A new week of Tabletop RPG news is upon us! This week: D&D Beyond decides to make Drops sharable between friends, Paizo lays off employees in wake of Diamond legal battle, and we see new TTRPGs from Renegade, DC Comics, and Onyx Path.
D&D Beyond Drops Now Sharable With Players
The saga of D&D Beyond Drops came to a surprisingly satisfying close this week, with Wizards of the Coast agreeing to make the content sharable. Before, D&D Beyond drew a line in the sand by saying Drops needed to be exclusive to Master Tier subscribers in order to drive revenue to pay the creators. Now, after much backlash, they reversed that decision. All player options and monsters given by Drops are now usable via campaign sharing. Maps content will take some more time, arriving around June 18.
Paizo Forced Into Layoffs Due To Diamond Bankruptcy
Pathfinder and Starfinder publisher Paizo is the latest to be hit hard by the Diamond Comics debacle. Diamond was a distributor for several TTRPG labels as well as collectibles. When the company folded, JP Morgan Chase took hold of all the inventory in Diamond warehouses that was yet to be sold. This left Paizo and other publishers with no means to recuperate their own losses as their product was stuck in limbo. Court proceedings are taking a long time, so Paizo has been put into a position of needing to lay off 12 employees. It is also reevaluating its Organized Play program, potentially cutting back on free PDFs given to volunteers.
New System Announcements From Renegade And Onyx Path
Power Rangers, GI Joe, and Transformers are getting in on the DnD 5.5e era. Each franchise is getting a 2nd Edition that ditches the Essence20 system for something closer to 5.5e. As reported by EN World, Renegade plans to use BackerKit campaigns to fund these updated editions. It will also sunset Essence20 due to lacking sales and instead offer a conversion guide to 5.5e for existing products.
A third edition of Scion was teased at Onyx Path’s virtual convention. It will use the Storypath Ultra system, which features a reworked Relic system and a black sheep scion. No release date was given.
New Justice League RPG Puts Out Playtest
The mouthful of a title that is Justice League Unlimited The Roleplaying Game now has a Justice League Unlimited The Roleplaying Game Quickstart. You can download it for free on DriveThruRPG. Fans have already sampled it with mostly positive responses, giving it a 4.5 out of 5 rating so far. There were some initial issues with not enough powers being available for a proper playtest, but the document has since been adjusted to include more. Overall, the game appears to be a d20 system with point-based leveling and combat that suits theatre of the mind over tactical grids.
And that’s what we got for this week. A lot of exciting games on the horizon for fan-favorite franchises! And our thoughts go out to the affected Paizo employees, may new jobs come their way soon. Until next time, may your dice be kind!
Sergio Solórzano is the best Dungeon Master in the USA (according to an official D&D competition, anyway). He loves minis and terrain but also goes all-in on improv!
