Routinely Itemised: RPGs #148

If you’re getting a long weekend, I hope you also make the most of it to kick back, relax, and catch up on all this RPG news.

This is a week in which;

• Hasbro bought D&D Beyond for $146m
• West End Games’ D6 System returned with the Carbon Grey RPG
• Marvel revealed which VTTs and digital toolkits would support their RPG
• The Dark Souls RPG was slated by disappointed buyers
• We had loads of free quickstarts and previews

How’s that as an approach to the introduction to Routinely Itemised? We’re approaching the end of year three of the weekly RPG news summary, but that does not mean the experiments with the format shouldn’t continue.

This column is one way to keep up with the blog but all these social media platforms are alternatives. There’s a daily newsletter too and, yes, the joke is that the Discord is still in soft launch.

Okay! Time to follow those bullets with even more bullet points and the promised RPG news.

Win: Mr Root t-shirt

RPG news from Geek Native

• Hasbro has bought D&D Beyond for $146 million.
• Geek Native confirms the end of the official Usagi Yojimbo RPG from Sanguine Productions.
• Demiplane and Marvel announce the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game Nexus and there’s a look at the playtest rules.
• Gila RPG announce the Dark Souls inspired solo tabletop RUNE.
• Fumble GDR and Mana Project Studios have released a free quickstart for Not The End.
• Bugbearslug has released the transhuman horror Nekropol for free.
• Wizards of the Coast clipped out the first-ever adventure for Eberron from the original book and has made The Forgotten Forge free.
• Coco Publishing also released a freebie with the Stolen Havens quickstart.
• The free previews don’t stop there, as Geektopia Games shared the Year Zero Engine-powered preview of Fearsome Wilderness.
• One more! Elderbrain has a 900+ page 5e campaign and a free first chapter from it with Crown of the Oathbreaker.
• It’s just a teaser, but it looks good, as Edge Studios shares photographs of Writ of the Wild.
• Massif Press has published an expansion to Lancer with The Karrakin Trade Baronies.
• We can see floor plans and the current state of (the nice one) RPG Museum and Community Center.
• Draco Studios’ has announced the setting, line-up and date for the 5e-powered Dragonbond: Endless Saga.
• Archvillain has announced Drifting Havens, their 5e setting campaign, and Ed Greenwood is in the team.
• Vecna is coming to Stranger Things.
• The Bundle of Holding has deals on Old-School Treasures and Goodman Games’ Etherscope.

Spotlight: Outland Arts

RPG news from around the web

• Bell of Lost Souls shares Blade Runner RPG Gets New Preview & Release Date.
• ComicBook et al cover the news of the D&D Direct April 21st stream.
• Oh dear, Matt Jarvis tackles The Dark Souls RPG’s rulebook is a mess, and players aren’t happy.
• Chaosium teases Rivers of London, RuneQuest: The Prosopaedia, Recency Cthulhu and What Kind of Knight Are You at Chaosium Con.
• Cubicle 7 gives us a look inside Wrath & Glory’s Church of Steel and a general April Production Update.
• Modiphius Entertainment will publish Star Trek Adventures: Discovery Campaign Guide.
• Critical Role signs a radio deal with SiriusXM.
• Roll20 will also get a version of the Marvel Multiverse RPG.
• R. Talsorian Games confirms Witcher: Lords and Lands Returns!
• ICv2 has their usual tip on Ultra Pro and knows that they will release D&D Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel accessories.
• Dicebreaker covers Tournament Arc with Classic anime tournament story-arcs inspired this new tabletop RPG.
• Morrus does some sleuthing to ask Is Dragons of Stormwreck Isle Based on the 80s D&D Cartoon?
• Grim & Perilous Studios revealed an appropriate new grim and perilous logo.

RPG reviews and interviews from around the web

• The busy Reviews from R’lyeh covers Outlaws ‘N’ Owlbears, the OSE Planar Compass, the OSR Where the Wheat Grows Tall and the newly published Dread: Dredd.
• Beyond Fomalhaut has a review of Dark Forest PRess’s Troika The City of the Red Pox.
• Angel’s Citadel reviews the Defiant Role Playing Game.
• James Maliszewski has a retrospective on the AD&D The Assassin’s Knot.
• Nerds on Earth reviewed Beadle And Grimm’s Gold Edition Of Absalom: City Of Lost Omens For Pathfinder 2nd Edition.
• Strange Assembly also reviews Absalom: City of Lost Omens.
• Jared Rascher offered up an Uncaged: Goddesses review.
• Been Reece interviews Linda Zayas-Palmer and Jessica Catalan about Starfinder.

