Critical Fall: September Newsletter: Goblins and Growlers Gazette

⚡ (Total read time: 3 minutes) ⚡

We’re in the home stretch of the year. Time to relax. Maybe. We don’t have any more formal cons coming up until MAG Fest, so we can finally turn our attention back to stuff like writing and content creation in general. Personally, I (Brandon) have had a few game ideas sitting on the back burner since February, so I’m hoping I can finish one of those before Christmas. What kind of creative projects do you have going on this fall?

This month:

🗞️ 3 must-know gaming news nuggets
📻 1 great indie game you need to play
🔥 3 hot takes from the podcast
🧭 Goblins in the wild: Upcoming events
🛍️ Fall Sale/New products (with special extra discount code for subscribers)

🗞️ 3 must-know gaming news nuggets

• 🙅🏾‍♀️🤖 No AI Art in Planescape. After getting caught using AI-enhanced art in Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants, Wizards of the Coasts promises the three Planescape books are all human all the time. (Dig Deeper)

  • Planescape’s lead designers made the statement during a press event.

  • They referred to this tweet (or X?) about Bigby where the artist was blamed for the use of AI art.

  • WotC says they’re developing artist guidelines to prevent AI art in the future, but they haven’t shared those. Presumably, it won’t be a Voight-Kampff test.

    
    

• 🦆💰 Dukk Borg. Life is like a hurricane… that will destroy the world. This Ducktales-themed expansion to the nihilistic Mork Borg system is back with more content and a print edition via Kickstarter. (Dive into that money bin)

  • Kickstarter ends Sept. 26 (tomorrow!) but they’re already way above goal.

  • Pledge tiers include: Racecars, Lasers, Aeroplanes.

  • Of course, the book includes a map of The Moon (but will they let you download the soundtrack?).

• 🕵🏿 TrustNo1. Social media poll shows that most D&D fans don’t trust Wizards of the Coast to get One DnD right. (Dig Deeper)

  • Only 2% of respondents (out of 1800) said they had total trust in WotC for the upcoming release. What do you think?

  • One DnD is scheduled to debut in 2024.

  • Remember that social media polls only attract the most engaged and loudest elements of a fan base, so as far as reality goes, YMMV.

 🏢 1 great indie game you need to play

💬 In the Group Chat. Just because you’re working from home doesn’t mean you have to miss out on the office gossip. “In the Group Chat” is a long-distance TTRPG where the players are all employees at the same company but work on different floors. They each have their own secret motivations: maybe one hates the company, maybe one will trample anyone for a promotion. The game uses a deck of cards for randomization; in-character actions are handled via voicemails to the group chat and out-of-character action is handled with text. From Oddkey. Free! (Find out the hot goss!)

🎧 3 hot takes from the podcasts

• 🐀🧀 Charles Entertainment Cheese. While at Queen City Anime Con we met Ash, who’s as much of an animatronic fanatic as Brandon. We invited them on the podcast to geek out about the history of air-powered robots and their related pizza franchises. Not a usual episode, but we let Brandon have this one. (Link to podcast)

• 📘 Scratching our indie game itch again. We get back to our roots a little bit with a swathe of indie games we found on itch.io (and a couple of other places). There are scrambled eggs all over our faces. (Turn the page)

• 🐔🛖 QPR: Baba (Yaga and) the Hut. Back in QPR’s world of Vyrion and the aftermath of the attack on the glade of the nymphs, the party has had to have an encounter they’ve been avoiding for years. (Quid Pro Return)

🧭 Goblins in the wild: Where to find us.

• 😴 Zzzzzz. We finally get to rest for a bit after all the con craziness. Just FYI, though, we have a fundraising event coming up in November and some of us may or may not be at PAX Unplugged in Philly in December.

• New Location. We also should be announcing a new second location for our local Richmond games. Stay tuned to the Discord for news on that front.

🛍️ Fall Sale at the Goblin Store.

I called it a summer sale last month, but it’s really a Fall sale because I can’t read a calendar. A few things to know:

1. It’s active now! Visit Goblins and Growlers store!

2. It’ll run through October 15!

3. The updated version of our OPD Volume 1 collection is now available!

4. Half the character sheet designs have been revamped!

💸 Newsletter subscribers get an additional 15% off with code: ​​PZRWRX

🔊 Time to Chill Out.

☕ 🎷 Fall has snuck up on me! I’m sitting on my back porch listening to some coffeehouse jazz. I hope everyone had a great summer and is ready to ease into this cooler weather.

Peace and Long Life,
Brandon