Howdy, geeks and happy birthday.
It seems like it didn’t really make a huge splas on the tabletop radar but traditional tabletop roleplaying turned 50th.
The first ever session of Dave Arneson’s Blackmoor was held on April 17th, in 1971 and it lasted 11 hours. How long do your sessions last? Geek Native started a survey and you can find out if you’re unlucky or not.
This week, we see conventions beginning to share more but still cautious news of reopening plans, but also that Fantasy Flight Games founder Christian Petersen has picked this moment to buy some prime tabletop retail space and launch a new company to use it.
We also have the RPG Publisher Spotlight shining brightly this week with an interview with Louis Porter Jr of LPJ Design. He’s got some thoughts on whether DM’s Guild is always appropriate for new publishers.
Right now, here’s the rest of the RPG news!
RPG news from Geek Native
- The Game Machinery announce new plans for The Defiant RPG.
- Bandit Camp stepped up and made the popular Wicked Ones RPG a free download.
- A poll of polls shows that 50% of roleplayers get weekly sessions. Do you?
- Geek Native reviewed Rookie Jet Studio’s anime-inspired Over Arms RPG.
- Since Rookie Jet also recently launched a quickstart and free to download Gimmick Zero, there’s a quick look at that too.
- Geek Native also took at a look at the Watership Down inspired and newly launched Briar & Bramble ashcan edition RPG.
- Monkstone Miniatures debuted with a well-recieved range of tabletop models.
- Modiphius announced a new RPG set in the Achtung! Cthulhu universe with Against The Gods Themselves.
- Is it on the way to join the $1m TTRPG club? Geek Native looked at the Kickstarter promotion tactics of Auroboros: Coils of the Serpent.
- Beadle & Grimm’s silver edition of Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft is out.
- AAW Games announced a deal with Foundry Server that puts their Mini Dungeons into new accounts.
- Beyond Belief Games announced a second edition was on the way for the superhero Triumphant! RPG.
- Cubicle 7 has confirmed they’ve kept the license for the Lone Wolf RPG and have expansions on the way.
- Dungeon Full Dive is preparing a virtual virtual tabletop.
- Following on from the inhospitable settings round table, Biohazard Games’ Jeff Barber talked about using RPGs as a lens for modern concerns.
- In an interview with Geek Native, Chaos League talked about First They Came and hinted at other blindfolded games.
- There are two tempting deals for Dungeon Crawl Classics in the Bundle of Holding.
RPG Publisher Spotlight LPJ Design
RPG news from around the web
- Did you pre-order Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft? No? Good news, D&D Beyond is already offering 25% off the latest book.
- Team D&D have a new blog series and introduce the studio to fans and in it, as Christian Hoffer points out we discover plans for three unannounced products for 2021 releases.
- Adam Lee has left the D&D RPG team to take up the position of Creative Lead on the franchise team. In other words; developing D&D and Magic movies, media and more.
- Fantasy Flight’s old boss and founder Christian Petersen has bought the Fantasy Flight Games Center It’s 17,000 square space of retail and destination space in Roseville.
- Gen Con has announced their safety plans, including an attendance cap, for the next convention as well as retail pop-up partners like Renegade, The Op and Catalyst Game Labs.
- Bell of Lost Souls introduces Kobold Press’ new book Kobold Guide to Monsters.
- Peter Ray Allison notes Tabletop roleplaying has given players comfort, connection and control in a world that’s taken them away.
- Edge Studio tweeted some Midnight RPG teasers.
- Steve Jackson Games hired Peter von Kleinsmid to be the Fantasy Trip line editor.
- D&D Beyond’s Joe Starr also helped share the news on How To Support Jasper’s Game Day in Their Mission of Suicide Prevention.
- Ironsworn is getting a sci-fi sister RPG called Starforged.
- RTG published a Cyberpunk RED expansion for Elflines Online.
RPG reviews and interviews from around the web
- Throat Punch Games reviewed Broken Compass – Adventure Journal and I’m still waiting for my copy to penetrate Brexit Britain.
- Beyond Fomalhaunt reviewed the 2021 Crypt of the Lizard Wizard.
- Jared Rascher published an insightful review of Beowulf Age of Heroes.
- These Old Games reviewed The Basic Witch: The Pumpkin Spice Tradition.
- Ten Foot Pole reviewed the MORK BORG adventure The House of the Hollow.
