A 'Universal' Experience for Nerds

In This Edition

• Wizards of the Coast

• Major Publishers (Paizo and Co)

• Crowdfunding

• TTRPG Tech

• Indie Games

• Actual Play and Content Creators

• Universal Studios launches its Fan Fest Nights next year. The event is a separately ticketed after-hours event in the Hollywood version of the park. But what might excite D&D fans is the opportunity to visit the iconic Forgotten Realms city of Waterdeep! According to Universal Park News Today, attendees get a chance to save the city from Xanathar with the help of the Harpers. Will you have to roll dice to succeed? Will you get to flirt with Xanathar? Not many details are released, but it will be joined by other fandoms such as Star Trek or One Piece. Fan Fest is scheduled to go live between Apr. 25 and May 18, 2025.

• We all knew this was coming. Wargamer discovered a job listing describing a “product architect” whose job will involve “co-created releases featuring external IP.” In other words, it seems probable that future 5e products could include crossovers beyond just Magic the Gathering. It doesn’t tell us much about what those crossovers could include. They could be fantasy-themed content from other games or Hasbro product lines such as Transformers. It could also be someone handling the integration of third-party content like Kobold Press and Ghostfire Gaming, who have put third-party content on DnDBeyond to make content creation much more manageable. We don’t know. But it should surprise nobody that this is on the table.

• The ongoing hype for the Dungeon Master’s Guide continues with videos on magic items and crafting and the toolbox within.

• Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves was among the top 10 most-watched English-language movies between Sept. 30 and Oct. 6. This movie is honestly one of my favorites of the 2020s, and I am forever sad that it saw a poor box office turnout. But I’m glad it has a second life on Netflix.

• World of Darkness’ Month of Darkness continues with deals and new content. They released three one-shots for Werewolf, Hunter and Vampire on their platform if you’re inclined toward spooky content.

• Chaosium published Lands of Runequest: Dragon Pass. This book is a player and gamemaster expansion that offers new information about the Dragon Pass region for those who enjoy the Bronze Age fantasy of Glorantha.

• Chaosium launched Companions of Arthur, a new program with DriveThruRPG that allows creators and fans alike to generate their scenarios and content for the Arthurian TTRPG Pendragon.

• Paizo published Triumph of the Tusk, a free player’s guide for those interested in orcs from Golarian.

• Free League released new details about the updated version of Alien: the RPG, including the presence of planets and lore from the latest Alien movie, Alien: Romulus. The new version of the Alien RPG will be released on Kickstarter later this fall.

• Titmouse, the animators behind shows like Big Mouth and Legends of Vox Machina has entered the TTRPG space! Drunkards, Druggies and Delinquents is a new crowdfunding campaign published by Luke Gygax and Adventure Time’s Pendleton Ward. It’s an RPG where “You lose if you’re too f*cked up to keep playing.” The art is classic 80s drug culture, and the classes are all drink puns. I’ve no doubt somebody will find this delightful. I’m too much of a lightweight to last long in such a game, however.

• The Discworld TTRPG book cover, which will be available on Kickstarter this month, is out, and it looks as bonkers as I’d hope a Terry Pratchett-inspired game would be.

TTRPG Technology

Faes AR, software that allows online users to wear digitally-generated costumes while on a Zoom call, canceled its Kickstarter campaign to “reset, regroup, learn, and improve” after struggling to reach the necessary funding it had requested. Faes is still available but is working with various creators to improve the product before round two.

Cyberpunk Red, R.Talsorian’s futuristic urban setting, has officially come to Demiplane Nexus. I’ve always been a big believer that making content easy to use and access on platforms like DnDBeyond and Demiplane is integral to getting more folks to play games, and this is a solid step forward.

Indie Content to Watch

• Paint the Town Red, a “sad, gay vampire RPG,” is being published by SoulMuppet Publishing on Backerkit this week. Based on the gaming systems of Orbital Blues and Best Left Buried, the game seems to be less about personal horror or politics, ala Vampire: the Masquerade, and more about what it’s like to exist as an immortal.

• Wild Mage Press published the first issue of its quarterly TTRPG magazine Horizons this week. It’s designed primarily to provide material for 5e and Pathfinder, but so far, it has some lovely art.

Actual Play and Content Creation

Fool’s Gold, an animated DnD series on Youtube that has sparked a massively successful Kickstarter and a podcast, is coming to comic book form. Jenna Woldenga, aka Dingo Doodles, and her partner Felix Irnich have converted their first series of adventures (most notably those involving karaoke and a tarrasque) into a comic book. The book won’t come out until summer 2025, but I’m already excited. If the McElroys can have their comic book based on The Adventure Zone, Dingo can have her own based on her YouTube series. (Thursday evening update. The book went as high as #2 on the Barnes and Noble bestseller list. So she clearly has the fanbase to back her up.

Episodes 4-6 of Season 3 of Legends of Vox Machina are out this weekend on Amazon Prime.

The Good Time Society, a tabletop and board game-focused media company owned and operated by Becca Scott, released the first episode in its series of Blood on the Clocktower, a murder-focused social deduction game. Brennan Lee Mulligan, Aabria Iyengar and an assortment of other comedians were featured in this first episode. The company also intends to run a Kickstarter to raise funds for a “highly produced in-person playthrough” later this month.