One of the trickiest elements of game design is getting the complexity level right. Leave too much in and you get complexity for complexity’s sake, making the game unruly and impossible to balance. But take too much out and you’ve barely got a game at all. Upland & Prairie sails very close to the latter, and for some gamers it will tip into that category.
It also amuses me when an amazingly light and abstract game works super hard to pretend to have a theme. Upland & Prairie is, apparently, all about rewilding. So much so, in fact, that it dedicates almost as many words in the rulebook to discussing that topic as it does to the rules (which are great, by the way, being very clear). While I applaud Osprey Games for highlighting the importance of this subject, don’t be under any illusions: this is a pure abstract.
How to play Upland & Prairie
The game itself is a disc-placing game that uses hex map tiles to create a variable board. This adds a small amount of replayability, but as there isn’t much difference between the tiles, it offers few real alternatives. On a turn, a player draws three animal discs from the bag (they’re in three equal colours) and keeps one hidden behind their screen, places one on the board, and returns the third to the bag without the other players seeing what it was.
Discs behind your screen will be used for scoring, but you need to consider that the game will be scored in one of two ways. Either one colour will reach its goal (making an unbroken run between either the pair or set-of-three goal tiles), or the bag will empty of discs before this happens. If a colour completes a goal, the player with the most of that colour behind their screen wins. If the game goes to the end, you instead win by having sets of all three animal discs.
Upland & Prairie is quick and easy to teach and the time on the box is accurate, with games lasting around 15 to 30 minutes. The artwork is OK and the pieces are perfectly serviceable, presenting value for the £25 price tag.
What makes the game more interesting are the Rewilding discs. These are distributed differently depending on which side of the tiles you use (upland or prairie), but work the same way regardless. At first, only one animal disc can be placed per tile, making blocking easy. But as Rewilding discs are randomly drawn, this increases to two and then three discs per space. These can be of the same animal type, meaning blocking is still possible.
Where Upland & Prairie falls short is in creating enough fun to return for multiple plays. The mechanisms work, but not well enough to maintain my interest. The biggest problem is control. I rarely felt I had enough agency to make my decisions as interesting as they should be, as the maps were far too open and the rewilding happened too frequently to keep things tight. Whether this is because the game is too basic, or the maps too dull, I’m not sure. But in each play, we all thought something was intrinsically missing.
Upland & Prairie is, in many ways, Acquire Lite. You’re betting on which shared resource will come out on top, while strengthening its position and spoiling others.While it isn’t a bad game, it’s not a good one either, and it will not live long in the memory. It feels undercooked, as it lacks agency to be a great abstract and the range of options that might interest those looking for a more complex experience are sadly missing.
Play Upland & Prairie?
Maybe
While there’s not much wrong with Upland & Prairie, being small and quick, there is also nothing to write home about.
Try This if you Liked
Much like Acquire, in Upland & Prairie you’re betting on which shared resource will come out on top, while strengthening its position and spoiling others.
Category: Family games & Party games
Designer: Peer Sylvester
Publisher: Osprey Games
Time to Play: 15-25m
Players: 2-4 Players
Age: 14+
RRP: £25
Upland & Prairie: What’s in the Box?
7 Map pieces
Cardboard tile
8 Screens
74 Wooden discs
Draw bag
Sometimes you walk into a room and there’s an energy crackling in it. As we enter a private upper room in Excel, Natural Six (the people we might have expected to be rolling their eyes as they wait for us to cross the expansive floor of MCM Comic Con) are deep in a conversation we can get on board with. “This guy who was there 45 minutes before my mate, they opened the doors, he’s the first person in the queue, and they said, ‘You can buy two packs’ and he just walked out. He was a scalper, he wanted to buy loads of boxes,” says actor Harry McEntire, before voice actor Ben Starr adds, “I do think, and this is not a disrespect, that Pokémon has become what NFTs wanted to be. They’re a better investment than property.” “I saw someone’s post that they had kept their McDonald’s Szechuan sauce from Rick and Morty in a container for nine years, and when they went back to check, the thing had exploded. They didn’t put it in the fridge,” actor and voice artist Alex Jordan offers. “Put it in the fridge!” Harry says agonisingly, before running with the theme, “I like it when you see the people who are opening World War II rations. Have you seen that? It’s great. You can buy rations they gave to paratroopers in 1941 and you twist it all with a little metal thing.” “Hi,” says Holly Bennett, Content Creator, PR and Community Manager, as she rearranges the chairs for us to chat more easily, “we’re a D&D actual play series, specialising in Pokémon cards and old rations.”
