The holidays are a comin’, and we’re getting ready to hibernate in our magpie ice caverns before the terrible yellow-breasted grackle comes hunting for us. (We have at best a tenuous grasp on actual ecology concerning magpies.) But before we carefully shape the ice around us using our heat-tendrils and sing the songs of our forgotten civilizations, we wanted to run down this past year, as well as take a look at what lies ahead.

Hiatus

First and foremost, make sure to get all your orders in before Dec 18th, as we’ll be out of the office during the holidays. Any orders that come in after December 18th will only be processed once we come back on January 8th of 2018. (Assuming the grackle does not find us with its terrible heat-sensing probes.) Send in any questions you have for us, but we will only be returning emails on the 8th.

Our Treasures

This year, we added several more awesome baubles to the Magpie nest! Our crowning jewel for the year is Bluebeard’s Bride—the most gorgeous book we’ve ever had the pleasure of producing. Thanks go to all the backers who made it possible, and to our incredible team! Beyond that, we produced two major supplements for our games: Dark Streets, a supplement for Urban Shadows, and the Halcyon City Herald Collection, a supplement for Masks: A New Generation. Both books add all new playbooks and tools to expand what you can do with those games, and we’re deeply proud to have both in our catalogue. And finally, we put out two new ashcan games: The Ward, by Kevin Petker, and Pasión de las Pasiones, by Brandon Leon-Gambetta. Kevin and Brandon wrote amazing games, and playing them is a blast! You can pick up PDFs of these games on DriveThruRPG, and get physical books from our store.

Conventions Attended

Between the four Magpies, we went to nine different conventions this year, for a total of over 20 days of convention attendance! We are still planning our convention schedule for next year, but here were a few of the highlights: Origins

Marissa got to jump in on for the last few hours of Bill White’s 12 hour Traveller marathon… Brendan ran Velvet Glove three times and had radically different gangs: one loving and loyal to each other, the next on the edge and ready to commit some violence, and the third a bit tense internally and varied in their goals and drives but ultimately united against the outside world. Mark enjoyed running Velvet Glove multiple times with new folks… Sarah had a good time running her games of Velvet Glove and seeing how funk and angst combined to give the girl gangs life, and the moments where the girls united against the world were the best.

GenCon

GenCon is always so many things, all at once, for us, and this time it was no different. It was a chance to run and play games; a chance to be with incredible people from all over the world; a chance to have fun conversations and nerdy arguments; a chance to eat, drink, and be merry; a chance to celebrate this hobby that we love so much.

RinCon

Mark and Brendan went out to RinCon 2017 between September 29 and October 1, and they had an awesome experience meeting people, playing games, and fighting gazebos!

Pax Unplugged

Magpie Games was firmly ensconced in a corner booth at PAX Unplugged, featuring purple carpet, purple table cloths, and limned with purple lights. (It was only later that we would realize that purple was the official color of the convention, and revel in our luck!)

Metatopia

Brendan went to Metatopia on November 3rd and had all his games ripped to shreds by the merciless hordes had a great time! He brought three games, participated in two panels, played in a few other games, and had all manner of awesome conversation! Thanks so much to all of the players in the games, and thanks to Double Exposure for putting on such an awesome convention!

What’s To Come

There’s plenty more awesome books we’re planning to add to the Magpie nest in 2018. Here are some planned highlights: A Dark Cabinet Full of Bluebeard’s Bride The Book of Rooms, Book of Mirrors, Book of Lore, Deck of Objects, and Tarot of Servants for Bluebeard’s Bride are all on track for 2018. From adding lots of new content to flesh out your games of Bluebeard’s Bride to providing brand new ways to play the game, these books will expand Bluebeard’s Bride to fill every corner of your darkest imaginings. Two New Major Event Books for Masks Secrets of A.E.G.I.S. and Masks: Unbound are both on track for 2018, as well. Between the two books, you’ll receive new playbooks, new playsets which give brand new rules for playing Masks in new ways, and a slew of new ideas to inspire your Masks game. Exploring everywhere from A.E.G.I.S.’s most secure prisons to the deepest reaches of parallel-dimension-space-adventure, these books will take Masks to new heights! The Encyclopedia Draconica Volume 1 for Epyllion This collection of missives and historical records from the realm of Dragonia, complete with new moves and new playbooks for Epyllion, is on track for early 2018! We’re excited to go back to the world of raw-scaled drakes and bearded dragons with this gorgeous new tome! Cartel 2018 will be the year of Cartel! We’re currently planning on launching a new Kickstarter for Cartel in early 2018, with the plan of getting the book out in time for GenCon. The ashcan for this game of Mexican narcofiction has been out for some time, and has been well-received across the board. Now, with new, refined rules, it’s time to finish the game off and put it into your hands! Velvet Glove Finally, Velvet Glove, as well, is on deck for 2018! Like Cartel, we’ve had the ashcan out for some time, and have been refining this game of girl gangs in the 70’s ever since. And now, we’re working on finalizing the game so we can put up a Kickstarter for it later in 2018! Stay tuned!

The Close of the Year

So there you have it! We’re closing down for 2017 and moving on to still better things! Thank you all for your continued support and attention, and we’ll see you next year!