Rich Baker Launches Sasquatch Game Studio; Is D&D "art"?; and we review SHADOWRUN 2050!

[h=3]EN World News[/h]

• Check out our official review of Shadowrun 2050! Neuroglyph says it's "A Magical Blast From the Future’s Past!"
• Is Dungeons & Dragons a work of art? How about Dogs in the Vineyard? Or Call of Cthulu? Or Marvel Heroic Roleplaying? Going further, what about a game like Settlers of Cattan? Ticket to Ride? Sorry? What about poker, or baseball, or table tennis? Do games belong in museums? [threadcm]http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?337216-Games-In-A-Museum[/threadcm]

[h=3]Dungeons & Dragons News[/h]

• The Mistnetters of the Swamps by Ed Greenwood -- The swamps of the Realms can provide those living off the land with many resources, but they also hide many secrets. Learn more about the practice of mistnetting in this week’s column from Ed. Something that allows folk to live off the land more effectively might also be of use to any adventuring types out there.
• Against the Slave Lords Excerpts: A2 -- The adventurers last encountered and defeated one of the Slave Lords managing the operation in Highport. As a result of their victory, the party obtained records of slaver activities and a map of their caravan route...
• Rodney shines some light on running combat-free campaigns, spells & the pillars of play in this week's D&D Next Q&A.

[h=3]Roleplaying Games News[/h]

• Rich Baker on the genesis of the Thule setting. Rich, Dave Noonan, and Steve Schubert (WotC alumnis all) have formed a company, like WoTC alumnis do. It's called Sasquatch Game Studio and the first product will be the Primeval Thule Campaign Setting. "Thule is a mythical age of the Earth, before the last ice age erased the legendary realms of the northern world. It’s a sword-and-sandal setting firmly rooted in the traditions of pulp fantasy adventure and fantastic horror: Conan, Tarzan, Atlantis, Hyperborea, and elder gods from the stars. But this is a D&D setting, and we use that as a springboard to brew up a particularly savage and intense brand of D&D adventure."
• Whisper & Venom is a "boxed set adventure for use with any fantasy role-playing system. Featuring gamebooks, poster maps, dice, 28 mm minis, & more". Being Kickstarted right now, it's designed to be "an ambitious, high-quality adventure and regional setting bundled with first-rate accessories and additional materials designed to enhance its enjoyment. The goal from the beginning was to make the game as beautiful to read and browse as it is fun to play."
• Damned Are The Living is an upcomping zombie apocalypse setting for the FUGLI system. There's an unsneaky (in fact in plain sight) sneak peek here.
• You can now grab some Victoriana Third Edition wallpapers and screensavers over on the C7 site.
• Like Dhampirs (they're like Blade, I think)? There's a Pathfinder supplement for them.
• Privateer Press has previewed the official Iron Kingdoms Full Metal Fantasy Roleplaying Game Token Set. Includes focus, spell, ammo, and more tokens, all wet/dry erase capable.

[h=3]Community News[/h]

• There's a writing and illustration contest at Mutha Oith Creations. It's in conjunction with the new Low Life: The Rise of the Lowly kickstarter.
• Campaign Mastery continues putting the SF into Sci-Fi.
• 13 Tips for GMing 13th Age from The Chamber of Mazarbul.
• Kobold Press gives you gnoll Sand Dancers and Slavers in AGE.
• SciFiPulse has reviewed Cubicle7's Time Traveller's Companion.
• Dragonmeet 2013 will open its doors on Saturday the 7th of December 2013 at 10am. Once again Kensington Town Hall will be hosting London's foremost roleplaying, board game and collectable card gaming convention.
• Chris from Dias Ex Machina goes into detail about the process of making color illustrations for their books:

[video=youtube;2pBTyGup9sY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2pBTyGup9sY[/video]
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[h=3]Boardgaming News[/h]

• All the houses of Westeros cherish hope in their secret hearts of claiming the Iron Throne for themselves. But the challenge is about to become greater than ever, with the addition of a new house and Objective cards. In A Feast for Crows, the newest Print on Demand expansion for A Game of Thrones: The Board Game Second Edition, all tactics and dreams of the future become subject to the will to conquer—and the fate of the draw.
• All Quiet on the Martian Front continues to march along (the puns!). With 4 days left in its Kickstarter the guys at Alien Dungeon keep adding stretch goals to an already hugely over-funded game. If you've dreamed of taking the fight to Well's style martians, this is probably the game for you.
• Deadly Missions: Fantasy Dungeon Game "features randomly generated floor tiles, creature tiles and equipment tokens each in a stack, or deck, that you flip and bring into play. This unique and original set of tiles and creatures is a different game each time you play." I've corrected their spelling.
• Meridian Miniatures launches Steampunk Army Kickstarter.

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[scott2978]

I've recently wondered if D&D is art myself. Should make an interesting read.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

I can't wait to see Rich Baker's new stuff. He's been my favourite designer for a long time. I hope he and his colleagues really hit a winner with their new world.