Vague plan for GEAS 2026-7

After last year and this summer, giving some thought to self-contained adventures whatever I run.

Which is an issue for Vampire, of course.

Solar Power!

Mum’s now has a new solar battery infuser.

And will you look at this Axiom from WALL-E lookin’ thing?

The green indicator light showing a leaf has to be an homage. Surely.

I kinda love it.

Trinity Continuum Bundle Of Holding

Trinity Continuum Bundle Of Holding focusing on the modern base era and Adventure! as add-on.

VTMDND Bones Of The Empire

Jason Carl demonstrates the D&D version of Vampire: The Dark Ages, from Gen Con 2026. Hopefully we can get the V6 demo back soon too?

Star Trek at 60

Star Trek was first broadcast in the US sixty years ago tonight!

(Not counting the Canadian premiere being two days earlier, as I noted ten years ago,)

There has been a lot of Star Trek in the last decade, in a wide variety of styles.

This is one of the great story engines. Speaking as someone who’s never quite used it for games.

Right now the flagship show is Strange New Worlds, a prequel to the original series, which I feel has gotten mired in the “strange” part of the title. I imagine a full 26-episode season where we get these premieres and finales and two normal-ish episodes for every one we actually see.

And after that there’s nothing in production.

This would be a good day to announce something. But the current rights holders may not be the people to do it.

We could do with some optimism right now.

What future do you want?

AMPCA

How would your PCs do in an online AMA, as opposed to a chat show or other such occasion?

Coyote Vs. ACME AMA

Wile E. Coyote Reddit AMA

The Blood Of Dawnwalker

The Blood Of Dawnwalker, not Blood Of The Dawnwalker so dangerously close to The Rise Of Skywalker.

As a game, third person medieval superhuman with a ponytail stabbing things so basics of The Witcher. As a vampire game, one character seeking revenge in the Middle Ages so a bit Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption. As a vampire story, medieval guy trying to use his vampire powers for good without going full vampire during a ticking clock, so kinda Dracula Untold. Will we get HAND O' BATS as a late powerup?

Also amusing that his remarkable ability among vampires used to be normal until 1922.

Tabletop Scotland 2026

We won! Hosting it again next year.

Ian

The Muppet Show at 50

It’s time to play the music

It’s time to light the lights

It’s time to meet the Muppets

On The Muppet Show tonight

Could your player characters be the very special guest stars? In some games probably yes.

See also chat shows as the Muppets have done those too.

Assuming your characters aren’t Muppetational themselves.

Fun facts about Violetta Rossellini

Going a bit broad on Violetta for Hunter: The Reckoning, spent lunchtime coming up with weird backstory details to drop in casually.

(This is a favourite bit for suitable games, dropping the kind of thing that would be the subject of an adventure in backstory, dating back to a retired Watcher in a Buffy game assuring a new slayer she wasn’t doing as badly as the one who destroyed the world.)

My family moved to Portland for work when I was five. I went St. Sophia’s Academy. As such I did not get a prom. But I have attended some formal dances and have an invitation to the city debutante ball in three months’ time.

I have at least been to a few slumber parties. And the other girls didn’t always ask me to perform a séance.

I do not currently have a boyfriend. My mother keeps introducing me to young men from good families who she reckons will be healthy. I suspect that this is because I manifested my sight younger than she did and she hopes a grandchild will be more powerful still.

I was raised Catholic, which made it a little awkward when I saw the afterlife. Turns out the ancient Egyptians were right. Just for their time and place, but still.

I believe that death should bring release from pain. I can do something about that, so I will.

As the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility. (off looks) Apparently it comes from some Victorian politician before Spider-Man.

I have a fake ID, and also there’s one club where they never card me. (off looks) Yes it’s The Coffin.

So far as I know I have met five vampires. One of them is my great-grandfather.

There are a number of doctors in my family and I would like to follow their lead, but am more likely to end up in academia.

My favourite Taylor Swift song is Shake It Off. I know, people expect it to be Bad Blood or Look What You Made Me Do, but come on.

I once met the Devil. (She pauses and looks at one of the others.) So have you.

It was on a book tour.

Ravenloft live-action Netflix series

Huh. okay.

Though still waiting on various other D&D things, as this announcement news mentions.

And hey, that World Of Darkness series...

What would freak out a superhero?

Just saw a retrospective of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man films, mostly about the first two of course, but little bits from 3 including the shot where Spidey punches through the Sandman. I always thought he should have freaked out and gone “Oh God, are you okay?!”

