Strangers in the Tangled Wilderness are new to me and Kickstarter, but they’ve been publishing for nearly two decades. The group’s first campaign for a rules-medium RPG and a gorgeous book.

Penumbra City has picked up a “Project We Love” badge with well over 800 backers and is racing towards 1,000 and closing in 300% of the $13,000 asking price. You can see progress on the pitch page.

[Back this Campaign]

Games in the setting and with this rule set suit 3t to 6 players with a GM.

Penumbra City uses reputation as currency, as cash isn’t so important. The PCs’ status with gangs and coalitions is what matters in the city with eleven districts and twenty factions.

The game uses classes, and there will be at least nine now, but that number will go up as stretch goals tumble.

The book itself will be (my favourite size) 6×9″ and black-and-white, with a hardcover and foil-stamped.

There’s a black fog that hangs over the city, and it’s not as metaphorical as you might hope. It’s coal dust. Somewhere up through that smoke, there’s a glorious silver city hovering in the sunshine—but don’t concern yourself much with the floating quarter, because only the rich and holy will ever see it. Groundside, orphans dig through rubble and trash to scavenge the parts to fix their motorcycles, street poets sell fungus and brawl over territory, and bureaucrats ride black horses to midnight salons where they plot the death of the god king. The graveyard’s been squatted by immigrants now for longer than you’ve been alive, and there’s a gang of nihilist ex-marines who seem intent on blowing up half of everything.

Welcome to Penumbra City. There’s plenty to do, if you don’t mind the dust. Or the smoke. Or the crime. Or the monsters.

You can support the indie RPG by spreading the word.

Backers at the $10 level get the PDF of Penumbra City, the digital character sheets and a zine bundle too.

The print edition comes with two stickers, and the previous digital content is on offer at $45.

There is a higher tier, and that’s $180 for the “Party Edition”. That’s five copies of the game (with ten stickers) rather than a limited edition intended for the whole group of players.

Strangers in the Tangled Wilderness estimate the Penumbra project will be delivered by February 2024.

Steamforged Games have some big license RPGs like Dark Souls and have been steadily publishing Epic Encounters for 5e for the traditional Dungeons & Dragons experience.

Today and with the Bundle of Holding, the publisher has put 18 different Epic Adventures and battle maps into a two-tier bundle. 

The bundle runs until the 3rd of July and has a home on The Bundle of Holding.

Starter Collection – $7.95

This tier is worth $40 in the shops and is summed up by the graphic eight encounters.

• 8 Epic Encounters

These are Caverns of the Frost Giant, Chambers of the Serpent Folk, Hall of the Orc King, Lair of the Red Dragon, Shrine of the Kobold Queen, Swamp of the Hydra, Temple of the Snake God, and Village of the Goblin Chief.

Bonus Collection

The threshold price started at $19.95 and unlocks a further $50 in retail.

In addition to their Epic Encounters, any bundle purchase will get a code, good until the 10th of July, for 40% off one purchase of any (or all) physical Epic Encounter sets.

• 10 more Epic battles

The battles are the Arena of the Undead Horde, Barrow of the Corpse Crawler, Cove of the Dragon Turtle, Hive of the Ghoul-Kin, Island of the Crab Archon, Labyrinth of the Goblin Tsar, Nest of the Dinosaur, Steppe of the Lizard Thane, Tower of the Lich Empress, and Web of the Spider Tyrant.

Once again, purchases go to help Direct Relief, a valiant charity.

A new gameplay trailer has just dropped for Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria, and it’s narrated by John Rhys-Davies, who played Gimli in Peter Jackson’s original LOTR trilogy.

It’s also doing what trailers do best, and giving fans a much better idea of what they can expect from the game, which involves reclaiming and rebuilding the dwarven homeland of Moria.

In order to do that, players will need to harvest resources for crafting and building up defences – whilst fighting off various beasts and enemies – as they make their way deeper into the dangerous mines.

Here’s the trailer:

Set in the Fourth Age of Middle-Earth, the game follows beloved character Lord Gimli Lockbearer, who is summoned to the Misty Mountains where he’ll command a company of dwarves “tasked to reclaim the lost spoils from the Dwarven homeland of Moria—known as Khazad-dûm or Dwarrowdelf—in the depths below their very feet. Their quest will require fortitude, delving deep into the Mines of Moria to recover its treasures.”

