RPG systems, can you really have enough of them? When it comes to fantasy RPGs, the first system that comes to mind for most people is Dungeons and Dragons. It’s a great system, and if you’ve never tried another RPG system before, you also probably think it’s the end all be all. After all, why should you learn another system when you’re having so much fun already? Well, I'm here to tell you how much you are missing out on! What is Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay? If you’ve spent any time in a game store, you probably recognise the name Warhammer and it probably conjures up images of Space Marines duking it out with space orcs and really expensive looking models. That’s mostly accurate, but while Warhammer 40K has certainly won the popularity contest when it comes to wargames, the series first started out as a medieval fantasy series called (you guessed it) Warhammer Fantasy. The series was so popular that eventually Games Workshop - the makers of the Warhammer series published a roleplay version of the game titled Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP) waaaaay back in 1986. Today, WFRP is in its 4th edition, with fancy streamlined rules, more adventures and sourcebooks on the way, and an ever-growing player base. The Warhammer name carries certain connotations, and before we begin, I wanted to clear the air on some common concerns: “Warhammer is a war game with a bunch of complex rules, sounds troublesome to learn” The combat certainly requires an extra step or two compared to DnD 5E, but most 5E players I’ve run this system for have no problem adjusting to it. In fact, in some aspects, WFRP can be considered more rules-light and flexible than 5E! “Warhammer sounds like a combat heavy game” Despite the intimidating name, WFRP is surprisingly focused on roleplay. Combat is rare because it is extremely deadly, and most adventures as written only factor in an average of 1 combat session per session. Instead, the game is about living in the setting, soaking in the atmosphere and unravelling secrets and tons of social interaction opportunities. “Warhammer has such deep lore, I’ll never appreciate it if I don’t study the lore first!” While it’s true that people who know the lore are more likely to grasp the nuances in the stories, most of the adventures are not dependent on your knowledge of the lore to function. WFRP also has many great guides and sourcebooks you can read to learn more about the world! Why you should play Warhammer Fantasy RPG With that out of the way, let’s get on to why you should play the game! 1. The grimdark setting Much of the appeal here is the setting itself. The Old World is a land doomed to destruction as the forces of Chaos tear apart every civilization in its path. The wilderness is dangerous, with orcs, beastmen, the undead and the legions of chaos around every corner. Cities in the old world are crowded, dirty and home, to power-hungry politicians, secret cults, ratmen in the sewers and inquisitors on the hunt for witches and the worshippers of chaos. Think along the lines of King’s Landing from Game of Thrones or Baldur’s Gate. The cities aren’t exactly safe-havens, and there are plenty of city-based adventures if you’re into that. In fact, if you enjoy adventures that involve politics, mystery and discovery, maybe something along the lines of Waterdeep Dragon Heist, WFRPG will have a lot to offer you! 2. It’s not all doom and gloom While the general vibe of the world is pretty dour, the adventures do a good job at throwing zany characters at you and often puts you in ridiculously hilarious situations. The adventures balance the grimdark vibe and fun elements really well, making you constantly uneasy but also not overly depressing. 3. Magic is rare and extremely dangerous In the world of Warhammer Fantasy, magic corrupts, and only those trained in the schools of magic are permitted to wield it. Magic is feared by the public and public displays of it are often followed by tip-offs to relentless inquisitors who hunt down and execute and who display a penchant for chaos – whether you’re innocent or not… As the famous saying of the inquisitors goes: “There is no such thing as innocence, only degrees of guilt.” Casting magic in Warhammer bears more than just the risk of persecution. Critical failures while casting or channelling the winds of magic can cause some undesired effects similar to what you might find in a wild magic tale except that all the effects are going to negatively affect you and your party… probably. But magic is extremely powerful and it pays to have someone adept in the arts to decipher other magical effects in the world. I love the system here because it discourages spell casting characters to use magic as their first and primary option to solve problems. So if you’re a player that’s sick of solving problems with mage hand and minor illusion, this magic system may have something to offer you! 4. You can push your rolls with the Chaos Gods! Don’t you just hate it when you play DnD and you fail that incredibly important roll you really wanted to succeed? What if I told you that in this system you can totally force a success on that roll…. With a little help from less than reputable powers? Making a deal with the Chaos Gods is dangerous and grants you corruption which eventually leads to mutation and insanity, but that in itself is great fun too! Here’s a quick rundown of your patrons to be: Khorne Khorne is the Chaos God of war, hatred, rage, blood, martial honour and strength. It wants to murder everything. Nurgle Nurgle is the Chaos God of disease, decay, despair, destruction and rebirth. It wants to cover the world in disease. Slaanesh Slaanesh is the Chaos God of pleasure, hedonism, excess and decadence. They are basically super millennials chasing vibes and the extremes of pleasure through… pain. They just wanna feel something mannnnn. Tzeentch Tzeentch is the Chaos God of change, evolution, knowledge, intrigue and sorcery and is perhaps the most complicated god. He wants to be the biggest and baddest of the big 4 and manipulates mortals with promises of power to win superior positions over its rivals. 