RPG Print News – Cubicle 7, Necrotic Gnome, and More

Another amazing week with so many releases. Plenty of adventure support (and more for D&D) for D&D, PF 2E, PF 1E, and OSE/D&D Basic and D&D Expert. Soulbound gets its first rule supplement. And a unique RPG with Moorcock influences rounds out the week.

Note: RPG Print News covers new RPG releases and some classics and sales available from online retailers. It does cover reprints with changes, updates to a new RPG system, new versions, and more if the publication date is current. It does not cover products that are only available to customers through kickstarter, directly from a publisher website, or as print on demand.

BroadSword Monthly #16 July 2021 | BroadSword Monthly #15 June 2021 | BroadSword Monthly #14 May 2021 by DM DaveBroadSword Monthly #14 May 2021 - BroadSword Monthly from DMDave

• SYSTEM: Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition
• PRODUCT TYPE: softcover supplement
• RETAIL PRICE: $25 each
• DESCRIPTION: BroadSword Monthly Issue #16 the villain issue. In The Ballad of Mugs Knucklewhisker, a charismatic kobold is determined to sow as much chaos as possible. In Tarnished Heart, a corrupted copper dragon seeks to unleash an anti-magic plague upon the land, while Queen of the Shadows provides an opportunity for the party to play as anti-heroes or villains themselves. Also includes four more adventures, 14 new monsters, 6 new magic items, and more. BroadSword Monthly Issue #15 includes Warbis Sparkcoil who enjoys building terrifying weapons of mass destruction; Dr. Elias Kracket and his trusty sidekick Short Crank sailing to a long-lost island; and the infamous Captain Grisly, a fearsome pirate, who left a treasure map to his buried treasure etched directly onto the shell of a menacing caustic snail. Also includes: four more adventures, 22 new creatures, and 6 new magic items. BroadSword Monthly Issue #14 includes a new character class, the pirate. Arrgg! Also includes: The Rising Tempest – A point-crawl mini-campaign on a tropical island, Speak with Dead – An epic mystery adventure along The Mirror Coast, nine more adventures, nine new creatures, and five new magic items.

Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands by Raging Swan Press

• SYSTEM: Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition
• PRODUCT TYPE: softcover adventure
• RETAIL PRICE: $11.95
• DESCRIPTION: An adventure for 1st-level characters. Deep in the forest, bandits lurk in the ruined castle of a long-dead border lord. Their incessant raids draw the PCs to the derelict keep. There they discover fouler, more odious dangers lurk below the ruins. In this sandbox adventure the characters can explore the various zones of the keep in almost any order. Once the party has cleared the keep the characters can move on to their next adventure or they can claim the fortress as their own. In this way, the keep can become the focus of an entire campaign as the characters battle to clear the surrounding woodland of enemies (or explore the deeper caverns below the keep) while repairing the shattered fortress. Characters completely exploring the keep and defeating all its challenges should reach 4th-level by the end of the adventure.

The Secret Name - D&D 5E | The Secret Name – Pathfinder 2E | The Secret Name – Pathfinder 1E | The Secret Name - OSR by Raging Swan PressSecret Name, The (OSR) - RPG from Raging Swan Press

• SYSTEM: Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition/Pathfinder 2nd Edition/Pathfinder 1st Edition/OSR
• PRODUCT TYPE: softcover adventure
• RETAIL PRICE: $7.45 each
• DESCRIPTION: In this Dungeon Backdrop the GM is given a fully described dungeon, and the the GM adds the monsters (and the treasure). In this dungeon, a celestial, fiend, or even a god must yield to the sovereignty of their one, true name that holds power over it. The arcane fetters binding a summoned creature to a conjurer’s command are tied to its name. Hence, these mighty beings often go by many epithets, ever jealously guarding the word which could shackle them to another’s will. In this dungeon, a god could be bound offering a truly dangerous dungeon to explore.

