Many of us like to dabble in the world of tabletop gaming as well as settling down with our favorite console or PC game. If that includes you, and you are a fan of the hugely popular Dragonbane TTRPG, then you are very much in luck today.
Publishers Free League have teamed up with mega miniature maker Titan Forge in a partnership that will launch a range of high-quality miniatures for the award-winning fantasy RPG.
Everything We Know About the Dragonbane Miniatures Launch
The Northern Beasts miniatures sets will primarily focus on the monsters found in the Dragonbane Core Set and Bestiary, based on the amazing art by Johan Egerkrans and David Brasgalla, along with a range of heroes to face the horrifying beasts.
Perhaps the coolest aspect of all of this is that he models will also be available for you to 3D print your own at home if you have a resin or decent-quality 3d printer with the STLs heading to MyMiniFactory soon.
If you lack the necessary equipment to manufacture your own models, then the boxed options are for you.
Each set will include an original mini-adventure by Free League featuring the monster in question, giving Gamemasters everything they need to drop the miniatures straight into a Dragonbane campaign.
You can be notified when the Kickstarter launches by signing up here to receive a nudge. No word on price yet, but these will be an essential purchase for Dragonbane players when they arrive.
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We’ve learned over the years that a card game from Grandpa Beck’s Games is sure to be a good time around the table. 3-2-1 Countdown is a card shedding game released in early 2025 that we’re just now getting a chance to play. Will this retro rocket themed game be a crowd pleaser or will this be a failure to launch?
Countdown
3-2-1 Countdown is for two to eight players and is played over the course of 5 rounds. Each round, players are trying to shed the twelve cards from their hand or at least have the lowest valued hand when the round comes to an end. In higher player count games, you’ll only have ten cards in your hand, but the objective remains the same.
On your turn, you’ll simply discard a card or cards of all the same value to one discard pile, then draw the top card of the other discard pile. If you don’t like the card laying at the top, feel free to draw blind from the top of the deck in the center of the table. Having multiple copies of the same card is a great thing because it means that you can discard all of them at one time, inching your hand of cards closer to empty.
Drawing a new card after discarding can give you a chance of doubling or tripling another card value in your hand, making a future turn even more lucrative. Players are dropping cards and looking for chances to gain lower cards or cards that have synergy with the cards they have in their hand.
Ready to Blast Off
A round of 3-2-1 Countdown will end in one of two ways. If a player is able to discard a final card or cards on their turn, they say “Blast Off” and the round is over. For shedding all their cards, this player gets three points for emptying their hand. All other players share their numerical card totals as they share their hand of remaining cards. The player with the lowest card total gets two points and the next lowest gets one point.
A player can choose to end a round before someone has the opportunity to empty their hand. If a player has five or less points in their hand, they can place their cards face up in front of them, saying “Countdown”. This will end the round, but could be a risky move. If another player has a lower point total in their hand, they will grab the three victory points while the player who initiated this receives nothing. If the player who said “Countdown” did have the lowest total, they receive an additional bonus point, scoring four points. In either case, the next two players with the lowest point totals receive two and one point respectively.
The players that finish outside of the three lowest values don’t receive points, but there’s always next round. Most of our games, we play the full five rounds before totaling the players scores. In a game with six or seven players, we’ll sometimes play three or four rounds for a quicker game.
Mission Control
3-2-1 Countdown has great artwork from Apryl Stott that’s reminiscent of mid-1900’s science fiction. The rocket and color pallet of the game is excellent and works well as you race to shed your cards. I really enjoy the variety of rockets that appear on the eleven different cards in the game (zero to ten).
The card breakdown is weighted to the middle of the deck with the five cards showing up the most frequently. This is important to understand as you make decisions on whether or not to pick up specific numbers after discarding on your turn. Players often shoot immediately for low numbered cards in their first couple games. The problem is that the lower and higher cards in the deck are less plentiful, giving you less card matches in your hand.
While it seems counter intuitive, picking up that six or seven card makes a lot of sense. Chances are that you’ll have a couple of these cards in your hand already. Discarding a pile of cards feels so satisfying as you work to catch the other players off guard.
This game definitely flew under our radar this year. I originally didn’t dig too deep into 3-2-1 Countdown because of the shear number of card games that have shown up in our house over the past year. We had a chance to check the game out at Origins Game Fair in June and we knew this would be a hit for our family and friends.
