The Weekly LIVE 152 – New Cubicle 7 Warhammer 40k TTRPG, Heroscape Returns, 2021 Ennies and Lord of the Rings for 5E

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Cubicle 7 is excited to announce a new Warhammer 40,000 roleplaying game! Imperium Maledictum is the spiritual successor to the beloved series of roleplaying games started by Black Industries over ten years ago. Imperium Maledictum is a d100 based system for roleplaying in the grim darkness of the 41st millennium, and builds on previous Warhammer 40,000 d100 roleplaying games, as well as Cubicle 7’s own award-winning Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition.

Hasbro and Avalon Hill Games announce the new Age of Annihilation expansion pack for the long-dormant cult classic tabletop title Heroscape. Debuted and distributed by Milton Bradley in 2004, Heroscape was a sort of scaled-down take on wargaming that appealed particularly to younger audiences. Discontinued in 2010, it was recently announced that Heroscape will return in the near future with the Heroscape: Age of Annihilation expansion.

We also review the results of the 2021 Ennies. Thirsty Sword Lesbians took both Product of the Year and Best Games. The path to Middle-earth will soon open for new adventurers.

Free League is thrilled to reveal that the acclaimed second edition of The One Ring™ roleplaying game is coming soon in a 5E adaptation, entitled The Lord of the Rings™ Roleplaying. The new edition of The One Ring™ RPG, set in the world of The Lord of the Rings™ by J.R.R. Tolkien and designed by Francesco Nepitello and Marco Maggi, became the most successful tabletop roleplaying core game ever on Kickstarter when it ended March 4, 2021. Now the time has come to open Middle-earth for even more roleplayers with a brand new 5E adaptation.
#ennieawards #heroscape #cubicle7 #lotr5e

Shopping on DTRPG (afilliate link):
https://www.drivethrurpg.com?affiliate_id=2081746

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The Weekly LIVE 151 – GenCon 2022 Harrassment, Spice Dao Sells, Dragonbane RPG, Warmachine MkIV and Wicked Ones Offset Print Kickstarter

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Reports from GenCon 2022 of harassment of PoC and LGBTQ+ attendees lead people to think that personal info had been leaked by organizers. The harassing messages were in the form of text messages and phone calls. GenCon stated that they only contact attendees by e-mail. This is an unfortunate situation after having the convention canceled two years in a row due to the pandemic.

SpiceDAO, the crypto fan group that purchased a copy of the Jodorowsky’s Dune production bible for a ridiculous amount of money, is no more. Spice Club is the new and much poorer iteration. They are looking for a buyer for the book and are making NFTs with Frank Miller. None of this makes any damn sense.

Dragons and Demons (Drakar och Demoner) is finally being released in English by Free League. This is just in time for the 40th anniversary of its first appearance in Sweden. It will be called Dragonbane and the project will be on Kickstarter. The announcement also hinted at an updated version of the rules. Now we know what happened to the rights with the IP sale that RiotMinds recently announced. Better late than never?

Privateer Press is bringing us a new version of Warmachine. Warmachine MkIV will also fold in the Hordes setting as well. It will feature and streamlining of the rules set and new miniatures. The miniatures will be 3D printed in-house, possibly SioCast, which may help the international market. If and when they set up foreign production. Are you excited for a miniatures game that only existed because Games Workshop was so incompetent? Or will is all forgiven for their distribution problems with MkIII? And last, but not least,

Wicked Ones is returning to Kickstarter for an off-set printed edition and new standalone expansion called Undead Awakening. The game uses the Forged in the Dark system and features excellent artwork. We hope to soon get an interview with Ben Nielson from Bandit Camp about the project and the origin of this popular game. And for once we will be in the same time zone, because Bandit Camp is also based in Japan! #gencon #wickedones #warmachine #dragonbane

OrcusDorkus’ Podcast TitterPigs:
https://anchor.fm/s/6b2c7a48/podcast/rss

Subscribe to OrcusDorkus on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/c/OrcusDorkusRPGShenanigans

Wicked Ones and Undead Awakening Expansion Kickstarter:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/banditcamp/wo-ua-hardcover

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The Weekly LIVE 150 – Darkest Dungeon Dispute, RiotOnline Closes, Return to Dark Tower Second Printing and Expansion and Cthulhu App in Japan

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The Darkest Dungeon boardgame Wave 1, the English language core game, is printed and ready ship. Unfortunately for Mythic, the company that designed the boardgame, which is based on the PC game by Red Hook Studios, the costs of shipping have dramatically increased. They are now asking backers to contribute a small additional amount to help make up for the $875K difference after they have already added over a million themselves in cooperation with Red Hook. Of course the comments and criticism are flying. This is putting Mythic in a tight spot. These addition costs are unforeseen and as Kickstarter is NOT a preorder, it seems they are justified in asking for this additional funding. It is either that or just dump the whole thing in the China Sea so they can stop paying storage costs.

