DriveThruRPG announced a major incentive to the roleplaying gamer community today to incite donations to aid in rescue and recovery in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Called the "Gamers Helping Haiti Bundle," the product includes over a hundred products totaling over $1000.00 in retail value. For a simple donation of $20 – all of which goes to Doctors Without Borders to support their post-earthquake Haiti relief efforts – RPG fans can have this once-in-a-lifetime collection of gaming products.

Click here for more details. This is an incredible deal, and a great way to help out.

Well, for some people. Sept. 19 started at midnight GMT, and that's when Telltale Games began giving away free copies of the first episode of Tales of Monkey Island, the new installment in LucasArts' classic Monkey Island franchise.

Telltale's latest episodic series is Tales of Monkey Island, a five-episode saga featuring mighty pirate Guybrush Threepwood and his motley crew. Tales of Monkey Island pulls the legendary franchise thundering and plundering into the modern era with an epic storyline conceived by some of the same team that dreamed up the original games. So polish up your swashbuckles and start practicing your Aaaarrrrr!, because this brand new Monkey Island adventure is available now!

And the first episode is free, until midnight Sept. 19 GMT (8 p.m. EST, or 4 p.m. PST), so get going!

Check here for more details.

Artist Jonathan Baldwin has created an extremely limited edition (i.e. 1 of 1) board game based loosely on Hunter S. Thompson's immortal tome, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Packed in a suitcase, you get rows of phenethylamines, game cards, stimulants, a board, hallucinogens, game pieces, petri dishes, adventure cards, a shot glass, and much more.

OK, the drugs are lookalike fakes, but still, this is an amazing work that you'll never, ever get through airport security. Apparently designed to be played over a weekend of debauchery, gameplay includes "activities" such as going to a fair and inquiring about the price of one of the apes "with the most serious face you can manage," and challenges such as catching two of three things hurled at you while someone flicks the lights on and off. There are also dosage cards letting you know what all the fake drugs do.

Just add some grapefruit and a few bats and you've got the makings of a great game for the whole family for just $3,500! Which is certainly cheaper than assembling an actual suitcase full of drugs, plus hotel room repair charges. Check out lots of pics here.

(thanks to boingboing.net)

"Serenity Adventures" is an anthology-style collection of five complete RPG games written by both new and established authors in the game industry. In it, you'll find "Ghosts of the Rebellion" by James Davenport (Serenity RPG), "The Best Things Get Better With Age" by Alana Abbot ("Into the Reach"), "Freedoms Flight" by Ted Reed, "Seven Arks of Cibola" by Billy Aguiar, and "Mother Load" by James M. Ward ("Metamorphosis Alpha"). Like the original book the interior graphics design is by 11th Hour, but there's lots of artwork by other artists in there as well and a cover by Digger Hayes.

On shelves now at TFAW and other retail stores. It's not in the store at Margaret Weis Productions yet, but you can preorder a copy signed by Margaret Weis and jamie Chambers (link goes to the store; search for "Serenity"). Or you can build a downloadable PDf immediately by going here.

In the meantime, the folks at MW have been producing little add-ons and extras for free download, such as Sam's Smuggler Emporium and a cortex newsfeed with some interesting info.

DONG MA? The newest craze if Firefly/Serenity games is about to begin!

-Toss out your dice, this ain't no RPG.
-Toss out your calculators, there ain't no math to do.
-Toss out those strategy guides, there isn't any war to win.

This is the Firefly/Serenity card game that will test just how much
you THINK you KNOW!

It will separate the Fans from the Flans from the Browncoats!

And "Fruity Oaty Bar, the Card Game."

Based off the commercial that trigger's River Tam's very best
violence, this game is an original play style that challenges each
player to take on the role of a governmental agency under the orders
of the Allied Parliament to help retrieve something of classified
importance that was stolen.

The object of the game is to collect all 15 parts, called "objects",
of the Fruity Oaty Bar commercial before your rival agencies can in
order to gain the favor of Parliament (who, in point of fact, may be
competing against you as well!).  There are many "wave" cards that
allow you to manipulate the process as well as break the rules!
Everyone has an Agency that has authorization ("powers") to do certain
things that also bend and break the rules!

As a side note, the five categories of object cards are designations
from Joss's commentary on the commercial…weirder, stranger, odder,
uncanny and bizarre.

Download "Dong Ma?" here and "Fruity Oaty Bar" here. And you can always find out the latest about Tenth's games and expansions at this thread at FireflyFans.net.

The first product will be a collection of short adventures, each designed to be easily inserted into an on-going Serenity campaign. “Variety is our goal with the adventure product,” says Jamie Chambers, Vice President of MWP, Ltd. and the author/designer of the Serenity Role Playing Game. “We want to feature both the familiar and the new — to give Browncoats things they’ve seen before and many things they have not. Ultimately that’s our goal for all three of our new products.”

Six-Shooters and Spaceships will be the second product to hit store shelves, introducing new ships, additional weapons, and unusual technology. “Serenity is ultimately about its characters,” says Chambers, “but to ‘keep flyin’’ crews need a ship, guns, and a few nifty gadgets.” All the ships will have full-color visuals and deckplans, while the gear will include diagrams, descriptions, and full game stats for the Cortex System game rules.

The last of the new products is the Big Damn Heroes Handbook, a game expansion that will open up many options for players and Game Masters alike. “The idea is to create or expand on ideas that we just couldn’t fit into the core book,” Chambers says. “Character traits, campaign options, adventure ideas, new characters, more Chinese — it’s all going to be in the book.”

2008 is looking better and better…

Margaret Weis Productions has expanded its Serenity license, and will release three Serenity RPG products next year.  Early in 2008, it will release a collection of short adventures; late spring brings Six-shooters and Spaceships, a ship and technology sourcebook; and the Big Damn Heroes Handbook is slated for next summer, probably as a GenCon release.

If you haven't tried the Serenity RPG yet, you're missing out. Even if you're not a gamer the books are chock full of cool artwork by 11th Hour, character bios, 'verse information, ship designs, and much more. And if you are a gamer, you might want to cancel any long appointments.

More info on the game and available accessories here.

This expansion set adds new cards to the already exciting BWAH! card game. In addition to the 15 new Character cards, there are 36 additional Action cards. Also included are 3 shiny first-time-ever Create Your Own Local Color Character Cards you can use to make a character you don’t have, or to add yourself to the game! Just add them to your current BWAH! decks and shuffle!

There's also some rules clarifications and a new symbol to keep track of. This set introduces characters, settings, and events from the comic mini-series "Those Left Behind." You'll need the original game to play, and once you see the other expansion packs you'll be eaten alive with jealousy until you get them, so grab 'em all! Current download links are here.

The folks at Packet Switched Press think so and they mocked up a trailer for the game, with explanations of game play. One innovative aspect, to make use of the newer widescreen monitors, is the 4-paned screen that gives you a large window showing where your focus is, while 3 smaller windows to the side can show you different POVs of the same scene or different scenes altogether, since in Vaughn's layer-heavy stories there's a lot going on at the same time. There are also suggestions that the players be able to click on Autopilot and just enjoy the story.

Has anyone approached Vaughn or DC Comics about making a Y game? No clue. But this would be a good start.