OSR OSR News Roundup

[thirdkingdom]

If you see Reach of the Roach God, do not put off buying it (assuming you can afford it) for another day, @GothmogIV.

The partnership that produced Thousand Thousand Islands has been dissolved in a messy break-up, the Thousand Thousand Island zines are no longer in print and once Reach of the Roach God sells out, it's gone for good.

All of the Thousand Thousand Islands stuff, including Reach, are excellent, though, so don't hesitate to grab them if you see them. They're system neutral but amazingly evocative. They're a minimalist achievement.

Both members of the former collective, Zedeck and Mun Kao, are still producing some of the most interesting stuff in the OSR/NSR field.

 

[thirdkingdom]

Welcome to the last news Roundup in February. While the month is almost over, ZineMonth is not, as many of the projects that are launched during this time extend into March.

Sabre has added a "Daily Deal" feature, with each day giving one product we've got in stock a significant discount. We'll be rotating through a number of OSR and indie titles, both old and new. Right now probably the easiest way to find these deals is via our Discord.

• The Spires of Kuyyin is a short adventure written for Cairn 2e dealing with the exploration of ruins within a ice-covered canyon.
• Billed as a "mini-mega dungeon", The False Temple is by the Azorynian Post. It's projected to have about 150 rooms when complete, and is for characters of levels 4-7. It's a bit of a gamble -- it's the creator's first project, and the project isn't 100% complete -- but they are just fulfilling it as a pdf, and previews of the dungeon are available for perusal. I'd like to see this project fund as I like to encourage small, first-time publishers who are dipping their toes into the business end of the hobby.
• Available as a 114-page, spiral bound book, Advanced Rules is a compilation of supplemental material for Mothership, including some guidelines for solo play (someone was asking me about solo rules for Mothership a few weeks back).
• Mussel Beach: Volume 1 is described as a "swole seafaring zine". It's written for Meatheads, a game which sees occasional mention here, and is designed as part in-world magazine, part setting.
• Jaclyn Lewis is raising funds for Imagine Queer Worlds, a guide to designing worlds and settings that do not hew to traditional gender and romantic assumptions.
• The prolific and ever generous Philip Reed is raising funds for Quest for Zines, a ZiMo project designed to help new authors and artists get into making their own zines. Reed's got an enviable track record of both publishing material but also running successful crowdfunding campaigns, so I'm sure this zine has a lot of useful information in there.
• Probably one of the most interesting ZiMo projects I've seen thus far this year is Wiki Articles are Wizards [citation needed], a zine about generating weird and unusual wizards from wiki articles.
• Jeffrey Jones is another publisher who has been putting out some consistent, high-quality OSR products, and their current project is Denizens of the Blood Sands, an OSE bestiary with a distinctive Dark Sun meets Barsoom meets Synnibar vibe.
• John McGuire is raising funds for Avon by the Sea, an adventure written for the 321RPG ruleset that takes place in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy.
• Feathertail Falls is a Mausritter adventure collection with five adventures, which can be run as stand-alone adventures or tied together into a mini-campaign.
• The classic OSR zine Fight On is now out with Issue 16, this one dedicated to legendary artist David Trampier, and featuring the same roster of fantastic contributors and articles the zine is known for.
• Survivors of Frith is an interesting looking sandbox adventure path written for OSE, set in a world changed by alien invaders. It's designed to take a party of adventurers from 1st to 7th level.
• Chive Knight is a delightful looking OSR system inspired by jrpg art and games. I haven't had a chance to look it over, but from the preview page it sounds like it might be a fun little system to explore.
• The Endless Dungeon of the Mad Mage is a Mork Borg entry into ZineMonth2025, a procedurally generated, never the same dungeon designed as a meat-grinder for careless PCs.
• The Advanced OSR Player's Guide pdf is now live on Drivethru and the Sabre webstore. Written for OSE, but applicable to a wide range of OSR-style games, this book compiles dozens of new classes, spells, and player options.

 

[thirdkingdom]

ZineMonth is officially over, although there are still projects running that started late in February. I hope everyone who participated by launching a project had a fun time and were successful meeting their funding goals, and I hope everyone else saw (and backed) some fun and interesting projects.

This looks to be a pretty light week on the release end of things.

