RPGaDAY 2026 14. Regard

#RPGaDAY 2026

14. Regard

14. What is a game held in high regard you have yet to play?

They’ve been piling up for the past few years while I mostly run and play (usually new versions of) old favourites.

Blades In The Dark, Daggerheart, Good Society, Masks: A New Generation, Eat The Reich. I’ve looked at some, figured Daggerheart isn’t the sort of thing I’d run, made a Masks character for a CC challenge, that’s all really. I could probably grab some indie RPG types and a long weekend and work on this.

For the longest I haven’t played an acclaimed game, I’ve had a copy of RuneQuest since I was about fifteen and done nothing with it. Call Of Cthulhu yes, Stormbringer yes, anything Glorantha no. Ultimately it’s not really my kind of thing so I don’t much mind, but it’s still on that shelf.

Autocratik

Runeslinger

RPGaDAY 2026 13. Strain

#RPGaDAY 2026

13. Strain

13. So far, what is the heaviest set of RPG things you have carried to play?

Probably the Christmas when I made half a dozen customised six inch scale action figures of the PCs for the players of The Watch House. Not actually that heavy but certainly bulky.

Autocratik

Runeslinger

ST starting tips

Five tips, and a bonus, and a second bonus, for VtM but often for city games in general, from Sed8ed Princess

Solar Eclipse Near Miss 2026

It is cloudy.

A pigeon outside is a bit confused.

This has been my eclipse report.

RPGaDAY 2026 12. Loss

#RPGaDAY 2026

12. Loss

12. Most things end. What is one RPG loss you still feel?

Steve D.

Among so many other things, he ran the first session I played in online, also the first session of the prototype The Night Watch which led to The Watch House. I got to join a session in Brisbane, one of the two times he hosted me going around the world. More recently I got to playtest his biggest RPG Relics and contribute to sourcebooks. A couple of my ideas got a laugh.

His last Patreon post from December 30th 2025

“You matter, and if you show up, you can change your fate, or someone else’s. And that is everything.”

Autocratik

Runeslinger

V5: City Of Angels 40

Vampire: The Masquerade - City Of Angels session 40

After a summer hiatus. Paris went to what she thought was the least dangerous of three things she could do that night, found that was pretty wrong, and thanked someone she hates for finding a key piece of information and thus stopping a plan to make a deal with someone she hates more. So, ups and downs.

RPGaDAY 2026 11. Tact

#RPGaDAY 2026

11. Tact

11. A character made great by having or not having tact

Giles: “Cordelia, have you actually ever heard of tact?”

Cordelia: “Tact is just not saying true stuff. I’ll pass.”

Buffy The Vampire Slayer 2.18 Killed By Death

One of my Mage circle Didi’s main weapons is distracting opponents often by confusing or annoying them. She once defeated a probability-altering chaos mage by shouting obvious lies at him. “It’s Wednesday! Your shoes are untied!” Including ones she hoped he’d accidentally make happen. “I just won the lottery! I’m Mrs. Ryan Gosling!”

And after more than twenty-five years, still do I fondly recall the story of a campaign of British indie horror game Principia Malefex that ended early with one of the players having their character knock on a suspected cultist base door and ask “Excuse me, are you a cultist?”

Autocratik

Runeslinger

RPGaDAY 2026 10. Secret

#RPGaDAY 2026

10. Secret

10. A secret you hope comes out about a character?

Neither of my current characters have any big secrets.

Not normally, anyway. “I’m actually a time traveller from over a century in the future” is a specific issue for a current adventure. Which I hope doesn’t come out too much as it could destroy the space-time continuum. But a few people finding out makes for fun complications.

We just finished a short Vampire chronicle, a game where this is a natural focus, where the city had a lot of secrets and enough came out in the end to start an open revolt, so that was nice. And my character there, the Tremere occultist, had his share as well, though the other PCs did get to discover the shocking reason he had a Tremere enemy.

HE STOLE SOME BOOKS.

In my long-running Buffy play-by-post there are some secrets about the setting I hope to get to, and at some point the secret that one of the PCs is a robot (which all the players know but none of the other PCs do) really should come out - I’ve resisted a couple of chances for an anticlimactic comedy reveal already, but now have an idea to make it an actual central episode plot.

Purely in-character open secrets and really secret out of character secrets give very different feels to games. IC secrets allow leaning in for oblivious PCs - although I’ve met players who cannot resist acting on OOC knowledge. OOC secrets are better for mysteries, but the lack of openness can affect the group. Best not keep them up for long.

Also, Top Secret. I should run a spy game again sometime.

Autocratik

Runeslinger

RPGaDAY 2026 9. Privilege

#RPGaDAY 2026

9. Privilege

9. Give one reason why it is a privilege to play with your group.

Off and on weekend group, not playing often but setting aside a big chunk of Saturday to do it including eating together ahead of the game, being proper social and all.

A chance to play a game I normally only GM has been grand with the Sunday group too.

And the online groups, being asked to play a specific game, trusted to bring the fun.

Getting to GM for new people and show them different games is a nice rare thing too.

Okay that’s multiple reasons. But for multiple groups!

Autocratik

Runeslinger

RPGaDAY 2026 8. Resolve

#RPGaDAY 2026

8. Resolve

8. A moment when a character kept or broke their resolve?

How much of a character’s resolve is the player’s?

“My character would / wouldn’t do that!” is often a problem in RPGs where a player uses it as an excuse to reject the premise of an adventure or otherwise disrupt things, but sometimes it’s about an issue to be addressed out of character, and sometimes it’s a genuine in character response to something like a moral choice.

My French Revolutionary vampire Matthieu was marked for almost certain death as the Montagnards and their Kindred allies took over, and while the game didn’t progress that far in the timeline I decided in the epilogue that his sincere support of the people would indeed get him killed again like it had the first time. I could have had him run and survive but he was always built to be doomed by his humanity rather than his vampirism.

And in another game, not to get into details, I wish I’d said “My character wouldn’t do that!” a lot earlier than I did due to a mismatch of ideas about what the setting’s main group should be like ethically.

Autocratik

Runeslinger

RPGaDAY 2026 7. Mercy

#RPGaDAY 2026

7. Mercy

7. A moment of mercy received or given?

One of the things I often include when running something like Vampire is a choice between the right thing and the expedient thing. Ideally with some nuances in there too so it’s not just obvious.

My 2024-5 Vampire: The Masquerade game ended with some of the PCs deciding that the young hunter cell taking out prominent Kindred in the city were in the right and trying to get them out safely.

And other PCs disagreeing because hunters are still a threat and warning the Camarilla, who sent a hit squad.

And playing in the French Revolution game, Matthieu’s last act was to rescue Charlotte Corday from prison awaiting execution - with the assistance of a vampire loyal to Marie Antoinette, who asked the coterie to save her children as well. From his perspective saving two kids was the expedient choice as well as humane, even though saving royals also felt unjust and a possible threat to the republic.

Autocratik

Runeslinger

Exalted at 25

Exalted, White Wolf’s epic superheroic fantasy and very quickly not the prehistory of World Of Darkness, first came out on this day in 2001. Not my kind of thing but I admired the big swing, and the stepping back from that suggested connection.

John Wick: With The Animals

A video essay on the John Wick series with various asides but mostly about how assassin society works and how it could stop working. Sharing my biggest problem with IV while also having good things to say about some of its featured ideas, And a great point about markers and coins being overridden by the connections and relationships they abstract.

Clive Barker's Underworld

Clive Barker’s Underworld (1985) original trailer for the Arrow 4K rerlease

I once edited together a mood trailer for New Wave Requiem, the 1980s Vampire sourcebook. If I’d known this existed I could have used... basically all of it.

RPGaDAY 2026 6. Reach

#RPGaDAY 2026

6. Reach

6. Who would you like to be able to share RPGs with?

Some people, maybe not a lot but some, would probably be interested in RPGs in their preferred genres outside of the usual SF/F/H which we call genre because we’re in it. Of course I’m saying this as a genre kid, and I know SF/F/H makes the improv with action rules nature of RPGs easier to keep going - it’s much easier to improvise a locked room mystery if you can say “a wizard did it” when you get stuck - but the hobby has definitely grown and expanded when taking in genre edge cases.

Horror and mystery with Call Of Cthulhu - straight mystery largely stayed with prepared one-shots like Murder Mystery Party for the above hard to improvise reasons. Horror with heavy drama and romance with Vampire: The Masquerade, leading to more fully emotionally focused games like MonsterHearts - which still has monsters.

(Though Avery Alder is working on a new no-monsters game based on sports drama like Friday Night Lights.)

Not full-on mundane reality, but genre-ish asides. There aren’t many straight cop games but there are plenty of action movie and TV games where cops taking on somewhat or very heightened criminals works fine.

And in the general SF/F/H space there are a few subgenres that seem like they could be the basis for RPGs.

I’m still puzzled that we didn’t get a big obvious YA Dystopia RPG during the genre’s heyday.

And mentioning romance, there isn’t a big romantasy game yet either. (Blue Rose for its forerunners?) And how come we got an RPG for Battlestar Galactica but not for Outlander? I say this as a non-fan but a romance-focused game with sword fights and time travel seems like it would work.

Autocratik

Runeslinger

Lore and unreliable narrators

Jesse Heinig on untrustworthy lore in settings, with Vampire: The Masquerade as a prime example.

One of the great joys of running a Vampire chronicle for people who have never played Vampire before is tossing them into a stew of contradictory conspiracies. Vampires love to present themselves as erudite and sophisticated, but they have very little evidence about their own supernatural world.

So far my group has heard...

* Three different creation myths about vampires

* Two different theoretical ways out of the curse

* About the existence of bloodlines, but not specifics

* About the existence of the Sabbat, with some (useless) history

* About werewolves and ghosts

They also heard about wizards ("they died out in the Middle Ages") shortly before meeting a mage, and about unaligned clans ("mostly weirdos who have very limited power") before running afoul of a Follower of Set/Ministry vampire.

They met a vampire who can survive sunlight at dawn

They met a mortal who can just see through Obfuscate. No idea why

They ran away from mortal hunters wearing FBI jackets, who were obviously not real agents

They have failed several gambits to get blood, and are coming to grips with the fact that they will have to do some questionable things

They discovered that animal blood is not very satisfying, then met a Kindred who feeds on animals exclusively

They heard that the Prince is Malkavian, then met her and the coterie's Malkavian immediately clocked that she is not

The Malkavian learned to aura read and has no idea how to interpret it

Everyone seems to be having a great time. It's a World of Darkness where there is lore, there is history, there are societies, but a rule is only a rule until it's broken. Supernatural things work the way they do because of magic, and symbols, and metaphors, not because of science.

Soon they'll get introduced to Gehenna, the End Times, Gehenna cults, and the mythology of the turning of the age. Probably hand-in-hand with crossing paths with actual Sabbat, an Anarch Revolt in their city, and thin-bloods looking for a place to survive.

The huge, sprawling metaplot of the World of Darkness causes some players to pursue setting mastery, to have full fundamental knowledge of the "truth" of the world, so I've made it pretty clear through events that "truth" is highly subjective and context-driven.

Everyone's got goals and agendas, but at the end of the night, it really comes down to, what will you do to survive? How are you going to make it happen? Where are you going to get blood? And who's going to pay the price for your sins?

RPGaDAY 2026 5. Burden

#RPGaDAY 2026

5. Burden

5. What burden is a character willing to carry until the end?

With great power comes great responsibility.

With that phrase of that idea, Stan Lee defined Spider-Man, why superheroes are heroes and not just super, and a valuable life lesson.

Player characters are often marked out by their power or the opportunity to act when no-one else can. They may not be the only group in the setting doing PC-ish things, but they are the ones that get the focus. Who else is going to save the day?

Some of my more serious character moments are about taking on a burden alone, and why this may not be a good call.

Of course if you really went to get to me emotionally, have someone pitch in to help.

“I can’t carry it for you. But I can carry you!”

Sam in one of the bits that makes me cry in Return Of The King

See also the first episode of Superman: The Animated Series, where Kal-El’s family help to make sure he gets away from Krypton even if they don’t as a result. It’s the only version of the story that gets to me.

Autocratik

Runeslinger

Cthulhu Lives!

Cthulhu Lives! and the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society. A history by Thomas Manuel at Rascal.

I knew this tale from The Unspeakable Oath magazine’s history of the game and group, with a lot of the same photos in black and white instead of here in sometimes alarming colour, but it’s such a ride it’s always worth another look, and the bit with the helicopter is new to me.

The HPLHS went on to make printable and mail order props, audio plays, Christmas albums, and films including the silent black and white version of The Call Of Cthulhu (trailer).

And reading back it’s both a tempting thing to try and A Health And Safety Nightmare.

RPGaDAY 2026 4. Charm

#RPGaDAY 2026

4. Charm

4. An enjoyable moment of charm gone right or wrong?

There’s nothing like a Fancy Party Episode or other large social event to get people more dressed up than usual and being noticed in unexpected ways.

I have them occasionally in a lot of my games. Sometimes it brings the drama as relationships shift, and often it brings the funny as there’s a misunderstanding or somebody gets flustered.

“Do we get dressed up?”

“Of course.”

“I’m in.”

Angel 3.13 Waiting In The Wings

Which is a Fancy Party Episode which does indeed shift several cast relationships

Of course they’re a sometimes food. Pride And Prejudice has people writing letters and visiting each other’s houses as well as some fancy party chapters. ;) (Comics creator Trung Le Nguyen provides helpful and often hilarious commentary over one of the biggest Bluesky threads I’ve ever seen, collected here in 135 pages.)

Big social events are also good for changing the status quo, introducing new characters, having enemies meet in a situation where they shouldn’t start a fight, and more.

(Lots of NPCs can get hard to track. In some games use a map and tokens for scenes like this more than for combat.)

William and Charlotte got together in The Watch House in the middle of some other adventure when she pointed out they were while he hadn’t quite gotten around to asking her out. That can happen too.

Autocratik

Runeslinger

There Will Come Soft Rains

Today is August 4, 2026.

There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury is set today.

PDF for study

Reading by Leonard Nimoy

Russian animated film

Graeme Davis on the history of RPGs in the UK

When Dice Were Made Of Flint, a column at Tabletop Sentinel, begins in 1978 as he plays his first game of D&D and finds his way to Games Workshop.

