RPG Print News – RPGs I’ve Run Through The End of 2024

Merry Christmas! Holidays are here and no time for a weekly update.

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

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Amazing Adventures Bundle by Troll Lord Games

• SYSTEM: powered by the SIEGE Engine same as Castles & Crusades
• PRODUCT TYPE: hardcover core rulebooks, GM screen, and adventure
• RETAIL PRICE: $105
• OTHER RPG NEWS: Amazing Adventures: An Interview with Jason Vey
• DESCRIPTION: What I’m currently running. This one is great: powered by the SIEGE Engine but set in a world like ours but with a supernatural edge. The PCs are bigger than life heroes and have Fate Points to make a bigger impact in their world.

The One Ring (Second Edition) by Free League Publishing

• SYSTEM: unique d6 dice pool with one d12
• PRODUCT TYPE: hardcover core rulebook
• RETAIL PRICE: $55.50
• DESCRIPTION: This second edition is amazing: steeped in the lore of Middle-earth (not the novels per se, but the setting), with rules to cover combat, journeys, and councils. I liked this one so much I bought the cloth map and ran a campaign for nearly a year. With Moria out now I am likely to make a return to Middle-earth.

Troika! (Numinous Edition) by Melsonian Arts Council

• SYSTEM: British 2d6 (Fighting Fantasy RPG and game books)
• PRODUCT TYPE: hardcover core rulebook
• RETAIL PRICE: $36.95
• OTHER RPG COVERAGE: Troika!: A Played It Review, Troika!: An Interview with Daniel Sell, Troika! Deep Dive: Another Interview with Daniel Sell
• DESCRIPTION: One of my all-time favorites. The PCs explore spheres connected throughout the hump-backed sky. The setting is baroque, overflowing with adventure, soaked in blood, and relies heavily on British new wave science fiction from the 1960s and 1970s.

Strange Tales of Songling by Bedrock Games

• SYSTEM: Network Rules: d10 dice pool
• PRODUCT TYPE: softcover core rulebook
• RETAIL PRICE: $24.99
• OTHER RPG COVERAGE: New Year, New Campaign: Strange Tales of Songling
• DESCRIPTION: A horror monster-of-the week style RPG inspired by Chinese ghost stories. My movie watching experience was enriched by watching A Chinese Ghost Story and reading an English translation of Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio by Pu Songling. This game is more dangerous than it might seem on the surface, but getting immersed in this supernatural China of long ago is well worth facing the danger of fox spirits, hopping vampires and ghosts. PCs confront the supernatural as demon hunters, scholars, wandering swords and dangerous ritual masters. The system is easy enough to run and the book comes with four complete adventures as well as monsters based on Chinese anomaly accounts, folklore, and horror movies.

Zombicide Chronicles RPG | Zombicide Chronicles - Road to Haven Campaign Book by CMON

• SYSTEM: unique d6 dice pool
• PRODUCT TYPE: hardcover core rulebook/hardcover adventure book
• RETAIL PRICE: $39.99/$24.99
• DESCRIPTION: I ran this one at Charlie Con this year. It plays like the board game but with added tension when humans are found. Will these new people help or make things worse? What do they know that the PCs don’t? I used the board game to set up a massive rubble crawl with the PCs starting at one end, fighting through to the other, and rescuing an important NPC along the way. Great fun, fast, and with enough RPG details to make it feel bigger than a board game with roleplaying. The Road to Haven Campaign Book supports campaign play with an extended mission for PCs to complete along with interesting NPCs to meet and new rule options to unlock.

Xcrawl Classics - The Complete Collection by Goodman Games

• SYSTEM: same rules as Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG
• PRODUCT TYPE: collection of hardcover core rulebook, adventures, and GM screen
• RETAIL PRICE: $149.99
• DESCRIPTION: I have run a lot of campaigns that use the rules from DCC RPG. This latest combo rules and setting using those rules is set in a dystopian USA with live dungeon crawling events as a blood sport. Like previous versions, the setting comes forth most strongly through the adventures which provide more monsters, NPCs, treasure, and setting lore. While I have kicked campaigns off with the 0-level funnel, for this setting I might start with first level PCs, still novice crawlers but not nearly defenseless. However, for a more Dungeon Crawler Carl feel, zero level makes a lot of sense.