September

We have reached the -ber months again.

RPGaDAY 2026 Roundup

#RPGaDAY 2026

Roundup

Post 8888!

I’m always glad when RPGaDAY rolls around, and happy to have various ways to take part, questions as well as single-word prompts.

As noted in passing I did consider a double post with Vampire-related prompts due to some of the words chosen being relevant, but that got hit with some bad timing.

One of these years I might actually do more than some blogging, but that’s summer for ya.

Bluesky was the biggest place for activity that I saw, a nice lively bunch of posts findable by hashtag. RPGnet was sadly just me and the dauntless TardisCaptain, but Facebook was a bit better too.

Autocratik roundup

Runeslinger roundup, where I’m “quite possibly the most devoted participant and certainly one of the most”

Video celebration

RPGaDAY 2026 31: Edge

#RPGaDAY 2026

31: Edge

31. Why does a character think they have an edge?

Often literally when I make them. See my post on Distance for sword guys versus gun guys.

Generally I prefer if players have some way to avoid a single die roll messing up their big moment. This was a system in place by the time I got to Marvel Super Heroes Advanced in the 80s, where PCs had a whole lot of Karma to throw in to guarantee success. Most games I’ve played since with something like that have a more limited pool of “I win” points, but as long as it’s not zero I’m happy.

Ian explains Edge in Marvel SAGA, the game he ran for years in which I played Charity Chance!

Autocratik

Runeslinger

Hugo Awards 2026

Hugo Awards 2026 news at Reactor

As is traditional I am most invested in the Dramatic Presentation awards, have seen all the Long Form, a strong field and HELL YEAH SINNERS WON

Hunter: The Reckoning V5, summer 2026

A short summer game, a chance to play the V5 version of Hunter: The Reckoning, briefly considered a gun guy for the most basic option, a book-heavy researcher but we have one already, a thief due to the Underground Creed, recreate Cara but would need a lot of Edges and Perks, settled on an idea from Huntober 2022 for The Unusual Hunter and influenced by Ligeia:

Violetta Rossellini

“I hear the voices of the dead. Victims crying out for justice. Can you help them?”

RPGaDAY 2026 30. Pride

#RPGaDAY 2026

30. Pride

30. A game event that you are still proud of.

Some of the high concept episodes of The Watch House, notably the time two of the PCs found themselves behind the scenes of the TV series they were in the cast of, the time Natalie became a fairytale princess, the flashforward to a hellish possible future. You can trace where I swiped and adapted from, gotta know your classics. (And see how many Supernatural did after us.)

And some the players brought in that caught me by surprise as well, like the Milli and Ziggy bodyswap, Andy the werewolf getting split into human and superwerewolf with his player stepping up to play both, and Matthew’s player dropping the spell to make Natalie see her possible new boyfriend in a negative light going wrong as he grumbled jealously about how cool he was...

And some of the developments in season arcs as well, like a villain reveal, a starting Big Bad being written out, heel and face turns and more.

Autocratik

Runeslinger

Grand Theft Auto VI

A twenty-five minute first look at Grand Theft Auto VI premiered on Netflix ahead of YouTube (not a gull-on story like the time they got The Road director John Hillcoat to make a short film in Red Dead Redemption) showing off the various things you can do it in, including two whole examples of stealing cars. The first thing the protagonist couple do is head into and then shoot corrupt cops to get out of a drug deal gone wrong. We also see them have a meeting, deliver a getaway vehicle, do some James Bond underwater stuff and basejumping, and then a big bit as security for a corporate party under attack Die Hard style, which seems like a setup for a whole different game.

Visually it looks still kinda cel-shady and oddly clean so not my aesthetic as much as RDR.

The city looks nice, I could imagine Other Places doing something with it.

The couple are young up-and-comers, as the closing narration tells them these are their glory days, unlike V’s weary veterans or IV’s more sympathetic to me soldier dragged into the life or III’s vengeance-focused silent nobody. Or the little overhead sprites you played in the originals, which was as far as I really got as a player rather than an interested observer in a cultural phenomenon because playing crooks in a jokey way for that long doesn’t really appeal to me

(GTA Online has various subgenres with its expansions including the most recent Museum Art Heist scenario which is more my thing.)

But I do find the shift from a quick in-and-out power fantasy to big stories about the characters in between the various car chases and gun battles interesting.