RPGaDAY 2026 3. Poise

>#RPGaDAY 2026

3. Poise

3. How does one character present themselves?

Of my current PCs this leans towards:

Paris, the Toreador events promoter in Vampire: The Masquerade - City Of Angels. High Charisma and Presence, different outfits for different occasions, active code switching. And the literal poise power of Cat’s Grace which gives her perfect balance, mostly used for running in high heels.

Olivia Holt
Not my original visual reference but Paris went more girlish than expected

And so naturally I talk about all my current PCs - and my first ever - to show variety.

Michael Sorensen, Tremere occult investigator, wears black. He wore black tie to Elysium, saying he’d go full white tie for a special occasion like a formal dance or being sentenced to Final Death.

Matthieu Lasalle, French Revolution Brujah, was scruffily handsome but his main note of poise was his tendency to start an attack on an enemy of the people by kicking a door open, making a proclamation about justice, and either firing his flintlock or otherwise drawing attacks to him.

Elsewhere, Cara Lawson in Mage: The Ascension is mostly practical but will dress up nice if she thinks it won’t stop her fighting. She has to rely on her high Dexterity for running in high heels.

She is currently in the 1880s and hoping that having to dress like a lady doesn’t get her or anyone else killed.

A screenshot from Assassin's Creed Syndicate with the alert
"EVIE's movements are RESTRICTED by her dress"

Captain Diana Carter in current Star Trek Adventures is kind of a Pike, diplomatic but direct, friendly until not. Her main tic is a wry smile when threatened.

A certain amount of looking cool when player charactering goes all the way back to my first session, where despite no rules for elves or archers in Fighting Fantasy I used an elven archer miniature. With an eyepatch, no less.

Oreon, leader of a Regiments Of Renown army set
Painted and photographed by The Stuff Of Legends.
I went more olive drab IIRC

As a GM, I often have a social episode here and there. My Vampire: The Masquerade band game Last Dance was all about that side of the setting, with just a few fights and chases.

Some day I’d like to go full Good Society and run a full high society game... with or without vampires.

Autocratik

Runeslinger

Commonwealth 2026 closing ceremony

No TARDIS.

Weird uplifting choir and jam version of Loaded by Primal Scream.

Good choice for fair play award.

The Vampire Lestat

The Vampire Lestat comes to UK TV and the BBC iPlayer in its entirety, where you can also find both seasons of Interview With The Vampire.

It continues to play fun and often darkly comic twists on Anne Rice’s original material, notably keeping Lestat a highly entertaining character but doesn’t put you on his side like Rice tended to later - he’s a casual murderer and a prick.

I’ll admit I prefer the nu metal in Queen Of The Damned but the glam pastiche here fits.

Also cool that the series promotion included an actual in-character concert.

Vampire V6 playtest AP

Vampire: The Masquerade V6 playtest as run by Alexander Ward

It didn’t hit most of my concerns. I don’t especially like the target taking off dice so we lose big pools and the clatter of may D10s. Glad to be shown Overqualified, the equivalent of taking half, still exists for players.

Drama seems like a minor thing here, which is a concern as one of the bg things being flagged up in the playtest.

X is the thief of Y

Comparison is the thief of joy, they told me, and I said, I’m putting together a team for a heist.

Gareth Hanrahan

This is the best Nobilis pitch I’ve ever read.

Me

The Pod Universe phase two

Slate reveal featuring space horror, space murder, superhero musicals, and an animated family adventure which is a prequel to the space horror.

RPGaDAY 2026 2. Stature

#RPGaDAY 2026

2. Stature

2. What does one character’s stature in their community mean to them?

If my character is someone people will listen to they’ll use that for their ends. A firebrand revolutionary rallying the people, a figure of authority offering to negotiate before a battle starts.

Not for self-indulgent reasons. Usually.

Quite a few are outcasts trying to help without it.

For Stature in general, I have played some notably big characters and some small ones, but no giants offhand.

Autocratik

Runeslinger

RPGaDAY 2026 1. Discipline

#RPGaDAY2026

1. Discipline

1. Share a character or fellow player who is a strong example of discipline.

I can talk about disciplined characters with ease. Starfleet officers, Mages who gained power through study and practice, superheroes who will jump in the path of a bullet or laser beam or thrown bus.

I met a disciplined player once. You could rely on them to be about twenty minutes late every session.

Autocratik

Runeslinger

Bonus: a friend is also particpating, finding comics characters that match the daily, weekly and weekday prompts, and gaming relevance for them, like so.

August

Made it, almost intact.

#RPGaDAY2026

#RPGaDAY2026

RPG a Day 2026 begins now! (With my first answer around 12:01.)

Each day in the month of August, roleplaying gamers work from the infographic below to take inspiration from each of the 31 prompts to post positively in affirmation of the joys and benefits of RPGs and the relationships and skills we have developed as a result.

Introductory post by David F. Chapman, including a text prompt list

Explanatory post by Anthony Boyd, plus a video intro with David and Anthony

This year I plan to answer the prompt questions. I had another plan for the single words but it kind of fell through.

--

Daily Prompts

1. Discipline

2. Stature

3. Poise

4. Charm

5. Burden

6. Reach

7. Mercy

8. Resolve

9. Privilege

10. Secret

11. Tact

12. Loss

13. Strain

14. Regard

15. Endurance

16. Composure

17. Intensity

18. Directness

19. Desire

20. Promise

21. Charity

22. Grit

23. Fortune

24. Distance

25. Familiarity

26. Regret

27. Hunger

28. Devotion

29. Labour

30. Pride

31. Edge

Weekly Modifiers

Week 1 - Drive

Week 2 - Intellect

Week 3 - Associates

Week 4 - Instinct

Week 5 - Emotion

Week 6 - Ability

Daily Modifiers

Monday - Fair of Face

Tuesday - Full of Grace

Wednesday - Full of Woe

Thursday - Far to Go

Friday - Loving & Giving

Saturday - Works Hard

Sunday - Blessed

Daily Prompt Questions

1. Share a character or fellow player who is a strong example of discipline.

2. What does one character’s stature in their community mean to them?

3. Poise: How does one character present themselves?

4. An enjoyable moment of charm gone right or wrong?

5. What burden is a character willing to carry until the end?

6. Reach: Who would you like to be able to share RPGs with?

7. A moment of mercy received or given?

8. A moment when a character kept or broke their resolve?

9. Give one reason why it is a privilege to play with your group.

10. A secret you hope comes out about a character?

11. A character made great by having or not having tact

12. Most things end. What is one RPG loss you still feel?

13. Strain: So far, what is the heaviest set of RPG things you have carried to play?

14. What is a game held in high regard you have yet to play?

15. How would you organise an endurance session of your favourite game?

16. One thing that will cause a character to lose their composure?

17. A satisfying example of a character’s integrity

18. Directness: A fast introduction of a new PC or player?

19. A huge risk taken because of desire?

20. Have the characters kept or broken more promises?

21. Share an RPG charity past or present that moved you

22. An enjoyable moment of grit PCs did or did not tough out

23. An enjoyable moment of good or bad fortune

24. Your preferred distance in any type of RPG conflict?

25. One game you want to get more familiar with?

26. One game you regret not trying?

27. What do you hunger for most from a session?

28. Devotion: Game you have played the most!

29. Labour: Thing you are most willing to work on for a game.

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

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

--

Roundup!

