Oct. 8: The Legends of Gryla?

Also a sneak preview of Project Sigil's alpha

Author

Christopher Hutton
October 08, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

Legends of Avantris takes over Twitter, dungeon crawlers join the dictionary, and a sneak peek at Project Sigil—all that and more in the Oct. 8 issue of Critical Hit News.

The internet went a little bonkers when Warner Bros’ UK account promoted the upcoming Dwayne Johnson/Chris Evans movie Red One with a poster of Kiernan Shipka, who is playing a character named Gryla. Fans of Legends of Avantris (aka that Actual Play with Chuckles the Clown) decided to respond by posting a ton of references to an old clip from a holiday special where Nikkie the DM mentioned a villain named Gryla, and the players grabbed onto the gag so fast. It’s a universal experience for all DMs, I’m afraid.

The reference makes sense, as Gryla is an ogress who eats bad children in Icelandic lore. But who knew that the Avantris fan community would jump all over it?

I imagine an intern or social media manager at Warner Bros is very confused right now.

Project Sigil: Does it hold up?

I was one of a few alpha testers who got early access to Wizards of the Coast’s new VTT, Project Sigil. There’s not a lot that can be said due to the developer limiting the sharing of visual footage of the program. What I can say so far, based on about 1-2 hours of gameplay, is that it currently has a prewritten module and limited homebrewing options. The system appears intuitive to use and play with, and it does an excellent job of channeling the feeling of playing with miniatures better than other VTTs I’ve tested so far.

Several questions still need to be answered about Project Sigil and how it fits into the ecosystem before we can fully evaluate it, however. How easy is homebrewing content? What’s the business model? How reliable will the software be? How does my previously purchased content fit into the system? There’s still so much we don’t know.

News You May Have Missed….

The term “Dungeon Crawler” is now canon, according to EN World. Merriam-Webster added the word to the dictionary, defining it as “a video game where the gameplay is primarily focused on defeating enemies while exploring a usually randomly generated labyrinthine or dungeon-like environment." Considering the term’s origin in old-school D&D runs, it's an exciting addition.

Game designers rejoice! Your work is about to be more recognized. The Tabletop Game Designers Association convinced Barnes and Noble to list the names of game designers in the same way they do authors. Fans can now search for their favorite designers (based on the BoardGameGeek database) to find their favorite games and purchase them. I suspect this will be a very niche practice and won’t affect most users. But I do think it’s a sweet and reasonable gesture.

Guides and Recommendations

The Shadowdark RPG, which won major awards in the Ennies this year, continues to make waves. The book’s publisher, Kelly Dionne, released a pair of one-shots for free via their newsletter this week. The first is a snake temple with “an undead twist",” while the second is “a fantasy sci-fi pyramid where the characters confront a demonic "collector" who has them in his sights.” If you want an alternative to 5.5e with some roots in old-school D&D, Shadowdark is a lovely option.

If you’re a fan of Call of Cthulhu, then you know that there is an art to creating scenarios and stories for this historic Lovecraftian approach to horror and investigation. There’s no better person to learn how to write your own campaigns than Chaosium Creative Director Mike Mason, who posted the recording of his lecture on the topic at Chaosium Con Australia to YouTube.

What are your thoughts on Project Sigil? What do you want to know most about Wizards of the Coast’s upcoming VTT? Let me know!