Routinely Itemised: RPGs #253 

Long day! How is yours going? Shall we skip straight to the RPG news summary of summaries?

• Wizards of the Coast’s boss has quit as Cynthia Williams leaves Hasbro
• Steve Jackson Games lost money, a secret big failure, but seem upbeat
• The Fallout TTRPG sells out
• Pathfinder’s god of war will die
• Even more research says that roleplaying is good for your mental health

Did you know you can get Mr Root merch at Redbubble?

Mr Root is, of course, our regularly appearing RPG news minotaur!

Don’t let Geek Native hog the merch limelight, though. We’ve a whole table of publishers who have similar stores. It makes sense, right? If you’re playing humans for art, then why not charge other humans who like it to move the creations to t-shirts, socks and notepads?

Ready? Let’s dive into this week’s TTRPG news and dive into the weekend

Support: Patron.

RPG news from Geek Native

• D&D needs a new boss, as Wizards of the Coast’s chief, Cynthia Williams, quits Hasbro.
• Green Ronin launch the AGE magazine ENGINE through their new AtomicThinkTank.
• A sign of flagging sales? D&D’s board game Onslaught is half-price.
• In bundles, there’s a mega deal on the 13th Age.

Spotlight: Greyplains

RPG news from around the web

• Steve Jackson Games reports a challenging year while accepting it’s a golden age in their 2023 stakeholders report.
• Welp! Bell of Lost Souls notes that Modiphius Sells Out Of ‘Fallout RPG’ Print Books. You can still get the Fallout RPG PDF.
• GamingTrend talks Paizo announces Pathfinder: War of Immortals meta event.
• Gizmodo probably knows that Vecna pre-dates Stranger Things and went with How Dungeons & Dragons Designed Vecna in a Post-Stranger Things World.
• TechRatpor took the route of Vecna: Eve of Ruin Is Dungeons & Dragons Major Crossover Multiversal Event.
• Dicebreaker writes up Stewpot’s melancholy RPG about finding calm after a life of adventure gets a hardcover book.
• Dicebreaker also pens Dungeons & Dragons publisher plans to make Baldur’s Gate 4, once it finds the right developer for the job.
• Darryl Mott covered Peer-Reviewed Study Says Dungeons & Dragons Good for Mental Health.

RPG reviews and interviews from around the web

• Throat Punch Games has a ringside report of the Daggerheart playtest.
• At RPG.net, Paul Mackintosh has reviewed Typhon Games’ Chronicles of the Future Earth Player’s Guide.
• Gnome Stew has reviewed Dune: Fall of the Imperium.
• Jared Rascher also reviewed Revenge of the Super-Skrull.
• The Edmonton Journal’s Fish Griwkowsky reviews Mark Meer builds a dark world for Improvised Dungeons and Dragons starting Friday.
• Reviews from R’lyeh writes up DCC’s Grave Matters.
• Words in the Dark has An Interview with Hankerin Ferinale of Runehammer about Crown and Skull.
• Egg Embry talks about the Black Rainbow Society with Gavriel Quiroga.
• Egg also talked to Good Brother Studios in a Legends of the MetaVerse interview with Bill Lee.
• Business Insider gets Critters interested with the savvy Amazon is pouring big bucks into geek culture — and Critical Role’s Matt Mercer just dropped a major hint about the series fans have been waiting for.

RPG new releases

• Eerie Games gets into personal horror and ghosts with the PARA roleplaying game.
• Lucid Eye Publications has the scary solo RPG Elfking The Immortal Roleplaying Game – The Hour Of The Demon: An Elfking Saga.
• Chaosium has a new Rivers of London scenario in Going Underground.
• Cubicle 7 has a best seller with Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory, Vow of Absolution.
• MMORPG publisher Twin Drums has released the TTRPG The Wagadu Chronicles: 7th Era.
• Leyline Press has released the world-building Foundations as a digital deck at DriveThruRPG.
• Kobold Press has published their Guide to the Labyrinth.
• Lionborn Publishing has merged TTRPG with the skirmish game in Inheritors.
• Bloat Games has released SURVIVE THIS!! Greasers & Ghouls.
• NerdBurger Games has published an alternative 2020 setting with the Capers Cyberpunk RPG.
• I think Merchoid has stocked RPG books before, and they certainly have hardback pre-orders for D&D’s Adventure Quests from the Infinite Staircase.
• Forbidden Planet certainly sells TTRPGs and is now taking pre-orders on the Cypher System: Bestiary.

