Geek Chic

This week's Rolling for Initiative column looks at the history of gaming furniture maker Geek Chic and possible reasons behind its recent closure.

Improving Free RPG Day

Scott's ICV2 column for this week looks at how to improve the annual giveaways for Free FPG Day

Ustable Magic

Those of you who have played Magic for years will remember the Unglued and Unhinged sets of humorous cards, that released in the early years of the game. The closest thing we have seen to those we have seen in recent years have been the annual Christmas promo cards sent out to stores that participate in Wizards's programs. Well, now Wizards has announced the drought of humorous sets has ended with the release of Unstable this December. No specific details have released regarding the set's cards have been released, except that they are silver bordered and will total about 216 cards.

Aettherworks Marvel Banned

WOTC announced today that Aetherworks Marvel is banned in Standard play. You can read the full column here but the gist is that, while the card is not fundamentally broken, and the prime deck running it, Temur Aetherworks, is not dominant in terms of wins, but in tournament play, 10% of the time its user has a Turn 4 win. Since the deck also factors into a large number of unbeatable draws, WOTC decided it needed to go.

Free RPG Day

This week's Rolling for Initiative column looks at the offerings for Free RPG DAy

Star Trek RPG

Modiphus has announced yet another Star Trek RPG, coming out later this summer:

Today StarTrek.com announced the launch of our pre-order for Star Trek Adventures

We're currently sharing solicitations with your usual distributors for the range of Star Trek products, expected to hit retail early September. The Borg Cube is expected to ship later in September, due to production pipelines. 

Demand for these is expected to exceptionally high, so please confirm orders as soon as possible (your distributor will advise dates). 

Heading the list is the Star Trek Adventures Core Rulebook a full colour hardback allowing you to create your own Star Trek stories of discovery and adventure on the final frontier. Featuring a complete 2d20 game system from Modiphius Entertainment, with an extensive exploration of the United Federation of Planets and its galactic neighbours in the Alpha, Beta and Gamma Quadrants.  Guidelines for Gamemasters old and new, on how to run an adventure and a full catalogue of aliens and antagonists including Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians, the Borg and the Dominion.

The Star Trek Adventures Core Rulebook Collector's Edition, has all the features of the basic rulebook, but comes with an impressive special edition cover featuring the hull of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701-D rendered by The Light Works, who provided the 3D model for the Star Trek: The Next Generation Remastered series, making it the most accurate model of the Enterprise D available. 

The Star Trek Adventures RPG Limited Edition Borg Cube has been called the "coolest box in the history of gaming" by Geek and Sundry and has everything you need to play Star Trek Adventures and then some. It contains a "1701-D" Collectible Edition Core Rulebook, with four sets of miniatures including the crew of the Original The Next Generation Crew, Klingon and the Romulan crews, a padded tray for all four sets of miniatures by KRMulticase, three dice sets by Q-Workshop, Heat & Momentum Tokens, a PDF Collection (also available to retail customers) and an exclusive miniature of Lore (with more to be added as distribution and direct orders grow), all collected in an ultra cool Borg Cube box marked with a uniquely numbered official Star Trek Adventures hologram. One side of cube pulls out to use as an exclusive oversize Borg Gamesmaster Screen. Consider yourself assimilated! 

SRP £395 / $495 (actual value of £530 / $680) NOTE This is a very short discount product due to high costs, please check with your distributor for pricing. PDF's will be distributed directly to customers - more info will be shared later as we are exploring the best route for this. 

Asmodee and Alliance

This week's ICV2 column looks at possible effects of the recently announced deal between Asmodee NA and Alliance. For the consumer, it shouldn't have any effect. For other members of the channel, the effects could be more pronounced.