I’m a little sad that we waited six months to check out this great card shedding game. The game is quick to teach and moves really fast after you get through your first round. I like that players who don’t finish in the top three of the round are locked out of earning points. While scores are pretty low numerically, the games we’ve played have been tight and competitive.
I’m positive that this is one of my top three games that Grandpa Beck’s publishes. It’s going to be tough to take the place of the incredible trick-taking classic Skull King and the ultra mean Cover Your A$$ets. 3-2-1 Countdown is a game that can hit the table after dinner or at the beginning or end of any game night. This is an easy suggestion for anyone who’s looking to introduce a new card game that the whole family can jump into.
The opponent decides to use the activated ability of Nevinyrral's Disk. When the artifact is tapped to use it, I respond by casting a Stifle, which counters the Disk’s ability, avoiding the total destruction that would result.
My question, however, is the following:
Nevinyrral’s Disk is normally placed in the graveyard after being used;
but its activation was countered;
therefore, does the Disk remain on the Battlefield, or is it placed in the graveyard from the game in any case,as indicated by the card text, even after its ability was countered ?
Of all the upcoming survival games we know about, Subnautica 2 is right up there as one of the most anticipated. There’s been a lot of excitement for a new underwater adventure, this time with full co-op support so you can explore alien seas with a friend. This week, that excitement has faded and been replaced with concern and anger after Krafton, the game’s publisher and owner of developer Unknown Worlds, removed the studio’s co-founders and president, replacing them with a new CEO. After widespread outcry, and even calls for a boycott of the game, Unknown Worlds has followed this news up with a statement reassuring fans that the vision for Subnautica 2 remained unchanged and that no extra monetization was being added to the game.
Unknown Worlds’ previous leadership team – Ted Gill, Charlie Cleveland, and Max McGuire – were instrumental in shaping the vision and delivering the original Subnautica – one of the best survival games ever, in our view. They’ve been replaced by Steve Papoutsis, who was most recently the CEO of Striking Distance, the developer behind Dead Space-esque horror game The Callisto Protocol. Krafton says it tried to find a way to keep the departing trio involved in the development of Subnautica 2, but those attempts were clearly unsuccessful.
No explicit reason was given for Gill, Cleveland, and McGuire’s departure, but the wording of Krafton’s statement suggests that Subnautica 2 was potentially failing to meet some internal development goals.
“As part of its oversight, Krafton is committed to achieving regular milestones to assess progress across its creative studios. These reviews, based on clearly defined metrics and targets, will help ensure that games meet both creative and quality standards. This process is essential to delivering the right game at the right time. Unknown Worlds’ new leadership fully supports this process and is committed to meeting player expectations.”
This decision went over terribly with fans of the series. While it took more than three people to create the original Subnautica, the sudden removal of these key figures is concerning and unsettling. The community’s anger has certainly been made clear on forums and social media – one popular thread on the game’s subreddit is titled “Subnatuica’s soul has just been ripped out,” while another calls for a boycott of the game and demands players unwishlist on Steam. Subnautica 2 remains the second most-wishlisted game on Valve’s platform, at the time of writing, with only Hollow Knight Silksong above it.
Seeing this outcry, Unknown Worlds has released a statement to try and reassure fans that this change in leadership is not going to affect the initial vision of the game. “When it comes to Subnautica 2, the team that has been working on the game day-to-day over the last few years remains completely unchanged. That team includes veterans of the Subnautica series, dating back to the earliest days of the original Subnautica, to the many incredible and talented developers who came aboard to help us bring our vision for Subnautica 2 to life.”
The statement also debunks some speculation from fans that the change in leadership occurred because the old team was resistant to putting additional monetization into Subnautica 2. “Nothing has changed with how the game is structured. It will remain a single-player first experience, with optional co-operative multiplayer. No subscriptions. No loot boxes. No battle pass. No microtransactions.”
It’s a pretty definitive statement that’ll reassure fans on the gameplay front, but the entire post (and Krafton’s initial announcement) fails to explain why such a drastic decision was made so near to the Subnautica 2 release date – the game is set to drop in early access before the end of this year. Players certainly want answers, and I think a lot of the outrage could’ve been avoided if Krafton clearly provided them.
To see what else is on the horizon this year alongside Subnautica 2, check out our upcoming games list. Alternatively, if constructing bases was your favorite part of the original, here are the best building games on PC right now.
You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We’ve also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with members of the team and fellow readers.
