Tag Archives: Opinion

Articles, Weekend Update

Weekend Update: 11/20/2021

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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.

DriveThruRPG Top Sellers for 11/20/2021

  1. WFRP: Archives of the Empire Volume 2
  2. Twilight: 2000 4th Edition Core Set
  3. Warhammer Age of Sigmar Soulbound: Artefacts of Power
  4. Minsc and Boo’s Journal of Villainy
  5. Interface RED

Top News Stories

PAX East Returns in 2022, Mandates Vaccination: From a press release sent to CHG: “PAX East 2022 returns to the Boston Convention Center from Thursday April 21, 2022, to Sunday, April 24, 2022. Badges will soon go on sale for the long-awaited return of the East Coast’s largest gaming event.

After moving 2021’s show online for the health and safety of the community, entry to PAX East 2022 will require a completed vaccination series and mandatory face coverings for all in the venue. Proof of vaccination will be required for all PAX events in the foreseeable future.”

Discussion of the Week

Why GMing Isn’t More Popular: From Reddit, first r/dndnext and then r/rpg, a good thread has cropped talking about both why GMing traditional games can be difficult and why gamers are often disincentivized from doing so. While the conversation hits on a lot of GMing topics, one of the strong undercurrents of suggestion is to play games other than D&D 5e, which we wholeheartedly agree with.

Have any RPG news leads or scoops? Get in touch! You can reach us at cannibalhalflinggaming@gmail.com, or through Twitter via @HungryHalfling.

Articles, Solitaire Storytelling

Solitaire Storytelling – Time To Kill

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Another job, another hotel, another lobby.  Being a paid killer might sound dangerous, or exciting, or glamorous, and it can be, I suppose. More often than not, though, it involves waiting. Lots of waiting, when the planning is already done and there’s nothing to do but count the moments, watch the goings-on, and think about what you’ve done and what you’re about to do while you wait for your target to appear.

That’s okay, though. I’ve got Time To Kill.

Continue reading Solitaire Storytelling – Time To Kill →

Articles, Editorial

Twilight:2000 Review

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The RPG hobby is driven by remakes and revisions. Fifth Edition this and Seventh Edition that, yes, but entire movements in the hobby are built around hacking and re-hacking D&D’s sub-sub-genre of play, fantasy dungeon crawling. With this perspective, RPGs fit in nicely alongside movie studios who remake Spiderman and Batman decadally, and media companies who continue to make live-action versions of critically acclaimed anime without asking how they’re actually improving things. In a young hobby like RPGs, though, there is still space for remakes to be good. So if you want to make a good remake, why not start with a game that practically screams ‘don’t update me’, the 1984 classic Twilight:2000?

Continue reading Twilight:2000 Review →
Articles, Weekend Update

Weekend Update: 11/6/2021

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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.

DriveThruRPG Top Sellers for 11/6/2021

  1. Rangers of Shadow Deep: Dungeons Dark
  2. Minsc and Boo’s Journal of Villainy
  3. The Rich Bastard’s Guide to Magick
  4. Hundred Devils Night Parade
  5. Cults of Cthulhu

Top News Stories

Shipping costs still bad: COVID-19 wrought havoc on global supply chains, and we’re not out of the woods yet. This thread by Alex Flagg from Crafty Games details just how much the increase in shipping costs is affecting board games, and you can expect the impact on RPGs to be similar. As a consumer, now is a great time to focus on PDFs. As an industry member, now is a great time to look at localized printing and assembly options for your games.

Discussion of the Week

Gaming online still popular: Gaming online spiked in popularity at the beginning of the pandemic for obvious reasons. At this point in time, given higher vaccination rates and sheer exhaustion, many people are looking back towards in-person gaming, given that small-group socialization is both safer than it was before and still much safer than restaurants, bars, or event venues. A spate of threads this week started comparing online and in-person gaming again, as the two start to look like equally possible again. My own contribution pointed out that the increasing feature-richness of VTT platforms has started to get away from what most people need to game, more resembling premium items like interlocking terrain tiles or hardwood dice towers than utilities. The above-linked thread is from @Pandatheist, who made multiple contributions to the discussion which culminated in a useful discussion of what helps you run indie games online.

