I’ve been jealously looking at photos a friend has been posting of the set they received. It is *big* and looks gorgeous. The Definitive Edition takes the Fifth Edition rules, incorporates material and revisions accumulated over the last two decades, adds new artwork and graphic design, and has expanded the game into a 600+ page full-colour rulebook. The physical slipcase set also includes a Storyteller Guide, 14-page Reference Guide, and a map of Mythic Europe, packaged alongside the gilded leatherette core book.

From $15,000 to more than $840,000

Atlas launched the Definitive Edition on Backerkit in October 2024 with an initial target of just $15,000. That target was reached in just three minutes, and by the time the campaign closed in 14th November it had attracted 5,046 backers and $841,123 in funding, more than 56 times its original target. When additional post-campaign orders, that were received through their pledge manager, are taken in to account, then the Definitive Edition raised over $1 million!

In addition to the fantastic looking book one of the campaigns Stretch Goals stands out, and has already made a difference to the game. At $50,000 Atlas released the standard Fifth Edition core rules under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. The campaign continued adding additional material to the license as it progressed, eventually encompassing the expanded Definitive Edition material and a substantial collection of Ars Magica sourcebooks - 53 books in total!

This means creators can share, adapt, and commercially publish material derived from the licensed rules and Mythic Europe setting, provided they comply with the terms of CC BY-SA 4.0.

For a game with nearly 40 years of accumulated setting and mechanical material that’s an awful lot of material and scope for creators, and a lot more significant that simply making an SRD available.

The RPG that helped create its own publisher

Ars Magica was originally created by Jonathan Tweet and Mark Rein-Hagen, and published by Lion Rampant in 1987. The combination of troupe-style play, long campaign timelines, covenant building, and unique magic system, made it really different - and stand-out - from most fantasy RPGs of the period. It also was the stepping stone for current publisher, and IP owner, Atlas Games to come in to existence.

John Nephew had worked at Lion Rampant before establishing his own company, Atlas Games, in 1990. Atlas’ first release was Tales of the Dark Ages, a licensed Ars Magica adventure collection. Atlas continued producing licensed material until Ars Magica changed hands from Lion Rampant to White Wolf, and was then eventually sold to Wizards of the Coast.

Then, in 1996, Atlas Games brough Ars Magica from Wizards of the Coast.

So the game whose license helped launch Atlas eventually travelled through three different publishers before coming back to become an Atlas-owned property. Atlas subsequently published both a Fourth and Fifth edition of the game, as well as dozens of supplements.

Several Ars Magica terms, including Order of Hermes, Tremere, Doissetep and Grimgroth, remained as trademarks of former publisher White Wolf, who used them in their World of Darkness games such as Vampire: The Masquerade and Mage: The Ascension. To make them usable within the new open framework, Atlas reached an agreement with White Wolf’s current owners Paradox Interactive covering their use in adapted material.

Ars Magica Definitive Edition is available now from Atlas Games and has begun reaching UK, and other, retailer stores.

The O’HaraPosse brings four new resin gunslingers to the range, with one of the figures supplied with a separate pistol hand. Priced at £10, the group can readily serve as a ready-made posse or add some fresh characters to an existing Lawmen or Outlaw collection.

They are joined by two new Apache sets. Apaches 1 contain four 32mm resin minatures, supplied unpainted with 25mm slotta bases, while Apaches 2 adds another four figures, described by Black Scorpion as resin-printed miniatures and likewise supplied with 25mm bases. Both sets are priced at £10 each in their store, or available as part of the monthly Black Scorpion Archive subscription program, giving players eight new figures with which to build, or expand, a Native force.

Gunfights in Tombstone

The miniatures are designed for Black Scorpion’s own Tombstone Old West skirmish game. Originally launched through Kickstarter in 2017, the 130-page game grew out of the company’s existing Western miniature range and was accompanied by more than 110 new miniatures. The rules support Lawmen, Outlaws, Mexicans, Native Americas, the 7th Cavalry, and even Undead, meaning games can range from relatively traditional Western shoot-outs to much more fantastical frontier encounters.

Tombstone uses an action-point system rather than a conventional fixed-turn structure, with characters rated using dice ranging from d4 to d20. The rules cover mounted characters and horses and include scenarios for bank robberies, kidnappings, raids, shoot-outs, and quick-draw contests. Black Scorpion recommends a scenery heavy tabletop filled with buildings, crates, and cover to produce suitably cinematic gunfights.

The complete rules are available as both a printed book and a downloadable PDF, with PDF editions available in English, Spanish, French, German, and Italian.

Black Scorpion Miniatures

Black Scorpion Miniatures were founded in September 2005 by sculptor Adam Clarke, who previously worked as a miniature sculptor for Games Workshop and has also worked for companies including Privateer Press and Reaper. Based in Devon, in south-west England, the company has spent more than two decades producing characterful 32mm miniatures, with ranges covering the Old West, pirates, fantasy, and other settings.

The latest batch of releases continue a Tombstone range that Black Scorpion have supported for almost a decade. Proof that there are still plenty of gunfights left in this particular corner of the Wild West.

Toronto-based Beaches Therapy Group recently advertised for a Therapeutic Group Co-Facilitator to help run a new D&D programme for children aged 9-12, offering CAD $30 an hour for a role initially involving around three hours of work a week. The DM would run a 60 minute group session, with the rest of the time being spent on assisting session setup and post-session administrative tasks such as documentation. Potential also exists for the role to grow as new groups are added throught the year.

