Gale Force Nine has reached an agreement with the Herbert Estate to publish tabletop games based on the Dune property. This will include a roleplaying game in late 2019, as well as board and miniatures games timed to release just before Legendary Pictures’ Dune movie in 2020. GF9 says it “plans to align with other game companies on numerous categories and formats in the future.” Read: “we are all in on this one.”
Considering how things ended with Last Unicorn Games’ Dune: Chronicles of the Imperium RPG in 2000, this is hopeful news. As the release date for Dune: Chronicles got close, LUG was struggling with debt. The company was bought out by Wizards of the Coast, who released a limited edition of Dune: Chronicles only available at Gen Con and Gen Con UK, never intended to keep it going – after all, that would be a threat to their impending Star Wars d20 RPG. WotC failed to get the Dune license for any other products (some say the Herbert Estate wasn’t really interested in talking with WotC about making a deal; others say the price was too high for WotC), and since then, no publisher of the same caliber has given Dune a go. The only Dune games in the last 18 years have been unofficial, free downloads.
If you want a glimpse of the long out-of-print Last Unicorn Games Dune RPG, head over to OgreCave’s Instagram feed. We’re happy to whet your appetite for the adventures on Arrakis this new license agreement could bring us. We have every confidence GF9 can create a new game that looks at least as great – probably even better. Here’s to hoping.
Click through for the full press release, below. (more…)
The Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design has announced their 2018 Origins Award nominees. There will also be Fan Favorite categories, voted on by attendees of the Origins Game Fair (as usual). Let’s peruse the list, shall we? Then, hurry and play all of them so you can make your predictions.
Let us know how that goes.
Board Games
The Captain is Deadby Alderac Entertainment Group (designed by Joe Price and JT Smith)
Dice Forge by Libellud (designed by Régis Bonnessée)
Gloomhaven by Cephalofair Games (designed by Isaac Childres)
Cardfight Vanguard Demonic Advent Booster by Bushiroad
Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures Icons of the Realms: Monster Menagerie II by WizKids
DC Comics Dice Masters: Batman Foil Packs by WizKids
Dragon Ball Super Card Game – Galactic Battles Booster by Bandai
Final Fantasy TCG: Opus I Collection Booster by Square Enix
Marvel HeroClix: The Mighty Thor by WizKids
MTG Ixalan Booster by Wizards of the Coast (designed by Mark Rosewater and Ken Nagle)
Pokémon TCG: Sun & Moon Booster by The Pokémon Company International
Star Wars Destiny: Awakenings Booster by Fantasy Flight Games
Yu-Gi-Oh! 2017 Mega Tin by Konami
Family Games
Azul by Plan B Games (designed by Michael Kiesling)
Bunny Kingdom by IELLO (designed by Richard Garfield)
Codenames: Disney by USAopoly (designed by Vlaada Chvátil)
Codenames: Duet by Czech Games Edition (designed by Vlaada Chvátil)
Downforce by Restoration Games (designed by Wolfgang Kramer)
Dropmix by Hasbro Gaming (designed by Harmonix)
Hotshots by Fireside Games (designed by Justin De Witt)
Mountains of Madness by IELLO (designed by Rob Daviau)
Sagrada by Floodgate Games (designed Daryl Andrews and Adrian Adamescu)
Viral by Arcane Wonders (designed by Gil d’Orey and Antonio Sousa Lara)
Miniatures
Blood & Plunder by Firelock Games (designed by Michael Tuñez)
Runewars Miniatures Game by Fantasy Flight Games (designed by Andrew Fischer)
The Walking Dead Miniatures Game by Mantic Games (designed by Mark Latham)
Warhammer 40,000 8th Edition by Games Workshop
Roleplaying Game
Adventures in Middle Earth Player’s Handbook by Cubicle 7 Entertainment (designed by James Brown, Paul Alexander Butler, Walt Ciechanowski, Steve Emmott, Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, Jon Hodgson, Shane Ivey, Andrew Kenrick, T.S. Luikart, Dominic McDowall, Francesco Nepitello, James Spahn, and Ken Spencer)
Blades in the Dark by Evil Hat Productions (designed by John Harper)
Blue Rose (2nd Edition) by Green Ronin Publishing (designed by Steve Kenson, Jack Norris, Richard Bellingham, Jeb Boyt, Crystal Frasier, Steven Jones (III), Shoshana Kessock, Anna Kreider, Kira Magrann, Alejandro Melchor, Andrew Peregrine, F. Wesley Schneider, Elsa Sjunneson-Henry, John Snead)
Cthulhu Confidential by Pelgrane Press (designed by Robin D. Laws, Ruth Tillman, Chris Spivey)
The Dark Eye Core Rules by Ulisses Spiel (designed by Alex Spohr, Markus Plötz and Jens Ulrich)
The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen (3rd Edition) by Fantasy Flight Games (designed by James Wallis)
My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria by River Horse Ltd. (designed by Alessio Cavatore, Jack Caesar, Dylan Owen)
Monsterhearts 2 by Buried Without Ceremony (designed by Avery Adler)
Puppetland by Arc Dream Publishing (designed by Arnold Cassell, Arinn Dembo, Matt Forbeck, Gareth Hanrahan, Fred Hicks, Kenneth Hite, Jason Morningstar, Ross Payton, John Tynes, James Wallis)
Starfinder by Paizo (designed by Robert G. McCreary and Owen K.C.)
