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Beadle & Grimm’s, purveyor of the finest and most esoteric licensed merchandise for Dungeons & Dragons and Critical Role, is branching out. The company co-founded by actor Matthew Lillard has a new line of items to support Pathfinder’s Absalom: City of Lost Omens. It’s also taking a big swing with a lavish assortment of kits for Magic: The Gathering. But while I’ve sung the company’s praises in the past, this new batch of products is definitely a mixed bag.

Image: Paizo

Let’s start with the best of the batch: Pathfinder Character Chronicles. These $40 hardcover books are customized for each of the game’s core classes, and contain everything you need to manage your player character from level one upward. There is a character sheet up front — up to 25 pages long for some classes — that gives you more than enough room for all of your skills, feats, spells, and more. These books also include all of the rules from the Pathfinder Core Rulebook and the Pathfinder Advanced Player’s Guide that apply to a given class: spells, feats, even some extra stuff that Beadle & Grimm’s made up on its own. Add in original art and a pull-out dry-erase board so you’re not making nasty erasures all over the place during play, and it’s chef’s kiss perfect in my opinion. You can even get a couple of ribbon bookmarks that will help you keep track of your places. They are well-made and affordable. I want them for Starfinder, D&D, Cyberpunk Red, Twilight: 2000 … everything. Please make them right away.

Next up, we’ve got Absalom: City of Lost Omens Gold Edition, a weighty campaign-in-a-box that includes all of the content from the Paizo-published campaign book. This is the same sort of treatment that Beadle & Grimm’s has given to Wizards of the Coast’s campaigns in the past, including Baldur’s Gate: Descent Into Avernus, Curse of Strahd, The Wild Beyond the Witchlight, Tal’Doeri Campaign Setting Reborn, and more.

Photo: Charlie Hall/Polygon

This Gold Edition format hits a sweet spot right between Beadle & Grimm’s over-the-top Platinum Editions and Paizo’s core book itself. For game masters (GMs), the entire campaign is broken up into smaller pamphlets that make prepping and playing at the table a breeze. The custom GM screen is included, as well as NPC and place cards to make sharing art easy with other players, handouts for passing across the world, and a variety of coins, pins and coasters to help bring the setting alive. It’s another outstanding package, albeit with a premium price tag — $349.99. As I have said, it is a joy to have such support. I know this because I have run many campaigns and some of them took years. This set will make your life as a GM easier, and your players will love it. The Gold Edition also comes with some of the most vibrant and interesting large-scale battle maps that I’ve seen in any Beadle & Grimm’s product to date. They even throw in a code to unlock the entire campaign digitally, which is a welcome addition for quick reference alone.

Photo: Charlie Hall/Polygon

My only gripe here are the maps, which are redundant in the extreme. There’s a large map of the entire city of Absalom, an even larger two-part map that’s something like four feet across, and a portfolio of over a dozen 8. 5-by-11-inch maps of each of the city’s districts. That means you have three copies of the same city map printed at different scales. The city map isn’t very interesting. It’s such a large urban center that it may as well be a texture when seen from above. However, here, it may be more a problem with the source material. It could have left Beadle & Grimms’s without much more interesting cartography.

Photo: Charlie Hall/Polygon

Finally, my least favorite line out of this latest batch of products are the items that support Magic: The Gathering‘s newest set of cards, Kamigawa Neon Dynasty. I simply can’t recommend the $499 Kamigawa Platinum set. The deck boxes, backpack and art card folio are the most expensive items. They feel like something you would find at a convention. The demon mask necklace and art-inspired life counter are both a bit too offensive. The biggest disappointment is the sword-adorned card vault, which is difficult to open and won’t lay completely flat on the table. It’s also got these big lids that are easy to catch your hand on if you leave them open.

On the other hand, the $199 Kamigawa Silver includes the best stuff from this line. The LED playmat is a delight, and while it’s a bit thin for my liking, it’s quite the conversation piece. It runs off USB power, including cell phone battery packs. Metal counters look great and feel solid in your hand. However, collectors may not want to spend too much on the most valuable cards. Add in 100 card sleeves, a handy game log, and a world map, and you’ve got some decent value for your money.

Photo: Charlie Hall/Polygon

The trouble is that Beadle & Grimm’s originally wanted this Kamigawa line to start shipping in February — around the same time that Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty was released in print to the public. Magic‘s next set, Streets of New Capenna, drops on Friday, and the Kamigawa line is still showing as a pre-order on the Beadle & Grimm’s website. As I am aware, the global logistics pipeline has been shut down. This is not the first time the company has missed shipping estimates. If it plans to keep up with the breakneck pace of new releases that Magic is known for, Beadle & Grimm’s is going to have to get a lot better at logistics to keep hungry fans sated.

Everything on the Beadle & Grimm’s website for the Pathfinder franchise is 10% off through April.

