When last we left Dabber, Alistair, Grubs, Thick McRunfast, and Little T.M., they were facing off against an automaton with orders to kill them. See how they strike at the mechanical man’s heart, check their rival’s ambitions, and how they react when the other shoe drops in the thrilling and spooky conclusion to the Cannibal Halflings’ foray into Electric Bastionland!
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, and discussions from elsewhere online.
Mina McJanda, sole proprietor of UFOPress and designer best known for Legacy: Life Among the Ruins, is joining the Rowan, Rook, and Decard team currently consisting of Grant Howitt, Chris Taylor, and Mary Hamilton.
In what is likely the highest profile example of COVID-19 continuing to impact the con and event schedules of gaming industries, PAX East, already delayed to June, has been officially called off. The organizers are ‘cautiously optimistic’ for the remainder of the year’s in-person slate, and are planning an online event for the summer.
TroikaFest is next week, celebrating the delightfully quirky OSR riff and leading up to the Kickstarter campaign for the new supplement Academies of the Arcane. In addition to everything the Melsonian Arts Council is doing there is a game jam on itch which goes the whole month of April.
Redditors turned out this week to talk about how the modern scourges of trial subscriptions, DRM, and always-on connections (among others) could and should roll into cyberpunk gaming.
Have any RPG news leads or scoops? Get in touch! You can reach us at cannibalhalflinggaming@gmail.com, or through Twitter via @HungryHalfling.
A thick-headed former council runner and their caterpillar, a failed puppeteer and their much-smarter puppet, and a banned necro-engineer with their shovel and ‘flavor-masking rub’ walk into a bar . . . and can only order water, because they’re that far into debt. Luckily for the Cannibal Halflings, there’s always money to be made in Electric Bastionland!
It’s been a while! We talk a little about what some of our contributors have been up to when it comes to designing games of their own, including a look at a creative challenge that will be coming around again. Then, we get down to the real business of the episode: ending tabletop roleplaying game campaigns, from how to avoid premature endings, to making the endings you reach satisfactory, to moving on to the next game (sequel or otherwise)!
The Cannibal Halflings wrap up their tour of duty with the Band of Blades! Blood soaks the ground in the forest outside Plainswood – but the Heavy, Sniper, Medic, and what’s left of the Silver Stags squad of the mercenary Legion press on in their assault against the undead (and turned) forces of the Cinder King. When they earn the personal attention of an enemy leader, however, they’ll have to depend on their luck to survive – and they’re not the only members of the Legion at risk.
The Cannibal Halflings join the Legion as it flees east towards Skydagger Keep, the undead forces of the Cinder King and his Broken generals hot on their heels. Having reached the village of Plainswood, the command staff have issued orders and squads are on the march to strike back and clear the path. Faced with twisted undead and even more twisted people, however, it’s going to be desperate going for this bloody Band of Blades!
Usually we talk about playing games – how about an episode about making them? From house rules to hacks to wholesale creation, the Cannibal Halflings take a delve into all things tabletop game design: tips, tricks, advice, history, systems, and games worth taking a look at!
Join the Cannibal Halflings for an Actual Play adventure in the world of Ryuutama: Natural Fantasy Roleplay! Two travelers walk the Grandile Road towards a festival, but they’ll have to contend with the rigors of the journey, mystical occurrences, and mischievous marauders along the way.
Learn along with the players about how to play this RPG by Atsuhiro Okada, often described as “Studio Ghibli’s Oregon Trail”. When the journey comes to a close, hear what everyone thought!
We’re all trying to stay sane these days, and for many of us that means gaming, but when staying safe means staying away how can we manage that? The Cannibal Halflings talk about how to take your tabletop roleplaying experience digital with options and advice for remote play. As for playing with whoever you’re quarantined with, we highlight a number of single-player and two-player games, and then talk tips for this very different style of play!
Welcome to the Dark Future of Cannibal Halfling Radio! Now that we’re in (Cyberpunk) 2020, and we survived the chaos of the holidays and some cyberpsycho-halfling-induced technical difficulties, we have some gently-aged Resolutions for the new year with regards to game design, playing games, and right here at CHG. After we look to the future, we pull aside the curtain for a discussion on secrets in roleplaying games: what kinds there are, when they go well and when they go awry, and how to make sure yours go the former way.