OSR OSR News Roundup

• In conjunction with a number of bloggers, Prismatic Wastelands released Wonky Willie's Authentic Interactive Extravaganza, inspired by the ill-fated and much-ridiculed Willy Wonky Glagow exhibit.
• Just Another Goblin Cave showed up on my radar and it looks like an interesting little mini-dungeon. Defiantly handcrafted, it's a four-page adventure that bills itself as a short and sweet adventure designed specifically to introduce folks to the OSR style of play.
• Melpomene Games has released Moonshine Revelers, an adventure for Mausritter. The art is composed of delightful watercolors that really set the mood and make me thing of my childhood copy of The Wind in the Willows.
• A Traveler's Guide to the Echelon Forest is a constantly changing, system agnostic, die drop forestcrawl. It's also CC-BY-4.0, which means it can be shared, altered, or otherwise adapted for other purposes just as long as the original author is credited.
• Tome of the Blood Baron is a mini-dungeon statted for Cairn, OSE, and 5e. It features all manner of vampiric foes and is designed to be run in a single 1-3 hour session.
• Alex T is raising funds for Ruthless Heavens, Boundless Fate, an interesting rpg that looks a bit like Godbound and Exalted meets Miyazaki. I'm seeing more and more games like this, that come specifically with options for solo gaming.
• Today's the last day to get in on the mini-Kickstarter I'm running for Populated Hexes Monthly Issue 34, which begins a look at the mining community of Dry Gulch, a location mentioned in, but just outside of, the Basilisk Hills Hexcrawl.

• Not a new game, but one that is new to me and I thought looked really cool. Born From the Sand, by GM Shail, is written for Into the Odd and features a dungeon in the shape of an inverted pyramid. It's a free, playtest version of the adventure, and from what I've read of it there's some really good ideas in there.
• I'm a sucker for games with charming artwork, and FTW scratches that itch as well as providing an interesting framework for non-OGL rogue-like dungeoncrawl games. There's a ton of content in there for a PWYW game.
• I've been a fan on cats have no lord for awhile; they produce consistently good, quirky little games and adventures. Their most recent release is Leviathan. It's a system-agnostic sci-fi horror written for the 2024 Sci-fi one shot jam. I'm impressed by how CHNL is able to produce content in a variety of styles and systems.
• Vaults of Vaarn is a cool-setting/game that's been difficult for us to keep in stock. Issue 4 of the Vaults of Vaarn zine is currently out in pdf form, and it sounds like print copies will be available through the author's webpage.
• I'm never sure what to think of releases that are dual statted for 5e and OSR games. I've got nothing against 5e -- goddess knows I incorporate some of the aspects of 5e into my stuff -- but I'm never sure how well they convert directly as dual-statted releases. I bring this up because I see that Project 666, Vol. 2 is live on Drivethru, with a bunch of random tables, items, and more statted for both 5e and standard OSR-style stat-block.
• The Thing From the Swamp is a B-movie inspired adventure for Mork Borg. I think it's an interesting idea concept and might play really well with Mork Borg.
• As many gamers of a certain age, the Spelljammer giant space hamsters holds a special place in my heart. Downsized Press has released issue 5 of their zine, which presents giant space hamsters inhabiting a mini-dungeon.
• My social media feeds have been blanketed by art previews for the Painted Wastelands, a new game that will be hitting Kickstarter pretty soon. The art is absolutely gorgeous and remind me of the Ultralight Grasslands. They've got a free preview of the PW up on Drivethru.
• Charles Ferguson-Avery, of Into the Wyrd and Wild and others, has released their megadungeon Ave Nox on Drivethru. It's designed to be system neutral, with an emphasis on exploration and piecing together forgotten histories.
• Faces of Clay is an interesting looking release for OSE. It's billed as either an easy role-play encounter or a difficult combat encounter, and I see it as potentially being a good introduction to OSR-style play for those who might not be as familiar with the playstyle.
• It's the last week (sale ends May 31st) to take advantage of our zine sale. You can take 35% off all in-stock zines by using the coupon code "Spring24" at checkout.

