Audio EXP Podcast: #235 – Gary Con 16 at 50

Welcome home.

This is Audio EXP for the 23rd of March, and the episode title is “Gary Con 16 at 50 ” 

[The following is a transcript of Audio EXP: #235]

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LunarShadow Designs won the March vote, and the interview with Craig Duffy is out. 

I think you’ll like the piece as LunarShadow Designs is publishing a series of games all which come together to build The Dyson Sphere. 

We talk also about the time Signal to Noise, one of those games, was stolen from its Kickstarter notes and made into a Japanese game called The Reconnaissance Bureau Drifting Ship. There’s a reason why this small indie TTRPG publisher now goes the extra step to translate games for other markets.

We also hear about This Is How You Lose The Time War and, time allowing, that will be an RPG published later. What a great concept.

Gary Con XVI is on right now. It, and Gen Con, are the two biggies in the tabletop gaming world and I think Gary Con is the one that’s risen the most in recent years.

Luke Gygax’s tribute to his father has the great advantage of being on now, a third of the way into the year D&D turns 50. Gen Con is in August. Neither are owned or run by Wizards of the Coast, although WotC did have Gen Con for a while. I bet they regret selling it now.

There’s no new D&D news from Gary Con, although WotC are their press pack are talking about their announcements. The announcements are recaps of the D&D 2024 edition-not-edition books, and the adventures in Quests from the Infinite Staircase. I’ve not seen news about any VTT, although the news has just you get a free copy of Nest of the Eldrich Eye if you pre-order Vecna: Eve of Ruin from Wizards fo the Coast in digital or physical form direct from them. That’s the first time I’ve noticed Wizards of the Coast flexing their B2C retail muscle.

I suspect there might be as much buzz, perhaps more buzz, around Luke Gygax’s current project at Gary Con. The Tomb of Gyzaengaxx, a collaboration with Gooey Cube, is a Kickstarter that’s passed the half-a-million-dollar mark. There’s just over a day still on the Kickstarter clock.

[Back the Campaign]

There’s a limited-edition collector’s edition now available for the dual setting and adventure that you can only get from the Kickstarter. I suspest, after that, there will be a general retail release.

The adventure is set in Gooey Cube’s fantasy setting, it’s not 5e exclusive, rather than Gaxx Worx’s world. Gaxx Worx is Luke’s publisher and, well, shoe company. Did you know that? You can buy high top and low top shoes designed by Luke from them.

That said, in terms of hype, I’ve seen loads of buzz about the D&D LEGO. It is cool.

The dragon is impressive, I’ve seen the Beholder described as cute, and I very much like the Gelatinous Cube.

However, checking out the LEGO site I see the dragon, which is due on the 4th of April, will cost about £320. Well, we had already guessed it would be expensive. That’s too much for me.

There’s other RPG news this week, of course, such as Evil Hat opening up playtesting for Shadows of Truth.

I don’t blame you if you’d forgotten all about Shadows of Truth. It’s the latest and official Tomb Raider RPG, and you can play Lara Croft.

I’d hate to, though. Just as I wouldn’t want to play the Doctor in the Doctor Who RPG, or Buffy in the Buffy RPG or Bilbo in any of the Lord of the Rings RPGs. I’d even be nervous about roleplaying them as NPCs.

It’s roleplaying, not my thoughts about the upcoming The Crow reboot that proved to be somewhat controversial last week on Geek Native.

Ben’s Genre Police article Role Assumptions compared the way different RPGs handle the social side of games. He suggested tabletop RPGs should use dice or, at least, rules. So do we need ‘interpersonal roleplaying’ rules?

That’s a question we’ll explore in future articles, but social media shared thoughts already.

In last week’s thoughts about The Crow, I said I was nervous about Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice and now we have a teaser. Bronwen noticed it first.

I’m still not sure. It’s a great soundtrack, and Jenna Ortega is great casting. Catherine O’Hara may be immortal.

Beetlejuice has hair like mine, except green.

I can tell you what I’m not worried about. I’m not worried about Furiosa. The trailer for that is out, Bronwen noticed it first and Anya Taylor-Joy is rocking it. That’s due out in May.

We even have a trailer for Alien: Romulus, which feels very much more Alien than many others in the franchise. There are lots of leaping facehuggers, Bronwen noticed them first, and they’re due to escape in August.

In bundles, there’s one on the Bundle of Holding which tried to sneak by and that’s Cthulhu Hack. The Bonus Collection includes The Dee Sanction, another great game from Just Crunch Games.

There’s also a wee technical note to share. If you’ve been on the blog recently, you’ll have seen a big new privacy system where you can opt-out or into cookies. It suggests hundreds of cookies but that’s just because I checked everything the site and all its partners, or embedded tech such as YouTube videos, have ever done to be safe. In practice, there’s a handful, but you have full control whatever the case. The site complies fully with the tough new European Economic Area regulations.

Team Geek Native is not at Gary Con, won’t be at Gen Con but next weekend there’s Edinburgh’s Conpulsion. I think they’re looking for a new conference director if you have time and sanity to donate.

I’m booked into five different games, and it means there will not be an Audio EXP podcast.

On that note, if the Time War victors allow it, I’ll see you in two weeks.