GMing Nautical Games on Free RPG Day 2026

Free RPG Day is one of my favorite days in the hobby each year, as it's a chance for me to try a bunch of new games and acquire tabletop RPG product that's new, different, and often weird. It usually falls right around my birthday, June 21, though this year it was the weekend following my birthday. Free RPG Day is an annual event where publishers contribute quickstarts or other tabletop RPG related teaser products to a Free RPG Day kit, and participating retailers can buy these kits to distribute to their clientele.

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In the Air to Columbus For Origins 2026

This June, on the eve of my 36th birthday, as a birthday present to myself I decided to go for my first time to the third biggest tabletop gaming convention in the US: Origins in Columbus Ohio. I went in with almost a sure intention of it being the one time I was going to go, I was going to experience what it had to offer, then I was going to be done with that experience and never go back.

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Driving West to FWD Pride 2026

On Saturday, June 13 2026, my friends Maxine and Brandon put together a Pride Game Day for our organization which occurred at an Episcopalian church in Hurst, Texas. This game day was full of 3 slots of 3 hours each for tabletop roleplaying games provided by FWD RPG GMs. For me, it was a bit of a hike across town, given it was an hour away from my house on the other side of Dallas.

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Going a-Viking at Chupacabracon 2026

A tabletop gaming convention in San Marcos, TX happening Friday May 29 through Sunday May 31. This convention has around 600 attendees each year, and incentivizes GMs who run at least 8 hours of games by giving an extremely discounted badge. I find it's the best con in Texas to play independent tabletop RPGs, though it markets itself primarily as a Savage Worlds convention.

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Floating Through BGG Spring 2026

A tabletop gaming convention with a focus on board games put on by the folks behind boardgamegeek.com. This event happens every Memorial Day Weekend in May at the Hyatt Regency at DFW International Airport and is one of their 2 yearly conventions, with the other event occurring in November at the Hyatt Reunion Plaza in Downtown Dallas. BGG Spring is much more family friendly and is focused on a younger demographic than their fall event.

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Tabletop RPGs – the Shared Hallucination

A key to our hobby is a term called "Versimilitude", which represents the appearance of truth in a fictional environment in a way that is believable and immersive. This is crucial to how we embrace our shared storytelling around the table as we talk about elves and hobgoblins, so we can sync our contributions to the narrative and keep the story going strong.

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Flying Out to Retreat, Forward! 3

A retreat into the woods where the primary programming is tabletop RPGs, though there are other forms of tabletop and other analog games such as board games and Werewolf in the Dark. This is run by the Portland, Oregon chapter of Forward RPG and this was their third event of its kind. Con was hosted on Mt Hood in Northwest Oregon, just east of Portland, Oregon.

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Going Into the Wild at FWD Fest 2026

A tabletop RPG game day promoting non D&D tabletop RPGs through folks running one shots of other tabletop RPGs. This is run by the nonprofit Forward RPG, of which I am a member of leadership. We move this event around the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex each year, and this was the fourth FWD Fest. The event lasted from when the store opened until when the store closed, and contained 3 distinct slots in which folks could play tabletop RPGs.

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Getting my Game On at Game Fest – March 2026

A tabletop gaming convention catering to tabletop games and their community in the Dallas Fort Worth area. This is run by a nonprofit Worldwide Fandom, who until last year ran GameFest concurrently with AnimeFest, one of the biggest anime conventions in the Dallas area. As you can tell from the image below, this convention had way more space than was used for gaming this year.

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Two TTRPG Wolves: Should TTRPGs be free?

In the olden days of our hobby, from what grognards say every game was free and people ran Dungeons and Dragons with the sole goal of promoting the game and the hobby without charging a penny. I've heard many long time tabletop RPG players lament the days before the "monetization" of GMing a tabletop RPG session, and it makes me wonder: when is charging money okay for a tabletop RPG?

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3 Hits 3 Misses – External Containment Bureau

This is part of a series where I review a system mid flight as I’m either digesting it via reading or running a campaign. This review format is intended to be raw and rough, based on how I feel about a particular system today, knowing that my feelings about the system will probably be different in the future. I will provide 3 Hits, which are 3 parts I am fascinated by or like about the system; and 3 Misses, which are 3 parts I don’t feel I fully grasp or don’t like.

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Chasing the Perfect TTRPG Chase

I've been playing in a weekly campaign of Outgunned: Adventure: a pulp adventure tabletop RPG set between the World Wars. It's a good time, lots of punching Nazis and driving old cars, and one of its main mechanics that unites it with the 80s action movie base game Outgunned is the Chase mechanic. The Chase mechanic boils down to the speed you're traveling at (go too slow, quarry gets away), and a clock (when you fill it, you catch them).

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3 Hits 3 Misses – Beam Saber

This is part of a series where I review a system mid flight as I’m either digesting it via reading or running a campaign. This review format is intended to be raw and rough, based on how I feel about a particular system today, knowing that my feelings about the system will probably be different in the future. I will provide 3 Hits, which are 3 parts I am fascinated by or like about the system; and 3 Misses, which are 3 parts I don’t feel I fully grasp or don’t like.

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My Year in the Dark (2025 Forged in the Dark Recap)

In the year 2025, my regular weekly Wednesday night campaign group committed ourselves to run campaigns of Forged in the Dark games for the entirety of 2025. We played 7 campaigns across 44 sessions, with campaigns lasting anywhere between 3 sessions to 9 sessions. We played a campaign in each of the following systems. I'll discuss each one individually with my thoughts and experience:

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3 Hits 3 Misses – Blades in the Dark

This is part of a series where I review a system mid flight as I’m either digesting it via reading or running a campaign. This review format is intended to be raw and rough, based on how I feel about a particular system today, knowing that my feelings about the system will probably be different in the future. I will provide 3 Hits, which are 3 parts I am fascinated by or like about the system; and 3 Misses, which are 3 parts I don’t feel I fully grasp or don’t like.

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