Category Archives: news

news

Star Wars Unlimited Some Thoughts

news, rant, star wars

Last week FFG dropped a teaser trailer (embedded below) on YouTube for a new Star Wars collectible card game (ccg) called Star Wars Unlimited that is coming out in 2024.

And you know what the world needs is more opinion based on the very scarce information that is out there from the over represented demographic that I am part of.

I know nothing about the game play, price model, etc. So what follows is pure speculation and blue sky thinking.

FFG are not strangers to the ccg model (Star Wars Destiny, Keyforge) despite being more known for creating the lcg model and using that.

But there are a few hurdles FFG need to over come to make Star Wars Unlimited a success that isn’t just a flash in the pan.

These are the same hurdles that the Disney Lorcana ccg will also have to overcome when it comes out later this year.

The first hurdle being supply of the initial release. FFG have not had a good record on this front. Grossly underestimating demand, and long delays before getting more produced and into shops will damage the sales and take up of the game. It happened to Star Wars Destiny and also to some extent Keyforge. New players need to be able to easily get their hands on the game after trying it. FFG haven’t had a great record on this front so far.

Next up is the release schedule of the sets/expansions. Another area FFG did not have much success with in the past. But then neither have Plaid Hat Games with Ashes, or Wizkids with Dice Masters. Wizkids and FFG had delays that clashed with the following set. So you ended up with small delays between sets, no time to explore the new stuff. It ended up messy and expensive. With Ashes it was long long delays between sets that helped kill it off.

FFG also need to get the number of sets released in a year right. Which I believe is going to be three. WotC in their attempt to gauge more money from players have been releasing a ridiculous amount to product in a year. For me and my wallet I think FFG have hit the right amount to release.

Organised play (OP) is one area I think FFG have always been weak. But going from the YouTube video (below) it looks like they have learnt a lot from WotC.

I’d like to see more about the prize support. But with pre-releases being a thing now, draft, limited formats. We are in for more of an MtG experience I hope.

I’ve yet to see what the Lorcana plans are for OP. But OP is the life blood of the game that along with the availability will determine if the game has legs (if we assume the game play is good).

Rotation. There has to be rotation. Which sets are legal for the Unlimited version of standard and for how long. Obviously there has to be their eternal format as well where all cards can be played. Plus how will they handle bannings? But I’m sure they will release those details in the following months.

I think if they can solve these issues then we should have a hit on our hands that won’t be more than a flash in the pan.

I have some thoughts on the first look video contents but they are for another day.

Two Kickstarter no brainers for DM’s

D&D, DM/GM Tips, news, RPG

Just thought I’d share a couple of no brainer kickstarters a DM should be backing at the moment.

The first is by Kelsey at The Arcane Library who has created her own rpg called Shadowdark RPG: Old-School Gaming, Modernized.

The tag line goes “Classic adventure gaming for 5E and old-school players alike! One book, all you need to play.”

I’ve wanted to try the old school stuff with some of the classic D&D adventures I have. I think this is the system I’m going to go with.

It looks rather cool. Plus you can try before you back as well with the FREE Digital Shadowdark RPG Quickstart Set that is available on DriveThruRPG.

You can back it here on kickstarter.

The other no brainer is the latest in the Lazy DM series of books, Forge of Foes.

This is not a bestiary. This is a 128 pages by Mike Shea and friends that is all about creating your own monsters and running them.

Just like the Lazy DM Companion Kickstarter there is a 30 page (can’t remember the exact page count) sampler that is useful and allows you to create your own monsters right away.

You can back Forge of Foes here.

Both of these kickstarters are at a point where they are virtually ready to send to printers. So I’m expecting to get digital copies of these goodies not long after the campaigns complete.

Expeditions – Scythe Sequel Announced

news, Scythe

Last night Stonemaier Games announced a new game that is a sequel to my favourite game of all time Scythe called Expeditions.

Being a sequel obviously it’s set in the Scythe 1920’s alternate history Europe. However the events in Expeditions take place after those told in Scythe.