5. It’s heaven for roleplayers, live like a real member of society If you like RP, you’ll love this system. In WFRP, you’re not playing a hero, you’re just a regular person making your way through life and going on the odd adventure. Instead of classes, WFRP utilises a career system that you can rank up in and gain new skills in. You could be anything from a guard to a lawyer or even a rat catcher, the choice is yours! Each career is tagged to a certain class in society, which can grant you certain boons or banes depending on where you are and the type of trouble you get into. There’s plenty of time for downtime, and you’re expected to actually do your job and an array of activities to earn money, information or obtain new skills! This is also a system where combat is deadly, and things could go south very quickly if you fumble your rolls, so talking is almost always the better way to resolve conflicts than violence. 6. Combat that feels dangerous In WFRP, every combat scenario can feel dangerous. Landing or receiving a critical hit does something much worse than inflicting bonus damage, it gives you a major wound! Major wounds take forever to heal and could range from a broken bone, losing a hand or even straight-up decapitation depending on where the hit landed and how you rolled on the major wound table. Here’s a sneak peek at what happens when you land or receive a major head wound: It makes combat exciting no matter if you’re facing a demon or an angry villager with a large pitchfork. 7. Legendary adventures and campaigns The main thing that really attracted me to get to know this system were some of the adventures for it. WFRP has some of the most celebrated and best adventures in RPG history and you’d really be missing out if you didn’t get to experience it! The Enemy Within is a campaign that stretches across a total of 10 books and is a must-try for any adventurer into epics. Rough Night at The Three Feathers is another iconic mystery and investigation adventure that I won’t spoil here. It has been lauded as one of the best short adventures in RPG history. You can learn more about these adventures in the links, but unless you’re really curious I’d suggest not looking into Rough Night at The Three feathers too much or make sure you’ve included “spoiler-free” in your search query. 8. Little to no dungeon crawling Many of the adventures here aren’t about entering a cave or castle and killing everything, getting loot etc… Adventures in WFRP are grounded in realism, low magic fantasy realism for what it’s worth but it’s definitely closer to our world than a typical DnD 5E game. You’re not going to find dungeon mechanics or traps that only make sense because “magic”, and you’re definitely not going to run into situations like random dragons in a room with a tiny door somewhere in the third level basement of a dungeon. If you hate dungeons, and I know there are some of you out there who do! Or if you wanna try something new, WFRP is something you should experience. 9. Very story-focused Adventures in WFRP have a story to tell and they are often very interesting with unexpected twists, dodgy and interesting characters and wonderful world-building. However, it comes at a bit of a cost. Many of the adventures can be accused of being a little railroady. There are specific NPCs you will have to meet to advance the story for example. Or there might be certain events that will happen no matter what you do. That's not to say that your actions have no consequences when those events come up, you might get in lesser or more trouble when the event occurs. There are plenty of sandbox segments too where you’re free to wander and tackle leads at your own discretion. WFRP is definitely a system that takes liberties with player agency in service of the plot and story and it might not appeal to everyone. However! If you like great stories and are fine with a railroad track or two, you’re going to love these adventures. Alright, that’s all the ranting I can do for today. I hope this article gives you a little more insight into WFRP and has convinced you to give it a shot! If you’re so inclined, I will be running some adventures at TableMinis soon and you can check out the schedule and more info on that here. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you at the gaming table!

Horror TTRPG is starting to take plague the local gaming community. The latest Kickstarter sensation is a tense foray into the space horror genre that is chock full of dangerous encounters, interesting worlds and hostile aliens. It is called Mothership – 𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙣𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙘𝙖𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙞𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙖 𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙘𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙠𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙙 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝. We feel this Kickstarter will take a leap forward with impactful mechanics and a terrifying theme. Interestingly, some content outlets have taunted this award-winning game as 𝙩𝙝𝙚 D&D killer. They are also Ernie Gold Winners in 2019 for best game. Mothership the 1st edition is built on a d100 system. Custom rules for panic and stress are their signature mechanics. Also, HP has been switched to "Wounds" to create a more evocative narrative for players. They have designed it to be very simple to pick up and play – yet dangerous and difficult to survive. The rule book layout is also very GM-friendly, keeping everything neat and organised for easy reference. Lastly, this Kickstarter comes with 4 adventures to start. The only downside is that it will only be shipped in November next year... (all good things come to those who wait, perhaps?) Sigh... 👍🏻 👍🏻 👍🏻 We highly, highly recommend this. You can be sure we will run this when it eventually comes out! Check out the Kickstarter here!

