Welcome home. This is Audio EXP, the weekly podcast from Geek Native. I am your host, Girdy, and today is the 26th of September, 2026. This week, we examine a sweeping policy shift from the UK’s biggest tabletop convention, dig into how augmented reality is taking classic percentile mechanics outside without corporate entanglements, look at an AI bot traffic onslaught hitting community media, and track major moves across comics, video games, and international chess politics.
[The following is a transcript of Audio EXP: #349]
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Before diving into the headlines, an update on our September RPG Publisher Spotlight. We are actively speaking with Simon from Red Ruin Publishing, but we don’t have all the interview answers back in the editorial inbox yet. We’ll keep pushing, and if the feature goes live slightly late this month, then we are late. As we touched on last week, their non-commercial licence for Dragon Warriors means they cannot earn money from those books, making them a true labour of love. We want to give their design philosophy the careful space it deserves.
Our lead story this week is provoking immense approval across social media. UK Games Expo has banned generative AI art, text, and merchandise across all NEC trade halls. The updated exhibitor regulations establish an unambiguous baseline for creative provenance, requiring that all products displayed or sold must be created by human hands. Assistive tools for basic spelling, layout software, and accessibility aids remain permitted, but machine-generated illustrations, prose, and print-on-demand goods are prohibited. Organisers retain absolute discretion to inspect stalls and order the immediate withdrawal of non-compliant stock, with non-compliant sellers facing immediate stand closure and permanent bans from the NEC. The mandate aligns Britain’s flagship event with regional conventions like Tabletop Scotland and Dragonmeet, drawing a clean line across the national scene.
In our follow-up on emerging mobile technology, we sat down for an exclusive interview with QuestXR co-founder Adam Lesh to discuss taking Basic Roleplaying outside under the ORC licence. The Los Angeles tech studio is launching an augmented-reality mobile title that projects encounters and clues onto physical parks, streets, and cultural institutions without QR codes or physical markers. The critical detail here is licensing: rather than an exclusive corporate tie-up, QuestXR built the game directly on Chaosium’s open d100 engine via the Open RPG Creative (ORC) licence. This grants the team complete creative and operational independence while preserving authentic percentile mechanics and tabletop character sheets out in the open air.
Meanwhile, community infrastructure is facing intense digital pressure. Independent tabletop news portal EN World is fighting severe server slowdowns under a barrage of 90,000 automated AI bots. Long-standing forum communities and niche hobby archives are finding their bandwidth overwhelmed by aggressive commercial web crawlers harvesting human discussions for language models. The incident illustrates the uninvited operational strain small web publishers face just keeping server lights on. You might even start seeing a tip jar prompt here at Geek Native to help with server costs.
In collectable accessories, tabletop manufacturing is pushing ahead despite corporate retreats. Sirius Dice has unveiled an officially licensed Star Trek collection featuring oversized resin ships suspended inside polyhedrals and randomised blind boxes. Wizards of the Coast recently cancelled the planned Magic: The Gathering Star Trek Beginner Box, but Sirius is moving straight ahead with the accessory line. The launch features 25mm Spindown life counters, faction-themed dice cups, and showpiece d20s encasing detailed Federation, Klingon, and Borg vessels. British and European collectors should note that Sirius has paused direct international web store orders, meaning hobbyists will need to rely on local retail imports.
On the international sports and strategy stage, international sanctions have upended chess governance. Kazakh billionaire Timur Turlov has won the World Chess presidency following a sanctions shake-up that sidelined long-standing Russian political influence within the governing body. The leadership shift marks an extraordinary geopolitical pivot for the global game, transferring administrative control to a financial executive with close ties to Central Asian tech investment.
In video game and comics news:
- FromSoftware’s critically acclaimed action title Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is receiving an official anime adaptation on Crunchyroll, bringing the shinobi’s bloody Sengoku-period journey to screen.
- Digital comic platform Sweet Shop has officially opened its app to the public following a successful private beta, establishing an independent reader storefront designed to challenge legacy distribution channels.
For something wonderfully quirky in the indie space, we review Ballads of the Lilypond, a poetic roleplaying game of honourable pond knights. The rules trade grimdark violence for whimsical Arthurian chivalry among amphibians, pairing rhyming resolution mechanics with charming micro-scale quests.
At the other end of the tabletop theatre spectrum, Dungeons & Shakespeare is launching the Chaos in Verona adventure module with a global actual play livestream. The release packages the improvised Elizabethan comedy from their festival run into an official 5e-compatible scenario, letting tables cause their own chaotic family feuds.
Over in hobby craft, we published an investigative look at wild trapping, Siberian weasels, and the harsh supply-chain realities behind budget Kolinsky sable brushes. The piece analyses how geopolitical trade shifts and cheap online marketplace imports often conceal brutal, unregulated animal harvesting, urging miniature painters to scrutinise brush provenance. This is a rare story for the site and ate up much more desk research time than usual, but once I had found an animal cruelty angle to tabletop painting I found it hard to let go.
Bronwen has also secured an exciting site exclusive. You can check out exclusive first-look images for Squadron of Rogues, an upcoming all-day Rebel Country megagame. The event puts dozens of participants into the briefing rooms and tactical seats of an asymmetric galactic war, managing fleet logistics and secret personal agendas in real time.
Finally, we wrap up with two excellent digital bundles to expand your digital shelves:
- The Dungeon Masters Guild Top Content bundle on Humble brings together acclaimed community supplements and adventures for 5e.
- The Heavy Gear Fourth Edition bundle on Bundle of Holding unleashes classic mechanised sci-fi combat, collecting Dream Pod 9’s tactical mecha sourcebooks at a steep discount.
That is it for this week. Thanks for listening to Audio EXP. For all the links, show notes, and breaking stories, head over to Geek Native. Until next week, stay geeky.
