I’m on vacation this week so you get a mix of new stuff and old favorites. Dungeons & Dragons gets a supplement chock full of new rules. The Black Hack 2E is now available if you like a mix of old and new school OSR and getting a black pencil in your box set. Several old favorites are featured as well with sci-fi, Chinese wuxia, and horror from FrostByte, Bedrock, and Peryton (which actually sounds like a dwarven lawyer firm to me).
Note: RPG Print News covers new RPG releases and some classics, reprints, and sales available from retailers. It does not cover products that are only available directly to customers through kickstarter or as print on demand. Except on occasions like this one when I’m vacation.
The Dragon's Hoard - Issue #26 by Legendary Games
The Black Hack 2nd Edition Box Set by Square Hex
M-Space | Odd Soot | Elevation - First Contact by FrostByte Books
The Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate | Ogre Gate Inn and the Strange Land of Li Fan | House of Paper Shadows | Strange Tales of Songling by Bedrock Games
TerrorHog - A Crawlspace Event by Peryton Publishing
Note: RPG Print News covers new RPG releases and some classics, reprints, and sales available from retailers. It does not cover products that are only available directly to customers through kickstarter or as print on demand. Except on occasions like this one when I’m vacation.
The Dragon's Hoard - Issue #26 by Legendary Games
- SYSTEM: Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition
- PRODUCT TYPE: softcover supplement
- RETAIL PRICE: $12.99
- DESCRIPTION: A monthly anthology of new rules. The Treasure Trove, featuring magical items like the greyblade, rime scroll, rod of gainful sorcery, and battle-bo of the daredevil. Basker’s Books, featuring new like shattered ground, mirage, and explosion of rot. Class Acts, featuring new class options like the blighted birthplace background and fantastic feats like Apocalyptic Survivor and Redeemed Scoundrel. And Marvelous Monsters, like the mysterious norn and the titanic mountain troll.
The Black Hack 2nd Edition Box Set by Square Hex
- SYSTEM: mix of D&D 5E and OSR
- PRODUCT TYPE: box set core rules
- RETAIL PRICE: $66.95
- DESCRIPTION: New expanded second edition rules that mixes original 1970s D&D with more modern rules like advantage and disadvantage. While the main rules still only take up 30 pages, there are over 90 more pages of NPCs, monsters, dungeons, traps, magic items, and much more. This boxed set includes: two drop table box inserts, hardcover rules, 24 page booklet rules, 40 page soft cover Classic Monsters book, 10 character sheets, Sorrowset mini-setting, Lore and Locales notebooks, Prayer and Spell booklets, a three panel GM's screen, two quick reference cards, a black pencil, a Black Hack button badge, and a cloth Black Hack patch.
M-Space | Odd Soot | Elevation - First Contact by FrostByte Books
- SYSTEM: d100 science fiction
- PRODUCT TYPE: hardcover core rulebook/softcover core rulebook/softcover adventure
- RETAIL PRICE: $65/$32/$25
- OTHER RPG NEWS: M-Space: An Interview with Clarence Redd/review: M-Space/review: Elevation
- DESCRIPTION: These RPGs are normally print on demand but used copies are also available. A great system well worth checking out. M-Space includes everything needed to play sci-fi games, create imaginary universes, and play characters from a variety of cultures and careers. PCs can pilot starships, meet strange alien lifeforms, and visit fantastic worlds. Includes: modular starship design, quick-paced and starship combat, rules for extended conflicts including social, alien and culture creation, world building, how to run organizations, modular vehicle design, psionics, equipment, vehicles, and starships. Odd Soot is a game of mystery and investigation set on an alternate Earth in the 1920s. Mankind has travelled into space and found alien civilizations. But a disease called The Soot spreads, driving those infected into madness. And they follow a twisted logic, wreaking havoc around them. Only a few tragic heroes with impressive talents and tragic backgrounds can save mankind. Elevation is a campaign and setting book with three scenarios and a detailed subsector with descriptions of worlds, locations, technologies, and powers. Basically, it is Star Trek if money was actually needed to make things and explore space. Elevation has lost its founder in space. Funds dwindle, outdated equipment falls apart, and Elevation’s few remaining starships barely work. But the PCs won’t give up and leave the search for new aliens ready to join the galactic community to shady corporations and criminals. Both Odd Soot and Elevation have a great premise, both have a great twist on their respective time period and genre, and each one presents a real challenge to both the players and their characters.
The Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate | Ogre Gate Inn and the Strange Land of Li Fan | House of Paper Shadows | Strange Tales of Songling by Bedrock Games
- SYSTEM: unique d10 dice pool called the Network System
- PRODUCT TYPE: softcover core rulebook/two softcover adventures/softcover core rulebook with faster play rules
- RETAIL PRICE: $49.99/$29.99/$19.99/$24.99
- OTHER RPG NEWS: review: Strange Tales of Songling/review: House of Paper Shadows
- DESCRIPTION: Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate is a game of gravity-defying martial artists inspired by wuxia film and drama series. It comes with a martial arts fantasy setting inspired by Song Dynasty China but can be used in any Ancient Chinese or Wuxia campaign. The PCs, born high or low, are martial heroes who can channel internal energy into a sword, fist, or flywhisk with dazzling power. They learn secret kung fu techniques, perform powerful forbidden rituals, and how to brew foul poisons. PCs face down roaming swordsmen, animal demons, evil officials, and the great masters of the age. Over 180 Kung Fu Techniques are provided along with guidelines and tips for developing individual Kung Fu techniques and wuxia flavor. The Ogre Gate Inn and the Strange Land of Li describes the lands of Li Fan, an ancient kingdom of ghosts, lost techniques, and magic. Here, nobles may rule, but powerful Kung Fu masters truly reign supreme. Covers key areas like Bone Kingdom and the Tomb of the Demon Emperor and includes a three-chapter adventure set at the infamous Ogre Gate Inn, new monsters, new Kung Fu Techniques and a complete selection of martial heroes and villains. In the House of Paper Shadows, the PCs encounter halls of flesh and paper, spirited beasts and an assortment of other horrors. Some may discover gateways to the past and the dark root of a terrible curse. It includes a complete map and description of the Shadow House which features new monsters, traps, characters, Kung Fu Techniques, and a mini-time travel mystery adventure. Strange Tales of Songling is a horror RPG inspired by Chinese ghost stories by Pu Songling. PCs adventure in worlds haunted by fox spirits, hopping vampires and ghosts. PCs confront the supernatural as demon hunters, scholars, wandering swords and dangerous ritual masters using a simplified rule system. Comes with four complete adventures. It also includes a selection of monsters based on Chinese folklore and horror movies. The GM section provides several approaches with a focus on monster-of-the week style play. I’m kicking off my next campaign using Strange Tales of Songling.
TerrorHog - A Crawlspace Event by Peryton Publishing
- SYSTEM: unique
- PRODUCT TYPE: softcover adventure and fast play rules
- RETAIL PRICE: $20
- OTHER RPG NEWS: TerrorHog—A Crawlspace Event: Interview with Christina Lea
- DESCRIPTION: Sightings of giant hogs have increased alarmingly in the Kissimmee River swamps east of Sarasota. PCs are a film crew sent to confirm the existence of "TerrorHog" on film. A savage attack at a photo shoot left two models most likely dead, although authorities were unable to find enough of their bodies to officially confirm. Includes an optional player drinking game based on PC roleplaying. RPGs should be well written, fun to read, and fun to play. This one gets high marks in all three categories.
