Welcome back, it’s time for another Routinely Itemised RPG news round-up.
It’s been a busy week with no shortage of Kickstarter releases and lots of industry news.
You’ll find five sections below. The first is a bullet-point summary of RPG news posted on Geek Native this week. The biggest news so far is the unfortunate (and still unconfirmed) fate of Fantasy Flight’s RPG department, but Wizards of the Coast have just won a significant ‘Dungeon’ trademark case in Europe and will be telling us about a new D&D book soon. Ish. Depending on delays.
Then we move onto RPG news from other sources; including updates straight from Green Ronin and Cubicle 7. One helpful games journalist even took the time to photograph those $300 D&D dice!
Not everything noteworthy is news, though. The third section looks at discoveries made around the web; we’ve conversion guides, random generators and a comic strip about bards sleeping with everyone.
Keeping up with Kickstarters throughout the week is a challenge for anyone. The Routinely Itemised isn’t a full summary, just the ones you might have missed.
Then, lastly, we turn to our friends at Gamerati in case a quick video summary of tabletop news will be more helpful for you.
Also remember that Geek Native’s patrons can vote for which publisher to feature in the spotlight this month.
That’s that for the introduction. As always; let us get on with the RPG news summary!
RPG news from Geek Native
- A ruling in Europe will make it easier for Wizards of the Coast to object to publishers trying to trademark words like dragons or dungeon.
- Fantasy Flight Interactive is closing, and credible reports say the RPG team is going too.
- A new mystery book from Wizards of the Coast is due in March.
- Fantasy Flight will be publishing a KeyForge RPG, using the Genesys system.
- The beta-test sign up for the Fallout RPG is open for a few more days.
- D&D will be getting a new dice and map kit in the form of Laeral Silverhand’s Explorer’s Kit.
- Chaosium is helping the fire effort in Australia with cheap/free/more expensive access to the RuneQuest Glorantha Bestiary.
- Hero Forge 2.0 promises full-colour 3d mini printing.
- Free League Publishing bought control of their Coriolis RPG.
- Hunters Entertainment will make new free downloads for their RPGs available on the first Friday of every month.
- Lydia Van Hoy’s latest DM’s Guild offering includes 33 half-races for D&D and rules for making your own.
- Iron Crown gave us updates on Rolemaster, HARP, Shadow World and Cyradon.
- W.H. Arthur released Mall Zombies RPG which doubles as a satire on police violence.
RPG news from around the web
- Cubicle 7 gave us our best look at Warhammer: Soulbound so far.
- Sam Machkovech of Ars Technica published a good look at D&D’s $300 dice.
- Green Ronin’s Crystal Frasier says the company needs to do better at offering Mutants & Masterminds adventures. Welcome to Astonishing Adventures.
- Over on EN World, Michael Tresca does a great job writing up Jack Vance’s Forgotten Contributions to D&D.
- Arc Dream Publishing released their 5e adventure The Tomb of Fire.
- Jeffrey Dohmn-Sanchez of ICv2 reports on AEG’s P3 program, which is designed to help retailers avoid product allocation dramas.
RPG ideas, tips and discoveries
- Need a colourful name for an exotic potion? This potion name generator will do the trick.
- A quick and free You could buy a kingdom.
- The Genre Police show us how some board game mechanics might make for better RPGs.
- A game accessory shop forged a d20 out of 14k gold.
- There’s always that one player who plays their bard like this.
- It’s from outside RPG press, but G. W Thomas and Dark Worlds Quarterly’s A Brief History of Sword & Sorcery will be of interest.
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 a mention;
- Oliver McNeil is funding Cthulhu Soundscapes: Sounds of Madness.
- Kris McDermott has raised enough pledges to Kickstart 10,000 Tokens for Fantasy RPGs.
- Gaudreau Steve has funded a RPG Map Pack of 14 maps and 300+ arts.
- Diego Pisa Artworks are collecting money for Hexagon RPG a character sheet based RPG you learn on the fly.
- Travis Britten is looking for backers for this handmade leather mini-maps for RPGs.
- Jamie Stephens is funding Mafia Caporegime, a TTRPG about the Mafia Family in New York.
- Donn Stroud is doing well with the campaign for The Forgotten Rites of the Moldering Dead.
- Battlefield Press are collecting pledges for the 5e and Savage Worlds sourcebook Mighty Tiny: Tales of the Old Empires.
- Chance Phillips has smashed goals with a new setting for Mothership called Blood Floats in Space.
- Neon Knights. Zachary Stevens thinks you might be interested in dice that glow.
Gamerati News Update
Oh, this is new… Gamerati’s YouTube account as a Premiere notification for their latest news update. The chat will be about Starfinder’s Attack of the Swarm, Clue and Journeys in Middle-earth from Fantasy Flight Games. You’ll be able to watch 11th Jan.
If there’s a source or news you think is worth monitoring, please get in touch or leave a comment below.
