352 | Hasbro Layoffs, D&D Designers Join Darrington, D&D Comics, Cancelled Video Game Art

Music. Hey, hello, hello, hello, and welcome to Morris' unofficial tabletop RPG talk.

I am Russ, aka Morris, or Morris, aka Russ, and with me this week is... PJ Coffey from the Southampton Guild of Roleplayers, also homebrewing hacking, TTRPG design. Joining us today, who we are blaming for the heatwave, because everywhere she goes, So she always takes work with her. And she has bought a ray of sunshine with her. Too many rays. Put them back, Jess. That's too many rays. Gotta choose one. It's enough. It's the one. It is the only. Eds. It's me, Jessica from EAN Publishing.

I am not responsible for the sun, unfortunately. My day glow complexion, I have more like kind of a person who's never been outside and touched grass sort of complexion. You've gone from Wales. It's not famously known for its tropical weather. Funnily enough, no. But everyone else in my family tans this one. It's just me that just stays pale like this. Hmm.

Lucky me. Well, let's not dive into why that might be. We've been wanting some TTRPG. Milkman didn't tan either. Okay. Well, the first bit of news I want to cover quickly is a bit bad news. Oh. Sad news, indeed. So, I apologize for my French accent. François Fradeval passed away this week. Ah. A French RPG creator and developer was the editor-in-chief of the French RPG magazine at Classos Belli.

When he moved to the U.S. in the 1980s, he worked at TSR alongside Gary Gygax and co-wrote Oriental Adventures and Monster Manual 2 before returning to France and caning it. Continue to work on French. Not PG for the tent. Okay. So, you know, I thought let's go to his family. Died at the age of 66. Quite young, really. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So anyway, I thought I'd get the sort of sad news out of the way first. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. All right. Let's go on to some more happy news, shall we? Okay. Let's change the thing. We have that nowadays. As happy as it gets yeah right, so from dark comics comes the first Dungeons and Dragons comic from them obviously there have been Dungeons and Dragons comics before but this is their first Dungeons and Dragons comic okay brand new Dyson's theme deal between them and Wizards of the Coast and this is called Dungeons and Dragons the Fallback Bye.

And it's uh yeah and it's based on a adventuring group of misfits and there's been a couple of novels featuring them recently but so i remembered the name the fallbacks i was going to ask if it was the novel series okay so the same universe and just yeah cool yeah yeah well i'm sure i described the cover because it looks quite intriguing it's busy it's a lot there's like I'm going to say a party of five, advancing towards the bottom of the page. We've got a black dwarf wielding a staff.

Then behind them, some sort of elf lady with a crossbow. It's an elf lady. It's a S. Right. I don't know what the names you see. I'm on first name basis. Yes, that's the word I'm looking for. I'm on a first name basis. Business manager, I'm here to help. Business fluency. Then we have a tiefling bard.

Not wearing a yes uh looking much as you'd expect but with a white set of clothing and it looks like a white fedora with their with holes for the horns go through it's also like one of those donkey hats but like the dead i'm just saying absolutely and then we have looks like maybe an asian guy holding a magic crackling sword so i'm assuming some sort of paladin human fighter anston oh Ooh, human fire's getting some love. There you go. Don't say that every day.

And then taking out the back, I'm going to say probably... Magic user of some kind with a star. Yeah, I think we've probably got like maybe a cleric, which is normally a dwarf drop, but that dwarf is looking kind of magy to me. And we've got the cleric Baldrick. So the one in the front is the cleric. Baldrick. Baldrick, yes. Baldrick, Blackadder Pain. Yeah, that's what I was about to say. Many cunning plans.

And then at the back, I'm guessing then probably a mage, which is a black-haired, I'm going to say human, probably. Yes. And we also have the Otyug companion Uggie features in this as well. I don't think you can see Uggie. Can you see Uggie on that picture? I don't think so. Is that over the shoulder of the fighter? Oh, I see. Yes. Yeah, there we go. Yes, yes. It looks very little shock of horrors.

Oh, okay. Like, for me, the Otyog is, like, from the episode 4 Star Wars film, where they all end up in the trash compactor and something sticks out and then attempt to sweep them. This is obviously a little baby Otyog. Oh, of course. Monsters are always cute to win their babies. Yeah. Yeah. I wish some company would bring out some kind of D&D rulebook which allowed you to have monstrous companions maybe starting off.

