessible to those outside the typical OSR demographic. Drawing influence from the rules-lite and rulings-over-rules design of the original game, they’re looking to bring the presentation of those rules into the modern era as well with updated art, layout, and more with an all-female design team. The PDF is available as pay-what-you-want (starting at $1) with a hardcover available for $35. This project is fully funded with many add-on stretch goals already available as the campaign runs until Sunday, November 6.
I typically don’t talk about conventions that do crowdfunding because they’re typically only useful to people in that area, but I’m going to make an exception for the the Kickstarter for ChupacabraCon 4 because it’s in my area and I’ve attended this convention previously. ChupacabraCon has probably one of the best guest lists of any convention outside Gen Con or Origins and it is entirely focused on tabletop gaming and roleplaying games. The guest list this year includes industry names like Cam Banks, Jeff Dee, Sean Patrick Fannon, Shane Ivey, Ross Watson, Ed Wetterman, and many more with the Kickstarter funding ten additional guests including John Wick and Jamie Chambers. If you’re in the central Texas area, you definitely need to attend this convention on May 12-14, 2017. Even if you have to travel, it’s worth strong consideration. A $35 pledge gets you a standard batch and a Backer Ribbon at registration (regular price is $50), while $90 will get you a 30 minute one-on-one session with one of the guests to get advice on your game product and $100 gets you a VIP membership with multiple benefits including VIP-only events. The campaign is already halfway to its funding goal of $5000 as it runs until Tuesday, November 15.
That’s all for this week. For more game news, check out the EN World News Network. Make sure to support our Patreon in order to help us bring you the latest in tabletop gaming news. If you have any gaming news, email it to us at news@enworldnews.com. You can follow me on Twitter @Abstruse as I whine about unpacking after my move, or you can listen to the archives of the Gamer’s Tavern podcast. Links in this article to Amazon or Drive Thru are affiliate links with a portion of sales going to the column’s author.
Wizards of the Coast has updated its product page for Volo’s Guide to Monsters with further information about the release. Similar to previous Volo’s Guide books from other editions, this book will have annotations from Elminster as he corrects what he believes Volo gets wrong. The first chapter covers Monster Lore for creatures such as beholders, mind flayers, yuan-ti, orcs, gnolls, kobolds, and more. The second chapter presents new Character Race options including goblins, orcs, and firbolg. The third chapter is a Bestiary containing stats for nearly 100 new monsters including the froghemoth, the neogi, and the vargouille. The book is 224 pages and releases on November 15 with a retail price of $49.95. While you can pre-order from Amazon, the cover above is an alternate cover only available at hobby stores in limited supplies.
While there hasn’t been a trading card game for D&D in print since Spellfire, Ultra PRO is nonetheless bringing us a series of Dungeons & Dragons themed card accessories featuring art of a Fire Giant, a Beholder, and Count Strahd von Zorovich. The release includes three different sets of card sleeves with one of the three themes containing 50 sleeves at a retail price of $5.99, deck boxes capable of holding 80 sleeved cards with a deck divider for $2.99, and a playmat featuring artwork Storm King’s Thunder for $21.95. This series is expected in stores this November.
Modiphius Entertainment signed a deal with Fantasy Flight Games to distribute their miniature game Mutant Chronicles: Siege of the Citadel. Development will still be in the hands of Modiphius and their designers, Richard Borg, Eric M. Lang, and Kevin Wilson; but distribution, translation and localization, and publishing will be handled by Fantasy Flight. This deal was announced on October 5, just days before the closing of the game’s Kickstarter campaign on October 8, which raised over $600,000 from over 4300 backers.
Steve Jackson Games has added yet another store exclusive to their catalog for Munchkin, this one for Books-a-Million. The Munchkin Alphabet Activity Kit includes a coloring book with original art from John Kovalic, ten new Munchkin cards themed after the coloring book, three bookmarks ready to color, a mini-poster, and six colored pencils for a retail price of $11.99. There is also a contest running until October 18 to win one of three copies of the Activity Kit signed by Steve Jackson. To enter, you must print out the sample page (available in the link above) and share on social media using the hashtag #ColorAMunchkin. The Munchkin Alphabet Coloring Book, which includes only the book itself and the ten associated Munchkin cards, will be available in hobby stores for a retail price of $6.95.
Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn from Plaid Hat Games has been difficult to obtain recently, and a creative post from Plaid Hat founder Colby Dauch explains why. While I encourage fans to read the release for yourself (as Dauch did a great job turning a dry update into something entertaining), the summary is that the game and its expansions have sold far beyond expectations, causing delays in restocking. New expansions and the organized play rules are being delayed as Plaid Hat’s parent company, F2Z, is in negotiations to be purchased by Asmodee. Due to legal issues surrounding those negotiations, Plaid Hat is waiting for them to be finalized before releasing any new products, according to the press release.
The Pokemon collectible card game is still rolling along with new releases for the holiday season and beyond. Special boxed sets focusing on the pokemon Moloetta and Snorlax release on December 1st and December 14th respectively, each containing exclusive foil cards of the featured pokemon and a number of booster packs, two from the Pokemon TCG: Generations expansion for Moloetta and four from the core set for Snorlax. The Break Evolution Box comes out on January 6th featuring five core set booster packs plus exclusive foil BREAK versions of Arcanie, Crobat, and Mandibuzz. Decks themed around the new video game Sun and Moon release on January 20th featuring three new decks built around Rowlet, Litten, and Poppilo. All of these sets will also include code cards for the online version of the game.