Traveller Starter Set by Mongoose Publishing (designed by Martin Dougherty and Matthew Sprange)
Vurt by Ravendesk Games (designed by Alexander Lepera, Lee Pruit, Pete Stauber)
Roleplaying Supplement
Adventures in Middle Earth – Rhovanian Region Guide by Cubicle 7 Entertainment (designed by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, Francesco Nepitello, Jacob Rodgers)
Adventures in Middle Earth – Loremaster’s Guide by Cubicle 7 Entertainment (designed by Walt Ciechanowski, Steve Emmott, Gareth Hanrahan, Jon Hodgson, T.S. Luikart, Dominic McDowall, Franceso Nepitello, Ken Spencer)
Blue Rose – Narrator’s Kit by Green Ronin Publishing (designed by Josh Gutenberg, Jesse Hibbs, Steve Kenson)
Call of Cthulhu: The Grand Grimore of the Cthulhu Mythos by Chaosium (designed by Mike Mason and Matthew Sanderson)
Call of Cthulhu: The Two Headed Serpent by Chaosium (designed by Scott Dorward, Paul Fricker, Mike Mason, Matthew Sanderson)
Castles and Crusades Codex Germania by Troll Lord Games (designed by Brian Young)
Castles and Crusades Codex Slavorum by Troll Lord Games (designed by Brian Young)
Cypher System Expanded Worlds by Monte Cook Games (designed by Bruce R. Cordell)
Cypher System Predation by Monte Cook Games (designed by Shanna Germain)
Doctor Who RPG: Gamemaster’s Companion by Cubicle 7 Entertainment (designed by Morgan Davie, Gareth Hanrahan, Mark Lawford, Andrew Peregrine, Nathaniel Torson)
Dungeons & Dragons Xanathar’s Guide to Everything by Wizards of the Coast (designed by Jeremy Crawford and Mike Mearls – Lead Designers)
Mutants & Masterminds Atlas of Earth-Prime by Green Ronin Publishing (designed by Scott Bennie, Jason Brick, Darren Bulmar
Shadow of the Demon Lord: Demon Lord’s Companion by Schwalb Entertainment (designed by Robert J. Schwalb)
Game Accessories
Chaosium Call of Cthulhu Coloring Book by Chaosium
Sword & Sorcery Custom Dice Pack by Ares
The Broken Token Terraforming Mars Organizer by The Broken Token
Sails of Glory Series 4 Ship Packs by Ares Games
Smirking Dragon Tablecloths by Smirking Dragon
D&D: Icons of the Realms and Pathfinder Battles Pre-Painted Miniatures by WizKids
This year’s nominees for the Spiel des Jahres – Germany’s Game of the Year, a highly regarded title in tabletop gaming – have been announced, along with nominees for the Kennerspiel des Jahres (“Expert Game of the Year”, intended for game connoisseurs) and the Kinderspiel des Jahres (“Children’s Game of the Year”). Three titles were nominated for the main Spiel des Jahres award, with the winner to be announced soon:
The Spiel des Jahres jury also recommended the six titles – honorable mentions, as it were: 5-Minute Dungeon, Facecards, Majesty: For the Realm, Memoarrr!, Santorini, and Woodlands.
The Kennerspiel des Jahres also has three nominations for 2018, and a pair of recommendations:
Heaven & Ale, by Michael Kiesling and Andreas Schmidt (eggertspiele)
The Quackers of Quedlinburg, by Wolfgang Warsch (Schmidt Spiele)
Other recommendations: Clank! and Pioneers
The Kinderspiel des Jahres had three nominations as well, and five recommendations:
Emojito!, by Urtis Šulinskas (HUCH!)
