Knavecon Boardgame Briefing — Tuesday, 06 October 2026
Big day on the crowdfunding front. If your wallet survived Knavecon 27 ten days ago, brace yourself because October is coming for it hard.
The main event today is Nemesis: Legacy, which goes live on Gamefound at 6pm CEST (5pm Irish time). Awaken Realms are calling it the first full campaign experience in the Nemesis universe, and they’ve brought in Rob Daviau — the man who basically invented the legacy format — alongside Jaime Barriga to design it. The core pledge starts at €269 and there’s a massive bundle option at €419 if you want the whole Nemesis back catalogue included. This will fund in minutes, obviously, but the real question is whether the legacy structure works with a game that’s fundamentally about paranoia and hidden agendas. Daviau’s involvement makes me cautiously optimistic rather than just suspicious. The campaign runs until October 27th. (Gamefound page)
Also launching today on Kickstarter are two smaller games: Excursions: A Galactic Cruise Game from Kinson Key Games (managing space vacations, which is a fun pitch) and The Seekers from Off The Page Games, a hidden movement game. Neither of these are generating the same hype, but The Seekers might be worth a look if you’re into Fury of Dracula-style cat-and-mouse games.
The Dice Tower dropped their Week In Review for October 5th, covering a big stack of recent reviews including Dune Imperium Play System, Marvel Crisis Protocol Alliances, Thunder Road: Ignition, and Lorcana: Attack of the Vine. Dune Imperium Play System is interesting — it’s the revised modular version of the base game that Dire Wolf have been teasing. Tom’s also got a Crowdsurfing episode going up tomorrow covering this week’s launches, which should be useful if you want a quick video overview of what’s hitting crowdfunding.
Looking ahead this month, Stormlight: War for Roshar from Brotherwise Games hits Kickstarter on October 13th. It’s designed by John D. Clair, set in Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive, and the pitch is essentially a War of the Ring / Star Wars: Rebellion-scale asymmetric war game. Coalition vs Odium across the full map of Roshar. If you’re a Sanderson reader this is probably already on your radar, but even if you’re not, the mechanical pedigree is promising. Dice Throne Nexus also launches on the 13th from Roxley. And then on the 21st, Arkham Horror Remastered shows up. October is going to be expensive. (GodisaGeek preview)
The Lord of the Rings: The King’s Gambit from Restoration Games is already live on Kickstarter — Restoration’s reimagining of the legendary Queen’s Gambit (the Star Wars one, not the chess show). It’s set across the final battles of Middle-earth, including a reportedly gorgeous Minas Tirith board. Big Boss Battle called it the easiest recommendation of the month, and from what I’ve seen of the campaign page, the production values look serious. Worth checking if you’re into epic-scale games. (Kickstarter)
Worth watching: Forest Shuffle: Smoky Mountains lands on October 22nd — third standalone in the series, this time with a water/riverside theme that changes up the synergies. Flamecraft Duals and God of War: The Board Game are also estimated for this month. The BGG Hotness is hard to pin down today but the Player Guild’s Collective Acquisition Disorder thread for October is already active, which tells you people are spending money.
Ireland corner
Knavecon 27 is done and dusted — hope everyone who came had a great day. The next thing on the Irish calendar is DARECon 2026 in Naas, Co. Kildare on October 17–18 at the Osprey Hotel. It’s organised by Naas Board Game Club and covers board games, RPGs, wargaming, workshops, and family gaming. Kids under 10 go free with an adult. They’ve put out a nice hand-drawn convention map and tickets are available at darecon.ie. If you’re in Leinster and fancy a weekend con, this is handy.
After that, Gaelcon 38 runs October 23–26 at the Crowne Plaza Dublin Airport in Santry. Ireland’s longest-running gaming convention — 38 years now. RPGs, board games, card games, LARPs, wargames, trade hall, pub quiz, the lot. Details and tickets at iga.ie/gaelcon.
For regular meetups, Board Games Ireland run sessions every Tuesday evening and Sunday afternoon in Dublin (currently at Ryan’s of Store Street on Mondays too). Cork Action League is active on Meetup. And the Corbiala directory at corbiala.world lists clubs across Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick and beyond if you’re looking for something local.
For the Knavecon community: If anyone went to Knavecon 27 and played something that blew them away, post about it on the Facebook page. Those post-con recommendations are always the best ones — you’ve actually sat down and played the thing rather than just watched a review. And if you’re thinking about DARECon or Gaelcon later this month, shout in the group and see who else is going.
One for social:
Nemesis: Legacy launches today with Rob Daviau designing it. The man who invented the legacy format is now putting permanent stickers on your alien-infested spaceship. Either this is genius or we’ll all need therapy. Either way, take my money.
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