Welcome home. This is Audio EXP, the weekly podcast from Geek Native. I am your host, Girdy, and today is Saturday the 24th of October, 2026. This week, we examine a legacy publisher walking away from a lucrative licensed brand to protect its own flagship universe, track early ticket allocations for half a century of British comic heritage, break down procedural rules revisions in a landmark worldbuilding game, and review our trip supporting independent creators in Edinburgh.
[The following is a transcript of Audio EXP: #353]
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Before we dive into the headlines, an update on our community feature. We still haven’t had any luck getting in touch with Slithy Tove Games, our patron-voted RPG Publisher Spotlight honouree for October. Sometimes messages go astray in busy indie inboxes, and if we do not hear back by the end of the month, we will publish a comprehensive retrospective of their catalogue without a direct Q&A. We still have a full week to go, however, and a lot can happen in seven days.
Over on the blog, the spooky season is in full swing. The 12 Masks of Halloween has officially kicked off on Geek Native, delivering our annual countdown to the 31st with daily curated masks, dark aesthetics, and gothic inspiration for your upcoming horror sessions.
Last weekend, we also headed down to Leith to cover local creators at Edinburgh’s TAGS Fest 2026 inside the Out of the Blue Drill Hall, celebrating small-press craft with zero corporate fluff. It was great catching up with local designers, miniature painters, and indie stalwarts like Tettix Games and Blue Fox Publishing, and it highlighted how vital intimate, community-run events remain for grassroots hobbyists.
Our lead story this week explores a significant strategic departure in tabletop licensing. Palladium Books has walked away from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles licence to double down on Rifts and The Mechanoids. After a crowdfunding campaign that updated the vintage 1985 TMNT & Other Strangeness rules while excising dated, controversial tables, Kevin Siembieda and Sean Owen Roberson confirmed they couldn’t reach mutually agreeable renewal terms with Paramount. Rather than accepting restrictive corporate licensing handcuffs or paying too much, Palladium terminated the agreement. They are running an immediate warehouse clearance on remaining hardbacks; after that, the books will never be reprinted, preserving existing print copies as collector artefacts while the studio redirects resources into its own proprietary settings.
Over in British comics, a historic celebration is locking in its dates. Early bird tickets for 2000 AD’s 50th anniversary event go on sale this October. Rebellion will host the two-day gathering at Protein Studios in Shoreditch, London, across the 6th and 7th of March, 2027. Subscriber pre-sales unlock on Thursday the 29th of October, ahead of the general release on the 5th of November. Because the bespoke gallery venue accommodates around 1,000 attendees, ticket allocations will be tight for fans eager to celebrate five decades of the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic.
In system design, indie design veteran Ben Robbins reached out on social media to approve our breakdown of Microscope 2 cutting Legacies and rebuilding character scenes. The upcoming second edition of the beloved collaborative history game streamlines communal play by stripping out unused tracking clutter, refining how players zoom into intimate roleplaying scenes, and formalising rules for chronicling world collapses and civilisations in decline.
Turning to community play networks, grassroots venues are finding established industry backing. Pelgrane Press is backing The Role Play Haven by sponsoring a Liverpool one-shot gaming night. While recent administrative restructuring across the community gaming club sparked some local grumblings, Pelgrane’s support, including free scenarios and promotional help, helps stabilise regular open-table gaming across the North West.
In licensed gothic horror, rules are taking shape for Anne Rice’s universe. Renegade Game Studios has detailed the Interview with the Vampire rules for the Immortal Universe RPG ahead of its BackerKit launch. The system captures the dark atmosphere of AMC’s television adaptations, adding dedicated mechanics to track psychological anchors, predatory hunger, and the existential strain of eternal memory across centuries.
High-end collectables are hitting the market, including oversized showpieces. Sirius Dice is expanding beyond polyhedrals with a two-foot Arkham Horror Cthulhu monument. Sculpted as a massive gaming-table centrepiece, the production piece marks a distinct move for the accessory manufacturer into premium display territory.
Over in stage and screen reviews, we handed out passing grades across two very different productions:
- On screen, we delivered our review of the Street Fighter 2026 film, where Noah Centineo and Andrew Koji carry a flawed, fun brawl that embraces martial arts camp while stumbling through pacing.
- In theatrical critique, we reviewed Do Not Pass Go, a physical theatre production confronting the tabletop plagiarism behind Monopoly, exploring how Lizzie Magie’s anti-monopolist Landlord’s Game was stripped of its radical politics by corporate publishers.
- On the animation front, Bronwen highlighted the first teaser trailer for Tangles, an animated film promising a poignant and emotional look at Alzheimer’s, adapting Sarah Leavitt’s graphic memoir into a delicate visual reflection on memory loss.
Finally, we close out the week with three digital bundles:
- Cosmic horror investigators can grab the Cthulhu Awakens bundle on Bundle of Holding, packing Green Ronin’s modern AGE system investigation books into a discounted set.
- Sci-fi historians can secure decades of tabletop history in the Traveller RPG Ultimate GDW Collection on Humble, gathering classic Little Black Books and era-defining space opera rules.
- Monster hunters can pick up Evil Hat’s Monster of the Week line in the new Monster Hunters bundle on Bundle of Holding, collecting the definitive Powered by the Apocalypse urban fantasy game.
That is it for this week. Thanks for listening to Audio EXP. For all the links, reviews, and Halloween features, head over to Geek Native. Until next week, stay geeky.
