Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news. New Unearthed Arcana for D&D, Baldur’s Gate III release date pushed back, Hellboy RPG, accusations levied against Onyx Path, big names join Alexa’s Starfinder app, and more!
Don’t forget, you can hear all the week’s gaming news with Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk! This week, Morrus and Peter are joined by Joshua Mendenhall to talk about his new 5e campaign setting The Islands of Sina Una based on Filipino myths and legends.
In case you missed it elsewhere on EN World this week:
Wizards of the Coast released the newest Unearthed Arcana, the fourth part in a series of new subclasses for Dungeons & Dragons 5e. The first of the new subclasses is the College of Spirits for the bard, which is all about learning stories right from the source…even if the source hasn’t been around for centuries. The College of Spirits contacts spirits in order to learn stories and truths about the world and to receive guidance. The core of these new abilities is the Tales from Beyond power, which allows the bard to channel a story from their spirits from a random table and bestow a benefit related to the story to themselves or an ally. The other new subclass is the Otherworldly Patron for the Warlock, gaining powers from a powerful undead patron. Yes, Acererak, Azalin, Strahd, and Lord Soth are all mentioned as possible patrons. The new abilities include many necromancy-based spells, a form that gives you undead-like powers of fear, the ability to explode yourself when you’re reduced to 0 hit points and immediately reform at 1 hit point, and project your spirit outside your body. I’d wonder why they released this now until closer to October, but here in the United States stores are already stocking Halloween candy and decorations so I guess it’s timely.
The Orr Group released their user statistic reports for Roll20 for the second quarter of 2020. While the tables only list percentages, the blog post says that the across-the-board growth from the first quarter of 2020 continued into the second quarter. D&D 5e has regained a sliver of market share, going from 50.4% to 53% in the second quarter, Call of Cthulhu has dropped a bit from 12.15% in the first quarter to 8.46% in the second, and Pathfinder has stayed steady with a slight shift in favor of Second Edition over First Edition. Systems experiencing the largest growth in the second quarter are Cyberpunk Red, Tormenta, City of Mist, Year Zero Engine, and Tales from the Loop all more than doubling their user percentages. It’s important to note that these statistics only show a percentage of games from Roll20 and do not indicate growth in the number of campaigns played, so while Call of Cthulhu or Star Wars may show a percentage drop on the list, they may very well have still grown in the total number of users as their growth simply lagged behind that of other systems.
The early access release of Baldur’s Gate III has been delayed. While disappointing, we can’t say that Larian Studios didn’t warn us as when they announced early access was scheduled for August that they weren’t promising that as a firm date and that issues beyond their control may delay the release. However, a release date for the early access has been set and will be announced during a live stream, promising “special guests, and a lot more”. You can watch the live stream on Larian Studio’s Twitch channel on August 18 at 10:00 AM Pacific Time (1:00 PM Eastern, 6:00 PM BST).
The Mike Mignola comic Hellboy is coming to 5e thanks to Mantic Games and Red Scar Publishing. Players will take on the role of B.P.R.D. (Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense) and battle the forces of evil. The game is coming to Kickstarter this summer with the simultaneous release of a Quickstart featuring six pre-generated characters, rules, and an original adventure inspired by the graphic novels so you can get a taste of the rules before you back. Marc Langworthy is leading the design of the game, who has previously worked on Mutant Chronicles 3rd Edition, Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of, and of course Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD from EN Publishing. This is the second time Hellboy and the BPRD have made it to tabletops after the 2002 sourcebook for GURPS from Steve Jackson Games. You can sign up for notifications when the Kickstarter goes live on the project page.
