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Welcome to You Heard it Here Last where we talk about news, you’ve already heard.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/dungeons-dragons-is-unionizing-citing-ai-personal-ip-rights-layoff-fears-and-crunch-experiences.720898/

On October 6th the designers, artists, writers, producers, and workers behind Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, Duel Masters and D&D Beyond, are forming a union with the Communications Workers of America.

Anybody who did not see this one coming must have got a critical failure on their perception check.

As we reported earlier in the year Magic The Gathering: Arena workers unionized so this was just the next step since they are all under the same Wizards of the Coast umbrella.

Their announced reasons for the unionization; Fair Wages, Promotions, and Job Security. Remote Work Protections and Sustainable Workloads. Reliable and Easily Accessible Healthcare. Protections against AI and, Full ownership of what is created outside of work.

Christina, I knew we have different opinions on some of these things, but overall, what are your thoughts on this news?

[Kick to Christina]

Next up on your business Bingo Card is AI!

https://www.enworld.org/threads/uk-games-expo-finally-bans-ai-from-the-convention.720770/

The UK Games Expo has finally banned AI from the convention. Now we can all breath a sigh of relief. Insert sarcasm emoji.

Over the last couple of years, the UK Games Expo has faced public backlash over allowing AI products to co-exist side by side on the vendor floor with products not made using AI.

I get it and I don’t believe anyone should be able to us AI without acknowledging the use. But let’s be real. AI is the new tool on the block and it’s impossible to not use it. I used AI when searching for news articles to talk about on this podcast. I even have an AI search set up to keep me informed with new changes on topics that interest us at Epic Adventure. You can’t use any online system without some form of AI baked into it.

Full disclosure, I used AI to check the spelling on my script.

These types of bans only do one thing. Create liars. Now people are going to use AI and then lie about it and as AI advances it will become almost impossible to know that AI was used. Instead of banning why don’t we just require it to be announced. Then those people who like AI or don’t mind AI use can buy the products and those that are against AI can shop elsewhere.

This really hurts the small creators, the new independent companies that can’t afford to have the big work groups with contracts and unions saying you have to pay a guy 500 bucks an hour to draw a logo.

I mean, it’s censorship. We’ve seen it before, it’s never good, and we are going to keep seeing it in the future.

Now Christina, tell me why I’m wrong and overreacting.

[Kick to Christina]

And there you have it, all the news, you’ve already heard.

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The Halloween One-Shot!

Everybody has got Halloween wrong. I’m serious. Traditionally Halloween is a time for kids to get dressed up in costumes and wander through the neighborhood gathering candy. It’s a time to embrace the creepy and the spooky, the weird and the unusual.

Throw in a good scary movie and most people call it a successful holiday.

As you grow up, you might throw in a lot of alcohol, some questionable decisions and some inappropriate costumes, but the reality is little changes from when you were a kid.

And here is what everybody has gotten wrong about Halloween.

Halloween was built for roleplaying!

Think about it. 

Halloween can trace its origins back to Samhain, the ancient Celtic traditions honoring the harvest. People back then believed that the veil between the living and the dead thinned on this night. That the ghosts and spirits of the dead could cross over into our world.

I mean as a TTRPG it kinda writes itself.

I firmly believe in the Halloween roleplaying game and on this episode, Christina and I are talking about running a Halloween game for your family and friends on All Hallows Eve.

We talked about the horror genre before, but this isn’t how to run a horror game specifically. It’s how to get your friends together on or around Halloween and create a memorable spooky night around the gaming table.

Christina, If you were invited to a Halloween game, what would you hope the GM had planned?

[Kick to Christina]

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Has this ever happened to you?

Your party makes its way room to room through the dungeon fighting monsters at every turn. And then the climactic battle with the evil wizard and their minions. Three hours of dice rolling combat later you finally win.

As your characters stand around and survey all the damage they have caused and gather the loot, the GM says “The volcano you’ve been fighting in is about to explode. Without the wizard’s power to keep the lava at bay you only have minutes before the chamber is filled?”

And the players answer with “We grab the stuff and run out”

Good job, way to beat the big bad guy, on to the next adventure.

