OSR OSR News Roundup

[thirdkingdom]

Welcome to the third Roundup in April. Last week I published an interview I conducted with Daniel Kwan, the author of the upcoming Wandering Blades, a wuxia-inspired OSR game being published by Plus One Exp. I'd like to revise my Meet the Publisher series, so if you're in anyway adjacent to the ttrpg field, whether as an author, illustrator, publisher, editor, etc., I'd be happy to send you over some questions about your work.

Releases are still a little slow; it could just be spring or people recovering from their ZineQuest projects, but let's see what we've got!

• Mortdrakon RPG is a new, rules-lite fantasy rpg inspired by Cairn and Basic Fantasy, with a sweet pixel-dungeon vibe.
• Jeffrey Jones has been producing some great old-school content over the past three or so years, and they've just launched a Kickstarter for a combined volume of Issues 1-6 of Gary's Appendix, combining the first six issues of that zine.
• Uneasy Lies the Head 2e is an interesting project that just launched on Kickstarter. It's a GM-less competitive game of courtly intrigue. I really like their use of public domain art in bringing the project to life.
• I can't remember if I plugged this already or not, but Solo Borg is doing gangbusters on Kickstarter, raising funds for a ruleset designed to aid in playing Morg Borg.
• Justin Sirois of Severed Books is crowdfunding for Sickest Witch, a d20-based, rules-lite folk horror game. This is a core ruleset for the setting of many of Severed Books products.
• Tom Phillips reached out to let me know about Monster 24, a collection of 250 monsters for Shadowdark created during 2024.
• Written for OSE, The Herbomancer is an adventure set in an abandoned botanical garden. It's written for a party of 3rd-5th level characters.
• Kal-Arath, by Castle Grief, is popping up more and more in my social feeds, and I ran across Al Rathak, Tales of the Crescent Kingdom, a pseudo-Arabian setting designed for use with Kal-Arath and similar settings/games.
• Mouths in Your Skin is a short and sweet (or maybe gross) supplement to help Referees generate the NPCs that live in the characters' skin. It's got a bit of body horror, as may be expected.
• Spellburn and Battlescars is an OSR game designed to work with the various Mark of the Odd games. It's got some really nice art.
• Will Flora has released Tome of the Ancient Hero, an adventure for Old School Essentials. I'd like a little more information here about the adventure itself, but there's an available preview that should give you a good idea of what is contained within.
• I've uploaded a free preview of Mind over Matter, my upcoming psionics book for OSR games. It's an unedited, un-laid out, incomplete version of the work, but it captures some of the highlights, including the introduction to the Path of Seven Blades (an adaption of the Book of Nine Swords to OSR), a few classes, and more.

 

[thirdkingdom]

Welcome to the third news Roundup in April. Let's see what was new last week, shall we?

• One of my favorite cyberpunk games, Hard Wired Island, is currently funding on Kickstarter for a new print run. It's a nice, anti-corporate, anti-capitalist cyberpunk game set in an alternate Earth in the distant year 2020.
• Starting in about a week and a half, The Maple Jam is a jam on itch focused on promoting the work of Canadian game designers, culture, and arts. It's a pretty wide-ranging jam that has a lot of fun potential.
• I Don't Belong Here has just launched on Backerkit. For readers of a certain age and temperament, such as myself, for whom Radiohead was a seminal influence on our younger selves, this is an ideal project, as the game is inspired by the lyrics of Radiohead tracks.
• Accessibility has become an important topic in the gaming field, both as older gamers get, well, older, and the hobby opens up to be more inclusive. I was interested to see that there's a zine specifically geared towards accessibility in gaming. Titled Accessibility Gaming Quarterly, they just released Issue 13 on Drivethru.
• Created as part of the Gygax75 challenge, Grassbraids is a fascinating setting for blackpowder-era maritime adventures.
• Fragments of the Floating City is a starting adventure written for Worlds Without Number, and looks to be very well done. It's also the author's first published adventure, and I'm always thrilled to be able to promote someone's first venture into publishing. Go, check it out, and leave a review! You can also find it on Drivethru.
• I'm not sure how I missed this, and I apologize to Alan for not catching it sooner: Gallant Knight Games is crowdfunding Carrion Lands, a dark horror sword and sorcery survival game. Gallant Knight Games consistently publishes some quality material.
• LatinX creator Gavriel Quiroga is crowdfunding Hellworld Earth, a brutal old school rpg with an accompanying spotify metal playlist to get you into the mood.
• Doublecrossed World is written for Dungeon World, and seems to be a Rifts-homage, set in an alternate earth where an influx of magic has transformed the world.
• CM Lowry has released Tyrannosaur Inside, a Mork Borg adventure where, well, a Tyrannosaur appears out of nowhere in the middle of the adventurers' village.
• Speaking of Gallant Knight Games, they've just released All Axe Wounds at Once! Go! a rules-light fantasy rpg that borrows from Cairn and other similar systems.
• Appendix N Entertainment has released Angelology, the third in their series of bestiaries that focus on beings of the Outer Planes (Demonology and Devilry are both available in print through Sabre Games).
• We Squeak at the Moon is a beautiful, quirky bestiary of creatures for Mork Borg, with each entry accompanied by poetry.
• Speaking of accessibility, the Age of Adventures rpg has just been released in a revised, cleaner format for easier use and reading.