On RPGnet!

On Bluesky!

2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014!

The Crow and The Last Temptation

I was today old when I discovered thanks to Virtual Goth Night that The Crow was temp tracked with The Last Temptation Of Christ by Peter Gabriel and Graeme Revell was presumably told the copy the homework.

So now I have a spare album of vibes of The Crow score.

The Feeling Begins

#RPGaDAY2026 day zero

David Chapgman (Autocratik) and Anthony Boyd (Runeslinger) discuss RPGaDAY on video ahead of launch day.

RPGnet thread is up

Star Wars with D&D

Star Wars D&D collaboration coming next year.

WotC already did basically D&D systems for Star Wars twice, but not quite I guess.

Vampire: The Masquerade V6 playtest

DriveThruRPG link to all formats

This is an alpha playtest with feedback forms attached. And if the big swings go ahead I’m sure it will find an audience. I may not be in it.

Make it to Saturday, start RPGaDAY.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026)

I got Spider-Man versus the Hulk in live action, which I’ve wanted since I was about five, and it exceeded my expectations.

And also a fun Spider-Man movie, if kinda busy here and there. The bodily changes didn’t really do much except set up that it was possible for we could get another example.

I saw it in 3D because apparently that’s a thing again? The soaring used it nicely, as that’s one of the things it does.

Looking ahead

This week sees the V? panel and playtest which we'll get to see at least some of online officially and no doubt all unofficially.

And with Do Us Part concluded, maybe a change to summer Sunday evenings for a while, ahead of probably returning to GEAS in a few weeks depending on when and where.

And I feel I should offer something online to a couple grops as I have time.

But also questioning continuing my one current play-by-post after something I saw today.

I shouldn’t make any decisions in this mood.

Mage: The Ascension - Sunrise City

So for a summer special the PCs have been thrown back to the 1880s. I did this in The Watch House once so I suppose I deserve it :D

AP by Tanith

An action figure of Cara like this would be tricky. Porcelain doll yes, figure no...

Vampire: The Masquerade - Till Death Do Us Part

Our summer game concluded with a possible victory over somebody worse than us. I didn’t get the righteous death this time, despite trying by going to an enemy to try to reason with her. Ah well, there’s always next time!

The only way D&D got my money in the last decade

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves co-director Jonathan Goldstein says the script for a sequel already exists, but he’s not expecting it to see the light of day any time soon.

IGN

“I’ve got a great campaign written, I just can’t get a group together” is the peak D&D experience.

Lee Casebolt

MCU update

Ryan Coogler (SINNERS) back on Black Panther III with David Jonsson (Alien Romulus) as T’Challa’s son.

Shawn Levy (Night At The Museum, Stranger Things) on Ghost Rider, not III, with Ryan Gosling (Barbie) as not Nicolas Cage.

Both of those could guest star Blade. But GR is more rebootable based on previous quality.

Neuromancer trailer

I like how un-slick the Neuromancer trailer looks, streets that largely just look like advertising-saturated streets in a modern city.

In fact I now kind of wish they’d gone all in with that and made it a modern setting where the story-required cyberpunk elements are the only SF stuff present.

(Not an original idea - I remember William Gibson mentioning a plan to film one of his stories in Tokyo and just emphasise how cyberpunky it was anyway.)

Indiana Jones and the Sword of Pandemonium

Indiana Jones and the Sword of Pandemonium, the first miniseries from Marvel, set soon after Raiders Of The Lost Ark. Five issues starting in December, a reminder that news from San Diego Comic-Con is sometimes about comics.

The Alex Ross variant cover is an homage to issue 1 of The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones. And it’s getting a hardcover reprint set.

Batman: Caped Crusader

The nice people at DC (and I’m sure there are some nice people at Amazon Prime too) are putting up at least some of Batman: Caped Crusader season one on YouTube, starting here.

Inevitable comparisons to Batman: The Animated Series aside (Hamish Linklater eases up on the Kevin Conroy impression a little as he goes along) it’s a good time.

The Odyssey

The Odyssey (2026)

Big, Loud. Smart. Sad. Gloomy about the possible fall of civilisation but not hopeless. At times heckin creepy. Cuts the best joke in the original but has a couple of laughs along the way.

Matt Damon plays against type as the tricksy Odysseus, less so the troubled one. Momentarily distracted by knowing we can have a double bill of Jon Bernthal as a tetchy elder to Tom Holland next week.

Standout side trip to Hades.

The island of the Stormcast Eternals Laestrygonians was a bit much, but the behind the scenes story if hiring regular tall guys for the role and short buff women for the Ithacans is fantastic.

Tell me about a complicated man. Shaft!

(Okay, recent translator Emily Wilson brought that on and considered changing the word when she realised.)

The Haunting Of Hill House on stage

A world premiere, no less, at the Lyceum. A couple weeks after Halloween. Announced a hundred days before it...

Universal licences Atari

Having been unable to make a cinematic universe based on their successful, er, cinematic universe of actual stories, Universal just licenced ten 1970s-80s Atari games, including the story-friendly Adventure and Asteroids and the... less so Pong.

I guess it’s cute that they keep trying.

Good Society second edition

Good Society has a second edition coming soon with a quickstart at the Kickstarter. Which reminds me I never got around to getting the first edition.

Cara action figure happening

Found the long-haired Black Widow head, looked at available bodies that might work, bought one - X-23 from Deadpool & Wolverine. Right sort of height, decent articulation, plain grey trousers, black T-shirt and combat boots. The head is a bit high on the neck, but probably fixable. Now to look out my bits box for a sword, and separate the fingers and thumb on the right ungloved hand to hold it. Might remove the vest and T-shirt decal and repaint the sleeves so the T-shirt matches. if I get really ambitious, might Milliput on cargo trouser side pockets.

I would like to get a leather jacket torso and arms for her signaure look, maybe keeping the legs I got here, but given the current Jessica Jones is (a) in a two-pack with Daredevil for 55 quid and (b) sold out, that might have to wait.

There’s a reason I mostly did this for The Watch House during the run of Buffy and Angel figures.

Update update: found a Buffy figure jacket. Will see if the joints are at all compatible.

Update update update: found upper torso, took off X-23’s, not a perfect fit for lower torso or neck so some work still to be done. After that might go all in and paint her face.

White Wolf Dev Diary #1

Text overview and video roundtable a week out from Gen Con.

Sating positive and negative things about Hunger Dice and Blood Points. Hmmmmm.

A commitment to human made art, good.

More black and white?

Tim Bradstreet portfolio mention!

Vampires will probably be able to light their own cigarettes.

“This community really likes to suffer.”

“It’s part of the fun!”

Blooper reel!

It took me FOUR takes to stop saying "flom"

Debbie

Leaving the house achieved.

Leaving the house achieved.

Getting the new Buffy issue 1 not achieved as delayed by a week and seeing The Odyssey not achieved as the three in the afternoon Wednesday IMAX screening was sold out.

But leaving the house achieved.

Witch of the Vale and Melanie, All The Pretty Little Horses

Witch of the Vale and Melanie, All The Pretty Little Horses. An eerie sad take on a lullaby

Chelsea Wolfe, Cold

Chelsea Wolfe, Cold

I want the melancholy ghost movie this would be the trailer and end credits song for right now.

Merryshire Detective Club

Merryshire Detective Club, a cosy fantasy mystery RPG from Pelgrane, Backerkitting now.

You play amateur detectives in a cosy-fantasy setting. Your band of plucky investigators solves mysteries (quite often, murder mysteries) that crop up with remarkable regularity in the lovely little halfling village you design together.

One of the General abilities is called Risky Nonsense.

Anne Rice's Immortal Universe RPG

Anne Rice’s Immortal Universe coming to Backerkit this autumn starting with Interview With The Vampire.

From Renegade, so... a move away from them working on World Of Darkness?

Create your own stories of vampires, witches, psychics, and ordinary humans whose lives become forever entwined through love, loyalty, ambition, and loss. Together, you'll build chronicles that span decades, or centuries, exploring the emotional consequences and impossible choices of immortality.

The focus on drama and time sounds interesting.

(Update: I know someone working on it at the say-hello-online level.)

The Prince Of The City

Big fan of the “subvert expectations” Princes. The Gangrel terror who sees the domain as a personal hunting ground and the Kindred as their wayward pride. The Malkavian who hears every whispered secret and is pulled apart by its needs. The Solomonic Brujah classicist willing to sunder the infant. Tremere collecting occult gewgaws to destroy them in a manic scheme to buttress power. Oily Toreador sleaze in the model of Wincott’s Top Dollar. Lasombra who keeps a Domesday Book of every bit of prestation proffered or owed in the domain.

Justin Achilli

BLADE

How hard is it to make Blade? Come on!

Tacit acknowledgment that they just can’t find the current equivalent of that New Order Pump Panel remix.

Justin Achilli

I'd be curious to know what people remember from Blade that isn't Blade in black leather killing vampires

Kyle Marquis

-1 to movement checks

Based on podiatry advice I’ll be shuffling for a while, possibly a few months, but going to try not become even more of a recluse than I already am. I will go out and do a thing Wednesday.

Avengers Doomsday trailer

Behold. Doom is full clunky.

Little bit o' politics

“What’s today, my fine fellow?”

“Today? Why, today is New Prime Minister Who Didn’t Win A General Election Day!”

“... Again?”

Maybe it’s just me but the seventh Prime Minister in ten years announcing a glorious ten year plan seems... optimistic.

(I would probably be less snarky if I wasn’t pissed off by three of the four things he’s already announced.)

Football

Congratulations to the winner of Football, and that means no Football until the Winter Football in two years’ time, right?

Mage: Sunset City update

Stopped an ancient primordial nightmare putting humanity into an eternal troubled sleep.

Saving the world is always a nice feeling.

AP by T, playing Didi the Hollow One

Next, a miniseries of some kind.

Oh, and, I just realised I have an action figure head that would make a pretty good Cara. Hm.

Now looking for a body.

A deluxe Buffy, long OOP. The new Jessica Jones would work if not for the most ripped jeans knees ever. Might be too tall though. A plain clothes Yelena would be a better fit but they’d have to make one. X-23 but bare armed...

This hobby was easier back in the day.

Would need a gladius or similar shortsword too, obviously.

Jennifer Finch

Jennifer Finch, bassist of L7, has died at just 59.

Tone can be very important

The X Files theme in a major key

I am experiencing an indescribable emotion

Death Wishbone

The heartwarming story of a 1950s London family making a new start in Australia, from the perspective of the teenage daughter who falls for a roguish but good-hearted local lad.

Me

(To be fair most aren’t as dramatic. The Raiders March in a minor key just sounds like Indy’s in trouble.)

Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter

Hammer just put Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter on YouTube in 4K free with ads!

And this is why I keep running Buffy

I have a terrible idea for a Sounds Like Hell episode. It must happen. If the player involved approves.

Ladytron, In Blood

Ladytron, In Blood, going for my Vampire playlist again.

The Peasants' Revolt

Wat Tyler and the Peasants’ Revolt getting a film, The Uprising, written and directed by Paul Greengrass. Looks dingy but otherwise interesting.

What I've Done

After this Oppenheimer edit, which Linkin Park song best fits the end of The Odyssey? In The End seems obvious but Leave Out All The Rest maybe?

Seven-Part Pact

Seven-Part Pact is now Kickstarting.

Up to seven play mighty wizards and each is also in charge of part of running the game in what is described as a GM-full game. And each gets a character-specific board game as part of play.

From Jay Dragon (Yazeba’s Bed & Breakfast, Wanderhome).

Kieron Gillen and friends tried it and APed the results.

It’s about power, and hubris, and patriarchy/

As Gillen notes, big commitment RPGs are usually about time, long campaigns and the like, but his is intended for shortish games, with a one-shot design on the way, but about committing in that time, everybody prepping. He notes that his playtest group all GM games regularly.

I’d be curious to see if this encourages more formalised GM duty sharing games.

Mayday trailer

Mayday, a Cold War action comedy from the writers and directors of Game Night and Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves, starring Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh.

Buffy's best Monsters of the Weeks

You can probably guess 1 and 2 of these 15 at Reactor but plenty of interesting notes on why the listed MOTWs work.

Telefantasy Time Jump: A Ghost Story For Christmas

Telefantasy Time Jump gets to 1971, and a few months ahead too, with A Ghost Story For Christmas, noting some of the style that stands out in the series, a thought on breaking perspective and more.

Caledonia By Night: Merchant City's Secret

A Vampire: The Masquerade V5 MET LARP group is starting in Glasgow. Interesting timing considering V5 might not be going much longer. Although the MET book only arrived in 2024, so a new official LARP could be a while coming. We’ll see.

Sam Neill

Sam Neill on dealing with rejection, depression and imposter syndrome.

Small celebrity encounter

I saw Alex Ward on the way to the gig. He was crossing the road going the other way so I did not intrude.

Garbage at Edinburgh Castle

Garbage were amazing. I feel ten years younger. Except in my feet.

Kids today.

Netflix admit that TV channels are a good idea.

Making a literal cat in the Buffy RPG

Making a literal cat in Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Starting after four minutes of preamble.

"Yeah ours won't talk" as they noted when I mentioned having tried with Mittens.

They are new to the system, and one new to the show.

Bonnie Tyler

Total Eclipse Of The Heart, her most famous song, started as a test for a musical of Nosferatu.

The sacred texts

Just used the Wayback Machine to share some LARP advice from 25 years ago. Normal behaviour.

Which reminded me of this page, from a mere fourteen years back. Do’s and dont’s, convention one-shots and series, and the like.

Today's argument for physical media

ITV has put the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes series on YouTube free with ads. They’re a delight, as I’m sure most of you know.

But the ads do not sync up with the ad breaks.

It’s enough to make me go and get my DVD box set even though that would involve going all the way to the hall and using a second remote control. Can you imagine?

The Furious

The Furious delivers on its promises.

Very much a Furie, which is a localised Taken with a down-on-their-luck single parent.

Issue with the opening which sets up a badass who then disappears, but outweighed by outbursts of badassery from various characters, as well as lots of moments like (low end spoiler here) the bit where one of the mooks goes to kick Wang Wei and he tangles him mid-kick with his foot and makes him hop backwards forcing other mooks out of his way through bad guy keepy-uppy.