• The Merry Mushmen, of Knock and Black Sword Hack fame, have just launched a Kickstarter for a pair of adventures, one of which is billed as a sequel to their lauded first adventure, Ragged Hollow.
• A new (to me) publisher, Molten Blast, is Kickstarting a bestiary for old-school dragons and undead. It looks like this one adapts a previous release, which was for 5e, and converts the creatures to standard, system-agnostic, OSR format.
• I've been really impressed with Emiel Boven's Electrum Archive zine, and saw that issue 2 is now available in pdf on itch. We're Kickstarter backers, and I hope to have the print version of Issue 2 in stock as soon as it is available.
• I'd mentioned Chaoclypse's new zine, Chaos Crawler, a few weeks back. It's now available on Drivethrurpg as a pdf, and sounds like the author is exploring some print options. This is a 28-page, wide-ranging zine with a generous splash of gonzo.
• Omnik has released Wander, a really neat-looking solo rpg about reactivating ancient pacts with spirits, fey creatures, and giants.
• Awhile back, when Cairn 2e was Kickstarting, Yochai Gal released a starter adventure to go along with it called Rise of the Blood Olms. They've now made this adventure available via Lulu priced at cost. Lulu is a great option for folks overseas, since there are a number of printers located throughout the world and it can really help reduce shipping costs.
• I'm not familiar with the works of post world games, but they've just released Snickersnee on Drivethru, a minimalist fantasy game with definite NSR sensibilities. I'm curious to check it out; it's outside of my usual style of play, but it can be a good thing to step outside your comfort zone every so often.
• Passive Corruption is a short, interesting-looking release for DCC that adds several traits to the game that can be used to mechanically add a grimdark feel to the system.
• Pirate Borg gets a lot of praise for its nautical rules and tone, and Beau Yarbrough has just released Five Lost Souls, a bestiary for Mork Borg that adds five new foes for the players to encounter.
• Awkward Turtle has released Wizard Trash, Goblin Treasure, a short game of navigating a goblins and a wizard with a penchant for conjuring goods from our world as a form of retail therapy. It features art by Nate Treme, who is always a great illustrator for projects.
• The Doom of Blackwinter is an adventure for Old School Essentials that contains a lot of material -- over 70-pages, including a city that can be used as a home base and introduction to the author's setting.
• I also totally forgot to post this, but the Into the Wild Omnibus offset edition is now available. It's a 390+ page, full color, sewn binding hardbound with velvet ribbon bookmark.

• I'd mentioned the PÈLERINES x AORI NOX Kickstarter awhile back. It didn't fund, but the creators didn't let that deter them and they're back with a streamlined and redesigned campaign, for just PÈLERINES. This version is designed for solo and multi-player, and is described as "a mystical journey where you explore a world blanketed into an everlasting twilight. You play pilgrims, sent to unravel the mysteries of this world and its enigmatic moon-eclipse." The publishers have included a soundtrack list of influential music, and include the likes of Bjork and Dead Can Dance.
• I'm seeing more projects funding on Backerkit these days, and one is The Parthenogenesis of Hungry Hollow. Written for the excellent Liminal Horror system, this is a modern take on the classic Against the Cult of the Reptile God adventure.
• Castle Grief has updated their high fantasy toolkit Tarvannion over on itch. It's got a simple hexcrawl system, lots of d6 tables for random generation, and the art is absolutely evocative. Castle Grief has an upcoming Kickstarter, as well, that I'll be plugging when it is live.
• The Thinking Lands Discord, a collective of artists and authors, has released the Bronze Lands, a free, system-agnostic hexcrawl featuring adventure locations crafted by individual members, including Luke Gearing, Chaoclypse, and more.
• If weird and gonzo are your thing you might like A Field Trip to Zu, a free, 34-page hexcrawl of 36 hexes. Like Tarvannion, this publication includes simple hexcrawling rules.
• Under the Pale Sun is a weird science fantasy game currently itchfunding (on itch, natch), which means that if you support it now you'll get all future updates, including art by Evlyn Moreau and Perplexing Ruins.
• Dungeons of Golora is a free, solo-rpg designed to highlight dungeon crawling, which I think is a neat take; I see so much focused in the solo realm on hexcrawling and world-building that it's nice to see something focused on dungeon exploration.
• Deldon has released a game called The Door Locks Behind You, a love-song to the Legends of Zelda and other similar games. There's a soundtrack, and the zine contains original art. The game itself is influenced by NSR games such as Cairn, Knave, and Mausritter.
• There are a lot of Mork Borg hacks out there -- for some reason I bounced off Mork Borg, but find the hacks generally pretty interesting and good -- and the newest one is Red Borg, a game of revolutionary uprising against unfettered capitalism.
• Murkdice has just released The Sanguine Siren, a scenario for OSR-style sci-fi games, but specifically written for Death in Space. It's based around a mystery; a patron of the aforementioned space tavern is cheating and the owner needs the players' help discovering who is doing the deed.
• The Road to Canterbury is an interesting release now available on Drivethru. It bills itself as an OSR approach to the Canterbury Tales. I haven't had a chance to check this out, but it caught my eye this week as I was browsing.
• I'm not familiar with the work of Adam Watts and Archon Games, but they've just released the evocatively titled Dread Shores and Black Horizons. There's not much of a description about the product which, given the price point, would be a nice addition, but the cover art definitely draws one in. It's supposed to be system-neutral OSR.
• Maustrapper, by Sam McKay, is a collection of twenty traps for use with Mausritter.
• I'd mentioned Pirate Borg last week, and Back to the Ship! is a short adventure written by Robert Swanson for that system.
• I'm not familiar with the work of OSRDAN, but I am familiar with the art of Teresa Guido (she has done a fair amount of commissions for me), which grace the pages of the newly released Divinities and Cults Vol. V. It looks to be a good resource to add gods and divinities to OSR-style games, and seems to be in the classic style of early TSR.
• Populated Hexes Monthly Issue 34 is now live on Drivethru, and features the mining town of Dry Gulch, an adventure location that can be used as part of the Absalom setting or dropped into an existing game when the Referee needs a town. Issue 35 is currently raising funds on Kickstarter, and expands Dry Gulch by mapping the first level of the dungeons beneath the city.

