Music.

Okay, ha!

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to Morris' unofficial tabletop RPG talk!

I am Russ, aka Morris, or Morris, aka Russ.

And with me this week is...

PJ Coppy from the Southampton Guild of Roleplayers.

Also, I'm going to hacking tabletop RPG design.

But Russ, as ever, I am delighted to be here.

Joining us also we are just embarrassed quite frankly at our lowly level because we cannot match the awesome that is any award nominated streamer it's the one it's the only it's me jessica from em publishing i have returned yeah we had a terrible problem last week because pj was talking about someone called jessica hancock who wasn't present and i didn't know who who that was until until bj kindly used your actual full legal name any award nominated streamer jessica hancock and i realized.

Oh well okay i'll change that legally then i'll get out my driving license just uh less this confusion happen well maybe what you see is you're in the books because you might have to change it again after that well i i don't think i will win but that's okay being nominated is very exciting because if you look at all the other people that were nominated in that category it's very nice to sit at a table with those people um i believe voting is now closed for the ne's is that correct i i did vote for you last sunday oh thank you yeah thank you you have at least one vote i can tell you that for sure well you and my mom that's good oh three votes How soon do you vote for yourself?

What can't?

Four votes.

Are you allowed to do that?

Did you not?

No, just the three votes then.

If you lose out by one vote, you will be forever kicking yourself.

I don't think that will be the case.

I know it's very exciting.

And we'll obviously announce the award winners.

Is that next week, I believe?

Is that next week?

God, I don't even know.

Yes, it's nearly the end of July now, isn't it?

Yeah, it's coming along.

Yeah, Gen Con is Thursday, 31st of July to Sunday, 3rd of August.

And I believe it's the Thursday evening they have the NE Awards ceremonies.

So we'll find out then.

The Friday night is when they have the NEs.

Well, I just lied to everybody then.

I'm so sorry.

You just lied.

Yes.

I'm not attending in person.

I was asked to record a video acceptance speech in case I won.

I haven't done that yet, so maybe I should.

You can probably quickly do that just in case.

Okay.

All right.

I will, just because you said.

You never know.

It's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

Exactly.

But you know what?

We're talking about next week's news because we'll probably talk about our speculations on any awards that won't have happened by the time we're recording the podcast next week, next week.

But what are we talking about this week, Russ?

We've got lots of news this week.

We've got lots and lots of Eberron.

We've got Stranger Things.

We've got Forgotten Realms.

We've got Cthulhu, Warframe, Thundercats, Critical Role.

Lots of stuff.

Lots and lots of stuff.

So shall we jump into it?

Yeah, and I've noticed very pleasingly there's a sprinkling of Baldur's Gate 3 as well.

There is.

I knew you'd be pleased.

I knew you'd be pleased.

Okay.

Okay.

But let us start.

Okay.

Everyone because everyone thought of the artichoke or however it was be decided recently Yeah, that's true.

After the future.

After the future.

That's right.

I don't know.

That's been great.

Yeah.

Oh.

Yeah.

It's going to now come out in december 2025 on december the 9th because there was some kind of cover defect in the printing.

Yeah.

So I guess they got their proof copies or whatever and they took one look and went, uh-uh.

Well, I think the issue was with the print run because they recalled the entire print run and are having to reprint it.

Wow.

That is very frustrating.

Yes, that is very frustrating.

Yeah.

Well, do you remember in 2023 or so, Deck of Many Things had a similar problem?

Yes, I do.

I thought you were going to talk about the Gate Pass Gazette 2023, because we also had that from the annual.

Yeah.

We also had quite a bad one with the Judge Dredd core book, I believe.

Yes.

The entire thing had to be scrapped.

It happens.

It happens.

It happens.

But yes, basically all it is, there's a defect in the cover, they pre-called it, and they're now going to be releasing it in December, December the 9th.

Yeah.

I mean, That makes perfect sense.

I'm glad they've got good quality control to catch it.

And if you're reprinting, even if you have all the print files, December would be the date because even if you're printing it now, by the time it finishes printing, then you send it to places it's got to be and then get sent on to all the shops.

December would be that time.

Yeah.

It's just been that Wizards now has a very, very, sort of back-ended release schedule in 2025 now.

They've got a lot coming out in the next three months, all crammed into a really short period of time.

Right.

Well, why don't we talk through what those will be?

Well, we always knew there was an October slot, but we didn't know what was in that slot.

We knew something was coming out in October, and everyone was guessing at what that might be.

What I did not guess is what it was, because there's a starter set coming out soon as we know heroes of the borderlands yes so i was not expecting a box set to fill that october slot but i was wrong oh here we are i was wrong there is a box set filling that october slot and here it is oh the stranger things yes yes welcome to the hellfire club yes i've got a cover looks like it's stranger things three inspired but with it's got the chap who's eddie munson yes yeah it's been a couple of years but yeah um yeah it's got a cartoon style thing going on for the cover so yeah all right yeah it looks very 80s nostalgia dnd i think with some of the pieces inside the box set was that was the goal with it i look at some of those pieces inside as well oh yeah that's if if you're watching the live stream as well which we live stream 2 p.m bst on youtube twitch and facebook every friday if you're listening to the podcast and can't see the images yeah so so what we're looking at here now so we've got the box set but what you can see that it's got it's got a quick start guide it's got five pre-generated characters it's got tokens it's got cards it's got poster maps including a double poster side double-sided poster of Greyhawkins.

Which is, you know, Greyhawkins, and Hawkins is the town that, that stranger things people live in.

So the realm in which these adventures take place, there's four adventures in here.

And they all take place in Greyhawkins.

Of course, it's got the Stranger Things.

You don't like them.