Player character exchange programme

Currently playing two Vampire: The Masquerade games and each of my PCs would probably be happier in the other one.

Paris the Toreador events promoter and true believer Anarch with one point of Occult skill would much rather be fighting a Camarilla cult with a decent chance of winning, and Sorensen the Tremere occult investigator would be quite well suited to hunting memories implanted by blood magic as an Anarch domain collapses in the background.

Okay, this week Sorensen had to crawl through a tunnel under a cemetery and defend the coterie against flying bone shards, but Paris has had worse there too.

GEAS 2026-7

Ten weeks to GEAS being back, depending what we do for Welcome Week. No need to make plans yet. So of course I am.

Vampire? Gotta show up. Though by then we’ll know more about the next... iteration, if not edition? And might even have someone else running it, so could even do something less 101.

Buffy? Somebody has to. (glares at that Hulu guy)

Doctor Who? Somebody has to. (stares at BBC)

Star Wars? Supers? Etc.?

The Pod Universe: War Of The Worlds

The Pod Universe reaches its phase one finale (part one, part two) with a big summer blockbuster cast reading audio drama.

Had Tex-Mex to mark the occasion. Got my hair cut, not to mark the occasion.

The United States Of America

July 4th 2026, 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, laying out promises and hopes for what a new nation could be.

The US has been so culturally dominant in my lifetime, and so welcoming when I’ve visited and lived there, that it feels normal to think of it as a place to go, and as a setting for modern games. And I’m sure it will be again.

The nation of Apollo 11, Hollywood and New York, superheroes and Westerns, the Blues and rock and roll and rap, Emily Dickinson and Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King, and RPGs.

I hope to return there one day.

Titivillus Ex Machina

If Autocorrect was a man I would be in maximum security for what I’d done to him and all the other murderers would look at me with wary respect.

Greg Stolze

All the best

Haven’t done a wedding or other huge fancy party episode in a while. Hope it goes well!

SCHISM!

SCHISM!

Was not expecting one of those today.

Let alone one where the people being booted out are the bad guys.

Edinburgh International Film Festival 2026

The Film Festival brochure is up, Ewan McGregor and a Trainspotting reunion, some possibly interesting midnight movies, but most tempted by the Connery-induced juxtaposition of a retrospective screening of The Rock at Filmhouse.

No Chillo

Hey dol! merry dol! ring a dong dillo!

Ring a dong! hop along! fal lal the willow!

Tom Bom, jolly Tom, Tom Bombadillo!

Bombadilly dooly dillow

Bom de dillow hillow willow

Willow be dong dillow fillow

Tom be jugglin' an armadillo

Goldberry prefers a firm pillow

It's just her little pecadillo

Dong ding dong dillo dillo

Off we dance to Amarillo

Pillow dillo dee dong dillo

La dee dee dee willow pillow

Bong biddly bong bee hillo villo

Dongy ding dong dillo

By Bully The Little Stuffed Bull, after J.R.R. Tolkien

#RPGaDAY2026

#RPGaDAY2026 prompts are out, as as shared at Autocratik and FAQed at Runeslinger

Single words on the infographic but also an option for questions - I will likely do both.

And while some of the words suggest the glorious workers’ struggle, as the first word is Discipline and there are a few more like that I might well give the single word prompts to Vampire.

July

Happy Canada Day for one thing!

Dialogue note

Possibly influenced by a recent forum joiner

“You’re new here so I’ll give the benefit of fuck off.”

Another present

After the Photoshopped image of Cara and the resulting CGI toy pictures, a ’shop photo of the time she got sent into a Technicolor romance version of the 1950s as an attempt to get rid of her, and a CG figure pic too.

Werewolf: The Apocalypse - 401K

Death cult megacorporation Pentex hits differently these days.

“Gotta serve the Wyrm, it’s inevitable, you don’t wanna get left behind do you?”

WoD Discord thoughts:

Sharkey: Pentex is so fascinating because in addition to it being a straight up evil corporate entity concerned with profits above all else, its board of directors are knowing actors. They are spiritually aware enough to understand the same cosmology the garou understand, and they choose to pledge themselves spiritually to the Wyrm for benefits and their goals. They are themselves animistic occultists they just do so in the boardroom rather than around the bonfire.

Weird corporate retreats where you hunt the most dangerous game, where you have the junior associates fight with rusty knives for the delight of the executive class, dark rituals deifying Fly and begging for his patronage. and endless, unceasing, paperwork.

Thanatos: Well maybe if the Werewolves offered at least Dental, we would help them instead

Me: I think if they did, werewolf dental would be pretty good. New teeth every lunar month.

Mel Brooks at 100

The creator of the 2000 Year Old Man is getting there.

Labyrinth at 40

Though it came out here the following December. I mean, not long at all...

Dark Shadows at 60

Dark Shadows began on this very day in 1966. The animated series reveal could have waited a day, if not for animation festival timing.

S is looking at the episodes daily on Bluesky.

Most startling bit of that article - the big format change followed a threat to cancel the show if ratings didn’t pick up significantly in six months’ time.

I presume the animated revival will follow every other one and go for the monster rally the show became after its first year, but redoing the original idea could be fun too.

Free RPG Day

Hoping to see some things in PDF as the UK was hit by shipping issues.

I found the map and someone was able to get a book as a result. Pleased, not at all jealous!

Buffy and Angel comics interview

kelly Thompson talks to Fangoria about the initial arc and further plans, with a little new interior art too.

Presents 2026

Ready or Not (2) Here I Come, Maxxxine and Superman on shiny disc

Doctor Who: Once Upon A Time Lord

Two books, Thirteen Storeys and Lost In The Garden

Pizza

Cake

Dark Shadows: The Animated Series

Yep! I'm afraid to say too much lol but they announced it at Annecy today <3 I hope I'll get to share some of the work I did on this project in the future :D

ABIGAIL LARSON

Birthday 2026

I am...

Editing out the blurb about being as addictive as any good TV series, not to brag.

Absolute Batman getting an animated series, following Ultimate Spider-Man, still waiting for Complete And Utter Spawn.

Fringe 2026

Edinburgh Fringe brochure acquired and -

Hamlet 5, Macbeth 1!

Both a fair number of deconstructions but we’re not doing penalties here.

Genndy Tartakovsky's Conan

Genndy Tartakovsky to adapt Conan: Queen Of The Black Coast into animation. Yes, I think that will work.

Ten years since I voted and can say I told you so

You ain’t shut them out, you just locked us in

Kid Kapichi ft. Bob Vylan, New England

Politician who sounds like minor character from Game Of Thrones falls on own sword but not literally.

Princess Of The Universe 3 live draft

Rose Bailey and divers hands at RPGnet look at Princess Of The Universe and a new update.

Father's Day

Happy Father’s Day to all who celebrate.

Summer Solstice

Summer should be kicking in any day now...

Pride 2026

In the time it took me to walk past the Pride stage I heard Espresso and It’s Raining Men so did not feel shortchanged.

Nationals 2027 - 9th-11th April

So for the first time since 2024, not clashing with the planned dates for Conpulsion!

