RPG Print News – The Smurfs RPG, Paranoia, Troika!, and More

What a time to live the TTRPG lifestyle. You can now play as Smurfs or decadent sci-fi adventurers in baroque and set in the old ways worlds. If that isn’t enough, you can also serve the Computer as a Troubleshooter, inhabit a hacker fighting through cyber-dungeons, and play normal folks opposing the man in the mundane world and in a nightmare castle. There are also a well-illustrated book of maps and more dice. Can’t have too many maps. Or dice. Or Smurfs. Or ancient demons haunting cybertech.

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 as print on demand.

The Smurfs RPG Starter Box by Maestro Media
The Smurfs RPG Starter Box KS Edition
SYSTEM: The Smurfs RPG (QuickStart Guide)
PRODUCT TYPE: box set
RETAIL PRICE: $39.95/$63.99 (currently on sale for $38.39)
DESCRIPTION: PCs play the smurfiest Smurf that ever smurfed. Rules come in a smurftastic box. The PC Smurfs adventures across the Cursed Land searching for Smurfberries, solving mysteries, helping others, and dodging Gargamel. Includes: Brainy Smurfs' Big Book of Rules, character sheets, Smurfs dice, and two sheets of Smurfs. The KS Edition also has Smurfette's Journal of Friends, Foes, and Faraway Places; Papa Smurf's Guide to Magic and Adventure; a double-sided adventure map, and other extras.

Troika! Intro Bundle (sale at Melsonia’s website)
Get It At Sutlers
SYSTEM: Troika! science-fantasy RPG
PRODUCT TYPE: on sale five softcover digest book bundle/hardcover digest supplement
RETAIL PRICE: $63 on sale price/$36
OTHER RPG NEWS: Troika!: An Interview with Daniel Sell and Troika! Deep Dive: Another Interview with Daniel Sell
MORE RPG NEWS: A Bit o' Troika on BackerKit
DESCRIPTION: Get a whole campaign: rules, setting, and adventures. Five linked adventure scenarios for 15 plus sessions at around 45 or more hours of game play. Not a new product but a heck of a deal at nearly half price as of this writing. In the USA (at least my location) the discount covers the shipping cost. Adding one more book does not increase shipping (again, at least for my USA location), so another excellent add on option is listed here, allowing PCs to work in the city of Troika at an exceedingly strange department store that embraces flex time.

Water, Water, Everywhere by Mongoose Publishing
SYSTEM: Paranoia
PRODUCT TYPE: softcover supplement
RETAIL PRICE: $19.99
DESCRIPTION: A new, damp mission in which the PC Troubleshooters try to convince poor citizens that climate change is not real, evacuate Blue citizens because climate change is real, avoid a swarm of angry bees, and convince factory workers to breathe out less carbon dioxide while maintaining work quotas. And one more thing. Half the team will be on Power Service’s side while the other half support Technical Services. Power Services cannot get a handle on waste heat, and they are worried they will be punished. Technical Services hates Power Services, so want their error to be made known. Because there are only so many teams available, of course, they both hired the same PC Troubleshooter team.

Netcrawl by Exalted Funeral
Do Cybernauts Dream of Electric Goblins?
SYSTEM: standalone based on rules from Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG
PRODUCT TYPE: hardcover core rulebook/softcover adventure
RETAIL PRICE: $60/$16
DESCRIPTION: In Netcrawl, the PCs adventure inside a computer system. The virtual realms of the internet are cyber-dungeons, and the PCs are digital avatars, coherent data traveling at the speed of light, who hack in and search for hidden computerized information. Do Cybernauts Dream of Electric Goblins? is a first-level adventure for four to six PC digital avatars. A virus spreads throughout the WorldNet disguised as an innocent invite link to a fantasy-based video game. The virus, created by the Electric Goblin, attacks the user’s frontal lobe and puts its victims into a coma. The PCs must stop the Electric Goblin and free the victims of his virus. The journey, fraught with danger and uncertainty, takes the PCs through the dungeon depths of the video game called Uniqorn, The PCs navigate treacherous labyrinths and battle fearsome creatures all the way to the heart of the Electric Goblin’s realm and the final confrontation.

Voidheart Symphony (Revised Edition) by Rowan, Rook & Decard
SYSTEM: Powered by the Apocalypse
PRODUCT TYPE: hardcover core rulebook
RETAIL PRICE: $55
DESCRIPTION: Drawn from the author’s feeling on real world politics and channeled into a TTRPG if that’s your jam. The PCs, mundane people, fight back the darkness by diving into a demon-filled labyrinth to save the ones they love. The PC rebels each have a core strength such as an Authority, a Provider, or a Watcher. They also get powers from those they love. The PCs investigate enemies in the mundane world, and then fight uncanny foes in a nightmare castle.