What makes the vacancy unusual is that the tabletop experience isn’t simply a desirable hobby mentioned at the bottom of the advert, but that applicants are specifically expected to have meaningful experience with D&D, or another tabletop RPG, and to be comfortable running a game as GM. The applicartion even asks candidates directly about their experience as a D&D player or Game Master.

The successful candidate would work alongside a supervising therapist, helping children develop communication, collaboration, emotional regulation and self-confidence through collaborative storytelling and roleplaying. Experience working with children, especially neurodivergent young people, is also required, while relevant professional registration or Child and Youth Care qualifications are described as a strong asset rather than an absolute requirement.

Beaches isn’t simply looking for a therapist who happens to play D&D. Its model sees the clinical and gaming expertise divided between two people: a supervising therapist and a co-facilitator who knows howe to run tabletop RPGs.

And they are not alone.

The Rise of the Therapeutic Game Master

In the United States, nonprofit Game to Grow was publicly recruiting what it called “professional therapeutic game masters” as far back as 2021. Executive director Adam Davis specifically approached the D&D community looking for experienced GMs to join its therapeutic social-skills groups, which became particularly associated with helping autistic children and young people develop confidence and interpersonal skills.

The idea has since developed far enough that specialised training now exists. Game to Grow’s methodology has been turned into formal Therapeutic Game Master training, teaching practioners how to use RPG techniques alongside goals around social development, group management,and participant engagement.

Elsewhere, RPG.LLC in Spokane, Washington, has gone considerably further and effectively turned Game Master into a formal job classification. One advertised role sought Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialists who were also professional roleplaying Game Masters, with pay ranging up to US$80 an hour depending on qualifications and experience. Its requirements included substantial experience running RPGs and familiarity with several different game systems, while the actual duties included preparing adventures, creating characters and running roleplaying sessions for clients.

There are also practices using almost exactly the two-person arrangement proposed in Toronto. At Heather MacGIbbon Psychotherary, RPG therapy brings together a therapist and a separate tharapeutic Game Master. The therapist can participate in the game while the GM creates and runs challenges tailored, in consultation with the therapist, to the needs of the group.

From Homelessness Services to Correctional Facilities

In the UK, Game Therapy UK has been using tabletop roleplaying games in work with people experiencing homelessness. Its projects in Camden, London, have included sessions delivered through homelessness organisations, using D&D and other games as a way to create social connection, build confidence, and support people dealing with issues including isolation, recovery, and broader wellbeing.

This shows how far the idea can extend beyond the increasingly familiar image of D&D being usded with children or neurodivergent young people. Tabletop RPGs are also being explored as structured social environments for adults experiencing homelessless, addiction recovery, and social isolation.

The idea has even reached correctional institutions. In Washington State, public money has been allocated specifically for therapeutic gaming rehabilitation in juvenile secure facilities, with an outsider provider commissioned to run professionally facilitated roleplaying game programs at Echo Glen Children’s Center. Other detention programs have used tabletop RPGs to build communication, empathy, teamwork, and problem-solving skills. They may not advertise for a “prison Dungeon Master”, but the principle is much the same - someone is being paid because they know how to use the skills of a good GM in a setting far removed from the usual hobby table.

From Classrooms to Corporate Offices

The professional value of Game Mastering is also beginning to appear well outside therapy.

In education, US provider Concorde Education has advertised specifically for paid Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Masters, offering US$50-100 an hour to run after-school RPG programmes at partner schools. In Britain, north London’s children programme Flamethrowers & Dreamcatchers has recruited Game Masters at £30 an hour to lead RPG-sttyle after-school adventures combining storytelling, teamwork and elements of the school curriculum.

Businesses are paying for the same skills. Reddit UK has brought in professional Dungeon Masters from London’s RPG Taverns for staff team-building, while professional DM Devon Chulick has previously been hired to run games for companies including Google and Nintendo. UK agency Rolldark now maintains a network of professional Game Masters specifically offering corporate as well as private RPG sessions.

These aren’t necessarily permanent “Dungeon Master” positions inside schools or multinational companies, as the work is frequently contracted through specialist providers, but the fact is that Game mastering itself is now something organisations are prepared to pay for because of the communication, improvisation, collaboration and group-management skills involved.

An Emerging Profession?

For decades the skills involced in being a good GM have largely been treated as abilities useful only around the gaming table but organisations are now beginning to put a monetary and professional value on them.

Job Image from Simply Hired, photo courtesy of RPG Taverns.

With most games involving graveyards you expect something to come crawling out of them. But Not So Grave is interested in the people who stay behind after their dearly (or not so dearly) departed have, well, departed, and what they remember about them.

A Solo RPG About Life Among the Dead

Released by Matteo Bonvicino, Not So Grave is a solo journaling RPG in which you play the newest member of a long line of small town cemetary undertakers. There are no monsters, myserties to solve or victory conditions. Instead you maintain the grounds, conduct burials, meet visitors, and generally build up a picture of the people resting beneath the headstones.

Each day players choose where in the cemetary to work before using a Prompt Engine, combining moods and questions to generate events. Visitors may reveal memories about someone buried there, with those recollections added to a growing Grave Index. Importantly, the stories don’t have to agree, as different people may remember the same deceased person in very different ways.