Onyx Path faces accusations of racism, blacklisting, and retaliation from one of their freelancers. In an open letter, Khaldoun Khelil, a freelance game designer who has worked on Vampire: The Masquerade and other World of Darkness products, claims that Onyx Path employee Matt McElroy disparaged him to developers at Modiphius by stating that he was “a problem” and that McElroy blacklisted Khelil from working for Onyx Path because Khelil “s***ed on them [Onyx Path] on social media”. Khelil says he was informed of the conversation, which happened during a meeting at a convention, by a Modiphius developer who was at the meeting. Khelil makes further allegations of retaliations and cover-ups from Onyx Path staff members including Matt Dawkins against both himself and against Modiphius. He claims Dawkins lied to him about the conversation and blacklisting and that Dawkins later refused to work with Modiphius on a blog post in retaliation for informing Khelil of the conversation (it is unclear if this is the Onyx Path blog or Dawkin’s personal outlet at The Gentlemen Gamer). The accusation further states Dawkins said it was the developer’s fault personally for not keeping silent about the conversation and threatened the designer could be fired if Dawkins told his boss he was the “whistleblower”.
Onyx Path founder Rich Thomas responded to the allegations on the Onyx Path forums by posting the findings of their Human Resources consultant, who concluded “the concerns raised by Khaldoun did not have actionable resolutions that Onyx Path could reasonably explore, and that Onyx Path’s part in the complaint was closed”. Thomas stated that the social media post in question was about former Onyx Path employee Matt McFarland (not Matt McElroy) after accusations of McFarland grooming and sexually assaulting an underage girl came to light, further saying “McElroy believes this comment, made in 2019, a few weeks prior to the Expo, is the one he learned about that made him upset when Khaldoun's name was mentioned at the meeting.” The HR investigation claims that the discussions between McElroy and the Modiphius developer took place outside of the official meeting at the convention and therefore Onyx Path is not responsible for what was said.
Thomas states that McElroy and Dawkins have made personal, private apologies to Khelil. Khelil said on a temporarily-closed RPG.net thread that the statements given by the two were not apologies but rather defenses of their actions, and they were not public apologies as requested, stating “Rich can't claim credit for apologies that no one can see. He can't claim credit for an HR process that failed to address my minimum grievances. He can't say the issue is personal and has nothing to do with Onyx Path when both Matts are highly placed members in his organization in charge of hiring and marketing decisions.”
The Starfinder app for Alexa now contains the first three episodes of the Dead Suns Adventure Path and features a couple of voices you will likely recognize. Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Castle) joins the cast as Garvin, while Laura Bailey (Critical Role, The Last of Us Part II) plays Clara-247 along with eleven other voice actors. Episodes are available through Amazon Alexa and can be accessed by an Alexa-enabled device or by the Alexa app available for Android and iPhone devices. The pilot, “Scoundrels in the Spike”, is available for free and takes about 30 minutes to play, while the first three episodes take about 90 minutes and are available for $1.99 each. The final three episodes will be available this October at $1.99 each, or you can purchase all six for $9.99 now. All episodes are currently available in the United States and United Kingdom with “Canada and more expected soon”, while the pilot is available in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia.
Fantasy Flight Games announced a new sourcebook and adventure release for Legend of the Five Rings. Fields of Victory presents new gameplay and character-building options focused on warfare on a grand scale along with new equipment, schools, titles, techniques, and more and the introduction of the Badger Clan. And you can put all these new toys to the test in the adventure Blood of the Lioness, which takes the party from the iconic Akodo War College to the heated battlefield on the Snow Plain as you seek to protect the peace of Rokugan or plunge it into chaotic war. Fields of Victory has a MSRP of $39.95 while Blood of the Lioness is $19.95 with both products scheduled for an early 2021 release.