Funkelschatz (Dragon’s Breath), by Lena and Günter Burkhardt (HABA)
Panic Mansion (Shaky Manor), by Asger Harding Granerud and Daniel Skjold Pedersen (Blue Orange Games)
Other recommendations: Dino World, The Legend of the Wendigo, Rhino Hero Super Battle, SOS Dino, and Speed Colors.
Finally, a special prize was awarded to Pandemic: Legacy – Season 2, by Matt Leacock and Rob Daviau (Z-Man Games). The award was to acknowledge the “ingenious gameplay” against which “all future legacy games will have to be measured”.
At Gen Con 50, the winner of this year’s Diana Jones Award for excellence in gaming has been announced as… Gen Con itself! First organized in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin by Gary Gygax himself, Gen Con has grown to become an annual gaming mecca and affirmation of the gaming hobby, currently raging onward in Indianapolis. Other nominees this year were The Beast, a single-player card & journaling game; End of the Line, a hybrid LARP combining Camarilla-style Vampire and Nordic LARP; the fantasy board game Gloomhaven, which was a huge hit on Kickstarter; The Romance Trilogy, a group of relationship-themed RPGs by Emily Care Boss (the first of which, Breaking the Ice, made it onto OgreCave’s 2005 Christmas Gift Guide); and Terraforming Mars, a resource management board game. As always, OgreCave congratulates all the nominees, and Gen Con, “The Best Four Days in Gaming,” for its win this year.
Okay, the flood of KublaCon photos has reached its peak, and all are now neatly contained in OgreCave’s KublaCon 2017 photo gallery (over at our Facebook page). Final attendee count was reportedly 3,321 – a good sized show! See if you can spot yourself in our gallery, or rather, see if you got spotted by our photo crew.
We’re working on a few things behind the scenes, but as soon as we have goodies to share, we’ll serve them up. In the meantime, enjoy the pics, and tell us what you loved about this year’s KublaCon.
Those of you who follow OgreCave’s Facebook page have already heard, but in case you missed it, the first half of OgreCave’s KublaCon 2017 photo gallery is up and running. Have a look, comment, like, and see if you got spotted at last weekend’s KublaCon Game Convention. We’ll have the other half added to the gallery in a couple of days, so check back early next week. Share and enjoy.
We’ll have more site news soon, so check back for that as well. Much to do.
At Gen Con 2016, the winner of this year’s Diana Jones Award for excellence in gaming has been announced as prolific and impressive game designer Eric M. Lang. Lang is known as the man behind Chaos in the Old World, the Living Card Game versions of A Game of Thrones and Star Wars, and more recently for the elegant Ragnarok-themed board game Blood Rage. Other nominees this year were ConTessa, an organization; Fall of Magic, a story-game by Ross Cowman, published by Heart of the Deernicorn; Larpwriter Summer School; and Pandemic Legacy published by Z-man Games. OgreCave congratulates all the nominees, and Eric Lang for his award this year.
Diana Jones Award press release follows:
THE WINNER OF THE 2016 DIANA JONES AWARD IS ERIC M. LANG
To say that Eric Lang is a prolific game designer is the punchline of a joke hilarious in its understatement. This year’s Gen Con, for example, sees the release of no fewer than four new Lang designs or co-designs: Bloodborne: The Card Game, The Others: 7 Sins, Arcane Academy (with Kevin Wilson), and HMS Dolores (with Bruno Faidutti).
A small sampling of Lang’s past designs include Blood Rage, Dice Masters (with Mike Elliott), 2010 Diana Jones nominee Chaos in the Old World, and Living Card Game designs for A Game of Thrones, Star Wars, and Warhammer 40,000.
And these games are not sausage, vomited from an assembly line and rushed to market carelessly undercooked. Rather, Lang’s games are perennial inhabitants of lists that laud both evergreen sales and – in the parlance of BoardGameGeek – “Hotness.”
The variety and quality of Lang’s co-designers speak to the joy of collaborating with him. It’s telling that those who’ve worked with him in the past would not hesitate to do so again, whatever the project. The top-shelf media properties that Lang has adapted for the tabletop demonstrate the trust that publishers put in Lang’s insight, skill, and ability to deliver.
Lang’s ludography is worthy of celebration on its own, but Eric’s sincere love for games, gamers, the gaming hobby, and the art of game design are exemplars not only for his immediate peers, but for those who strive in literally any field of endeavor. If you ran marathons, or raised children, or played heavy metal music with the same spirit that Eric brings to game design, you would exemplify the best spirit of those callings, and the world would be better for it.
It is the opinion of the Diana Jones Award Committee that Eric Lang exemplifies excellence in gaming. We are proud to award him our trophy for this year.