Forbidden Lands Core Boxed Set | Forbidden Lands The Bloodmarch by Free League Publishing

• SYSTEM: Year Zero Engine
• PRODUCT TYPE: boxed rules/hardcover setting
• RETAIL PRICE: $59.93/$41.80
• DESCRIPTION: The included adventure sites in The Bloodmarch open up after the events in the adventures included in Forbidden Lands. The Bloodmarch is a land of ash and magma. Worm monsters threaten all while the Rust Brothers attempt to rise in power. This setting seemed a bit more fantastical than the core setting, with blood red forests and worm invaders and fungus and fire. A nice change of pace. I am glad I ran this one as a second campaign after the more traditional one in the boxed set. It is a weird one, but the setting is fun to explore and the NPCs and monsters are a real challenge.

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Leagues of Gothic Horror | Leagues of Gothic Horror - Guide to Mordavia, Land of Horror by Triple Ace Games

• SYSTEM: Leagues of Adventure
• PRODUCT TYPE: softcover rule supplements
• RETAIL PRICE: $29.99/$16.99
• DESCRIPTION: Leagues of Gothic Horror is a supplement for horror replaying set in a gothic age. The PCs faced a range of monsters and explored the realm of Mordavia. The PCs helped a ghost find rest in a haunted asylum, faced murderous marionettes come to jittering life, and faced a mummy run amok in a museum. Many of the monsters have their own supplement with additional versions and added rules to assist the GM.

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[Charles Dunwoody]

i do owe you an apology assuming that you were familiar with the topic.

I am completely familiar with the topic. I read all about it here and on X. And all over the internet. Just because the conclusions you drew may or may not be different from my own does not mean I don't know the topic. You have a certain take on the subject obviously and you use language not in the original tweets to describe what happened rather than quoting directly in an attempt to influence me. I just don't want to debate the subject and would rather just point to the original source and let my fellow RPGers make up their own mind. No discussion this hot will end with one side or the other being swayed to form a different opinion. It just leads to divisions in the TTRPG community which I would much rather repair than further damage and, if at all possible, avoid topics like this one in the future. But I appear to be in the minority.

However, you responded to what I wrote so here I am, in this conversation against my personal wishes. I hope, someday, we all return to talking about TTRPGs and accept that each of us is unique and different. We might not always agree on every topic, but we can all game together and discuss RPGs despite those many differences if we choose to.

 

[SJB]

Thanks for the round up and the column, which I find fascinating.

As for the other stuff. Pub Rule 1 is the charm.

 

[arazknees]

Thank you to Juxtablizz for bringing it up. Thank you to Charles for sharing the direct quotes.

Frankly, they make TLG look worse than I originally anticipated for encouraging a call to "burn in hell" over screenshots of didactically acknowledging D&D's rough history. Regardless of whether it's Elon or not, "loving the sentiment" of "burn in hell" is... well, a reasonable reason for Juxtablizz to bring up this conversation and inform potential customers.

It's the kind of conversation acknowledged as allowed by rule 4. I can't read sincerity in a call to unity that is positioned, in essence, to ask folks to quietly tolerate endorsements of the sentiment of "burn in hell" as just people being "unique and different".

Ignoring and avoiding is not repairing. It's fully possible to accept Juxtablizz as a contributing member of talking about RPGs and as a "unique and different" member of the community currently having RPG conversations.

In fact, it should be much easier than accepting endorsements of "burn in hell".

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

Thank you to Juxtablizz for bringing it up. Thank you to Charles for sharing the direct quotes.

Frankly, they make TLG look worse than I originally anticipated for encouraging a call to "burn in hell" over screenshots of didactically acknowledging D&D's rough history. Regardless of whether it's Elon or not, "loving the sentiment" of "burn in hell" is... well, a reasonable reason for Juxtablizz to bring up this conversation and inform potential customers.

