There’s a big shape in this week’s RPG news summary; Kickstarter’s Zine Quest.
Geek Native tracks RPG (and related) Kickstarter launches and, as you’ve seen, for a few months now has been plotting them on a graph. That graph has a different shape this week. I count over 150 RPG-related launches.
Kickstarter Heat is a metric that the blog has invented to try and describe how competitive any week on the platform is. I can’t say it’s gone off the chart; because the chart adapts.
It’s also the start of a new month which means, for Patrons, the RPG Publisher Spotlight is open.
Who’s nominated?
Now, on with the RPG news!
Win Pew Pew! Bounty Hunters in Space | Aramini Circus
RPG news from Geek Native
- Magpie Games announced a new RPG based on Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra.
- Fandom is now playtesting The Dragon Prince: RPG Tales of Xadia.
- DWD Studios made their OSR game of espionage and the entire range of supplements free. Fancy some White Lies?
- The romantic fantasy RPG The Blue Rose Adventurer’s Guide is available.
- Sara Thompson and R. Talsorian Games bring the combat wheelchair to Cyberpunk Red. Meet the spider chair.
- Geek Native summaries the free to download Dino-World RPG.
- I also introduced a system to use music to design characters from Daniele Antonio Barbaglia called RAM.
- Delta Green has its first campaign with Impossible Landscapes.
- It’s in Kickstarter now, and Geek Native has a preview of the Mothership adventure The Burning of Carbex.
- Chaosium announced they would distribute the Nocturnal Media Upwind RPG.
- Gen Con announced their Spring Showcase.
- Tabletop Gaming Magazine announced their Spring Showcase too.
- The forthcoming Blackbirds RPG is showing off some scary monsters.
- The Bundle of Holding is running Fantasy AGE, Dragon AGE, Modern AGE and The Expanse deals.
- Feeling lucky, punk? Win a paperback copy of the RPG Pew Pew! Bounty Hunters in Space.
Spotlight: EN Publishing
RPG news from around the web
- Cubicle 7 revealed the cover to Age of Sigmar: Bestiary.
- Lots of high profile departures at Fandom and D&D Beyond as Adam Bradford, Lauren Urban and Todd Kenrick leave.
- R. Talsorian Games, the Cyberpunk and The Witcher TTRPG publisher, hired Aron Tarbuck as managing editor.
- Idyll Creations released version 2.6 of the Adventure System.
- J-M DeFoggi, the designer, shared a look at Character Creation in Jackals.
- Paizo announced a new standalone Starfinder adventure.
- Orion D. Black has gone back to the tabletop hobby industry with a position as Creative Director on Dimension 20.
- Writing at Green Ronin, Malcome Sheppard gave us Modern AGE Mastery Guide Preview: Two Weapons Revised.
- At Dicebreaker, Alex Meehan covered Quest publisher plans to support new RPG writers with The Adventure Award.
- Meanwhile, Chase Carter covered Indie video game Extreme Meatpunks Forever builds a tabletop ROG out of guts and gumption.
- Chase also noted Trace a magical diagram using ice skates and a dry erase marker in tabletop RPG Summon Skate.
- Egg Embry helped with some insightful data journalism and noted Most Prolific RPG Kickstarter Creator of 2020? Philip Reed.
RPG reviews and interviews from around the web
- J.R. Zambrano at Bell of Lost Souls reviewed the cartography package Battlemapp.
- Mortiz reviewed the Shoeless Pete Games’ The Well.
- Tribality’s Bianca Bickford wrote up a DMs Guild Review: The Brewski Jubilee.
- Antonios S reviewed Chaosium’s The Pegasus Plateau & Other Stories.
- Antonios S also reviewed Chaosium’s Malleus Monstrorum.
- OnTableTop reviewed Osprey Games’ Jackals: Bronze Age Fantasy Roleplaying.
- At EN World, Beth Rimmels reviewed B&G’s Silver Edition of Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden.
RPG new releases
- Design Mechanism gave us the BRP powered, Monster Island-based A Bird in the Hand.
- OnePageMage released three One-Page One-Shot adventures.
- Nightpath Publishing released Entromancy: The Orichite Age – The Present Past, Part 1 and Part 2.
- Atlas Games published the Unknown Armies adventure series Bring Me the Head of the Comte de Saint-Germain.
- Pinnacle Entertainment has made the weird west Deadlands: Blood Drive available.
- Modiphius and Christopher L. Bennett have released Star Trek Adventures: Another Roll of the Dice.
- Skirmisher Publishing released Three Alien Vegetable Monstrosities for less than $1.
RPG ideas, tips and discoveries
- Ben Jackson-Ellery wrote up helpful advice on the important matter of player safety in RPGs.
- Free dice (with 20 on each side) and all you have to do is propose.
- Proof* that dwarves and elves think very differently. (*not really)
- Latitude Team discussed ancient history with Role-Playing Games in the Renaissance Court.
- Janet Forbes at World Anvil shared 5 Tips For Writing Compelling Characters.
- The Alexandrian shared some helpful insight on Game Structure: Sector Crawl.
- Thinking about games like Neverland, Charles Dunwoody asked Pirate, Why Do You Plunder?
Zine Quest Summaries
- Charlie Hall at Polygon wrote up Zine Quest brings tabletop role-playing back to its roots with tiny, affordable books.
- Tim Knight at the Hero Press blog shared Four Zine Quest Projects I’ve Backed That You Should Check Out….
RPG Crowdfunding
You can see those Kickstarters and other crowdfunding campaigns that caught Geek Native’s attention over at Kickstarter watch. Here are some industry projects worth a mention;
- Alex Crossland is offering up a homebrew guide. The title? It’s Fantasy Adventure Homebrew Guide.
- Joie Martin of Drowning Moon Studios is funding a magical about magical maintenance workers in a sprawling and technomantic city with Mage to Order (#ZineQuest).
- Oscar Iglesias has a high school mecha panic game in the works called Academia T.I.T.Á.N..
- Tam is tempting is with darkly whimsical catacombs and Where Mystery Dwells.
- James Franzen is funding a faction of miniatures in Immortal Kings Fantasy – Towers of Light.
- Petter Lattimore of the Garblag Games Twitch channel is working on a d12 OSR called Dodeca RPG – #Zinequest3.
- Levon Jihanian, an art director, is funding an RPG about surviving in the shadow of the Iron Tower. It’s The Tower and The Garden TTRPG #Zinequest3.
- Steve Wright has come to Kickstarter to fund a solo journalling RPG called Hope is Not a Plan (ZineQuest 3).
- Deanna Kim brings horror to the Appalachia with the Contorta RPG.
- It’s earned many tens of thousands of dollars. TERRAIN TINKER | Design your own Dungeons and Buildings has smashed funding goals.
- Skylar Simmons has a 5e compatible Tales from the Dungeon – Secrets – RPG Zine.
- Laurie O’Connel’s game is about trans people waiting so long for healthcare that they decide to become liches. Welcome to Lichcraft | An RPG about Trans Necromancers.
- Gaming Honors is funding an RPG about tragedy, survival and redemption with The Exodus of Wolfbane, The RPG Adventure, Reborn in 5E!.
- Stephen Whitehead is working on a zine about time travel and cosmic horror in Infinite March.
- Steve Hampson is offering a solo RPG that uses maps as entry points with Spacebase A Solo RPG with Maps & NPC Cards for #zinequest.
- William Murakami-Brundage is sending heroes to the Dreamlands. It’s The Black Lotus of Thalarion: A D&D 5e Dreamlands Adventure.
- Chicago based Melee Range is taking part in Zine Quest #3 with Gili’s Guide to Fantastical Plants.
- Dicebro has an Old School D&D zine called Wizard Funk 3.
- Dr. Munt Hoolala’s mini-game contribution to Kickstarter is Roll Them Bones: A Dice Mini-Game Postcard Zine.
- Xacur is an indie games developer offering up the monthly Dark Scrolls, an OSR/5e RPG Zine.
- Garrett Lewis is working on a roguelike RPG in which characters go up against a randomised supernatural entity in Operation Thingamajig- A comedy RPG (Zine Quest 3).
- Masons Miniatures are offering 32mm Goblin Miniatures.
- Stronghold Press Games and a corrupt cult have taken over The Last Valley: an OSR setting.
- Dylan Mangini has a horror filled The House of the Hollow.
- Rowan Algoet has x10 funded the system-agnostic The Thawing Kingdom.
- Lara Turner has funded The Trans Rage Trilogy by Glaive Guisarme Games.
- Singapore based Legendary Light are offering Resin Dice with Sharp Edges.
- Spellsword Home Entertainment have a classic adventure designed for West Marches campaigns in Realms of Peril.
- Georgie Bats want to tempt you with a GMless RPG for creating polyamorous love stories with Exquisite Polycule: True Love Edition.
- T. Conde has a guide all about food for 5e in Glirky Gleboldt’s Guide to Glorious Grub.
- Yog’du Games have designed an ancient prison-tomb partially flooded with lava. It’s the Tomb of Immolation.
- Guy Potts has a light-hearted adventure set in rural France. It’s The Monastère de Saint Gastronomie.
- Good Ideas… has the vampire edition of A FEAST OF BLOOD | ZineQuest 3.
- Kyle Latino has a collection of cover-to-cover and hand-drawn maps in Old Roads.
- Eric has crafted some rules-free ideas for running radical and transformative cyberpunk games. It’s Glitchspiel.
- C. Scott Smallwood has penned a system-agnostic alternative approach to traditional alignment. A State of Being: Bonds, Backgrounds, and Rumors.
- Steve Johnson of Hex Games wants to share a magical tradition fit for The King. Elvismancer
- Mark Meredith has funded a systemless RPG about exploring a maledicated city. Welcome to Curse: The City of One Thousand Martyrs
- Bleak Horizons Press have smashed funding goals on a system-agnostic cosmic horror of ancient evil and their champions in space. All Must Bow – #ZineQuest3
- Leo Hunt has funded a tabletop RPG about thieves and vampires. It’s a Bloodheist.
- Andi Lennon’s satirical RPF has latex angels versus manifestations of a Godless Secularity. It’s Pistol Packing Bondage Nuns from Dimension Sex.
- Guy Sclanders has funded an easy-to-play sci-fi Bounty Hunter – A TTRPG.
- Kenna May is offering variant rules for D&D 5e in Choose-Your-Own Skills.
- Oliver McNeil’s next campaign is for 50 Fantasy Soundscapes Vol 7 & 8 “Town and City”.
- Mousehole Press’s game is about building spaceships and following its progress under different captains. It’s Bucket of Bolts, a solo RPG zine.
- Bite-Sized Gaming has a level 0 system built for 5e in Scrap Rats RPG.
- Withcraft-practicing Brittani is offering 6 spells, 6 items and 6 creepy maps in Witchy Things.
- Awfully Queer Heroes are offering a set of digital and printed Tabletop RPG Battlemaps – Zine Quest 3.
- The award-winning Lucian Kahn has put together an anthology of single-player TTRPGs. They are Hibernation Games: 5 Journaling RPGs for Solo Play.
- Star and Flame Games is building a system-neutral and randomised dungeon adventure. Welcome to Pungeon Quest: A Pun-Packed Land of Eem Adventure.
- Caleb Martin-Ruebsaat has funded an industrial-fantasy coming-of-age RPG. This Night on the Rooftops.
- Caverns of Heresy have a system-neutral RPG zine of NPCs. Meet The Sonders.
- Cartographer David Glass has created a set of locations to share in Zine-o-Maps – Zine Quest 3.
- Giuseppe Rotondo is offering 500 unique areas and 500 special encounters in the OSR flavoured Lands of Legends – FIVE Zines for #ZineQuest3.
- Jacob Fleming has funded an OSR adventure. Will you run In the Shadow of Tower Silveraxe #Zinequest3?
- Emma Kostopolus is funding an RPG about social deduction. It’s the heist Cahoots.
- Ben Laurence takes you beyond the veil of sleep. Will you step Through Ultan’s Door?
- Jeffrey Jones host of the podcast RPG Ramblings has three zines of NPCs, locations and rules. Scoundrels: Make Your Game Criminal.
- Outside the Lines Press have new and hilarious magic items for 5e in The Deck of Surprises.
- Stephen Wood Games’ fantasy world is filled with moles, bats and glowing mushrooms. Explore Underways Dew Drop Mountain a Wild Lands RPG Setting.
- Craig Campbell’s new project is inspired by What We Do in the Shadows. Low Stakes (Zine Quest 3) has funded.
- Headless Hydra Press have mix-and-match ties to create whiteboard dungeons. Hexplorer: Magnetic Dungeon Tiles for 5e and Other TTRPGs is doing well.
- Joshua Wise and APON Games will have you young and confronting monstrous evil. The Worst Days: A Horror RPG.
- Adrian L. Sanjuan has created some savage creatures, foul diseases and abhorrent rituals. See Glimpses of a Dying World – A zine for MÖRK BORG.
- Jacob Wood has a zine about accessibility and inclusion in tabletop RPGs. It’s Accessible Gaming Quarterly, Year 2.
- Leighton Connor has funded a game of weird conspiracy. It’s Project 8Ball (Zine Quest 3).
- Sculptor Nic Evans has funded a fantasy miniature narrative game based on the planet28 system. Welcome to Brutal quest – A miniature narrative game.
- Alex Wilcox has an anthology of warm, whimsical and weird one-page rules based on Tarot cards. Major Arcana – #ZineQuest3
- Diegesis is working on a D&D 5e setting of magi-tech called Dormenvale The Sleeping Valley.
- James Carpio has a punk-centric RPG set in the dark past of 1983 and Anarchy!
- Frank Turfler Jr has created a micro-dungeon for Savage Worlds, 5e, Swords & Wizardy and Tiny D6. Dare you run The Lair of the Manticore (ZineQuest)?
- Spiel Knights are offering an One Hour TTRPG Prep – Zine Quest.
- Gothridge Manor have a series of short and deadly adventures in The Many Crypts of Lady Ingrade (Zine Quest).
- Randy Angle has a spooky RPG of cartoon hijinks in Gruesome Ghoulies™ RPGzine.
- Doug Tabb is funding a set of Darkest Demons, Devils, and Dungeons [a Zine Quest thing!].
- M has funded a weird west setting of fantasy, steampunk and magi-tech with a touch of horror. It’s MarrowScar: A TTRPG Setting Zine.
- Jason Price has a GM-less storytelling RPG of ex-bounty hunters. It’s A Complicated Profession, a sci-fi RPG zine for ZineQuest.
- Jo Winter has a beer and cider-based, system-neutral compilation. It’s Last Orders! Craft Ales for Fantasy RPGS.
- Justin Bengtson’s written an RPG about adventuring in Merovingian Gaul. Welcome to The Merovingian Hack.
- Michael Gotkowski has stitched toghter 400 chimeric abominations for the BEstitchARY for MÖRK BORG.
- Doug North Cook has been inspired by the events of last year to create 20 tabletop monsters and backers have funded The 2020 Bestiary.
- Weston Leigh Humphreys has a slice-of-life RPG about being a ghost. Will you explore the Habits of the Common House Ghost?
- Annamyriah de Jong has an RPG zine about fate inspired by playing card divination. It’s Quodlibet.
- Drew Cochran has a heavy metal dwarven dungeon adventure powered by Old School Essentials. Harrowings #03: MUSPELHELL.
- JP Coovert has smashed targets for a low-level adventure set in a whimsical location. It’s Flik Silverpen’s Guide to Dragon Town #zinequest.
- Sam Sorensen has a zine of old-school tunnel warfare in Lowlife.
- Shardstone has a complete RPG in just 40-pages. Floating skulls defend their dungeon in SKÜLLBOX: Dungeon, Mayhem, Magyk TTRPG Zine.
- Malcolm Wilson has a system-agnostic hexcrawl in the shape of The Island of the Excellent: A Hexcrawl Zine.
- Sam Belisle has written up the ramblings of an eccentric gnomish artificer. It’s the 5e-powered Bimblebottom’s Book of Bits and Bobs.
- Aether Studios have beaten the £10K mark with Sky Islands 3d Printable Terrain.
- Wolvesbane Manor offers up short stories, maps, characters and RPG adventure stubs with Into The Black.
- Phantom Mill Games’ adventure has players battling a divine tyrant for control of the story. It’s the revolution of the Dethroners.
- Will Jobst mixes board game with RPG in TORQ: rallyraid roleplaying.
- Egg Embry, a popular games journalist, has a Valentine’s Day delivery called Love’s Labour’s Liabilities – A 5e RPG Zine Quest.
- Nick Baran offers up 2 hours of Wide-eyed Terror Zine.
- Shane Walshe has four low-prep modular locations such as The Haunted Hamlet – and other hexes.
- Dom Liotti promises limitless alternatives to your traditional RPG spell list with The Power Words Engine.
- Cloven Pine Games has a fantasy RPG inspired by Tolkien. Powered by the Apocalypse and about small adventures on the way home. It’s Back Again from the Broken Land—ZineQuest.
- Eli Seitz has an RPG about time loops, drama and learning from your mistakes. Welcome to Thursday RPG – Zinequest.
- D G Chapman’s RPG is about roadtripping beneath a psychic sun. It’s Journeylands #1.
- Logan Dean has a sourcebook for The Company: Corporate Survival Horror. Will you read The Company: Conflict Resolution Guidelines?
- Ian Yusem has a level-0 funnel adventure set on an occult battlefield for the Mothership sci-fi horror. Welcome to The Drain.
- Zog has an adventure set in a small town in the 1980s. It’s BLACKOUT in Crater Valley: a VHS era Slasher RPG.
- Aaron King has a roleplaying game about fantasy, change and strangeness. Backers have funded the Patchwork World 6th Edition RPG.
- Sharik L Peck II has a set of beautiful custom Fireball Dice from the Arcanist’s Armory.
- An RPG zine to analyse games, mull on introspective art criticism and other unique perspectives. It’s NERVES.
