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Mystic Muses: A D&D Podcast

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Article by Philip Clark An all queer cast. An all femme ensemble. A non-binary Dungeon Master. Throw in some quality story-telling and role playing too, this sounds like a whole lot of fun! If any of the previously mentioned things has piqued your interests, then I implore you to check out Mystic Muses. You can find this wonderfully crafted podcast where you can find all your other favourites including Spotify. There are currently four episodes out. Episode 0 is the prologue and character introductions, and I have to say it is very well put together! The intro to each episode is cleverly crafted, with the players and DM each sounding off a sentence to bring us into the game space. Speaking of bringing us into the game space, Adam, the talented DM sets the scene for the story very nicely. A descriptive, yet concise introduction to the environment gives both the players and audience a vibe of what we're in for. Then come the delicious character introductions that give vivid descripti

Host Warring Card Game - The State of Play April 2024

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Article by Adam Ray Our good friends up the country have been hard at work making their unique and powerful game. We've talked a great deal about it with the game's creator on the Fantastic Universes Podcast . There have been many developments with it and it's time we let you know about. Tournament Format As the game starts to ramp up into its competitive circuit, the team at Host have developed a familiar but fun tournament structure. Matches of Host are Best of Three in a two deck format. Each deck must have Hosts from different factions. If you want to play Amatheia, you couldn't then play Graxis as your other Host. The two decks must then be built according to the current rules. 50 cards, up to 4 copies of each card. Bring two decks to Best of Three games. You choose which one will be your "First" deck. You'll play against your opponent's First Deck for Game 1. The loser switches to their Second Deck. If the winner beats both decks then that's

Thought Bubble 2024 convention & festival dates announced

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Article by Steve J. Ray Thought Bubble  is, without a doubt, the UK’s best entirely comic-based convention and art festival. I’ve been fortunate enough to attend the show for the last three years, and have been anxious to see what’s in store this year. Well, the wait is over, as the team behind the event has announced the Thought Bubble 2024 convention & festival dates. THOUGHT BUBBLE ANNOUNCES 2024 COMIC CONVENTION & FESTIVAL DATES ACCLAIMED COMIC ART CONVENTION AND FESTIVAL TO TAKE PLACE ACROSS YORKSHIRE THIS NOVEMBER THOUGHT BUBBLE FESTIVAL LEEDS & ACROSS YORKSHIRE 11 -17 NOVEMBER 2024 THOUGHT BUBBLE COMIC CONVENTION HARROGATE CONVENTION CENTRE 16 & 17 NOVEMBER 2024   https://www.thoughtbubblefestival.com “Thought Bubble is the place to be. This is the show where everyone feels and is treated like family” –  Dark Knight News “Thought Bubble is the most important comic convention around” –  Popverse Returning to the Harrogate Convention Centre, Thought Bubble will tak

Host WCG Deck Tech: Painting Dragons!

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Article by Adam Ray As you heard on episode 81 of the Fantastic Universes Podcast , our good friends at HOST WCG have released the first expansion. Divergent Paths is out right now, bringing a wealth of new cards and styles of play to your existing Amatheia, Annabella, and Meridius Character decks. All that said, three new Hosts are up for grabs in this expansion. Two, the sisters Yandae and Graxis, we've seen in the game's accompanying fiction. Let's look at the enigmatic Rosella. Wandering Painter has an effect that effectively lets you begin the game with one of the new Environment Forms in play. These forms are Impervious against cards like Stillness of the Lake or the new Sorcerer of Margisak. This gives decks a great deal of flexibility to filter their resource types from one to another during the course of a game. I've taken my building of the Painter to be a Dragon Midrange deck. I truly maintain that the most powerful you can do in this game is pull 5 counters

Review: 'What If...?' Season Two

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Review by Ph ilip Clark After the massive success of the first season, Marvel announced a second set of stories for their animated What If...?  show. Now, if you're unfamiliar with the premise of the series, Marvel takes ideas with the multiverse under the supervision of The Watcher, and poses the question "What If?". The Watcher (Uatu) is an interdimensional being of incredible power. He narrates the show; giving a brief introduction of what we'll find in each episode. The question has given us answers to questions such as; What if Peggy Carter gained Captain America's abilities, or if T'Challa became Star Lord, or even if Ultron took over Vision's body wielding the Infinity Stones. The first season ended with a climactic battle with The Guardians of the Universe against the aforementioned Infinity Stones-wielding Ultron. Throughout the season, we were treated to situations like the Marvel universe being turned into zombies, so you can imagine the excitem

