Morrus is the owner of EN World and EN Publishing, creator of the ENnies, creator of the What’s OLD is NEW (WOIN), Simply6, and Awfully Cheerful Engine game systems, publisher of Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition, and co-host of the weekly Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk podcast. He has been a game publisher and RPG community administrator for over 20 years, and has been reporting on TTRPG and D&D news for over two decades. He is also on the socials.

Morrus is the owner of EN World and EN Publishing, creator of the ENnies, creator of the What’s OLD is NEW (WOIN), Simply6, and Awfully Cheerful Engine game systems, publisher of Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition, and co-host of the weekly Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk podcast. He has been a game publisher and RPG community administrator for over 20 years, and has been reporting on TTRPG and D&D news for over two decades. He is also on the socials.

Morrus is the owner of EN World and EN Publishing, creator of the ENnies, creator of the What’s OLD is NEW (WOIN), Simply6, and Awfully Cheerful Engine game systems, publisher of Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition, and co-host of the weekly Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk podcast. He has been a game publisher and RPG community administrator for over 20 years, and has been reporting on TTRPG and D&D news for over two decades. He is also on the socials.

Morrus is the owner of EN World and EN Publishing, creator of the ENnies, creator of the What’s OLD is NEW (WOIN), Simply6, and Awfully Cheerful Engine game systems, publisher of Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition, and co-host of the weekly Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk podcast. He has been a game publisher and RPG community administrator for over 20 years, and has been reporting on TTRPG and D&D news for over two decades. He is also on the socials.

What’s OLD is NEW Starter Box is live on Kickstarter!

What’s OLD is NEW has been around since 2016, is a bestseller on DTRPG, and has a loyal fanbase. The ‘main’ game is represented by three standalone hardcover rulebooks (ie you only need one of the three, although all three are fully compatible) representing heroic fantasy, explosive modern action, and futuristic sci-fi respectively.

This Kickstarter is for a brand new Starter Box. It contains a streamlined versions of the rules, a ton of pregenerated characters from various genres, three adventures, and everything else you need to start play right away.

If you haven’t checked it out yet, here’s a few reasons why you should!

• It’s a fully open-licensed game, using Open Gaming, Creative Commons, and Open RPG Creative (ORC) license. This means that anybody can create material for it and sell it. If recent ‘open’ licensing issues have hit your radar, you’ll know that it’s more important now than ever that fully open games, using non-rescindable licenses, be put out there.
• It’s incredible value! With 3 adventures, a 60+ page rulebook, reversible poster maps, tokens, and dice, there’s a lot in the box. 
• It’s well-supported! There’s a full online rules suite and bestiary, various web-tools and generators (including a character builder), and a ton of existing supplements and adventures.
• We have VTT Support! For free we include a VTT asset pack including tokens and maps, plus WOIN is already on Fantasy Grounds and Foundry, and there are Roll20 character sheets. We’re speaking to other VTT platforms to widen that scope even further!
• We fulfill fast! If you’ve backed one of our Kickstarters before you’ll know we do all the hard work BEFORE launching the Kickstarter. The digital versions are ready to go, and you’ll get them the moment the Kickstarter ends. The physical boxed set is all set up with the printers/manufacturers, and they’re just waiting for us to give them the go-ahead, which we’ll do as soon as the Kickstarter funds clear. You’ll be amazed how fast we are.
• It’s beautiful! Well, it is rather pretty….

If you’ve been looking for a new game to jump into, this Starter Box is the ideal way to do it. You and your friends will be playing in no time! 

Click here to see the kickstarter!

As D&D’s OGL remains in turmoil, Major RPG publishers Kobold Press, MCDM Studios, and EN Publishing announced ‘Open Gaming’ plans.

In the wake of D&D’s OGL turmoil, several major RPG publishers have announced new systems or other future plans for the coming days. Yesterday, Kobold Press, MCDM Studios, and EN Publishing made announcements regarding either new systems entirely or plans to change existing works.

These announcements come after almost a week of silence from Wizards of the Coast, whose proposed OGL 1.1 kicked off the wave of community uproar. Though their methods vary, one fact unites these three entities: a desire to keep gaming open and accessible for all to use.

