Can somebody please catch me up?

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The Butcher

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I know the title might come across as horribly lazy and self-indulgent on my part, so no pressure on anyone to respond. But I'm curious about a few things and if any Pub regulars feel like filling me in on my old faves, I'm your very appreciative huckleberry.

What's been released, and what's in the pipeline, for our hopefully perennial darling, Mythras? I dropped off the hobby circa Mythic Babylon.

Is the OSR still a thing? What's hot right now? Is Jim Raggi still around? Anything putting out new editions (I know ACKS has one in the works) or any new adventure modules not to be missed?

Zweihänder is getting a new edition? Hopefully one with less bells and whistles, though the skeptic in me has his doubts.

Savage Worlds! Man, I miss SW. And I have no idea what's come out for it in the last, I dunno, 5 years.

What else? Cool third party stuff for CoC or Traveller? Any new PbtA or FitD hotness I should be aware of? Kevin Siembieda still promising Mechanoid Space?

Come rave about your favorite stuff here.
 
Raggi is still predicting the LotFP Referee Book is close at hand... and maybe I'm a sucker, but I believe him!
Mythras got its wrist slapped for a boo boo in Mythic Polynesia and I fear the pipeline there might have slowed... but Classic Fantasy has an expansion out soon.
 
The Butcher said:
I know the title might come across as horribly lazy and self-indulgent on my part, so no pressure on anyone to respond. But I'm curious about a few things and if any Pub regulars feel like filling me in on my old faves, I'm your very appreciative huckleberry.

What's been released, and what's in the pipeline, for our hopefully perennial darling, Mythras? I dropped off the hobby circa Mythic Babylon.

Is the OSR still a thing? What's hot right now? Is Jim Raggi still around? Anything putting out new editions (I know ACKS has one in the works) or any new adventure modules not to be missed?
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ACKS had a second edition Kickstarter I think. Didn't go in on it so can't say more than that
The Butcher said:
Zweihänder is getting a new edition? Hopefully one with less bells and whistles, though the skeptic in me has his doubts.
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It's got a revised edition and is getting a newer edition using a different system I think Gringnr Gringnr can fill you in I bet.
The Butcher said:
Savage Worlds! Man, I miss SW. And I have no idea what's come out for it in the last, I dunno, 5 years.

What else? Cool third party stuff for CoC or Traveller? Any new PbtA or FitD hotness I should be aware of? Kevin Siembieda still promising Mechanoid Space?
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Talislanta got a new edition KS shipping soon.
The Butcher said:
Come rave about your favorite stuff here.
Click to expand...
 
The Butcher said:
Is the OSR still a thing? What's hot right now? Is Jim Raggi still around? Anything putting out new editions (I know ACKS has one in the works) or any new adventure modules not to be missed?
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Yes, the OSR is still a thing, and apparently, we have some hard data now to back that up. Along with a handful of $1,000,000 kickstarters like Shadowdark and Dolmenwood.



As for what hot My How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox did well as a Kickstarter and is about to be released for the general public. But for the really hot, check out Shadowdark, and Dolmenwood along with Matt Finch's Swords & Wizardry stuff.
batintheattic.blogspot.com

The Release of How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox and the Isle of Pyade

The Release With the successful conclusion and fulfillment of my Kickstarter, I am releasing How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox and The Isle of P...
batintheattic.blogspot.com batintheattic.blogspot.com

Jim Raggi is still publishing and even kicked it up a notch along with resuming commentary and editorials.

Just when you thought all the close retro-clones were covered, there is now Old School Essentials, which now covers the B/X side of things alongside Labyrinth Lord.
 


robertsconley said:
Yes, the OSR is still a thing, and apparently, we have some hard data now to back that up. Along with a handful of $1,000,000 kickstarters like Shadowdark and Dolmenwood.
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TBH, if I were ever to go back to playing D&D, it would be a 1st edition AD&D retroclone. Kind of how the only thing that got me away from GURPS was Mongoose Traveller. Those 2d6 called and I answered....
 
The market is still pretty fragmented so you'll get lots of different observations. For me the big news is the announcement of a new edition of The Laundry RPG and lots of new books on the way for Advanced Fighting Fantasy.
 
Mythic Babylon was 2021, so...

