Kolchak 2026: Power of the Press at North Texas
Kolchak will be back at the North Texas RPG Con in 2026!
I’ll be running two games at North Texas again this year. One will be my traditional Kolchak game, using the Daredevils rules . I’ll be running Kolchak, most likely, on Saturday morning. (I’ll update this when the official schedule comes out). It will take place exactly 49 years earlier:
Monday, June 6, 1977. Chicago in this blockbuster summer of Space Wars, Air Disasters, and Beer Chasers was beginning to resemble a Universal Movie lot. But if you’re tempted to think that these strange events were trivial compared to the bombs and riots of that hot Chicago weekend… resist the temptation. Because what happened in June of 1977 in downtown Chicago implicates the very foundation of the power of the press.
I’ve added three pregens to the roster of Carl Kolchak’s stringers. Kaz Kazantarkis (The Youth Killer) is a cab driver with a Ph.D. in the Classics, a very noir and a very Chicago character. Meredith Pollock (The Spanish Moss Murders) is a typically absent-minded professor who will someday become return to academia and may even become the president of a small Pacific university well into the future. The Monk (The Zombie) is a very mysterious homeless man with his hands on the pulse of the Chicago underworld.
Kolchak: The Night Stalker• is eminently rewatchable, and I strongly recommend that you take in a couple of episodes• whether you play this game or not!
This may be the last year that I run both Daredevils and Flashing Blades! at the same con. I’ve been going through my gamebooks culling the ones I’ll never run again for my yard sale pile, and there are a lot of games I not only want to keep but that I want to play. And since no one else is running them, the only way that will happen is if I run them.
I come to North Texas to play, not to run; so I don’t see myself running more than two games. Which means that if I want to run any of these other old-school games, I’ll probably end up alternating Daredevils and Flashing Blades!. They’re possibly my two favorite games outside of D&D, so I don’t want to drop them completely.
Hint: I’d love to play in a Daredevils! or Flashing Blades game that someone else runs.
- Daredevils Detailed Action Time and Action Options Cube
- The Fantasy Games Unlimited game Daredevils, from 1982, has a very interesting combat turn system. Plus, an Action-Option cube you can assemble yourself!
- Kolchak: The Night Stalker• (DVD)
- This DVD set is getting pretty bad reviews, but if you want to watch the original series it’s the only game in town. I haven’t bought this yet; I’m too scared to see how bad of a job they did transferring it to DVD. I’ll probably pick it up eventually. The Night Stalker series lasted for one season, but it was very influential; a generation later and it inspired Buffy, the X-Files, and, I suspect, The Dresden Files.
- Kolchak: The Night Stalker (Where to Watch) at TV Guide
- “A dogged Chicago reporter investigated the paranormal (everything from vampires and werewolves to a senator who could transform himself into a vicious dog) while he clashed with his perpetually (and understandably) sceptical editor.”
- Kolchak’s Big Sister at North Texas 2025
- Kolchak and Friends will be back at the North Texas RPG Con in 2025 for an Ides of March that will have you asking dux femina facti? in one of the weirdest Kolchak adventures ever.
- North Texas RPG Con
- “The NTRPG Con focuses on old-school Dungeons & Dragons gaming (OD&D, 1E, 2E, or Basic/Expert) as well as any pre-1999 type of RPG produced by the classic gaming companies of the 70s and 80s (TSR, Chaosium, FGU, FASA, GDW, etc). We also support retro-clone or simulacrum type gaming that copies the old style of RPGs (Swords & Wizardry, Castles & Crusades, and others).”
More Daredevils RPG
- Far Out, My Idol: A Kolchak adventure for Daredevils
- Carl Kolchak and guest stars investigate the infamous high-rise murders during Chicago’s record freeze of January, 1977.
- Kolchak: The Wrong Goodbye (a Daredevils adventure)
- Kolchak and crew investigates strange murders during the 1976 Christmas season. Inspired by “real” Soviet research as reported in UFO magazines of the era.
- Kolchak’s Cold January at North Texas 2024
- I’ll be running another Kolchak: The Night Stalker game at North Texas in 2024, again using the Daredevils rules from Fantasy Games Unlimited. We finally move into 1977 for the great Chicago freeze!
- Kolchak: The Big Creep (a Daredevils adventure)
- Inspired by The Powers of Dr. Remoux, The Big Creep is a Daredevils adventure for The Night Stalker set in the autumn of 1976.
- A Kolchak Christmas at North Texas 2023
- I’ll be running another Kolchak: The Night Stalker game at North Texas in 2023, again using the Daredevils rules from Fantasy Games Unlimited.
- Five more pages with the topic Daredevils RPG, and other related pages
More Kolchak: The Night Stalker
- Far Out, My Idol: A Kolchak adventure for Daredevils
- Carl Kolchak and guest stars investigate the infamous high-rise murders during Chicago’s record freeze of January, 1977.
- Kolchak’s Big Sister at North Texas 2025
- Kolchak and Friends will be back at the North Texas RPG Con in 2025 for an Ides of March that will have you asking dux femina facti? in one of the weirdest Kolchak adventures ever.
- A revised timeline for Kolchak: The Night Stalker
- When did the Night Stalker and Night Strangler movies take place? When did the television series episodes take place? The internal evidence is a mess, but it is possible to construct a relatively believable timeline from the evidence, usable for an RPG campaign.
- Kolchak: The Wrong Goodbye (a Daredevils adventure)
- Kolchak and crew investigates strange murders during the 1976 Christmas season. Inspired by “real” Soviet research as reported in UFO magazines of the era.
- Kolchak’s Cold January at North Texas 2024
- I’ll be running another Kolchak: The Night Stalker game at North Texas in 2024, again using the Daredevils rules from Fantasy Games Unlimited. We finally move into 1977 for the great Chicago freeze!
- Four more pages with the topic Kolchak: The Night Stalker, and other related pages
More North Texas RPG Con
- Flashing Blades 2026: La Croisade Élevée at North Texas
- I’ll be continuing my mirror universe Trek/Golden Age of Sail mashup using the Flashing Blades rules at this year’s NTRPGC.
- Kolchak’s Big Sister at North Texas 2025
- Kolchak and Friends will be back at the North Texas RPG Con in 2025 for an Ides of March that will have you asking dux femina facti? in one of the weirdest Kolchak adventures ever.
- Flashing Blades at North Texas, 2025
- I’ll be running Flashing Blades again at North Texas this year, in a game called l’Entreprenante l’Entreprenante, pitting 1705 Naval officers against 23rd century Mirror Universe Imperial Officers.
- In Honor of Jack “Bones” Burton
- High school biology teacher Jack Burton’s dream job was driving a truck across country where the only people he’d have to talk to will be on the other end of a CB radio.
- Kolchak’s Cold January at North Texas 2024
- I’ll be running another Kolchak: The Night Stalker game at North Texas in 2024, again using the Daredevils rules from Fantasy Games Unlimited. We finally move into 1977 for the great Chicago freeze!
- Nine more pages with the topic North Texas RPG Con, and other related pages