A surprise message from DriveThruRPG informed us that due to the closure of RiotOnline we are being sent complimentary codes for PDFs of all the materials we had on this digital platform. This situation comes hot on the heels of Astral announcing they are done. RiotMinds is selling their IP catalog to CMON games. This includes Trudvang Chronicles, LexOccultum, and the Ruin Masters brands. Who knows what CMON will do with them. They do have a studio dedicated to TTRPGs so let’s hope for the best.

Restoration Games is returning to their successful reboot of Dark Tower with a seconding printing of Return to Dark Tower. It will also include a new expansion called Covenant that will include new heroes and mechanics. They are already near $1 million on the second printing this time on Backerkit. If you missed it the first time around this gives you a chance to get the game and for those that pledge it offers the chance to get some of the premium upgrades offered in the first Kickstarter campaign.

Finally, Kadokawa the publisher of Call of Cthulhu in Japan has announced a new smartphone app tentatively named Cthulhu Myth TRPG Rulebook PLUS. It will offer for the first time a single place to access all the books produced over the past 40 years for Call of Cthulhu in Japan. It will immediately only be available to iOS on iPhones but that could change depending on popularity. The app allows users to mark pages and add notes. It is free and offers the books as in-app purchases.
#darkestdungeon #riotminds #returntodarktower #cthulhu

Return to Dark Tower on Backerkit:
https://www.backerkit.com/c/restoration-games/return-to-dark-tower

Article on Return to Dark Tower:
https://www.vulture.com/2022/07/return-to-dark-tower-board-game-making-of.html

Shopping on DTRPG (afilliate link):
https://www.drivethrurpg.com?affiliate_id=2081746

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The Weekly LIVE 149 – KillSampleProcess, Pathfinder Revolution! by Steve Jackson Games, Dune: War for Arrakis by and Mazes and Monsters HD

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Kill Sample Process is a stand-alone tabletop miniatures game and rpg setting from the creator of The Last War and Forbidden Psalm and published by Exalted Funeral, inspired by and fully compatible with the CY_BÖRG ttrpg and other Forbidden Psalm miniatures games. Forbidden Psalm is a 28mm miniatures agnostic game. You can use ANY suitable miniatures you already own, or build custom minis for this game. Solo Play and Coop rules are included. All content is compatible with the CY_BÖRG ttrpg. Kill Sample Process is a small-scale skirmish game, where you play with a crew of 5 miniatures per player, against AI controlled Hostiles in scenarios that tak e you across the neon hell scape of CY_. Play as enemies, cooperatively or solo.

Steve Jackson Games and Paizo, Inc. launched Pathfinder Revolution!, a new edition of the Revolution! board game, which is currently on Kickstarter for preorder. This is a new Pathfinder branded version of the Revolution! board game, which was released back in 2009 and spawned expansions (see “‘Revolution! Anarchy'”). The new edition improves the classic political deduction game as well adds game elements from the expansion material. It is set in the world of the Pathfinder RPG, and the goal of the game is to bluff or outguess opponents while building a coalition to gain control of the city of Korvosa.

CMON will be publishing War for Arrakis, an asymmetrical war game based on Frank Herbert’s Dune novel. The designers of the War of the Ring, Francesco Nepitello and Marco Maggi, are hoping to repeat their previous success with a new setting. The game is controlled through a combination of action dice and event cards, representing the different attributes of the two sides House Atreides and House Harkonnen. CMON is producing all new miniatures and artwork for the game. It is being sub-licensed from the existing Gale Force Nine license for Dune. Do we really need another Dune boardgame? Well, it is coming soon to Kickstarter.

And finally, Mazes & Monsters, the 1982 movie with Tom Hanks, will be available in Blu-ray HD for the first time ever. This is to celebrate 40th anniversary edition of the film based on Rona Jaffe’s 1981 novel that was inspired by the non-fiction book by investigator William Dear’s called The Dungeon Master. The story is about missing university student James Dallas Egbert III, who disappeared in 1979. His interest in Dungeons & Dragons was blamed by the media for his disappearance. This was after all the height of the Satanic Panic.
#cy_borg #paizo #stevejacksongames #dune #cmon #mazesandmonsters

KillSampleProcess on Kickstarter:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/impioussaint/forbidden-psalm-killsampleprocess

Pathfinder Revolution! On Kickstarter:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sjgames/pathfinder-revolution-by-steve-jackson-games