The game can continue indefinitely, covering weeks, months or even years. Eight special days punctuate the normal routine, inclduing community clean-ups, a peculiar midsummer festival, and a lantern-lit winter vigil. Players can eventually take leave and return later, or simply tranfer their undertaker to another cemetary.

Bonvicino describes the game as closer to small-town melancholy with humour than horror, with an emphasis on ordinary lives, contradictory memories, and quiet acts of care.

Not So Grave was released on 25th August 2026 and is available on itch.io.

Publisher Dotemu and developer Homo Ludens have unveiled Dungeons & Dragons: Long Rest Tavern, a cosy management game set in the Forgotten Realms and heading to PC in 2027.

Rather than venturing into the dungeon yourself, you’ll establish and expand a tavern in the Dalelands, gradually transforming a modest roadside watering hole into one of Faerun’s premier adventurer hangouts.

That means hiring staff, arranging tables and bedrooms, stocking the bar, cooking meals, brewing increasingly impressive drinks, and trying to keep customers happy when the evening rush arrives. Successful nights earn money and Renown, and in turn attract wealthier and more experienced clientele as the business grows.

There’s still plenty of adventuring going on. You’re simply sensible enough to let somebody else do it!

Heroes visiting the tavern can be dispatched across Faerun to retrieve rare ingredients, magical curiosities and treasure. Party composition affects how suitable adventurers are for particular assignments, while dice rolls help determine whether they return triumphantly laden with loot, or presumably with an entertaining explanation for why they haven’t.

The tavern itself can be expanded and extensively customised, with players constructing rooms, choosing furniture and decorations, and optimising the layout. There’s even accommodation, so build bedrooms and some weary adventurers will spend the night, providing another source of income.

And because this is the Forgotten Realms and not just some generic fantasy drinking establishment simulator, familiar faces occasionally wander through the doors. Early previews have already revealed Minsc and Boo, alongside other recognisable characters, while the game promises a broader cast of adventurers with their own personalities and stories.

Long Rest Tavern joins the previously announced Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons computer game to be released in 2027. Both games have moved away, in very different styles and content, from previous ultra-popular titles such as Baldur’s Gate 3, showing a much wider diversity from the standard campaign adventuring storylines.

Long Rest Tavern also arrives at a rather opportune moment, with cosy fantasy games becoming increasing popular in the world of PC gaming, while tavern games in particular have become a surprisingly crowded little genre. The D&D license gives Long Rest Tavern something most of those competitors can’t offer: decades worth of monsters, characters, locations, food, magic items, and adventuring jokes to draw upon.

The fantasy tavern has been part of tabletop roleplaying almost since the beginning. It’s where adventurers meet, rumours circulate, mysterious employers lurk in shadowy corners and, inevitably, somebody starts a fight.

Now you’re the poor bastard who has to clean up after them!

Dungeons & Dragons: Long Rest Tavern is being developed by Homo Ludens and published by Dotemu. It is currently announced for PC via Steam in 2027.

Images courtesy of Dotemu.

The officially licensed Jurassic Park Trading Card Game, until now largely confined to the South Korean market, is getting an English-language edition, with its first products scheduled to reach the US on 20th November 2026.

Created by South Korea’s Young Cha Company in collaboration with Universal, the game launched in Korea after several years of development. Shinomoto Ryo, whose previous credits include work on One Piece Card Game and Dragon Ball Super Card Game, was involved in the development of the rules.

Welcome to Jurassic Park

The initial English range will consist of the game’s first main booster set, Silent Giant, the Raptor Strike EX-01 expansion, and two starter decks: ST-01 When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth and ST-02 The Gate is Open.

Silent Giant contains 101 different base cards, divided between 43 commons, 28 uncommons, 20 rares, eight super rares, and two special super rares. There are also 24 parallel cards to hunt down.

Raptor Strike is a smaller expansion containing 57 base cards - 24 commons, 15 uncommons, ten rares, six super rares, and two special super rares - as well as another 11 parallels.

The English boosters contain six cards, with 24 packs per display, while the starter decks include 75 cards each.

So how does the game actually work?

The Jurassic Park TCG uses four principle card types: Dinosaurs, Events, Characters, and Areas. Dinosaurs form the primary combat element, while Events provide one-off effects and Characters provide additional support. Area cards form the game’s resource system, with different colours used to pay the cost required to play other cards,

Players can have up to five dinosaurs on their field, and turns proceed through Refresh, Draw, Area, Main, and End phases. During the Main Phase, players can deploy dinosaurs by paying their Area costs, attack either the opposing player or eligible opposing dinosaurs, or play Event cards.

There are already quite a few keywords and tactical wrinkles. Dinosaurs can have abilities allowing them to attack immediately, intercept attacks, restrict combat according to traits such as aquatic or aerial, or inflict excess damage through an opposing dinosaur onto its player. In other words, this is not merely Top Trumps with velociraptors!

The English announcement is a bit of a surprise

As recently as August, Young Cha was still publicly saying that it was exploring an international release but nothing had yet been finalised. The company’s published roadmap said that overseas possibilities were under consideration and that confirmed information would be announced later.

Less than a month later we now have an actual English release date.

The English edition is being released into the US market by Cardmonster, with distribution exclusively through GTS Distribution. Retailer preorders are open with 30th September, ahead of the 20th November release.

There are also signs that the English edition may not remain purely an American affair. European distributor Luminous Cards is already listing English-language Jurassic Park TCG products and has mentioned that an organised play programme is in development, although no official tournament structure has been announced yet.

At the moment a specific UK retail launch has not been formally announced.