Expeditions is described as “a competitive, card-driven, engine-building game of exploration. It is designed to evoke similar feelings to Scythe even though the mechanisms are different.”

Stonemaier did this cool summary image about the game. Which I’ve embedded below. There is no point me repeating the info it contains.

I’m pretty excited about this announcement. We all know how I feel about Scythe. So a chance to revisit the world of Scythe, and that amazing art of Jakub Rozalski. Who wouldn’t be excited?

Encounters Teaser Trailer

I think this is one of the very few times that I regret this blog is not more popular and that I don’t do reviews. But that’s the sacrifice I make to be able to just write what I feel like or am currently interested in.

You can preorder Expeditions now. It should be noted that this isn’t the usual Stonemaier preorder. The game won’t actually be shipped until July. Production has started on the game. But the number of copies being made in this initial print run is governed by preorders plus an additional amount for those that might want it in July.

There is the difficult decision about which version to go for. There are two versions. A retail with plastic mech minis, or an ironclad version with metal mech minis. Which is the main difference.

Along with Expeditions releasing in July there will be the now obligatory Rolling Realms promo pack (also available as a preorder).

In the Facebook livestream Jamey did also say we will see another three promo realms for Rolling Realms around May time. But obviously those details will be announced nearer the time.

Another preorder you can do is a red tinted 5 value metal coin. Plus the new Scythe/Expeditions metal coin pack which contains said coin.

Here is the Expeditions link to preorder or get more info.

There was a second announcement, which sees Tapestry getting some love with a third and final expansion, Fantasies & Futures.

This new expansion gives us “10 new civilizations, 6 advanced capital city mats, 38 new tapestry cards, and 12 new tech cards”, plus “a comprehensive rulebook that organizes all rules for Tapestry and the 3 expansions in one place (as well as a few replacement cards from previous expansions: 3 landmark cards, Oil Paint, and Migration).”

There is also a “new “charm” mechanism that provides one-time bonuses”.

Fantasies & Futures is coming in an envelope type package.

Along side this expansion is an folded space insert that uses the core game box to store the core game plus all expansions.

These will go on preorder on 1st March.

Yeah I’m getting these two. Get everything in one box, plus more content. No brainer for me as a fan of the game.

Here is the Fantasies & Futures link.

Wait I’ve just realised I’ve gone the whole post without saying…

How did that happen?

It’s VDD Day!

D&D, life, the universe, and everything, news, RPG, still alive

Another week has passed where I’ve written and played little.

It’s been the regular weekly pattern of work and sleep.

Work has been ballistic. Lots and lots of customers and no staff!

On the plus side I only have a week or five shifts left before my return.

Which means last nights club night will be my last (hopefully) one that I miss. It’s not great that the first two club nights of the new year I’ve had to miss.

At least I’m managing to find folks to play a game or two with on Sundays.

Now onto some D&D news that broke yesterday.

It’s pretty big news.

Remember all that #DnDBegone, boycott WotC and D&D stuff that happened over the last few weeks over the OGL 1.0a?

Well yesterday WotC announced a complete surrender over the issue after the survey feedback (so far) for their draft OGL 1.2 was overwhelmingly negative.

Der! They already knew that. The massive loss of D&DBeyond subscribers, the single voice of descent from content creators, social media.

I suspect this draft and survey were a ruse to allow WotC to backdown without losing face. Or that was the plan.

Whatever their motivation, we got to the right result that community were after. The OGL1.0a is safe. Plus the SRD 5.1 (that’s the document covered by the OGL that allows creators use core rules, classes, races, spells, etc) has been put under a Creative Commons license.

It’s a big win for the community.

The only question remaining is has this been enough to stop the haemorrhaging of creators and players? Or is this too late the damage has been done?

Where I stand with D&D 5e and Current Events

D&D, news, rant, RPG

If you play RPGs, particularly D&D. Unless you live in a remote cave in Tibet with no internet, it will have been particularly hard to have missed the big controversy going on with D&D at the moment.

I’m not going to go over the whole OGL/Hasbro/WotC vs everyone thing. Others more informed have covered the subject much better than I ever could.

