Tavern Watch Podcast: The GenCon 2026 announcement roundup!

Name: Tavern Watch Podcast: The GenCon 2026 announcement roundup! | Open Video
Uploaded: 2026-08-17T04:24:49+00:00
Duration: 1 h 46 min

0:03
[music]
0:09
[music]
0:22
[music]
0:29
>> Well met, traveler. Welcome to the
0:31
tavern.
0:33
Did you know that this magical place is
0:35
where more than half of history's
0:37
greatest adventures have begun?
0:40
Before those adventures took their first
0:42
steps, they watched and calculated who
0:45
would join their party.
0:47
See that barbarian over there?
0:49
He hails from the frozen lands. Strong,
0:52
mighty, and full of wisdom.
0:54
I've closed many a nights with that one.
0:57
They call themselves Matt Rossi.
1:00
To the right over there, that woman
1:02
working on her tinkers and mechanical
1:04
devices.
1:05
An artificer of great skill.
1:08
She is cunning and quick, and I've seen
1:10
her bounce a fair share of
1:11
ne'er-do-wells out of here before I
1:12
could even step out from behind the bar.
1:15
She's known as Liz Harper.
1:18
And that gentleman by the hearth with a
1:19
pile of tomes.
1:21
Rumor has it that he is a powerful
1:23
wizard full of arcane secrets.
1:25
But around here, most just call him the
1:27
professor.
1:29
Me, I know them to be Phil Orrick.
1:32
Oh, me, I'm Joe Perez.
1:35
I'll be your tavern keeper.
1:38
Welcome to Tavern Watch.
1:41
Hello, friends, and welcome back to
1:43
Tavern Watch, where we talk about all
1:44
things tabletop and tabletop adjacent. I
1:47
am one of your humble tavern keepers,
1:49
Joe Perez, and I am joined with my
1:50
normal band of miscreants.
1:53
Uh first, you love her, you know her, uh
1:56
she's currently making her way through
1:58
Haunted video games. Uh Liz Harper, how
2:00
you doing, Liz? [laughter]
2:02
>> Uh howdy. I'm I'm doing great. We've got
2:04
a lot of games going on. It's very
2:06
exciting. It's an exciting time to play
2:08
uh TTRPGs.
2:09
>> Yeah, this is probably going to be a
2:10
slightly longer than normal episode. Uh
2:13
and joining us as well as always, uh I'm
2:16
sure he's got strong opinions of several
2:18
of the things that have been announced
2:19
over this past week. Uh Matt Rossi, how
2:21
you doing, Matt?
2:22
>> I can't wait till like, you know, try to
2:24
jam the Dark Sun-diest,
2:27
Star Wars-iest, everything at at once.
2:32
Ah!
2:33
>> It's it's going to be a thing. Uh and
2:35
then last but certainly not least, we
2:38
have uh Phil I buy every tabletop game
2:41
that's ever produced so this way Matt
2:42
and Joe don't feel as bad. All right,
2:44
how you doing, Phil?
2:45
>> Uh it's a separate hobby and I indulge.
2:49
Uh I'm good. There's a lot of news to
2:51
cover, man.
2:52
>> [laughter]
2:52
>> It is and normally uh we would do our
2:55
our normal stuff with like what we're
2:56
reading, what we're talking about, what
2:57
we're playing, but I think we're going
2:59
to just talk. Let's do the thing. I
3:01
think we're going to move on I think
3:02
we're only going to be announcing that
3:03
shortly after this episode releases, uh
3:06
you'll be getting your hands on our Kids
3:08
on Bikes live play. Uh so that is
3:10
something we all played. Uh so you'll be
3:12
able to see that hopefully in the very
3:13
near [snorts] future. So if you're
3:14
listening to this, enjoy the next live
3:16
play.
3:17
Uh and then we're just going to get
3:18
right into the news cuz man, Gen Con it
3:21
would happen and there has been a ton of
3:23
it. A lot of it centered around Dungeons
3:26
and Dragons.
3:27
Uh and I'm going to start with probably
3:29
the one that most of our listeners have
3:32
a cross interest in, which is the leak
3:34
was real uh and D&D World of Warcraft is
3:38
official. Uh the things that we do know
3:40
about it so far,
3:42
uh it includes every playable WoW
3:44
species and class, has 26 new magic
3:47
items, seven of the WoW dungeons have
3:50
been translated into dungeon Crawls
3:52
complete with maps.
3:53
30 dungeon boss bosses are represented
3:56
as stat blocks. There are over 60 new
3:59
spells, over 50 new monsters. There are
4:02
also 23 factions and a renowned reward
4:05
track system cuz you can't escape
4:07
renown. You you can't you're going to be
4:09
grinding rep. You cannot escape it.
4:11
>> I can finally grind renown when I'm not
4:13
playing. Wow, thank goodness.
4:15
>> Uh there's going to be a system
4:17
including the WoW professions. There's
4:18
going to be rules for mounts as well as
4:20
companion creatures and a lot more. Uh
4:23
it will consist of two books actually
4:25
for this release. Uh we're going to have
4:27
the World of Warcraft gameplay expansion
4:29
which is a source book. Um and then
4:31
you're going to have the Icecrown
4:33
Citadel adventure map pack which is the
4:35
ICC raid adventures with poster maps and
4:37
tokens. Uh there are several different
4:39
versions of this. An ultimate edition
4:42
and a collector's edition also include
4:43
both books as well as some in-game items
4:46
that are yet unspecified. And as a
4:48
retailer, I've just been able to order
4:49
them and they still don't tell me what
4:51
those special in-game items are. But
4:53
this means that there's probably going
4:54
to be these
4:55
>> Inquiring minds.
4:56
>> Yeah, they're probably going to be
4:57
sealed uh sealed books in slipcases. Uh
4:59
looks like the collector's edition ones
5:01
uh have Horde and Alliance theming on
5:03
them. Uh and they'll probably be codes
5:05
inside for you to redeem in game. Uh and
5:07
this is part of the Seasons of Champions
5:09
which are is taking place from October
5:11
to December of this year, 2026. With a
5:14
targeted release date of November, I
5:16
believe. November 17th, I think they
5:18
said.
5:19
>> Yeah, that makes
5:20
>> You know what just occurred to me would
5:21
be a really funny in-game bonus for
5:23
these cuz normally, you know, in the
5:25
past you think, "Oh, it's a mount." Or
5:26
"Oh, it's a pet." Or a toy.
5:28
I want an in-game copy of the D&D core
5:30
books that I can put on my bookshelf in
5:32
housing.
5:32
>> I was just going to say that.
5:33
>> Yeah, like like dice or something. Like
5:36
polyhedral dice or
5:38
>> I've been We've been faking dice in our
5:40
houses. I think at least three of us in
5:41
our guild have gaming rooms in our
5:42
player houses. Let's
5:44
Give me some Give Give Give me some
5:45
polyhedrals I can throw on that bad boy.
5:47
>> Al- Although the funniest thing they
5:48
could do as a signing bonus or a special
5:51
bonus for getting the collector's
5:53
edition because a lot of this is going
5:55
to be There's going to be a lot of
5:56
vanilla WoW references and stuff in here
5:58
because a lot of the dungeons are like
5:59
the OG dungeons.
6:00
If they gave you the spectral tiger
6:02
mount, that would just be the biggest
6:03
funniest thing ever.
6:05
>> Oh my gosh. [laughter]
6:06
>> I thought you were going to say the
6:07
panda pet.
6:08
>> Or the panda pet, something from the
6:09
original collector's edition. Yeah.
6:12
So, I mean, what do you guys think? I
6:14
I'm excited. I've already I've literally
6:16
already pre-ordered my collector's uh
6:18
through my shop.
6:19
Um
6:20
but what do what do you guys think so
6:22
far? Like, are you excited about this?
6:23
Are you not excited about it?
6:24
>> I'm going to admit um that one of the
6:26
best 5E games I've ever been in
6:29
was a person at at the time I was
6:31
friendly with We haven't talked in a
6:32
while, but they ran a a you know,
6:36
WoW-themed 5E game.
6:38
>> Mhm.
6:39
>> And I got to play
6:41
um
6:43
of right cool hunter.
6:45
Like, it was it was ranger class and
6:48
yeah, that game was was a blast. I I got
6:52
at one point I I got to hit I got grown
6:55
to giant size so I could hold off a
6:57
dragon while everybody escaped through a
6:59
portal
7:01
uh to Northrend and I got to fight it
7:03
with Ashkandi in one hand and Sulfuras
7:06
in the other. And I'm like I I literally
7:09
glowed afterwards. I was like 10 ft tall
7:11
even though I was dead. My character
7:13
died, but I I didn't care.
7:14
>> [laughter]
7:14
>> I went out I went out like a boss. And
7:17
so, yeah, I'm actually excited about
7:19
this. I'm going to say that even though
7:20
I've been kind of like spotty on playing
7:22
WoW nowadays because it's hard for me to
7:24
get groups and the whole blindness
7:26
thing. But I I'm fond of of the world. I
7:30
like the lore of of Warcraft. I'm
7:34
excited about this.
7:36
I will see how if it actually has to the
7:38
point where I could play anything I
7:40
wanted, I think I'd basically at some
7:42
point I'd try to put one together for
7:44
for nothing else I'd like to run it for
7:46
us. You know, I don't actually like
7:49
record it. I'd just love to watch you
7:51
guys play it.
7:52
>> I think I think we're like legally
7:54
required to play this on the stream.
7:56
>> I yeah, I think I think we are.
7:58
>> Oh, it's going to happen eventually.
8:00
>> I'm also just glad to see it actually
8:02
exist.
8:02
>> Yeah.
8:03
>> After years of being told we had a
8:04
Diablo game, we had a Diablo game, we
8:05
had a you know, boom an actual product
8:07
that I can I will be able to get.
8:11
>> This is interesting because I wonder I
8:13
mean one of the things about this is
8:15
this is kind of an easy crossover. Like
8:18
I don't mean that it's easy.
8:21
>> It's been done in the past already, too.
8:23
>> Yeah. Um
8:24
but it's you know, it's just converting
8:27
it to 5E. You're not building a whole
8:28
new system. And the thing about the
8:31
ostensible Diablo game from Glass Cannon
8:34
Unplugged is that they were going to
8:35
build a whole unique system just for
8:37
Diablo. And that's a big ask, especially
8:41
for a small press that is Glass Cannon.
8:45
So
8:46
>> I
8:47
>> I mean I can see I can see how it's easy
8:48
to make easier to make this jump and
8:50
convert to 5E.
8:51
>> I do also want to point out and this is
8:53
something that I thought was really
8:53
interesting and we were talking about
8:55
uh when this was going on live
8:58
uh is that the last time that we had
9:01
Warcraft TTRPG stuff, which was D&D
9:04
um it was done through in 2003 and 2005
9:09
when
9:10
>> Dungeons and Dragons
9:11
third and 3.5 edition cuz I think third
9:14
was 2000, 3.5 started in 2003 and ran
9:18
till 2008.
9:19
>> Um you can check my math on that, but I
9:21
think that's right. Um but it was
9:23
produced by White Wolf Publishing under
9:26
Sword and Sorcery. Originally we got the
9:28
Warcraft role-playing game, uh which was
9:31
based off the the strategy game, not
9:33
World of Warcraft cuz World of Warcraft
9:34
hadn't been released yet.
9:35
>> before World of Warcraft was even
9:37
>> Um because again, a lot of the people
9:39
that worked on wow, were huge D&D nerds.
9:41
They had a long standing campaigns,
9:42
partially how they all met. Uh, and then
9:45
in 2005, a year after wow, released, uh,
9:49
we got the World of Warcraft
9:51
role-playing game, uh, specifically to
9:53
match the lore and classes of the 2004
9:57
MMO, uh, that then was discontinued in
10:01
2008.
10:02
Uh, but
10:04
and we've talked about this on the the
10:05
podcast before, the jump from third or
10:07
3.5 edition to fifth edition is not a
10:10
big leap. There's a lot of similarities
10:12
and crossovers, so a lot of the stuff is
10:15
I don't want to say the work was already
10:16
done cuz I don't want to belittle the
10:17
amount of work they're putting into it,
10:19
but I think they can look at a
10:20
framework.
10:21
>> They had a framework. They had They had
10:22
They had something they could go back
10:23
and check reference, right?
10:24
>> Yeah, and also we've got new classes. I
10:28
mean, this includes all of the Warcraft
10:29
classes, Evokers. So, it's That's That's
10:33
how far we've gone. So, we've got a lot
10:34
of new modern content here.
10:37
>> I think as far as crossovers go, like
10:39
it's it's pretty easy to give some of
10:40
these crossovers you see people do with
10:42
D&D that it's kind of easy to crap for
10:44
trying to
10:45
shove a
10:47
into a round hole cuz it's like, you
10:48
know,
10:49
D&D is good at,
10:51
you know, one specific kind of gameplay.
10:53
It's very good at the thing it does,
10:55
which is, you know,
10:56
heroic level fantasy role-playing.
10:59
And in that case, I think this is
11:00
actually probably one of the This is
11:02
probably one of the best crossovers that
11:04
they could do. And because like, these
11:06
two are are in each other's wheelhouse.
11:08
This is This is really good.
11:10
>> This is kind of like the Doom Diablo
11:12
crossover we got.
11:14
Where you're like, yeah, that makes
11:15
sense.
11:16
>> Yeah, yeah, yeah, it just makes perfect
11:17
sense. Yeah.
11:18
>> Yeah, that makes sense. We're going to
11:20
go and fight like dead things inside
11:22
frozen castles.
11:24
I'm not seeing a problem. Like, yeah,
11:26
let's go. Yeah, I I do absolutely agree
11:29
with you on that, Phil.
11:30
>> Regardless?
11:30
>> I do kind of wonder, going back to the
11:32
Diablo thing is does this mean we're
11:34
going to get a Diablo D&D edition
11:38
because it does feel like the official
11:41
Diablo game has been
11:43
>> I
11:44
>> vaporware out there and if this works
11:47
out if this does well
11:48
>> Yeah, I think that's the key. It's going
11:50
to be how this performs I think before
11:52
they do that because I think both both
11:54
Microsoft well all Microsoft Blizzard
11:57
Hasbro and Wizards are going to be
11:59
looking at that metric when they make
12:00
future deals.
12:02
>> Yep.
12:03
>> Yeah, it's also worth pointing out that
12:04
they would have been they obviously have
12:06
a licensing agreement with Glass Cannon
12:09
and that agreement probably controls
12:12
when or if they can do too many
12:14
different kinds of crossovers with
12:15
Diablo but it would also have at some
12:18
point that license will be like you
12:19
didn't do anything so we're going over
12:21
here cuz Microsoft is not going to
12:24
Microsoft's lawyers are not going to let
12:25
you just hold the property the property
12:27
for an extended period.
12:28
>> We'll see what happens. I just I just
12:29
wonder since they're doing this with you
12:31
know is it if this does well I it's not
12:34
like they seems like an easy jump.
12:35
>> I mean they did back in 2000 they did
12:38
two Diablo II books.
12:40
>> They did.
12:40
>> They did Dungeons and Dragons did.
12:42
>> But well no it wasn't it wasn't done by
12:45
Hasbro directly though it was a third
12:47
party supplement.
12:48
>> See the one I've got on my on my shelf
12:50
over there
12:51
literally says by Zeb Cook
12:55
and you know he was one of the big
12:56
people behind the 2E relaunch. He may
12:59
have done it on the side but it was
13:01
published by Wizards. So either way
13:05
they've done this before.
13:06
>> They have. Yeah, yeah.
13:07
>> I was going to if some if I was going to
13:08
dream about a Diablo crossover there's
13:10
actually a different system that I think
13:11
I'd want to see it go with cuz one thing
13:13
Diablo promises is combat against the
13:15
massive hordes of hell and one thing
13:18
everybody knows from playing D&D is mass
13:20
combat is slow as molasses.
13:23
>> Even
13:24
>> [clears throat]
13:24
>> if you have just a full party of like
13:26
four or five people and then you you
13:28
start introducing a bunch of goblins.
13:29
It's like, "Oh god, no."
13:31
>> I I would love to see
13:33
and the pie in the sky here before we
13:36
get back to actual news. I would love to
13:37
see Diablo crossover with Drawl Steel.
