OSR News Roundup

[thirdkingdom]

I'm going to start posting the roundup as a whole in this thread, rather than just a link. Here's this weeks:

This Saturday, the 12th, was the sixth anniversary of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville (where I'm based), and the store we opened back in July just happens to be on the same street that witnessed the murder of Heather Heyer by a vehicle driven by an alt-right demonstrator into a crowd of counter-protesters. I posted about this in a short blog post on Saturday, but thought it was worth reiterating here. Sabre Games and Third Kingdom Games are pro-Black Lives Matter, pro-trans rights, pro-LGBTQ, and always anti-fascist.

I'm on vacation this week, so this roundup may be a little shorter than normal, but let's go ahead and dive into it, shall we?

• Gwyllgi has created a bookmark oracle that is pretty snazzy.
• The One Page RPG jam is currently running over on itch, and Cezar Capacle's entry, Murder at Morsley Manor, a card-based rpg where hidden secrets are not predetermined by forged through gameplay.
• Another entry for the OPJ is The Great Manifestation. The author bills it as "no rules, just paperwork. If you love ghosts and bureaucracy you'll love it".
• Running at the same time on itch is the Forgotten Jam, and SummerTimeAlice has written Grave of the Fossil Dragon.
• Dithmer has released Heirs of the Leviathan, a World of Dungeons hack, set in a world of tragic fantasy politics and intrigue. The art is very evocative.
• Hungry Clone has just released the ashcan of their game The Forest. It's set in an endless forest of clearings connected by a single railway line, at the center of which stands a black tower. The author has incorporated their Korean heritage into the game.
• I could have sworn I mentioned this game a few weeks ago, but it just popped back up on my radar as a new release, so here it goes again. This Mortal Coil is written as a setting/supplement for Liminal Horror, in which the players are space necromancers seeking to build a device that grants eternal life.
• The Three Towers, by M Allen Hall, is an adventure for Mork Borg that uses a clever dungeon map to keep track of the character's progress.
• The Great Dwarf Road, by Simon Carryer, is a 3rd level OSR dungeon set in an old dwarven thoroughfare that has been long abandoned.
• Misery's Keep is an adventure for Mork Borg. The Micery Keep is an adaptation of that adventure to Mausritter, written as part of the TTRPG Layout Jam 2023.
• Inspired by Umbria's dungeon synth album The Sleeping Wizard, The Flames Witnessed at Temperance is the first foray into publishing by D. D. Grant. It's written for BX-style games and is a free, 16-page adventure.
• The talented Ahimsa Kerp has released the Ars Moriendi, an undead-themed supplement that builds on the rules in Old School and Cool Issue #4.
• The Star Mermaid, by John Fredericks, is a sci-fi adventure designed to be compatible with both retro and modern versions of D&D.
• Oh, and I almost forgot, there's this little Kickstarter for a project called Dolmenwood. I'm sure none of my readers have heard of it, but it's supposed to be pretty good and is at . . . holy **** it's going to break a million dollars, isn't it (it's at 992k as I write this, with 26 days to go).
• I'm taking a page from Philip Reed's numerous Kickstarters and doing a short, week-long Kickstarter for Issue 25 of Populated Hexes Monthly. It's the first of two issues that introduces a new, point-less psionics system to OSE and similar games, that features a simple roll-under mechanism that allows the psionicist to temporarily spend ability score points to succeed in using powers.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

@thirdkingdom, do you have any insight when/if Reach of the Roach God is going to make it to (virtual or otherwise) retailer shelves in the US? It doesn't seem to have ever shown up at Spearwitch. I assumed the two ATTI creators would want that last hit of revenue/recoup their printing costs before shutting the whole thing down (sadly).

 

[thirdkingdom]

@thirdkingdom, do you have any insight when/if Reach of the Roach God is going to make it to (virtual or otherwise) retailer shelves in the US? It doesn't seem to have every shown up at Spearwitch. I assumed the two ATTI creators would want that last hit of revenue/recoup their printing costs before shutting the whole thing down (sadly).

Oof, I don't to be honest. I know backers have gotten their copies. I haven't seen it pop up through any of my vendors. I can ask some of my contacts. I can think of a couple of folks who might be in the know.

