RPG Print News – Cubicle 7, Mongoose, Melsonian Arts Council, and More

The Orcus Holiday Special for D&D is here just in time for Christmas. Doctor Who has two big supplements spanning 60 years real time and all of time and space in game. Two new sectors get detailed for Traveller. Troika!, the science-fantasy RPG of decadence and danger, is back in softcover along with a brand new adventure. Power Rangers RPG and the OSR get monster books, there is a new wastelands RPG, and creepy supplements for Liminal Horror.

Note: RPG Print News covers recent RPG releases and some classics, reprints, and sales available from retailers. It does not cover products that are only available directly to customers only through Kickstarter or as print on demand.

Orcus Holiday Special by Frog God Games

• SYSTEM: Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition
• PRODUCT TYPE: bundle of three softcover adventures
• RETAIL PRICE: $59.99
• DESCRIPTION: Includes three adventures: How Orcus Stole Christmas!, Orcus on 34th Level, and Orcus in a Winter Wonderland!. Plus an Orcus Ornament to make and hang on a Christmas tree. It doesn’t have to be your tree, maybe your DM wants a present this year.

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Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book 1 | Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book 2 by Cubicle 7

• SYSTEM: Doctor Who: The RPG Second Edition
• PRODUCT TYPE: hardcover supplements
• RETAIL PRICE: $39.99 each
• DESCRIPTION: Both books add 60 years of adventure: a Tardis full of aliens, creatures, gadgets, plots, conspiracies, and plenty of running. Also contains a series of adventures connecting every Doctor – A Lustre of Starlight. Book One goes back to the scrapyard where it all began, then onwards into all of time and space. PCs can meet the Doctor, explore the TARDIS, and set off on limitless adventures. Includes the classic Doctors and their most iconic companions and adversaries. Book Two takes PCs to the shattering end of the Time War. They can meet the battle-weary War Doctor, then travel on to distant planets and discover hidden secrets of the Doctor’s past.

The Trailing Frontier by Mongoose Publishing

• SYSTEM: Traveller
• PRODUCT TYPE: hardcover supplement with poster maps for the Ley and Gateway sectors
• RETAIL PRICE: $59.99
• DESCRIPTION: The Trailing Frontier is the future site of Humaniti's death-struggle against the K’kree, militant herbivores who have vowed to exterminate all meat-eaters.. A backwater and a frontier, half of the region lies within the Third Imperium and the other half is home to minor states and independent worlds. The Imperium considers the Gateway sector to be of vast strategic importance, yet cannot spare the resources to tame it. Instead, a host of entrepreneurs and small-ship owners cross the border in search of fortune and perhaps glory or they join a graveyard for the unwary.

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Troika! | Slate & Chalcedony by Melsonian Arts Council

• SYSTEM: unique 2d6
• PRODUCT TYPE: softcover core rulebook
• RETAIL PRICE: $20
• OTHER RPG NEWS: Troika!: An Interview with Daniel Sell
• DESCRIPTION: In Troika! a cosmopolitan group of fellow PC travelers explore the ends of a science-fantasy multiverse. The PCs fly on mystic barges across the humpbacked sky, help dying gods, solve confounding crimes, plunder dead worlds, and meet strange and wonderful people. Includes: 36 backgrounds like the thinking engine (robot with amnesia), more than 70 spells, 36 enemies with a random mien, and a tutorial adventure set in a highly unusual hotel with perplexing and sometimes dangerous guests. Slate & Chalcedony is adventure that possess a transdimensional threat easily insertable into ongoing campaigns. Two towers appeared from nowhere and now sit at the center of a growing circle of blight where the rivers have soured and the circle of dying grows. Armies have been sent to the towers to topple them and none have returned. The whole world will soon be a blackened desert unless the PCs intervene. Contains over 70 weird and worrisome rooms, new and unpleasant spells, a cast of NPC wizards that delved too deep into arcane excess, Gentle Hurmin the pig, no fewer than two dark lords of apocalyptic proportions, and a classic dungeon crawl. It's huge.

