Ok, minis aren't exactly made out of tin, and the word "triptych" isn't entirely right here, but you try coming up with the perfect header for these blogs every day! (Besides, "triptych" is just a cool word—that and "defenestration," but that's another blog.) In any case, when Jeff Strand told me that three new Pathfinder Miniatures had arrived from Reaper, my daily blog topic—if not the title—was settled!

This time around, we're featuring two of Golarion's iconic factions and one of its iconic Pathfinders. With the Eagle Knights of Andoran and the Red Mantis Assassins, you have, respectively, one of the most good and one of the most evil factions in Golarion. The Eagle Knights of Andoran are a tripartite—hey, there's another cool word—faction devoted to freedom, liberty, and justice. They are shining examples of weal, wielding both sword and word as weapons to undermine and overthrow slavers, pirates, and tyrants of every sort.

Their polar opposites, the Red Mantis are the most feared and likely the most effective assassins on the face of Golarion. They are brutally effective in finding their targets, killing them, and making sure they stay dead. They have what seems to be supernatural or divine knowledge of the slights perpetrated against those around them and often approach their clients before they even know they need an assassin’s services. They will pursue a target anywhere on the planet (or beyond) and are seemingly infinitely patient as they track and stalk.

The third new mini is Eando Kline, the Pathfinder made famous in the Pathfinder Journals in the back of our first dozen Adventure Path volumes—and he also makes a guest appearance in the current Serpent's Skull AP.

A couple years ago, James Ernest and Mike Selinker came to us with Dust & Sin, a board game designed around building a casino empire in the early days of Las Vegas. James had created the prototype out of LEGOs, and we all had a great time playing it. We liked it enough that we wanted to release it, but as Paizo's board game schedule settled down to about one release per year, we realized that it could be several more years before we could do it. So James and Mike pitched it to our friends at Mayfair Games, and they loved it too! This past Gen Con, I got a chance to play a little of Mayfair's newly renamed Lords of Vegas, and I had a wonderful time! I can't wait to get my own copy so I can be the big cheese in Vegas!

Construct a magnificent chain of casinos and manufacture the ultimate dream of easy money and impossible luxury! But your rivals can build next door, and they just might take you over with a clever paint job or a lucky roll of the dice. Buy, sell, trade, and gamble your way to the top as you build your empire along the storied Las Vegas Strip. From award-winning game designers Mike Selinker (Yetisburg) and James Ernest (Kill Doctor Lucky) comes this clever strategy game with all the thrills, risks, and rewards of the casino business!

The Munchkin franchise from Steve Jackson Games keeps rolling along, with a trio of new products to entice and titillate even the most jaded Munchkin!

The first is Munchkin: Marked for Death, boasting 19 totally new cards—featuring full-color art from Dork Tower's John Kovalic—all prepped to add to your classic Munchkin game. The gimmick for this set is it can be used as a super-quick, programmed demo to let existing fans teach new players!

Got more Munchkin loot than you can keep straight? SJG's Munchkin Boxes of Holding gives you a pair of sturdy 500-card storage boxes—one for Doors and one for Treasures—with the Munchkin logo and great Kovalic art, plus a pair of Munchkin cards you can't get anywhere else. No true Munchkin can resist!

Finally, the +6 Bag O' Munchkin Dice gets you six 6-sided dice with the Munchkin head in place of the 1. You can never have too many dice, and these match your Munchkin cards! They actually work with other games, but why would you play anything else?

This week, Wizards of the Coast has two new releases for their D&D Essentials line, both using the new 6"x9" softcover format.

The Rules Compendium is a handy reference guide to 4th Edition, collecting rules from the 4E Player's Handbooks, Monster Manuals, Dungeon Master Guide, and more. This convenient text incorporates the errata from the last two years as well, so 4E players will likely consider it a must-have resource for the game table.

Heroes of the Fallen Lands is the first of two character-oriented books for players. It brings new powers, class features, paragon paths, epic destinies, and more, for clerics, fighters, rogues, and wizards. It also provides racial traits and other information for dwarves, eladrin, elves, halflings, and humans. (November's followup, Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms, will cover druids, paladins, rangers, and warlocks, plus dragonborn, drow, half-elves, half-orcs, and tieflings.)