PJ does not prove the pun.

But it also includes Stranger Things monsters.

There's the Demo-Bats and Demo-Dogs.

Demi-Corgan?

I assume so, yeah.

It's not Demi, it's Demo-Corgan.

Demo, yeah.

Oh, sorry.

yeah i i that demy is very very reflectively the way to say it but it's actually demo gorgon because that's the name of the original dnd argore i think some sort of fiend yeah oh guys those are the character sheets and you can see that these are very very very 80s because back in the 80s you would get these sort of yellow paper black and white not black and white you I remember these in the 80s.

So it is very much themed to look like a modern version of an 80s product.

Yeah.

I think it looks really nice.

Yeah, but I can clearly see that there's a black lady on there and she appears to be wearing clothes.

So that's very much not something I'd expect to see on the 80s versions of Dungeons & Dragons stuff.

There were black ladies with clothes in the 80s.

There were black ladies.

In D&D?

Not in the fantasy genre.

not in D&D.

I'm not saying that they were players, I'm saying they weren't represented in the media.

I would think that's correct.

One thing, I think these are the player characters that the characters in the Strange Things TV show play.

So they look a bit, you know, a bit like their interpretation.

So yeah, that would be her character she plays.

Not to be too much spoilers for the TV show.

But yeah, I mean, I know you said you were surprised for us, but it makes perfect sense that they're doing this tie-in product, because Stranger Things final season is in November.

I just didn't expect a box set following a box set as well.

Plus 4 could be surprised.

But it is smart to do the Stranger Things tie-in as a box set because a box set is more accessible.

It feels more like a board game.

And it makes perfect sense.

Yeah.

Well, that's why you don't like it was the coast.

Yeah, you're not got that sort of like business pizzazz.

That specifically is why I don't like it was...

Yeah, yeah, 100%.

Just that.

Yeah, they're like, oh, that Marcy.

He'd never think to do two box sets in a row, you know.

Can't employ him.

We did do two box sets in a row.

We did the Level Up starter box set and the What's Holder's New starter box set in the same year.

We did do that.

So you're saying that Hasbro is imitating your work.

Well, yeah.

I mean, yeah, that's exactly what we're saying.

You came up with the idea of that.

We did.

No one's ever done that before.

A strange intelligence alien far away observing.

I've got a question from the audience here.

Damien James O'Barrell.

Question mostly completely unrelated to anything.

listening to the show's back catalogue and putting together subtle context clues i have to ask why does morris hate digest editions i don't think i do do i i think this may be a reference and i'm happy to be correct to this wrong to how you described that every single book that you that if you had your way has dictator of the world every role-playing book would come in a ero i see truly ludicrous with a truly ludicrous title across the front, which comes from the fact that you're just like shocking bad at naming things.

Yeah.

I mean, that comes more from the fact that I just like absurdist humour.

Yeah, yeah.

So I thought what the most ridiculous product I could think of, yeah.

Really, really long.

Like, people cannot see how far apart my hands are but they are very far apart from these really long titles.

Jessica's nodding with that thousand-yard stare which we've come to know and love.

Yes, I mean, I speak to Russ most days at work and there's a reason why I needed the last week off.

So, you know.

To escape the absurdist humour.

Don't make his low lip quiver.

He's fine.

I think we're going to be having words with HR, I think.

I am HR, you sir.

I am HR, you sir.

What do you do when HR goes bad?

Well, go to a Coldplay concert, I guess.

Oi!

Oh, some of the memes have been fantastic.

Some of the dog memes of that have been amazing.

You've seen some of the dogs doing that.

That is so funny.

No.

I have not.

You should.

I can imagine.

Yeah.

They have to get there.

Anyway, outside of popular music news, what else is happening in the TTRPG news?

Okay.

Well, there are forgotten realms.

We now have the cover of the upcoming two books.

So these appeared on Game Informer, who did a big exclusive article with a big old preview of the Forgotten Realms upcoming books.

A lot of stuff we already knew, and a few other tidbits we didn't.

But the big thing, the big, big thing was the cover.

So we've got two adventures, the final title, so we didn't actually have these titles before.

We've got Adventures in Faerun, which is the Dungeon Master's book.

It's not Faerun.

Faerun.

Yeah, it probably is Faerun, actually.

You're probably right.

It's Faerun.

Yeah, I'm going to go Faerun.

It sounds better.

Heroes of Faerun, which is a player.

Yes.

So, that's the covers.

It's got Karlak and one of them, I think.

I think one of them has a Baldur's Gate person.

Is that correct?

Is one of those a Baldur's Gate person?

Yes, as the resident Baldur's Gate person on the podcast I will say, yes, it features Carlack and Minsk from Baldur's Gate 3 So it's got their artwork style on there And of course Boo, I don't see Boo It's on Minsk's shoulder I see now, the miniature giant space hamster, yes Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, what do you think of the covers?

I mean, I love a Baldur's Gate 3 reference, don't get me wrong.

Having a great time.

And the art style does look different from the usual D&D art covers.

It looks a bit more 3D, like animated style.

I do like the Forgotten Realms Adventures in Faerun cover.

It's got like a magic user standing with their arms apart, casting magic.

But in the background, it looks to be there's perhaps a beholder or a spectator, I think.

And then there's a mind flare on the floor so there's lots of stuff going on in the background of the adventures in fae rune and that also feels a bit boulder's gate 3 not to be too, spoilers but there's lots of creatures that you explore in the game there as well so i think this feels very friendly for someone that's played boulder's gate 3 and is like maybe i'll give this real dnd a try and maybe that's the intent with the covers well they go off brand because they've got a different brand and look and we're missing like the big dnd logo on them oh yeah i didn't notice that actually yeah yeah there's no dnd logo on there well yeah i they just got dungeons and dragons with the classic ampersand but it's in white as opposed to red so like it's a choice you can mess around with your branding if you like not one i'd make if you've got such a solidly built one but again i don't work for dungeons and dragons because you know i'm just a curmudgeon that way the cover layer has changed for 2024 though hasn't true true true.