Have any RPG news leads or scoops? Get in touch! You can reach us at cannibalhalflinggaming@gmail.com, or through Twitter via @HungryHalfling.

Articles, Crowdfunding Carnival

Kickstarter Wonk: November, 2021

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Welcome to Kickstarter Wonk for November! There’s a whole bunch going on here as the year gets darker, and it’s a perfect time to stay in and play some games. This is also where the spooky games ended up: we have sea shanty poltergeists, food horror, and even a game where all women are werewolves! In addition, though it’s not a new game and as such isn’t included below, the new box set of Mothership has also gone live on Kickstarter and it looks sick. Even though it doesn’t quite fall in the bounds of a Kickstarter Wonk selection, it’s still definitely worth noting. As far as what does fall in those bounds, we have 8 (plus one) really neat games to check out this month. Grab your dice, pencils, and tarot cards!

Continue reading Kickstarter Wonk: November, 2021 →
A Glimpse Into The Vault, Articles

KÖ-ØP Kickstarter Review – x1 Flat Pack Relationship Game

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Our relationship is in trouble. But bringing that up never helps. Instead, let’s focus on our new flat pack furniture that just arrived! If we can just put it together – correctly, without it becoming a whole thing, everything will be fine. And we’ll be fine.

We’ll be fine, right?

Grab the bag of random parts, decipher the instructions with the vaguely Swedish names, and try to put together some furniture without everything – including your relationship – crashing down around you. Maybe you’ll even get to enjoy some meatballs. This is KÖ-ØP from offcut games!

Continue reading KÖ-ØP Kickstarter Review – x1 Flat Pack Relationship Game →

Articles, Weekend Update

Weekend Update: 10/23/2021

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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.

DriveThruRPG Top Sellers for 10/23/2021

  1. Minsc and Boo’s Journal of Villainy
  2. Hundred Devils Night Parade
  3. Traveller Core Rulebook Update 2022
  4. Deviant: the Renegades
  5. Flames of Freedom

Top News Stories

Paizo recognizes union: In a historic and blessedly rapid turn, Paizo has recognized the United Paizo Workers union, welcoming the union members to the table to hammer out a collective bargaining agreement. This is great news for all involved and hopefully marks what is the first of many such agreements in the tabletop gaming world.

Have any RPG news leads or scoops? Get in touch! You can reach us at cannibalhalflinggaming@gmail.com, or through Twitter via @HungryHalfling.

Articles, Level One Wonk

The Trouble With Ecosystems

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How many RPGs do you know which consist of a single book? There are definitely some, plenty of indie games especially are singular works. When it comes to the games most people play, though, you can expect that the core rules are joined by supplements, additional books which expand the game through either deepening existing elements or adding new ones. Beyond that, you may have secondary accessories, things like dice, card decks, and maps which add to the physical experience of the game. Taken together these elements create a product line. When you add additional material made by players and designers other than the original authors, then now you have an ecosystem.

Continue reading The Trouble With Ecosystems →
Articles, Level One Wonk

The Curse of the Wandering Eyes

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It’s happened to all of us. You spend weeks, maybe even months, convincing your friends to try a new game that you’ve discovered. It takes some effort, but eventually everyone buys in and you start a new campaign. Things are going well, people are getting into it! And then…Another new game is in your sights. All of a sudden, the thing you were most excited about for weeks and weeks is now a frustrating roadblock. You are a victim of the Curse of the Wandering Eyes.

While the Curse of the Wandering Eyes can strike any gamer, it’s the GMs of the world who are most acutely afflicted, and for whom the affliction can have the most dire consequences. It’s not only the GMs who actually drop games at the blink of an eye who can create group discord, any GM who looks longingly at a game other than the one they’re playing can often let those thoughts and frustrations seep into their current game, making it less fun and possibly cutting it short. What’s worse, though, is that although the grass often looks greener on the other side, when this frustrated GM starts up their next game, often it isn’t any better, and the process repeats anew.

Continue reading The Curse of the Wandering Eyes →