It has been nine long months since Savage Encounters, the previous Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures set, was released, but the new Lords of Madness Huge Packs were worth the wait!

Lords of Madness brings 60 new prepainted plastic miniatures, blind-packed in boxes of 6 miniatures, with a Huge figure in each box. Very Rare figures join the usual Common, Uncommon, and Rare categories with this set; each booster box has 2 Commons and a mix of the remaining three commonalities, depending on whether the Huge figure is Uncommon, Rare or Very Rare.

The minis in the set are some of the more exciting that I have seen in a long while. The Commons include a bunch of very useful miniatures, from the Orc Archer to the Skeleton, to the Human Town Guard. Heck, there's even a Rot Grub Swarm!

I think a number of Uncommons are going to be very popular, including the Efreet Fireblade, the Iron Golem Juggernaut, and the Stone Giant. I expect to get a lot of use out of the Trebuchet in my upcoming Kingmaker campaign!

For the Rare and Very Rare categories, my favorites are the Heroslayer Hydra and the Elder Blue Dragon... but don't just listen to me blather on about what I like—take a gander at the whole line-up of Lords of Madness singles yourself!

When I heard that Super Genius Games was releasing a PDF for playing zero-level characters with the Pathfinder RPG, I was excited. One of my favorite experiments in 1st edition D&D was starting a campaign with the PCs as zero-level kids running around the backstreets of Sanctuary, from the Thieves World setting. As the PCs played around town, random encounters would set them on one path or another in their adventuring careers. (My favorite event involved a very high-level but senile wizard mistaking one of the characters as his missing apprentice wizard. The funny thing was the character in question had an 8 Intelligence and an 18 Strength!) Now, all these years later, the Genius Guide to Apprentice-Level Characters will allow me the chance to make similar memorable moments in my next campaign!

When you consider the number of things even a 1st-level Pathfinder RPG character can do, it’s pretty clear that even the lowest level characters have completed some intense training. But what do you do if you want to start an adventure before your wizards have mastered their 1st-level spells and paladins have discovered how to detect evil at will? The Genius Guide to Apprentice-Level Characters presents simple rules for creating 0-level or 1/2-level characters who have some instruction but aren’t yet fully trained members of their class.

In other Super Genius PDF news, the Genius Guide to Martial Archetypes provides material designed to give fighting classes new techniques for running their foes through, or at least flashier things to do while making the effort. It does this through the use of archetype packages—a way to replace some of a base class’s standard abilities with new powers (in this case, powers tied to martial skill). An archetype package can present new kinds of combat options a character may learn (such as the Youxia), allow him to excel in the mastery of a single weapon (such as the Blacksnake), or just give him an extra edge in any fighting situation (such as the Physical Exemplar).

The latest One Night Stand, The Warren of the Death Spider, has you investigating the disappearance of some local children. (If you have arachnophobia, this adventure isn't for you!)

Finally, there are a couple of FREE web enhancements for previously released Super Genius PDFs. (And if you don't have them, take a look at the enhancements anyway!) The Genius Guide to Hoof and Horn Racial Options contains new options for the races in The Genius Guide to Races of Hoof and Horn, giving them their own sets of alternate racial traits and favored class options. The Genius Guide to Favored Class Options does the same for the first 12 classes Super Genius released—gratis!

Imagine that you're a star college athlete joining the pros—you're going from top guy on campus to a rookie who has to measure up against all the other top guys who made it. It isn't surprising that a vast majority of them fail to stick. In Fantasy Flight's newest RPG set in the Warhammer 40K universe, you think that you're the best of the best, and then you're recruited to a team where you're the newbie—and failure isn't an option.

The Deathwatch Roleplaying Game is an RPG in which you take on the role of a member of the Adeptus Astartes—the devout, bio-engineered super-soldiers also known as Space Marines. After many years of exemplary service within your own chapter, you have been singled out and selected to join one of the most unique and specialized collectives of Space Marines—the Deathwatch.

