Tabletops

 

Agate Editions

The makers of Shadows of Esteren were showing off the artwork and some materials for their upcoming 2nd supplemental, Travels. The game’s English translation is done (it’s French), and I got to chat with him for a bit. They are intending on an October release. This certainly looked like one that could pick up a following stateside it it keeps going.

 

Catalyst Game Labs

The 5th Edition of Shadowrun is out, though getting to that point to talk about it proved difficult. On the other hand, CGL had one of the more interactive booths at the entire con. So that’s something. Still, we’re hoping to be able to look over some of the differences in the near future if we can get our hands on a copy.

 

Chaosium

The 7th Edition of Call of Cthulhu made its debut at Gen Con. Sandy Petersen, the original CoC author, was also on hand, splitting his time between here and his other project, the massively popular minis/board game Kickstarer, Cthulhu Wars. With regards to Cthulhu Wars, all I can say is that the components look even better in person than the photos.

 

Crafty Games

RPGs aren’t just for teens and adults anymore. The last couple years have seen a rise in tabletop games for kids as well. The one at this Gen Con that seemed to be talked about most was The Little Wizards, an into-level RPG that allows children to explore the imaginative world of storytelling.

 

Eschaton Media

Need some more apocalypse in your day? Get your fill with Dystopia Rising, a LARP system fleshed out into a full tabletop experience. Explore an ever-growing post-apocalyptic world with the base game, several supplements, and more on the way.

 

Exile Game Studio

Have you ever said, “I need more pulp adventure in my life”? Ok, probably not. But it’s fun to pretend you do, right? You can do so in the Jules Verne-like world of Hollow Earth Expedition. We didn’t get to inspect the game as much as we wanted, but it’s on our “Follow Up With” list. In the meantime, feel free to on your own.

 

Machine Age Productions

When we say there are ghosts in the machine, we don’t mean the anime. We’re talking instead about Maschine Zeit, a futuristic sci-fi horror where the dead can haunt machinery and cause havoc. It’s ghosts haunting space stations. What could possibly go wrong?

 

Margaret Weis Productions

If a Firefly board game at Gen Con wasn’t enough, there’s also Firefly, the RPG. Because Browncoats forever. They only had preview copies available as it’s still not entirely finished yet, and so it was being nitpicked a bit leading up to the release. We, like lot of people, are reserving judgment for the final product. This is the same company who makes the Leverage RPG that gets decent marks. So by all means feel free to check out what they’ve got so far.

 

Modiphus Entertainment

Known more for their Achtung! Cthulhu Kickstarter and relaunch of Mutant Chronicles, this tabletop publisher also put out a light steampunk roleplaying game called Cogs, Cakes, & Swordsticks, and it’s that one of theirs that caught our attention. We’ll see how it fares.

 

Paizo Publishing

As far as tabletop behemoths go, Paizo seems to be the one in charge, and that’s in no small part due to the wild success in recent years of Pathfinder. As a sponsor of Gen Con, they certainly had a lot going on, including several special events and giveaways throughout the course of the event. They also announced that they’ll be doing some Pathfinder audio books in the future, so you can listen to the world when you’re not playing.

From a gaming side, they also had a number of things to talk about. The first one that people got wind about was the official launch of the Pathfinder co-op card game.

Yeah, let that one sink in for a second.

Billed as another way to adventure with your party, the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game basically works around having your characters grow and change through a deck of cards instead of traditional character sheet. It’s not something we’ll probably dig into, but we certainly see the appeal.

And in the more classic mode, they also released Mythic Adventures, the supplemental book for making your epic level heroes even more epic.

 

Posthuman Studios

Are you looking to explore what it means to be human in a bleak, transhuman future? It may sound dark – because it is – but the world of Eclipse Phase is one worth digging into if you want to run a game around a world of conspiracy and risk.

Next: Miscellany