RPG bundle deals

• Save $6.03 (24%) with Wentworth Games’ A British Superhero Campaign bundle.
• Save $3.00 (20%) in Lightspress Media’s Foragers Guild Factions 2 bundle.
• Save $2.95 (31%) in Orlando Moreira’s Kane’s Tone and Bad Tidings bundle.

RPG ideas, tips and discoveries

• Ben and the Genre Police explore RPG tips with Rules of Conduct.
• Sly Flourish shared tips on Running Combat-Focused Adventures.
• Brickfanatics notes that LEGO Ideas 21348 Dungeons & Dragons alternate builds revealed.
• Seed of Worlds celebrates 5 years blogging with Growing your game group.

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 mentioning;

• Dungeons & Flowers from Federica D’Angella submits “A D&D flower inspired weapon pin collection”
• Mythoria World Chapter I: Land of Men – D&D 5e One-Shots from Mythos Quill nominates “Write your story in Mythoria’s World through three diverse DnD 5e adventures, designed for easy set up and playing.”
• 5e One Shot: Night in Aurora from Elven Foundry suggests “Night in Aurora is a 5E compatible one-shot horror adventure. The adventurers must save the town of Aurora from evil.”
• TWISTED RUST from Satellite Zero pitches “Survival in a Mechanized Wilderness: A TTRPG Sourcebook for Post-Apocalyptic Innovation”
• Captive: A 5e TTRPG Supernatural Prison Adventure + Books from Tina Glasneck offers “Escape into a Dystopian Fantasy World. “The Hunger Games” meets “Divergent” in a supernatural prison: new monsters, magic items & maps.”
• The Sky is Falling from The Flagellant & The Fool is working on “A Mork Borg compatible RPG for Survivors, Cave-divers, and the Doomsayers who were right all along…”
• Afterschool Wonderland from Peach Garden Games crowdfunds “An Actual Play podcast and third-party supplement for Animon Story, featuring the thrills of the City Spectacular!”
• Populated Hexes Monthly Issue 33 from Todd raises funds for “Artifacts and Relics, part II”
• ARMTGE the fantasy cyberpunk RPG from Sapphyra proposes “Magic is dead. The future is now. ARMTGE, the fantasy cyberpunk tabletop role playing game. Compatible with 5e and onednd.”
• Babies and Broadswords: BathFinder from Even Footing Games crowdfunds “A rules-lite, beginner friendly narrative tabletop role playing game for fans of Muppet Babies and Rugrats.”
• Nightfell – A Grimdark Fantasy setting for PF2 from Grim Moon Studio kickstarts “Nightfell returns to Kickstarter. Beware the Moon in this PF2 Compatible Grimdark fantasy setting.”
• The Call of Cthulhu & At the Mountains Madness from Oliver McNeil offers “Over 8 Hours Cthulhu Double Album of soundscapes inspired by two classic Lovecraft tales. Use for roleplaying, board games and LARP.”
• Tormentor Cults – Physical / STL miniature collection from Bestiarum Studio LLC kickstarts “Professionally designed miniatures for tabletop roleplaying games and painting”
• The Book of Brews: A DND 5E Supplement from The Saggy Bag submits “Bring your game to life with new features, unique brews, lively taverns, and unforgettable adventures!”
• Abyssal Terrors: Secrets of the Ocean 5e from NarrativeBlueprinting submits “Dive into the deep : Explore Untold Terrors and Hidden Wonders of the deep dark Ocean in this D&D 5e compendium.”
• TabRPG: An intuitive yet fully featured Virtual TableTop. from Jeremy Randall pitches “TabRPG is a user-friendly web-based Virtual Tabletop crafted to enhance and simplify your online or in-person campaigns.”
• 49 types of stl tiles to build a dungeon from DarkDice introduces “49 types of stl tiles in 4 categories (base, door, arcade, mix) for self-printing and building your own dungeon in rpg games”
• Frightshow Classics from Yeti Spaghetti & Friends submits “Two new classic horror tabletop RPG adventures, “Vengeance of Bathory” and “Pine Barrens Devils,” featuring the art of Jim Holloway”