Wow, that was boring

For far to long in far too many adventures the only action has been seen as combat. Inside the initiative rounds the players have to make decisions, use resources, and the stakes feel very high. Outside the initiative rounds, nothing has any stakes.

That is what we call a wasted opportunity.

On this episode we are going to talk about action and combat and why the two terms are not synonymous. When you can master action outside of combat you open an entirely new world of roleplaying. One where tension, stakes, suspense, and decisions mater and the game feel way more immersive.

Christina, With Leviathan Rising coming out soon this topic seemed right on point, because in Leviathan Rising you can’t really fight the monsters, can you?

[Kick to Christina]

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Welcome to You Heard it Here Last where we talk about news, you’ve already heard.

Let’s kick things off with the seedy underbelly of publishing.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/diamond-bankruptcy-settlement-hits-snag-as-sparkle-pop-files-objection.720559/

Well, maybe that’s not fair, although this is where my friends who aren’t fans of capitalism point to me and say “Told Ya So”.

We talked last month about the long running Bankruptcy of Diamond Comics Distribution and the fact that several game companies had millions of dollars of stock held up due to the bankruptcy proceedings. This has led to Paizo having some cashflow problems and laying off staff. Other companies like Green Ronin have had to lean into crowdfunding for legal bills, all while trying to get back their product from Diamond Comics.

This is a very complicated case, Bankruptcy isn’t as simple as somebody unable to pay their bills, especially when you get into the distribution and consignment side of things.

Then along comes Sparkle Pop. Sparkle Pop is a spin off Limited Liability Corporation that spun off of Ad Populum and collectible and toy holding company. They were created right in the middle of the bankruptcy case for the sole purpose of sliding in and purchasing warehouses owned by Diamond Comics, which would give the access to the contents of said warehouses. They then started selling the product in the warehouses against court orders.

You would think that would get them into hot water, but it hasn’t. Instead, they are holding up the entire settlement saying they haven’t gotten their money. Money, they didn’t earn, money they shouldn’t have access to, and money that is hurting businesses in our hobby.

Have I oversimplified things, mostly. But I have a history of keeping things simple. And this is, in my opinion, simply unethical.

Christina, as our in-house ethicist, let’s talk.

[Kick to Christina]

Since we started off with a pretty negative story, we might as well stay in the headspace.

Ok, that’s not fair, and maybe I should try a positive spin on this next piece of news.

https://www.wargamer.com/dnd/dan-ayoub-interview-ogl-lessons

In a recent interview with Wargamer. Dan Ayoub the Head of Wizards of the Coast Dungeons and Dragons talked about his first year in the position and the steps D&D has taken to fix some mistakes made during the OGL scandal. Dan says the biggest thing he has done is to listen and his work will never be done listening.

It reminds me of the answer everyone gives when doing a job interview: What’s your biggest negative, the thing you don’t do well. And you answer with “I work too hard”

Bullshit.

The whole interview just screams bullshit. I trained in PR and making press statements and after reading the interview twice I still can’t find where he answered a damn question.

But, to be fair and try and stay positive let’s point to the fact that D&D had a strong presence at GenCon for the first time in decades and that they have made amends with some of the old creators and worlds that made D&D what it is today. So maybe there are positive things coming out of WOTC right now, just don’t look for them in this interview.

Chistina, what did you take away from this interview?

[Kick to Christina]

And there you have it, all the news, you’ve already heard.

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Ok, wait a minute…they’ve got rules for guns in this. Sweet!

I remember saying that exact line when I first dove into Steve Jackson’s GURPS. The Generic Universal Roleplaying System had come out of their skirmish system Man to Man which I had loved. This was 1986 and the 18-year-old me was looking for new roleplaying games.

Sure, I had done my early work on D&D. I had even played around a little with Gamma World and Traveller, but even at 18 I was a history nut. I was reading Cornealius Ryan’s A Bridge Too Far at the time and Alexander Dumas the Three Musketeers was already solidified as my favorite book. So as soon as I saw this new game that had rules which would let you mix fantasy with reality and bring in historical roleplaying, I was hooked.

