RPG Print News – Free League, Modiphius, Mongoose, and More

Mongoose Traveller gets a cargo bay full of rule and adventure support. Modiphius supports 2d20 games including Achtung! Cthulhu and Star Trek. Dragonbane gets a starter guide, GM screen, and more dice. Dungeons & Dragons 5E is supported with a book on ruined lands with lots of new rules and the G.I. JOE RPG gets Cobra miniatures. Pathfinder Second Edition gets mini adventures and the OSR gets new rules. Finally, there are dice bags for Storytelling games.
Note: RPG Print News covers new RPG releases and some classics, reprints, and sales available from retailers. It does not cover products that are only available directly to customers only through Kickstarter or as print on demand.

The Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society - Volume 7 | The Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society - Volume 8 by Mongoose Publishing

• SYSTEM: Mongoose Traveller Second Edition
• PRODUCT TYPE: softcover digest supplements
• RETAIL PRICE: $24.99 each
• DESCRIPTION: In Volume Seven: two adventures, the alien Ithklur, a beast called the Harlari, new gear: Initial 24 Armaments Go Cases and Initial Arms Energy Weapons, new areas of charted space and new encounters, new ship support: Advanced Lasers and the Golden Dawn Yacht, new patrons, vehicle support with the Iderati Space Defence System, Deepnight Character Creation, and Immigration in the Imperium. In Volume Eight: two adventures, the alien Halkans, beasts (Atichnae, Ynchaeir, and Giant Scuttlefish), gear: the Gauss Rifle's Big Brother and Omicron - The Mythical Weaponsmith. New space and NPC encounters. The Sojourner Light Trader, the Hunter career, a patron, BB-2 Nuclear Powered Bus, and more.

Vive La Resistance | Star Trek: Lower Decks Campaign Guide by Modiphius Entertainment

• SYSTEM: Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20/Star Trek Adventures 2d20
• PRODUCT TYPE: softcover supplement/hardcover supplement
• RETAIL PRICE: $30.99/$54.99
• DESCRIPTION: Refuse, Resist, Retaliate. PCs get new Resistance archetypes like Assassin, Saboteur, Propagandist, or Resistance Leader, with new weapons, equipment, and tools to help heroic Resistance movements rise up to counter the hated occupier. Resistance games are thrilling but deadly and the possibility of discovery or betrayal is constant but the struggle for liberation can be an inspirational one. Features: archetypes, backgrounds, characteristics, Dauntless Resistance NPCs and evil Nazi nemeses, weapons, tools, equipment, a demonology spellbook, and tables and charts to create randomly-generated Resistance missions and objectives. For GMs there are also five new Resistance-themed sandbox adventures to run. The Star Trek: Lower Decks Campaign Guide provides detailed advice on creating junior officers with the irreverent tone presented in Star Trek: Lower Decks. PC junior officers may clean holodeck biofilters (yuck), conduct an anomaly consolidation day, participate in a second contact, or enjoy some well-earned Buffer Time. New lifepath options for player characters, including eight new playable species (including Cetaceans, Gorn, Pakleds, and Exocomps). Game statistics and graphics for seven spaceframes, including the California, Obena, and Parliament classes, and game statistics for over 20 ships from Starfleet and other polities (as well as a selection of ground vehicles). New gear, technologies, and creatures, and a complete system for creating creatures. More than 50 NPCs of different species. And finally, a three-part mini-campaign.

Dragonbane Quickstart Guide | Dragonbane GM Screen | Dragonbane Dice Set (6) by Free League

• SYSTEM: Dragonbane RPG
• PRODUCT TYPE: softcover supplement/screen/dice
• RETAIL PRICE: $6.99/$24.99/$19.99
• DESCRIPTION: The Dragonbane Quickstart Guide includes condensed rules for mirth and mayhem roleplaying, a complete adventure, and five pre-generated characters. PCs experience magic, mystery, and adventure, room for laughs at the table and even a pinch of silliness while still offering brutal challenges for the adventurers. A GM Screen and a set of Dragonbane Dice are also available. Note: one dice set is already included in the Dragonbane RPG box set listed above. The transparent dice include one each of D4, D6, D8, D10, D12, and D20. The D20 has custom engraved symbols on the 1 and 20 sides, to mark dragon rolls and demon rolls.