It's that time of the month again! So what's been happening in the D&D and TTRPG world this month? Let us recap the news and announcements. 1st of June D&D announces a new Dungeon Master's Screen called the Dungeon Kit ➡️ Check it out: https://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/dmscreen_dungeonkit?fbclid=IwAR2ZArxTJ32DuATmaePJiY0g15c1zCFP_t2Itjpq8Gn7kWrQht0vWVfa54Y We will be taking preorders. Drop us a message if you're interested in preordering! The new DM Screen will be released on September 21st, 2021. 2nd of June Critical Role launches a bunch of Box Set Miniatures Working with @wizkidsgames - Critical Role brings us Monsters, Factions People and Gargantuan Udaak boxed miniatures. These high-quality miniatures are like the ones in Icons of the Realms' other painted series. Some are really nice. Check them out at https://shop.critrole.com/ 6th of June D&D announces 2 books and 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝟹𝘳𝘥 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 The first book is a long-awaited Fey Wild adventure called "The Wild Beyond the Witchlight". We are insanely excited about this adventure. It releases on 21st September! The second one is another settings book from the World of Magic the Gathering. 'Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos' will be incredibly interesting to all the Wizard and Sorcerer fans out there. We are hoping for a ton of new spells and arcane mechanics to be featured. A 3rd unannounced book was (𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘥?) mentioned in a tweet by Executive Producer Head of D&D. This book by James Wyatt is still a mystery. But it is slated for release in between the two aforementioned books. 17th of June Registration for the official D&D Dungeon Master Challenge D&D has a competition for the best DMs. It coincides with the D&D Celebrations on September 26, 2021. These 3 round bouts will element the most of the competition, leaving Matt Mercer, B Dave Walters and Brennan Lee Mulligan as the finalist. 𝘕𝘰, 𝘸𝘢𝘪𝘵, 𝘐'𝘮 𝘬𝘪𝘥𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨! We will see the true 10 finalists on D&D Live on - 16th and 17th of July. The DMs will be from US states/DC, Canada (excl. QC), UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Spain, Australia, and New Zealand. 19th of June Call of Cthulhu's Chaosium releases Mansions of Madness to Roll20 Call of Cthulhu is gaining more traction with players and Lorekeepers alike. 1 in 10 Roll20 games is now enjoyed by fans of this mighty horror RPG. Micheal O'Brien, vice president of @chaosium is looking to release more products on that platform! Maybe it's time to pick up torchlights and explore this some more. 22nd of June Dark Alliance the D&D video game hits the screens everywhere! As fun as it promises to be, this co-op smash-em-up game has fallen ill to the many poor reviews all over the web. However, my brother is still at it after a week and seems to enjoy the Lore and fellowship this game garners when played with friends. It's free on Xbox Game Pass and you can purchase it on all platforms and stores. 18th of June All-star D&D Celebrity Game announced line-up (𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘢𝘭𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵!) Jack Black, Jay and Silent Bob, the Susan Fischer and amazingly talented funny man Reggie Watts.... playing at the table with Kate Welch! 𝘐 𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘥... Can't wait for this one! The Headline reads: The Lost Odyssey: Last Light table will feature Jack Black, Reggie Watts, Lauren Larkus, Kevin Smith, and Jason Mewes in a game DMed by Kate Welch. Welch's D&D game will also feature a special "mystery guest." We'll be watching the live stream - come join us! Link to us live streaming the event will be up soon! Kickstart of Note This month, the kickstart of note belongs to 𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐚'𝐬 𝐆𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐓𝐨 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐇𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐀 𝐃𝐧𝐃 𝟓𝐞 𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 Already up to $1.9 Million and counting, this grand supplement of Monster Hunting is just ideal for so many players who want to track, trick and kill formidable prey. The book includes 3 rule systems for Tracking, Harvesting and Crafting. It also includes 10 adventures playable at 3 separate character levels, more than 50 monsters, and 200 plus random encounters. This is a solid buy folks! Get it now! Book + PDF going for $68 SGD (excluding shipping) ➡️ Check it out: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/saltybot/monsterhunting5e Lastly, Forgotten Realms Magic the Gathering Cards - Includes Dungeons. A core mechanic for this series is 3 dungeons that you can navigate to provide you bonuses. Besides the great art and plenty of fan favourites in this series, it promises to be a fun time outside of your weekly D&D games. Global Release on July 23rd. Will you be getting this?

