Here in the North, it is getting dark quickly and the end of the year – what a year – marches towards us.
It’s Friday evening, though, and time to cast a glance backwards at the week that’s just wrapped and the RPG news it contains.
The indie studio featured in November’s RPG Publisher Spotlight was Target Role.
As a result, Geek Native ran a feature on them… or tried to. They disbanded. Not in response to the interview quest, I note. Instead, I talk to Julio Tassinari formerly of Target Role to find what happens next.
It’s Geek Native’s Patrons who get to vote in each month’s RPG Publisher Spotlight and determine which creator gets featured. The poll for December is open, and even if you’re not a Patron, you can still see who has been nominated.
Did you know you can follow Geek Native via the Google News Reader?
Now on with with the tabletop RPG news!
Win Caul of Winter
RPG news from Geek Native
- The Origins Awards restructures with new RPG categories.
- Bravely, the UK Games Expo has set the date 4th to the 6th of June for the 2021 event.
- Dragon Turtle Games announced the Solarpunk RPG.
- Then Dragon Turtle Games celebrated a birthday and the sale season by making Carbon 2185 a free download for the weekend.
- The company that picked up Fantasy Flight’s RPGs, Edge, have been sharing Midnight concept art.
- Federico Sohns confirmed a Nibiru supplement.
- Bläckfisk Förlag denied that Blood Feud is a male power fantasy.
- Monte Cook Games expanded the Cypher System Creator Program.
- The free Android app Game Master Journal updated.
- Kobayashi89 released a free and an unofficial 5e-powered Granblue Fantasy: A Skyfarer’s Guide.
- GG_Kity released a free and Destiny inspired and 5e-powered Dungeons and Destiny.
- Free League Publishing are taking pre-orders on Colonial Marines Operation Manual.
- John Harper released a Paragon (as found in Agon) powered Cold War sci-fi called Chamber.
- Zadmar Games published another unconventional freebie with the cyberpunk Tricube Tales RPG called Chrome Shells & Neon Streets.
- Lando Baldur launched v0.01 [Alpha] of the arty sci-fi Vortex Flux RPG, for free.
- Grant Howitt released a free one-page RPG about Corvids trying to steal the Crown Jewels called Stone the Crows.
- Geek Native reviewed the manuscript for Onyx Path’s upcoming Scarred Lands adventure Dead Man’s Rust.
- Itch.io is hosting an indie RPG bundle in Ind of the Year 2020.
- The Bundle of Holding has Grant Howitt and Chris Taylor’s Spire on offer.
- Humble Bundle has the Warhammer 40K RPGs Black Crusade and Only War deals.
- With all these new titles and sales; D&D Beyond had a record-setting Cyber Monday. Geek Native has their top 10 sellers.
- Geek Native talked to Ben Aronvitch about Rivers of London including the forthcoming BRP-powered Rivers of London RPG.
RPG Publisher Spotlight Thought Police
RPG news from around the web
- Kotaku covered the release of Dungeons & Destiny.
- Monte Cook Games hired Teri Litorco as Managing Editor.
- The Dungeon Master’s Guide and The Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide are now on Roll20.
- The Week’s Ryan Cooper gave the community some culture recognition with a write up called In praise of Dungeons & Dragons.
- Cyberpunk Red became a DriveThruRPG Adamantine (top 0.09%) seller in 18 days.
- Paizo announced Pathfinder Secrets of Magic.
- Comic Book Resources’ James Hanna wrote up Dune: How Modiphius Entertainment’s Tabletop RPG Adapts the Classic Story.
RPG reviews and interviews from around the web
- The game isn’t published yet, but Throat Punch was able to give us a Ring Side Report-RPG Review of Shiver RPG.
- Jeremy Buxman reviewed Talisman Adventures: Fantasy Roleplaying Game.
- Charles Dunwoody also reviewed the game, asking Talisman RPG: What Makes It Unique?
- OnTableTop shared an Age of Sigmar: Soulbound Starter Set review.
- Antonios S reviewed Ominous Crypt of the Blood Moss, Mork Borg Cult: Feretory and the Vampire 5e adventure Fall of London.
- Antonio also looked at the Star Trek Delta Quadrant Sourcebook and the Gamma Quadrant Sourcebook.
