Sunday, 9 September 2018

“Judge Dredd & The Worlds of 2000 AD Tabletop Adventure Game” - Coming To Kickstarter Soon

"Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000 AD Tabletop Adventure Game"
It's not every day that I am able to combine work with my one of my main hobby interests, so I recently took full advantage of Russ Morrissey's invitation to send me one of his company's press kits in order to help promote the “Judge Dredd & The Worlds of 2000 AD Tabletop Adventure Game” on both the "Dawn Of Comics" and "Sci-Fi Movie Page" websites. I have admittedly only recently come into contact with the game's W.O.I.N. (What’s Old Is New) engine, courtesy of Mike Myler's "N.O.W. The Modern Action Role Playing Game" and Morrus' “The Moons Of Boria”, but the additional promise from "EN Publishing" to be sent some sneak peek page scans of their upcoming hardback was too good an opportunity to miss and I have already gained the approval of my editors to start waxing lyrical as to the virtues of this new worldwide licensed game.

The below is the first article in my coverage and was originally published on the "Dawn of Comics" website...
Dusting down my miniatures ready for some new tabletop adventures
Wargaming devotees of either the weekly British science fiction anthology publication “2000 A.D.” or its most successful serial “Judge Dredd”, will have much to look forward to on Tuesday September 25th 2018 at 5pm GMT, for that is when “EN Publishing” will be bringing all the tabletop gaming potential behind Mega-City One’s toughest lawman to “Kickstarter” in the form of their marvellously exciting “Judge Dredd & The Worlds of 2000 AD Tabletop Adventure Game”. Featuring “a full colour hardcover book which contains the core ‘Worlds of 2000 AD’ rules as well as setting information enabling the players to… play Judges… civilians and perps in Mega City One”, this first release also brings with it all the highly-positive consumer confidence one might expect from a product which has been co-written by Russ Morrissey and additionally utilises the publisher’s well-established W.O.I.N. (What’s Old Is New) engine.
"Dawn Of Comics"
In fact, those familiar with either Morrus’ marvellous manual “N.E.W. – The Science Fiction Roleplaying Game”, or the “EN Publishing” owner’s enthrallingly detailed “visit [to] the Borian Homeworld” in the supplement “The Moons Of Boria”, will doubtless take great heart from the fact that this “incredibly flexible” system will be used to “cater seamlessly for the Celtic environs of Slaine” as well as the scrotnig “spacefaring hijinks of the Ace Trucking Co.”, and should certainly be exhilarated by the seemingly endless stream of sense-shattering sneak peek pages being presently ‘leaked’ to all the dice-throwing disciples of Tharg the Mighty.
The Front of the Game Master's Screen
Equally as encouraging are Nick Robinson’s plans for “a series of books starting with the Robot Wars”, which the Line Developer states “will not only allow players and GMs to play through the events that took place in the comic arc, but also add to the game setting with additional rules or source material relevant to the period or location.” This minute attention to detail is already one of the “N.E.W.” game engine’s most attractive and rewarding features, so the suggestion that “Robot characters will be expanded in The Robot Wars whilst in Luna-1” should see ‘squaxx dek Thargos’ being provided with engrossing “detailed information on the moon colony and life there.”
"2000 AD has forty years of rich history and storytelling..."
Continuing along such heartening tracks “EN Publishing” are additionally promising to support “Judge Dredd & The Worlds of 2000 AD” by means of “a series of adventure
Source books giving players and Game Masters the opportunity to play through the story
arcs that made Judge Dredd such an enduring character.” The opportunity to potentially partake in such chronological classics as Pat Mills’ “The Cursed Earth” or John Wagner’s “The Day The Law Died” will surely protect this planet from any unwanted thrill deprivation, and that’s not even taking into account the plethora of plots featuring the “ABC Warriors”, “Indigo Prime”, “Nikolai Dante” and “Rogue Trooper” which may well yet come. Zarjaz news indeed, Earthlets…

18 comments:

  1. Exciting times indeed, and loads of potential for using all those extra models I've built over the years. Very much looking forward to this

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    1. Indeed it is Dave, and as someone who pens product reviews daily you can imagine how delighted I am to mix business with pleasure. There's plenty more to come too, as Morrus has kindly sent me some preview pages which I'll be covering in more detail in some follow-up articles :-)

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    1. Thanks Martin. It certainly looks great, and having read some of the already existing "W.O.I.N." rule-sets and supplements out there, it should, as Dave suggests above, get a lot of my minis back on the tabletop :-)

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  3. Simon, I can't describe how happy I am to see you pen this article and that Russ has also contacted you to help promote this upcoming Kickstarter. As you well know from my own WOIN Blog, I am a massive fan of this game system and so when I see others, like yourself, discovering just how great it is, it gives me a very warm glow.
    I have just received a sneak preview of some of the pages from "The Robot Wars" supplement and it looks absolutely superb. I love the fact that EN Publishing have such massive plans for the 2000AD franchise and I'll be investing very heavily into all they produce for it. For me, this is the most eagerly awaited product of 2018. I'm thrilled to see you helping to promote it. :-)

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    1. Cheers Bryan. Of course I was very much aware of your love for this game having read/commented upon your recent preview of it and was therefore delighted to pen some of my own. Like you Russ has very kindly given me some sneak peeks to write about in the near future, which I hope to additionally post up here once they've spent a little time on the various websites I write for.

      In the meantime I've been pouring over the pages of "The Robot Wars" I've seen - It looks very good doesn't it?!! :-)

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    2. It does indeed look very good. By the way, have you heard Russ's podcast with the other three authors of "Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000AD" and "The Robot Wars"? They discuss the contents of the books in great depth, as well as their plans for future products from the pages of 2000AD. Here's a link for it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T0J1NFQZ40&t=89s
      As you said, these are zarjaz times!

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    3. Many thanks Bryan, I am subscribed to "Morrus' Unofficial Tabletop RPG News" but apart from his video "The 15 Best D&D Modules Of All Time" I've not had a chance to view/listen to any of his Podcasts just yet.

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  4. I’m really looking forward to seeing/reading more from Bryan and yourself, Simon.

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    1. Cheers Andy, I'm sure they'll be plenty of coverage across numerous sites as the Kickstarter approaches and goes through its paces.

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  5. Sounds interesting. I especially like that it cuts across the whole of 2000ad as there are so many good comic strips in the comic which makes it very appealing. Slaine sounds awesome! I also really liked Flesh, and of course Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog go without saying!

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    1. Thanks Undercoat. This does sound very promising indeed, so expect plenty more coverage in the weeks to come.

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  6. Sounds, by all accounts, a must-have kickstarter for yourself. I'll be looking forward to see/hering more of this in the days and weeks to come. I still have my original JD roleplay game and was delighted by that, so I can umderstand your excitement.

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    1. Cheers Joe. It really is a must-have Kickstarter in my books, and you're spot on that I'll be covering it further as the sneak peeks come on :-)

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  7. You really are a lucky boy aren't you, I can see both you Dave and Bryan being all over this!

    Cheers Roger.

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  8. So the 2000AD license is being used by both Warlord and these guys? No ideas how licensing works, but sounds strange to me.

    Regardless, it sounds fun for sure and was a good write up!

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    1. Thanks Dai, do an awful lot of writing so I always appreciate feedback on its quality. The difference is "Warlord Games" have the wargaming licence and "EN Publishing" have the RPG licence; which I'd have thought would please "WG" as it means people have a second reason to buy their minis.

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