We return with a new week’s worth of tabletop RPG news! This week: a duo of DnD friends wins the Amazing Race competition show, Free League brings out more Dragonbane, and WizKids’ parent company buys Diamond Comics… with some complications as a result.
DnD Players Win The Amazing Race
Dungeons & Dragons is once again colliding with mainstream media, but this time it isn’t at the behest of Wizards of the Coast. Instead, it’s two players named Carson McCalley and Jack Dodge. The two friends competed in The Amazing Race 37 and took home the grand prize. Jack spoke in an interview about how DnD inspired him, giving him a push to achieve feats of endurance usually reserved for game characters. The duo also host a DnD live play channel called Please Don’t Kill Us where they’ve had other Amazing Race contestants on as guests.
Free League To Bring Two New Dragonbane Books To Kickstarter
Free League announced two expansion books for Dragonbane, both coming to Kickstarter on June 3. The first is Arkand - City of Waves and Flames. It features a badass duck pirate on the cover. It also adds a large city setting with campaign hooks that include underworld intrigue and demon hunting. The second is simply titled Book of Magic. It will add new spells and at least five new schools of magic to the game (pending stretch goals) – harmonism, demonology, necromancy, witchcraft, and illusionism.
Diamond Comics Distributors Acquired By WizKids Parent, Dropped By Penguin
The saga of Diamond Comics Distributors is winding to a close as the bankrupt company was finally acquired. According to reporting by ICv2, the purchase was split between Universal Distribution and Ad Populum. The Ad Populum bit is what might affect our tabletop hobby, as the company is parent to both NECA and WizKids. There was some question of how these companies might be affected as Diamond owed them money. That seems less of a question now that Ad Populum has the assets of Diamond Comic Distributors, Diamond Book Distributors, Diamond Select Toys & Collectibles, and Collectible Grading Authority.
Now, however, there’s a problem of what the new Diamond will be distributing. Penguin Random House just chose to end its relationship with Diamond. That means that Diamond will no longer distribute comics from Marvel, IDW, BOOM! And potentially others. Penguin also stopped distributing DnD titles last year.
Thanks for joining us for another week of tabletop news! Now go cleanse your palette of all that business talk with a Daggerheart game!
Sergio Sólorzano is the best Dungeon Master in the USA (according to a Wizards of the Coast competition, anyway). He loves minis and terrain but also goes all-in on improv!
