Audio EXP: #193 – D&D fashion and sci-fi rescues

Welcome home.

This is Audio EXP for the 22nd of April, 2023, and the episode title is “D&D fashion and sci-fi rescues”.

[The following is a transcript of Audio EXP: #193]

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High Level Games is in the Spotlight this month, as voted for by Patreons.

I’ve a Q&A with High Level Games in progress. Huzzah. That’s the good news. The bad news is that I’ve not written it up for this week’s Audio EXP.

Let’s make that a sandwich of good news by adding that if you are a patron, not only do you get to vote in the RPG Spotlight process, you’ll also be getting a PDF copy of Neurocity as a thank you.

Here’s the description;

Neurocity is a subterranean city complex crowned by a glitched digital sun ruled by an ever watchful supercomputer named I.S.A.C. A closed society on the brink of collapse suffering an involution from digital to analog technology due to the scarcity of materials and constant recycling of components.

If you’re not yet a backer but sign up before the 30th, you’ll also get a copy. These gifts occasionally happen throughout the year.

There’s a sci-fi and merch theme this week, which half-fits from my week off last Saturday, for which there was no Audio EXP podcast. I was at the oldest gaming convention in Scotland, Conpulsion, to play some games and watch Tanya Floaker accept a reward for all their great work in promoting indie games.

I played two sci-fi games, including one homebrew, one Stars Without Number, and one set in a supernatural 19th Century Sweden.

Next year, I could be playing in the official Star Trek: Lower Decks RPG, as Modiphius has secured the license.

You can already buy the mission Lurkers and the Season 1 Crew Pack. The Star Trek Lower Decks Campaign Guide opens for preorders in the summer. It’s nearly summer, right?

Another bit of RPG sci-fi news is Holostreets: The Shadowrun Collective.

This community content program from Roll20 DriveThruRPG and Catalyst Game Labs lets third-party publishers or creators sell Shadowrun Sixth World content and keep some profit, and gamers like me buy them. It resembles the Savage World Adventures Guild, Storypath Nexus or Jonstown Compendium.

DriveThruRPG isn’t currently accepting new community content programs, and I imagine that’s part of the unification process with Roll20. That’s looking like a merger now, even though we were nudged away from that terminology when the news of the two companies coming together broke.

However, Holostreets had been a work in progress before the acceptance program closed doors. I imagine it’ll come back because getting publishers into the ecosystem should be The Orr Group’s priority.

One more sci-fi surprise good news story is the rescue of Into The Mother Lands by Green Ronin.

Tanya DePass and B. Dave Walters’ Afrofuturist RPG was originally one Andrews McMeel was working with, but was dropped as the publisher edged away from the tabletop market.

Green Ronin of the AGE system, which powers The Expanse RPG, has picked it up but it’s only providing support.

CypherCo’s Tanya DePass said in a press statement;

Green Ronin is supporting us by bringing the game to new players, retailers and more. Our Kickstarter backers will get the game first, but then it will have a wider release. The IP, world, actual play, and all properties are our crew’s creations but everyone’s to enjoy.”

And Green Ronin’s Chris Pramas noted;

“To clarify our role, we are publishing the game and getting it into bookstores, game stores, and other channels. Into the Mother Lands is POC created and POC owned, and our job is to help the game reach the widest possible audience.”

I guess there’s even a story this week that links together Roll20-esq virtual tabletops and sci-fi technology with the news that Ulisses Spiele, the German publisher, has bought Sigil Services.

Sigil Entertainment remains part of Pinnacle Entertainment, but Sigil Services has moved over, and Sigil Services specialises in working with RPG publishers to get their content into virtual tabletops.

The new deal means it’ll be easier for Ulisses Spiele to do more stuff digitally, it might also open Sigil up to larger European markets, which would be a win for VTT gamers worldwide.

This week isn’t all virtual and sci-fi, though. I didn’t just play sci-fi or Nordic horror at Conpulsion. I also bought cool stuff I didn’t need, like a large d6 with monsters painted on it.

So, there’s news this week of what I think is the most tempting D&D turns 50 in 2024 t-shirt I’ve seen yet. It’s exclusive and designed by EMP.

I know, shop there once, and they’ll send you email offers for life, but this black and red t-shirt has a cool Mimic on it, it is official D&D merch marked with a 74 on it. It looks different, and I think it looks great.

There are also t-shirts from CultureFly which are character sheet designs showing colour illustrations of fantasy races for various D&D classes.

These aren’t so clearly part of the 50th birthday, but the art is stunning and could have been taken out of a high-end sourcebook.

You’ll find links to all these through the show notes and on the blog.

One more bit of merch to point out is The One Ring that glows. Imagine having a Ring of Power with a spooky green aura that gleams in the dark.

The first One Ring replica I saw cost hundreds of dollars; well, it was gold, I think. This Merchoid offer is $30.

Speaking of offers, this is a weird one, but if you do happen to run an RPG publishing company or perhaps just a gaming society with expenses, Geek Native has secured a discount code, which can be used up until the 30th of June, from the US PrintSafari.

If you simply must have a pull-up banner for a stand at a gaming convention or branded notebooks, then this will make that a bit cheaper for you.

Need something for free? Or just want it? Since we last caught up, and gosh hasn’t it been busy, Geek Native highlighted the VERSE quickstart as a free to download PDF.

The game is similar to Into the Odd, except set across a mutating multiverse. It plays a bit more like Trophy Gold.

Since it’s been two weeks since we last caught up there are also quite a few bundles offers to highlight. All worth it.

Independence Games, Mongoose and other publishers have a Memorial bundle for Keith Frye.

Keith was a big part of the Traveller scene and set up TravellerCon. The community raised money to help with his fight against cancer. Sadly, this one is for the final bills and funeral costs.

There’s also two bundles to support Owen K.C. Stephens who is fighting and has bills to pay. Each bundle gets you about $700 worth of RPG products and costs merely $35. #

It’s awkwardly good if you let it feel that way, such a discount, but I like to see it as RPG community being heroes again.

A more traditional bundle, but also raising money, is the quick run Humble and Pelegrane Press 13th Age mega deal.

On the Bundle of Holding, there’s a few days left on the Mongoose Classic Play offer. You’ll have to be quick for both.

You’ll have to be even swifter to snap up the retro-pulp RPG of Airship Daedalus from Deep7, as that launched as a flash sale at the Bundle of Holding.

And on that note, let’s wrap up there, and we’ll catch up next week. Until then, roll your dice, watch your anime and keep safe.