RPG Print News – Arc Dream Publishing, Odd Gob Games, and More

This week is positively surreal with mutant cartoon animal shenanigans in a new RPG and white dice with a white crayon to fill in the numbers and a dice catapult to go with Monty Python's Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Programme - RPG (Sensible Middle Class Edition). There is also support for a cozy RPG, a terrifying horror adventure, a murdering mimic zine, and a location supplement for Heart (the RPG not the band).

Note: RPG Print News covers recent RPG releases and some classics, reprints, and sales available from retailers. It does not cover products that are available directly to customers only through Kickstarter or as print on demand.

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God's Light by Arc Dream Publishing

• SYSTEM: Delta Green RPG
• PRODUCT TYPE: softcover adventure
• RETAIL PRICE: $24.99
• DESCRIPTION: Man, this series of adventures is creepy. An American mass shooting draws the attention of the PC operators of Delta Green. Evidence the shooter left behind seems to come not from Earth but some unknown version of reality. The PCs’ investigation finds a social media app called Picky Eater which curates a user’s social media feed, picking and choosing experiences to suit their desires. But it also appears to reach to strange places that stand on either side of the border between worlds, between realities, and between madness and evil. The PCs Agents may well have to choose between madness or evil. Makes a great companion to the campaign God's Teeth.

The Wonderful World of Tea Pets | Teatime Adventures - GM Screen by Snowbright Studio

• SYSTEM: Teatime Adventures Second Edition
• PRODUCT TYPE: RPG collection/GM screen
• RETAIL PRICE: $150/$20
• DESCRIPTION: The Wonderful World of Tea Pets includes maps and the GM Screen as well as the following RPG supplements as covered in RPG Print News — Bone Chanter, Snowbright Studio, and More: Teatime Adventures, Tales from Oakenbend, Tea Pets, and the Crafts & Journals Book. The GM Screen is also sold separately.

Monty Python's Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Programme - RPG (Sensible Middle Class Edition) | Monty Python RPG - Dice Catapult | Monty Python RPG - Albatross Edition Dice | Monty Python RPG - Medeeple Set by Exalted Funeral

• SYSTEM: rules-lite Spam System (I made up Spam System)
• PRODUCT TYPE: hardcover core rulebook/dice and meeple launching catapult/white on white dice set/21 medeeple 30mm collection
• RETAIL PRICE: $50/$10/$35/$25
• DESCRIPTION: I don’t actually know if you’re supposed to run Monty Python RPG or not, but here it is. PCs will experience the joy of Mediaeval study, from character creation and factions to ready-to-run quests and monsters. Supposedly no knowledge of Monty Python’s work is required to play. Also features a bestiary, tables, and lots of spam. The Dice Catapult is a wooden catapult for launching dice, meeples, and medeeples (see below). Features laser-etched etchings. Approximate dimensions: 3.94 x 1.57 x 1.57 inches. Protective eyewear not included, but it does come with an extra tension band if the first one breaks. Albatross Edition Dice is a set of 12 all-white dice with a white crayon for "filling in" the numbers. Dice: d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d14, d16, d18, d20, and d30 plus 2 custom, oversized d6 spin-down dice. Each die features a squashing foot in the one space for easy Spam identification and frilly top numbers for Strewth spotting. Includes a 6"x6" box for storage and display. No wafers though. While hard to read, the dice can be launched just fine from the Dice Catapult. The Medeeple Set includes: 10 black and white wooden human meeples and 10 red, black, and white wooden human meeples both with character images on both sides and one white and black cow meeple.

Blister Critters | Blister Critters - Squirrel Queendom of Atlanta by Odd Gob Games

• SYSTEM: Grit System
• PRODUCT TYPE: softcover core rulebook/softcover zine
• RETAIL PRICE: $25/$9
• DESCRIPTION: Believe it or not, I understand the appeal of playing Blister Critters better than I do wanting to play the Monty Python RPG. PCs are radiation-blasted animals known as Critters starring in an eco-apocalyptic Saturday-morning cartoon show. PCs live in a bizarre posthuman world of Blisters (mutations), physics-bending Nonsense powers, dangerous feral Beasts, and a near-infinite amount of human Stuff. Includes: six Critter categories consisting of 66 different animals; four Blister Paths with dozens of mutant powers and cartoon-logic Nonsense powers; 10 cartoon Roles; a unique day/night cycle that reflects the fluctuating dangers of the eco-apocalyptic Critterverse; light narrative rules for Catchphrases, Ad-Libs, and other cartoon-show fun; hundreds of examples of Stuff and how a creative Critter might employ it; intuitive moves for the GM; and an adventure. Squirrel Queendom of Atlanta details the neo-feudal squirrel state that has taken over the Southeast after the fall of humanity. Includes new encounters and episode treatments (plot hooks).

