News Digest for the Week of July 28

Dungeons & Dragons at Gen Con, multiple big Paizo announcements, a new Shadowrun sourcebook, and more!

Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news! Dungeons & Dragons at Gen Con, multiple big Paizo announcements, a new Shadowrun sourcebook, and more!

For a quick summary of the week’s news, Jessica Hancock will bring you up to speed with EN Live's This Week in TTRPG every Friday.

Don’t forget, you can keep up with all the week’s gaming news in detail with Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk. This week, Morrus, Peter, and Jessica talk about who chooses what game to play.

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In case you missed it elsewhere on EN World this week:

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Paizo had a lot of announcements this week. First up is the multi-year licensing deal with TabletopTown (covered earlier this week by Dawn Dalton) to bring Pathfinder and Starfinder to mobile gaming. TabletopTown’s system brings back the asynchronous play from the era of play-by-post of message boards and chatrooms as you can join an RPG game and take your turn when you have time. This will be a great alternative for players with busy schedules who want to play with friends but can’t find the time to get together all at once, allowing each player to interact when they can squeeze out the time. The app is currently in Beta for iPhone and Android, and the rules and adventures for Pathfinder and Starfinder will be available for purchase from the in-app marketplace when it launches.

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Paizo also signed a deal with Lore Masters Studios to create Pathfinder: Lore Masters, a trivia game covering the rules and lore of Pathfinder for mobile devices. Set for release in October on iOS and Android devices, the game will allow you to choose a class and embark on a quest where you win encounters by testing your knowledge of Pathfinder rules and Golarion lore. The app will launch with over 200 free questions through five difficulty levels, allowing you to collect XP to level up and even challenge others in PvP. More information and links to pre-order the app are available on the Loremasters website.

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After you’re done reading through the August 5 release Pathfinder: Rage of Elements, Paizo has even more elemental fun for you with the board game Pathfinder: Elemental Stones. This colorful (and colorblind-friendly) tile-laying board game has each of the 2-4 players taking on the roles of Elemental sovereigns drawing and playing hexagonal tiles. Each player has a secret pattern they’re trying to create, making for a lot of replayability potential as each player has a different goal each game and you never know what goal the other players have. The game is expected on November 15, 2023, with a retail price of $39.99.

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If you recall, two weeks ago we reported on the licensing deal between Paizo and the augmented reality tabletop simulator Mirrorscape. At the time, we were still waiting on the promised open beta…but now it’s here and available for iOS and Android. The beta version includes support for Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and Starfinder with support from miniature and terrain companies Hero Forge, Dwarven Forge, Reaper, and Norse Foundry. Using your phone or tablet (with AR headsets and glasses planned for future releases), you can create your own 3D virtual playspace in your own home on an empty table, floor, or other surface complete with digital effects. The app is free (though in-app purchases are available) on the Apple Store for iOS devices and on the Google Play store for Android devices.

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Wizards of the Coast announced their big plans for Gen Con this year as the company is bringing Dungeons & Dragons officially back to world’s largest RPG convention for the first time in a decade. Baldman Games will host the official Dungeons & Dragons store in the Exhibit Hall Booth 2801 as well as manage the Adventurers League organized play events, including the new adventure Giants of the Star Forge using material from Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants. Thursday through Saturday at the Regal UA Circle Centre, Wizards of the Coast will be sponsoring complimentary screenings of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Theives at 8 PM Eastern with free popcorn and drinks plus special guests. Wizards is also sponsoring a food truck, Wizards of the Cones, featuring ice cream flavors inspired by Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering with 100% of the purchase price of all products sold going to The Trevor Project.

There will also be two live shows, the first Thursday at 12:00 Noon Eastern in the Westin Grand V Ballroom as Beadle & Grimm present a live show of Faster, Purple Wurm! Kill! Kill! Featuring Matthew Lillard and others along with a Q&A with the cast following the show. The big event though is the D&D Live: A Giant-Size Adventure on Saturday, August 5th at 7 PM Eastern in the Indiana Roof Ballroom featuring DM Brennan Lee Mulligan (Dimension 20, College Humor), Erika Ishii (LA By Night, Dimension 20), Gabe Hicks (Into the Motherlands, Dimension 20), Dael Kingsmill (mythology and RPG YouTuber), Luis Carazo (Exandria Unlimited, LA By Night), and Wizards of the Coast Lead Rules Designer Jeremy Crawford (yes, as a player). This D&D Live event will also be streamed on the official Dungeons & Dragons Twitch channel.

