Star Wars D&D and a campaign book

From New York Comic-Con, news of a Star Wars D&D rulebook and the preview of the campaign book Tyro Squadron Adventures

Yes you’re playing Rebels.

First thought: Darth Vader’s right there. Ever seen an RPG cover with a bunch of characters doing heroic poses and thought “They’re all gonna die next round” because of who they’re up against?

Oh well, at least it isn’t the FFG system.

The Tyrant Philosophers RPG playtest

The Tyrant Philosophers RPG playtest signups are now open for the Handiwork Games adaptation of the novels by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

Star Wars Episode X

Director Jon Watts directed Skeleton Crew, writer Simon Kinberg co-created Rebels. Which are the most useful good credits.

Ill-Starred

Going back to a previous weird thought due to an unrelated game (Hunter) joked that my next Star Trek character will be a witch.

“Analysis?”

“Nothing on sensors, Captain.”

“Sycorax?”

(sound of bones rattling) “They’re here, alright.”

(And this was before seeing the Strange New Worlds episode trailer for the magic planet follow-up.)

Edit: posting this on BlueSky got a character sheet made.

VTMDND Bones Of The Empire

Jason Carl demonstrates the D&D version of Vampire: The Dark Ages, from Gen Con 2026. Hopefully we can get the V6 demo back soon too?

(Update: 22nd September)

In the meantime the small number of Blood Points and the various uses for them is interesting - especially having to use one not a Frenzy.

Ravenloft live-action Netflix series

Huh. okay.

Though still waiting on various other D&D things, as this announcement news mentions.

And hey, that World Of Darkness series...

RPGaDAY 2026 18. Directness

#RPGaDAY 2026

18. Directness

18. A fast introduction of a new PC or player?

If I know players are likely to come and go I’ll try to have onboarding options and avoid cliffhangers. Emphasis on try.

Some games and settings are better for this than others, mechanically and narratively.

Overlooking the old “why do we trust this total stranger walking up to us in the middle of a secret mission?” and the magic power of the PC Glow...

D&D style fantasy calls it “West Marches” when every session begins and ends with the PCs in their base and venturing out from it. That cuts off things like multi-session dungeons and heavier ongoing plots unless you use the old un-narrative kludge of teleporting PCs in, but it’s a good idea for an open table.

Star Trek (a setting where characters can just teleport in and out mid adventure) would do this if it were realistic about its Luxury Space Communism and faster-than-light travel. Ha ha. Star Trek Adventures makes you pay player resources to get specialist NPC crew to go on camera, which is the model-the-show way of dealing with this. Star Fleet Battles RPG Prime Directive goes the other way and has a completely different command structure for its variant universe.

Mission: Impossible on TV started with selecting agents with relevant skillsets. I’ve seen someone suggest pregens in dossiers before.

(Note that the films acquire a consistent team as they go along, leading to narrative issues like needing something for both the computer geniuses to do.)

Last academic year I had a large amount of player turnover in Vampire: The Masquerade and that isn’t ideal for it or how I run it. Even then, if I’d known I could have tailored the chronicle setup to PCs being part of a group that could explain PCs coming and going and make sessions less serialised. Not ideal for personal horror or slow unravelling of mysteries but I could give it a go. Hmm.

My most setting-of-the-week one-and-done game is Doctor Who, which also has fast character creation... but following the series model really expects the PCs to be the one point of consistency.

If I want to go full “jump in any session” open table, I might go with a light superhero game like ICONS with a big team. Fast character creation, largely self-contained adventures. I’m sure threads would reappear at some point, but I can juggle and improvise so we don’t end up with too many “this should be a Penguin adventure but Batman’s player isn’t here” situations.

A large kitchen sink also helps if I want to come up with a largely standalone adventure every week.

Hey, Buffy is a light superhero game too! Albeit one that also expects a consistent Scooby Gang.