Shopping on DTRPG (afilliate link):
https://www.drivethrurpg.com?affiliate_id=2081746

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The Weekly LIVE 148 – Roll20 and OneBookShelf Joint Venture, The Big Squirm for Troika!, 2d20 Summer of Gaming and Mork Borg: Barebones Edition

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Roll20 and OneBookShelf have announced a joint venture that will involve some management shuffling and give you access to all PDFs in the Roll20 VTT… eventually. Not as earth-chattering as some people are making it out to be. It feels more like an excuse to bully smaller publishers that want access to customers and tart yourself up for your eventual buyout by Wizards of the Coast. Good luck with that. This adds convenience but at what cost to the employees, designers and customers of these games. Oh, and did I mention it will also kill the now redundant Astral VTT? It’s just the beginning of a much bigger mess. Roll20 took 10 years to add basic quality of life features to their platform and OBS has the worst backend of any online sales platform. A match made in heaven.

The latest official adventure for Troika! is now on Kickstarter. The Big Squirm is a hard-boiled mystery about speculative worm trading. Players are private detectives and in an open sandbox adventure with a series of clues to uncover by any means necessary. Written by Luke Gearing, previously of Acid Death Fantasy, it will be a 100-page hardcover book with over 40 pieces of art by Andrew Walter and of course published by the Melsonion Arts Council.

Miss White Boy Summer? Well now we have the Summer of 2d20. Modiphius is promoting the release of their 2d20 SRD with a sale of all of their published 2d20 systems in both physical and digital form. The sale is 20% off and includes games like Dune: Adventures in the Imperium, Star Trek Adventures, Fallout the Roleplaying Game, Dishonored, Infinity, Conan, John Carter of Mars, Mutant Chronicles, and Achtung! It runs for 48 hours starting July 20th which they have officially named 2d20 Day. In addition to all that, there will a collaboration with Mōdiphiüs xStartplaying.Games, the group finding platform for VTTs All participating Gamemasters who run a 2d20 game with at least two verified players during this period will be entered into a random draw to win one prize of $1,000 USD to spend on the Modiphius webstore, and three players can win one of three $100 USD Did you notice the theme with the number twenty in all that? Marketing!

And finally, proof that Stockholm Kartell’s hit TTPRG isn’t just and art project that escaped to your tabletop. Mork Borg: Barebones Edition is now available for FREE. It is all the text of the original yellow book with the art and much of the graphic design removed. The PDF is available on Johan Nohr’s Itch.io page as Pay what you want. Hopefully, he had the task of dismantling his beautiful doom metal art masterpiece himself so that it maintained some of the wonderful feel of the full volume edition.
#troika #morkborg #modiphius #2d20 #onebookshelf #roll20

The Big Squirm on Kickstarter:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/melsonia/the-big-squirm

Mork Borg Barebones Edition:
https://jnohr.itch.io/mrk-borg-free

OneBookShelf FAQ:
https://onebookshelfpublisherservice.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/7752903305235

Shopping on DTRPG (affiliate link):
https://www.drivethrurpg.com?affiliate_id=2081746

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The Weekly LIVE 147 – AI Plays D&D, WotC Japan, Heavy Fines for Cyberbullying and Fading Suns 4E

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A Redditor posted his results from an experiment with the OpenAI’s GPT-3 software. It was an attempt to get the AI to act as a player character. The test was not completely successful, but yielded some interesting results. The AI played a Wizard and was fond of the 5E spell, Magic Missile. Soon virtual tabletops may no longer need human beings to run fantasy roleplay games. The future is very bright.

A surprise for the TTRPG gamers of Japan happened this week. Wizards of the Coast created an official Twitter account. They tweeted a message saying more information about the future will be announced later in July. This comes after the legal dispute with Gale Force 9 that lead to WotC taking direct control over their localization in Europe and, now apparently, in Japan.

Yesterday, as of this writing, the penalties for online insults and bullying have become more severe in Japan. This follows a high profile case of a Japanese professional female wrestler and reality star committing suicide due to online harrassment. The main perpetrators received a tiny fine of 9,000yen (US$75) each. The mother of the late wrestler held a press conference celebrating the toughening of punishment which now stands at a fine of 300,000yen (US$2,200).

