The Tempest Times - June 2026

Hail to you, whose name is written in the Tempest Tome, and welcome to The Tempest Times, a newsletter from Tempest Tome Games. Check here each month for updates about ongoing projects, new content from our collaborators, and media recommendations from the Tempest Tome partners!

Game Updates

This month, we’ve continued playtests for Order of the Black Chalice and Familiars. You can check out the OotBC Demo on our website, or reach out to playtest Familiars by sending an email to oracle@tempesttomegames.com with the subject line "Familiars Playtest".

The OotBC launch party is going live soon, and we’ve been getting our ducks in a row. We’re extremely excited to present our first cover art for the Order of the Black Chalice Pilgrim’s Guide. Huge props and gratitude to Michael Pisano aka Haunted Meat for his work here!

Recently in our playtests, the Sect of the Shroud has ventured deep into the Hooded Forest, where dwell goblins, wildfolk, and things stranger still. They find themselves afflicted with troubling visions, unsure whether to press forward or circle back. They probe their relic for signs of where to go, yet are confronted only with further questions.

Meanwhile, The Sect of the Apple has been forced to confront one of Pilgrimage’s ugliest truths: the Heavens test their Chosen, and the crucible of the aspirant saint is suffering. Hounded by unnatural creatures and pierced by the arrows of the wicked, the sect finds itself now confounded by its own secrecy and mistrust. Will these Pilgrims prove themselves heroes true of heart? Or shall they place vanity before grace, and imperil the very relic that binds them?

What We’ve Enjoyed This Month

Read! 

• We recently added Horace Walpole’s Castle of Otranto to the Order of the Black Chalice reading list. It has everything we want OotBC to evoke: spiritual mystery, grueling tests of the human heart, and larger-than-life gothic happenings. 

• We also enjoyed Andy Rotman’s Hungry Ghosts, a collection of stories selected from the Avadānaśataka (or “One Hundred Stories”) fixated on some of the strangest, most pitiable figures in Buddhist folklore.
  

Watch!

• This has been a fantastic month for theatrical releases. Everything you’ve heard about Obsession and Backrooms is true - Gen Z directors are bringing life back to the theater with exciting, independent works. But don’t neglect the old timers; Boots Riley’s I Love Boosters is a worthy successor to his 2018 feature Sorry to Bother You: colorful, zany, and unapologetically communist. This year, we forecast a 🔥hot🔥 summer at Da Movies.

• Nimrod also wants to give a shout out to the 2025 Hong Kong action movie The Furious, currently playing at select theaters in the USA. Gritty, kinetic, and not without heart, The Furious features some of the best fight scenes of the year.

  • Lou says, “If you can see this one in the theater, don’t miss out!”

Listen!

• “I recently discovered the musical duo Milk Talk (just in time for summer I reckon), and I'm loving their distillation of r&b/disco/city pop/G-funk/more. They're a complete package: groovy and stylish, but still with an attitude about it. My favorite tracks: Playboy; the Velvet LINE; the BAY; Sayonara Alpinist.” -- Lou

Play!

• Maher continues to play Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater, a faithful and beautiful recreation of 2004's Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater on the PlayStation 2. The legendary stealth action game is better than ever, with improved visuals, sound cues, and an easier set of menus, particularly the camouflage switching menu. It runs very well on the PS5 after some patching, despite a rocky launch with many performance issues reported. For fans of genuine stealth games, jungle survival, and Hideo Kojima's insane and charming narratives.