Winter's Daughter (2nd Printing) | The Hole in the Oak (2nd Printing) | The Incandescent Grottoes | Halls of the Blood King | Isle of the Plangent Mage by Necrotic GnomeIsle of the Plangent Mage - Fantasy RPG from Necrotic Gnome

• SYSTEM: Old-School Essentials/D&D Basic and D&D Expert
• PRODUCT TYPE: hardcover digest sized adventures
• RETAIL PRICE: $17 or $15 each
• OTHER RPG NEWS: Played It Review of The Hole in the Oak
• DESCRIPTION: I have run two of these and read the others. These adventures are high quality and filled with interesting NPCs, monsters, encounters, and locations. They are color with sewn binding, maps and area summaries end papers, and quick-reference, bullet point descriptions. In the Winter’s Daughter, PCs of 1st to 3rd level explore a long-forgotten burial mound where the sinister Drune congregate deep in hoary old Dolmenwood. Within the tomb lie the treasures and mortal remains of the knight Sir Chyde. The Hole in the Oak: a hole in an old oak tree leads 1st to 2nd level PCs down to a maze of an ancient wizard-complex and the banks of an underground river with reptile cult temples. Can be linked with The Incandescent Grottoes to form a large, 3 level dungeon with over 115 keyed encounter areas. The Incandescent Grottoes continues the maze beneath the oak but also can be run alone. Halls of the Blood King is a fantasy horror adventure for characters of 3rd to 5th level. With the rising of the Blood Moon, the accursed abode of the Blood King returns to this world. Halls contain treasures and secrets to lure the PCs in. Isle of the Plangent Mage is a fantasy adventure of sonic wonder for characters of 3rd to 5th level. An idyllic cove harbours deep secrets. Adventurers will be changed with ocean mutations as they explore the depths of the Undertower, unlock strange musical puzzles, and reveal glorious treasures.

Champions of Order by Cubicle 7

• SYSTEM: Soulbound
• PRODUCT TYPE: hardcover supplement
• RETAIL PRICE: $39.99
• OTHER RPG NEWS: Review of Champions of Order
• DESCRIPTION: Features new Archetypes, new Talents, and new spells. Includes an expanded look at the Soulbound and their history, details on the mysterious Binding ritual that links the heroes` souls together, and tables filled with sample Short and Long-term Goals for PCs. A brand new faction, complete with Archetypes - The Lumineth Realm-Lords, Aelves from the Realm of Light. The new sub-faction option covers the Anvils of the Heldenhammer of the Stormcast, the Ironwood Glade of the Sylvaneth, the Kraith of the Daughters of Khaine, and more.

Pacts & Blades | Salamander Household | The Silent Tower by Exalted FuneralPacts & Blades - The Silent Tower - Horror RPG from Exalted Funeral

• SYSTEM: unique
• PRODUCT TYPE: digest-sized softcovers
• RETAIL PRICE: $15 each
• DESCRIPTION: Pacts & Blades is a world of sword and witchcraft. It provides basic system rules with a Moorcockian flavor. It does not provide any setting information or descriptive text to help Judges and players acclimate to the system. PCs rule society, raise kings, and change the course of decadent empires. The spirits speak with power and the brave translate their deadly messages into magic. Salamander Household includes tables and tools that help generate the campaign’s bizarre environment through random rolls in an organic and readily usable way—something practical to be rolled during sessions, or when preparing adventures for the more cautious Judge. The Silent Tower can be used as an encounter, a single map hex in a hex crawl, an interlude between adventures, or even a complete campaign that expands the concepts presented at the end of the adventure.

 

[Lord_Blacksteel]

Someone raises a point about one of the items in your column this week and we get:

• It's not my full-time job
• I don't work for these companies
• How would I know

OK - but you are writing this column. Would you agree that there is a difference between something "new" and something that is a "conversion" of existing material? That's a pretty common distinction/identifier in the RPG business.

I don't think you're deliberately hiding anything here. I assume you didn't know, but if that's the case let me ask if you do any research on the items here? Is it mainly a copy & paste of the press releases for each item?

I'm not intending to make this an attack I'm just curious what the goal/assumption for this column is in your view.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

Someone raises a point about one of the items in your column this week and we get:

• It's not my full-time job
• I don't work for these companies
• How would I know

OK - but you are writing this column. Would you agree that there is a difference between something "new" and something that is a "conversion" of existing material? That's a pretty common distinction/identifier in the RPG business.

I don't think you're deliberately hiding anything here. I assume you didn't know, but if that's the case let me ask if you do any research on the items here? Is it mainly a copy & paste of the press releases for each item?

I'm not intending to make this an attack I'm just curious what the goal/assumption for this column is in your view.

You are being disingenuous. I responded to his point directly. Twice actually. And I asked for clarification. After which he was rude. He got what you bulleted (and you left out rude, the number one) after he accused me of not being upfront, not after he made his point and I responded twice and asked for clarification.

I considered not answering your questions because you are skewing the conversation here, but I'm going to assume based on your last sentence that you posted in good faith, if with a real slant.