So, what else do we know about the game? Well it’s set to be released in the autumn via Free Range Games and North Beach Games. It’ll be out on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S – and launching simultaneously on PC and the Epic Games Store.

Source: GeekTyrant

Guide Strats has released a map of the highest rated video games developed in each country, with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (developed by Nintendo in Japan) ranking at no.1.

In order to get the findings, the video game guide company analysed the Metacritic scores of 20,000 titles, before looking at each game’s country of origin to reveal which games rated the highest.

Then they made this cool map infographic with the results!

So, apart from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time being the world’s highest-rated video game – achieving a score of 99 on Metacritic – let’s take a look at some of the other key stats:

• The title of Europe’s highest rated game – with a score of 98 – goes to Grand Theft Auto IV developed here in Scotland (UK) by Rockstar North! (We’re proud of that ‘un)
• Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, from Neversoft Entertainment, takes the no.1 spot in the United States with a Metacritic score of 98.
• For Canada, developed by BioWare and with a score of 96, it’s Mass Effect 2!
• As for Australia, is anyone really surprised it’s BioShock? It has a score of 96, and was developed by 2K Australia.

It’s also nice to see Estonian-made Disco Elysium on the map (despite its very public dramas, which we wrote about recently)!

Some of these games are of a vintage now – The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was developed in the late ’90s, for example.

Speaking of it, the game’s producer, Shigeru Miyamoto said:

“At that time I found it interesting to make things that no one understood, that didn’t exist before.”

Arguably, that’s still a thing happening these days, thanks to the likes of Hideo Kojima (Death Stranding, anyone?!).

Interestingly, the four countries with the top-scoring games are actually in four separate continents: Asia, Europe, North America and Oceania. It’s also good to know that every continent is represented in this map.

You can buy The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for 3DS on Amazon.

We’ve just watched the announcement trailer for Still Wakes the Deep, the latest game from The Chinese Room – and we’re excited for it!

That’s right, the studio that brought us Dear Esther, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture is coming at us with a new oil rig horror game that promises to be a chill fest!

Described as a ‘narrative horror game’ set in Scotland circa 1975, it’s a first-person game that takes the studio ‘back to its roots’.

The announcement trailer is full of atmosphere and tension – which is just want you want from a horror teaser trailer.

Check the official announcement trailer out below:

The Chinese Room have released a short blurb to go with, which reads:

“Disaster strikes the Beira D oil rig off the coast of Scotland. Navigate the collapsing rig to save your crew from an otherworldly horror on the edge of all logic and reality.”

And, if you don’t mind us saying, this seems to be generally a good time for Scottish oil rig horrors, what with the success of The Rig and all!

Still Wakes the Deep will be released early 2024 and will be available for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, PC and Game Pass.

In the meantime, you can buy Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs right here on Steam or the entire collection of Amnesia via the Playstation Store.

Source: Engadget

Year Zero World Building creates campaign settings using Free League’s RPGs. Space intrigue and war meets Arabian Nights, the Coriolis bundle combined with Wake of the Icons provide a core rulebook and setting, and four adventures with world building extras to any GM wanting to create their own version of the Dark between the Stars. 

Background

Thanks to Free League for sending me RPGs to help in writing these articles. As a frequent customer of their kickstarters, pre-orders, and webstore I really appreciate their customer service and attention to detail. 

The newest adventure, part 3 of the Mercy of the Icons adventure trilogy, is available on its own: Wake of the Icons. The Coriolis bundle includes five products: Coriolis the Third Horizon, Map of the Third Horizon, Last Voyage of the Ghazali, Emissary Lost (Mercy of the Icons part 1), and The Last Cyclade (Mercy of the Icons part 2). I also think the Coriolis Icon Cards deck is a great addition, but it isn’t necessary for play. 

