DriveThruRPG is holding its annual GM’s Day Sale with thousands of titles 33% off. A similar sale is taking place on Dungeon Masters Guild.

In recognition of many new customization options, BoardGameTables.com is giving away winner’s choice of up to $3,500 in customized game table.

Closing up its online shop, Funagain Games is running a warehouse clearance sale.

Renegade Game Studios is giving away Lucidity: Six Sided Nightmares.

Cryptozoic is giving away three copies of Cult, which the company is currently funding on Kickstarter.

Brawlin’ Brothers is giving away Einstein and the Genius Expansion from Artana.

The Carboard Republic is giving away The Last Garden from One Thousand XP.

Bundle of Holding has brought back an earlier deal for Unknown Armies.

Save an extra 10% on sale and clearance items today from Miniature Market with promo code “DEALS10”.

Get a free set of dice with the purchase of any overstock item from Dog Might Games.

The Giveaway Geek is giving away Terraforming Mars from Stronghold Games and Byzanz from Renegade Game Studios.

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Kevin Siembieda, President of Palladium Books, posted a public update to the Robotech RPG Tactics Kickstarter stating they will not be able to produce the Robotech RPG Tactics Wave Two rewards following the expiration of the Robotech license. The campaign for the Robotech RPG Tactics game raised nearly $1.45 million in 2013 to produce a miniature wargame based on the version of the Robotech anime owned by Harmony Gold USA. The license, which was held by Palladium for thirty years, has expired and is not being renewed.

As part of the loss of license, Palladium is liquidating all Robotech products, including their roleplaying game book line and all pdfs of the original game line’s material on DriveThruRPG.

Siembieda writes about the many delays and the unseen costs Palladium encountered while attempting to fulfill the project: recreating 3d sculpts that were incompatible with the manufacturer’s production process and increased shipping costs. In January of 2014, the company decided to split the numerous sculpts and rewards into two waves of project. After having delivered the planned first wave, “the Kickstarter money was gone.” Palladium Books estimated that producing the second wave of rewards would have cost them up to $625,000.

The company is offering to substitute already-produced product in place of the second wave rewards they did not create, but say backers would have to pay for shipping. “We estimate shipping to all 5,000+ backers around the world will cost $120,000-$160,000; and, at this point, Palladium Books just does not have the resources to cover that expense.” This exchange is offered only while supplies last or March 20, 2018, whichever comes sooner.

In an earlier update to the campaign, Palladium wrote “By Kickstarter’s terms of service, we are obligated to deliver on the rewards we have promised, and we will do that…. If the time should ever come that Palladium Books cannot fulfill the terms of our Kickstarter project, we will of course offer refunds, as we would be required to do by Kickstarter.”

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The Broken Token will begin shipping this week a series of modular dice tower kits, each with a unique thematic design, including stairs, bones, pachinko, and others. The modules can be mixed and matched for a single dice tower up to several feet high.

One module even has a dice-shaming cage, so poor performing dice will have to watch their fellows tumble by.

On the backside, each module has a cutout for wall-mounting. And two bases are available, one standard in which the dice roll to the front when the tower is on a table, and one side-mounted so it doesn’t stick out when hanging on the wall.

Prices for the individual kits range from $10-22.

The Broken Token currently lists five tumbling sections for sale. Others will be listed soon, including a clockwork section with moving gears.

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Amazon deals:

• New York 1901 from Blue Orange for 48% off.
• Star Trek Ascendancy from Gale Force Nine for 47% off.
• Pyramix from Gamewright for 35% off.
• BuggaLoop from Ravensburger for 38% off.
• Deadwood from Fantasy Flight Games for 70% off.
• Battle Sheep from Blue Orange for 43% off.
• Star Wars Loopin’ Chewie from Hasbro for 55% off.
• Stratego from Playmonster for 46% off.
• Dr. Eureka from Blue Orange for 43% off.
• Axis & Allies 1941 from Avalon Hill for 47% off.
• Smart Ass from University for 49% off.
• Yeti in My Spaghetti from Playmonster for 50% off.
• Dominion Hinterlands from Rio Grande for 40% off.
• Perplexus Warp from Spin Master for 45% off.
• Dictitious from Playmonster for 76% off.
• Bora Bora from Ravensburger for 43% off.

A Dragon Age and Fantasy Age bundle at Bundle of Holding includes Fantasy Age in the starter collection and Dragon Age and Titansgrave in the bonus collection.

Starry Knight Press is giving away OSRIC RPG modules. Follow and retweet for a chance to win one of three.

Everything Board Games is giving away Infinities: Defiance of Fate from Vatal Entertainment Studio, two copies of War of Supremecy from Lost Treasure Games, and Robin Hood and the Merry Men from Final Frontier Games.