Any research? Yes. I have to find the item. If the item is unclear I dig a little deeper. I don't always dig deeper for every item if it is straight forward. I have to understand what it is and what is inside so I can create a description. Which leads to your next question.

No copy and paste. Per the column as an example of what is not a press release: "I have run two of these and read the others. These adventures are high quality and filled with interesting NPCs, monsters, encounters, and locations."

Goal for the column, per the column:
Note: RPG Print News covers new RPG releases and some classics and sales available from online retailers. It does cover reprints with changes, updates to a new RPG system, new versions, and more if the publication date is current. It does not cover products that are only available to customers through kickstarter, directly from a publisher website, or as print on demand.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

Someone raises a point about one of the items in your column this week and we get:

• It's not my full-time job
• I don't work for these companies
• How would I know

OK - but you are writing this column. Would you agree that there is a difference between something "new" and something that is a "conversion" of existing material? That's a pretty common distinction/identifier in the RPG business.

I don't think you're deliberately hiding anything here. I assume you didn't know, but if that's the case let me ask if you do any research on the items here? Is it mainly a copy & paste of the press releases for each item?

I'm not intending to make this an attack I'm just curious what the goal/assumption for this column is in your view.

Let me ask you two questions after stating some facts.

Someone raised a point about one of the items in my column this week and what I actually responded was:
Publish year is 2021 and it is listed as a new release for 5E. Is Ptolus 5E not a new release either? Because I would list it as new when it drops based on the publication date and the work that went into it.

Question is, how far down the rabbit hole do you want to go? Here are a handful of RPGs that are in no way new but release new products all the time some with the exact same titles as previous editions: Traveller, D&D, Pathfinder, The One Ring, Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest, Warhammer, Star Trek, Conan, Shadowrun, Paranoia, and the list goes on. None of these "new" products reference back to previous editions in the vast majority of the cases. Do you see why it might be problematic and not part of this column to list that history week after week?

 

[Lord_Blacksteel]

• "You are being disingenuous."
• "...you are skewing the conversation here"
• "...if with a real slant."

You make an awful lot of assumptions about motivation here. How is my post "disingenuous"? I've been on here a long time - I'm not trolling you. I saw a response to something that seemed way off from what I would have expected so I wanted to know more about what you were thinking.

And thanks - I read the column info and it didn't really seem to cover what I was wondering about so asking you seemed like the right way to go. I'll break it down in case that makes a difference:

• RPG Print News covers new RPG releases and some classics and sales available from online retailers. - Got it, yep.
• It does cover reprints with changes, updates to a new RPG system, new versions, and more if the publication date is current. - but is it a goal to make the distinction between any of these here? Reprint, revised edition, conversion/adaptation to a new system? I guess it might be generalized as "what details do you think are important to include here"?
• It does not cover products that are only available to customers through kickstarter, directly from a publisher website, or as print on demand. - Sure, yes, clear and fine.

As far as your example I get that if you have personal experience with something you mention that - that's good! That's helpful! That said its not really research on a product. It does add value though.

 

[Lord_Blacksteel]

Let me ask you two questions after stating some facts.

Someone raised a point about one of the items in my column this week and what I actually responded was:
Publish year is 2021 and it is listed as a new release for 5E. Is Ptolus 5E not a new release either? Because I would list it as new when it drops based on the publication date and the work that went into it.

Question is, how far down the rabbit hole do you want to go? Here are a handful of RPGs that are in no way new but release new products all the time some with the exact same titles as previous editions: Traveller, D&D, Pathfinder, The One Ring, Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest, Warhammer, Star Trek, Conan, Shadowrun, Paranoia, and the list goes on. None of these "new" products reference back to previous editions in the vast majority of the cases. Do you see why it might be problematic and not part of this column to list that history week after week?

Pretty sure Ptolus touts itself as a conversion or update of the prior edition - I don't think you or anyone else had to do anything to find that out.

I mean do all of those games release something new every week?

Do you not see a difference between say, an adventure conversion with stat changes and no other change to the structure, characters, or plot compared to a new version of High Guard for Traveller which contains basically nothing from a prior edition?

And my answer is "I don't know I'm not writing the column. Is this the kind of thing that you think is important to know about a new release and this was just a miss or do you genuinely not see it as significant?"

I'm not trying to tell - I'm trying to ask.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

• "You are being disingenuous."
• "...you are skewing the conversation here"
• "...if with a real slant."