Can Jurassic Park compete?

The tabletop industry isn’t exactly short of collectible card games at the moment. Magic: The Gathering, Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! remain giants, while newer licenced games such as Disney Lorcana and Riftbound are competing for players, retailers, and increasingly limited organised play space.

But the CCG market is still massive business, with eBay this week introducing their own pricing guide and app for the UK market, and Jurassic Park does bring something rather useful to the fight…

Dinosaurs.

Not merely generic dinosaurs either, but one of the most recognisable dinosaur brands on the planet.

There’s also potentially a substantial amount of material available to Young Cha, and the games roadmap has been developed in consultation with Universal and indicates that further base sets, expansions, and starter decks are already planned.

The Korean edition has also shown that Young Cha are not just treating this as a one-and-done licensed product. Raptor Strike received a nationwide Korean release in March and the official site has supported tournaments and maintains dedicated rules, card lists and organised play information.

Whether there’s room for another collectible card game is another question entirely. But if you’re going to try forcing your way into an overcrowded ecosystem then turning up with a Tyrannosaurus Rex isn’t the worst strategy.

Designed by Yaroslav Kifor and Volodymyr Kuznietsov, Unperson puts one to five players inside a totalitarian society where freedom and individuality are crimes, and even absurd Party directives must be obeyed.

Played over five rounds, each round begins with a new Directive setting a collective objective. Players draw and place Event cards around the City before sending their characters to participate in those events, constantly choosing between helping to satisfy the Party’s demands and pursuing their own private Aspirations. Fail badly enough and a character risks becoming an “unperson” erased by the state.

This creates an appropriately Orwellian dilemma as players need to cooperate enough to survive the system, while still pursuing individual goals. Boardova describes the game as exploring “the pressure of totalitarian reign and the cost of resisting it.”

1984: Unperson is for ages 14+, and takes around 60 minutes to play. The game includes competitive, solo, and introductory modes. Boardova’s website is currently listing the English edition as in production, with preorders expected in October.

Boardova are based in Lviv, Ukraine, and co-designer Kuznietsov twice fled his home city of Sievierodonetsk following Russian incursions, most recently after the full-scale invasion in 2022. He has described Unperson as a game about freedom of choice and the weight of the decisions people make under authoritarian systems.

The project is being written and executive produced bu John August, whose credits include Big Fish, Corpse Bride, Frankenweenie and Dark Shadows. Also attached to the project, as executive producer alongside Hasbro Entertainment, is Oscar winning filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men, Gravity, Roma).

Rather than simply adapting a group of adventurers exploring Castle Ravenloft, the proposed series appears to be taking an origin story approach. It has been described as a prestige fantasy drama combining adventure, gothic horror and tragic romance, following Strahd’s descent from tragic antihero through obsession, and ultimately into the undead Darklord who rules Barovia.

Ravenloft Origins

Ravenloft began life back in 1983 with Tracy and Laura Hickman’s classic adventure I6: Ravenloft, for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. It was so well received that I10: Ravenloft II: The House on Gryphon Hill followed in 1986, and then with Ravenloft being expanded further into an entire gothic-horror campaign setting encompassing numerous Domains of Dread and their respective Darklords. Every edition of Dungeons & Dragons has seen Ravenloft products published.

A Lot Happening In Barovia

The announcement comes at a busy time for Ravenloft. with Wizards of the Coast releasing the Ravenloft: The Horrors Within earlier this summer, Renegade Game Studios and Ravensburger both announcing new Ravenloft boardgames, next years Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons computer game being set in Ravenloft, as well as a range of other developments and products announced.

Forgotten Realms TV Series No Longer In Development

There is, however, an important note of caution before we all get too excited. Netflix’s Ravenloft is currently only in development and has not yet been ordered to series, with no casting, product date or release window. Given that Deadline also revealed that the previously announced NetflixForgotten Realms TV series is now reported to be no longer in development.

Baldur’s Gate TV Drama With HBO

Of course this isn’t the only Dungeons & Dragons TV series currently in the works, as HBO are currently working on a Baldur’s Gate series from The Last of Us co-creator Craig Mazin.

Given the number of proposed D&D television adaptations that have failed to escape ‘development hell’ over the last few years, Strahd hasn’t quite escaped the Mists yet.

The sale began at the end of August and is running until 11.59pm ET on Sunday 13th September 2026, although Chaosium has warned that a number of the products have limited stock and may sell out before the sale ends.

The sale represents a great opportunity for players looking to try one of Chaosium’s games for the first time, with core rulebooks and starter sets up to 40% off their usual price. The Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest, and Pendragon Starter Sets are all reduced by 40%, as are the full rulebooks for 7th Sea Second Edition, Basic Roleplaying, Rivers of London, Pendragon, RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and the Call of Cthulhu: Keeper’s Guide.

Beyond the rulebooks, discounts range from 20% all the way to 80%, making some of the deeper catalogue open for fantastic savings. An extra bonus with Chaosium purchases is that generally each copy of a physical product comes with the corresponding PDF as a free addition.

There is one possible complication though. Chaosium fulfils orders through separate warehouses in the USD, UK, EU, Australia, and Canada, and not every discounted title is available at every warehouse. So make sure you’re ordering from the correct warehouse!

The Chaosium Fall Sale ends 13th September, while stocks last.