Find out more information about ticketing for these events from the Gen Con website as the convention plans to take over Indianapolis next weekend from August 3-6.

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Catalyst Game Labs released the runner resource book for Shadowrun Sixth World Edition, Shadowrun: Shoot Straight. This sourcebook expands on the nuts-and-bolts of the world of freelance corporate espionage that Shadowrun runs on with rules expansions and player advice on stealth (more difficult than it seems in a world of universal surveillance and magical clairvoyance), running a con, managing contacts, avoiding law enforcement (again, made difficult with corporations being effectively their own nation-states), managing your reputation on the streets and in the shadows, and more. The 160-page PDF is available now on DriveThruRPG for $19.99 while the hardcover should be making its way to game store shelves soon with a retail price of $49.99.

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WizKids announced pre-orders for the Watchtower Box Set as part of the WarLock system of connecting miniature terrain. Assembled, this set stands 14” tall and contains three floors that can be removed in sections to follow the action up and down the tower. The windows can be removed, the portcullis is magnetized to say open or closed as positioned, and pieces can be removed strategically to simulate battle damage from siege engines or dragon attack. It’s also part of the WarLocks system of friction-fit pieces and can be combined with other terrain pieces. The Watchtower Box Set is available for pre-order ahead of its Q4 2023 release for a retail price of $289.99.


That’s all from me for this week! Don’t forget to support our Patreon to bring you more gaming news content. 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.
 

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Darryl Mott

Darryl Mott


Abstruse

Legend
Missed that new wizkids tower, thanks!
I almost missed it myself. Looks like it quietly went up for pre-order recently since it's not due out until closer to the end of the year. Might see a bigger announcement about it closer to release since it looks like it's primed to be a big luxury holiday present.
 



Nutation

Explorer
I'm glad Wizards of the Coast is bringing D&D back to Gen Con. I'm hoping for a larger showing for the 50th anniversary!
I don't know what they mean by "bringing D&D back". Baldman Games has been running organized play D&D at GenCon on behalf of Wizards since the dawn of time. Wizards itself pulled its official presence a few years ago, perhaps it's a badly-worded reference to that.
 

Abstruse

Legend
I don't know what they mean by "bringing D&D back". Baldman Games has been running organized play D&D at GenCon on behalf of Wizards since the dawn of time. Wizards itself pulled its official presence a few years ago, perhaps it's a badly-worded reference to that.
Baldman Games running Adventurers League games and having a booth to sell books is NOTHING compared to the Wizards of the Coast presence at Gen Con before. I mean they owned the convention for a good chunk of time (Peter Adkison took Gen Con ownership with him when he left WotC), and basically all the big streaming events they've done over the years with the sets and the props and all that used to be done at Gen Con. The last year they were there, they took over an entire chunk of the convention hall to make a big castle set to hold all the organized play events (including one huge one where all the tables were playing in the same adventure collaboratively) along with a museum exhibit of D&D stuff including a statue of Drizzt that was about 15 feet tall (including the pedestal) along with life-size drider and beholder statues.

Just having organized play games on the schedule isn't the same thing as D&D being there the same way it was in the past.
 

Von Ether

Legend
Baldman Games running Adventurers League games and having a booth to sell books is NOTHING compared to the Wizards of the Coast presence at Gen Con before. I mean they owned the convention for a good chunk of time (Peter Adkison took Gen Con ownership with him when he left WotC), and basically all the big streaming events they've done over the years with the sets and the props and all that used to be done at Gen Con. The last year they were there, they took over an entire chunk of the convention hall to make a big castle set to hold all the organized play events (including one huge one where all the tables were playing in the same adventure collaboratively) along with a museum exhibit of D&D stuff including a statue of Drizzt that was about 15 feet tall (including the pedestal) along with life-size drider and beholder statues.

Just having organized play games on the schedule isn't the same thing as D&D being there the same way it was in the past.
If you want a strong WotC presence and lots of D&D to play, there is Gamehole con now. WotC is there and that is pretty much what happens.
 

Queer Venger

Dungeon Master is my Daddy
Im happy that WotC is returning to GenCon! I'll not be. going this year but definitely 2024 so I can be part of all the hype around the new revised rulebooks & the 50th anniversary, plus so awesome that they are screening the movie and supporting Trevor Project
 


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