Routinely Itemised: RPGs #160

RPG news to make your next few minutes pass more quickly!

This week’s highlights of highlights;

• The 2022 ENnie Award nominees are out
• An American congressman used D&D to try and prove demons are real
• Jamison Stone returns to Apotheosis Studio
• Broken Tales and Dark Souls are published as PDFs
• Psychology Today argues that fantasy RPGs do not promote racism.

Did you know you can use Geek Native to train powerful discovery algorithms that you’re into RPGs and geeky content? There’s a Google News feed to follow. Geek Native isn’t hip enough to be a site that the powerful news engine suggests content from, but you can use follow the blog there. When you do that, you can (sometimes) react to stories and always train the algorithm through your clicks.

What’s the point? Oh, it’s always good to teach the computer who’s boss. It might be able to beat me at chess, but (for now) I can win at kickboxing.

Just don’t imagine me shirtless and in shorts. Now, buckle up; it’s the RPG news;

Patreons: Town Hall

RPG news from Geek Native

• The 2022 ENnie-nominees have been announced. The ‘Best Game’ candidates are;
  • Colostle: A Solo RPG Adventure, Nich Angell (Author: Nich Angell)
  • Root: The RPG, Magpie Games (Authors: Brendan Conway, Mark Diaz Truman, Sarah Doom, Marissa Kelly, Miguel Ángel Espinoza)
  • The Troubleshooters, Helmgast (Author: Krister Sundelin)
  • Thirsty Sword Lesbians, Evil Hat Productions (Author: April Kit Walsh)
  • Wise Women, Aleksandra Brokman (Author: Aleksandra Brokman)

• Evil Genius Games has a free-to-download preview of the Everyday Heroes RPG setting and official movie tie-in Escape From New York.
• No mention of the Genesys-powered Keyforge RPG and its future as Fantasy Flight offloads the broken game to Ghost Galaxy. The algorithm is being worked on by the new owners.
• Grim & Perilous Studios and Andrews McMeel are paying their DMs for Gen Con and recruiting them too.
• At the Bundle of Holding Troll, Lord Games are offering Amazing Adventures.
• The busy discount site also has a deal from Ulisses Spiele on Fading Suns 4.

Spotlight: Long Shadows Press

RPG news from around the web

• Huh-oh! Satanic panic anyone? US Congressman insists demonic possession is real and cites D&D’s strongest demons.
• Jamison Stone returns (never left) Apotheosis Studio, largely cleared by internal report, but studio’s future remains uncertain.
• Steamforged Games hires Gabe Hicks as their new Senior Game Designer.
• Gizmodo has an exclusive with Get Your First Peek Inside Dungeons & Dragons’ New Radiant Citadel Anthology.
• Cubicle 7 confirm their 5e Doctors and Daleks Player’s Guide release date.
• R. Talsorian Games give us Tales of the RED Update: Locations!.
• It’s unofficial but Role announces D&D Beyond integration.
• Over at Green Ronin HQ, Malcolm Sheppard compiles Modern AGE, Four Years On: The Creative Core.
• From Cognizant to Dakota Irish, Luke McIntosh makes the news in Minot native rolls the dice on table top gaming.
• ComicBook’s Christian Hoffer wonders whether Surprise WizKids Figure Could Tease Next Dungeons & Dragons Adventure.
• Goodman Games has a free preview of Fifth Edition Fantasy #20: One Night in the Sinister Citadel.

RPG reviews and interviews from around the web

• Rolling Boxcars looks at Tomas Harenstam and Free League’s Twilight 2000 Core Set.
• Tyler Chancey shares a Midnight: Legacy of Darkness Review.
• Jared Rascaher takes a look at the 5e Fables: Pirates of the Aetherial Expanse and Arcadia 17.
• Throat Punch Games has a ring side report on the RPG Guns and Gears and the Call of Cthulhu Doors to Darkness.
• At RPG.net, Jeffrey Kesselman shares their thoughts on Coyote and Crow.
• Grognardia puts together a retrospective on Wizardry
• Bones of Contention get into Cryptic Signals – A Book of Beasts, Monsters & Treasure, Volume 2.
• The Other Side pens an overview and review of The D&D 4th edition Monster Manual.
• Dom from Signals shares first impressions of Into the Odd Remastered and Grizzled Adventurers.
• Age of Dusk has a p/review of By this Axe: The Cyclopedia of Dwarven Civilization.
• Refereeing and Reflection muse Call of Cthulhu: Cults of Cthulhu.
• Reviews from R’lyeh get into Cults of Cthulhu too and Dyson’s Book of Swords. There’s also a look at the generic Anyworld.
• Rob Wieland shares a review of Academies of the Arkane.
• Mixed Signals write up a review of Starfinder’s Pact Worlds.
• At EN World, Egg Embry writes up Grayshade – Dark Fantasy Novels and RPG: An Interview with Rich Lescouflair (Alligator Alley Entertainment).
• Brendan Frye interviews Tomas Harenstam on how to Bring the world of Blade Runner to an RPG.