Yu-Gi-Oh made its presence known at New York Comic Con as Konami showed off five new expansions for the trading card game coming out in February and March of 2017. The Raging Tempest booster set releases on February 10, Darkside of Dimensions 9-Pocket Duelist Portfolio releases on February 17 (follow the film’s January 20 limited theatrical run), Fusion Enforces (an all-foil set) releases on February 24, Raging Tempest Special Edition releases on March 17, and Duelist Saga (which includes cards from every Yu-Gi-Oh series) releases on March 31.
Barnes & Noble is expanding its Tabletop Meet-ups nationwide starting this Saturday, October 15 at 7PM local time. Exclusive promo cards will be available to those attending to demo games such as Red Flags, Onitama, Warehouse 51, World’s Fair 1893, Boss Monster, and Kitty Paw. Barnes & Noble started the meet-ups in April of this year as a way to promote social gaming. Andrew Lupp of distributor Publisher Services Inc. states, “Gamers nationwide will be able to gather together in the spirit of strategic thinking, healthy competition, and, most importantly, fun. Barnes & Noble’s expertly curated selection of games and community-centric environments create a gamer ‘place of worship’ for both new and experienced gamers throughout the country.”
EN World Publishing announced an open call for adventure writers for EONS Magazine, the official magazine of the What’s OLD is NEW roleplaying game system. Specifically, they’re looking for submissions for their top-selling science fiction system NEW. This is the perfect chance to start building a resume as a game writer for those looking to break into the industry as this is a paying job. Submissions are for 7000 word adventures paid at a rate of $0.03/word. However, don’t jump into writing just yet! Make sure to read the submission guidelines and submit a proposal as full unsolicited manuscripts will be deleted unread.
Never has a game title more accurately described me: Pretending to Grownup. A casual card game where you face challenges such as doing taxes or eating kale by seeing who has managed to be the best at adulting (yes, spellcheck, that is a word!). Art for the cards is by Megan McKay of the webcomic Doodle for Food and, while you may not be directly familiar with her work, you’ve definitely seen it as many of her comics have gone viral. Stretch goals include additional art from a lot of big names in webcomics with the current locked goal being a personal favorite of mine, Sarah Andersen from Sarah’s Scribbles. A CAD$10 (about US$8) pledge gets you the print-and-play version, while CAD$26 (about US$20) gets you the physical game. This project is fully funded and runs until Monday, October 31.
Back in 2009, the band The Decemberists produced a photo shoot with a mysterious game called ILLIMAT which fans have speculated about ever since. Partnering with veteran game designer Keith Baker (Gloom, Eberron), the game is finally becoming a reality. A fast-playing strategy card game that’s all about timing. You can get the game for a $45 pledge, though a pledge level for non-gamer fans of the band exists at $20 for a Knights of Summer tote bag (at least I assume it’s related to the band). This project is fully funded and has many stretch goals left based on the number of backers rather than amount of backing until it ends on Thursday, November 3.
Frog God Games is merging the OSR movement with modern gaming with their third printing of Swords & Wizardry. Rather than simply reprint the previous book (based on Basic Dungeons & Dragons rules from the 1974-1978 era), they’re redesigning it to be more accessible to those outside the typical OSR demographic. Drawing influence from the rules-lite and rulings-over-rules design of the original game, they’re looking to bring the presentation of those rules into the modern era as well with updated art, layout, and more with an all-female design team. The PDF is available as pay-what-you-want (starting at $1) with a hardcover available for $35. This project is fully funded with many add-on stretch goals already available as the campaign runs until Sunday, November 6.
I typically don’t talk about conventions that do crowdfunding because they’re typically only useful to people in that area, but I’m going to make an exception for the the Kickstarter for ChupacabraCon 4 because it’s in my area and I’ve attended this convention previously. ChupacabraCon has probably one of the best guest lists of any convention outside Gen Con or Origins and it is entirely focused on tabletop gaming and roleplaying games. The guest list this year includes industry names like Cam Banks, Jeff Dee, Sean Patrick Fannon, Shane Ivey, Ross Watson, Ed Wetterman, and many more with the Kickstarter funding ten additional guests including John Wick and Jamie Chambers. If you’re in the central Texas area, you definitely need to attend this convention on May 12-14, 2017. Even if you have to travel, it’s worth strong consideration. A $35 pledge gets you a standard batch and a Backer Ribbon at registration (regular price is $50), while $90 will get you a 30 minute one-on-one session with one of the guests to get advice on your game product and $100 gets you a VIP membership with multiple benefits including VIP-only events. The campaign is already halfway to its funding goal of $5000 as it runs until Tuesday, November 15.
That’s all for this week. For more game news, check out the EN World News Network. Make sure to support our Patreon in order to help us bring you the latest in tabletop gaming news. If you have any gaming news, email it to us at news@enworldnews.com. You can follow me on Twitter @Abstruse as I whine about unpacking after my move, or you can listen to the archives of the Gamer’s Tavern podcast. Links in this article to Amazon or Drive Thru are affiliate links with a portion of sales going to the column’s author.
