Routinely Itemised: RPG #379

Okay, it’s nearly 2am so it’s no longer Friday, but on gamer time we’re still getting this TTRPG newsletter out on Friday, right?

Here’s the latest RPG news summaries of the summaries are;

• Steve Jackson has stepped down as boss of Steve Jackson Games.
• Games Workshop has announced the Necromunda Roleplay.
• Marke Cooke is UKGE’s new Operations Director.
• Basic Roleplaying could come to augmented reality via QuestXR.
• Ars Magica Definitive Edition is out and OGL.

Many months ago I said I was working on a big list of TTRPG Publishers. I still am. When I started, it was a point of pride to do this by hand and not use an AI. I don’t know if an AI could do this, but I’m starting to wish it could. It turns out figuring out whether thousands of small publishers are still active is a task and a half.

On the Geek Native news front, we still have our robust Patreon and the persistently growing newsletter. Yes, I haven’t updated the email template since UK Games Expo. I’ll do that soon!

In each Routinely Itemised, I do try and spread the stories around between different tabletop RPG news sites. Each week I’m excited when I find a new contributor, and so I encourage readers to check out our little ecosystem of reports and reviews.

On with the TTRPG news!

Spotlight: Red Ruin Games.

RPG news from Geek Native

• There’s new leadership from familiar faces at Steve Jackson Games as Steve steps down (again).
• We’re buckling up for more retirement news coming later, but right now the headline is that AireCon’s Mark Cooke will lead operations at UKGE.
• Polish board game company Glass Cannon expands to TTRPG with Nimble purchase.
• Would you use Augmented Reality to play a horror TTRPG? QuestXR is blending the technology with Chaosium’s Basic Roleplaying System.
• Meanwhile, Chaosium is coming back to Scotland to play Call of Cthulhu at Stirling Castle.
• Atlas Games has released, under an open license, the Ars Magica Definitive Edition.
• Dragonmeet’s John Dodd has teased the expansion of the London TTRPG conference.
• The warehouse clearance sale at Modiphius is so large it is raising questions about Dune.
• In crowdfunding, Chaosium is doing swimmingly well with Time Without Tide, and Hexy Studio has launched the solo monster Misbehave.
• We also have an interview with Tavern Publishing about their campaign for One Night Adventures.
• In bundles, there’s a BoH offer on Pirate Borg (ahead of Talk Like a Pirate Day).

Support: Patreon.

RPG news from around the web

• Over at Warhammer, Games Workshop has announced Necronumda Roleplay, and it’s not a Cubicle 7 game.
• Bleeding Cool has an excellent piece by Gavin Sheehan on New Dinosaur TTRPG Herd of Horns Officially Announced.
• At Wargamer, Timothy Linward shares thoughts on Steamforged fans accuse the board game publisher of ignoring backers.
• The folks at Rascal highlights New Indie As-We-Can Publisher Seeks Submissions, Peer Reviewers, Everdoom: An Upcoming Collaborative Game Of Inevitability, and Lantern & Lever Adds Free Previews For Three Complete Indie RPGs.
• For a helpful guide, Jeff Quick at Kobold Press looks at Your Adventure Could Become a Kobold Press Adventure.
• Angus at Tabletop Sentinel opines on Paizo Announces Price Rises Following Difficult Two Years and Invader Comics ‘Evil Indiana Jones’ Comic ‘The Digger’ to Become a Tabletop RPG.
• Checking in with Bell of Lost Souls, there’s news about Paizo’s ‘Office Game’ Is The Heart Of The Newest Adventure ‘The Dead God’s Hand.
• Over at Garycon, the team has the news of an Additional Venue.
• Gamedaily gives us Wizards Accounts Are Merging Into One System This October and helps out with D&D: World Of Warcraft — Everything You Need To Know.
• Denny Connolly, at Vice, details New Dungeons and Dragons Adventure Expansion Includes 14 Magical Items and New High Level Creatures.
• ICv2 gives us People on the Move: Asmodee Hires Wizards of the Coast Vice President and New Edition of ‘Star Trek Adventures: Captain’s Log Solo RPG’ Heads to Retail.