On the Design Mechanism front, they have added Casting the Runes, not Mythras, but a neat kind of "not" Call of Cthulhu occult RPG.
They released Mythic Polynesia to some drama. Pretty neat setting, but some perhaps dated information about some of the cultures covered led to the drama with calls for beheadings from the usual places.
I think also some additions to the Mythic Britain line.


OSR update

Shadow Dark seems to be the latest OSR darling having had a very successful kickstarter last spring / summer.

Old School Essentials and Dungeon Crawl Classics are still cruising along.

Flatland Games who did Beyond the Wall, have added Grizzled Adventurers which focuses on old broken down adventurers thinking about retirement instead of young ones on their first, as well as Through Sunken Lands, a S&S inspired game.

I'll throw in a plug for Ghastly Affair even though it was around prior to 2021 just because it is a bitchin' gothic horror / romance OSR based game and more people should be playing it. :grin:


System agnostic but with an obvious OSR influence, I'll include Into the Wyrd and Wild, sort of a wilderness guide for RPGs. A follow on is a guide to urban adventures with Into the Cess and Citidel. Both have a very neat take on malign, almost sentient environments that really don't care for outsiders. I found these fun just to read and look forward to getting a chance to use them.


What's going on in CoC

I think the big ones have been the reprint of a bunch of 1st edition material, Regency Cthulhu (Jane Austen meets HPL), and most recently a new Arkham setting book.
Regency Cthulhu seems like an odd one, but its kind of neat being a quite distinct time period. Later than the middle ages / renaissance period of most European fantasy and earlier than the all to often steampunked Victorian era (or Cthulhu by Gaslight). Mechanically it includes a new system for managing social standing.


and an unrequested freebie

Free League's Vassen (2022) a Nordic supernatural horror RPG, although with the addition of a Mythic Britain and Ireland book (2023), make it a bit less Nordic focused. Again sort of a "not" Call of Cthulhu game.


As you may take with my mention of Ghastly Affair, Regency Cthulhu, Casting the Runes and Vassen I've been on a bit of a gothic horror kick. Well they have inspired me to read a lot of classic 1700s-1900s horror for ideas anyway.
 
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Biggest new you likely missed: Far West actually shipped! Just don't ask me if it's actually any good. I wouldn't know.

And the WEG D6 system was revived via a game called Carbon Grey, which is actually pretty good but I think most people either slept on it or else just plain missed it.

I haven't seen all that much come out for Mythras lately (maybe I'm out of the loop too), but RuneQuest has been chugging along at a decent clip.

Traveller has had quite a lot released for it, and I've personally fallen behind on keeping up with it. The stand out in my mind is that Secrets of the Ancients has been blown out into three full campaigns. The new titles are Wrath of the Ancients and Mysteries of the Ancients. Much of the core material has also been updated and rereleased, but not as as entirely new versions. Mongoose 2e is still 2e. Just updated.

Fate has pretty much stopped being anyone's darling, including Evil Hat's - who now focus on Powered by the Apocalypse games. Fred Hicks (and co) is actively pissing off the entire fandom of Tomb Raider right now by "fixing" Lara Croft's "colonialist past" for an upcoming Tomb Raider rpg. That's proven to be the source of a lot of fun these past few days as people go nuclear then take to social media to scream about it.

In the Indie space, a company called Two Little Mice has been releasing some awesome stuff if high action / cinema is at all your thing. Their latest offering is a game known as Outgunned, which is designed to emulate everything from Die Hard to John Wick and anything with lots of gun play, car chases and explosions.

That's all I can think of right now. I'll likely be back to add more notes as I think of them :smile:
 
The Butcher said:
I know the title might come across as horribly lazy and self-indulgent on my part, so no pressure on anyone to respond. But I'm curious about a few things and if any Pub regulars feel like filling me in on my old faves, I'm your very appreciative huckleberry.

What's been released, and what's in the pipeline, for our hopefully perennial darling, Mythras? I dropped off the hobby circa Mythic Babylon.

Is the OSR still a thing? What's hot right now? Is Jim Raggi still around? Anything putting out new editions (I know ACKS has one in the works) or any new adventure modules not to be missed?

Zweihänder is getting a new edition? Hopefully one with less bells and whistles, though the skeptic in me has his doubts.

Savage Worlds! Man, I miss SW. And I have no idea what's come out for it in the last, I dunno, 5 years.

What else? Cool third party stuff for CoC or Traveller? Any new PbtA or FitD hotness I should be aware of? Kevin Siembieda still promising Mechanoid Space?