The #OpenDnD movement is only part of the larger picture. Many designers agree that systems are at their best when anyone can play with them and build off of them. All three have plans for an open license of their own.

Kobold Press Raises Their Flag For Open Gaming

Kobold Press made their announcement in the form of a blog post titled Raising Our Flag. In it they reaffirm their commitment to open gaming, as well as announce the fate of their current projects:

“Kobold Press has been and always will be committed to open gaming and the tabletop community. Our goal is to continue creating the best materials for players and game masters alike.

This means Kobold Press will release its current Kickstarter projects as planned, including Campaign Builder: Cities & Towns (already printed and on its way to backers this winter).”

They also confirmed they will be working with virtual tabletop partners to maintain support for their upcoming projects.

However, Kobold Press also announced a new “core fantasy tabletop ruleset” code-named Black Flag.

Black Flag will be available, open, and subscription-free for any who choose to use it:

As Dungeons & Dragons moves toward the 50th anniversary of the game, foundational changes are afoot in the tabletop roleplaying game arena. While we wait to see exactly what shape the Open Gaming License might take in this new era, Kobold Press is also moving forward with some clear-eyed work on keeping the 5E rule set available, open, and subscription-free for those who love it: the Core Fantasy experiment. To receive future announcements and to register to playtest this ruleset, please sign up using this form.

When the new Open Gaming License and an updated System Reference Document are made public, Kobold Press will review the terms and consider whether they fit the needs of our audience and our business goals.

Keeping the 5E rule set available and open is a lofty goal, but a doable one.

Learn more about ‘Black Flag’ here.

MCDM Studios Gets Cinematic and Tactical

Meanwhile, MCDM Productions, the studio behind Matt Colville’s Kingdoms & Warfare and Strongholds & Followers 5E mega-hits on Kickstarter, announced their plans to develop a new tabletop RPG system during one of Matt Colville’s streams.

Though the system is as yet untitled, Colville said it will be “cinematic and tactical” while promising to use lots of “weird dice.” To be clear, though, this new unnamed RPG has been in the works for a while — Colville said development on the system had been planned for this year for a while now. It’s not in response to the OGL 1.1 changes, those rather moved up the timetable, but this system had been coming for a while. The announcement comes during what Colville calls “an interesting time” to be in the tabletop space.

Accompanying the new game will be an “aggressive open game license” so that anyone can make content for the new game. Because, as Colville says, he isn’t in the business of making DLC for “the Seattle company” but rather “for your game.” Colville believes RPGs are more like folk traditions than systems.

Alongside this new system, MCDM Productions announced that Flee, Mortals! will continue as planned.

EN Publishing Levels Up A5E and Open Gaming

Meanwhile, EN Publishing, which develops the What’s Old Is New (WOIN) system as well as the recent Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition, announced their plans and commitment to Open Gaming.

Their plans, while still in the works, including removing content that would fall under the Open Gaming License from Level Up, which as the tweet points out is doable, since the core rules for Level Up don’t use the SRD text.

WOIN, on the other hand, would only need a new starter set and an open license. EN Publishing also moved up their release timetable for the digital release of the Dungeon Delver’s Guide, publishing it two days ago in the midst of the OGL uncertainty.

These are surely just the first few announcements we’ll see along these lines. Open Gaming, as a concept, seems here to stay, regardless of what happens to the license that started it all.

What do you think?

Bell of Lost Souls Staff Writer and DM, J.R. covers RPGs of all stripes and on occasion eats sandwiches. You can ask him about either at [email protected]

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March as been a busy month at EN Publishing and the weekly blog posts fell to the side a little – but we’re back again!

A lot has been happening over the last week weeks – so here’s a big summary! Going forward we’ll stick to a weekly update every Friday which will be a lot shorter than this!

Level Up Advanced 5th Edition

Level Up fulfilment is in full swing! Kickstarter backers in the UK have already started receiving their orders, and others around the world will receive theirs over the next month. We’re excited to see all the pictures on social media!

You can pre-order your books on the website now here. Pre-orders will be sent out in May following Kickstarter fulfilment.

