RPG & Wargame Newsletter #32
November 13, 2023
Greetings, Gamers!
In a few days, I’m heading off to Mythic Con (you’ll be reading this AFTER I’ve returned) to play some games. I’m hoping to get in some RPGs, a wargame or two, and some boardgames. I’ve been pondering why I enjoy Mythic Con (formerly MACE) so much, and I know it comes down to the size and location — it’s a short 4 hour drive and seems to float around 500-700 attendees. Not overcrowded or expensive, either. I told myself a few years ago that I wanted to try and attend more of these smaller conventions; I tired of Gen Con and larger cons, and the smaller ones are less stressful to me.
So… I’m going to add a new section to the newsletter that focuses on smaller conventions. If you are in charge of a convention or simply know of a good one in your area, let me know at jimsworkshop@fastmail.com and I’ll see what I can do to help with a little promotion. And if it’s not too far away, I may even try to attend!
Okay, enough of that… now on to the fun stuff.
RPGs
I’ve stumbled upon this one a bit late, but the Kickstarter is still active. I’m always in favor of MORE and DIFFERENT fantasy RPGs, and this one from Reaper (of Reaper Miniatures) sound very interesting. A traditional 3-book set with minis and a d20 system? Sounds cool! You can get more info on Dungeon Dwellers RPG here.
MINIATURES
If you’re looking for some NEW and metal robot minis, check out this new collection from Alternative Armies for the Grima Robot range. You can order them individually, but the bundle that contains 16 minis here comes with two free minis AND if you order before Nov 17 they toss in a classic robot mini (metal). My order is in… cannot wait to paint these up.
TERRAIN
At Mythic Con, I met up with Dafydd, owner of TerrainTronics. If you’ve not seen any of his videos, check them out here. Davydd incorporates electronic lighting and motors with foam and wood-cut terrain. He had a booth at Mythic Con and I finally got to see some of his creations from his videos in person. He also taught some seminars on how to use his electronics to attendees. I’m now sold… and I do plan on incorporating some lighting into some of my terrain for my weekly ShadowDark game. You can check out his store here.
CROWDSOURCING
Do you need a 3D printer this large? I don’t, but hey… if you want something to almost print a full size R2-D2 or maybe scale up some of your favorite STLs, then this is the 3DP for you. Maybe. Elegoo makes good stuff, so I’m not too worried about the quality of the 3DP. And the price in the KS ($1500 versus $2500) is a steal if you KNOW you’re going to buy this thing (or something similar) at a later time. The OrangeStorm Giga Kickstarter ends on January 3, 2023 and fulfillment is given as July 2024.
LOVECRAFT MYTHOS
As a fan of Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu, I’ve only played through a couple of their solo RPG adventures, but it was really fun. I may have to finish up the rest of them… including this NEW ONE that releases sometimes this month. It’s called Alone Against the Static, and it’s apparently a modern-day adventure. It also looks like it may be a hardback versus the older softback solo adventures (such as Alone Against the Dark or Alone Against the Frost). You can get more info here.
The next expansion for Arkham Horror: The Card Game is called The Feast of Hemlock Vale, and Fantasy Flight Games has just released a schedule of previews of the cards and such for the new expansion here. The game releases in or around February 2024. I don’t know if the campaign box is released first or the investigator box… or both at the same time.
GASLANDS VEHICLE OF THE WEEK
This week’s amazing toy car conversion for Gaslands is from Peter Thomas. I love the weathering and the use of mini-chain on the front bumper. The cars made for this game never get old.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
While at Mythic Con 2023 in Charlotte, I spotted some handmade wooden dice towers from Dragon Armor Games. I was planning on buying one, but I actually WON one of them as a prize! I went by their booth to thank them for the prize donation, but I actually ended up purchasing one of the smaller towers for myself (the large one I won is for my youngest son). These things are solid — hefty weight to them and the woodwork is tops. I have to give them a shout out because I love the sound dice make as they go down this wooden tower. Check out their stuff here.
TO MY SUBSCRIBERS
You can find my zines and laser-cut terrain at thetabletopengineer.bigcartel.com - 10% off to newsletter readers with code RPGWGNEWS.
Digital copies of all my zines can be found on DrivethruRPG.
My Patreon is currently focusing on a year-long project (started in Jan 2023) called Guild Collections. Patrons receive three weekly OSR PDFs (and a higher tier receive a monthly adventure PDF) that will be collected and printed as four OSR-compatible zines at the end of 2023. More info on the Patreon here.
My game play-through videos can be found here.
The YouTube Channel name is The Tabletop Engineer Plays