Support: Fight the Algorithm

RPG reviews and interviews from around the web

• Jason Volk shares a review of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Fifth Edition at TTRPG Fanatics.
• Checking in with Ill Met by Morrslieb, there’s a new review of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 5th Edition.
• Reviews from R’lyeh covers Revenge of the Rat King, Law and Obligation, Delta Force, and Tradition of Destruction.
• Wargamer’s Gab Hernandez reviews 9Circles.
• For Reddit, Akavakaku provides a review of Mortasheen.

RPG new releases

• You can now download and Pay What You Want for Zero Hour Quickstart from Benjamin Tobitt.
• Okumarts Games has hit publish on Armageddon Outta Here: Gonzo Mutant Guide for Atomic Shadows.
• Games and Booze Productions has published the Mettle, Monsters, & Mayhem.
• We now have VickStudioGuides’ The Ashen Wilds: Cursed Wilderness Hexcrawl Campaign Kit.
• Available now is Myriad Heroes’ Questmonster RPG.
• Paizo continues its quest to add to DriveThruRPG with Starfinder Interstellar Species, Starfinder Tech Revolution, Starfinder Character Operations Manual, and Starfinder Pact Worlds.
• Zenith Comics has hit publish on VALOROUS – Heroic Fantasy Roleplaying.
• Yoru Creative Studio brings us Storyteller’s Dark Fantasy Toolkit.
• In physical pre-releases and purchases;
  • We have Chaosium’s Age of Vikings: Companion.
  • Also, there’s Dungeons & Dragons: Ravenloft: Adventure Dice Set: Sorcerer (Purple).

RPG bundle deals

• Save $64.83 (72%) with Mythworks’s CBR+PNK: Overload bundle.
• Save $40.07 (30%) in Misfit Studios’ Love Me, Bite Me, Bewitch Me bundle.
• Save $5.98 (40%) with the Become a Better GM Bundle bundle from Crafted Crossroad Publishing.
• Save $5.00 (25%) with the 1st edition Cavae Mundi TTRPG pack bundle from Gabriel Mackey.
• Save $4.00 (24%) with Ham and Egg Publishing’s Zombie Braineaters! Complete Outbreak bundle.
• Save $0.00 (0% – really!) with Diamond Recreational Studios’ Diamond Polished Spheres: Take Command! bundle.

RPG ideas, tips and discoveries

• Checking in with Bastionland, Chris McDowall highlights BASTIONLAND.
• Brackish Draught takes a look at Brackish Draught.
• The team at Blue Mountain discusses The Foot of Blue Mountain.
• The folks at Widdershins Wanderings opines on TTRPG Table Alignments.
• Bird Milk Cafe takes a look at Prince of Hounds – Birdmilk’s RPG Cafe.
• Sly Flourish gives us What Excites You?.
• The RPG Gazette has published a piece on Who Are You When You Roll the Dice? D&D and the Construction of The self also offers a deep dive into How OSR Teaches Us That Exploration Is logistics.
• Over at Roleplaying Tips, you can dive into Solutions For The Tough Academic Wizard Problem.
• If you are looking for tips, The Monsters Know What They’re Doing has a guide on Conclave Dryad Tactics.

RPG Crowdfunding

There’s more! You can catch up with the Kickstarter campaign we’ve written up in more detail at Kickstarter watch. Here are some noteworthy industry projects to mention:

• The Frazetta Dice Collection from Misty Mountain Gaming shares “These one-of-a-kind dice sets were designed to highlight some of Frank Frazetta’s popular art pieces.”
• My Five Year Almanac – A Solo Print & Play Farming Game is a project by Michael Shane Mecham that looks at “A cozy farming game played across five years where you create a personal Almanac recording what happens along the way.”
• Darkheim: Bloated Beheadsman ~ Entire RPG Vault Anniversary by Rocket Pig Games is an upcoming supplement for “Rocket Pig Games .stl printable miniature. Deluxe 3D model for home resin printers. Tabletop Games monsters for DnD. Miniature painting”
• Wyrdspell: A TTRPG for Witches is a project by Josh Melamed that promises “A game of collaborative worldbuilding and fantasy adventure, grounded in folklore, where magic is personalized and powered by roleplay.”
• Shifting Tides from FASA Corporation brings us “Three new books for our 1879 role playing game.”
• Dieborne – Ritual Compendium from Nerdura Games is launching “Forbidden rituals for Dieborne. Some assembly required. Possibly sacrifice.”
• Fairy Tales End Here: Fey Hunters & Horrors for D&D 5e/5.5e from MCUP Publishing presents “Hunt the Fey with dark subclasses, backgrounds, feats & ancient lore…or unleash a bestiary of horrors that even the Fey fear.”
• Dead Net – A Solo Tabletop RPG for High-Tech Low-Lifes is a project by A Couple of Drakes that looks at “Dive the Dead Net, snag the paydata, survive the churn.”
• Séance at Satterthwaite: Haunted Zine Adventure for WHPA-13 from Greg Setliff / Bug Professor is nominating “A Halloween TTRPG adventure for the Weird Heroes of Public Access Role-Playing Game”
• Nesloke TTRPG by Kevin is a new roleplaying games project for “An original fantasy RPG. One die, 12 archetypes, collaborative combat. A world built from the ground up, now at your table.”
• The Forgotten God: A 5e Campaign is a project by Rose (r-n-w) that is “A cosy, chaotic 5e sandbox adventure – uncover buried secrets, awaken a slumbering god & rally your friends to defeat the colonisers!”
• Starmork X-tend Table from Starmork offers “From dinner to game night: an expandable solid-wood table with a recessed play area, magnetic rails, and 10 modular holders.”
• Fetch My Blade: A Solo Journaling Roleplaying Game by Hit Point Press is now live, described as “You are the dog of a retired legendary master, tasked to retrieve your master’s blade in time for their final duel. For 1-4 Players.”
• Temporal Tides: A Mothership RPG Adventure Zine by Terry Herc is a new roleplaying games project for “A 44-page Mothership 1E salvage-station sandbox of temporal anomalies, stolen cargo, labor unrest, and kill bots.”
• The Dead Spaghetti Trilogy: a Frontier Scum adventure from Punk Overlord Games is launching “An epic 3-part RPG campaign for Frontier Scum, where your wanted outlaws will race to save the Lost Frontier from a most hellish fate!”
• Pirates Compendium Vol. 1 – D&D 5e & 5.5e. by ChronicleMaker is offering “2 subclasses, 3 feats, 10 spells and 1 legendary boss inspired by sea legends compatible with D&D 5e & 5.5e.”
• ShadowSun Campaign Setting from Chubby Funster shares “The kind of world that mainstream TTRPGs are too afraid to publish anymore : Designed for ShadowDark”
• Mega Bosses from Jimbo brings us “8 WoW-like Raid Bosses for 5e and beyond.”
• Wild Hearth: Cooking Monsters & Building Towns in D&D by Pointy Hat is currently raising funds for “Hunt, harvest, forage, and COOK EVERYTHING with this incredible supplement for 5E and 5.5E.”
• Echoes of the Vanquished Empire – Dark Fantasy Module is a project by DeAngelo Murillo that is “An ancient realm returns, trapping you and your group within its lands warped by eldritch forces.”
• The Sundering Shroud: D&D 5E Steampunk Campaign is a project by Gearwheel Grimoires that is “A 119-page D&D 5E campaign from level 1 to 10, blending steampunk fantasy, eclipses, clockwork enemies, and divine horror.”