RPG new releases

• The D6 System by West End returns as Magnetic Press Play’s D6MV system and the Carbon Grey RPG. There’s a host of downloads already;
  • Core Rule Book ($20)
  • Badge of Blood solo adventure ($15)
  • Foes and Factions expansion ($10)
  • Omnibus of graphic novels ($15)
  • Character Sheets (free).
• D&D Adventurers League released the official DDAL-DRW-18 Against the Machine.
• Cubicle 7 hit publish on the $4.99 Warhammer Age of Sigmar Soulbound: The Grund Operations Manual.
• Daylight Publications wants to lure us in with RoboNoir: Crime in Cog City.
• Molten Sulfur Press published a game about collecting magical sea shanties and singing songs called Shanty Hunters.
• It’s a vast 313-pages and a silver best-seller on DMsGuild with authors like Benjamin Huffman, Ross Leiser and Willy Abeel on The Ultimate Adventurer’s Handbook.
• Flatland Games published the lightweight RPG of Grizzled Adventurers.

RPG bundle deals

• Save $31.92 (49%) with Earl of Fife Games’ Starfinder 3rd-Party Publishers bundle.
• Save $20.85 (41%) with Rosethrone Publishing’s Spring 2022 Highlands bundle.
• Save $18.45 (90%) with Skirmisher Publishing’s Easter Eggs bundle.
• Save $13.85 (39%) with the DMsGuild’s Sidekicks ULTRASUPERMEGABUNDLE and $10.87 (38%) Premium Sidekicks bundles.
• Save $8.19 (29%) with Map Alchemists’ Inn’s and Tavern Collection bundle.
• Save $6.38 (40%) with Parts Per Million’s The Sunken World – A Worlds WIthout Number Adventure bundle.

RPG ideas, tips and discoveries

• Charles Dunwoody continues his Year Zero World Building with The One Ring and Werewolves.
• At EN World, Charles also discusses Death, Flaws, and the Magic of Role-Play.
• Curious about Wizards of the Coast buying D&D Beyond? The founder of rival Arken Forge shares their VTT Developer’s Perspective.
• Meanwhile, Laptop Magazine picked an interesting time to do Best virtual tabletop software in 2022: How to play D&D and more TTRPGs online.
• Roll20’s Community Manager Danny Quach wrote up 3 Steps For Streaming On Roll20.
• Kobold Press’ Jason Campbell writes up Introducing Players to Roleplaying Games: Interacting as a Group.
• The Elthos RPG blog muses On Story vs Games in RPGs.

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;

• Andrew Zorowitz has shattered funding goals with a fantasy loot, metal dice, encounters and the Lost Tome of Monsters.
• Degenerate Polygons are offering both the STL and physical models for thematic RPG counters in The Initiative Towers.
• Gizmos&Gimmicks are offering just the STL files for a good looking Health & Condition Tracking: A DnD Gizmo to print yourself!
• Mathieu Atallah Publishing has a love lettter to anime, movies and French rock opera with Montréapolis : a cyberpunk TTRPG
• Tommy Sunzenauer’s first Kickstarter is a 3rd party adventure, and it’s SVMP: Swamp Crawl in Mörk Borg.
• Deck & Dice Games are working on your backup plans for when sessions for awry with QuarterShots ™ – mini RPG adventures that require ZERO prep!
• Sharktopus Games have a great name and a Dungeon Crawl Classic monster manual for AEON: Ancient Greece Volume 3 “Monsters of Myth” .
• Sigil Entertainment Group have funded an otherworldy campaign set in the HEREAFTER | 5e.
• Four Hart Games return to Kickstarter bringing a condition tracking Snap & Stack Adaptable Miniature Base System.
• Humble Bard Games set a humble goal for the roll-and-write solo game of Fortress of Terror.
• Lisa Hall is a talented illustrator who is working on a 5e compatible The Deck of Useful Things!
• Eric Bloat and Bloat Games are back with the retro video game and multi-system Pipeworld – Tabletop RPG Monster Manual Zines.
• James-Jason Beckers has funded 28mm scale Treehouse STL Files.
• Warehouse 23 and Steve Jackson Games will publish two micro-scenarios for The Fantasy Trip Quick Quests 6 and 7, Two New Adventures.
• Jason Rafalski has set an ambitious target for a horror roleplaying game set in a cyberpunk future, and the Rituals of the Elder Gods.
• Running Off the Rails has funded a 5e toolkit with 36 Emery’s Log of Legendary Eminences
• Battlegrounds Games has Mac and PC cartography capable TileForge: software to batch-generate mapping tiles,
• EmberSmithCreative has a 5e adventure and STL terrain with minis on offer in Goblinz: Mischief and Madness.
• Mikey Free is funding a bad time game about the painful experience of working in retail. The ironic title? Retail.Therapy.
• BRW Games is bringing Lovecraftian horrors to old-school RPGs via Swords of Cthulhu.
• Gabrielle Rabinowitz has a Passover RPG where players tell a version of their Exodus story with Ma Nishtana: Why is this Night Different?
• XploringMap is funding a system-neutral supplement of hand-drawn maps, tables, items and NPCs in Forsaken Past – Hollow Adventures.

If there’s a source or news you think is worth monitoring, please get in touch or leave a comment below.