I reviewed Coriolis the Third Horizon and discussed combing several adventures both for EN World. This time around, I want to focus on the world building extras included in last two adventures of the Mercy of the Icons trilogy that a GM can combine to create their own version of Coriolis. I’m going to go in reverse order, starting with new rules and setting details in Wake of the Icons, the last adventure in the trilogy.

So Many New Options

The first thing of interest to many GMs are over 20 new ships that range from a few private craft up to a large number of warships. A few of these ships are small enough for private crews. For the rest, there are metagame rules for a specific conflict in the Third Horizon. A GM will have to do some work to extrapolate these rules to other conflicts, but doing so opens up military-style campaigns in Coriolis. Or the ongoing conflict could unfold as depicted but perhaps the PCs are not front and center but are instead either one military ship in the large conflict or a standard crew that gets caught up in battles as they try to make a living in the Third Horizon.

New mystical powers are also described for PCs who chose to merge with en-Argonnas, the Machine Icon. These new powers are in addition to the new mystical power: mercy of the symmetry. These powers can be unlocked via the ruins described for Kua as follows.

In addition to these new rule options, Wake of the Icons describes new systems as well as new adventure options. The planet of Kua has ruins that may beckon PCs to rummage around, and there are tables to help determine what they find, along with a map to aid in exploring. The Machine Icon may also be awakened and new mystical powers unlocked.

The Rimward Reach is a new area for PCs to explore with detailed descriptions of possible encounters, routes, oxygen oases, asteroid wallahs, and a space station complete with a map along with new rules to support the location. The Rimward Reach is located in Kua’s outer asteroid field.

The Sadaal System includes a map, minor events that can occur there, and the main planet of Bahram and the metropolis of Alburz, complete with maps and encounters. Additional locations and NPCs are provided for the system. There are a couple more stations and system maps and descriptions that GMs may find useful whether running the adventures as written or as additional world building details. 

And Still More Options

The Last Cyclade has entirely different options for world building GMs. In addition to new ships like a salvage vessel and patrol ship, some with deck plans, as well as NPC stats, there are entirely new rules to handle various situations and dangers. New rules include: terror, oxygen supplies, extended cold, diving, a new weapon system, an artifact: healing scarabs, fifteen new talents including to the grave and glyph armor (cybernetic), emerald discs which log ship data, factionary tech such as janhagir blades and the quela-c battle exo, new mystic powers like Thought Transference and Puppeteer, and a new weapon feature: cone.

There is also a dying god with varies powers. Even if a GM doesn’t use the adventure as written, an NPC like that might be able to be used in other adventures. Another new option is a table of Void Scars that function in a manner similar to Problems. Several new patrons are detailed as well from various factions and even from the Second Horizon. Humanites (altered humans) are also detailed with thirteen tribes with the Talents each one has. Several tribes are enslaved and an entire campaign could be built around trying to free that tribe, through law or violence or both.

The Temple City of Lotus gets a write-up. A Small community, it is well suited for campaigns focusing on small-time political intrigue and skullduggery. Several locations are detailed along with a two-page map. The ruins of Deeptown in the city could hide Nazareem temples and a sleeping Nazareem master. 

And there is still more. An entire table of poisons is included. Another smaller settlement, The City of Foreigners gets some details and a map. The Ash Belt includes a table of various dangers. Masahir Station is a Space station and is of special interest to the Order. A two page map depicts the station. The Valley of Death on Ordana also gets a two page map along with pertinent details. Many more maps of location and lots of NPCs are also included.

Should You Get Coriolis?

Just covering these two adventures shows the depth of detail available to GMs, whether they run these adventures as written or pull rules and encounters and lore out as needed. If you want to run political intrigue, criminal enterprises, or other clandestine campaigns with an Arabian Nights flair, then the Coriolis bundle and Wake of the Icons will provide ample tools and support to get your flying carpet launched into space.

Picture credit: Pixabay

Published in March by Dias Ex Machina Games, Biohazard (5E) – A Modern Zombie Apocalypse usually costs five bucks to throw players in the town of Happyland.

Zombies overrun Happyland, and the characters are special forces sent in to find out why. If possible, find a cure.

Chris Dias designed the game, and thanks to Chris, we’ve some discount codes that take the price tag down to a mere $0.20.