A thought flashes into our heads: “It’s like the nerd Avengers has assembled.” Having skated the worlds of gadgets, movies, sci-fi, Dungeons & Dragons and tabletop gaming so far in journalism, we’re not sure that if one of them dropped Thor’s hammer at our feet we’d feel worthy enough to pick it up. These might just be the coolest people we’ve ever met.
NATURAL SIX ASSEMBLE
Every D&D group has an origin story and for Natural Six it feels like the strings of fate were pulling particularly hard. Alex went to a BAFTA Games social night where he got chatting to actor and voice artist Doug Cockle about D&D. A week later, he bumped into Ben on a video game job, who he had met at another game social, and he thought he also seemed like somebody who might be down to play some D&D. Writer, Producer and Host Aoife Wilson and Holly had worked in the games industry for 10-plus years. Holly met Ben at a house party, and then Ben contacted her the next day to ask, “Do you want to play D&D?” At that same house party, Ben got talking to members of the Oxventure D&D actual play. “And every time I said I wanted to play D&D,” Ben recalls, “they said, ‘Have you ever met Harry McEntire. He’s amazing. He’s like the best D&D player we’ve ever played with. You’ve got to meet Harry.’ And so I reached out.”
Harry’s experience with Oxventure was also somewhat fortuitous. He was at MCM London in October 2021, the first show after Covid, signing for the hit TV show The Last Kingdom. “I said to my booker, ‘All I want from conventions is to play D&D on a live show, that’s all I really care about.’ One of the Oxventure cast couldn’t attend, so I came on and guested. I asked my agent, ‘Which one is it, by the way?’ And he said, ‘It’s MCM.’ I didn’t know what MCM was. I was literally imagining it being in a card shop or in a game shop. So I Googled it and went, “Oh no!’”
Having been pulled into fate’s inevitable web, a WhatsApp group was started. “And then we thought, we should we just meet up and see if we actually get along,” Aoife remembers. “We went to a pub and had five bottles of rosé. And that’s when we said, ‘By the way, Doug, this isn’t just a game, it’s an actual play.’”
Another issue to conquer was how six people with such busy schedules were going to meet regularly. You might think it’s tough getting your friends together to roleplay, but imagine if that group contained the iconic voice of Geralt of Rivia (Doug) from The Witcher video games or Mr. Hands (Alex) from Cyberpunk 2077!
“As I’m sure pretty all of your readers will have come across, the one thing that everyone says about roleplaying is the problem of how you get six people around the table consistently. It’s really hard, considering how busy everyone is,” Ben (the voice of Clive Rosfield in Final Fantasy XVI) admits.
“About twice a year we sit in the studio and we open up all our diaries, and there’s invariably at least one or two people who say, ‘Before we start, once we get to August, I’m so sorry, I can do this Monday, and that’s it till October,” Harry adds, before Aoife ends with, “We’ve scheduled until 2027.”
HOW NOT TO LIVEPLAY
“The way that you should do an actual play, if you are starting and you’re trying to build an audience and a community, is you do it on Zoom, you record remotely, someone sticks it together in an edit, and you gradually expand into the space you create for yourself as that community grows along with you and is able to financially support you,” Harry says, as if he’s reading from the actual play manual, before tearing the metaphorical book in half. “We knew we didn’t want to do that. We knew we wanted to make something that felt like an elevated home game, with some of the bells and whistles that you would love to have in your own home game, and it immediately became apparent that that was going to cost money. We didn’t have the money to fund it ourselves.
“We looked into crowdfunding, and as soon as we decided that’s what we wanted to do, we understood that if you’re going to take money from people who are willing to take a chance on a hypothetical show, you’ve got to reward them with the highest production values you can. We were at Double Jump Studios, who were amazing, for the first two years, and they helped us put together those initial episodes at an extraordinary discount. We recorded a session zero, which we released, and we did a show at EGX.”