 

[thirdkingdom]

@thirdkingdom, do you have any insight when/if Reach of the Roach God is going to make it to (virtual or otherwise) retailer shelves in the US? It doesn't seem to have ever shown up at Spearwitch. I assumed the two ATTI creators would want that last hit of revenue/recoup their printing costs before shutting the whole thing down (sadly).

Sounds like Spearwitch will be the only retailer with it, and they're waiting on all KS backers to get theirs before opening up general sales. You might want to reach out to Jared and ask what the plan is.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Sounds like Spearwitch will be the only retailer with it, and they're waiting on all KS backers to get theirs before opening up general sales. You might want to reach out to Jared and ask what the plan is.

Awesome, thanks for checking. I was worried it had come and gone, like it did with the UK distributor.

What a sad ending to a great project. It's rough how both partners felt undervalued in the partnership.

 

[thirdkingdom]

I'm back from the beach and ready to dive into last week's new releases!

• Primate Practice Press has introduced an interesting, free entry into this years' One Page RPG jam. Entitled the losing game, it is written for MOSAIC Strict, and provides a way of resolving physical combat that involves either winning or losing a fight. As the author puts it, "violence destroys, bit by bit, what everyone values and needs for thriving, win or lose".
• Luke Simonds of Cats Have no Lord consistently publishes some neat little products, and they're entry into the Sci-Fi One Shot jam on itch is a good example of this. Entitled Robot Death Ship, it is written for Cairn-based sci-fi games, it posits an alien ship full of robots that become more hostile the longer the adventurers remain on board.
• Embalmed Basin is a submission to the Vaarn Summer jam, and is a small hexcrawl that Referees can run if their players are hungry to grant their characters new mutations.
• kapithan and I must have similar kids; they wrote No Normies when their daughter wanted to play in a Wednesday-style game. This is a simple, two page rpg that is available in both English and Spanish, which I think is a cool feature.
• iko, of The Lost Bay, is hosting a 90s Urban Legend Jam on itch that looks like it will be a lot of fun.
• Satah, a contributor to Jess Levine's I Have the High Ground, amongst others, has published a submission to the one-page jam, which includes resolutions using both a deck of cards and a cootie catcher. It's billed as a cyberpunk caper.
• Shadowdark is the new hotness, but this is the first I've heard of Junkers, a sci-fi setting designed for use with the Shadowdark system. Danger at Dark Hole is the second adventure set in the Junkers world, and sends the PCs on a mission to explore a mining outpost.
• I was super excited to see this game when it popped up on my social media feed the other day, because I think Noora Rose releases excellent products. This, a revision of an earlier work, looks to be just as good as their other stuff. Beecher's Bibles is set in 1850s Kansas, and the players take the roles of militant anti-slavery guerrillas.
• Temple of Treachery is a psychedelic adventure for Mork Borg. It's currently available only in German, but will soon be available in English.
• I'd mentioned Dungeon Grand Prix awhile back, and there's a new adventure/campaign setting for it. Hell-Climb is a point-crawl adventure that adds dirt-bikes to the go-kart milieu.
• Many of you are likely aware that I like hexmaps and I cannot lie, but the new book by John Cunningham caught my eye. Shadowdark: Journeying on Non-Hexcrawl Maps, attempts to do what it says on this tin; provide rules for overland travel on non-hexmaps.
• The Old School Essentials version of Dark Places and Demogorgons, the Stranger Things-inspired setting by Bloat Games, is now available in pdf.
• We've got a bunch of books by Severed Books in stock (including the Dead Milkmen-themed adventure the Lost Tomb of the Bitchin' Chimera), and they've just released a new one. The Dark Glinting with Metal is a setting written for Mork Borg.
• Ryan Thompson of Appendix N Entertainment is raising funds for his third and final book looking at the outer planes and adding demons, devils, and now angels to Old School Essentials.
• We've added Seven Murders til Midnight, by Absurdist Productions, is now out in print. It was crowdfunded as part of ZineQuest 2023 (you can catch my interview with the author here). It's a solo rpg where you play the role of a detective -- a cop, a reporter, or just a concerned citizen -- trying to catch a serial killer.
• Populated Hexes Monthly Issue 24 is now available in print on Drivethru. This issue features the lair of a surly ettin, the hideout of a gang of desperate bandits, and a fey-themed playable dwarf class for Old School Essentials.