13:40
>> Yeah.
13:40
>> Because Drawl Steel has tactical combat.
13:43
It has your character has like a select
13:45
a select set of abilities that get
13:46
modified kind of like Diablo and it's a
13:48
runes and it's talents.
13:50
Um and also they handle like mook level
13:54
enemies in a way that 4E used to do
13:56
because Drawl Steel's heavily inspired
13:58
by 4E. Yeah.
13:59
>> I was going to actually even say that if
14:01
we were going to like if you could pick
14:02
and choose your D&D option for Diablo,
14:05
fourth edition would probably be the
14:07
really good one.
14:07
>> Well, yeah, if you're looking for
14:10
But if you're looking for modern
14:11
systems, I think that and and I'm going
14:13
to throw this out there as well cuz we
14:14
have we have tons of other news, but
14:16
again,
14:16
uh Savage Worlds has a really great
14:19
system for for mass combat and mass
14:21
group combat at least similarly to what
14:23
Phil was saying with uh
14:24
lower-tier enemies and how to deal with
14:26
them. Uh GURPS uh as much as I don't
14:29
like pushing GURPS, GURPS with the GURPS
14:31
mass combat actually works really well
14:34
for uh tactical uh matrix basically
14:38
logistics when it comes uh commanding
14:40
units and then also fighting against
14:42
mass amounts of units. Uh and then
14:44
there's another one called Reign, and it
14:46
has something called company rule. Uh
14:48
and it's done by the One Ring rule
14:49
engine. Go ahead. Reign is great, right?
14:51
>> Oh. Yeah, Reign is a Greg Stolze game
14:53
who has worked on God knows how many
14:55
things throughout uh the gaming
14:57
industry. He's kind of been everywhere.
14:58
>> If you've heard of it, he's probably
14:59
done at least something.
15:01
>> and I feel like it could very easily be
15:03
modified to be Diablo adjacent because I
15:05
mean, the way that the Reign system
15:06
works is it's essentially made for army
15:08
versus army or guild versus guild or
15:11
nations versus nations, whatever, uh
15:13
where player actions tip the balance,
15:15
but you could very easily adjust that, I
15:17
think, to fit Diablo pretty well,
15:20
especially when going against hordes of
15:21
enemies. So,
15:23
I think at the end of the day, I think
15:24
we're all hoping that this does well. I
15:27
hope that it is well produced. I hope
15:29
that it is fun.
15:30
Uh I hope that the quality on the books
15:32
is good, cuz that's always a big thing
15:33
for me, especially cuz of the fact that
15:35
I'm the amount of money that I'm
15:36
currently spending at the shop for this.
15:39
Um I want the print quality to be great.
15:41
Um
15:42
So, like
15:43
I
15:44
it's exciting. And it's also exciting to
15:45
know that it was real and that the leak
15:47
was legit. Uh because I would have been
15:50
really [clears throat] upset if I got my
15:51
uh hopes up and then, you know, "Oh,
15:53
it's not real. Sorry."
15:55
>> Yeah, it it just felt like such a random
15:57
leak out of nowhere that I honestly was
15:59
like, "Yeah, this I I kind of was coming
16:01
down on the side of it being real."
16:03
Because it felt so random to come out of
16:05
nowhere if it wasn't, you know?
16:07
>> felt like it felt like one of those
16:09
those old wow leaks where you'd be like,
16:12
"No, they're not going [laughter] to go
16:12
back to Draenor. We're not going to eat
16:14
like Warlords Who's going to do that?"
16:16
>> time travel. That's nonsense.
16:20
>> But [snorts] then you're like, just
16:21
crazy enough to work.
16:23
>> I just remembered this. Uh Greg Stolze
16:25
wrote a 13th Age novel and
16:28
I was thinking 13th Age would be another
16:30
game that would fit that. So, I just
16:31
wanted to throw that out there really
16:32
fast. Uh Greg Stolze has done
16:34
everything. If you've got a a
16:35
role-playing game, Greg Stolze wrote
16:36
something for it, probably.
16:37
>> Probably. Even if you didn't know he
16:38
did.
16:39
>> Yeah. He snuck into your house and wrote
16:40
a Masks adventure. You didn't know.
16:42
>> [laughter]
16:42
>> He He left He left third edition the
16:44
known armies on your bookshelf. Good
16:45
luck figuring out how to run it.
16:47
>> [laughter]
16:48
>> Well, that that will be coming very,
16:50
very soon. Uh that is going to happen
16:52
this is the next season for D&D. And if
16:55
you are not aware, D&D operates in
16:58
seasons where they pick a theme and then
17:00
the products that are released during
17:01
that time match the theme. Uh the
17:03
current theme of the season we're in is
17:05
season of magic and that runs from July
17:08
through September of 2026. Uh and with
17:11
it, we are going to have our next set of
17:13
releases, which is going to be Arcana
17:15
Unleashed. Um which is essentially the
17:18
first season, officially, uh, but
17:21
technically ongoing, uh, and you're
17:23
going to get two books for this, as
17:24
well. Uh, you're going to get, uh,
17:27
magical new magical subclasses, items,
17:29
and adventure that pits players against
17:31
the Red Wizards of Thay. Um, if you
17:33
watch the Honor Among Thieves, uh,
17:35
Dungeons & Dragons movie, you probably
17:37
know who those are. Um, and Arcana
17:40
Unleashed by itself is a gameplay
17:41
expansion, which includes, uh, like we
17:42
said, eight subclasses, 33 spells, 10
17:45
backgrounds, 29 feats, 47 magic items,
17:49
uh, and a whole lot more.
17:51
And it concludes with a, uh, small
17:53
adventure for first-level characters to
17:55
test out the new Arcana additions. And
17:57
then you have Arcana Unleashed: Deadfall
17:59
as a magical espionage campaign. Those
18:02
are words that I never thought I would
18:03
be putting together for something that
18:05
was officially a, uh, Dungeons & Dragons
18:07
product, uh, where you've, uh, face off
18:09
against, uh, Szass Tam, the dreaded
18:12
lich, uh, and it's designed to bring
18:14
players from level 11 all the way up to
18:16
level 20, which is really interesting,
18:20
um, because I don't think we've seen a
18:21
lot of adventures that have really
18:22
pushed characters to level cap in a long
18:24
time. So, that's really cool.
18:26
>> Yeah, Wizards Wizards have said before
18:28
they don't do content for those levels
18:30
because most games don't never go to
18:32
those levels.
18:33
>> Here's my question. Here's my question.
18:36
If they don't do content for those
18:37
levels because players don't go to those
18:39
levels, why do those levels exist? Why
18:41
did you make them? You make the game.
18:43
You make the decisions.
18:45
>> I literally just and had a lunch with my
18:46
my childhood best friend who had just
18:48
got done running a 10-year long campaign
18:50
where everybody was max level. It
18:52
happens. It just takes a while.
18:54
>> It's it's nice to see Wizards
18:55
acknowledging the upper half of their
18:57
level bracket. And also, I feel like
18:58
it's kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
19:00
They're like, "Oh, we don't make content
19:01
for those levels cuz no one gets those
19:02
levels." I'm like, "If you make content
19:04
for those levels, people might keep
19:06
playing to those upper levels, you
19:07
know?"
19:08
>> Turns out incentive is important.
19:09
>> I I
19:10
every so often they've they go the other
19:12
direction and make something like the
19:14
epic level handbook.
19:15
>> I miss that actually.
19:17
>> Okay, you little power hungry monkeys.
19:18
Here's levels 20
19:20
and up.
19:21
>> Or or my favorite, I was telling Liz
19:22
about this when we were talking about
19:23
Dark Sun cuz she's not super familiar
19:25
with Dark Sun. I was like, "Yeah, there
19:26
was a book that gave you rules for
19:28
hitting 30th level twice and then
19:30
continuing to progress."
19:33
>> You remember that?
19:33
>> Yeah. We're going to we're going to talk
19:34
about this in a just a little bit
19:36
[laughter]
19:37
cuz I have very strong emotions around
19:39
Dark Sun. Um but no, you're you're
19:42
absolutely right where like it's it's
19:44
it's a carrot on the stick thing. If you
19:46
don't make content for it, people won't
19:49
have an incentive to keep going cuz
19:51
you've you finished the adventure and
19:54
then if there's nothing waiting for you,
19:56
then it makes it less less player
19:59
focused to want to go ahead and do that.
20:00
>> Yeah. I I don't know if you guys
20:02
remember this and I know Phil wouldn't
20:03
cuz he he wasn't here at the time.
20:06
Uh but we ran that game where I gave you
20:08
guys all level 20 characters.
20:10
>> Yeah.
20:11
>> And you played them.
20:13
Uh you didn't do very well because of
20:14
you weren't supposed to.
20:16
Um but it was I like having that content
20:19
because I like being able to use it. Um
20:21
I not just as a player, but as a as a
20:24
guy running games. I like there to be,
20:26
"Okay,
20:27
this is what a player could will look
20:29
like when they're at 20th level. This is
20:31
the stuff you can do." So, I personally
20:35
am really happy about this that they're
20:36
going to take a dungeon up to 20th
20:38
level.
20:39
>> I hope this actually I hope this
20:41
actually puts the debug in their ear to
20:43
potentially look at making
20:46
uh epic level content because I I I
20:48
actually miss those books. Those were
20:50
some of the most fun things in third
20:52
edition and 3.5 was not just the epic
20:55
level handbook, but also like the
20:57
addition of prestige classes and
20:59
>> Savage species.
21:00
>> Yeah.
21:01
>> They put in all the different monsters
21:03
you could play.
21:03
>> Yeah, like in having it so that the game
21:06
it I I like long-term campaigns. As
21:09
anybody who's listened to any of the
21:10
stuff we've done
21:12
doesn't know that, well, surprise. Um
21:15
like to the point where my D&D world is
21:17
the same D&D world that has existed
21:18
since 1996.
21:20
Um where I just keep updating it because
21:23
I like the idea of long-term impact. And
21:26
so like I like the idea of maybe having
21:28
a game where I can invite some of my
21:30
player characters back from the past to
21:32
like play an epic level one shot or
21:35
something along those lines if there
21:37
were rules or frameworks to, you know,
21:39
put that in place. I I think it's cool.
21:41
I think it's a really great way to
21:43
revisit character classes without
21:45
necessarily having to make new
21:46
subclasses, too.
21:49
Uh but both the Arcana Unearthed books
21:51
will be dropping on September 15th, uh
21:54
which is really really cool. Um these
21:56
are probably going to be instant pickups
21:58
for me as well. I don't know
22:00
if you guys have anything else you want
22:01
to say about that before we move on to
22:02
the next stuff.
22:03
>> No.
22:04
>> All right.
22:05
>> I mean
22:05
>> E- the the next thing that they did
22:07
announce, uh which I thought was
22:08
actually really important, was changes
22:10
to D&D Beyond. Uh there's a couple
22:12
things that were really stand out about
22:15
it. Uh first is the introduction of D&D
22:17
Beyond LFG or looking for group. Uh you
22:21
can use it to find in-person games near
22:22
you
22:23
and then D&D is partnering with Start
22:25
Playing Games uh to give players a
22:28
discount when using the service which
22:29
connects you to four hired Dungeon
22:31
Masters online. Uh specifically, it
22:34
makes your first game cost just 99
22:37
cents. Finally, there will also be a
22:39
server to connect players with players
22:41
through their official Discord.
22:44
I have feelings about this uh and and
22:47
I'll get them out and let's see how you
22:48
guys think. This is technically already
22:50
a feature of the Wizards website where
22:54
the Wizards website looks for events
22:57
that are officially like done through
22:59
like WPN stores
23:01
um or people that have set up open play
23:04
requests. And I think it's been woefully
23:06
underutilized for that. People use it
23:08
all the time for magic, but it seems
23:10
like stores and individuals looking for
23:12
game don't use it for tabletop as much.
23:16
And I think pushing it into D&D Beyond
23:19
is potentially a very smart move.
23:21
Uh, I think if you play D&D and have D&D
23:24
Beyond, having something pop up where
23:26
it's like, "Hey, you can go look for
23:28
more people to play with. Here's a link
23:30
to it directly inside of it and here's
23:31
the interface." I think that's really,
23:33
really good.
23:35
Um,
23:35
the other side of it is
23:38
the pain for
23:40
D&D games is always
23:43
interesting to me.
23:45
I understand that there's a whole
23:46
industry around it for for far higher
23:48
dungeon masters.
23:50
I personally have never seen the appeal
23:52
of it, but I know that it is a good
23:54
option for potentially people that don't
23:56
know somebody who wants to run a game to
23:59
sort of like, "I want to play a game. I
24:01
don't want to run a game. I'll pay
24:03
somebody, you know, or we'll
24:04
collectively pay somebody to run a game
24:06
for." I can understand that being an
24:07
option.
24:08
Um, what do you guys think about that?
24:09
>> Uh, I would say I didn't I didn't even
24:11
know about that thing you're talking
24:12
about with Wizards' website doing this,
24:14
but I was very or purely through name
24:17
recognition with Start Playing Games.
24:18
>> Mhm.
24:19
>> And I think this is really cool of
24:21
Wizards to or
24:23
Wizards to look at D&D Beyond and go,
24:25
"How can we like help raise up a tool
24:28
that already works and is already doing
24:30
a thing we want and bring more attention
24:32
to it?" Um, I I have similar thoughts
24:35
about the paid DM thing. Um, I've seen
24:37
video interviews of people who do paid
24:39
DMing and like it's basically kind of a
24:41
way to earn a little hobby money on the
24:43
side is what it amounts to for most
24:44
people. I don't think anybody's really
24:45
making a living doing it uh, outside of
24:48
like Matt Mercer or Joe Manganiello. Um,
24:51
it's like I think that I think this is
24:53
interesting cuz usually D&D Beyond just
24:55
kind of consumes other things and
24:58
swallows them whole and puts them on D&D
25:00
Beyond and kind of centralizes the hobby
25:02
even more.
25:04
Whereas this is them kind of taking D&D
25:05
Beyond and maybe like opening it
25:07
outwards sort of to go like here's
25:09
here's this other service that works and
25:11
can help you find people and can help
25:12
you actually play games.
25:14
Um anything that helps more people play
25:16
more games is a-okay with me.
25:18
>> Matt Liz?
25:19
>> I mean it's this is a
25:21
this is a good set of tools and it's
25:23
good to serve some more people to more
25:26
people. It makes a lot of sense to
25:28
consolidate D&D tools in D&D Beyond. We
25:31
had a while where Wizards of the Coast
25:33
was making its own virtual tabletop
25:37
which lasted so long that I've already
25:38
forgotten what it was called.
25:40
And it's like it was splitting up the
25:43
kind of
25:44
economy of where D&D content was online.
25:47
But you know, they've given up they've
25:49
given up on their fancy virtual tabletop
25:51
and they're focusing on kind of core
25:53
tools on D&D Beyond. Making it more
25:55
usable. They're also doing things like
25:57
improving the search and improving just
25:59
the core experience of D&D Beyond and
26:01
improving the app so it's more useful at
26:04
the table and you're not just whenever
26:06
I'm trying to use
26:07
>> We should talk about that a little bit
26:09
more I think maybe expand on cuz I think
26:11
that's a really interesting choice.
26:13
>> And they didn't talk much about
26:15
improving the app. I mean they were
26:16
talking they've said they're improving
26:18
the app but what does that mean? And
26:20
they specifically talked about improving
26:21
it so that you can use it at the table
26:24
and it's going to improve that in-person
26:26
experience instead of being like oh yes,
26:29
we're going to completely replace the
26:30
in-person experience. And
26:33
when I use the D&D Beyond app, it's it
26:37
can be really clunky. I do use it. It's
26:39
a useful way to look things up but it's
26:42
it's clunky. So if they can streamline
26:44
it and make it easier to reference
26:46
things, make it easier to pull up
26:48
character sheets and see the information
26:50
you need while you're playing,
26:52
that would be great. If they I We're
26:55
We're talking about how can we make it
26:56
easier for people to play this game and
26:58
play it together. And giving everyone
27:02
easy-to-access tools that are right in
27:04
front of them, that's a win. That's a
27:05
win for everyone.
