AUGUST NEWSLETTER: Crash Pandas!
Welcome to the August newsletter!
YOU'RE A BUNCH OF RACCOONS IN A CAR.
In a dramatic break from character, Grant wrote a game about animals doing crimes. This time it’s CRASH PANDAS, a game in which you all play a raccoon, and all of you have to drive the same car at once. It’s surprisingly playable! Download it (for free) here.
SPIRE MAPS ON SALE
You can now purchase hi-res A2 physical prints and digital files of Tim Wilkinson Lewis’ maps of Spire and Underspire. These astonishingly detailed pieces of cartography work really well as accessories for a game of Spire: just put one down in front of your players and let them explore the various weirdo locations and plot hooks. Pick up a copy here.
OUR GAMES, PLAYED BY PEOPLE AND RECORDED
We're got loads of actual play videos and podcasts to share with you!
Grant GMed a three-episode session of Spire for Kent Blue’s podcast Roll To Play in which a cell of ministry operatives subverted the grand Harvest King festival that takes over the Garden District once a year. With weaponised flower-arranging, a climactic fight atop a train, a Blood-Witch makeover montage and a talking dog, it’s got everything you’d expect from a Spire one-shot. Listen to the game here.
Rusty Quill recorded their session of Jason Statham’s Big Vacation, featuring some truly atrocious accents - and last week, Grant played Spire with them, so the episodes should be up within a month or so. Listen to Jason's Enormous Holiday here.
Yogscast are playing Goblin Quest, and getting the rules kind of wrong, but they seem to be having a nice time with it. You can watch part one of their Trojan Goat quest here.
Oh, and the massively popular Critical Role played Honey Heist again - but presumably you’ve already heard about that, because their PR team is much better than ours. You can watch Honey Heist 2: Electric Beargaloo on their Youtube channel here.
NINE WORLDS
We all staggered down to Nine Worlds a couple of weeks ago - it’s always a good time, and this year was no different. Definite high point was auctioning off the one and only Doctor Magnethands t-shirt in existence, for charity, on Saturday night’s performance of the live game of the same name - the final amount was an astonishing £52, which is going straight to MIND. That’s a pretty expensive t-shirt, I’m sure you’ll agree.
Other, cheaper versions of the t-shirt will be available online soon. (We’d planned to sell them at Nine Worlds, but our delivery company messed up and they didn’t reach us until it was too late.)
GOBLIN QUEST HARDCOPIES AVAILABLE
You can buy hardcopies of Goblin Quest through our site, now! Before this, the only reliable way to get one was to find Grant at a pub and give him money, so this is a much better state of affairs. You can order one from our website here.
TABLETOP GAMING LIVE
The folks at Tabletop Gaming Live have invited us, and the rest of the UK Indie RPG League, to put together a panel on designing and publishing RPGs in the UK. Our panel is on Sunday afternoon, and we’ll do our best to be around the rest of the weekend to say hello to people - but we won’t be selling any books this time. Buy a ticket to TTG Live here.
DRAGONMEET
We’re going to Dragonmeet - again, along with the Indie RPG league. If you’re in London on the 1st of December, you should come along too. We’re going to be in the trade hall all day, so please swing by and say hello. We’ll sign anything - even if we didn’t write it. That’s our promise to you. Buy a ticket to Dragonmeet here.
SPIRE SOURCEBOOK - KICKSTARTER SOON!
Finally - we’re going to release a print sourcebook for Spire! The Kickstarter should launch in October if all goes well. We’re working with several writers who responded to our call for pitches to put together a selection of background, rules and scenarios that deal with the richest and poorest areas of the city. You can follow us on Kickstarter to stay informed.
That's all for now! Enjoy what's left of August, and we'll speak to you again next month.
- Chris, Grant and Maz