The Broken Compass ride started with a wildly successful Kickstarter, then lots of praise and then the publisher Two Little Mice being bought by gaming powerhouse CMON.
Free to Download: The True OSR – Obsolete Shi**y Rules sickstart
The conflict between the DM and the players is handled by an engine in The True OSR, which uses tokens called XPicks that the DM can use to warp players’ words or players can use to make sure their characters succeed in actions.
Free to Download: Reaver – Sword & Sorcery RPG quickstart
The cover shows a grim brute of a fighter, and sure enough, the pitch for Reaver is that it’s inspired by Robert E. Howard, Charles R. Saunders and Karl Edward Wagner but also says it’s less gonzo and more grim.
Free to Download: Shattered Worlds Introduction Guide
The guide from Dmitry Nosovky, Je Shields, Dean Spencer et al tells of the fracture and the breaking of the veil between different worlds. The result is a gritty setting merging tech and magic.
N.K. Jemisn’s Hugo-winning Fifth Season gets a TTRPG
Green Ronin tells me that not only is N.K. Jemisim signing a few bookplates in a special tier but has been involved throughout the RPGs design.
Fat Goblin Games release a TTRPG content rating system
The download has several images for the proposed ratings and a two-page explainer. It suggests games could be rated on violence, language, sexual content, drug and alcohol use, horror and mature themes.
Cloud Empress RPG: Nausicaa meets Mothership horror
Cloud Empress is a tabletop RPG by watt that’s smashed Kickstarter goals and takes a far future world inspired by the likes of Dune and the manga Nausicaa and applies it to the sci-fi horror of Mothership.
The Towninator smashes it
A year after not hitting Kickstarter goals, The Towninator from Andreas Barbesgaard is back. It’s an approach to generating single-sheet towns and tracking how RPG PCs interact.
Project Phoenix: RPG developers adopt Paizo’s new open game license
Bastion Press is financing a new open game license, putting some money in so publishers can use it without reinventing the wheel.
Free to Download: Denizen! The Magonian Edition
The RPG is a 282-page full-featured core set. It’s about dungeon crawls and heroics with the usual set of six stats but different rules for character generation and skill testing.
