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Recap of major RPG events over the past year?

dreaded_beast

First Post
I've been away from the DND scene over the past year and from EN World just as long.

So, I've been out of touch as to any newsworthy events within the RPG industry, good books that have come out, etc.

Anyone care to fill me in on what you consider major or newsworthy events over the past year (books, stories, etc.)

*hoping to get back up to speed in my DND/d20 knowledge*
 

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The Eberron setting, winner of WotC's setting search, debuted in Spring (?) GenCon 2004 saw the release of new editions of GURPS and the World of Darkness.

These would be my top three.
 

Sticking to just DnD, I'd pick up:
Eberron
Sharn: City of Towers
Forgotten Realms: Shining South
Forgotten Realms: Underdark
Complete Arcane
Complete Adventurer
Monster Manual III
City State of the Invincible Overlord (necromancer games)
Conan: Atlantean edition and supplements (Mongoose)
The Black Company (Green Ronin)

In addition, the great d20 collapse/shrinking has begun. A number of companies have disappeared. White Wolf has killed the Scarred Lands setting. Fantasy Flight Games has greatly reduced it's upcoming d20 schedule. Monkey God Enterprises and many others are gone, etc.
 

2 Words for you Arcana Evolved. Imagine someone taking one of the core books that everyone at the table references about every round and getting another book that useful. A book (Arcana Unearthed) with new classes, races, different magic, and a background world. Now imagine that book created by someone who knows the rules so well he was one of the designers of the game. Now imagine he's had a few years to sit back and reflect on what he'd done so that he could see what came out of it. Now imagine he added another layer to the story that has the option to boost the characters even further if they join the new story elements.

oh yeah and world of darkness relaunched
and green ronnin got the rights to warhammer should be out soon
and I'm sure there was other things but that's what springs to mind
 


For more non-d20 news:

Hero Games is encouraging direct sales from their website over local game stores. They released Hero System 5th edition Revised, if you like the Hero System, have been curious to jump in, want the errata and updates incorporated into your corebook, or simply want the largest and most intimidating-looking book in the hobby. Also available in less-intimidating pdf. They've been supporting the line with copious releases, too.
Pinnacle/Great White released Savage Worlds Revised in pdf, full-color print to follow soon. (Booyah! I love this game.) Support for this game increased from both Pinnacle and third-party support in the form of settings and adventures.
Atlas Games released Ars Magica 5th edition along with an adventure supplement. It's the best version of the game yet, IMO, although they're dragging their feet in releasing supplements. Atlas was one of the larger companies to sail out of the d20-supplement seas.
Guardians of Order, who make BESM and other games, is going through hard financial times, and is likewise encouraging direct sales. They just released the long, long awaited Tekumel.
White Wolf rebooted their World of Darkness line, this time going with an integrated rules set and a "core rules/setting supplement" approach for this go-round. Both the new World of Darkness corebook and Vampire setting/corebook (?) have generally been accepted by fans and praised as the best version of the game yet. The company continues to release supplements for the game and core system at a good clip (monthly or better), with more corebooks and supplements to come (Werewolf, Mage).

And in d20, non-D&D news:

AEG dropped the Stargate license recently. And the Shadowforce Archer line too, but that was earlier. They've announced that Spycraft 2, coming later this year, will be OGL. And finally, Warlords RPG still isn't out.
Mythic Dreams moved the Dark Inheritance campaign setting from d20 Modern to Spycraft, rereleasing their core book for that ruleset.
Green Ronin released Blue Rose (OGL romantic fantasy in the vein of Mercedes Lackey) in pdf, print to follow soon if it's not available already. It's a cool book.
Troll Lord released Castles and Crusades, which is reportedly excellent at what it does (first edition D&D feel updated to a lean version of the 3.x mechanics), but wasn't edited well. They're addressing the editing and formatting in a revised version later this year.
Fantasy Flight continued to support Midnight, but slowed down the rest of their d20 line.
White Wolf released a new version of Gamma World, with mixed (negative overall) reviews. Also, White Wolf shut down the Scarred Lands, which had been the best supported (in terms of number of supplements) d20 setting anywhere.

Wow, how's that for a recap?
 



Let us not forget the debut of The World's Largest Dungeon by AEG. An 840-page campaign/dungeon module with every type of creature in the SRD represented.

JediSoth
 

dreaded_beast said:
I've been away from the DND scene over the past year and from EN World just as long.


Huh??? :confused: i've seen your posts as recently as only a couple months ago.

So, I've been out of touch as to any newsworthy events within the RPG industry, good books that have come out, etc.

Anyone care to fill me in on what you consider major or newsworthy events over the past year (books, stories, etc.)

*hoping to get back up to speed in my DND/d20 knowledge*


oh, you mean the buying scene....

well WLD, C&C to be released, Blackmoor d02...

in the FR, the place you had set your campaign, time marches on... it is now the Year of the Rogue Dragons. Lost Empires of Faerun is available. And on the novel line.. they still haven't completed the Lolth series, nor the latest Salvatore line.
 

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