The Gaming Shelf Draws the Hidden Isle Card
We’ve got so much news! First, Hex & Co.—a board game cafe and after-school program with three locations in New York City, is unionizing! Workers are asking people to sign their petition in support of their organization, as the owners are (currently) refusing to voluntarily recognize their union.
Big Bad Con, a small-but-mighty TTRPG convention, wrapped up this weekend. With lots of opportunities for networking and a robust support system for marginalized designers, the convention is quickly becoming a hotspot for designers and publishers.
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New Releases: The Trick or Treat Suite, Hiria: the Eternal City, Two-Minute Warning, Pale Dot, This Mortal Coil, We Own the Night, Coffee & Chaos, Arcane Crimes Division, Restful Actions, Earth A.D., Tableau Core, Wyrmlings, Memos & Monsters, Kiwi Acres
“The Trick or Treat Suite by Adam Vass/World Champ Game Co. consists of five brand new horror RPG zines, including Stab (a whodunnit slasher inspired by the Scream franchise), Ever Dream This Man? (a creepypasta-turned-nightmare with collaborative playlist building and drawing), No Future (punk rock time loop horror where Green Room meets Groundhog Day), Press Play (gmless found footage horror), and How To Summon A Spirit (an urban legend evolution hacked from worldbuilding games like Dialect and Microscope).”
“Hiria: the Eternal City is a solo journaling game in which you play a character trying to track someone down through different versions of the same city. As the turns pass, based on your dice rolls, the city changes, and things happen around you. As the landscape of the chase shifts, the traces your quarry leaves behind determine how your character tracks down and, just maybe, catches up to them.”
“Two-Minute Warning is a narrative card game about the thrilling final moments of a championship football match. It is formatted as a sports magazine, and offers a unique blend of storytelling and card play.”
“Pale Dot is a GM-less narrative game about non-human cosmonauts embarking on a whimsical, surreal, and existential journey through their solar system. It’s inspired by Outer Wilds, No Man’s Sky, and Annihilation and has mechanical aspects derived from Fall of Magic and Dream Askew.”
“In This Mortal Coil, you play a space traveler-turned-necromancer on a quest to achieve eternal life by constructing a magical device known as an anchor. You’ll create undead thralls to do your bidding, gather energy to power your quest by harvesting living creatures, and master the forces of the Negaverse.”
“Play as Werewolves destroying the undead in this 2-Page Illuminated by Lumen game.”
“Coffee & Chaos is a comedic TTRPG where you can bring your existing characters from other games/stories/LARPS and play them as they spectacularly fail to run a catering establishment. Designed for short, single sessions with little setup, it works very well for filler sessions or ‘holiday episodes’.”
“Solve magic and supernatural crimes in Arcane Crimes Division, a buddy-cop fantasy tabletop roleplaying game. With a focus on action, the game system supports the players to develop the relationship between their detectives as they unravel mysteries, engage in thrilling chases, and confront scheming villains.”
“Four-hour shopping trip play sessions can be exhausting. Restful Actions is a collection of short minigames designed to streamline activities that players need to do, while offering the characters a chance to talk about recent plot events with each other. They’re designed to fit in any TTRPG and let the GM hand the narrative reins over to the players, so the players can resolve things they feel their characters need to resolve and the GM can focus on planning the next dragon attack.”
“A post-apocalyptic roleplaying game and spiritual successor to Gamma World, with a focus on dungeon- and hex-crawling, looting, and exploration into the mysterious Wastelands.”
“Tableau is a storytelling game system that emphasizes collaborative storytelling and character development. Tableau consists of a set of rules cards and a variety of story cards that establish themes, moods, settings, and character traits. Players use these cards to collaboratively create a story, with each scene focusing on a single question and building toward a satisfying cinematic narrative.”
“Wyrmlings is a cute, wholesome, all-ages TTRPG about young dragons going on adventures and overcoming challenges with friends. Designed to capture the feeling of cartoons like Steven Universe and My Little Pony, the adventures you’ll go on will vary from facing down an evil wizard to simply trying to find the best birthday present for a friend.”
“Memos and Monsters is light little game on itch.io about a fantasy apocalypse that was averted with a Wish spell... that turned the whole world into a (fantasy) office comedy.”
“Kiwi Acres is a fully fleshed-out campaign setting for Mausritter. The 78 pages include all the tools you need to create your own adventure—everything is designed to be easy to print at home on standard paper, or you can order the hardcover book that includes all of it.”
Currently Crowdfunding: Abbadon, Society of Rafa, Capers: Cyberpunk, Omen, Weeds in the Waste, Teatime Adventures, Traveler’s Guide to Factions, Feud, Slugblaster, The Hidden Isle
“Abbadon: The Thirteen Seals is a TTRPG of Dark Fantasy, Demons and the Hands of Fate, powered by a deck of playing cards.”
“In Society of Rafa, delve into the close-knit village of Kahal filled with eccentric scholars, nosy neighbors, and rambunctious spirits. You are a Rafa, a healer, charged with caring for the health of your community and keeping the peace with the local spirits. In this vibrant tabletop roleplaying game, solve complex moral dilemmas, bound only by your chosen healing skills and creativity.”
“Capers Cyberpunk is a super-powered RPG of cyberpunks fighting the megacorps in an alternate present day where every action is a bit of gamble.”
“Omen is the perfect ruleset for any kind of fantasy campaign, with a broad variety of rules covering exploration, conversation and combat equally. It forgoes conventional ideas of classes, races and morality, instead giving you the tools to craft the game you envision. A game should adjust to you, not the other way around.”