Beadle & Grimm’s products were provided by the manufacturer for review. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships, but not with Beadle & Grimm’s. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via other affiliate links. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.

Charter and Comcast have announced a partnership in creating a new streaming platform on 4K streaming devices and smart TVs. The new streaming platform will compete with Apple TV, Roku and Google.

Comcast will license its streaming platform and hardware, Flex as well as Xumo, which it acquired in 2020. It will also sell XClass TVs at retail stores. Charter is bringing a $900 million investment to the table.

The products Charter and Comcast create will feature loads of free ad-supported content. There will be more than 200 unique streaming channels as well as popular apps like Peacock. It’s not sure if Apple TV+ will be a featured app, but it’s likely we’ll see Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, and others on the platform.

Xumo will continue to operate as a free global streaming service available through the joint venture’s products and third-party devices. Charter will offer the 4K streaming TV devices and voice remotes beginning in 2023. Comcast will offer its Flex streaming service as a streaming device to customers.

Our new venture will bring a full-featured operating platform, new devices, and smart TVs with a robust app store providing a more streamlined and aggregated experience for the customer. This venture, which will expand the options available to consumers in the video market, can compete with national media platforms and adds to our already extensive range of Spectrum TV apps that are compatible on all customer-owned streaming devices.

Tom Rutledge, Charter Chairman and CEO

It looks like there is time before Apple and other companies with hardware and services will notice the new competitor. We haven’t seen the new Apple TV hardware in a while. Last year, the company released the Apple TV 4K at its Spring Unleashed event. The new Siri remote is included, as well as HDR and Dolby Vision. Were we able to see an upgraded device at WWDC June?

On the streaming service side, Apple TV+ original content has won countless awards recently. It’s continuing to pump out hit content that viewers love to watch. Check out the running guide for what you can watch on Apple TV+.

After months of waiting, Apple is finally rolling out its self-service repair program for selected iPhone models in the US. Starting now, users can buy parts of iPhone 12, 13, and SE 3 directly from Apple, but is it worth it? Here’s what iFixit has to say about the program.

iFixit is well-known for teaching people how to fix tech products; it’s also famous for giving repair scores for Apple’s new products and showing us what’s inside of them. Elizabeth Chamberlain, iFixit’s founder and CEO, says that this program is fantastic. She says it “enables more people to repair tech products is great news”. But there is a catch.

The biggest problem? Apple has increased the number of parts-paired strategies, which means that only a few serial numbers can be used for authorized repairs. You cannot purchase key parts without a serial number or IMEI. If you use an aftermarket part, there’s an “unable to verify” warning waiting for you. This tactic impedes third-party repairs with scare tactics, feature loss, and can limit the options available to recyclers or refurbishers. It could also shorten the cycle of economic growth.

Over the next year, Apple plans to extend the program to M1 MacBooks and also to European customers, with other products and markets coming on a later date. The company will also support older iPhone models, although it’s not clear when.

Chamberlain praises the program by saying iFixit is really happy to see “Apple making repair manuals available for everyone for free online. (…) The manuals are written with these heavy-duty tools in mind, even though it’s hard to imagine that most DIY fixers would want to go through the expense or hassle of acquiring this much equipment.” But, also, there’s a catch, as iFixit claims the program “doesn’t do what Right to Repair legislation around the world aims to do.”

While it is a significant step towards repair and an important change for Apple’s leadership, it doesn’t accomplish what Right to Repair legislation all over the globe aims to. A true right to repair will give independent repair shops a chance to compete in the repair marketplace, bringing down the cost of repairs for everyone. Unfortunately, this program expands the freedom to repair with one hand, while locking the door with the other. Integrating a serial number check into their checkout process is a dire omen and could allow Apple the power to block even more repairs in the future. Building the technology to provision individual repairs easily sets Apple up as the gateway to approve–or deny–any repairs in the future, with parts from any source.

You can read the detailed report here.

Pokemon may be great, but it is not possible to create your own monsters. Now, thanks to the tireless work of one developer, you can make the chimera monster of your dreams by fusing creatures together. Although the game does not yet have a name, RujiK has created a demo that uses game developer wizardry in order to procedurally generate monsters. That way, you can combine all sorts of creatures to create unique monster combinations.

These unique monsters are part of Cool WIP. This is Polygon’s Weekly Roundup, which includes eye-catching clips of work in progress and screenshots. Each week, the Polygon staff scours the internet for the most interesting games still under construction to give you a sampler of the coolest up-and-coming projects.

This week that includes a game with a watercolor look set in France, a chaotic battleship, a third person shooter that tracks your every step, and a Spider-Man-inspired action game.

Who needs Pokemon when you can make your own monsters?