27:06
>> Yeah, I was going to say I think one of
27:08
the interesting things is the mobile app
27:10
that they have for D&D Beyond, when
27:12
you're using it on a mobile phone, kind
27:15
of sucks. Um it's
27:17
>> It's better for [clears throat] tablets.
27:18
It really isn't very good.
27:20
>> Well, I mean, even on a tablet, like if
27:22
you do it on a tablet, it also gives you
27:24
the option to just load the web
27:25
interface,
27:26
which is a million times better than the
27:28
mobile offering. Uh so, it's it's
27:31
interesting and I think that they I
27:33
think they understand that and that's
27:35
been a big part of the consistent
27:37
feedback they've been getting.
27:39
So, to see them actually go, "Okay,
27:41
yeah, we know it kind of isn't great and
27:43
we're going to invest resources into
27:45
making it better."
27:47
is very good. And like you said, the the
27:51
idea of making it useful for at-table
27:54
play
27:55
is also really good because, again, not
27:58
everybody has a tablet. Not everybody
28:00
has a folding phone. Uh not everybody
28:03
has something other than like a cell
28:05
phone in their pocket sometimes. And
28:07
I'll tell you that carrying around a
28:08
cell phone is probably a lot more
28:11
convenient than 50 to 70 lb of books
28:14
when you're going from point A to point
28:16
B, right? Don't get me wrong, I love my
28:18
physical books. I have many of them. I
28:21
have a pile of them right next to me
28:22
that I was reading today. Um but they're
28:24
heavy. And if I can leave them at home
28:28
and take just my character with me with
28:30
the rules that I need for it, that's
28:31
even better, right? But again, like you
28:33
said, it's just it's been so clunky that
28:36
I've just been sticking with pen and
28:37
paper. So, hopefully this works well.
28:39
They haven't given us any more like
28:40
timeline uh or anything else regarding
28:43
that, but I would say and to the future
28:46
and they'll probably have uh more news
28:48
on that in the coming weeks or months.
28:52
>> Okay, so here's where I feel free to
28:54
finally jump in with this cuz I was
28:56
deliberately not jumping in with it so
28:57
you guys would talk. Um
28:59
the people who know me know health
29:01
problems I've been having, stuff that's
29:02
been going on.
29:04
Um I I've been been as involved in the
29:06
site in the past few years as I was
29:08
before.
29:09
And uh I'm one of the people who I
29:12
actually God, I feel like I'm confessing
29:14
to like, you know, my my secret career
29:16
as a stripper or something. I I went and
29:19
did this. I I professionally DM'd. Uh
29:22
I've been doing it for like 2 years now.
29:24
Uh I I haven't really been doing it that
29:26
much recently. Uh but up until late
29:29
2025, from like 2024 to 2025, I did it
29:32
like at least once a month uh for a
29:34
while. And
29:36
there the appeal was I needed a little
29:38
extra money. At least that's I'll be
29:40
right up front with you. The appeal
29:42
wasn't that, you know, I don't have any
29:45
like big ideological reason for doing
29:47
it. We were broke.
29:50
You know, and um I mean, it it made
29:52
okay.
29:53
Uh I wasn't doing it on StartPlaying. I
29:56
now that I know about them, I'm actually
29:58
seriously considering looking to see
29:59
what they do.
30:00
Um but I would I would usually uh
30:04
have a Reddit thread or a
30:06
something on uh Kijiji or similar type
30:09
places where you can you can find
30:11
people. Um I didn't use my real name. Uh
30:14
which I Again, makes me feel like I'm
30:15
confessing to something sordid and not
30:18
I ran D&D games for people. Uh
30:22
But yeah, I
30:24
I think it's something that uh there's a
30:26
lot of
30:28
there are barriers to running games that
30:29
I think you can kind of
30:31
people kind of don't realize are there.
30:34
One of those barriers is performance
30:36
anxiety. Like people A lot of people
30:38
don't want to get up and talk in front
30:39
of a bunch of people, you know? And And
30:41
sitting there and doing quite frankly,
30:43
sometimes it's kind of embarrassing if
30:44
you think about it too much that you're
30:46
sitting there going, "Okay,
30:47
now, you are on a moor somewhere." You
30:50
know, it's it's To a degree, I feel like
30:52
professional DMs allow more people to
30:54
play
30:55
without the the worrying part of, "Oh, I
30:58
have to put myself out there. I have to
31:00
like be everyone." Um there's a song
31:03
that was like recorded, I I want to say
31:05
back before 2020, uh but it was like
31:07
called, you know, he's literally
31:08
everyone else in the world. It's about
31:10
Johnny Keedini. If you guys don't know
31:12
who Johnny Keedini is, they are a they
31:14
are they are they run the games for the
31:16
um
31:17
Adventurers Club, which is a streaming
31:19
D&D channel. You get to watch various
31:21
games. And
31:23
it's basically about how they are like,
31:24
you know, everyone else in the game is
31:26
playing all character, and Johnny's
31:28
playing everyone else in the world. Like
31:31
everyone you meet who isn't in your
31:32
party is just Johnny.
31:35
And for some people, that's a that's a
31:36
lot. So, that's the reason I like the
31:40
professional DM thing. That's the reason
31:41
I went with it myself. Haven't been
31:43
doing it as much the past year and a
31:44
half because I finally
31:46
got a little breathing room with
31:48
disability help. Uh
31:49
and, you know, but yeah, that's that to
31:52
me immediately that made me perk up. The
31:54
idea that they're going to be more
31:55
officially doing it. I was like, "Ooh,
31:57
okay, maybe it'll feel less like a dirty
31:59
little secret I have to keep." So, there
32:00
you go.
32:01
>> All right. Uh
32:03
from there, I want to move on to what I
32:05
think is my most exciting news of it,
32:08
but I'm going to
32:10
throw to you guys first, which is in
32:11
February through July of 2027, the first
32:15
uh season of 2027 is going to be the
32:18
season of survival. Uh and they
32:20
announced that it is going to be
32:21
starting with Dark Sun. We're going back
32:25
to Athas, and it will be two main books.
32:27
You have Dark Sun Edge of Oblivion,
32:29
which is the setting expansion,
32:31
uh and then you have the Dark Sun Blood
32:32
and Power, which is the gameplay
32:34
expansion. Uh so, the setting expansion
32:36
will be the world and everything else
32:37
that you need,
32:39
uh, maps and things like that, whereas
32:41
the blood and power will wind up being
32:42
your character classes,
32:44
uh, your species, feats, things like
32:46
that.
32:47
Uh, there's also going to be a DM screen
32:49
available, a full map pack, and a
32:52
limited edition 5.5 edition player's
32:54
handbook with a Dark Sun cover cover
32:57
art.
32:58
Um, I have thoughts, but I'm going to
32:59
turn it to you guys first.
33:01
>> I'm just going to jump in right now with
33:02
something. We talked how long ago was it
33:05
we talked about how we need they needed
33:07
more setting books?
33:08
>> Literally like two episodes ago, I
33:09
think.
33:10
>> Probably like a month ago, yeah.
33:11
>> And [laughter] we
33:13
we banged this drum a lot, yeah.
33:14
>> Every everything that we're talking
33:16
about that they're putting out that
33:17
isn't like, you know, the D&D Beyond
33:18
stuff has a setting book, and that's
33:20
something that they've been doing for a
33:22
while that I kind of forgot. When they
33:24
did the, uh,
33:26
the Spelljammer book that was that had
33:28
setting information and an adventure.
33:30
>> Well, they had moved away from doing it.
33:32
They did it a lot and then they stopped.
33:34
>> Uh, but now they're going back to that
33:36
well, which we had I just want to give
33:38
credit where credit's due, that we had
33:39
said, "You should do this." And they're
33:41
like, "Yes, we we are."
33:42
>> We take credit.
33:43
>> So it's like, good. Um, then I will say,
33:47
Dark Sun, I have a lot of feelings
33:48
about, uh, but I do want to let both Liz
33:51
and Phil talk, so I'm going to shut up
33:53
and then maybe come Now one of you has
33:54
to talk.
33:55
>> Yeah, all right. I was I was giving Liz
33:57
the window, but I know Liz, uh, doesn't
33:58
have a lot about Dark Sun, so so I have
34:02
complicated feelings about this.
34:05
Um, I I I will get that out of the way.
34:09
I do love Dark Sun. I am very excited to
34:11
see Dark Sun come back. If there is a
34:12
D&D book that I will actually pay money
34:14
for, it will probably be Dark Sun. But
34:17
on the other hand, all we have to go on
34:20
right now is a 45-second teaser trailer.
34:24
And that 45-second teaser trailer's
34:27
primary focus
34:28
was gore, blood, guts, uh, look how dark
34:32
and mature and edgy we are.
34:33
>> Mhm.
34:35
>> And I just kind of just kind of shook my
34:37
head when it started with uh content
34:40
warning extreme violence, a slow-motion
34:43
shot of someone having their skull and
34:46
spine ripped out of their body by using
34:48
their eye sockets as a grip. Holy crap.
34:52
>> [laughter]
34:52
>> Like none of that is what I think of
34:55
when I think of Dark Sun. Like, you
34:57
know, I think of
34:58
>> Yeah.
34:58
>> I I appreciate that it's in season of
35:00
survival because, you know, I think of
35:02
Athas as being a hard world to survive
35:05
in. Your characters aren't the we've
35:08
talked about the kind of superheroic
35:09
level of fantasy role-play that D&D
35:13
tends to emulate automatically.
35:15
But
35:17
I don't see like that doesn't really fit
35:20
Dark Sun. Dark Sun kind of came at a
35:22
time when during second edition with
35:24
things were a little more low power
35:26
across the board. You know, Dark Sun is
35:28
what for people who are familiar with
35:30
it, Dark Sun is a
35:32
setting where the world is dying. There
35:33
are no gods. Athas is completely
35:35
isolated in the multiverse.
35:37
>> It's dying because of magic. Let's
35:39
>> Yeah, because of halflings. These
35:41
>> [laughter]
35:42
>> centers of civilization are ruled over
35:45
by these all-powerful sorcerer kings who
35:48
and queens who are basically both
35:50
magicians who are helping to speed up
35:53
the destruction of the environment and
35:54
also psionicists cuz it's a If you like
35:57
psionics, this is your This is your
35:59
setting. This is where it went full
36:01
bore. Um and like it has a lot of things
36:06
that
36:07
back when it came out would have been
36:09
considered edgy and now probably would
36:11
have been, you know, now they're going
36:12
to have to address them. Uh like the
36:15
setting has ownership of other sentient
36:18
beings just as a matter of course.
36:20
>> Yeah, the first
36:22
>> the first boss battle you're going
36:23
breaking up a slave market, right? Like
36:25
it is
36:26
>> There There is at least one culture in
36:28
the game where cannibalism is
36:31
is normalized.
36:32
>> like
36:33
don't hide it.
36:33
>> Yeah.
36:34
Yeah, how is that
36:36
Well, I don't want to spoil everything,
36:37
but yeah, it's the halflings. And like
36:40
you know, you have elves whose whose
36:42
most notorious character traits are they
36:43
live alone in the desert and they lie to
36:45
everybody all the time.
36:47
And it's just like
36:48
>> Caravans.
36:49
>> Yeah. And it's it's just it's it's also
36:52
the only D&D setting I know that had
36:54
equipment breakage rules. Shout out
36:56
>> Yeah, so Fire Emblem, I guess.
36:58
>> Oh, man. Yeah, I have that that's what I
37:00
was screaming
37:03
about this. So okay.
37:04
>> trailer? I'm like,
37:06
>> Let me
37:06
>> Yeah.
37:07
>> Yeah, I got I got to jump in here a
37:08
little bit because like
37:09
>> No, go ahead. I I think I've gotten
37:11
across my thoughts where I like I I'm
37:13
excited about Dark Sun. I don't know
37:15
that I trust them to handle it well
37:17
based on this 45-minute teaser trailer.
37:19
So I guess we'll see when more comes
37:20
out.
37:21
>> Um so Dark Sun was a very formative
37:23
setting for a lot of reasons.
37:26
Uh it you had your token-esque
37:28
backdrop of Greyhawk and Forgotten
37:30
Realms. We're going to talk about
37:30
Greyhawk in a little bit.
37:32
Where that is sort of like the fantasy
37:34
setting for D&D that most players know.
37:37
It it's it's your elves, your high high
37:39
fantasy, your high magic, high
37:41
adventure,
37:42
you know, pseudo modern society
37:45
essentially, but given a medieval
37:47
fantasy dressing.
37:49
Dark Sun threw all that out the window.
37:52
And instead it went to the dark fantasy
37:55
heavy metal roots that were popular at
37:58
the end of the '80s and into the '90s.
38:01
And Dark Sun released in 1991
38:03
during second edition and it very much
38:06
wore that on its sleeve including
38:08
its key art which is done by the artist
38:10
Brom.
38:12
Which if you've ever seen any of their
38:13
art, it is very much heavy metal,
38:17
very dark, very gritty.
38:19
>> Yeah.
38:19
>> Like like Brom could make 40K art by
38:22
sneezing.
38:24
Like that that type of art. But it we
38:26
went with the dark fantasy lines,
38:28
planetary romance, and a dying world
38:31
subgenre because of the whole Athas is
38:34
dying thing. And because of this certain
38:36
things were
38:38
essentially canonized into like the
38:41
world setting.
38:42
And again, trigger warning for the next
38:44
like couple minutes.
38:45
But the first adventure is dealing with
38:47
the idea of slavery on Athas because
38:50
essentially the these wizard kings that
38:54
are controlling everything are not
38:55
exactly nice people. Magic is deadly and
38:58
dangerous and they can wield it. And so
39:01
sometimes they want stuff built and they
39:02
don't want to pay you to build it. So
39:04
they're going to go find people that
39:05
they can enslave and build for it.
39:08
The arena is a thing here where there is
39:11
a level of brutality that was present in
39:14
the games with you know, gladiatorial
39:16
combat where two men two things enter,
39:19
one thing leaves. Which
39:22
okay, sure. That was part of it.
39:24
The other thing that was interesting was
39:26
the metal. Because of everything has
39:29
this level of decay about it with Athas
39:31
because of the magic, metal is super
39:34
super rare and super super expensive.
39:37
And because of that most of the weapons
39:40
are made out of natural items like
39:42
like bone, obsidian,
39:46
you know, pieces pieces of animals,
39:48
wood, like anything like that that they
39:51
could possibly shape into a
39:52
>> rare because there weren't a lot of
39:54
trees after
39:55
>> Yeah, exactly. And most of that had like
39:57
lower like higher breakage rates. So
40:01
the thing that got me was watching that
40:03
45-second trailer and then seeing some
40:05
of the key art that very clearly was
40:07
done by Brom
40:08
who was back for working with them for
40:10
other things as well is that there was a
40:12
whole lot of metal or at least what
40:14
looked like metal.
40:16
And I'm curious to see
40:19
if they're going to carry the themes
40:20
forward. So, the themes of protecting a
40:22
dying world and trying to revitalize it,
40:25
uh the themes of anti-corporatism, which
40:27
were huge in it. Uh those wizard uh
40:31
warlords, those major warlords, were
40:33
essentially heads of corporations for
40:35
lack of a better thing. Uh and again,
40:37
this comes after the popularity of like
40:39
Cyberpunk and Shadowrun and all that
40:40
other stuff, but given a fantasy a
40:42
fantasy slant to it. Um and if they're
40:45
going to really understand that the
40:47
brutality wasn't the point, it was a
40:49
punctuation.
40:51
Right? Cuz that's sort of a big thing.
40:53
Now, if they can hit all of that and
40:55
like not exactly just let it become edgy
40:58
for the sake of being edgy, then it I'll
41:01
be fine. The way that it was presented
41:04
did not say that or did not give me that
41:06
feeling, though. And it felt like the
41:08
person presenting it didn't quite
41:10
understand what the point of Dark Sun
41:12
was and was just reading some copy uh
41:15
from somebody who happened to uh you
41:17
know, working in PR and never heard of
41:19
this before. Right? Um
41:21
but like Dark Sun is also really
41:22
important for another aspect of the game
41:24
that maybe doesn't necessarily get put
41:27
across a lot these days, but I think
41:29
it's starting to become more prevalent.
41:30
Psionics in D&D started in Dark Sun.