The Star Trek Adventures bundle from Modiphius and Humble Bundle is still going strong. There are three tiers perfect for how much you want to jump into the game. The $1 tier features the character sheets for both the Next Generation and The Original Series crews along with the Starter Set if you want to try it out. The $8 tier opens up the game more with the Core Rulebook, Beta Quadrant Supplement featuring the Romulan Empire and Klingon Empire, four stand-alone adventures, and the adventure compilation These Are the Voyages (plus a Star Trek Online exclusive uniform unlock and a 50% off coupon for the core rulebook in print). The top-tier $15 level includes the expansion sourcebooks for the Operations, Command, and Sciences divisions, the Alpha Quadrant Supplement covering the Cardassian Empire, Bajor, the Ferengi, and more, both the Deep Space Nine and Voyager crew character pre-gens, two sets of map tiles, five stand-alone adventures, and the second adventure anthology Strange New Worlds. And for those wanting the Enterprise crew under Captain Archer, that was just released this week as a 16-page PDF for $4.99 (and so unfortunately isn’t included in this bundle). This bundle benefits the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and runs until Wednesday, August 19.
It seems like not that long ago I was talking about Gangs of the Undercity when it launched, but time flies and this cyberpunk-meets-urban-fantasy miniature skirmish game is in its final days. While the corporations may rule the glittering city above, the forgotten undercity is where those who are rejected or refuse to live under the choking grip of the system end up, fighting for control of neighborhoods in a futuristic cityscape crumbling from neglect. For $65, you get two gangs (the elven Valkyrs and the out-of-control Flaming Skulls) with six metal minis each plus rulebook and tokens, while for $110 you can upgrade to a full-hardcover rulebook, and $130 for more tokens and custom dice. There are also multiple add-ons for more miniatures unlocked via stretch goals including pets, terrain, and more gangs. This Kickstarter is fully funded (and I’ve personally backed it) and has until Saturday, August 15 to unlock more cute pets. And gang members too. I guess they’re important.
I’ve also talked about Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall as well but it deserves mentioning again. The game places you in the roles of a family of Chinese immigrants attempting to make their way in 1920s Chinatown running a family restaurant while also preparing to protect your neighborhood from the Jiangshi, soul-stealing hopping vampires of Chinese lore. It’s a difficult task protecting your clients and restaurant while still making sure the kitchen stays clean and dinner service goes off without problems, especially since the jiangshi can drain you of your skills and memories and everything else that makes you who you are. A print and play version is available for a $20 pledge, while the boxed set is available for $65 and a deluxe edition for $90. This project is fully funded and runs until Thursday, August 13.
That’s all from me for this week! Don’t forget to support our Patreon to bring you more gaming news content. If you have any news to submit, email us at news@enworldnews.com, and you can get more discussion of the week’s news on Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk every week. You can follow me on Twitch in case I can get my streaming setup to work, subscribe to Gamer’s Tavern on YouTube for videos on gaming history, RPG reviews, and gaming Let’s Plays, or you can listen to the archives of the Gamer’s Tavern podcast. Until next time, may all your hits be crits! Note: Links to Amazon, Humble Store, Humble Bundle, and/or DriveThru may contain affiliate links with the proceeds going to the author of this column.
Don’t forget, you can hear all the week’s gaming news with Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk! This week, Morrus and Peter are joined by Joshua Mendenhall to talk about his new 5e campaign setting The Islands of Sina Una based on Filipino myths and legends.
In case you missed it elsewhere on EN World this week:
- EN5ider #345 has the sequel to the “Fungal Bums” adventure called “The Pallid Piper”, where the titular pale human has brought with him the dastardly mushrooms to the party’s home base! You can get access to this and more than 300 more 5e compatible adventures, classes, magic items, and more plus new entries every week for just $1 a month by backing the EN5ider Patreon.
- EN Publishing announced a new Kickstarter coming soon, 65 Enchanted Trinkets for 5th Edition, a collection of five PDFs each featuring a short collection of low-powered magic items to enhance your world and add a bit more magic, coming this September!
- The ENnie Award winners for 2020 were announced at a live stream ceremony as part of Gen Con Online this past weekend.
- Paizo announced a new sourcebook Secrets of Magic coming in 2021 for Pathfinder 2nd Edition which will feature two new classes, the Magus and the Summoner with a playtest coming this September.