RujiK is the developer behind a new game that allows players to “procedurally” crossbreed animals. It’s just another way to say that the creatures players create by combining them are not drawn from prebuilt assets. The developer posted a log going into greater depth about how it works, and a clip on Twitter shows the game fusing an ant with a snake to make what essentially looks like a long, wiggly monster combining features from the two. RujiK has a Twitter account that is full of all kinds of treats, so make sure you check it out.

Take a nostalgic trip to France in this watercolor adventure

A studio by the name of Un Je Ne Sais Quoi (which means “An I don’t know” in French) is making a dreamy narrative adventure set in France. The game, called Dordogne, follows a young woman who is trying to piece together a puzzle left to her by her late grandmother. A new GIF from the developers showed off one part of Dordogne in which you can capture sound in-game using a mic and tape recorder. The visual style is stunning, and if you’d like to learn more, the game has a page on Steam.

Battleship gets chaotic with comic book effects

Fun Freighter’s Scrap Seas takes the feeling of doing donuts in the parking lot and puts it into a battleship game. The bright colors and playful design almost look like children’s toys placed in a tub. A clip shows the game in action, including the game’s comic book-like visual effects during attacks. You can find more information on Scrap Seas on the game’s Steam page.

There’s no escaping yourself in this third-person shooter

This shooter creates chaos in the world by leaving behind a trail of doubles. A clip from Victor Careil shows the concept in action. In it, we see a red character running through a map, and as the character runs, they leave behind dozens of voxel doubles in their path. The trail is long; in the clip, the character goes for a nice jog around the map until they end at the same place they started, with a map filled with doubles. Careil does a lot of experimentation with various projects, and you can check out more of their work on Twitter.

Another game inspired by Spider-Man? Sick

Here, developer Zahid Ali Jeelani shows off a game called Enera. Apparently, the game was inspired by the Miles Morales movie Into the Spider-Verse; Jeelani said on their Twitter that they wanted capture an “Into the Spider-Verse feel.” In the clip of the game, the protagonist jumps off a high building, and their limbs wave around as they fall. They have a rather awkward look as their legs flail and they appear clumsy. If you’re into Spider-Man-like games, you can catch more updates about this game on its Twitter account.

If I had a dollar for each time I’ve heard someone complain that autocorrect sucks, I’d be able to buy an Apple Polishing Cloth.

But yeah, people do complain, and even the guy who created the feature – Ken Kocienda – admits that sometimes it can be more of a hinderance than a help. Indeed, if you think that it’s gotten worse rather than better over the years, that can actually be true …

The reason, paradoxically, is that autocorrect has grown more intelligent over the years, and the more we ask it to do, the more potential there is for new types of errors.

The WSJ’s Joanna Stern went on a mission to learn more about why autocorrect can sometimes be ducking annoying.

First, she tried living without it for a day, and discovered that however much it may annoy us, being without the feature is even worse. Then she tracked down Kocienda, as well as current Apple employees, to learn more about how the feature works.

Autocorrect draws on four sources:

• A primary static dictionary (which lacks expletives)
• A second ‘never autocomplete’ static dictionary of profanities
• A personalized dynamic dictionary, which learns from the words you type
• Machine-learning, which learns from words and phrases pulled from the Internet

Each of them has the potential to annoy you.

Autocorrect may insist on changing a word it doesn’t know to one it finds in its static dictionary. Similarly, it doesn’t matter how much you really want to type a swear word, autocorrect isn’t going to help you – which means the static dictionary, which doesn’t know any expletives, will do its best to make sense of the word.

The personalized dictionary looks for words not in the static dictionary, which you have typed three times. That’s the point at which it decides you know what you’re doing, and it’s a real word. However, if you make the same typo three times, it learns that instead!

Then there’s the machine-learning aspect. That can really cause problems.

The autocorrect system can be updated frequently with our more casual English—the “ur gonna love this” type of stuff. The bad? Some argue it can pick up our typos and our no-good-very-bad writing habits […]

Over time, Apple’s autocorrect has become more sophisticated and aggressive, correcting words based on the previous words in a sentence and even retro-correcting words after you’ve typed a few more words.

That latter point is my biggest pain-point with autocorrect. If it mis-corrects a word immediately, that’s one thing, but if it suddenly changes the opening word in a sentence seven or eight words in, that’s really ducking irritating.

There are solutions, however. First up is the Text Replacement option.

The surefire way to make sure your phone knows your personal vocabulary? On your iPhone, go to Settings → General → Keyboard → Text Replacement. Now add your words or phrases to both the Phrase and Shortcut fields, which will add them to the dynamic dictionary.

I love Stern’s trick to teaching autocorrect to leave her profanities profane!

I entered my favorite profanities as contacts in my address book.

Finally, you can see whether third-party keyboards make a better job of it.

One option called Typewise has a feature I wish Apple would steal: an autocorrect undo button.

What are your own pet peeves about autocorrect? Have you found other solutions? Please let us know in the comments.

Photo: Sean D/Unsplash