It's getting towards the spooky time of the year, so expect to see a bunch of horror-themed products and interviews for the remainder of the month. Last week I interviewed Tony Vasinda of Plus One Exp, and talked about indie games, Zine Month, and increasing diversity in gaming. This week's interview, dropping at 1:00 am eastern time on Thursday, is with Eric Bloat, who's currently Kickstarting for the OSE version of Dark Places and Demogorgons.
*Stargazer has just been released on itch. Billed as "pulp fantasy role-playing in a dying world," it is inspired by the fiction of Jack Vance and the music of Ronnie James Dio.
*Dreaming Dragons has released Horror on the Siberian Express, a horror scenario about the train ride from Moscow to Shanghai.
*Goblin Archives is hosting Tales from the Void, an itch jam using Liminal Horror.
*The Gateway to Adventure Kickstarter, by Appendix N Entertainment, is in its final week of funding, if you're looking for some Old School Essentials compatible material.
*I thought this Kickstarter looks pretty interesting: You Meet in a Tavern, You Die in a Dungeon is a procedurally generated dungeon crawl where all of the characters are destined to die.
*It's not OSR, but I wanted to mention the Bugbears and Borderlands Kickstarter. By Rod Waibel of Izegrim Creations, B&B is a Basic version of 5e. If you've wanted to try 5e, but have been turned off by the complexity, this game might be for you. And hey, the pdf is available for a dollar!
*Stranger Tales, on Drivethru, is a one page Tri-cube rpg inspired by 80s TV and movies.
*The Lake of Abominations Ultimate Hexcrawl is winding down yesterday's Deal of the Day at Drivethrurpg, so you've got until about 11:00 am eastern time to grab the pdf at the discounted price.
*Fascinations and Aversions, by Richard Kelly, is a supplement for Cthork Borg, a hack of Mork Borg.
*Atelier Clandestin continues to put out short, helpful tables. This one, 100 Backstories for Adventuring Parties, looks to be useful for either PC or NPC parties, or as a way for Referees to generate starting adventures.
*Mattheus Morais has released Spellburns and Battlescars. Written as an Into the Odd hack, it's a complete, rules-lite rpg.
*The Shadows of Golgotha is now out on Drivethru. Written for Old School Essentials, it takes Rose Bailey's setting from the acclaimed Miserable Secrets game and adapts it to old school play. Inspired by works such as Vampire Hunter D, Castlevania, and The Witcher.
*The cleverly named Morkal Komborg is a Mork Borg supplement that features a multi-verse wide tournament of death. Sounds familiar, for some reason . . .
*I like this one: Blue Dungeon Generator and Geomorphs is a system for randomly generating old-school dungeons using geomorphs and tables. The same publisher has also released Atomic Punk 2160, an OSR post-apoc setting.
*John Buckly has released BX Game Options Vol 2, featuring rules for Weapon Mastery and a method of increasing ability scores.
*My own Populated Hexes Monthly Issue 14 is also out on Drivethru, as both a pdf and POD. It presents a necromancer class for Old School Essentials and a small, skull-shaped dungeon.
*Free League Publishing has released the Remastered version of Into the Odd, a clever and well-designed OSR system.
*I'm terrible at coming up with deity names and portfolio, so The Baroque God Generator looks like it should be right up my alley.
*This must be Mork Borg week. The following titles have been released last week: Work Burg, for those that want to add the drudgery of normal life to your rpg, Shroom Barge, Mork Bug, and Bork Borg. To be fair, these are all the fault of Richard Kelly.
*I've added a bunch of new titles to the website, including:
A ton of new used titles, including some rare Planescape and Old School Essentials first printings as well as a few issues of Through Ultan's Door, the Chaos Gods of Meatlandia trilogy, and more.
Big-Eyed Chungus, by Planet X Games, a look at D&D's most beloved one-eyed floating monster.
Errant, by Ava Islam. A really cool and beautifully illustrated take on OSR gaming.
Bones of the Red Dragon, the new 'zine by Brooklet Games, written for Cairn and 5e.