Sort of like as sort of young sort of baby monsters and like growing up over the course of their career and leveling it up along with you. Wouldn't that be a good idea for a book? You need some sort of visionary, some sort of like wild devil make hair, take on all cameras sort of idea. But where would we find that? We'd need someone who understood monster design really well, so they weren't overpowered and it fit in with the existing world. Maybe someone like Paul Hughes could write that.

Well, you'd get Paul Hughes to write a book. I mean, if you can afford it now, I hear he's some sort of big shot now. Superstar. We'd just give him some magic beans and he does that. On that note, if people don't know, Pets and Sidekicks is the next crowd funder for doing EM Publishing. And if you want to hear more about it, just yesterday I had a chat with Paul on the EM Publishing monthly live stream.

If you're watching the live stream... Let me scroll all the way to the end of my slides now because I left that topic. Oh, I'm so sorry. Oh, and you mentioned it. Because that's what always happens. There we go. That's you last night.

That's me. Oh, my hair's different colour. guess what I've been doing in the meantime anyway yeah so if you want to hear or watch more about that if you're listening to the podcast if you go to our Facebook YouTube or Twitch channel you'll be able to see that video and hear more about it from Paul and we'll probably have him on the podcast in a few weeks maybe to chat about it once the crowd yeah, anyway that is Pets and Sidekicks but sorry I ruined your plan and your flow

for the podcast Russ what is next as is my want as is your want So, D&D video games Oh.

Okay Tell me more You'll get excited in a minute, Jess Your favourite D&D video game is coming up But before, Before your favourite D&D video game We're going to talk about a cancelled D&D video game That's less exciting to me It is less exciting Is this even news?

Okay The news is that some gameplay footage and concept art Has made its way online and this is for a triple a open world video game, A D&D video game that was originally announced back in 2021 by Hidden Path and then got cancelled in 2023. Right. After two years away, I must be starting. Yeah. But now we have some concept art from it to get an idea of what this game was going to look like. Of what we're missing out on. Yeah.

There's quite a few pages of these, so we can't really describe every single image because I'm going to flip through several pages of lots of art pieces. It looks a lot like D&D book art, to be honest, as well. Yeah. Yeah, like D&D book art, but there's a lot more use of, I guess I'd call it soft lighting to blur the backgrounds so you don't really have a particular focus or anything.

Oh, it's quite a coming one. with, like, there's a little pub scene, it looks like, where there's a bunch of ladies sat at a table with candles and fruit. And that looks like Tia Matt in the bottom right corner image there. Very different vibes from those two images, Tia Matt. A pub brunch. Yeah. I don't see a five-headed dragon anywhere on the screen. I think I can see three heads, I think. It's slightly blurry, but I think there's a big central head there and one on each side. Is there not?

I'm not seeing it, but the great thing about art is that people interpret it and take different things from it, Russ. Well, there's definitely five heads on this one, on the next page. Yeah, that one, definitely I'll give you. That's less interpretive and more actually a picture of Tiamat. Yeah, yeah. I mean, this looks like it would be a really cool game. It's a shame it will not exist any further. Yeah. There was actually footage of it.

I could if I can remember how to do this I could try and show you some of that footage yeah do you want me to talk to you this is not my portrait okay so I oh I just started playing it on a different monitor by mistake which is not what I did I missed Daryl.

Well I think Jess is the only person so what am I doing I'm sharing screen is that correct and select the tab the video is on and make sure you select the audio toggle okay, press the button share oh no no not that, this fixed it there you go okay right now and then I scroll down there we go.

So that's sort of what it looks like as you can see from behind you can see a man running around with a sword and a shield trotting people yeah, It looks very like Baldur's Gate, but it's not turn-based combat.

It's like over-the-shoulder, fantastic. Yeah, so the scenery looks very much like the Forgotten World Realms as interpreted by Baldur's Gate 3. Like the grass, the lighting, the random pillars of rock sticking up out of the place. Is that that much your understanding as well? Is that what you're talking about? Yeah, yeah. In terms of the world, the graphics, the atmosphere.

