2026 Year Start
The end of 2025 was defined by my time in Over/Under, and the fallout is carrying me through 2026. This year I'm fully re-entering the game scene after stepping away almost entirely for a much needed break following the release of The Door Locks Behind You in June of 2024. I only have one real goal for this year: Blog. So, without further ado, here are my plans for 2026.
The Year of Cataphract
I should be less surprised that the playerbase of Over/Under held a large percentage of folks itching for Cataphract, Sam Sorensen's previous wargame (and the basis for Over/Under, though that became increasingly less apparent as the game went on). Before our time on the Dream even ended, new Cataphract games were cropping up left and right. I'm in a few, as a player and observer.
Vanitera 451 by Netherphoenix, Kara Ling, and DPR
Initially called Tempest Cataphracts, then Maraga, Year 450, this started as a private Tempest PMC Cataphract game that Netherphoenix, former Boss of Tempest Company in Over/Under, created based Phlox's edits to the original Cataphract rules. As more folks from Over/Under signed on and the game expanded past Tempest barracks, Nether brought on Kara and expanded the game to two continents, Maraga and Patlania, and renamed the game Vanitera after the world it was set in. Quite possibly the largest game of Cataphract to date, Nether and Kara have each taken a continent to run and hired another referee to help them. As one of the earlier Tempest players to sign up I was handed leadership of one of the factions, and I'll be continuing to lead the Seafolk as The Witch on the Red Wind for the foreseeable future (or until one of her violent stunts finally gets her killed). While I love getting the chance to jump into another roleplay heavy game, the most interesting aspect of this for me is the level of automation that Kara and DPR have implemented within the game. It's far from a typical Cataphract experience anymore (is there a typical Cataphract game?) so I've hopped in some other games as well.
Miniphracts by Seedling
A smaller game in scope, both in time and in map size, being run by Seedling (aka President Alcyone/Academician Umberico Ito/General Nguyễn Sỹ), Miniphracts is built off of Sam's original ruleset, stripped of certain systems that probably wouldn't come up in the compact nature of this game, and given a much shorter timeframe of approximately one month. This one will start on the 17th of January and I'm already excited to jump in to something much closer to the original ruleset.
Phractorio by Placid Platypus
Moving ever further away from the base of Cataphract, Phractorio is a base-building game inspired by Factorio, Against the Storm, and Offworld Trading Company. There isn't a focus on combat at all, in fact the game may never feature any PvP. Instead this is entirely about logistics and limited communications. Players are given a handful of resources and either stay in a town and work new factories to generate more resources, or they travel to another town to barter for resources they don't have themselves. We're 2 days in and this might be the one I'm most interested in seeing develop.
Vanguard by The Dusk Witch and mtb
A ruleset for "a strangereal Southeast Asia in the 1940s and 50s in the era of decolonization" according to its ruleset, Vanguard caught my attention with "post WWII tech level". I had initially signed up to play this one too, but once Vanitera started I realized I had absolutely no time for another year long game. I am now an observer with view privileges for the entire server much like a referee. While there are way more specific systems for warfare, the goal of this game is the politics of the region, driven entirely by the players of each faction. As far as the structure goes this has probably the most robust setup of any Cataphract game to date. Dusk Witch has delegated the roles of a typical Cataphract referee to 14 others, placed hard caps on the number of active commanders a faction can have, and set up a number of systems for very specific movement and communications play. I'm glad that I've stepped back in as an observer, because this one seems to have the most moving pieces (literally and figuratively).
Solar by Tangent Joy
Hard sci-fi Cataphracts. Each commander is the captain of a capital ship. Tangent's experience in Over/Under shines through in every aspect, from her focus on creating an engaging economy to the splitting of various roles that function as opt-in engagement levels within the game. The rules changes are too varied and expansive to go into detail, but I'm mostly excited to watch the social aspect of this game evolve. I don't have any intention to play anything more than a Spacer, a player who is confined to a single space station but can post freely within that station's channel, given a modest daily income, and told to find their own fun. Sounds a lot like being a Denizen in Over/Under (and that's on purpose) and I think I'd like a chance to experience a more chill version of that game (no more boss actions for me please).
What I'm writin'
I got a few things in the works.
Derelict on Arrival
A shipcrawl for Mothership, set on Prospero's Dream, but could be set anywhere that has a large enough dock. Tempest Company has a contract out for Probies, investigate the disappearance of the crew of the Golyanovo II Bratva owned pleasure yacht Shikra. Once on board it becomes clear that there's much more than a missing crew at play, although that would be evident to anyone who's talked to the Stratameyer Syndicate before taking the job. This one's just about finished, and will either be published in an upcoming anthology (if I can make the deadline) or I'll get some layout software and upload it myself to itch.
City26
I didn't even realize I was doing this until Nova posted about it. I had already started working on New Atlantic City in December at some point, but the more I look into it the more involved it seems to become. Giving it a whole year to breathe and grow feels like it'll pay off in dividends, so now it's a City26 project.
New Atlantic City is a post-nuclear-apocalypse setting for Mothership, (or Blades in the Dark, or an Over/Under-like game, or, or, or) set on the planet Earth 2, the first terraformed planet that humanity colonized and then promptly evacuated when a global thermonuclear war broke out. Hundreds of years later the only folks still left planetside are stuck there, as the Colonial Protectorate maintains their embargo on space travel to or from the planet. The millions of people who were abandoned are scattered throughout the wastes, but there is one place that is largely intact. Not considered a strategic target at the time of the war, the beachside resort town of New Atlantic City has become the last economic powerhouse of Earth 2 that's not completely within the grasp of the Colonial Protectorate. Run by the mob, staffed by the Teamsters, and allowed to live by a shaky agreement with the local Governor, New Atlantica is preparing for the resettlement of Earth 2, as the background radiation levels finally subside to a tolerable scale, and the number of "tourists" from the Core Worlds increases year after year.
Other Games
I do plan on playing other games this year! Writing some too! I'm very much looking forward to running more one-shots for the discord server full of transgender women, running an open table campaign of Mothership set on Prospero's Dream, and playtesting adventures for other folks.
I've had a nice long break from games in 2025, and I'm more than thrilled to jump back in this year.