Refreshed Look… Same Gameplay

Despite being described as a new edition, Renegade isn’t substantially redesigning the game from Wizards of the Coast’s original version. Instead, Renegade are retaining the original D&D Adventure System gameplay, while updating the illustrations, logos, and graphic design to bring the game cisually into line with the current incarnation of Dungeons & Dragons.

This means that Castle Ravenloft will remain the relatively quick and accessible cooperative dungeron crawler it was when it was originally released. Between one and five players take control of adventurers exploring beneath Castle Ravenloft, revealing dungeon tiles as they go while fighting monsters, encountering traps, collecting treasure, and eventually confronting Count SDtrahd von Zarovich.

Individual adventures take around an hour, with 13 different scenarios included. The box contains 41 Dungeon Tiles, 42 miniatures (5 Heroes, 30 Monsters, and 7 Villains), 209 Cards, 192 Tokens, a Rulebook, Adventure Book, and the all important d20 dice.

Standard & Premium Editions

Renegade will be producing two versions of the game. A Standard Edition which includes the complete game with unpainted miniatures, and a Premium Edition which is exactly the same apart from having the 42 miniatures pre-painted. The Standard Edition will retail for £90 ($100), whereas the Premium Edition will retail for £180 ($200).

The D&D Adventure System Series

Castle Ravenloft was the first in a range of cooperative D&D boardgames that Wizards of the Coast released using the D&D Adventure System, with WizKids taking over for new titles in 2015. Along with Castle Ravenloft (2010), the range consisted of Wrath of Ashardalon (2011), The Legend of Drizzt (2011), Temple of Elemental Evil (2015), Tomb of Annihilation (2017), Waterdeep - Dungeon of the Mad Mage (2019), and Ghosts of Saltmarsh (2021).

Castle Ravenloft helped define cooperative fantasy board gaming for an entire generation of players” said Scott Gaeta, President of Renegade Game Studios. “We’re excited to bring this classic back to tables everywhere, while introducing a beautiful Premimum Edition with pre-painted miniatures that makes the experience even more immersive right out of the box."

It’ll certainly be interesting to see if other refreshed editions in the D&D Adventure System range of titles follow Castle Rravenloft’s lead.

The campaign funded in just 13 minutes and has subsequently sailed well beyond its initial $10,000 goal. At the time of writing it has raised more than $140,000 from over 1,000 backerrs, and the campaign still has a lot of open sea remaining, not closing until 24th September 2026.

As we previously reported, Time Without Tide takes place in a strange World of Fog following the fall of the moon and the end of an era known as the Age of Decadence. Players become Delvers, mercenary adventurers who venture into the fog to monsters, recover treasures, explore the remains of the old world, and rescue its frequently peculiar survivors.

Characters have three Traits - Body, Mind and Will - alongside six Skills: Culture, Industry, Navigation, Skulduggery, Survival and Violence. Tests combine an appropriate Trait and Skill to create a dice pool, with rolls of five or six counting as successes, or “marks”.

Delvers accumulate equipment and learn Features which modidy the rules in their favour, while more exotic Adaptations grant otehrworldly abilities at the cost of the character’s humanity.

Despite the fallen moon, creeping fog, and assorted horrors, Time Without Tide is not a straightforward grimdark horror. The campaign promises adventures involving everything from corpse-devouring flower monsters to defending a “Hotel for Boats of all Ages” against an army of angry crabs and attempting to save the “saddest clown in the world”.

The central release is a 250+ page core rulebook, containing the complete rules, setting material, monsters, and advice for running the game. A second 100+ page hardcover, Into the Fog, provides introductory adventures for new Delvers.

Backers can also pick up a Keeper screen and battle-map pack, more than 400 reference cards, custom dice, physical or STL miniatures produced with Titan Forge, and Roll20 versions of both books. Collector’s editions feature textured covers and glow-in-the-dark symbols, which is an unusally appropriate gimmick for a game about carrying lanterns into supernatural fog.

The campaign starts at $20 for the Core Rulebook PDF, with the standard hardcover and PDF available for $50. Larger pledge levels bundle the adventures and accessories, topping out at the $355 Fancy Guildmaster pledge.

Time Without Tide is created and developed by David Naylor and James Coquillat, with Ty Carey serving as Art Director. Chaosium expect physical rewards to be completely fulfilled by the end of September 2027.

For a game whose heroes make their living disappearing into an impenetrable supernatural fog, Time Without Tide appears to have had remarkably little difficulty being noticed.

The free service began rolling out on 1st September and currently covers Pokemon, Magic: The Gathing, Yu-Gi-Oh!, One Piece and Disney Lorcana cards. with further expansions planned. The guide currently supports both raw and graded cards.

Find the value of cards on the eBay Mobile app

Probably the most useful feature is the ability to scan a card using the eBay mobile app. Users head to My eBay, select Scan cards and photograph the front of the card. eBay’s image recognition system then attempts to identify the card before presenting pricing information and comparable sales.

The amount of data available is immense. Collectors can examine up to two years of completed eBay sales, with the information refreshed every 24 hours. This includes the actual prices paid when sellers accepted a Best Offer, rather than simply covering the original asking prices. You can also compare prices between different grades and examine individaul transactions.

The guide additionally incorporates Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) and Certified Guaranty Company (CGC) population reports, while Card Ladder indexes provide another way of following market trends. Once a card has been identified, you can then jump to comparable cards currently for sale or begin creating your own listing.

eBay loves Collectables…

The Price Guide follows eBay’s introduction of its Authenticity Gurantee for Trading Cards in the UK earlier this year, and is the latest launch of a much broader push into an increasingly valuable collectables market. Pokemon was searched for more than six million times on eBay UK in July 2026 alone, while collectables were the largest contributor to the company’s global GMV growth during Q2 2026.