Only the most exceptional candidates from the fighting forces of the Adeptus Astartes are invited to join the mysterious Deathwatch; to take on a new oath to safeguard the Imperium from the darkest of threats. You will now be called into service to hunt down and destroy hostile xenos forces, to seek out and crush the root of heresy and sedition, and to continually fight against the foul daemon menace that crawls forth hungrily from beyond the Warp. You are at the fore of Mankind's war for survival against an extremely hostile universe.

For centuries, the Deathwatch have maintained their silent vigil over the ancient ruins of the Reach, but now you find yourselves on the front lines of a grand Imperial Crusade that has been launched to reclaim this vast region of space from darkness and heresy. The fate of billions rests in your hands!

Those who are taking the GM's reigns will want to check out the Deathwatch Game Master's Kit, which comes complete with a sturdy cardboard GM screen featuring stunning Deathwatch artwork and useful tables, charts, rules, and statistics for quick Game Master reference, plus a book featuring a complete adventure, "The Shadow of Madness." Explore the unfathomed forces that may have cursed the planet Baraban, and discover their connection to the unknown purpose of the waiting Omega Vault. The book also includes a section devoted to aiding Game Masters in devising missions and implementing them into your own Deathwatch campaigns. Finally, the back of the book serves an appendix detailing the important NPCs that the Kill-team may encounter, plus plenty of adventure seeds for each.

Way back in Dragon #83, veteran game designer Roger Moore (who liked his dice shaken, not stirred) wrote an adventure called "The Dancing Hut." Roger gave roleplayers their first look into the home of Baba Yaga, the witch queen of the north, and one of the most powerful spellcasters on Oerth. Well, fast forward 26 years and you'll see that Baba Yaga has claimed her spot in Golarion in Greg Vaughan's new Pathfinder Module for 17th Level PCs, The Witchwar Legacy.

The witch queens of Irrisen must abdicate their thrones every 100 years when their mother, Baba Yaga, places a new daughter on the throne. But one queen was unwilling to relinquish her rule, and led a doomed rebellion against the Mother of Witches. Afterward, Baba Yaga entombed her wayward daughter in an icy necropolis known as the Veil of Frozen Tears, along with a powerful artifact called the Torc of Kostchtchie, hiding them both far from mortal eyes.

Now, almost 500 years later, the tomb has been found, and the race is on to plunder its treasures. Will the PCs follow Elvanna, the current queen of Irrisen, in her attempt to recover the Torc, or will they join forces with the demon lord Kostchtchie? What secrets does the Veil of Frozen Tears conceal? Can the PCs reclaim the lost artifact and keep it from those who also seek its power, or will they fall victim to the denizens of the tomb and end up as eternal guardians themselves?

Every campaign seems to feature a battle in the woods at some point, so it should be little surprise that one of our fastest-selling GameMastery Flip-Mats was Flip-Mat: Woodlands. Thankfully, Erik had his eye on the ball, so he managed to introduce Flip-Mat: Forest just a few short weeks after Woodlands sold out.

The wild forests hold dangers as deadly as those of any dungeon, and this gorgeous map sets the scene for memorable woodland encounters. From the secluded clearing to the inviting pool to the trackless wild, Flip-Mat: Forest is a perfect set-piece for any campaign, useful for random encounters or well-planned ambushes. Don’t go into the woods alone!

This portable, affordable map measures 24" x 30" unfolded, and 8" x 10" folded. Its coated surface can handle any dry erase, wet erase, or even permanent marker. Usable by experienced GMs and novices alike, GameMastery Flip-Mats fit perfectly into any Game Master’s arsenal!

One cool aspect of this Flip-Mat is that it serves as a bridge between Flip-Mat: Woodlands and Flip-Mat: River Crossing, allowing you to line them up side-by-side to create a large wilderness region!

