Grendel: The Game of Crime and Mayhem is officially heading to retail, with Off the Page Games confirming a July 1, 2026 release - roughly a year after its successful Kickstarter campaign.
First revealed at GAMA Expo 2025, the game gained attention when it launched on Kickstarter in July 2025, helped by its connection to the cult comic series created by Matt Wagner. The campaign allowed the team to fund production and refine the design ahead of its wider release.
A crime-driven bag-building strategy game
At its core, Grendel is a bag-building strategy game where players draw tokens from a customizable pool, shaping their options as the game progresses. You take control of one of four mechanically distinct factions, each offering a different approach to dominating a stylized version of New York City’s criminal underworld. Over time, players add new tokens, refine their draws, and balance long-term planning with the unpredictability of what comes out of the bag.
The game leans heavily into the tone of the Grendel comics, focusing on power struggles, crime, and control, with original artwork from Wagner reinforcing its visual identity. Each faction’s unique mechanics add replayability, encouraging different strategies from aggressive expansion to more calculated, control-focused playstyles.
Designed for two to four players aged 14 and up, sessions run around 30 minutes, pointing to a fast-paced experience with meaningful decisions packed into a shorter playtime. With its mix of accessible mechanics and thematic depth, Grendel: The Game of Crime and Mayhem looks set to appeal to fans of strategy games and comic-inspired worlds when it arrives in July 2026.
