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This is Audio EXP for the 1st of July, 2023, and the episode title is “Superhero Week, 3am and ORC”
[The following is a transcript of Audio EXP: #202]
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The Grinning Frog is in the Spotlight this month, as voted for by Patreons.
I think I’ve a Grinning Frog email in my unsorted inbox, but, whatever the case, I’ll give getting in touch and getting the publisher involved in the write-up a jolly good go.
I guess my big news is only significant to me. I used to race a midnight deadline when the Daily Digest email came out. The main crunch was Friday when Routinely Itemised is due.
I missed very rarely, but I’ve eased things, I hope, by delaying that to 3am. I hope the practical difference is nill to readers.
The big news of the week is either more D&D playtesting or Paizo and team finally signing off on ORC. However, let’s list the RPG Publisher Spotlight Candidates for August first. Patrons, those incredible people, get to vote.
The candidates for this month are
A new to me publisher is EHL and they’re kicking off Superhero Week with Titanic Triumph.
That’s a superhero RPG coming out through Modiphius’ Worldbuilders program and it promises a suitable blend of action and story.
It takes the first Superhero Week pole position for having a good actual play to watch as an introduction.
If you don’t know Superhero Week, then it’s when there’s a focus on superhero content on the blog, but it’s far short of a takeover. At the bottom of each Superhero Week, you’ll find a teleport link randomly taking you to another.
It’s good to see titles like Titanic Triumph coming through Modiphius’ licensing program.
The ORC license is out. That’s the Open RPG Creative rules to rival whatever WotC was trying to do with the OGL back whenever that drama happened.
There are RPGs that use ORC already out there but, dangerously, ORC has only just been agreed. It took three goes.
Bronwen spotted a few licenses outside the gaming sphere which also deserve an Audio EXP podcast mention.
How could I not choose The Chosen One.
That’s a religious drama from Netflix and an adaptation of the comic book American Jesus by Mark Millar and Peter Gross. Netflix aren’t speeding out their Millarworld titles, are they?
There’s also more Futurama. It’s coming Hulu in the States so I’m not sure what that means for the UK.
It’s only been 10 years since the most recent time it was cancelled.
One more Bronwen find comes from South Korea and would tempt me, but I’m on the Google arm of the Android family. You can now get Pokemon wireless earbud cases.
You can get Ditto, Jigglypuff and Snorlax. A Snorlax head, anyway! Honestly, I’ve the latest Pixel Buds, and they’ve been a disappointing battle and plagued with chirps.
Let’s keep the idea of official licenses in mind and discuss Cthulhu. Chaosium doesn’t own the rights to all things Cthulhu but does defend Call of Cthulhu.
Agreements to avoid confusion have been made in the past.
So, I wonder if anything will happen as a result of Norm Konyu and Titan Nova’s new A Call to Cthulhu.
The comic itself is a hybrid of an artbook and a storybook.
We don’t have to go too far from evil cults for the next story. In fact, we can stay with them. It’s another Modiphius story and for Blood and Doom. You know they have got a dark fantasy RPG of that name?
I must have known, but, well, it’s not guarding its space in my mind very well. What caught my attention is Faces of Evil, which is a free adventure for the game.
Blood and Doom is set in a fantasy world where a dozen cults work hard and are dangerously close to summoning world-ending cosmic powers.
There are two more freebies I want to mention by name this week. One is The Gestalt RPG from Little Red Goblin Games.
It’s a beta test, so feedback would be good, and the download stretches to more than 400. Yeah, it’s free. It’s not grimdark but noble-bright.
The other is STRONG RPG which has structure for characters but is keen to be described as a classless RPG. Want to play a teleporting warrior? Three Wild Embers hope this is the game for you.
Or, you know, there’s the old way of doing things and paying for games. One that tempted me is the sixth edition of Pendragon which has a Starter Set out for digital download this week.
Pendragon is an important game to Chaosium. I wonder if it’s second to Cthulhu or even beats it?
In our outros we’ve a double-featured from Fire Ruby Designs with both Warlock! and Warpstar! in the same bundle. Warlock! is the OSR fantasy game that’s become very popular, while Warpstar! is the sci-fi sibling.
You will have to be quick but there is also a flash sale on the Bundle of Holding for Dork Tower comics. Just a few days on the clock there.
As ever, links are in the transcript, and you can get to that through the show notes or just web search for Geek Native and dive in.
And on that note, let’s wrap up there, be well, and I’ll see you next week.
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