“EGX was the springboard, because at the end we had the QR code to lead the audience to the Kickstarter,” continues Alex, with Harry adding, “The Kickstarter hadn’t even gone live at that point.” “And then the dimensions were off on the projector and the QR code didn’t work,” Alex notes with a sigh.
But Doug knew something special was happening: “We used EGX as the proof of concept for the Kickstarter. We knew if people signed up, then we can at least start. But we showed up and the live show was packed, and it was largely because we were all known in the industry in one way or another. So people came to see the show and to see what we were all about, and they went, ‘These guys are great!’”
“It’s weird that we have this thing that started over some bottles of rosé and a dream,” Ben says, “This is our second job. All of us do other things, but we’re able to make it as good as it can possibly be, because doing actual play is very expensive…” “…Doing our version of an actual play is very expensive,” Harry corrects him.
“Our Christmas special is the most elaborate mini set we’ve ever had,” Ben remembers. “It cost so much that Alex put his own money in,” Harry explains, “because he outstripped any mini budget I had ever used in the main campaign, and money was a bit tight at that point!”
“Alex does nothing by half. Or by whole, quite frankly,” Holly chips in. “I think it took more time to even try and construct the cottage that you had made.” “Don’t call it a cottage,” Harry counters, “it was like a cottage on a royal estate!”
“It’s been wonderful, though, because from that point we knew how great our community was going to be,” Aoife says. “Each of us brought their own community into Natural Six, and watching that grow on Discord and elsewhere has been fantastic, because they’re all just so fucking cool and creative. The fan art and all of the additional stuff is amazing, and it makes you really excited to come to shows like MCM, because you get to actually meet them in person.”
“We were just walking across the floor out there in the middle of MCM and bumped into a person cosplaying as your character,” Alex says excitedly, with Holly adding: “And the Episode 50 outfit!”
DUNGEON MASTER DRAMAS
While Harry takes on duties as the Dungeon Master for Natural Six, Aoife and Alex also have some DM chops. Is there a chance one of them might get a shot at Harry’s throne? “I’m comfortable doing our one shots, but I wouldn’t want to take on your world,” Aoife says honestly, which is music to Harry’s ears.
“In terms of who’s helming the main story, that very much feels like my thing now,” he confirms, “and I’d be pissed and worried if they all sat me down and went, we really feel Aoife should become the DM. But what we have talked about is maybe doing a miniseries or something similar.”
“And in my head, without being too specific, it’s a trilogy and we are still in Book One. After that, I’m going to need a little bit of runway to get Book Two ready. That might be a time I would be interested to see if Aoife, Alex or one of the rest of the gang wanted to do three to six episodes. It’s like The Silmarillion, when you start to read the expanded Tolkien.”
It’s possible that stand-in DM might have their hands full with Harry as a player. “I’m a forever DM really,” he states. “So my friends in my home game decided to honour me by DMing for me, so that I could play. They all prepped different bits of Lost Mine of Phandelver, and I played a character called Cyrus Obsidian, who was impossible to DM for, because I was such a problem player. I had problems with authority, and I would storm out of rooms – it’s really quite embarrassing.”
“How old were you?” Holly asks, with Harry replying, “Like 29! It was just before my 30th birthday. But I didn’t come to D&D until I was about 26 or 27, which is when I became aware of it, and then I started playing at 28. I didn’t know about it when I was a kid.”
“I was a forever DM for a very long time. My first time ever DMing was live on the official Dungeons & Dragons Twitch channel, for grime artists, so that was fucking terrifying,” Aoife shares, with Holly adding, “An incredible introduction, by the way, live on the official channel with grime artists.”
“DMing is easy,” Doug throws in, potentially baiting his fellow Sixers, with Holly interjecting, “DMing is fine, but not for you lot.” It’s up to Harry to spill her secret: “Holly said she’d never DM, and now she DMs on the sly at a local club.” “I’ll just say good luck to you all, because I’m a much meaner DM than he is. I’ll be looking to kill you,” Aoife offers, raising the stakes. But the last word goes to Harry: “I’m still looking to kill you all. Remember, there’s a live show later.”