However, we don’t have unlimited numbers of this generous offer so we’re making it available to Patreons first. That first-dibs finishes on the 26th.

Why is Dias Ex Machina being so excellent? Why the discount? There’s a Kickstarter for Ultramodern5 launching in two days. As usual, many reasons exist for signing up at the pre-launch via Backerkit.

Of Ultramodern5, Chris and the team say;

Ultramodern5 does not present one world; instead, it provides the tools for game masters to create their own settings within the 5th Dungeons & Dragons framework.

With Ultramodern5, you can create any world you want, mix them, or focus on one. It presents races, classes, archetypes, gear, monsters, and scenarios that can be inserted into any campaign.

Biohazard uses Ultramodern5 rules, but those are included in the 60-page adventure. Ultramodern5 was published in 2016, and, as you know, the 5e landscape has changed a lot since then. The original edition of Biohazard appeared in the current 5e rulebook, but this new standalone has been expanded.

In Biohazard, you’ll get;

• New versions of the classic zombie
• Encounters that get harder and harder
• Pregenned military characters
• High resolutions maps

Quick Links

• Pre-launch: Ultramodern5.
• Patreon: Geek Native
• Or just buy Biohazard (5E)

New Zealand-based AJ Pickett, who has written for the Rifter and consulted on lore for D&D: Dark Alliance, is crowdfunding tabletop battle mats made from silicone which can be thrown in a washing machine.

The pitch has more than 50 days to run, but it asks for NZ$77,365, about £38K. Can they make it? Progress has been good in the first week with over 200 backers and AJ’s YouTube channel has over 120K followers to point at the campaign. You can see progress on the pitch page.

[Back this Campaign]

A special offer to the Silicone Battlemats’ first 1,200 backers suggests how many people AJ suspects might respond.

That offer is a free combat tracker, also silicone and transparent, so you can scribble combat order, health and other data points on it and have those near the action without obscuring the map.

There’s also a lotto draw for people who go all in, and that’s a generous one but down to chance. It’s a quirky mechanism for the Kickstarter because once the campaign has been funded, it’s not in the backers’ interests to decrease their chances of winning by enticing more gamers into the lottery.

Choose from our colours and print options while taking advantage of our special deals and rewards. Plus, our battlemats offer more than just a gaming surface! Crafted from highly durable and non-toxic silicone, they can withstand baking cookies and pizza. Their non-porous surface is resistant to most crafting paints and glues, making them perfect for sculpting terrain and painting miniatures. You can even bake polymer clay models on them or use them as a protective surface under your 3D printers. Each battlemat is engineered to last a lifetime and be perfect at what it was made to do, all while reducing waste and pollution.

AJ’s HQ in New Zealand seems to bring great postage because many tiers have worldwide shipping included.

Backers who contribute NZ$55/£27 get one silicone battlemat with a square print.

Is the hex print more expensive to produce? It must be because that option does not unlock until backers contribute NZ$63 or more to the project.

After these two tiers, the battlemat crowdfunder leaps up the ladder dramatically.

It’s NZ$207 when the entire set appears, and that’s three full prints, with all three colours to pick from a dice set included.

After that, AJ offers retail tiers with 10 battlemaps in a mix at NZ$484 and, yes, 100 at NZ$4,504. Are any tabletop hobby stores busy enough to store and sell that many?

The estimated fulfilment date is this year and in September.

Howdy, it’s the first Friday after UK Games Expo, and it’s back to writing up the RPG news summary.

Let’s see what happened since the Expo and dig into those summaries;

• The Elden Ring RPG isn’t cancelled.
• The Witcher RPG isn’t cancelled.
• OneBookShelf published a Big Bad Con supporting mega bundle.
• Hasbro’s boss bets on middle-aged gamers.
• UK Games Expo apologises for an error which banned queer-themed RPGs.
• GAMA Expo moves to Louisville despite it being Kentucky.
• Battlefield Press is an admirable battle to survive.

Did you go to the UK Games Expo, readying for Big Ban Con or Gen Con? Let us know in the comments or pop over to the Discord to coordinate meet-ups with other gamers.