Yeah i don't i think maybe i'm just not recognizing the new visual grammar and how they look they look also quite different from each other the forgotten realms which is apparently a dungeon master expansion it looks like a magic the gathering card to me that's a compliment, yeah actually it's good looking but it isn't dnd like that's not the brand i associated with i see that i think magic the gathering um everyone forged of the artifice and it's the same style, so that's that's the new that's how they do it now okay okay well i suppose that is good so you can differentiate between the 2024 and the 2014 books i guess so at a glance it'll be easy yeah I guess so, why would you need to do that they're all the same addition.

Pj yeah put that big ladle stirring spoon down take it out the pot oh okay i i i need to sit to feed my handbag full of kittens all right uh yeah and and the cover of heroes of fae run is a different heart style um i'm trying to put my finger on exactly like it's not computer game on the graphics but slightly older computer game graphics it looks like the advertisements for older computer games i'll definitely concede you yeah because it's like when they got artists to draw a picture of what the game would look like as opposed to the picks the 16 or 8-bit contents of what was inside so yeah i mean it's not a bad cover like yeah it's a i'm not like 100 on, what's going on apart from the fact that they're walking down a hill, maybe?

Yeah.

I mean, I'm a bit confused by the choice of characters.

They have Carlack and Mintz there, but there's two other characters that I don't recognise One of them is Carl Axel, which is Drow from Menzo Baranzan.

Okay, that makes sense.

That's a bottom-right character.

I don't know who the other one is.

Yeah.

Presumably someone else that we'd recognise from somewhere else.

Looks like a black guy with a bird-headed staff and he's got some sort of blue lasers floating, swirling around.

A magic user for sure.

Yeah, I was just intrigued as to why the heroes of, you know, because these are the heroes of Faerun, which is fair enough, and Carlang and Minsk, if you finish the game, absolutely are.

But there's lots of others there and I was intrigued that why those two have been the ones that are picked out of the lineup.

Because I would have thought, I'm trying not to give too many Baldur's Gate 3 spoilers away, but Will should surely be on there as well.

Like, if you're picking out a hero, he's the Blade of Frontiers.

Unless they're trying to tie things in with other stuff that's coming out.

So maybe...

Baldur's Gate Waterdeep.

Well, sorry, I'm agreeing with your point and seeing if maybe there's something that we could draw from it.

So perhaps there's, I don't know...

There's a Menzo Branson box set coming, or something.

Yeah, it could be.

Maybe it's like half Water's Gate, half Water's Gate, or maybe the guys from Ten Towns or something.

I don't know.

Ah, here we go.

The person in the background with the staff is a woman, Vajra Svar, S-A-F-A-H-R, who served as the Black Staff in Waterdeep since the late 4E era.

She's also on the new Monster Manual cover with Minsk.

There we go.

Ah, okay.

There we go.

So it's a Water's Gate, Waterdeep.

Crossover edition, which is a player expansion.

Yeah.

So I guess that will have the archetypes, subclasses, whatever you want to call them.

New feats, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Yeah, and the Dungeon Master 1 has details on various regions and setting-based information.

And super monsters, I imagine.

Yeah, maybe some bits for bastions, perhaps?

Or would that be need more players.

Now, I think they need like bosses for players, now I can't think of it.

Yeah, yeah.

But that's not all the news concerning these forgotten rounds books oh i know, do you want to do this next bit jess since it features your favorite favorite topic in all the world well i mean we've already i feel like we've already been discussing it but yes certainly so the forgotten rounds books have loads of digital dlcs and one does feature a character from boulders gate 3 which is the starian which if you look online the online community he is a big fan favourite online.

But yeah, I mean, that's the main highlight of the news.

Yeah, so this is going to be called Astarian's Book of Hungers.

And it's going to focus on urban vampire adventures.

Vampire.

Vampire.

I mean, this is just one.

This is just one of several DLCs that are going to come.

So it's going to be digital-only content presumably available on dnd beyond i guess and that's an example of one but there will be others there will be others maybe there'll be others for the different companion characters if they're going to tie into boulderscape 3 because it seems they're leaning into that, quite heavily at the moment with a lot of new books like we've seen glimpses of in-character art in different books and now the covers so yeah maybe that would make sense to me if they did a little expansion for each character.

I'd love that.

Yeah, tell me more about Minzara, please.

I can't.

I know you can't, because we haven't got back to playing yet.

Probably from Menzo Beranzan.

She is, yes.

I know some of her backstory, but yes.

I'm talking about Menzo Beranzan.

Mm-hmm.

I don't know.

Maybe they'll tell us about that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Anyway, so that's our Forgotten Realms news for the week.

I'm glad we remembered to talk about it.

That where?

That old joke.

Sorry.

Listen, I love the jokes that get funnier with repetition.

You deny this, but you keep making the same track.

That's why I'm nominated and not award-winning, so.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, anyway.

What else have we got?

What else have we got?

This is something I can very much about.

As many, oh, not that.

That's a starian.

That is a starian.

That is war brain.

Hurrah.

I take it I am the person who has played it.

I have not even heard of it, so.

Oh, yeah.