Come rave about your favorite stuff here.
Click to expand...

Bunch said:
ACKS had a second edition Kickstarter I think. Didn't go in on it so can't say more than that

It's got a revised edition and is getting a newer edition using a different system I think Gringnr Gringnr can fill you in I bet.

Talislanta got a new edition KS shipping soon.
Click to expand...

Zweihander Reforged has successfully Kickstarted. It's supposed to be fully backwards compatible with all previous iterations. It's supposed to be less bloated and overwritten. It will feature mechanical changes. The Zweihander Discord is the best place to get the info, and there are plenty of sneak peeks at the mechanics there. Apparently, Reforged will build upon the foundations laid by the Zweihander Starter Set.
 
Marvel put out a new game. It's not great. Star Trek Adventures (2d20) is getting a new edition, and so is 13th Age. Pbta continues at a pace with a lot of power. I don't know of anything in the pipe specifically though. WOTC has continued to make IP mistakes toward gamers, what else is new? Fate seems to be on the downturn a bit, haven't seen anything really new for it. I admit though I am a bit out of the loop on it, but it seems people are leaning toward Pbta or FitD instead of Fate these days.

OSR contines to OSR with more and more "We liked D&D but..." Shadowdark was considered good, and modern despite that. the Borg series of games has continued as well. Sinless is out, no word on Subversion (or on anything big from Catalyse for Shadowrun, I don't know about Battletech though.)
 
Simlasa said:
Raggi is still predicting the LotFP Referee Book is close at hand...
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Tulpa Girl said:
I wonder if Sharka finally releasing Far West actually spurred Raggi to get off his ass in finishing up and releasing the Referee Book.
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...what are you talking about, people:shock:? LotFP's Referee book is exactly the title that got me to pay any attention* to the OSR!


*And to subsequent attempts to use the system, and "maybe make it work somehow"...but I'm not blaming neither Raggi nor the OSR for the failure of those campaigns. It was my own (and bloody stupid to boot) decision to try and make it work when the engine clearly couldn't do what I'm asking of it:thumbsup:!
 
Big news from my POV

New Laundry Files game on KS that dropped BRP.
New Edition of The 23rd Letter coming out
Coriolis by Free League has gotten a sequel that is either horrifying fans of The 3rd Horizon or delighting them.
Moria for TOR is nearly finished
D&D and WotC have never been more irrelevant to the industry as a whole while also hoarding all of the money
It's been a slow month for Free League as they haven't announced a huge IP licensing deal in AGES.
 
Oh and there's this whole Mörk thing going on.

Dungeon Crawl Classics is strong and putting out new modules still. Goodman Games has also been releasing the classic D&D modules. They recently re released The Dark Tower to mark the passing of Jenell Jaquays.
 
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Kobayashi said:
I haven't read the big campaign book for Raiders of R'lyeh but it looks cool as well.
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It's really cool, I am planning to run it at some point, and it's a very good sandbox in my book, though I'd probably have to do additional research for my goals:thumbsup:.

OTOH, it's fighting for a place in the queue with hefty competition like Dark Sun Mythras, and the next slot is already determined:grin:!
 
Savage Schemer said:
Biggest new you likely missed: Far West actually shipped! Just don't ask me if it's actually any good. I wouldn't know.

And the WEG D6 system was revived via a game called Carbon Grey, which is actually pretty good but I think most people either slept on it or else just plain missed it.

I haven't seen all that much come out for Mythras lately (maybe I'm out of the loop too), but RuneQuest has been chugging along at a decent clip.

Traveller has had quite a lot released for it, and I've personally fallen behind on keeping up with it. The stand out in my mind is that Secrets of the Ancients has been blown out into three full campaigns. The new titles are Wrath of the Ancients and Mysteries of the Ancients. Much of the core material has also been updated and rereleased, but not as as entirely new versions. Mongoose 2e is still 2e. Just updated.

Fate has pretty much stopped being anyone's darling, including Evil Hat's - who now focus on Powered by the Apocalypse games. Fred Hicks (and co) is actively pissing off the entire fandom of Tomb Raider right now by "fixing" Lara Croft's "colonialist past" for an upcoming Tomb Raider rpg. That's proven to be the source of a lot of fun these past few days as people go nuclear then take to social media to scream about it.

In the Indie space, a company called Two Little Mice has been releasing some awesome stuff if high action / cinema is at all your thing. Their latest offering is a game known as Outgunned, which is designed to emulate everything from Die Hard to John Wick and anything with lots of gun play, car chases and explosions.

