As we approach the convention season the news well is starting to dry up somewhat, in fact, most of this week’s news concerns conventions and exciting RPG news, so grab you hand sanitiser, breath mints and dice bag!
It’s News Collider Time!
Origin Award Nominees
The AAGD (Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design) released the list of games nominated for 2019 Origins Awards, which will be awarded during the Origins Game Fair on the 15th June. Nominees for the eight categories have been shortlisted by the Academy to reward excellence in the design.
I won’t list all the nominations here, but the best board game award will be hotly contested with Brass: Birmingham, Root, Pulsar 2849, Rising Sun and Space Base all in the running.
If you’d like to see the full list head over to iCV2 rather than BGG or Origins.net, as I couldn’t find any information on either site. (Incidentally, both of these websites have just been nominated for the PHC Shite Board Game Website Awards 2019.)
Pop-Up Gen Con
No, this isn’t a pop-up book about board game conventions, it is far, far cooler. Gen Con have partnered with Alliance Game Distributors to organise around 40 Pop-Up events across America to coincide with the convention allowing attendees the chance to play and order all the hottest Gen Con releases as if they had made it to the main event themselves.
For a much smaller fee punters who are unable to get to Indianapolis can attend one of the (hopefully) much closer game stores that are taking part, collect their commemorative badge and exclusive pin and play new releases.
If this programme is successful we can hope that in future the roll out of these Pop-Ups to stretch a little further, say across the proverbial pond, maybe.
Kingmaker
Paizo Inc and Legendary Games have teamed up to bring one of the most well-known and beloved RPG campaigns, Kingmaker up to speed with the latest version of Pathfinder and Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition.
The crowdfunding campaign (oddly, not on Kickstarter or Indigogo) is almost 200% funded and will collect and expand on the 6 original, and out of print, Kingmaker campaign books and will come in all sorts of options. The main objective is to collate and update the game, after 10 years of player and GM advice the nuts and bolts have been tightened to make it Pathfinder Second Edition ready, however, there are also options for those who still play and prefer first edition or prefer to play D&D 5E with the Kingmaker Bestiary in both formats.
Exciting D&D News
Get ready for some exciting D&D news...next week.
I know, news about upcoming-news is arguably a cop-out, but you were warned it was a slow week.
In all seriousness though, be prepared. D&D Live 2019: The Descent is a three day live event that will launch the next story line (which will be out later this year) and three other new products. One “hint” is that one of these products will be a box set, which could mean a new Starter Set, or a Starter Plus Set. Who knows?
The biggest of big reveals (and we're being teased that it's a big one) will be made at the end of D&D Live 2019 so you’ll have to watch it to find out what it is as early as possible.
CMON’s Year of Consolidation
CMON has released their full year report which shows, as expected, that 2018 was a tough year. Sales were down by $28 million overall, and 5.4 million down in Kickstarter.
Overall, the company is still profitable, but these profits were down 41% to 2017 which has be chalked up mainly to the move from GEM to the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the increase to game development costs to $236,000.
There’s really no need to worry though, one only has to look at the Bloodborne Kickstarter to see that things are going pretty well at the moment, and God of War hits the crowdfunding platform later this summer to help bolster those 2019 numbers.
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