Conventions tend to make for busy news cycles, but what you might miss as a blogger is weird. I’m late and slow on the news that UK Games Expo is apologising for not allowing queer-themed RPGs. While I was there, which is a day longer than most, I saw plenty of (probably) queer gamers. Hand on heart, it felt like a safe space.

I can only imagine that an American con feels like, or a French one, or say, a South African one.

Right, let’s see what the news looks like right now.

Support: Patron.

RPG news from Geek Native

• KiwiRPG Week returns on June 10th.
• In Geek Native’s UK Games Expo coverage, there’s;
  • A first look inside Vynestra and free previews.
  • Free Breaking Infinity RPG.
  • RPG publisher Battlefield Press Internation asks for patience as it’s in n battle for survival.
  • UKGE apologises after refusing queer-themed RPGs.
• The Royal Mail does Warhammer stamps.
• Brabblemark Press will release I Am Furious (Pink).
• WrightWerx publishes the free-to-download Mecha Vs Kaiju 202x 5e quickstart.
• We list the RPGs and other categories in the 2023 Origins Awards.
• RPG and board game publisher Catalyst Games Labs insists BattleTech is for everyone.

Spotlight: Lone Colossus Games

RPG news from around the web

• Dicebreaker’s Matt Jarvis notes Elden Ring tabletop RPG gets a release date, but….
• R. Talsorian Games confirms they’re still doing more content for The Witcher RPG.
• Monte Cook Games readies for pre-orders and looks inside Old Gods of Appalachia Roleplaying Game.
• GAMA notes Kentucky’s human and civil rights record as it confirms GAMA EXPO will move to Louisville, KY.
• We’re getting old and Hasbro knows it, Fortune writes up The struggling toymaker behind Dungeons & Dragons and Play-Doh is banking on middle-aged shoppers as the ‘heart and soul’ of its business.
• Chase Carter at Dicebreaker reports Dungeons & Dragons lead designer says 2024 rulebooks will “prepare the game for its next decade” .
• ICv2 lands an exclusive with Paizo Partners with Fanroll Dice for ‘Pathfinder RPG’ dice and accessories.
• Alex Speidel, one of Paizo’s bi-staffers and organised play coordinator, writes up Paizo Pride 2023.
• ICv2 confirms Catalyst’s Shadowrun Body Shop.
• Chaosium confirms they’re participating in Gen Con Online and asks for GMs.

RPG reviews and interviews from around the web

• Origins Award-nominated review site The Rat Hole looks at Freespacer.
• The Alexandrian reviews the Waterdeep Rescuing Lulu From Elturel.
• Jared Rascher, quick off the mark again, shares first impressions of Arcadia Issue 28.
• At RPG.net, Paul Mackintosh writes up thoughts on Delta Green’s From the Dust / Presence.
• Over at the Grognardia blog, there’s a Retrospective on Cyborg Commando.
• MJR RPG reviews the Call of Cthulhu Mr. Corbitt.
• Reviews from R’lyeh looks into Roll & Play.
• Play On The Table talks board games to RPG author and designer Steve Jackson.
• Charles Dunwoody talks OSR’s Kobayashi.
• Geek Girl Authority talks to Adam R. Crymble.

RPG new releases

• Renegade has been busy with their Essence20 RPG projects and has released;
  • Power Rangers RPG.
  • Transformers RPG.
• Free League Publishing has released Coriolis: Wake of the Icons.
• Spilled Ale Studios hits publish on Wasteland Woes: Fifth Edition Foes and Threats For Post-Apocalyptic Worlds.
• Cosmic Sorcery Society asks that you Pay What You Want for Blood Reign: A Grimdark Sword Dream RPG.
• In print and from Streamforged Games, there’s the Dark Souls: The Roleplaying Game – The Tome of Strange Beings.

RPG bundle deals

• Save $141.34 (85%) on OneBookShelf’s bundle to raise money for Big Bad Con.
• Save $55 (65%) on Orbital Intelligence’s Dungeon Grand Prix print bundle.
• Save $36 (32%) for Troll Lord Games’ Castle Keeper’s Starter Bundle.
• Save $23.98 (40%) in the DMsGuild’s Indestructo bundle.
• Save $4.40 (26%) with Agenca Especial and the Mediterranean Theater bundle.