I haven't played it pj do you want to introduce it yeah so i haven't played like a lot of it not hugely my sort of game um and it has been a couple of years but i did actually recognize the name and how does that have actually indulged it's like sort of a memorial pucker like massively multiplayer online role-playing game for those who missed abbreviation in the past and you got like a lot of stuff going on with it and i didn't really understand a lot of what i was looking at but you are essentially like i think you're a person in a mech suit and you're going off doing missions and yeah it's like it's i found it i found it quite repetitive uh but the idea is that one grinds it a lot and that you increase the power of your mech and it is good so i guess There was clearly some, quote, more, unquote, going on.

But quite frankly, I found it I was struggling a bit too following past all the blinking lights.

I looked at the Wikipedia page.

And these mech suits they call and the Wapenwarpers biomechanical combat units.

Wow.

So, yeah, and that's what a Warframe is, but I guess it's basically just a suit you wear, I guess.

I guess.

Very customizable sounds like, though.

Yeah, but the important thing here is there is a partnership with Paizo, and they're making a Starfinder adventure based on Warframe called Operation Orius.

Yeah.

Starfinder X Warframe is how they got it branded.

So this will be a role-playing game, not a digital game.

Because obviously Warframe is a video game.

Yeah, correct.

Okay, got it.

So you can try it out at GenCon at Paizo's booth if you're there next week.

Otherwise, it's coming out later this year.

October, I believe.

Yes, October 2025.

And it is a tabletop game.

I think it's an adventure.

It's not a game.

It's a Starfinder adventure, I believe.

But it's not 100% clear.

But 100% clear.

Yeah, well, in which case, that's the perfect bit, because that was my experience playing Warframe.

There was a lot of stuff going on.

I was not 100% clear on what was going on.

Probably just because I'm a bit slow.

So there we go.

But yeah, it was because I got a friend who sunk countless hours into it.

Very large numbers.

Yeah, there we go.

And it's free to play.

So I didn't feel that I didn't get my Maze worth out of it.

I'll tell you that.

Can't argue with that price point, can you?

No.

But it did consume a truly enormous amount of disk space.

Like, such an amount of disk space that Baldur's Gate 3 looks quite small in comparison.

Wow.

What a statement.

I know, yeah.

All right.

Next.

Ooh.

So, we have got from Mike Lowe, who used to be lead designer over on Dumbass and Dragons 5e, who now works for Chaosium, who may call him Cthulhu, and it looks like he's brokered a kind of collaboration between his current and past employers.

Now, over on D&D Beyond, you can pick up a 5e-powered succulent called Cthulhu by Torchlight.

That's a halt.

Battling the Cthulhu mythos with swords and spells?

Correct.

What?

Yeah, so what this contains is a new subclass for each of the main character classes in the player's handbook, a couple dozen Mythos-themed spells, a new background, new origin feats, 20-plus monsters from the Cthulhu Mythos, and rules for passions and dreadful insights, as long as skill challenge rules, which provide a framework for investigation, interaction, and other non-combat encounters.

Okay.

There we go.

Shall I jump in and say it?

Sure.

I don't think 5e is the rule set I would go to run a Cthulhu game.

Because in Cthulhu, the story is you want to be a normal person uncovering something of unimaginable power and scale and with the threat that it might just backhand you and you die.

And it's very investigative.

And I don't think the 5e rule set supports that frame of play style.

It was a 3E Call of Cthulhu edition.

So it was powered by D&D 3.5 at the time.

Yes.

And it was a whole edition, big hardback cover, whole edition of Call of Cthulhu, not just a supplement which introduced some elements.

It was a whole edition of the game.

I never played it.

I can't imagine how that particularly worked well.

Yeah.

I mean, they're not wildly opposed.

The D100s, the D20s.

they are pretty similar so much ero to hear both it's just pretty much not that is it I mean I just what is the real, thematic tonal difference between Cthulhu by Torchlight as a Ravenloft how it should be run.

I'll tell you something I'll tell you something DJ put down the wooden spoon like put it down, this week jeez you're in a fucking mood today i i when is pj not in a sassy mood, but i i get why they've done this because like obviously a lot of people like playing 5e and maybe it's going to introduce them to that setting that well if you are looking at this not play cthulhu i would recommend there's probably other systems that would better support the time story you're going to tell but you know that's just me banging my drum me with the not dnd podcast in the corner, so.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Laundry, got a second edition out.

Delta Green by Death to Twitter.

There's a modern-day version in America.

The many Chaosium Cthulhu games, you know?

Yeah, basic role-playing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, I'm sort of interested to see what they make of a shock of, because I imagine that's going to be a cheery boy tune.

It doesn't actually say Call of Cthulhu, though, does it?

Although it is by Chaosium who produced Call of Cthulhu, it's not branded Call of Cthulhu.

Oh, because it's not Call of Cthulhu.

No, it's Cthulhu by Churchlight.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think fighting Cthulhu in 5e would feel very different because say I'm a warlock, I've already got a pact with a patron, I've got abilities to do spells and things like that.

So some giant beast that has this that I'm fighting, I'm like, sure, bring it on.

If I'm playing Call of Cthulhu, I'm a librarian.

You know in mythological figures and maleficent monsters we publish stats for Cthulhu so we shouldn't throw too many stones really we made we made a 5D powered Cthulhu and once you've given it stats players can kill it that's the rules that's how it works yeah but that's one it could have stats in Call of Cthulhu as well but as I recall famously it ate D4 adventurers per turn, yeah or D4 investigating I do believe on yes As long as you're not an investigator, you're fine.

I'm afraid that's what we call the player characters.

If you're a maker or a candlestick maker, you're fine.

But if you do any investigating, if you even look in a cupboard to find something...

I'm afraid it's like, you know, people are going to probably complain.

Oh yeah, Trail of Capulet by Pelgring Press.

Thank you, Doika.

Much appreciated.