Card scanning currently requires the eBay mobile app. Pricing is also necessarily indicative, with condition, scarcity and rpaid changing demands still causing cards to sell well above or below the guide price. But this is a major help to UK collectors, and even more so for those of us that might still have a box or folder full of cards from years ago hiding in a cupboard, under the bed, or in a box in the attic, to help answer that oh so common question, “What is this card actually worth?”.

The Trading Card Price Guide is available to UK eBay account holders, with no subscription fees, and no usage limits.

The campaign went live on 30th August and passed $2 million in less than 24 hours. What’s even more interesting is, that despite the core game being available for $99, the average pledge is currently trending at just over $375 per backer.

But what is the game? And who are first time Kickstarter creators Flasgitz behind it?

Who are Flashgitz?

Flashgitz is an independent animation studio created by Tom Hinchliffe and Don Greger, and English-American duo who met through Newsgrounds and have been producing animated comedy together for well over a decade. Their YouTube channel has grown to more than 5 million subscribers, with a catalogue built around deliverately provocative, frequently crude parodies of games, films, internet culture and popular franchises.

One of Flashgitz’s earliest animations was Inside GW, which I would share here but it’s age restricted so won’t embed the video, so please follow this link to view it if you’d like to. Inside GW was released in 2013 and lampooned Games Workshop and its business practices. They went on to produce considerably more direct Warhammer 40,000 fan animations, most notably their Furry Crusades series featuring Black Templars slaughtering armies of furries.

Space King has taken a different approach. Rather than usual actual Warhammer characters and terminology, it’s created its own exaggerated grimdark universe. Humanity worships the mysterious Space King while enormous armoured Psycho Warriors rampage around the galaxy fighting aliens, one another, and occasionally their own astonishing stupidity.

The inspiration is hardly difficult to stop, the characters, terminology, and setting all belong to Flashgitz.

So, what happened with Games Workshop?

The history here is sometimes described online as though Games Workshop specifically forced Flashgitz to stop making Warhammer animations, but there doesn’t actually appear to be any good evidence that they were given a direct cease-and-desist.

What definitely happened though, was that in 2021 Games Workshop adopted a much more restrictive approach to fan animation due to it’s own development ands expansion of the Warhammer+ streaming service. Games Workshop changed their IP guidance explicitly prohibiting fan-made games ands animations without a license. This change caused a fair amount of anxiety among Warhammer fan creators and contributed to several prominent animation projects being discontinued, or moving under GW’s control.

Flashgitz moved away from directly using Warhammer IP and started developing their own Space Kings universe. Space Kings gave them something that was still capable of parodying the excesses of the Warhammer 40,000 universe while also becoming an IP Flashgitz had complete control over themselves. Which has led to them creating, and launching, the Space Kings boardgame.

Falashgitz TX LLC filed US trademark applications covering SPACE KING and FLASHGITZ, including applications covering board games, tabletop games and tabletop RPGs. The Space King tabletop application was filed in February 2026.

The problem is that Games Workshop already has something called Flash Gitz.

Flash Gitz are the heavily armed, ostentatious Ork mercenaries that have existed within Warhammer 40,000 for years and remain part of the current Ork range and rules.

On 20th August 2026, just ten days before the Space KingKickstarter launched, Games Workshop filed a formal opposition before the US Trademark Trial and Appeal Board against Flashgitz TX LLC’s attempt to register FLASHGITZ for tabletop games.

So whilst there doesn’t seem to have been previous legal issues between the two over the animations, there is now a genuine trademark dispute taking place between the two companies.

Ok, but what is this $3 million+ Space King game?

SPACE KING: The Board Game is a 2-4 player semi cooperative game in which players control Psycho Warriors battling aliens while also attempting to undermine each other. The game comes packed with large PVC miniatures, with the Psycho Warriors standinf around 50mm tall and some of the bosses reaching more than 100mm.

The basic Recruit pledge costs $99 and gives you one copy of the game, but with an average pledge of $375 backers are obviously going in for a lot more.

By far the runaway most popular award is the next step up for the base $99 pledge. This is quite a jump though, but so far over 5,500 people have pledged for the $299 Psycho Warrior pledge level. This not only gives you the base game, but also the War World Expansion, b-Positive Expansion, Psycho Warrior Pack, Weapon Pack, Space King Favor, Lore Book and also any stretch goals that the campaign unlocks.

There are, of course, higher levels. The Super Psycho Warrior pledge is $699 and upgrades you to a metal box for the base game and a War World Medal with the signatures of Tom and Don on. Almost 950 people have backed at this level so far. The $1999 Psycho Monster pledge gives you everything from earlier tiers plus a short custom audio message from a Space King character of your choice.

The highest pledge level was limited to 15 backers, and have all been snapped up. The Globulus Maximus pledge gives you everything mentioned already plus the backer gets to appear as a Psycho Warrior in a future episode of SPACE KING! It would have put you back $7,777 (@ £5,760) though, but the kids don’t have to go to college do they?

If you would like to know about Flashgitzplease check out their website or Youtube channel. If you’d like to back, track, or just have a peek, at the SPACE KING: The Board GameKickstarter then you have until Friday 25th September before it crosses the finish line.

