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 options for adventures:

• 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.

Fabula Ultima

Want to play a tabletop RPG inspired by classic Japanese-style console RPGs like Final Fantasy or Chrono Trigger? We have an excellent option: Fabula Ultima. FU is rules-light, has fast, tactical combat, and fun character options. Foundry is available!

Nimble 2e

5E streamlined and 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 classic DnD 5e. The best option if you want “D&D, but better and quicker.”

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. In the course of play, you gain resources that make your character more powerful, but also deplete your healing ability—makes for a very cool risk-reward dynamic. Every attack lands (no to-hit rolls), every turn matters, and the digital tools — character builder, VTT support — are excellent. Comes with its own custom VTT with incredible levels of automation.

Warhammer: The Old World Roleplaying Game

Grimdark but with plenty of dark British humor. Play a Ratcatcher, a coachman, or a jaded witch hunter in a world where the forces of Chaos are always lurking in the shadows. Heavy on investigation and low-fantasy horror, light on high-powered heroics. D10 dice pools + interesting tactics in combat. Very good Foundry system available.

Alternative: Warhammer Fantasy RPG 4e is a bit crunchier, D100 system in the same vein. One of the most famous long campaigns—The Enemy Within— is available for 4e on Foundry.

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 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.

The One Ring (2e)

Tolkien roleplaying done right. 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.

A Return to DCC

Time to chop heads and sling spells! Let’s return to Dungeon Crawl Classics and let chaos reign. A big dungeon? A campaign of thievery, swords, and sorcery in Lankhmar?

Hyperborea

A classic Sword and Sorcery old-school RPG based on AD&D. Want to fight cannibals, treat with ape-men, and plot against sorcerer-kings? Comes with flavorful class options and a great setting inspired by Robert E. Howard, HP Lovecraft, and Aston Clark Smith—not vanilla DnD fantasy!

Twilight: 2000

World War III has flattened Europe. Your unit is cut off, supply is gone, and the chain of command is broken. 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, atmospheric — the military-survival equivalent of a cold, wet, hungry West Marches campaign.

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 a very good official campaign (Raven’s Purge).

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. Could be played with a different system as well.

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, and a folk-horror streak. Play as outlaws, agents of the Baron, or witchfinders hunting real demonic threats. Comes with a fully-fleshed out campaign setting for you to explore.

Where They Make a Desert, They Call it Peace

Let’s do our own classic old-school grand campaign: adventure in dungeons for gold and XP, build a stronghold, recruit troops, rule a barony, and wage war. There will be classic adventuring, domain management, and wargaming! Two systems do this 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.

Delta Green

Your handler calls, you better answer.

Call of Cthulhu—Masks of Nyarlathotep

One of the greatest campaigns ever written. Discover a 1920s world-spanning conspiracy and face off with cults and mythos entities.

If you don’t want a globetrotting adventure, there is a great small campaign centered around 1902s Berlin.

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.

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 rules engine: no classes, skill-based, armor as damage reduction, and quick resolution mechanics.

The Electrum Archive

A rules-light science-fantasy zine RPG. Imagine a combination of Dune, Morrowind, and psychedelic fantasy 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.

Runequest

A classic RPG! D100 Bronze Age, mythical fantasy. Every character has some magical powers attached to their gods. You adventure in the famous fantasy world of Glorantha, protecting your home and community. Brutal combat.