Sure the holiday season can be a little stressful, but the best way to break up that weird family energy is to play a fun tabletop game! Don’t make the same mistake I did when introducing my parents to Dungeons & Dragons, which was giving them opportunities to flirt with each other during the game. It was deeply uncomfortable and I absolutely do not recommend it. Happy holidays!
The Lord of the Rings — Lost Odyssey: The Red Scribe
Game master Kate Welch is heading up a new, one-shot, actual play charity campaign set in Middle-earth. According to a press release, in the lead up to the event, Lost Odyssey and eBay are kicking off a program “where both fans and companies can buy and sell products to benefit Extra Life, a program of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals that’s raised over $100 million to fund critical life-saving treatments and healthcare services, along with innovative research, vital pediatric medical equipment, and child life services across the nation.”
Players include Deborah Ann Woll (True Blood, Daredevil), Reggie Watts (The Late Late Show with James Corden), TJ Storm (Godzilla, Deadpool), Luke Gygax (GaryCon, GaxxWorx), and the Dark Lord Sauron himself, Sala Baker (The Lord of the Rings trilogy). The game will be played using the currently unreleased Free League’s 5e supplement for The Lord of the Rings rather than the game written specifically for roleplaying in Middle-earth itself, The Lord of the Rings: The One Ring.
New Releases: The Sticker Game, Old Gods and Young Guns, Everyday Heroes
“The Sticker Game is a single-player experience that’s part journaling and part audio drama, combining science fiction, fantasy, and whatever genre of stickers the player brings along. Stickers hold the key to influencing other realities. Partner with the Agency on their ‘universal research project’ to gain access to the power stickers contain. Participants will need to be bold, creative, and willing to make tough choices. Through the use of audio tracks and proprietary tech, your Guide will help you unlock the strange biochemical properties stickers contain to manipulate the electro-matter radon field between universes. This is delicate technology. What could possibly go wrong?”
“Old Gods and Young Guns is a system-agnostic setting guide. It details a space fantasy western setting inspired by Jack Kirby’s New Gods comics. The guide provides details on the world of Outward Space and the history of the dead gods who left behind great power. The guides includes information on how life is in this setting, possible character archetypes, and a specific look at a location with named places and characters to hang plot hooks off but it doesn’t include any mechanics for play.”
“Get into the action! From the excitement of blockbuster action films to the combat options and tactical gear of first-person shooters, adventures in contemporary settings offer a wide range of opportunities and challenges. The Everyday Heroes Roleplaying Game provides everything you need to run a modern-day campaign, be that car chases, computer hacking, radiation hazards, or just lots of guns. Along with flexible rules to create characters from hard-bitten soldiers to genius inventors and masterminds, these rules open the doors to playing through nearly any present-day plotline. This complete core rulebook for both Gamemasters and Players brings the ease of the 5th edition of the world’s most popular roleplaying game into the Modern era.”
“Race your friends to unleash the whims of your capricious and unknowable god onto the world first! Play Ritual Race with 2-6 people, choose the god you want to follow, recruit cultists, and sacrifice them to eldritch abominations!”
“The Wandering Lake is a single-player journaling game where you—a being of questionable power—defines a Nameless Mountain, a fickle Forest, and a settlement at the edge of the world. Your duty/destiny compels you to retrieve a missing Lake. Will you rise to meet it?”
“The Test of High Sorcery is a solo Dragonlance adventure module co-designed by Kienna Shaw and Donathin Frye. It merges Choose-Your-Own-Adventure elements with D&D 5e to make for a solo play experience. There are thousands of different paths and over 60 different outcomes as you play through a magical test to prove yourself worthy of becoming a true Mage of High Sorcery.”
In Other News
- Gloomhaven: The Role Playing Game is coming to Backerkit’s new crowdfunding platform in April of 2023.
- Role, the virtual game room app, is opening up its partner program to new publishers.
- Seasons of Mystery for the ENNIE-winning Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying has been released by Free League Publishing.
- D&D showcases the disabled community of Wizards of the Coast in a new D&D actual play special event, Galesong: Dragons’ Convergence.
- During PAX Unplugged, Dicebreaker announced its 2022 Tabletop Awards highlighting and honoring indie creators.
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