Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to Morris's unofficial tabletop RPG talk, the last show of the year.

I am Russ, aka Morris, or Morris, aka Russ, and with me this week is...

PJ Coppy from the Southampton Guild of Brawl Players, also from Homebrew and Hacking, TTRPG Design.

Amazingly, I'm still, after all these years, a bit lighted to be here.

Joining us also, having survived a very turf and turbulent 2025 and still carrying on.

And I believe this is the last working day of 2025 for her.

It's the one, it's the only.

It's me, Jessica from EN Publishing.

And yes, this is my last day in the office before Christmas holidays.

I will be back in the office on the 9th of December, though.

So if you send us an email next week.

29th, yeah.

29th of December.

Yeah, that's fun.

I'll be back.

I'm doing that day as well.

I thought you said the 9th of December.

I was going to say, you've got a type machine.

Oh, yes.

Or you're taking a really, really, really long holiday.

Yeah, I'm taking a week shy of a year off just to decompress from 2025.

I mean, as one of you said, this is our Christmas special because we will not be recording next week on the 26th of December.

I wish I'd worn a Christmas hat now.

Oh, yeah.

Missed opportunity.

I do have a red cup.

Does that count?

It's the closest we've got, I think.

I can see nothing within reach.

I have festive nails.

I have my advent calendar, which is a diehard one.

I haven't moved hands.

What's the date today?

19th.

19th.

Oh, he's got quite a way to go.

There we go.

So yes.

So yes, so we won't be recording next week on the 26th, but we'll be back on the 2nd of January.

Not really.

Not PJ, because PJ will still be a holidaying.

But Russ and I will be back to catch up on all the news, because this time of year, as we know canonically, is such a busy time of year for TTRPG news, because everyone likes to launch all their products, all their games, and do stuff and things the week before Christmas.

So will this be...

I think it's a bold and it's a brave new tactic to do your review of the best games of 2026 at the start of the year.

I mean, I've got to say, that's some big brain thinking.

Yeah.

Well, so yeah, we've got so much news this week, haven't we, Russ?

Are we going to be here for three hours today?

Three minutes if we're lucky.

Let's try to spin this out.

Let's talk really slowly.

Okay, shall we get cracking then?

Shall we get started with the news that we do have?

Let's talk about the TTIP news that we do have.

Here we go.

One for Jess.

Do you want to take this one away?

Talk about your favourite topic.

I mean, it's more Baldur's Gate news, so take a drink.

And as someone just say, it depends what's in the Red Cup, how festive it was.

It's a cup of tea because it's still 2pm here in the UK.

But yes.

So according to Bloomberg, Larian Studios, the Baldur's Gate 3 has sold over 20 million copies now.

So, but yeah, so that's the main thing so 20 million copies of the game have been sold, now which doesn't surprise me because the game has done incredibly well and it's been talked about it feels like in the kind of the cultural zeitgeist in the gaming space and also in TTRPG space, but yeah you know what they don't mention though they don't mention that you bought 19 million of those, I actually bought two copies.

I bought one for myself.

Well, yeah, I bought one for my partner as well so that we could cross-play together.

Have they installed it yet?

Yes.

Really?

We played for a bit, but I made it not fun because I was very early in my intense love for it and I was being a little bit...

A bit after that.

I'm sad.

I was being a little bit intense with what I wanted to do with it, and so I made it not fun.

So he's not come back to it, which is my fault.

I can't even imagine that, Jess.

I just can't imagine that.

It's not my experience of you, but I can see the underlying structures.

Yeah.

Well, I get intense hyperfixations on things sometimes.

No diagnosis attached to that.

And I was very heavily, and this was like...

Isn't this perfectly normal?

Everyone in my family likes it too but yeah Baldur's Gate 3 has sold over 20 minutes if you haven't played it if you are a TTRPG fan I think it's a really good game I mean it basically uses very similar 5-beam mechanics it's not exactly the same you'll see some there's differences but if you play tabletop roleplaying games you're going to know what you're doing with this and it's turn-based combat which feels very much like D&D combat and I think it's a nice gateway to get, your digital gaming friends into tabletop role-playing games.

Or apparently, if you're not interested in the tactical side of D&D, it's an excellent boyfriend-girlfriend simulator if you wish to have a polycule of about five or six different people.

Yeah, I mean, yes.

It has loads of options for that as well.

Because it's a role-playing game, so you can wander around the world, things you do have consequences.

You can make friends or enemies of various NPCs and...

It's great.

I love it.

It's a good time.

My hyperfixation is waning now after, what?

18 months?

Two years.

I think it was 2023 it sold.

It first came out.

Because they're saying, well, they sold 15 million copies in 2024.

Now the 5 million in 2025, which is where the 20 million comes from.

So I guess it's end of 2023, isn't it?

But I'm looking for my next fixation.

I might have found it, but I also haven't got Claire Obscure yet, so that is on my Christmas list.

So that won all the awards, the Game Awards, and that's another term-based thing.

So maybe that will be my new fixation.

But that's the Baldur's Gate 3 news of the week, because in 2025 we've had to mention it at least once a week.

I don't know if we'll have cause to talk about it in 2026, so this may be goodbye to Baldur's Gate 3 news.

