5 on Friday 13/09/24

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, books, 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 Skaven Battletome for Age of Sigmar – On the one hand, I’m delighted that the Skaven have had a nice range refresh and are getting some early-edition love. On the other, I know that early-edition books can stagnate and eventually become pretty bad my mid-edition. I’m hopeful, though!

Initial comments on the book are that it seems interesting. I’m not the biggest fan of the cover art, but I do really love the range refresh that’s come with it. I’ve painted a fair amount of Skaven this year, and I could see them being a big focus for me next year.

Affiliate Links:

Element Games
Wayland Games

Son of Oak Game Studio releases a Tokyo sourcebook for Otherscape – Last week, I highlighted the release of Otherscape, a game by Son of Oak Game Studio, based on their successful City of Mist RPG. Today, let’s look at a setting book:

A cyberpunk-themed game that is set in Tokyo? Really? Who’d have thunk it? Not this guy, anyway! Nah, anyways, aye, the mix of cyberpunk and fantasy fits really well into Tokyo, and it’s great to see fantasy stuff that draws more on eastern traditions than the western ones that are more familiar to us.

Affiliate links:

DriveThruRPG

Wizards of the Coast to release Miracle Worker Commander Deck as part of Duskmourn set – The Duskmourn set fast approaches and I’ve put my preorder in. I took a look at the commanders for each of the upcoming decks and the Miracle Worker decks seemed the most interesting to me. It’s different to stuff I already have and the colour combinations tie in with some other stuff I’m keen to do.

I’ve fallen so deep into the MTG rabbithole. I like the tonal shift between the cutesy Bloomburrow set (which I loved) and the more horror-themed Duskmourn. I like the breadth of themes and art that this game presents. I’m excited to jump into some cardboard horror!

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Catalyst releases Shadowrun First Edition Reprint on DriveThruRPG – Shadowrun is the classic Cyberpunk RPG with fantasy elements. It’s been around for a long time, with the first edition having come out back in 1989. Now, Catalyst have released a PDF “reprint” edition on DriveThruRPG:

This has been release to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Shadowrun. The first edition book was already available as a PDF, but as a scan, with all of the limitations that would be associated with that. With this edition, they have rebuilt the book and cleaned up the artwork to make it more usable and attractive. A nice celebration of an absolute classic!

Affiliate Links:

DriveThruRPG

Sweet Lands preparing to launch on Kickstarter – I’m a sucker for a beautifully presented game that does not rely on miniatures. I think that Kickstarter, with the success of companies like CMON, has seen a proliferation of games stuffed with unnecessary miniatures; and I’m a minis guy. This upcoming game, Sweet Lands, is a beautifully presented game from Japan:

With lots of cool, custom meeples and a symbol-heavy board, Sweet Lands sees you building a city of candy. Symbol-heavy games can be tricky to get started with, as you really have to learn the visual language of the game. Once you learn these symbols, the games often become really intuitive. I’m excited to take a closer look once the campaign goes online in October!

Blog Posts & Articles

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

Organising a Wargame Event: Part 1 – The Venue @ Woehammer – Woehammer have run a few events now, and there are more planned, including an upcoming event for The Old World. It’s great when successful event organisers lift the lid on what they do and how they do it, and I’m looking forward to the rest of this series.

Skaven | Warhammer Age of Sigmar 4th Edition Battletome Review & New Miniatures Unboxing @ Sprues & Brews – The new miniatures look absolutely fantastic and the new book looks like it will be a lot of fun. I love the fact that there are a couple of Armies of Renown in there as well, and both of them are really interesting.

Commander decklist: Catcraft @ Scent of a Gamer – Cats! This looks like a fun deck. I do like the Kindred/Tribal decks. I don’t really have anough of any one thing to build such a deck effectively yet, but I love the idea. The commander is really cool, too.

Friday Night Shots – Thematically Weird Rules @ Dude! Take Your Turn! – There’s always a slight logical disconnect between the theme of a game and the actual actions that you might be taking in that game. Sometimes it gets strange, and this post explores that sensation.

Stomping, Looting and Mortal Damage Shooting: Brodd’s Stomp in AOS 4
@ Plastic Craic – Plastic Craic continues to be a great source for Destruction-based content! This is a great writeup for the biggest boys in the Mortal Realms led by their liege lord.

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There have been a few posts since my last 5 on Friday: