Already thrown everything from the Monster Manual at your party? Looking for something new, different, and exciting to TPK your group with? Look no further than Grim Hollow, a new monster book with over 400 new monsters to unleash upon unwary adventurers. The book is up on Kickstarter now.

From the campaign:

Grim Hollow: The Monster Grimoire offers over 400 new monsters, tailor-made for a dark fantasy campaign. The foes detailed in this supplement, ranging from capricious fey to corrupt fiends, can fit nicely into any 5e campaign where the players are looking for a devious and deadly challenge.

Savage beasts, twisted aberrations, and unrelenting undead: the Monster Grimoire has covered all of your needs. The book also contains a variety of player-facing content to immerse them into a dark setting: terrible familiars, twisted sidekicks, and more!

The campaign's closing in on 15x funded with 32 days to go.

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As the planet warms, there's going to be a rise in the sea's level. This will fundamentally change many parts of the globe. That's what's happened in Blue Planet. This post-apocalyptic RPG is getting a new edition that's up on Kickstarter now.

From the campaign:

Blue Planet is a compelling RPG journey into humanity’s precarious future on a distant waterworld where political unrest and a hungry alien ecology threaten the nascent colony effort. A planet where GEO marshals struggle to maintain peace, Incorporate mercenaries wage amphibious proxy wars, and native insurgents fight for their adopted world. A frontier where human desperation and corporate greed ravage an uncanny ecology, threatening to plunge humanity into a war of survival with an ancient, alien legacy. 

Though the original Blue Planet predates many of these titles, the setting is evoked by the movies Avatar, Blade Runner and Outland, the television series The Expanse, Firefly and Earth II and the books Legacy of Heorot, Songs of Distant Earth and the Mars Trilogy. A reviewer once gave a glib but accurate elevator pitch for Blue Planet as "Space marshal Cowboy and his cybernetic dolphin sidekick fight eco-crimes in alien Hawaii."

The campaign's making its way to 3x funded with 14 days to go.

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Without encounters, dungeons are just some twisty passages with the occasional bit of loot. It's the monsters that make the whole endeavor interesting. And if you're struggling to come up with new ones for your party, let me introduce you to Endless Encounters: Dungeons, a new RPG supplement up on Kickstarter.

From the campaign:

The old school has returned! Back to the good ol' days of monster hotels and dungeon crawling we go! With this 200+ page supplement for 5e and B/X, you will be able to randomly craft a dungeon to play through in just minutes! Running late for game day? Endless Encounters: Dungeons is there for you. Lacking inspiration while trapped in quarantine? Endless Encounters: Dungeons will light the way. Simply feeling a bit adventurous with your game design? Endless Encounters: Dungeons - yeah, you get it.

Endless Encounters: Dungeons is an adventure generator for characters level 1-8 for the 5th Edition and B/X game systems!

The campaign's more than 2x funded with 29 days to go.

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This past year, it's certainly felt like time is broken. The year took a decade to go by, but also, strangely, 10 minutes. That's also what's happening in Brew, of sorts. All seasons are happening at once and it's up to you to fix it. Pandasaurus is taking pre-orders for this new game. And if you get your name on that list, you'll even get a free mini-expansion.

From the website:

PRE-ORDER - Releasing June 16

Receive a FREE mini-expansion with your pre-order on our website or participating game stores! More info here!

Bring balance back to the forest!

 Time is broken and shattered. The seasons all exist at once, and day and night have no real cycle—they rotate at the whim of the forest. This enchanted land has been driven into chaos and it's up to you, the cunning mystics of the forest, to tame extraordinary woodland creatures and use your magic to bring back balance.

 In Brew, players must choose how to use element dice—either to take back control of as many seasons as possible in an area control game or to procure goods at the local village in a worker-placement game. Recruiting woodland creatures and brewing potions can help offset chance die-rolls or create an engine to help you tame the lands.

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Tuesday. The work week is fully underway. As always, I'm looking forward to the weekend. To help speed things along, I've got some gaming podcasts for you. That should do the trick, as should some new Mountain Dew flavors for me to try out. So, as I sip on that, I've got some gaming stuff going on as well. Today on the dial we have:

The D6 Generation Pip Epsidoe 63: DnD Live Session 21, Dwarven Reverse Psychology

Session 21 of our D&D live campaign in which the dwarves discover reverse psychology.

Rolling Dice & Taking Names Episode 227: After The Empire, Spartacus, Summoner Wars, Ashes Reborn, Warhammer Cursed City, Monster Hunter Rise

After the Empire took us by storm in in recent plays. I was very skeptical of what they were going to try and accomplish with this tower defense type game with worker placement. But it came through for me and did a wonderful job with the theme. Love when a game keeps the theme going through the turns, regardless of the actions you are taking.

Spartacus is a classic game that was never high on my list to play because of the Intrigue section. I had heard about how it was around negotiating with people, then maybe doing some backstabbing, so never really seemed like my type of game. However, glad I sat down with the new release and played it. I will say, how the intrigue plays out is definitely dependent on who is at the table. Our group isn’t strong players when it comes to that social mechanic, so the game took a bit to get up to speed, but we did get into it as the game went on. Glad I finally got it to the table.

Then there comes the rebirth of two card games that we had played in the past from Plaid Hat. It was good to see the changes Plaid Hat made and hope these games are successful for them.

Lords of the Dungeon Episode 49: Making Skills More Exciting and Our Favorite RPG Moments

In episode 49, Bender talks about his new Star Trek Adventures Campaign and Jamie and the gang discuss Cyberpunk Red. Then the Lords take a question from a listener regarding making game systems and skills more exciting. Then finally the group tells their favorite gaming stories and discuss why they were fun moments.

40K Radio Episode 63: Ork-Riding Squigs

In this episode we get to hear about Amy and JF’s Adepticon Painting challenge. We then lose Amy in the warp and take a look at the latest GW preview and find out just how many Squigs Riding Orks JF needs.

The delightful Dave Taylor will soon be launching a Kickstarter for a new series of books all about making your miniatures look as amazing as possible. They're called The Art Of... series and they'll bring you insights into miniatures modelling and painting from some of the industry's greatest artists.

About the project:

On April 30, 2021, Dave Taylor Miniatures is launching a Kickstarter to fund the first of a series of books that highlight the miniatures work, the approach, and the philosophies of a broad spread of miniatures painters that Dave has come to admire over his three decades of participating in this incredible hobby. These artists will cover a variety genres, and may or may not be recognized as leaders in their chosen focal areas. Regardless, they will all have something valuable to bring to the wider miniatures painting world.

 These books will be both a celebration of the artist and their art, as well as an opportunity for them to present their thoughts on particular topics and let the world know why they approach their art the way they do. They will not be “How To” books, but may include some “how to” examples.

 Dave’s aim is to launch with three books in 2021, and then add two or three books each year for the foreseeable future. These books will range between 96- and 176-pages, and will sell for between $35-50.

 

Volume 1 – THE ART OF Miniature Monthly

 Miniature Monthly is a collective of three professional painters from the US – Aaron Lovejoy, Elizabeth Beckley-Bradford, and Matt DiPietro – who have a Patreon and produce painting videos. All three have been studio painters for a number of different companies and they each bring something different to the table.

 Aaron will cover:

• Creating a team/collective – looking at The Painters’ Guild and Miniature Monthly

• Striking a balance between Speed and High-end painting

• Freehand – Adding depth and texture 

Elizabeth will cover:

• Smooth Skin – featuring work on the Kingdom Death minis

• Chibi Art – how painting chibis differs from “standard” miniatures 

Matt will cover:

• Ancient methods with infinite possibilities.

• The Art of miniatures, – Finding your voice and engaging with the audience.

 https://www.patreon.com/miniaturemonthly

https://www.facebook.com/miniaturemonthly

https://www.instagram.com/aaronlovejoy/

https://www.instagram.com/miniature_mistress/

https://www.instagram.com/mattdipietroart/

 

Volume 2 – THE ART OF Christof Keil

 Christof Keil is an artist from Germany who has made a name for himself with his incredible kitbashes and conversions, and his work to turn 2D artwork into 3D pieces. Christof’s work can be found on Instagram and YouTube

• Kitbashing – a focus on anatomy, balance, silhouette

• The Black Phalanx – a kitbashed project

• Sculpting – creating reliefs and busts

• Painting Black – an exercise in mimicking the masters

• Black Templars – recreating the John Blanche art of 3^rd Edition

 https://www.instagram.com/k03rnl/

https://www.instagram.com/black.phallanx.sculpts/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfsw4HOpTJ2MWvSbiBCT7-g

 

Volume 3 – THE ART OF Ana Polanšćak

 Ana is a professional miniature painter from Croatia who is widely regarded for her world-building miniatures art. Her converted and sculpted miniatures blend seamlessly with her terrain work to create dark corners of worlds that beg to be explored.

 • World Building – a focus on selecting a starting point and key developments. Working on your own worlds and collaborating with others

• Gardens of Hecate – a world created by Ana

• AoS28 – Hosting LEGEN and the Sunhold campaign

• Sculpting – What it’s like to turn concepts into physical sculpts for the miniatures market, and the reliquary/artifact creations

 https://www.instagram.com/gardensofhecate/

http://gardensofhecate.blogspot.com

April Showers bring May Flowers. Well, it's not rained much here and it's not scheduled to for a while. But while water isn't falling from the sky, PDFs are. Paizo is running their April Showers sale for all their digital products over in their webshop.

From the website:

All Paizo PDFs and digital products are 25% off through Sunday, May 2nd! Just click on the “On Sale” tab in your favorite sections of the Paizo Store and add it to your cart.

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Giant monsters and robots are battling all across the Earth, looking to either destroy it or save it. That's what's happening in Monsterpocalypse. And there's a new batch of releases coming out soon. What are these new figures capable of? That's what we get a look at in this preview.

From the article:

The time has come to return to the Masters of the 8th Dimension and the Legion of Mutates with a look at this month’s releases! This will be a jam-packed Insider, so let’s get right into it…

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Mantic Games is looking to get you a new edition of Firefight and they're asking for your help in making it all that it can be. The playtest is happening now and many players have already started to give feedback. As such, Mantic has started a new series, giving some notes about how the playtest is going.

From the article:

Hi all, for those who don’t know me I am Andy Sharp, and I am the lead designer for Firefight Second Edition. As you may have seen, Mantic is currently holding a public playtest for Firefight – and you can download the rules here.

I’ll start by saying thanks to you all for such a positive and enthusiastic response to the announcement of the playtest. It really has been fantastic to see so many of you join in and engage in the process.

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Plaid Hat Games continues to roll along with their Summoner Wars previews. The Vanguards had some archers shown off the other day. Today, it's a pair of units that like to get a bit more up close and personal. Take a look at another Common and Champion unit in today's preview.

From the article:

Welcome back summoners! The Vanguards have mustered for battle with their most powerful knights leading the charge!

Citadel Knights are powerhouse common units. They have very high life and excel at controlling enemy actions. Engage punishes any changes in positioning your opponent may want to do, and Protect ensures your key allies have nothing to fear on the battlefield!

Valna provides support to all things Vanguards. Drawing additional cards helps bolster many of the other citadel unit synergies laid out in earlier articles, as well as simply providing more options for summoning at the start of the turn. In addition,Valna will receive increased strength when she’s nearby your other citadel units. With Citadel Knights loyally offering their protection to Valna, you can expect this formation to be a tough one to crack!

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