Welcome home.
This is Audio EXP for January 18th, and the episode title is “Dragons, psychic cats and anv(i)ls”.
[The following is a transcript of Audio EXP: #271]
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Sad Fishe Games won the RPG Publisher Spotlight this month.
The interview with Tyler A. Thompson is live. Tyler is the Managing Partner at Sad Fishe Games and a lawyer. If you cast your mind back to the OGL drama, a time when Wizards of the Coast tried to seriously monkey with the governance of 5e content, Tyler played an important role in the community response. We’ve a little of that story and more on the blog.
If you’re still annoyed by the OGL fight or, in general, at the high power money game Hasbro and other big companies bring to the world, then maybe you’re Mad as Hell.
This is a new TTRPG from SoulMuppet Publishing in which players take on actual demons of capitalism.
Demons are created by invisible violence and defeated by their cure. For example, a demon of conspiracy theories might be defeated by an encyclopedia. The characters just have to work out how.
The game is crowdfunding later this year.
Speaking about conspiracy theories, what about a conspurracy?
In Black Book Editions’ latest games, psychic cats are the secret masters of the world, except we humans keep on nearly finding out. In the TTRPG, players are cats who try and stop that happening.
The game is in Kickstarter already. Geek Native has some exclusive art to share and an interview on the blog to reveal some more of the secrets, or at least, background to the game.
Hey, if nothing else, I saw a mention of Plymouth in the game and assumed it was the little English city. No, of course not, it’s a historically important town in the United States of America.
That wasn’t the only assumption I made this week that I got wrong. The news broke that the 3d mini printing site ANVL has a new owner.
I knew the owner was one Derek K, and I nosed around and found a Derek K who ran Board Game Boss, another 3D printing site. I wondered in writing whether it was the same person. Nope. Different Derek Ks.
I hope to get an interview with ANVL Derek on the site later this month, so hold tight. No promises but it’s been agreed in principle.
Outside the realm of most people’s 3D printing and costing an arm and leg is the latest Sideshow Deluxe Tiamat model. I blogged about it; and included some fantastic shots of a dragon statue that would surely command any dining table and needs pretty much that space.
However, the related reading links that appear on Geek Native reminded me that I’d blogged about the very same dragon three years ago. Both, though, are supposed to be limited editions and the 2025 Tiamat isn’t out yet. I guess, what, do dragons have annual editions now?
Whatever the answer is; I don’t have the money to buy a luxury dragon.
Sadly, money has become a real issue for Diamond Comic Distributors who have filed for Chapter 11 protection in the States. This means they’re bankrupt and need legal shielding while they get their paperwork sorted.
The company owns Alliance Game Distributors and it looks like they’ll be sold to Universal. Yeah, it’s a division of the movie people. Diamond Comics in the UK is said to be profitable too. Sadly, some comic book publishers are already no longer available to the outlets that Diamond used to stock. We’re yet to see how badly this hits the market.
Mind you, team Geek Native’s wallets did take a hit with a trip to the Alchemist here in Edinburgh. No, not a dodgy character who promises to turn lead into gold, but a fancy and German-born cocktail bar.
I had a Red Dead Zombie which wasn’t safe to drink with my lips because it was coated in dry ice, and I had to use a straw but only after injecting absinthe into my mouth from the syringe. Bronwen paid for the next round and came back to the table with a cocktail that looked like an ice cream cone, only for the ice cream part of it to burst open into a smoke ring.
We were there for a cheeky wee Black Milk photoshoot.
I wasn’t wearing the Arcane skin-tight dress. That was Bronwen, you’ll be pleased to know.
I’ll have to start saving my money now because Scotland Loves Anime 2025 dates have been announced. This is way earlier than usual.
The anime festival starts on Halloween in Glasgow, and the next weekend is in London for the second time before on the 10th of November returning to Edinburgh for a whole week. I imagine I’ll be buying about 12 cinema tickets.
However, it’s worth it. Last year, I reviewed heavily, including The Colours Within, which, finally, the festival got around to telling us was the winner of the Audience Award at the Scotland Loves Anime 2024.
The anime is also just about to run in some select UK cinema screens, and if you like slice-of-life anime, I’d recommend it.
Lastly, the Bundle of Holding has a deal that helps convert many popular TTRPG systems into solo rules.
On that note, keep safe, and do what the cat’s telepathic commands.