Lockdown 2.5 As soon as we were gathering some momentum, so did COVID-19. Our young nation went back to Lockdown Mode. The energy we felt at the studio, the new friendships we made - the plans to build on already budding relationships all completely and mandatorily halted. As our nation hunkered down, schools closed and restaurants locked up their seats. So did we. We closed the studio and it was painful. But as an aspiring business, this is something we already took into account. Therefore we turned this empty time into the quiet needed to recalibrate, refresh and optimise what we have built over the last two months (if you didn't know - our studio opened on April Fools Day). Moving online When it came to hosting games, we avoided playing online. But this lockdown gave us fresh eyes. It made the most sense as a business, and also as passionate advocates of this hobby. There are plenty of people who can and will play online - who are we to deny the pleasures of TTRPG to all who, either do not have time or finances to travel? There are also many who are much needed at home, looking after love ones and their close presence is essential. They need to play too. I admit we're part of the perpetuating stigma of playing online alike for many other DMs and players. We all use the same excuse, saying things like "online is nothing like playing in real life, seated around the table is the best way, online is just a terrible experience", etc. Yes, there are merits to those claims, but we at TableMinis want to challenge that very notion. We believe, with exceptional Dungeon Mastering, a thorough understanding of online tools and maybe even cutting edge technology - we as a studio can bring about the same smiles, laughter, cheering and the common hatred for the DM rolling scary amounts of dice. We genuinely believe we can. So we subscribed and reluctantly gave Zoom our money, listed Candlekeep Mysteries Chapter 1 as an online session, both for the new, as well as experienced players. We also arranged to teach Learn How to Play D&D workshop online to newbies. The response has been extremely positive so far. We oath Paladin, in continuing to serve the online community as much as we can, for as long as we can. On the digital front We have (finally) set up our Discord channel. We have quite a few people in it already and it seems to be growing. Please hop in and start chatting with each other! Make some new friends. Also, we secretly launched our Patreon for all the folks who want to support this dream and endeavour (all this play is really hard work guys, and we do need some financial muscle to keep this going). If you love us and wanna support us, we have plenty of perks and will continue adding them as we go along. On the back-end We have been playtesting numerous modules, systems and have done a couple of focus groups. All just to create more great content, games and experiences. We are ready to launch two new Play D&D games this June: - Play D&D for beginners - Lost Mine of Phandelver (Chapter1) - Play D&D Campaign - Baldurs Gate: Descent into Avernus Keep a lookout and book early okay! The lockdown has just ended and we say again - we are just getting started! See you at the table! Be safe and wash your hands.

We have been incredibly busy setting up our brand new studio. It sports a gaming table, full surround sound setup and plenty of Dungeon Master tools. We do hope you come visit and say hi. For the first time, we hosted "Alice is Missing" publicly and the 5 dudes who played it had a smashing time. If you wanna know more, please check our events page. In April, besides opening our studio doors - we will be introducing more events for you guys to experience and enjoy. So tune in to our Instagram and Facebook for more info. Last but not least, fingers crossed we will release our first podcast episode. It's called "Alamak you D&D?!?!". It is just us talking about TTRPG, interviewing some folks and sharing with you some interesting segments. We hope to see you soon! Thanks again for reading all of this. Have a great month!

May is here, and we are just getting started. With more events coming your way, we are kicking off the month with "Workshop: Learn to D&D". Here we provide a wonderful journey into all aspects of the world's greatest RPG game. We will follow up with that some D&D game nights we begin hosting towards the end of May. Outside of that, we are launching our second Experience Event, Icarus. Come and play Icarus with us, where 5 players will collaboratively build a city together, just to tear it down with political agendas. It's a damn fun game, so come explore! Last but not least, we are anxiously and desperately preparing for our own TTRPG game just for kids between 5 to 12-year-old. If you have kids, nieces or nephews who you would like to introduce to story-telling, adventuring and corporative problem-solving - do drop us a message! The theme for this Epic Kids Adventure will be empathy. Give them a chance to solve the Beast of Kapase Hills, come the June School Holidays. So please, come visit, check our Instagram regularly and continue being great people, spreading love and joy all around! See you soon!

