5 on Friday 05/05/23

It’s Friday, and here on No Rerolls that means it’s time for an all-new 5 on Friday. We’re going to start with 5 exciting releases for this week before moving on to our usual digest of some of our favourite articles from the past week. Of course, we’re slow readers, so don’t be surprised if there are some articles that are a little older – these are just some of the great articles we happen to have actually read in the past week.

Releases & Previews

Every week there are many games and miniatures released. This will probably be a mix of previews, preorders, and releases, and with release dates being the way they are in this industry, it’s always pretty approximate. Excuses out of the way, here are 5 of the releases that caught our attention this week:

Games Workshop releases new World Eaters Combat Patrol – The World Eaters are not my favourite Chaos faction in Warhammer 40,000. Honestly, I find them a bit boring in comparison to most others. That said, the new stuff is actually cool. Their cultists are nice, as are the updated berzerkers. Both of these units can be found in the new Combat Patrol boxed set:

This looks like one of those Combat Patrols that could be a multi-buy proposition. A couple of these gets you a pretty solid start to an army. A good core of ‘zerkers? Yes, please!

Affiliate Links:

Element Games

Evil Hat releases their Apocalypse Keys RPG – Evil Hat continues to be one of my favourite RPG publishers. Aside from the fantastic content that they consistently produce, I love the small form-factor of their hardback books. I also like that they don’t rely too heavily on the FATE system. This book, for example, is a PBTA game, based on the fantastic Apocalypse World.

I like the idea of monstrous agents seeking to use their powers to save the world. Of the playbooks included in this game, I’m most drawn to The Last and The Found. The Last is a survivor of his own world’s apocalypse, whilst the Found has those fey vibes of walking between the real world and that of the dreaming. There’s a lot of potential in there.

Affiliate Links:

Element Games
DriveThruRPG (PDF edition)

Atomic Mass releases Gwenpool for Marvel Crisis Protocol – I like it when they put out a ‘fun’ model for Marvel Crisis Protocol. The silly, stupid nonsense from comics are the best things from them. Gwenpool would be one of those things:

That mini looks great! The pack also includes Squirrel Girl, which is another fantastic mini. Stuff like this tempts me to dip into the game, but I don’t think I will. Gorgeous minis, though!

Affiliate Links:

Element Games

Kobold Press’ Cities and Towns-themed Campaign Builder makes its way to retail channels – Kobold Press produces consistently excellent material for 5E players and DMs. I adore their campaign books, player guides, and bestiaries. Actually, those bestiaries are particularly fantastic. I suppose I appreciate a resource that gives you stuff you can use to develop your own campaigns. That leads us nicely into this book:

The book delves into some aspects of urban planning and gives you a character sheet of sorts for your city. This is something I really like in the Dresden Files RPG, so I’m always glad to see good ideas spreading. It also has guilds, NPCs, and other resources to incorporate into your own settings, along with a ton of other content.

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Element Games (Standard Edition)
Element Games (Limited Edition)
Element Games (Map Folio)
DriveThruRPG (PDF Edition)

Ismael Alves releases Sao Paulo by Night for Vampire: the Masquerade – ‘By Night’ books are a tradition in VtM. They flesh out a specific city/setting, giving an outline of the geography, politics and dramatis personae of the region. This latest offering covers the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil:

This book has a good pedigree, being written by an author who previously worked on other recent World of Darkness books/games. At 124 pages, this is pretty substantial for a Storytellers Vault item. It’s great to see some fleshing out of South America in the modern World of Darkness.

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Storytellers Vault

Blog Posts & Articles

The meat of 5 on Friday, the articles are listed in no particular order, so let’s get into some recommendations:

Jetbike Jackal @ Shin High Terror! – This is a fantastic mini, and it’s beautifully painted. It’s really cool to see classic, rare models get some love. I’d never actually seen this before at all. It’s new to me. The author’s whole army looks amazing, too.

Mastering the Priority Roll @ Plastic Craic – It’s great that the Plastic Craic blog has returned, and even expanded. This post is fantastic. It’s very lengthy, with tons of advice, examples, suggestions, technicalities, barbs, and general AoS goodness. It’s definitely worth a read, and also worth shoving down the throats of those folk we all know who cite the double turn as a major problem in AoS. Challenge that nonsense.

Weird and Wonderful Warbands @ Deathzap – This is a fantastic, fun kitbashing article. I love what the author has done with these models. The paint schemes are also simple, but really cool and striking. Yeah, go look at these great minis!

They’re Making It Up @ Roleplay Rescue’s Blog – This post exhibits the correct attitude to roleplaying with kids. Rules are important, but it’s about fun and collaboration; the experience.

Hobby Update – Reaper Bones Giants @ Woehammer – I hadn’t seen these giants, but they look great. As scenery/statuary, these really work well. Well-painted, too!

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Since my last 5 on Friday, here’s what’s appeared on NoRerolls: