OSR News Roundup

[Eyes of Nine]

It's the last Monday in April and time for another Roundup. Last week I had the privilege of interviewing gaming journalist Lin Codega. They talked about their new project, Rascal News, the state of the gaming industry, AI, and more. You can find the interview here. This issue seems a little light on released to me; perhaps many creators are finding themselves drawn outside to work in the garden and enjoy the warmer weather like I have been.

• There's an itch bundle going on right now to support trans rights in West Virginia. You can get an amazing 529 titles for 5.00, and this includes a number of OSR titles, including FIST, Brewkessel #1 (one of the my favorite adventures from the past two years; am eagerly awaiting Vol. 2), The Dessicated Temple of Locha, and more.

How much is re-listed from the Trans Rights bundle of a few years ago?

• Medieval Mercenaries is a short zine that provides guidance for adding mercenary companies to your fantasy games. Ever since I read Elizabeth Moon's Paksenarrion trilogy in middle school I've been fascinated by this overlooked aspect of gaming.

I wonder how this will compare to the upcoming Black Company RPG?

• We've added a number of Used titles to the Sabre webstore, including a selection of classic Rolemaster titles.

Nice. Are you open to feedback about your store via ENW DM?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

How much is re-listed from the Trans Rights bundle of a few years ago?

It looks to be largely different. I got the previous bundle and I think there are only one or two overlaps.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm left with the feeling that I'm not cool or punk enough to get it.

This is me every time I listen to St. Vincent. Her music is good and she, personally, is the coolest person on Earth now that Prince is dead, but I am clearly not cool enough to truly get what she's doing musically, as some (or much) of it is obviously flying over my head.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I always love that III can be read in many non-serif fonts as Ill, or visa versa

So maybe it's Candle Ill, a fantasy mix-tape in the theme of Beastie Boys stylings...

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Now here's a little story I've got to tell
About three bad hobos you know so well
It started way back in history
With A Rogue, A Wiz-A, (And me) Fight-E
(edit to add apologies for the thread bust...)

 

[thirdkingdom]

How much is re-listed from the Trans Rights bundle of a few years ago?


I wonder how this will compare to the upcoming Black Company RPG?

Nice. Are you open to feedback about your store via ENW DM?

Sure!

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Sure!

Hah, I forget what I was going to say...

 

[thirdkingdom]

Welcome to the first news roundup in May. This year is just flying past.

• I'm not familiar with the work of nealyboy, but I see they've released a one-page rpg called Gune on itch. In this game you can ride a giant sandworm, have knife fights, and, as the author points out, buy a used van. The art is worth the pwyw price alone!
• I often see people asking where to find short adventures, and the One Page Dungeon contest is a good place to look. Chaotic Goods has released a compilation of their OPD submissions from over the years; it looks like there are some great short adventures found here.
• Longshot City is a Troika-based superhero game published by the Melsonian Arts Council, and Detyan has released The Waifs and Strays of Longshot City, a collection of weird and wonky NPCs to add to the setting.
• My Spoons are Stabby is currently raising funds on Kickstarter. It's billed as "A solo rogue-like tabletop RPG about exploring your mind through the lens of empathy, truth, joy, kindness, & anti-greed". There are some interesting ideas here; the Kickstarter is for a premium edition and you can download the basic game as a PWYW product on itch.
• David Blandy has released a little 2d6 World Engine SRD, a guide to creating simple, 2d6 based games. Even if you don't use it for game creation, it has tons of ideas and tables that can be mined for inspiration.
• I've mentioned before how highlighting the works of first-time creators is something that brings me joy, and Swords, Spells, & Skills, by Teuta, falls into this category. The game is currently in playtest phase, and folks buying in now will get the updates at the current price. It looks like there are some interesting ideas and tweaks in this system.
• I don't often get a chance to promote ko-fi pages, but I saw this release by The Moody Warlock and thought it looked interesting: it's an OSE DM's screen.
• Tides of Rot, by Games Omnivorous, is a unique release for Frontier Scum, in the form of an LP release along with music. As I discussed last week, some stuff I'm just not sure about how it works in practice and might just be too punk for me, but hopefully some readers will find things of interest in it.
• After a short hiatus, the folks at Red Ruin Publishing are back with a new issue of Casket of Fays, their free Dragon Warriors fanzine. This is number thirteen in the series.
• Brian Shutter has released a free quickstart version of Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland, his punk post-apocalyptic rpg.
• Farthest is a mini-adventure based upon the aforementioned Frontier Scum system.
• Jeffrey Regner Kickstarted the DCC adventure Exhuming John Barleycorn awhile back, and it is now available on Drivethru. It's set in the Shudder Mountains, and has some really cool and evocative art.
• Hexplore Publishing has released The Tower of the Elephant, an adventure written for OSE that adapts the classic Conan tale by the same name to OSR gaming.
• Populated Hexes Monthly Issue 33 is now available on the Sabre Games website. This issue clocks in at an impressive 56 A5 pages, and finishes up the look at creating artifacts and relics in your old school game. It's available in offset print for only 8.95 and pdf for 2.95.
• Sabre Games is having a Spring Cleaning Zine Sale in anticipation on new titles coming in. For the month of May you'll be able to take 35% off all in-stock zine titles by uing the code "Spring24" at checkout.
• We've also been adding quite a few new titles to our Used selection, including a box set copy of the West End Ghostbusters RPG in surprisingly good condition. We always try to price competitively with other stores.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Tower of the Elephant is arguably the most iconic Conan adventure and clearly the model for many a D&D adventure. (It's almost certainly the most iconic Marvel Comics Conan story.) Awesome to get an OSR version.