It's been an interesting month for March - take a look. 16th of March Candlekeep released. A collection of 17 adventures from 19 different designers. Focusing on plug-and-play mysteries that any DM from any part of your campaign in any setting, can use immediately. A really good compilation of One-Shot adventures. Oh, it's also wheelchair accessible. 👍 Get your copy here! 22nd of March Public Drama from Candlekeep Mysteries contributor. On 22 March, Graeme Barber, better known online as PanzerLion, took to Twitter in reviewing his contribution to Candlekeep Mysteries. On Twitter, he was clearly upset that his work was stripped down and edited heavily without his involvement. How do you feel about what happened and what are your thoughts on the matter? You can read more at https://twitter.com/POCGamer/status/1373847320370970626?s=20 𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐳𝐨 𝐮𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐢𝐥𝐬 𝐏𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐁𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝟑 - 𝐏𝐚𝐰𝐧 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 Big announcement from @officialpaizo Their much sought-after Pawn Collection will be releasing on May 26 this year. It contains a ton of "Pawn Standies" miniatures - all printed on high-quality cardstock with beautiful art prints of the third volume in the Pathfinder RPG's core monster reference series. It's a box-busting collection of more than 300 creature pawns with bases. PDF already on sale on their website. If you want us to bring this in, let us know quick - cause they sell out damn quick. 😵 D&D Dark Alliance Coming June 22nd Wizards of the Coast announced the release date early this month for this co-op RPG Adventure Video Game. We really hope it's good, as knuckling down with some friends over the PC and Xbox to fight beholders sounds like a great time. But then again, this isn't gonna be Baldurs Gate 3. So don't get your hopes up. Let us if you'll be getting this game? We can party up! Catch the trailer below. Unearth Arcana - Folk of the Feywild The usual playtest stuff from the halls of D&D are usually subclasses. But once in a while, you get new race options to be tested. Folk of the Feywild has got lots of people in a tizzy. All waiting to experiment and experience playing as Fairies, Owlfolks, Hobgoblins, or Rabbitfolks. There are some interesting mechanics involved - you can download the PDF here: media.wizards.com/2021/dnd/downloads/UA2021_FeyFolk.pdf Critical Role Announces First Novel Kith and Kin is the title of the upcoming @critical_role novel. It's a brand new story of Vex and Vax before they were part of Vox Machina. Written by New York Times best-selling author Marieke Nijkamp - this novel is slated to release on October 26th this year. In all honesty, we don't know much about Marieke Nijkamp and her books. If you do, could you please share with us how her books affected you? For more on the announcement visit critrole.com/hype-kith-kin-our-first-novel-explores-vex-and-vaxs-past-in-a-never-before-told-story That's all folks!

May has got to be the biggest month thus far in the Dungeons and Dragons and Tabletop roleplaying sphere. Here's a recap of the latest updates and what's going on in the TTRPG and D&D world! 1st of May Jonathan Goldstein & John Francis Daley starts filming 𝘋&𝘋 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘦. Slated to be released on the silver screen in 2023. Helmed by Chris Pine as the lead, we all can only hope he kills Hugh Grant dead with magic missiles and Tasha's hideous laughter combination. This @wbpictures Warner Brothers production will be as glorious as The Avengers and as loved as Star Wars... we hope..... 2nd of May Jeff Goldblum to become an Elven Sorcerer on D&D Podcast. Why isn't Jeff Goldblum also in the D&D movie?! He'll be playing an Elven Sorcerer in the Dark Dice Podcast. This podcast has not only the epic cinematic scope and original score for its games - but now it has a Jeff Goldblum. I think we all can agree that Dark Dice Podcast has won D&D. Oh, and they are boasting of a live orchestra behind the show as well!? This is highly anticipated! 5th of May G4 AND WIZARDS OF THE COAST PARTNER FOR D&D LIVE 2021! I don't know about you all, but who and what is G4? Anyways, D&D Live is always a grand affair with book & product launches, interesting shows with a whole slew of Role-Playing stars. But this year they promised, in collab with G4, to have all kinds of innovative participation for us who watch the Live Streams. So stay tuned for that! Coming on 16th and 17th of Flamerule (July in Earth months). 