Whizbang Dustyboots said:

I ran it past several Jewish gamers myself for similar reasons. I think the people actually buying it and running it are likely the ones who will be treating the subject respectfully since being a prejudiced creep is free.

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Whizbang Dustyboots said:

Just received my copy of Beyond the Pale. It's really great and a wonderful physical object.

I am going to need to think about how to run this, as a gentile, in a respectful fashion.

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• As so often happens, a new project that I've been looking forward to releases on the same day as the Roundup goes live. In this case, it is a Castle Grief and their project Studded Leather Issue #1, a punk-rock, system agnostic, fantasy setting. I've been a fan of their artwork for awhile now, and am excited to see the zine come to life.
• The prolific James Floyd Kelly is Kickstarting a dual project: Delver #15 and Runes #4. Delver is primarily for OSE and other similar games, while Runes features exclusively on Shadowdark.
• Grimwild is funding on Backerkit. It bills itself as classic fantasy meeting narrative gameplay, and cites Blades in the Dark and the 24xx games as an influence.
• Another project funding on Backerkit is Wasteland Degenerates, a Mad Max-inspired game that uses CY and Mork Borg as an engine. This campaign is to fund a jumpstart edition of the upcoming release.
• Daniel Sell is reprinting the amazing Fungi of the Far Realms as part of a Kickstarter project, and this version includes a deck of cards that can be backed as well. This is a book we've had before, but is out of stock, and I'm excited to get it back in stock.
• Troves is a fun-looking project that has reached its funding goal on KS and only has a day or two left. It's a GM-less, lighthearted game of cooperative dungeon delving, and looks to be a great introduction to gaming for kids or adults who might want a less intense rpg experience.
• TheGiftofGabes has released Vaarn by the Way of Cairn, a mashup of Knave 2e and Cairn designed to allow you to play The Vaults of Vaarn using Cairn with as little conversion as possible.
• A Quiet Land popped up in my social media feeds last week and I was immediately intrigued. It's billed as a one-page system for domain management. I haven't had a chance to take a look at it yet, but I do have the author's Shadow and Fae game and like that, so my guess is I'll like A Quiet Land as well.
• GM Shail wrote The Ruin of Cochlea as part of the Hex23 jam. It's an intriguing-looking mini-dungeon that plays around with time and time travel.
• I'm always happy to plug Wuggy's art packs: they've just released one of Arms and Armor. Like all of their art packs, it uses the CC-BY 4.0 license, so the contents are available to use for commercial and personal use.
• Jimmy Shelter is itch-funding extra content for Pine Shallows, their excellent Goonies/Stranger Things-inspired game. I'm just getting into Brindlewood Bay, and I think Pine Shallows is very much in the same vein.
• One of my favorite things to do in the Roundup is to promote the work of first time authors, and 8bitLogik has just released their first project. The Grind is a 2-player game that explores the commodification of the modern life.
• Knaves of the Realms is a micro-supplement for Knave 2e that aims to bring a little more old school flavor to Knave while maintaining the rules-lite Knave approach.
• A Visitor's Guide the Rainy City is a zine that we are consistently selling out of, and I saw this week that there are two new supplements for it: The Puppethand's Guide and The Restless Dead. I'm hoping both of these titles will be released in classic zine format.
• The Morgansfort Campaign is one of the best regarded starting adventures for OSR games, and Morgansfort: Western Campaign Setting is now availble on Drivethru.
• We've got a bunch of new books in stock, including:
• The Mothership box set, in both normal and deluxe flavors.
• Two Runecairn titles, by Colin Le Sueur: Into the Nine Realms and Wardensaga Remastered.
• A number of (new) used titles.
• Populated Hexes Monthly Issue 35 is live on Kickstarter for another day or so. This issue continues the look at the town of Dry Gulch by exploring the first level of the dungeon under the city.