41:34
Like because magic was so anathema to
41:37
the world, you had to replace it with
41:39
something else. And psionic abilities,
41:42
ion stones, and all that other stuff
41:44
sort of took over as a as a a a
41:47
an evolutionary standpoint for the magic
41:50
system of the world and was way more
41:53
prevalent.
41:54
>> I'm going to jump in here just to point
41:55
out that you're right in terms of
41:57
thematic use, but I mean, I've got my
42:01
old AD&D books from way before Dark Sun
42:03
existed. Psionics was in those books. It
42:05
just wasn't used
42:06
>> Wasn't popularized. Yeah.
42:08
>> Yeah, it was basically stuck in there
42:10
because somebody had read Katherine
42:11
Kurtz and the Deryni novels and was
42:14
like, "Yeah, we got fancy with these
42:15
mind powers." And even Valdemar, my
42:18
word, I'm actually referencing Valdemar.
42:20
But, it was Dark Sun that finally said,
42:22
"No, this is how you can use it." I
42:24
actually One of the things I I There's
42:26
three things I always want to point out
42:28
when I'm when we're anyone's talking
42:29
about Dark Sun. First one was the first
42:31
time I read it, I thought, "This is
42:32
Fallout."
42:33
>> Cuz it kind of is. It's
42:34
post-apocalyptic, right?
42:35
>> of Fallout. It is that you're wandering
42:38
a wasteland, you're finding little
42:40
pinpoints of civilization. Every time
42:42
you get near a big one, there's usually
42:44
something awful living in it. Um
42:47
So, that's part one of the things I
42:49
always keep thinking about when I think
42:50
about Dark Sun.
42:52
And also, like Fallout, it's got a lot
42:55
of allegorical weight. Like, a lot of
42:57
the stuff going on on Athas, you just
43:00
pointed it all out, the corporatism and
43:01
so forth. The second is that I am
43:03
positive they Someone involved in this
43:06
remembers Black Spine.
43:08
>> Mhm. Yep.
43:09
>> And that's why I'm not as freaked out as
43:11
you with the possibly metal armor and
43:13
weapons, because it might be chitin.
43:16
>> Yeah, which is which if it's chitin, I'm
43:17
great with it.
43:18
>> And specifically,
43:20
um the major monsters, like the monster
43:23
race that replaced orcs and stuff, in in
43:25
Dark Sun was the gith. And the gith I
43:28
mean
43:29
Yeah. Well, no. Not your laezel. Laezel
43:32
is a gith yanki. Yes.
43:34
>> And if you've ever played um the most
43:37
famous D&D, you know, video game of all
43:39
time, Planescape Torment, which is
43:42
actually more famous than Baldur's Gate
43:44
because the Japanese loved it. Um
43:46
>> The gith are descended from gith yanki,
43:48
if I write it like that.
43:49
>> They have the githzerai. No, they're
43:51
not. They're
43:52
They're kind of degenerated from them.
43:55
>> Yeah, same thing.
43:56
>> And and it's But, the whole point is I
43:59
think they're going to It feels to me
44:01
like one of the things Wizards loves to
44:02
do now is try and always tie their new
44:06
releases to their multiverse idea.
44:08
>> Mhm.
44:08
>> Their multiverse of Dungeons and Dragons
44:10
or and I think we're going to basically
44:13
use this
44:15
to tie this into places like, you know,
44:17
their recent uh Planescape book, which
44:21
has the githyanki and githzerai. And the
44:23
githzerai, man, we got to get them
44:25
someday. We got to talk about them. But
44:27
I want to see if that happens. I want to
44:29
see if somebody remembers black like the
44:30
books that they published. Does somebody
44:33
remember the stuff they did with the
44:34
silt sea and the the last little bit of
44:37
the world from before the apocalypse and
44:40
all that stuff? Are we going to see any
44:41
of it? Phil mentioned the fact that the
44:43
halflings have a lot of stuff going on
44:45
here that they don't have anywhere else.
44:47
Are we going to get that? Um it is this
44:50
is a really
44:51
this is a book that if it home runs will
44:53
be amazing, but it will be real easy to
44:55
not home run this.
44:56
>> Yeah, I'm I'm hoping that it's a home
44:59
run. I've been desperately like I've I
45:01
how many times have I begged on this
45:02
podcast to bring Dark Sun back?
45:03
>> Yeah.
45:04
>> Um
45:05
>> So that's just those are the things I
45:06
have to say about Dark Sun. I I loved
45:08
this as a kid. Like I I thought it was
45:11
one of the best settings I'd ever seen.
45:13
>> It was also one of the most successful
45:14
AD&D settings.
45:15
>> Yeah.
45:16
Yeah, but at the same time I'm also
45:18
aware of how
45:20
it it the I think Phil made a really
45:22
good point that the stuff it introduced,
45:24
some of it would have to be handled very
45:26
differently today.
45:27
>> Yes.
45:28
>> Um so yeah, that's that's pretty much
45:29
all I have to say on it.
45:31
Uh I will also say that in a in a world
45:34
where settings were like
45:35
>> Al-Qadim
45:36
>> or Kara-Tur and the forgot you know the
45:38
you know an actual book named Oriental
45:40
Adventures, Dark Sun felt like a
45:42
completely new thing. It felt innovative
45:45
and so.
45:46
>> Yeah, and I mean, we'll see what
45:47
happens, but
45:49
we I will likely be picking these up one
45:51
way or another.
45:52
Uh so at the very least I'll be more
45:54
than happy to offer a review. Uh but
45:56
that's not the only old one returning uh
45:58
to our our shelves in 2027. We did get
46:02
word that the season of sword and
46:03
sorcery, September through October of
46:06
2027, will be headlined by Greyhawk.
46:09
Specifically, Greyhawk coming back with
46:10
the Crown of the Witch. It's a 160-page
46:13
hardcover book that is more
46:15
villain-focused,
46:17
centering on
46:18
Dreznol or well, I can never pronounce
46:21
it. Drelzna? It's like Drelzna.
46:24
>> Yeah, [laughter] those consonants don't
46:26
go in that order.
46:27
>> They don't. Um who is the vampire
46:29
daughter of Iggwilv, which is Tasha.
46:33
>> So it runs in the family.
46:34
>> It runs in the family. Although
46:35
technically Tasha's not a vampire.
46:38
Um but that's really all we know so far
46:39
but the interesting
46:39
>> name, Spelljammer.
46:40
>> Yes.
46:41
Um but
46:42
>> But the interesting thing is that
46:44
they're bringing Greyhawk back with a
46:46
full release,
46:47
uh which we kind of thought that they
46:49
were going to do already.
46:51
Um and it turns out that it like I don't
46:54
think it was going to be a full release
46:55
originally, right? I think it was going
46:56
to be part of the new Player's Handbook
46:59
for 2024, and then it wasn't, not
47:02
really.
47:03
>> No, it was just the The only thing that
47:05
was the map in the Dungeon Master's
47:07
Guide.
47:08
>> Yeah.
47:08
>> the only bit of Greyhawk.
47:10
>> And then it feels like that was a
47:11
decision that somebody made that they
47:12
never communicated that they were going
47:14
to just spin it off as a its own full
47:16
thing, which I'm not opposed to.
47:20
>> Um I will point out this is one of the
47:21
ones that isn't We don't really know if
47:23
there'll be any kind of Like it's a
47:25
160-page hardcover book. That's all we
47:27
know.
47:27
>> Yes.
47:28
>> Like is how much setting information we
47:29
will be giving us? Cuz they've done
47:31
other stuff set in Greyhawk and they
47:32
just haven't told anybody it was
47:34
Greyhawk or not made a big deal out of
47:36
it. They did that whole deal with uh
47:38
Salt Marsh. They put out like a book set
47:40
in Salt Marsh recently a few years back.
47:42
So they've done it before but they kind
47:44
of tiptoe around it. They kind of want
47:46
to make people think it's it's the
47:48
Forgotten Realms if they can get away
47:49
with it.
47:50
>> The So we'll see what this is.
47:51
>> I I'm hoping that they also like don't
47:54
just do that because Greyhawk had
47:57
probably some of the more interesting
47:59
gods and deities as well as far as that
48:03
goes.
48:04
Um which I wouldn't mind, you know,
48:06
seeing Saint Cuthbert or come back.
48:09
Uh because, you know, who doesn't like a
48:12
>> people with clubs?
48:14
>> Hitting people with clubs and
48:15
shillelaghs. Um
48:17
but like they they had a lot of really
48:18
cool like their their pantheon was was a
48:21
lot more real-world religion-based, I
48:24
guess would be the best way to put it.
48:26
Um which was really really cool. So,
48:29
I don't know. Hopefully this is
48:30
something, but there's not a whole lot
48:31
here. I don't know if Phil, if you have
48:33
any opinions about Greyhawk. I know
48:35
Greyhawk was well before Liz's time.
48:37
>> Um nope. It's interesting to me to see
48:40
this because I do, like you guys, I
48:42
remember that the
48:44
the we were being pitched a return to
48:45
Greyhawk as the default setting for the
48:47
2024 books
48:49
>> Mhm.
48:49
>> for 5.5e and I'm surprised that it's not
48:52
coming out until 2027. But there's not
48:54
and there's just a dearth unless you
48:57
want to go back and pick up some old 3.
48:59
some old third edition books, there's
49:00
just a complete lack of modern info for
49:03
>> Living Greyhawk
49:04
>> even even curious players about Greyhawk
49:06
stuff. Um so, it's kind of bizarre to me
49:09
that they pushed it out to 2027, but it
49:11
sounds like maybe the universe is beyond
49:12
stuff took uh took priority.
49:15
>> going to we're going to talk about that
49:16
in a second.
49:17
I have [laughter] I have very strong
49:18
feelings about that one.
49:19
>> it. Yeah.
49:19
>> Yeah.
49:20
>> Uh I mean, technically what technically
49:22
Wildemount was the first one.
49:23
>> Yes, which we'll get to the end of that.
49:26
Um
49:27
I want to move on to some other stuff so
49:28
we can get some more Liz uh
49:30
interactions. Um but the D&D icons was
49:34
also something that they announced,
49:35
which is a new collaboration campaign uh
49:38
to bring story creators to work with uh
49:40
the current design team on upcoming D&D
49:42
content. That's a whole lot of words to
49:44
say they're getting people that worked
49:45
on stuff before to come back and
49:47
actually have a hand in some some the
49:50
iconic things that they're working on
49:52
again.
49:53
Uh Joe Manganiello is going to be the
49:54
program's chief creative officer and
49:57
it's going to launch with collaborations
49:59
with Luke Gygax, son of Gary Gygax,
50:02
who's going to work on the Greyhawk
50:03
materials
50:04
because part of Blackmore's campaign
50:08
with with Anderson involved Gary Gygax
50:11
and a lot of that stuff that defined.
50:13
So, he's got a lot of his dad's notes,
50:14
I'm sure.
50:16
Uh Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, both
50:18
of which will work on the Dragonlance
50:20
was pretty big.
50:21
Um Hickman was on stage. Oh my god, I
50:24
did not recognize them and I felt so bad
50:26
cuz I'm like, "Oh, they didn't bring
50:27
Hickman back."
50:28
Uh and then I looked and I was like,
50:29
"Oh, no, that's Hickman."
50:32
Uh but, you know, happy to see that
50:34
they're back for the working on
50:35
Dragonlance. And they brought R.A.
50:37
Salvatore on stage, uh not necessarily
50:40
tied to a specific project, but that is
50:42
the creator of Drizzt Do'Urden
50:45
uh and that whole line of books which
50:46
Matt and I did an entire Lore Watch on,
50:48
so you can go back and listen to that.
50:50
Which is just interesting and I'm
50:51
curious what is going to happen there
50:55
because one thing that R.A. Salvatore is
50:57
extremely good at is world building.
51:00
Which is why he wrote the entire book
51:03
for Kingdoms of Amalur,
51:05
uh one of Matt's favorite games of all
51:07
time.
51:07
>> I was going to say, maybe we're just
51:08
going to get Kingdoms of Amalur as a
51:10
role-playing game.
51:11
>> I would not be mad at that.
51:14
But, D&D says this group of cohorts is
51:16
just the start of an Icons program and
51:18
that they hope to bring more creators in
51:21
uh on board in the future for other
51:23
projects. I like the idea of bringing
51:26
people that actually have knowledge of
51:27
the source material on board for this
51:29
stuff
51:30
because it means that as long as they
51:33
have some creative control or the
51:34
ability to say, "That's not the vision
51:36
of this book." or that's not the vision
51:38
of the setting
51:40
to put them in check
51:41
possibly means that we preserve the
51:45
uh I don't want to say the sanctity of
51:46
it, but we sort of preserve the feeling
51:49
of those in those those settings and
51:51
campaigns. How that shakes out, we'll
51:53
have to see. What do you guys think
51:54
about this?
51:55
>> Is you have to talk now.
51:56
>> I mean, the thing the whole D&D rent
52:00
con, I am a new D&D player. I came in in
52:03
5E. I have no nostalgia for Greyhawk. I
52:05
have no nostalgia for Dark Sun. And
52:08
they're just they're hitting us here. I
52:11
have no nostalgia for any of these
52:13
names, not that they are not
52:14
great people and great creators, but I
52:16
do not personally have nostalgia for any
52:19
of this. I don't have knowledge about
52:21
any of these I don't have a lot of
52:22
knowledge about these people. I have no
52:24
nostalgia for the things they have
52:26
created. I did not consume them when I
52:28
was younger. And so the whole D&D all
52:32
the D&D announcements are largely
52:34
looking to the past and saying,
52:35
"Remember the stuff we used to do that
52:37
you really loved? We're definitely doing
52:38
that again. So, please love us and give
52:40
us money." That is what this felt like
52:43
to me, and it felt like possibly a step
52:45
back from diversity and inclusivity and
52:49
new ideas in tabletop gaming. So,
52:54
I if you if you guys love this stuff,
52:56
that's great. That's great. Everyone
52:58
should have things out there they love.
52:59
None of this spoke to me. Just none of
53:02
it spoke to me at all. And as I
53:03
continued to watching it, I grew
53:05
increasingly alienated from D&D and what
53:08
they're doing right now. It felt The
53:10
longer I watched this event, the less I
53:12
felt like they were making anything for
53:15
>> This is exactly why I keep nagging you
53:16
to talk cuz we were only talking about
53:19
>> I supposed to say about Greyhawk except
53:21
it's like
53:21
>> That. That right there. That thing you
53:23
just said is the most possible very
53:26
useful.
53:27
>> But it's not it's not that any of these
53:29
things are necessarily but they could be
53:30
great. And it Phil has been lecturing me
53:33
about Dark Sun and it sounds like
53:34
there's some interesting things. There's
53:36
some really interesting story tell
53:38
telling hooks there. Psionics are really
53:40
interesting. I don't know that I trusted
53:42
D&D to come out and say, "We're making
53:44
an infant mature book and it's going to
53:46
be so hardcore and violent." And that
53:49
just
53:50
>> Yeah.
53:50
>> That does not sound like a good book to
53:52
me. Like give me a sell other than it's
53:54
super violent, you know?
53:56
Uh whenever I'm playing a game I'm
53:58
chasing stories. So Phil was outlining a
54:01
lot of the story hooks and interesting
54:02
things about Dark Sun. I'm like, "Oh,
54:03
that sounds cool." And none of that
54:06
none of that was stuff that D&D was
54:08
telling us at their panel. So
54:11
I'm not that any of this is bad. And I'm
54:15
almost certainly going to pick up the
54:16
Warcraft book even though I'm
54:19
Ow, I just feel really bad giving Hasbro
54:21
and Microsoft more money, but
54:24
I can't help it. I can't avoid the
54:25
temptation there.
54:26
>> I'm just hoping that that book lets me
54:27
play a Tuskar Shaman.
54:30
>> [laughter]
54:30
>> Finally, you'll have beaten wow.
54:32
>> Well, it if it doesn't we can homebrew
54:34
for you.
54:35
>> That's the great thing about
54:36
>> It just occurred to me that unless
54:38
they're going to actually bring back
54:40
like race class restrictions that you
54:42
can finally play that you know, gnome
54:45
druid or Tuskar Shaman or night elf
54:48
paladin that you've always wanted.
