RPG news, nerdy reviews and tabletop roleplayer culture updates all bundled into a set of bullet-point lists.
It can only be Routinely Itemised: RPGs! Welcome.
As it’s the final week of January, it means it’s the last week that Independence Games have the attention RPG Publisher Spotlight. In practice, though, we’ll need to tally the votes and announce the February winner in due time.
If you’re a Geek Native patron, then you get to the vote in the RPG Publisher Spotlight poll, and this week the Patreon program got a light edit. The benefits were codified more explicitly and the Geek Quaestor tier introduced? Why? Mainly to allow a more aggressive Geek Native gift program with better freebies available for higher tier backers.
There’s plenty of bullet-points below and suggests it has been a reasonably busy week for the RPG industry and gamers. What are the chances of yet another D&D leak?
RPG news from Geek Native
- There’s a new D&D board game coming and, once again, the news leaked ahead of time.
- Matthew Mercer rebuilt his famous Blood Hunter class from scratch and released a 2020 update for it, with added balance.
- Grab a free quickstart for Al Seeger’s Strange Things Afoot, an RPG about memes and creepypasta.
- Paizo Publishing is giving away a free web supplement of extra for Lost Omens: Gods & Monsters.
- R Talsorian Games have a free to download adventure for Castle Falkenstein called Babbage’s Engine.
- Amazon announced they’re working on a Fear Agent TV show and so Pinnacle Entertainment Group announced a 10% sale on their Fear Agent RPG.
- Cubicle 7 revealed a new archetype for Soulbound called the Hag Priestess.
- Free League Publishing released the next instalment of the Chronicle of the Crown of Thorns in the shape of Symbar – Mother of Darkness.
- Modiphius released a Vampire: the Masquerade starter park.
- Google’s new data search helped surface this timeline of tabletop RPGs.
- Penguin Random House will publish a book that explores and details both Critical Role campaigns.
- Stats for an animated suit of armour full of bees went viral.
RPG news from around the web
- Russ Morrissey shared a sneak peek of 2000 AD RPG’s Strontium Dog.
- Pinnacle Entertainment Group confirmed rumours of a forthcoming Deadlands Kickstarter.
- Paizo Publishing named Logan Bonner as Pathfinder’s Lead Designer.
- Paizo Publishing also gave us an update on Starfinder Society Sanctioning and Pathfinder (2e) Society character options..
- Green Ronin gave us a tour of Modern AGE’s Enemies & Allies.
- Reviews from R’lyth looked at the One Ring RPG’s Ruins of the North and Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of’s Conan the Barbarian.
- Aaron T. Huss reviewed Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus Dice.
- Over at EN World, Charles Dunwoody shared a playtest review of the Call of Cthulhu Starter Set.
- Charles also reviewed the Traveller Core Rulebook.
- Rob Wieland, a Forbes contributor, tackled Put This Portable RPG In Your Pocket And On Your Phone.
- Dicebreaker’s Eric Watson interviewed Sandy Petersen.
- On d20Radio, Egg Embry reviewed Coriolis – The Third Horizon core book.
RPG ideas, tips and discoveries
- A conversion with designer Anne Gregersen about Monster Loot: Monster Manual and smartphones at the table.
- A conversion with Phil Beckwith and running The Haunt for D&D.
- Geek Native talked to Nic Delcambre about commissioning custom orchestral scores for your characters or NPCs.
- Looking for Valentines Day gifts? What about some sexy D&D stickers. Kinda!
- CBC interviewed Jim Zub, and he talks about how D&D gave him a voice.
- Nerdarchy’s Steven Partridge wrote up Investigation 101 – D&D 5E Skills and Skill Checks.
- Technics History explored The Automated Dungeon Master.
- Nerds on Earth posted 100 D&D Sci-Fi Encounter Ideas.
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;
- Trent Bagley has come to Kickstarter to finish the RPG Pride of Giants.
- Laidback Dungeon Master has hit target for Shotglass Adventures 3 which is a set of 10 adventures.
- Davide Tramma is raising funds for the Stars Without Number adventure Outpost 49.
- Harrison Swift has launched a project to fund a zine of 36 strange dungeon rooms, and it’s called Thirty-Sex Stranger Chambers.
- Spend a lot of time studying Kickstarter? Steve Hampson is Kickstarting The Tabletop Games Kickstarter Report 2019.
- Fantasy folk without racist undertones, Jesse Galena is funding One Page Lore: Fantasy Folk.
- Jack Darwid is just about to hit the target for the second edition of the fantasy adventure Adventure of D.
- Andrew Zorowitz has a successful Kickstarter on their hands with these gorgeous rainbow metal Pride dice (and pins).
- Mike Myler has made Kickstarter goal for Vast Kaviya: Primordial Sword & Sorcery.
- Xacur has funded Witchcraft: Magic of Hereva the printed version.
- Shades of Vengeance are Kickstarting a cut-down, printable and essentials version of their Era d10 games.
Gamerati News Update
There are five bits of news in less than five minutes over at Gamerati’s helpful video updates. Skirmisher Publishing introduces Armories, Blacksmithies and other craftsmen in City Builder Volume 2, news on Star Wars Destiny, Paizo and Renegade Game Studios.
If there’s a source or news you think is worth monitoring, please get in touch or leave a comment below.
