Photo: Triton NoirCharlie Hall is Polygon’s tabletop editor. In 10-plus years as a journalist & photographer, he has covered simulation, strategy, and spacefaring games, as well as public policy.Lots of folks say they want to get started painting miniatures, but they’re just not overly fond of Space Marines or anything else that Games Workshop is selling at the moment. That’s okay, because there are plenty of miniatures-based games out there for you to get excited about — including loads that you’ve likely never even heard of. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood of Venice is on sale right now as part of Amazon’s October Prime Day, and it’s an excellent example of how a small purchase can start you down the road to an amazing new hobby.Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood of Venice is a story-driven, cooperative campaign game for up to four players that includes 26 playable chapters, each roughly an hour long. It also has a solo mode, so you can play it by yourself or learn it thoroughly before sharing it with your friends. And while I haven’t had the chance to put it through its paces, the game comes highly recommended by several writers that I respect, including Aftermath co-founder Luke Plunkett.Photo: Triton NoirMuch like other modern board games, Brotherhood of Venice was brought to life with a successful crowdfunding campaign. While the $239 collector’s edition is still available, the $79.99 version is half off for Prime Day, on sale for just $39.99 through Wednesday.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood of Venice$70$8013% off$70$70 at AmazonInside your copy of Brotherhood of Venice, you’ll find the first five miniatures you get to paint, a series of familiar-yet-deadly assassins wrapped in flowing robes and cowls barely concealing a collection of elegant sharp objects. How about a video tutorial to get you started? Who better to assist you on your journey than Golden Demon award-winning painter Angel Giraldez. (Just skip the bit with the airbrush and do a quick zenithal highlight with some spray paint instead.)Now all you need is some paint and a brush. You could, of course, drop by my in-depth painting guide for lots of helpful advice and buying options. Or you could snag this Army Painter Zombicide paint set that’s currently on sale, which comes with enough basic colors and metallics to get you started. You even get a decent brush! Any other colors that you want or need, just pick them up at the local hobby store or online.But we’re not done yet. Now that you have five fully-painted Assassins, and after you finish the 26-mission campaign, then what? Well, then it’s time to check out TTCombat’s Carnevale, a full-fledged miniatures skirmish game played on elaborate terrain. You can start small with just the core rulebook, or go big with a massive laser-cut wooden diorama. Or you can skip the skirmish game entirely and just do up a nice little Venetian street corner for your beautiful new miniatures to hang out on.Opportunities to start painting miniatures are all over the place, with more and varied lines from all kinds of different settings coming to market every year. So quit putting off starting a new hobby, look around for miniatures and games that excite you, find some good tools and tutorials, and get painting. You won’t regret it — especially as the cold winter months begin to creep in.Looking for more deals? Check out all of Polygon’s favorite October Prime Day 2024 deals right here, and subscribe to our newsletter below to get great deals delivered to your inbox every week.
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Final Fantasy 16 producer Naoki Yoshida has asked fans to not create any “offensive or inappropriate” mods for the game prior to its PC release later today. That means you, yes you reading this right now, have been asked not to create anything vulgar or naughty. It doesn’t matter how handsome Clive is!This plea stems from a PC Gamer interview, in which Yoshida refused to name any specifics as to avoid goading cheeky modders into creating exactly what he and Square Enix wouldn’t want to see. However, it doesn’t take a mind reader to know the kind of stuff he’s talking about. No cocks, fellas. It’ll probably make Yoshida very sad to see a naked Clive pop up on his Twitter feed.To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings This may seem like an odd thing to specif…
Read moreThe final results for the winner of the Pokemon TCG Illustration Contest 2024 are in, and I’m in love with the winning piece.Earlier this year, The Pokemon Company held a competition for fans of the series to submit some art that if it won, would be made into an official Pokemon Trading Card Game card (oh the winner gets $5000 too, which is nice). The results of the competition have finally been announced, and the winner is an artist by the name of Kazuki Minami, who drew maybe the best Pikachu card I’ve ever seen. You can see it at the end of a video that shows a bunch of the other submissions, or just look at the top of this page, but for those of you that don’t want to do either of those things, it’s a lovingly rendered piece showing Pikachu yawning and scratching its head with its foot…
Read moreRoboCop might have struggled to get another big-screen installment off the ground for years, but the IP is far from dead. Last year, RoboCop: Rogue City wowed us with a pretty freakin’ solid AA experience, and now Amazon plans to make good use of the IP after acquiring MGM’s entire library.Via Variety, we’ve learned that Amazon is rapidly moving forward with a RoboCop TV series to be helmed by Peter Ocko, who has written for shows like Dinosaurs, Black Sails, and The Office over the years.To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings On top of Ocko – who’s locked to serve as writer, executive producer, and showrunner – James Wan, the prolific horror and action blockbuster director now eyeing a Creature from the Black Lagoon reboot, is set to executive produce u…
