News Digest for the Week of June 3

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Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news! UK Games Expo is this weekend, new Dune boxed campaign set, Critical Role releasing a new novel, Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader CRPG video game announced, and more!

For a quick summary of the week’s news, Jessica Hancock will bring you up to speed with EN Live’s This Week in TTRPG every Friday.

Don’t forget, you can keep up with all the week’s gaming news in detail with Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk. This week, Morrus and Peter talk about the best ways to introduce players to a new RPG.

In case you missed it elsewhere on EN World this week:

EN Publishing released a preview of the fourth issue of Gate Pass Gazette, the Level Up: Advanced 5e official zine, and you can catch up on previous issues by supporting on Patreon.
If you want to know more about Level Up, Morrus shared several pages from the Monstrous Menagerie highlighting the robust encounter-building rules that can also be used in 5e.
We also got a new preview of the upcoming Dungeon Delver’s Guide, an expansion of exploration of subterranean realms plus new options for classes, heritages, backgrounds, spells, weapons, and more.
EN5ider #456 features another Intriguing Organization, the Vultures who will clean up after an adventuring party’s hijinks for a small percentage of the salvage.
It’s the final days of the EN Publishing Quickstarter for Sickness and Health: New Diseases for Your 5e Game for both 5e and Level Up: Advanced 5e.
Beth Rimmels combed the internet to collect reviews of The Dungeons & Dragons Rules Expansion Gift Set released in January that featured the premiere of Monsters of the Multiverse.
Rob Wieland reviewed the comic book collection Vampire: The Masquerade: Winter’s Teeth and the game material contained within.
Charles Dunwoody interviewed Andrew Cawood of Cawood Publishing to talk about his Kickstarter Monsters of Feyland 2 for 5th Edition.
Michael Tresca continues his series on roleplaying game reviews by talking about what to do when your game product gets a negative review.
Don’t miss out on the newest RPG crowdfunding projects ending soon with Egg Embry’s RPG Crowdfunding News.
Keep up with all the new print RPG releases with Charles Dunwoody’s RPG Print News.
Find the big TTRPG sales, bundles, and charity fundraisers with the RPG Bundles, Freebies, and Sales News.

EN Publishing and EN World will be at the UK Games Expo this weekend from Friday, June 3, to Sunday, June 5, in Birmingham, England. Catch up with the EN Publishing team at Booth 1-301 (according to the map is on the corner of Catan Street and Ares Games Avenue to the left of the main entrance near the Chill Zone) and pick up copies of Level Up: Advanced 5e, ACE: Awfully Cheerful Engine, and more offerings from EN Publishing. You can also sign up for two games of Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition on Friday from 8 PM to midnight and on Saturday from 3 PM to 5 PM.

Modiphius announced a new boxed set campaign for Dune: Adventures in the Imperium titled Agents of Dune. The campaign acts as a “What If?” scenario from the story of the original novel as your House is set to become the new governor of Arrakis and must ensure the supply of vital spice mélange flows. With this increased power comes peril as the eyes of the entire Known Universe will watch your every move as other Houses maneuver to exploit any advantage they can for themselves. The boxed set comes with a 116-page adventure, five pre-generated character folios for members of House Nagara, two 50-card reference decks, a spice harvesting tracking system, handouts, maps, tokens, trackers, and five custom d20s featuring the great sandworms of Arrakis. The boxed set also includes a code for a digital copy of the Dune: Adventures in the Imperium Core Rulebook. The Agents of Dune set is available now in the UK for £60 and is listed as “stock coming soon” for the US and available for pre-order for $76.98.

Paizo announced details for the 5th Edition version of the Abomination Vaults adventure path. The upcoming conversion of the adventure path will be a ground-up rules overhaul with streamlined combat encounters and adjusted treasure and XP rewards complete with 5e stat blocks for everything. The book is also designed to be friendly to non-Pathfinder players with a lot of art to show off monsters that may be unfamiliar to 5e players. The hardcover will be “a complete 5e campaign in a single book” with a gazetteer of the coastal town of Otari and full descriptions of all ten dungeon levels. The 5th Edition version of Abomination Vaults is available for pre-order with an expected November 2022 release and retail price of $59.99, while the Pathfinder 2nd Edition version was recently released for $54.99.

