RPG Print News – Rowan, Rook, and Decard; Cubicle 7, and More

This week a new setting and ancestry for Dungeons & Dragons as well as rules for Age of Sigmar: Soulbound and Lex Arcana for mythic Rome. Also a new model for miniatures is available along with RPGs about covert ops and PCs drawn from a tarot deck.

The Seas of Vodari World Map by Tribality

• RETAIL PRICE: $4.95
• PRODUCT TYPE: Printed and folded poster-size map that will fit in the book. Measures 27" x 18" unfolded.

The Seas of Vodari

• SYSTEM: Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition
• PRODUCT TYPE: hardcover adventure setting
• RETAIL PRICE: $39.95
• DESCRIPTION: The PCs go on seafaring adventures as the crew of a ship hunting sea monsters, exploring mysterious uncharted islands, experiencing bustling port cities, using maps to hunt for buried treasure, and fighting cutthroat pirates. Swashbuckling PCs can also visit large port cities and face dangerous rivals, notorious crime syndicates, feuding nobles, and scheming politicians. Includes sixteen gods and details on the world including dozens of islands. Stats are included for Cursed Soul, Sea Dwarf, Siren (Seasinger and Wavedancer), Minotaur, and Voda PCs. Also includes a new class, the gunslinger, with four subclasses: Arcane Gunmaster, Musketeer, Pistolero, and Sniper. There are also fourteen new subclasses for the core rules classes, backgrounds, substitute bonds, feats, swashbuckling and seafaring equipment, magic items, spells, monsters, 12 ship templates, and example ships with crew. Also includes a starter adventure, The Island with No Name, which involves a hunt for hidden treasure .

Awakened Skeleton by Solace Games

• SYSTEM: Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition
• PRODUCT TYPE: rule sourcebook
• RETAIL PRICE: $17.99
• DESCRIPTION: PCs can now play an Awakened Skeleton. Perhaps raised by ancient magic or the curse of a god, no one knows, but the dead rise again as player characters. Includes the Awakened Skeleton stats and sub-race stats for all the major races in the core rulebook. Class options include: College of the Grave for bards, Circle of the Crypt for druids, Death Archetype for fighters, The Oath of Silent Passing for paladins, and The Dead One Patron for warlocks. Rounded out with two adventure locations: The Temple Orcus and The Mael-Carin Crypt.

Big House Wood Laser Cut Model by TowerRex

• SYSTEM: TowerRex Store
• PRODUCT TYPE: wood laser cut model of a big house
• RETAIL PRICE: $39.99
• DESCRIPTION: This terrain provides a detailed location for miniatures for fantasy RPGs. The Big House can be combined with other TowerRex buildings to create a hamlet, town or even a dungeon. While the wood comes with etched details it is unpainted. The model can be painted with acrylic hobby paints if desired.

Age of Sigmar: Soulbound Collector's Edition by Cubicle 7

• RETAIL PRICE: $149.99

Age of Sigmar: Soulbound

• SYSTEM: d6 pool system
• PRODUCT TYPE: hardcover core rulebook
• RETAIL PRICE: $59.99
• DESCRIPTION: PCs play as Soulbound, heroes chosen by the gods to fight the horrors that plague the Mortal Realms and stop a new age of Chaos and death. PCs are forged from powerful heroes in the realms and face down marauding bands of cannibals, legions of undead, and hordes of daemons in a desperate battle for survival. The Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound Collector’s Edition has a deep blue faux leather cover, featuring a Stormcast Eternal warhammer and the symbols of the Mortal Realms intricately detailed in gold foil. The 352 pages are finished with gold gilt edges. The book is presented in a high-quality box featuring a magnetically sealed lid. On the front of the box a Knight-Questor Vel Arturious and the Soulbound logo are picked out with spot UV which reflects the light. On the back of the box, the Undying King Nagash glares, his crackling green eyes also detailed in spot UV. The content of both the Standard Edition and the Collector’s Edition is the same.

Lex Arcana Screen by Quality Games

• RETAIL PRICE: $5

Lex Arcana Core Rulebook

• SYSTEM: unique
• PRODUCT TYPE: hardcover core rulebook
• RETAIL PRICE: $55
• DESCRIPTION: In this world, Rome never fell and myth and reality both exist. It is the end of the fifth century AD. The PCs are a Custos (warden) of the Cohors Auxiliaria Arcana, sent by the Emperor to the four corners of the world to further the study of arcane lore, investigate forbidden cults, investigate terrifying threats like witches and demons, recover lost relics, unearth forgotten secrets and fight legendary supernatural creatures. Also includes twelve pre-generated Custodes, a bestiary, and two introductory adventures: The Long Winter Nights and The Mothers of Cenabum.

