OSR OSR News Roundup

Whizbang Dustyboots said:

If you see Reach of the Roach God, do not put off buying it (assuming you can afford it) for another day, @GothmogIV.

The partnership that produced Thousand Thousand Islands has been dissolved in a messy break-up, the Thousand Thousand Island zines are no longer in print and once Reach of the Roach God sells out, it's gone for good.

All of the Thousand Thousand Islands stuff, including Reach, are excellent, though, so don't hesitate to grab them if you see them. They're system neutral but amazingly evocative. They're a minimalist achievement.

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Both members of the former collective, Zedeck and Mun Kao, are still producing some of the most interesting stuff in the OSR/NSR field.

Welcome to the last news Roundup in February. While the month is almost over, ZineMonth is not, as many of the projects that are launched during this time extend into March.

Sabre has added a "Daily Deal" feature, with each day giving one product we've got in stock a significant discount. We'll be rotating through a number of OSR and indie titles, both old and new. Right now probably the easiest way to find these deals is via our Discord.

• The Spires of Kuyyin is a short adventure written for Cairn 2e dealing with the exploration of ruins within a ice-covered canyon.
• Billed as a "mini-mega dungeon", The False Temple is by the Azorynian Post. It's projected to have about 150 rooms when complete, and is for characters of levels 4-7. It's a bit of a gamble -- it's the creator's first project, and the project isn't 100% complete -- but they are just fulfilling it as a pdf, and previews of the dungeon are available for perusal. I'd like to see this project fund as I like to encourage small, first-time publishers who are dipping their toes into the business end of the hobby.
• Available as a 114-page, spiral bound book, Advanced Rules is a compilation of supplemental material for Mothership, including some guidelines for solo play (someone was asking me about solo rules for Mothership a few weeks back).
• Mussel Beach: Volume 1 is described as a "swole seafaring zine". It's written for Meatheads, a game which sees occasional mention here, and is designed as part in-world magazine, part setting.
• Jaclyn Lewis is raising funds for Imagine Queer Worlds, a guide to designing worlds and settings that do not hew to traditional gender and romantic assumptions.
• The prolific and ever generous Philip Reed is raising funds for Quest for Zines, a ZiMo project designed to help new authors and artists get into making their own zines. Reed's got an enviable track record of both publishing material but also running successful crowdfunding campaigns, so I'm sure this zine has a lot of useful information in there.
• Probably one of the most interesting ZiMo projects I've seen thus far this year is Wiki Articles are Wizards [citation needed], a zine about generating weird and unusual wizards from wiki articles.
• Jeffrey Jones is another publisher who has been putting out some consistent, high-quality OSR products, and their current project is Denizens of the Blood Sands, an OSE bestiary with a distinctive Dark Sun meets Barsoom meets Synnibar vibe.
• John McGuire is raising funds for Avon by the Sea, an adventure written for the 321RPG ruleset that takes place in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy.
• Feathertail Falls is a Mausritter adventure collection with five adventures, which can be run as stand-alone adventures or tied together into a mini-campaign.
• The classic OSR zine Fight On is now out with Issue 16, this one dedicated to legendary artist David Trampier, and featuring the same roster of fantastic contributors and articles the zine is known for.
• Survivors of Frith is an interesting looking sandbox adventure path written for OSE, set in a world changed by alien invaders. It's designed to take a party of adventurers from 1st to 7th level.
• Chive Knight is a delightful looking OSR system inspired by jrpg art and games. I haven't had a chance to look it over, but from the preview page it sounds like it might be a fun little system to explore.
• The Endless Dungeon of the Mad Mage is a Mork Borg entry into ZineMonth2025, a procedurally generated, never the same dungeon designed as a meat-grinder for careless PCs.
• The Advanced OSR Player's Guide pdf is now live on Drivethru and the Sabre webstore. Written for OSE, but applicable to a wide range of OSR-style games, this book compiles dozens of new classes, spells, and player options.

ZineMonth is officially over, although there are still projects running that started late in February. I hope everyone who participated by launching a project had a fun time and were successful meeting their funding goals, and I hope everyone else saw (and backed) some fun and interesting projects.

This looks to be a pretty light week on the release end of things.

