RPG Summer 2026

Read
I started an RPG reading club over on the Memories of Sunshine discord so I've been reading a lot recently. We have already read and discussed Lady Blackbird and The Three Coins. Next up is Desert Moon of Karth and Fighting Fantasy: The Introductory Role-Playing Game which I'm reading just now.

I've also been reading Outgunned, the action movie RPG. I kind of like the core and the stand alone Pulp version. The supplements are rubbish though. Still, I'd be interested to see it in action, maybe I'll try running some 2000ad stuff with it.

Play
I've played a few one-shots over the last few months. Black Sword Hack (good), Liminal Horror (good) and Fatherfog (fine).

We've got the Liminal Horror campaign The Parthenogenesis of Hungry Hollow lined up for our next campaign and I'll be a player in that one.

GM
I am almost finished Reach of the Roach God. It's been a fantastic campaign so far and I can't wait to see how it all wraps up. All they still have to do is four boss fights and visit an imprisoned wizard/lich although they might find some other distractions.

I've run a couple sessions of Deathmatch Island which was a step outside of my comfort zone but was good fun. It's like to run some more, a campaign is only 3 or 6 sessions after all.

I should probably figure out what my next long campaign will be. I'd really like to run Coriolis The Great Dark. Maybe Mutant Year Zero or Delta Green. Or MotherShip. I'll see what my players are interested in.

Read
At UKGE last month, I finally picked up Call of Cthulhu. It's been something of a white whale for me - 6e(?) was the first TTRPG I ever played, so it's been a gap on the shelf for some time. I forgot quite how involved and math-y character creation is, but it seems like once you get going it's pretty straightforward.

I also bought indie peasants' revolt RPG Gallows Corner based largely on the book's art and politics, and I really ought to dig into it more.

Play
I'm now on my fourth PC in our ongoing Princes of the Apocalypse D&D 5e campaign. I think this one is faring a little better so far, but the last one picked up a cursed weapon that got them killed, so I guess we'll see.

GM
I ran the Discworld RPG quickstart Up In Smoke a couple of weeks ago, which went down well. Rather than using the pregens, everyone made their own Watch members: a pun-powered dwarf baker, a PR gargoyle from the posh part of town, and a swarm of bees in a trenchcoat. Things somehow got even more chaotic from there (in the best way).

Still really enjoying The One Ring. We're coming up on the end of what I'm thinking of as "Season 1", but I'm already seeding in plenty of hints for things to come, and everyone seems to be having a great time. They're very keen to go to Moria (as am I), but I've made it clear that they've got to work up to that. I already have some ideas for how that's going to work down the road, though.

My occasional Friday meatspace group is about to go into the last session of the Blade Runner starter set adventure, Electric Dreams. It's been good, though they somehow worked things out quicker than the book expected, meaning I had to spin their wheels a little bit to make sure that all the characters were.going to be able to take part in the finale. It did let some of them get an extra shift of downtime in before things kick off, so that'll hopefully improve their odds of survival.

After that, I suspect they'll want to return to Vaesen, so I need to do some prep for that and check up on which mystery I might run. I've got a long list of things I want to inflict on them run for them, however, so Vaesen will probably be interspersed with some Alien and Call of Cthulhu (maybe closer to Hallowe'en…).

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Free RPG Day stuff was delayed for the UK, and there doesn't seem to be any official estimate for when it'll be available, which is annoying. If anyone can get their hands on the Vaesen booklet for me, I'd appreciate it!