Monte Cook Games and Margaret Weis Productions are joining Wizards of the Coast in offering hosted licenses for third-party publishing. Like WOTC with the Dungeon Masters Guild for Dungeons & Dragons, the two companies are working with DriveThruRPG to set up special online storefronts, launching this spring, where anyone will be able to upload and offer for sale digital products that make use of the Cypher and Cortex roleplaying game systems.

A hosted license—where an open game license is tied to the use of a publisher-sponsored marketplace—allows a publisher to collect royalties on related sales and to provide some degree of oversight.

In the case of the Dungeon Masters Guild, the license also provides for broader use of the original publisher’s intellectual property (such as campaign settings). However, whether such expanded access will apply to either the Cypher System Creator Program or the Cortex Plus Creator Studio, remains to be seen.

Margaret Weis Productions’ announcement did state that the new program would replace existing arrangements for Cortex Plus Fan Product and Cortex Plus Official Licensed Products.

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Christopher Ferguson revisits the old zip-top-bag micro war game format with his Kickstarter project for Star Patrol. It’s a hex-and-counter game of spaceship combat that embraces Newtonian space flight mechanics. During the course of the game, players must keep track of inertia and orientation for each of their custom-designed ships.

Also hearkening back to the earlier days of hobby gaming is the Marmoreal Tomb Campaign Starter from Earnest Gary Gygax Jr. Designed for AD&D (but with stretch goals also compatible with Pathfinder and 5th Edition), the campaign is based on the game Earnest used to run while managing the Dungeon Hobby Shop for TSR.

Another RPG project on Kickstarter turns the 1993 novel, Vurt by Jeff Noon, in to a tabletop game. The setting of Vurt is a cyberpunk world in which munching on color-coded feathers allows people to access an alternate reality. In game form, Vurt will use Monte Cook Games’ Cypher System.

Alternate realities of a sort also make an appearance on the board game front. Dingo’s Dreams from Red Raven Games and designer Alf Seegert has players guiding animals through a dream world. Gameplay involves manipulating a matrix of tiles so that as they’re flipped from landscape-side to animal-side, the animals fit a specific target pattern for the round.

Prime Time from Golden Egg Games is a board game about managing a television network. Players compete to develop shows, cast actors, and fill their weekly schedules in a way that will attract various viewer demographics, earn awards, and sell advertising. A somewhat more substantial Euro-style strategy game, this one nevertheless appears to marry mechanics and theme very well.

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