• The Crimson Caverns, by jofas, is a simple dungeon crawl written for Cairn 2e as a one-shot or a short adventure that can be slotted into an existing campaign. Explore the abandoned hideout of an evil sorcerer!
• Inspired in part by the shrines in Breath of the Wild, Pit is the first of a Spell Shrine written for the 2025 Zungeon Jam using Cairn. It's a neat idea; every spellbook has its own shrine that must be found and explored in order to master the contained spell. It's the first in what the author hopes is a planned series.
• Wayward Words is a late entry into the Zinemonth festivities and could use some support. It's a system-neutral supplement of weird books arranged in alphabetical orders; each book has something unique to teach the reader.
• The Rainy City is a fun and quirky setting zine that we consistently sell out of at Sabre, and I just saw the author is Kickstarting Vol. 3 of Flott's Miscellany, a new collection of goodies, tables, and encounters for the city where the rain never stops.
• Tales from the Spectral Sea looks to be a fun game where you play as the crew of a ship that died at sea but couldn't pass on to the afterlife, and instead sail the spectral sea, "living" out your swashbuckling dreams until you can pass on to the afterlife.
• Written for the Mork Borg family of games, Wraithborn is a setting where the players take on the role of the undead inhabitants in a realm of the dead and damned.

 

[thirdkingdom]

Welcome to the second news roundup of March. My apologies to subscribers; I realized belatedly that I neglected to send out the newsletter last Monday. I had an immensely naughty word day and it just got away from me.

I'm getting excited about the upcoming crowdfunding project I'll be launching in April for Mind Over Matter, a psionics book for Old School Essentials and other OSR games. In addition to a fairly traditional psionics system, albeit one divorced from point-based activation, it will also include an adaptation of the classic Book of Nine Swords from late in the 3.5-era. I've always liked the concepts presented in that book, and I've reworked the rules to fit in with an OSR mindset and power scaling.

Enough about me, though. The big news from last week that I'm sure many of you have heard already is that Drivethrurpg will be raising prices on certain print on demand products, chiefly softcover books, some of which will see a price increase of up to 70%! I don't know yet how this will affect POD books from other vendors, or offset books from other sources, but it has been my experience that prices almost never go down. I hope that people who are in the middle of crowdfunding campaigns aren't negatively affected by the upcoming pricing increases, and for everyone else, I guess now is the time to purchase those POD titles that have been sitting in your cart.

• I've mentioned before my love of the games coming out of Latin America these days, and I was stoked to see that the LATAMjam 2025 is starting on March 12th. You don't have to be a LATAM creator to participate, so long as your entry uses a ruleset designed or released by an eligible publisher. The depth of creativity coming out of this community is truly astounding, and I'm excited to see what comes out of this game jam.
• Matt Kelly has released Stormalong, a collection of seafaring adventures for Cairn, Into the Odd, and other systems, all based on American folktales.
• Scouts and Scoundrels is a free, rules-lite rpg based on Cairn, with some super cute artwork.
• I've mentioned Block, Dodge, Parry several times, and was excited to get the notification that the final version is out on itch. It's designed as an "advanced" companion to Cairn, and is available now for a lower price before it jumps up to the regular price. I've been following the development, and it's a really neat system in its own right, and in my opinion really brings a shine to the (fairly basic) Cairn.
• Vesta Mandate is a neat-looking game of political intrigue in the future that is currently funding on Kickstarter.
• Vaults of Vaarn has a soft spot in my heart, and I just saw that Ecophage is a newly released adventure for VoV, dealing with an escaped scientific experiment causing havoc.
• I've mentioned before that Goblin Errands is one of Sabre's bestselling titles, and I just saw there's a similar (perhaps a bit darker) project funding on Kickstarter: Rob'n Goblin is a heist game which looks to be a bit of Honey Heist mixed with Goblin Errands mixed with the newly released Dawn of the Orcs (which we have in stock!)
• Out of all the various Borgs, Pirate Borg is perhaps my favorite, and I just saw there's a newly release Ancient Mariner class available.
• Back to Basix Issue 13 is now available on Drivethrurpg. It's a well-respected OSR zine, and in addition to new gaming content this issue also features an interview with Tracy Hickman.
• Explore Dungeons have released Heroic Adventures #1, an adventure written for DCC revolving around a lich and its rule over a helpless town.
• Attack the Light Issue #0 is the flagship offering of a new series of zines by Michael Putlack, written for Shadowdark. I had the pleasure of interviewing Michael several years ago for a project they launched for ZineMonth, and it's cool seeing them continuing to publish product (full disclosure, Michael currently works for the Arcane Library, publisher of Shadowdark).
• I've mentioned before how much I like seeing a product that I've mentioned in the promotional stages make it to publication, and I just saw that Miami 86 is live on Drivethru. I mentioned it a few years back when it was funding; it's . . . a game set in Miami in the 80s. Not sure if I need to describe it more.
• Populated Hexes Monthly 43 is now available in pdf, POD, and offset versions. It concludes the three part series on the Shadowlands, and finishes up with some playable classes, including one of my favorite, the dhampir.

