Timur Turlov won the presidency of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) following a second-round runoff in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on 26 September 2026. The 38-year-old Kazakh billionaire and founder of Freedom Holding Corp defeated German tournament promoter Wadim Rosenstein to take charge of the centuries-old granddaddy of all tabletop strategy games, stepping in after European Union sanctions forced former Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich to abandon his re-election campaign.

Turlov ran on a joint ticket with five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand, who remains FIDE Deputy President. The victory breaks a continuous 31-year run of Kremlin-linked Russian leadership over world chess, yet it immediately cements a new power axis based in Central Asia. It also puts ultimate regulatory authority over competitive chess, world championship matches, and international player ratings directly in the hands of a commercial fintech executive.

The Samarkand Runoff Vote Count

The election took place during the FIDE General Assembly alongside the 46th Chess Olympiad. With three candidates competing on the opening ballot, Turlov fell one vote short of an outright majority in the morning before clinching the presidency in an afternoon head-to-head vote.

Timur Turlov, President at FIDE, said in a statement:

We are all one family, and we will continue working as one. This is a great responsibility and a vote for a better future of our sport.”

Arkady Dvorkovich, Outgoing President at FIDE, said in a statement:

Timur has already done a great deal for chess, and I am sure he will do even more now as FIDE President. He and his team have the energy, a clear plan, and resources to deliver.”

Sanctions Drama and the Russian Succession

For decades, chess politics mirrored Cold War intelligence games. Russian politicians held the FIDE presidency without interruption from 1995 onward, beginning with eccentric Kalmyk politician Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and continuing with Dvorkovich in 2018. That dominance collapsed when Brussels added Dvorkovich to its sanctions list in mid-2026, making it impossible for the incumbent to run international operations or handle European banking channels.

Turlov was originally slated to run as Dvorkovich’s deputy. When Dvorkovich pulled out, Turlov stepped into the lead role. Born in Moscow, Turlov relocated to Almaty, renounced his Russian citizenship in 2022, and took Kazakh nationality. Despite this public break, critics from Western European federations argued in Samarkand that his victory represents a continuity candidate for the old power structure under a Central Asian flag. Turlov himself faced asset-freeze measures from Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council in late 2022, a measure he has contested as an administrative mistake. To reassure neutral federations, his administration confirmed it will uphold Court of Arbitration for Sport bans on official Russian teams while pursuing an open-door policy for neutral individuals.

Commercial Dominance and Regulatory Power

Beyond geopolitical manoeuvres, the central debate among delegates focused on corporate consolidation. Turlov’s Nasdaq-listed Freedom Holding Corp has spent roughly $30 million financing international chess events over the past three years. His commercial entities also control ChessBase, the industry-standard database and training software used by grandmasters worldwide.

Putting the primary commercial benefactor in charge of the official rule-making body raises severe governance questions:

• Procurement and Software Monopolies: Turlov plans to build a unified FIDE digital portal for ratings, pairings, and youth training, triggering concerns that his existing commercial software platforms could gain preferential status.
• Direct Financial Guarantees: Turlov pledged over $8.5 million in development funding, including a separate, dedicated grant fund to double cash injections for smaller national federations and cover arbiters’ fees.
• Anti-Cheating Architecture: As competitive tabletop games face sophisticated computer engine cheating, the administration plans heavy spending on camera identification and behavioural monitoring algorithms.
• Alternative Formats: German backer Jan Henric Buettner and former World Champion Magnus Carlsen have poured millions into Freestyle Chess (Chess960), pushing a player-first alternative circuit. Turlov must now decide whether FIDE co-opts these new commercial formats or battles them for calendar space.

It’s strange to think that next week is October. Team Geek Native here in Scotland will already have been to two local Oktoberfest events, so I guess that makes sense!

Today’s summary of RPG news summaries are:

• UKGE is banning AI content and merch after rows in 2025.
• QuestXR has a Chaosium backer.
• Celeste Conowitch is leaving Kobold Press.
• Dan Ayoub has been sharing his savvy plans for D&D and trying to repair damage.
• It’s RollCon and there are deals!

I’m thinking of shaking up the ‘Quick Links’ in the right-hand nav bar as I’d like to add more conventions there. I think the Chat Portal could stay, but it’s more common for things like Cookie Policies and Social Media to be in the footer. What think thee?

As it’s the last week of the month, here’s a reminder for Patrons to vote for the RPG Publisher Spotlight. We don’t have the full Q&A interview back from the current honouree, Red Ruin Publishing, but we’re working on it. Patrons can use this private link to cast their vote.

The candidates are:

• Apocalyptic Games
• Slithy Tove Games
• Sandbox Plots
• Daggerquill
• Ember + Ash

On with the TTRPG news!

Spotlight: Red Ruin Games.

RPG news from Geek Native

• Did we break this news? UKGE is banning AI-generated content from its halls.
• We pondered D&D boss Dan Ayoub’s thoughts on the future of D&D and saw de-risking.
• QuestXR has a memorandum of understanding with Chaosium to bring BRP into an augmented reality system.
• The huge geeky convention/village takeover Lucca is loaded with TTRPG this year and that includes big names from Daggerheart and D&D.
• SoulMuppet readies for the Homeric tragedy Atrapos.
• Fringe-favourite Dungeons & Shakespeare released Chaos in Verona.
• Son of Oak Studio launches a patron for the Mist Engine with MacDaire’s Journal.
• Free League Publishing is over a $1m funded as it expands The One Ring TTRPG.
• I had to ask – are your minis ethically painted?
• Once we stood Against the Darkmaster, now Open Ended Games are Against the Starmaster.
• The popular EN World news and community site was attacked by waves of AI bots.
• Sirius Dice put spaceships in d20s for their Star Trek MTG sets.
• D&D has five new releases ready for FLGS to be serious about.
• In a quick review, I became a frog knight and sang Ballads of the Lilypond.
• In crowdfunding, I took a look at the military Outside the Wire.
• It’s RollCon weekend.
• In bundles, Humble has top content from the DMsGuild.

Support: Patreon.

RPG news from around the web

• Kobold Press is losing its lead designer on Tales of the Valiant as it announces New Adventures for Celeste Conowitch.
• At Wowhead, SQUISHEI unpacks an Exclusive Look at Dungeon Masters Campaign Characters for D&D: World of Warcraft.
• Over at Rascal, the team highlights Years-Late RPG Adventure Project Embraces AI, Is Forced To Refund Angry Backers.
• For Wargamer, Timothy Linward reports on Liked the Resident Evil movie? Here’s a new RPG you’ll be dying to try.
• Tabletop Sentinel covers Modiphius Announce Star Trek Adventures 60th Anniversary Boxed Set.
• Dungeons and Dragons Fanatics offers a deep dive into New Dragonlance World Book Announced for D&D Icons Line.
• EN World has an excellent piece by Christian Hoffer on Check out D&D’s redesign of Bahamut.
• At EN World, Morrus pens a piece on Dystopian comedy RPG Paranoia takes aim at social media influencers in its latest adventure.

Support: Fight the Algorithm

RPG reviews and interviews from around the web

• The Kind DM shares a review of Be like a Crow.
• Wargamer’s Gab Hernandez reviews Plenum.
• Ill Met by Morrslieb has reviewed Trollslayer.
• Reviews from R’lyeh pens reviews of No Place Like Homebrew, Shadowrun: Anarchy, The Weaver & The Redcaps, Water & Mist, and Weird Ancestries.
• Over at TTRPG Insider, there is a new interview regarding Fight for Your Turf with Psychic Style in City of Espers.
• Superjump Magazine’s Benjamin Macready sits down to discuss Interviewing Writer Leon Richardson About Their TTRPG, Rangers of A Broken World.

RPG new releases

• Marvel released Marvel Multiverse RPG – Spider-Man Midtown Mayhem.
• Evil Genius Games published Return of the Living Dead Cinematic Sourcebook – Foundry VTT.
• The RPG Professor brings us So you Died. A 5e Undead Player’s Handbook.
• Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd. released Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum, Macharian Adversary Guide.
• Available now is Bloat Games’ DARK PLACES & DEMOGORGONS for 5e – Core Book.
• Windblown Vagrant has published Alien pets: always read the small print!.
• Available now is Green Ronin Publishing’s Cthulhu Awakens Complete Collection (PDF format).
• Available now is CZRPG’s The Republic of the Damned.
• DGS Games has released Ankala Oracle Guidebook.
• Arcane Quill Games has published the Nexaria Campaign Setting.
• New from Legendary Games is Legendary Planet: To Kill a Star (Tales of the Valiant).

RPG bundle deals

• Save $39.87 (57%) with the Return of the Ripper Judge’s Pack Print+Digital bundle from Strange Quark.
• Save $12.60 (30%) on Misfit Studios’ Bundle of Passion collection.
• Save $6.00 (33%) with Mythurgy’s Horror Subclasses bundle.
• Save $5.98 (23%) on Marvel’s Spider-Man Midtown Mayhem | PDF + NEXUS (Pre-Order) collection.

RPG ideas, tips and discoveries

• Vincent Baker investigates Apocalypse World & PbtA: a Conceptual Chronology, part 2 over at Lumpley.
• Over at Forbeck, Matts shares his thoughts on Spider-Man: Midtown Mayhem Is Here!.
• Bell of Lost Souls has published a piece on How Old Styles Of Play Can Add Fresh Air To D&D.

RPG Crowdfunding

There’s more! You can catch up with the Kickstarter campaign we’ve written up in more detail at Kickstarter watch. Here are some noteworthy industry projects to mention:

• A Sliver of Evidence from Cairn Press introduces “A werewolf-inspired adventure for Cairn 2e, written & illustrated by Karly Andersen.”
• Random Rollers Start Up by Random Rollers is an upcoming supplement for “We are a D&D group of diverse creative storytellers. Please join us in building community and safe spaces for the dice to roll freely.”
• D&D 5e: 50 Unique Backgrounds & Story Hooks for Players is a project by Loots & Dragons that features “Expand your 5e games with 50 rich, ready-to-play character backgrounds, unique features, and engaging story Hooks for Players and DMs !”
• RPG Adventure Stamps: Graveyard Set is a project by Jorrit Schlüter that looks at “3D-printable stamps & tools set to quickly create playable TTRPG adventures, including maps & tokens for characters, monsters & more.”
• Pocket Roll: The Dice You Carry. The Fidget You Keep. is a project by Tactile EDC that promises “A pocket-sized mechanical companion for idle hands, game nights, and everything in between.”
• The Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow from Laurie is working on “A 5e-Compatible American Gothic Adventure”
• Zero Hour from Ben Tobitt kickstarts “Tactical Survival Horror TTRPG”
• Dark Mythos | Cthulhuian Horror for use with Shadowdark from Jeffrey Jones offers “Three Occult Works: a resource book, adventure anthology, and fiction/GM guide for drawing the Outsider’s cosmos into your game.”
• LEVITATING LUMINAR — A D20 That Floats, Glows & Comes Alive is a project by Floating Dice that is described as “An illustrated magnetic D20 that levitates above a color-changing luminous base — made to roll, collect, and display.”
• Herd of Horns from Chris Gunning is launching “An Original TTRPG Celebrating Dinosaurs for Being Dinosaurs!”
• Primal Earth from Chance Clark shares “A d20 survival horror tabletop role-playing game; dinosaurs have reemerged & humanity fights to survive in a brutal prehistoric world.”
• World’s Largest Science Fiction Random Tables Toolbox from Offworld Frontiers shares “Spanning 3 volumes and almost 400,000 words it is the ultimate sci-fi TTRPG resource for GMs, players, and solo players!”
• Dante’s Shadow – for Shadowdark RPG from Erkyn Adventures has introduced “The bleeding hills of Tuscany – A Historically (In)accurate Setting for Shadowdark RPG”
• The Original Character Relationship Journal from Flux Destiny offers “A guided, interactive journal for original character creators to develop and deepen their characters’ romantic relationships.”
• NOVA 2 is a project by Spencer Campbell that is “Pilot mechs on a sunless world in this exciting second edition of the NOVA TTRPG!”
• Creature Companions Expanded from Underground Oracle Publishing brings us “Enhanced options to play with or as creature companions and former familiars in your Black Flag/5e-compatible games.”
• Viva La Dungeon! Rise of the Neckromancer is a project by Zontco LLC that features “One book. Three heroes. A Dungeon you explore, choices you make, dice you roll, and a story that changes with every run.”
• Worlds To Come is a project by Lexi Kohanski that looks at “The Hebrew roleplaying game”
• Doungim: The TTRPG Tabletop Games Console That Answers Back by Doungim is offering “Describe your world, set your rules, and it creates the rest: a living world for you. Runs any TTRPG or assists your Game Master.”
• 100 Unique Factions for D&D 5e Volume 2! by Realms of Wonder is currently raising funds for “The 2nd volume to the DnD 5E supplement packed with: Guilds, Cults, Orders, Houses, Leaders, 100+ pages for your Campaign or Adventure!”
• DARKER TIMES: Into the Night – A DnD 5e Zine by Erik Jorgensen is offering “A zine for those who like their adventures more dangerous and fun (TTRPG | Fantasy | OSR)”
• HALLOWEEN REALMS — 770+ TTRPG Maps for VTT & Print from Agnieszka Polanowska is launching “770+ Halloween Battle Maps — Witches, Pumpkins, Haunted Forests, Graveyards, Dark Carnivals, Castles, Dungeons & More”
• 1000+ Full Color Miniatures – 3D Printable STL + GBL from Virtual Diversions seeks funding for “Over 1000 full color, textured, Minis for you to 3D print! Pre textured for those fancy new full color printers, or paint them yourself”
• The Debt of Nine Winters 5E from Eric Bleney presents “A 5e one-shot manhunt in the high passes, for 3–5 characters of levels 3-4.”
• Lonely Timbers – Tire-toi une bûche is a project by Jason Pitre that is described as “A TTRPG about french-canadian lumberjacks in the early 20th century. Un JDR des bûcherons québecoises du début du XXe siècle.”
• One HONK: Bird Time’s The Charm – A Goose-Based TTRPG from Jack Dixon seeks funding for “The third entry in the khaotic TTRPG series!”
• Monster of the Month: Tigghare – a leaping lepus lord is a project by TGrejczik that invites players to explore “Charmingly lethal bunnytiger friend (or foe) for your D&D adventures – Creature stats, NPC/familiar stats + bonus item”
• Dungeons & Mythos: The Aeneid from Vlad Cernica has introduced “The perils and tribulations of Aeneas told through a Dungeons and Dragons Campaign | The Second Book in the Dungeons & Mythos series”
• October Twilight is a project by Joshua/Vera Mitchell that features “Occult Post Apocalypse Horror RPG”
• Fragged Aeternum 2 | ttRPG from Wade Dyer is launching “A violent and dark gothic ttRPG that plunges immortal PCs into the endless city of Aeternum to fight vile Fiends and otherworldly foes.”
• Tales of the Assemblance from Tom Astbury has introduced “A new fantasy roleplaying game”
• 1000 Fantasy Artifacts: A Massive STL Collection from Fantasy Bags is nominating “A massive collection of 1000 fantasy STL files featuring magical relics, treasures, weapons, books, crowns, artifacts and more.”

[What’s this chart? We use Kickstarter Heat to measure how busy the crowdfunding season is.]

Do you know of any RPG news sources we might not know? If so, please let us know or leave a comment below.

Matthew Sheret released Ballads of the Lilypond on itch.io in late summer 2026, delivering an original, lightweight tabletop release that puts storytelling and verse front and centre. The game casts players as wandering bards in the realm of Idyllica, spending their evenings chronicling the exploits of the amphibious Knights of Duck Bottom Pond.

Digital roleplaying games often suffer from dense two-column layouts that fight against mobile screens, but this PDF avoids that trap entirely. The text flows in a single clean column using large Century Schoolbook typography and uncluttered tables, making it exceptionally comfortable to read and run straight from a smartphone without zooming or panning.

Setting the Scene in Idyllica

The game adapts chivalric Arthurian romance to the riverbank. Instead of the Round Table and mythical beasts, troubadours sing of knights seeking the Sacred Spork, crossing muddy wellies, and outwitting grumpy carps. The tone lands in a pleasant space between courtly pomp and pondweed silliness, matching classic fable traditions without becoming trivial.

The physical PDF layout borrows structural cues from Lelouch Vee’s Mythic Bastionland template, pairing clean margins with Lombardina Initial drop capitals. Illustrator Sar Cousins provides black-and-white ink drawings that ground the book’s look with lively, expressive amphibians. Because the title uses a card deck instead of polyhedral dice, pairing the game with a deck of William De Morgan’s Frog playing cards mirrors the table’s aesthetic.

The Card Engine and Resolution

Rather than adapting standard systems like Powered by the Apocalypse or the d20 roll-high model, Ballads of the Lilypond uses an original card-draw resolution system with a standard 52-card deck.

Card ranks cross-reference fixed prompt tables to determine the exact nature of the trial, the lesson learnt, or the reward gained. Jesters act as unstructured wildcards, inviting players to introduce narrative reversals, sudden luck, or dramatic twists. It keeps setup minimal while guaranteeing unpredictable results across a 90-minute session.

Character Generation and Baggage

Creating a knight takes four card draws, each matching a rank to an evocative attribute:

• Name: Chosen by rank, providing names like Buckthorn, Milton, or Splash.
• Trait: Ranging from brave and wise to gassy or lovesick.
• Title: Determined by card parity and face values, designating the character as Sir, Lady, or royal stock.
• Baggage: A companion or prop, including a wooden sword, a foul-mouthed tadpole, or a goldfish steed.

These prompts give players an immediate comedic or heroic hook. Once the knight is defined, a ten-minute writing timer starts, and players draft their opening stanza before reciting it to the table.

Structure and Game Flow

Play proceeds through three rounds of encounters followed by a closing recital. Each round follows a tight sequence:

1. Troubadours draw a Trial card to set their obstacle.
2. A Result draw determines success or failure, followed by a draw for a Reward or Lesson.
3. A shared ten-minute timer begins, during which each troubadour drafts their verse as an epic couplet, limerick, or shanty.
4. Players recite their verses aloud in turn.

After the third encounter, players take one final ten-minute block to write their concluding stanza, underline their poem’s title, and read their complete ballad aloud. The rules keep bookkeeping down to zero, prioritising group performance and creative interpretation over complex arithmetic.

To complete the riverbank aesthetic at the table, pick up William De Morgan’s Frog playing cards on PlayingCardDecks.

Quick Links

• Matthew Sheret‘s Ballads of the Lilypond

London-based indie studio Aeon Eclipse Games has launched a crowdfunding campaign for Free Void Flotilla, an innovative tabletop spaceship wargame that combines Newtonian vector movement with compact coffee-table engagements. Designed to run on a playing surface as small as an A2 sheet of paper, the project blew past its modest £200 target within hours of going live, collecting £784 from early backers with six days remaining on the clock.

The system bypasses the tedious geometry tools often associated with space naval wargaming, replacing protractors and flight rulers with streamlined rules for mass, velocity, and inertia. Fleets manoeuvre across the vacuum using momentum tokens, conducting desperate flip-and-burn adjustments while tracking point-defence ammunition reserves against incoming torpedo spreads. Rather than leaning on generic space opera tropes, the setting pits fractured human factions against one another across our solar system and beyond, navigating the aftermath of an independence war sparked by an enigmatic digital intelligence known as Sovereign.

Newtonian Physics on an A2 Playing Surface

Tabletop space warfare often hits a physical barrier: either the mechanics require complex calculation sheets and protractors to simulate real vacuum momentum, or they revert to naval battles on a two-dimensional blue cloth. Free Void Flotilla deliberately aims for the hard-science television feel of The Expanse while keeping the play area small enough to fit a kitchen table.

Fleets deploy across five distinct hull types: agile escorts, corvettes, balanced destroyers, torpedo-heavy frigates, and massive cruisers. Each vessel operates under Newtonian constraints where velocity and heading remain constant until a commander deliberately spends resources to alter them. Instead of measuring complex turning arcs, players allocate burn tokens to execute burns, risking structural damage on heavy-mass hulls to sharply alter drift directions before hurtling out of the operational area.

Terrain on the voidscape functions through practical abstraction. Miniature bases serve as “certainty spheres”; sensor-verified bubbles indicating a vessel’s calculated position amidst the silence of space. Asteroid fields, comet clouds, and ping-pong-ball planets block weapon telemetry, provide gravity-assist slingshots, and give lighter craft safe havens against devastating long-range cruiser broadsides.

Interview: Laurence Mallam on Vectors, Local Production, and Hard Vacuum

Geek Native sat down with creator Laurence Mallam to explore the mechanical engine behind Free Void Flotilla, his lean manufacturing choices, and where the game heads after the campaign wraps up.

You have set out to simulate Newtonian vector movement, inertia, and drift without forcing players to pull out protractors, rulers, and flight stands. What specific operational rules allow Free Void Flotilla to capture the feel of hard-science space combat on a surface as small as an A2 sheet of paper?

I’m a big fan of the TV show and book series The Expanse, where they use real physics to show how ships move in space. I wanted that feel in my game, but doing it accurately is so hard that I had to simplify as best I could. Ships always have a vector with a velocity — how fast they’re going and in what direction, which can be any of 360 degrees relative to the ship. If you want to change direction or speed, you have to point a certain way and fire the engines — make a burn. In the game that means dropping burn tokens, which change your velocity or direction. You’re effectively a billiard ball flying through space with a rocket attached, so you move based on where you’re aiming. The catch is that a high-mass ship takes damage the more it burns, because of how much force is acting on it. So ships can share the same top speeds regardless of size, but smaller ships are more manoeuvrable because they can change direction more easily. When a ship inevitably drifts off the table — and it is a small table — it goes into the Rally Zone: drifting into the void away from the fight. Luckily, you can use alien technology to fold it back onto the table.

Version 1.1 of the rulebook and the Sovereign Class Destroyer STL are free to download, lowering the barrier to entry. What led you to release the core rules and introductory files at zero cost, and how does that open-access philosophy support the commercial side of your physical box sets?

These days I think it’s a given: there are so many great games out there that you have to give customers something free to get them interested, because there’s simply so much they can look at. At this point there’s no reason you couldn’t download the rules and the STLs and start playing straight away. I want to make playing Free Void Flotilla as easy as possible for my customers — and then, hopefully, they’ll come to the other ship classes, which I 3D print myself and send out to them.

In the designer notes, you describe miniature bases not as literal ship hulls, but as “certainty spheres” tracking an observing vessel’s sensory data. How does this abstraction function during play when ships execute flip-and-burn manoeuvres or hide inside gas clouds and asteroid fields?

At this scale we can’t put huge ships into an accurately scaled void — a single ship would be far less than a millimetre across. So the bases represent the certainty sphere of where that ship is in space: when other ships look at it, they can be certain that ship is somewhere within that sphere, no matter what else is going on.

Rather than using overseas mass manufacturing, you are handling the resin printing, laser cutting, and letterbox-friendly packing yourself in the UK. Given the shipping and fulfilment bottlenecks that regularly hit indie tabletop creators, how does running a localised, lean production workflow protect your backers from long delays?

I can see how difficult it is to rely on a company abroad to manufacture exactly to your specifications. In the current environment it’s also hard to guarantee that prices won’t rise, or that tariffs and postage won’t change. I’ve always loved lean manufacturing, so I designed this game so I can make it at home very easily with desktop printers and laser cutters — and so it can scale at any level. All my materials, whether plastic, cardboard, or resin, can be bought from multiple sources, so I’m never locked to a single supplier. I think as time goes on we’ll see more companies manufacturing locally, and I want to get ahead of that.

From the corporate Ce-Co asteroid miners to the monarchical United Kingdom of Saturn, the six human factions feel fractured and culturally distinct without relying on standard sci-fi tropes. What was your philosophy behind building a setting where humanity fought for its independence with enigmatic digital intelligence rather than alien overlords?

The key for my factions was that I wanted all of them to feel believable a thousand years in our future. If you look back over the past thousand years, cultures and nations have changed enormously, and yet there’s still a lot of familiarity — people can still trace their background to some of those cultures. The cultures of the future should work the same way. With my factions there’s something for everyone: do you want to play the deep-space gangsters, the noble descendants of the House of Windsor, or just a generic space miner? It’s all there. As for alien overlords — I never said there weren’t any. It’s simply that Sovereign is a digital intelligence, and no one knows where it comes from. More of that will be revealed as the game progresses.

With solo and cooperative campaign rules on your development horizon, where should players and fleet commanders go to follow your progress, download the starter files, and join the community discussions as Free Void Flotilla expands?

For now, all we have is the Kickstarter page. If you want to know anything about the game, go there — you’ll find the rulebook and an STL of our Sovereign Destroyer you can download and 3D print at home. Keep an eye on the page, because there will be a website in the future. We’re already working on a list-builder app that will also include the rulebook. We’re really hoping to go the distance with Free Void Flotilla: even after this Kickstarter, we’ll keep manufacturing, creating new ships, and selling.

One of the next things coming — probably by the end of December — is campaigns: a competitive campaign where two forces go head-to-head to destroy each other, and a solo campaign where you can travel the stars and explore.

Thanks, Laurence!

Physical Tiers, Digital Files, and Fulfilment

Backers with access to home 3D printers can secure the complete digital Sovereign fleet tier at an accessible entry price, with pre-supported STLs for destroyers, cruisers, frigates, freighters, corvettes, escorts, and utility bases arriving by October 2026. For those wanting physical tabletop pieces, individual boxed flotillas provide resin hulls, acrylic tokens, and ship stat cards sized specifically for letterbox-friendly shipping cartons. Fleet bundles scale up to comprehensive collector sets containing all 13 physical boxes across the game’s factions, with physical orders scheduled to dispatch from the UK in December 2026.

Free Void Flotilla is an all-or-nothing Kickstarter campaign that will conclude its funding window on Thursday, 1 October 2026 at 4:01 PM BST.

Quick Link

• Back Free Void Flotilla on Kickstarter

Lucca Comics & Games has unveiled the complete programme for its 60th anniversary edition, taking place from Wednesday 28 October to Sunday 1 November 2026 across the historic walled centre of Lucca, Italy. Organised under the theme of “Legacy”, the festival brings together prominent tabletop roleplaying game releases alongside international comics, digital entertainment, and pop-culture showcases.

Tabletop roleplaying games and hobby gaming take centre stage at the Carducci Pavilion and surrounding city venues, highlighted by an international expansion rollout from Darrington Press, classic setting revivals, and newly translated Italian editions. The event immediately follows the European autumn convention circuit, positioning Tuscany as a major destination for roleplaying games as the festival marks six decades since its 1966 founding as a comic salon.

Darrington Press Expands Daggerheart in Europe

Chris Perkins of Darrington Press and Elise Rezendes of Critical Role will attend Lucca60 to discuss the property’s transition from actual-play web series into a transmedia tabletop brand. Alongside local publishing partner Acheron Games, the convention hosts the European launch of the first Italian-language translation of Hope & Fear, the newest expansion for the Daggerheart system.

The mechanical package in Hope & Fear adds substantive operational depth to the game:

• Four new playable character classes
• The introduction of the Dread Domain mechanics
• Over 100 new weapons, gear options, and items
• 130 pre-built enemy stat sheets designed for direct encounter building

The title also appears among the official finalists for the festival’s Role-Playing Game of the Year award, competing against Dreaming Kadath, Legend in the Mist, and The House Doesn’t Always Win.

Joe Manganiello Curates D&D Icons Heritage Line

Actor and hobby ambassador Joe Manganiello returns to Lucca as the special curator for the convention’s Dungeons & Dragons programming. The slate focuses on the D&D Icons line, designed to showcase classic campaign worlds and legacy tabletop intellectual property.

Original Dragonlance co-creators Tracy Hickman and Laura Hickman will appear as headline guests to represent the setting alongside material exploring Greyhawk. Their appearance connects early TSR heritage directly to modern European player communities. Open gaming spaces will reinforce this legacy focus, with the Lucca Games Café hosting an official D&D Epic gathering on Saturday 31 October alongside the long-running Ruolimpiadi tournament.

Marko Djurdjevic Debuts Orken Fantasy Series

Artist and Sixmorevodka creative director Marko Djurdjevic, renowned among roleplaying game enthusiasts as the creator of the post-apocalyptic system Degenesis, will deliver the first public European presentation of ORKEN. The project marks his return to creator-owned worldbuilding and epic fantasy across both art and tabletop design after decades of visual work for Riot Games, Marvel, and Sony.

The convention also marks the debut of Indiecore Distribution, a new Italian venture established specifically to distribute independent roleplaying games across continental Europe. Concurrently, local design receives a platform through the Fabula Ultima line by Need Games!, presenting the new Bestiary Vol. I with variant artwork contributed by legendary illustrator Yoshitaka Amano.

Convention Mechanics and Location Specifics

Crowd capacity remains central to Lucca’s layout. Unlike unified convention halls, the Italian event occupies medieval churches, public squares, and historic buildings across the municipality. Roleplaying game tables, LARP runs in Chamber LARP and The Citadel, and trading card play will operate directly within this fragmented urban footprint.

Seattle-based digital comics platform Sweet Shop officially opened its doors to the public on 24 September 2026 across 170 countries on Android and iOS devices. The storefront and reader app, built without venture capital backing by Kenny Meyers, Ben Carr, and Matthew Anderson, aims to tackle digital ownership in the medium by combining in-app purchases with DRM-free PDF backup downloads.

While Geek Native covered the platform’s initial beta rollout earlier this year, today’s announcement marks the formal public release for general readers alongside a wider publisher catalogue. The opening lineup adds mainstream manga and indie heavyweights including Kodansha, Seven Seas Entertainment, Titan Comics, and Abrams ComicArts to existing launch partners like Image Comics, Dark Horse Comics, IDW Publishing, and Oni Press.

Publisher Support and Reader Features

Sweet Shop operates on mobile phones and tablets, featuring reading software that switches dynamically between vertical scrolling and standard paging modes. In addition to offline downloads and digital library management, the platform enforces a strict policy barring generative AI art and AI-translated titles from its catalogue.

To mark the public launch, the storefront is running a “Comics Are Sweet” bundle sale featuring starter packs from Image Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Oni Press, Ignition Press, and Fanbase Press. A portion of bundle proceeds will support the Book Industry Charitable Foundation (BINC), assisting comic shop employees and booksellers facing emergency hardship.

Kenny Meyers, CEO of Sweet Shop, said in a statement,

Our beta went incredibly well, and so many people want to get in, we’re thrilled to open our doors. We’re delighted to add some of the best comics in the world from an incredible pool of publishers to our already diverse catalog of outstanding publishers. Comics are the absolute best, and we’re so f’n delighted every day to sell them.”

The storefront is part of the wider Sweet ecosystem, which also operates the creator promotion suite Bindings and the physical comic shop directory Find Your Comic Store.

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• Sweet Shop

FromSoftware’s action game Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is getting a full television anime series titled Sekiro: No Defeat, streaming exclusively on Crunchyroll starting in January 2027. Kadokawa, Qzil.la, and ARCH are producing the eight-part series, which expands upon a theatrical version currently screening across cinemas in Japan.

Crunchyroll holds global streaming rights worldwide, excluding Japan, China, Korea, Russia, and Belarus. The animated series adapts the original game’s plot, following the shinobi Wolf and Kuro, the Divine Heir, across a reimagined Sengoku-era Japan torn apart by conflict and the search for immortality.

The project marks an unusual distribution path from Japanese art houses to Western streaming platforms. The animated feature originally screened internationally at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France under the “Feature Films: Midnight Specials” programme and premiered in North America at Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival. Following a planned three-week run in Japanese cinemas, Kadokawa extended the domestic cinema screenings before expanding the material into eight serialised episodes for home viewing.

The production team claims the project is fully hand-drawn, setting it apart from contemporary 3D digital pipelines commonly used in video game adaptations. Kenichi Kutsuna directs the series, with screenwriting handled by Takuya Satou, best known for writing and directing the anime adaptation of Steins;Gate. Takahiro Kishida (Haikiu!!, Durarara!!) serves as character designer, adapting FromSoftware’s visual aesthetic into animation model sheets.

Production Staff and Cast Details

Qzil.la, alongside production company ARCH, founded in 2017, handles the animation. Both studios operate out of Tokyo, placing the core production alongside FromSoftware’s own headquarters.

The announced Japanese voice cast sees major voice talent stepping into key roles:

• Wolf: Daisuke Namikawa
• Kuro / The Divine Heir: Miyuki Satou
• Genichiro Ashina: Kenjiro Tsuda

The press announcement made no mention of an English dub or Western language cast, leaving it unconfirmed whether Western voice actors like Noshir Dalal will reprise their roles from the English audio track of the original video game.

The video game Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, published by Activision, has sold over 10 million units worldwide since its 2019 launch.

Watch the official trailer for the series on YouTube:

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• Stream the upcoming series when it airs on Crunchyroll.

The first trailer has just dropped for Musk, Alex Gibney‘s documentary that gives thorough insights and criticism into the rise of billionaire Elon Musk, including his businesses, power, influence, political involvement and personal relationships.

Musk takes a deep dive into all of the above; so much so that if you want to watch this at the cinema, you’re a) going to need snacks (load up on the popcorn) and b) are probably going to hope they have an interval, or very carefully plan your toilet break, as it’s almost four hours long.

Elon himself hasn’t been involved in the documentary (it’s clear he refused), but it does include interviews with people close to him, including his dad, Errol Musk, Ashley St. Clair, and Elon’s first wife, Justine Musk. Oscar-winning filmmaker Gibney has also spoken with various colleagues/peers of Musk over the years to paint as clear a portrait as possible.

The portrait itself doesn’t sound particularly favourable, and has been described as a “wrecking ball to the public image of Elon Musk” (GeekTyrant).

According to one critic in the trailer below: “We have one person who’s this chaotic and has this much power. It’s completely insane.”

Tesla, and how Musk came to call himself its ‘founder’ is also criticised, highlighting at least one of the deadly crashes its drivers have been involved in over the years, with the quote: “This is a car that lies to you about what it’s doing.”

There’s also the political controversy over Musk’s relationship with Trump and his involvement in the 2024 presidential election. St. Clair recalls conversations where Musk allegedly talked about helping Trump defeat Biden and had also claimed to know the election outcome hours before it was officially announced.

In the trailer, St. Clair says: “He had told me, ‘I can’t be president, but I can help Trump beat Biden.'” She continues with: “They say, ‘I think we’re gonna win!’ He said, ‘I have 10,000 lasers in space. I knew that hours ago.’” Also, there’s the topic of SpaceX and how it’s not doing anything near what Elon is selling it as.

Quelle suprise, Musk has threatened legal action over this film, through his attorney Alex Spiro, especially the insinuations about vote rigging, saying: “You are therefore on notice, before release, that the insinuation is false.”

Musk will hit cinemas on 9th October, and it looks like it’s going to be one hot potato. I’ll be booking in advance.

What do you think of the trailer for Musk? Will you be watching when it hits cinemas next month – or are you worried it won’t get that far? Comment below to have your say.

Telefónica UK has begun selling pre-orders for Grand Theft Auto VI through 36-month consumer credit agreements. The move matters to gamers because it signals how telecom firms and internet service providers are altering their identities, turning individual software releases into hardware-style finance packages to capitalise on gaming culture. Instead of a standard retail checkout, the mobile network is treating Rockstar Games’ upcoming launch as a phone accessory financed across three years.

Available to both existing subscribers and non-O2 customers across the UK from 21 September 2026, the deal spreads the £69.99 release via an initial £20 deposit and monthly Direct Debit instalments. The financial contract runs through autumn 2029, subjecting players to statutory credit checks by credit reference agencies for an entertainment download code.

Telefónica UK Credit Terms and Payment Calculations

The financing offer applies to digital editions of the game on current-generation consoles. Customers take on a regulated personal loan with 0% APR and repay the balance over a fixed three-year term.

The daily cost claims rely on specific repayment arithmetic. O2 markets the loan as costing under 5p a day, which works out to 4.57p per day over the 36-month period. However, multiplying £1.39 across 36 monthly cycles and adding the £20 deposit results in a final payment of £70.04. That creates a 5p variance above O2’s £69.99 outright purchase figure.

The main risk is consumer credit reporting. Missing a £1.39 monthly instalment carries the same formal credit-score penalties as defaulting on an expensive smartphone loan. O2 lists the digital redemption code within the mobile “accessories” department of its online catalogue, grouping Take-Two Interactive’s flagship title alongside phone cases and wireless earbuds.

Virgin Media O2 Strategy and Shuttering Digital Services

Routing this pre-order through O2 highlights an awkward internal divide within parent company Virgin Media O2. Virgin Media operates the gigabit broadband infrastructure needed to handle the title’s substantial download size and run its online multiplayer traffic. Yet O2 handles the commercial promotion entirely, selling a console software licence as an add-on.

The loan product arrives while Virgin Media retreats from consumer digital utilities. The broadband division is closing its long-running Virgin Media Mail service, migrating legacy webmail users to third-party provider Junara. Virgin Media has also closed the Virgin Media Store, shuttering its digital movie and television locker. As the broadband operation strips away digital retail and email hosting, the mobile wing is stepping in to manage small-scale loans for third-party console releases.

Rockstar North Labour Disputes and Tabletop Scotland Solidarity

The corporate financing push arrives amid serious labour controversies surrounding primary developer Rockstar North. Based in Edinburgh at Barclay House on Holyrood Road, the studio faces an employment tribunal over claims of unfair dismissal. Former staff allege management terminated workers after they tried to organise a trade union within the company. Rockstar has rejected the allegations, stating the dismissals were for gross misconduct involving confidentiality breaches.

For readers deciding whether to buy Grand Theft Auto VI or commit to a multi-year finance plan, the treatment of studio workers remains an important consideration. The issue found immediate local resonance at Tabletop Scotland, held in Edinburgh at the Royal Highland Centre. Representatives from the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) Game Workers branch attended the Edinburgh convention and collected donations for a hardship fund supporting the dismissed Rockstar North staff. Union organisers spoke directly to convention visitors and roleplaying games enthusiasts, linking digital studio workplace conditions with consumer choices.

Taking on a three-year debt obligation for a game produced while its local Edinburgh development team battles an unfair dismissal tribunal highlights the widening gulf between telecom marketing schemes and studio workplace realities.

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• Grand Theft Auto VI at O2

UK Games Expo organisers have banned all merchandise, artwork, and written material created entirely or substantially by generative artificial intelligence across the event. The updated rules apply to all exhibitors, studios, and traders operating at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, requiring that all stock displayed or sold must come from human work.

The formal policy follows grassroots pushback across the NEC show floor at previous events, where attendees and stallholders staged protests and placed handmade notices across booths offering machine-generated goods.

By extending this strict standard across all commercial halls, Britain’s largest hobby games convention aligns its terms with other major UK events, including Tabletop Scotland and Dragonmeet, which have already curbed generative tools.

The UK Games Expo Human-Made Mandate

The updated exhibitor regulations set an unambiguous baseline for creative provenance, covering visual design, fiction, and tabletop roleplaying games. While assistive software for spelling, production layout, and accessibility remains permitted, the central creative process must remain human-driven.

The official exhibitor policy document states:

An underlying aim of UK Games Expo is to support innovative and exciting ideas by creative individuals from the tabletop games industry. As such we are committed to encouraging the original works of human designers, publishers, artists, illustrators and writers. We therefore require that our Exhibitors ensure that all products exhibited, displayed or sold have been created by humans using their own skills. Items and products that have been created or generated completely or in significant part by the use of AI tools and programmes are prohibited.”

The rules distinguish between prohibited content generation and permitted workflow utilities:

Enforcement Discretion and the Indie Burden

Under the new terms, convention organisers retain absolute discretion to inspect stalls and order the immediate withdrawal of non-compliant stock. Exhibitors who refuse to comply face immediate stand closure and permanent bans from future events at the NEC.

The move expands beyond the event’s previous trial measures. Organisers earlier walled off the Bastion indie market with strict bans on both artificial intelligence and crowdfunding campaigns to safeguard micro-press creators. Expanding that mandate across the wider exhibition halls simplifies messaging, but it lands amid industry concerns regarding the cost of enforcement. Indie publishers at previous convention panels noted that proving human provenance often requires detailed concept drafts, layered design files, and work logs, adding administrative strain for smaller studios.

By adopting an outright ban across all commercial halls, UK Games Expo closes the gap with regional UK conventions and sets a single, clear expectation for creators and shoppers alike.

Quick Links

• UK Games Expo’s AI Policy