Because we got some great footage at KublaCon 2015, we’re doing our best to ambush you with some of it (Flashback Friday, anyone?). We’ve included a general look at parts of the convention, but also managed to talk with Joseph Goodman of Goodman Games, as well as James Ernest of Cheapass Games. Some of what we discussed has hit game stores by now, but Joe and James both reveal some plans for the future. In particular, Joe describes new features of Dungeon Crawl Classics and his plans for Fritz Leiber’s Lankhmar setting, while James tells us about the Kill Doctor Lucky Kickstarter campaign (which just started and runs until November 13th – check it out).
We’ve got a lot to say in the latest OgreCave Audio Report episode. First, we talk of DunDraCon 2015, wherein Allan describes some of the things he saw at the show. Then we hit Kickstarter hard, describing a variety of projects, both completed and upcoming, while voicing thoughts on what the crowdsourcing site should really be used for. Finally, one particular volunteer at PAX East is making the entire organization look bad, so they’d really better get a handle on the situation ASAP – and not by simply ignoring it.
Click here for show details and to listen to the new episode. Watch here soon for DunDraCon 2015 pictures, and everything else we’re up to as well.
For the Cave dwellers, the start of convention season is heralded by DunDraCon. Now that the annual gaming event and its impending awesomeness are nearly here, this seems like the time to premiere our DunDraCon promo video. Take it away, Sparky! (Be sure to subscribe on YouTube to see all of OgreCave’s video goodness.)
We’re back, and ready to talk all things gaming. To wrap up the year and prepare for new things, we have a brand new episode of our long-dormant (hibernating?) podcast show, the OgreCave Audio Report. Now redubbed 2.0, the relaunch episode has Mike and Allan talking of the holidays, Kickstarter goodies, interpersonal issues in game groups, and GamerGate, among other things.
A more complete write-up will follow, but for now, enjoy the new episode, and happy holidays!
If you haven’t already heard our other podcast show, OgreCave’s Gaming News Update, click through and have a listen – we’ve cornered quite a few game industry luminaries over the years.
With the holiday season already upon us, roleplaying gamers are looking for quality RPGs to pick up, and some of us are planning ahead. In this Gaming News Updateinterview with James Wallis, notably of Spaaace: the Games Consultancy and the man behind the trailblazing company Hogshead Publishing, what was old is becoming new again via the Paranoia Reboot Kickstarter campaign. With less than a week left to accept pledges, James tells about his plans for the new Paranoia boxed set. He also talks about dark humor in roleplaying, why death in gaming isn’t nearly the handicap it used to be, and offers some excellent news for gamers who pledged to either his Alas, Vegas campaign or Gareth Michael Skarka’s Far West RPG campaign. Thanks to Friend Skype, James tells us all about Friend Computer, Alpha Complex, mutants, terrorists, and more – probably more than your clearance level will allow, so trust no one – in our latest podcast episode.
In our final KublaCon 2014 video, we manage to grab a few minutes with Japji Khalsa, Executive Producer and founder of KublaCon. In this video, we learn about the CCG-derived origins of the convention, how game designers use the show for their own nefarious ends, and some of the latest improvements to the overall KublaCon experience. You’ll get a small tour of Hyatt amenities, a few words from this year’s exhibitors about the convention, and glimpses of other KublaCon activities, between segments. In all, if you haven’t figured out KublaCon is “The Khan of Cons” yet, you simply haven’t been paying attention!
Have a look at all six KublaCon videos, and be sure to subscribe on YouTube to get all our upcoming video coverage. We’ll have some new things soon. No, really.
We’re continuing to fill OgreCave’s new YouTube channel (which you should totally subscribe to) with great footage from KublaCon 2014. In the latest installment, we talk with Buddy Wagner of Dire Ninja Media about P.E.R.K. – the Pretty Easy Roleplaying Kit. Then we take a look at the DiceShield from Andy Rothfusz and Questo Gizmo LLC. Finally, Mac Senour tells us about GameRustlers and how it keeps the gaming flowing at conventions. You’ll catch glimpses of other KublaCon activities between each interview as well.
Have a look, and be sure to subscribe on YouTube to get all our upcoming video coverage.
Industry
Gale Force Nine has reached an agreement with the Herbert Estate to publish tabletop games based on the Dune property. This will include a roleplaying game in late 2019, as well as board and miniatures games timed to release just before Legendary Pictures’ Dune movie in 2020. GF9 says it “plans to align with other game companies on numerous categories and formats in the future.” Read: “we are all in on this one.”
Best Board Game, Fan Favorite, and Game of the Year:
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