Roxley Games is giving away four pledge levels to its Dice Throne Kickstarter project and one copy of Santorini Zeus Edition.

Board Game Revolution is giving away a Kickstarter project pledge level to City of Gears from Grey Fox Games.

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After reporting in its recent financial results an 8 percent revenue growth for the overall gaming category in 2017, Hasbro on Friday said that Dungeons & Dragons sales were up 80 percent. That performance made 2017 the best year for D&D ever.

A new agreement with Paramount will have Hasbro participating to a greater degree in funding its movie franchises but will also provide more reliable release dates. The Dungeons & Dragons movie is scheduled to hit theaters in 2021.

Star Wars revenue was down in 2017 but Hasbro remains positive about the license, saying the decrease represents a transition to more consistent sales, rather than surges tied to individual movie releases. One of the new Star Wars products that the company is planning for this year is a Furreal Friends Chewbaca.

Citing data from NPD,  Hasbro claimed 13 of the top 20 face-to-face games in G10 markets, with Monopoly the number one overall games property.

Online retail accounts for 20 percent of the company’s toy and game sales.

Magic: The Gathering had the best year on record of new player growth.

Hasbro is launching HasLab to “put the power of innovation in the hands of fans.” Actually, HasLab is a crowdfunding platform for premium products not suitable for normal retail channels. The first campaign is for a toy model of Jabba the Hut’s sail barge in the scale of the company’s Star wars Vintage Collection. That makes it over 4 feet long! Five thousand backers at $500 each are required to go to production.

A new Dungeons & Dragons mobile game, Warriors of Waterdeep, is in development by Ludia.

Wizards of the Coast is working on other projects besides just Magic and D&D. The Hasbro subsidiary is developing a Transformers TCG and an Axis & Allies and Zombies board game.

Digital listening is driving development in Hasbro’s gaming category, whether games based on online trends or games designed for online sharing. The company has even put together a “quick strike team” for rapid development and speed to market with social listening.

Hasbro also has weather-targeted games marketing, running additional ads when its raining.

Hasbro sees location-based experiences as a key growth opportunity. This includes live shows, hotels, cruises, and family entertainment centers. Coming soon from Marriott are My Little Pony and Transformers hotels in Shanghai.

The company will launch on Earth Day a partnership with Terracycle to recycle toys and games.

WOTC will soon launch a Magic: The Gathering companion app called Portal, which in addition to a rules reference and life-tracker, will feature a matchmaker of sorts to connect players with new people for face-to-face home games. Netmarble is developing a mobile-to-mobile MtG app.

Hasbro has snagged the master toy license for Power Rangers. Products will begin arriving on shelves in 2019.

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For a limited time, every print order direct from Goodman Games gets a free vintage copy of Dragon Magazine.

Renegade Game Studios is giving away Byzanz.

Blue Orange Games is giving away a package of Kingdomino and Queendomino. And Board Game Revolution is doing the same.

Use coupon code “rain18” to get Paizo’s Rainy Day Discount of 10% on a single order.

Through the end of the month, $600 of LPJ Design Pathfinder products are available in one 95% off bundle ($30) at DriveThruRPG.

For the relaunch of Button Men, arriving at retail this month, Cheapass Games is giving away multiple copies through an online quiz that matches participants with the game’s criminal masterminds.

Orders placed today from HasbroToyShop ship free with promo code “LOVE2018”.

Also today (ending midnight MST), save 30% on card sleeves from Mayday Games with discount code “chinesenewyear30”.

In recognition of February holidays, Skirmisher Publishing has bundled, at a 90% discount, RPG ebooks representing Valentine’s Day, Black History Month, Chinese New Year, and Presidents Day.

A Traveller: The New Era bundle is available at Bundle of Holding. Just $26 gets you everything.

Alone in the Jungle, Flying Pig Games’ solitaire expansion for ’65 Squad-Level Combat in Vietnam, is 30% off, direct from the company through today.

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Mongoose has a major Traveller sale under way at DriveThruRPG. Discounts are 33-80% off.

Gypsy Knights Games is also running a sale on Traveller material, to celebrate the company’s seventh birthday.

Another sale running at DriveThruRPG is the BAMFsies Sale, celebrating superhero titles.

Superheroes are also featured in Bundle of Holding’s Heroes Unlimited offer from Palladium Books, while another offer at the site features Ulisses Spiele’s English-language translation, The Dark Eye.

Victory Point Games is selling everything at 10% off (except for Darkest Night products) in celebration of Valentine’s Day.