Read moreYou. You there! Be afraid. Be very AFRAID.Xbox has just announced another batch of Game Pass arrivals – the titles which’ll be hitting the service during the first bit of October – and included is a game so utterly cursed that it can be used to create your own sitcom fanfiction.To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings Yep, MLB The Show 24, a game I used eariler this year to stage what scientists have since come to refer to in hushed tones as ‘The UberCostanza experiment’ will be available on Game Pass Standard (console) from October 2. You’ve been warned. Forget about using it to re-create the ninth inning magic Francisco Lindor unleashed for the New York Mets the other day. You’ll be suckered into creating a team of Seinfeld chracter clones who somehow e…
Read moreIt’s been a little over one day now since the launch of Vessel of Hatred, the first paid expansion to Diablo 4. The launch was several hours late, thanks to the discovery of some last-minute bugs, but it now appears there’s more to complain about here than we initially realised.One problem, in particular, has been driving a lot of players up the wall. No matter how they bought the expansion, the game sometimes decides they do not own it, and either kicks them out of the session, or doesn’t allow them to start.To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings This is a fairly typical license validation issue, and in this case, it was limited to consoles. Still, it’s a problem PlayStation and Xbox players really didn’t need to deal with.…
Read moreVariousThere are so many ways to be a Dungeons & Dragons fan these days. The tabletop RPG mainstay has been synonymous with pen-and-paper adventuring for 50 years now, and 2024 marks a major reworking of its core rulebooks to make the game more approachable. Anyone who’s played even just a couple of sessions knows how easy it can be to covet a friend’s set of custom dice, appreciate the care a Dungeon Master has taken in setting the right ambience for a crafted campaign, or even obsess over their choice of pen and notebook — after all, it’s what you’ll be spending a large chunk of time staring into as you ponder your character’s next heroic action.But what’s amazing is that you can be a huge D&D fan without ever touching a character sheet. D&D and the Forgotten R…
Read moreTraveller’s TalesAlice Jovanée (she/her) is a commerce writer, and she has been writing about gaming and tech since 2005. Prior to Polygon, she worked at publications such as The Verge.Regardless of how you feel about the current season of Rings of Power, if you’re looking for another way to satiate your Tolkien love you’ll definitely want to check out the current catalog of free games available to Amazon Prime members. Earlier this month, both Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor GOTY Edition, and Lego The Lord of the Rings were made available to Amazon Prime members for free through Sept. 30. However, you can now also pick up Lego The Hobbit for free through Oct. 23. Just head to the corresponding Prime Gaming page and you’ll be presented with a code that you can redeem on GOG.com fo…
Read moreNintendo of AmericaCameron Faulkner (he/him) is Polygon’s commerce editor. He began writing about tech and gaming in 2013, and migrated from The Verge in 2023.One of the best unofficial October Prime Day deals has come early at Woot, where you can get a new Nintendo Switch OLED with either white or neon blue/red Joy-Con for $299.99 ($50 off). It’s not typical for this console to receive any kind of discount, so we’re usually skeptical that there’s something amiss when one pops up, like an iffy warranty, or that it isn’t the U.S. version, which includes a different power adapter. However, there are no strings attached; you’re just getting a great deal.Nintendo Switch OLED$300$35014% off$300Nintendo’s hybrid console still has plenty of staying power, especially with this year�…
Read morePaizoAlice Jovanée (she/her) is a commerce writer, and she has been writing about gaming and tech since 2005. Prior to Polygon, she worked at publications such as The Verge.While everyone is busy poring over their new $49.99 Dungeons & Dragons Players Handbook, I’ll be over here, sitting on a fat, figurative (it’s digital) stack of Pathfinder Second Edition content that costs $15 less. Pathfinder is our favorite alternative to D&D, and right now, you can pick up a bundle that features over 50 rulebooks, adventures, and other extra content for just $35 from Humble.Pathfinder Bundle of the Dead$35$35$35 at HumbleIn addition to boasting the basics, like the Beginner Box, Bestiary, and Gamemastery guide, this bundle includes a generous helping of content from the Lost Omens campa…
Read moreDOTS RPGAlice Jovanée (she/her) is a commerce writer, and she has been writing about gaming and tech since 2005. Prior to Polygon, she worked at publications such as The Verge.The aptly named $10 TTRPGS for Accessible Gaming Charity Bundle is a collection of over 300 eccentric tabletop RPGs from over 900 itch.io creators. All proceeds from this bundle will benefit the DOTS RPG project, a non-profit foundation that works to produce more accessible gaming aids like rulebooks, HP markers, and dice. This massive bundle is a great way to explore the work of independent creators and support a project that’s easy to feel good about.itch.io accessible TTRPG bundle$10$10$10 at itch.ioAdmittedly, we could spend the next several months rolling dice and not even touch a fraction of the titles this…
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