It's the beginning of one year and the end of the next here on Tavern Watch, and so we're both looking back with fond remembrance on the games we played this year (including the ones we played on Tavern Watch Plays, which you should check out!) and the ones due to come out next year. Liz was particularly pleased and surprised by Legend in the Mist, a statless rustic fantasy RPG. Matt played a lot of solo mythical create-your-own-god game Deify this year, but also is still thinking about that game of Masks we played (me too, Matt, me too). Joe had a great time with Rebel Scum, which is part of a lineage of games that really lower the barrier of entry on the rules and let you get straight into telling cool stories with your friends, and is hoping to get to play Cohors Cthulhu -- the Roman Empire meets cosmic horror, sounds good to me! And, a lot of games crossed Phil's table this year, including the phenomenally weird Triangle Agency and the tactical crunchy cinematic action of Draw Steel, but it's really Fabula Ultima that lives in my head rent-free.
But it's not all nostalgia. In current events, we discuss Wizards of the Coast's light 2026 schedule, James Ohlen leaving Archetype Entertainment to become a tabletop game consultant for WotC directly, Ed Greenwood's new independent Forgotten Realms project, a general sci-fi toolkit coming to 5th Edition in the form of Dark Matter, and we're wondering whether a video game about a single class (and from a studio with a shaky reputation) can be a satisfying experience. I guess we'll see! Kickstarters are still going strong into 2026, too; a whole passel of them funded around the end of the year (including Thundercats, which funded fully in one minute). MCDM has funded an entire year's worth of content with their Crack the Sun crowdfunding campaign, and we're all mesmerized by Fomoria, which is funding in the near future and really needs to be seen for its striking art style and dark fantasy story.
Last but definitely not least, we pay brief tribute to the passing of Tim Kask, TSR's first employee back in the 80s. Tim was not just part of this burgeoning industry we love in its infancy, but also a person who continued to be funny, opinionated, and inclusive right up until the end -- who could ask for anything more?
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