It looks like, you know, obviously I don't play that many video games, but that Jedi Survivor series of video games, it's very similar to that, just a fantasy version of, to me. I would have been interested in playing that. This is a bit where some people sing. You sneak up on some singing people. Onward to bring back the morning light. I fight. We fight. Anyway. Nice, or a bop. You want to hear some more of it? Yeah.

You were enjoying that, were you? Yeah, I love a good bit of Barger's song. It's this one. All right, it's enough of that. It's enough of that. If you want more, there's a link in the show notes. You can listen to it all. I know, I'm doing after the podcast. Yeah, it's for an interpretation of folk music. Like, yeah, it's fine. Yeah. So this says Baldur's Gate 3? Yes. And there is... Yes, well, this is... Well, that's the next news item.

The next news item is that Ed Greenwood, who created the World Realms... Right. ...been playing Baldur's Gate 3. Is that Ed Greenwood? That is Ed Greenwood. He looks like a wizard. He does look quite like a wizard. I didn't really expect it to be Ed Greenwood, but when I look at it and think, hmm, is this the sort of person that looks like they would tell me what drow breast milk tastes like? I'd have to say, yes, yes it is. What? Have you not seen that tweet? No!

Please give context to what you just said, PJ. Like, somebody asked him, what does drow breast milk taste like? And he gave a detailed answer. And I'm like, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Like, that is the context. He's like, yeah, you are. He might have been asked. He might just run off on one. What I think should be the one thing that Peter reminded you for. It's quite a memorable thing. Well, also, there's a bunch of books. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Created the forgotten realms, including Baldur's Gate.

Well, you see, I forgot about the forgotten realms. that's a problem there well that is a problem isn't it yeah they're distinctly unmemorable by definition i guess but anyway anyway anyway anyway he's been playing on that so he hasn't been playing himself he's been playing it so he's got someone with him who's playing it and he's telling that person what to do essentially okay basically being a backseat driver yeah something to do with his computer not being up

to it or something like that i think was the uh fair Fair enough. This is them actually playing it. So you can see it's basically a shot from Baldur's Gate and a window with him in one window and the person who's actually doing the playing in another. Got it. Yeah. I mean... It looks like he's playing a gist, a Yankee. Possibly. Possibly. I'm not going to correct Jess on what someone's playing in Baldur's Gate 3. That seems like the power of error for us. I'm just trying to get out there. Yeah.

Just in the bottom left-hand corner, two icons. He's in the beach scene at the beginning. So the party is Shadowheart and your tab. And that looks like a good Yankee to me in the, There you go, Russ. There you go. That's why we've got an expert on that. Well, there's two videos. Can you wizard or sorcerer or something? I mean, we could find out very easily. Oh, yeah? If you want to know. I mean, often you don't have to guess these things.

You can just look and find out. If you like. Well, I was looking and finding out about the screenshot you shared. But, yeah. Yeah? Okay. If you want to give us information as opposed to just engaging in speculation, I suppose you could. Not on this podcast. We're not here for news and facts. We're here for baseless speculation. That is the baseless speculation. That's right. Anyway, sorry. You know what? Yes, it is, is the answer to your question. Yeah.

Who would have thought? Jess knows how bold his gates. Yeah. A picture of a character from behind. And it's like, yeah, a gishy-anky wizard. It's like, okay. Can you see the pointy ears from this angle? I don't know. I know. I said, in fairness, the character portrait on the left. Yeah. Because from behind, that could be many different species. The character portraits of the little faces that appear underneath Ed's face. Hmm. Fair enough. Anyway, there's two videos so far.

One is character creation, and the second one is as they start playing through Battlescape 3. I don't know how far they're going to go through the game, but there are two YouTube videos so far. Nice. Which you can watch, should you wish to do so. I also play the Baldur's Gate, should you wish to watch, every Wednesday. I know. I am aware. I blew up a factory this week. Oh, that's fun. Which one? But it's good fun. What sort of a factory? In-game, right? Yeah.

We're not really living fight club here. No. Yeah, sure. Yeah. So, let's move on. Let's move on. Let's move on from Baldur's Gate. Oh, we've got some more bad news if we're going by the order that's on here. Yeah. Oh, what Hasbro done this week? We haven't had one of those for a while. Wow. That's it. Then something racist.

