Nov. 12: Beam Me Up to the Mothership

Welcome to the Nov. 12 edition of Critical Hit News. In this issue, the record-breaking sci-fi TTRPG Mothership gets its own month, Canadians are finally able to visit Waterdeep and questions are slowly arising around how President-Elect Donald Trump’s tariffs will affect TTRPGs and Kickstarter campaigns in the future.

News You May Have Missed….

Mothership, the horror/sci-fi TTRPG is running a month-long event on Backerkit to get 21 unique additions for the book funded. As of Tuesday night, they’ve raised more than $400,000 and have funded almost all of the projects. It’s a significant gesture showing the interest in this indie sci-fi game.

Canadian D&D fans rejoice. The “Immersive Quest,” a VR experience, will launch in Canada next month. According to EN World, this hour-long experience will set players on a "quest to recover a powerful magic gem from the clutches of a villainous dragon. " It will reportedly be based in Waterdeep. It sounds similar to the live experience that Universal Studios will get next year, but it's hard to compare them without getting hands-on.

DnDBeyond’s map tool, a 2D mapping software separate from Project Sigil, is finally in public beta. The new VTT offers dice, maps and monsters integrated from DnDBeyond’s database. It’s not as flashy as Foundry or ambient as Alchemy, but it’s an option for players who don’t want to use Roll20.

Moonbeam, a TTRPG-focused Twitch alternative I covered in July, intends to launch its Alpha in Dec. 2024. This is a first and hopefully significant step for the company as it gives them a chance to show off what their product (which has several very impressive proposals attached to it) can do and if they can create the community that its backers believe it can.

The D&D Dungeon Master’s Guide is now available to everyone if you’ve not bought it yet.

Rowan Zeoli (writing at Polygon) details how Trump’s proposed tariffs on Chinese products could backfire and seriously harm the board game and TTRPG industry. Most economists and analysts agree this methodology is going to hurt Americans more than help them as they’ll place pressure upon a still-struggling supply chain, and I know that a lot of Kickstarters and publishers have already had delayed publishing dates because of these price changes. It’s fair to suspect that if and when these policies pass, they will not be good for your favorite upcoming game.