Welcome to our monthly Crowdfunding Picks! We’re once again shining a spotlight on the tabletop gaming campaigns that have caught our eye – whether they’re gearing up to launch, live on a platform or in late pledge/pre-order. Rather than a scattershot approach, we’re focusing on the projects we genuinely think deserve your attention – from exciting TTRPGs and inventive board games to clever card games and more.
Below, you’ll find a quick explanation of what makes each project stand out, as well as the reason we’re so excited about them. Whether it’s a concept we can’t wait to see brought to life, a stunning presentation or unique gameplay elements, click through to learn more and support these clever creators.
CATS FISH
Publisher/Creator: Purgatory Games
Status: LIVE NOW!
What they say: A new take on a classic pair-building game, as you create sets of three or five cat cards to score points. But there’s a twist! Players can swap any card that’s been played, boost three card sets out to five card sets and play various action cards.
Why we like it: There are five action cards that make your set building more fun, more chaotic and different every game. Watch out for the Impawster card – a cute pug card that can be played in the place of any other cat card. Plus, get 20 per cent off the game for the first 48 hours for early pledges!
SATISFACTORY: THE BOARD GAME
Publisher/Creator: MOOD Publishing
Status: LIVE NOW!
What they say: Race your rivals to complete the Space Elevator and become Employee of the Planet. Build production lines, optimise your network and prove you’re FICSIT’s best Pioneer.
Why we like it: Based on the video game and created by the people who brought you Deep Rock Galactic, Valheim and Hitman: The Board Game, Satisfactory’s gameplay tracker is a 32cm space elevator that should dominate the table.
BEYOND THE VEIL
Publisher/Creator: Wrenegade Studios
Status: Launching Soon
What they say: A supernatural investigation tabletop roleplaying game – uncover the truth and survive the unknown in this narrative-driven RPG.
Why we like it: The game is about ordinary people making extraordinary discoveries – think The X-Files meets Stranger Things. While what you find might be frightening, since every mystery has multiple paths to resolution, you’ll almost always find a bloodless path.
BABY BESTIARY 2027 CALENDAR
Publisher/Creator: Baby Bestiary
Status: LIVE NOW!
What they say: Explore a new year of the adorable with the 2027 Baby Bestiary Calendar, illustrated by Jaen Nighly Butler.
Why we like it: Each year Baby Bestiary sponsors an artist to illustrate the annual calendar, with Jaen Nighly Butler drawing upon video-game nostalgia for 2027 to show off tabletop gaming’s creatures in their cutest form.
THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS
Publisher/Creator: Allplay
Status: Launching October 27, 2026
What they say: Twenty-eight years later, this classic Reiner Knizia route-builder gets a sequel!
Why we like it: Allplay promises that Through the Mountains is not simply a re-theme and offers new gameplay and decisions. The sequel to Through the Desert should still deliver that tight, elbows-out tension that made the first game so beloved.
Want to be the first to get key information about great new games, killer crowdfunders and classics that demand a place in your games bag? Our newsletter subscribers get our latest articles delivered before they’re published online!
Hello gamers! Editing Tabletop Gaming magazine is a bit like being a time traveller. You’re constantly looking forward to the next awesome top-tier event, before looking back at the best of gaming. We have two event previews (Lucca Comics & Games in Italy on p14; Dragonmeet in London on p16), before reliving the recent Fighting Fantasy Fest (p39).
And while we’re always testing out the next big thing – with a massive 36 reviews in this issue! – with 11 years under our belt, we also wander back through our magazine’s past in From the Vaults (p12), before taking a deep dive into modern classic Scout (p26) and getting schooled on the 1915 game Poleana (p82), which is a big hit in Mexican prisons.
If only our home office had the qualities of Doctor Who’s Tardis to deal with the number of boxes being delivered at this time of year!
Happy gaming!
The full highlights for Issue 120 of Tabletop Gaming magazine include…
MARVEL: CRISIS PROTOCOL ALLIANCES – NIGHT OF THE GOBLIN
Will Shick and Will Pagani take us into the Spider-Verse as our heroes try to keep the green fella in check.
LUCCA COMICS & GAMES PREVIEW
The full guest lineup for Italy’s premier pop-culture convention sees two heavyweight roleplaying games going head-to-head!
DISCWORLD’S NEWEST BOARD GAMES
Kill Sam Vimes and Readers Digested bring Terry Pratchett’s madcap world to your tabletop.
