Chaosium Unveils New Post-Apocalyptic Steampunk RPG ‘Time Without Tide’

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Chaosium – the publisher behind Call of Cthulhu, Pendragon and RuneQuest – has just announced a brand new tabletop RPG. Entitled Time Without Tide: Mirth & Misery in the World of Fog, the game takes place in a post-apocalyptic, faux-Victorian fantasy world of steampunk technology and mist-shrouded monsters.

It also continues a relatively recent trend from Chaosium to produce new standalone games, following Rivers of London in 2022 and Age of Vikings in 2025. Time Without Tide, however, will first launch in early August 2026 as a crowdfunding campaign, but you can sign up now for alerts and a free quick start guide via BackerKit.

Below, we head into the World of Fog and dig up all the details.

What is the Time Without Tide RPG about?

Time Without Tide is set in a strange post-apocalyptic world loosely inspired by Victorian England. The planet has just suffered a massive catastrophe known as the Sundering, which saw the destruction of the moon and an accompanying lunar meteor shower that levelled many of the planet’s great cities. In the aftermath, a mysterious, mutating fog has arisen, swallowing the ruins and resulting in bizarre creatures and unknown horrors. One of the few remaining bastions is the city of Saltport, a sprawling Dickensian slum of spewing industrial factories, steam-powered automatons and power-hungry factions.

Players take on the role of Delvers, heroes brave (or foolish) enough to enter the so-called “World of Fog” in search of forgotten treasure, hidden secrets and a rare substance known as “Lunar Dust” left behind in the wake of the Sundering. The setting blends horror, steampunk, exploration and dark gallows humor. Thematically, it feels somewhat akin to games like Blades in the Dark, Deadlands and the Eberron D&D campaign setting.

Mechanically, the game moves away from Chaosium’s traditional Basic Roleplaying Engine (a d100 percentile dice system that powers Call of Cthulhu, Pendragon and RuneQuest). Instead, it uses a new streamlined d6 dice pool system. Characters are defined by three core traits – Body, Mind, and Will – which dictate how many dice you roll. These stats also double as your physical and mental health pools, decreasing as you sustain damage or exhaustion.

To resolve skill checks, players combine their relevant trait rating with specialized skills listed on their sheets (such as Violence, Navigation, Survival or Skullduggery) and roll that total number of dice, counting every result of a 5 or 6 as a success toward a target difficulty set by the Game Master. The system also features dedicated tactical action tracking for maneuvers like shoving, grappling, repelling horrors with light or applying powerful combat “boons” to swing conflicts in your favor. Players also have a set of specific resources known as a Record that allows them to track specific equipment slots and magical abilities known as Adaptations.

Notably, the game was created by up-and-coming designers David Naylor and James Coquillat, both of whom have been working on several different projects at Chaosium.

What are the BackerKit options from Time Without Tide?

So far the various crowdfunding options have not yet been revealed by Chaosium. We do know that the primary focus will be on a single sourcebook, which comes in both a standard cover and glow-in-the-dark collector’s cover. If you reserve your pledge now, you’ll also receive a free silver Delver’s pin.

We’ll see the complete line of backer options (plus additional accessories) once the campaign officially launches on August 11th, 2026 (we’ll update this page with more information then).

Why we’re excited for the Time Without Tide RPG

• An new game from an RPG icon: It is a major industry event when a publisher of Chaosium’s caliber builds a completely original world and game system from scratch, and we’re stoked to see what they can deliver.
• A unique steampunk horror premise: While thematically Time Without Tide might share some similarities with other games we’ve seen before, the setting and concept sounds incredibly cool.
• A new game engine: While Chaosium has released new games in recent years, in most cases they’ve leaned heavily on the Basic Roleplaying engine (which can be a little clunky), so it’ll be interesting to see how this new streamlined system works.
• Incredible artwork: While we’ll have to wait and see what the final product is like, from the material we’ve seen so far online and in the official quick start guide, the aesthetic, layout and illustration style is absolutely stunning.

Final thoughts

Time Without Tide looks to be a major new project from one of the TTRPG industry’s oldest publishers, and it’s great to see them pushing the envelope with a young design team, new game engine and unique setting.

We’ll be keeping a close eye as the fog clears around this upcoming crowdfunder in August. In the meantime, you can sign up now for alerts and download the free quick start guide on BackerKit.