Dec. 18: Fortold

One of the leading audio production companies for TTRPGs and board games sat down and talked process, technology and AI.

Author

Christopher Hutton
December 18, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

Welcome to the Dec. 18. issue of Critical Hit News! A closer look at a company dedicated to audio immersion in board games, and Artificer finally gets an update.

Forteller’s Audio Immersial

I wrote up a few pieces I’d point your attention toward in the last week or so since PAX Unplugged. I previewed the Arkham Horror TTRPG and all of its mechanics. I also sat down with Forteller Games, a creator of “audio immersion,” to discuss their latest projects and what they’re adding to the board game and TTRPG space.

For example, I got to ask Forteller owner Thomas St. Pierre about what their process of working with other companies, such as Gloomhaven creator Cepholofair, is like:

 We work closely with the designers. For example, when someone reads a name in a book, we know how to pronounce it because we get a pronunciation guide from them. We ensure they get the final say on whether it meets their vision. We also work primarily with independent creators.

For example, Gloomhaven designer Isaac Childres cares much about his stuff, as he should. So, being part of that process helped him get that comfort level there, like in we do this with everybody, but it proved it was the right approach because, at the end of the day, it got their stamp of approval. But we get to capture that vision and share it with everybody. And now everybody gets to listen to a little piece of his brain.

It’s also helped others to get into these sorts of games. The COO of Cepholofair Games said that he kept trying to get his wife to play Gloomhaven and she never would. We sent him a demo of our narration for that game and he played it at the table with his wife and it hooked her into playing Gloomhaven.

We also chatted with them about AI, the editing process, future projects and a ton more. You can read the full piece over at The Fandomentals.

News You May Have Missed….

DnDBeyond has an Unearthed Arcana for the updated Artificer class, implying that they do intend to update this class to match 2024 D&D here in the near term. It’s the first UA since 2024’s release.

Helldivers II , a video game that’s surprised everyone this year and features citizens fighting off aliens, bugs and robots for “Democracy,” was reportedly inspired by Free League’s dungeon crawler Dragonbane. Not two things I expected to be connected, but I’m here for it.

Kobold Press’ Wolfgang Baur published his “State of Play,” an annual report on the state of the company. Baur confirmed that the company had a fairly successful financial year, but that it realized the risk that President-Elect Trump’s China tariffs could have on his products and was seeking means to avoid the excess costs. He also said that Kobold intended to try making something “entirely new” besides 5e content and its 5e-alternative Tales of the Valiant. What that means remains to be seen.

The Griffon’s Saddlebag, a third-party supplement for 5e content, had its second volume added to DnDBeyond. This includes more than 500 items, 12 new subclasses and two new races.

Just a heads up. We’ll likely have one more issue this weekend and will take Christmas week off to focus on family and preparing for 2025. I’m hoping to expand some operations with this lovely project in the next year.