- Edge Entertainment (the subsidiary of Asmodee which is taking over Fantasy Flight’s RPG production) announced the revival of the 3rd Edition campaign setting Midnight: Legacy of Darkness with the premise of “what if Sauron won?”.
- Artist Marco Bernardi released his art from the new Eberron book Exploring Eberron with a high-resolution image of the Map of the Planes.
- Egg Embry interviewed the English language line developer of The Dark Eye, Tajo Fittkau, about the crowdfunding project for the newest sourcebook, Gods of Aventuria, and the future of The Dark Eye in English.
- Ben Reece has a preview of the Player’s Guide for the new city watch-themed adventure path for Pathfinder 2nd Edition, Agents of Edgewatch.
- Artist Wayne Reynolds shared the cover art for the Bestiary 3 coming for Pathfinder 2nd Edition next year.
- Matt Colville announced a new online magazine for Dungeons & Dragons called Arcadia with Colville serving as editor and Rich Lescouflair (Esper Genesis) announced as a contributor.
- Michael Tresca goes in-depth on the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons Adventures Begin board game and the history of tabletop board game adaptations of D&D.
- Lewis Pulsipher’s newest Worlds of Design examines the classic mega-dungeon and how to bring the concept into the modern age of gaming.
- Modiphius released a new character sheet for Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of that is a work of art unto itself.
- Mike Myler brings us another entry in the Epic Monsters series, this time the mercurial always-grinning “guide” of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the Cheshire Cat.
- Egg Embry has scryed into the depths of all the crowdfunding sites on the internet to find the RPG projects ending soon with this week’s RPG Crowdfunding News.
Wizards of the Coast released the newest Unearthed Arcana, the fourth part in a series of new subclasses for Dungeons & Dragons 5e. The first of the new subclasses is the College of Spirits for the bard, which is all about learning stories right from the source…even if the source hasn’t been around for centuries. The College of Spirits contacts spirits in order to learn stories and truths about the world and to receive guidance. The core of these new abilities is the Tales from Beyond power, which allows the bard to channel a story from their spirits from a random table and bestow a benefit related to the story to themselves or an ally. The other new subclass is the Otherworldly Patron for the Warlock, gaining powers from a powerful undead patron. Yes, Acererak, Azalin, Strahd, and Lord Soth are all mentioned as possible patrons. The new abilities include many necromancy-based spells, a form that gives you undead-like powers of fear, the ability to explode yourself when you’re reduced to 0 hit points and immediately reform at 1 hit point, and project your spirit outside your body. I’d wonder why they released this now until closer to October, but here in the United States stores are already stocking Halloween candy and decorations so I guess it’s timely.
The Orr Group released their user statistic reports for Roll20 for the second quarter of 2020. While the tables only list percentages, the blog post says that the across-the-board growth from the first quarter of 2020 continued into the second quarter. D&D 5e has regained a sliver of market share, going from 50.4% to 53% in the second quarter, Call of Cthulhu has dropped a bit from 12.15% in the first quarter to 8.46% in the second, and Pathfinder has stayed steady with a slight shift in favor of Second Edition over First Edition. Systems experiencing the largest growth in the second quarter are Cyberpunk Red, Tormenta, City of Mist, Year Zero Engine, and Tales from the Loop all more than doubling their user percentages. It’s important to note that these statistics only show a percentage of games from Roll20 and do not indicate growth in the number of campaigns played, so while Call of Cthulhu or Star Wars may show a percentage drop on the list, they may very well have still grown in the total number of users as their growth simply lagged behind that of other systems.
The early access release of Baldur’s Gate III has been delayed. While disappointing, we can’t say that Larian Studios didn’t warn us as when they announced early access was scheduled for August that they weren’t promising that as a firm date and that issues beyond their control may delay the release. However, a release date for the early access has been set and will be announced during a live stream, promising “special guests, and a lot more”. You can watch the live stream on Larian Studio’s Twitch channel on August 18 at 10:00 AM Pacific Time (1:00 PM Eastern, 6:00 PM BST).