Images, and videos, courtesy of Flashgitz

Vice Squad

These Vice Squad officers have been working deep undercover for a prolonged period of time, working their case and waiting for the perfect opportunity to make their arrest.

They both must use their wits and experience to defend themselves - if all else fails, they carry compact Glocks.

High-Speed SWAT

These officers are members of a particularly well funded SWAT Team.

They all have high end kit, from helmets, micro plate carriers and MCX carbines - with holographic optics and Hydra mounts. One member has a ballistic shield, while another carries a shotgun for breaching.

As well as being ‘high speed’ in terms of their equipment, they are also intended to represent a team that has been called out in an emergency, so they are all wearing more civilian style clothing, that can be painted as ‘tactical’ or as civilian clothing.

Criminal Clowns

Dressed in boilersuits and clown masks - these criminals are prepared for a heist to remember.

They wear light weight tactical vests, holding magazines for their MP5s and short M4s - along with numerous pouches to stuff full of cash or other looted valuables.

All the sets are available now through Spectre Miniatures website.

Images and text courtesy of Spectre Miniatures.

Rather than simply decorating a conventional folding screen with Ravenloft artwork, WizKids have effectively turned the castle itself into the screen. The fully painted model is made from resin and other premium materials, with a hinged three-panel design resembling the walls and towers of Castle Ravenloft.

Not content on just looking impressive, the castle incorporates two functional dice towers - one facing the players and the other facing the DM - along with six initiative-order flags. Behind the walls are storage drawers for dice and miniatures, and additional compartments inside the castle towers and shelves where the DM can stage miniatures or keep other gaming paraphernalia (or snacks).

There are also clips for attaching scripts, notes, character sheets or monster stats, making the whole thing considerably more practical than its rather extravagant appearance may initially suggest.

The look and style of the screen is not the only extravagant and imposing thing about it. All this Gothic architecture comes at a cost. The Castle Ravenloft DM Screen clocks in at $449.99, putting it firmly into luxury gaming accessory territory. With an estimated Q3 2027 release it’s currently available to pre-order on the WizKids website.

Images courtesy of WizKids, photos courtesy of Michael E Webb.

First released in 2018, Welcome To… was originally designed by Benoit Turpin, and later by Alexis Allard, with artwork by Anne Heidsieck. The original Welcome to Your Perfect Home helped popularise the flip-and-write genre, with cards replacing dice while allowing every player to take their turn simultaneously.

New versions, and settings, such as Welcome to the Moon, followed with the games being translated in to numerous languages. According to Asmodee the range has sold hundreds of thousands of copies worldwide. It’s digital adaptation, available on Board Game Arena is also immensely popular with over three million games played, and an average of around 3000 unique players each day.

"Welcome To… established itself as landmark titles in modern board gaming, combining elegant game design with exceptional accessibility," said Benoit Clerc, SVP of Tabletop games at asmodee. "We have tremendous respect for the work accomplished by the Blue Cocker team, Benoit Turpin, and everyone who contributed to the success of the game and their different iterations. We are excited to welcome this intellectual property into asmodee's portfolio and join our building its future.

Blue Cocker founder Alain Balay added: "From the very beginning, our ambition was to create a game that would stand the test of time and bring people together around the table. We are incredibly proud of everything Welcome To… has achieved over the past years, and we are confident asmodee will now carry the brand forward and introduce it to even more players around the world.

“This acquisition goes beyond bringing a strong IP into our portfolio” added Mathieu Aubert, Head of Collections at asmodee “we see huge potential to expand the Welcome To… universe, and the team already has plenty of ideas to bring it to life. I look forward to sharing more about our projects in the coming month”

The acquisition gives Asmodee another established family gaming property alongside brands including CATAN, Ticket to Ride, Dobble/Spot it!, 7 Wonders, and Exploding Kittens. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

The acquisition comes only days after Asmodee appointed former Exploding Kittens executive Carly McGinnis as Chief Product Officer, overseeing the group’s global product and publishing strategy.

Burgle Bros 3: Future Flip, the latest instalment in Fowers Games popular cooperative heist series, is arriving in UK and European retail this week. This new game takes the familiar crew out of casinos and office blocks and drops them into a cyberpunk future dominated by artificial intelligence and distinctly unfriendly corporations. A dynamite-related mishap is responsible for the time travelling, leaving the gang to infiltrate corporate facilities, hack their systems, and ultimately dismantle the Mainframe while avoiding increasingly dangerous security.

The basic Burgle Bros formula remails recognisable, but Future Flip introduces several substantial new twists. Rooms are represented by double-sided tiles drawn from a bag as the building is explored, making its layout and security system more unpredictable from game to game.

The burglars themselves are also double-sided. Characters begin a heist disguised, providing some protection while infiltrating the building, but can eventually flip and gain a different ability. Security guards have been replaced by nine different cybernetic SysOps, each possessing its own abilities and capable of flipping into a more dangerous red-alert state as the situation escalates.

There is also a new social engineering element, with Corporate employees wandering the building who can be charmed into providing information and Program Cards. Those programs can then be combined to hack the SysOps standing between the crew and their target.

Designed by Tim Fowers and Skye Larsen, with artwork by Ryan Goldsberry, Burgle Bros 3: Future Flip is for 1-4 players and takes between 60-120 minutes to play. The box includes more than 32 rooms, nine playable characters, multiple cybernetic guards and AI bosses of varying difficulty.

