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OSR News Roundup for June 10th 2024

Lots of stuff happened last week, including North Texas RPGcon, one of the pre-emininent conventions focusing on OSR-style gaming. One of these days I'll get a chance to make it to a convention.

As the author of this series I allow myself to take the liberty of promoting certain products: this week I'll be plugging Martin Thomas's first crowdfunding campaign, for Alchemy, Explosions, and Inventions. I've been a big fan of Martin's blog -- Daddy Rolled a 1 -- and interviewed him a couple of years ago where we talked about online gaming and getting younger kids into D&D. I knew he'd been kicking around this project for awhile, and had been posting material that would form it on his blog, and I'm really glad he's taken the plunge into publishing it. Written for OSE, "this new supplement offers information for both players and GMs to run expert and specialist characters and campaigns. Inside are three new classes, 15 class concepts, campaign ideas including patrons and guilds, a three-story guild hall map with NPCs and adventure ideas, and much more." Plus, it's got art by Denis McCarthy, a Roundup favorite.

There are also a lot more releases this week than the past month or so, which is great! Hopefully you will find something in here that piques your interest.


  • 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.

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