 

[thirdkingdom]

Welcome to the last news roundup for August. Summer is drawing to a close, kids are back at school, and we're moving (at least in the northern hemisphere) into fall. Let's see what was released last week, shall we?

• Zac Bir has released Journeyman Pocket Edition on itch, a rules-lite, generic rpg system that emphasizes establishing trust amongst participants to develop guidelines for play.
• Heat Wave Horror is a bundle of two games by Javierloustaunau on itch. The sale ends in two days (as of the 28th), so if you want to take advantage of this deal you should jump on it. It includes the recently released Trapped in an endless i-kräla, an Ikea-themed horror scenario.
• I've been eagerly waiting for this (and the upcoming print version): Jimmy Shelter has just released Hiria: the Eternal City, on itch. It's a solo journaling game set in a city that exists in an infinite number of possibilities, changing subtly through realities.
• James Holloway has released the Guide to Grunts on itch, a system-neutral guide to creating realistic armies and mercenary bands in fantasy games.
• Levi Combs of Planet X Games is raising funds for Closet of the Eye Wizard, a DCC zine that brings the contents of the Eye Wizard's closet to life, adding new sartorial magical items to the DCC game.
• From the prolific Phil Reed comes Combat Banes and Boons, new critical hit and fumble tables for fantasy rpgs.
• Barbaric! by Stellagama Publishing, is now available in a 2nd edition. This book brings Swords and Sorcery-style gaming to life using the Cepheus engine.
• Tales from the Smoking Wyrm, Issue 6, is a zine written primarily for DCC but with content that can be mined for other fantasy OSR systems.
• Pirate Borg is a new game based on the popular Mork Borg engine, and Caught: A Compendium of Punishments Pyratical [sic] introduces a collection of punishments for piracy, breaking them down into categories depending on who is meting out the punishments.
• I've had this little gem of a supplement in stock for a month or so, but Cats Have no Lord has just released The Frog Supertable on Drivethru in pdf. It's a little pamphlet with twelve frog variants, and features the art of blog favorite Evlyn Moreau.
• Essential Enemies #5 is out. This issue is titled Creatures of Chaos, and presents an assortment of new monster, items, and lairs to use in your Old School Essentials or similar game.
• The Weeps, by Spooky Jaguar, is a short zine written for Cairn with a starting town, forest, and dungeon to use as a jumping off point for adventure.
• I really like the hexcrawl stuff that Lazy Litch has put out, and now you can get all of their existing titles as part of a bundle on Drivethru. I carry all of their print titles, as well, and they're totally worth picking up.
• We've also added a number of OSR-adjacent titles to the store:

1. Another artist I really like is Amanda Lee Franck, and we've added her two zines to the store: You Got a Job on the Garbage Barge and Vampire Cruise. Both are quirky and come with Amanda's illustrations and super cool maps.
2. Guild: Sword and Magick for Hire, the new zine by Disaster Tourism, is also in stock. This was crowdfunded last December and is now available in print.
3. Zinepalooza funded in February of 2022 as part of the first independent ZineMonth project, and the three zines that were part of it are now all out in print, as well as the first two issues of Explore Dungeons that were reprinted as part of the Kickstarter. Explore Dungeons 1, 2, and 3 are all system neutral with plenty of content to add to games; Smorkasborg is a zine for Mork Borg, and Tales from the Tower adds content for 5e-style games.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Reach of the Roach God, the final (alas) A Thousand Thousand Islands book, is now available to non-backer customers in the US through Spearwitch. The site doesn't make it clear, but you get a PDF along with your order. The book will never be reprinted, per the now-split partners, so get it now, if you want it.

 

[thirdkingdom]

Awesome, thanks for checking. I was worried it had come and gone, like it did with the UK distributor.

What a sad ending to a great project. It's rough how both partners felt undervalued in the partnership.

Spearwitch has Roach God in stock. They've actually got enough copies to sell to retailers, so I'm hoping to get copies in soon. Spear Witch

 

[thirdkingdom]

And ninja-ed!