Let’s face it does the world need to hear yet another white, middle aged, male opinion/analysis on the subject?

Not really. But here we are anyway with a post by me touching on how this all effects me and the games I run, and will run.

I’m not going to stop running D&D 5e.

That includes when OneD&D gets an official release.

OneD&D I think will be heavily tied in with D&DBeyond and the unreleased virtual tabletop. Which will I have no doubt also be monetised in every way possible. WotC have admitted as much recently to investors.

I have no interest or desire to go digital and open myself up to being held to ransom to get access to content. Which we are now in reality.

I know WotC only bought D&DBeyond last year. When you buy a physical book (which I prefer) do you get it free on D&DBeyond or even a discount? Nope. You have to buy it again. However we know they can do this as they did it with the Essentials Kit (and that was before they owned D&DBeyond). But we’ve seen WotC be that cheap over in MtG and buying physical booster packs and precons and Arena. And we all know what I think of their nickel and dime piss poor ingame economy in Arena.

WotC believe in squeezing as much out of you as they possibly can. So it’s no surprise they have started/plan to use lessons learned from MtG Arena and the video game industry to D&D and its digital incarnation.

So I’m going to remain with 5e and my physical copies I own. WotC can’t take them away from me, or stop me using them. But I bet they wish they could.

I have enough official D&D books to run my own campaigns for years without buying another book.

Add in third party books I own like Kobold Press’s Tome of Beasts, the Lazy DM books, Sly Flourish’s City of Arches, Ptolus source book, plus others.

Plus I can house rule any OneD&D rules into my 5e game, such as the new exhaustion rule, that I like.

A quick aside. Let’s face it official WotC books have been a bit disappointing (especially the source books) the last year or two. Spelljammer was light on content for DM’s, Dragonlance was an adventure not a source book. For me Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft set a gold standard for 5e D&D sourcebooks, but Spelljammer was not even close.

Even with the current money grabbing, WotC crapping where they eat events. I’ll still play 5e.

It may impact whether my favourite independent 5e content creators such as Sly Flourish, Arcane Library (they have stopped) write adventures/source books for 5e. And that will be a great loss for 5e and future versions. And I’ll try and support them as much as I can.

This blog won’t be effected. It’s way, way too small. Plus it comes under fan content.

For the record I hate what WotC are trying to do. It stinks. I’ll support any effort to try and stop it.

Right I have a megadungeon to update.

Stonemaier Games Release Official Scoring App

apps, first look, iOS, news

As part of the tenth anniversary celebrations for Stonemaier Games (which strangely for a fanboy I haven’t written about yet!) have just announced and released a free official Stonemaier Games Scoring app.

The app will initially act as a digital score pad for Wingspan, and record high scores. Other Stonemaier games will follow over time.

So how will this effect the unofficial, nothing to do with Stonemaier Games, Wingspan scoring app Wingmate?

Although technically they do the same job in other ways they differ.

Firstly Wingmate will cost you money. To score a game (other than the free to try single player scoring), use the automata, use either/both the expansions for scoring, you have to fork out hard digital cash.

As mentioned earlier in the post the Stonemaier app is completely free.

Wingmate is designed to be used during play.

At the start of a game you set up the end of round objectives either using the app to select them or draw them randomly physically and let the app know which ones you are using.

Then during the game at the end of each round you record each players score for that objective.

The official app is designed to be used at the end of the game.

It’s here that I noticed a difference in the nectar scoring.

Wingmate calculates the end game scoring on the rules where points awarded are based on majority in each habitat. Whilst the official app gives a point for each nectar collected!

When did this change? Shouldn’t the official app use the rules or give the option to chose between the two?

I don’t play using the Automata so I haven’t used that option in Wingmate. And I’m not paying £1.79 to see what it does! I’m not that dedicated.

The official app keeps a high score table, which Stonemaier plan to have so that you can see how you rank against other users of the app.

It also allows you to record scores for three other Stonemaier games (no score pad functionality) for their own respective high score tables. With the same future plans.

Currently Wingmate does not have this functionality. Will they add it? I’m not sure.