Giveaways:

• By Happy Li’l Minis, a whole core set of Star Wars: Legion from Fantasy Flight Games.
• By Angie’s Angle, a bundle of three Gigamic games: Yogi, Imagidice, and Differ3nce.
• By EverythingBoardGames, Arcadia Quest from Dragori Games, Lucky’s Misadventures (two copies) from Great Northern Games, and an Herbalism Founder’s Pack of 4 games from Deep Water Games.
• By Katie’s Game Corner, autographed GMT Games box art from Roger MacGowan.
• By OffWorld Designs, two tickets to Gen Con 2018.
• By The Giveaway Geek, Cytosis from Genius Games.

At Amazon, Starship Merchants from Toy Vault is 71% off and Bloodsuckers from Fireside Games is 59% off.

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Today marks 10 years since Yehuda Berlinger posted the first article on Purple Pawn, a brief story about board games mentioned in the Sally Forth comic strip. I hope in that time that you’ve felt informed and entertained. We’ve tried our best to make a positive contribution. With 8,370 articles published so far!

Purple Pawn presents a unique voice in the game field, covering all types of tabletop games—board games, card games, collectibles, roleplaying games, war games, miniatures, and more. Games with modern movie tie-ins and traditional games played by generations. Games for the dedicated hobbyist, as well as the casual gamer.

Of course we report news of product releases but we also work hard to document the business side of the game industry, provide tips to the game consumer, and highlight the significant role that games play in culture and society.

Purple Pawn would not exist if not for the vision and guidance of its founder, Yehuda Berlinger. Thank you, Yehuda, for letting me keep it going when you decided to move on to other game-related endeavors!

Thank you also to our various contributors over the years: Ben Clark, Thomas Deeny, K.C. Lee, Lory Gilpatric, Phil Kilcrease, Randy Snyder, Richard Bliss, Josh Street, Rob Kalajian, Sam Mercer, and Tracy Tang! In the early days it was Yehuda as the snarky commentator, Josh as the fanboy, and me as the straight-man. Ben provided an amazing inside look at the business side of games with the Paper Money podcast. Sam gave us some cool graphics. Rob—who, other than Yehuda and I, was with Purple Pawn the longest—was of tremendous support to me personally, did a wonderful job of covering the independent publishers, and also solved many technical problems behind the scenes. Thomas, who is still with Purple Pawn, has an amazing knack for identifying the hot trends and controversies.

And of course, thank you to our readers!

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Major League Baseball player Hunter Pence and cohost of AMC’s Comic Book Men Ming Chen opened a coffee shop and board game venue in Houston this past week. Coral Sword also has a private booth for recording podcasts and gaming sessions.

Breakfast cereal and board games are the specialties of Tiny Rick’s in Liverpool, U.K. Along with board games, the restaurant serves cereals from around the world, mixes specialty cereal cocktails, and offers a variety of other breakfast foods, such as toast and Pop Tarts.

Eve’s Coffee Shop in Thiruvananthapuram, India is a board game cafe where the board games are free. Also featured at the shop is an extensive book library and adult coloring books.

After following his new wife to the U.K., Ryan, originally from Canada, decided to open the board game cafe he’d been dreaming about for years. His shop, Hexagon, is the first such venue in Taunton.

Ticket to Play is opening shortly in Salem, Oregon. Food will be served but with evening hours only, the space is primarily for playing games.

Undergoing bankruptcy proceedings, Toys “R” Us is shuttering 182 of its stores in the United States and another 25 stores in the United Kingdom.

BC Comix is consolidating three separate locations in to one larger retail space in Genoa Township, Michigan. The new space will also allow them to host bigger game events.

House of Cards is opening a second location in Cloverdale, British Columbia. The owners plan to hold Magic: The Gathering events every day in the new space.

The owners of Bonus Round Game Cafe, opening soon in the Lakeview area of Chicago, do not intend the space as a service to established gamers but rather as a place that’ll introduce the fun of board games to new people. Wi-fi will not be available.

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Online decor retailer Wayfair is giving away the components for awesome game room: carved wood table, throne armchair, bookcase, and a variety of fantasy-themed decorative items.

In Grey Gnome Games Hot Winter Sale, get significant discounts on select games, plus free promos, free expansions, and free shipping.

Osprey Publishing’s February Site-Wide Sale means up to 70% off in all categories, books, ebooks, and games.

A Pawn’s Perspective is giving away Hero Realms from White Wizard Games.

To go with the release of its free living campaign, Modiphius Entertainment is running a sale on Mutant Chronicles books.

Darksilver Forge is giving away a Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set prize pack, which in addition to the actual Starter Set includes metal dice, a dice tray, a comic, and dungeon tiles.

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