Finster's Monster-Matic Cookbook by Renegade Game Studios

• SYSTEM: Power Rangers RPG
• PRODUCT TYPE: hardcover supplement
• RETAIL PRICE: $55
• DESCRIPTION: Provides over 100 Threats along with tactics and story hooks. Also features advice for creating, adapting, and using Threats and suggestions for using the miniatures from Heroes of the Grid. Psycho Rangers can now be used as Threats or player characters and sorcerous powers are an option for villains like Lord Zedd or Rita and player characters.

The Monster Overhaul by Coins and Scrolls Publishing

• SYSTEM: OSR
• PRODUCT TYPE: hardcover supplement
• RETAIL PRICE: $60
• DESCRIPTION: In this bestiary, monsters are presented alongside useful tools. Provides prompts that are difficult to invent under pressure; names, details, motivations, secrets, riddles, maps, twists, and more. Contains: over 200 monsters, 20 plus maps, random encounter tables, indexes, and other useful tools.

The Chair | Click Clack and Gushing Graveler by Ratti Incantati

• SYSTEM: Liminal Horror
• PRODUCT TYPE: pamphlet adventure/double-sided 4"x6" card on premium art card stock
• RETAIL PRICE: $7/$6
• DESCRIPTION: The Chair is an adventure for two to four players. The PCs explore The House, try to survive, and attempt to destroy the Chair. In the blackest part of the woods is a small, decrepit house to which no roads lead. Legends speak of a possessed chair inside that traps the curious. Light from the attic window and an unlocked door invite the PCs inside. Maybe forever. Click Clack and Gushing Graveler are two monsters, one on each side of the card. The Gushing Graveler is a grotesque rock based creature with a juicy core and some likely leakage. I can’t read the other side, but I assume the Click Clack is equally horrifying and disgusting.

Rebels of the Outlaw Wastes by Nerdy Pup Games

• SYSTEM: unique with sticker based advancement
• PRODUCT TYPE: softcover
• RETAIL PRICE: $35
• DESCRIPTION: In a film-grained, hyper-saturated retro-dystopia, the PCs try to strike a blow against the tyranny of the Powers That Be and free the downtrodden of the Valley with the power of friendship, beatdowns, and explosions. PCs are Rebels and play as cyborgs, robots, mutants, or rock-n-roll nomads in a dangerous but beautiful wasteland left over from the collapse of the old world. PCs can heed the call of The Voice, a mysterious DJ played by the GM that broadcasts hints and warnings into the Wastes to help guide Rebels to their destiny. Features visually intuitive road combat/chase rules, collaborative world-building, and sticker based character advancement.

Charlie Dunwoody participates in the OneBookShelf Affiliate Program and the Noble Knight Games’ Affiliate Program. These programs provide advertising fees by linking to DriveThruRPG and Noble Knight Games respectively.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I cannot say enough about the Monster Overhaul. While it's most useful for OSR referees of all sorts (easier to use the closer your system is to B/X, meaning that Mork Borg and Cairn referees will need to figure out how to convert such materials, although that's probably old news to them), it is, IMO, far and away the best monster book of all time for use at the table (versus being a big lore bomb).

It is dense with material -- the two-page Ooze entry actually has more than a dozen variants detailed via its random generator, along with what's inside the ooze, what happens if one consumes an ooze (!) and more. It would be trivial to open this book and run an adventure cold, randomly generating NPCs, villages, monsters and more. The Lich entry alone could generate whole campaigns. It's also stuffed with maps, including a simple world map, village maps, maps of dungeons of all sorts, including a wizard's tower, a minotaur maze, a vampire castle and more.

And all of the entries are thoughtful. The Orc entry squarely discusses the "problem of evil" and the choices inherent in how one runs orcs, while enabling referees to make their own choice of how to run orcs. Even if you never run the monsters out of this book, it'll make you think about how you run your games more deliberately, which is great, IMO.

The book is not cheap, but it honestly is so, so worth it. If you have a preferred OSR system you're running, Monster Overhaul is probably the second purchase you should make for whatever system you're using. It will enable years of play before you start having to do repeats.