Possibly, but not that I know of Has it sent I'm not telling you that it definitely hasn't But I'm not aware That's not what this news item is about Right, right, okay Has it sent armed thugs around someone's house? Again I'm not saying for certain that they haven't But I'm not aware of this Has it sacked a whole bunch of people?

Yes Oh christmas came earlier hasbro this year yeah has laid off three percent of its global workforce project operational excellence continues as a laid out for us so this is a mix of voluntary departures and layoffs and they're saying that this one this particular round of layoffs is tariff related that's what they're saying they said they warned about it earlier in the year and said it was coming, and it just happened. They said that. Is this part of their plan?

Well, as we know, in 2023, they cut nearly 2,000 people. Yeah, so I'd. They laid it out. It's on their website that they said they were going to do it. They've been doing it, and they've been reporting the cost savings every time there's a bunch of layoffs. I mean, it's just whatever excuse happens to be in the news at the time. What was it last year? It was like toy sales were down. Now it's tariffs. I was like, sure.

Well, this is Dungeons & Dragons Vice President Jess Lanzillo, who announced her departure this week. Ah, wow. Also, Todd Kenrick, Senior Content Marketing Strategist, was let go this week. As we know, Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins both announced their departures a couple of weeks ago. That's a lot of senior people at the helm of... Yeah, they lost Mike Mills late last year. Yeah.

Well it's the thing with layoffs and departures it's like people see potentially their friends co-workers acquaintances leaving i think oh maybe i should move on as well so if you do like three percent you can expect another three percent of people just say you know we've had enough there is by the way evidence scientifically speaking that this doesn't work at saving money and but you know that's like not something that's made it on its way to linkedin i'm

afraid you can prove anything with facts and statistics if you if you recall also very recently 90 percent of dnd's project signal team was laid off including andy collins who was heading up that team so, yeah that's a lot of people a lot of people being laid off yeah huge amounts of institutional experience and knowledge being got rid a lot of these people have been with the company for like, decades right so this is a long time yeah yeah no one's gonna know where the files are kept.

No one's gonna know key to the loser which draw i i don't know i i imagine i could be wrong that they probably have some considerable amount of important things lying around that people know where things are it reminds me of that xkcd cartoon where there's like a this enormous, piled up number of objects and there's like just one tiny thing keeping it all propped up, which has been maintained by some guy called Boggs who lives in Idaho.

It's like, yeah, just keeping the whole stretch going. But who knows? Maybe not. Maybe it's all fine. Maybe it's like a perfect handover. Because that's something that frequently happens with institutions in my experience. We do not know.

But they're not the only person losing staff. Who else is losing staff? Oh, that's not what I meant to do. There we go. That's what I meant to do. Darrington Press' Ivan Van Norman, he was the company director and he was responsible for creative oversight and product development, announced his departure from Darrington Press after a four-year stint. He actually left a month ago, apparently. I don't know. But they've only just announced it. Right.

I don't you know i think um he put out a statement you know the usual sort of um i'm no longer working a critical role i'm really grateful for my time wish everyone all the best but yeah the usual usual thing that people people say in these situations but he's now moving to focus on a company that he started 15 years ago called hunters entertainment so well good luck See what happens there? Go for him. Yeah. Yeah. Well, guess who's joining Darrington Press?

Well, podcast listeners can see. Yes. Well, podcast viewers can see. Podcast listeners will need us to say that we have like a group pick, which looks to me, am I uneducated? I like cast a critical role, is it? Yeah. And Jeremy Crawford and... Chris Perkins. I'm completely out of my head. Chris Perkins. We were literally just talking about him. And it's like, oh, yes. I don't know who that is. Oh, no, I don't.

Yeah. Yeah, so Chris Perkins is their new creative director and Jeremy Corpett is their new game director. Basically, similar roles to what they had at Wizards of the Coast. Interesting. Yeah. Now, this is announced by the LA Times. Hmm. Wow. Yeah, quite big news. Apparently, they were approached by Critical Role shortly after they announced their departure from Wizards.

Hmm. I imagine. So, you reckon they were poached? they weren't poached but they were snapped up as it were I think so yeah that's what it sounds like that's what it sounds like.