One of my favorite TV shows returning this month is The Amazing Race, in which several groups race around the world for a million-dollar prize. So it shouldn't be too surprising that I find similarities between that show and our second Serpent's Skull volume, Pathfinder Adventure Path #38: Racing to Ruin, in which your group is one of several who want to reach the lost city of Saventh-Yhi first. It's not quite a race around the world, but the prize is just as big, and the Mwangi Expanse is just as unforgiving of mistakes.

Finally reaching the port city of Eleder, the adventurers arrive with knowledge of the route to the lost city of Saventh-Yhi. But new rivals are also on the trail of the legendary metropolis, and soon the race is on to reach the fabled ruin and claim its unimaginable treasures. Will the adventurers ally with ambitious explorers like the treasure-seeking Pathfinder Society, the unscrupulous Aspis Consortium, the gold-hungry Shackles Pirates, or others on their quest into the jungle's depths? And what dangers will they face as they enter the Screaming Jungle, one of the deadliest wildernesses on all of Golarion?

This Pathfinder Adventure Path volume also includes a tour of the exotic and tumultuous port city of Eleder; a look into the calm and calamity of Gozreh, unpredictable god of nature; a Pathfinder Journal featuring bar brawls and noble quests by Robin D. Laws; and five new monsters to make the jungle that much more unpredictable.

When the evil mind of Erik Mona started to plot out his now-classic "Howl of the Carrion King" adventure, he came up with a new type of gremlin: the Pugwampi. We don't want to spoil too much for players that haven't encountered them yet, but let's just say that these little devils don't, er... "roll over" easily. They quickly became a favorite of GMs—and the bane of PCs. Heck, they even made the cover of the upcoming Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary 2! And now the folks over at Reaper are making it even easier to bring their unique brand of luck to your gaming table with their new set of 4 Pugwampi minis!

The other new release in Reaper's Pathfinder Miniatures line is Chammady Drovenge, the villainess from Pathfinder Adventure Path #27: "What Lies in Dust".

Those crafty Old Ones are hiding out from the various investigators who want to plunder their ancient artifacts and forbidden secrets. So where do you go when you want to stay hidden? Underground! Yep, the Old Ones are hitting the caves in Steve Jackson Games' fourth expansion for the popular Munchkin Cthulhu card game, Crazed Caverns.

The hunt for forbidden knowledge goes underground into the Crazed Caverns! Explore the Midden of the Mi-Go! Dig yourself out of the Dunwich Ditch! Brave the blue light of Kn-Yan!

Munchkin Cthulhu 4: Crazed Caverns adds Portals and Dungeons (first seen in Munchkin 6: Demented Dungeons) to Munchkin Cthulhu. Every new Dungeon card changes the rules, making the game even more insane—to say nothing of the players! This expansion contains 16 Door cards and 20 Dungeon Cards.

One of the largest and most comprehensive of all Forgotten Realms maps is the one that was published in four parts in Dragon Magazine #287 to #290. We've been out of stock on #287 and #290 for a while now, leaving fans who craved the giant map with no way to satisfy their hunger. However, while moving stuff around in the warehouse, we came across a box of three of the four maps. The fourth is still available as part of the full back issue, so once again—and probably for the last time—you can get your hands on this huge map!

The giant 42"x60" Forgotten Realms Map is made up of the upper left quadrant from Dragon #287, the upper right quadrant from Dragon #288 (which can also be obtained by buying Dragon #288 as a back issue), the lower left quadrant (only available as part of the Dragon #289 back issue), and the lower right quadrant from Dragon #290.

In addition to the large map sections, we also found a very small quantity of the original Forgotten Realms campaign map that came with the third edition Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting hardcover. How we ended up with these, I will never know, but they're here for the taking... until they sell out!

Our friends over at Pelgrane Press have brought their GUMSHOE game system PDFs to paizo.com, and they're celebrating by giving you 15% off the regular prices through the end of the day on September 20! It's a great chance to check out some cutting-edge PDFs for modern investigative roleplaying.

It's hard to make investigative scenarios work in many RPGs—if important clues are missed due to failed dice rolls, the game can grind to a halt. The GUMSHOE System is designed to solve this by making the game not about finding clues, but about interpreting them. Die rolling is in the hands of the players whenever possible, letting them take control of the investigation. Non-player character abilities often modify rolls made by the players, and success and failure frequently depends on what the game master finds dramatically appropriate.