That's all I can think of right now. I'll likely be back to add more notes as I think of them :smile:
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Speaking of Carbon Grey…

By the same company this will also use a version of the WEG Star Wars d6 system

icv2.com

'Planet of the Apes Role-Playing Game'

With Minis, from Magnetic Press
icv2.com icv2.com
 
  • Tunnels & Trolls is in limbo with its current owner.
  • The biggest producers of T&T/M!M!/KS!KS! products are showcasing art of questionable provenance.
  • In terms of creative output, community management, women still lead the way by far, in terms of quality.

In other words, much of the last 45+ years all at once for our convenience.


(Speaking of years, given the nature of Internet truth and the quality and love dedicated to their products, I expect Glorantha to join Arthur's Camelot, Atlantis and Noah's Ark within the next 5 decades. If we make another 100 years, it will have Troy-status)
 
The Butcher said:
What's been released, and what's in the pipeline, for our hopefully perennial darling, Mythras? I dropped off the hobby circa Mythic Babylon.
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Destined, their superheroes gig, came out. It's the best version of mythras I think. Definitely some modern influences, and I've run and played it a fair bit. There are a number of small additions that really make it shine, and the formatting is top notch. It does still have the house font that we love to complain about, but it also has some new fonts that greatly increase readability. There is an adventure for this coming out this month.

Mythras factions and book of schemes came out. The former is how to run an organization as a character, essentially, and the latter how to do a number of interesting... schemes... to further the goals of an organization. The latter includes a mini setting that is similar to 15th century <insert place he forgot>.

Last year they released classic fantasy imperative and mythras imperative as ORC content. There is a big thread on ORC on here, which was also while you have been out. Essentially, a WOTC proof OGL. Please refer to other lengthy threads for full explanations.

The former imperative is quite lengthy and more than enough (with the help of the MEG) to run classic d&d style games. It has four classes, many edits, and some new stuff that slightly changes it. Definitely some modern influences in it now.

The latter is most of the content you probably know from the previous version, but includes vehicle rules and a few other adds. It does have more creatures than the previous one.

Both of these I've put online at https://srd.mythras.net and https://cfi-srd.mythras.net respectively. They've been extensively edited by another fan for any minor issues that have cropped up and are really in their best forms.

I'm working on a French one (I have the doc for the French publisher, I need to split it) and a Spanish one (fans translating) for core Mythras. I'll likely work on these while on travel because evenings at home tend to be consumed with family activities (aging parents, kid in his prime of activities) or Helldivers 2 (managed democracy is our way of life).

As a side note, I also put up https://brpugesrd.xyz as Chaosium released their stuff under the ORC license. Less editing has gone into that, but it has some. There is a fan who is willing to do the work, but they are waiting for chaosium to release the errata fully.

Between these three SRDs and OpenQuest's, there is really a surfeit of d100 hackability. Many hundreds of pages of work there.
 
Oh yes, all you need to know about the OGL fiasco, is that in an alternate world, it was all a plan by WOTC to convince other creators to spend 100s of precious hours and $$$ on legal stuff creating their own new initiatives, licensing agreements with funky names, thereby permanently hobbling their own brands and schedules. Then, when WOTC switched back, accepting their own losses without affecting their own staff, because their board and institutional shareholders still value their own inhouse and freelance talent and customer base.
(Alternate world? Maybe crack-fantasy...)

And people still play Dragonquest, or talk about it on FB.
 
Savage Worlds has Fantasy, Super Powers, and Horror Companions out, with Science-Fiction on the way. There is a new print run of the core book coming out, and a player-centric digest version.

There's a new Basic Role-Playing with an ORC license. CoC keeps chugging away. Some of the old stuff like Superworld and stuff is now available in PDF form.

Warhammer 4e is reputed to be at least as good as 2e.

Talislanta has a new version which supposedly has some nice, unified mechanics after many editions, but has weird CG art.

Pathfinder 2e has pulled away from the OGL, and so there is a new Remastered version, which is ORC-licensed, with some minor revisions.

Marvel Super-Heroes clones are starting to be a thing.
 
