Released to hobby stores this past weekend and general retailers next week is Tales From the Yawning Portal, a Dungeons & Dragons adventure compendium from Wizards of the Coast. It’s a hardcover volume like the company’s recent adventure products but rather than one extended campaign, its contents are seven classic modules reimagined for 5th Edition rules. Included are: Against the Giants, Dead in Thay, Forge of Fury, Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, Sunless Citadel, Tomb of Horrors, and White Plume Mountain.

Additional classic modules will be coming from a partnership of WOTC and Goodman Games in the form of hardcover Collector’s Editions. The first will ship later this year with an in-depth treatment of TSR’s B series, In Search of the Unknown and The Keep on the Borderlands. Multiple versions of the two modules will be reprinted in the volume, along with historical information, commentary, an interview with the author, complete conversions of both to 5th Edition, and even additional material on the area around the Caves of Chaos (including the Cave of the Unknown).

I’m looking forward to them all but still hoping for Expedition to the Barrier Peaks!

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WizKids has launched two lines of unpainted, fantasy, plastic miniatures, one for the Pathfinder RPG, one for Dungeons & Dragons.

The Deep Cuts line for Pathfinder includes 20 different blister packs, the Nolzur’s Marvelous Miniatures line for Dungeons & Dragons 33. Each pack has 1-3 figures—monsters and characters in both lines—at a retail price of $3.99.

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On its way is D&D Beyond, a new official digital toolset for Dungeons & Dragons. Wizards of the Coast is partnering on development of the product with Curse Entertainment, a subsidiary of Twitch. D&D Beyond will provide an electronic rules compendium, character builder, character sheets, monster tracking, and other services.

Access to SRD content and the ability to maintain some small number of characters will be possible with a free account. For more than that, Curse says there’ll be “flexible purchase options” allowing users to “pay only for the D&D content you need.” For example, a player might purchase only the options related to particular race and class selections. Alternatively, a monthly subscription will allow broader access, the ability to manage more characters, and the possibility of integrating “homebrew content.”

D&D Beyond is not WOTC’s first go at digital tools for 5th Edition. An earlier project with Trapdoor Technologies, DungeonScape, was cancelled in 2014.

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WizKids has a packed booth at Toy Fair with lots of items from their Dungeons & Dragons line on display as well as more Heroclix items and some standalone games.

The first thing that grabbed my attention was the wall of unpainted Dungeons & Dragons miniatures. In the first wave of miniatures (this month, $2.99 each), sixty different miniature packs are available with some coming in with multiple figures. Also planned: Pathfinder miniatures! (No date or price on those as of yet!)

But if you like painted miniatures, they’ve got you covered with the Adventurer’s Campsite as part of the Icons of the Realms’ Monster Menagerie II line. This $50 box comes with a painted covered wagon, two saddled horses, three treasure chests, two kegs (of course), and all the little things: sacks, camp fires, bedrolls, spellbooks, scrolls, bags of holding…

And just released the day of the show, Assault of the Giants. This newest entry into the line of D&D boardgames comes in a standard edition for $80 or a premium edition with fully-painted miniatures for $130.

Coming soon in Heroclix are two new lines: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Return and Marvel’s Deadpool & X-Force. TMNT will come in blind bags for $3 each. Deadpool & X-Force will be available in a brick of boosters for $130, which is probably your best bet at obtaining that Deadpool riding the unicorn ultra-rare piece (one is available in approximately every four cases).

Recreating a classic oversized comic book I had when I was a kid, the Heroclix Superman vs. Muhammad Ali set comes with a boxing ring, the greatest, and a Superman wearing boxing gloves. Debuting in March, this set will retail for $50.

Three new games were also shown: The Banishing, Tower of London, and Tournament at Camelot. Relasing in March, the Banishing is a difficult strategy cooperative game where you’re banishing creatures. Tower of London is a zone control game available in April. Tournament at Camelot, a May release, is a trick-taking game with box artwork inspired from illuminated manuscripts. All three games will retail for $20.

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Gale Force Nine has another Dungeons & Dragons board game in the works. Thieves Guild, scheduled for an October release, will see the players as thieves, competing to complete quests, develop renown, and achieve the highest rank in the thieves guild. The game’s action will be set in the Forgotten Realms with the board a map of Baldur’s Gate.

If you can’t wait for October, Gale Force Nine should also have this April two expansion cards sets for Tyrants of the Underdark, Aberrations and Undead.

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Experiment 7 is develop, with license from Wizards of the Coast, a Dungeons & Dragons-themed virtual-reality Chess game. Dungeon Chess (for Samsung Gear VR and Oculus Rift) will feature animated game-play, a variety of environments (like the Yawning Portal tavern), and iconic D&D monsters as Chess pieces (e.g, dragons as kings, beholders as rooks, drow as pawns, and mind-flayers as bishops).

Remote multiplayer and AI opponents will be available.

Release of Dungeon Chess is planned for later this year.

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According to Hasbro, gaming as a general trend has seen a 75 percent increase in 3 years, up from 1.2 billion gamers in 2013 to 2.1 billion in 2016.

In its presentation to investors at New York Toy Fair today, Hasbro revealed that 20 percent of its products in 2016 went to consumers 20 years of age and older. The hottest of those products, of course, was Magic: The Gathering, for which the company produced last year 117 million booster packs. In another interesting statistic, 5 million viewers watched 350 million minutes of Magic video online. To keep the trend going, subsidiary Wizards of the Coast will be launching a series of new events in local game stores called “Magic Open House”. At these events will be giveaways and how-to-play sessions for beginner players.

Magic Digital Next was also mentioned but the better information on it comes from a WOTC website article posted today. In it, Jeffrey Steefel described Magic Digital Next as an “internal umbrella term for the entire landscape for Magic: The Gathering experiences around digital games.” This includes:

• Back-end technology upgrades to support both digital and tabletop play.
• More and better ways to play Magic digitally.
• Expanding the Magic experience and setting to “diverse platforms and genres.”

For the first time that I know of, a WOTC CEO participated in the Toy Fair presentation and gave some recognition to Dungeons & Dragons. Chris Cocks said that in 2016, D&D had its best sales in 40 years. He even mentioned that Duel Masters experienced its fastest growth ever last year.

On the board game side, 30 million Hasbro games were manufactured in Longmeadow, Massachusetts last year. The company claims 13 of the top 15 face-to-face games in United States—number 1 was Pie Face and number 2 was Speak Out.

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Scientists exploring caves in central Brazil have discovered a new species of snail and named it Gastrocopta sharae, after the Dungeons & Dragons diety Shar. Other than being the primary antagonist of the Tuesday-night campaign in which I play, Shar is goddess of darkness and caverns in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.

[via PHYS.org]

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Beyond Damage Dice is a new Dungeons & Dragons supplement from Kobold Press that’s meant to provide players more flavorful options in the choice of weapons for their characters. The 11 page, $3 ebook presents a variety of maneuvers and special actions tied to specific weapons, including, for example, the ability to disarm, disorient, or trip an opponent. No magic required.

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Look out this May for the Dungeons & Dragons Mind Flayer Trophy Plaque from WizKids. This is a follow-up to the company’s Red Dragon Trophy head and should be similarly priced, around $400. It’s no small tchotchke, though. The plaque weighs around 15 pounds and WizKids recommends professional installation.

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