Wastes of Chaos | Wastes of Chaos (Limited Edition) by Kobold Press

• SYSTEM: Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition
• PRODUCT TYPE: hardcover supplement
• RETAIL PRICE: $49.99/79.95
• DESCRIPTION: Helps to create adventures in ruined lands, including: chaos magic, corrupted locales, fiendish cults, ancient treasures, four playable races and subraces like automatons and dust goblins, eight subclasses such as the doombringer fighter and the wasteland ranger, four wasteland factions and their followers, 38 new creatures including the eldritch horror and the chaos drake, new spells, magic items, and more. Limited Edition has two-color foil, chaos-flavored endpapers, and a ribbon bookmark.

G.I. Joe RPG Villain Miniatures Set #1 | Cobra/Con Fusion (Free RPG Day 2023) by Renegade Games Studios

• SYSTEM: G.I. JOE RPG
• PRODUCT TYPE: box set of 12 unpainted 28 mm miniatures/softcover adventure
• RETAIL PRICE: $55/$0.01 with another purchase
• DESCRIPTION: The G.I. JOE RPG Villain Miniatures Set #1 includes antagonists or possibly Allies or Player Characters if using the Cobra Codex. Contents: Storm Shadow, Cobra Commander, Destro, Serpentor, Major Bludd, Dr. Mindbender, and more. Cobra/Con Fusion is a crossover scenario (Transformers RPG) with Cobra up to their villainous deeds again, but this time using Cybertronian technology.

Black Pudding #7 | Black Pudding Adventure Journal by Random Order Creations

• SYSTEM: B/X OSR
• PRODUCT TYPE: softcover supplements
• RETAIL PRICE: $6.49 each
• DESCRIPTION: Black Pudding #7 includes a small number of character classes such as the eyeball, as well as a few new monsters, such as the incredibly handsome grave crusader. There is a gazetteer of the world of Yria including the five cities of Yria, many random tables, and small blurbs suggesting other parts of the world. The mythos of twelve deities is also covered. The Black Pudding Adventure Journal has lined pages for recording campaign and adventure notes. The journal is A5 size and has 24 lined pages printed on uncoated 100gsm paper and a 350gsm card cover.

Mini-Dungeon Tome by AAW Games

• SYSTEM: Pathfinder Second Edition
• PRODUCT TYPE: hardcover supplement
• RETAIL PRICE: $59.99
• DESCRIPTION: More than 130 complete and ready-to-run scenarios from the depths of the darkest dungeons to the primal dangers of the untamed wilderness. Themed and organized for convenience, these setting-neutral fantasy adventures work for every party level and size. Reference materials are included in a convenient index.

Vampire the Masquerade Dice Bag | Hunter the Reckoning Dice Bag by Renegade Game Studios

• SYSTEM: Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition/Hunter the Reckoning 5th Edition
• PRODUCT TYPE: fabric dice bags
• RETAIL PRICE: $15 each
• DESCRIPTION: Dice bags measure 6.25" x 8.5" when flat and have drawstrings and game symbol.

 

[Weiley31]

I'm glad you posted this link. GameNerdz has taken my money for the Wastes of Chaos limited edition in July and I've still yet to receive my copy. So Noble Knight Games may have to be my alternative option. Now if only GameNerdz would respond to my email asking about the status of the order.

 

[Egg Embry]

Another week of winners!

 

[Von Ether]

Due to my love of Pendragon, Dragonbane has my attention as a BRP fantasy game that uses a d20.

 

[Peter BOSCO'S]

The Traveller Journal of the Travellers Aid Society #7 & #8 are $24.99, not $29.99. At least the two I bought yesterday at my FLGS listed that as their cover price. These are great magazines but they're probably too small to be worth $29.99 US.

 

[Mongoose_Matt]

They are indeed $24.99.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

The Traveller Journal of the Travellers Aid Society #7 & #8 are $24.99, not $29.99. At least the two I bought yesterday at my FLGS listed that as their cover price. These are great magazines but they're probably too small to be worth $29.99 US.

Thanks. Fixed.

 

[antiwesley]

I'm glad you posted this link. GameNerdz has taken my money for the Wastes of Chaos limited edition in July and I've still yet to receive my copy. So Noble Knight Games may have to be my alternative option. Now if only GameNerdz would respond to my email asking about the status of the order.

Best way to support the creators is to buy directly from them at their website. By using third-party stores, the stores make the money, not the publishers. These sellers buy the products at signifigantly less than half the MSRP from the distributors, who buy it at an even lower rate. When you purchase items directly from the publisher, yes, you may be paying MSRP, but they are getting all the money, not just the pittance they get from distributors. Charles, as an affiliate of the third party, recieves a kick-back from the retailer for directing business in their direction. Noble Knight more than likely pays the most, so that's who he sends people to. I never buy through affilate links, I always get it straight from the publisher. It helps their bottom line, keeping them in business so they can produce more of the material you like.

