Dispel Hype or a Bag of Fumbling? The new D&D Player's Handbook arrives...

Plus LOOT, Deep Ones and lots more...

Slaying the Dragon, art by Mat Pringle created for our 4th issue’s cover

The new Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook was officially released last week to what seemed like a strangely muted response. A, perhaps, suitable culmination (for now at least, we do still have the DMG and Monster Manual to come) of the weird path it’s been on since this new/not really new edition of the “world’s something something roleplaying game” was first teased.

At first I suspected it was just the result of the latest shattering of communities forged on social media but even when reluctantly logging back onto the cesspit that is Twitter, the lack of excitement to what, in theory, you’d expect to be one of the biggest events of the RPG calendar felt palpable. Even the most tedious grifters seemed to be going through the motions having spent the past few weeks getting angry at fantasy tacos.

The lack of buzz perhaps make sense when you look at the series of mostly unforced and mostly stupid errors Wizards of the Coast have made of late. Lest we forget that includes but is not limited to… [deep breath] the OGL debacle, the lacklustre marketing and lack of synergies around the D&D film, sending the *checks notes* Pinkerton’s round to hassle Magic players, brutally culling large numbers of staff mid-development, the move towards a closed off digital ecosystem and, of course, the various AI “mishaps” that, in the week of release, their CEO doubled down on (see Bookmarks below).

But then it does also feel like Wizards have been purposefully deflating any enthusiasm around this new book themselves, and I suspect that has had the greater effect. For a long time it wasn’t exactly clear as to what it was, a new edition? A fancy errata? A bookkeeping exercise? Combine that with the staggered rollout of books potentially causing issues and it’s no wonder that this launch felt a little lacklustre.

Right now, when it comes to potential rivals, D&D has only one real threat, itself. The launch of a new edition, with all the historical baggage that brings, will always be a moment when it is at its most vulnerable. It may be sixteen years ago but it’s remarkable just how deeply embedded the trauma of the transition from 3rd to 4th edition still is in the community. So at least on that level it’s understandable why they might have downplayed this moment or perhaps even abandoned plans for a more fundamental rewrite of the game.

But it still feels like a missed opportunity. Not so much for creating a new wholly revised version of D&D, (if the community scars around 4e are still fairly fresh I imagine the corporate ones are red raw) but simply because this could have been been a huge opportunity to showcase D&D, and more importantly roleplaying games in general, to the world.

The RPG scene, who that actually comprises and more importantly could comprise, has fundamentally changed since 5E was released a decade ago. With the growth and increased cultural mainstreaming of the hobby over the last ten years this felt like a golden opportunity to lock in many of those advances and breakthrough to an even bigger untapped audience, wholly new to the tabletop scene.

Trickledown economics may have been proven to be horseshit (surprise!) but, like it or not, D&D is still probably about the only RPG that can pull in the kind of mainstream press attention that breaks out of our little goblin filled silos. As it happens whilst the likes of the BBC, The Guardian, NY Times etc all dutifully reported, in their usual somewhat annoying way, on the game’s 50th anniversary this year, it seems like there’s been little to no non-gamer coverage around this week’s release and what the present and future of the hobby look like.

Now, of course, this isn’t some existential crisis for Wizards, they aren’t going to suddenly go bust here and the new PHB will still sell gangbusters over the coming weeks, months and years to dedicated fans. But it’s hard not to feel that as in so much over the past couple of years the corporate bigwigs at Hasbro fumbled the bag here, this time playing it too safe.

Roleplaying games as a whole need a constant influx of new players, and despite our best efforts 99% of them will, for the foreseeable, arrive via D&D. Even if only 5% of those go onto discover the Fishblades of this world that’s probably 4.5% more than we might have got otherwise. Throw in the fact that it will be 2025 before a new starter set is released and it feels like a massively missed chance in an age where there’s a million other things vying for people’s attention.

Perhaps, and this wouldn't be the first time, we’re overthinking it, maybe as some have pointed out this is just a slightly niced up version of the 2014 rules and it’s duly being treated as such by all involved. Maybe we’re not looking in the right places and there are legions of happy new roleplayers out there clutching there shiny 2024 PHBs about to take their first steps into the underworld, we genuinely hope there are.