Yeah, like, if you have like a D&D game and it's like, okay, what happens?

Well d4 okay you you you and you cthulhu grabs you up steps you in a laugh and choose you okay what saving throw do you make ah i need you to roll no 3d6 six times i just i just want a different feel from a game when i'm playing something like dnd i want to feel like a big powerful hero when i'm playing ball of cthulhu i want to be a person who is small and afraid, and they're just different vibes yeah yeah but anyway, if that if you disagree, this is available for you yeah yeah so.

There's room for everything in the hobby I do I do like a good monster I'd love to see what they've done with um the old shut off as I say, I'm interested I'll probably grab it just to look at it out of curiosity I don't know how much you should ever get out of it but I might I might grab it just to look at it just because I'm like you're curious what they've done with the monsters and things yeah like how what are the mechanical rules for tickling as the nightgorn famously does it grabs you with its big bat and it flies away and its big bat light wings tickling you, But also, think about it this way.

This has just occurred to me.

Stranger Things box set coming up.

And this is basically a sort of mythos horror themed expansion for D&D.

It's probably a good tie-in.

You probably find that it might be useful alongside that Stranger Things box set.

Yeah, I'll be interested also to see what they do with things like mental stress and insanities, which are very important parts of Coral Cthulhu, but which were not last time I looked, which was getting on for something like 10-15 years ago, not hugely well done.

And the stigma around mental health is a big problem, so hopefully they've spent some of that Hasbro money, splashed some cash.

Passions and dreadful insights, which might be the replacement of that.

Dreadful insight, yes.

But I couldn't tell you for sure.

Yes, special insights into the way the board is made Yeah, Alright then, next topic I'm quite excited about this one Oh yeah, I know it's coming up I can see, yeah If I say the word thunder to you Thunder comes to mind, Thunder Thunder.

There is going to be A Thundercats table talk role playing game, An official one And that has caused me to listen to the theme song To Thundercats Approximately one million times this week Wow I know, it's stuck in my head It's a proper earworm now Do you feel the magic though?

I feel the magic Thundercats No, I won't So I think I'm going to sing Jessica is smiling And the old people are talking again That's fine I was born in the 80s, PJ, don't forget But did you watch Fondercats?

No, I was more of a biker mice from Mars kind of girl Oh, Fair enough.

It's not an either-or situation.

I mean, you have limited time.

Yeah.

I didn't have all the channels in the UK.

It's interesting to have limited time in the 80s with all those responsibilities.

I remember in the UK when we got Channel 4 and then when we got Channel 5, and that was, like, groundbreaking.

You had five channels to choose from at one time.

Amazing, wasn't it?

Madness.

Amazing.

Anyway, Thundercats.

So, this was announced at the San Diego Comic Con by Dynamite Entertainment.

Yes.

We're partnering with Linvander Studios to make the official Thundercats TTRPG, which will be a 250-page rulebook of characters from the cartoon show and comic books.

It's going to be 5E-powered, I understand.

Okay, yeah.

And that doesn't, that makes a bit more sense with this theme for me.

I'm like, I don't feel, these are like powerful heroes that can do stuff.

So I'm like, fair enough.

It's not the worst idea.

It means people will at least be able to give it a go.

I don't like the cover.

No?

Why not?

It's got Thundercats on it.

It does have Thundercats, but they're wrong.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, they're not wrong, but it's like they're drawn in a different style to the cartoon.

Oh, okay.

I think it got more of, I'd say probably more of like the manga slash anime style.

But it's also based on the comic books.

And also there was an anime reboot of the show as well.

So maybe it's more based on that than the original 18s.

But I don't know for sure.

No, but that's just my immediate reaction.

So, I mean, they're not bad.

It's not terrible.

Did you want the nostalgia hit though?

You wanted the classic, the classic art style.

Yeah.

And like, Snarf just like, has less snout than I expect.

Snarf being like, the little thing in the front left corner, which is pointing directly at the viewer.

Mm-hmm.

Like, it's basically like a nanny for the, okay, because like, yeah, whether I pause to explain what Lion-O is, who's basically...

Are they cats?

Are they actually cats?

Cat-like.

They're like, they're like, they're like, they're like, they're like, they're like, cats, I suppose.

There's only one ironclad test, which is to put them up somewhere high with a vase next to a cliff edge and see what the results are.

Exactly.

If it didn't go off the edge, then definitely not cats.

And if it does, then you know, or get a sunbeam to shine down on them.

If they immediately lie down and fall asleep, then you know they are cats.

That's a good way to find out.

If only Mumra had known that.

Yeah, I was Mumra a ancient wizard or was he someone with access to nanobots and had become delusional over immense periods of time he was a mummy he was a mummy wasn't he well yes part of the time and part of the time he was super buff flying sorcerer right yeah or was it but again we're living in a world where you have like how do you put them sort of like.

Burbies with the fur stripped off kind of robot teddy bears that live in a village.

Has medieval peasants and you have people on jet bikes flying in from space to add stuff while you also have potentially magic.

So how much of this is magic?

How much of this is, I mean, I guess, how much of it is technology?

Is it the same universe as He-Man and the masters of the universe or is it totally separate?

I don't have the same vibes about the way it works, but I don't know.

I'm not an expert on the show.

I assumed they were separate.

But if in the comments you know more about this, please tell us.

I was always confused about Skeletor.

Is he a skeleton or not?

Because he's got a really sort of like butt human body, but then a skeleton head.

So he's not a skeleton from the neck down.

It's just his head.

Well, look, you've got the Crimson Skull in the Marvel Universe.

It's just like a chap with a skull for a head.

And he's probably a person as opposed to a skeleton.

So there you go.

Yes.