 

[thirdkingdom]

Welcome to the third OSR News Roundup of March. This is the week that GaryCon kicks off, so people are plenty busy getting ready for that. The big news this week is the currently funding Shadowdark Kickstarter, shattering stretch goals with their Western Reaches campaign, an exciting setting and game expansion.

• In Ruins is a fun-looking dungeon building game that is currently funding on Kickstarter. It's a neat concept; the player's build a castle, let it fall into ruin, and then populate it with monsters who all fight for control of the Throne Room.
• Written for Wretched & Alone, Covet is a solo-rpg all about obsession, desire, and toxic relationships.
• We carry a couple of titles by Hatchlings Games, and they're currently raising funds for GAST on Backerkit, a boxset collection of short horror games.
• Another project funding on Backerkit is Hit the Road Jack, a solo or duet game of high-speed, highway chases on the open road.
• Ward Against Evil has just released Aketon: Adventurer Options, a supplement for the Aketon rpg. It's free, and even if you don't play Aketon there's bound to be plenty of inspirational material within.
• Harpy Broodmother is a free adventure written for Knave 2e, OSE, Mork Borg, and Shadowdark. It's a short adventure, available in pdf only, but the pdf is set up as printable files, as well.
• Matt Finch recently launched his own publishing imprint, Mythmere Games, and has been releasing a steady stream of new and revised titles under it. I'm a huge fan of his Tome of Adventure Design, and was super excited to see that two of his most recently Kickstarted titles -- The Nomicon and Tome of Worldbuilding are in stock at Drivethrurpg. I hopefully will be conducting an interview with Matt about the upcoming OSRIC revision in the next few weeks, once he's back from GaryCon.
• Knight Owl Publishing has just released The Book of New Gods, a collection of one hundred new gods for use with Shadowdark. Knight Owl consistently produces quality products, and they've got Amanda Lee Franck and Waclaw Traier provided art for the book.
• Titan's Throne: Infested Archives is a new adventure written for Old School Essentials. It's a sandbox adventure designed for PCs of levels 1-3 and includes a 3-level dungeon the mini-campaign is centered on.
• I've mentioned The Ruins of Castle Gygar a couple of times in the past, and the adventure is now live on Drivethru in pdf form. It's a megadungeon written for OSE that was generated as part of the Dungeon23 megadungeon project.
• Another project birthed from Dungeon23 is The Blades of Gixa, currently funding on Kickstarter. It's a gorgeous mega-dungeon with a charming layout, like one you'd scribble in your notebooks during high school math.
• The Extraplanar Vending Machine is a short and sweet system neutral absurd addition to any fantasy rpg. It's very clever, I think.
• Another system neutral little product is The Willow's Tears, a short, low-level adventure designed as an introduction. It's got a great map, and I also like how it is set up to be printed as a trifold pamplet.
• Another game I mentioned awhile back is Mythic Bastionland, the system by well-known author Chris McDowall that is designed as a prologue to their Into the Odd and Electric Bastionland.
• Lixu has released Appendix L: Vol. 3, a collection of material and houserules for Old School Essentials. You may know Lixu for their Spelljammer and Dark Sun adaptions to OSE.
• My own Kickstarter for Populated Hexes Monthly Issue 44 ends on Tuesday. In addition to beginning a look at the kingdom of Negrorn, ruled by seven lich-lords, it also provides rules and guidelines for advancing beyond normal OSE level limits.

 

[thirdkingdom]

It's the penultimate News Roundup for March, and before we start I'd like to apologize to Old School Epics. They had reached out to me on Reddit a month or so back asking me to mention their new audio story series on YouTube. I responded that I didn't normally promote this sort of thing, but that I would be happy to, and then I promptly didn't. Sorry about that! If you're looking for a new solo AP audio series, you should check out Old School Epics, playing through the OSE adventure The Jeweler's Sanctum.