You make an awful lot of assumptions about motivation here. How is my post "disingenuous"? I've been on here a long time - I'm not trolling you. I saw a response to something that seemed way off from what I would have expected so I wanted to know more about what you were thinking.

And thanks - I read the column info and it didn't really seem to cover what I was wondering about so asking you seemed like the right way to go. I'll break it down in case that makes a difference:

• RPG Print News covers new RPG releases and some classics and sales available from online retailers. - Got it, yep.
• It does cover reprints with changes, updates to a new RPG system, new versions, and more if the publication date is current. - but is it a goal to make the distinction between any of these here? Reprint, revised edition, conversion/adaptation to a new system? I guess it might be generalized as "what details do you think are important to include here"?
• It does not cover products that are only available to customers through kickstarter, directly from a publisher website, or as print on demand. - Sure, yes, clear and fine.

As far as your example I get that if you have personal experience with something you mention that - that's good! That's helpful! That said its not really research on a product. It does add value though.

I will take your points under advisement. However, I am ending this direct conversation with you (even though you have good points buried in there) for three reasons:

1. You took my quotes out of context and chopped them up. Big red flag.
2. You said you aren't trolling without reading what I wrote which answers the question you say you aren't trolling about.
3. You continue to cling to the misquote you made saying it was my answer to the original post which it was not.

Hopefully this was just miscommunication because of posting. Have a great day.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

Pretty sure Ptolus touts itself as a conversion or update of the prior edition - I don't think you or anyone else had to do anything to find that out.

I mean do all of those games release something new every week?

Do you not see a difference between say, an adventure conversion with stat changes and no other change to the structure, characters, or plot compared to a new version of High Guard for Traveller which contains basically nothing from a prior edition?

And my answer is "I don't know I'm not writing the column. Is this the kind of thing that you think is important to know about a new release and this was just a miss or do you genuinely not see it as significant?"

I'm not trying to tell - I'm trying to ask.

I'm going to answer because these is straight forward and polite which I really appreciate.

Yes, these new versions of old games release stuff most weeks. Wizards, Paizo, Chaosium, Modiphius, Mongoose, Free League and more generate a lot of content and that doesn't include third parties also publishing using those game systems.

I already answered your second question up above.

I don't think is significant to list previous versions of a product if it being released for a new system. If it is a straight reprint I try to catch those and will correct if I miss one and someone brings it to my attention. Straight reprints still have value because someone wants those if a reprint is being done. So it is TTRPG new release news for a reprint.

 

[Egg Embry]

Charles Dunwoody crafts great RPG journalism. I follow his column, studying each piece to learn how to be a better journalist. I wish I had 1/10th the amount of gaming knowledge and experience that Charles displays. Those skills Charles uses to elevate the hobby as a whole. This is a small industry that lacks the deep resources of other parts of gaming. Without a massive marketing budget, many creators are dependent on word of mouth and the RPG news coverage that sites like EN World provide to spread the word about their work. Charles' writing shines a spotlight on exciting projects that are available for purchase right now; his efforts connect fans and fun. This column is a service to RPG publishers, fans, and gamers. Without it, this would be a less interesting table to game at.
Thanks for all you do for the industry, @Charles Dunwoody.

 

[talien]

Hi Folks,

Both Charles and Egg crank out these articles like clockwork, every week of the year. I'm very proud of their work and consider them both to be rare talents that can gather info together quickly, put it together comprehensively, and produce it on time, every time.

With a grueling schedule like that, we do our research as best we can but, particularly if the info isn't obvious up front, we publish what we have with the info we have at the time. I'm the managing editor, so if something is missing, the buck stops with me.

We're always happy to update an article if there's factual information missing. If you see something, feel free to contact me directly or tag me and we'll review it. Thanks for your understanding.

 

[Creighton]

Not if something is just an update for a new system and has no new material. When you do a Google search for the title, the top two results are the new version on the company's website and the 2012 PRPG version on drivethrurpg.com, so a little confusing, isn't it? Plus, their own product page for the 5E version does not even mention the older version at all. They act like it is something brand new and not actually written 11 years ago.

Fear not, Enevhar! Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands has lots of new material! As well as all-new maps by Tommi Salama and tons of new original art by Matt Morrow we added thousands of words detailing the area surrounding the keep as well as more details and locations in the nearby town (Dulwich). While the basic details of Dulwich have been published elsewhere we added them to the adventure for the first time along with the new material.

Beyond all this, the adventure got two more editing passes, an updated and easy to use format along (obviously) with a comprehensive conversion to 5e.