Someone in this Tavern is a swear word redacted Mimic! by Parable Games

• SYSTEM: fantasy RPGs
• PRODUCT TYPE: double sided A4 zine
• RETAIL PRICE: $7.50
• DESCRIPTION: The PCs find themselves in a tavern drinking and enjoying the fire. Then patrons start getting murdered and every PC suspects a fellow party member did it. Someone among the PCs is a murderous mimic and it’s up to the rest of the PCs group to find out who it is before they kill their way through most of the patrons. Can kick off a new adventure with a horror twist and story hook. Not sure why it is a mimic and not a doppelgänger so I guess play to find out.

Heart - Doors to Elsewhere (2024 Printing) by Rowan, Rook & Decard

• SYSTEM: Heart - The City Beneath
• PRODUCT TYPE: softcover adventure supplement
• RETAIL PRICE: $12
• OTHER RPG NEWS: Heart - The City Beneath review by robowieland
• DESCRIPTION: The 2024 printing has been updated with errata, layout upgrades, and a spine to ease shelving. As dozens of doors to a strange dimension open, the PC delvers step through to find the city of Elsewhere. The city is in turmoil. The lights are going out one by one. An ocean of vicious darkness roils at the edge of the city and seeps through to the City Beneath. Offers details on the people who live in the city, places to visit and/or get mugged in, the tensions humming as the lights go out, and options as to who is behind the theft of the power crystals that keep the city alive at night.

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[ART!]

The Monty Python game is a blast. I was laughing just making my character. Just reading it is fun. It encompasses all of MP - it's not just a Holy Grail rpg.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The Monty Python game is a blast. I was laughing just making my character. Just reading it is fun. It encompasses all of MP - it's not just a Holy Grail rpg.

How does it play? It does seem well-liked as a reading experience, but I haven't heard any play reports yet.

 

[Weiley31]

How does it play? It does seem well-liked as a reading experience, but I haven't heard any play reports yet.

I hear

Spoiler

supposedly it's possible to get the DM arrested, causing the role to get switched over to another player should they agree to it.

 

[ART!]

I hear

Spoiler

supposedly it's possible to get the DM arrested, causing the role to get switched over to another player should they agree to it.

Accurate!

 

[ART!]

How does it play? It does seem well-liked as a reading experience, but I haven't heard any play reports yet.

In terms of sheer mechanics, it plays like a lot if rpgs. If you're demented, you could strip away the Python-ness and play some other kind of game with it. In D&D terms, your character has a class, abilities/skills, features, and items.

One of the things that the game does brilliantly is preventing anyone from taking anything too seriously. It's built so you want to try ridiculous ways to use your abilities, and you want to try to do things you simply aren't any good at. In fact, there are very silly penalties for being too good at something.

It's the only game I know of where the approach the GM takes will very likely change pretty drastically at some point during a session. The GM is playing the Head Of Light Entertainment, or HOLE, and there's a while section full of different HOLE personas. Under the right - or wrong? - circumstances, that HOLE gets fired or removed from their position and a new persona becomes the HOLE. Then the GM runs the game using the approach described for that persona.

That's just a few thoughts off the top of my head.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

In terms of sheer mechanics, it plays like a lot if rpgs. If you're demented, you could strip away the Python-ness and play some other kind of game with it. In D&D terms, your character has a class, abilities/skills, features, and items.

One of the things that the game does brilliantly is preventing anyone from taking anything too seriously. It's built so you want to try ridiculous ways to use your abilities, and you want to try to do things you simply aren't any good at. In fact, there are very silly penalties for being too good at something.

It's the only game I know of where the approach the GM takes will very likely change pretty drastically at some point during a session. The GM is playing the Head Of Light Entertainment, or HOLE, and there's a while section full of different HOLE personas. Under the right - or wrong? - circumstances, that HOLE gets fired or removed from their position and a new persona becomes the HOLE. Then the GM runs the game using the approach described for that persona.

That's just a few thoughts off the top of my head.

Darn it, now I want it to read about the GM personas.

 

[robowieland]

I ran it at Gary Con and will be doing another one at GameHole, which we will hopefully record.

The game is pretty wild but the true chaos comes with the Beshrewment chart which gets rolled on if players rack up too many demerits. It triggers those wild swings in a Python episode, like maybe the GM gets fired (and changes characters) or the foot comes down and smooshes a character or you're suddenly doing one of their sport commentary bits.