It’s a considerably more technological job than the Burgle Bros are accustomed to, but apparently even oppressive future megacorporations aren’t safe from a sufficiently determined group of thieves.

Images courtesy of Fowers Games.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Fifth Edition

The fifth edition arrives as Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay celebrates its 40th anniversary. The new edition is being touted as an evolution of its successful fourth edition rather than a wholesale replacement, with the familiar percentile (d100) system remaining at the heart of the game.

Work has gone into streamlining areas of the rules that could have previously slowed down gameplay. Combat has been reworked to make it quicker and easier to track, while some of the games more fiddly ‘special-case’ rules have been either removed entirely or revised. Talents have also been simplified, and the separate Resilience and Resolve resources have been folded into Fate and Fortune. The core rulebook has also been reorganised to make rules easier to find during play.

As the fifth edition is an ‘evolution’, as opposed to a whole new game, it has been designed with backwards compatibility in mind, with Cubicle 7 saying that existing fourth edition books will remain useful, allowing groups to continue using the substantial library of adventures, campaigns, and sourcebooks already published rather than having to start their collections from scratch. Future supplements are also intended to be usable for those groups who decide not to change from fourth to fifth edition.

The new edition will be available in Standard and Collector’s edition, both containing the same core game and content. The Collector’s Edition offers a premium presentation of the book, with an enhanced finish and details that make it a fitting addition to any fan.

And if you want to go beyond the core game, the Free Company Bundle brings together the Standard Edition Core Rulebook with the full range of Fifth Edition accessories, including the Character Sheet Pad, Wounds & Conditions Cards, Monsters & Adversaries Deck, Dice and Maps. There’s also The Reikland Bundle for those who want the premium version of the Core Rulebook alongside the complete accessory collection, and The Karl Franz Bundle, which includes both versions of the book for completionists and a special discount on the upcoming Foundry VTT version of the book.

You can find out more about the new edition, as well as place your pre-order, on the Cubicle 7 website.

Images courtesy of Cubicle 7 Entertainment.

Along with the annoncement of the 2027 dates came the news that it will also be the last ever Airecon. Affectionately named AIREMAGEDDONthe show will be taking place from 11th-14th March, with tickets going on sale on 11th September at 5pm.

Breaking the news on social media earlier this afternoon (27th August), organiser Mark Cooke simply said “It’s true, tickets for the LAST EVER AireCon go on sale in 2 weeks”

AireCon moved from it’s previous home in Bradford to Harrogate in 2017, with AireCon 3 attracting 683 attendees. It more than doubled in size for AireCon 4 with 1593 attendees and has kept growing ever since. No physical event was held in 2021 due to Covid, so they ran an online show called AireCan’t, which was there only online event.

The AireCon website carried the following announcement:

After more than a decade of dice, cards, games and friendships, we have some big news to share: the next AireCon will be the last AireCon.

AireCon began back in 2015, when Mark and a group of friends decided to put on a little gaming event. The first gathering, now affectionately known as AireCon 0, was the beginning of something none of us could quite have imagined.

Since then, with your support, AireCon has grown into a much-loved fixture of the UK tabletop gaming calendar. The next event will be our 12th public AireCon, alongside AireCon 0, ACNW, ACWest and the rather unusual AireCan’t (our online-only event during the COVID years) bringing the story of AireCon to its final chapter.

There have been countless games played, new friendships made, old friendships strengthened, tournaments won and lost, late nights, early mornings, questionable snacks, and an enormous amount of fun along the way.

Most importantly, AireCon has always been about the people. Everyone who has attended, volunteered, exhibited, demoed games, run events, helped behind the scenes, or simply turned up with friends has been part of what made AireCon what it is.

Why is it Ending?

When AireCon moved to the Harrogate Convention Centre in 2017, we couldn;t have asked for a better home. We built a fantastic relationship with the team there, who were always a pleasure to work with and genuinely seemed to enjoy havign AireCon at the venue.

there was also a shared understanding of what AireCon brought to harrogate and the wider region. It wasn’t simplly an event taking place in a building - it brought thousands of visitors to the town, filling hotels, restuarants, pubs and shoips, with many returning year after year..

Over time, however, a combination of factors has made it increasingly challenging to run AireCon in a way that preserves the character and spirit that made it so special in the first place.

With that in mind, we’ve made the very difficult decision to end AireCon on a high, with 2027 being the last event. This also means the end of all AireCon events, including ACNW (no more scheduled) and ACWest (the last one will be in October).

But we’re not going quietly…

Far from it.

We’re already hatching plans to make the final AireCon the biggest and best AireCon ever and we’re going to make sure we go out with a bang.

In fact, we’ve already started referring to it as AIREMAGEDDON.

Expect games, events. guests, surprises, ridiculousness and probably a few things that we haven’t quite figured out how we’re going to pull it off yet. After all, we’ve got one last chance to throw everything at it.

AireCon will be missed, having become one of the biggest tabletop gaming conventions in the UK, with only UK Games Expo (Birmingham NEC) and Salute (London ExCel) attracting more attendees. AireCon was probably the third largest UK show, with both Dragonmeet (London ExCel) and Tabletop Scotland (Edinburgh) attracting similar numbers, and Bournemouths Beachhead Tabletop Games Expo not too far behind.

Thanks to Ben, Mark, Nabil, Rick and all of the AireCon crew for all the effort and enjoyment they brought to the hobby over the years and here’s to a fantastic finale!