The Dark Orb

02/06/2026

To be clear, Strigovia’s “Dark Orb” is nothing to do with us despite the obvious duplication of name, theme etc. 🙂

We thought about cease and desist but so far didn’t feeling like being “those guys”.

It’s a nice enough looking product, shame about the name of the company. We were, of course, creating ttrpg content earlier…

Happy rolling!

30/05/2026

Excited by Symbaroum? Don't forget to check out our conversation with creator Mattias of Free League Publishing

Join The Dark Orb's Phil for a chat with Mattias Johnsson Haake of ...

30/05/2026

Some snaps from this year’s UK Games Expo.

25/05/2026

We go live with Free League Publishing in just a few short hours to talk about our favourite dystopian fantasy roleplaying game, Symbaroum.

Join us live at https://youtube.com/ - 12 PM Eastern Daylight time, 5 PM UK time, 6 PM Sweden time.

Join The Dark Orb's Phil for a chat with Mattias Johnsson Haake of ...

22/05/2026

Symbaroum fans: Join us in conversation with Free League’s Mattias Johansson Haake

We’re going live with the lead author behind Symbaroum and its new Anniversary Edition Kickstarter.

We’ll be discussing:

* the Anniversary Edition and the changes it brings
* Vendilyn’s new city states
* behind-the-scenes design insights
* what fans should be excited about
* why you don’t need to be a seasoned player to enjoy this great game or jump right in with the new content

So bring your questions to us live on Monday, 12 EDT, 5pm UK over on YouTube and right here on Facebook!

Free League Publishing Järnringen

Join The Dark Orb's Phil for a chat with Mattias Johnsson Haake of ...

20/05/2026

We are very excited to be hanging with the fabulous Mattias Johnsson Haake of Free League Publishing next week to talk about the awesome kickstarter campaign for Symbaroum anniversary edition and the new city states in Vendilyn.

Join us LIVE!!! Monday 25th May at 5pm UK / 6pm CEST / Midday Eastern!

Join The Dark Orb's Phil for a chat with Mattias Johnsson Haake of ...

19/05/2026

We are very very excited about this new chapter for Symbaroum - watch this space for news of an interview with Free League soon!

I'm the first person to admit that we still haven't finished playing Throne of Thorns (the original campaign) in our gaming group. Real life can absolutely devastate long campaigns, and we're all subject to that.

This campaign which launches in only a few hours has us itching to explore the world again. Davokar, Ambria and the far afield city states, we are coming home!

The SYMBAROUM RPG improved and expanded! Explore a new, thrilling setting for the acclaimed dark fantasy tabletop RPG, guided by three revised core books. Coming to KICKSTARTER on MAY 19. Sign up to be notified:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1192053011/symbaroum-rpg-revised-core-books-and-setting-expansion

Ten years after its international launch, the celebrated Symbaroum RPG is ready to shed its emerald-shimmering skin.

As part of the anniversary project, the content of the original four core books has been reorganized into three revised hardcover volumes while preserving a standalone, all-in-one Core Rulebook. Alongside the revised core books, the expansion City States of Vendilyn – A Ravaged Realm presents a new thrilling campaign setting for gaming groups to explore.

*Core Rulebook: Provides everything needed to bring Symbaroum to the table, including a tutorial adventure, guidelines for creating homebrew scenarios, and an introduction to the dark and foreboding Davokar region.
*Gamemaster’s Guide: Offers advanced guidance for running Symbaroum, including support for campaign building, adventure creation, and optional rules for large-scale battles, advanced traps, and social scheming.
*Davokar Creature Codex: A detailed bestiary presenting the monsters and people players will encounter on their travels, featuring updated practical stat blocks while building on the legacy of the award-winning Monster Codex.
*City States of Vendilyn – A Ravaged Realm: A full-color hardcover volume introducing a massive new campaign setting, where survivors struggle to endure after the once-peaceful realm was devastated by the malevolent elves of Duskwood.

All volumes will be and presented in premium hardcover format. Each book also features masterful illustrations by Martin Grip and Gustaf Ekelund, with Grip contributing new original character art for the Core Rulebook.

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.