Category Archives: Business

Roll for Combat Inks Exclusive Distribution Deal with Diamond Book Distributors

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Roll for Combat

Diamond Book Distributors has announced that it has signed a worldwide distribution agreement with Roll for Combat to exclusively distribute its products to North American and international book markets. This agreement also sees Roll for Combat products distributed to the comic book specialty market exclusively through Diamond Comic Distributors.

Roll for Combat publishes high-quality deluxe tabletop RPG products for 5e and Pathfinder Second Edition, written by veteran authors and overseen by Director of Game Design Mark Seifter, co-creator of Pathfinder Second Edition. Along with Publisher Stephen Glicker, Seifter and a rotating cast of industry guests deliver tips, inside scoops, and analysis on the tabletop RPG scene on the YouTube show Roll for Combat Live. Additionally, Roll for Combat licenses with Paizo Inc. to run the RPG Superstar contest, which allows aspiring authors to submit monsters for professional judge feedback and potential publication.

Roll for Combat is most well-known for the Battlezoo line of products for 5e and Pathfinder 2e. These include Battlezoo Ancestries Dragons, which allows players to play as dragons; Battlezoo Eldamon, which introduces 162 elemental creatures to befriend and 13 different elements to master; the Battlezoo Bestiary, which features hundreds of award-winning monsters to add to any TTRPG game; and the epic adventure Jewel of the Indigo Isles created collaboratively among five legendary industry veteran adventure authors.

Paul Dainton joins CMON as a Senior Artist

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Paul Dainton

CMON has announced the addition of Paul Dainton, an internationally acclaimed artist, to its illustrious team. Dainton will assume the role of Senior Artist, contributing his exceptional artistic vision and boundless creativity to CMON’s projects.

Paul has been an artist most of his life, starting out early with drawing comic characters. In college, he studied art, learning many different styles. After college, he worked as a freelance artist for several years before joining the ranks at Games Workshop, where he’s lent his artistic vision to games like Warhammer 40,000 and Age of Sigmar, amassing over 20 years’ experience with the company.

In the last 5 years, he had become the head of the Warhammer 40,000 art team. With Paul’s vision and leadership, the world of 40k has come to life for gamers all over the world. Generations of players have looked upon his work and that of his team with awe. His passion for storytelling through art is evident in every stroke, capturing the hearts of art enthusiasts and gamers alike.

Gen Con 2023: Deep Water Games is now Friendly Skeleton and announces Trash Talk

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Deep Water Games, known for titles like MonsDRAWsity, Fantastic Factories, and 7 Summits, has announce its rebranding as Friendly Skeleton. This strategic move reflects the company’s commitment to bring a fresh, inviting, and fun approach to gaming experiences for players of all ages. Alongside the rebranding, Friendly Skeleton is excited to unveil its latest game, Trash Talk.

Trash Talk is a captivating party game that challenges players to communicate across species using trash as their medium. In this innovative and hilarious game, raccoons and possums come together to have a blast. Players must use prized treasures pulled from dumpsters, gutters, and maybe even a few “borrowed” from humans to master the art of cross-species communication and ensure everyone wins!

Trash Talk

Hornby Acquires Stake in Warlord Games

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Warlord Games has announced that international model and collectibles group, Hornby PLC has purchased 25% of the equity of Warlord Games Ltd. with an option to acquire more of the business in the future.

The existing management team will remain in place to drive the business as usual.

Hornby brands include Airfix, Humbrol, Scalextric, Corgi, and so much more. The deal opens up opportunities for both companies by pooling resources, talent, and experience. Overall, it will accelerate the growth of the businesses and game ranges!

Warlord Games and Hornby PLC

Steamforged Games acquires the Altar Quest IP

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Altar Quest

Steamforged Games has announced the acquisition of the popular dungeon-crawling board game, Altar Quest, from Blacklist Games LLC. This strategic acquisition will further enhance Steamforged Games’ strong portfolio and reinforce the company’s commitment to delivering immersive, high-quality tabletop gaming experiences.

Altar Quest is a cooperative fantasy adventure game set in the world of Aridika. Playing as unique heroes, players embark on quests in an ever-changing modular dungeon filled with lurking enemies and sinister villains — all while at the mercy of unstable ‘altar magic’ — in either one-off sessions or an engrossing campaign. Inspired by classic dungeon-crawling board games and modern deck-building mechanics, Altar Quest blends strategy, cooperation, and exploration to deliver a fresh take on a classic deep dungeon experience.

With this acquisition, Steamforged Games will handle the ongoing development, production, and distribution of Altar Quest and its future.

Hasbro and Mattel sign a licensing pact to create co-branded toys and games

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Hasbro and Mattel

Rumors of a buyout have swirled for quite some time but a deal of a different sort is happening between Hasbro and Mattel. The two companies have entered a multiyear licensing agreement to share their properties for co-branded games and toys.

That means you’ll soon be able to find Barbie-branded Monopoly launching in fall 2023 and Transformers-branded UNO coming later this year. Also coming is a Transformers-branded Hot Wheels line in early 2024.

The deal spins out of the two properties’ upcoming films, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts and Barbie, each of which come to theaters in the summer.

