Digest #013: A Moon Beaming on Kobolds

New Leadership at Wizards of the Coast? A Professional Kobold? A Twitch Alternative? All that and more in this week’s news digest!

I’m trying something new for the next few weeks. Every Tuesday/Wednesday, I’m going to try to have either an interview, review or some other feature penned by yours truly up. Then, on the weekends, we’ll digest all the news stories you missed. If you want to see all the news

I’m currently in the process of a move, so I apologize for any disruptions. I’m also going to be at GenCon next week! I'm very excited, as it is my first time. But I have several interviews scheduled, and I hope to meet others while I’m there. If you want to meet up or discuss the cool project you’re working on, please email me or DM me on Twitter/X.

As for some reading material, take a look at the following. First up, I published a short explainer on John Hight, the new CEO of Wizards of the Coast and what he might mean for Dungeons and Dragons. He’s a video game veteran and will bring that to the company. There’s also a lot we don’t know about his views on the future of Dungeons and Dragons, questions that I hope we can answer soon.

I interviewed the team at Moonbeam, an intriguing new startup that intends to compete with Twitch by paying creators more, offering better content moderation, and hosting a solid community.

And I interviewed the Kobold DM, a professional DM and Youtuber in our first Crit Hit Interview.

Is there anyone you want to see interviewed? Any projects you’re hyped for? Let me know!

THIS WEEK IN TTRPGS:

• With GenCon approaching, expect a TON of news to hit your feed very soon. One of the significant developments at the con so far is Wizards of the Coast's plan to offer limited copies of the 2024 Player’s Handbook at the event. Expect to fight a lot of people for a copy.

• The Neopets RPG launched on Kickstarter and has raised more than $100k so far. But not all is right Rascal’s Lin Codega notes, it’s not really offering much in the way of mechanics or details about how to play. She doesn’t think it’s a scam, but the practice is a bit iffy.

• Someone released a fascinating analysis of how TTRPGs did on Kickstarter and Backerkit in the first half of 2024. The MCDM RPG was the top-funded TTRPG crowdfunded project so far this year, followed by Adventure Time the RPG.

• Runequest released a character generator to help players wade through the rules and text to make their fantasy character for exploring Glorantha.

• Paizo experienced some internal changes in its leadership. Pathfinder creator Jason Bulmahn is now Paizo's Director of Games, while Michael J. Sayre is Director of Rules and Lore. I don't know enough to say if these changes will affect most players, but it’s worth noting at least.

• Paizo updated its licensing policies around Pathfinder and Starfinder. From what I understand, the changes will allow more people to create and sell merchandise with the Pathfinder tag attached as long as they made the product.

• Polygon published a preview of the Stormlight RPG’s ruleset, which details more about how the game will differ from other fantasy games.

• One More Multiverse, a VTT that uses a pixelated 2D design, has resurrected itself after shutting down last month. The company is now operating via Patreon.

Publisher Announcements

1. Renegade Studios, the publisher of Vampire the Masquerade, is reprinting Revelations of the Dark Mother, a collection of sacred texts from the World of Darkness related to vampires. I am quite curious about the text itself, as I’m personally diving more into WoD content more and more.

2. Modiphius announced they’re launching a TTRPG based on Space 1999, an old UK-based science fiction television show. The aesthetics remind me of Thunderbirds and seems pretty neat.

3. Chaosium plans to launch The Price of Arrogance, the first major official campaign for its pirate-themed RPG 7th Sea. Described as “Indiana Jones meets Pirates of the Caribbean,” the campaign will launch during GenCon and is expected to be available for sale in 2025.

4. We FINALLY have a release date for the Final Fantasy 14 player’s handbook. The game will go to retail in late Feb. 2025.

5. Nimble 5e, a proposed alternative to standard 5e combat rules, is raising funds on Backerkit. It’s the latest product I’ve seen trying to ‘fix’ Fifth Edition. I need to actually try Nimble before I can speak on it, but I am legitimately curious about what portion of the player base is looking for something like this.

Deals and Bundles

• It’s Christmas in July. If you're inclined, DrivethruRPG is hosting a MASSIVE sale on a bunch of TTRPG PDFs. Roll20 is doing the same.

• Stars Without Number is available as a massive bundle on Bundle of Holding this week. The game, which adopts an enormous sci-fi setting, is pretty complicated but worth a look if you have time.

• If you like 3D printing and D&D, Humble Bundle has a bundle of STL files for miniatures and environmental tokens.

• MIT Press also released its All About Gaming bundle, a small collection of books about game design and the history of D&D. Jon Peterson wrote two of the more notable books about TTRPG history in this bundle.

• Cubicle 7, the publisher of the current Warhammer RPG books, has all of them on sale for 25% off.