GURPS would become my favorite and only roleplaying game for a good decade and don’t get me started on Call of Cthulhu. 

Using GURPS I would run and play in historical and realistic based games set in Three Musketeers world of 1620s France. The Wild West of the 1870s. The Espionage filled world of the 1980s. The Vietnam jungles of the 1970s. The beaches of Normandy in the 1940s. and even the creepy cornfields of Kansas in the 2010s. I personally find that I prefer games set in realistic and historical settings then the pure fantasy settings found in most roleplaying games.

On this episode Christina and I are going to talk about running games in a historical setting and give you some tips and tricks and address some myths to help you transition your games into something really special.

Christina, you do a lot of gaming in those alternative history settings. It’s really the same thing, right?

[Kick to Christina]

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Welcome to you heard it here last where we talk about news, you’ve already heard.

Let’s start off with some news that’s close to our heart. Oddfish Games has announced that Wordleaf Media is joining their Leviathan Rising team. Wordleaf Media is a TTRPG focused publishing support company that provides professional editing, layout, graphic design, art, and creative content. This is going to help bring the amazing rules of Leviathan Rising to life in the upcoming Kickstarter scheduled for a January start.

https://www.wordleafmedia.com/

Christina, since this is your game, what’s the addition of Wordleaf Media mean for the production of Leviathan Rising

[Kick to Christina]

But wait, that’s not all the news on the Leviathan Rising front. Oddfish Games has also announced that the cover for the Leviathan Rising book will be created by Sammy Castillo.

https://www.castillostudios.ninja/

Castillo Studios has provided art content for Batman, Detective Comics, Legends of the Dark Knight, George Romero’s Toe Tags, Green Arrow, Catwoman, Spider-man, Savage Dragon, G.I Joe, Magic The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, Warhammer, Fangoria, and Rolling Stone Magazine, just to name a few.

We had the pleasure of meeting and talking with Sammy at GenCon and are very excited to be able to announce her as the cover artist for the upcoming Leviathan Rising.

Christiana, are you jazzed to have Sammy working on the cover?

[Kick to Christina]

And there you have it, all the news, you’ve already heard.

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Alexander Dumas’s The Three Musketeers is one of my favorite books of all time. I first read the classic in junior high and I was immediately blown away. It was like reading my favorite super hero comics, but it was a classic. It’s one of those books that made me want to read, and that’s a love I have never lost. I tend to read a lot, rarely going back to books I’ve already finished, but The Three Musketeers is the exception to that rule. I have read the book 4 times now and what is amazing is that every time I read it, I look at it completely different, and I connect with a different character.

That Jr. High me was all about D’Artagnan. The young brash kid trying to make something of himself. To prove himself and to fight for the queen and for his country. I connected with that character and loved him.

I picked the book back up a decade later. I’m in my early 20’s starting a career. And this time it was Aramis. The intellectual, the reluctant soldier, the scholar, the lady’s man. He was complex, interesting, and always seemed to have something going on. He made me feel smart and refined.

Fast forward another decade and this time it was Porthos. I had always overlooked Porthos. He was comic relief and not really important. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Porthos was the heart of the group. He was what really held them all together. He also has the most tragic story of the entire group.

My last read of the book in my 50’s really brought Athos into the limelight. I had always liked and appreciated the character of Athos, but I never truly connected or understood him. But just as I move into my later years. Recognizing the weight of life’s baggage. How decisions stay with you forever and the weight of quiet leadership.

On this episode we are going to dive into The Three Musketeers and talk about the characters, the archetypes, and why they made an excellent adventuring party in the novels and would continue to make an excellent adventuring party in your games.

Christina, what was your initial impression of the Three Musketeers?

Kick to Christina

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Welcome to you heard it here last where we talk about news, you’ve already heard.

Let’s start off with at the end, or the beginning of the end, or…well I guess it’s been going on for a while now, but…let’s just start with I told you so.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/is-the-5-5e-dark-sun-going-to-remove-controversial-aspects-of-the-setting.720375/

Dark Suns, the very mature themed D&D setting that is coming back in 2027 will be released in shrink wrap due to its content. Let’s call that a win. Greg Bilsland--D&D executive producer--has confirmed that the content is being reviewed by sensitivity readers, and that the setting will not need to focus on elements such as slavery in order to make it feel gritty and oppressive.

