Welcome home. This is Audio EXP, the weekly podcast from Geek Native. I am your host, Girdy, and today is Saturday, the 14th of November, 2026. This week, we examine a heated debate over alleged generative AI in Pathfinder maps, track Eric Lang and Restoration Games rescuing classic Games Workshop designs, look at White Wolf reversing course on experimental Vampire mechanics, and flag a customer data breach tied to an official Dungeons & Dragons launch.
[The following is a transcript of Audio EXP: #356]
[Also on Stitcher | Spotify | Apple | YouTube]
Before we dive into the headlines, an update on our community feature. We have still not heard back from our November RPG Publisher Spotlight honourees, Arcane Brewery. We will chase them again this week, because getting two unanswered months in a row is rare; honestly, the Spotlight has come with plenty of unscripted drama lately. In the meantime, December’s ballot is open, and if you want to put an indie studio forward for future rounds, you can add a candidate to our shortlist for 2027 using the RPG Publisher Spotlight nominations form.
Our lead story this week sits right at the intersection of artist protection and community vigilance. Paizo has stepped forward to defend a Feybound cartographer against Reddit accusations of generative AI use. Users on the Pathfinder 2e subreddit pointed to irregular table plates, awkward blue flooring transitions, and overlapping figures in the Feybound maps as evidence of machine generation. Paizo firmly rejected the claims, backing their long-time illustrator and shielding them from online piling-on. Having inspected the artwork myself, I can only see what critics are pointing at occasionally. More importantly, do slightly wonky plates prove an algorithm drew them, or does the very fact that those plates aren’t geometrically uniform actually point toward human handiwork? Vigilance against undisclosed AI matters, yet false positives carry real professional harm for working artists.
In board game restoration news, an exciting cross-studio collaboration has been announced. Eric Lang and Restoration Games are transplanting three out-of-print Games Workshop classics into a brand-new Talisman Realm setting called Gravemarch. Rather than leaving beloved, long-unavailable designs trapped in licensing limbo, Restoration is reimagining titles including Chaos in the Old World and Warhammer Quest: The Adventure Card Game inside a fresh dark fantasy universe, keeping the mechanical DNA alive without the old Warhammer baggage.
Over in tabletop rules development, player feedback has forced a major design reversal. White Wolf has launched the Alpha 2.0 public playtest for Vampire: The Masquerade 6th Edition, scrapping its experimental rules in favour of classic dice pools. Following pushback against the first alpha’s mechanics, the studio has restored traditional attribute-plus-skill dice pools, classic Storyteller rolls, and ten-box health trackers, bringing the upcoming edition far closer to the tactile feel veteran players expect.
On the retail security front, an official tabletop tie-in hit an immediate technical snag. Dungeons & Dragons partner Sneak Energy has reported a customer data breach that began on the exact launch day of its official D&D drinks and merchandise. Shopper names, postal addresses, and total spend figures were exposed via US analytics provider TripleWhale. What stands out here is that a UK-based company was piping personally identifiable customer information across the Atlantic to an American third-party analytics tool, something European businesses usually work hard to avoid under strict data protection rules.
In creator interviews, we sat down with James Gill and James Isaacs of Hammerforge Chronicles to discuss going from Metal Hammer journalism to sci-fi horror in the making of Tentacles of the Void. They walked us through engineering a 400-section branching gamebook, commissioning hand-inked sci-fi illustrations, and funding their solo cosmic survival adventure in just six hours.
Turning to British comics, Rebellion is assembling an all-star lineup for next year’s milestone. The 2000 AD 50th Anniversary Special reunites co-creators John Wagner and Pat Mills ahead of the London birthday bash. Featuring cover art by Brian Bolland and pairing returning legends with contemporary writers across a 64-page standalone issue, it sets the stage nicely for March’s celebratory gathering.
For this week’s quirky pop culture crossover, Chainsaw Man Crocs have officially stomped into the UK with protruding rubber blades and faux-fur horns. Retailing at £69.99 across two distinct classic clog designs, they come complete with character Jibbitz charms for anime fans who want Pochita-inspired footwear.
Finally, we wrap up with two great digital tabletop bundles:
- Regency adventure fans can return to the world of littlings as Two Little Mice’s Household returns to the Bundle of Holding, gathering the award-winning 320-page core rulebook alongside its major campaign expansions in DRM-free PDF formats.
- Classic percentile enthusiasts can return to the golden age of Glorantha with Humble’s RuneQuest Classic Collection, teaming up with Chaosium to pack retro 1978 bronze-and-mythic sourcebooks into a single nostalgic bundle.
One quick scheduling note before we go: there will be no Audio EXP next weekend, as the team will be covering Edinburgh’s Scotland Loves Anime festival. If you are attending the screenings in Edinburgh, don’t forget to cast your vote in our unofficial best anime of the week awards over on the SLA-ED hub.
That is it for this week. Thanks for listening to Audio EXP. For all the links, interview transcripts, and festival voting, head over to Geek Native. Until next time, stay geeky.
