Welcome home.
It’s November 22nd, and the episode title is “Scotland Loves VTTs”.
[The following is a transcript of Audio EXP: #309]
[Also on Stitcher | Spotify | Apple | YouTube]
Eric Bleney won the RPG Publisher Spotlight, and the interview is up. There are also a few days left to back Eric’s latest Kickstarter, which is the charmingly titled Filth Below Gallows-Ford, in which Eric allows himself to dabble in grimdark.
There wasn’t an Audio EXP last week as I was at Scotland Loves Anime, or at least the Edinburgh week of it, which is the best event. This year we had anime in the Cameo and the Filmhouse, which is interesting only if you care that the Filmhouse was rescued by a crowdfunding effort from people who thought an indie cinema was worth saving. I put money in.
The Edinburgh week came in two halves. The first was the working week evening sessions in which we toured through old action anime with some hits and misses. I thought the misses all failed because the anime had aged badly and was a bit cringe for 2025, but I did enjoy You’re Under Arrest! which is a story of local cops getting caught up in big events.
The stinker of the event was Angel’s Egg, which the official media partner, The Skinny, raved about and rated highly. Sure, Angel’s Egg is by Dark Souls’ darling Mamoru Oshii, but that’s not enough for me to forgive pretentious, slow and predictable nonsense. If you can miss it, give it a miss.
Bronwen joined me to watch the stop-motion Junk World, which is the prequel to Junk Head and, thankfully, a hit. I’d call it a mashup of the Thunderbirds with Mad Max and a bit of 12 Monkeys thrown in, too. For stop motion the walking of the characters, flying or the spaceships and even the fighting was impressively done.
For me, the winning anime was The Last Blossom, and I’m not alone with that thought. The Last Blossom begins with an old gangster talking to a flower in jail. Is he going mad, ill or is the plant really talking to him?
Most of the anime is a flashback to when he took in a single mum and her kid in a purely platonic relationship and the events that landed him in jail.
The anime won the audience and jury awards at Scotland Loves Anime. This year, Geek Native also let readers vote for an unofficial fan vote. The Last Blossom won all three.
I think the biggest tabletop gaming news this week has come from virtual tabletops.
Roll20, who own DMsGuild, DriveThruRPG and Demiplane, launched the D&D Nexus. It replaces the 5e Nexus on Demiplane.
It means if you buy some D&D books once, for example, on Roll20, you get them in two places, for example, Demiplane. It’s a concession from Wizards of the Coast who could have insisted you buy the games twice as they do if you want the hardback and a digital edition.
It’s also interesting because it makes Demiplane more of a competitor to D&D Beyond. However, this feels in line with the likely strategy of Digital Dan and Dan Ayoub‘s franchise model. Sure, it might be Wizards of the Coast gearing up to get out of delivery as they did when they ditched eOne, the media company they bought for films, but it’s more likely an attempt to get D&D everywhere fans want it.
I used the phrase “razor and blades strategy” when I wrote up the latest Fantasy Grounds content releases. It’s all connected.
Fantasy Grounds has gone free to use, to a degree. That’s been followed by some pretty dramatic content bundles from Goodman Games and Modiphius and so if you want to play Mutant or Dungeon Crawl Classics or Modiphius’ licenses like Star Trek, Dune or Fallout, now is the time.
By “razor and blades” I mean the delivery system is free but the content is not. When I was a teenager, the shaving brand Gillette sent me my first razor and blades for free. I was impressed and pleased and used Gillette until I went electric. I never paid for the razor but spent a small fortune on the replaceable blades and only Gillette blades would fit the Gillette razor. That’s the virtual tabletop strategy.
We can stick with physical items and return to TTRPGs because there are complexities there, too. DriveThruRPG, which has recently moved into selling physical merch such as dice and cards, has announced there’s to be a price increase in their print-on-demand cards.
You’ve until December 8th to beat the hike, but it’s rattled cages and publishers like Philip Reed have said they’ll concentrate more on digital.
Now, before we get into bundles and outros, I want to talk about a bit of geeky news that I’m thrilled about. It’s called the HeatHub, and it makes sense. Right now, companies like Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, OpenAI and Meta are spending billions cooling their data centres. The rest of us are collectively spending the same to heat our houses.
The HeatHub cancels that out, and in Essex, England, a couple has become the first to successfully test putting a small, simple data centre of 500 units in their garden shed. The system then transfers the heat from the shed to their house, slashing their heating bills to almost nothing. The units in question, by the way, are believed to be Raspberry Pis or similar.
Let’s have more of this sort of thing, along with solar highways and kinetic pavements.
In bundle news and at the Bundle of Holding, there’s a deal on Two Little Mice’s Outgunned. Their Kickstarter for Twilight Sword is live and going well. Whereas Twilight Sword is JRPG in style, Outgunned in far more cinematic adventure.
In Lovecraftian horror and from Pelgrane Press, we’ve a Ken Writes About Stuff bundle. Kenneth Hite is one of the most respected designers out there so it’s worth checking out.
From Leyline Press and featuring mechs built from scrap there’s Salvage Union. It’s a chance to go up against the megacorps of the future.
Lastly, Bronwen wrote up Last Call for Lankhmar, which is from Goodman Games for DCC and at Humble.
On that note, take care and see you next week.