RPG ideas, tips and discoveries

• The Committee for the Advancement of Role-Playing Games refreshed their Gamers in Need resources.
• At ScreenRant, Alex Keenan opines Is Critical Role’s Success Good For D&D? Why There’s No Clear Answer.
• D&D Beyond’s Alyssa Visscher notes 9 Queer Creators to Follow This Pride Month.
• Did you know the jury is out on whether the D&D movie did well enough in cinema for a sequel? If you hope it does well, good news, it’s been a streaming hit.
• Yet, We Got This Covered notes Ryan Reynolds inadvertently casts doubt on a ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ sequel.
• At CPR News, May Ortega writes up To make a living off Dungeons & Dragons, Ginny Di knows how to battle some trolls — in-game and online.

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;

• The Complete McCaigue Creature Compendium Volume 2 – 5E from Katelyn McCaigue submits “Original Monsters, Items, and Playable Races for your D&D 5e Games! Volume 2 in our Creature Compendium Series!”
• Mangled Morbid Miscreations: A Mörk Borg Supplement from Weird Roll crowdfunds “Grotesque beings, treacherous artifacts, enigmatic classes, incantations, oracles and companions — a dark compendium.”
• D100 Rumours for Lovecraftian TTRPG’s from Samuel Steele kickstarts “100 pieces of gossip and rumour to add interest and intrigue to any Lovecraftian tabletop RPG. Just roll a dice and see what you hear..”
• CircuitDice: Rolling for a Sustainable Realm from Casper Hon nominates “DnD dice made of 100% recycled scrap electronics.”
• Overlooked Creatures of the Backwoods 5E Bestiary from Nat 1 Gaming raises funds for “A book of 10+ creatures overlooked by adventurers as they trudge through the forests all with rolling a natural 1 special rule in PDF.”
• Gods of the Eastern Sky from Dark Eagle Games introduces “An original pantheon of gods for your 5e campaign. It’s a DM world-building resource.”
• Pact of the Mouse vs. the Public Domain from Chamomile Has A Project offers “Two 5e subclasses and associated lore for the battle over omnitellectual property. A 1-week micro-campaign.”
• NPC Nation, Undead part 1, (D&D 5e Supplement) from Black Cube Games introduces “A variety of one-of-a-kind NPC collections (Vampires, Zombies, Skeletons) compatible with DnD 5e. searchable with the provided tags.”
• The Fallen Lineage from Last Sword Miniatures pitches “A Dark Elves Campaign”
• $1 D&D 5e Adventure: Tournament of Wonders from Dumb Cane Games raises funds for “A 2-3 session adventure for 3 to 4 characters of level 3 to 5. Game master friendly format.”
• DND COINS OF MANY THINGS from strange arcade offers “A NEW TWIST ON THE DECK OF MANY THINGS. (dnd/fantasy RPG)”
• Tomb of Zines, a Storage Box for your Fantasy RPG Zines from Philip Reed offers “Pack this box with your zines, brochures, loose cards, flyers, and other assorted fantasy roleplaying game materials!”
• Nasty Brutish and Long from Michael Elliott is working on “A simple RPG about lives complicated by revolution.”
• Rescue Rainbow City for Pf2e & 5e – LGBT+ adventure from Awfully Queer Heroes pitches “The Queer capital city of all realms has been taken over by an evil entity. Show your Pride and adventure to restore the Gayness”
• Boro Dice: Original Dream Collection from Heather and Mario pitches “Seven piece sets of extremely sharp edged resin dice for tabletop RPGs.”
• One Dollar Adventures – Arctic Expedition: Part I from Cave Gaming nominates “An expedition into the nearly unexplored tundra. What could possibly go wrong?”
• Celebrations and Dragons from The Oracle pitches “Two periodicals full of rich, detailed fantasy RPG content suitable for all game systems, 100pgs content”
• Dungeon Domains: The Weeping Caves from Bart Wynants crowdfunds “A system-agnostic fantasy RPG dungeon with endless opportunities for expansion”
• ASSIGNMENT: DANGER! from Hounds & Jackals – Games & Magic proposes “Espionage Thriller RPG for EZD6”
• Godspeeders TRPG 5E – Episode 1: Farewell and Godspeed from Alvaro Whatsabi suggests “New roleplay game based on the 5e of DnD, with an anime-inspired aesthetic and set in a world of space fantasy. Queer friendly”
• 20 Bounties & Most Wanted from SideQuest20 submits “Twenty one-shot bounties and most wanted sidequests, complete with printable paper minis and tokens”