In Episode 606 of The TouchArcade Show we kick things off talking about my plans for this weekend, which has resulted in this week’s show being a bit shorter than normal. We also go over some more updates on our Patreon situation, which has been trending upwards lately. Thank you for the support! We briefly touch on the latest version of iOS 18 before hopping into listener emails which leads into some interesting discussion, as always. Like, is the internet more dangerous now for kids than it was when I was growing up in the ’90s? We weigh in! Finally Eli gives us a rundown of his Dungeons & Dragons situation and the hardships between physical and digital ownership.
Don’t forget to shoot us emails with any questions, feedback, or anything else relevant or irrelevant to [email protected]. We read ’em all, and love decoding messages written entirely in emoji. As always, you can listen to us with the links below… And if you like what you hear, please subscribe and/or drop us a review in iTunes. Much appreciated!
As a companion to this audio podcast, we also do a video version of the same show that is exclusive to Patreon which allows you to see us playing the games we’re talking about. Backers can view the most recent video episodes of the TouchArcade show by clicking here. Be sure you’re logged in to see the latest content. For everyone else who is curious, you can check out our public patreon posts to see older episodes of the video podcast. If you like what you see, consider becoming a TouchArcade Patreon backer.
In the Fourth and Fifth edition printings of Verduran Enchantress, her triggered ability that allows her controller to draw a card after successfully casting an enchantment was written as an activated ability:
{0}: Draw a card when you successfully cast an enchantment. Use this effect only once for each enchantment cast.
While this is nearly identical in terms of game effect, the difference in something being an activated ability versus a triggered ability can matter for other cards like Strict Proctor.
Is there an easy way to tell just from this card that the updated Oracle text has turned this into a triggered ability? If not, how do I explain it to another player, especially a beginner, who has the outdated wording of this card?
I am not sure anyone was shocked this week when a multi-billion-dollar company carved its way through the videogaming arm of its workforce, laying off thousands of people who, until that point, had been diligently coding the games it had approved.
Minutes later came the mealy-mouthed soundbites about restructuring, innovating, and an exciting future for all. All released to the background of thousands of resumes being hurriedly and worriedly emailed to the recruiters of the three jobs that are available.
“We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company and teams for success in a dynamic marketplace.”
10,000 jobs cut in 2023, another 9,000 now. How’s that positioning going Microsoft?
Xbox head honcho Phil Spencer was also at it, “I recognize that these changes come at a time when we have more players, games, and gaming hours than ever before. Our platform, hardware, and game roadmap have never looked stronger. The success we’re seeing currently is based on tough decisions we’ve made previously.”
The desks were emptying at studios such as Rare, King, and Bethesda, among many others, as he spoke.
The elephAInt in the room
Executive Producer at Xbox Game Studios, Matt Turnbull, will be wishing he hadn’t posted his advice on LinkedIn to those booted out to load up ChatGPT and get it to help you with the recruitment process. He’s now removed it, and I feel a bit sorry for him as he was trying to be helpful. And LinkedIn is a dumpster fire at the best of times, but still, if you still have your job when colleagues are losing theirs, my advice would be to keep your head down.
It’s not clear if or indeed any of the job cuts are as a direct result of Microsoft’s love-in with Artificial Intelligence. It would be silly to presume there is no connection, and this is the way the world is headed wither way. But we don’t have to like it
The thing is, and I have said this vociferously before when industry layoffs occur, that all that ever happens is that you get a few media outlets – many themselves often under constant fear of staff cuts, highlighting the problem, and then some bleating on Reddit from players who were looking forward to a particular game coming out that has now been canned, and that’s it. Rinse and repeat.
Seemingly ad infinitum.
Nothing new
I interviewed a long-standing CEO of a prominent publisher not long back – an interview you will be able to read in full on The Escapist in the near future and he told me he thought the games industry had always been a mess. And he has been in the game for decades.
He also said that perhaps it is time to start looking at things the way the movie industry does. There, you don’t so much work for a company but on a project. When the project is complete – ie, the movie gets released, that’s it. Job done, and you move on to the next one. If a movie gets canned, same thing.
It’s just a different perception and maybe the way things are already going, even if it’s not being outwardly stated.
Do most people care that the gaming industry is so dysfunctional?
Nobody objects for more than a few hours. Nobody is held to task. Corporations gonna corporation, and we just accept it. There’s no, “well, you sacked all those Perfect Dark devs, so we will hit you in the pocket by letting you stick your next Call of Duty where the sun don’t shine”.
