Tag Archives: news

Articles, Weekend Update

Weekend Update: 3/7/2026

1 Comment

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 3/27/2026

  1. Traveller: The Core Expeditions
  2. Cyberpunk RED: Interface RED Volume 5
  3. BattleTech: Force Manual: Mercenaries
  4. Traveller: Vehicle Handbook Update 2026
  5. Storypath Ultra Core Manual

Top News Stories

D&D 2024 is now officially called ‘5.5e’: I suppose this is news.

From the Archives

At this time in 2018, designer Fraser Simons was kickstarting his follow-up to The Veil, Cyberpunk FitD game Hack the Planet. While perhaps not the most ambitious extension of the mechanics from Blades in the Dark, the game took the setting building and storytelling present in The Veil and expanded it, envisioning a dystopian future city where the residents were only protected from the ravages of climate change by mitigations from massive corporations. The PCs, of course, are out to change that. From the archives this week is The Independents: Hack the Planet.

Discussion of the Week

I wish it was easier to go broad in this hobby: It’s good to occasionally remind people, as I like to say, that there’s a wide world of games out there, and at a wide range of price points. Fate, one of the cornerstones of 2010s indie, is Pay-What-You-Want. All of the ‘Without Number’ games have free versions. Many, many more expensive trad games have starter sets, which we are big proponents of here. And this isn’t even getting into things like Bundle of Holding, massive itch.io bundles, and other (completely legal) secondary markets. When accounting for inflation, AD&D 1e cost $180…we don’t have to accept “sticker shock” as a reason to devalue game designers’ work.

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.

Articles, Weekend Update

Weekend Update: 2/28/2026

Leave a comment

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 2/28/2026

  1. Traveller: Vehicle Handbook Update 2026
  2. Cyberpunk RED: Interface RED Volume 5
  3. Gods of the Forbidden North: Volume 3
  4. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Temple of Spite
  5. Outgunned Superheroes

Top News Stories

Paramount wins Warner Bros. Discovery: We discussed this a bit at the end of last year, but Netflix’s purchase of Warner Brothers Discovery was beat out by a counteroffer by Paramount. While this is still another move towards consolidation in an already top-heavy industry, the monopoly play of Netflix in particular did not come to pass.

Hasbro lawsuit dismissed: The lawsuit brought against Hasbro in January has been dismissed. This is likely because it’s hard to sue someone for financial mismanagement after they make a butt-ton of money.

From the Archives

On this day eight years ago we discussed a fascinating PbtA game intended to emulate the intrigues and dark fantasy of properties like Game of Thrones. Since then, I’ve run the game and found it’s very good at doing exactly what it says on the tin…if your group actually wants that sort of story, though, is another question. From the archives this week is The Sword, The Crown, and The Unspeakable Power.

Discussion of the Week

This dungeon doesn’t play nice and neither should they: Johan Nohr, of Mork Borg fame, describes his group going through the Tomb of Horrors. Short, punchy, and exactly the sort of PC logic I both encourage and dread in my own games.

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.

Articles, Weekend Update

Weekend Update: 2/21/2026

1 Comment

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 2/21/2026

  1. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Temple of Spite
  2. Cyberpunk RED: Interface RED Volume 5
  3. Outgunned Superheroes
  4. Legend in the Mist – Hearts of Ravensdale
  5. ICRPG Power Tools: Game Mastery Book

Top News Stories

IEEPA tariffs struck down as illegal: In big news for American consumers as well as gamers, the US Supreme Court handed down a 6-3 decision that President Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to levy tariffs was unlawful. Trump immediately lashed out with an executive order using Section 122 of the Trade Act to impose 10% tariffs worldwide, but 10% is lower than essentially all of the tariff rates from IEEPA and is also capped at 150 days. The dust is still settling (and refunds are, while legally entitled, going to be hard to get), but this is a win for anyone faced with importing goods from abroad.

From the Archives

On this day eight years ago, we were talking about the end of the world in an, er, more fun context than national news. From the archives this week is Level One Wonk: Post-Apocalypse, a whirlwind tour around themes and useful mechanics for the genre.

Discussion of the Week

Two of my players just broke up: While extreme, the OP here reminds us that scheduling continues to be the beast with the highest challenge rating of them all. There is among the responses the secret I’ve used to keep a group going for over two decades: “Play with whoever shows up. All the time, every time.”

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.

Articles, Weekend Update

Weekend Update: 2/14/2026

Leave a comment

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 2/14/2026

  1. Cyberpunk RED: Interface RED Volume 5
  2. ICRPG Power Tools: Game Mastery Book
  3. Halls of Arden Vul: The Thicket
  4. Proteus Sector: A Gazetteer for Stars Without Number
  5. Delta Green: The New Age

Top News Stories

WotC Continues D&D’s Advance To Digital First Brand: We talked about the Hasbro earnings release quite a bit this week, but other investor materials and presentations continue to add more context. In the earnings call, CEO Chris Cocks confirmed the growth was part of a strategy to move to a digital-first company, compounding the growth from earlier calls where it was stated that 60% of D&D’s revenue was digital. When taking these most recent results with WotC’s decision to add digital-only content earlier this year, it’s becoming clear that the company intends to migrate more D&D activity to their exclusive digital platform.

From the Archives

There are few game mechanics which have gone from popular to cringeworthy as quickly as parallel Merits and Flaws. While many modern games have embraced some nuance about how to dole out discrete character merits, GURPS is still rocking Advantages/Disadvantages from 2004, when 4e was released and when the mechanic hadn’t fallen from grace. From the archives we have a System Hack look at GURPS Disadvantages to provide a few ideas to modernize the system.

Discussion of the Week

A disaster is presently unfolding vis-à-vis the official Neopets tabletop RPG: Licensed games are interesting; they can both provide more engagement to existing fans of the property while opening the gate to the TTRPG hobby as well. This requires that the licensed game not only be decent, but also provide an experience aligned to what fans are looking for. In order to provide that experience, a game designer has to, among other things, pay the freelancers he’s working with. The licensed Neopets RPG has apparently failed on all of these counts, looking to be such a disaster that it both induces schadenfreude and could even get me to say that the Fallout TTRPG wasn’t all that bad.

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.