The Cars That Ate Your RPG

Where Are All The Car Monsters? asks Lewd Beholder on RPGnet. Some interesting mechanical reasons - vehicle rules are different than monster rules in many games.

I’ve considered a haunted car but don’t think I’ve ever done it.

Vampire: The Masquerade for D&D

Bound By Blood, a licensed third party adaptation of the above.

Note:

“Bound by Blood is not the primary project we’re announcing at Gen Con. They’re two different projects.”

I hope people who would like that will be happy with it.

But I can say “ew” about Blood Points.

Hexed

Hexed, a new animaetd feature from Disney, about a girl (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld) discovering she’s a witch and getting access to totally not the Witches’ Road and, based on the teaser trailer, I’m not sure what else.

The description mentions a bigger role for her mother than it shows.

I did like her freaking out about the talking book (Stephen Fry) and quill (Tracey Ullman) at the portal.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer

The MCU is old enough to vote, and has finally delivered the thing my Spider-Man and Hulk comic childhood self always wanted: Spider-Man versus the Hulk.

Tabletop Scotland 2026 RPG listings

RPG listings for Tabletop Scotland 2026 are now, booking opening on the 27th. Starting here on Friday afternoon.

Some fire the imagination with the games offered, titles and blurbs. (Gar Hanrahan is GMing Merryshire! I count at least three 1980s White Dwarf adventures for different systems from different GMs! There’s an ALIEN game with twenty spaces?! Somebody is running TOON!)

Others...

Am I running anything? No. But at least I can confirm that.

The fuzzy lines of genre

Rowan Lee asks what is folk horror and pokes at half a dozen definitions.

Thanks to Greg Stolze for the link.

Also her Bluesky handle is an all-timer. Sacrifice! At the Harvest Festival

Sarah Michelle Gellar is the Grim Reaper - in a romance with the Devil

Thud (not a Discworld adaptation) from director Mali Elfman pairs SMG with Rudy Pankow when the Grim Reaper and the Devil meet on the job at a destination wedding.

Pizza Hut being sold off

Has private equity ever not gutted a company?

Judging by the last three sessions...

Joke challenge to finish a current game before a new edition comes out may have cursed it.

Elf to play elf

Anya Taylor-Joy is playing an elf in The Hunt For Gollum. Obviously.

Bat Story Points

On seeing someone respond to this on Bluesky:

Okay. You have unfortunately been hit with the curse that makes you adapt a work you liked as a kid into a ttrpg.

What thing are you adapting?

Gar Hanrahan imagined GMless Knightmare.

I needed a moment to consider beloved childhood things we don’t already have RPGs for.

And I considered fairytales overall but I’ve looked at them here often enough around Christmas,

But the one I jumped to was:

Batman 1966, which needs a Story Point mechanic with a way to get them by getting caught in traps and making puns and use them to have just the right Bat-gadget.

And SpringtingOwl approved!

Really good gameflow! Needing to do the comedy to get through the action setpieces deeply understands the soul of Batman '66.

2026-7

Home for the evening and giving slightly mroe thought to games for the next academic year. (No summer game plan this year it seems.)

See how I feel about Vampire after the Gen Con playtests.

Buffy because who else is?

Doctor Who because currently who else is?

Other.

Yeah, New York is one of the places I would move to.

Hairy Soul Man, Dinosaur Opinions

“So won’t you please shut the fuck up so we can move on?”

John Wagner MBE

John Wagner has been awarded an MBE for his services to writing in comics.

Raiders Of The Lost Ark at 45

45 years ago my life changed, though I didn’t know it yet as I wouldn’t see Raiders Of The Lost Ark for another year or so. A rip-roaring adventure, a character study, a question of belief, a how-is-this-a-PG horror at times.

The Furious

The Furious (trailer) (not to be confused with serial killer hunting FBI show Furious which I also heard about this week) is one of those martial arts heavy action movies Like Kill Zone and Furie where human traffickers are shorthand for Bad People You Can Cheer Seeing Them Messed Up At Great Length.

And it has Yayan Ruhian, Mad Dog from The Raid, with a bow.

And a bit where one of the heroes climbs out of an MMA cage on top of the people he’s fighting..

Playing very normal people...

Going about your regular business and then, boom, aliens.

Good thing I have games for these

Adding Doctor Who to Buffy in the things I have to do myself for the foreseeable future.

I could add Star Trek but I’ve never seriously tried to run that as an RPG.

Disclosure Day

Disclosure Day, directed and from a story by Steven Spielberg, sees him returning to aliens and coverups and brave people trying to learn or share the truth.

The marketing conceals and obscures a lot, images that will only really make sense in context.

It has the roving camera including around moving vehicles as in his War of The Worlds, and the big action moment reminded me of Jurassic Park and a presumably autobiographical moment early in The Fabelmans.

But while he’s famously looked at this before, the project of his it actually made me think of most was the miniseries he executive produced, Taken.

Clue

Clue is on YouTube free with ads in the UK. Just saying.

RPG Trader

RPG Trader is a newe webstore for tabletop RPGs, with print on demand by LuLu.

A policy banning generative AI material

Revenue splitting for teams of creators

Print-on-Demand via LuLu

A review system which doesn't effect visibility where you have the choice to recommend something and... that's it. There's no downvotes.

A Sensitive Content Policy which says you can sell things featuring NSFW material so long as it's flagged, just don't put anything NSFW on the store page.

Aiming for an indie space, like itch.io which has always been secondary for it.

Morgue has put all his taleturn games up for one, including a new print version of Tell Me More, Tell Me More.

Chicago By Ludonarrative

Ludonarrative Dissidents look at Chicago By Night V5 and how it reflects changes to Vampire: The Masquerade. Positive on the content, concerns on layout decisions, thoughts on playability versus readability. Noting the Beckoning and how many old vampires are still around (which was always a bit much for Chicago, coming first will do that) and the use of the adventure.

Masters Of The Universe (2026)

Masters Of The Universe arrives after some unforced errors eclipsing the fact that it’s directed by Travis Knight of Kubo And The Two Strings and Bumblebee and is as colourful and well choreographed, a visual treat where you can tell what’s going on in the fights.

It’s very Guardians Of The Galaxy and even more Thor: Ragnarok, and that’s good. And fairly Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves but of course could have been that more.

The main credits include a rare mention of a specific musician - because it’s Brian May. Because of course it is!

And related to that the makers of the Highlander remake might be a bit annoyed.

Not even the weirdest needle drop.

Nicholas Galitzine’s exiled prince turned bored human resources guy getting to do some human resources fu was my favourite little runner.

Nice to see Camila Mendes following Riverdale with something much more grounded.

You can’t see the guy playing Skeletor, or really hear him recognisably, so that works out.

Start of credits, mid credits and end credits scenes. Hrmph.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Eternal Whispers

Vampire: The Masquerade - Eternal Whispers is an overhead rotaty CRPG, like Disco Elysium with the slow reveals or a presumably less violent Redemption, about, yes, a vampire awakened from a long time in torpor. In this case in post-Sabbat Montreal, as part of its vampire history.

Star Trek: Shadow Frontier

Star Trek: Shadow Frontier, a first person? horror??? Star Trek game! starring Ro Laren!!!

(Also announced a base building game,. Outposts Unknown.)

