RPG Print News – Modiphius, Catalyst, and More

A huge range of genres and RPG options this week. An amazing mix of old favorites, whimsy, death, war, and the weird. Play a scaled PC in Arcanis or a ruler in Conan. Guard your game with screens for Lunars and Aberrant. Explore eight weird places in Numenera and go into aerospace in BattleTech. Play a toy guardian or fantasy creature protector. Go GMless and explore the human condition and death in new RPGs. Finally, go pro and wrestle your way to the top.

Note: RPG Print News covers new RPG releases and some classics and sales available from online retailers. It does not cover products that are only available to customers through kickstarter, directly from a publisher website, or as print on demand.

Children of the Scale by Paradigm Concepts

• SYSTEM: Arcanis - The World of Shattered Empires
• PRODUCT TYPE: softcover supplement
• RETAIL PRICE: $24.99
• DESCRIPTION: Delve into the player character race of the ss’ressen as the Ashen Hide, Black Talon, or the Ghost Scale. Includes: the history of the ss’ressen (Ashen Hide, Black Talon, and Ghost Scale), the ss’ressen’s culture (from their caste system to their religious tenets and beliefs), new class archetypes (for the Fighter, Holy Champion, Ranger, and Shaman.), new backgrounds, a new Combat School the Tooth and Claw, new feats, new armor and weapons, new spells and magic items, 12 new monsters, a new city (Lanpeltis, the City of the Fiery Wyrm), and more.

Conan The King by Modiphius Entertainment

• SYSTEM: Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of
• PRODUCT TYPE: hardcover sourcebook
• RETAIL PRICE: $34.19
• DESCRIPTION: Includes new options for PCs like the Knight, Minstrel, and Noble. Also has new castes, talents, background stories, and other options. New rules describe the ultimate measures of status within the court: holdings and titles. Covers the flower of the Hyborian world: regal Aquilonia, where Conan became king. Guidelines help set up campaigns about the road to the throne or the intrigues and plots within the court.

Lunars - Fangs at the Gate Storyteller Screen | Aberrant Storyguide Screen by Onyx Path Publishinghttps://www.nobleknight.com/P/2147918056/Aberrant-Storyguide-Screen?awid=1086

• SYSTEM: Exalted 3rd Edition/Trinity Continuum: Aberrant
• PRODUCT TYPE: GM screen and sourcebook
• RETAIL PRICE: $25/$20
• DESCRIPTION: Lunars provides a collection of charts and other info to make the Exalted Storyteller's role a little bit easier when using the rules for Lunars. The Aberrant Reference Screen and document contains all the charts and important info a Storyguide needs to run Aberrant.

Vertices by Monte Cook Games

• SYSTEM: Numenera
• PRODUCT TYPE: softcover supplement
• RETAIL PRICE: $29.99
• DESCRIPTION: Explore eight detailed sites as setting locations or as adventures. Each is connected to the Datasphere. In one a maze of steel and crystal blades summons demons and bladehounds from this world and worlds beyond. In another, seven huge boulders float a mile above the earth and cruel, stone-armored creatures fall randomly from the sky. Next is a massive ribcage that rises from the earth with a giant weathered skull resting nearby with monstrous creatures nearby. And more.

Strategic Operations - Advanced Aerospace Rules by Catalyst Game Labs

• SYSTEM: BattleTech: A Time of War
• PRODUCT TYPE: hardcover supplement
• RETAIL PRICE: $39.99
• DESCRIPTION: Includes complete rules for force construction and campaign play.

Widdershins by Silver Games

• SYSTEM: unique
• PRODUCT TYPE: softcover core rulebook
• RETAIL PRICE: $10
• DESCRIPTION: PCs are toys called Widdershins that were lost, broken, or discarded. A player facing percentile system, providing the players with four roles to choose from determined by how their character was lost. Intended for 4 players and 1 GM, a typical game will last from 2-4 hours. Widdershins protect humans from the darkness and from things from the Hollow. Foes include shadowy inklings, their sinister brethren the bogies, the terrifying hollow ones, and the enigmatic emissaries.

Good Strong Hands by Nerd Burger Games

• SYSTEM: unique
• PRODUCT TYPE: hardcover core rulebook
• RETAIL PRICE: $39.99
• DESCRIPTION: PCs portray fantastic creatures and their newly arrived human allies working to save their home of Reverie from destruction by the faceless, malevolent force known only as the Void. PCs will be constantly tempted by the Void's corruption, even as they fight to end it. Adventures will be those of friendship, teamwork, self-empowerment, overcoming harmful forces, and dealing with a world in crisis. Requires minimal GM prep and players are encouraged to help build the world.

Red Carnations on a Black Grave by Aviatrix Games

• SYSTEM: unique (no GM)
• PRODUCT TYPE: box set of core rules
• RETAIL PRICE: $40
• DESCRIPTION: A freeform GMless roleplaying game for 4-6 players that brings to life the 72 tumultuous days of the Paris Commune. Each player portrays two characters during the two months of the Commune, one of whom must die during the French Army's all-out assault on Paris in the last week of May, 1871. Playable in a single session of four hours or less. Special cards guide play and provide questions about how the characters are related to each other. Historical incidents serve as the basis of scenes in the game and determine the ultimate fate of the surviving characters.

Epitaph by Less Than Three Games

• SYSTEM: unique (no GM)
• PRODUCT TYPE: softcover core rules
• RETAIL PRICE: $24
• DESCRIPTION: PCs explore the timeline of someone who has died (called the Departed) in order to gain gradual insight into their world, their identity, and their history. Ultimately they come to know, understand, and empathize with them in a deep, complex way. GMless and requires no prep before play. The game features a variable level of role-playing commitment: on a PC’s turn they can describe a moment in time, create and play a scene with others, or give an interactive monologue as one of the characters from the story. The tone of the game is up to the players—it can be anything from lighthearted and goofy to bittersweet and tragic.

World Wide Wrestling by NDP Design

• SYSTEM: Powered by the Apocalypse
• PRODUCT TYPE: graphic novel sized core rulebook
• RETAIL PRICE: $30
• DESCRIPTION: Collects and revises all of the material published for the original World Wide Wrestling and its supplements. Includes: easy to learn rules (in ring action, backstage drama, and developing pro wrestling storylines to tie both together), help for players unfamiliar with the genre to participate, support for fans in playing out their favorite wrestling tropes, use of Promotion as a character, playing out slices of life on the road between performances, gimmicks, match stipulations and background information for playing out a variety of wrestling traditions from Lucha Libre to British Grappling.

 

[Egg Embry]

Great article! Glad to see Good Strong Hands by Nerd Burger Games on the list!