54:50
>> Oh man, that opens up so many options.
54:53
As long as your DM's good with it. Um
54:56
So yes, I am I'm not thrilled about any
54:59
of this. It could all be great. It could
55:01
all not be great and we just don't know
55:03
until we see until we learn more about
55:05
these
55:06
>> Yeah, that's fair.
55:07
Uh and speaking of stuff that we don't
55:09
know a whole lot about.
55:10
>> [laughter]
55:12
>> Uh I want to move us over to something
55:13
cuz I think this is
55:15
um
55:16
relevant here.
55:18
Uh they ended their thing with uh a icon
55:21
on the screen that uh people seemed
55:25
the audience seemed very lukewarm on,
55:26
which I think is very telling.
55:28
Uh but we did get a Star Wars / D&D
55:31
crossover announcement. We have no
55:33
details. The thing was heavy breathing
55:36
of Darth Vader with a lightsaber reveal.
55:38
Uh and then we know that it's going to
55:39
be part of the season of rebellion. And
55:42
that's it. We don't know when that's
55:43
going to happen. We don't know how far
55:44
off the book is. We don't have any more
55:46
details on it. Uh and the interesting
55:49
thing is that and and I know Matt has
55:51
opinions on this and I'm just going to
55:52
shake him and let him go here in a sec.
55:54
Um but Wizards of the Coast had a Star
55:56
Wars TTRPG in 2007 that was actually
55:59
released for the 3.5 edition rules. And
56:03
recently, I know Fantasy Flight uh who's
56:06
been making the tabletop war games
56:08
also has uh
56:10
a TTRPG rights and use a system that was
56:13
not D&D fifth edition.
56:16
Uh yeah, I mean, go, Matt. How do you
56:19
feel about this?
56:20
>> First off, um I think the Fantasy Flight
56:23
Star Wars was some of the best Star
56:24
Wars. It was some of the best tabletop
56:27
Star Wars you're ever going to get your
56:28
hand The system worked really well with
56:31
the with the setting. And we talked I
56:33
believe we talked last last time we did
56:35
this about how some game systems work
56:39
well to help establish a setting.
56:42
And I think Fantasy Flight did that
56:43
really well. So, this is not me in any
56:46
way saying that Fantasy Flight didn't do
56:47
a good job on their Star Wars. But, we
56:49
haven't gotten a new product from them
56:51
since what?
56:53
2021?
56:55
2019?
56:56
Like, the last new product I hear I
56:58
remember was the the the Force Awakens
57:03
trilogy starter thing.
57:05
>> Yes, it was it was it was that because
57:08
it was when that first movie came out
57:10
because that was around the time that I
57:11
was still playing it. And then I blame
57:13
that whole
57:15
thing with Fantasy Flight getting bought
57:16
by Asmodee and then
57:18
>> Yeah.
57:18
>> and getting spun off as its own studio
57:20
but it has no support.
57:23
>> Yeah, and Asmodee spun off uh
57:25
the rule the license for Star Wars
57:28
um to Edge
57:30
and spun Edge off into its own thing,
57:32
and Edge basically has just done
57:34
reprints since. And that's like I I This
57:37
is not me. I want a lot of people I've
57:39
been arguing back and forth on this. As
57:41
far as I can tell, Edge still has the
57:44
publishing license for Star Wars as a
57:47
rule. They're they're they're currently
57:49
the people who are allowed to make it. I
57:51
don't know if this is being done under
57:53
some other kind of license. I don't know
57:56
how this is going to work, the D&D Star
57:59
Wars thing. But I'm happy for it for
58:01
exactly two One, it's new product. And
58:07
two, the 2007 Star Wars game that Joe
58:10
was just talking about was basically
58:13
adapted wholesale by BioWare into the
58:16
video game Star Wars
58:19
No, the the Old Republic. Yeah, you even
58:22
use it it even uses a system under the
58:23
hood for the dice rolls.
58:25
Yeah. And I love that game, obviously.
58:28
But I also I feel like it I I came up at
58:32
a time when that game, if you wanted a
58:35
psionic system, that game worked. And
58:39
you didn't have to use D&D psionic
58:42
rules, which were intensely complicated
58:45
even when they tried to make them simple
58:46
and Bruce Cordell put out the psionic
58:48
handbook. They still couldn't make them
58:50
work. Meanwhile, they had an entire
58:53
psionic system in the Star Wars games
58:55
they put books they put out. And I I
58:57
feel like if nothing else, please
59:01
please, when you do this, just import
59:04
all that stuff. You wrote it already,
59:07
you had it already, it works
59:09
brilliantly. It's the best psionic
59:11
system that that any Wizards of the
59:14
Coast game
59:15
ever had. And I'm including Gamma World
59:18
in that. You We all know Gamma World was
59:20
junk. I loved it. It was my favorite
59:23
junk, but it was junk. Come on. Even the
59:26
fourth edition version of it. Yeah, the
59:28
third edition licensed books you did.
59:31
No. Star Wars the Star Wars RPG that
59:34
they put out had working force power
59:38
rules that were so influential
59:40
that people in like when they were
59:42
making TV shows and movies for Star
59:44
Wars,
59:46
they started referencing those books.
59:48
Cuz Bill Slavicsek, who was the guy who
59:51
wrote he also wrote the D6 Wizards of
59:53
the Coast version. Uh Bill Slavicsek
59:55
ended up doing a lot of like work as a
59:58
curator for Lucas Arts
1:00:00
in terms of what was and what wasn't
1:00:02
Star Wars canon. And he brought in all
1:00:05
those force those names. There's a
1:00:06
reason that if you watch the 1999
1:00:11
you know, uh
1:00:13
Phantom Menace, that the Jedi start
1:00:15
zipping around the place. That's because
1:00:17
there's a power called force there's
1:00:19
force jump and force speed that was in
1:00:22
these games that he brought in. So, and
1:00:26
you know, then he was making the the the
1:00:28
game for Wizards and he brought it
1:00:30
there. And that's why it had a working
1:00:32
psionics system because he made it. And
1:00:36
yeah, no, this this to me
1:00:39
is one of those situations where I am
1:00:41
deeply disappointed that instead of
1:00:43
getting a new Fantasy Flight game, we're
1:00:45
getting a D&D tie-in. And I'm also
1:00:47
tremendously excited for my D&D game
1:00:51
that if this comes out and it does the
1:00:52
force powers right, I'll finally have a
1:00:54
working psionics system that doesn't try
1:00:56
to treat it like spells, that doesn't
1:00:58
treat it like mad you know, the way
1:00:59
magic and psionics shouldn't play the
1:01:01
same. They keep do trying to do this.
1:01:03
They keep trying to make psionics work
1:01:04
like spells and magic. It shouldn't. It
1:01:06
should work differently. And the fact
1:01:08
that they're doing Dark Sun
1:01:10
and this is coming out, I have no idea
1:01:12
what we're going to end the Dark Sun
1:01:13
stuff when it comes out, that's a thing
1:01:15
that I really feel like I want to know
1:01:18
about. I want to see how they do it.
1:01:20
Because if they do it the wrong way, if
1:01:22
they keep trying to make it just magic
1:01:24
with a different, you know, a thin coat
1:01:26
of paint over it, it's going to be bad
1:01:28
cuz Dark Sun didn't work that way. Dark
1:01:30
Sun wasn't about, you know, psionics is
1:01:32
just magic. No, it was a completely
1:01:34
different way to use power because magic
1:01:37
was so incredibly destructive. Um
1:01:39
and Star Wars
1:01:41
as a product, I mean, what do you what
1:01:42
do you want me to do? Tell you that I
1:01:43
like Star Wars? I mean, yeah, of course.
1:01:45
Who doesn't like Star Wars? If you don't
1:01:47
like Star Wars, don't buy it. But, yeah,
1:01:49
I I feel very intensely like I hope that
1:01:53
this means at some point that Edge Games
1:01:55
will actually publish a new book. You've
1:01:57
got a lot of material you could be
1:01:58
adapting, guys. And if this means that
1:02:01
Edge Games doesn't publish a new book,
1:02:03
um all I'm saying is if if you can make
1:02:05
a deal to get a Star Wars D&D crossover,
1:02:08
you could do a Mandalorian book, guys.
1:02:10
Just saying. That's me. That's all I had
1:02:13
to say. Anybody else can start talking
1:02:14
now cuz I If I don't stop myself, I'll
1:02:16
keep going.
1:02:17
>> Well, I think we move on from there real
1:02:19
quick. Just uh announce something before
1:02:20
I turn this over to Liz, which is they
1:02:23
did mention that there's going to be new
1:02:25
upcoming partner content uh with
1:02:27
releases from Ghostfire Gaming set in
1:02:29
Ravenloft, Visionary Productions set in
1:02:32
Eberron, and Kobold Press set in the
1:02:35
Forgotten Realms. So, it looks like
1:02:37
we're not going to be at a shortage of
1:02:38
content in the near future. Uh but,
1:02:42
yeah, there's there's just a lot. Like
1:02:43
they did a lot of D&D announcements for
1:02:46
for Gen Con.
1:02:47
I understand why they took over a whole
1:02:49
theater. So, Liz, I'm going to let you
1:02:51
talk about anything else you want here.
1:02:54
>> I mean, it's Gen Con season and all of
1:02:57
the big companies are are talking about
1:03:00
their games. Of course, uh another big
1:03:03
one here is Daggerheart, the new game
1:03:05
from Darrington Press, new-ish game from
1:03:07
Darrington Press and Critical Role.
1:03:09
Uh and they released a road map sort of
1:03:13
it it was a kind of vague road map that
1:03:15
takes us here through 2030 and says they
1:03:19
plan on releasing two new tentpole books
1:03:21
a year. That is
1:03:23
astoundingly ambitious. This is feels so
1:03:26
ambitious for a small press publisher.
1:03:29
And I mean, we see companies like Paizo
1:03:33
release a lot more books that year, but
1:03:36
Daggerheart's still a pretty new game.
1:03:38
They only released their second book,
1:03:40
Hope and Fear, this past year.
1:03:43
Well, actually, I'm saying this past
1:03:45
year, it's releasing in August.
1:03:47
Early copies have gone out already, but
1:03:50
they've done two books in about 2 years,
1:03:52
a year and a half, and now they're
1:03:54
saying moving forward they plan on two
1:03:56
books per year. And they're going to be
1:03:59
settings and adventures and just things
1:04:03
we before. There aren't a lot of details
1:04:05
on the upcoming book, except that Rowan
1:04:07
Hall is working on the first setting
1:04:09
book. And Jeremy Crawford is working on
1:04:13
an upcoming devilishly spooky setting,
1:04:15
which will include material that's
1:04:17
currently being playtested on the
1:04:19
Daggerheart website. And Chris Perkins
1:04:22
is working on an adventure anthology. Um
1:04:27
>> I want to mention the Romantasy.
1:04:28
>> Yeah, there's also a Romantasy campaign
1:04:31
frame coming out, which is going to be
1:04:32
digital only, called With Love and
1:04:35
Magic. They actually teased this I want
1:04:37
to say they teased this at Gen Con last
1:04:39
year, but it's it's close to being an
1:04:42
actual thing that you can buy, and play
1:04:45
your Romantasy games inside Daggerheart.
1:04:48
It's due out this fall. No specific
1:04:50
dates, but
1:04:52
going to be here soon. Soon.
1:04:54
Uh then we have Roll and Play Press will
1:04:57
soon be crowdfunding a One-Shot Wonders
1:04:59
book for Daggerheart with 100 and
1:05:02
100 adventures covering all of the
1:05:05
campaign frames that are currently
1:05:06
available. And I think that's so cool.
1:05:09
Roll and Play Have Have any of the rest
1:05:11
of you done anything with role and
1:05:13
play's one-shot wonders books?
1:05:15
>> Nope, I have not.
1:05:16
>> picked one up. It was It was for sale
1:05:19
cheap on
1:05:21
DriveThruRPG and I was like, "Okay,
1:05:23
I will always have more ideas."
1:05:25
>> [laughter]
1:05:25
>> Yeah, yeah, I'll always say yes to some
1:05:27
free one-shots, yeah.
1:05:28
>> It's It's literally Well, yeah. It's
1:05:32
They're books and they're just totally
1:05:34
one-shots, but they aren't like a
1:05:36
10-page one-shot or a 20-page You know,
1:05:38
these are two-page adventures that set
1:05:41
you up with a concept, a setting,
1:05:44
characters, and ideas. They're like the
1:05:48
all the seeds you need to make an
1:05:49
adventure without a lot of unnecessary
1:05:52
extras or set dressing. So, they're
1:05:55
enough to go on and let your own your
1:05:58
own imagination, your players They've
1:06:00
done two books that are geared towards
1:06:02
5e, but you know, you can take 5e and
1:06:05
adjust it to be anywhere. This is going
1:06:07
to be geared specifically for
1:06:09
Daggerheart. I'm really looking forward
1:06:11
to this because I think role and play
1:06:12
has done some really good books and
1:06:14
their one-shot wonders books
1:06:16
They're really well formatted and
1:06:18
they're really specific about giving you
1:06:20
ideas and just enough information enough
1:06:23
information to go on to do something and
1:06:25
not just very Okay, you need to read
1:06:27
this 300-page book before you can do any
1:06:30
role playing. So,
1:06:32
that that is what I love about it.
1:06:34
But, also in addition to all of the
1:06:36
stuff, which is paid content, there's
1:06:38
they're working on a free digital
1:06:40
adventure pipeline, which will have
1:06:42
regular new content up on the
1:06:43
Daggerheart website. We've seen one
1:06:46
adventure so far that they released on
1:06:48
their anniversary called The Wish Thief.
1:06:50
You can go to your local Critical Role
1:06:54
store online and find that. It's a free
1:06:57
download, but it's through the Critical
1:07:00
Role web store. I don't know why. I
1:07:01
can't explain it, but it's up there. Um
1:07:04
And the next one is coming out this
1:07:06
month in August and on the Gen Con stage
1:07:10
they described it as Carmen Sandiego
1:07:12
played by the cast of Homeward Bound and
1:07:14
Carmen is a witch.
1:07:16
So, if that sounds good to you, you
1:07:19
should keep your eyes out for that cuz
1:07:20
that could come out anytime now. It
1:07:22
could be out anytime. Also,
1:07:25
with the Hope and Fear expansion, the
1:07:27
game's first expansion, out this month,
1:07:30
they are updating their system resource
1:07:32
document to include content from Hope
1:07:35
and Fear. So, if you've been playing
1:07:37
games based on based on the kind of open
1:07:40
content available in that document, if
1:07:42
you've been building homebrew stuff, if
1:07:44
you've been building adventures or
1:07:45
supplements to sell, that will now also
1:07:48
include the Hope and Fear expansion
1:07:50
usable by anybody and it's also adding
1:07:53
the campaign frames
1:07:55
mechanics from the campaign frames like
1:07:57
building your iconist from the
1:07:59
motherboard campaign frame, which we
1:08:01
played with, or the Colossus rules from
1:08:05
Colossus of the Drylands. So, basically,
1:08:09
looking at this toolbox, you're getting
1:08:10
more toys. Everyone's getting more toys,
1:08:12
which they can freely play with without
1:08:14
buying a Daggerheart book and content
1:08:17
creators can freely play with to build
1:08:19
new cool things. I think I think all of
1:08:22
this is great. Um
1:08:24
So, the Hope and Fear expansion did just
1:08:26
come out and I have a copy and I I love
1:08:30
it. I love it. I think this is great
1:08:31
book. It's shorter. It's a It's a a
1:08:35
rules expansion, so you're talking about
1:08:37
there are four new character classes.
1:08:39
There are transformations like
1:08:40
transforming characters into ghosts or
1:08:42
werewolves or uh there are a bunch of
1:08:45
new monsters.
1:08:47
There are some really
1:08:48
>> [laughter]
1:08:48
>> uh
1:08:49
So, there are two different kinds of
1:08:51
land shark, two different kinds of land
1:08:52
shark. There's uh you know, D
1:08:55
>> Never enough land sharks.
1:08:56
>> Exactly. Uh D&D has an owl beast,
1:08:59
obviously. We know about the owl bear.
1:09:02
But um Daggerheart has a foul bear,
1:09:05
which is a It's Instead of having an owl
1:09:08
head, it has a goose head.
