Cover art by Brennan Reece for Harlem Unbound, from Chaosium.

The virus continues to dominate the news, hitting conventions, crowdfunding campaigns and businesses. But we’re also seeing support coming from all over as gamers go online to stand together and play together. News is otherwise a little scant this week: a smattering of reports, a few new product launches, very few new crowdfunding campaigns. It…

Read More 23–29 March 2020: BRP SRD; Online Safety; Harlem Unbound

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The coronavirus pandemic continues, and we’re seeing it on all sides of the industry. On the one hand, we’ve seen livestreams shut down, Kickstarters cancelled, events postponed. On the other hand, we’re seeing many gamers turn to online platforms, and numerous publishers offering support to keep people playing. Still, there are a cautious number of…

Read More 16–22 March 2020: Weathering the Pandemic

Art from Free League's ALIEN RPG, by Martin Grip

Last week we talked game cancellations, this week it’s game… un-cancellations?! We learn the fate of Cubicle 7’s Middle-earth RPGs and Fantasy Flight’s RPGs as both are handed on to new publishers. Meanwhile, the Origin Awards nominations and ICv2’s Fall 2019 best-seller lists both launch, with Paizo’s Pathfinder and Free League’s Alien appearing on both.…

Read More 9–15 March 2020: Passing the Torch; ALIEN Ascending; Brontë RPGs

Cover art from the Tales From the Loop Starter Set from Free League Publishing

A happy belated GM’s Day, readers! Cancelled (or at least, indefinitely postponed) games are the headline today. Chaosium and Grim & Perilous have both found reason to cancel books, though in both cases there’s a promise that this is not the end. Virtual Tabletops get a look in: Roll20 has hit a whopping 5 million…

Read More 2–8 March 2020: Cancelled Projects; 5 Million on Roll20; Critical Role Munchkin

Art Simon Stålenhag from Free League's Tales from the Loop

Giant rats got into the d100 servers this week, but the Level 1 adventurers we sent to hunt them seem to have done the trick! Of course, they haven’t actually come back yet, and there are strange, mechanical groaning sounds coming from the stairs… Thank you for your patience with this Late Edition! The big…

Read More 24 February–1 March 2020: Tales from the Loop; DnD Gets Greekish

Art from Pixar's new animated feature, Onward, which features numerous references to Dungeons & Dragons

The news this week may not surprise you. Fantasy Flight Games will wind down development on all its RPG lines. FFG laid off the bulk of its RPG team last month, so this was a looming probability, but will be sad news to many fans. Meanwhile, Wizards of the Coast gives us the announcement we…

Read More 17–23 February 2020: End of Fantasy Flight RPGs; Kickstarter Unionises

Cover art for "Verminous", by The Black Dahlia Murder. Artist: Juanjo Castellano Rosado

Antisemitism; Coronavirus; Sex. Yyyeah, there’s some controversial stuff this week. Publishers have cut ties with Judges Guild, one of the most venerable names in the industry, after antisemitic & racist comments by the company’s owner came to light. Meanwhile, the effects of the coronavirus on the Chinese manufacturing industry touches the game world, as we…

Read More 10–16 February 2020: Antisemitism; Coronavirus; Sex

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Wow! This week is almost all crowdfunding! In the regular news, we have statistics charting the current and historical popularity of the top-selling RPGs; a look at the (confusing) history of the World of Darkness setting; the relationship between PbtA games and LGBT gamers; artpunk; Judge Dredd & community content. But this week, Zine Quest…

Read More 3–9 February 2020: Zine Quest 2; Most Popular RPGs

Archetype Entertainment

In this week’s news: how the US military could use RPGs to improve training; an incredible timeline showing the genealogy of RPGs from 1974 to 2019; an audiobook of a classic work of RPG history; content warnings; Firefly; starter sets; deceptive OSR; & some very cute animals. Support Us Want to help us keep this…

Read More 27 January–2 February 2020: Military Training; RPG Genealogy

Art from Dishonored by Arkane Studios

In this week’s news divisiveness is a key subject, as two stories showcase the ways in which our hobby is split. There is anger around the new Critical Role D&D sourcebook, and the divisions it shows in the D&D fandom. And then there is (somehow) controversy around Evil Hat’s claim that Lovecraft is racist. We…

Read More 21–26 January 2020: Our Birthday; Divisiveness; Sales