As Gen Con gathers most of the tabletop RPG community in one place, it’s the perfect time for a news roundup! I’m not at the convention myself, but social media is already abuzz with announcements from the event. And there’s also a few big happenings that hit our radar before the con. There’s hope and worry as Hasbro teases more AI, Coyote & Crow take home a big win, and the One Ring finds a new home.
Hasbro VP Talks AI, But Its Use In Dungeons & Dragons Not Confirmed
Another week, another ill-advised statement from a gaming exec. This time, Hasbro senior gaming VP Adam Biehl talked up a new partnership with digital board game platform Xplored. While throwing out the usual buzzwords like “innovative”, “limitless”, and “seamless”, he also said that AI could be leveraged to react in real time to players or deliver rules in an easy fashion. While Gizmodo reports that Biehl was pressed on how this related to D&D specifically, he apparently only vaguely referred to how AI could enrich the experience.
Naturally, Twitter (or is it X now?) had a field day with this headline. Many recommitted to their desire to avoid purchasing anything D&D as a form of protest. Others have pointed out that Biehl could have simply been throwing out AI as a buzzword to please investors with no specific plans in place. Indeed, Gizmodo later got an email from Hasbro stating that its Xplored partnership is purely focused on board games and has nothing to do with D&D.
Starfinder 2nd Edition Announced, Compatible With Pathfinder 2E
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Paizo did its part to make Gen Con’s keynote exciting by announcing Starfinder 2nd Edition. The new edition is meant to be fully compatible with Pathfinder 2E, including adding the three-action system. Classes will be fully cross-compatible between systems, as will monsters and a new scaling equipment system. Players will be able to take part in small Field Tests leading up to a full summer 2024 playtest. The first Field Test is available now and shows off levels 1-5 of the Soldier class alongside new creatures and items.
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Coyote & Crow Takes Home 2023 Diana Jones Award For Excellence In Gaming
The prestigious Diana Jones Award was given at Gen Con Indy to Coyote & Crow. The indigenous TTRPG from Connor Alexander is set in a version of “America” that was never colonized. Instead, the stories and art style weave a world in which indigenous people created their own futuristic society. The game, like previous Diana Jones Award recipients, was recognized for the way it is shaping the tabletop hobby as a whole.
Post Malone Grabs The One Ring… Card
Though not strictly an RPG story, an interesting turn of events sees Post Malone as the new owner of the One Ring Magic: The Gathering card. Only one of this specially decorated card exists in the world and it was randomly inserted into a booster pack. The card was originally pulled by someone named Brook Trafton on Tiktok. In a video, Trafton shows how he took his graded and protected card to Post Malone, who evaluates it before excitedly agreeing to buy it. Trafton admits that he would’ve liked to keep it but that the money offered was life changing. The two hugged and posed for pictures, and Trafton expressed happiness that at least the card was sold to a fellow fan of the game.
That’s all for this week! Happiness over well-won victories and surprises are matched by the encroaching threat of AI displacing TTRPG jobs. Yet Hasbro seems to have learned from its mistakes with the OGL and decided to not commit to AI in D&D. At least not yet.