1:09:10
>> Oh, no, that's too strong. You can't You
1:09:11
can't
1:09:12
>> [laughter]
1:09:13
>> bear? Are you kidding me?
1:09:17
Goose bear.
1:09:18
>> So So you can You can do that. That's a
1:09:21
thing.
1:09:22
Uh but I
1:09:24
I love One of the things I love about
1:09:26
Daggerheart's monster stat blocks is
1:09:29
that they have
1:09:31
a line in each stat block for motives
1:09:33
and tactics. What are the motives and
1:09:35
tactics of this monster? That gives you
1:09:37
like some different ideas about how to
1:09:40
play them.
1:09:42
Um Like, let's see. The drake, a clawed
1:09:45
quadruped that has a scaled serpentine
1:09:49
body and a willingness to serve its
1:09:51
cousins, the dragons. Motives and
1:09:53
tactics, coil and crush, protect master,
1:09:55
slither around layers and ruins, and
1:09:57
strike first.
1:09:59
So
1:10:00
you know, usually when you get a monster
1:10:02
stat block, you are just getting You
1:10:05
know, you're just You have a list of
1:10:06
abilities. And I love that this just is
1:10:08
just this tiny tiny teeny tiny bit of
1:10:11
story hook in there that can be like,
1:10:14
"Okay, I don't just One of the When I
1:10:16
was doing my very first DM
1:10:18
D&D game, running my first game, I I
1:10:22
went and talked to a friend about this
1:10:23
because I'm like, "Okay, this monster
1:10:24
here could kill the whole level one
1:10:26
party.
1:10:27
This could be really bad." And they told
1:10:29
me, "Well, you know, you don't have to
1:10:30
go in and use the strongest spells. You
1:10:31
can give this monster may have their own
1:10:33
motivations. They may be doing something
1:10:35
different than trying to outright murder
1:10:36
people." And I'm like I I feel that in
1:10:40
this book and in the in how it's telling
1:10:43
you to play things. There's beyond the
1:10:47
foul bear, there's another great
1:10:50
uh great one, the supreme demiurge
1:10:52
Adonix, which is a four-faced angel from
1:10:55
the hollows above who manifests in the
1:10:57
mortal realm as a floating tetrahedron
1:11:00
with numerous eyes and multiple sets of
1:11:02
metallic feathered wings. So,
1:11:05
we got we got some interesting things in
1:11:06
here. They're also a lot more
1:11:08
environments.
1:11:10
I love environments
1:11:12
because environments are basically
1:11:14
little mini events that you can just
1:11:16
drag and drop into any campaign from
1:11:18
things like
1:11:19
beach day to vast desert to dragon's
1:11:25
lair. You know, they're kind of all over
1:11:27
the place where they're just a little
1:11:29
if you're building adventures, if you're
1:11:31
planning a game, these are little things
1:11:33
you can grab and they have a list of
1:11:35
things that might happen in this area.
1:11:37
They have a suggested list of monsters
1:11:40
that you could use in this area and it's
1:11:42
just a little building block. This
1:11:44
all of this is the stuff I love about
1:11:46
Daggerheart is that it feels like it has
1:11:47
all of these great building blocks that
1:11:50
will help you build and play the games
1:11:51
you want to play. And it's just a
1:11:54
treasure trove of ideas.
1:11:56
Other people may be more interested in
1:11:58
the four new campaign frames. There's
1:12:01
Castle High, which is your magic school.
1:12:05
Everyone needs a magic school. There's
1:12:07
Reign of the Were-Dragon in which
1:12:10
essentially
1:12:12
a a dragon came and the knights of the
1:12:13
realm
1:12:15
decided to serve the dragon.
1:12:16
And now here we are.
1:12:19
Now here we are and
1:12:21
it also has really cool like classic
1:12:24
Disney Sleeping Beauty vibes in its art,
1:12:26
which I love. The Dark Heart of
1:12:29
Anduluria and
1:12:32
uh
1:12:33
what was the last one? Ah!
1:12:35
And Journey to Horizon. I mean
1:12:38
I don't have time to give you a full
1:12:40
rundown on all of these, but there are
1:12:41
four new campaign frames. All of them
1:12:44
sound really interesting. And it's not a
1:12:48
huge book, but there's a lot of great
1:12:50
content. Whether you play Daggerheart or
1:12:52
not, I think there are just a lot of
1:12:53
great ideas and story hooks and things
1:12:55
you could pick up and dump into anything
1:12:58
else you're doing. So, uh new book
1:13:01
available officially August 25th, but uh
1:13:05
if you pre-ordered, the books are
1:13:06
already shipping out. So, if you if you
1:13:09
still pre-order, you may you may see
1:13:11
your book a little early. Are they still
1:13:12
doing
1:13:13
>> like uh Darrington Press was really good
1:13:15
about PDFs uh for Daggerheart?
1:13:18
>> Uh yes, if you if you buy the book, you
1:13:20
get a free PDF and you get a discount on
1:13:23
buying it on Demiplane. If you want
1:13:25
the full digital table top.
1:13:27
>> Also, if you buy it from one of the very
1:13:29
few guild stores, uh a physical copy,
1:13:32
you also get
1:13:33
>> Yeah, in fact, if you bought a copy at
1:13:34
Gen Con this week, they also gave you a
1:13:36
download code for the PDF. That's why I
1:13:38
have a copy. I'm not at Gen Con this
1:13:40
week.
1:13:41
>> So rude.
1:13:41
>> But I had a a friend of mine
1:13:44
buy it uh for me cuz they were on the
1:13:45
floor.
1:13:47
Um and they have a lot of other merch
1:13:50
there, but yeah, it came uh
1:13:52
the version at Gen Con came with a
1:13:54
download code for the PDF and actually
1:13:56
comes with a better discount on the
1:13:58
Demiplane version
1:13:59
than the pre-orders, which I think is
1:14:01
kind of interesting.
1:14:02
>> I'm not thrilled, but uh here we are.
1:14:04
>> Yeah, it came with a completely free
1:14:06
copy of Hope and Fear on Demiplane.
1:14:08
>> Yeah, well, you you got to eat you got
1:14:11
to give the people at Gen Con something.
1:14:12
>> Yeah, I got to agree with Liz that if
1:14:14
you are a Daggerheart fan, I think this
1:14:15
is kind of a must pick up because uh I
1:14:18
think this is the one that they
1:14:19
described in Matt Mercer has described
1:14:21
in conversations with Todd Kenrick that
1:14:24
this was the stuff they wanted to put in
1:14:26
the core rule book, but the page count
1:14:29
was going to be utterly ridiculous. And
1:14:31
so, like they had to hold some stuff
1:14:34
back um and they wanted to get it out
1:14:36
ASAP. And so, I think it's cool that
1:14:39
it's out. It's not very like for Another
1:14:41
thing I really enjoy about Daggerheart
1:14:44
as a role-playing system is its
1:14:45
affordability. Like
1:14:47
this is a $40 book, but you're basically
1:14:49
getting this is basically like
1:14:51
you know, the
1:14:53
good size to gender to the player's
1:14:55
handbook and also comes with all those
1:14:56
cards you expect with Daggerheart
1:14:58
products.
1:14:59
Um, like the I I don't know how they're
1:15:01
making those and not losing money
1:15:02
printing cards and books and bundling
1:15:04
them together and selling them for those
1:15:05
prices.
1:15:07
But, um, I admit that out of all these
1:15:09
though, besides getting hope and fear,
1:15:11
the thing I'm most excited about is the
1:15:13
the the Role and Play Press book. I like
1:15:16
the campaign frame.
1:15:18
I like campaign frames as a concept. I
1:15:20
feel like they do a good job of like
1:15:21
presenting you with some base world
1:15:24
building that you and your players can
1:15:25
fill in and are in fact encouraged to do
1:15:27
so.
1:15:28
But, each of them comes with exactly one
1:15:30
of what they call an inciting incident
1:15:33
uh for like, you know, basically to lead
1:15:35
into like a first adventure.
1:15:37
But, if you don't like the vibes of that
1:15:39
one inciting incident,
1:15:41
you are on your own at that point to
1:15:42
figure out how to play in this setting.
1:15:45
Um, and so I like I like the idea that
1:15:48
this book this book from Role and Play
1:15:50
Press could basically be like, all
1:15:51
right, well, if you want to play in
1:15:52
Colossus of the Dry Lands, but you don't
1:15:54
want to go after the one Colossus that
1:15:56
they've presented as the inciting
1:15:57
incident in that campaign frame, here's,
1:15:59
you know, 20 more one shots that you can
1:16:01
drop into that setting.
1:16:03
Cuz maybe your players aren't ready to
1:16:04
tackle a Colossus right off the bat.
1:16:07
Uh, it's interesting. Yeah. And I can
1:16:09
understand why they would want to
1:16:10
release a road map this ambitious
1:16:13
because,
1:16:14
you know, it came out and it had a huge
1:16:16
amount of buzz and had backing from
1:16:17
Darrington Press. It was on, you know,
1:16:18
Critical Role did an entire separate uh
1:16:21
little uh sub show for it that they're
1:16:24
doing another one of now on another Age
1:16:26
of Umbra show. And then like,
1:16:29
if you weren't keeping up with the
1:16:30
playtest content, it seemed like
1:16:33
Daggerheart just stopped. And so I can
1:16:36
see why they would want to go, "No,
1:16:38
we've actually been working on this
1:16:39
stuff. Here's the stuff we're going to
1:16:40
bring you for the next five years or
1:16:42
whatever.
1:16:43
Um and you know, if Yeah, I think two
1:16:46
temp releases a year is extremely
1:16:48
ambitious. I don't know if they'll be
1:16:49
able to keep up to it, but it does show
1:16:50
that they at least have some intention
1:16:53
of keeping momentum going behind the
1:16:54
system and not just putting the book out
1:16:56
there and going, "Well, here's our book.
1:16:57
Hope you enjoy it. We're never
1:16:58
supporting it again." So
1:17:00
>> Guys, we didn't hire two of the biggest
1:17:01
names in Dungeons and Dragons
1:17:03
>> [laughter]
1:17:03
>> to do nothing.
1:17:05
>> We didn't poach away uh Jeremy Jeremy
1:17:08
and Chris and then also basically had
1:17:09
Todd Kenrick on staff for 3 months
1:17:12
um you know, to not continue supporting
1:17:14
Daggerheart. So
1:17:15
>> I mean, it's interesting. We see a lot
1:17:17
of games go out there and then that's
1:17:19
it. That's the game. That's the game you
1:17:20
have. That's the game they released. But
1:17:22
Daggerheart came out and just like as
1:17:24
soon as the core book was out, they had
1:17:25
more play test. And they've just kept
1:17:28
going. So uh yeah, I think the expansion
1:17:31
is great. It looks like they have a ton
1:17:33
of great new content coming up. And but
1:17:36
But yeah, the the next couple of setting
1:17:38
books, it's going to be interesting to
1:17:40
see what is a setting book like in
1:17:42
Daggerheart. What's a campaign book
1:17:44
going to be like in Daggerheart? We
1:17:46
don't know cuz we haven't seen any. But
1:17:48
uh I am looking forward to it. And all
1:17:52
all they get they've given us on what's
1:17:54
coming up are pretty cryptic teasers. Uh
1:17:58
the first official setting book, which I
1:18:00
I mentioned earlier um
1:18:02
by Rowan Hall, the developers of of
1:18:04
Daggerheart, is they just said, "It's a
1:18:07
place that embodies all the wonder,
1:18:09
hope, and danger of Daggerheart." And
1:18:12
then they added these two cryptic uh
1:18:16
comments about it saying that anything
1:18:19
can be a kaiju if you squint and we're
1:18:21
spell checking archipelago at least 20
1:18:23
times a day. And I'm like
1:18:26
Okay, both of those things are
1:18:27
interesting, but that does not tell me
1:18:28
anything. So it it'll be an adventure.
1:18:31
It'll be an adventure. We know it will.
1:18:33
>> at least they have editors. We know that
1:18:34
much.
1:18:35
>> I Hopefully, or else they're going to
1:18:37
misspell archipelago a lot. They did
1:18:41
have a slide of patient where they
1:18:42
managed to misspell Chris Perkins' name.
1:18:44
So, that really confused me because I
1:18:47
thought have I been spelling his name
1:18:49
wrong for years? No, no, they they
1:18:52
misspelled it. So, they should maybe
1:18:55
also have their editors double-check
1:18:56
their slides. Just I'm just saying as a
1:18:59
as a professional.
1:19:00
>> Chris Perkins, isn't he No, no, that's
1:19:02
not his name.
1:19:02
>> It was Chris Perkins. [laughter]
1:19:04
>> You know, it was it was Chris Perkins.
1:19:06
It had
1:19:07
instead of an e and I was like, wait,
1:19:09
have I been doing this wrong forever?
1:19:11
>> Well, yeah, speak speaking of people who
1:19:12
used to work for Wizards of the Coast.
1:19:14
>> Uh there we go. Let's go.
1:19:16
>> [laughter]
1:19:17
>> You want to read this one?
1:19:18
>> Seamless segue.
1:19:20
Uh we did get some news that didn't
1:19:22
technically come from Gen Con. It just
1:19:24
kind of coincided with it that John
1:19:25
Height, formerly of Blizzard
1:19:28
Entertainment, actually
1:19:30
is out after 2 years at as president as
1:19:33
president of Wizards of the Coast. Um
1:19:35
which comes right as Wizards seems to be
1:19:38
pulling back on the idea of making video
1:19:40
games. Um other than two of them. We
1:19:43
know for a fact that Exodus, uh the
1:19:46
uh Mass Effect with the serial numbers
1:19:48
filed off, and Warlock, which we don't
1:19:50
know much of anything about other than
1:19:52
that Maggie Robertson is in it.
1:19:55
>> It's a medium, man.
1:19:57
>> Okay,
1:19:58
Tricia Tricia Helfer is going to be the
1:20:00
main character. We knew that, but they
1:20:02
announced that Maggie Robertson would
1:20:03
playing her Warlock patron, Tasha.
1:20:07
>> Yep. Who's in our chat that this Tasha
1:20:09
is an arch fay?
1:20:11
>> [laughter]
1:20:11
>> Technically technically well technically
1:20:13
no technically Wilds by the Witch Wilds
1:20:15
Beyond the Witchlight established Tasha
1:20:17
is a arch fay.
1:20:18
>> Yeah, I think Tasha's whatever she wants
1:20:20
to be at this point. I would also agree
1:20:21
with that.
1:20:21
>> also think that. Yeah. [laughter]
1:20:24
>> Uh yeah, so
1:20:26
yeah, just an interesting interesting
1:20:27
coincidence there with maybe we'll see
1:20:29
John Height end up at Daggerheart to
1:20:31
start running there, uh you know, video
1:20:33
game ambitions in the future.
1:20:35
>> He can be fired in a few years again.
1:20:38
>> Yeah.
1:20:39
Good times for everybody.
1:20:40
>> theory about why Height was there and
1:20:43
why he's gone. And I like I liked him
1:20:46
personally cuz I met him
1:20:48
and spoke to him for like 10 minutes
1:20:49
back in in like 2018, 2019, sorry.
1:20:53
But I really feel like one of the best
1:20:55
things I've read about this whole thing
1:20:57
was, did he know that he was in a
1:20:59
company that made role-playing games?
1:21:01
Like was he aware of this? It didn't
1:21:03
feel like he he knew.
1:21:05
>> We didn't hear a lot about what he won
1:21:07
there or what Yeah, he wasn't allowed
1:21:10
voice behind even though he's president
1:21:13
of Wizards of the Coast. He wasn't
1:21:14
allowed voice about what Wizards of the
1:21:16
Coast was doing. So,
1:21:17
it was a he was there for 2 years, but
1:21:19
it was kind of a quiet 2 years.
1:21:21
>> Yeah, my my
1:21:22
>> Yeah, and if you
1:21:23
go ahead, John.
1:21:24
>> I was going to say my theory is that
1:21:26
like the reason he was quiet
1:21:29
is probably because he spent a lot of
1:21:31
time arguing with Chris Cox because
1:21:35
>> Yeah.