DRAGONMEET 2026 PREVIEW
A look ahead to the popular London show, as owner John Dodd reviews the move to ExCeL London one year on.
FIGHTING FANTASY FEST
Mira Manga becomes the hero in the 40th anniversary year for the classic book series.
FALLOUT: WASTELAND WARFARE SECOND EDITION
Evie Moriarty, Lead Game Designer at Modiphius, braves the apocalypse and picks their favourite Fallout faction.
WHAT’S HOT
The latest and greatest games capturing everyone’s attention, including Electrify, Falling and -60°.
DISCWORLD ROLEPLAYING GAME
A new sourcebook for the regions of Lancre and Überwald lets you play as any kind of witch.
INDIE RPG ROUNDUP
Previewing horror-adjacent projects such as Bloodthirst and chatting with Breathless designer René-Pier Deshaies.
FROM THE VAULTS
We pore over 11 years of Tabletop Gaming issues, digging up some exclusive Frostgrave and Vaesen downloads.
TABLETOP TIME MACHINE
David Parlett highlights Poleana, a board game that’s surprisingly popular with Mexican prisoners.
GAME ADJACENT
This month’s coolest gear includes dice with real flowers in them from Ditzy Little Dice and a Baldur’s Gate III cookbook.
10 OF THE BEST: GAMES FROM THE 2010s
The decade that delivered us Brexit and President Trump Act I was still heavily influenced by crowdfunded games.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED
What to play if you enjoyed Ito.
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS & WARCRAFT
The D&D team unveils full details of the World of Warcraft crossover.
DISNEY LORCANA ROADMAP
The latest Lorecast shines a light on Hyperia City, Into the Inkdark and Cosmic Quest.
UNBOXED: SCOUT
Games designer Kei Kajino’s ladder-climbing hi-jinks inevitably lead us to a Big Top.
ON THE CARDS
Ross Gilbert highlights a wider trend among trading card games – it’s not just about the cards anymore.
REVIEWS
Our extensive reviews section covers every kind of game no matter which genre you prefer, with Enchanted Ivy, Avalon: The Riven Veil, Remonstered: The Monsters Know What They’re Doing, Codenames: Critical Role, Daggerheart: Hope & Fear, Loners, Duel of Meloch, Mazing, Fallout: The Battle for Boston, Honeypot, MÖRK ORG and Split the Hoard just some of the 36 games in our sights this issue.
“The Mad Vizier invites you to the Inaugural Ribbon Cutting of his Grand Convocation of Architects, to be commenced at the Palace Grounds (formerly Cubyria Public Gardens) Tomorrow, 20 October 2026. That’s a fancy way of saying that… the Cubyria Kickstarter campaign goes live tomorrow!”
That’s Cubyria founder James Borda announcing the crowdfunding campaign for his game, and we spoke to James as part of our ‘So you want to make a game?’ panel at Tabletop Gaming Live earlier this year. At that time, James said events provide the ideal way to interact with players ahead of the crowdfunder which is now coming to pass.
“Generally, what happens is that people spot the game from across the room, and they say, ‘Oh, what’s that? I want to take a look at that.’ And they come over and I give them my pitch, and I give that pitch 45 times a day,” he explains. “They generally ask questions about the game, the gameplay, when is it going to be available? Occasionally, people have questions about the rules as well, after they go through a playtest. After the panel discussion at Tabletop Gaming Live, there were some really nice conversations with people who came over because they wanted to talk about design and about the industry and how to get involved. I didn’t have a whole lot of useful advice about how to get involved in the industry, but I had some useful advice about design.”
And it turns out that Tabletop Gaming Live was the first stop in a very busy 2026 schedule. “I’m going to be at AireCon and at UK Games Expo. We’re also going to be at Gen Con and at Spiel Essen,” he says. “There’s also a small festival called the Strange Games Festival, which is really great and is not a traditional convention at all – there aren’t really sales there. It’s mostly just people getting together to play games. I went to a couple of their events last year and brought my game and invited people to play, and it was a great atmosphere.
“But we have a whole schedule that we’re weighing back and forth – hopefully PAX in the United States, as well as PAX Unplugged right at the end of the year. We did Dragonmeet last year and we may do that again. Dragonmeet is also sponsoring a new event called Call to Adventure and we’re slated to be at that.”