• It's been awhile since I've mentioned something available on Lulu, but the game Block, Dodge, Parry is now available in print in a couple of different varieties. This link is to the hardcover version. Longtime readers will not doubt recall that I've been following the development of this system over the years, and am excited to see it available in print.
• I just happened to see there's a bundle on itch to support the town of Valencia, Spain, after devastating flooding in November. You can get almost 800 of some of the best titles itch has to offer for as little as 5 euros.
• There's an interesting game jam going on over on itch for the RAD system, or there will be when it launches in a week's time. RAD is set in post-apocalyptic Russia and central Asia. It's got some really interesting premises and a strong, active community supporting it.
• Roundup favorite Tanya Floaker has just launched a new project on Backerkit, an anthology collection of games to support the Edinburgh Indie Gamers Collective as they search for a new physical location.
• Extra Ordinary is currently funding on Kickstarter and could use some support to reach its funding goal. It's a game using the "no dice no masters" system, all about kids with occult powers on the outside of society.
• One of my favorite indie authors and publishers is Lazy Litch, and I was excited to see they've just launched a new project on Kickstarter called Mana Meltdown. It's a game of psionic dark fantasy battle royales, in which the players delve into a psychically aware dungeon to outwit other treasure seekers. Lazy Litch consistently puts out great products, and their art is only one part of what makes their books so great.
• L Mann has just released One Antarctic Bestiary, a small collection of classic OSR monsters reimagined for an arctic setting.
• Phantom of the Scarlet Heart is an adventure written for 1e and similar systems, something we don't see that much of these days thanks to the twin one two punch of OSE and Shadowdark. Hopefully with the announced launch of the new edition of OSRIC there will be more 1e compatible products released. This is a mid-level adventure that features a death knight! Always a plus in my book.
• Mauro Longo has just released Mill of the Twelve Dead, a low-level adventure for BX-style games that looks impressively put together and will be released in a print format soon.
• The Painted Wastelands is one of my favorite projects from last year, and I see that the author has just released a Referee's Screen for the game. It's a pdf on Drivethru, so you'll need to be able to print the file, but the art is just so cool looking! They've also just released a Player's Guide and the just funded Strange Tales of the Painted Wasteland, an impressive turnaround time that bodes well for future support of the setting.
• The OSR Advanced Player's Options Book is now available. This is a 340 page A5 hardcover book with plenty of options for OSR-style games: new classes, spells, magical item creation, rules for establishing temples, and more!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

That Antarctic jam seems fun, although I'm not sure that an Antarctic hex crawl can be both satisfying and recognizably Antarctic.

 

[thirdkingdom]

That Antarctic jam seems fun, although I'm not sure that an Antarctic hex crawl can be both satisfying and recognizably Antarctic.

It's tough, I will admit. I thought the bestiary looked pretty cool; I liked the concept.

 

[thirdkingdom]

There will be no Roundup today. I am out of town on vacation. Please feel free to add any titles you came across in the past week, though!

 

[thirdkingdom]

I was out of town last week for a short spring break trip, so there wasn't a news roundup last week. I'm going to do my best to encapsulate both in this Roundup, but we'll see how we do. Every once in a while I plug a release in the introduction, for one reason or another. This week, I'd like to give a special shout-out to Gurbintroll (nee Blacky the Blackball) and the newly released 4th edition of their Rules Cyclopedia clone Dark Dungeons. Years ago, Dark Dungeons was the game that brought me into the OSR after a long hiatus and then jumping back into 3rd edition with my stepson. The 4th edition is a fantastic re-imagining and interpretation of the Rules Cyclopedia, and I encourage everyone to download and read this game as soon as possible; the pdf is free and is a hefty 475 pages.

• I'm pretty sure I've mentioned the Cairn Monster Cards before, but if not, here you go. You can get a file of 145 illustrated and printable monster cards statted for Cairn, designed to be folded and used in a standard card sleeve. This is a really cool project.
• If you're looking for an easy way to dip your toes into game design, or have a spark of an idea you'd like to get down on paper, the SAGAS TTRPG 1-page game jam is still accepting applicants. It's pretty broad and open-ended; the only requirements are that it be one page and use the SAGAS game system.
• Issue 2 of Print it Yourself is now out on itch. It's a cool zine about, well, the physical process of making zines. I really like this (especially with all of the tariff news throwing a huge wrench into a lot of current projects) because I think it is an aspect of the indie community that isn't much discussed; there's plenty of stuff on game design, and mechanics, but not that much on actually making the physical product.
• Written for Old School Essentials, The Orc is a playable character class for it and similar BX-style games.
• I haven't had a chance to dive into it but The Madder Hag is an interesting looking zine that tackles BX-style gaming, with what looks to be a ton of content. Issue Five, all about fighters, is out now.
• I always like being able to promote first-time authors: Nick Campbell is coming out of the gate strong with several adventures, the first of which is D1 -- Escaping Bunsunin. This is a 0-level, gauntlet-style adventure written for Shadowdark, and is followed by several other adventures in the series.
• Red Ruin Publishing has been putting out an amazing amount of fan content for Dragon Warriors, and they've just released an 80-page, PWYW solo adventure for that system.
• I'm not familiar with the work of Storm Fetish Productions, but they've just released Brink of Calamity, a 180-page adventure written for OSRIC and similar systems.
• Crawling North, Vol. 2 is now out. This is a zine written for DCC with a special focus on Norse-style settings.
• I don't know if any readers are fans of the historical war game Bolt Action, but Sabre Games is currently auctioning off a painted German army on ebay.