The Goblins and Growlers Podcast

WotC Nixes A La Carte Buying on D&D Beyond and Other News | The Goblins and Growlers Podcast

A bit of a news breakdown today. Wizards of the Coast is surprisingly adding the new Core Rulebooks's updated SRD to Creative Commons. But then they juke in another direction and make some unpopular changes to D&D Beyond! Kobold Press issues has some things to say about the reception of their Black Flag Reference Document, and Josh compares *just how similar* it is to D&D's 5.1 SRD (spoilers: a lot).
D&D Beyond Changes: https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1709-d-d-beyond-marketplace-redesign-see-whats-new-here
New Core Rulebooks SRD will be Creative Commons: https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1717-2024-core-rulebooks-to-expand-the-srd
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Castle of the Winds and The Wild West of Win 3.1 Gaming | The Goblins and Growlers Podcast

It's simple this week: We play Castle of the Winds and talk about it. The game holds a special place in Josh's personal gaming history.
Castle of the Winds is a PC RPG/Roguelike from the Windows 3.1 era, which is a weird time for games. We get into this in the episode but, basically, Win 3.1 was very much primarily a business application and its native games were like a square peg in a round hole. All the good games were on DOS anyway.
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Heckna! Heckna! Read All About It! | The Goblins and Growlers Podcast

Join the Revalia with "Heckna!" from Hit Point Press. This is a campaign setting that seems to take a little bit from Final Fantasy 6 and a little bit from Ravenloft. It's described as a sandbox setting, but there are a couple of arguments as to why it might not be. It's 300 pages, incredibly well done, and professional... which you'd expect from a Kickstarter that raised more than $600,000!
If you decide to pick up a copy, be sure to let us know what you think and whether we're totally off-base in our assessment.
Also, file your taxes if you haven't already:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiSC5R3XAMo 
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Hasbro CEO: Let's Use AI in Dungeons & Dragons | The Goblins and Growlers Podacast

The CEO of Dungeons & Dragons' parent company, Chris Cocks, gave an interview where he talked about AI and Hasbro's research and development into how to apply it to Dungeons & Dragons. It's an interesting interview (link below the jump) that more or less spells out that they're likely to use it for some kind of virtual DM - but that's still just speculation. We discuss the likeliest manifestation of something like that and how they could make it work while respecting the work of human writers and gamemasters.
Also, we do a quick preview of the new "Quests from the Infinite Staircase" and mention a Humble Bundle for tons of great RGP books from Magpie Games!
Finally, if you're listening to this on Monday, April 1, tomorrow is the last day of the Kickstarter for "Born from Ice." Help them hit that Neanderthal stretch goal! They're so close. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lorenthegm/born-from-ice-stone-age-role-playing-5e?ref=c6djgl&token=7da324ce
 
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NASA releases a fantasy TTRPG adventure? | The Goblins and Growlers Podcast

This week, we're looking at the new (free) system-neutral TTRPG adventure that NASA wrote and released to keep everyone hyped about Hubble. It's designed to be educational, but does its fantasy setting muddy that goal a little? Also, Josh updates us on the Vecna adventure coming out soon, and we respond to the longest YouTube comment I've ever seen!
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"Born from Ice" Creator Interview: Stone-Age D&D | The Goblins and Growlers Podcast

Today we talk with Loren Small, the creator of "Born from Ice," a 5E-compatible setting with a few twists. It’s a complete tabletop setting that’s built on Fifth Edition but takes place on Paleolithic Earth. All cavepeople, all the time. Oh, and I should probably mention that there’s no magic, so everything is harder. It has some other cool aspects like generational play. BFI’s Kickstarter launches Tuesday, March 5 and you can check it out here (once it’s live). It’s coming with a core rule book, a bestiary, and an adventure path. I was excited about it even before talking with Loren, so it was great to hear how BFI came to be and learn about Loren's path to creating it.
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Help! My Game Is on Fire! GM and Player Advice Live Show | The Goblins and Growlers Podcast

