Legends of Avantris, Upturned Table -- Tabletop Everything From Everywhere

After months of legal battles following Diamond Comic Distributors’ 2025 bankruptcy, a settlement has finally been reached, allowing publishers like Paizo to retrieve their sequestered inventory from a Mississippi warehouse. Meanwhile, the Tabletop Game Designers Association (TTGDA) is actively campaigning for more equitable industry standards, urging publishers, award curators, and retailers to accurately attribute game authorship to individual designers rather than exclusively crediting publishing entities.Crowdfunding Successes and Resurrections1

The TTRPG crowdfunding space continues to show robust growth, headlined by the record-breaking $16 million Neon Odyssey campaign from Legends of Avantris. This project leveraged nostalgia and a desire for premium, immersive gaming experiences to achieve massive success, even amidst uncertain economic times. Additionally, classic horror returns with Mongoose Publishing’s revival of Dark Conspiracy: The Unseen War, which updates the 1991 cult classic using the familiar Traveller rules engine, now live on Backerkit.Creative Approaches to Roleplaying1

Beyond current industry news, the landscape of tabletop gaming is enriched by creative tools and settings that emphasize deep narrative play. Deephold, a 5e-compatible setting guide from Mammoth Factory, provides a complex subterranean environment focused on survival, eldritch horror, and political maneuvering within the impoverished “Low Town”. These materials highlight that effective campaign design relies on immersive world-building and high-stakes narrative arcs that challenge players’ moral and tactical limits.Humor and Treason in Alpha Complex2

The Paranoia RPG continues to offer a unique, satirical take on the hobby through resources like The Big Book of Conspiracies, which compiles 30 “treasonous” plot lines derived from real-world headlines. By blending slapstick comedy with dark themes of systemic failure and institutional paranoia, these adventures provide game masters with immediate, low-preparation content that encourages the backstabbing and bureaucratic absurdity that defines the Paranoia experience.

#paizo #ttgda #neonodyssey #darkconspiracy

Dark Conspiracy on Backerkit:

https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/mongoose-publishing/dark-conspiracy-a-horror-rpg-in-the-modern-age

Sword World RPG Landing Page:

https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/mugen-gaming/sword-world/pre-launch

Mammoth Chronicles Bundle:

https://humblebundleinc.sjv.io/L0rK3O

From Rivers to Fjords- Basic Roleplay Bundle:

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Requiem for the Wretched Dead, a new survival RPG by John Harper set in the Deathlands of the Blades in the Dark universe, which utilizes the Breathless SRD rules. This announcement notably coincided with an outpouring of TTRPG community support that helped fund the creator of Breathless: Frightmare Edition after they had initially worried about an unsatisfying outcome, illustrating the special nature of the TTRPG community.

The reprint of The One Ring card for Magic: The Gathering’s crossover with The Hobbit. Veteran artist Donato Giancola accused Wizards of the Coast of reusing and modifying the earlier borderless art by Marta Nael, rather than commissioning a new, original piece from credited artist Dan Frazier. Both Frazier and Wizards of the Coast later confirmed that Nael’s work was unintentionally used as a reference that Frazier painted over. Wizards apologized, acknowledging failures in their internal review process, and promised to update digital versions to credit both artists and ensure Marta Nael is compensated.

The Neon Odyssey is a highly successful Kickstarter campaign by Legends of Avantris, which has massively exceeded its funding goal to become a 1,400+ page Space Opera trilogy for Dungeons & Dragons 5.5e. Inspired by retro sci-fi films and video games, the project introduces the Stardust Rhapsody campaign setting across three books: the Outrunner’s Handbook, Cosmic Codex, and the Overdrive Expansion. Key features include a new Machinist class, sci-fi class skins for all core 5.5e classes, a dedicated Starfighting System for space combat, over 30 space-faring species, and a 52-Card Cosmic Oracle Deck.

Demonic Grimoire serves as the central book for “OSE Month 2026,” a group-collaboration project spearheaded by Exalted Funeral and Necrotic Gnome. The month-long event centers on the theme of “DEMONS” and features a new 176-page book for Old-School Essentials (OSE), a TTRPG inspired by classic games of the 1970s and 1980s. This core book will introduce hordes of new monsters, adventures set in the realms of hell, and fiendish character options, alongside sister projects from 16 other renowned creators in the OSE community.

HELLBLASTER: Against the Cyberfiends is a highly funded component of OSE Month by Bloodstar Productions. This Old-School Essentials module for high-level characters blends classic science-fantasy with ’90s occult-industrial aesthetics. The module’s premise is a crashed starship that vomits corruption into a sword-and-sorcery world, forcing adventurers to confront cyborg demons and alien tech. Players must contend with three rival factions—The Doombringers, The Cult of Pleasure, and The Machine Collective—and can seize supercharged weapons, powered armor, and mechanized melee weapons to fight back against the hellish forces.

#bladesinthedark #neonodyssey #ose #hellblaster

Demonic Grimoire on Backkit:

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

Hellblaster: Against the Cyberfiend:

https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/bloodstar-productions/hellblaster-against-the-cyberfiends

Neon Odyssey\

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/legendsofavantris/neon-odyssey

Dune Bundles:

Physical – https://humblebundleinc.sjv.io/1G1KE9

Digital – https://humblebundleinc.sjv.io/WO4PBA

Warmachine on MyMiniFactory:

https://mmf.io/upturned