An amazing moment on the panel was when Gareth Edwards from Frog Hall Games offered his first piece of advice: Don’t quit your day job. This was quickly followed by James’ response that he had indeed quit his day job to make Cubyria!
“It’s that thing they say, it’s like jumping off a cliff and trying to build the plane as you fall. But I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t really, really feel that we’ve got something special that’s saleable.”
Mantic is about to launch the Halo: Flashpoint Fast Grow Challenge, a huge community hobby event featuring familiar YouTube faces and talented Instagram painters. It kicks off on Friday 23rd October 2026 and there are over 40 content creators joining Team Mantic for the challenge.
The full line-up for the Halo: Flashpoint Fast Grow Challenge is below:
What’s the Fast Grow Challenge?
So, what is actually is a Fast Grow Challenge? You’ve probably heard of a hobby Slow Grow: build and paint an army gradually over a longer period. Earlier this year, Mantic ran one for Kings of War, with members of Team Mantic taking part alongside the community.
For Halo Flashpoint, Mantic has decided to turn the idea on its head. Why? Because it thinks one of the great things about Halo Flashpoint is how quickly you can get it onto the tabletop. Many Fireteams are made up of just four miniatures, so you don’t need months of painting before you can start playing.
In fact, the team believe you can do it in just nine days! Here’s the event timeline:
- Choose a Halo Flashpoint Fireteam.
- Start painting on 23 October.
- Get it battle-ready by 1 November.
Gamers are being asked to share their progress with the hashtag: #HaloFastGrow
Does the Fast Grow Challenge have a prize?
The Army Painter is supporting the Fast Grow challenge, with a prize draw for people who complete the challenge that could scoop you an Army Painter Speedpaint Wargamers Mega Set 2.0 box set of paints worth £187.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas at PokemonCenter.com as the 2026 Pokémon Holiday Collection (going by the name Winter Night Sky) is now available in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – and is coming soon to the UK and Germany.
Perfect for the holiday season, this year’s Pokémon lineup includes:
Pokémon 2026 Holiday Collection Festive Apparel
Bundle up for a winter wonderland of Pokémon fun with cozy festive knits and woolly holiday pyjamas from Pokémon Centre. Featuring a mix of brand-new favourites and beloved evergreen styles, this seasonal collection is filled with snuggly fabrics, merry colours and Pokémon perfectly suited for chilly-season adventures. From knit sweaters to irresistibly soft beanies and more, these cheerful cold-weather companions are ready to keep Trainers warm all winter long.
Pokémon 2026 Holiday Collection Home Decor
Trainers can deck the halls with an assortment of home decor featuring Pikachu, Amaura, Mew, Piplup and more, created to fill days with holiday cheer. A variety of ornaments, stockings, table runners, gift-wrapping supplies and new additions to the collectible Holiday Pokémon Village are now available.
Pokémon 2026 Holiday Collection Plush & Accessories
Fans can also snuggle up with adorable holiday plush (including plush key chains) featuring fan-favourite Pokémon, buy evergreen items such as countdown calendars and wrap their presents using Pokémon gift wrap.
Fans of Vampire: The Masquerade have a unique opportunity: to turn their original vampire character into an official card in Vampire: The Masquerade – Clans of London through a new competition from Well Played Games. Entries are open now until 31 October 2026, giving players, LARPers, cosplayers and anyone with an original vampire character the opportunity to leave a lasting mark on Clans of London.
Running alongside World of Darkness’s Month of Darkness, Crimson Legacy celebrates the creativity of the Vampire: The Masquerade community, inviting fans from around the world to showcase their original vampires through photography or short-form video. One winner receives a professional photoshoot in the UK to bring their character into the free-to-play mobile game.
The winner will travel to the Well Played Games studio in Leamington Spa for a professional photoshoot before collaborating directly with the development team. Together, they will develop their vampire’s backstory, gameplay ability and final card design, before the character becomes a permanent part of Clans of London.
What can you win in the Clans of London competition?
The Crimson Legacy winner will receive a trip to the UK to take part in the creation of their official Vampire: The Masquerade – Clans of London card.