There are two main product lines for GUMSHOE. Fans of the Cthulhu mythos will want to check out the Trail of Cthulhu line. Trail of Cthulhu is a standalone game that supports two styles of play: Pulp (Indiana Jones, Robert E. Howard) and Purist (intellectual horror and cosmic dread). It includes a new take on the creatures, cults and gods of H.P. Lovecraft, and bulks out the GUMSHOE system with player backgrounds and a system for sanity, balancing the PCs desire to explore with the risk of going mad.

The other big GUMSHOE line is The Esoterrorists. In this game, you are elite investigators combating the plots of the Esoterrorists, a loose affiliation of occult terrorists intent on tearing the fabric of the world. Equip your characters with up to 39 investigative abilities ranging from Interrogation and Data Retrieval to Forensic Entomology. Round them out with adventure abilities which help you fight, run away, and retain your mental stability when the horrors come knocking.

There are other GUMSHOE games on sale, as well as a d20 version of the Book of Unremitting Horror. Browse through the Pelgrane files and introduce your inner investigator to a world of horror!

Every so often, I like to highlight Paizo products that are getting down to their last few cases, giving you a last chance to get them before they go out of stock for good. I've divided the list into three parts: those with fewer than 1000 copies left, those with fewer than 500 copies, and those with fewer than 100 copies remaining. So order soon or forever hold your peace!

Fewer than 1000 copies left:
• Dragon: Monster Ecologies
• Pathfinder Chronicles: Guide to Korvosa
• GameMastery Campaign Workbook
• GameMastery Item Cards: Rise of the Runelords Deck
• Almuric (Planet Stories)
• Who Fears the Devil?—The Complete Silver John (Planet Stories)
• Template: A Novel of the Archonate (Planet Stories)
• Before They Were Giants: First Works from Science Fiction Greats (Planet Stories)
• Pathfinder: Rise of the Runelords Player's Guide
• Pathfinder #8—Curse of the Crimson Throne Chapter 2: "Seven Days to the Grave"
• Pathfinder #9—Curse of the Crimson Throne Chapter 3: "Escape from Old Korvosa"
• Pathfinder Chronicles: Classic Treasures Revisited
• Pathfinder Companion: Elves of Golarion
• GameMastery Module D1: Crown of the Kobold King
• Demon Hunters: Dead Camper Lake DVD
• Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Launch Poster
• GameMastery Flip-Mat: Ship
• GameMastery Flip-Mat: City Market
• GameMastery Flip-Mat: Dungeon
• Kill Doctor Lucky... and His Little Dog, Too! Expansion

Fewer than 500 copies left:
• The Dragon Compendium, Volume 1
• Pathfinder Chronicles: Gazetteer
• Pathfinder Chronicles: Classic Monsters Revisited
• GameMastery Map Pack: Graveyard
• GameMastery Map Pack: Fortress
• GameMastery Map Pack: Haunted Mansion
• GameMastery Item Cards: Dragon's Trove Deck
• Pathfinder #2—Rise of the Runelords Chapter 2: "The Skinsaw Murders"
• Pathfinder #4—Rise of the Runelords Chapter 4: "Fortress of the Stone Giants"
• Pathfinder #13—Second Darkness Chapter 1: "Shadow in the Sky"—Alternate Cover
• Pathfinder Companion: Cheliax, Empire of Devils
• Pathfinder Module D1.5: Revenge of the Kobold King
• The Gamers: Dorkness Rising DVD
• PaizoCon 2010 Pint Glass
• All of the GameMastery Spell Templates

Fewer than 100 copies left:
• GameMastery Map Pack: Dungeon Chambers
• GameMastery Item Cards: Adventure Gear Deck
• Age of Worms Art Print
• Pathfinder #6—Rise of the Runelords Chapter 6: "Spires of Xin-Shalast"
• GameMastery Stainless Steel Status Card: Animal Growth (d20)
• Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Gen Con 2010 Pin Set

At Paizo, we really love the products that Gaming Paper puts out. Their rolls of gridded paper are really useful for plotting out your dungeons and making your game flow better. They garnered a silver ENnie last month, but they haven't been satisfied to sit on their laurels: they've just introduced two new products you'll want to take a look at!