The Mike Mignola comic Hellboy is coming to 5e thanks to Mantic Games and Red Scar Publishing. Players will take on the role of B.P.R.D. (Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense) and battle the forces of evil. The game is coming to Kickstarter this summer with the simultaneous release of a Quickstart featuring six pre-generated characters, rules, and an original adventure inspired by the graphic novels so you can get a taste of the rules before you back. Marc Langworthy is leading the design of the game, who has previously worked on Mutant Chronicles 3rd Edition, Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of, and of course Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD from EN Publishing. This is the second time Hellboy and the BPRD have made it to tabletops after the 2002 sourcebook for GURPS from Steve Jackson Games. You can sign up for notifications when the Kickstarter goes live on the project page.
Onyx Path faces accusations of racism, blacklisting, and retaliation from one of their freelancers. In an open letter, Khaldoun Khelil, a freelance game designer who has worked on Vampire: The Masquerade and other World of Darkness products, claims that Onyx Path employee Matt McElroy disparaged him to developers at Modiphius by stating that he was “a problem” and that McElroy blacklisted Khelil from working for Onyx Path because Khelil “s***ed on them [Onyx Path] on social media”. Khelil says he was informed of the conversation, which happened during a meeting at a convention, by a Modiphius developer who was at the meeting. Khelil makes further allegations of retaliations and cover-ups from Onyx Path staff members including Matt Dawkins against both himself and against Modiphius. He claims Dawkins lied to him about the conversation and blacklisting and that Dawkins later refused to work with Modiphius on a blog post in retaliation for informing Khelil of the conversation (it is unclear if this is the Onyx Path blog or Dawkin’s personal outlet at The Gentlemen Gamer). The accusation further states Dawkins said it was the developer’s fault personally for not keeping silent about the conversation and threatened the designer could be fired if Dawkins told his boss he was the “whistleblower”.
Onyx Path founder Rich Thomas responded to the allegations on the Onyx Path forums by posting the findings of their Human Resources consultant, who concluded “the concerns raised by Khaldoun did not have actionable resolutions that Onyx Path could reasonably explore, and that Onyx Path’s part in the complaint was closed”. Thomas stated that the social media post in question was about former Onyx Path employee Matt McFarland (not Matt McElroy) after accusations of McFarland grooming and sexually assaulting an underage girl came to light, further saying “McElroy believes this comment, made in 2019, a few weeks prior to the Expo, is the one he learned about that made him upset when Khaldoun's name was mentioned at the meeting.” The HR investigation claims that the discussions between McElroy and the Modiphius developer took place outside of the official meeting at the convention and therefore Onyx Path is not responsible for what was said.
Thomas states that McElroy and Dawkins have made personal, private apologies to Khelil. Khelil said on a temporarily-closed RPG.net thread that the statements given by the two were not apologies but rather defenses of their actions, and they were not public apologies as requested, stating “Rich can't claim credit for apologies that no one can see. He can't claim credit for an HR process that failed to address my minimum grievances. He can't say the issue is personal and has nothing to do with Onyx Path when both Matts are highly placed members in his organization in charge of hiring and marketing decisions.”
The Starfinder app for Alexa now contains the first three episodes of the Dead Suns Adventure Path and features a couple of voices you will likely recognize. Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Castle) joins the cast as Garvin, while Laura Bailey (Critical Role, The Last of Us Part II) plays Clara-247 along with eleven other voice actors. Episodes are available through Amazon Alexa and can be accessed by an Alexa-enabled device or by the Alexa app available for Android and iPhone devices. The pilot, “Scoundrels in the Spike”, is available for free and takes about 30 minutes to play, while the first three episodes take about 90 minutes and are available for $1.99 each. The final three episodes will be available this October at $1.99 each, or you can purchase all six for $9.99 now. All episodes are currently available in the United States and United Kingdom with “Canada and more expected soon”, while the pilot is available in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia.
