Welcome to the Cannibal Halfling Weekend Update! Start your weekend with a chunk of RPG news from the past week. We have the week’s top sellers, industry news stories, something from the archives, and discussions from elsewhere online.

DriveThruRPG Top Sellers for 1/13/2024

1. Exalted: Across The Eight Directions
2. Wrath and Glory: Aeldari: Inheritance of Embers
3. Candela Obscura Core Rulebook
4. Scion Second Edition: Once and Future
5. Cyberpunk RED

Top News Stories

Wizards of the Coast Caught Still Committing AI Shenanigans, Loses Artist: Well, ‘23 got bookended with WotC/Hasbro gaffes, why not start off the new year with another one? After initially denying that a recent promotional image for Magic: The Gathering was made using AI and insisting that only humans played a part, WotC admitted that AI was used and claimed oopsie-daisies by throwing the blame on Photoshop. About nineteen minutes after Polygon posted that article, a different one announced that MTG/D&D artist Dave Rapoza had quit, citing the fact that this had happened despite WotC supposedly banning the use of AI in their work after a debacle last year.

As the Dexerto article says, when they say one thing and do another for promotional material, why would they stick to what they say for actual products?

Game Designer and Illustrator Jennell Jaquays Passes Away: After a fight against Guillain-Barré syndrome, Jennell Jaquays passed away this week at the age of 67. Whether tabletop or video, Jaquays had a huge footprint in the game design and game illustration space from the 70s on. Her cover art for Dragon Mountain was iconic, her Dark Tower adventure was the only non-TSR entry in D&D’s 30th Anniversary collection of top thirty adventures of all time, among various other honors she had multiple H.G. Wells Award nominations, she worked on video games ranging from Pac-Man arcade conversions to co-founding education programs, and she made vital contributions to transgender rights activism. It’s one hell of a loss. 

“Jennell is survived by her wife Rebecca Heineman, brother Bruce Jaquays, sister Jolene Jaquays, her son Zachary Jaquays and his wife Jessica Jaquays, daughter Amanda Jaquays, her stepchildren Maria Heineman, William Heineman, and Cynthia Heineman, and four grandchildren who all love her very much.” A gofundme exists to help cover medical bills, and there’s a memorial game jam planning to donate crowdfundr proceeds for same and future sales to Trans Lifeline.

Solo But Not Alone 4 Bundle Raises Funds for Mental Health: “In its 4th year, Solo But Not Alone is a project of love and celebration of mental health. Spearheaded by Cat McDonald, Solo But Not Alone 4 features over 100 single-player tabletop RPGs and analogue games from scores of brilliant indie game makers, and all sales benefit Take This – the oldest mental health nonprofit in the game community!” 

Original SBNA charity Jasper’s Game Day may have closed its doors, but the fight for mental health continues, and so too do the efforts of solo game designers to help! $10 will get you 125 different items, usually worth about $479! Proud to say, among them is…

From the Archives

Lost Among The Starlit Wreckage, which got our Solitaire Storytelling series started with a little burst of self-indulgent ‘well, I had to write it anyway for playtesting, why not publish it?’ A giant robot pilot, floating through the void after an epic battle, hoping for rescue. 

Discussion of the Week

Most Active RPG Subreddits 2024 Edition: Redditor /bukanir has put together some data on which non-/rpg subreddits in the TTRPG space are the most active – most members, most recent posts, and growth rates. Aside from being a solid guide as to whether or not your favorite game or system has a community to join, there’s a lot of interesting data on how things have changed since Redditor thirdofmarch did the same thing six years ago.

Have any RPG news leads or scoops? Get in touch! You can reach us at cannibalhalflinggaming@gmail.com, through Mastodon via @CannibalHalflingGaming@dice.camp, and through BlueSky via @cannibalhalfling.bsky.social.