 

[thirdkingdom]

It's the last Monday in April, and that means it's time for the OSR News Roundup for this week. I've managed to tear myself away from getting our garden ready to compile a list of some of last week's releases and crowdfunding projects. First off, I'd like to plug a project of my own. I'm currently raising funds for Mind over Matter, a psionics supplement for OSE and other OSR games. I'm pretty pleased with the book -- I think the system I've come up with simplifies psionics, and I've also included a secondary system inspired by the 3.5 book Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords. If such a thing sounds interesting to you I can certainly use your support!

• As I'm sure most folks are aware, Knock #5 is currently funding on Kickstarter.
• One of the words of advice I often hear from experienced Referees is the phrase "just use bears". This, of course, refers to the practice of reskinning bear stats when creating new monsters. Now, Dice Goblin Games as published Just Use Bears, or Wolves, or Spiders.
• Dustatron has released a pack of 20 pre-generated characters statted for Cairn, to make it even easier to run one-offs or introduce new players to the game.
• The world can seem pretty bleak these days, so I was pleased to see the Build a Better World ttrpg jam, that launches today. It's organized by the folks at the Lost Bay Discord server, and I'm excited to see what comes out of it.
• Odds & Ents is also hosting an itch jam, this one their first: The Desert Dwelling Jam, where you submit entries based on an asset pack they created. It doesn't start for a month, but I wanted to get it in here before I forget about it.
• Skinkworks Game is running their first Kickstarter, raising funds for Milk Run, a scenario of Mothership designed as a one-shot.
• Another Mothership project is Salvage Run, not an adventure but a toolkit designed to help you create derelict ships and salvage/rescue scenarios.
• And here's another Mothership project (jeez, must be something going on!): Providers. It's a sandbox setting based on a rimward planet controlled by a dystopian mercantile cult.
• Lichyard Games has released their first published adventure, Eye of the Watcher. It's written for OSE, and designed for 1st level characters. It looks nicely done, with hand-drawn art commissioned just for the project by Jantiff Illustration.
• Crossplanes has released Weapon Properties for the Shadowdark RPG, a short publication that adapts the 2024 D&D weapon specialization rules to Shadowdark.
• I've mentioned the works of Marc Braden and This is the Weird; they've just released Issue 1 of Shadowfolk, a zine for Shadowdark (and other similar systems) that focuses on hexcrawls and sandbox-style campaigns.
• I'm not seeing much stuff for Swords and Wizardry these days, so I wanted to be sure to mention Beneath the Ruins of Griffon Keep. It's a short adventure that packs a lot of material into 17 pages, with three dungeon levels and almost 120 keyed locations.
• Tales Forlorn is an rpg that promises an atmosphere of melancholic horror. It looks interesting, and comes with an original soundtrack to help convey the themes of the game.
• I was super excited to see Kaiser, a game based on the Mork Borg rules that's designed for heroic fantasy. Maybe this is a Borg-inspired set of rules that I won't bounce off of! Plus, the artwork is phenomenal, and is worth the purchase based on the cover art along.
• The Chateau Amongst the Stars is a point-crawl adventure written for Shadowdark, designed for parties of levels 6-7, which I think is an under-represented level range for most published adventures. It's also an interesting premise, and looks really well put together.

 

[The Soloist]

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.

WOW! Dark Dungeons brought light when everything cost a fortune on eBay, and official PDFs were unavailable.

Thank you for the link. I prefer the new layout.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Salvage Rites, not Salvage Run. It looks really useful for what I want out of Mothership.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Also, HORDE, which has versions for OSE and Shadowdark, is a current KS that ends in 2 days. HORDE is a supplement book focusing on vile and murderous orc and goblin clans, including new classes, monsters, lore, toxins, war machines, magic items, spells, and more.

