It's the first News Roundup of 2023, and there's a few announcements I'd like to make before getting into the new releases.
February is ZineMonth. You can find Kickstarter's announcement page here for their ZineQuest, but there's also an active and supportive independent initiative that began last year -- when KS disappointed a lot of publishers by moving the project to August with little warning -- that will be running their own ZineMonth. You can find the main website for the project here. Their webpage is in the process of being updated. There's also the alternative platform Crowdfundr (I don't actually know much about them), and they're also planning some stuff in support on ZineMonth.
If you are planning a project for either version, and would like some free press, I will be reprising the interview series I did last August to feature projects. Please reach out to me at thirdkingdomgames at gmail dot com and I'll email you some short questions.
I'm in the process of automating pdf fulfillment on the webstore. Right now, I carry a number of books that are bundled with the pdf, but there's no easy (or cheap) way for me to automate it without a plan upgrade. What that means is this: if I'm already carrying your book and you would like to have the pdf for sale separately, or if you've got just pdfs that you'd like me to carry, reach out to me and I'll send you terms. Basically, I'm doing 75% of retail sale price goes to the author, and the other 25% will allow me to upgrade the website so I can fulfill the bundle purchases automatically.
Last week's Meet the Publisher interview was with Colin Le Sueur, authour of Runecairn and We Deal in Lead. This week's interview will be with Jim Crocker, and we discuss the retail aspects of tabletop gaming.
Without further ado, let's jump into the new releases!
*Meat Castle GameWare has released Tunnels in White on itch. An adventure for the increasingly popular Liminal Horror rpg, it was written as part of the recent Liminal Horror jam.
*Carcinauts is a cute looking rpg inspired by the British animated show that takes place in the ocean and aims to raise awareness of the seas and the animals that live in them.
*There are already 19 entries in the Dungeon23 jam, a project I mentioned a few weeks ago that is based around writing a chamber a day for 365 days, divided into twelve levels. It looks to be a diverse group of offerings, and itch offers a unique way to follow everyone's progress.
*Amanda P has released a worksheet of 40 dungeon room shape ideas, for folks working on the Dungeon23 project who may need some inspiration (365 is a lot of rooms!) or for others just looking to add some spice to their work.
*Bastion on the Frontier is a remake of the classic B2 module, written for the Bastards rpg. The authors mention their goal to do the same to the other adventures in the B1-4 series.
*I thought this looked pretty cool: 72Stations has released sample-bastards, a collection of 36 weird character classes inspired by music samples.
*Golly, but there's a lot of stuff for the Bastards rpg. Forest Bastards is the first published work by Halfling Master, written for the Bastards game jam.
*Cavern of the Creeping Terror is a new adventure by Kormar Publishing, inspired by Beowulf, the Thing, and Deltora Quest. It's written for OSR games but is system neutral.
*Solitary Depths combines Mork Borg with solo play, and looks to have some interesting oracle features to help with that style of gaming.
*There is always room for alternate magic systems, and the Magic of Blackwuld presents a dangerous means of casting that is designed to be used with both 5e and OSR-style games.
*Greymarsh is a new rpg ruleset that seeks to emulate the experience of original D&D and looks like it has some interesting concepts as well as coming with an introductory adventure.
*Skeeter Green has been writing the Valley out of Time series and has just released Part 5: Rotten at the Core.
*Flatland Games, the folks that brought us the excellent Beyond the Wall, have just released Grizzled Adventurers: Travels and Travails. It's PWYW, and an 18-page supplement celebrating the adventurers that live long enough to settle down and enjoy the quiet life.
*Dungeon Robbers from Outer Space is a new rpg system that assumes the PCs are members of advanced aliens who must assume primitive local garb and gear in order to retrieve artifacts for scientific study.
*A Jester's Rulebook is a short pdf that introduces ways to introduce the court jester as a playable character class.
*I'd mentioned this project by Wayne Robert awhile back when it was funding on Indiegogo, and Pan, His Majesty in Yellow is now available as a pdf. Written for OSE, it combines Peter Pan and Lovecraftian horror.
*The Light in the Church is a new adventure written for OSE by Christopher Wilson, for characters of levels 2-4.
*I've released Populated Hexes Monthly Issue 17 to my website and have already sent out print copies to subscribers. I've also added a pdf subscription option if you click on the Subscription tab at the top of the webpage. PHM 17 continues our look at naval rules, and is available in both staplebound print and pdf.