The Dark Orb

15/04/2026

Orbtoberfest IV is beginning to take further shape! 17th October 2026 in the heart of Nottingham!

Join us in mid October for a day of roleplaying as we continue to celebrate the finest of independent D&D-free gaming, exploring all manner of systems and tales from staples such as Dungeon Crawl Classics, Cypher System variants such as The Darkest House and Old Gods of Appalachia, Year Zero Engine games like Vaesen and Tales from the loop. Dark horror games like Symbaroum and Mothership, art-punk Mörk Borg variants and more!

GM Submissions are open right now, tickets on sale in a couple of months. Join our Discord for further information. :) (Link in bio!)

07/04/2026

Every year we have a great little RPG convention, and the only rule is “No D&D” - this is because everyone plays D&D to death, and we believe that D&D is best for playing D&D, not for playing every single genre under the twin suns. For that reason, we have a convention annually where other systems are elevated.

So… breaking news!!! Game submissions for this year’s Orbtoberfest, on Saturday 17th October in the heart of Nottingham, UK, are OPEN.

This year will be our first year without the incredible and dearly missed David Gallico and as such our regular DCC slot will be renamed the DGCC David Gallico Commemorative Crawl unless we can come up with a better name!

Let us know in the comments if you have a better idea for the name of this celebration of Dave’s legacy.

Finally, t-shirt theme voting is also open for this year’s shirt, designed in collaboration with UKTR Apparel.

Currently the winning theme is “Cyberpunk” and this likely means that at least one Cyberpunk style game will be on offer, but this could change any moment!

GM submissions and t-shirt voting is on our Discord. 🫶

Let us know below what we should call our Goodman Games / David Gallico memorial game.

16/03/2026

Absolutely saddened to hear of the departure of the mighty Mr. David Gallico from our shores.

One of the kindest, nicest men I’ve ever met. An absolute pain in the arse but for all the of the best reasons.

David supported Orbtoberfest from the very beginning, and for that reason among many others we will from now on name the Goodman Games Dungeon Crawl Classics game as the David Gallico Memorial Game, or something very similar, in his honour.

Thanks for everything you’ve done to support so many and for all of your generous acts of kindness over the years, you’ll be missed.

09/02/2026

Listen up, friends. This month is the time to back awesome zines on crowdfunding platforms and Explore Dungeons make amazing things. If you like OSR games, 5E, Mörk Borg or anything in between, then I suggest you check this great project out by our friends over at Explore Dungeons, before it’s too late!!

Finally, the long awaited 4th issue of our system neutral RPG zine! Contains adventures, maps, random tables, weird magic, articles, and more.

27/10/2025

Finally, we get to play by Limithron (Published by Free League Publishing)

Be warned! We have some terrible accents, and it all got very silly. Plus Phil managed to totally mis-read the die roll a couple of times in Alchemy, but we made it work in the end.

Huge thanks to the cast, including our fabulous GM, Chris, and players Stuart and Jason.

Enjoy!!! Let us know your thoughts in the comments and tune in next week for the conclusion!

Pirate Borg actual play of The Gold Bug, an adventure by Limithron on Patreon. Episode 1 opens with a dying pirate’s riddle, a strange gold bug trinket, and ...

05/10/2025

That’s a wrap!

Thank you everyone for an amazing Orbtoberfest. We had a great time, bones were rattled, games were played, pizza was eaten, raffle prizes were won and our channel is funded for another year!

A huge shout out to everyone for coming to Orbtoberfest III - Tales From The Dark Orb - from the bottom of my heart I really appreciate your friendship and support.

Next year’s date has already been chosen, 17th October 2026, and we are very excited to be returning to Ye Olde Salutation Inn yet again.

Thank you so much.

- Phil and the team at The Dark Orb

26/09/2025

Loved catching up with Tomas from Free League about the RPG currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter.

Check out the interview below! This looks like a lot of fun.

The Invincible RPG Kickstarter is live — and it’s already making waves. In this chat, I talk with Tomas Härenstam (Free League) about whether the Year Zero E...

22/09/2025

Huge thanks to Monte Cook Games for their continued support and all the brilliant products they put out.

We had great fun talking about the revisions to the Cypher Set in Cypher 2.0

Only a couple of days left in the campaign but it will go to late pledge. Check out our conversation (interview is a bit of a stretch) below!

Cypher System 2.0 is here! In this interview with Kate Evans from Monte Cook Games, we explore the biggest changes in the new edition, why it’s been split in...

20/09/2025

Our limited edition Orbtoberfest Dark Orb Dice have arrived!!!! Did you order them with your Orbtoberfest III - It Came From The Dark Orb ticket?

15/09/2025

Only a handful of tickets left for our third annual tabletop roleplaying convention, Orbtoberfest III - It Came From The Dark Orb right here in Nottingham, UK on October 4th.

We have released a few more event tickets and game seats for Orbtoberfest, with one or more seats available at the table for the following games:

Morning:
Transformers RPG,
Death In Space,
Hard City,

Afternoon:
Changeling The Dreaming,
Cogs, Cakes and Swordsticks,
Dungeon Crawl Classics,
Punk is Dead

It's going to be amazing, and it's only £15 (+fees) all-in.

You also get a strip of raffle tickets (more available on the day), where you could win

Signed copies:
The One Ring RPG (Limited collectors edition) (Free League Publishing)
Dragonbane Core RPG Book (Free League)
X-Crawl Classics (Limited Collectors Edition) ) Games
Runecairn Wardensaga (By Odin's Beard RPG)

Plus also:
A ticket to the incredible Vampire Larp "As Night Falls: The Auction" (Thank you Mythic Echoes)
Cypher System Starter Set (Monte Cook Games) - more Cypher System prizes to be added...
Mutant Crawl Classics (Goodman Games)
Shiver Blockbuster (Parable Games
Tales from the Loop Starter Set (Free League)
Hell Night (Gavriel Quiroga)
Exclusive The Dark Orb: Orbtoberfest III dice set

and more...

We only have 30-35 attendees, our convention is small and mighty but our raffles are legendary - you've a very good chance of winning something superb - so it's one prize per person but some INCREDIBLE things to be had!

Huge thanks to Free League Publishing and Monte Cook Games, this year's main raffle sponsors, for their kind donations which help to keep the lights on at The Dark Orb. As always, if we have any proceeds left over from Orbtoberfest after costs of the channel, prizes and event then they'll be donated to the mental health charity MIND (although to date TDO has run to negative profit.. That's not what the event is for anyway!)

Also a huge shout out to UKTR Apparel for again breaking the mold with their STUNNING t-shirt design for this year - picture in the comments.

Orbtoberfest III (2025) - Tabletop Roleplaying Mini-Convention – Ye Olde Salutation Inn, Sat 4 Oct 2025 - Celebrate five years of The Dark Orb, with the third, annual, Orbtoberfest. Nottingham's annual Micro-Convention celebrating all things indie in tabletop roleplaying.

11/09/2025

This might be my favourite baseball cap ever. nailed this piece of merch from design through to production quality. Pics cannot do it justice.