nerd radio

Get ready for the new daily show

Tabletop News: Febuary 2017

February 23rd, 2017 by Irwin Fletcher Comments

Lego RPG On The Way?

Lego have a process where members of the public can set up a kick-starter style appeal to have a type of Lego set they have designed built called Lego ideas If that project gets 10,000 votes from members of the public it goes into the approval process and gets the same consideration as the in house proposals.

At the end of January a hopeful designer who seems to only go by hist twitter handle @Ymarilego set up a project to create a Lego set specifically for using with role playing games or as a stand alone game. While a using Lego for a table top game may not be new idea, see Brick Wars for an example, this would be the first official set for RPGs.

Well it Hit the 10,000 mark quite quickly indeed!

In their response to the projects success

Dear Ymarilego,

What just happened?! We’re pinching ourselves to make sure it wasn’t a dream, as your project spread like wild fire over the weekend seemingly backed up by all of the internet. In fact, the countless  “Well, that escalated quickly” internet memes spring to mind for some reason. Your very well presented project forms the basis of an interesting role-playing based game through which players can express their creativity in different ways. From your comments we can see the neat touch of having yourself and your sons as the heroes of this journey. Well, you’re already heroes to 10,000 supporters that’s for sure!”

That approval process starts in May, here’s hoping for a positive decision!

 

The Thing; The Board game!

The movie The Thing is much beloved, personally I prefer the first movie based on the John W. Campbell, Jr. story, The Thing from Another World but I digress.

Mondo, a company that makes pretty movie related things that eat all your money have teamed up with a newly founded division of USA0poly a company that mainly licenses games and pairs them with brands. They make things like Teenage Mutant Ninja Monopoly and this horror.

That division, Project Raygun seems mainly interested in selling collectible figures though tabletop games do feature in their announced product line.

So when they sent out a press release earlier this week to announce that these companies were teaming up to produce a game based on John Carpenters 1982 version called  Infection at Outpost 31 my first reaction was a narrow eyed “hmm”

In short what we have here is a company that specializes in making shiny movie related merchandise teamed with another that incorporates the same type of material into tabletop games. There’s no mention of a specific designer only that the game mechanics were devised by Project Raygun and the imagery was supplied by Mondo.

I’m very sure this game will indeed be pretty but the question is when the game is released (scheduled for Fall 2017) will it merely be pretty or pretty good?

I’ll have a flamethrower on standby just in case.

 

SENTINELS OF EARTH-PRIME!

GREEN RONIN AND GREATER THAN GAMES TEAM UP !

 

Green Ronin Publishing and Greater Than Games have announced  hat they will be working together to create Sentinels of Earth-Prime, a new version of the hugely successful Sentinels of the Multiverse card game using the core setting of the Mutants & Masterminds RPG. The game, a joint venture between the companies, is coming to Kickstarter in April.

“Nothing says superheroes like a great team up!” said Green Ronin President Chris Pramas. “We are big fans of Sentinels of the Multiverse around here, so there was no way we were going to pass up the chance to work with Greater Than Games. I’m especially excited that Christopher Badell, the original designer of Sentinels of the Multiverse, will be designing Sentinels of Earth-Prime as well.”

( I interviewed Christopher a while back if you want more details on Sentinels

“Mutants & Masterminds is one of our favorite super-heroic RPGs—we’ve been fans since the first edition,” said Christopher Badell, Editor-in-Chief of Greater Than Games. “Some of the side characters from Sentinels of the Multiverse even started out as heroes and villains from our home games of M&M! So, when Chris Pramas mentioned doing a Mutants & Masterminds card game, we jumped at the chance. I am eager to bring the rich lore, characters, and settings from Steve Kenson—a hero in his own right—to the card game format, now that the Sentinels of the Multiverse line is coming to a close.”

Earth-Prime has been the core setting of the Mutants & Masterminds RPG since its debut in 2002. Its characters and stories have been detailed in many books over the years, from Freedom City and Foes of Freedom to Emerald City and the Cosmic Handbook. The Atlas of Earth-Prime, a comprehensive setting book, was just released in January.

Sentinels of Earth-Prime will be a stand-alone card game that can be played on its own or with decks and characters from Sentinels of the Multiverse for universe-spanning action. Its Kickstarter launches in April and Green Ronin will publish the finished game in 2018.

 

That’s all for February’s news.

Next Update will be in March but keep an eye out for the return of the Kickstarter Signal boost articles coming soon!

I'm an LA journalist who really lives for his profession. I have also published work as Jane Doe in various mags and newspapers across the globe. I normally write articles that can cause trouble but now I write for FTN because Nerds are never angry, so I feel safe.