Forge Midwest 2026 Recap

Forge Midwest ran April 24-26 this year, so I'm quite late getting this report out. I had a blast as I do every year. I'd planned on running one session for each of my playtests, but we ended up short on pitches Friday evening, so I ran a bonus session of Jewelsea RPG. Without further ado, here's what I got up to this year. Day OnePits of the Curse LordsPits of the Curse Lords was Mike Holmes' newest playtest, a sort of story telling game centered around a dungeon crawl into the titular pits. We played as a group chasing after Vashkar the Thrice Promised, a general who had disappeared into the pits with his entire army. Characters each had five stats, Fight, Sage, Tricky, Magic, and Wild, along with a reason they were cursed and thus had to enter the pits to seek a way to break their curse, a profession along with two freeform abilities that profession gave them, and an Oath which breaking would mean advancing their curse. We also each started with a magic item. My character was…