Free League Launches New Licenses For Year Zero Engine and Dragonbane

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Year Zero Engine

Free League Publishing has released two new open game licenses for community creators – a Free Tabletop License (FTL) for the Year Zero Engine and a third-party license for the upcoming Dragonbane fantasy RPG. The Year Zero Engine FTL comes with a massively updated Standard Reference Document (SRD). Free League is inviting feedback on all three documents before they are finalized and officially lau nched.

The work on these new community content licenses was initiated last year but was intensified during the debates last month around Wizards of the Coasts’ OGL v1.0, on which the previous Year Zero Engine (YZE) license was based. The two new licenses are completely independent, developed by Free League and the US law firm Nolan Heimann.

The new Year Zero Engine FTL is designed to be fair and easy to understand and use for creators. It gives creators an irrevocable, worldwide, and royalty-free right to use the Year Zero Engine Standard Reference Document (YZE SRD) and freely publish their own roleplaying material based on it. A draft of the YZE FTL can be found here.

Alongside the new YZE FTL, the YZE SRD itself has been given a massive overhaul and update, based on the developments of the Year Zero Engine in recent years. The new SRD adds rules for chases, vehicles, travel, and magic, and introduces the new “step dice” version of YZE found in Twilight: 2000 and the Blade Runner RPG. The new YZE SRD v0.9 draft can be accessed here.

Free League invites the community to feedback on both the Year Zero Engine FTL and the SRD on its forums. They will both be finalized and officially launched in a few weeks.

The Year Zero Engine (YZE) in various iterations has been used in most Free League RPGs in recent years, including Mutant: Year Zero, Coriolis, Tales From the Loop, Forbidden Lands, ALIEN, Vaesen, Blade Runner RPG, and the upcoming The Walking Dead Universe RPG. The YZE is an accessible, fast and adaptable rules framework that encourages story-focused and player-driven playstyles.

A Module for Dragonbane

Beside the YZE FTL, Free League has also presented a third-party license for the upcoming Dragonbane RPG, which was successfully Kickstarted last year. This license allows creators to freely publish RPG supplements explicitly compatible with Dragonbane, and to place the A Module for Dragonbane logo on the front cover.

A draft of the Dragonbane third-party license can be found here. Once finalized, it will also be translated for use in other languages – primarily Swedish, as Dragonbane is a translation of Free League’s new edition of Scandinavia’s first and biggest tabletop RPG Drakar och Demoner. Free League invites the community to feedback on the Dragonbane third-party license on its forums.

The Dragonbane license is intended for third-party supplements for the game, not new standalone games, and thus does not have an SRD. This license is similar to the Free League Workshop community content program on DrivethruRPG, but allows creators to freely choose where to share or sell Dragonbane modules without paying any royalties to anyone.

Dragonbane

Release: Q3 2023
A legend is reborn. Dragonbane is the new and reimagined edition of Sweden’s first and biggest tabletop roleplaying game Drakar och Demoner. A new take on the classic fantasy RPG full of magic, mystery, and adventure. The new edition is designed from the ground up to facilitate fast-paced fantasy adventures, with very little prep time and adventures that are a breeze to run.

Dragonbane

Knight Models announces a “price change”

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Knight Models has announced that it will be raising prices beginning March 1st, 2023. The company stated in the announcement that it has done its “best to keep prices low for the last 4 years” but due to economic changes worldwide, there’s a need to raise prices.

It’s unknown exactly what’s increasing and by how much, but hurry and get your orders in! We’re assuming prices won’t be decreasing…

The news comes after the recent teaser Knight Models will be producing a game based on Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon. It also comes after the recent announcement that Games Workshop would be raising prices by 6% beginning in March.

Knight Models logo

Games Workshop announces price increases beginning in March

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Games Workshop logo

Things everywhere are more expensive nowadays and that’s trickling into Games Workshop‘s products. The company has announced that on March 6th it’ll be increasing some prices.

The average price change for plastic kits will be about 6%. Notice it says average and plastic kits. A $50 kit should now cost about $53 when this is implemented. More than just that will be increasing. You can find the full list below.

What is changing:
Plastic miniatures
Forge World and Citadel resin miniatures
Standard and Artificer Citadel brushes
Spray paints

What is not changing:
Starter sets
Paint sets
Paint pots
Citadel Tools
Codexes, rulebooks and battletomes
Synthetic STC brushes

Fireside Game Signs with KidStuff PR

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Fireside Games

Fireside Games has announced that they’ll be working with KidStuff PR. One of a very small number of public relations agencies focusing only on children’s products and toys, KidStuff PR offers a unique and targeted approach to publicity, promotions, and creating a buzz. The 29-year-old agency’s specialization has led to close relationships not only with key media influencers but also in the toy industry community—exemplified by the agency’s past public relations roles with the Astra, the Toy Association, and scores of manufacturers worldwide.

KidStuff PR has fostered relationships with a vetted group of over 200 influencers for over a decade. Recently, the agency has mentored and sought out partnerships with influencers who are families of color to diversify the life experiences of influencers who review clients’ products. This aspect of the agency’s influencer portfolio and the relationships it has built appealed to Fireside Games. The world of toy influencing has been dominated by white families, and Orman saw a need to address it.

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