“Weeds in the Waste is a solo game about tending a garden in a post apocalyptic wasteland. It is a journaling game played season by season while the player (gardener) tends their garden and then reflects on the events of the season. It is a game about perseverance, survival, and hope in spite of hopelessness.”
“Teatime Adventures is a whimsical, cozy mystery roleplaying game set in the thriving and joyous world of the Verdant Isles, where every adventure comes with a recipe and a tea pairing. Play together or on your own. Now with cuddly Tea Pets!”
“The Traveler’s Guide to Factions is a lore-focused supplement designed for use in any campaign, any time period, and any game system that will provide nine fully developed, unique micro-societies to add depth to your world or backstory.”
“In Feud, a 60 page, system-neutral RPG adventure, players will take on the role of ordinary people—parents, children, siblings—in a low fantasy dark age setting. Players must use their skill and their will to survive as the blood-feud grows.”
“Slugblaster is an award-winning tabletop roleplaying game about hoverboards, giant bugs, and trying to be cool. We’re reprinting the game in a new deluxe hardcover Game of the Year Edition, complete with pizza box, dice set, and map playsheets!”
“The Hidden Isle is an RPG where Tarot cards replace dice. Set in an alternate 16th century on an island haven of magicians, adventurers, and free thinkers, the game focuses on roleplaying and collaborative storytelling, and uses Tarot to generate characters and scenarios.”
Actual Plays and Streams: Replay, Bella’s Comet, Heroes of the Hydian Way, Oathsworn, Bones and Story, Nature of My Game
“Dead Ghost Productions, the award-winning podcasting collective behind Kill Every Monster and Godsfall, have announced the first series in their new actual play venture: Replay.
“Replay will be a full, short-run series with a self-concluding story, following the events that take place during the night before a live reunion show of a popular TTRPG audio drama from 20 years prior. The series delves into the meta aspect of Die RPG, and asks why we play and write roleplaying games at all—and most of all, why we record and share them with others.”
“Bella’s Comet is a sci-fi cyberpunk story being played in the ARC: Doom system. Bella’s Comet hit the Earth 500 years ago. The comet contained all the needed components to send the planet into a technological superage. A city was even built in its crater to maximize access to its resources. Now, the comet is set to return and usher in a new age of prosperity. However, one scientist, after discovering an ancient book of prophecy, believes the comet will actually DESTROY the city. A rebel, an ex-cop, and a teacher now have to save the city and stave off the comet before time runs out on their beloved home.”
The podcast will be available on all major streaming platforms and is being hosted via Podcasters for Spotify. The season starts October 4.
“Four new co-workers are working for a mysterious organization trying to help people and answering distress calls in the Star Wars universe. The vibe is of a group discovering that they can rely on each other as well as the galaxy is darker than they’d ever feared or hoped. We use the Edge Studios Age of Rebellion system. The crew is just starting out and will be expanding from learning to work together to supporting all those around them.”
On all podcast streaming options at midnight every other Thursday. The first episode of this season arrived September 21; the next episode drops October 5.
“The gods are silent and our heroes are dead. Only we, the Consonant Legion, remain. Oathsworn is a queer, thoughtful Actual Play of Band of Blades, a game of grimdark military action. In the world of Tzel Sh’el, we face dead skies, fascist opportunists, and broken soldiers. Tense battles, hard-won friendship, absurd humor, and an original post-rock soundtrack. Join the players and their ensemble cast of characters for a desperate fight for survival.”
Every Tuesday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
“Bones and Story is an Actual Play podcast where four friends and their beleaguered GM play through narrative-first games, all while contending with crisis, drama, and a pair of dice that want all of them dead. In our inaugural season, we are playing Monster of the Week—an Actual Play classic that has a place in our keepers heart. Our focus is on chapters that are shorter and snappier, and Player Characters that are as vivid as they are flawed.”
Bones and Story is available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
“Nature of My Game is story-focused actual play of investigation, strangeness, and fear going into our ninth season. Our exciting news is that, starting with this upcoming season, we will be starting and exclusively playing Cassilda’s Song, the first full-length campaign for the Yellow King RPG published by Pelgrane Press and written by Robin D. Laws. Pelgrane and Robin have given us permission to use Cassilda’s Song well before it is releasing to the public.”
The first episode of season nine premiered September 20.
In Other News
A hugely popular toy line is entering the board game space with new release Snap Ships Tactics, which has been described as “Lego meets X-Wing.”
Dice Exploder, a mechanic-breakdown-of-the-week TTRPG design podcast, is Kickstarting its third season.
The award-winning Actual Play studio Midnight Ceremonies Media is looking for a Director of Communications.
TTRPG Creator Directory launches to support indie creator collaboration.
MCDM has just released Where Evil Lives: The MCDM Book of Boss Battles.
Fantasy Flight Games released Descent Act II: The Betrayer’s War, the sequel to Descent: Legends of the Dark. The expansion is available now in select retailers and the Asmodee store at an MSRP of $159.99.
Steamforged Games, in collaboration with Jagex, has officially announced the upcoming pre-order of its roleplaying and board game adaptations of RuneScape, Shadow of Elvarg.
A new game jam for the award-winning game This Discord Has Ghosts in It has now begun.
Free League Publishing has announced expansion Ad Astra for the award-winning post-apocalyptic tabletop RPG Mutant: Year Zero.
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Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
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