• Mad Alchemist: 3 Dungeons for 3 bucks for 5e from Fleet Save Games introduces “Chase the Mad Alchemist’s fabrications in three increasingly crazy dungeons for Dungeons and Dragons 5e!”
• ZOTH-LACED WORM TRAILS (A Cha’alt Zine) from Roger C. Jones introduces “System-agnostic OSR RPG content for use with Cha’alt, Alpha Blue, Encounter Critical and other old school, science fantasy RPGs.”
• Roleplay Relay from Nerdy Nightly is working on “Nerdy Nightly Presents A Week Long Table Top Marathon”
• Delver 9: Old School RPG Resources for GMs and Players from James Floyd Kelly submits “Delver is a magazine for Referees of OSR fantasy roleplaying games.”
• Meridian Games OTHERTIME #1 – The Cleanie Genie – For DCCRPG from Philip Padovani pitches “READY TO GET SUDSY? This is a wacky and silly Level 1 module for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game”
• The Mystery Business from Greg Leatherman offers “A game about meddling folks solving mysteries and unmasking villains just like your favorites did every Saturday morning.”
• Knightmare miniatures : Roghlod mercenary ogres from Diego Serrate Pinilla suggests “Oldhammer – 28 mm compatible greatly detailed ogre models!”
• ModuBases: Universal Basing System from Warscape introduces “3D printable Modular Miniature Bases. Use any mini in any game with these snap-fit bases to change base size and shape between games.”
• 5E OLD SCHOOL – House Rules for 5E D&D – $1 from John & Nicole Clark crowdfunds “A curated set of house-rules from a pro-DM to add to your 5E D&D campaigns to make them feel more gritty, immersive and old-school.”
• Omni Dice: World’s First 12-in-1 D6 Dice in Your Pocket from Unique Dice pitches “A Revolutionary 12-in-1 function dice just in a single D6 cube. For your games and your daily life.”
• Deadlock: A D&D 5e adventure from Terry Bonds crowdfunds “Become embroiled in city politics, uncover hidden conspiracies, and fight for survival in the face of an ancient and powerful enemy.”
• Memory. – An Adventure for Mothership from Crab Dominion is working on “Crashed on an alien planet with no memory of how you got there, your only option is to try to escape.”
• SIDEQUEST Annual Year 2 from Icarus Games submits “Another year of 5e content available in print for the first time.”
• Quest Chest: Immersive Tabletop Roleplaying Adventures from QuestChest suggests “A Year of Quest Chests: system-agnostic TTRPG modules, packed full of physical props, puzzles, narrated voice over, music and more!”
• Character Coins 2.0: RPG Token Sets by Dice Dungeons from Dice Dungeons crowdfunds “Coins and Miniatures All-in-One! Track DnD & RPG Characters and Monsters with Distinctive Engraved Tokens.”
• Castles & Crusades Adventurers Armory from Stephen Chenault proposes “An encyclopedia of weaponry and armor, shields and helms! Both the mundane and exotic to flesh out your wild fantastic adventures.”
• Veil of the Void Yggdrasil: A Sci-fi Norse TTRPG Expansion! from SDG Interactive Publishers introduces “Yggdrasil is the expansion to Veil of the Void that brings 350+ pages of new Sci-fi Norse inspired content to use in your storytelling.”
• Roll on the Range – PNP Roll & Draw Game from Chad Elkins is working on “A fun print at home roll and draw game for 1-4 ranchers. Designed and illustrated by Danny Devine.”
• Horror Epics: GrymWyrd Omnibus 5e from STONEworks Gaming suggests “A monstrous collection of ghastly adventures, vile creatures, & dastardly player options for 5th Edition gaming!”
• Dice Fanatics: Dice Collector App from Dice Fanatics crowdfunds “Complete your dice collection and explore new options with our database driven app for iOS and Android!”
• Legacy of the Dragon, a dragon themed supplement for 5E from Niels de Jong is working on “Legacy of the Dragon is a hardcover book that adds additional dragon themed races, subclasses, and other content to 5th edition.”
• FAST RPG: Compendium Volume 1 from Scott Taylor submits “Add more role-playing game content to your FAST experience with the new line of Compendium updates.”
• Petero’s Tome of Adventure from One Dollar One Shots raises funds for “200+ pages of NEW DnD adventure….Packed with new monsters, magic items, NPCs, battle maps, area maps, original art, lore & more!”