Good Goblin Monday! Today's episode is from a recent Twitch stream that we did. We did a live online version of our "Help! My Game Is on Fire!" convention panel where GMs and players bring their tabletop problems to us and we offer advice on how to navigate them. These can be anything from handling bad fits at the table to untying narrative knots. It's always a blast and the experience is different every time. Hope you all enjoy! We want to plan more of these live-on-Twitch recordings for topics that lend themselves, so let us know what you'd like to see!
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Deck of Many Things Review | The Goblins and Growlers Podcast

Good Goblin Monday! This week, we take a look at the (spoilers) fantastic "Deck of Many Things" after its delayed release thanks to production issues. We also talk about the Tales of the Valiant Game Master's Guide and this new D&D virtual reality game that seems to be in development. Deets after the jump.
Also, on Wednesday, Feb. 7 at 8 p.m. EST, Josh and Brandon will be doing a live recording of the podcast over on our Twitch channel. We hope you can join us for the first podcast edition of our popular convention panel, "Help! My Game is on Fire!" where players and GMs can ask for advice about how to deal with touchy issues in their games. Hope to see you there!
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Is this the END of a tabletop GOLDEN AGE? (Someone thinks so) | The Goblins and Growlers Podcast

Good Goblin Monday, everyone. This week, we're analyzing an essay that claims we're at the end of "The Golden Age of Tabletop Roleplaying Games." As you might expect, the writer is using the 2023 OGL Crisis as the jumping-off point for their argument, so this should be coming right after our "D&D is Stronger than Ever" episode. The essay has all the hallmarks of a hyperbolic reaction that blows things out of proportion, but some nuggets of truth in there are hard to disagree with. Full topics breakdown below the jump, along with a couple of other brief topics we hit at the top of the episode.
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OGL One Year Later: Is D&D Stronger Than Ever Now?

Josh was under the weather, so we were lucky enough to snag Noted TTRPG Attorney Noah Downs, Esq., to come and talk about and offer his on-the-ground perspective about the tumultuous last 12 months in Dungeons & Dragons and the tabletop gaming space overall. Do you think Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro has recovered from the PR nightmare that was the Open Gaming License controversy? I'd argue that even with last month's layoffs, D&D is far stronger now and better positioned to thrive than it was this time last year. Check below for all the topics we discussed.
The OGL Controversy One Year Later
Despite the body blow to the company, is Wizards of the Coast actually *better off* now than they were a year ago?
WotC juking everyone with Creative Commons
D&D's 5.1 SRD going into Creative Commons wasn't at the top of anyone's list of probabilities when everything with OGL started.
Third Parties’ Plans Foiled
Third-party publishers clearly planned for a different outcome when they started announcing their upcoming D&D alternatives. But, once WotC went with Creative Commons, it seems like they scrambled to still move forward without losing face even though their original motivation was less and less relevant.
One D&D (Can we even call it that anymore)?
Call it One D&D, call it 6.0. Whatever it is, it's coming, and it remains to be seen if it's going to be "iterative" like was originally announced or an entirely new ruleset. You would think that releasing the 5.1 SRD into Creative Commons would incentivize them to release a whole new ruleset.
Wasn’t there a D&D movie?
Yes, and it bombed. We talk about why.
WotC’s Book Price Bloat
Sure there's inflation and things generally cost more, but what extra value are you getting for the additional cost of these books?
Planescape returns… is it worth it?
Rerelease, remix, or return to get your money back? Does the new 5E Planescape justify its existence?
Ernie Gygax and Justin La Nasa’s NuTSR files Chapter 7
Uninclusive company with a racist and transphobic product continues to have problems and files for bankruptcy after <blank>ing around and finding out.
Weird D&D channel
What's the deal with that D&D free ad-supported television channel? Who asked for this? More importantly, who's paying for it?
AI’s influence on content creation
AI has 100% affected every corner of content creation in the last year and WotC wasn't safe, either. We talk about the real AI art scandal and the smaller, made-up one that came at the end of the year.
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OBLIGATORY 'FORGOTTEN PATHS' PLUG
Also, I have to promote "Forgotten Paths," or Noah will hunt me down and end me chillingly and mysteriously. So anyway, check out "Forgotten Paths!
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The Goblins and Growlers Podcast is produced by Goblins and Growlers, a Richmond, Virginia-based tabletop-roleplaying game content and events company dedicated to inclusivity through TTRPGs.