Speaking of Perfect Dark, that’s another area where we should be outraged. I, like you, saw the gameplay trailer only a few months back and thought, yeah, that looks pretty cool. Now the game is canned for being in “poor shape,” and we are thinking, ‘but hang on, it looked alright to me.”
Now we find out that “demo” was somewhere between a fake and a load of sections frantically duct-taped together to hold it in one piece for the one minute the trailer lasted before presumably bursting into flames the second recording stopped.
Just stop lying to your audience.
Or at least if you continue to lie to us, and we find out, then there will be consequences for your profit and loss sheet. Which, let’s face it, is all they really care about. If it’s a “vertical slice”, tell us it is. But the push to see all the latest trailers at the same old games festivals means that companies feel the need to do this stuff.
Should we be bothered?
In the main, the games industry is not a cosy cottage industry. It is a behemoth full of corporations and money guys trying to extract the most cash from you. Some of you may be young enough not to remember it being any different, but it was. And it was better for it. But that version of the games industry couldn’t exist today. It is naive to think it could.
The cottage industry aspect survives in the form of (some) indie studios, but the world of the triple A (or even the AA or, just the bloody A) can be found north of Disaster Town. And then these companies have the gall to tell us we don’t own the games, only rent them. What happens? We complain for a few hours, then pre-order the next one so we can play it 48 hours early.
Maybe it really is all our fault in the first place.
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What are the Roblox the Hatch rewards? If you’re up for cracking eggs all summer long, this is the officially sanctioned block-based event for you. Split across multiple biomes, hundreds of games, and with numerous mechanics, the goal is simple: collect all ten eggs of a single element to earn a prize. Get the lot and you’ll spruce up your UGC catalog with glimmering goodies.
Roblox the Hatch has spread into some of the best Roblox games on the platform. If you’re not sure which ones to search for sacred eggs, let our guides, well… guide you. Double up with Fisch codes, Dig codes, and Arm Wrestle Simulator codes to claim in-game loot while you hunt for eggs to hatch.
All Roblox the Hatch rewards
Reward
Requirement
Funktastic Fritatta Boombox
Collect all 10 Connection eggs
Bizarro Benedict Hat
Collect all 10 Light eggs
Electro Eggalodon Tail
Collect all 10 Darkness eggs
Scorching Deviled Egg Horns
Collect all 10 Fire eggs
Egglectrified Adventurer’s Belt
Collect all 10 Earth eggs
Midnight Eggquarium Backpack
Collect all 10 Water eggs
Yolktaic Energy Wings
Collect all 10 Energy eggs
Timespun Halo
Collect all 10 Time eggs
Staff of the Geomancer
Collect all 10 Ice eggs
Dark Side of the Egg Aura
Collect all 10 Air eggs
Wearable egg head accessory 1
Quest – Collect all 100 eggs
Wearable egg head accessory 1
Quest – Complete the Finale
Throughout The Hatch, you have the ability to unlock 12 different ‘Solstice’ UGC items by collecting every egg from its respective element. You can also buy the lot for 1200-1600 Robux if you truly believe time is money.
Manage to score the whole set and they’ll be upgraded into fancier forms.
How to claim Roblox Hatch rewards
Once you collect the final egg in an elemental set, you need to head to the hatch point of the matching biome. This triggers an event where the final 11th egg of that series appears before you.
Agree to let it float around and all that’s left is to take it to that biome’s nest to hatch it, revealing the Roblox Hatch reward of that element.
Are there more Roblox Hatch rewards?
Some quests, found on the left side of the hub screen, award Hatch UGC, too. From inviting friends to collecting over 100 eggs, you can earn things like gelato you can equip, and unique head accessories.
We expect a couple more Hatch rewards to surface before the event ends on July 12. Take a look in the telescope behind the Connection portal and you’ll spot a meteor hurtling through the sky.
Expect the Hatch meteor to unlock the head accessory from the Finale quest. It could also have something to do with the ‘Something is Coming’ quests set to kick off on July 4, 2025.
How to get Eggs in Roblox The Hatch
Each biome within the Roblox the Hatch event hub houses eggs of a specific element.
It’s possible to find all ten eggs of an element in its respective zone if you’re lucky. Once you exhaust the spawns, you’ll have to resort to merging, trading, or searching for a single egg in each of that biome’s mountain of player-made games by walking into its portal.
You can also unlock eggs by clearing quests like discovering the biome’s portal, interacting with its decor, or completing obbies. It sounds easy, but with eggs of various rarities, getting lucky enough to find the lot can take some time. Cooperation is key.