I’m not sure what the future of Wingmate is. I think the official app will meet the majority of players needs. Despite the change in nectar scoring. Whether that takes away enough in-app purchases income to justify stopping the further development of Wingmate I don’t know. Maybe it forces Wingmate to drop the in-app purchases and go completely free also. It’s going to be interesting to see what the developer decides.

I do like the end of round scoring functionality of Wingmate. I’d definitely add this to my wish list of features for the official app after sorting out the nectar scoring. Which for me is the top priority.

As a first release the official app is pretty cool.

Although I only cover iOS apps this will as soon as the Google app approval process allows be out on that other platform too.

Free League Have Been Busy On The Alien RPG

Alien, android, genesys, netrunner, news, RPG

Last week Free League announced a partnership with Titan Books (an off shoot of Forbidden Planet if memory serves me correctly).

In the official announcement this partnership has been described as “a collaboration to publish a unified storyline set within the ALIEN Universe. For 2022 and into 2023, the editorial and writing teams will share assets and coordinate plotlines to form a cohesive narrative across three original novels and the multiple award-winning ALIEN RPG.”

In the next year Titan Books will be publishing three new Alien novels.

  • Alien: Colony War by David Barnett (April 2022)
  • Alien: Inferno’s Fall by Phillipa Ballantine and Clara Carija (July 2022)
  • Alien: Enemy of My Enemy by Mary SanGiovanni (February 2023)

The first two can be pre-ordered on Amazon already. Which funnily enough but hardly a surprise I have pre-ordered.

If unsure which version of the books to pre-order, as there are three versions, audible, kindle and good old physical?

You first need to be aware of the following snippet of information about these novels. “ALIEN RPG lead setting writer Andrew E.C. Gaska will develop three unique RPG scenarios which will appear as bonus features in the books, one per novel.”

I seriously doubt these scenarios will be in the audible version (which I did spend a credit on to pre-order). But I’m not sure that the kindle version will have them either. The only edition I would bet money on that definitely will have them is the physical (hence why I pre-ordered it).

However Titan Books aren’t the first to do this sort of thing.

Back in 2017/8 FFG did something similar when they released four novellas set in the Android universe that had in the physical versions exclusive content for the Genesys RPG Shadow of the Beanstalk source book. Such as “a 16-page color insert detailing the treacherous Los Scorpiones gang …”

That exclusive bit was annoying as it was very challenging to get the actual physical edition, especially here in the UK. I did manage to get them all. But I don’t think the print run was very big.

This shouldn’t be an issue with the much more popular Alien franchise.

In other Free League Alien RPG news (yes they have been very busy it seems) a new cinematic adventure called Heart of Darkness has just gone on pre-order.

Heart of Darkness is “written by sci-fi novelist Andrew E.C. Gaska. It is a stand-alone adventure, but also serves as a conclusion to the Draconis Strain Saga begun in the cinematic scenario Chariot of the Gods and continued in Destroyer of Worlds. The scenario is designed for 3–5 players plus the Game Mother, and is a spiraling descent into soul-crushing madness.”

What does your money get you?

Basically the following:

  • The main Heart of Darkness scenario book.
  • A huge double-sided map (format 864x558mm) of the Erebos plasma trawling space station.
  • Seven pre-generated characters to choose from.
  • Custom cards for secret messages and personal agendas.
  • Player maps and handouts.

Plus when you pre-order you get early access to the PDF’s. The actual physical version will not be out until sometime in the Summer I believe.

There is a VTT bundle for this as well.

I do like that buying from Free League also gets you the PDF version. Other publishers do this as well, such as EN Publishing. It’s a nice incentive to buy direct from them. But I am a bit conflicted on this. Pre-ordering and early access I’m happy with. But for those that can wait, and want to support and buy from their FLGS, surely Free League and other publishers can come up with a way for those to get the PDF as well as part of their purchase.

Anyway I’m an impatient so and so, so come payday Heart of Darkness will be added to a virtual shopping cart.

Dragons and Androids

android, D&D, genesys, netrunner, news, RPG

From time to time instead of writing a new post about something I’ve already written about I have been known to actually update the original post instead.

