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8 months ago
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PROTECT YOUR DNA WITH QUANTUM TECHNOLOGY
Orgo-Life the new way to the future Advertising by Adpathway/pic9021830.jpg)
▪️ In addition to selling the newly released Above and Below: Haunted, U.S. publisher Red Raven Games had a tiny sign announcing a giant project that it plans to crowdfund in Q4 2025 for release in 2027: Song of Silveranth, with this being a co-operative, open-world, narrative adventure in the vein of designer/artist Ryan Laukat's Sleeping Gods.
Here's an overview of this 1-4 player game, which Laukat describes as taking place in "a 1700s European dark fairy tale setting":
One brisk morning, while he was working at the family glass-blowing factory, uniformed soldiers tramped in with their muddy boots and arrested your father. He was hauled off to debtor's prison, with a massive sum of silver between him and freedom. Now the house, the family farm, and the glassblowing factory are under threat of being seized by the local lord.
You have but thirty days to find a solution, aided by old family friends, glassworks employees, and perhaps even unsavory sellswords from the nearest street corner. You'll never get enough money selling glass, though perhaps if you're desperate enough, you might make the journey north to the legendary Dragon of Havoc, a godlike being who sometimes grants aid to those of worthy heart. You unwrap your father's old dagger and saddle your horse, leaving the forge embers cold to join the uncertain path ahead.
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In Song of Silveranth, you and your friends undertake a treacherous quest, confronting powerful kingdoms, suspicious priests, dangerous creatures, and afflicted people. There are many paths to walk, whether you choose thievery, discourse, combat, or intrigue. You must explore a wide world, gaining improbable allies and deadly enemies along the way.
The game uses a richly-woven narrative and keyword system to tell many tales. Each character has their own questline, and the branching main story offers world-changing choices and surprising endings. Players also explore a location book, walking forest paths, delving into dark caverns, and braving trapped ruins where a wide host of enemies hide and wait for their next victim. Combat is quick and dynamic, featuring a new press-your-luck system and a wide array of tactics and weaponry.
Through a massive atlas, in deep dungeons, and across quests and stories where your choices change the outcomes of people and lands larger than yourselves, your characters will test their strength and learn where their resolve truly lies.
You have but thirty days to find a solution, aided by old family friends, glassworks employees, and perhaps even unsavory sellswords from the nearest street corner. You'll never get enough money selling glass, though perhaps if you're desperate enough, you might make the journey north to the legendary Dragon of Havoc, a godlike being who sometimes grants aid to those of worthy heart. You unwrap your father's old dagger and saddle your horse, leaving the forge embers cold to join the uncertain path ahead.
The game uses a richly-woven narrative and keyword system to tell many tales. Each character has their own questline, and the branching main story offers world-changing choices and surprising endings. Players also explore a location book, walking forest paths, delving into dark caverns, and braving trapped ruins where a wide host of enemies hide and wait for their next victim. Combat is quick and dynamic, featuring a new press-your-luck system and a wide array of tactics and weaponry.
Through a massive atlas, in deep dungeons, and across quests and stories where your choices change the outcomes of people and lands larger than yourselves, your characters will test their strength and learn where their resolve truly lies.
▪️ In one of my first Gen Con 2025 reports, I mentioned that Portal Games' Age o
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Perhaps a few more failures along these lines, a possibility that might be exacerbated given the turbulent U.S. administration, will lead to more publishers adopting the Stonemaier Games approach of having the game in its warehouse before announcement. We'll see...
▪️ U.S. publisher Flatout Games is preparing for the 2026 launch of its first role-playing game: Whisperstone, from the design and art team of Monique Brooks, Molly Johnson, Lucile Leca, Sen-Foong Lim, Dylan Mangini, Robert Melvin, Aaron Russin, Shawn Stankewich, Emily Vincent, Rhi Wynter, and Nicholas Trahan. I don't normally cover RPGs in this space, but given the love for Flatout among gamers, here's the publisher pitch:
Whisperstone is a puzzly role-playing game using the new Heirloom interlocking puzzle-piece system. Heirloom provides a full RPG experience with a board game-style presentation. The innovative tactile components encode rules into colors and shapes, making stories and encounters unlike anything seen in a role-playing game before. The tactile pieces also support streamlining the rules, making the experience of running a session easier so that adventurers learn how to play in just a few minutes. Stats, gear, tactics, and more make the experience physical in a way that engages players of any age and makes their choices clear.
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The Heirloom adventure guides included with Whisperstone allow Adventure Masters (those running the adventure) to prepare for an adventure in under thirty minutes. Game components are designed to get you heading out on an adventure faster, while having memorable experiences with your friends and family! The Heirloom system also includes clever ways to do character customization through hundreds of unique items and components that can be mixed, matched, and crafted to make the story uniquely yours.
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Whisperstone will include a core adventure introducing players to a fully interactive world allowing them to explore its vast landscapes and cities as they interact with non-playable characters and solve riddles, puzzles, and mysteries. Along the way, players will unlock secret areas, meet new friends, and help bring the power of the Whisperstones back to their rightful places and defend the natural harmony of the realm.
The Heirloom adventure guides included with Whisperstone allow Adventure Masters (those running the adventure) to prepare for an adventure in under thirty minutes. Game components are designed to get you heading out on an adventure faster, while having memorable experiences with your friends and family! The Heirloom system also includes clever ways to do character customization through hundreds of unique items and components that can be mixed, matched, and crafted to make the story uniquely yours.
Whisperstone will include a core adventure introducing players to a fully interactive world allowing them to explore its vast landscapes and cities as they interact with non-playable characters and solve riddles, puzzles, and mysteries. Along the way, players will unlock secret areas, meet new friends, and help bring the power of the Whisperstones back to their rightful places and defend the natural harmony of the realm.
You know you gotta defend the natural harmony of the realm. Doing anything else means you're an NPC, not the hero.
The Whisperstone art has a very back-to-the-1990s, Don Bluth vibe to it.
▪️ I stopped at the Bandai booth for an overview of Godzilla Card Game, which seems to be an updating of Ryan Miller's 2019 Godzilla Card Game — but the shiny card finish and weensy typeface made it impossible for me to understand anything that was going on.
I feel so old.
Here's a card display from the side of the Bandai booth:
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▪️ I sent my wife a pic of the enormous hydrangea plants in downtown Indianapolis to show her what she was missing. Games she can take or leave — but hydrangeas will get her attention...
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English (US) ·