OSR OSR News Roundup

[thirdkingdom]

Man, everyone came back from their holidays and hit Publish all at once.

Yeah, no kidding! I was really surprised at the number of releases this week.

 

[thirdkingdom]

Welcome to the third OSR News Roundup for September 2025. There were a ton of entries last week; one reader commented that it was like everyone got home from summer break and pressed publish at the same time. Let's see if this week continues at the same pace. A warning, though, that itch was acting up for me over the weekend with extremely slow lead times, so I didn't spend as much time on that platform as I usually do.

This roundup does not include products that contain AI assets. I refuse to promote anything that uses AI, and most of the time I can tell if a product does or not. However, in this release I had to pass over some nice looking releases on Drivethru because I couldn't tell if they had AI or not: no artist was listed, and the publishers did not check the box during setup that indicated if it was handmade or used AI assets. If you're a publisher that doesn't use AI assets I really encourage you to make use of the "Creation when setting up your file on Drivethru. It looks like this:

• Everyone can use a stable of NPCs to pull from, and Coyote has just published Jim the Goblin to itch. Jim's statted to be system agnostic and can be used to aid or bedevil your party. He's a bit like Nobby, from Discworld.
• Ecstatic Entropy Games has released Effigies of Inveracity, a collection of new classes for BX-style games. The classes smooth out the attack and saving throw matrices, making for a more even progression.
• I've linked to merwin's releases back when they were using kofi as a hosting platform; they've made the jump over to itch, and have just released Voice of the Screaming Mountain, an incursion for the excellent Trophy Dark game. It's a game about treasure hunters seeking pearls, and includes a bunch of files to help run/play the adventure, including audio files, which is a really nice touch.
• I'd mentioned the Blood Sands awhile back, and Denizens of the Blood Sands is now out. Statted for OSE, and with a John Carter of Mars/sword and planet feel to it, this is a bestiary for the eponymous Blood Sands setting.
• Jeffrey Jones has released Gary's Appendix Issue 8 on Drivethru, a collection of essays, options, adventures, and more for Old School Essentials and other similar games. This issue features lycanthropes.
• Hyper Neon Racers is a dystopic future car racing game, using Into the Odd as the system of choice with a little bit of Mythic Bastionland thrown in for good measure.
• If there's a button to push or lever to pull in an adventure you can almost guarantee that the players will fiddle with it, and the new release Billions of Buttons helps scratch that itch. It's an excel spreadsheet (and requires excel to use) that randomizes buttons with outcomes, providing an astounding number of combinations.
• The McHack is a rules-lite BX hack that uses a d20 for combat and a d12 for most other resolution mechanics. It looks like a fun, streamlined version of BX.
• I'd mentioned the Solo Compendium a few roundups back, and now Vol. 2 is out, with even more resources for people to run OSR solo games.
• The Accursed Rock is an adventure for Cairn or other similar games, in which the PCs are washed ashore on a desolate island after their ship goes down.
• Benthic: The Scattered Sea Floor is a neat looking adventure for Pirate Borg that is currently funding on Kickstarter. It is a deep sea hexcrawl with some really cool concepts, and a soundtrack!
• The Bree-YARC Quickstart is still funding on Kickstarter, and you can download the free pdf prior to backing. I'm just raising funds for art/offset printing. It's a mix of BX and 3rd edition D&D, with an emphasis on exploration, discovery, and downtime activities.
• I'm a big fan of Joey Royale's Weird Heroes of Public Access -- Sabre has carried their zines in the past, and they always sell well -- and I'm pleased to announce that we now carry the Weird Heroes rpg! If you want to play a Welcome to Nightvale or UHF-style game this is the system for you!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Everyone can use a stable of NPCs to pull from, and Coyote has just published Jim the Goblin to itch. Jim's statted to be system agnostic and can be used to aid or bedevil your party. He's a bit like Nobby, from Discworld.

This is a great idea for an NPC, although Coyote notes that it would be a good insert for Mork Borg. But people don't hang around goblins in Mork Borg unless they want to turn into goblins themselves, thanks to the curse. So probably good for all systems but Mork Borg.