There And Back Again - The Triumph of MegaCon 2024

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Article by Adam Ray The joy of a comic convention is that it brings people back together out of love for comics, tv, movies, manga, games, and even more. The city of London has had it's fair share of excellent conventions between Heroes and Villains Fan Fest and the immense MCM, but a new challenger has entered the battlefield. MegaCon has run multiple events up and down the country, and it's most recent stint in London has been truly powerful. There have been respectably good guests at this particular event. A who's who of anime voices, the faces behind Donna Noble and John Constantine did a multitude of meet and greets with adoring fans. The on site Yu-Gi-Oh tournament was deeply popular with many players there alongside players sampling classic TCGs like Pokemon and Magic, and new games such as Battle Spirits Saga and Star Wars Unlimited. Expect spotlights on those two new games coming very soon on the Fantastic Universes Podcast ! Creative pillars of the game were in at

January 2024 New Digital Licensing Announcement

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Press Release Reported by Adam Ray Kodansha ushers in the new year by revealing the digital debut of a dungeon-crawling fantasy-adventure, January 9, 2024. Ready your equipment pack and dive into the world of I Left my A-Rank Party to Help My Former Students Reach the Dungeon Depths! , by Yuri, Kosuke Unagi, and Super Zombie—where an under appreciated support Mage leaves his top-tier party to help his former students start their own epic adventure. January’s debut digital series series is perfect for fans of other Kodansha fantasy-adventure series like: My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 (Manga) The Hero Life of a (Self-Proclaimed) “Mediocre” Demon! This new series debut will be available upon release across all our participating digital vendors, including Bookwalker , Amazon Kindle , Apple Books , Google Play , Nook , Kobo , MyAnimeList , Mangamo and more! Fans can also purchase and read all our digital manga on the new kodansha.us . Take a look below for more details about

Black Manta Surges into DC Dual Force

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  Article by Adam Ray DC Dual Force maintains its growth as an online card game with the regular reward drops on Twitch and it's new commitment to themed seasons that match the tone of the other great comic themed digital card game right now. To tie into the release of the sequel to Jason Momoa's Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom , Black Manta and many new cards have been added to the game which perfectly match the iconic villain's new way to play. The Black Manta leader card is in the Anarchy type, which still makes sense given his destructive tendencies and his pathological hatred for the deep and Aquaman. He also brings the beloved or be-hated playstyle into Dual Force: Mill. Mill is the style of play where you deliberately remove cards from your opponent's deck so that they eventually run out of cards, and in most card games, if they try to draw from an empty deck, they lose. Both Manta himself, and a signature card, Piracy, looks to try and destroy cards from your oppon

Review: The Witcher 'The Lesser Evil'

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The Witcher: The Lesser Evil Original Story: Andrzej Sapkowsk Writers: Jacek Rembiś, Borys Pugacz-Muraszkiewicz Artist: Adam Gorham Color Artist: Patricio Delpeche Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou Review by Adam Ray The world of The Witcher is a rich and detailed world of mythic fantasy. The tales based in this world feel like classic fairy tales, but with a more sincere and dark spin. At the same time, this magical world can bring us intense morality plays, by making magical monsters a threat, but the greed of the people is the true evil here. "The Lesser Evil" is a delightful, concise ingot of fantasy fiction set in this world. We get our hero, Geralt, dealing with a moral quandary instead of an imposing figure or sinister lord. Two rival forces each put forward two valid points for why one should eliminate the other. The lesser of two evils being realized. Geralt's signature blend of awareness of the situation and utter lack of caring is consistent. For me, it's har

Batman Arkham Trilogy Coming to the Nintendo Switch on December 1st

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Article by Adam Ray No Déjà vu here dear reader, this is a different and important report compared to the first time we heard this news back in June . We initially heard that the Arkham video games were finally getting their port over to the Nintendo Switch, but much has been revealed to us here at Fantastic Universes.  It's been confirmed that all the DLC from all three games will be included in this bundle. That's right, the Catwoman side story in Arkham City  and the Joker exclusive character challenges from Arkham Asylum  and many more unique gameplay options for players old and new to discover. To keep up with the times, players who purchase this bundle have the option to play through Arkham Knight  with a skin of Batman inspired by The Batman. Learn more about the games yourself right here, check out the trailer for yourself at the end of the article, and let us at Fantastic Universes know if you'll be picking up this bundle. Developed by Rocksteady Studios and releas