- Think DM notes that MCDM’s Illrigger Preserves and Pushes 5e Design.
- Rob Wieland shared A Look Inside Dune 2d20.
- Polygon noted that Wanderhome is a Redwall-inspired RPG that arms players with dialogue, not daggers.
- Egg Embry at d20radio interviews Satine Phoenix and Jamison Stone about Sirens: Battle of the Bards.
- At Dicebreaker, Chase Carter talked to Ben Nielson about the decision to take Wicked Ones free.
RPG new releases
- Curious Monk released the ashcan version of their supernatural RPG Witch Doctors.
- Edge Studio, who picked up RPGs from sister studio Fantasy Flight Games, has now published the Legend of the Five Rings supplement Fields of Victory.
- Dandyline Games wants to take you on a nostalgic thrill ride back to adventures in a deceptively quaint hometown with The Dare-Luck Club RPG.
- Cubicle 7 has published the Warhammer FRP Sullasara’s Spells of Unrivalled Utility.
- Iron Crown Enterprises has a copper best seller already with the release of the HARP Bestiary.
- Adam Palmquist and Moa Frithiofsson published the Coriolis scenario Frozen Inferno.
- The Creative Conclave put hundreds of stat blocks into The Lazy GM: Dungeon Beasts for 5th Edition.
- Mongoose Publishing released the Sea of Thieves supplement A Tale of Two Captains.
RPG ideas, tips and discoveries
- The Genre Police and Ben tackled how real-life social dynamics might scupper or boost your campaign with Storming the Dungeon.
- To support Jasper’s Game Day, Wiggles asked Can you help prevent suicide by playing TTRPGs?.
- Fancy a character sheet for a town? Hexgaard has one you can download for free.
- Not a question you get asked often but if your D&D character was food, would they look like this?
- Stats from Geek Native suggested that urban settings are underused in D&D.
- John Arcadian writes Make the Most of Passive Modes in D&D and Other Games.
- Ria Kennedy offers 7 Tips on Crafting Dynamic Relationships for NPCs.
- Kevin Victor Rae at Tribality put together Designing a Realistic Map For Your Campaign.
- Paper & Pencils offered up d100 Merchants.
- Campaign Mastery covers The Four GM Responsibilities.
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;
- Game Toppers aren’t trying to sell you a whole gaming table; they figure you have a table already. They’re suggesting you just an impressive top for what you already use. It’s Game Toppers 3.0 – Upgrading Every Game You play.
- Reverie RPGS’ are offering some elegant tokens for your tabletop with a campaign called Token Tales.
- Bloody Eye Games have put together a menagerie of monsters and beasts to confound a party of Heroes. They call it Of Monsters Most Foul: A Broadsword Bestiary.
- Paul Field has funded the production of a set of hand-sculpted 28 to 32mm heroic scale white metal DNA: Dirty Nasty Apes!.
- Rollin the dark? Luo Wenjie is offering handmade Fluorescent Dice.
- Phillip Reed’s 39th Kickstarter is a guide for GMs that contains sixteen different Fantasy City Sites and Scenes III, for use with Fantasy RPGs.
- Caleb Engelke, AKA Dungeon Havoc, is collecting pledges for quick reference cards in a 5e Monster Booster Set.
- James Morris has hit the target to bring to life a space opera focused on character and story. It’s Swords And Spaceships Space Tabletop System and Setting.
- Anan are pitching to the dice collectors with NEW VTB DICE (2nd Edition) – The Vintage Bone Dice comeback.
- A monthly RPG magazine hits Kickstarter for the first time with The Oracle Issue 10
- Morrus and EN Publishing, one of the most successful Kickstarter operators in the RPG space, are back again with Into the Feywild: Fey Critters For D&D 5E!
- AJ Pickett is looking for NZ$150,000 to offer up a lifetime of gaming enhancements in the shape of Big Pockets – Silicone Tabletop RPG Products
- J.M. Ward has a new set of spinning dice and different mythologies. It’s Dice Coins 2021: Gods & Goddesses.
- J.P. Starsey is collecting pledges to bring space opera adventures to life. Why not check out Tangent Space RPG?
- Bad Roll Games, makers of Punkapocalypse, after offering up Wasteland Inhabitants Printable STL files.
- Otan’s Workshop has made the campaign target for affordable and one of a kind Handmade Resin DND Dice Sets.
If there’s a source or news you think is worth monitoring, please get in touch or leave a comment below.