I mean, we're all skeletons, really.

I'm not saying skeletons are not people.

I'm just...

Well, we all have skeletons, hopefully, here.

Maybe he just went for a chemical peel and it went wrong or something, you know?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Turn the dial up a little too high.

Yeah.

That's the best of us.

Exactly.

Too much skincare.

It's what happens if you use retinol and go in the sun.

So, Fundercats, do we have any other information over there?

It's 5D-based?

No, it's coming to Kickstarter soon.

I imagine more information will start tripling out over the coming weeks.

And I don't know when it goes live, but there is a coming soon page on Kickstarter already.

Okay.

It's going to be crowdfunded.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Nice.

Very nice.

Very nice.

Was there a Masters of the Universe role-playing game or not?

Yes.

There was Transformers and G.I.

Joe in the last couple of years by Renegade Games Studios.

Ah.

Is there a modern Masters of the Universe game?

I don't know.

Yeah.

Was there as part of that sort of clutch of stuff that was done in the last few years by Renegade?

Was?

Maybe not.

I'm not sure.

I don't remember hearing about it, because I'm pretty sure we'd have been more excited about He-Man, the role-playing game, or She-Ra.

That would have got a lot of people very excited.

But then again, I don't have a He-Man sword, but I do have a Thundercat sword.

That's true.

I have to sword.

Sword of Obens is iconic.

Mm-hmm.

Wow.

Anyway.

Anyway, anyway, anyway.

Lots of Freudian metaphor in that show.

In He-Man?

Moving on.

In Thundercats.

Right.

I would say in He-Man possibly too.

Especially with the Sword of Obens.

Anyway.

We don't have time to psychologically analyse the ATs.

So let's move on to TTRPG News.

Let's not.

We do a lot less cocaine now.

That'll be our other podcast.

We do significantly less cocaine.

We cannot share that frame of reference.

It was a different time.

It was a different time.

Anyway, what else happened this week, Ross?

A critical role.

I've announced video game development plans.

I feel like I've heard this before, but not in detail.

Well, they're probably with ad hoc studios.

I don't know if you've ever heard of them.

I'm not, I don't know video game studios, so I couldn't tell you, but they are making multiple projects.

We don't know the details of them all.

At least one of them will be set in Exandria, which is setting for their main live stream show.

And it's going to be based on AdHoc's upcoming Dispatch game, again, which I don't really know anything about.

So this is kind of you know when you start going into video games this is where I start going what, so it's very early superhero workplace comedy game superhero workplace comedy game so you have to decide which heroes are sent to manage emergencies in a city, So it's not like a big AAA game.

It's not going to be like Baldur's Gate or something big like that.

But that does mean the production timeline's a couple of years opposed to like five to ten years.

Because when we hear about video games, like the big AAA games coming out, they're like, we're going to do this.

And you're like, in five to ten years, we will see it because the work involved is huge.

But yeah, it looks like they're doing some more smaller indie games, which is cool.

That does sound loads of fun.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Can I just make a small...

it's possibly off I don't know, I think it's on topic because we're looking at a picture of various cast of people.

I recall there's Matt Mercer and there are some other people who are sobering at bells.

There we go.

But I know enough to say that Fox, Maschner, and Mercer and Pershing, Qlyth and Tiburus, blah blah blah that's critical role merchandise.

And it's just a bit weird to me that you'd wear your own merchandise.

Like isn't that like wearing a band t-shirt to a gig where you're going to see that band.

I think that's like when we wear an EN publishing t-shirt when we're at a convention.

It's advertising, isn't it?

Well, but it's not a uniform.

But okay.

Fair enough.

Maybe they just like the t-shirts.

I mean, if I if my TTRPG group had t-shirts, I would definitely wear them.

Because I'd, I love my TTRPG groups, and so maybe it's that same vibe as well.

And it works well as a little marketing push to be like, hey, we have T-shirts you can buy for the parasocial relationship you have with us.

Obviously, they're wearing it as marketing.

It's just like, I was just thinking about it from a social context.

Like, yeah, would you wear a D&D T-shirt while playing D&D?

Or surely you should wear, like, I don't know.

Oh, there we go.

FASA had a Marshall Universe RPG.

Thank you from Dublin Forge.

Good work there.

Yeah.

I knew there was one out there, but not recently, I think.

Yeah.

Anyway, while we were broadcasting, two more bits of Critical Role news.

Can I say that again?

News, roll, Critical Role news.

I can do words.

Critical Role news.

You can do it.

You got this, champ.

One was that The Legends of Fox Machina was renewed for a fifth and final season.

Oh, that's nice.

that would be on Amazon and stuff isn't it yes that's on Prime and then also on Prime the first season of the Mighty Nine is it Nine or Neen Nine Mighty Nine N-I-N, is airing on November the 19th on Prime Video is that how many players it got they got nine players oh no this is a cartoon oh okay the animated shows based on them oh we watched the first episode of the Legend of Vox Bastion, if you recall.

I think we watched the first series of Vox Bastion.

It was very exciting.

I only watched the first episode.

Well, I think that was very good that you just listened for the audio.

As famously established, you cannot see animation.

Well, it's post-80s.

Yeah.

But anyway, so Vox Bastion, fifth and final season coming, and first season of The Mighty Nine also coming.

There we go.

Cool.

I like the TV show.

It's nice.

I've had it on the back where I want to be doing admin work because it's something I can kind of drop in and watch and then, yeah.

And that Critical Role is doing pretty well.

I mean, doing better than Wizard of the Coast in some respects.

Multiple TV shows.

Yep.

You know, video games coming up.

I suppose, obviously, Wizards had Baldur's Gate 3.

Darrington Press.