My post that shares some recent videos from Arcane Library and Sly Flourish about generating ideas for adventures using random tables is one such post. So if you want to see the update just click here.

As the above image demonstrates I did in fact cave and get Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons. I can’t wait to use it within my campaign. But first we need to get our sessions started again. No new date has been set yet!

In other news FFG in partnership with Dark Horse Comics are releasing a third art book in their series based on FFG intellectual property called The Art Of The Android Universe.

The Art of the Android Universe will be “showcasing the design and art from the hit table top games set within the Android Universe!”

Cool I’m a big fan of the Android universe. I have been ever since I first got into playing Android Netrunner. I just love this vision of a cyberpunk future that FFG have come up with.

This art book will be a great resource for GM’s wanting to run an adventure in the Android universe. I’m pretty sure it will compliment The Worlds of Android book very nicely as a source of inspiration.

The Art of the Android Universe is due out according to its Amazon UK page on the 16th December and will be £33.99.

Breaking News Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 A.D. comes to an end

Judge Dredd, news, Rogue Trooper, RPG, Strontium Dog

EN Publishing have just announced that their license to publish 2000 A.D. related products is coming to an end.

No real reason is given in the announcement. However we can speculate as to why until the sun goes down and still not know the truth. So I’m not going to even try.

What I will say is that this is a bloomin shame. I really liked the WOIN system they based everything on. I loved that the source books followed major classic story arcs.

However you will still be able to buy the current 2000 A.D. related products until March 2022, remaining stock levels permitting of course. Plus from Dragonmeet time next month there will be a half price sale on the rulebook.

You can read the full announcement HERE.

Tapestry gets Arts and Architecture expansion

news

I should have posted about this a couple of days ago, but I’ve been concentrating on getting ready for an interview. Which went well, and means I now have gainful employment.

However it really hit home that Nan is no longer with us when I couldn’t share the good news with her. She was the first person I wanted to tell.

I start this Saturday.

Now onto the reason for this post. Jamey Stegmaier of Stonemaier Games has announced the second expansion for Tapestry called Arts and Architecture.

Image taken from the Stonemaier website

Over the next 2 weeks Jamey will be revealing details about the new expansion. The review embargo lifts on the 16th November. Then on the 1st December preorders open up.

This new expansion has been designed by Mike Young and Jamey Stonemaier.

So what does this new expansion contain? On the official web page it lists “new capital city mats, a new advancement track featuring new types of cards and tiles, plus more civilizations, tapestry cards, tech cards, and landmark miniatures/cards”.

In a recent live cast on Facebook Jamey confirmed that you can play with the new stuff without the 5th advancement track if so inclined. Any new cards that refer to it can be ignored, discarded, and then just draw a new card.

Photos taken from the Stonemaier Facebook page. Photos taken by Tim Chuon.

There is a new 20 sided science die to cater for the additional advancement track. As you can see in the photos above the new landmark models look amazing.

Those small purple cards are masterpiece cards and associated with the new advancement track. Sadly they are not a regular card size (by that I mean 63.5mm by 88mm) so until we know the dimensions (we will find out in the next design diary) we won’t know if we can sleeve them. I hope we can. I have all the other cards in the game sleeved. And when I find a way to sleeve the cities, civilisations and player boards I will be doing those too.

In the same live cast as mentioned above Jamey did say that a third expansion for Tapestry is dependent on how well this second expansion does. Going by the excitement of the Tapestry Facebook group it will be popular with the existing fan base. But generally expansions tend to sell a fraction of the base games numbers. In the past I’ve seen figures between 10 to 20% of the original games sales. I’m also not sure how well Tapestry has sold. I don’t think it has hit Scythe numbers, and definitely hasn’t got close to the heights of Wingspan. Tapestry has been a very strong marmite game with players. I fall into the love it camp, as do the two new players I introduced to the game last weekend. So I’m hoping that we do see a third expansion. But if not I’m content with what we have already.

You can find links to design dairies (as they are released), reviews, etc on the Stonemaier website HERE.