5 on Friday 20/11/20

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 edition of Blood Bowl – The latest edition of Blood Bowl looks pretty damn nice. The Facebook groups seem more accepting of it now as well, as we get nearer release. Or maybe they are just running low on their vital supplies of venom. I kid! Well, no, actually, I don’t I’m so sick of the toxicity that exists in this community. That’s beside the point. Look! Cool stuff!

The two teams are, as always, Orcs and Humans. This is fine, and at least they are putting a wee twist on the teams this time, rather than making them just the same as those from the 2016 edition of the game. I like that GW are finally trying to make proper changes and updates to the rules, beyond the minor tweaks that came before. I really like that they’re trying to make positional players matter again. The box is also, unusually for GW, a little cheaper than I expected!

Wizards of the Coast releases new 5E supplement, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything – The latest D&D supplement seems to be in the same vein as the very well-received Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, being a book with lots of different, cool new rules and features. It’s also one of the few times that I’d really consider the alternative cover:

The alt cover reminds me of the art of Softmax, a Korean video game developer who created some really beautiful character art for their games. In the book itself, I’m looking forward to the new spells, as always. I like having new spells to play around with. I also like the sound of the group patrons, sidekicks, origins and customisable racial traits. For DMs, the guidance on running ‘session zero’ and the ready-made puzzles will also be useful.

Printable Scenery launches Shadowfey terrain Kickstarter – Printable Scenery makes pretty good printable scenery. I’ve printed a couple of their pieces before, and I’m really happy with my wizard’s tower that they designed. This latest Kickstarter has some truly gorgeous fantasy ruins:

I love the fact that they are, yes, modular, but not excessively so. I really cannot be arsed with putting up each individual wall or floor tile. Printing off an entire storey at a time is definitely the way to go for me. So many cool buildings in this bundle!

Goodman Games releases volume 5 of their classic adventures series, Castle Amber – Goodman has been putting out these “Reincarnated” classics for a few years now, and they’re doing a consistently good job of them. Really, Goodman are the company for classic and classic-style adventures, between these books and their fantastic Dungeon Crawl Classics line. Their latest offering is an update of the classic adventure, Castle Amber:

Originally released in 1981, the adventure sees you and your companions exploring a big ol’ haunted castle. I appreciate the setting’s distrust of magic-users as well. It’s weird that some people can throw fireballs around and it’s good to see this strangeness acknowledged!

Kobold press releases Lairs supplement to accompany Tome of Beasts 2 – I’m still excited to get my hands on the second Tome of Beasts, and just to really rob me blind Kobold now see fit to put out this little supplement? Demons! beasts! This is a fitting description of both Kobold Press in their pursuit of my cash and of some of the content of the Tome of Beasts 2. Anyway, back on topic! Lairs:

The book contains lots of wee, self-contained adventures that are intended as side-missions or to be incorporated as part of a bigger adventure. Of course, all of these are tied closely to the plethora of cool creatures that populate the make Tome of Beasts 2 book.

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

Project Eclipse: Drukhari Raiders. @ Fingers Left The Model – Oh, these are lovely. I love the Dark Eldar miniatures anyway, but the beautiful paintjob then complements them so well. This article is full of really great pictures. I especially love the characters and the vehicles. Thanks for sharing!

Rules for Piracy in Fate @ Faith, Fiction & Fatherhood – FATE is a wonderfully flexible system and it’s always nice to see more ideas and content being shared. The author of this post has put together a wee 31-page supplement on piracy. I do like piracy as a theme, and I’ve enjoyed pirate-based RPGs in the past, so it’s really cool to have some options for using them in FATE.

The Christmas Gift – Part 1 @ Table Standard –  Aww, this is a nice idea. It’s nice that the author is going all out and really converting up the gift model before painting it. The conversion look really good! I’m looking forward to seeing the finished product!

Cauldrons and Warlocks @ A Tabletop Gamer’s Diary – How current! With the new Morathi book and the DoK/Slaaneshi boxed set, it’s nice to see people working away on their Daughter of Khaine. The Doomfire Warlocks are models that I’ve still not actually seen in person on any table, but I do like the dynamic sense of movement they have.

Final Fantasy VII Fate Core RPG Characters @ Out of Character – Again, with the flexibility of FATE, it’s always great to see people putting out different content, whether it be conversions, settings or, as in this case, characters. I think these would be a lot of fun, and that the storyline of FFVII would make a good basis for a tabletop RPG campaign, but it might be hard to find players who aren’t already familiar with the game and story. Still, makes for a cool read!

* * *

Not much new this week, but I’ll be putting up some contest entries in the coming days!

Catch ya’ll next week.