Launch of EN Live

In March we launched EN Live! EN Live makes content about indie ttrpgs, game news, and actual play shows of the games we create at EN Publishing.

As part of this we have four new shows:

Not DnD – weekly live stream and podcast where we talk about TTRPGs that are not DnD

EN Live Actual Play – A TTRPG actual play live stream and podcast. With 8-week campaigns featuring Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition, and one Shots of Awfully Cheerful Engine!

This Week in TTRPG – Your weekly summary of Tabletop RPG news in under 3 minutes. Available in video or audio format. As always, you can of course also read the weeks news summary on EN World too.

EN Publishing Monthly Update – On the third Thursday of each month we’ll live stream a monthly update from EN Publishing. We’ll update you on new products, upcoming Kickstarters, events we’ll be attending and updates on existing Kickstarter fulfillments. Also a chance to hang out with the EN Publishing team and ask any questions you may have about our games! Our next episode is 21st April.

You can find our more about all of the above, see the full schedule of dates and times at enliverpg.com

Standing with Ukraine

At EN Publishing we #StandWithUkraine

We make tabletop roleplaying games and wanted to use our skills to help support the crisis in Ukraine, instead of just a statement of solidarity.

We’ve created a collection of healing spells, rewards, magical ceremonies, and monk archetypes that can be used in your 5E DnD game. 100% of the funds raised from this campaign will be donated to the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.

Once the campaign ends we will send all supporters the PDF of Blessings, Healing and Peace whether you choose to donate £1 or £100. The funds will help DEC charities provide food, water, shelter and healthcare to refugees and displaced families. So please give generously!

Checkout the campaign here https://igg.me/at/en-ukraine

Goodbye to Judge Dredd & The Worlds of 2000AD

We sold off the last of the Judge Dredd and the worlds of 2000AD stock, and our licence for the brand ended on 9th March. Rebellion has announced they are producing their own TTRPG for Dredd in house.

Thank you to everyone who worked in making this line at EN Publishing, it’s a product we were proud to have our name to. And thank you to the fans that enjoyed the game and walking the streets of Mega Cities and across the cursed earth.

Glad to be back!

Jessica Hancock | Business Manager

This week, we continue our skim across the surface of out forthcoming supplement for the WOIN ruleset: The Possessed. Beware mortal, for the contents of this tome are not for the faint of heart. Even the hasty perusal we are providing risks exposing your soul to the hungers of demonic entities. You have been warned.

In last week’s blog, we took a little delve into character creation and some of the new features on offer there. Players are able to choose from plenty of character options that help to immerse them in the setting. One tweak to the system, however, is the introduction of an alternate power stat: Conviction. Check out the previous blog for more on this new attribute!

As a setting inspired by films that cover possession and combating the demonic, The Possessed also features some neat new mechanics on how the characters will be able to join the fight for a possessed host’s soul. Namely, the act of exorcism. Maybe not surprisingly, the mechanics for performing an exorcism link directly to Conviction. The higher a character’s Conviction, the better they are able to battle a demon’s will.

But Conviction isn’t the only tool in an exorcist’s toolbox. Games of The Possessed aren’t solely about the exorcism itself but rather slow burns in which the characters investigate the facts of the possession. This can range from gathering clues to how and when the possession happened to hopefully finding out a demon’s true name. All of these aspects will then aid the character’s when it finally comes time to expel the possessing demon from its host.

The guidance includes advice on how to describe the exorcism as a storyteller, which will only aim to provide drama and tension alongside the actual mechanics of the act. If you have ever watched a film that involves possession, you will recognise that exorcisms aren’t straightforward and instantaneous affairs. Instead, they are drawn out, dangerous, and draining. It is exactly these features the mechanics aim to emulate. Although there are a few nuances, the battle boils down to a countdown pool running in tandem with the characters pitting their Conviction against the possessing demon’s MENTAL DEFENCE. If they can wear the demon down before it fully possesses the host, they can force it back out into the void. Otherwise, the exorcism won’t end too well for the host or the characters…

Steel your souls and look forward to next week as we take a look at some of the demonic foes the players may end up pitting their Conviction against in games of The Possessed.