There is a new Bundle of Holding for the Fading Suns 4E Kickstarter by Ulisses Spiele delivered about mid-2020. This 2021 edition of the game is also getting ready to return to Kickstarter with a new expansion, Fading Suns: Lost Worlds. This is your chance to catch up on the latest version if you missed it and also donate to a good cause.
#dnd5e #fadingsuns #AI #japan

Fading Suns 4E Bundle of Holding
https://bundleofholding.com/presents/FadingSuns4E

Shopping on DTRPG (afilliate link):
https://www.drivethrurpg.com?affiliate_id=2081746

Check out RC Harvey’s writing:
http://rcharvey.com/

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The Weekly LIVE 146 – DMs Guild on Roll20, DTRPG Terms, Alice is Missing Movie, Keyforge Returns and W3itch.io

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OneBookShelf and Roll20 have made a deal to offer Dms Guild content on Roll20. This will increase the amount of fan-made content available to dungeon masters tremendously. Is this also the beginning of Wizards of the Coast focusing on Roll20 for a possible acquisition? They seem to doing a bit of that these days. OneBookShelf updated their Conduct Guidelines for publishers and have rubbed a lot of creators on DriveThruRPG the wrong way. It includes limitations to external linking and price controls as well as focus on Hostile Marketing. Which is vaguely defined as any type of promotion that courts controversy or bad press for OBS. Chris is not happy and we will find out why!

Alice is Missing, the text message based TTPRG created by a producer from Critical Role, has been optioned by Paramount. GenCon should be prepared to move to California and be overrun by scouts and producers from Hollywood to find the “next big thing” to make into a movie. Creative bankruptcy or trend chasing? TTRPG designers better start moving to LA and finding agents. Keyforge is back with new ownership.

Keyforge, the card game that went on hiatus during the pandemic has been purchased Asmodee by Ghost Galaxy, a company run by former Fantasy Flight CEO, Christian T. Petersen. They are bringing along some of the principals involved in the games production so things may be able to pick up where they left off. This should be good news for fans of the unique decks built by software card game. And finally, someone has created a competitor to Itch.io by making an exact copy of the website right down to the CSS and stealing the games being sold there. They want to offer an alternative to creators that want to include NFTs and blockchain in their games. The response to these thieves will make your non-native English speaking day.
#roll20 #keyforge #onebookshelf #aliceismissing

Shopping on DTRPG (afilliate link):
https://www.drivethrurpg.com?affiliate_id=2081746K

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The Weekly LIVE 145 – Astral VTT Ends, More Savage Pathfinder, MyMiniFactory and Free RPG Day

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Astral Virtual Tabletop has suspended active development, but is exploring ways for it to continue into the future. In the meantime, Astral will remain open as long as they are able to maintain their server costs. This is sad news and hopefully there will be some company interested in keeping it going. The platform had the support of DriveThruRPG so the visibility should have helped it. The quality of their “official” content was not amazing but the software itself was quite usable. Let’s hope for the best.

Following the successful 2021 Kickstarter of Pathfinder for Savage Worlds the second oldest adventure path is now being adapted to the Savage Worlds system. Curse of the Crimson Throne is now available along with the Advanced Player’s Guide adapted to Savage Worlds. All of the releases from the previous Kickstarter are also available. The website also encourages you to order directly from their website if you want the older boxed sets right away.

Free RPG Day 2022 will be held on June 25th in North America and July 23rd for the rest of the world outside of North America. Many of the usual companies will be offering adventures and accessories to get new players and old ones to enjoy their hobby together. Physical items are available at your local games store and most companies offer the same content on their website in PDF form for the next month.

MyMiniFactory acquires 3DC, owner of only-games.co , a leading on demand manufacturer of assets for gaming. Their vision to enable a MetaReverse for Indie 3D Creators and Makers is advancing with this acquisition. Indie Creators will soon be empowered to monetize their creations in digital & physical formats. A very exciting next step for the 3D printing space.
#pathfinder #savageworlds #myminifactory #darktower #freerpgday

Pathfinder for Savage Worlds Core Rulebook (afilliate link):
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/361286/PathfinderR-for-Savage-Worlds-Core-Rules?affiliate_id=2081746

Support Us by Shopping on DTRPG (afilliate link):
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The Weekly LIVE 144 – Mantic Boardgames, Backerkit Launches, Troll Trader Statement and Saudi Arabia Embrace

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Mantic Games has announced that they will launch a new Boardgames Division. This will focus on family-friendly and licensed-IP games. They want to be able to create projects that will be crowd-funded on Gamefound and will be one and done including expansions that are funded. The idea is to free them from one the wargaming space and also to make games that will lead players to the existing Mantic IPs.

BackerKit posts a surprise announcement that they are in beta as a full-fledged crowdfunding platform. They will officially launch in 2023 and already have over 30 companies committed to the platform. This includes Cephalofair Games, creator of the popular Gloomhaven and Frosthaven games. Isaac Childres, owner of Cephalofair, stated concerns over the announcement by Kickstarter to embrace blockchain technology that precipitated the move. BackerKit tools will still be available to Kickstarter campaigns.

