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Another lifetime ago, I ran a Magic: the Gathering website called Ertai’s Lament, dedicated to a very small (but equally) fun niche aspect of the hobby: preconstructed decks. From Theme Decks to Intro Packs and everything in between, if it came prepackaged I was keen to discuss it, play it, and give it a review.
Eventually my little project got the attention of Wizards of the Coast, and I found myself occasionally receiving boxes in the mail of free goodies. I was delighted, of course, not least because it seemed to validate what I was doing. My audience was never vast but it was dedicated and passionate, and I was pleased to count some WotC folks as regular readers1. Getting free product felt a bit like I’d ‘made it.’
But it also came with complicated feelings.
I’d started the site purely out of passion for the game, a labor of love in much the same way Warhammer Wordforge is. I never monetized my content or sought to curry favor with the publisher in hopes of scoring product. And when that free product came, while it came with no strings attached I had to make sure to introspect and self-examine, to make sure that I wasn’t letting it influence any of my opinions or reviews.
Positively-influenced coverage doesn’t always have to be transactional, and indeed the notion of “access journalism” is often an unspoken social contract. “We’ll let you keep talking to our star athletes,” a sports journo might be led to understand, “so long as you aren’t asking questions we wouldn’t approve of.” Cross that line one too many times, and those doors might quietly close.
In a vacuum, there’s nothing wrong with reviewers getting free product for the purposes of content generation. Game products are expensive, and going out of pocket for them can add up very quickly- especially if you’re a site that has no monetization options to help offset that. By the same token, though, reviewers must forever be on guard against the appearance of influence. Credible reviewers, for instance, should always disclose whether or not they received free merchandise for the purposes of the interview.
I bring all this up this week to offer an example of what ‘doing it right’ can look like.
I don’t know Jeff McAleer personally, but because he frequently reviews Warhammer RPG books for his site The Gaming Gang, he’s on the radar of sites I check every week when I write up the ICYMI segment below. This week, he’s kicked off a massive “Summer Sale” of gamebooks and board games he’s received for reviewing purposes. Two things make this particularly notable.
First, from what I could tell his pricing is at least half off what you’d pay at full retail. Sure most of these have been ‘used,’ but generally no more than just for the purposes of a review. A gamebook flipped through a bit before being shelved is little different from what you’d expect to see at a friendly, local game store.
Second- and here’s the cool part- Jeff is donating the sale’s proceeds to the St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. Okay sure, if you’re really cynical at heart you could point out that in so doing, he’ll be getting a tax writeoff come next April, but that’s Gargamel-level thinking. Gamers benefit by getting great games at ridiculous prices, the Hospital benefits from the donation, and Jeff gets to reclaim some shelf space in his home (and don’t all us tabletop gamers know how precious a commodity that is!).
I couldn’t help but break my “no new boardgames” rule when I saw Robotech: Attack on the SDF-1 by Strange Machine Games for only USD $15. With a sticker price of $50, even with shipping I’m likely paying only half. I was grateful to see someone else had already snapped up the bundle of four Twilight: 2000 box sets for just $80, lest I be sorely tempted myself.
And at time of writing, Cubicle 7’s Darktide: The Card Game is still there for $15, and the Wrath & Glory Starter Set is just $20.
Back to Ertai’s Lament, I typically used that free product from Wizards in giveaways to the readers (and here again, Gargamel might say- not entirely without merit- that this is self-serving promotion2). But at the end of the day, putting products back in the hands of gamers is always going to be a win.
Well done, Gaming Gang!
RPG Bestsellers
Bookwriters get their New York Times bestseller lists, so why shouldn’t we enjoy the same thing? While we don’t have any aggregated sales lists, we can use DriveThruRPG’s top-seller list as a reasonable barometer- and here’s this week’s snapshot!
#6 (+3). Imperium Maledictum: Adeptus Mechanicus GM’s Guide
#25 (+127). Warhammer Age of Sigmar Soulbound: Champions of Chaos
#26 ( - ). Warhammer The Old World: Starter Set
#34 ( - ). Warhamer Fantasy Roleplay: Temple of Spite
#37 ( - ). Imperium Maledictum: Voll Adventures
#48 ( - ). Wrath & Glory: Sons of Russ
#66 ( - ). Wrath & Glory: Darktide Extraction
Interesting week! Five different titles that weren’t on the charts last week pop up today, and in top-half positions one and all. Cubicle 7 continues its three-week streak of having a title in the Top 10 as well. Seems good!
On the other hand, a number of titles that charted last week slipped off the Top 200. Some of these, I imagine, are fairly routine fluctuations. Things like the Wrath & Glory Core Rulebook have been available for some time and are unlikely at this point to see sustained demand, but I was sad to see the new Carngrad Adventures slip away so quickly.