RPG new releases

• The World Anvil has released the English version of their eagerly anticipated Broken Tales.
• It’s been a rocky road, but now it’s a silver best seller and available from DriveTHruRPG as a PDF this week; it’s Steamforged Games’ Dark Souls: The Roleplaying Game.
• Indie matara has published the Crystalpunk RPG Megalos.
• Celeste Conowitch and the Kobold Press team have released the Tome of Heroes for 5th Edition.
• Rookie Jet Studio has published the solo journaling RPG about love, life and dating set in the 1990s with Connection Table.
• Onyx Path Publishing release the 5e Scarred Lands supplement Dead Man’s Rust.
• E.R.F. Jordan has hit publish on the DMsGuild title Heroes and Villains: Interesting NPCs and How to Customize Them
• It’s the first of six and the 43 Pathfinder Adventure Path. Paizo has released PF1’s The Haunting of Harrowstone.

RPG bundle deals

• Save $9.00 (26%) with Fantasy Heartbreaker’s Tales of Two-Fisted Witchcraft! bundle.
• Save $7.23 (56%) on Infinium Game Studios’ 2022 ENnie Submissions bundle.
• Save $5.25 (40%) with Atelier Clandestin’s June 2022 ATCL Releases bundle.
• Save $5.12 (45%) on Sad Fishe Games’ Hexploratores Year Zero bundle.

RPG ideas, tips and discoveries

• In a guest post, Journey RPG designer Luke Miller shares How DMs Can Conjure Up Creativity into Session Prep Using Writing Prompts.
• Ben Jackson-Ellery a pro-DM with loads of experience tackles running sieges.
• Rollinkunz and Grant Howitt team-up leads, somehow, to an infinite badass orc generator.
• Vincent Baker writes up Running Apocalypse World in a Con Slot.
• At Gnome Stew, Lori Caskey-Sigety shares Keeping the old and finding the new: 5 gaming phrases in role-playing games.
• Aaron Rackham notes Why This Blades in the Dark Mechanic Is Perfect for Other TTRPG Systems.
• Cracked’s Carolyn Page calls out 10 Toxic Behaviors That Derail A Dungeons & Dragons Game.
• An article in Psychology Today asks Do Fantasy Role-Playing Games Promote Racism? and argues that they don’t.

RPG Crowdfunding

You can see those Kickstarters and other crowdfunding campaigns that caught GeekNative’ss attention over at Kickstarter watch. Here are some industry projects worth a mention;

• OniDice wants to put the vastness of the galaxy in your hand with SOLAR20 – Jumbo D20 Resin Dice Inspired by Our Solar System.
• Dominic M has 40 more adventures and 100 battlemaps in SideQuests 7: Easy Adventures for 5E Dungeons & Dragons.
• Mike Lewis is funding The Fall Post Apocalyptic 5e Modern World West Marches Style.
• Second Edition are funding a game where you play as a whole civilisation. It’s TURN OF THE CENTURY
• Chamomile Has a Project and another success with the zine-sized 5e Traveler’s Guide to the Elemental Chaos
• Phoenix Grey has funded Lewd Dungeon Adventures: A Role-Playing Game for Couples.
• Miguel COlon has new rules to power Monstrous Personas for 5th Edition Roleplaying.
• The Laidback Dungeon Master has more MAPS FOR FANTASY RPGs 4 & 5 – ROYALTY FREE MAPS.
• OSR with a 5e twist in The Oracle RPG Magazine – Dungeon Delving
• Quest Chests are offering hand-drawn zines of never-before-seen magic items in Treasure Hoard: Volume 1.
• Louis DiDomenico has a zine-style RPG that’s Hag Mag: A Terrible RPG Adventure Setting for 5E.
• John Power Jr has funded a celebration of tabletop RPGs, wargames and board games in Wyrd Science – Issue 3… and beyond!
• Peter Rudin-Burgress and Parts Per Million has hit goal for a 5e adventure and Unholy Plague.
• Henry Lopez and Paradigm Concepts will revise and expand the original for the Arcanis 5E Campaign Setting Runic Edition.
• RPG Miniature Games are funding 28mm metal minis of Halflings and Goblins!
• Sean Birger’s system lets you convert any flat surface into a dice-throwing Hidden Dice Tower Kit by MTTS.
• DanDMadeEasy is collecting funds for stylish and immersive print-at-home Customizable, Comprehensive DND 5E Character Journal
• Axolote Gaming is a 3d sculptor with a new way to build dungeons. The campaign is Odyssey through the Planes : 3d tiles and bestiary.
• Ulisses Spiele have made their targets for the beyond borders Fading Suns: Lost Worlds.
• Arion Games and Graham Bottley are looking to expand Advanced Fighting Fantasy with Encyclopedia Arcana I-Treasures.
• The Gate Publishing has a location of fey and drunk heroes. It’s The Courts & Kingdoms Tavern: 5e Drunken Supplement.
• August McDaniel has a big black and white Mega-Dungeon Map Set.

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