So, as ever, we’d love to know what it’s felt like from your perspective. Is there a buzz in your game stores and groups around the new book, are you super excited to get to grips with it? Were you expecting more or have you all moved on completely and it’s all about as relevant as Man City’s transfer dealings are to a QPR fan. Drop a comment or email us your thoughts!

Anyway, after all that D&D is -of course- not the only game in town, so lets get back to looking at some games less likely to be profiled by the BBC or NY Times any time soon, as much as they might deserve it, and we have the usual carefully curated set of nonsense and news in our bookmarks section to keep you going until quite probably the heat death of the universe.

Till next time…

John

LOOT

Much as I’m tempted to i’m not going to say you should back a game just because it has an incredibly cool logo and a jazzy GIF to go with it. Now, as it happens, Loot does in fact have both of those but luckily for those demanding a little more than just swish aesthetics, it also has a bit more than that to back it up, emerging as it does from the mind of game designer Spencer Campbell, a game designer whose previous titles have made their way into our pages on merit several times before.

Campbell describes Loot as a fantasy TTRPG that “combines looter shooter mechanics with west marches vibes”, what that translates to is a diceless game (using Campbell’s own Lumen system) that sees you get a crew together, head out into the ruined domain of a toppled Lich, kill monsters, get better gear and repeat.

That gear, or loot, is key to the game and characters are not defined by stats but rather the shiny and spiky equipment they are carrying around like murderous hermit crabs. Campbell himself describes them as like paper dolls you can dress up, which I don’t know about you but to me sounds like a pretty cool idea for a game.

Of course, exploring ruined cities formerly ruled over by undead warlords is a dangerous job and when push comes to stab, combat is resolved on a 6x6 square. Each turn you can barrel around the grid, avoiding getting shivved and using the loot you have to hand to cause havoc. Each item comes with specific effects that either boost your characters in some way, or provide offensive capabilities that always succeed (though some have extra ‘charged’ effects you can tap into, in return for tapping out that item for a period of time).

Heading back into the city after an adventure you get to amass new loot from your patron factions, enjoy some down time and even expand the city to attract new factions, all who come with their own specific loot decks. You will say loot a lot, probably until it starts to lose any meaning but anyway you hopefully get the idea.

If you’re looking for a dungeon delving fantasy role-playing game that definitely leans more into the game side of that equation, borrows liberally from video games and provides a clear structure for what you’re doing, why and what you get out of it (MORE LOOT), then this will be well worth checking out.

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LOST SHORE DEEP ONES

Looking to add some briny bastards to your games then Fenris Miniatures have you sorted this week as they welcome ashore the residents of Devil’s Reef with a new Kickstarter for their range of Lovecraftian fishmen.

Originally featured in the Cthulhu Wars game, the models have been revised and are now available in resin for the first time. Alongside your standard Deep Ones, there’s also a range of investigators, several giant sized marine horrors on offer, and a load of suitably non-Euclidian terrain, perfect for both waging 28mm scaled wars over or icing ups your fish tank (if the resin poisons your fish we accept zero responsibility). It’s a, very, short run campaign with just a couple days to go, so head on over there now to check out these little fishy freaks.

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All good things must come to an end, even our 3 issue print bundle which will disappear at some point next week. So just a heads up that in case you want to discover more about the literary roots of Ravenloft, delve into the history of horror and dystopian RPGs, embark on a fantasy pub crawl or read about games like River of London, Vaesen, Paranoia and dozens upon dozens more, now’s your last - for now - chance to do it on the cheap.

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Finally a collection of things - interesting, inspiring and inane, gaming related and not, found down the back of the internet’s sofa…

• Allegedly (there’s some dispute about this between the game’s creators) inspired by everyone’s favourite sci-fi RPG Traveller, Elite was released on the BBC Micro 40 years ago last Friday. Happy birthday to a game that we spent many happy hours playing & dying whilst trying to dock our spaceship. If you want to relive those wireframe thrills you can download the original for free from the developers. [Frontier]

• The world’s first academic Warhammer conference takes place this week, if you’re not going to be able to make it in person to the University of Heidelberg then know no fear as many of the talks, such as Martin Heidegger’s Critique of Technology exemplified by the Cult Mechanicus & Are We the Baddies?: The Ethical Implications of the Imperium’s War with Chaos and the Inverted Meaning of Order, will be available to watch online. [Warhammer Conference]