Autocratik

Runeslinger

Exalted at 25

Exalted, White Wolf’s epic superheroic fantasy and very quickly not the prehistory of World Of Darkness, first came out on this day in 2001. Not my kind of thing but I admired the big swing, and the stepping back from that suggested connection.

Star Wars with D&D

Star Wars D&D collaboration coming next year.

WotC already did basically D&D systems for Star Wars twice, but not quite I guess.

The only way D&D got my money in the last decade

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves co-director Jonathan Goldstein says the script for a sequel already exists, but he’s not expecting it to see the light of day any time soon.

IGN

“I’ve got a great campaign written, I just can’t get a group together” is the peak D&D experience.

Lee Casebolt

Labyrinth at 40

Though it came out here the following December. I mean, not long at all...

Genndy Tartakovsky's Conan

Genndy Tartakovsky to adapt Conan: Queen Of The Black Coast into animation. Yes, I think that will work.

Princess Of The Universe 3 live draft

Rose Bailey and divers hands at RPGnet look at Princess Of The Universe and a new update.

Vampire: The Masquerade for D&D

Bound By Blood, a licensed third party adaptation of the above.

Note:

“Bound by Blood is not the primary project we’re announcing at Gen Con. They’re two different projects.”

I hope people who would like that will be happy with it.

But I can say “ew” about Blood Points.

Masters Of The Universe (2026)

Masters Of The Universe arrives after some unforced errors eclipsing the fact that it’s directed by Travis Knight of Kubo And The Two Strings and Bumblebee and is as colourful and well choreographed, a visual treat where you can tell what’s going on in the fights.

It’s very Guardians Of The Galaxy and even more Thor: Ragnarok, and that’s good. And fairly Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves but of course could have been that more.

The main credits include a rare mention of a specific musician - because it’s Brian May. Because of course it is!

And related to that the makers of the Highlander remake might be a bit annoyed.

Not even the weirdest needle drop.

Nicholas Galitzine’s exiled prince turned bored human resources guy getting to do some human resources fu was my favourite little runner.

Nice to see Camila Mendes following Riverdale with something much more grounded.

You can’t see the guy playing Skeletor, or really hear him recognisably, so that works out.

Start of credits, mid credits and end credits scenes. Hrmph.

The Tyrant Philosophers RPG

Coming this autumn from Handiwork Games, using the new a|State system, based on a fantasy novel series by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

The Mandalorian And Grogu

The Mandalorian And Grogu is basically a great big episode of The Mandalorian. And I for one am cool with that!

Star Wars hasn’t had a life-changing movie for me since The Empire Strikes Back, so a largely fun movie is plenty.

Kinda bitty here and there, like including things like a space dogfight because it’s the first Star Wars movie this decade, but still a fun space dogfight.

While also having big damn hero action scenes like the opening give it a different feel.

And lots of bits gave me a big silly grin, like realising why the fighting match was named that, the gearing up montages, and the way a couple of the robots moved.

People who haven’t kept up with the show but know who Baby Yoda and More Likeable Boba Fett are will probably have enough information from the mini opening crawl.

No end credits scene but there is something fun if you stay to the end.

The Sheer, Unbridled Joy Of Star Wars

The Sheer, Unbridled Joy Of Star Wars by Emmet Asher-Perrin at Reactor.

“Star Wars: A New Hope is pure mythology, distilled down to some of its simplest forms. Good and evil. Life and death. Triumph and defeat. Light and dark.”

There’s a reason we still go back to it almost fifty years on.

Gar Hanrahan on DIE: The Metadungeon

Gareth Hanrahan on the DIE RPG: Metadungeon at DIE creator Kieron Gillen’s RPG blog. “Declarations of conflict of interest are for lesser bloggers.”

“Possibly it’s all an attempt to justify the piles of RPG books I bought but never actually used. Exorcising the ghosts of games unplayed.”

Dungeon Masters D&D AP

Wizards Of The Coast get into Actual Play streaming a tad late, but with Jasmine Bhullar as DM and Mayanna Berrin among the players so good call there.