Well, you lost me a sensitivity readers.

Dark Suns was mature, dark, down right evil in places and that’s what made it good. Everyone was a slave and that was far from the darkest aspects of the setting. When they announced that it was coming back I cautioned that it was going to be watered down for the modern audience.

Do I think this setting should be played with children. No

Do I think this source book should come shrink wrapped so unaware and unprepared eyes don’t flip through it. Sure

Do I think you can remove the things that make the setting dark and have the same experience. Absolutely not.

Ladies and gentleman, whatever Wizards of the Coast ends up printing will not be Dark Suns. It will just steal its name. The darkest thing in that book is going to be the title.

Christina, am I overreacting?

[Kick to Christina]

Next up we have a topic that’s been going back and forth between us for awhile now. Crowd Funding costs. EN World has a great article about the rising costs of crowdfunding.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/on-ttrpg-kickstarters-merchandise-and-600-markups.720290/

The article talks about profitability and the 600% markup. That seems a little excessive. With our own Dr. Stiso’s Leviathan Rising coming to Kickstarter in January we have been talking costs. As currently planned the hardback book will sell for around $60 dollars, but Kickstarter pledges today are all about the add-ons and add-ons cost money. Not just to the buyer, but to the seller as well.

Christina, with your new game Leviathan Rising coming in the very near future what are your thoughts?

[Kick to Christina]

And there you have it, all the news, you’ve already heard.

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For those of you that were lucky enough to get a chance to play Leviathan Rising at GenCon, you are welcome. It was a great time and we got to see players laugh, clap, applaud, cheer, and generally have as much fun as we were hoping.

Leviathan Rising is a hit.

But, it’s going to be better.

The rules are written, it’s been playtested, and now we are going into pre-production to get all the art, stories, lore, and special abilities fleshed out so that by GenCon 2027 you can hold the full rulebook in your hands.

On today’s episode we are going to talk to Christina about writing the game. The rules, and how it went at GenCon. And as usual Mike and I will be throwing in our own observations.

So, let’s kick this thing off, Christina, let’s start with GenCon. How did it go?

[Kick to Christina]

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Welcome to you heard it hear last where we talk about news, you’ve already heard.

Paizo is in the news again. But this time it sounds like good news

https://www.enworld.org/threads/paizo-may-finally-get-its-inventory-back-from-bankrupt-diamond.720248/

It seems that Paizo and Diamond Comics Distributors have reached an agreement to release millions of dollars of Paizo inventory they have held since January of 2025. Diamond Comics originally intended to sell the stock to pay their bills, but a flurry of legal activity brought that to an end. This agreement is a big deal for Paizo.

I attended the Paizo address at GenCon and was very critical of the way it was structured. It was clear to me that Paizo built a wall to avoid having to talk about any of their financial troubles, but after this announcement it is clear that they couldn’t because of this legal settlement.

Mike, what does this news mean for Paizo going forward?

[Kick to Mike]

Christina, Will Paizo bounce back right away or will it take some time to get their stride back?

[Kick to Christina]

Up next is as they say, something completely different, and I think that is pretty cool.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/classic-horror-dark-conspiracy-rpg-returns-using-traveller-rules.720279/

The classic dark horror urban fantasy game Dark Conspiracy’s is back and this time with a different rules system. Dark Conspiracy was originally printed by Games Designer’s Workshop in 1991 and the setting was post-apocalyptic where the players were demon hunters facing off against an incursion of monsters in a near future world. The game has had three editions by three different companies, but the new version is being published by Mongoose and will be using the Traveller rules. That might be a first for me. I don’t think I have seen the Traveller rules used to play anything other then Sci-Fi. I love Traveller so I think this is pretty cool. I only hope they keep the lifepath system.

Mike, What do you make of this?

[Kick to Mike]

Christina, what about you, does this interest you?

[Kick to Christina]

And there you have it, all the news, you’ve already heard.