Darrington Press, yeah.

Dagger Hearts Out.

Candela Obscura.

Pushing out new systems.

I mean, let's face it, was the coach only has one system that they really have out there, where it was like Darrington Press, Ian Publishing, they've all got at least two, maybe even three.

So, yeah.

Hmm.

Okay.

Ennies.

Ennies.

August the 1st.

Friday, August the 1st.

Okay.

If you are going to be at the Ennies ceremony, you can bid for one of the dream dates.

So these dream dates, basically, you get to sit with the company at the front of the show.

Oh, okay.

Because, you know, it's this big theater, and right at the front of the theater are all the companies and the nominees sitting on round tables near the front.

At least last time I was there, there were round tables.

And these dream dates, you can basically bid, and the money goes to support the Ennies.

And if you win the bid, they're usually on eBay.

If you win the bid, you get to sit with one of the companies.

So there's four at the moment.

Chaosium, Exalted Funeral, Wet Ink Games, and Night Owl Publishing, you can sit up front with them and just share the evening with the companies.

Hmm.

Exalted Funeral do do interesting stuff.

I'm not sure I know Night Owl and Wet Ink.

Well.

Do you know them and what they make?

So, let's have a look.

So, Exalted Funeral, obviously, loads and loads of stuff.

Yeah, like ultraviolet glass, grasslands, and just...

Yeah.

A whole manner of interesting looking things, I think it was the Space Marine one, but that wasn't just Space Marine.

They were nominated this year for Best Adventure Longform with Isle of Joy.

They're also known for the Chaos Gods Come to Meet Landia, the Scourge of the Scorn Lords, and Worm Witches, the Life and Death of Belinda Blood.

I mean, those are some evocative names.

And Wex, Inc.

Games, they have Never Going Home, which was nominated for an Emmy in 2020.

It's eldritch horrors in trenches of the World War.

So lots of creepy gas masks and things like that, which is very cool.

And they also publish Jiangxi Blood in the Banquet Hall.

If you remember that.

Okay.

I thought that was Game of the Curry that did that.

Uh they wrote it that's just too good i make it right yeah yeah for garbage and glory trash run.

Okay then some of the names of some of these things are amazing i love them love them yeah i mean i don't necessarily know what they are but just the name makes me want to find out yeah doing important stuff naming things than i am that is for sure and did we say what night owl did or night owl was well we did yeah isle of joy the chaos comes to the end here right with you i i that i i i did have that confusion the exalted funeral has names that i would also not bass and i to yeah well the exalted funeral will be nominated this year for well they've got loads 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 nominations this year.

Yeah, yeah.

That's a lot of nominations.

I'd not be able to keep up because they've just been cranking them out.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But yeah, so, you know, Monty Python, yeah, Monty Python RPG most recently, but loads of stuff.

Yeah, yeah.

Right, right, right, right, right, right.

Someone just asked in the chat, what's happened to the What's Oldest New system?

That was on Butterbounce.

Well, we did the What's Oldest New starter set last year.

And this year we've got the best three coming out.

Yeah.

Very soon, in fact.

Very soon, in fact.

So that's what's happened to it.

And I think it's our next one after Pets.

It is.

So we've got Pets on Sidekicks, which is live currently on Kickstarter.

Starter and then because we can't get enough creatures we're bringing more creatures to your what's oldest new games because we don't need to feel left out you know we would not want that, yeah i mean i've played a couple of adventures from what's oldest new starter sets good.

Extremely high quality yeah so all the books are still in print i believe yep put a link on our online store where we've got the three core books and there's also all the other supplement adventures and the box set and everything that's out on there as well yeah it's being being developed for um yes i mean it's it's there it's available there's new stuff coming right we're near in the end of the show we have a number of items from you here peter would you like to dive in yeah well i i think i think basically there's one major one which is pearl itch.io has been caught up in the blitz on steam essentially there is a australian a tiny australian pressure group calling themselves crowd shout and they have taken this upon themselves to describe themselves as anti-pornography that's like okay that's a that is you know a stance but when they say anti-pornography that somehow seamlessly transitions into anti-adult content online.

Damien james o'chell identifies that warring is awesome well good job there yeah so they've and so they have put pressure on visa and mastercard and people are doubtless looking at their podcast devices saying what is pch baffling on about now waffling on about now i'll tell you it's because these are payment processors as in if they decide that they are not going to support your platform you cannot be paid for things which is quite the impediment if you're running a business so steam has gone through and delisted a bunch of games which have quote adult themes and so forth it's like okay well that's a computer game problem not hugely relevant itch.io sells computer games it also sells a lot of regular games as well yeah tabletop games as well and they have gone through over like the past day or so and delisted.

Absolutely everything and you're like well surely that's just a pornographer problem like if you want to go and search for it delisting means that you cannot search for anything except for looking and you can't even find it with a direct name search you need to have a link from the creator but also they have there's a shadow ban basically yeah it's a super hard shadow ban that it's just like, oh, it's not band-band, but you cannot find it.

Yeah, it's there, but you can't find it.

Yeah.

And they have also done stuff like taking down things like a game which has the word trans in the title because.

Is described as an adult theme there is zero pornography in it but it has been taken down anyway because how do i say this this this crowd shot people inevitably the.

Use it goes from oh we're anti-pornography and yeah.

That's like all right and they've gone to anti-adult and.