Moviedrome

The BFI looks back at Moviedrome, the BBC2 cult film strand that served as film school for 1988-2000 kids, with presenter director Alex Cox and show producer Nick Freand Jones.

A Giles moment

Giles Exposition Song custom figure, by me, September 2006

Anthony Head

Anthony Head has died, aged 72. I love his work, and his commitment to animal rights and causes.

The Power Of Pride Bundle 2026

The Power Of Pride Bundle 2026 “is a grassroots mutual aid bundle that showcases indie media from hundreds of queer creators across the globe and provides them with direct financial aid. The sales event begins on June 1, 2026 and runs until July 6, 2026.”

396 items from 284 creators, “contents include items such as digital games, physical games, zines, books, comics, ASMR, and even a book of song lyrics” and including NSFW items in solidarity with those affected by censorship of queer subject matter regardless of content.

$60 full donation or $10 pay-what-you-can

VTM GMT 0

Should I offer to run a VTM game for the VTM GMT 0 discord? Hmm.

As a hangout with mostly active fans and Storyteller types I would expect interest but also OPINIONS.

And if I did, what kind? Something straightforward for those who haven’t had a chance to try V5? Something offbeat to take advantage of the demographic? Probably something relatively normal for a first go...

John Blanche

Hugely sad. We've lost John Blanche. It's hard to know where to begin. He set fire to a generation's imagination, and those fires show no sign of stopping burning. His work very much illuminated the darkness.

Kieron Gillen

John Blanche, WFRP The Enemy Within Campaign cover

Blanche brought a riot of colour and Bosch-like strangeness to Games Workshop, Fighting Fantasy and beyond, and kept that energy through a career spanning decades.

Stargate

The new Stargate series is not going ahead at Amazon, Empire mentioning reports saying it was too fans-only. (Unlike, say, The Rings Of Power, where that fan owns the company.) Stargate being such an easy setup I would guess another one will be along sometime.

Darkness Emergent LA itself

With the natural focus on the V? announcement and related panels, a look at the Darkness Emergent LARP and related events from the POV of an immersive horror event fan which makes for interesting reading for those looking at running something big.

I was not expecting a giant puppet monster. Nice!

Onslaught by Adam Wingard

Onslaught trailer and talk at Empire. The director of The Guest is back on his supersoldier villain thing! Adria Arjona (Andor) is the big damn hero, and Michael Biehn adds extra Terminator cred.

Hey now, hey now now...

So this is quite a thing. Thanks S.

Quoting the source:

Hey do you love This Corrosion by the Sisters of Mercy? Do you wish it sounded exactly like Kylie Minogue’s Can’t Get You Out Of My Head?  

Well then Lauryl Sulfate & Her Ladies of Leisure have you covered!

I mean, they started it.

(And the cover of She’s Lost Control by Joy Division on the same EP is much more on-model.)

V?????? playtest

The Gen Con listings for the new Vampire: The Masquerade project said 6th for edition, and now say playtest. Continue wild mass guessing.

June

Just checked and Edinburgh Pride is the 20th.

Aura Perception

Aura Perception from Vampire: The Masquerade 1-20 was basically “ST looks up what colour an emotion is, then player looks up what emotion a colour is” and so I don’t miss it. But I did manage to get a good jolt out of it a couple of times. Once when one of the PCs realised she was talking to an angel, and in another game when one of the PCs saw that a tree hated everything.

Electrician and Adventurer

Waiting on electrical workers, and so naturally pondering a game about this kind of job getting called in to fix things in houses and what you see as a result.

This could be played for humour, horror, or more. Ghostbusters is the closest I’ve done, and there you’re expecting weirdness when you answer the call. Also to a lesser extent Graveyard Shift, Buffy at a pizza place.

See also Bill Towner, Electrician and Adventurer from House II: The Second Story.

Or a serious take like Session 9.

Vampire: The Miniatures at Darkness Emergent

Josh at Strange Adventures was at the V6 (now listed as such in the Gen Con playtests) panel and also the mentioned in passing miniatures panel - which is about a forthcoming Dark Ages skirmish game. Video, timestamp to see concept video and art.

Christof?! Yes, it could be a different crusader but...
The creepy nun coukd be Serena too.
Though she seems to have a horde of severed hands.

So that looks interesting.

Marcia Lucas

Marcia Lucas has died. Former wife of George and editor of American Graffiti and Star Wars, who gave us the Death Star approaching ending out of edits and ADR, as well as Taxi Driver and New York, New York.

UK Games Expo was already too big for my comfort years ago. I wish it well.

The Maltese Falcon

Proof that remakes can be improvements even after just a few years.

A title can tell you a lot

Victorian Psycho (trailer and talk at Empire) indicates a very different vibe than calling it something like say The Governess.

Surprising Paddington 4 news

Armando Iannucci co-writing a Paddington film may seem strange if you consider what the likes of The Thick Of It and The Death Of Stalin are about, but makes perfect sense if you consider how they’re about it.

Jason Isaacs as Field Marshal Zhukov in The Death Of Stalin
making an entrance by shrugging off his coat in slow motion
to reveal enough medals on his jacket to count as mail armour

And Iannucci and Paddington both know Peter Capaldi.

The Tyrant Philosophers RPG

Coming this autumn from Handiwork Games, using the new a|State system, based on a fantasy novel series by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

hahahayikes

Nothing like having someone come to check a broken electrical thing, say “that’s the worst I’ve seen” and call for backup for safely ground it.

World Dracula Day

Just as Star Wars opemed three wees after May the fourth, the publication anniversary of Dracula doesn’t quite line up with the May third opening.

Hammer announcing a 4K restoration of their classic version with restored cut footage to celebrate.

Spring?

Warm weather? Springwatch? Its my birthday in a month? Feels more like March.

Star Wars at 49

A merry Orthodox Star Wars Day to all who celebrate.

V? playtests planned

Vampire: The Masquerade new version playtests outside of con spaces are planned, not sure how yet.

V5 had an adventure anyone could run and report feedback on. Interesting as a historical document for how it featured specific Resonance victims in multiple scenes. (And how it was pretty much guaranteed to end with the PCs dying and encouraged the players to feel they deserved it.)

So probably a new or newish Vampire: The Masquerade core

The future of Vampire: The Masquerade

Panel 1

Panel 2

Thanks to Leticinios

Panel 2 on YouTube, with some wobbly camera but easier to jump in time. That last question from Leticinios here.

Pre-alpha mechanics, ahead of public playtests, stating theyre not sure if would be 5.5. or 6.

V5 wasn’t a surprise as a new company doing a heavy refresh, but was a surprise in being the biggest mechanical change between editions.

No idea where it goes from here.

Not panicking personally yet. (Plenty are.) Guess we’ll see.

Last time this happened I got an edition I liked more than the previous ones overall, so that can also happen.

I was on the whole happy with V5. Hunger issues can come up too often if you roll a lot but I like the constant thought of it. The greater variety of ways to keep to Humanity. Discipline power variety.

The core book itself could certainly use a refresh, even if it’s not a major change by comparison.

I haven’t considered running or felt like playing a previous edition since. But then I’ve always done that. I have plenty of other games where I’ve stuck with an edition after bouncing off a new one.

Guess we’ll see.