1:21:35
>> like like Matt said, I've I've met John
1:21:37
Height. Uh
1:21:39
>> [laughter]
1:21:39
>> and I'm pretty sure I could hear in his
1:21:42
voice going, that's not how any of this
1:21:44
actually works. Uh
1:21:47
>> [laughter]
1:21:48
>> especially when it came to like
1:21:49
>> needs to Somebody needs to tell Chris
1:21:51
Cox that.
1:21:52
>> But I'm also [snorts] sure that's why he
1:21:53
resigned. He probably hit an impasse.
1:21:55
>> Yeah, his his timing, his hiring, and
1:21:58
his firing, unfortunately, also both
1:21:59
make
1:22:00
>> Uh not firing, resignation.
1:22:02
>> Uh resignation, correct. Kind of the
1:22:04
mercurial winds of Wiz the Coast here
1:22:06
like think 2 years ago we were still in
1:22:09
the height of Baldur's Gate 3 mania,
1:22:11
even just 2 years ago. And it makes
1:22:13
sense that at that point, you know,
1:22:15
the the order comes down from on high,
1:22:17
we want more video games. Hire a video
1:22:19
game guy for WotC's president. And then,
1:22:21
you know, obviously he sees the writing
1:22:23
on the wall here as they're cutting down
1:22:24
to two active video game projects, and
1:22:27
maybe he's got another offer somewhere.
1:22:29
So,
1:22:30
>> Yeah, he doesn't need another
1:22:31
>> of arguing about got tired of arguing
1:22:34
with Chris's 30 to 40 AI friends.
1:22:36
>> Yeah, and you know, I mean, he can go,
1:22:38
and he can resign. He can do his
1:22:41
advisory role for a bit. Um and then he
1:22:44
can do whatever he wants, really.
1:22:47
You know, it's not like he needs to be
1:22:49
working at this point if he doesn't want
1:22:52
to be doing what they're asking him to
1:22:54
do.
1:22:54
>> Wizards.
1:22:55
>> I mean, Heitz also, unfortunately, and I
1:22:59
don't know how he feels about this. I've
1:23:01
never asked him. It wasn't something
1:23:02
that we were talking about in 2019.
1:23:05
So, I'm not aware
1:23:06
of how much he's into generative AI.
1:23:09
>> Mhm.
1:23:10
>> But we know that Chris Cox
1:23:12
loves generative AI.
1:23:15
To the point where he's kind of
1:23:16
[clears throat] he's kind of like
1:23:17
disturbing. It's like going to dinner
1:23:18
with Patrick Bateman, except he keeps
1:23:20
talking about generative AI instead of
1:23:22
killing people. Like I I I don't I don't
1:23:25
know how long I'd be able to work for
1:23:27
that, you know? It's like trying to
1:23:29
explain, "No, you can't just use
1:23:30
generative AI for everything." And I
1:23:31
don't know. Some people say Heitz into
1:23:33
it. I don't know I don't know that. I
1:23:35
have no idea. I've got nothing from him
1:23:37
saying it, so I've never seen a
1:23:38
statement saying he liked it. But it's
1:23:40
got to have been a really weird place to
1:23:43
work. Especially when you as Liz pointed
1:23:45
out, he's the
1:23:46
he's the president, right?
1:23:48
>> And he's the president of Wizards of the
1:23:49
Coast.
1:23:50
>> Yeah. Yeah.
1:23:50
>> You never hear anything from him for two
1:23:52
years. That says to me that Chris Cox
1:23:54
was not letting this man talk.
1:23:56
>> Yeah, I mean, that's that's the general
1:23:58
impression I got out of it. But I'm
1:24:00
going to be very interested to see what
1:24:02
he does in the future, and it's
1:24:03
definitely something to keep an eye on.
1:24:05
Uh we also got some announcements in in
1:24:07
a I think Liz is probably going to be
1:24:08
talking a little bit more about this
1:24:10
with 13 Omens from Paizo. So, yeah, what
1:24:14
what's that all about?
1:24:15
>> I I kind I got to say, I kind of love
1:24:18
this game. Uh 13 Omens is a new horror
1:24:21
game that Paizo is putting out. It is a
1:24:23
modern setting horror game. They're not
1:24:26
There's no fantasy trappings here. It is
1:24:29
supernatural horror for the start to
1:24:33
finish.
1:24:34
Um
1:24:35
It has a pretty streamlined rules light
1:24:37
system
1:24:39
that's all D6 based and doing you know,
1:24:43
it has five stats in it. Courage, evade,
1:24:46
fight, luck and perception.
1:24:49
And a few skills which is on your
1:24:51
character archetype. But one thing I
1:24:54
really like about it is for the skill
1:24:56
checks is
1:24:57
there are five ranks in each of your of
1:25:00
your core stats which are just your
1:25:05
terrible, bad, average, good or great.
1:25:07
Like that's just
1:25:08
it's simple. It's easier to It's easy to
1:25:11
understand. There's no There's no math
1:25:12
involved in this. And the
1:25:16
check you do for any ability is just
1:25:18
based on
1:25:21
It's based on your stats. So if you're
1:25:22
terrible at something, your target
1:25:24
number to do on any role is going to be
1:25:26
10 and it's a 2D6 role.
1:25:28
And if you're great at something, the
1:25:30
target number you need to hit is a four
1:25:32
and that's just That's just on your
1:25:34
character sheet. Like there's no There's
1:25:36
no big question marks. Your
1:25:38
GM can adjust that if it's a real Is it
1:25:41
a really hard check? Is it a really easy
1:25:42
check? But it's like
1:25:44
This just feels so This feels really
1:25:46
straightforward and I like I like that
1:25:48
kind of just simple Yeah, that you're
1:25:50
not sitting here asking questions. Okay,
1:25:52
how hard is this? And even if you look
1:25:54
at like
1:25:55
D&D is like okay, it has
1:25:57
suggested
1:26:00
suggested target numbers for different
1:26:02
for different role difficulties, but
1:26:04
this just has This is just I I don't
1:26:06
know. This just feels really streamlined
1:26:09
and uh
1:26:11
>> Is this the one you were telling me
1:26:12
about where the dice pool is actually
1:26:14
like kept in a bag and some of the dice
1:26:16
are omen dice.
1:26:17
>> that's that's the thing that I'm a
1:26:19
little weird about cuz I'd love to play
1:26:21
this game, but I don't know how you
1:26:23
translate it online because okay.
1:26:26
>> Oh, real easy.
1:26:27
>> Yeah. Yeah, well, so the
1:26:30
2D6, but the idea is that all of the
1:26:31
dice in the game are in a bag on the
1:26:34
table. And when you're doing a roll, you
1:26:36
pull two dice out of the bag, but some
1:26:38
of the dice in the bag are omen dice.
1:26:39
They're a different color.
1:26:41
>> Yeah, yeah.
1:26:41
>> And if you get an omen dice, no matter
1:26:43
what you roll, bad things happen.
1:26:45
>> Yeah, so
1:26:46
>> things happen.
1:26:47
>> Virtual tabletop's have been doing stuff
1:26:48
like this for a long time, especially
1:26:50
with like Roll20 has something already
1:26:53
built into it where like for
1:26:55
specifically like Savage Worlds with
1:26:58
like
1:26:59
the tokens and like
1:27:01
your bennies and things like that, where
1:27:03
there are systems that have like
1:27:04
negative effects that can be associated
1:27:06
with it. It has that already built in
1:27:08
where it can randomize what you get as
1:27:10
far as those go.
1:27:11
>> Mhm.
1:27:12
>> Uh same thing with track like a bag of
1:27:14
things.
1:27:14
>> And
1:27:14
>> Yeah, same thing with Fantasy with
1:27:16
Fantasy Grounds and
1:27:18
a bunch of the other ones and even
1:27:20
Tabletop Simulator has that coded in as
1:27:23
part of its base that you can set up as
1:27:24
a
1:27:25
>> And the other thing is as the game
1:27:26
continues, uh you will add more of those
1:27:29
omen dice to the bag kind of
1:27:31
representing increasing stakes in the
1:27:34
game. Like, okay, you're getting into
1:27:36
harder into harder content, the story's
1:27:38
getting scarier, more bad things are
1:27:40
going to happen cuz there are more omen
1:27:42
dice in your dice bag and you're going
1:27:43
to draw more omen dice. So, I I like
1:27:46
this concept. I like that it's something
1:27:49
very different. We're used to Paizo with
1:27:51
Pathfinder and Starfinder doing these
1:27:52
really
1:27:54
very standard D20 fantasy and of course
1:27:57
sci-fi with Starfinder. And this is just
1:27:59
this is really different. I think the
1:28:01
rules are pretty slick.
1:28:02
And uh they've got a Kickstarter that's
1:28:05
going to go up later this year, I
1:28:06
believe in October, but if you go and
1:28:10
give if you do put like a an early
1:28:13
backer of $5, you will get a PDF of the
1:28:18
rules quick start and a 30-page
1:28:21
adventure with pre-gen characters. So,
1:28:24
you can go and get those right now,
1:28:25
which is what I did because I was really
1:28:27
interested to see it what they were
1:28:28
working on. I love to see
1:28:30
uh companies just doing something new,
1:28:32
doing something new and different. Like
1:28:34
I was just a few minutes ago, I was out
1:28:35
there talking about how Dungeons &
1:28:37
Dragons is not doing anything new. But,
1:28:39
this uh
1:28:40
13th Age from Paizo is something really
1:28:42
different and really interesting. I
1:28:44
think it looks I think it looks good.
1:28:46
I'm just I'm a little worried about that
1:28:48
kind of complication of the the bag of
1:28:50
dice and the omen dice. But, maybe I'm
1:28:53
just maybe I'm maybe just feels
1:28:54
complicated in my head. Well, I think
1:28:56
it's I think it's really neat system.
1:28:58
>> I'm I'm glad to hear that and I'm
1:28:59
actually excited about it after your
1:29:00
description of it cuz I'm going to
1:29:02
absolutely try this. I like horror-based
1:29:04
uh speaking spooky a spooky system
1:29:06
sounds fun. Speaking of spooky systems,
1:29:09
uh we also got some news about uh
1:29:11
Vampire: The Masquerade, uh which also
1:29:13
uses a unique dice pool system. Um
1:29:17
6th edition has been announced and is
1:29:20
going to be built from the ground up uh
1:29:22
to air quote honor the legacy of Vampire
1:29:25
uh while updating its dice mechanics,
1:29:27
character creation, and storytellers'
1:29:30
tools. Uh the alpha playtest material is
1:29:33
already available online through
1:29:35
Demiplane right now and they're looking
1:29:36
for actual feedback.
1:29:39
Uh
1:29:40
it's
1:29:41
interesting to me. So, I've already been
1:29:43
looking at this
1:29:44
and cuz I've been really obsessed with
1:29:46
Vampire: The Masquerade over the last
1:29:48
several months.
1:29:50
Uh shout-outs to my brother Amir.
1:29:52
>> [snorts]
1:29:52
>> And uh
1:29:53
5th edition actually is pretty
1:29:55
streamlined. So, the fact that they felt
1:29:57
that they needed to streamline it even
1:29:59
more is really fascinating. Uh
1:30:03
and I'm curious how that's going to look
1:30:06
when it's all said and done. Right now
1:30:08
on Demiplane, you get
1:30:10
a handful of the
1:30:13
the clans, a handful of the lineages
1:30:15
that you can go from, and it's one of
1:30:18
those things where
1:30:19
you don't get a full view of it so far.
1:30:23
And it does seem like they're taking a
1:30:25
couple pages out of
1:30:27
Dungeons and Dragons-esque character
1:30:29
creation, not necessarily like, you
1:30:33
know, you're rolling D20s or whatever,
1:30:34
but it's
1:30:35
looking at like your character
1:30:37
background informs bonuses that you get,
1:30:41
and fifth already had that built into
1:30:43
it, but it looks like it's becoming more
1:30:45
central. So, I'm really curious to to
1:30:48
see how this evolves,
1:30:51
uh because I already really liked fifth
1:30:53
edition
1:30:54
Vampire: The Masquerade,
1:30:56
and, you know, seeing how this goes out,
1:30:58
if it's successful, it also means that
1:31:02
they can start revisiting some of the
1:31:03
other White Wolf games that uh World of
1:31:05
Darkness games that maybe need an
1:31:07
update, Hunter, [snorts]
1:31:09
Mage, Changeling.
1:31:11
Uh for those of us that I or for those
1:31:13
that send those questions in, I did see
1:31:16
your Mummy question, even Mummy. Um
1:31:19
>> You haven't mentioned Werewolf.
1:31:21
>> And Werewolf.
1:31:22
>> That was the biggest one other than
1:31:24
Vampire.
1:31:24
>> You're right, and it's the one that I
1:31:25
was going to end on.
1:31:26
>> [laughter]
1:31:28
>> Uh but
1:31:29
>> Can't end on it. You have to stop.
1:31:29
>> I didn't quickly enough.
1:31:32
But I'm I'm I'm interested in it. And
1:31:33
from what I'm seeing on there right now
1:31:35
with the uh what's available currently
1:31:38
on
1:31:40
Demiplane, it doesn't seem too wildly
1:31:43
different, uh but yeah, I mean, here we
1:31:47
are. And this was what, last year they
1:31:49
announced that they were going to be
1:31:50
building up their in-house development
1:31:51
team
1:31:52
after relying on Renegade as their
1:31:53
primary publisher, and now we're moving
1:31:56
into this.
1:31:57
So, we don't know what the relationship
1:31:59
between Renegade
1:32:01
and White Wolf is going to be. Um, but
1:32:05
yeah, especially cuz didn't Renegade
1:32:07
just announce that and we just talked
1:32:09
about this last week
1:32:11
>> They're doing the Anne Rice thing.
1:32:12
>> They're doing the Anne Rice TV show
1:32:13
basically TRPG. So, this probably plays
1:32:15
into that and this is probably the
1:32:16
reason why.
1:32:18
>> [laughter]
1:32:19
>> Hm, makes sense.
1:32:20
>> Yeah. Uh, they did also announce and and
1:32:22
the reason I bring up the other games is
1:32:24
because Lenzello Lenzio
1:32:27
announced several additional games under
1:32:28
consideration for future development
1:32:30
which includes Vampire Dark Ages which
1:32:33
is something we talked about in our
1:32:35
Vampire the Masquerade episode of Lore
1:32:37
Watch. Uh, Mage the Ascension
1:32:41
and Changeling the Dreaming. They didn't
1:32:43
give any timelines of course, but they
1:32:45
are looking at it.
1:32:46
Uh, so hopefully we'll get a complete
1:32:49
rework of the World of Darkness into
1:32:50
this new system
1:32:52
and it will be glorious return to
1:32:54
something that isn't D&D. So, I'm
1:32:56
excited about it. I don't know if
1:32:57
anybody has any
1:32:58
opinions on that or not.
1:33:00
>> Like I said, call me when Werewolf comes
1:33:02
out.
1:33:03
>> [laughter]
1:33:04
>> Yeah, I like I like Vampire. I'll be
1:33:05
interested to check this out. I haven't
1:33:07
played Vampire in
1:33:09
um, I'm not going to say how many years.
1:33:10
Um, I'm excited that Mage is one of the
1:33:12
ones that they're considering. Mage is
1:33:14
always one of their
1:33:16
Mage has always kind of tickled my
1:33:17
fancy.
1:33:18
>> You wanting to bend reality? Shock.
1:33:20
>> I know, stunning, isn't it?
1:33:22
>> [laughter]
1:33:23
>> Uh, we also got an
1:33:24
>> bend it to my will.
1:33:26
>> We also got a announcement from Monte
1:33:29
Cook Games involving the Cypher Open
1:33:31
License uh, which is actually pretty big
1:33:33
news. Uh, so the Cypher
1:33:35
Go ahead.
1:33:36
>> I know, I'm just saying yes, I agree.
1:33:38
It's big news. It's a
1:33:39
>> Yep.
1:33:40
>> We need anytime I hear there's another
1:33:42
game license out there
1:33:44
I am happy. I
1:33:46
if every game had an open license, I
1:33:48
would be happy. I think it is one of
1:33:50
those things that we just need more of.
1:33:52
>> I guess it's a good thing that they
1:33:53
already had one in place
1:33:55
Yeah. this which was the Cypher System
1:33:58
open license
1:34:00
or Csal,
1:34:02
which will this is replacing it
1:34:04
essentially.