First up is Gaming Paper Singles. Each pack contains 100 sheets of heavy-duty gaming paper, with 1-inch squares on both sides. These 8.5" by 11" sheets are great for putting together smaller dungeons or single rooms.

The second product is by far the earliest Christmas-related product that we've ever blogged! Fan-favorite artist Stan! has created a fun Christmas Wrapping Paper design. Featuring some of his characters, this 12-foot-long, 30-inch-wide roll is a great way to bring your gaming into your holiday giving!

Most long-time roleplayers have a fond remembrance of the 1983 D&D "Red Box." That starter set, sporting a famous Elmore cover of a fighter battling a red dragon, was the entry point for so many people into the realms of fantasy roleplaying. I can remember devouring the pages and then setting out to learn as much as I could about the world of Dungeons & Dragons. Well, Wizards of the Coast is looking to capture some of that magic with the Dungeons & Dragons Essentials: Fantasy Roleplaying Game Starter Set, which might help lure a whole new generation of gamers into our beloved hobby.

Designed for 1 to 5 players, the D&D Essentials Starter Set contains everything needed to start playing the Dungeons & Dragons Fantasy Roleplaying Game, including rules for creating heroes, advice for playing the Dungeon Master, a solo play adventure, and group-play adventure content. Learning the game has never been so easy!

Several different character races (dwarf, elf, halfling, and human) and classes (cleric, fighter, rogue, and wizard) are presented, along with powers for each race and class. The box contains a 32-page book for players, which allows you to create your first character by making choices during an adventure, and also a solo adventure to take the action further once your character is determined. There is a 64-page book for Dungeon Masters, with the rules of the game, advice on how to run the game, and adventure content. Rounding out the contents are 2 sheets of die-cut tokens for characters and monsters; cardstock character sheets and power cards; a double-sided dungeon map; and 6 polyhedral dice.

Getting into roleplaying games can be a bit daunting, but Wizards' newest attempt will hopefully swell our ranks and bring the joy of roleplaying to new players everywhere!

It has been a long time since we've plugged products from Louis Porter Jr. Design. Louis has been busy releasing a whole bunch of Pathfinder RPG compatible PDF products over the past few months, including two new print products that hit our warehouse last week!

The first book is the Obsidian Twilight Campaign Setting. A dark star fell from the sky bringing with it the end of all things. The sanctity of the world known as Abaddon was shattered by the global apocalyptic event of a meteor impacting the planet, causing a destructive ecological and eldritch change. Now there is no day or night, just never ending twilight—an undead world ruled by fear and horror. Undead nightmares prowl the darkest forest with malevolent ghouls; grim demonic fiends and horrific vampires prey on a fearful populace. The world is dominated by the monstrously powerful immortal vampiric lich lord known as Calix Sabinus, who reigns supreme over this world. And with all this, the mysterious force known as Nightwall. Evil dominates the world to be challenged by noble heroes fighting to take back a world that should belong to them. Are you willing to take up the fight?

The Race Creation Cookbook, is a point-based race creation sourcebook where GMs with a taste for fantasy world-building can build new fantasy races from scratch, or adapt races from other sources. Presented in this sourcebook are guidelines for designing new fantasy character races with access to a wide variety of abilities and balancing drawbacks.

I admit it: I have a bit of a 3D obsession when it comes to my roleplaying game table. For years now, I have been collecting bits of dungeon dressing, small buildings—both paper and resin—for my towns, and lately, a lot of 3D wilderness pieces for my upcoming Kingmaker campaign. So when War Torn Worlds announced a 25% off sale on some of their cool 3D scenery, I sat up and took notice!

War Torn Worlds is a neat company that makes 3D terrain out of recycled rubber. Living \in the green Pacific Northwest, recycling is second nature, so it's exciting to see that all those rubber tires are going towards creating cool scenery, as opposed to burning in large piles and polluting the ecosystem.