• I'm not familiar with S. Murphy's work: they wrote a "car-polcalyptic" rpg called Gaspunk that's available on itch, and just recently published a PWYW adventure and mini-setting called Drytongue Valley on itch. There's not an actual page count given (that's one feature I think would be helpful for itch to implement with their pdf downloads), but it seems like there's a ton of content in there.
• I'd mentioned the game See You, Space Cowboy awhile back when it was funding on Kickstarter, and the first adventure anthology for the game has about four days left to go and has already funded. You get eight adventures/scenarios, each laid out in a simple, easy to run two-page format.
• One of my favorite indie publishers is Prismatic Wasteland, author of Big Rock Candy Hexcrawl and the award-wining Barkeep on the Borderlands, and they've just released Trouble in Paradisa, inspired by an obscure (to me, at least), 90's Lego kit.
• Cosmic Chill Creations has released Oolroob, an expansion for the cool and weird Slugblaster game. It (Oolroob) is set in Perth, Australia, and is available as a PWYW download.
• I'm not familiar with Revolution Comes to the Kingdom, by Porcupine Publishing, but they've released a compilation of all three books on itch. Set in a nameless country in the aftermath of World War 2, it explores themes of civil strife, global struggle and hegemony, set in against a backdrop of spiritual awakening.
• Red Solstice, Issue 5 is now out on itch. It's a sprawling, experimental, wide ranging gaming magazine with a host of authors and contributors.
• The Troika! Bestiary jam ended a few days ago, and I'm sad that I missed it and didn't get a chance to promote it. But I've been seeing some cool entries pop up: one of them is Heliozincographic Drones, a mini-boss that, when defeated, reveals a nearby area of interest, neatly providing a further adventure hook to dangle in front of your players.
• Hilander has released The Old School Referee, a compilation of tips, advice, and guidelines for running old-school style games as well as crafting worlds and adventures.
• Long time readers of the Roundup will know that I am a huge fan of the work of Zedeck Siew, of Reach of the Roach God and A Thousand, Thousand Islands fame. David Blandy, author of the ECO Mofos, has just released an adventure written by Siew for EM. Entitled To Put Away a Sword, like all of Siew's work it struggles with concepts of war and peace, of alternative means of resolving conflicts, and of dealing with the aftermath of struggles.
• Jeffrey Jones has been publishing his zine, Gary's Appendix, on a semi-regular basis for a couple of years now, and is currently raising funds for Issue 6. The theme of this issue is Dragons!
• Crumbling Keep is Kickstarting Techcromancer, an adventure for Mothership that plays around with the adventure format, including audio and visual components that are used to run the scenario.
• Warpland, the post-apocalyptic rpg by Gavriel Quiroga, is currently funding on Kickstarter for a revised print run of this very cool game and setting. Gavriel is one of the Latin American creators that I always keep an eye on for their releases. If you like Rifts, but wish it were even more gonzo, with better rules, I would recommend Warpland as a good substitute.
• Outcast Silver Raiders is a recently released, and absolutely gorgeous, OSR rules-set. Melpomene Games has just released Hexen Vol. 1, a supplement for OSR released under their third-party license. It's an ambitious project, and looks like it contains a lot of cool stuff that adds to Silver Raiders. The release is currently in beta, and so can be purchased now for a huge discount; early bird purchasers will get any future updates, so it's definitely a bargain right now.
• The Sunken Sisters is a 35-page adventure module by David Henley written for Old School Essentials.
• I was talking to a customer the other day about the works of Jim Wampler and extoling the weirdness of Mutant Crawl Classics, and I just happened up Martian Crawl Classics, a setting and expansion for MCC that asks the question: what if the Great Disaster was not caused by the hubris of Man but rather by a Wellsian invasion from Mars?
• Knave 2 has been released, and Noobirus has followed hot on its heels with Knave 2ed -- Expanded Lore, a PWYW supplement for Knave.
• Speaking of Knave 2e, you can get the pdf on Drivethru. I'm waiting patiently for retailer copies to come available so I can get some in for Sabre.
• I'm trying out a couple of things for Kickstarters: the BX Advanced Bestiary, Vol. 2, is currently fulfilling, and I've opened a pre-order store where you can pick up the volume for the same price as the original Kickstarter. Additionally, Kickstarter has started offering the ability to pledge late to projects, so you can still get in on the KS for Issue 35 of Populated Hexes Monthly. This issue contains the first level of the dungeon underneath Dry Gulch, a mining community west of the Basilisk Hills Hexcrawl region.

