On the Horizon

A running list of games and campaigns we might play next. Take a look, see what sounds fun, and let me know what you’re drawn to. Some of these are continuations of current games, some would be a fresh start with a new system.

Pallid Suns — continue the CWN mission

We already started a campaign chasing down the mystery of the magical weed. Cities Without Number is has a flexible classless character system, and a huge GM toolkit for running sprawling cyber-dystopias. With a bit of home-brew, it comes close to Shadowrun (I added a lot to build out the magic system). Orks, Uzis, and Manabolts!

Shadowdark

A mash-up of 5E, old-school D&D, and DCC, stripped down to the essentials: torches burn down in real time, magic is rolled (and can backfire), combat is quick and deadly. Two flavors for what we’d actually play:

• The official sandbox setting — plenty of ready-to-run adventures, straight out of the box.
• Low-Income Barony (homebrew) — magic is illegal, paladins and clerics enforce harsh laws, and the wizards you meet survive by slinging alchemical potions and spell components for criminal gangs. Basically, this song as a game.

Nimble 2e

5E streamlined and dramatically improved. Borrows the three-action economy from PF2e, drops to-hit rolls entirely (you just roll damage dice), and redesigns every class with much more interesting level-up choices. Fast, tactical, still plays as a recognizable high-fantasy game — but every round is more decisive. The best option if you want “D&D, but better and quicker.”

Worlds Without Number

The fantasy sister game to CWN. Old-school deadly D&D-style dungeoneering, a flexible character system, dropped into the dark sword-and-sorcery world of the Latter Earth. Same rules engine as CWN in a fantasy wrapper, with an enormous toolkit of worldbuilding and GM tools. Good balance between character customization and fast play. A free edition is available from Sine Nomine.

Warhammer: The Old World Roleplaying Game

Grimdark with a thick coat of British humor. Play a Ratcatcher, a coachman, or a jaded witch hunter in a world where Chaos is always one bad harvest away. Heavy on investigation and low-fantasy horror, light on high-powered heroics. D10 dice pools + interesting tactics in combat. Very good Foundry system available.

The One Ring (2e)

Tolkien roleplaying done properly. Set in the long years between The Hobbit and the War of the Ring, the focus is on fellowship, travel, and long shadows — not XP grinding. We’d play in Eriador, walking the old roads west of the Misty Mountains.

Fabula Ultima

A Japanese-style console RPG brought to the tabletop — think Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Xenogears. Players collaboratively build the world at the table before the campaign even starts, and the system is built around elemental affinities, dramatic turn-based combat, and high-emotion storylines. Very different from anything we’ve played. Good pick if you want something narrative and tonally unusual. Has a good Foundry system.

Twilight: 2000

World War III has flattened Europe. Your unit is cut off, supply is gone, and the chain of command is a rumor. Free League’s 4th edition is a hex-crawl survival game of scrounging, jury-rigging repairs, and short brutal firefights, set in the ruins of Poland or Sweden. Gritty, mechanical, deeply atmospheric — the military-survival equivalent of a cold, wet, hungry West Marches campaign.

Draw Steel

MCDM’s new heroic fantasy RPG — Avengers-level high-power fantasy with deeply tactical combat. Did you want to throw enemies through walls? This is the game. Crunchy like PF2e but built around dramatic hero moments rather than attrition. Every attack lands (no to-hit rolls), every turn matters, and the digital tools — character builder, VTT support — are genuinely excellent. Comes with its own custom VTT with incredible levels of automation.

Forbidden Lands

A fantasy survival hex-crawl from Free League. You’re not chosen heroes — you’re raiders, rogues, and treasure-hunters making your own mark on a cursed world just emerging from a centuries-long Blood Mist. D6 dice pools, lethal combat, stronghold-building, and one of the best official campaigns in print (Raven’s Purge / The Bloodmarch).

Gods of the Forbidden North

A three-volume mega-campaign from Pulp Hummock Press written for Old-School Essentials: Advanced Fantasy (i.e., old-school DnD). Classic fantasy sandbox with a long, open middle section and an epic finale in the frozen North. A grand campaign.

Outcast Silver Raiders

A dark, occult-medieval OSR game set in the Mythic North, a region heavily inspired by Scotland. Simple D&D-like rules, low magic, three character classes (Rogue, Sorcerer, Warrior), and a folk-horror streak. Play as outlaws, agents of the Baron, or witchfinders hunting real demonic threats.

Classic Fantasy with Domain Management and Warfare

A classic old-school campaign: adventure for gold and XP, build a stronghold, recruit troops, wage war, rule a barony. Two systems do this especially well — Adventurer Conqueror King System (ACKS II) or Worlds Without Number. We’d pick the system that fits the group and run a campaign from 1st level to kingdom-builder.

Blades in the Dark

A scoundrel RPG of industrial-fantasy heists. You play a crew of thieves, assassins, or smugglers in Doskvol — a haunted city of electro-plasm lamps, ghost-fogged canals, and feuding noble houses — building a criminal empire one score at a time. Fast, narrative-forward, and the engine behind a whole genre of modern indie games. Steampunk meets Peaky Blinders meets Thief: The Dark Project.

More Pathfinder 2e — Stolen Fate

A high-level continuation of our PF2e experience. Stolen Fate is an 11th-to-20th-level adventure path: your heroes discover the scattered cards of a powerful Harrow deck and must race across Golarion (and beyond) to reassemble it before someone rewrites destiny for their own ends. Globe-trotting, epic-tier combat, and themes of fate vs. free will. A chance to play PF2e at the top of its power curve.

Dragonbane: Trudvang

A Norse and Celtic-inspired dark fantasy setting using the Dragonbane rules (coming in 2026) — Free League has announced a four-volume set including a world book, a book of heroes, Jorgi’s Bestiary, and a four-part epic campaign called The Black Sun. Trudvang is a world of shadowed woods, fathomless mists, wrathful gods, and unsung heroes. Dragonbane itself is a really good rule engine: no classes, skill-based, armor as damage reduction, and some of the smoothest rules in print. Great pick if you want something rules-light but with real mechanical teeth.

The Electrum Archive

A rules-light science-fantasy zine RPG. Heavy on Dune, Morrowind, and Ultraviolet Grasslands vibes. You play inkseekers — adventurers who venture into the decaying world of Orn, looking for lost ink-tech and Elder artifacts in abandoned sandstorm shelters and fallen starships. Currency is literal drops of elder ink.

Oath Hammer

A new d6 dice-pool fantasy RPG. Set on Osric Isle, the ancestral home of the dwarven clans, who were defeated and driven out by orcish reavers — and are now returning to reclaim it. Every character swears three binding oaths that guide their conduct and grant special boons when honored. D6 dice pools, hexcrawl exploration, crafting, and domain-level play. A good fit if you want a focused reconquest campaign with a strong thematic hook.