RPG Print News – Mongoose, Catalyst, Raging Swan, and More

This week is filled with amazing RPG books. PCs can play clowns, vampire hunters, mech warriors, gamers metagaming PCs inside an RPG, a lost dwarf, and more. Traveller has a new system to explore, fantasy RPGs get towns to explore, and otherworldly plants get to explore the world of the PCs. There’s even a new setting that combines a lot of these together: steel, mechs, and magic as a world that nearly ended struggles to find a new way in Thunderscape.

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

Sword Worlds by Mongoose Publishing

• SYSTEM: Traveller
• PRODUCT TYPE: hardcover supplement
• RETAIL PRICE: $49.99
• DESCRIPTION: This book examines how the worlds of the Confederation interact with one another, and how a technologically outmatched people have managed to stave off Imperial dominance for so long. Their armed forces are technologically simple yet incredibly resilient; their navy is very different to that of the Imperium. Minelayers, torpedo boats and orbital defense platforms defend the home worlds while battlecruisers raid deep into enemy territory.

GM's Miscellany - Towns & Cities (Pathfinder 2E) | GM's Miscellany - Towns & Cities (Pathfinder 1E) | GM's Miscellany - Towns & Cities (OSR) by Raging Swan Press

• SYSTEM: Pathfinder 2nd Edition/Pathfinder 1st Edition/OSR
• PRODUCT TYPE: softcover adventure
• RETAIL PRICE: $13.45 each
• DESCRIPTION: Note: This book comprises the contents of GM's Miscellany - Urban Dressing II but features an updated layout, more original art, and has benefitted from two additional editing passes. Features 14 different kinds of towns and cities, 100 sights and sounds, 50 businesses, 50 NPCs and 20 adventure hooks for each type of urban area.

A Book of Tales by R. Talsorian

• SYSTEM: The Witcher
• PRODUCT TYPE: hardcover supplement
• RETAIL PRICE: $30
• DESCRIPTION: Includes six adventures (a murder mystery in the heart of Mount Carbon, pulse-pounding combat in the Claremont arenas, and investigations in the mist-shrouded Alderwood). Can be combined into a connected campaign that roams from the cold mountains of Kovir to the wine-soaked region of Toussaint in Nilfgaard. Also has new weapons and three new playable races: Gnomes, Vran, and Werebbubbs.

ilClan by Catalyst Games Labs

• SYSTEM: BattleTech: A Time of War
• PRODUCT TYPE: hardcover supplement
• RETAIL PRICE: $39.99
• DESCRIPTION: PCs delve into what it means to be the ilClan and experience the tumultuous Battle of Terra, which will shake the very foundations of the Inner Sphere. They then catch a glimpse of how the Great Houses and other major powers will face the outcome of this far-reaching conflict. Tactical maps, Chaos Campaign tracks, and new ’Mechs that debuted during the Battle of Terra all let PCs jump right into the cockpit and fight in the culmination of over three centuries of Clan history.

Thunderscape by Kyoudai Games

• SYSTEM: TinyD6 system by Gallant Knight Games
• PRODUCT TYPE: softcover core rulebook
• RETAIL PRICE: $24.99
• PREVIOUS RPG NEWS: Egg covered the kickstarter on RPG Crowdfunding News
• DESCRIPTION: For more than a decade, the people of Aden have struggled to survive against the horrible creatures known as Nocturnals, fighting for every resource in a world that barely resembles its former glory. PCs use the forces of steel, magic, technology, and the hybrid art of mechamagic to fight as never before against the enemies of civilization. PCs may be Radiant Order paladins from Arasteen, brilliant mechamages from Urbana with their powerful golem servitors, master wizards from the ruins of Aramyst, or wield the prowess of the Steamwright’s Guild and the Thunder Scouts, bringing their technological mastery to the battlefield. I hadn’t heard of Kyoudai Games before, but they have a third game called Tiny Legacies and they just finished a Trio of Tabletop Tomes, Redux! on kickstarter to produce supplements for each of these three game lines. I like the ideas and the ongoing support.

Infinity's Edge by Kyoudai Games

• SYSTEM: unique percentile based
• PRODUCT TYPE: softcover core rulebook
• RETAIL PRICE: $17.99
• DESCRIPTION: PCs are gamers playing a fully immersive virtual reality, massively-multiplayer online role-playing game. Inspired by the LitRPG genre of fiction (I didn’t know what it was so I read about What is LitRPG?), PCs play a fantasy hero like never before, one who can discuss levels, gear drops, crafting recipes, and the relative merits of different skills and classes with other players, or even with the NPCs in the game. Death is no longer a barrier, because your character will just just respawn. Include modular rules for characters, races, classes, equipment, magic, and more. It also includes an example campaign world.

The Plantiary by Games Omnivorous

• SYSTEM: systemless
• PRODUCT TYPE: softcover supplement
• RETAIL PRICE: $26
• DESCRIPTION: The Plantiary is the second installment of the collection, after The Insectiary. It's a system-agnostic collection of weird, surreal and otherworldly plants. Include the Cactocculus, Carnivorous Rex, Clone Bonsai and Cocoasis. One plant and its respective description per spread.

What's So Cool About Clown School? | What's So Cool About Vampire Hunting? by Ember + Ash

• SYSTEM: OSR
• PRODUCT TYPE: softcover micro-rules
• RETAIL PRICE: $6
• DESCRIPTION: PCs are clowns. No, I mean in What's So Cool About Clown School?, what did you think I meant? At Cluck’s Clown College, PCs enter the world’s most noble profession to learn secret clown magic, find evil and defeat it, and grow into the very best clown possible. All the while making the world a safer and more amusing place. In What’s So Cool About Vampire Hunting?, PCs are monster hunters, hunting the most dangerous prey — vampires, with a variety of night-stalking versions. PCs see a series of unexplained deaths. Terrible omens. Even as grizzled hunters they are afraid to become prey. So the PCs stalk those who stalk the night.

Lost in the Deep by Old Skull Publishing

• SYSTEM: The Wretched
• PRODUCT TYPE: digest-sized softcover solo journaling rulebook
• RETAIL PRICE: $15 each
• DESCRIPTION: You play as the last dwarven survivor of a failed expedition to reclaim your ancestor home. It is based on horror and fantasy literature. Every day you wander the dark halls and write in your journal what you see and experience. You search for an exit from the mines, but all you can find are endless halls and the damned creatures serving that Evil in the Shadows that awakened and destroyed your people. Every day you count your last remaining torches and meals. Can you make it out alive?

 

[Creighton]

Thanks very much for mentioning Raging Swan Press, Charles.

Lost in the Deep looks pretty intriguing as well! What a great idea for a solo game.