 

[thirdkingdom]

Also, HORDE, which has versions for OSE and Shadowdark, is a current KS that ends in 2 days. HORDE is a supplement book focusing on vile and murderous orc and goblin clans, including new classes, monsters, lore, toxins, war machines, magic items, spells, and more.

I thought I had mentioned Horde a few issues back (since you're the author!). If I didn't, I apologize.

 

[thirdkingdom]

It's the first Monday in May, and time for a News Roundup. As of this writing, the ongoing tariffs are still throwing the gaming industry, as well as many others, into disarray. This is likely going to be the first week we really see the first impacts of the tariffs, especially if you live on the West Coast. It's been a slow week on the rpg release front, but I think I've found some good ones for you to check out. Also, I have not been able to substantiate this, but I've read online that Alarums & Excursions, one of the original gaming zines and certainly the longest continually published one, is ending its run. Lee Gold was an immensely creative force, and a woman in gaming at a time when that was not well accepted, even by (perhaps especially by) the creators. Congratulations to Lee Gold for such an incredible accomplishment.

• Munkao is one of my all-time favorite creators; they're incredibly talented and creative, and I'm glad to see their still putting out products after their split with (another one of my faves) Zedeck Siew after Reaches of the Roach God. Munjao, publishing as Centaur Games, has just released the Kala Mandala Playbook, a rules-light fantasy rpg centered on and inspired by medieval southeast Asia.
• Grimbark is a rules-lite, two-page rpg set in the grimdark future about dogs in power armor, bound to protect the slumbering immortal emperor.
• I've also been a fan of Justin Sirois/Severed Books. They've just released Sickest Witch, a core rpg book that's a compilation/revision/culmination of their implied setting and playstyle for all of their releases.
• Mottokrosh, publisher of the excellent Hypertellurian system, has just released Wolden Issue 1, an rpg that will be released in a series of zines. This issue covers the rules and a basic introduction to the setting, enough to start playing.
• 30 Wicked Wizards is a really neat looking supplement, a collection of thirty spellcasters, each inspired by different wikipedia articles.
• Written for the Skyrealms Game Jam, the Shifting Market is a supplement for Skyrealms, and detailing a trade village constantly on the move, shifting from one location to another.
• Inspired by the original iteration of old-school zines, Tales from the Smoking Wyrm, Issue 9, is now out. It's written for DCC, but can be used by any OSR-system.
• Wanted! Borg is a game of grim westerns, powered by the ubiquitous Mork Borg system.
• Prolific author Tim Brannan of The Other Side Publishing has just released the Witch-Finder class for OSE. This is an interesting one, as it introduces the idea of a "half-class", one that can only be entered at a certain point.
• The incredibly talented Dyson Logos has released two of their compiled map collections; one for March 2024 and one for February 2024.
• Soul Muppet Publishing has put out some great stuff over the past few years, including Best Left Buried and Orbital Blues. Their newest project is currently being funded on Kickstarter. Mad as Hell is an anti-capitalist demon-hunting game where you fight and destroy the literal demons that are plaguing your communities by figuring out what is driving their existence.
• Perils and Princesses is one of the best-selling zines we carry, and I just this weekend saw there's an adventure zine currently funding -- and ending soon -- called The Secret of the Night Market.
• Another bestseller at the store are the Fairhaven family of zines. Based around a small town, a community access TV station, and the people that keep it going, Make it a Fairhaven Night is a new zine supplement for the setting that delves into the adventures going on at the local video rental store.
• Mind over Matter is still going strong on Backerkit, and there's definitely time to pledge. It provides two psionic systems for use with OSR games.
• We've added a bunch of used titles to the Sabre webstore, including a sizable collection of magazines from the 80s, 90s, and early aughts: The Gamer, GURPS Roleplaying, and more!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I wonder what the rights situation is with Alarums & Excursions. It would be great to get the complete run compiled in some way for posterity.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Munkao is one of my all-time favorite creators; they're incredibly talented and creative, and I'm glad to see their still putting out products after their split with (another one of my faves) Zedeck Siew after Reaches of the Roach God.

Seconded, that sudden spilt was very alarming. Kala Mandala is delightful. Reimagining "adventurers" as professional meddlers instead really changes the tone.

I wonder what the rights situation is with Alarums & Excursions. It would be great to get the complete run compiled in some way for posterity.

Whatever happens with that, Lee Gold needs to be involved and give full approval.