• The Crimson Caverns, by jofas, is a simple dungeon crawl written for Cairn 2e as a one-shot or a short adventure that can be slotted into an existing campaign. Explore the abandoned hideout of an evil sorcerer!
• Inspired in part by the shrines in Breath of the Wild, Pit is the first of a Spell Shrine written for the 2025 Zungeon Jam using Cairn. It's a neat idea; every spellbook has its own shrine that must be found and explored in order to master the contained spell. It's the first in what the author hopes is a planned series.
• Wayward Words is a late entry into the Zinemonth festivities and could use some support. It's a system-neutral supplement of weird books arranged in alphabetical orders; each book has something unique to teach the reader.
• The Rainy City is a fun and quirky setting zine that we consistently sell out of at Sabre, and I just saw the author is Kickstarting Vol. 3 of Flott's Miscellany, a new collection of goodies, tables, and encounters for the city where the rain never stops.
• Tales from the Spectral Sea looks to be a fun game where you play as the crew of a ship that died at sea but couldn't pass on to the afterlife, and instead sail the spectral sea, "living" out your swashbuckling dreams until you can pass on to the afterlife.
• Written for the Mork Borg family of games, Wraithborn is a setting where the players take on the role of the undead inhabitants in a realm of the dead and damned.

Welcome to the second news roundup of March. My apologies to subscribers; I realized belatedly that I neglected to send out the newsletter last Monday. I had an immensely naughty word day and it just got away from me.

I'm getting excited about the upcoming crowdfunding project I'll be launching in April for Mind Over Matter, a psionics book for Old School Essentials and other OSR games. In addition to a fairly traditional psionics system, albeit one divorced from point-based activation, it will also include an adaptation of the classic Book of Nine Swords from late in the 3.5-era. I've always liked the concepts presented in that book, and I've reworked the rules to fit in with an OSR mindset and power scaling.

Enough about me, though. The big news from last week that I'm sure many of you have heard already is that Drivethrurpg will be raising prices on certain print on demand products, chiefly softcover books, some of which will see a price increase of up to 70%! I don't know yet how this will affect POD books from other vendors, or offset books from other sources, but it has been my experience that prices almost never go down. I hope that people who are in the middle of crowdfunding campaigns aren't negatively affected by the upcoming pricing increases, and for everyone else, I guess now is the time to purchase those POD titles that have been sitting in your cart.

• I've mentioned before my love of the games coming out of Latin America these days, and I was stoked to see that the LATAMjam 2025 is starting on March 12th. You don't have to be a LATAM creator to participate, so long as your entry uses a ruleset designed or released by an eligible publisher. The depth of creativity coming out of this community is truly astounding, and I'm excited to see what comes out of this game jam.
• Matt Kelly has released Stormalong, a collection of seafaring adventures for Cairn, Into the Odd, and other systems, all based on American folktales.
• Scouts and Scoundrels is a free, rules-lite rpg based on Cairn, with some super cute artwork.
• I've mentioned Block, Dodge, Parry several times, and was excited to get the notification that the final version is out on itch. It's designed as an "advanced" companion to Cairn, and is available now for a lower price before it jumps up to the regular price. I've been following the development, and it's a really neat system in its own right, and in my opinion really brings a shine to the (fairly basic) Cairn.
• Vesta Mandate is a neat-looking game of political intrigue in the future that is currently funding on Kickstarter.
• Vaults of Vaarn has a soft spot in my heart, and I just saw that Ecophage is a newly released adventure for VoV, dealing with an escaped scientific experiment causing havoc.
• I've mentioned before that Goblin Errands is one of Sabre's bestselling titles, and I just saw there's a similar (perhaps a bit darker) project funding on Kickstarter: Rob'n Goblin is a heist game which looks to be a bit of Honey Heist mixed with Goblin Errands mixed with the newly released Dawn of the Orcs (which we have in stock!)
• Out of all the various Borgs, Pirate Borg is perhaps my favorite, and I just saw there's a newly release Ancient Mariner class available.
• Back to Basix Issue 13 is now available on Drivethrurpg. It's a well-respected OSR zine, and in addition to new gaming content this issue also features an interview with Tracy Hickman.
• Explore Dungeons have released Heroic Adventures #1, an adventure written for DCC revolving around a lich and its rule over a helpless town.
• Attack the Light Issue #0 is the flagship offering of a new series of zines by Michael Putlack, written for Shadowdark. I had the pleasure of interviewing Michael several years ago for a project they launched for ZineMonth, and it's cool seeing them continuing to publish product (full disclosure, Michael currently works for the Arcane Library, publisher of Shadowdark).
• I've mentioned before how much I like seeing a product that I've mentioned in the promotional stages make it to publication, and I just saw that Miami 86 is live on Drivethru. I mentioned it a few years back when it was funding; it's . . . a game set in Miami in the 80s. Not sure if I need to describe it more.
• Populated Hexes Monthly 43 is now available in pdf, POD, and offset versions. It concludes the three part series on the Shadowlands, and finishes up with some playable classes, including one of my favorite, the dhampir.