The Butcher said:
What's been released, and what's in the pipeline, for our hopefully perennial darling, Mythras? I dropped off the hobby circa Mythic Babylon.
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Mythras put out a superhero adaptation of the system called Destined that, even if you have no interest in supers (or like myself prefer a different system for supers) features a ton of options for customizing any Mythras game, so I highly recommend it. There was also Mythic Polynesia, which had some issues and some drama that never really got resolved. A search will turn up a big thread on it here. They also released Mythras Fantasy Imperative under the ORC license.


The Butcher said:
Is the OSR still a thing?
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Yes and no: the renaissance or old school movement I think is over. But there are still several successful OSR games that are creating content under that label. Someone besides myself will know what the highlights there are.



The Butcher said:
What's hot right now?
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The're a lot of Blade sin the Dark clones I'm seeing, to the point it seems to have overtaken AW as the "new hotness". I've mostly stayed away. I see a lot of Open License Mork Borg stuff as well.



The Butcher said:
Is Jim Raggi still around?
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Yup. He is trying his best to deal with his blacklist I guess, which recently led to him losing his North American distributer. A lot of shirtless rants on Youtube.

The Butcher said:
Zweihänder is getting a new edition? Hopefully one with less bells and whistles, though the skeptic in me has his doubts.
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Fox is trying desperately to try and acquire relevance, most of the online communities are onto his game by now though, so he's generally ostracized. He recently decided to about face in his "ideals" again and is now associating with the BROSR.


The Butcher said:
Savage Worlds! Man, I miss SW. And I have no idea what's come out for it in the last, I dunno, 5 years.
Click to expand...

Neither do I. It's a solid game, but havent heard much about it recently. Last Savage World product I got was The Goon RPG.


The Butcher said:
What else? Cool third party stuff for CoC or Traveller? Any new PbtA or FitD hotness I should be aware of? Kevin Siembieda still promising Mechanoid Space?

Come rave about your favorite stuff here.
Click to expand...

Trevor Devall of Me, Myself and Die ( Devil Devil here at The Pub) has put together his own RPG which is being featured in the latest system ahead of an upcoming Kickstarter.

Free League's Alien RPG continues to have a top-quality gameline. I havent looked at their Bladerunner RPG yet, but mildly tempted.

A fan translation project of the Japanese Dark Souls RPG (as opposed to the godawful 5e version we unfortunately got in English) is underway by a number of channers. I'm happy about that.

There's been discussions of a Kingdom Death RPG.

I dunno why I'm even trying to answer this, honestly, I'm so out of the loop and generally disinterested in new stuff TBH
 
One thing you might have missed is that Osprey has gotten into the RPG market. They've put out a number over the last 5 years: Romance of the Perilous Land, Paleomythic, Jackals, Righteous Blood, Ruthless Blades, Hard City, Sigil & Shadow, and several more. There's no 'house engine' and so it's a fairly wide range of designs and subjects. The books are pretty and the games variable in quality, I would say.
 
The few Rifts for Savage Worlds books that had been published for Savage Worlds Deluxe Explorer's Edition have been revised for Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (aka SWADE) and more books have been published for the line now. Although the line is officially called Rifts for Savage Worlds, most folks just call it Savage Rifts. My favorites of the various Savage Rifts books are Blood and Banes and Arcana and Mysticism, because they have the most horror stuff.

Recently a Savaged Rifts boxed set called Terror on the Dark Frontier came out, which includes four books, two fold out maps, and a bunch of sturdy cardboard pawns.

As others have mentioned, the Super Powers Companion, Fantasy Companion, and Horror Companion have all been revised for SWADE. I have the new Super Powers Companion and Horror Companion and like them. Probably won't get the Fantasy Companion because I don't care about it.
 
E-Rocker said:
The few Rifts for Savage Worlds books that had been published for Savage Worlds Deluxe Explorer's Edition have been revised for Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (aka SWADE) and more books have been published for the line now. Although the line is officially called Rifts for Savage Worlds, most folks just call it Savage Rifts. My favorites of the various Savage Rifts books are Blood and Banes and Arcana and Mysticism, because they have the most horror stuff.

Recently a Savaged Rifts boxed set called Terror on the Dark Frontier came out, which includes four books, two fold out maps, and a bunch of sturdy cardboard pawns.

As others have mentioned, the Super Powers Companion, Fantasy Companion, and Horror Companion have all been revised for SWADE. I have the new Super Powers Companion and Horror Companion and like them. Probably won't get the Fantasy Companion because I don't care about it.
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I did look into Pinnacle's web site and Christ, that's a lot of Rifts material.
 
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