6th of May Magic the Gathering Standard sets, D&D: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms. Yes D&D will be fully DECKed out in the upcoming @wizards_magic release. Already images of Tiamat as a five-coloured legendary with standard and borderless frames have been released to the public. All of this hype is getting to me and I'm saving up money for it! (𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺 𝘔𝘛𝘎, 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘐 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵). I'm most excited for all the new art for the monsters! Packs will be released on July 23rd. 11th of May RPG Day Singapore 5th to 6th June. Every day is RPG day as far as we are concerned but especially so on 5th to 6th June! Adventurers League Singapore has a smorgasbord-ed ton of online gameplay for this school holidays. Be sure to register online on Warhorn and please join and participate in their always fascinating Discord channel. Join them on Discord: www.bit.ly/discalsg Register for their games on Warhorn: www.bit.ly/waralsg 14th of May Wizkids announced D&D GHOSTS OF SALTMARSH' BOARD GAME EXPANSION Any of you play the D&D board games diligently as you do Gloomhaven? After the success of Dungeon of the Mad Mage set (it had some kickass minis), @wizkids goes ahead and builds upon it with the next expansion. But it will only have 8 unpainted miniatures. Ghost of Saltmarsh set will be released sometime in August. 18th of May Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft is released! We all love Curse of Strahd (unless you're currently playing it, best of luck out there in Barovia), and now the Master Wizards at D&D have unleashed upon poor players more tools for Dungeon Masters to scare the HP out of them. This settings compendium gives all of us more lore, inspiration and evil villains to explore and to create more adventures from. Full review from TableMinis will be out soon - we haven't got our own copy yet... (we blame Strahd!) Get it! 21st of May “Sleep Sound” | The Legend of Drizzt I woke up to the Youtube of "The legend of Drizzt" finagling itself onto my computer monitor. The vicious sound of Benni Cumberbatch voice narrating the drama from R.A Salvatore was particularly strange and yet delightful. All this hard work and money to bring the origins of Drizzt Do'Urden to life was such a treat to all of us fans! For more info on what all this is about (Dark Alliance), you can visit the website: http://LegendofDrizzt.com

February has been an interesting month filled with shock, new content and two really great book announcements. Let us take a look at the events that shaped and will shape our TTRPG adventures together in the future. Early February Most of the D&D enthusiast were greeted by shocking news. Adam Bradford, Lauren Urban, and Todd Kenrick leave D&D Beyond. Almost immediately, Reddit & Twitter was rift with speculation. That left most of us wondering what will happen to D&D Beyond content. But more importantly, it left all of us curious about what caused the exodus and what was so exciting that they had to leave. To date, we have yet to receive any news on what their next project(s) are about. 11th of February While most of us in this region sleeps, The One Ring launched. It took them exactly 4 minutes to hit their funding goal of S$15,790. Not even enough time for your drool to hit your pillow. This fully licensed RPG 2nd edition book, set in the world of The Lord of the Rings is designed by the extremely classy and distinguished Francesco Nepitello. This Kickstarter is already sitting at 1.8 million and counting. With 4 days left, you better hurry and pledge. Let us know if you are getting the Limited Edition?!?! 18th of February Matt Colville announced that Arcadia Issue no. 2 is out! This magazine has blown everyone away with both its usability and sheer awesomeness. You should really check it out. It's only $7 USD. 23rd of February Wizards of the Coast teased a new hardcover book. The day after, Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft was officially announced. Stated to be released in May 2021, this Settings book will bring more fodder for Dungeon Masters. Already this sourcebook features more than 30 regions - known as the Domains of Dread, New Subclasses, core mechanics and detailed Lore just to name a few. We are most excited about the 40 pages of monsters, rules for reanimation, Dark Gifts and rules/tables to create your own Domain. Will you be getting this book? 24th of February Wizkids announced on their official site that there will be new product offerings for Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering. They highlighted in the post: D&D sprue miniatures: premium, unpainted High Impact Polystyrene (HIPS), unassembled, unprimed, miniatures on sprue -D&D action figures D&D paint line D&D and artifacts & prop replicas D&D accessories: battle mats, maps, bags & carrying cases These new product categories will join the previously announced papercraft and 2D miniatures lines. We will keep you updated.

