This Week in RPGs: The One Ring Breaks Free League’s Record and Paizo Hands Organised Play to Fans (25 September to 2 October 2026)

Free League’s second edition of The One Ring passed $2.5 million on BackerKit this week, making it the biggest campaign in the publisher’s history, and it still has two weeks to run. Elsewhere, Paizo opened Pathfinder and Starfinder Society to fan-written scenarios, and Critical Role kept its Campaign 4 run going.

You will also find a new ecto-punk noir setting for Daggerheart, four more campaigns closing within a week, and a GM tip about writing to the clock. It was a busy week for crowdfunding and a quiet one for new books, with no official D&D release scheduled for October.

Story	Category	Key Detail	Why It Matters
The One Ring Second Edition	Crowdfunding	Over $2.5M; ends 15 Oct; ships Oct 2027	Free League’s biggest campaign, with a standalone 5.5e game
Paizo opens Society to fan scenarios	Industry news	Announced 29 Sep; last Paizo-written scenarios 7 Oct	Community writers now fill the gap in organised play
Eidolon: The Ghost Market	New Daggerheart setting	BackerKit launch 13 Oct; 200 pages	Third-party Daggerheart content from Keith Baker
Critical Role Campaign 4	Actual play	Episode 37 on 1 Oct; Tale Gate on 29 Sep	Weekly catch-up point for Campaign 4 viewers
Wild Hearth	Kickstarter	Over $2M; ends 19 Oct	D&D cooking and settlement mechanics
Underworld: Sunless Depths	Kickstarter	Ends 9 Oct; digital about $25	Kobold Press subterranean campaign for 5.5e and Tales of the Valiant

Headline News

The One Ring Second Edition Becomes Free League’s Most Funded Campaign

The campaign launched on BackerKit on 22 September and raised $1.75 million from more than 7,200 backers in its first 26 hours. By 1 October it had passed $2.5 million, which Free League says makes it the most funded of its more than 40 crowdfunding campaigns. It closes on 15 October at 3:00pm EDT.

The campaign covers six books across two systems: revised core rules for The One Ring and The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying 5E, two Gondor and Rohan campaign books, and two bestiaries. The 5E version is being rebuilt on the 5.5e ruleset as a fully self-contained game, so you no longer need the D&D Player’s Handbook alongside it. Unlocked stretch goals include Glorfindel as a patron, printed maps of Rohan, Gondor and Minas Tirith, and themed dice.

That standalone 5.5e game gives D&D tables a Middle-earth option without extra purchases. Our guide to what actually changed between D&D 5E and 2024 explains the rules it builds on.

Key Details:

• Closes 15 October 2026
• Estimated shipping through October 2027
• US shipping from $15 to $30 depending on the pledge

Paizo Opens Pathfinder and Starfinder Society to Fan-Made Scenarios

On 29 September Paizo opened its Pathfinder and Starfinder Society programmes to fan-written adventures through Pathfinder Infinite and Starfinder Infinite. Scenarios must run for 2 to 3 hours (4,000 to 5,000 words) or 4 to 5 hours (9,000 to 10,000 words), and submissions go through review before acceptance.

The change follows Paizo’s June layoffs of 12 staff after the Diamond Comic Distributors bankruptcy, and a planned cut to one Society release per game each month after October. Its September update lists the last currently scheduled Paizo-written Pathfinder Society scenarios, #8-07 In the Halls of Dead Justice and #8-08 Treatise on the Study of Clockwork, plus Starfinder Society #2-07 Attack at the Freemarkets, all due on 7 October.

If you are weighing Pathfinder against D&D before those changes settle, our Pathfinder 2E vs D&D 5E comparison is a good starting point.

New This Week

Eidolon: The Ghost Market – Twogether Studios | BackerKit launch 13 October
Keith Baker and Jen Ellis announced this 200-page ecto-punk noir setting for Daggerheart on 27 September. It features a necromancer-ruled industrial city powered by bound spirits, with two campaign frames, Boneriggers and The Catering Crew. It is third-party content rather than a Darrington Press product, and a free four-page preview is available.
Available: sign up for launch notifications

Baker and Ellis are also working on a separate, unnamed official Daggerheart product, which fits the move covered in our roundup on two D&D legends moving to Daggerheart. New to the system? Start with what to know before your first Daggerheart session.

D&D: World of Warcraft – Wizards of the Coast | 17 November
The next scheduled D&D book is the first in the Universes Beyond line, with 13 classes of Azeroth-specific options, and pre-orders are open at retailers. No official D&D books are scheduled for October. Our Gen Con 2026 D&D announcements explainer covers the wider roadmap.

Actual Play Corner

Critical Role’s Campaign 4 Episode 37, “Schemers”, aired on 1 October at 7pm Pacific on Twitch and YouTube, with the Cooldown aftershow on Beacon. Tale Gate on 29 September brought Whitney Moore, Robbie Daymond, Taliesin Jaffe and Liam O’Brien together to discuss Campaign 4 up to Episode 36, so skip it if you are behind.

The Daggerheart Control Resonant one-shot on 22 September was covered in last week’s roundup, and you can follow how the campaign returned in our 24 July roundup on Critical Role confirming Campaign 4.

Crowdfunding Watch

Featured: Wild Hearth: Cooking Monsters & Building Towns. Pointy Hat (Antonio Demico) has passed $2 million for this two-volume D&D 5E and 5.5E supplement. Volume one turns defeated monsters into meals with beneficial effects, and volume two covers founding and growing a settlement. It closes on 19 October.

Quick Hits:

• Underworld: Sunless Depths (Kobold Press): A sourcebook plus a level 1 to 12 campaign for 5.5e and Tales of the Valiant, closing 9 October.
• The Overlords of Steel: An Old-School Essentials campaign, closing 7 October.
• Good Society: A Jane Austen RPG, Second Edition: Closing 8 October.
• Nobunaga’s Black Castle: A MÖRK BORG release, closing 8 October.

GM Toolkit: This Week’s Tip

The Tip: Write your session to the clock, not just to the plot.

Why It Works: Paizo’s new scenario rules fit adventures into a 2 to 3 hour or 4 to 5 hour slot, and that limit forces every scene to earn its place. A time budget shows you what to cut before the table runs out of evening.

How to Use It: Pick a target length, split the session into three beats, and give each a time budget. Mark one optional scene you can drop, and check the clock at the midpoint.

Example: For a three-hour heist, allow 30 minutes for casing the target, 90 for the job and 30 for the escape. If the party is still in the vault at the 90-minute mark, skip the second guard patrol and go straight to the alarm.

Bonus: Pair it with our 30-minute session prep guide.

Coming Next Week

Four campaigns close within days: The Overlords of Steel on 7 October, Good Society and Nobunaga’s Black Castle on 8 October, and Underworld: Sunless Depths on 9 October. Paizo’s final scheduled scenarios arrive on 7 October, and the Eidolon: The Ghost Market BackerKit launches on 13 October.

Community Question

Would you run a Society scenario written by a fan, and what would make you trust it? Share in the comments!