November Newsletter: Goblins and Growlers Gazette

⚡ (Total read time: 2.6 minutes) ⚡

We’re entering the thick of the holiday season and that end-of-year exhaustion is kicking into high gear. This is the time of the year when I usually wish I could time skip to January to avoid all the holiday stress. Don’t forget to support your local establishments (such as Alpha Comics and Games, conveniently located in Richmond’s Willow Lawn) when doing your holiday shopping this year.

In this month’s newsletter:

🗞️ 3 must-know gaming news nuggets
📻 1 great indie game you need to play
🔥 2 hot takes from the podcast
🧭 Goblins in the wild: Upcoming events

🗞️ 3 must-know gaming news nuggets

• ♣️ Deck Tales. Quick update on that “Deck of Many Things” physical release delay and fans have been dealt a holiday-UNfriendly blow. (Dig Deeper)

  • WotC: “On October 27, we announced a delay in the shipment of The Deck of Many Things set due to the product not meeting our manufacturing standards.”

  • Physical copies should be in U.S. stories on Jan. 5 — missed it by that much.

  • Markets outside the U.S. will see them in stores a little later, but no hard dates were provided.
    

• 🐕 It’s Adventure Time… as long as you like 5e. The currently-in-Kickstarter RPG based on the popular animated series has announced a change to its planned rule system — it’s now 5e. (Dig Deeper)

  • From the FAQ: “We made the decision to make it a 5e experience, based on feedback from fans. That doesn’t mean the game shown at Gen Con earlier this year won’t be released too, but the main offering in the upcoming Kickstarter will be the 5e RPG”

  • The originally announced system would have used custom dice and a narrative Yes And-style system that sounded kind of like Fate.

  • This is similar to Renegade Game Studios’ “Power Rangers” RPG, which was announced with a unique system but switched to 5e months before release.

• 🪓 Druid, Monk, Barbarian final D&D playtest. The last of the class-specific playtests is live and open for player feedback. (Dig Deeper)

  • Barbarians get a short-rest rage replenishment.

  • Druid’s original Wildshape is back after being briefly replaced with generic stat blocks.

  • Monks get a lot more Bonus Action flexibility.

  • Feedback is due by December 11.

🏗️ 1 great indie(?) game you need to play

👼🏽 Icarus. A (relative) oldie but a goodie. Civilization is doomed, and I helped. Icarus is a worldbuilding game ala “The Quiet Year,” but with no map. It’s the decadence and fall of ancient Rome with a sci-fi flair as you preside over the hubristic demise of a nation-state at the height of its power. It’s played with a deck of cards and is GM-less, so no one has to be responsible for prepping the game and it runs for about three hours or so. Icarus is published by Renegade Game Studios.

🎧 2 hot takes from the podcasts

• ✈️🇨🇻 Fifth Edition Planescape Release. We wandered the streets of Sigil and roamed the plains of the Outer Planes to spare you the (Lady of) Pain of having to buy WotC’s newest update/release without first getting a feel for it. tl;dr: It’s a nice update of something familiar, but ask yourself if that’s what you’re looking for. (Link to Spotify)

• 👎🏼 MORE Unpopular D&D Opinions. We asked our listeners and Discord community for their most ostracizing and shun-inducing opinions on 5e. This is a sequel to our episode from Summer 2022 with all-new unpopularity and all-new opinions! (Spotify)

🧭 Goblins in the wild: Where to find us.

• 📵🔌 PAX Unplugged. A few Goblins will be attending PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia this weekend to see what cool games are on the horizon. Holler at us if you’re headed to the con.

🤖 Iron Man 3 is my favorite Christmas movie.

This is my own personal “Die Hard” argument. My only qualm is that, with all the specialty suits in the film, Stark didn’t create one with a red-and-green motif and a Santa hat.

I love you 3000,
Brandon