Welcome to An Eye on Gaming, by Accidental Cyclops Games.
Issue #1
In This Issue:
- A New View of Gen Con
- What’s Up with This Newsletter?!
- The More You Know
A Gen Con Worth Remembering (and Repeating)
Our tiny team is located in and around Indianapolis, so attending Gen Con is almost required. Honestly, I have nothing but sympathy for the hordes of dedicated gamers who are forced to pay exorbitant lodging prices to come to Gen Con. There’s a good chance I wouldn’t attend at all if it wasn’t 6 miles from my house and lodging wasn’t free for me. For the past several years, Gen Con has been a sort of “work event” for me (and much of the rest of the team). In retrospect, that is probably why I have not been excited about it in recent years.
But this year was different. I had a ton of fun, and so did everyone I have talked to about the event. Gen Con didn’t change, at least not significantly. What changed were my attitude and my expectations for it this year. I decided to be a player… to register for as many new games as I possibly could, and approach each with wonder and excitement. It worked! Sometimes a strategic reframing is just what we need to add more enjoyment to our lives.
Here are some of our reflections on Gen Con 2026.
Michael’s Reflections
One thing I enjoy about conventions is a chance to play TTRPGs that aren’t in the regular rotation with my gaming groups. Here are my favorite games from Gen Con this year and my favorite thing about each:
- The One Ring > I loved the strategic and tactical combat system, which had the proper amount of abstraction and simulation. Free League continues to make great games!
- Beak, Feather, & Bone > It’s a perfect blend of emergent creativity and collaborative storytelling in a tidy indie game… with crayons!
- Rusalka > Though the new (gorgeous!) version hasn’t been released yet, we played the prototype at Games on Demand. It is creepy, collaborative, creative myth-building at its best. The new version goes to market later this year!
Nathan’s Reflections
There is a certain kind of magic when you play games with random people… small moments and unique stories that are created together with people you may never see again.
Games on Demand (GoD) is great for facilitating these kinds of moments because of the nature of the games and the people interested in playing them. If you aren’t familiar with GoD, here is how it works. You head up to the GoD table and get a “boarding pass” which has a random letter of the alphabet. This is your random chance to try one of the games, which are described on laminated sheets of paper on the same table. The GoD organizers then randomly draw letters, and when your letter is called, you head up, check which games are still available, and select one that interests you. You then head to the table, where a GM/facilitator will run the game for you and the others who selected the same game. Because of this simple format, you know that the other players at your table not only support indie games, but are also interested in this same game and, like you, may be experiencing this game for the first time.
In my experience, this perfect storm creates tables that are kind, collaborative, and fun. This year’s GoD experience was great, and I got to experience some awesome games, one of which I fully plan to run at my home table: Public Access. Public Access is a paranormal horror RPG set in 2004 that really hits the nostalgia nail on the head for those of us who lived our formative years during that era. But beyond the Hot Topic style, the game had solid substance with its clue-based investigation system and collaborative storytelling approach. It is going to be a great game to pull out when you need a one-or two-shot or a change of pace from your weekly games.
That story you told together, and the connections you made in just a couple of hours, are that Gen Con magic, but really it’s the magic of TTRPGs, storytelling games, and good people. Magic that creates unique stories, drama, and emotions that are yours briefly but also forever.
Peercy’s Reflections
Gen Con is the time of year I always enjoy. I get to meet up with old friends and make new ones. But this year was exceptional. As an academic, author, and game designer, I spend my time working the convention, running panels and workshops, and networking with other folks in the industry.
- Trade Day talks: Discussing TTRPGs in education and seeing the growing respect for the study of play was good for the soul.
- Our annual interview with Tracy Hickman is like getting together with family, and we made a new friend! Check out the interview here.
- Experiencing sold-out panels and workshops for Worlds Within was truly uplifting. Check out my world-building tips here.
- We received great GM and player feedback from sold-out playtesting groups for The Chronicles of Naboria materials, a future Accidental Cyclops 5e setting and adventure campaign.
Ward’s Reflections
I managed to play 9 sessions (nearly 30 hours) of games this year, which is not only a record, it nearly doubled my previous best year! Honestly, it transformed my perception of the entire event. I have often complained about the objectively bad ticketing methodology that Gen Con uses (I’m not going to do that here), but this year it worked in my favor (I was sub-1000 in the queue). I got into many of the games I had been yearning to play. Here are my thoughts on a few of them.
- Legend in the Mist – This is likely to be my favorite fantasy game for the foreseeable future. It hits all of the right notes: Unconstrained (no classes or levels) character creation and advancement, low (but present) randomness, emergent stories, and the perfect level of abstraction. I don’t tend to lean into “cozy fantasy,” which this borders on, but that can easily be worked around. The system is the perfect combination of Powered-by-the-Apocalypse and Fate Accelerated, with most of the additions to those systems adding options for longer campaigns and greater character advancement.
- Coriolis: The Great Dark – I played a session of the Free League game, and despite only 2 of the 5 players showing up, we had a blast! We opted to run the adventure as intended, rather than nerfing for fewer players, and boyo, did we get our butts kicked, and in all the right ways. The game is about exploring ancient ruins from long-dead civilizations, in space! It has the feel of Mass Effect meets Alien, and it is great!
- Games on Demand – As noted above, always a blast! You often get to play indie titles with the actual designers, which is a real treat.
- Picaro! – This indie title has the spirit of The Three Musketeers, Zorro, and Don Quixote. To be honest, I didn’t really notice much about the system, other than its ease and player agency. What really struck me was the unapologetic effort to focus on sticking it to the man!
What’s Up with This Newsletter
You are receiving this newsletter because you have supported us in some way over the years. Maybe you backed The Real Thing or Surviving Strangehollow. Maybe you played some games with us at a convention. Maybe you registered as a VIP backer for one of our projects, but just weren’t in a position to buy at the time. Regardless, we’re happy to have you!
We’re trying something new… a roughly monthly newsletter focused on the many positive things happening in the TTRPG and board game world. We intend to focus on cool things happening in gaming across the industry, but with a focus on the indie side of things. We may promote a few things here and there, but only things we believe in. Mostly, however, we’re giving our perspective as people slowly creeping our way into the inside of the industry after having been fans for decades.
If you choose to unsubscribe, we totally understand. Everyone’s email inboxes are stuffed with garbage these days. But we hope you give us a chance. We aren’t sending garbage. We intend for this periodic missive to be insightful, inspiring, and positive. We all need that right now.
The More You Know
- RPG Trader, a great new indie game sales platform, has a great bundle with over $800 worth of indie titles for $30. We have Book 1 of The Real Thing in the bundle. If you end up liking the first book, you can grab the 2nd and 3rd books here. The physical boxed set is in short supply, but we have a few left, here.
- For fans of both 5E and Vampire: The Masquerade, WOTC, White Wolf, and Ghostfire Gaming recently released Bound by Blood. It’s a bit weird, I must admit, but I feel like it works at what it is trying to do… create Kindred in the 5E milieu. Also, the Accidental Cyclops team were all playtesters with the lead designer, Bryan C.P. Steele.
- For backers of Surviving Strangehollow, check out the latest update and make sure your order is complete! Books are almost here, and you can complete your order and get your PDFs at PledgeManager.
As always, thanks for your support!
Jason Ward and the Accidental Cyclops Team