If you’ve been following our blog in recent weeks, you should be well aware of the imminent release of our new sourcebook for the WOIN ruleset: The Possessed. As promised, we continue our preview of this week with a brief look at character creation options.

The first key feature of the sourcebook is the introduction of a new attribute for characters. Each of WOIN’s rulesets across the genres introduces a variation of some sort of power stat for the unique abilities that characters may be able to gain – OLD has Magic (MAG), NOW has Chi (CHI), and NEW has Psionics (PSI). In a setting based on supernatural horror and the battle against The Adversary, none of those seemed to fit perfectly with the genre’s themes. So we have introduced Conviction (CON). To quote the sourcebook:

Conviction relates to a character’s faith in their religion or preferred method of organising the spiritual hierarchy of the universe, regardless of whether that takes the form of membership of the Catholic Church, the practice of Buddhism, following the teachings of Islam or venerating an internal code of unshakeable ethics and practices. Your CON acts as a negative penalty to demons when they are attempting to exert influence over you, such as through possession or mental control.

Characters in The Possessed are now perfectly armed to combat demons and the minions that worship! There is nothing stopping you keeping other stats such as MAG and PSI of course, especially if you intend mixing genres to fashion a setting along the lines of Constantine or The Dresden Files, but it was important to recognise that characters needed a base foundation to armour them against the demonic. In fact, demons still use PSI to power their abilites but more on that later…

Not everyone has Conviction, just as not everyone in the world has faith in their own abilities or greater powers, but each character can earn Conviction through character creation or play.

We also made some tweaks to the type of species you can choose. Rather than various types of species, and as this is set on a version of our own world, everyone is human. Instead of a species, characters can choose origin ranging from small town to extreme environment and gain bonuses to skills and attributes based on that. As before with attributes, you can still make all of the other species available if you choose, this is your game after all, we have simply provided the tools to ground the setting in a demon-infested reflection of our own world.

As a modern setting, a lot of career options from NOW and NEW fit nicely into the setting. All of these are listed in the sourcebook, although we have included new versions of detective and reporter that better reflect the setting. You may have seen the new origin that is available in last week’s blog, but there are also several new careers in the form of Apostate of the Adversary, Demonologist, Exorcist and Priest or Nun to name a few.

Which brings us neatly to a close for character options! Check back next week as we take a brief look at how the mechanics handle the act of exorcism itself.

In this week’s blog, we continue or delve into the terrifying secrets hidden within the covers of The Possessed, our forthcoming supplement for the WOIN suite of games. We’ve introduced the sourcebook in a previous blog and took a look at the introduction last week. This week, it’s time to check your chalk runes and take one last look at the lines for your rituals as we look at some of the other orders present in the world of The Possessed.

We’ve already mentioned that the Catholic Church feature in the sourcebook. As the sourcebook is largely inspired by a certain cult horror film from the ’70’s, the the exorcists of the church feature as player options and protagonists. There are, of course, other religions that stand tall on the frontline against the Adversary, and these are also discussed within the book. Then there are the orders that are… not so devout in their faith.

The Inverse

As their name suggests, the Inverse are the exact opposite of the Catholic Church. There are folks who oppose the teachings of the church, and then there is The Inverse, which consists of people who have given themselves over to demon worship in body, mind, and soul. Their plans and machinations seek to empower demons and draw them into the world, fuelling the end times and securing themselves a place in the new order.

The Order of Purgation

Not everyone who has witnessed the demonic and lived to tell the tale believes that they must tie themselves to the dogma of religious institutions. Some have even gathered together into a loose-knit order that operate in the shadows to combat the Adversary’s minions. Free of the ritual and bureaucracy of the church or other institutions, the Order of Purgation work in small cells to gather grimoires, perform rituals, and combat demons. Secrecy is key to their existence, so burner phones, secret codes, and hidden boltholes are necessary components to their survival.

Although playing as a member of The Inverse is beyond the scope of this book, you can start the game as a member of an order other than the Catholic Church. Tune in next week as we take a look at character creation options!