1:34:05
>> Yeah, but this one is also they're
1:34:07
putting out a new addition to the Cypher
1:34:08
System.
1:34:09
>> Correct.
1:34:10
>> Well, they want to make sure that their
1:34:11
licensing all works.
1:34:13
>> Yeah, and I actually have an in on this
1:34:15
one, which I'm hoping to get them onto
1:34:17
the podcast to actually talk about this.
1:34:20
So, Dean Lewis is one of the featured
1:34:22
creators for Cypher Systems
1:34:25
from Monte Cook and happens to be local
1:34:27
and happens to be a very good friend of
1:34:28
mine.
1:34:29
So, I'm trying to get them on so they
1:34:30
can actually talk about this and what it
1:34:32
means for content creators for the
1:34:34
system cuz that's the goal, right?
1:34:36
That's their goal is they want Cypher
1:34:38
compatible products
1:34:40
to be easier like to be easily available
1:34:43
on the market, right? And
1:34:47
while Cypher System may not be my
1:34:48
favorite system available, I do
1:34:52
acknowledge that it is very robust and
1:34:54
flexible.
1:34:55
I think it might be too flexible for
1:34:57
stuff that I do, but I know people that
1:34:59
absolutely adore it and again, that idea
1:35:02
of choice and flexibility is so
1:35:05
important in tabletop roleplaying
1:35:07
ecosystems
1:35:09
that acknowledging that and putting that
1:35:11
forward is just it's a good look. So,
1:35:14
good on Monte Cook game.
1:35:15
>> Yeah, I'm I'm very excited about this
1:35:17
for a lot of the same reasons that I am
1:35:18
excited about the second edition of
1:35:20
Cypher coming out. Cypher has always
1:35:22
been an interesting system to back games
1:35:25
with, but I don't think you saw quite as
1:35:26
wide adoption just because it had some
1:35:29
real weird hiccups in trying to use it
1:35:32
at the table. And so, even designing
1:35:35
even designing for Cypher kind of
1:35:37
requires your system and your world to
1:35:39
work in a very specific way.
1:35:41
>> And it also at the time required you to
1:35:44
own one of three specific books, not
1:35:46
just the rules. Like if
1:35:49
I remember for a long time it was
1:35:50
practically impossible to do it without
1:35:52
owning either The Strange or Numenera.
1:35:54
>> Or Numenera, yeah.
1:35:56
Yeah, the the
1:35:57
Everything I've heard about Cypher 2.0
1:35:59
about Cypher 2 makes me very excited
1:36:02
about Cypher 2. And so, I'm glad to see
1:36:03
that they're continuing to license this
1:36:05
so that people can then build on it. And
1:36:06
maybe we'll see some more games come out
1:36:08
that are Cypher compatible that aren't
1:36:11
uh you know, from Monte Cook's Games
1:36:13
specifically. So.
1:36:14
>> Yeah.
1:36:16
Uh and then
1:36:17
last but certainly not least and and
1:36:19
this I will turn over to you guys since
1:36:21
you had a wonderful conversation about
1:36:22
this before we started recording. Uh at
1:36:25
Gen Con we got the winners of the ENnie
1:36:27
Awards list uh uh
1:36:28
uh
1:36:29
announced, I guess is the best way to
1:36:31
put it. So, lots of good stuff there.
1:36:34
Who wants to Who wants to take on that
1:36:35
one?
1:36:36
>> I'll take this one I guess since I was
1:36:37
kind of dumping it into Discord today.
1:36:39
Uh the ENnies are kind of the closest
1:36:42
thing tabletop games have to a
1:36:43
consistent yearly award show. And the
1:36:46
2026 ENnies across a lot of categories.
1:36:50
Uh if you were a fan of Daggerheart or
1:36:52
Legend of the Mist, uh good news. They
1:36:55
took a ton of things. I'll just call out
1:36:57
some highlights here.
1:36:59
The Daggerheart core set got gold for
1:37:01
best game. The silver for best game went
1:37:03
to Legend of the Mist. Uh they also got
1:37:06
gold and silver for best rules. Gold and
1:37:08
silver for best free game for their
1:37:10
getting started supplements.
1:37:12
Uh Legend of the Mist got best
1:37:13
supplement for the action grimoire.
1:37:16
Um
1:37:17
just all all kinds of things over there.
1:37:19
Some others that aren't uh from Son of
1:37:20
Oak and Daring to Press, uh the
1:37:22
Dolmenwood campaign book got a gold from
1:37:24
Exalted Funeral got a gold for setting.
1:37:27
I believe its map book got a gold ENnie
1:37:29
for cartography.
1:37:31
Uh
1:37:32
and one that caught me by surprise, I
1:37:34
didn't actually recognize the name. Uh
1:37:35
Avantris Entertainment who uh made
1:37:38
Legends of the Avantris and has the
1:37:39
upcoming
1:37:41
uh Neon Odyssey sci-fi thing that Joe is
1:37:43
very excited about. Yeah. Uh Uh, in the
1:37:45
middle they have released a horror game,
1:37:47
uh, called the Crooked Moon. Uh, Crooked
1:37:49
Moon Ultimate Edition got gold for
1:37:51
product of the year. It got gold for
1:37:53
best cover art. It got gold for best
1:37:55
non-digital aid for a tarot deck that
1:37:57
goes with it. And A Vontress
1:37:59
Entertainment won fan favorite
1:38:01
publisher.
1:38:02
Uh, so shout out to A Vontress for
1:38:04
sweeping some really big categories for
1:38:06
a game that I don't think a lot of us
1:38:08
here had actually paid much attention
1:38:10
to.
1:38:11
>> I mean, I
1:38:12
I did because I like Legend of A
1:38:14
Vontress and I know we talked about this
1:38:15
before. Uh, and I I dropped a picture of
1:38:18
what comes in the ultimate edition. Uh,
1:38:21
of
1:38:21
>> That's so much stuff.
1:38:23
>> Yeah, so like it is literally every
1:38:25
miniature you need to run every single
1:38:27
encounter in the entire campaign book.
1:38:30
Uh, several stuffed animals, uh, that
1:38:33
are the animal companions that you
1:38:34
encounter throughout the camp uh, the
1:38:36
ghost train, uh, which if you don't
1:38:39
understand why ghost trains are fun in
1:38:40
in tabletop roleplaying games or video
1:38:42
games, you and I need to have a serious
1:38:43
talk.
1:38:44
>> I'm I'm I immediately zeroed in on that
1:38:47
big train mini.
1:38:48
I mean, that's cool.
1:38:50
>> Uh, all tons of other maps and tokens,
1:38:53
again, for running everything in the the
1:38:55
the this campaign.
1:38:57
Uh, a ton of dice, uh, so basically a
1:39:00
polyhedral set of dice uh, for
1:39:02
everybody, two very large dice bags,
1:39:05
uh, not just the Crooked Man Tarot,
1:39:08
which is absolutely amazing and central
1:39:09
to the story, uh, but also uh, several
1:39:12
other reference cards for things like
1:39:15
uh, I think magic items and counters,
1:39:17
uh, things like that so that you have
1:39:18
cheat sheets for it. And the book cover
1:39:21
is literally like straight out of a
1:39:23
heavy metal album cover. Uh, like you
1:39:26
look at this and it might as well be
1:39:27
Mörk Borg. Um, but like
1:39:29
>> Yeah, it is reminiscent of that.
1:39:32
>> Like in in a world in which uh, content
1:39:35
creators are getting a lot of of
1:39:37
attention for what they're making as far
1:39:40
as tabletop space goes, and a lot of
1:39:42
that focus has been on Critical Role and
1:39:44
Daggerheart, rightfully so.
1:39:46
Uh folks like the Legends of Avantris
1:39:48
the from Avantris Entertainment uh
1:39:51
are are not often in the conversation,
1:39:53
and I think that's a shame because the
1:39:55
quality of what they're putting out is
1:39:58
phenomenal, and they are very much in
1:40:01
that same vein of we are an
1:40:02
entertainment company of gamers who are
1:40:05
making a product that we want to be
1:40:06
proud of other gamers owning. And
1:40:09
>> Yeah, that's why I like so much about
1:40:10
Neon Dynasty as well. Yeah, I think
1:40:11
winning this will be a huge boon for
1:40:13
them. I know I'm not the only one who
1:40:14
looks at the Annies and in addition to
1:40:16
being excited about seeing the games
1:40:17
that I enjoy winning things, I also look
1:40:20
at this and go, "Wow, this won an award.
1:40:22
I should look into this now."
1:40:24
>> Mhm.
1:40:24
>> Like this is this is half award show for
1:40:26
me and also half recognition list for
1:40:28
stuff I'm going to be looking into uh
1:40:31
you know, going down the road.
1:40:33
>> And and I will say that the the ultimate
1:40:34
bundle is pricey. Um it is about a
1:40:37
>> Very pricey.
1:40:39
>> It's $990. It's It's $991, but it's the
1:40:43
deluxe hardcover uh which you can just
1:40:45
get the you can just get the deluxe
1:40:47
hardcover by itself.
1:40:48
Um
1:40:49
>> Yeah, that's probably good.
1:40:50
>> price range.
1:40:51
>> the GM screen seven uh piece set of the
1:40:54
or gemstone dice
1:40:56
uh which again, they're gemstone dice,
1:40:58
not just like
1:40:59
you know, weird crap. Actual gemstones.
1:41:03
>> Yeah, yeah. Um
1:41:04
>> Oh, holy crap.
1:41:05
>> Uh seven-piece glow-in-the-dark uh metal
1:41:07
ghost train dice uh cuz of course uh you
1:41:10
got your two dice bags. You have your
1:41:12
horn dice bag, which is for all of them.
1:41:14
The tarot set that comes in with which
1:41:16
is a silver foiled
1:41:18
uh a tarot set, fully illustrated 78
1:41:20
card with a companion guide that can be
1:41:21
used as a real tarot deck, as well as
1:41:24
the foiled storage bag to go along with
1:41:25
it. Uh 11-piece uh resin dice set as
1:41:29
well.
1:41:31
Um you're getting 11 boss miniatures,
1:41:33
each with three mini three mini
1:41:35
miniatures, so 44 miniatures. Uh the
1:41:37
horned king miniature itself. Uh the
1:41:39
Wicker Man, all these ones from that the
1:41:41
three adorable plushies. You get your
1:41:43
creepy clown plushy, which if you've
1:41:44
ever listened to a Von Tress, you know
1:41:46
creepy clowns are a thing.
1:41:48
The Bewitching Bunny plushy, the Ghastly
1:41:49
Goat. Of three five-piece sets of enamel
1:41:52
pins, so 15 of them
1:41:54
total for Witching Hour Harvest Song,
1:41:57
Dark Dark East Heart Pin,
1:41:59
three 80-card reference sets like I
1:42:01
said, monsters and bosses, NPCs and
1:42:02
encounters and items and spells. 200
1:42:06
top-down monster punch-out tokens. All
1:42:08
of the battle maps, so 12 battle maps,
1:42:11
and a double-sided cloth map of the
1:42:13
actual end game with the Wicker Hollow.
1:42:16
Again, it is expensive. But that is
1:42:20
about $2,500 worth of stuff that you're
1:42:24
getting from for $991.
1:42:26
Like it's
1:42:28
Go ahead.
1:42:28
>> Wow. That is I'm on it. I I got to admit
1:42:31
though, it is a lot of stuff. It sounds
1:42:33
like it's absolutely worth it. I am
1:42:34
astounded to finally see in a tabletop
1:42:36
ultimate edition more expensive than
1:42:37
Monte Cook Games' Invisible Sun Black
1:42:39
>> I was going to say that. I really
1:42:41
>> Black Cube. [laughter] And the Black
1:42:43
Cube's $316
1:42:45
price tag seems quaint now.
1:42:49
>> Yeah, I mean I'm not going to lie. I'm
1:42:50
not going to lie. If I had people to
1:42:52
play with this in physical space, I
1:42:53
would have 100% buy this bundle, and I'm
1:42:55
not joking.
1:42:56
>> I don't think you're joking.
1:42:58
>> [laughter]
1:42:58
>> So, we're all going to go visit Joe
1:43:00
though, so we can justify buying this
1:43:02
box for himself, right?
1:43:04
We're going to go and enable Joe.
1:43:05
>> I don't know. I only unfortunately, the
1:43:07
only way I could do that is if I moved
1:43:09
into his house for a month, and I don't
1:43:10
think we
1:43:10
>> I got space. Anyway,
1:43:13
but I think that that was really it. Gen
1:43:14
Con was a very interesting time this
1:43:16
year. I feel like we got more and
1:43:19
actually like substantial meaty
1:43:20
announcement this year during the Gen
1:43:22
Con time frame than we did for the last
1:43:24
couple of years, which is great to see.
1:43:26
It means a lot of the stuff that was
1:43:27
like announced or teased is starting to
1:43:30
bear fruit,
1:43:31
which is really really good. And I mean
1:43:33
>> less vaporware more actual this thing is
1:43:36
going to happen soon.
1:43:37
>> It And if anything, I think there's a
1:43:39
lot of promise of potential. And we've
1:43:41
complained a lot and we've given a lot
1:43:42
of criticism to to Wizards of the Coast,
1:43:45
Hasbro, and Dungeons and Dragons in
1:43:46
particular because of the direction that
1:43:48
they've been choosing to go. But it
1:43:50
feels like maybe, just maybe, the people
1:43:54
inside are starting to get a little more
1:43:56
pull or at least starting to get their
1:43:59
way a little bit more or figuring out
1:44:01
how to convince the probably
1:44:03
cocaine-fueled executives
1:44:05
to do the thing that is best for their
1:44:07
brand and company
1:44:08
as opposed to
1:44:10
>> out of nowhere.
1:44:10
>> I I got to be honest, it is nice to be
1:44:13
able to get It's nice to be able to give
1:44:14
Wizards of the Coast some criticism
1:44:16
because oh, I don't know if they'll make
1:44:18
this thing the way I like as opposed to
1:44:19
what we've had to do for the most of
1:44:21
2025, 2026, which is when are you going
1:44:23
to put a product out?
1:44:25
>> Yeah.
1:44:26
>> Like, where'd you guys go?
1:44:28
>> to let robots write the games, okay?
1:44:30
>> Yeah, so yeah, that's it's it's a it's a
1:44:33
nice it's a nice change of pace
1:44:36
to you know, at least have things that
1:44:37
we can look forward to with cautious
1:44:40
optimism.
1:44:42
>> Agreed.
1:44:43
But I think that's going to do it for us
1:44:45
today, friends. I do want to thank you
1:44:46
for joining us on this slightly longer
1:44:48
episode of Tavern Watch and remind you
1:44:50
that Blizzard Watch is made possible due
1:44:52
to your generous contributions at
1:44:54
patreon.com/blizzardwatch.
1:44:56
Your continued support means that our
1:44:58
podcast site and community are able to
1:44:59
thrive and grow. Blizzard Watch
1:45:01
supporters enjoy exclusive benefits like
1:45:03
early access to our podcast, a better
1:45:05
chance in having your question answered
1:45:06
on our podcast or the Q, and an ad-free
1:45:08
site experience. And again, if you have
1:45:11
questions for this or any of our podcast
1:45:13
inference, you can go ahead and email
1:45:15
us. It's [email protected].
1:45:17
Specify the show that it is for in the
1:45:19
subject line as well as any special
1:45:20
pronunciation of your name. If you want
1:45:22
to hit us on Discord, we have the Q&A
1:45:23
podcast questions channel open to
1:45:25
everybody. Same rules apply. And if you
1:45:27
are a Patreon subscriber, we have the
1:45:29
Patreon Q&A podcast question channel set
1:45:30
aside where we look there first. It's a
1:45:32
little extra way of saying thank you for
1:45:33
helping us keep the lights on. And I do
1:45:35
want to thank you once again for joining
1:45:37
us. And I do want to thank Liz, Matt,
1:45:39
and Phil for another wonderful Tavern
1:45:41
Watch where we get to talk about a lot
1:45:42
of really cool stuff coming out.
1:45:44
>> [music]
1:45:44
>> And friends, we'll see you next time.
1:45:56
>> [music]

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