Because Lariat Studios is not working on Baldur's Gate 4.

Which we've known for a while.

We've known for a while.

They're very excited about their next Divinity title.

Yes.

Yes, Divinity Original Sin 3, which I was very excited for and then became bitterly disappointed about because they decided to use LLM AI-generated dialogue.

Actually, that didn't work out.

You're behind the times on this piece of news.

I'm going to put the correction on that.

So they're not using AI-generated content in the game.

So they're not using AI voice acting.

They're not using AI art and things like that.

They are using it as some placeholders whilst they do the voice recording of it.

So, I mean, whether that's your stance on it, but there's not going to be AI content in the game.

What is interesting, though, it's not that they didn't try.

Because apparently they attempted to incorporate AI into the game, but the attempts were not particularly successful.

Right.

Which is why there's no AI.

It's not that they chose not to use it, they tried to do it.

And at least according to the interview with Bloomberg, with Sven Vink, who's the CEO of.

Larian, it's not what they chose not to do it on ethical grounds, it's that they tried to do it, it didn't really work out well, so there's no AI in it.

You could take the path of virtue or the path of pragmatism, but they both end up in the same thing where you're like, why is this garbage being forced upon me and yeet it hence?

And I guess Sven Vink was like, well, I'll give it a go because it's very popular on LinkedIn.

Oh, okay.

Well, let's get rid then.

Yeah, it's not going to be as good as the, and also someone commented that the Divinity trailer is a lot.

And it is, it's a very dark fantasy, which is a bit of a tone shift if you've come in at Boulder's Gate level.

And Boulder's Gate is pretty dark.

You've got stuff going on your eyeballs in the first intro cutscene.

But no, it's, Divinity is very, um.

Divinity original cinema and two are pretty shiny.

They're really, they've got some like, you know, Quite challenging themes.

This game is not shiny.

Have you seen the trailer?

I have not.

Okay, well, praise yourself.

Don't let children be present.

Or small animals.

It's a lot.

It's very dark fantasy.

There's like a Wicker Man person being burned in there.

There's torture.

There's various scenes going around this festival where different depictions of deadly sins are being seen and stuff.

And there's, yeah, it's a lot.

and it's very graphic and it's meant to be very quite horrific and like, ugh.

So yes, it's going to be a very different tone shift to Baldur's Gate.

This is not a Baldur's Gate follow-on.

This is very much its own thing.

Yeah, maybe they want to move away from that sort of shiny look.

But I don't know.

I mean, I quite enjoyed DOS 2, Divinity Original Sin 2, which did have cannibal elves who could gain memories by eating body parts.

Oh, that classic trope.

Yeah.

But yeah.

Is that how you gain memories?

I do.

Yeah.

I thought everyone did that.

Huh, well, look at the time.

Anyway.

But yeah, anyway, so that's...

We'll talk tangentially about video games because Baldur's Gate is kind of related, but we're going a bit off topic for tabletop RPGs.

I've talked a little bit about some games I'm anticipating for 2026, but what are the most anticipated tabletop RPGs of 2026 for us?

Well, Rodgers getting three is not one of them.

But I can't tell you what the most anticipated title is the 2026 address.

No?

I cannot, because voting is in progress.

And I won't know until mid-January.

However, as you may recall, nominations were up two or three weeks ago.

Lots of people came along and nominated games for their most anticipated TTRBG of 2026.

And now the poll is up it's going to be up for three weeks there's a list of I think it's 40 odd different games there I don't know if you've looked at the list at all or voted yet but I haven't voted I've been looking at the list there's a it's a long old list, It's there.

It's always a long list.

It's always a long list.

I voted for, what did I vote for?

I voted for Discworld Adventures in Ankh-Morpork from Modiphius.

And I voted for Pellgrane Press's Merrishire Detective Club.

That looks fun, yeah.

And I voted for Pioneer by Mongoose Publishing.

Interestingly, I notice all three British companies, not deliberately in any way whatsoever, just turns out that way, but all three of my votes, because you can only vote for three, for British companies.

I don't know if it's most anticipated games for me because I'm in the sense that, oh, I want to go out and buy them.

I'm desperate to play them.

But the ones I'm most intrigued about what they're going to do with it is the Assassin's Creed game, the tabletop role-playing game, because I like the digital game and I'm interested how you're going to get that feel in a tabletop sense.

And I'm also very intrigued by the Apocalypse worlds burned over what are the changes and differences going to be in that.

And Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 5th edition they're the ones I'm most interested to see but that's more from a I wonder what you're going to do with it what the changes what the differences from kind of one more technical game design point of view I'm interested in.

Oh actually to play twilight sword by two little mice actually that's one i'm like oh i want to play that that's the most on that list i think you can only choose three though dress you have to pick three of those i know so that's why i haven't voted yet because i'm like do i go with what i want to play the most or the ones that i'm most interested in in in reading because you know there's some games you get you're like i might not like rush to run and play this but i'm intrigued to read through and see what they've done i guess it's just how you define anticipated for yourself Exactly.

Everyone will have different criteria for why they anticipate a game.

You just choose what works for you, I guess.

Yeah, I'm pretty excited about The Black Company.

Yes.

Because that is...

Like one of my favorite series still yeah yeah from the 80s and deeply problematic as it is but you know i i do like it are you gonna be doing dream publishing there yeah are you gonna be doing um the playtesting for that because i think they're open for playtesting at the moment oh i don't have the spoons to i'm currently running a campaign of stars about them but i'm currently running a campaign of 13th age second edition and at some point like when i get my brain back in order I will probably try to run 13th Age.

2nd edition as opposed to 1st edition it's just introducing people to it and I've got this lovely enormous box test of the Voyager Codex that I feel could do a thing plus all the various bits of bobs that I would quite like to playtest, for Advanced 5th edition because I've got a lot of stuff and yeah.

So being part of a playtest as well would require more organization than even i possess i'm also starting up like a southampton based organized play so it's like like like adventurers league but much more local and with um the four different versions of fifth edition that i'm familiar with being legal characters to play okay so that that's going to be a challenge but i'm looking forward to it fair enough so not doing a Black Company playtest, but is one of your most anticipated TTRPGs.

I mean, if I saw the chance, if I have managed to get to a convention and see the chance to play it, it's like I will leap across the room, barging people out of the way to scroll my name.

Will you actually leap?

Because I would pay to see that.

I would enjoy that immensely.

Would you bound?

Bound.

I'd like to see you bound.

Well, there's Russ's Christmas present sorted, PJ.

Well, skip.

Skip.

Leap before him.

Yeah, Russ has never really encountered me in a sort of outdoorsy context.

I suspect yeah no I guess he didn't understand that these are things that I do regularly so that's okay it'll be exciting for you I'm sure anyway Anyway.

But dear listener, you can...

Fine, fine, fine, fine.

I clearly don't know what I do.

Dear listener, you can tell us at Tilted Up RPGs you are most anticipating in 2026 by voting.

Link will be in the show notes.

Is there anything else on there that you're looking forward to, anticipating?

Is that me as well?

Yeah.

I don't know much about it, but it's my exalted funeral, which I have good impressions of it's called Land of Eam Dungeoning and.

Like I can't I'm not really focused enough to really remember stuff but that does sound very much like the sort of thing that I would enjoy I'm not quite sure why but I'm like oh it sounds like something and I'd be quite interested to see what Renegade does with Dungeon Crawler Carl yeah that's yeah lit thick rpg but yeah i mean because because i do enjoy a bit of lit thick like um i'm more familiar with drew hayes's npcs um what's it he who fights monsters by shir saloon uh travis devereau i think it is the australian i mean that's australian isa guy and quite frankly i was like huh okay i like where you're going with this this is very cool so dinner protocol that's promise for me don't know it'll be good but it's got promise, All right.

So, if you want to vote in this, you can head on over to the link in the show notes.

You can vote for up to three games from 2026.

And we'll reveal the results live in this very, very show in mid-January.

Well, when does it end?

It ends on, the voting ends on January the 8th.

So, whatever show is the one after that.

The 9th, the next day.

The 9th, okay.

We'll reveal on the 9th, January the 9th.

we will reveal what the most anticipated games of 2026 are.

There we go.

And if you want to cast your vote, you must do it now.

And did I mention our anticipating Pioneer?

I am also anticipating Pioneer, very much.

You're actually able to back it, so that's a good stuff.

No, I'd not have to play that game.

That sounds very much the sort of thing that I would have.

Sounds great.

No, it sounds so good.

Pioneer being the space-based, sort of near-future, hard sci-fi, space-based exploration, sort of NASA-themed game from Mongoose, powered by a traveller-adjacent game system, as I understand it.

Yes.

Yeah, very much looking forward to that.

They briefly spoke about Pioneer on the interview, not D&D interview I did with them when we were talking about Traveller.

So one, a bit of info from the horse's mouth.

If you go to the Traveller episode, which was a couple of months ago, they briefly spoke about it at the end.

One thing that interests me about that is it's going to be primarily not combat-based.

Yeah, yeah.

Because of the type of stories that you're going to be telling in that sort of environment.

It's not about alien invasions or anything like that.

It's about exploration.

so it's going to be kind of like challenge non-combat challenges and how you get around those challenges which i find will be a welcome change of pace for someone who plays quite a lot i mean i know there's lots of them out there but i play quite a lot of basically combat based um yeah i'm looking forward to giving that a shot yeah i mean i i've really enjoyed things like i've done laughs which uh like there was a one called contact where basically i was a facilities manager for a space station, which was surprisingly good fun.

Due to reasons which I didn't know about with the refs, I was basically cut out the plots.

I had to make my own fun, which was organizing and running drills and disposal of hazardous waste material in character.

Surprisingly good fun.

It was like it was a crossover from my professional skills.

So it was like, yeah, it's good times.

And people were just like, oh, yeah, this is pretty interesting, actually.

Let's go.

So yeah.

No, I'm sorry.

Like I said, it's like the sort of thing that I'm, I'm, I have a special interest in, shall we say?

Anyway, moving on.

Yeah.

Right then, right then.

One game that is not an anticipated game, it was originally on the list of most anticipated games of 2026, but it had to be removed from that list.

Because it turns out it has just been released.

So it's not being released in 2026.

But I thought I'd mention it anyway.

Because I'm mildly interested in this one also.

Another space-based one.

Um the expanse transport union edition coming from green ronin um was released i think like five days ago two days ago three days ago a number of days that is small in the last week that's about as much as i know um but i am quite interested in this i don't know if it's one that i would ever get chance to play because when it comes to space-based games occupying my attention and at the moment I've got Void Runners, which is number one on the list.

Pioneer is number two.

So it's probably going to be in the number three slot.

And that's just the space-based games branch of the things I want to play.

I want to play One Rings, Mario, and things like that as well.

I want to run that one.

Well, I've got Starfinder on my list.

That's an experience.

I want to tell you about that a bit later.

Anyway, tell us about the Expanse.

Yeah.

um so this came out um like a couple of couple of days ago i think um at least on drive through rpg i don't know if there's a hard cover yet but definitely the pdf is on drive through rpg um um it uses the adventure game engine from um it's been running um and it's james sa quarry's, book series which was turned into a uh very successful um tv show um this isn't the first edition of this game it's been out for a while yeah so i don't know what the changes are specifically between the transport union edition and the previous one um but you know well here we go available at a later date it says, Yeah, with the books, as the series progresses, things get increasingly wilder and there is some quite large time skips as well.

So I suspect from the cover and from context that there's going to be some more up-to-date stuff.

I don't want to give spoilers for anyone who's reading the series, but yeah, it is significantly different from the near future nearer sci-fi that the first book and TV series were all about.

So, yeah.

Sounds wonderful.

And that's about as much as I've seen, to be honest.

I haven't read the book.

I saw the first first season.

I want to say there's like seven or eight books now.

Some of the second season, maybe.

That's about all I've seen.

I've heard bits and pieces about where it goes.

So I've got to get it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I don't want to, like I was going to say, to give spoilers for it because I do recall that as a egregious and terrible crime, but it does get very fun.

So, you know.

Nice.

Okay, next in the news.

Who is on the move?

Who is loose?

I'm feeling the magic here.

I'm feeling the force.

Poor Jessica's barefoot.

We are quoting the song and lyrics from a TV show that was created before she was born.

Um most likely i don't think it was what when was thundercats 80s when were you uh the late 80s the late 80s so it might be there might be so possibly though, it was launched it was launched in 1985 uh so it is before my time it is before my time, Until 89, though.

It was around in 89.

You were alive while it existed.

For a very short amount of time.

And I don't think I was engaging with media at that age in a significant way.

Although I did learn how to operate the VCR machine by the time I was one year old.

Wow.

Yeah.

Seems like a survival skill, really.

Yeah, it was a good hyper-focus.

I would watch the same film.

VTR machines do not exist.

I'd watch the same film over and over again because our VTR machine had an automatic rewind in.

So if you push the button and push it back in, it would auto rewind and start playing again.

And I figured that out.

And I was like, I can watch my favorite TV show or film on a loop indefinitely.

Great, I will do that.

Again, no diagnostic criteria.

No, no, it's impossible.

Anyway, Thundercats is...

Anyway, move on.

Let's move on.

Thundercats is live on Kickstarter, the role-playing game.

I think we mentioned it before when we first had the first teaser, but it's live now.

It's also, it's not in the most anticipated TTRPGs of 2026 poll because no one nominated it, which I...

Yeah.

I would have nominated it myself had I thought to.

However, nobody was anticipating it enough to nominate it, sadly.

Yeah, because the PDF is due to be delivered in February.

Yeah, it qualifies, technically, but one of the big qualification criteria is that somebody has to nominate it and that didn't happen.

I'm struggling to love the art.

I mean, I'm sort of torn and conflicted because on the one hand, right, you know, objectively, this art is really good.

But it's not the same as the original cartoon.

Nothing I say should be taken as disparaging the art in terms of technical quality and aesthetics, right?

Because it is really good art.

I do really like it, but also I don't like it because it's not right.

It's not hitting the nostalgia in the way you want this game to.

Yeah basically it's like it's just like that's it it's like I don't know if the Thundercats have been yassified it's like just this is not these are too pretty, I've just seen a terrible typo on the Kickstarter page with Thundercats oh and there's only a large one and it's one of the headings.

Oh dear so we are moving on moving on I don't want to change maybe send in a private message because we've We've all had a twice.

We've all done it.

We've all done it.

Yeah, yeah.

To be fair.

You've got to tell them when you've got a view of the Eiffel Tower.

Do you know what I mean?

There you go.

I'm going to have my fifth edition, D&D fifth edition.

That's just what I was going to say, yeah.

Which I'm a bit like, oh, okay.

Look, look.

The core of fifth edition is actually a decent enough engine that will do what you want.

In the same way, a Toyota hybrid will keep on working if you drop it off a clip, right?

Because the core mechanic is fine.

It's just all the accumulated detritus that you then pile on top of it.

And how much detritus that they pile on top of it, I don't know.

Like, are they going to have classes?

Some detritus?

Maybe it's good, maybe not.

I mean, they have to.

I got a list here.

Okay.

New classes, subclasses, feats, artifacts, monster staff blocks, and backgrounds.

Designed specifically for the ThunderCats universe.

So yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So it sounds like it's pretty much more of a clone than like powered by fifth edition.

Okay.

Yeah, it is.

It is just 5e, which is why I'm a bit like, oh, because one thing I really like about different role-playing games when they take on a license is that, is the mechanics of the game supporting that feel that you want in that style of storytelling and making it and, and, and I get why you do 5e because everybody knows 5e and if it's got 5v on it more people buy stuff and it's just like thundercats is essentially weird fiction which is a combination of magic and like you know fantasy and sci-fi when you smoosh them together and make them kiss that's what you get because like if you recall there are robot bears wandering around the place they drive a tank uh but they also have magic swords and ghosts showing up yeah Plus whatever's going on with Mumra.

Yeah.

There's a lot.

It's not magic tech.

It's just magic and tech in the same universe.

Yeah.

It's weird fiction, which I really love.

So I'm not convinced.

Oh, we'll see.

We'll see.

Like, yeah, it might be possible.

Might be possible.

I don't think it's the best way to do it.

We'll see.

We'll see.

I mean, we're going to find out in February 2026.

It's a really quick turnaround for this crowdfunding.

I guess they've made it.

They do what we do, I guess.

Yeah, yeah, it is what it is.

But even if you've made it, getting it, done printed and shipped in that amount of time is i think is that just the pdf not the.

They're saying february for hardcover oh they are because 2026 because also yeah because the campaign ends january 16th and then kickstarter takes about two weeks to process the payment for people and give you the creator the money um and so that's when you've got the money to place the also you need time to and that's when you can open your pledge manager once people are paid to get their address timeline here so they've got a timeline so the campaign ends january the 16th files to printer immediately the campaign closes i mean okay printing begins end of january 2026.

Shipping begins end of february 2026 oh end of february okay that's a little bit more but that's not much hey hey that's not that's not much better but also they're saying shipping it begins are they using the different terms of shipping and fulfillment because i use those terms very clearly when we're having our logistics discussions for shipping when i see fulfillment from the warehouse yeah yeah when i see fulfillment i think on a kickstart i think that's when i'm receive it not that's when they're going to start start so i guess it's just yeah yeah i guess technically it's it's correct yeah i guess but i mean it's still gonna be quick that's a very quick um it is quick yeah i mean yeah they've got it all ready to go they've clearly got it all ready to go they've got it all set up the printers they've already talked to the printers then the printers are just literally waiting to be sent the money is what's what's going on there isn't it so as soon as the Kickstarter fund's clear, they're going to send that money to the printers and the printers are ready to go.

As someone that does the shipping and fulfillment and logistics, I still go.

That's how it works with Josh Drucker and we do it, though.

Exactly like that.

So, you know.

I wasn't looking at the Kickstarter because I was sort of, like, probably not going to spend on it.

Now I'm looking.

Have you noticed how different the art is in, like, the little, like, they've got, so basically they've got, like, section dividers for production and about and so forth.

And that is a very different style.

I think the section dividers are from the graphic novels, from the comic books style.

I think that's why it's different.

And they've gone for a slightly different art style for the role-playing game.

I think.

I don't know.

Don't quote me.

But that looks like that's what they've chosen to do.

I don't know.

I didn't even know there were some kind of comic books.

I'm sure there are.

I'm not thinking about it.

It would make a lot of sense.

I've never come across them myself.

I feel like I've seen them.

That was my experience.

I'm sure they exist.

I'm sure they do.

I'm sure they do.

But yeah, I've never seen them.

There's comic books for everything, isn't there?

There's Star Trek comic books.

There's Doctor Who comic books.

There's Star Wars comic books.

If they exist, there's comic books.

I love a good graphic novel.

Yeah.

Interesting stuff.

Well, anyway, I'm half tempted to back it.

It's just...

How much is it?

I won't get charged.

Ooh, $40 for a PDF.

Oh, that's expensive.

Right.

Well, I mean...

Then the hardcover is $50.

Yeah, you might as well get the book at that point.

Yeah, I think that's the plan, but yeah.

$50, $60 for the hardcover, $50 for the hardcover is quite cheap.

Do you get any PDF with the hardcover?

It doesn't say.

I don't think one item included plus optional add-ons is what it says.

I don't know whether you get the PDF with the hardcover or not.

Oh my goodness.

It looks like no.

No.

Yeah, it says one item included, which would be the book.

So if you want the PDF as well as the rulebook, you're paying $90.

Oh my goodness.

Hmm.

Wow, okay.

That's a I suppose it's a fish decision for you, eh?

Goodness.

Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.

They've got an entire leather band edition as well.

Yes, yes.

1,985 copies of it only.

1985, yeah, makes sense.

And that's $150.

I mean, is it actually?

It does say it's actual leather band.

It's not saying it's like faux leather.

Certificate of authenticity.

I'd be surprised if it is actual leather, but okay, possibly.

It says bound in textured leather.

So, I mean, goodness gracious me, that's...

Unusual in this day and age, but okay.

I mean, for an actual leather-bound book, $150 is quite reasonable.

But wow, I mean, it's a very interesting Kickstarter, I have to say.

I am pretty fascinated.

I am tempted.

I've now been put off by the fact, though, that I wouldn't get the PDF with it.

That's giving me pause now.

Hey.

Pause.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's trending towards about quarter of a million dollars, though.

It's going to do just well without me.

It doesn't mean me.

Oh, someone in the comment has said they have confirmed you do get the PDF for the hardcover.

You do get the PDF.

Oh, okay.

They announced it in their latest.

In that case, my thoughts have swung back.

Now I'm tempted again.

Now I'm tempted again.

$50 for the hardcover and the PDF.

That does seem like a steal at this point.

In that case, I'm sold.

I think I'm going to back it.

Yeah.

I've just checked on the updates tab, and you can see for yourself they have confirmed in the updates on the Kickstarter page.

Perhaps that was their intention, but it just wasn't clear.

I am backing it live on air.

I am backing it.

Wait a minute.

Wait, wait, wait.

Oh, no, no, no.

Select additional add-ons, and one of the add-ons is the PDF.

Well yes it is but they have confirmed yeah they have confirmed that you do get it for free what they've probably just done in the settings there is have not.

I understand why that's there.

Don't worry about it.

I was going to do annoying, boring, learn-building campaigns in the back end of Kickstarter.

I understand why that's there, because they just haven't put the filters on.

I don't know if I kid this.

If I don't actually get a PDF, I'm going to be really upset.

Well, if you look at the update, update number two, it says free Thundercats RPT digital PDF with the hardcovers.

Probably because they got like about a million emails.

Well, it's done now.

It's backed it.

Yeah.

It is backed.

You've done it now.

You're committed.

And committed and you know this is a Kickstarter project a Kickstarter it's a project we love on there oh yeah because they love it because it's making a tour of money, and you know you know what other project they love oh is it they Kickstarter, another project that Kickstarter loves yes yes tell me more this is the first time that Kickstarter has ever loved one of our projects no that's not true no is that not true oh there you go No, we've had it on other ones.

What other one did they love?

I can't remember, but we had it before.

The OG Kickstarter.

There's been a few.

There's been a few.

It's not the first one.

Like Ian publishing...

What is the first one that I recall?

That may very well be true.

There'll now be a three-minute laughter break.

Yeah, that may be true.

It's the first one that you recall, but it is not the first one we've ever had.

Anyway, Enchanted Trickish.

Yes, yes, no.

Good job.

Well done.

It's live.

You knew it, Justin.

It is live.

Yes.

It's doing okay.

Doing well.

Yeah.

500 magic items for your D&D games.

This is 5e rather than Level Up.

Although, obviously, it works perfectly well with Level Up because 5e stuff does.

But, yeah, it's doing really well.

500.

We're giving away every day on this Kickstarter.

It's basically like our version of a little advent calendar almost.

Because there's 30 days of the Kickstarter.

30 days of the kickstarter and each day we're giving away one of the magic items.

And to get that all you're going to do is look at our social medias because we're just like blasting it out across all of our socials so blue sky uh facebook uh, what else instagram twitter instagram tiktok, wherever wherever we're on on the socials you should be able to find it then in theory so like giving one of them away each day so we've got a little one of them on there for you to take but i thought once we've already given away i thought we'd like show people them right here on the show anyway since they've already been given away people can go and look at our socials and see them so why not just show them right here and show the three so far that we've given away yeah amazing yeah all right number one cheaty dice cheaty dice this is not just fun cheaty dice yes right um this invention the crowning achievement of the gnome wizard alberto finkel pair of clay six-sided dice there are three charges they regain one d3 charges each dawn when you attune to them you can basically telepathic tell them what to roll and when the last charge is expended you roll a d6 and any result butter six the dice lose their magic.

Okay.

So that's one.

Cheesy dice is for rogues, basically.

Then we have the jacks in the box, which is very, very tiny writing.

I can't actually read that on the screen.

But that's another magic item.

The small box has been decorated to look like a chest with buckles, locks and straps etched into the surface.

They're not functional, but the small crank handle size gives away its true nature.

You can use a bonus action to turn the handle, making the box emit the simple blinking music of a child's rhyme until after 1d4 cranks the lid opens a stylized jacks a famously angry and miserly dwarf suddenly popped out the top um until you use an action to stow jacks back in the box and close it turning the crank does nothing more as an action you can remove jack's weapons a metal axe shield and dagger and close the lid when the box closes the items are transformed into full sized virgins for one hour after which they return to the original harmless eyes uh that can be used once a day, on which all the miniature weapons are packing the jacks in the box at dawn.

Or, you can use an action to add a miniature version of a non-magical item worth less than total 10 gold pieces to the box.

Royal D6, if the result is greater than or equal to the number of items, jacks already possesses a new item is added and can be removed and enlarged at the sky above.

If the result is less than the number of items, jacks possesses all the items within become full-sized smashing the box to mundane scraps.

It's like a Portable little armory for you there as well.

Yeah.

And we've got one more.

Ah, the shield of channeling.

The shield of channeling.

Yeah.

So this one.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Why are you still talking to me?

I was trying to make the enchanted trinket big.

Click on the enchanted trinket.

I clearly don't know how to do that.

Yes.

That's what I was trying to do.

Click on the enchanted trinket for the full screen layout.

But yeah, so it's fun.

So when you attune to the shield, it's got a holy symbol of your deity or domain.

It's inscribed on there.

And you can use it as a spellcasting focus.

And so that's clerics and paladins.

And you can don or doff it using a bonus action instead of an action as well.

Nice.

And when you have it donned, you can use a bonus action to channel its divine magic to cast a cantrip you choose from the cleric spell list.

But after doing that, the shield loses its magic and becomes a mundane shield.

So that is like a Hail Mary move if you need it for the specific thing for that additional thing there.

But yeah.

So these are all things that are nice enchanted trinkets, but they're not like, big op game unbalancing enchanted magic items they're not like beckner or staffs of dragon kind no no and they're not designed to be it's things like the cheaty dice it's things that like if we exist in a world in magic somebody's done something like this like somebody's made some dice that they can fudge every time to win like somebody's done these things yeah i suppose you could, I mean, the bonus action is nice, just trying to think what you, I suppose you could like have a sword one-handed sword and shield equipped, and then use your turn to be able to change over to using a two-handed weapon, which you wouldn't normally be able to do without dropping stuff.

It's nothing that's so overpowered and it's going to like, you know, be, but yeah.

Nice training.

But yeah, so that's how, and it's live, and it'll be live into the new year January the 15th in fact so halfway through January.

Yeah, we were doing a Kickstarter over Christmas, but then again, so are the Thundercats people.

Yes, it's good enough for Thundercats.

And I backed it, so therefore, ThunderCats should come along and back this now.

But yeah.

It's also fair.

The thing for this won't go out until the 15th of January.

So I think the idea was that after people get their January payday, maybe that will come through nicely for them.

But yeah.

You hit that down in my publishing.

Come back and chance to trink it.

You heard.

There we go.

That is pretty much the end of the news.

Yes.

Fair enough.

there was not a lot of news um well i thought we could do very quickly um since this is the last show of the year maybe talk a little bit about our our role-playing plans for 2026 intentions desires that sort of thing are you sure it might turn into a bit of a bit of a monologue for me uh i've got a lot of stuff trying to keep it down to a couple of minutes okay but yeah do you want do you understand and then um we can each sort of talk about what we plan or want to do in 2026 or hope for yeah it doesn't have to be a plan it could just be a hope or or dream aspiration or desire yeah uh my 2026 i am doing a southampton based organized play which is for those unfamiliar it means it can have a character they can play an adventure and then you can go to another table where another gm will uh then also be able to let you play the same character which seems to be an expectation that people have but which is very very rarely fulfillable uh due to various things.

But i'm doing that not for 50 not just for fifth edition 2040 or fifth edition 2024 or advanced fifth edition or free 5e but for all four of them at the same time at the same table because I think that would be funny or successful or potentially both and it just feels like a good way to let people see that there are things outside of D&D.

In an organised play fashion, but ran a campaign with I can't remember which ones he used.

He used Advanced Edition 2040 and 2024.

Tales of the Valiant as well, maybe?

Yes, Tales of the Valiant.

I apologise to Cobalt Press.

I forgot that Tales of the Valiant was also included in this inglomeration.

I mean, that's what basically gave me the idea, but I'm like, well, yeah i mean like mike's give it a go you reported there are no major problems whatsoever um you just can't character with any of those different game systems and you know what i believe in it's like they are pretty similar um there's some little minor wrinkles sort of just for example like drinking a potion one character can drink it as a bonus action another can't because it depends on how you decide to apply rules like that is like if you make a character within one of those four game systems, does that character use all of the rules of that game system?

Or do you choose the core rules of one of them as the central pillar of the game?

I guess...

You just choose as long as you all agree on how you're going to do it that's fine yeah yeah well that that's one of the things i'm approaching and one of the things i'm also doing is i'm saying we're going to use the srds the system reference documents has um the basis for character generation because it gives a lot of flexibility still um i mean there are some amazing online tools and publishing is coming up with its own dnd beyond desk uh character generator which is very cool looking forward to hearing more about that next year um but for the sake of quote simplicity and quote in this fairly complicated project and to improve accessibility because not everyone's got access to all the books and so forth it's like let's try it out and see what it is and then depending upon or if you've got the actual printed material then sure but otherwise if you're doing it electronically which i think a lot of people will be one thing to try the game that it's something that everyone has access to because i don't have the 2024 dnd books i don't really want them either i don't have a lot of use for them but i do have access to the srd so if your character's made from the srd i could ref a game where you are playing with that character easy enough and same with things like the black flag for tales of valiant uh i guess if you're running a game you need access to all four just so that you know what your players are doing Yeah, and again, part of the thing is the onus is on the players to bring the printed material or their character to the game or have the references ready.

Which is a bit more than your standard game.

In exchange, they get portability, they get to play.

When a lot of these people, this is in response to people saying that they'll only play D&D and they will play nothing else.

And then we don't actually have games with spaces in D&D only available.

So I'm opening it up to things which are D&D or hosting it for my purposes.

So it's quite fun.

I'll have to wait and see.

A lot of the people that come along just saying, I want to try D&D, don't necessarily know exactly what that necessarily means anyway.

Well, my experience is a lot of people come along and they say, I want to play D&D.

And what they mean is, I'd like to play a role-playing game.

Yes, that's the thing.

Some people use D&D as a term interchangeably with role-playing games, but some people do specifically mean Dungeons & Dragons.

So it's figuring out what they do mean.

But there are other role-playing games.

That's the only one that's penetrated into the cultural zeitgeist to the extent that someone who's not in the hobby would possibly have heard of it.

People do have name brand recognition of the term Dungeons & Dragons.

Yeah, so...

But fair enough.

I've got, I am cognizant of that and I'm rolling with it.

But it's the latter group that Jessica mentioned.

These people who are like, no, I will only play Dungeons & Dragons.

I'm like, well, okay.

but i have to find people willing to run the game whereas this is um crazy enough that it's like gotten the vision i'm hoping people are attracted to it because it's like we should try this out because no one's done this before which isn't strange because mike shows on it but no one i don't believe anyone's done it on the scale that i'm working on which is five to six tables i'm seeing it getting to quite easily and probably a couple of dozen characters so i have 30 40 people might work might might be a terrible idea uh which i briefly regret but i've got some sessions booked in um we'll get it rolling and see how it goes it'll be one way to find out.

Give it a go.

And I'm looking forward to learning more about different systems.

The way I learn best is by playing.

So my plans for 2026, I've got two.

I want to run a Void Runners Codex campaign.

Nice.

And I want to run, as I keep mentioning, the One Rings Moria campaign.

So they're the two things I want to do in 2026.

So I'm going to make that my TTRPG New Year's resolution.

I will do those two things in 2026.

strong, very good I might start with a flashback at 2025 before I look forward to the future of 2026 if I may break the rules because 2025 was quite a good year we brought out loads of really cool stuff Pets and Sidekicks coming out was really exciting for me because that was like a really fun book for Level Up I wanted to come out I got the Any Award nomination for this week in Tabletop RPG which was really fun.

Um not d and the not dnd podcast had loads of really great guests on had a really fun time doing it um we are pausing not dnd for a little while in 2026 because it turns out doing three podcasts a week in addition to your day job is a lot so we're having a pause uh for that in the new year not the end though i think i'd like to bring it back at some point maybe in a different more sustainable format so one of my 2026 things will be to look to find a way to maybe bring back not D&D in a way that is, more sustainable, because I do really like doing it, talking to different designers about their games and stuff.

My other 2026 goals outside of work is to finally get that One Ring campaign started, because we still have not finished the Warhammer Fantasy game.

But yes, so I want to get that started, because I have had a few character ideas for that going.

And I do want to try and run more games as well.

I don't have a specific...

I have a pile that you can see.

This shelf is all my to-play pile um so i want to try and make the time to sit down and play some games with people and run more games i don't dare think about my to-play pile but you've got a room i've got a shelf my to-play room yeah yeah i suspect most of my to-play room is the never will play room unfortunately yeah that would be nice but there's just so many of them now it's I've just bought Thundercats.

I've just added to it.

When am I going to play that?

Look, collecting, playing, writing, selling, reading.

There are different hobbies.

Related hobbies.

Wildly different hobbies.

Completely unrelated to each other, except possibly in some very unique instances.

Yeah, I wouldn't.

You have shiny things.

Why not?

Yeah, that is true.

That is true.

There we go.

Yeah.

Well, that's our plans for 2026.

Yeah.

Well, I think we're probably done then for the year.

Yeah.

Let's be done for the year.

That's it.

And that's it.

Let's air with our listeners to our live show, which is we are streaming live on Fridays at 2pm UK time, 9am Eastern on YouTube.

Oh, yeah, we've got to mention that, yes.

That's right.

Team effort.

Everyone's contributing.

I do want to say thank you to everyone who does come along to these live streams.

Yeah.

Because I know the timing is terrible for a lot of people, especially in the US.

It's just terrible for everyone, man.

it's like but unfortunately the alternative is we do it in the evening and that's not happening on a Friday night, I'm not I'm not yeah on Friday night there are many reasons why I'm not going to be podcasting on a Friday night, so so who's wrong playing something about what.

No I'm not I'm not I've got my online game Friday evenings yeah but yeah thank you to everyone that has watched and listened and the Morris podcast this year.

It is really great.

And the other shows, This Week in Tabletop RPG, not D&D, or come to the EM World site and read stuff and engage with the community on there, or bought stuff and supported EM Publishing.

It's all one big soup that we make.

So thank you for joining us.

Do you think we should actually start making soup?

Yeah, sure.

I think there'd be an audience for it.

Right.

okay 2026 you heard it here first Ian Publishing will be making his own brand of soup yes we will it'll be delicious uh let's go because this is getting silly we will be back we will return on January the 2nd but between now and then happy holidays uh for whatever you celebrate however you celebrate we hope you have a good time and yeah and have a great new year Have a great New Year.

We'll see you in Dutch, do you?

Yes.

Bye.