The 8bA Podcast is a podcast bringing you the latest and greatest geeky news of the past week.

NEWS ITEMS

Bandcamp. The Verge reports that roughly 50 percent of staff at the indie music platform were effectively laid off as part of the company’s sale to Songtradr. Songtradr has not voluntarily recognized Bandcamp’s unionization efforts at the time of recording. Employees who were not extended offers from Songtradr will be eligible for severance, according to the platform’s previous owner, EPIC.

Bethesda. The Verge reports that Bethesda’s head of publishing, Pete Hines, is retiring. Hines has been with Bethesda since 1999, when he joined as Senior VP of Global Marketing and Communications. He is best known as the public face for the Fallout series.

Candela Obscura. Polygon reports that Darrington Press’s Illuminated Worlds TTRPG will be released on November 14. The game features the Victorian gothic setting of the Fairelands, and the players are members of a secret society that investigates strange occurrences and dangerous magick. Critical Role has both a how-to-play video and an actual play series to showcase the game. The book will have two versions - a standard hardcover for $40 and a limited edition hardcover for $60.

Fallout. IGN reports that some of the cards and mechanics from the upcoming Fallout commander decks for Magic: the Gathering were revealed. The four decks will feature Dogmeat in a Naya deck revolving around Auras, Equipment, and Junk tokens; Caesar, Legion’s Emperor in a Mardu deck revolving around token generation; Dr. Madison Li in a Jeskai deck focusing on energy counters; and The Wise Mothman in a Sultai mutant deck that tries to proliferate rad counters. Of particular note are cards like Rad Storm (3U, Instant; Storm, Proliferate), Nuka Cola Vending Machine (3, Artifact; 1,T: Create a Food. Whenever you sacrifice a Food, create a tapped Treasure), and Crucible of Worlds (3, Artifact; You may play lands from your graveyard).

Junk tokens are an artifact that lets you exile the top card of your library to play that card until the end of your turn. For Radiation, if you have any rad counters at the beginning of your precombat main phase, you mill that many cards and lose 1 life and a rad counter for each nonland card milled that way.

Magic: the Gathering. Polygon reports that Wizards of the Coast will be consolidating Draft Boosters and Set Boosters into one product, called Play Boosters, in 2024. The change will begin with the Murders at Karlov Manor set. The price will match the cost of a Set Booster and contain the following: 6 slots for common cards, 1 slot for a common or card from The List, 2 slots for uncommons, 1 slot for a rare or mythic rare, 1 slot for a basic land, 1 slot for a non-foil wildcard, 1 slot for a foil wildcard, and 1 slot for an ad, token, helper, or art card. Wizards is hoping this will reduce the burden of carrying multiple SKUs on local game stores. Longtime players will note that the game has only had different types of boosters for a few years. 

Pokemon. Polygon reports that the Van Gogh Museum will no longer offer a special Pikachu promo that ties in with its Pokemon exhibit due to safety concerns. Scalpers and fans ransacked the gift shop in a manner befitting a stereotypical Black Friday doorbuster sale. The museum said the card will be made available for purchase at the Pokemon Center online store and participating Dutch retailers, but will never again be available at the museum.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Mario’s next adventure is now out to widespread applause. Ars Technica notes that the game is like “somebody at Nintendo asked, ‘What if we made a game where every level was like [infamous SMW2: Yoshi’s Island level] Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy?” GameInformer and IGN praised the creative Wonder effects and badges as mechanics to augment gameplay.

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“1-UP” is by Professor Shyguy. You can find his work at https://professorshyguy.bandcamp.com