Do you know of an RPG news source that we don’t? Let us know, or leave a comment below.

This blogger is just back from UK Games Expo, the biggest in the UK, and 2023 was the largest ever with 52,000 total attendees.

If you doubt gamers are a healthy mix of genders, diversity and orientations, I’m confident UK Games Expo 2023 would have resolved any uncertainty for you. I saw various people in dresses, kilts, battle armour and trousers, couples, groups and friends.

However, a tweet from UKGE reveals the problem. Some RPG sessions were officially blocked for having references to queer content.

If it feels strange for UK Games Expo to be worried about sexuality, that might be because not only is it a weird thing to worry about, it contradicts the conventions on policy (PDF link) which says;

“…intolerance due to gender, race, religion and sexual orientation” is “unacceptable and would not be tolerated at UK Games Expo”.

The strange issue came to public attention when W.H. Arthur tweeted

For UKGE, I offered to run RPGs by queer creators; Dream Askew by Avery Alder and Sleepaway by Jay Dragon. Dream Askew was rejected because the organiser didn’t want “themes of sexuality or orientation”, and reference to queerness was removed from Sleepaway’s event description.

Dream Askew / Dream Apart is a gold bestseller on DriveThruRPG, which uses the No Dice, No Masters system.

It does have queer themes; the blurb says;

This book contains two games of belonging outside belonging. Dream Askew explores the story of a queer enclave amid the collapse of civilization. Dream Apart explores the story of a Jewish shtetl in a fantastical version of nineteenth-century Eastern Europe.

Both games are about a marginalized group of people living together in precarious community.

However, there’s no mention of orientation in Jay Dragon’s Sleepaway, which is available on Itch.

A key section addresses marginalisation,

In Sleepaway, you play as a camp counselor at a not-so-ordinary summer camp besieged by a Strange and ominous cryptid. In the outside world, people grow increasingly alienated from their own identities, trapped in a miasma of advertising and corporate branding. Isolated from civilization, this summer camp is a beacon of safety, a refuge for misfit kids defined by their marginalization.

Arthur, however, noted their pitch for the game added orientation.

Sleepaway by @jdragsky is a queer horror RPG on summer camp shenanigans and exploration of identity.

Warning: The final section of this article references sexual violence.

In 2019, UK Games Expo hit the news for the wrong news. A volunteer GM was thrown out after distressing players with a scene of gang rape.

UK Games Expo took quick action and apologised to those distressed.

UKGE isn’t the only convention wrestling with appropriate content, tackling gatekeeping and striving for inclusion. Events worldwide coordinate when possible; many now have policies and guidelines to govern and guide attendees and staff.

Geek Native understands that conventions assist one another in routing out known problem players. If there is a national or international ‘blacklist’, this blog does not know about it.

In the States, the Washington Court of Appeals has allowed former Wizards of the Coast consultant Zak S to attempt to sue Gen Con after that convention publically blocked them.

UK Games Expo implicitly references, I believe, their 2019 problem in their tweet thread on the 2023 issue.

On the first matter, we have reviewed the email chain between the RPG Manager and the individual submitting the game and have found that this is true. UKGE does not accept scenarios containing “sexual content” due to the past experience of this type of content causing distress –

and upset to players. However, this does not extend to sexual orientation. The volunteer made an error of judgement in conflating the two and UKGE offers our unreserved apologies to the GM.