• The Howling Gorge 5E from Eric Bleney offers “Designed for characters of levels 3-5, this grim saga involves them being drawn into a mystical saga to retrieve a mystical blade.”
• Inkandescence: Setting, Players’ Guide, Monster Manual from Book-Born Games pitches “Guides filled with massive amounts of new D&D 5e-compatible content in a setting inspired by Renaissance Italy and Golden Age Baghdad.”
• Tekken’s Journey Through the West from Faidwen Homebrewery pitches “A Player and Game Master compendium that was inspired by “Journey to the West”, that will bring new features and gameplay mechanics.”
• DARKHEIM: The Ultimate Sinner from Rocket Pig Games offers “A legendary (5e) monster miniature for tabletop games (3d printable resin STL) 5e compatible PDF Join our $1 DARKHEIM Tribe or Patreon”
• I Fought the Boar: A DnD 5e Hunting adventure! from greedygorgonpress suggests “A DnD 5e hunting simulator that works as a one-shot or a drop in for your own adventure, with a chance at a tracking a legendary boar!”
• Fragment Skies from Claira Jhaveri suggests “Fragment Skies is a high fantasy Table Top Role Playing Game, with the feel of a J-RPG, in a world of Monsters and Magic.”
• Skies of Ralabourne. D&D 5e source book and adventure from Azazel’s Library pitches “A sandbox TTRPG for airpirates to explore a whole new world, fight unique monsters and seize the adventure of a lifetime.”
• Hypersleep Terminated from Craig Campbell offers “A Zero-Prep, GM-Less Space Disaster RPG”
• Whisper of the Sleepwalker from Next Guardian LLC submits “A level 3-5 horror D&D adventure”
• Eternal Judgement: A fantasy campaign for 5e from Fiendslayer Games crowdfunds “3D Printable STL Files and 5e Campaign: Minis for Tabletop Games, Role-Playing Games, Wargames, Resin 3D Printing, and Warhammer Proxy”
• BattleCloth Maps for RPG & Wargaming Terrain from Dice Dungeons crowdfunds “Microfiber DnD Battle Maps for Enhanced TTRPG Adventures – Detailed Cloth Battlemaps for Any Fantasy Game.”
• Beyond Earth: Action Horror for the Shadows Over Sol RPG from Tab Creations LLC is working on “A set of two new action horror scenarios for the Shadows Over Sol roleplaying game!”
• RPG Maps – Ancient paths to Olympus from Benjámin Weisz submits “Explore 356 Beautiful Digital High-Quality Maps for all VTT and TT RPG systems: D&D 5e, Pathfinder, CoC and many more!”
• Amberlight Boardgame and DND 5e Sourcebook from Chronicle Cards kickstarts “Roguelite, deckbuilding hexcrawls for 1-5 players across co-op, competitive, and casual campaigns, plus new content for your RPGs!”
• Bestiarium: Might & Madness from ND Hobbies crowdfunds “Hard cover, totally illustrated, Compendium of Aberrations and Monstrosities for the 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons (D&D 5e)”
• Terror on Cursed Waters from Monolith Arts pitches “3D Printable Miniatures for RPG & Tabletop Wargames (Pre-supported STL Files)”
• A Night in the Library: A Bookish Adventure for D&D 5E from Morrus introduces “A bookish adventure plus new enchanted objects, spellbooks, and monsters to populate your DnD 5E fantasy library”
• OSE The Sword of Orias / La Spada di Orias from DiegoZap kickstarts “An 80-pages adventure module for Old School systems and D&D BECMI / AD&D, for basic level groups (2-3)”
• Dungeons & Datemates: 12 Romance NPCs – System Neutral & 5e from Fiona Shade Stories is working on “Pursue your D&D dating desires! Queer friendly! Full backstories, roleplay guides, art, 5e CR-scaling stat blocks, & more!”
• RPG Stories VTT Expansion: The Wrath of Devs from Brave Alice nominates “Build amazing 3D scenes or upload 2D maps & play online D&D, Alien, Walking Dead, BladeRunner, HeroQuest, Call of Cthulhu & many more!”

Do you know of an RPG news source that we don’t? Let us know, or leave a comment below.