Fantasy Flight Games announced a new sourcebook and adventure release for Legend of the Five Rings. Fields of Victory presents new gameplay and character-building options focused on warfare on a grand scale along with new equipment, schools, titles, techniques, and more and the introduction of the Badger Clan. And you can put all these new toys to the test in the adventure Blood of the Lioness, which takes the party from the iconic Akodo War College to the heated battlefield on the Snow Plain as you seek to protect the peace of Rokugan or plunge it into chaotic war. Fields of Victory has a MSRP of $39.95 while Blood of the Lioness is $19.95 with both products scheduled for an early 2021 release.
The Star Trek Adventures bundle from Modiphius and Humble Bundle is still going strong. There are three tiers perfect for how much you want to jump into the game. The $1 tier features the character sheets for both the Next Generation and The Original Series crews along with the Starter Set if you want to try it out. The $8 tier opens up the game more with the Core Rulebook, Beta Quadrant Supplement featuring the Romulan Empire and Klingon Empire, four stand-alone adventures, and the adventure compilation These Are the Voyages (plus a Star Trek Online exclusive uniform unlock and a 50% off coupon for the core rulebook in print). The top-tier $15 level includes the expansion sourcebooks for the Operations, Command, and Sciences divisions, the Alpha Quadrant Supplement covering the Cardassian Empire, Bajor, the Ferengi, and more, both the Deep Space Nine and Voyager crew character pre-gens, two sets of map tiles, five stand-alone adventures, and the second adventure anthology Strange New Worlds. And for those wanting the Enterprise crew under Captain Archer, that was just released this week as a 16-page PDF for $4.99 (and so unfortunately isn’t included in this bundle). This bundle benefits the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and runs until Wednesday, August 19.
It seems like not that long ago I was talking about Gangs of the Undercity when it launched, but time flies and this cyberpunk-meets-urban-fantasy miniature skirmish game is in its final days. While the corporations may rule the glittering city above, the forgotten undercity is where those who are rejected or refuse to live under the choking grip of the system end up, fighting for control of neighborhoods in a futuristic cityscape crumbling from neglect. For $65, you get two gangs (the elven Valkyrs and the out-of-control Flaming Skulls) with six metal minis each plus rulebook and tokens, while for $110 you can upgrade to a full-hardcover rulebook, and $130 for more tokens and custom dice. There are also multiple add-ons for more miniatures unlocked via stretch goals including pets, terrain, and more gangs. This Kickstarter is fully funded (and I’ve personally backed it) and has until Saturday, August 15 to unlock more cute pets. And gang members too. I guess they’re important.
I’ve also talked about Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall as well but it deserves mentioning again. The game places you in the roles of a family of Chinese immigrants attempting to make their way in 1920s Chinatown running a family restaurant while also preparing to protect your neighborhood from the Jiangshi, soul-stealing hopping vampires of Chinese lore. It’s a difficult task protecting your clients and restaurant while still making sure the kitchen stays clean and dinner service goes off without problems, especially since the jiangshi can drain you of your skills and memories and everything else that makes you who you are. A print and play version is available for a $20 pledge, while the boxed set is available for $65 and a deluxe edition for $90. This project is fully funded and runs until Thursday, August 13.
That’s all from me for this week! Don’t forget to support our Patreon to bring you more gaming news content. If you have any news to submit, email us at news@enworldnews.com, and you can get more discussion of the week’s news on Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk every week. You can follow me on Twitch in case I can get my streaming setup to work, subscribe to Gamer’s Tavern on YouTube for videos on gaming history, RPG reviews, and gaming Let’s Plays, or you can listen to the archives of the Gamer’s Tavern podcast. Until next time, may all your hits be crits! Note: Links to Amazon, Humble Store, Humble Bundle, and/or DriveThru may contain affiliate links with the proceeds going to the author of this column.