The prize package includes:
- A professional photoshoot at the Well Played Games studio in Leamington Spa.
- Return flights to London.
- Travel between London and Leamington Spa.
- Three nights’ accommodation in London.
- £500 spending money.
Every card in Clans of London features a photograph of a real person, enhanced by artists. Well Played Games emphasises that the game uses real-person photography rather than AI-generated imagery, making the opportunity to appear on a card a chance for one fan to become part of the game’s distinctive visual identity.
How to enter the Vampire: The Masquerade competition
To enter Crimson Legacy, participants must share their original vampire character as a photo or short-form video on social media using the official hashtags #CrimsonLegacy26 and #ClansofLondon. They must then register their submission through the official Crimson Legacy competition website.
Entries must be participants’ own original work. AI-generated content is not permitted, and submissions cannot use third-party trademarks, characters or other intellectual property without permission. All entries must also be lawful and appropriate.
Once the submission period closes on 31 October, the Clans of London team will select a shortlist of finalists. Community voting will then take place in-game and on the Clans of London website from 16–30 November 2026.
The winner is expected to be announced on or around 3 December 2026. Full terms and conditions are available on the Crimson Legacy competition website.
Vampire: The Masquerade team celebrates fan creativity
“October is the most important time of year here at White Wolf,” says Debbie Lane, Communications Manager at White Wolf. “Being able to celebrate the fans that make Vampire: The Masquerade matter to so many is the highlight of our year. The opportunity to get your own vampire character immortalised like a true Kindred is a great way to start off the Month of Darkness!”
“The Vampire: The Masquerade community has always been about creating your own characters and telling stories. Fans have been creating and bringing their own vampires to life for decades,” adds Adam Wells, Executive Producer at Well Played Games. “With Crimson Legacy, we wanted to take that one step further and give someone the chance to see a character they created become a real part of Clans of London. We can’t wait to see who the community brings to life.”
What is Vampire: The Masquerade – Clans of London?
Developed by Well Played Games, Vampire: The Masquerade – Clans of London is a free-to-play competitive card battler for iOS and Android. The game combines fast-paced, five-minute player-versus-player matches with a distinctive king-of-the-hill battle system. Players can build decks from hundreds of cards featuring iconic Vampire: The Masquerade clans, then fight for control of London. Seasonal, community-driven events also allow players to influence the city’s evolving story.
Avalon Hill has revealed Tideward, the newest game from designer Connie Vogelmann, where players help guide baby sea turtles to safety. Each year, thousands of baby sea turtles take their first steps toward the tide – a journey brimming with wonder, but also danger! Now, that incredible journey from sand to sea can be experienced by players in a new tabletop adventure.
“We’re down here in Tortuguero, Costa Rica, with the Sea Turtle Conservancy,” Game Designer Connie says on Instagram. “Grounding the game in a real place has been absolutely fantastic. Specific predators, specific food sources. We’ve been working with the sea turtle conservancy, who have been showing us all kinds of amazing things about sea turtles – about how they hatch, about how the eggs are laid.”
Tortuguero has the largest green sea turtle rookery in the Western Hemisphere and the Sea Turtle Conservancy has fact-checked the game.
“Seeing the mama sea turtles laboriously come up onto the beach, dig a giant hole, actually lay their eggs, and then – absolutely exhausted – make their way back to the sea,” Connie continues. “We’ve gotten to see the baby sea turtles running with all their might toward this giant wave. I mean, you just have to realise how incredible the natural world is in ways that we don’t ever see, and Tideward is a game all about that.”
Tideward is a game for ages 10 and up, with four ways to play, depending on which Algal Mat you select. Players can take three actions in any combination: hatch eggs, gain food or move one of their hatchlings toward the algae.
Players guide baby green sea turtles on their big journey from the sand to the open water and out to the safety of the algal mats. Beware of the ghost crabs that lurk on the beach, or your hopeful hatchlings will perish.
The game ends when one player gets all their hatchlings to the water, and players score their points from their Tide Quest card and how they arrange their turtles on the Algal Mat. The player with the highest score wins.
Tideward hits local game stores in January 2027 but those attending Spiel Essen can swing by Hall 7, Stand 7E211 to be one of the first to play Tideward on the Avalon Hill stand.