• Moving Garden – 3d printable OpenLOCK Dungeon Terrain STLs by Pharaoh’s Workshop is an upcoming supplement for “Around 100 3d printable STL files. Tiled Tabletop terrain to create hedge maze dungeons for Fantasy RPG & DnD – OpenLOCK Megapack”
• Backdoor Businesses- 20 dubious places for Dnd 5e (D&D) from Secrets of Alexandria is launching “20 complex businesses with dubious background activity for Dungeons and Dragons 5e ,3d printable STL miniatures, VTT tokens, maps, NPCs”
• Henshin Hero, Forever! A Toku Roleplaying Game is a project by Notepad Anon that looks at “Super Power Rider Sentai Ranger Roleplaying Game – Budget Not Included”
• Tsukikage – A Japanese Mythology-Inspired DnD 5e Class from Matthew Rosta kickstarts “A complete 5e-compatible class for Osmoria, wielding lunar phases and three moon-shadow paths of blade, judgment, and protection.”
• 100+ RPG Terrain Bridge STLs – 5 Themes, With OpenLocks is a project by Black Hills Studios that is “Dungeon, Dragon, Skull, Gothic & Egyptian bridges. With and without 4×4 bases, with & without OpenLock. FDM & Resin ready. Own forever.”
• Stellar Kingdom by TaTanka Plays is touted as “A hopeful science-fiction tabletop RPG and companion novel about exploration, service, and found family. No One Walks Alone.”
• Today’s Alignment Pin by Mick McArt is an upcoming supplement for “Nine Ways to Explain Your Bad Decisions.”
• Dragonforge Dice — Choose Your Dragon Clan by Dragonforce Dice is touted as “Four dragon-inspired colorways, intricate engravings on every face, and a complete 7-piece polyhedral set made for your next adventure.”
• Slime Crime! – Quest for Shadowdark RPG is a project by Fireball Studios that is “A fishing village has reported strange lights at the ruins upstream. They believe it’s affecting the wildlife.”
• The Rapid Encounter System🎲 Prep Epic Sessions in 1-2 Hours from Dungeon Influence brings us “2,000+ encounters across 100+ wilderness locations. A repeatable prep system for busy Game Masters. [5E]”
• Death in Beringard – A Solo Fantasy Gamebook from Christopher Bünte seeks funding for “Armed only with a pen and two dice, you will embark on this solo fantasy mystery!”
• DARKNESS PROTOCOL by Kobayashi is offering “OSR meets Modern Survival Horror!”
• The Man Who Died Tomorrow for D&D 5e from Hidden Hoard shares “A mystery one-shot adventure fully compatible with D&D 5e, built and tested for 4-5 players at 6th-level.”
• Twin Soul Tower: The Soul That Left, 5e level 3-8 is a project by Anthony David that looks at “One soul had gone missing. The tower is pretending not to panic…”
• The Cradle of Skulls in OSRIC for OSR Classic Fantasy RPGs is a project by Advanced Fantasy Games that is “46 Page Soft Cover Module + Trifold Cover + PDF + 8 PCs + Classic Blue Maps + Tournament Scoring System, OSRIC, 1E AD&D, OGL/OSR RPGs”
• URWizards Prism Glass Dice II: More Facets. More Brilliance. by URWizards is a new roleplaying games project for “Handcrafted glass dice with up to 200 facets, stunning prismatic colors, and a brilliance worth collecting.”
• Populated Hexes Monthly Issue 60 from Todd has introduced “The Brass City of Pesh and the Kingdom of the Frost Giants”
• Dice Vaults I — 3D printable RPG dice cases by Tiny Terra Studios is a new roleplaying games project for “Original 3D printable cases designed to store a complete 7-piece RPG dice set”
• Blood Mage: A Complete Class for D&D 5.5e by Lukas Friis is currently raising funds for “The Blood Mage class is an occult spellcaster empowered by sacrifice, providing an exciting risk-reward playstyle.”
• Void Wardens from 23rd Century Productions is pitching “The retro sci-fi anime inspired TTRPG of powered individuals verses physics bending monsters!”
• Space Dwarves is a project by Macrocosm that promises “28mm Sci-Fi Space Dwarves cast in a white metal alloy.”

[What’s this chart? We use Kickstarter Heat to measure how busy the crowdfunding season is.]

Do you know of any RPG news sources we might not know? If so, please let us know or leave a comment below.