 

[talien]

Best way to support the creators is to buy directly from them at their website. By using third-party stores, the stores make the money, not the publishers. These sellers buy the products at signifigantly less than half the MSRP from the distributors, who buy it at an even lower rate. When you purchase items directly from the publisher, yes, you may be paying MSRP, but they are getting all the money, not just the pittance they get from distributors. Charles, as an affiliate of the third party, recieves a kick-back from the retailer for directing business in their direction. Noble Knight more than likely pays the most, so that's who he sends people to. I never buy through affilate links, I always get it straight from the publisher. It helps their bottom line, keeping them in business so they can produce more of the material you like.

Noble Knight's affiliate system is definitely lucrative (I wrote an overview of these types of programs for RPGs here: https://www.enworld.org/threads/rpg-evolution-how-to-profit-from-writing-reviews.690023/) but that's not the primary reason we use them.

We use Noble Knight because it greatly simplifies the work required to source all these products. Noble Knight's search makes it much faster to find the products and link to them, and that's a necessity for the massive amount of work Charles does every week, year after year.

One of the great things about that storefront is they carry both new and out-of-print products in stock. When products sell out, Noble Knight also has a thriving trade business, so you still have a chance to get the product even if the publisher is out of stock (which, given that many small press publishers have limited runs, happens often). Since Noble Knight is not just a reseller, they do in fact purchase products from the publishers as well. Noble Knight is a physical FLGS -- they're not Amazon -- so purchasing via Noble Knight is supporting FLGS too.

The alternative is not covering these products and companies at all. While we'd love to post to every company's web site, given the volume it's simply not feasible.

 

[antiwesley]

Caveat: I was a retailer. Both in the comics and RPG industries. The way that retailers make their money, is by simple math.
By the time it reaches a store purchasers hand, it's gone through at least 3 different hands, with each hand recieving a share of the product cost. For example: I would order 20 copies of "Woeful Comics" number 1, with a cover price of $2.50.

I paid Massive Comics Distributor, $1.25 for each book. A customer buys at cover for 2.50, I have $1.25 in profit. The higher amount I order, the more of a discount I get, and provided they sell, I make a better profit.

Massive Comics Distributor, however, pays maybe .50 cents a copy for that book. They sell it to me for the $1.25 a copy. .75 cents a copy profit to them. So of that original $2.50, Woeful Comics makes roughly a .25 profit. A mere pittance.

Now, if you ordered direct from Woeful, they'd make $2.25 a book.

As someone who provides a link to a reseller, regardless of how Noble Knights gets the book as they are licensed resellers, not only do you profit, but they profit as above. That's why they can pay so much.
No matter how you buy it from Noble Knight, Woeful has already recieved their roughly 10% of the total cost. Noble Knight then makes a nice, tidy profit from your hard work pimping them out. Which is what you do. You provide the links to "make it easy" and get your cut of the sale, and they walk away in their 70's pimp costume. You're doing the work that they could have hired someone at minimum wage to do, only cheaper.

So now knowing that you're quite possibly getting a .05% commission really do the product itself a favour?
That something you could be making $10 an hour doing, you're only getting a nickel..

I'd rather pay the cost to get it from the company themselves because then, their profits are maximised, and they can use the money to produce more product. In this setup, everyone makes money, but the "reseller/retailer' benefits the most, not the company that produced the material in the first place.

When we come to "old product" as you put it, that is where NK cashes in, really. The product has already gone through it's retailer life, as laid out above, and there, because of little to no market price regulation, they can rob you blind and you may not know any better.

Example: I was looking a very very long time ago for the Prisoner book for GURPS.
I ended up paying well over $60 for my copy.

Currently, they list 1 copy at $75.
I have a local FLGS, who knows what he has, and knows that he could get a lot more, but chooses to sell it for maybe $15 to $20.
Both are 'local' to me. (an hour and 20 minutes to Noble Knight, and 20 minutes to this other place)
Both will be making a profit on the sale. Who is going to make the sale? The business that's jacked up the price?
Nope.
Because there are no market standards for RPG products, the honest guys sell it for a good price. The Noble Knights and Half-Price Books of the world jack the prices up and sit back because they have people working for a pittance for them to give them the attention.

But as long as you get your King's Shilling, you'll happily derp derp away sending them business, when it's better directed at the producers themselves.