PC Gamer has launched a new regular column dedicated to the tabletop roleplaying genre, in which Online Editor Fraser Brown invites readers to submit the strangest, silliest and most memorable moments from their own gaming sessions. The feature, themed around a “badly-lit tavern,” asks players to share tales of miraculous dice rolls, chaotic game masters and the occasional overturned table, while Brown fills the opening with a handful of his own misadventures spanning roughly 15 years of play. The column aims to celebrate the enduring appeal of the genre and to highlight the unpredictable, human element that no video game can replicate.
According to Brown, the appeal of tabletop roleplaying lies in its inherent unpredictability. “CRPGs like Baldur’s Gate, Divinity and Pillars of Eternity love to get weird, but no videogame can truly compare to the oddities that a good tabletop session can spit out,” he writes. “Throw a bunch of flesh and blood humans around a table and there’s a good chance chaos will ensue.” The column therefore serves a dual purpose: to document the genre’s quirks and to give players a platform to contribute their own stories, whether they play in person or remotely.
A Badly-Lit Tavern of Tales
Brown frames the column with a deliberately atmospheric, low-key tone, asking readers to “grab a seat in our badly-lit tavern and please ignore the goblin puke.” The imagery sets the stage for a series of anecdotes that range from the mildly amusing to the genuinely surreal, each illustrating the way real-world circumstances can bleed into a tabletop session.
The first story Brown recounts involves a remote tabletop crew hosted by a friend from New Zealand, who also served as the group’s game master. The party was exploring a homebrew setting—a fictional West African city steeped in steampunk aesthetics—when, out of nowhere, the host’s screen began to shake. Objects tumbled off the bookcase, and his then-partner rushed down the stairs in a panic. As Brown recalls it, the group simply took a short break to let the situation settle before returning to the game. “We don’t get ‘quakes in Scotland, so I found the whole thing bizarre and a bit thrilling,” he says. “Luckily it was a pretty minor one.”
The Betrayal, the Elephant Gun and the Taxi
The column then turns to Brown’s more elaborate fictional tales, which he explicitly flags as not entirely true. In one Mothership session hosted by former senior editor Robin Valentine, Brown played a character infected by an alien virus, only to discover his condition when Valentine began sending him chilling direct messages describing the “messed up stuff” happening to him. Paranoia set in, and the story escalates into a series of increasingly absurd events, including a character shooting another in the leg, growing tentacles and, in the most outrageous turn, eating a fellow player’s face. Brown adds the caveat: “Please don’t tell HR.”
His third anecdote comes from a Call of Cthulhu campaign, in which witnessing a particularly spooky ghost drove his character mad enough to shoot a fellow player with an elephant gun, effectively disintegrating them. He then fled the scene by taxi. The twist, however, is that Brown had developed echolalia, meaning he could only repeat whatever the taxi driver said to him—leaving him with more sympathy for the driver than for the man he shot.
So, my fellow TTRPGers, I want to know about the times things got weird around your table. And if you just play TTRPGs remotely, I want your strange stories too!
Fraser Brown, PC Gamer
Beyond the personal stories, the column doubles as a community call-out, explicitly welcoming submissions from players who prefer remote play. Brown notes that he has other anecdotes he would love to share but reserves for private consumption, underscoring the informal, conversational spirit of the feature.
Looking Ahead
As the column winds down, it points readers toward the broader coverage available on the site, including roundups of upcoming 2026 games, the publication’s all-time best PC games, a selection of free PC games, and guides to the finest FPS games, the greatest RPGs and the best co-op games. These links position the tabletop feature within PC Gamer’s wider editorial focus on the enduring appeal of roleplaying and cooperative play.
With the column now open for submissions, the focus shifts to the readers themselves. Brown’s own stories are clearly meant as a springboard rather than a definitive list, and the quality of the responses he hopes to receive will determine whether the “badly-lit tavern” becomes a recurring gathering place for the community’s most memorable gaming moments.
For now, the invitation stands: share your weird anecdotes, your silly arguments and your stories of terrible game masters, and let the tabletop chaos continue.
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