Hello and welcome to the RPG news summary that is Routinely Itemised: RPGs #53.
It’s a busy week as D&D Live 2020 has kicked off, with Wizards of the Coast wasting no time in confirming that the next setting is Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden.
What might be more surprising is that the D&D team are leaning into horror for the setting, and there are reports that the player characters will have secrets that their DM doesn’t know about. How could that work?
Also, this week, GAMA held elections for some of the board, and there’s been a management reshuffle at the top of Paizo to prepare the company for Lisa Stevens impending retirement.
If you’re a Geek Native Patreon then (or are before the of next week), good news, there’s another gift scheduled for your mailbox. After all, when a cute soot sprite needs a new home, who am I to say no?
Oh, and if you scan today’s Kickstarter, you’ll see a glut of dice campaigns raising between $10,000 and $100,000. Is it new dice season?
Okay, let’s get rolling with the RPG news for the week. Here goes!
RPG news from Geek Native
- We’ll get to watch some Game of Throne stars play D&D at D&D Live.
- Wizards of the Coast have confirmed the next setting book is Rime of the Frostmaiden, but in a bit of a surprise, they’re presenting the setting as a horror.
- There’s been a management reshuffle at the top of Paizo Publishing.
- Red Scar Publishing is giving away a Kings of War adventure called The Quartet of Silence.
- Monte Cook Games’ Heist of Miracle IV Cypher System adventure is raising money for Black Lives Matter.
- The online and charity focused RPG convention AlbaCon has been announced.
- Spot the trend? NerdBurger Games, the publishers of the Capers RPG, has announced NerdBurger Con Online.
- Classic RPG-like Fighting Fantasy and actual RPG Advanced Fighting Fantasy both started new projects.
- World Anvil now integrates with the brand new Foundry VTT.
- Cubicle 7 gave us a look at the artwork for the first Soulbound campaign Shadows in the Mist.
- Can RPGs help kids? Amazing Tales is now giving away two supplements that might be of assistance.
- You can now get part 3 of the 5e adventure Fowl Play by signing up to Kobold Press.
- Chaosium published the scarily large, 480-paged, Malleus Monstrorum.
- D&D will get a cookbook called Heroes’ Feast.
- During Day 1 of D&D Live 2020, two new D&D comics were announced.
- Paizo Publishing has announced two new playtests for Starfinder.
- Anima Press published Mew-tants!
- Italian Games company Ares will distribute Lex Arcana and Brancalonia RPGs to English speaking markets.
- You can scoop up a Bundle of Holding deal to boost or start your The Dark Eye RPG collection.
- Arc Dream have incentives for people who GM their games at Gen Con Online.
- Tuesday Knight Games and friends are raising money for the National Bail Fund Network with a large collection of adventures called Dissident Whispers.
- Elections at GAMA have appointed new Directors.
- You can grab a copy of Starfinder, and a treasure trove of other goodies in Humble Bundle’s Fight for Racial Justice.
- Indie British RPG, the Legends of Avallen, is open for playtesters.
- Green Ronin has announced a surprise RPG; core rules and an optional for the Chronicle System called Sword Chronicles.
- After three years of development, the made for virtual tabletops RPG Burn Bryte now has a launch date.
- Geek Native interviewed Sandy Petersen and asked, “How do you add Cthulhu to D&D and do it well?“.
- Geek Native also talked to Arcanist Press and discussed Why D&D is a better game with Ancestry & Culture.
RPG news from around the web
- Wizards of the Coast have published a statement on Diversity and Dungeons & Dragons.
- Fantasy Flight Games has published the KeyForge RPG Secrets of the Crucible.
- Geek Tyrant introduced an unofficial D&D and Scooby-Doo mashup available at the DMs Guild called A Night of Fright.
- Over at the Nerdist, Kelly Knox writes up Ashely Warren’s RPG Writer Workshop.
- Cubicle 7 has published their Soulbound GM Screen PDF.
- Stargazer’s World writes up a review of Mork Borg.
- Dicebreaker’s Alex Meehan introduces us to the spooky sci-fi RPG Those Dark Places.
RPG ideas, tips and discoveries
- Turn your keyboard into a dangerous dungeon encounter with this Gelatinous Cube key cap.
- Do you take lots of notes while playing D&D? You might like this dungeon character sheet themed notebook.
- Karl Kloeb and Tim-Lin Sexton added two new Exalted to the 2.5 ruleset with The Manual of Exalted Power: Eternals.
- This laser edged license plate will add some D&D vibe to your car.
- In a popular guest post on Geek Native, Kyle Uy wrote up The Fundamentals of Being a Dungeon Master.
- Dungeon Solvers digs deep into the lore books and gives us a thorough introduction to the Azer.
- Phil Vecchione of Gnome Stew writes up Planned vs Emergent Backgrounds.
- Drop The Dice shares insight on Setting a Scene.
- Dump Stat has a great post called Interesting Encounters – Interacting with the World.
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;
- Bryn G Jones is raising money for a fantasy artbook and RPG phrasebook called Things Heroes Say.
- Mongoose Publishing and Matthew Sprange have an R&D sourcebook and adventure for Paranoia that’s smashed through the funding goal. It’s Project Infinite Hole.
- Adam Hackett has raised $100,000 and has 30 days still on the clock with Elixir Dice: Handcrafted, Sharp Edged and Liquid Core RPG dice.
- Q-Workshop show they can compete with the most impressive dice with this handcrafted dice macabre.
- The dice theme continues with John Wrot! Many thousands have been raised for this Mystery Dice set.
- In another impressive dice campaign, Adventurer’s Woodworks is offering unique nautical and Ocean Adventure Polyhedral Dice.
- Colette Chappell has raised tens of thousands of these Dragon Dice of Little Dragon Corp and Character Pins.
- Game designer and blacksmith David Savedge is crowdfunding Dice Vaults: A Tabletop RPG Accessory.
- Betta Games has a 5e supplement suitable for all ages about unique and adorable companions in the form of Fey Foxes.
- A steampunk setting for D&D 5e offers new items, classes and enemies. It’s Sons of Trinacria.
- DMDave has smashed their goals for the 5e setting Legends of Omeria starter set.
- Texas in August Studios is raising money for the FATE powered Inn Between Worlds.
- Devon Wiersma has funded a rules-lite TTRPG called Runt.
- Andy Hand’s 5e adventure for 4-6 players with 8th level characters is Return to Renald Castle.
- In the tradition of Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf, Jacob DC Ross is crowdfunding the Wanderer Gamebook+ System.
If there’s a source or news you think is worth monitoring, please get in touch or leave a comment below.