With all the new restrictions dictating life in Singapore once again, it had seemed that my weekly Dungeons and Dragons meet-up would need to be temporarily put on hold. During CB 1.0, we moved our games online, tried Roll20 and dabbled with Fantasy Grounds, but neither had quite the same feel as our in-person games and had left us feeling a little flat. But then, genuinely by accident, I came across a small advertising banner in the Stream Store for Talespire. It spiked my interest enough to give it a try, and a few dozen hours later, I am completely hooked and raring to play our next adventure. So what is Talespire? Developed by BouncyRock Entertainment, Talespire is a way to create a digital table-top; an online platform that allows you to build anything - from tiny one-shots to sprawling campaigns, individual scenes to entire worlds. This means you can take the physicality of D&D - the maps, miniatures, scenery - into a digital arena and make it even more expansive than you could normally achieve. And, being online, players can explore the world together without physically being in the same room! Perfect for the pandemic and extendable to normal times when life means getting together isn’t always possible. It does not have the default Dungeons and Dragons ruleset and compendiums built-in, as it aims to be system agnostic for the moment. This means you can run it with any roleplaying system. I use Improved Initiative on my web browser for running combats, as I run the game in window mode, but you can use whichever method works best for your games. I am using a second monitor, so it's easier that way, but there's no reason you can't use a more traditional method of tracking initiative. How can it benefit Game Masters? The world is rendered in 3D view. This adds an element of verticality, which is hard to depict on a 2D board. And the worlds can be big. Really big. Each board can be up to 30km across and 10km tall! Not something easily achievable in the average house. It's incredibly easy to use. This is one of the easiest programmes I've ever used to create battle maps. I'd say a learning curve of about an hour tops. It's flexible. You can create elegantly simple maps without drawing, and you can create detailed worlds that look amazing. You can spend time creating rooms or scenes that combat encounters will take place in, or go the extra mile to create an entire dungeon for the players to explore. You can have multiple boards to your campaign, and each board can be copied - this allows you to create alternate versions in various states that can support whatever direction your story moves in. There are in-game music tracks and light settings. You can adjust them on the fly, or set them in advance and easily apply it to the board when needed. This has been a big plus for me, really helping to create atmosphere and adding depth to the game. You can build scenes in real-time. You can build your scenes as you run your game. This comes back to its ease of use and flexibility. If your players do something completely unexpected, you can roll with it, creating on the screen as they see it. It's highly addictive creating maps or interpreting your own based on the modules you run. It's cost-effective. Talespire is a one-time cost and the developers are adding in more assets and features as the software develops. Compare this to Roll20 which is free but limited, there is a monthly or yearly subscription if you want more space for assets etc. Take a look at something you can make in the game right now as a Dungeon Master. It makes it very hard to go back to Roll20! Ok, but I'm a player. Why should I get this? No two players have the same picture in their heads when something is described to them. Situational information can be misconstrued, and Talespire can improve the game as visual information during encounters is made clear by the program. Also, it just looks so much prettier. 3D terrain can present a more tactical strategy when playing the game as compared to playing on a 2D map. Just take a look at what you can achieve with Talespire in terms of graphics. Here's a quick comparison between Talespire and a typical Roll20 map. Doesn’t this add on to prep time? Only if you want it to. There are options for copy/paste when you're creating, which can speed up the process. You can also make your worlds as simple or as complicated as time allows. Plus once you're confident, you can create worlds on the go - no prep time at all. For those who are really in a rush for the next game, there's already a community of members on Talestavern.com who have created many maps - from forests and goblin lairs to functional dice towers and entire cities. Visit the site, pick a map that suits your game and start playing! New content is constantly being added, and as a bonus, importing it to your campaign is dead easy. Just copy the link provided on the site and hit CTRL-V in the game to have it copied to your copy of Talespire. Different approaches to use As mentioned, one of the significant assets of this program is its flexibility. You can adapt how you use it to suit the situation rather than change your gameplay to suit the program. You can craft small slabs and add details to them. I find this works best with roleplaying or puzzle sections. You can craft big empty slabs with tiles as you would with a dry erase map and add in cover/terrain on the fly. I usually avoid this as I like to be prepared to some extent, but it's great for when your players just will not stick to your plans. You can copy someone else's slab, then take it out or add in your own sections to make it original. I've found this most useful for situations where maps are not provided, and combat encounters are a possibility. You can create whole areas. I find this works best with modules that provide maps. You can build according to the floor plan and decorate the rooms/areas according to descriptions. Works really well with dungeon crawls and situations where a tactical approach is warranted. The bottom line: is Talespire worth it? Talespire is still in early access and currently downloadable from the Steam Store at a cost of $25 (approx.). For that, you get the ability to create entire worlds yourself, import community boards from the TalesTavern, and utilise the number of valuable assets already in its early access state. The ability to import and export your creations is also a plus point and one I can see myself using quite a bit. Worth $25? Absolutely, I feel that Talespire is well-worth its selling point and it's a very useful tool in any Dungeon Masters' toolbox. So, what do I really think of it? Clearly, I think Talespire is excellent. It might be the next game-changer to the Dungeons and Dragon scene. I've already spent dozens of hours building maps for my players, and I can see myself sinking in more. The process is fun; I've spent hours without even noticing the time as I've lost myself in world-making and imagining. They've thought of ways to make everything usable. For example, the Dungeon Master overlay (which is accessible by a single press of the Tab key) lets you hide monsters or even entire rooms for them to be revealed when the time is right. I love the ability to add atmospheric toggles in different rooms, and then apply those settings at any time. While I admit that the minis are quite limited at the moment, they are definitely useful, and I'm sure more will be added on as the game develops. I am currently running my campaign solely on Talespire, and everyone involved is having a blast. Personally, as a Game Master, I enjoy crafting 3D dungeons. I love experiencing the excitement it elicits in my players when they explore around the corner of creepy bone filled rooms. I love being able to create an atmosphere with lighting and music. And I love that right now, we can spend time together whilst being apart. I genuinely and thoroughly recommend it.

