Welcome home.
This is Audio EXP for July 19th, and the episode title is “Another Gygax legal battle”.
[The following is a transcript of Audio EXP: #295]
[Also on Stitcher | Spotify | Apple | YouTube]
Empyreal Media Productions won the RPG Publisher Spotlight this month.
I enjoyed this interview. It’s clear that Julien of Empyreal is a real talent. He’s written books on the history of tabletop games, on manga artists and his day job is creating computer games.
It almost feels like tabletop RPGs are too easy for Julien, with games like Lore & Legacy, the dieselpunk space pirates of the Banner of Freedom, and the undead heroes of Heartless. Is there a catch? Yes, only one of those games is available in English.
This week marks the start of an auction tour for the screen-matched lightsaber used by Vader in Star Wars. It’s expected to reach well over a million dollars. It’s also been a tough week here at Geek Native, with Bronwen wrestling with bad news and my chubby little legs peddling as hard as they can.
I suspect it was Luke Gygax, the boss at Gygax Con, who also has a big reason to sigh this week, too. There’s another legal battle coming.
In this case, the drama seems to be centred around a project called Castle Wolfmoon, which has been in development for over 20 years by Chris Clark. The Kickstarter page is live for it, and the badge on the banner says it’s a “long anticipated sequel campaign from Gary Gygax and Chris Clark”. Well. The original might have been from those two, but I doubt Gygax senior has much to do with the Kickstarter.
The potential court drama arises from the fact that Luke has bowed out. The paperwork, which allegedly says he can’t back out, is dated 2001.
Let’s see if the publicity hurts or boosts the Kickstarter.
That’s one piece of surprise news. The other, which caught my attention, was one of the destinations of the Echoes of Exandria tour from the Critical Role team. They’re coming to Edinburgh Castle in 2026.
I’ve seen the Castle of Light and the Military Tattoo at Edinburgh Castle, but I’ve never attended a gig, despite being a local. I’m just not keen on crowds and crushes. I hope Critical Role enjoys the city, and I wonder if they’ve ever played in such an old building. Edinburgh Castle dates back to the 11th century and, of course, has been the scene of dramas and battles fit for any roleplaying climax.
We can dip back to legal battles for the next story. Terror Toad is becoming Terror Toad Two, or something like that. The little tabletop games company publishes GRIM Inc, which I have but am yet to play, and have been in a legal battle with the couriers DPD for too long. That battle is coming to an end, and Terror Toad can see the daylight.
However, one of the three founders has left, and the company is reforming as a different legal entity. Imagine just wanting to publish games and ending up in legal battles and Companies House paperwork trials.
Another legal change announced this week is around the owners of John Wick’s 7th Sea. That was Chaosium. Now it’s the French publishing house Studio Agate. I rate Agate highly, so if you’re a fan and are worried, let me reassure you.
Still. 7th Sea is a big fish for this indie to pick up. It held the record for the biggest TTRPG Kickstarter for a while.
We’re gearing up for Gen Con. Geek Native isn’t going but we’ll get the press releases. We do the Edinburgh festival season in August instead, and actually, Geek Native blog coverage drops a bit. However, UK-based 12 Sided Studios is going and will be launching their first TTRPG Force of Extinction.
In the game, characters are survivors on a future Earth in which the natural world is hostile and full of new predators.
While 12 Sided Studios is getting started, there’s an end of an era at DRS Publishing, aka Dream Realm Storytellers, as boss Umut Comak is stepping down.
DRS are currently working with Hero Concept to make a computer game of their Viking TTRPG setting Svilland. We’re yet to hear from DRS about what they’re doing now or next.
Okay, that brings us to the outro and the bundle deals.
Over at the Bundle of Holding, there’s an offer on Hearts of Wulin, which is martial arts and drama from Age of Ravens Games.
There’s also Battlezoo from Roll or Combat, which is all about fighting and making use of monsters. Why end with slaying the beast when you can harvest the claws, after all?
Lastly, and as spotted by Bronwen at Humble, there’s a set of Devil May Cry games on offer. I’m going to use my zero-to-hero expression again, because that’s what these deals can do to your collections.
That’s a wrap. Keep safe, don’t get harvested, and I’ll see you next week.