Still, Soulbound folks will be delighted to see a surge of interest in the core Champions of Chaos book, so there’s some consolation to be had. Two weeks ago it wasn’t even in the Top 200, and now it’s #25.
ICYMI
Big congratulations to Zekiel, who rang in the third anniversary of Ill Met by Morrslieb! Good content creation is a lot like small businesses- so many of them fold within the first year. It takes a lot of dedication to keep things going after that heady, early “new car smell” wears off, so here’s to the next three (and beyond!), Zekiel!
Speaking of dedication, the Lorebeards continue to display an almost fanatic workrate. In addition to plenty of lore content, this week also saw them dive into a topic near and dear to many the GM: cartography! They talk about the newest Old World map here, then interview cartographer and WFRP writer ‘Mad’ Alfred Nuñez here.
Careless Conjuration continued its series The GM’s Guide to the Enemy Within, discussing events and social encounters for the campaign.
Great conversations and content on Reddit this week, including:
Taking a pulse check on how people are feeling about the state of Imperium Maledictum.
Homebrewing non-Imperial human societies
u/NerdyFrida shared an illustrated collage (above) of her Enemy Within party’s progression that’s just superb. Great things can happen when you game with artists, folks!
Ways to prevent combat from bogging down games in Warhammer: The Old World
Finally, here’s some interesting content I enjoyed on Substack this week as well!
Time for the Danse Macabre as we explore the origins of the Eldar Harlequins, on Exploring Warhammer
The Real Problem With Generation Ships, by Vincent S. Gehring
A Practical Guide to Designing Villains, on Behind the Screen
How to write an OSR adventure, by the Copy/Paste Co-Op
Coming Attractions
Here’s a list of the known upcoming releases from Cubicle 7 based on the available preorder information we have. Note that Cubicle 7’s own delivery estimates appear to be just that- estimates- which is why many products have an upcoming delivery listed for Q1 while we’re already past that.
This section will be updated weekly in this column, with new or updated info presented in boldface.
To make this section more useful, starting this week I’ll be breaking them out by game.
Undated
Sylvania Setting Guide
Shipping Q3
Limited Edition Warhammer Fantasy Map Bundle 1 (July 2026)
Limited Edition Warhammer Fantasy Map Bundle 2 (July 2026)
Shipping Q4
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Temple of Spite (Q4)
Shipping Q2
Warhammer: the Old World Roleplaying Game, Grand Duchy of Talabec Map Pack (May 2026)
Shipping Q4
Warhammer: the Old World Roleplaying Game Starter Set (Q4)
Warhammer: the Old World Roleplaying Game Gamemaster’s Screen (Q4)
Shipping 2027
Talagaad Adventures
Shipping Q1
Warhammer Age of Sigmar Soulbound, Champions of Chaos: Dark Gifts Card Pack (Q1)
Warhammer Age of Sigmar Soulbound, Champions of Chaos: Spells Lore Card Pack (Q1)
Warhammer Age of Sigmar Soulbound, Champions of Chaos: Artefacts & Wargear Card Pack (Q1)
Warhammer Age of Sigmar Soulbound, Champions of Chaos: Core Rulebook (Standard and Collector’s Edition) (Q1)
Warhammer Age of Sigmar Soulbound, Champions of Chaos: Bloodwind Spoil Map (Q1)
Shipping Q3
Limited Edition Age of Sigmar Map Bundle (July 2026)
Shipping Q1 2027
Warhammer Age of Sigmar Soulbound: Champions of Chaos: Carngrad Adventures
Shipping Q2
Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory, Adventures in Gilead
Shipping Q2
Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay, Imperium Maledictum: Adeptus Mechanicus Character Sheet Pad
Shipping Q3
Limited Edition Imperium Maledictum Macharian Sector Map (July 2026)
Shipping Q4
Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay, Imperium Maledictum: Adeptus Mechanicus Collector’s Edition
Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay, Imperium Maledictum: Adeptus Mechanicus Player’s Guide
Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay, Imperium Maledictum: Adeptus Mechanicus Gamemaster’s Guide
Undated
(Nothing at this time)
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The high-water-mark for me was ultimately getting to partner with four of the finalists for the Great Designer Search 2 during their precon deck challenge. By this point I’d become sort of the “Precon Guy” in Magic, and was paid to write for Quiet Speculation (and soon Gathering Magic, now CoolStuffInc). Here’s my piece looking at Ethan Fleischer’s deck; Ethan would go on to win the competition and I believe still works at WotC today.
Gargamel would also argue that true human altruism does not exist, because the act of giving alms to charity itself has a positive benefit for the alms-giver in terms of self-satisfaction. Gargamel’s a harsh bastard all right, but harsh bastards have their place too.