Yeah I don't know what they've got in plan I mean Darrington Press has recently launched Dagger Heart like very very recently which at the moment is you know kind of the zeitgeist game at the moment that people are talking about or not, it's got legs but yeah yeah yeah, I mean lots of people are saying that Dagger Heart is going to be a D&D killer and stuff like that it's not of course it's not and it doesn't need to be and that's not ever going you know it can be

an amazing commercial success it can do fantastic work it could be critically claimed yeah and i i mean hey maybe it'll kill dnd but that's not the way to bet because one has a billion dollar corporation throwing money at it and the other is.

Critical role a smaller corporation yeah i mean my my feeling is like a heart and uh darrington press and i don't know the exact size of these companies or what they're you know you know company turnovers look like but in my in my mind like darrington press is kind of like chaosium or modifius or paizo that sort of size yeah in my mind yeah yeah like if i have people come to my and say oh yeah yeah i i heard that uh was the possibility of getting

a game with dagger heart here then i'll be like okay maybe there's something to it until they stop asking for dnd by name, yeah maybe less so i think it's one of those things where it's just going to be used to mean any ttrpgs it has people who aren't into rpgs yet are only going to know what dnd they're not going to know any other game, mate. It's the gateway drug. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, talking of other well-going games, guess what it is tomorrow? Saturday. It is Saturday. It's also 3RPG Day. Woo-hoo! Yeah. Saturday, 21st of June, that's North American 3RPG Day. I think we have a different day over here, I believe. Yeah.

Very few people notice but i'd like to observe it yeah okay okay there's a big big a lot i've got, a list here as long as your arm of stuff that's going to be available on free rpg day which you can grab for free i'm not going to read through that list because it's really long but there will be a link in the show notes and there's a whole load of stuff either you can pick up at a local game store like physical stuff in north america that if they're participating in vrpg day or you can just go

online and grab it a lot of these a lot of these people have liked it on their websites or on drive-thru rpg and these are people like chaosium and green running and free league you know some good decent stuff which you can grab for free nice, One thing that is coming out is, for 3RPG Day, is something from Paizo. Are you ready, Jess? Brace yourself. Okay. It's very cute. You are sitting down. I'm seated. It's hard to tell. I know. Here we go. You might have overhyped it. Oh, sorry.

It's a nice piece of art. What we're seeing is... It's a paranoid cat. It's a cat with sunglasses. A cockroach. and a cockroach wearing a holographic, a holographic Stetson is the best way I would describe it and they're looking at looks like schematics for some sort of rocket launching gun and apparently a hat as well, I don't know what a hat needs schematics you need to know how to build a hat it is quite cute Russ sorry But yeah, there's no captain, what's it called, captain concierge.

Yeah. Well, these are the two products that Glazo are putting out for free on RPG day, free RPG day. First is a Starfinder adventure, the Battle for Nova Rush. And you start off as prisoners of a space pirate captain. Cool. Space pirates. I mean, that's fun. Yeah, and the other one is called the Scourge of Sheerleaf. Which is a Pathfinder adventure. Yeah, and this is a level 10 adventure. Oh, okay, cool. You jump in at level 10, yeah, and you play as one of four dragon-blooded heroes.

Dragon-Blooded Heroes. Dragon-Blooded Heroes. I'm having a flashback to Exalted there. Dragon-Blooded Heroes would mean probably something quite different. Okay. It would mean something very different. Well, I read what it says. So, a short adventure, 10th level characters take on the role of one of four unique Dragon-Blooded characters, people who have special abilities in their lineage, granted by a powerful connection to a type of dragon.

This adventure sets the dragon-blooded heroes on a mission to defeat a powerful dragon and save the village he's been tormenting. Yeah, I mean, the cover art's quite interesting. The Starfinder one has the humanoid cat with, I forgot to mention, the red goggles on shooting at a purple humanoid with, looks like, dreadlocks. It's red sunglasses. And the reason he's wearing red sunglasses is because I have set the trend. when I get sunglasses.

And you also have them. The Starfinder cat is copying me. While this is at home, Russ has decided to take some fashion tips from Bono and is now wearing a... They're apparently very good for driving. Red sunglasses are great for driving. Because you're inside your car and no one can see you? And green sunglasses are good for something else and black ones are good for something else. I can't remember what. But no, red are good for driving. It's like different types of dragons.

