Rumors that Asmodee wants to sell itself amidst the global cargo and raw materials and production cost increases. CMON Buys Two Little Mice RPG studio makers of Broken Compass. Does this mean more licensed IP RPGs to come? TTRPG Designers from the Global South express frustration reaching the Northern English-speaking markets. Finally a 50th anniversary for Dungeons and Dragons arrives in 2024 and an announcement of “the next Evolution” to celebrate. Does this mean 5.5E or something far darker and alienating for older players? Plus some discussion of running an Enemy Within campaign using Warlock! by Fire Ruby Designs #asmodee #cmon #dnd5e #warlockrpg
Warlock! RPG by Fire Ruby Designs: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/312204/Warlock?affiliate_id=2081746
Free League will be Kickstarting the new edition of Twilight 2000 later this year. CMON will now be publishing graphic novels based on their game properties, starting with Zombicide and Cthulhu: Death May Die. Never Going Home by WetiInk print on demand arriving soon. A new edition of Warhammer 40,000 is coming this year. We talk at length about it and its happy, not at all grimdark spot illustrations on the Games Workshop website. Xas Irkalla is a black metal hell with interesting mechanics and intense artwork. Nemesis Lockdown is a stand-alone expansion to Nemesis, the survival horror boardgame inspired by the Alien movies. The Wretched & Alone Game Jam gives you a chance to try survival horror mechanics, also inspired by Alien, with the setting of your choice.
This week we discuss the Tales From the Loop Amazon series and the well-timed Free League boardgame on Kickstarter. Idle Red Hands is producing The Complete Mutant Chronicles, a video lore series about the Mutant Chronicles and Warzone setting. The Professional Nerd, @BryanCPSteele , announced that Res Nova has the license to produce a new edition of Warzone. The Man of Steel, Henry Cavill confirms his love for Warhammer 40k on Instagram. CMON ceases trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange because of “auditing issues”. They also launched a Kickstarter for Ankh: Gods of Egypt, which is third in the series of games by Eric M. Lang, including Blood Rage and Rising Sun. Fantasy Grounds reports a 150% boost in online sessions on their platform. Now maybe the time to see what a virtual tabletop is all about. The sequel to Gloomhaven is also live on Kickstarter. Frosthaven looks to be an equally impressive game and the designer, Isaac Childes, couldn’t deserve another big success more. He runs a great crowdfunding campaign. Here’s hoping things get back to normal soon and these projects go well.
Apologies for the sound quality this week. We recorded remotely for the first time since the shutdown in Japan. We will get the bugs worked out for next week.
Wizards of the Coast starts a new video game studio for a new original IP and James Ohlen, Ex-Bioware designer, is leading it. He also had a very successful Kickstarter with Odyssey of the Dragonlords, a 5E setting. Chris has almost finished the character for Ironsworn. Judges Guild loses business over controversial online comments, including Bat in the Attic, Frog God Games and DriveThruRPG. Onyx Path will release the second edition of Hunter:The Vigil. CMON takes preorders, I mean, pledges for a chibi Marvel superhero game. Freddie Prinze Jr. will be playing the DC Heroes RPG in the unscripted DC Universe All-Star Games tv series. The Gauntlet is holding an incursion-writing contest for Trophy Gold. Will Chris enter in time?
Monolith Games cancels the Kickstarter campaign for their new concept, Beyond the Monolith. CMON is working on a new interactive hybrid of technology and physical boardgames called Teburu. Riot Games launches Riot Tabletop, hoping to create a real-life toxic tabletop fanbase modeled on their League of Legends success and paid for with Chinese money. Games Workshop puts Space Marines Adventures in Target stores and Barnes and Noble makes exclusive expansions for it. Fantasy flight shutters their Interactive division. The TTRPG department is also laid off. We still don’t know what this means for their RPG systems and settings.
A slightly more salty weekly episode. CMON holds a stealth garage sale in the guise of a campaign to create soundtracks and artbooks for its games. They are actually clearing out warehouse leftovers from previous campaigns. Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers has released a fantasy TTRPG as a well-designed and illustrated 97-page PDF called Feast of Legends. Critical Role held a sponsored livestream and we are all left wondering “Why?” Chris played a session of Girl Underground by Jesse Ross, creator of Trophy. Also tried the Forbidden Lands RPG by Free League.
A Golden Week weekly, talking about the series end of three big pop culture properties: Game of Thrones, the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Star Wars Skywalker Saga. CMON is adapting the popular videogame, Bloodborne, as a miniatures and tile-based boardgame on Kickstarter. We are developing a 1980s Japan setting for the Tales From the Loop RPG. Free League is working on an Alien RPG that looks more Ridley Scott than James Cameron. #starwars #marvel #gameofthrones #cmon #bloodborne #frialigan #freeleague #talefromtheloop #alien #ttrpg
The latest gigantic boardgame offering from Cool Mini Or Not, based on Adrian Smith’s graphic novel Chronicles of Hate, HATE: the boardgame. It pits player tribes against each other for control of the lands by taking it from other tribes in raids and combat. Does it live up to the hype? Are the miniatures as amazing as we hoped? Find out when we unbox HATE.
We unbox the CMON Kickstarter, Massive Darkness, a fantasy board game that includes some inspiration from MOBAs. Will the new mechanics be an innovation or a gimmick? How about all of those fantasy miniatures? Are they compatible with all other fantasy roleplaying games? Watch our review and find out!