- Angel’s Citadel reviewed Invisible Sun – The Path.
- Rolling Boxcars reviewed The Dare.
- J.T. Dimino reviewed Cyberpunk Red.
- Endzeitgiest reviewed Kingscairn Issue #1 (Troika!).
- Endzeitgiest also reviewed Gellarde Barrow.
- Tabletop Gaming wrote up Labyrinth: The Adventure Game review.
- Power Score RPG looked into Dragon+ Issue 34.
- The Alexandrian published the third set of DMs Guild capsule reviews.
- Rob Wieland shared a review of Broken Compass.
- On d20radio, Egg Embry interviewed Andrew Peregine about the Opera House RPG.
- On EN World, Egg interviewed Monte Cook about Heroes of the Cypher System.
- Meanwhile, at High Level Games, Egg also talked to Banana Chan, Tim Devine and Dan Letzring about the Questlings RPG and novel.
- On Dicebreaker, Chase Carter interviewed Ryan Verniere about Blackbirds.
RPG new releases
- The first of the Legend of Five Rings titles to be published under the Edge Studios brand is out. It’s Celestial Realms.
- Paul Gabat published the sequel to the ENnie award-winning Stygia Untamed, Maladomini Unleashed.
- Monte Cook Games’ Godforsaken is out.
- Onyx Path Publishing released City of the Towered Tombs.
- Modiphius published the Star Trek Adventures The Prize Supplement.
- Aegis & Gorgon has a new copper best-seller on DTRPG with The Last Barrow.
- Jessica Crimes has an RPG about felines ruining parties with Those Damnable CATS
RPG ideas, tips and discoveries
- A super quick way to map complex modern cities.
- Need something more traditional? Hextml is a hex-crawl map-making tool.
- Sheldice Studio’s world-building toolkit teasers have been popular.
- Bastionland cooked up a d20 Foods of Bastion.
- Reality Refracted reminded that Change Creates Tension Creates Adventure.
- Angela Murray wrote helpfully about GMing Fatigue.
- The Zhodani Base wrote about RPG Law and Order.
- Scott Malthouse shared How 4e brought D&D (mostly) back to its roots
RPG Crowdfunding
You can see those Kickstarters and other crowdfunding campaigns that caught Geek Native’s attention over at Kickstarter watch. Here are some industry projects worth a mention;
- Ex-Wizards of the Coast and White Wolf game designer Peter Schaefer has formed Shoeless Pete Games and is kickstarting a lightweight game of exploring dungeons and getting wounded in The Well Roleplaying Game.
- Theis Haagh Jakobsen is offering up 3d-printing files for the Arbiter Miniatures Kickstarter 2: Desolate Plains.
- Matthias has a minimalistic tabletop RPG that puts you in front of tough questions. It’s Crossroads – unavoidable choices.
- Scott Taylor is offering up part 1 of a new D&D mega-dungeon adventure wit Folio #26 The Virgin Mine Gaming Adventure!
- Leo Fumia has Kickstarted an old school inspired, system-neutral, fantasy mountain setting called A Packet of Particular Peaks.
- Gio Laser Design has Apollo mission inspired dice with Deluxe Constellation Dice: Spectrum
- Philip Reed has another good looking project with Monstrum Prodigium, a Third-Party Troika! RPG Zine.
- Blake Ryan has an RPG in which characters go back and forth between Earth and the Gloom in the Celtic mythology inspired Season of Dreams.
- DeepDark Designs has a D&D 5e and Pathfinder (1 & 2e) adventure called Magento’s Marvellous Waxworks quickstarter.
- Infect3d1 has a modest campaign to fund 20 adventure maps.
- Indie RPG designer W.H. Arthur is crowdfunding a print edition for the Chinese mythology RPG The Sol Survivor.
- Father and son Ryan and Kael Shuck are working on a Norse inspired fantasy RPG called Rune and Steal.
- Morrus and the EN Publishing team are back with Presents for Goblins: Festive Resources for D&D 5e.
- Phillip McGregor is suggesting a magazine with regular and special editions that look at understanding history (and getting it right) with Medieval.
- Matt Robertson has a horror based module for Dungeon Crawl Classics in the terrifying shape of A Conspiracy of Ravens.
If there’s a source or news you think is worth monitoring, please get in touch or leave a comment below.