They just have different, you know, abilities. Definitely. Yeah, I don't know. The Powerfinder dragon looks a bit weird to me. I'm not sure it is a dragon, is it? Well, I assume so. The thing's about a dragon. It's got sort of like dragon, what I would call dragon-esque attributes in its hexapodal form. I mean, given that the adventure description was a party of four heroes go to defeat a dragon terrorizing a village, I'm going to guess that is a dragon.

That's a really good guess, given the context of that. I mean, it does look a bit more kimono dragon with its, like... The way its legs are on its body, as I was describing visually. So the podcast listeners will enjoy that, obviously. You know what? It reminds me of Pembertrod from Honor Amongst Thieves. Like the big chubby dragon that went chasing us. Yeah! Rather than red. Yeah. That was a fun day out we had, wasn't it? That was a good day. Yeah.

So yeah, this dragon's been out of the pies and why not? I mean, sign of a successful happy dragon. Yes. No fair through size. It's driving. Indeed.

Oh they look like good adventures for free rpg day yeah i guess if you play past finder star finder, if you're in north america check and see if your friendly local game store is participating in free rpg day and if so pop along if not you can still go to there'll be a link in the show notes to the article which has a whole big long list of dozens of different things that companies are giving out of a free RPG day. A lot of which you can just download free online.

So even if you weren't in America? Even if you're not in America I believe that you still have access to the internet. I'm told. If you have access to the internet. If you have access to the internet, yeah. Which if you're listening to this, I'm assuming you do. Yes. If you're listening to this, you probably do. Yeah. Most likely.

Yeah. Anyway, what else have we got coming on this week? Okay, so Critical Role, The Legend of Vox Machina stories of untold untold, untold stories untold that word is untold not untold I don't even know what untold is that's not even a word I made it up.

But I like it I like the word untold I gotta come up with a meaning for it and start making it happen, having a think about the meaning of the word untold the cover is I guess there's like a stylized V&M that's on a brown plant with orange leaves. Yeah, the end of the course nationally. Tree is branching out almost like a family tree style with different symbols and circles around it. Maybe the symbols are meant to be the characters or something. Now they're related in some sort of shrub.

It's got the critical roll symbol which is a stylised D20 with critical roll where the, bisexual is toward and the T is, as you say, the sword yeah yeah so this is short stories there are 10 of them they have all existed before this is an anthology compilation sorry so this also has an audiobook version narrated each story is narrated by one or more of the critical role team and yeah there's 10 of them apparently they're apparently they're quite

fun i haven't heard them myself or read them myself but apparently they're Quite fun. Yeah. For those who are interested in the HMG authors, we've got... Yeah, and we've got a mix of... Sorry, what are you saying? I was just going to say who the authors are, because that might be of interest to people who like reading books. Okay.

Yeah, we've got Jess Barber, Martin Cahill, Rebecca, Coffindaffer, Aubrey Ian Jar, Sam Magg, Sarah Glenn Marsh, Rory Power, Nibidita Sen, Izzy Bosstein, and Kendra Wells, performed by Liam O'Brien. All right, but yeah, so if any of those names may have anything to you, then you may well have a good time reading this book. I mean these stories all apparently vary a lot in tone and genre yes.

There might be something in there that you like I recognise a couple of these names from people who I didn't realise were authors I thought they were more voice actors so it's going to be interesting to see what comes out yeah.

I do like a good short story compilation yeah so this next item one of you two must have put this one up because I don't recognise it oh yeah that's me, yeah there we go we have been battling around creating guys to delving dungeons and introductions to roleplaying and so forth when someone has very kindly created a double-sided three-fold pamphlet trifold pamphlet called So You Want to Delve Dungeons, which is a dungeon delving primer for the kids and the curious.

It's a free download off itch.io and it educates you on the ins and outs of dungeon crawling in the form of a discussion between Skylar the Brave and Demi the Demi Lich. Okay. Yeah. And I thought it was funny. And you can grab that free from itch.io? Yes. It's Bond Schooltaker, I think, is the name. Yeah. BondSchooltaker.h.io slash soyouwanttodelve.com Yeah, we'll have a link in the show notes. Yeah. As I thought it was very cute and quite funny. But, okay, let's go. Yeah.