And there's a bunch of cool stuff on sale: rubble piles, walls and rises, winter outcroppings, a well, a pool, and a pond. This is just a small selection of the awesomeness that is War Torn Worlds scenery, so you will want to check out their whole catalog to add some 3D to your wilderness campaigns! This sale lasts only until the end of September, so don't wait!

I can remember when I first opened up the original AD&D Ravenloft module by Tracy and Laura Hickman—it was the kind of adventure I'd been waiting years for! It had great atmosphere, a plot that varied based on drawing cards at the beginning of the game, and a thoroughly memorable villain in the vampire Count Strahd von Zarovich. Sure, it could be a bit of a meat grinder, but that first Ravenloft adventure opened my eyes to new possibilities in roleplaying games! The story was so beloved that it became the springboard for tons of other Ravenloft products, and now, 27 years later, Wizards of the Coast is releasing a deluxe Ravenloft board game!

The Castle Ravenloft Board Game weighs in with almost seven pounds of goodness, including 40 plastic heroes and monsters, 13 sheets of interlocking cardstock dungeon tiles, 200 Encounter and Treasure cards, a rulebook, a scenario book, and a 20-sided die. The figures are mostly unpainted versions of miniatures that have been released in the D&D miniatures line, but three of the five hero minis are unique to this board game.

The master of Ravenloft is having guests for dinner… and you're invited. But evil lurks in the towers and dungeons of Castle Ravenloft, and only heroes of exceptional bravery can survive the horrors within! Designed for 1 to 5 players, this fantastic board game features multiple scenarios, challenging quests, and cooperative gameplay. Castle Ravenloft is fun for everyone, including D&D players and anyone who enjoys board games. Every contest has its own exciting challenges and outcomes, guaranteeing hours of replayability.

We haven't talked about Rite Publishing in the store blog since February, but they've been introducing new products at a prodigious rate this year—over two dozen PDFs in the intervening months, most of them compatible with the Pathfinder RPG. That's so many that it makes more sense to spotlight entire categories instead of single products!

Looking at the Pathfinder RPG–Compatible offerings first, they've got the 101 Series, which each provide you with 101 new spells, feats, or other mechanics. Evocative City Sites continue to bring you fantasy locations that include maps and a handful of new critters to populate your world. They've enlisted Ashton Sperry to do a couple of Paper Minis for them, and those PDFs come complete with Pathfinder RPG mechanical material. They've also introduced several new Races & Classes, and a couple of other products. It's probably best to just browse through their whole Pathfinder RPG–compatible line!

They've also expanded their system-independent Fantastic Maps and added a couple of new Arcana Evolved products to their line!

This isn't the last you'll be hearing about Rite Publishing this year—they're going to be releasing a couple of interesting print products for use with the Pathfinder RPG: Coliseum Morpheuon, by Clinton J. Boomer and Jonathan McAnulty; and their Book of Monster Templates. Both are available for preorder now, and the Book of Monster Templates has a couple of FREE previe PDFs (#1 and #2) for you to check out!

I loved the Back to the Future: Christopher Lloyd brought everything he learned playing Taxi's Reverend Jim to the role of a mad professor turning a DeLorean into a time machine; young Michael J. Fox pumped up his star power going back in time to meet his parents, then trying to get back to 1985 to prevent Doc Brown's death... It was a compelling movie for the much younger me. Now, here we are, back in the future of 2010, and Looney Labs has brought in their very own mad professor—in the form of game designer Andy Looney—to synthesize the movie into Back to the Future: The Card Game.

Jump into the action of the Back to the Future films with this ingenious new time-travel card game! Play as the descendants of Marty McFly, Biff Tannen, Doc Brown and others, as you travel back to the events depicted in the movies. Your mission is to make sure pivotal events are not changed by other time travelers before time travel itself gets un-invented. Using a unique, patented game mechanic for simulating time travel, Looney Labs now puts you in the driver's seat of the famous time-tripping DeLorean! Bring your own Huey Lewis soundtrack!