It's the kind of conversation acknowledged as allowed by rule 4. I can't read sincerity in a call to unity that is positioned, in essence, to ask folks to quietly tolerate endorsements of the sentiment of "burn in hell" as just people being "unique and different".

Ignoring and avoiding is not repairing. It's fully possible to accept Juxtablizz as a contributing member of talking about RPGs and as a "unique and different" member of the community currently having RPG conversations.

In fact, it should be much easier than accepting endorsements of "burn in hell".

You're welcome. And I understand your position. However, TLG may have been endorsing this part of the quote:

Based on the rest of the tweet from TLG, they endorsed Gygax and did not bash WotC. Opinions will vary on what sentiment they were actually endorsing.

Which is why I try to avoid discussions like these: we're all talking about Elon and TLG and neither one is even in this conversation. I'm not even sure why we're discussing what we think they meant or what they said. They said it, I quoted it and linked it, can't we move on?

The reality is a more than zero total of well-known game designers and game companies express strongly worded modern world opinions in a variety of internet locations. Some even collect money and directly support political causes with money from RPGs they sell. If we're going to call out one tweet from TLG, I just don't understand why we don't call them all out. Or, if I had my way, stick to what they are producing in their TTRPG products and focus on that exclusively here (and go to a non-TTRPG forum for discussion of other non-TTRPG stuff).

Which is why I tend to give a lot of grace when anyone or any company starts talking modern politics and causes. People get emotional and say powerful words in an instant world. I just try to ignore things written in the heat of the moment and/or in an intense debate. And I try to avoid those imperial entanglements myself.

But I can hardly avoid recommending games from every designer and company who does voice opinions on the internet. If I did, I would have a tough time covering enough RPGs for every weekly column. The expressed opinions are really that prevalent. And I want RPG companies to thrive even if they are run by people with very different beliefs than me. Why shouldn't they get to be successful or not based on their hard TTRPG work whether I agree with their personal opinions, politics, and more? If they put out good TTRPGs and find an audience, we all win. We want more gamers and more TTRPGs not less. Don't we?

 

[Juxtapozbliss]

As was pointed out repeatedly in discussion on this topic, the ‘criticism’ of the sexist history of D&D in the intro to that book was absolutely MILD and was not directed at or critical of Gygax himself. So one might say that TLG's support of Musk's tweet was clearly "reactionary." To comment on such a cruel and heartless post as Musk with endorsement regardless of which part they were supporting is not a good look for TLG. Were they supporting the "burn in hell" threat? Or the absolutely inaccurate part? Were they endorsing a cruel violent threat by the richest man in the world or were they merely being ignorant? Both answers are a big negative for TLG in my opinion.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

Here are some options from the original Trolls.

Castle Zagyg
Worlds of Gary Gygax
Barsoom
Castles & Crusades
Amazing Adventures
World of Aihrde
interview with Jason Vey

 

[talien]

Hi Folks,

This is the end of the discussion. I think points have been amply made, thank you.

 

[Desrimal]

I think cancel culture is a terrible thing. If I were to boycot every company or artist I ever disagreed with, my life would truly be dull. Troll Lord Games make excellent rpgs and that's good enough for me.

 

[Juxtapozbliss]

I think cancel culture is a terrible thing. If I were to boycot every company or artist I ever disagreed with, my life would truly be dull. Troll Lord Games make excellent rpgs and that's good enough for me.

I think ignoring bigotry and racism and patriarchy is a terrible thing. There are thousands of rpgs to choose from and folks who don’t wish to support hatred can find plenty of great games to play.

 

[Desrimal]

I think ignoring bigotry and racism and patriarchy is a terrible thing. There are thousands of rpgs to choose from and folks who don’t wish to support hatred can find plenty of great games to play.

Thinking that people who disagree with you are evil and hatefull is a really narrow minded and sad perspective of life