We're pretty much coming to the end of the news now. We've got a couple of announcements of our own. But other than that, unless anyone's got any news that I have missed... No, I think that's all the news items. I mean, I think the big news this week was obviously all the staff movings around from D&D and Darrington Press. And I've seen a lot of people talking about it online. Like, I think some people had kind of an underdog idea about Darrington Press.

They're like, yeah, they've managed to poach the big players. Like, it's, you know, I don't know much about sports, but some people are doing the analogy of, like, football teams when they buy players and move them around and things.

But I don't know. i didn't have a lot to say about it and i didn't have a lot of i was like okay that makes sense they they plan to leave wizards when darrington heard they were they got reached out to hire them and i kind of didn't have a lot more thoughts on it beyond that but i don't know is that just me or do you two have any other um not especially i mean they've certainly got experience and expertise which i'm sure darrington press will benefit from because they've you know being at

the senior management level of a large world-playing game company they yeah you know they'll have experience about team management and so forth which would be very useful if starting compresses play on growing and developing their teams because that is where companies can fall over like in that transit is a difficult it's a difficult transition going from a small team to like a maybe maybe a bigger team and having a bit of institutional experience

and college can be helpful for that yeah and of course as my day has mike mulls now and of course he's you know got an awful lot of experience heading a major tabletop role-playing brand as well so as my day really wanted to sort of really start pushing their rpg content forward.

That's probably a good choice yeah i mean they're around the name recognition as prestige to your brand there you go i'm sure they have i'm sure they have their fans as well yeah yeah um right so here we go inside our magazine issue number three came out and this one is all about fighters so there's an adventure in there for third level characters called fight the good fight, There's a dozen new feats for fighters, and there's ten original NPCs,

including gladiators and goblins and giants and generals and even a couple of deities of battle. Oh, my. Lots and lots of stuff. That's a nice cover. You can go to the Patreon account to get the digital or the physical parts of that. Yes, you can get either the PDF by subscribing at Patreon or you can subscribe to the actual physical magazine and Jess will actually send it to you out to your house or other nominated shipping address.

What's the address you give us? Yes. So we don't send you a print-on-demand coupon for this. To make it easier, we just send it to you every month. Yeah, we send you the actual magazine.

We give us your address and we send you the magazine. so yeah just gives you a bit less admin because i sometimes find i'd subscribe to these things and i'd get the at cost coupons and i wouldn't bother printing them because i'd be like oh yeah i'll do that later and i just never get around to doing it and i forget about it and i never back things that give me at cost coupons whether it's you know a patreon or a kickstarter because i i don't want to i don't want to buy the ability

to buy something i just want to buy the thing so one step please i'll back it and then you send it to me that's what that's what i'm doing i'm not backing it and then buying it again later far enough too many steps yeah for me i feel like it i'm like it's on me because i'm just not doing my life admin yeah well that's exactly that's what will happen with me i just you know i just won't end up getting it if i do it like that i'll just give someone money for free at that point

so that's kind of you yeah yeah. But anyway, that's Insider Magazine. Yes, and the other thing I was going to mention was, that's the sidekicks, but we already did that. Yeah. I was going to talk about the fact that you can go and watch an interview with Paul Hughes, which happened last night. Yep. Exciting. Yep, so I did that yesterday, so that was good. Yeah. And some other people may be interviewing Paul over the next few weeks, so... Ooh.

Keep an eye out in other locations on the internet that aren't EN world. Well, the Kickstarter is going to be... We're not going to tell you the exact date quite yet because we're still trying to decide between a couple of dates. Yeah. But it is very soon. It will be next month in July. But if you click, follow this crowdfunder. We'll email you when it goes live. Yeah. We'll probably mention it on here because it's exciting. I'm sure we'll probably mention it, yeah.

Yeah. Because it's exciting. I'm excited. I'm excited. I think it looks awesome. Me too. Yeah. yeah yeah okay right i think we're done i think that's the week all right well well worse things have happened at sea yeah well thank you all for joining us here in the chat and online and on youtube twitch and facebook is it facebook yes where we're live at 2 p.m every week uk time or 9 a.m us time uh eastern time even more specifically because that U.S. Has more than one town. It's a big place.

Yeah, it has multiple towns. Until next week then, I guess. Yeah, thanks very much. Sayonara. Au revoir. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Music.