Hey everyone, lots to share again today! News that you may have missed, this weeks articles, and what we are up to. First we will start with some of the stuff I came across this week.
Choices
Nothing is better in RPGs, especially table-top RPGs, than the fact that we have so many choice. At the table there is an actual infinity of possibilities to chose from. Last week we got some more opportunities to get such choices laid out with rules and presented to us for ease of use. The first thing I found, literally as I was getting the link for the article I mentioned a week ago, is a new Unearthed Arcana. This time the article features divine characters, but not divine spellcasters. Instead there are options for playing a character that follows the path of a god, but is either not part of the clergy or who is a member of one which prefers different methods. The first of these is a warlock patron called The Seeker, which represents a god of knowledge. This warlock build has plenty of room for flexibility, though. It's powers inspire wanderlust and any god of secrets, lore, exploration, or travel could easily be used. Additionally it provides a new pact boon option made for this patron, but one that could easily be adapted for other patrons.
The second build presented is for the wizard and is the school of Theurgy. This school is for those priests who follow the goddesses of magic and arcana. However, it is built so that you could be the wizard of any god's order as you do gain access to your choice of domains from the cleric class. These grant you the benefits a little later than a cleric, except for the 17th level one. That you get at 14th level. oh, and did I mention channeling arcana? Needless to say, this is one of my favorite UA articles to date alongside the one that covers such things as a ghost in the machine patron. Having extra options that don't go too crazy with the rules is great to have, especially when exploring something like non-divine faithful.
The other thing I wanted to mention is something, if you are playing 5E, you really should have heard about already: Tome of Beasts. Kobold Press Kickstarted this a little while back and it is finally available to get. On their site you can get it in print and / or PDF and it looks well worth the cover price. In it are over 400 new monsters to throw at your players and given only one Monster Manual so far, it will be nice to have another full sized resource to utilize. Looking for the cost on that for my future order, I also noticed a second 5E book withing a similar vein from Kobold Press: the Book of Lairs. This features two dozen new lairs to house your big bad monsters in. These each include treasure, hazards, and traps for your adventurers to fall victim to. Given the 5th Editions propensity for lair effects in legendary monsters one can only assume that is such options are not provided in this supplement, it will pair quite well with the choices you will have in their Tome of Beasts.
It Keeps Getting Bigger
This is a quick mention, but an important one. Over the years now, RPGs have been becoming more and more popular. This is, in no small part, thanks to the many podcasts and streams that are being done for the entertainment of those who can't play as much or want to see what its like (or just want to laugh along with us). Acquisitions Incorporated is the Penny Arcade / Wizards team up game that started back before the release of 4th Edition. It has continued regularly since then including live shows at PAX and the recent YouTube series. If you haven't already watched / listened to it you can find the audio playlist here and I suggest you start at the beginning. For those of you who are following the series and want to see what is next, but cannot make it to PAX West, well there is good new. You might be able to see it in theaters. That's right Fathom Events is hosting it. The link to the details of the event is right here, and you should go see if there is a theater near you. If you are wondering why this is important, its because gaming is important to us as a community. It changes how we look at things and people, it is how we socialize, and it can make us better people. We should have more exposure of the awesomeness it holds and getting major live shows to appear in theaters, that is just another success for us.
Here With the Alchemist
Ok there are a couple things I also wanted to mention, but I will save them for next week after I check them out a bit more. Now we can cover what is going on here. First off, later today you will get another post that features the Star Wars Edge of the Empire game episode 7. This should have gone up yesterday but 4 extra hours of work messed up the "plan". So, don't worry that is coming. Tomorrow, I will be taking a part in the RPG Blog Carnival again. This time it features science with your sorcery. Thursday I am going to have a resources article for you, of course. And Friday you can get another episode of Brave New Worlds.
Moving forward there is still a lot to happen and figure out. Tonight (for real this time) we record D&Donuts, which I hope to have out by this time next week. We are trying to improve how we do it and fit more into the time you spend listening. We have also changed from the original theme quite quickly. What started as a random talk session over coffee and donuts as become a combination discussion of rules / concepts and discussion of the things we have been playing and working on. As such we will be re-naming the podcast to better reflect that, and may ask for your votes on that matter.
Aside from that you can also expect a poll for the next game we play. We have a one-shot for a friend this week that we are not recording for Untamed Dice and we still have another session of Cypher to finish up. Aside from those, we still have Monster of the Week to finish so that we can present that after Star Wars. What does all this mean for you? Well, we have a few more episodes of Star Wars yet, but we are running out of recorded shows. Personally I would like Monster of the Week to be finished before we start airing it, but I would take scheduling the last session too. Work is a problem for that game, so its release may get put on hold. We do have another session of Brave New Worlds scheduled, and those will hopefully pick up as summer closes because things are ramping up on Luxarrah.
So, you can expect Star Wars to pull us through August and into the very beginning of September. Then Brave New Worlds should once again take its rightful spot every other week. Hopefully Monster of the week will be featured after that, but we may have some shorter games coming. Our Last Best Hope will be coming up and, as I prep and run these one-shots I am getting a better idea of what will be 1 session and what will be 3 and how to keep them in line. Given that, and Fall coming up, we hope to have a lot more games for you to listen to!
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