We were contacted by Louis Simspon, managing director of Troll Trader, telling us that our discussion of the circumstances of the closure of Secret Weapon Miniatures was completely incorrect. He referred us to a statement posted by his company and the details when compared to the Secret Weapon Kickstarter update posted by Justin McCoy, nothing matches up. The truth lies somewhere in between. We under no circumstances want to damage the reputation of Troll Trader by our discussion. They are a company I have personally bought from in the past. The details are quite interesting so we will discuss them.

Following up on last week’s announcement, we get a statement from the CEO of Embracer Group explaining why Saudi Arabia is a good business partner and how they discussed difficult topics prior to this investment. So we have nothing to worry about and money is money so keep feeding that machine. Just remember to wipe off the blood and human rights abuses!
#manticgames #trolltrader #embracergroup

Interview with Ronnie Renton of Mantic:
https://youtu.be/SrPPn_TAFNs

TTCombat Statement about Secret Weapon Miniatures:
https://community.ttcombat.com/2022/06/10/secret-weapon-statement/

Support Us by Shopping on DTRPG (afilliate link):
https://www.drivethrurpg.com?affiliate_id=2081746

Chris social media:
https://hyvemynd.itch.io/​​
https://twitter.com/hyvemynd​​
https://twitter.com/ConanSalaryman​​

Abusecartoons Weekly Cartoons:
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https://www.twitch.tv/abusecartoons
​​https://twitter.com/abusecartoons

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Intro song is “Chips” by KokoroNoMe
https://kokoronome.bandcamp.com/

 

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The Weekly LIVE 143 – Secret Weapon Minis Closes, Teberu Still Coming, Cypher System OGL and Saudi Arabia Invests in Embracer Group

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Secret Weapon Miniatures announced they will be closing back in August 2021. Now we have more details. It seems Trolltrader/TT Combat (TTC) has claimed claimed IP on their HD Bases Kickstarter Campaign, making it impossible for them to get the project sent out. SWM say the claims are false. This has caused the company to default on their lons with USBank who no owns their IP. Justin McCoy posted an update on the Kickstarter page regarding the status of the company. This is a sad end to a company that mande some great looking bases, paints and dungeon tiles.

Teberu by the Italian company Xplored had a successful Kickstarter that is still working on hitting its fulfillment date of April 2023. There is also still the option to pledge late. IT still looks like the success of the technology will rely on partnerships with board game publishers and tabletop companies to get players to give it a shot. The system relies on an interactive tablet, bases for miniatures wirth sensors and LEDs and wireless dice. Because rolling dice with wires usually breaks the immersion.

Monte Cook Games has announced plans to release an open licence for the company’s popular Cypher System that will allow independent artists to create their own titles within its rule set. The Kansas-based publisher, which handles the fantastical Numenera and Invisible Sun setting along with The Strange and kids-focused No Thank You, Evil! Series, outlined its plans in a June 7th blog post to its website. The Cypher System Open Licence will launch sometime this summer and allow designers to “freely create and market tabletop roleplaying games compatible with” the Cypher System, according to the post.

The kingdom of Saudi Arabia has made another major investment in the videogame industry, investing more than $1 billion to acquire an 8.1% stake in Swedish gaming behemoth Embracer Group. The shares will be issued to Savvy Gaming Group, a games and esports-focused subsidiary of the country’s Public Investment Fund. Saudi Arabia has made a number of major moves into the game space in 2022, through both the Public Investment Fund and the Electronic Gaming Development Company, which between them have made significant investments in Capcom(opens in new tab), Nexon, Nintendo, ESL Gaming, and SNK prior to the Embracer deal.
#secretweaponminis #teberu #cyphersystem #embracergroup

Secret Weapon Miniatures Website:
https://www.secretweaponminiatures.com/index.php?main_page=index

Teberu Website:
https://www.teburu.net/

Support Us by Shopping on DTRPG (afilliate link):
https://www.drivethrurpg.com?affiliate_id=2081746

Chris social media:
https://hyvemynd.itch.io/​​
https://twitter.com/hyvemynd​​
https://twitter.com/ConanSalaryman​​

Abusecartoons Weekly Cartoons:
http://www.abusecartoons.com/​​
https://www.twitch.tv/abusecartoons
​​https://twitter.com/abusecartoons

​​Support Us on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/upturnedtable
https://streamlabs.com/idleredhands/tip​

Intro song is “Chips” by KokoroNoMe
https://kokoronome.bandcamp.com/

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