Welcome to the News Roundup for the second Monday in April. Let's dive right in and see what's new, shall we? This issue may be a bit shorter than the others: I managed to throw out my back on Friday, and have spent most of the weekend in a painkiller induced fog.
*Presto!, by Cezar Capacle, is a one-page, pocket-sized game that uses rock-paper-scissors and thumb wrestling to resolve conflicts.
*Written for Cairn, the Warlock's Gambit is a one-shot by Cryptic Manuscripts. It's not out right now, but should be available by Thursday, so I went ahead and included it anyway.
*The Final Plague is a hack of Into the Odd and available as PWYW through Drivethrurpg. It's set in the modern world, after a plague wipes out most of humanity, and the world is ruled by undead controlling necromancers.
*I've got a soft spot in my heart for Dark Sun, as I suspect many of the readers of this column do, and I am excited to see the new ShadowSun, written for ShadowDark. It looks to be Dark Sun with the serial numbers file off, and I'm intrigued to see what it is like.
*I mentioned the Vampyre Hack awhile back; an OSR-take on the 90s VtM, and it's now available as a bundle with the core rules and two supplements.
*Phil Reed consistently puts out some innovative and interesting products that play with layout and book sizes: Chamber of Screams and More is written for Mork Borg and includes five mini-adventures, each written to be printed as a 12 x 12 double-sided poster.
*Knave is another system that gets hacked a lot, and Myrmidon is a combination of Knave and Old School Essentials, written to emulate a bronze age setting.
*Wear and Tear is a supplement for Pharmagothica, written by Richard Kelly.
*Matthew Suuck has written the Confessor, a priestly class for Old School Essentials.
*Written for use with the Old School Essentials ruleset, Modern Necessities is designed to emulate modern games.
*Scott Craig has taken the plunge into publishing with the Sepulchre of Dust, an adventure written for Old School Essentials.
*Journey to the Wayside Shrine, by Elven Tower, is an adventure for Shadowdark, written for a party of level 2 characters.
*The Excellent Neon Lords of the Toxic Wastelands is now available in a Total Carnage Core Rules version, made for more deadly play.
*One of the big releases last week is the Dying Earth setting by Goodman Games. I just got the physical boxset a few days ago, and it is absolutely gorgeous.
*The Hangman's Garden is a funnel for DCC but can also be adapted for use with characters of level 1-2.
*The long-awaited Carcass Crawler Issue 3 is also now available as a pdf.
*The Adventure Cuisine Championship is a food-based, system-agnostic adventure that has the PCs take on the role of chefs.
*Atelier Clandestin has been pumping out an impressive number of random generators, and they've compiled and expanded on these tables with the Sandbox Generator, written as an aid for DMs to create sandbox-style settings.
*Issue 20 of Populated Hexes Monthly is now available on Drivethru as a pdf or POD softcover. It includes a harpy lair as well as mass naval combat rules, rounding out our look at expanding naval rules for OSR games.
*I've added some new titles to the webstore:
Delver #7, by The Tabletop Engineer.
The Adventure Journal, also by the Tabletop Engineer.
Fane of the Fly God, by Jeffrey Jones.
Aberrant Reflections, by Direct Sun.
The Seer's Sanctum, also by Direct Sun.