Critical Role and Del Ray Books announced a second novel based on the hit streaming series, Critical Role: The Mighty Nein – The Nine Eyes of Lucien. The novel will be written by New York Times bestselling author Madeleine Roux, whose previous work includes the Asylum series, the House of Furies series, and licensed work for both Dungeons & Dragons and Warcraft/World of Warcraft. From the product page:

Delve into the mind of Critical Role’s most charming villain in this original novel that chronicles Lucien’s early life and his fateful meeting with the Mighty Nein.

Lucien has always been able to spin a bad situation to his advantage. From his childhood on the dangerous streets of Shadycreek Run to his years living off the grid and learning blood magic from the Claret Orders, the charismatic blood hunter will find a way to get the upper hand.

When Lucien is on a job in the frozen wastelands of Eiselcross with his fellow mercenaries, a rough-and-tumble crew called the Tombtakers, fate leads him to a mysterious journal in the ruins of an ancient city. The book speaks of the Somnovem, nine beings who can grant Lucien power beyond imagining—if he is able to find them and free them from captivity.

Intrigued by this opportunity, Lucien pores over the journal—but the more he reads, the stranger things become. The nine whisper to him in dreams and waking visions. Time slips away, along with Lucien’s grasp on reality. And tattoos of red eyes begin appearing on his skin. . . .

With the ability to reshape the world within his grasp, Lucien ignores all warning signs. He has always bent fortune to his will, and nothing—not even death—will stop him now.

This release follows the first novel based on Critical Role, Vox Machina – Kith and Kin released last November and will be available in paperback this August. The Nine Eyes of Lucien will be available in hardcover, audiobook, and Kindle ebook format on November 1, 2022.

Free RPG Day is coming in just a few weeks on June 25 in North America and next month on July 23 worldwide, and we’ve got some hints as to what’s on the way. Paizo will have two releases, Skitter Warp for Starfinder and A Fistful of Flowers for Pathfinder. WizKids will have the Harengon Paint Kit with a rabbitfolk miniature plus paints and brushes. Modiphius will provide the starter set rules for the upcoming Homefront: Revelations RPG based on the strategy video game series. Darington Press (Critical Role’s publishing arm) has a one-page RPG A Familiar Problem by Grant Howitt and Marisha Ray. Loke Battle Mats is releasing a full adventure Curse of the Dread Marsh Crew complete with maps and tokens. Mantic Games has a plastic pre-assembled mausoleum terrain piece from their Terrain Crate line. And there will be offerings from Goodman Games, Renegade Game Studios, Privateer Press, Q Workshop, R Talsorian Games, and more. You can find which local game stores in your area are participating using the search function on the Free RPG Day website.

Steve Jackson Games announced during their monthly Kickstarter update that starting with all future campaigns, international shipping will no longer be an option for physical products. The company cites not just rising shipping costs but also the “stresses of dealing with different customs and legal requirements demanded” by different countries and regions. John Nephew, owner of Atlas Games, posted a Twitter thread in July 2021 highlighting the difficulties and expenses in shipping to the European Union. Restoration Games also posted on Twitter about the rising prices in the industry and ongoing difficulties in production and shipping.

Owlcat Games, developers of the Pathfinder video games Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous, announced a new video game Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader. Players will take on the role of a Rogue Trader, a class of privateers allowed by the Emperor to conduct trade within the Imperium using a gargantuan voidship of immense power. The game will start in the Koronus Expanse and travel across space from lush Argi-Worlds to steel-clad Forge Worlds and to mysterious lost and forgotten worlds in between. You’ll also find possible allies with Space Marine, Aeldari Ranger, and Sister of Battle companions among others not yet announced. The turn-based game currently has no release date but is available for pre-order in four different versions ranging in price from $39.99 to $99.

That’s all from me for this week! Don’t forget to support our Patreon to bring you more gaming news content. If you have any news to submit, email us at [email protected], and you can get more discussion of the week’s news on Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk every week. You can follow me on Twitch to get notifications when I go live, subscribe to Gamer’s Tavern on YouTube for videos on gaming history, RPG reviews, and gaming Let’s Plays, or you can listen to the archives of the Gamer’s Tavern podcast. Until next time, may all your hits be crits! Note: Links to Amazon, Humble Store, Humble Bundle, and/or DriveThru may contain affiliate links with the proceeds going to the author of this column.