• We’ve just been lucky enough to read an advance copy of Tim Clare’s The Game Changers which, amongst much other good stuff, delves into how board games evolved and spread across the ancient world, so this recent Bronze Age find that may reshape our understanding of the earliest history of board games caught our eye. [Ars Technica]

• Following reissues of the Call of Cthulhu 1st edition and RuneQuest 2nd edition boxed sets, the next title to join Chaosium’s “Classic” line will be ElfQuest. The RPG based on Richard and Wendy Prini’s comic about sex positive space elves will return via a Kickstarter this October to produce a facsimile of the game’s 1984 2nd edition boxed set and supplements. Now can someone sort out the license to do something similar with West End Games’ Ghostbusters please. [Chaosium]

• With Call of Cthulhu in mind, would you as a young archaeologist who discovered a bottle on a dig containing a message written by a long dead hand, open it and read it? That’ll be a SAN roll please. [BBC News]

• When you consider how easy it should be for him to just literally not say anything utterly stupid, Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks decided to mark the launch of the new D&D Player’s Handbook but going and saying something stupid. This time deciding to double down on the company’s use of AI in the game. It makes us wonder if passing out ceremonies at CEO school involve being kicked in the head by a mule as they hand you your ‘money = good’ diplomas these days. [Futurism]

• Which segues neatly into this post by writer Alex Epstein on why LLMs are almost certainly not the future of dialogue, in Dungeons & Dragons or otherwise. [Complications Ensue]

• I think one of the things that annoys me most about “AI” generated art/writing is that unlike the preceding & closely related techbro scams, Crypto and NFTs, the concept as a whole is not totally without merit. After all there’s a long and rich tradition of generative art and music going back to the 1950s, that takes us from the likes of Georg Nees through to bands like Autechre. Unfortunately this latest iteration seems to have been purpose built by and for soulless hucksters to erase rather than add to human culture, replacing it instead with a glossy, sickly simulacrum. So it’s timely perhaps that London’s Tate Modern are hosting a fascinating looking exhibition this winter, Electric Dreams, looking back at those first few decades of “optical, kinetic, programmed and digital art” which, in comparison to everything vomited up today’s machines, looks incredible. [Tate Modern]

• Right, enough about that depressing nonsense, time for something much more uplifting. This October the BBC are going to show, for only the 3rd time, their blistering 1984 nuclear war docudrama Threads. Ahead of that Jude Rogers speaks to those involved in the production of what remains to this day quite possibly one of the most terrifying cultural relics of the Cold War. A nostalgic treat for all of us who grew up in the 1980s fantasising about mushroom clouds on the horizon, and an opportunity for younger generations to be mentally scarred too. [The Guardian]

• Fast forward ten years and the threat of having your flesh seared from your bones had been replaced with taking a pellet filled with Dulux paint to the back of the head. A friend sent over a link to check out artist Anna Fox’s 1995 exhibition Friendly Fire, documenting the mid 90s UK paintball scene, the other day and now I’m passing it on to you. [Anna Fox]

• Our friends at Rogue Print Co. are hosting another Tolktober event throughout October, a series of 31 Tolkien related prompts fro artists to bounce off. The best of last year’s event made it into one of our favourite zines of the last 12 months, so definitely one to keep an eye on, or if you’re an artist get involved with, more details on their Instagram page. [Instagram]

• A great piece by Alec Worley on the tragic backstory to the original comic The Crow. Despite being a teenage goth in the early 90s I have to admit I only knew the rough outlines of the real life miseries that led to its creation, overshadowed as they were by the real life tragedy surrounding the 1994 film. [Agents of Weird]

• We’ve very much enjoyed parts 1 & 2 of The Grognard Files excursion into bestiaries nd for the third and final part they speak to Free League’s Tomas Harenstam, whose company have released tow of Amy favourite monster manuals in recent times (for Dragonbane and Forbidden Lands, if you’re interested). [The Grognard Files]

• And finally congratulations to Adam at The Punchboard who has just celebrated 4 years in the cardboard mines. [The Punchboard]

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