- Sivad Nahtonoji has a travel guide suitable for Old School Essentials and Basic/Export classic fantasy rules. It’s Wild Blue Yonder.
- Bloat Games’ zine will be availalbe in print and PDF. Explore Destination: Uncharted Tabletop RPG Zine.
- Dapper Rabbit Games has a fantasy hex-crawl set in a strange swamp. 19 hexes, 2 dungeons and Stories from the Slough.
- Lloyd Metcalf has an old school zine for the new school world. It’s Maximum HP RPG #005 – KOBOLDS Zine Quest.
- Charles Ferguson-Avery has a zine about exploring the dark and alien megastructures of an infinite realm. It’s The Vast in the Dark – Exploring Ruins in an Infinite World.
- Monarch Arts are funding a gothic western Iron Frontier Campaign Setting for 5th Edition.
- Donn Stroud, Horse Shark Games and Psychoda Press are working together on Zine 3 Pack of Futuristic Post-Apocalypse and Fantasy.
- Nathan Town has a Forged in the Dark sci-fi of dark humour and treachery in The 13th Fleet.
- Benjamin Sperduto has funded an RPG of dreams, nightmares and the darkness in-between called Weirdwood.
- Dave.Paints has a book of original D&D 5e magic. It’s Magnum’s Tome of Unshackled Spells.
- Sean Christopher Charles Richer has a tentacle and sorcery zine with Terror of the Stratosfiend #3 : A DCC RPG #ZineQuest Zine.
- Come Martin has created a diceless RPG where you play the same character 30 years apart. Welcome to Two Summers – a ZineQuest game.
- Bordercholly has created a tiny RPG of high-flying adventure in a monster-infested 1920s. It’s The Knights of the Road.
- Max Moon is offering up a hex and dungeon solo (or more) RPG for those with a taste of arcane obscurity. The project is 12 Years.
- By Odin’s Beard will unleash horrifying monsters for dark 5e adventures with the Mysteries of the Mists – Zine Quest Edition.
- Giles Pritchard has funded a game of high staes sci-fi action and adventure with Rascals – an RPG Zine.
- Philip Reed is offering a short adventure packed with a 7″ vinyl record of atmospheric tunes. It’s the Tower of Scoundrels, a Third-Party Mörk Borg Adventure.
- Howl will enable backers to explore a mysterious world where time reemerges from the flow of the past. It’s OURCHILDREN – a narrative RPG journey | make100.
- Diel Cartulary is funding a collection of game-parts and world-artefacts to inspire play with The Tattoopunk Antebible.
- Timothy Sawyers wants to give backers The Deck Generated Battlemap.
- Jason DM has funded 20 adventures with Book of Bounty and Treasure Hunts for D&D 5E.
- Thom Wilson has a zine dedicated to old-school post-apocalyptic sci-fi and fantasy RPGs. It’s the Gamma Zine, Issue #3.
- Planar Compass is offering a way to traverse the astral sea in the Old-School Essentials zine the Planar Compass Issue 2.
- Josephine Yanasak-Leszczynski has a one-shot zine flavoured by Slavic and Germanic folklore. It’s The Witch, The Wolf & the Wedding: A Story Telling RPG.
- Nate Whittington has funded a 30+ page exploration of dirty dungeon-crawlling with DUNGEONEERING – ZineQuest 3.
- Rohit Kaushik writes of the Catastrophe and rebuilding a shattered world in Arklite.
- Ryan Browne has a town and treasures supplement for the Torcherbearer RPG. It’s The Grind Turn 3: Hell or Highwater.
- The Adventure Guild has a new expansion for Quest. Welcome to Quest: Fantastic Characters and Wondrous Treasures.
- Jeremy Childrey has a Mothership supplement of mech bustin’ gang warfare on a dying planet. It’s Gordinaak
- Bandit Camp are offering a variety of Colorful Characters: 100 NPCs for D&D and Fantasy RPGs.
- Eran Aviram’s zine has players guiding ancient and unreasonable machines to preserve a strange assortment of alien beings in Menagerie of the Void.
- Afterthought Committee are writing a new tabletop survival RPG called Cast Away.
- Pidj Sorensen’s RPG is about vampires working to restore the sin in a world gone dark. The Sun’s Ransom – #ZineQuest3 RPG.
- Ella Lim has funded a solo journalling game about running The Lighthouse At The Edge Of The Universe – Solo RPG.
- Rowanwood Arts will guide you through this the sky pirate adventure of The Legend of Gallow’s End RPG Zine.
- Luke Earl is offering templates to help organise your adventures with A Small Collection of Flowers & Entanglements.
If there’s a source or news you think is worth monitoring, please get in touch or leave a comment below.
