Role Playing Games Archives | Otaku No Culture

Free RPG Day 2025 Edition Is Right ‘Round the Corner!

Free RPG Day is about two weeks away, and we have compiled a list of items known to be offered this year!

Free RPG Day 2025 Logo Free RPG Day 2025 is on Saturday, June 21, 2025, and I hope to get a new set of dice this year! However, this annual event doesn’t promise everything and I can only cross my fingers. Some years are better than others in terms of what cool stuff gets offered, and I’ve covered the recent years since getting back into the hobby.

It all depends on how much “product” each gaming company wants to reveal. Quite often, they are quick-start rules to popular fantasy or sci-fi worlds. When TCGs and Wargaming are the mainstay for most operations, the fact there’s a day to celebrate the other side of the hobby says it all. Although the list of items being offered is still being announced a bit at a time, what I’ve compiled at the time of writing to posting is a list of products known so far:
Continue reading “Free RPG Day 2025 Edition Is Right ‘Round the Corner!”

An Interview with Patrick Rami of Lethal Shadows Productions, Seattle’s Best Kept Secret for All Things Tabletop Gaming Related

From dice to fantasy miniatures to painting accessories, Lethal Shadows Productions is ready to take the gaming world by storm!

Patrick Ramey, Lethal Shadows Productions President Lethal Shadows Productions is a producer of many role playing game style goods, and they have a bit of everything for the discerning player. They launched their paint line this week, and I’m very interested in seeing how well they can fare against the other companies like Games Workshop and Reaper Minis who manufacture just as diverse a range! The difference lays in not producing a huge set of a specific colour in varying tones, but instead to keep it simple. As a launch promotion, anyone buying more than eight bottles to represent every colour of the rainbow (along with black and white) will get a 20% off.

This company began operation in 2019, making some high quality products for their own group, but when there were a few industry insiders who said they should really put these out in the market, Patrick Rami listened. At first, they were focussed on producing terrain and miniatures. After a few months, they got a business running, and it grew from there. He says his operation is very mom and pop, and there are plans to expand this Seattle based operation further. There’s very few people handling all the mail orders, and shipping those packages out slows down during convention season as there’s nobody at home manning the castle.

Continue reading “An Interview with Patrick Rami of Lethal Shadows Productions, Seattle’s Best Kept Secret for All Things Tabletop Gaming Related”

Emerald City Comic Con 2024. It’s Great To Be Back!

Although it took a while for me to collect my thoughts, presented here is my look at how Emerald City Comic Con has changed this decade.

Emerald City Comic Con Logo Emerald City Comic Con certainly exploded in size since 2019. Instead of occupying one building and a quarter during the time I last attended, it’s a full building and a half! I’ve heard stories about last year’s and am glad I didn’t go. Folks had problems navigating around and getting used to the new space. And although the pandemic caused this event to lose momentum back in 2020, it continued in 2021 with health checks in place. To get those certificates verifying you’re safe to arrive from out of the country was a hassle. While the medical concern is today considered an endemic level threat, I heard on Facebook three vendors in Artist’s Alley caught Covid-19.

On Friday and Saturday, the two exhibitors’ floors were packed! Maybe 15% of the people walked around wearing face masks. Although the new building is much more spacious, I doubt spreading things out further can help limit the transmission of con crud. Even after following all the talk concerning the move to Washington State Convention Center‘s Summit Building (last year’s show), this new space is much better than the old one! And after last year’s blunder, there are signs pointing to the basement level where the best vendors are located!

Continue reading “Emerald City Comic Con 2024. It’s Great To Be Back!”

Free RPG Day is June 24th, and What’s Best to Get?

Here, we offer our top picks in what to pick up and give a playtest when Free RPG Day rolls out this weekend!

Free RPG Day 2023 Logo As role playing gamers can get together with new faces at the table to burst the social bubble, Free RPG Day will be even better this year! Even during the pandemic, this event just moved around lots (shifted dates), and it was up to game stores to decide on how to big to make this special day work.

Even I have returned to playing since I craved that need to enjoy the theatre of the mind. Although I had a regular Call of Cthulhu monthly session that started up once when social outings were allowed, there’s wasn’t any connectivity (i.e. it wasn’t a campaign). Now, I’m also involved with two Dungeons and Dragons groups in an ongoing narrative! I have to admit that the blockbuster comedy heist movie helped whet my appetite and I’m glad to have friends with a diverse range of interests to satisfy that RPG itch.

Continue reading “Free RPG Day is June 24th, and What’s Best to Get?”

From PC to Switch with Dark Deity

Despite its faults, I enjoyed the time I spent playing Dark Deity, and I saw a lot of potential in the game.

Sword & Axe LLC

Available on Switch
March 17 2022

Disclaimer: A review copy was supplied

In the Kingdom of Delian, King Varic is waging a reckless war to avenge the death of his father. However, things are not going well for the demanding ruler. To bolster his forces, he forcibly conscripts every student in his military academy directly into the army, ready or not. This is where Irving and his companions come into the story. These trainees are pulled into a war they aren’t fully prepared for, and along the way are drawn into an even greater conflict that could upend their entire world.

This is the setup for Dark Deity, a Strategy Role Playing game developed by Sword & Axe LLC and published by Freedom Games. released last year on Steam after a successful campaign on Kickstarter, it has now been ported over to the Nintendo Switch.

Continue reading “From PC to Switch with Dark Deity”

Mantic Games Hellboy RPG Unboxing and Wonder

Mantic Games is still shipping the Hellboy RPG to Kickstarter backers for the past week and a half, and yes, I got my copy! This unboxing video reveals what’s inside and more….

Mantic Games is still shipping the Hellboy RPG to Kickstarter backers for the past week and a half, and yes, I got my copy! The following video is my reaction to examining this product in under ten minutes, and I can’t wait to GM a session! I have friends interested in playing and I’ll need a week or two to learn the rules. A followup article is under consideration so I can provide a more in-depth analysis after we played the game. Stay tuned!

https://youtu.be/GpqDzJ-qfTw

Addendum:

I opted not to pick up the miniatures that came with the next tier of this Hellboy RPG Kickstarter and have no regrets. It looks like most of them can be obtained directly from the publisher as part of the board game expansion products. A street release may be coming later in the year. To keep tabs on when this will become available, please visit the official website for the latest updates.

Update: May 1, 2022: B.P.R.D. Field Manual is an optional upgrade that, while available for all pledge levels, was deceptive in the item description; I thought I’d get it as one of the unlocked stretch goals but only as a digital file. I thought a print version could come along with mine, but it isn’t. It’s for GMs so they can design a game.