Lgbtq stuff inevitably gets treated as quote adult and inevitably gets banned and the reason i sound so tired and annoyed about it is because i've seen it before right i'm bored of it it's like yeah it's like sure it's working but it's just we've seen it before 90s we've seen it in the 2000s and now it's making a comeback in the 2020s and it's just like tedious that people keep on falling for the same tired old tricks so yeah i'm afraid i obviously i submitted a bit late to get any pictures up or anything like that because it is literally just breaking news but if you get a chance get on the phone to visa and mastercard and ask them why they're doing this because it took very few calls i would also argue whatever your stance is on something something like visa and mastercard i think these days are basically akin to electricity or water you know they are essential services at that point and giving them the ability to cut off basically essential services based on their viewpoint it's like giving electricity companies the ability to just cut off your power or water companies just to cut off your power just because they don't like something about you and i i think that is a dangerous really dangerous position to be in where companies have that sort of.

I will say, and I am not a fan of Visa and MasterCard as corporations per se, but I will say in fairness to them, it is partly self-defense because they were processing payments for well-known pornography sites and got involved in lawsuits around some of the shadier areas and they're like, look, we just take money, we don't have anything to do with it, we are just payment processes but they were scooped up and held to also be criminally liable in what was going on i don't know all the details but as a consequence their now legal position is if we got something like that then we're just going to say no we've got to stop it and it's like this is heavily uh exclusionary of sex work and that is i guess a political opinion is me being political but it has real, real verifications because it also inevitably, inevitably affects LGBTQ people as well, and the information that we have access to.

I mean, a simple version of that in TTRPGs is there's a role-playing game called Thirsty Sword Lesbians.

That's going to be harder to search for on itch, for example, now.

So that's a very basic example of that.

I bet you five English pounds that you will not be able to find Thirsty Sword Lesbians on itch if you don't accept it.

Here we go.

Although mind you finding stuff on itch anyway was always a bit of a challenge I'll just try to be thirsty short of lesbians into the search bar so I'm not doing anything complicated, just curious thirsty short of lesbians evil hat no there is oh you found it alright there you go that one has not been found I have found that you do we'll collect that.

To the pub let's go oh that might get you three quarters of a pint I don't know I went to the cowherds last week whatever day it was and I bought a pint and it was £6.30 or something and I was like oh, wow I had that as well a pint of mead but that was at Fantasy Forest which is like a music festival and it was a pint of mead it was very good, wow sparkling mead festivals are famously yeah lots of yeah it was sparkling mead it was really nice it was like light and straw yeah it was very nice anyway.

And that's why I wasn't here last week because I was dancing around dressed like a pirate drinking mead in a field.

Where I spend your time.

With bright pink hair.

With bright pink hair, yes.

How else would you do that?

Because I'm an adult and that's how I choose to spend my time and money.

But as I say, maybe companies that aren't evil hat.

Yeah, why goes in the world?

6.930, that's 20% of a good TTRPG book.

Yes, that's only because TTRPG books are massively undervalued.

Yes.

Massively undervalued.

People won't pay you their worth.

there are as i say absolutely tons of creators that are smaller than evil hat or who have less access to litigation and swift lawyers who are just individuals who have been mad i'm seeing them all over blue sky unhappy and complaining because it's like wow that's they weren't making a lot of money but now oh and also payments to them are also slowed and stopped so yeah so that's hit Steam, that's hit Itch.

Yeah, yeah.

And it's due to visa investment.

Is it just visa investment?

Oh, PayPal will be involved as well for certain.

Like, yeah.

Can't imagine them not being.

Okay.

You also got another couple of items here.

Something about, I don't know what dress up but trans is.

It's just four words.

But what's dress up but trans?

Oh, that was an example of a game that's been shadow banned.

Okay.

So you can't find like...

Can't find that except by like a direct link to it just showing if it exists and it's not pornography fair enough yeah yeah enough all right we have got some news yes exciting guess what's now available to buy finally now that the kickstarter backers all have their books monstrous menagerie 2 hordes and heroes you can now buy from our website in hardcover or pdf format or from Drive to RPG in PDF format right now.

And it's amazing.

It's really, really good.

I suggest you do.

Yes.

Unless you already have it, in which case you don't need to.

But you can buy another one if you want.

Yeah, we started fulfilling Kickstarter backers in May and last wave went out in June to people in the US.

So there's only a handful of people that don't have the books because they have not given me their address and I didn't want to just chuck it in the air.

Or they didn't give you the address and shouted at you for not for not sending, hey calm down now yeah if you haven't received your book and you're a backer you know just send me an email if you go to the kickstarter pages and the updates of how to get in touch and and let me know and we'll have a look for you it might be that i just don't have your address but if you tell me then i'll send it to that address nine times out of ten but anyway monsters menagerie 2 is available now you can buy it now it's amazing it's really really really really really really really good.

It's also available as a bundle on pets and sidekicks but that will be delivered in kind of January but if you want your Monsters Mercery now, you can order it from the website now instead of as part of the crowdfunding bundle it depends how quickly you need the hardcover, can tell you that these from personal experience that these are some good quality monsters in there because in my wednesday night game we had three sprint on us and one of them um absolutely ripped apart the road which is hilarious if you're not the road i want to call it a more awesome description it's basically like an etting which is a two-headed giant but it's also a lycanthrope with a battleaxe So it's like this sort of Tyrannosaurus Rex with a battle axe rushed up.

And yeah, like, yeah, I mean, I think they're taking a couple of hits from the Chimera already, but it was pretty hardcore.

So like, oh, glad that wasn't me.

Ha ha!

All right, I think we're done.

Yeah.

I think we are done.

That is the show for this week.

We'll be back next week, same time, same place.

Thank you all for joining us.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you for watching.

Fridays, 2 p.m.

UK time, 9 a.m.

Eastern.

You can join us live on YouTube.

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YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook.

Yes, there we go.

I've got it.

So until next week, goodbye, everybody.

Goodbye.

Au revoir.

Bye-bye.

Music.