A bit of history First and foremost, this adventure has such a history dating back to the 1970s. Through the hands of Tracy and Laura Hickman, it was first published in 1983. Since then, there have been numerous, adaptations, revisions and squeals. We highly recommend watching the interview with Chris Perkins. It provides much insight into the history of the setting. Written and published by the A-team This 5th edition adventure was published on March 15th, 2016, and produced by an all-star team headed by Chris Perkins and included the original writers of Tracy and Laura - who have said that they wanted to create the very best version of the famous module yet. We think that's why this is such a loved adventure module from the 5th Edition. It's detailed and lovingly crafted all the way through. The romance of Gothic Horror, mixed with a wildly complex and brooding villain, makes for a deadly and yet beautiful adventure. Curse of Strahd isn't possible without the feature villain - Strahd von Zarovich. This sad (albeit - damn narcissistic) tortured soul releases his pain through the very veins of the land of Barovia itself. This lays the foundation and setting for the adventure. All in all, this is a giant sandbox - escape room, with a relentless villain, all while treasure hunting. Good times!!! What we recommend For Newer DMs: This is one of the easiest modules to run and also the most enjoyable. But don't be mistaken when we mean easiest - it's not simplistic. It's just very linear. For Experienced DMs: If run by a talented Dungeon Master - this adventure is frighteningly good for all involved. It also allows a lot of flexibility for backstory exploration, your own flavoured mysteries and encounters. For Players: Ask your DM to run this now. It's a great time! Play after midnight at your own peril.

Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus is a Dungeons & Dragons adventure book for level 1 to 13 characters as they journey through the first layer of the Nine Hells. If you are thinking about this adventure module, these are some things to consider before buying. First and foremost, we think this is a very good adventure to run. It's very compatible with groups that enjoy combat and just being heroic (or evil). Thematically, Devils are a beautiful cornerstone of the struggle between good and evil. This book turns up the volume with a holy city being dragged into the top layer of hell, a bunch of would-be adventurers trading blows with fiends of all types and NPCs that are consequential. The tension between good and evil is palpable throughout. For us, that a huge plus point to this campaign. Characters There is some room for role-playing and backstory exploration built into the overall plot. As a DM, this is welcomed, as you do not need to create further expositions to give to your players. But the pace of this story is hurried and very quick. So DMs who like to lounge and slowly build up plot and character narratives - this will be a challenge, especially in the beginning. Ps: make sure your players care about Elturel. The World This adventure is a nice intro to Baldur's Gate, but does not quite capture the landscape, the tension of the current events and intrigue of "The Gate". So placing the adventure anywhere is very easy. For homebrewers and those who enjoy other settings, this provides an effortless way to port this adventure into your world. But when it comes to Avernus, the style, feel and shiokness of what the first layer of hell is, is damn good stuff. The land itself is immense, with plenty of Places of Interest and so much in-betweens you can dream up dramas, encounters and stories for your players. Typical of Wizards of the Coast - Avernus is fleshed out, detailed and has story context. All of which you can build more adventures on. Oh, and the Infernal War Machines are insanely fun to run! In summary This is an excellent long module to run for experienced DMs, especially if you have a committed group. This would be a kick-ass of a time. For Veteran DMs: We think this is the one you have been waiting for since Out of the Abyss. Lots of lore, new mechanics to work with and plenty of hell to raise. New DMs: Unless you are very committed, this will be a challenging module for you and your players. We suggest running some transitional adventures like Waterdeep Dragon Heist, Tomb of Annihilation, or Ghost of Saltmarsh. Home Brewers: This extends your vocabulary of Fiends, Hell-like pantheons, and ideas for you to just drop your players into hell for a few sessions. Get Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus Adventure Book here.