The Hatch hub has daily events, too. These can make hunting for eggs a little easier. For example, the Merge Mania event on July 3 reduced how many duplicates were needed to merge eggs and increased egg spawns across the hub, making it possible to AFK farm eggs in each biome.
If you’re struggling to find a specific egg, it’s worth loading up the Hatch hub the next day to see if a fresh event might work in your favor.
And that’s it for Roblox The Hatch rewards for now. Remember: you have until July 12 to grab the lot. Done and dusted? Find your next obsession with the help of our list of the best free PC games. Like the random egg mechanic? You might enjoy the best gacha games on PC, too.
While this Module certainly works, and works just fine, as many of its users will attest, feedback indicated there is room for improvement… to make electronically playing Congress of Vienna an even better game playing experience!
The CoV Vassal Team is fortunate to now have the Vassal programming talents of Fredrik Lindner and Mark Benson, who are building upon the current Module developed by Joel Toppen and CoV Designer Frank Esparrago. It’s my pleasure to here introduce them and their good efforts to the InsideGMTaudience.
However, as there are many within our beloved hobby who prefer a physical game, sitting around a “table of rivals” with all the fun and excitement that entails, your support of Congress of Vienna’s P-500 Second Printing would certainly be appreciated. To learn more of that offering, as well as access a vast array of Congress of Vienna material, see: GMT Games – Congress of Vienna, 2nd Printing
With that, matters are now turned over to Mark & Fredrik!
The CoV Vassal Module Fred above references enabled us to enjoy the game virtually, ensuring us wonderful times playing the current Congress of Vienna Vassal Module, whether as one of the Sixth Coalition’s Major Allied Powers or as the “Corsican Ogre” himself: Napoleon, emperor of the French! However, we’re inveterate “tinkerers” and, as we gained more experience with the game, could not resist suggesting program enhancements. Therefore, we reached out to Frank Esparrago and Fred Schachter to volunteer our enthusiasm and computer programming help… not only for our own sakes, but for all those who enjoy via Vassal Frank’s wonderful Congress of Vienna design (inspired by Mark Herman’s Churchill).
The core CoV Team meets each weekend with representatives, not all of whom are present every session, from the UK, Sweden, Spain, and various USA locations from the east to west coasts to playtest our Vassal Programming efforts, dubbed CoV Vassal Module Mark 2. That’s been fine to an extent… but we now need and would greatly appreciate input from more fellow Congress of Vienna gamers before this latest Module can be confidently ready for public release to replace Module Mark 1.
A number of volunteers have already come forth through a BGG (Board Game Geek) solicitation and it would be grand if more could flock to the CoV Vassal Module Mark 2 playtest volunteer banner from InsideGMT’s audience.
As something of a teaser, here are selected screen shots from CoV Vassal Module Mark 2. Thanks in advance to those responding to this solicitation. Enjoy Congress of Vienna!
Figure 1: Screen Shot of a Russian card hand. Note the new card trading area. This version duplicates what many gamers do when playing the physical game through automatically organizing cards by Major Power with any neutral card(s) placed on the bottom row flush right.Figure 2 The Allied CDGSM Card. Players asked for less graphic clutter and clearer labelling of the cards on display to choose from. We accommodated them. Better?Figure 3: The CoV Vassal Module Gameboard Mark 2 as of an underway Game Turn Two’s Diplomacy Phase: Those familiar with Congress of Vienna should be able to deduce what’s occurred thus far by the placement of Issues and pawns upon the board’s Diplomacy Section as well as by the Military Map’s Armies and markers. Note the change in orientation which now emulates the physical game as players preferred scrolling between the Diplomacy and Military Map Sections enabling better visibility. Leader card images are now at each Major Power’s Seat (face-up to indicate availability). Pop Ups explain each gameboard component as well as enlarge them for easier reading. Automatic placement capabilities have been introduced in many areas, as a complement to traditional ‘click and drag’ interactions. This, of course, speeds up the pace of play.Figure 4: Sequence of Play: This automated chart allows players to easily navigate an entire CoV turn’s sequence of play while at the same time providing direct access to relevant game functions.Figure 5: A complete and easy menu for “Scenario Options”: Through which players can access Congress of Vienna’s different scenarios, as well as determine a game’s number of players, Initial Situation & Handicap cards. The Rulebook’s Optional Historical Rules can be locked in for a game. Choices, choices, eh?
Published: Jul 4, 2025 10:17 am