 

[timbannock]

Between this for OSR, and the Monstrous Menagerie and Flee Mortals for 5E, the bar for monster books is incredibly high now.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I cannot say enough about the Monster Overhaul. While it's most useful for OSR referees of all sorts (easier to use the closer your system is to B/X, meaning that Mork Borg and Cairn referees will need to figure out how to convert such materials, although that's probably old news to them), it is, IMO, far and away the best monster book of all time for use at the table (versus being a big lore bomb).

It is dense with material -- the two-page Ooze entry actually has more than a dozen variants detailed via its random generator, along with what's inside the ooze, what happens if one consumes an ooze (!) and more. It would be trivial to open this book and run an adventure cold, randomly generating NPCs, villages, monsters and more. The Lich entry alone could generate whole campaigns. It's also stuffed with maps, including a simple world map, village maps, maps of dungeons of all sorts, including a wizard's tower, a minotaur maze, a vampire castle and more.

And all of the entries are thoughtful. The Orc entry squarely discusses the "problem of evil" and the choices inherent in how one runs orcs, while enabling referees to make their own choice of how to run orcs. Even if you never run the monsters out of this book, it'll make you think about how you run your games more deliberately, which is great, IMO.

The book is not cheap, but it honestly is so, so worth it. If you have a preferred OSR system you're running, Monster Overhaul is probably the second purchase you should make for whatever system you're using. It will enable years of play before you start having to do repeats.

Oh, I hadn't read that it was by Skerples, only after looking at the image. Skerples puts out quality work.

View attachment 338076View attachment 338077​

Troika! | Slate & Chalcedony by Melsonian Arts Council

• SYSTEM: unique 2d6
• PRODUCT TYPE: softcover core rulebook
• RETAIL PRICE: $20
• OTHER RPG NEWS: Troika!: An Interview with Daniel Sell
• DESCRIPTION: In Troika! a cosmopolitan group of fellow PC travelers explore the ends of a science-fantasy multiverse. The PCs fly on mystic barges across the humpbacked sky, help dying gods, solve confounding crimes, plunder dead worlds, and meet strange and wonderful people. Includes: 36 backgrounds like the thinking engine (robot with amnesia), more than 70 spells, 36 enemies with a random mien, and a tutorial adventure set in a highly unusual hotel with perplexing and sometimes dangerous guests. Slate & Chalcedony is adventure that possess a transdimensional threat easily insertable into ongoing campaigns. Two towers appeared from nowhere and now sit at the center of a growing circle of blight where the rivers have soured and the circle of dying grows. Armies have been sent to the towers to topple them and none have returned. The whole world will soon be a blackened desert unless the PCs intervene. Contains over 70 weird and worrisome rooms, new and unpleasant spells, a cast of NPC wizards that delved too deep into arcane excess, Gentle Hurmin the pig, no fewer than two dark lords of apocalyptic proportions, and a classic dungeon crawl. It's huge.

Recently discussed on the Between Two Cairns podcast - I'm intrigued

View attachment 338082​

Rebels of the Outlaw Wastes by Nerdy Pup Games

• SYSTEM: unique with sticker based advancement
• PRODUCT TYPE: softcover
• RETAIL PRICE: $35
• DESCRIPTION: In a film-grained, hyper-saturated retro-dystopia, the PCs try to strike a blow against the tyranny of the Powers That Be and free the downtrodden of the Valley with the power of friendship, beatdowns, and explosions. PCs are Rebels and play as cyborgs, robots, mutants, or rock-n-roll nomads in a dangerous but beautiful wasteland left over from the collapse of the old world. PCs can heed the call of The Voice, a mysterious DJ played by the GM that broadcasts hints and warnings into the Wastes to help guide Rebels to their destiny. Features visually intuitive road combat/chase rules, collaborative world-building, and sticker based character advancement.

Charlie Dunwoody participates in the OneBookShelf Affiliate Program and the Noble Knight Games’ Affiliate Program. These programs provide advertising fees by linking to DriveThruRPG and Noble Knight Games respectively.

This looks fun!

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

Oh, I hadn't read that it was by Skerples, only after looking at the image. Skerples puts out quality work.



Recently discussed on the Between Two Cairns podcast - I'm intrigued.


This looks fun!

I've run Troika! several times and for a short campaign. It is a well put together system especially the initiative and character creation. Also the adventures are outstanding. Lots of third-party support as well.