Ghost Ops--Modern Covert Operations by FeralGamersInc

• SYSTEM: unique/Fudge/Fate
• PRODUCT TYPE: softcover core rulebook
• RETAIL PRICE: $24.99
• DESCRIPTION: PCs are members of an elite team of special operatives enlisted from the world’s best covert operations units. They work for a new private military force not funded by just one government but by all of them. Missions range from the streets of the USA and Western and Eastern Europe, the mountains of South America, to the Jungles of Africa and the deserts of the Middle East. PCs will fight drug cartels, organized crime families, private militia, corrupt governments, and terrorist cells. Set in the modern world but includes rules to set it in other time periods. PCs are drawn from thirteen different countries and over twenty different SpecOps units along with K9 Companions.

Royal Blood by Rowan, Rook, and Decard

• SYSTEM: rules light using tarot cards and coins
• PRODUCT TYPE: core rulebook
• RETAIL PRICE: $22
• DESCRIPTION: PCs are a Royal – half-magic, half-human. Each one is drawn from the court cards from the tarot deck – the impetuous Princess of Wands, the calculating Knight of Pentacles, the empire-building Queen of Wands, and so on. PCs use magic like a brick thrown through the window of the world. Their enemies are the Arcane – Death, The Hanged Man, The Devil, The Lovers, The Star. Reality-bending monsters, they wear human skin like a suit. In a heist never before seen in the world, the PCs plan to corner one of them and take their power for their own. The city will burn in a heist the likes of which the worlds have never seen.

 

[Marc_C]

Lex Arcana is very intriguing. I like the idea of mixing history and myth.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

Lex Arcana is very intriguing. I like the idea of mixing history and myth.

And Francesco Nepitello of The One Ring fame is one of the writers. It does sound amazing.

Quickstart rules from the kickstarter in 2018: https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b3339...cana_Quickstarter_Set_English_Version_1.2.pdf

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Vodari is a setting what should be remembered for the next decades by the fandom. If I could say three 3PP settings to be adapted into a cartoon for Netflix or Disney+, my suggestions are Pugmire, Humblewood......and Vodari. With the right hands as producers, it may be a succes as the reboot of my little pony.

If you are collectors, buy Vodari or you may regret later.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I thought Vodari came out a while ago.

I was really tempted by the Kickstarter -- swashbuckling ocean stuff is one of my sweet spots -- but money was tight. Did anyone pick it up?

 

[embee]

Lex Arcana is very intriguing. I like the idea of mixing history and myth.

I recommend the novel "Celestial Matters" by Richard Garfinkel.

In it, Ptolemaic astronomy and Aristotelian physics are valid scientific models of the surrounding world and cosmos, with Earth lies the center of the cosmos, surrounded by crystal spheres which hold each of the planets, the sun and the moon, all enclosed in the sphere of the fixed stars. Earthly matter, composed of the classical four elements of earth, air, fire, and water, naturally moves in straight lines. Heavenly matter naturally rises and moves in circles in keeping with the universe as understood by the ancient Greeks.

The science of the ancient Chinese also applies, but as the novel is told from the perspective of the Greeks, it is less well understood. Xi can be manipulated to move objects and energy. The Chinese five elements of earth, metal, water, wood, and fire are transmuted one into the other.

In this world, the Delian League (Greeks) and Middle Kingdom (Chinese) have been fighting a war for nearly a thousand years, ever since the time of Alexander the Great when the warrior-culture of Sparta and the Athenian Akademe were fused into a half-world conquering force. Their technologies are locked together, however, and neither empire can gain the upper hand. Each side secretly despairs of its chances and has come to consider desperate measures.

 

[digitalhobbit]

I'm playing Vodari right now, although my current campaign is focused on a specific island (I'm running Hot Springs Island), so Vodari is mostly in the background. But we'll likely explore more of the world at later levels. I'm really impressed with the setting. Lots of flavor, just enough detail to get your creativity flowing, and the new character options look great as well. One of my players is playing a Gunslinger. I'm planning to run more campaigns using this setting. Really well done!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm playing Vodari right now, although my current campaign is focused on a specific island (I'm running Hot Springs Island), so Vodari is mostly in the background. But we'll likely explore more of the world at later levels. I'm really impressed with the setting. Lots of flavor, just enough detail to get your creativity flowing, and the new character options look great as well. One of my players is playing a Gunslinger. I'm planning to run more campaigns using this setting. Really well done!

Wait, the OSR Hot Springs Island, or is there also one in Vodari?

Both Vodari and Brancalonia are tough for me (and to a lesser extent Humblewood and Magical Industrial Revolution), as I could easily see setting campaigns there, but I have a great campaign setting I love already (Ptolus) and no time to read and learn a new setting any time soon. I'll probably weaken and pick them all up eventually.

 

[digitalhobbit]

Wait, the OSR Hot Springs Island, or is there also one in Vodari?

I'm running the OSR Hot Springs Island campaign in 5e, and setting it in the world of Vodari.

 

[jerryrice4949]

I thought Vodari came out a while ago.

I was really tempted by the Kickstarter -- swashbuckling ocean stuff is one of my sweet spots -- but money was tight. Did anyone pick it up?

I have it and it is great. Love the content. If I had one nitpick it would be the art is a little too cartoonish.