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A Collection of Fantasy Maps II by Open Sesame Games
SYSTEM: fantasy RPGs
PRODUCT TYPE: hardcover map supplement
RETAIL PRICE: $60
DESCRIPTION: Includes six hand illustrated fantasy regions, each explored through over 100 adventure sites featuring dungeons, creatures, secrets, and treasures rendered in isometric art. Ready to drop into any fantasy TTRPG campaign. A sequel to A Collection of Fantasy Maps I.

Ribbon Dance Dice (7) by Hit Point Press
SYSTEM: TTRPGs that use dice
PRODUCT TYPE: seven dice
RETAIL PRICE: $14.95
DESCRIPTION: Translucent dice with rainbow ink ribbons and white inking made of resin polymer.

Charlie does not use AI in any of his writing. Charlie is not an AI, he swears it, but he does love the Computer. Adventures of the questing soldier Hart and his biomechanical partner Hollow: Amazon Kindle short stories. Participant in the Noble Knight Affiliate Program and the OneBookShelf Affiliate Program, which provide a means for participants to earn money by advertising and linking to Noble Knight Games and DriveThruRPG respectively. Charlie on Facebook. Posts and articles posted here by others do not reflect the views of Charlie Dunwoody. If you like the articles at EN World please consider supporting the Patreon.

 

[Sossij]

Troika is one I keep hearing about but know nothing about. I may look into that, although I just bought another RPG setting + adventures so I should be careful of my budget.

 

[Professor Murder]

Drawn from the author’s feeling on real world politics and channeled into a TTRPG if that’s your jam.

So this line has me super curious. Is this the ad copy or is it Charles's personal critique?

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

So this line has me super curious. Is this the ad copy or is it Charles's personal critique?

That's from the author himself. Just a note as the author seemed to think it important.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

Troika is one I keep hearing about but know nothing about. I may look into that, although I just bought another RPG setting + adventures so I should be careful of my budget.

The PDF of the core rulebook is free on the linked website that publishes Troika!. So check it out, no risk, if you want.

 

[Nothrin]

I believe Katana-Ra uses AI generated artwork. So as much as I like a cyber-punk setting, I don't want to support a game that's moving us towards a cyberpunk future in the real world. There's a post on Wargame vault of a review with a creator reply that reads: "Delighted you enjoyed the setting. Just to clarify Nicolas artwork is 100% his own hand drawn art with AI artwork adding filler that we did not have budget for. We do however use AI art extensively in our products and it's done using a licensed AI tool with a clear commercial use license. The art is also using a custom style vastly superior to run of the mill artwork done in AI. This is production quality top tier AI art helmed by actual art direction from me - not willy nilly AI art."

But um... look at the girl's hands on the cover art of the rulebook.

 

[Sossij]

But um... look at the girl's hands on the cover art of the rulebook.

Ouch.

 

[Jeffzilla]

Troika is one I keep hearing about but know nothing about. I may look into that, although I just bought another RPG setting + adventures so I should be careful of my budget.

It's a worthy system. The books are reasonably inexpensive chapbooks. The gameplay has an OSR vibe with minimal setting descriptors and a lot of unexplained setting terminology, so that it's up to the players and GM to sketch in those missing details. The fictional universe very much reminds me of old Heavy Metal magazine features. I also like to mention that Troika! and Acid Death Fantasy are 100% compatible system-wise and compatible enough setting-wise that a mysterious blue glowing portal could link the two together satisfactorily.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I believe Katana-Ra uses AI generated artwork. So as much as I like a cyber-punk setting, I don't want to support a game that's moving us towards a cyberpunk future in the real world. There's a post on Wargame vault of a review with a creator reply that reads: "Delighted you enjoyed the setting. Just to clarify Nicolas artwork is 100% his own hand drawn art with AI artwork adding filler that we did not have budget for. We do however use AI art extensively in our products and it's done using a licensed AI tool with a clear commercial use license. The art is also using a custom style vastly superior to run of the mill artwork done in AI. This is production quality top tier AI art helmed by actual art direction from me - not willy nilly AI art."

But um... look at the girl's hands on the cover art of the rulebook.

Yeah anyone using AI "extensively" is a big no from me. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[jolt]

When I first read the post, I thought it was saying that Smurfs were decadent sci-fi adventurers in baroque and set in the old way worlds. I thought, "What an interesting take on Smurfs".