The Weekly Podcast no.338 – End of Fate, John Blanche Passes, TTRPG Crowdfunding and Unnumbered Worlds | Upturned Table -- Tabletop Everything From Everywhere

The Fate roleplaying game line, once the flagship system for Evil Hat Productions, may be nearing its end, highlighted by the release of the next game, Umdaar, as a PDF-only product. Since the record-breaking Fate Core crowdfunding campaign in 2013, the line has steadily declined to less than 5% of the company’s sales, replaced by Blades in the Dark and Monster of the Week as Evil Hat’s main sellers. Fate originated around 2000 as a hack of the Fudge RPG, developed by Evil Hat co-founders Fred Hicks and Rob Donoghue, who aimed for a system that modeled fiction rather than physics. Hicks sees the release of Umdaar as an experiment to determine Fate’s future in the 2020s, acknowledging its significant impact as a game from the previous decade.

John Blanche, the legendary illustrator whose art defined the “grimdark” aesthetic of the Warhammer 40,000 setting, has died. Blanche was best known for iconic works, including his depiction of the Emperor on the Golden Throne, which he intended to show as a ceremonial facade for pilgrims rather than the “real” Emperor. He retired from Games Workshop in 2023 after an association beginning in the seventies, leaving behind an enormous legacy. Tributes from fans and writers confirmed his profound influence, stating that his art was the reason many became involved in Warhammer 40,000 and that he defined an entire sub-genre of SFF.

TTRPG crowdfunding surged in Q1 2026, with the number of successful campaigns that raised $100,000 or more growing by 35% year-over-year. The 21 campaigns reaching this milestone collectively generated an estimated $8,058,431, about 25% more than Q1 2025. The period featured a major success with Pumpkin Spice -A Magical Cozy RPG, which reached over $1.5 million, and also saw the launch of highly anticipated projects like Numenera: The Amber Archive and Blades ’68. Notably, only six of the featured games used Fifth Edition mechanics, and Gates of Krystalia became the highest-funded TTRPG project to date whose creator admitted to using AI-generated images in the book.

The Book of Unnumbered Worlds is a new Kickstarter campaign from Kevin Crawford of Sine Nomine Publishing known for the “Without Number” series. This project is a system-neutral sourcebook designed to aid Game Masters (GMs) in building fantasy worlds or fleshing out existing settings. It features organized frameworks and step-by-step procedures with tags and tables for creating elements like maps, nations, societies, and monsters, and does not reprint material from previous “Without Number” books. In a notable statement, the campaign explicitly guarantees that “All art, writing, and design in this book is entirely human-created and does not involve the use of AI”.

#faterpg #johnblanche #crowdfunding #withoutnumber

Rascal News:

https://www.rascal.news/with-the-release-of-umdaar-we-might-be-at-the-end-of-fate/

Book of Unnumbered Worlds Kickstarter:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sinenomineinc/the-book-of-unnumbered-worlds

Cyberpunk RED: Ready-to-Run Essentials Bundle: $33

https://humblebundleinc.sjv.io/rEOrdG

Free League BundleRPG Collection: $27.50

https://humblebundleinc.sjv.io/zzrGdm

The Book of Unnumbered Worlds: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sinenomineinc/the-book-of-unnumbered-worlds

Demonic Grimoire on Backkit:

https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/exalted-funeral/old-school-essentials-demonic-grimoire