• This probably needs no announcing, but Goodman Games is funding The Caverns of Thracia, the legendary adventure by the late Jennell Jaquays, on Backerkit. This book will be available in both 5e and DCC flavors. I picked up the DCC version of the Dark Tower when it released earlier this year, and while I do prefer other versions of OSR-games I think tha DCC does the game justice, and look forward to seeing what The Caverns of Thracia is like.
• Samantha Leigh, author of Outliers and Anamnesis, wrote an adventure for Eco Mofos that you can now get from itch (she will also be at Sabre this Saturday, the 6th of July, to participate in a round-table discussion on gaming). Into the Antlion's Den is described as an episode of the Mad Max Muppets.
• Another adventure for Eco Mofos, this one by Logan Dean, is the Abyss Protocol. This one is a race against time as an underground silo filled with treasure collapses.
• Finally, David Blandy released the third of a trio of Eco Mofos adventures. A-Hole in the Ground is an underground mini-dungeon with eight deadly and weird rooms.
• I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention that Eco Mofos is also available in pdf. It's written using Into the Odd and Cairn, and is a post-apocalytic game set after ecological disaster.
• I'd mentioned Spectacle awhile back when it was crowdfunding, and the pdf is now available on itch. Written for Troika, the central premise is that the characters are kidnapped by an alien overlord and forced into gladitorial combat.
• Abara Cad Ebra is a village and adventure location written using the Old School Referee (which I mentioned a few weeks back) as a guide. It's in pre-release form, which means that purchasers will get the updated pdf as it is completed and worked on, so you get to see the work in progress.
• The Scropulating of the Pious is a monster-hunting adventure that can be run with OSE, Mork Borg, or other similar OSR-style adventure. It's designed to be run as a one-shot and is one of the rare urban adventures.
• Raphael Falk ran a ZineMonth campaign two years ago for Lucid: The Sea of Dreams a little over two years ago. Inspired by dreams, nightmares, and Jewish folklore, the production process hit a number of snags and delays, but Raphael kept at it and has finally released the pdf of the title. I haven't had a chance to dig into it yet, but look forward to doing so soon.
• RPG Ramblings has released the recently Kickstarted Into the Madlands, Issue 1, a weird science fantasy zine by the same folks that produce Gary's Appendix.
• Hugh Lashbrooke has been publishing a series of delightful short adventures written for Mausritter, set in their Kiwi Acres campaign world. Their most recent release is the PWYW An Urgent Quest.
• I plugged The Mosidian Temple awhile back when it was crowdfunding, and it's now available on Drivethrurpg. Written by David Flors of Darklight Interactive, this is an adventure written when the author was in high school, many years ago, and re-released in all its glorious mess. As it was originally written for 1e it has been released for play with OSRIC.
• I saw this pop up on my social media feed and it immediately grabbed my attention. Oh My Lost Darklords is a collection of thirteen misbegotted, misanthropic, and menacing player character classes, written for OSE and other similar games. It comes in at a chunky 126 pages, so there's plenty of stuff in there for your use.
• Matt Finchand and Mythmere Games has released two new titles: Fiends and Foes and The Book of Options. Both are written for Swords and Wizardry, but like everything Matt does both are rich resources that can be mined for ideas regardless of the system that you're using.
• Dark Wizard Games is running a Kickstarter to fund two books for their Maximum Mayhem adventure line: Fantastic Quest of Whimsical One & Lost Tomb of Mummy Lich. They're both high level adventurers written for 1e/OSRIC, and feature cover art by OSR-favorite Erol Otus.