OSR News Roundup for April 8th, 2024

It's the second Monday in April and, the big news is obviously the eclipse that will be visible in the US. Hopefully the darkening of the sun will not release the eldritch beasts that have been restrained for the good of humanity.

• Pocket Quest is an annual Drivethru event that I always seem to overlook, but I did see that Zadmar Games has published Conniving Cat Burglars, a one-page system/scenario that can also be used as part of the Tricube Tales system.

• When it rains it pours, because another entry to Pocket Quest is Mission: ImPAWsible, by T-Rex Games, a game of three raccoons in a trench coat trying to save the world.

• I'd mentioned the Fishing With John game jam on itch a few weeks ago, and one entry that's just been published is Way Down on the Waccamaw, by giantrobottackler. It's written for Cairn and is a little one-page scenario about a fishing contest that may or may not turn out badly for you.

• I'm a big fan of Emmy Allen's work, and Soul Muppet is currently running a Kickstarter for a remastered version of the Garden of Ynn, a procedurally generated, zero-prep adventure set in an ever-shifting garden.

• Eva K has released a pack of grayscale wilderness hexes, with the idea that they are a minimalist aid to writing an adventure rather than something to spend time fiddling with.

• One of my favorite parts of Worlds Without Number is system generation, and Robotic Topologist just released their Minimalist Solar System Generation.

• The pdf of Goodman Game's recent Dark Tower release is now available on Drivethrurpg. It's available in both DCC and 5e flavors.

• Hirelings is an interesting new release on Drivethru. It's billed as a fantasy heist game, suitable as a one-shot or a mini-game inside an existing campaign.

• I'd mentioned Prisoners of the Secret Overlord a few months back when it was on Kickstarter, and it's now out on Drivethru in pdf and POD. Written for DCC, it's a 2nd level adventure with science fantasy elements.

• Flooded Realms Adventure Press has released Oglia's Folly, a short (3-page) high level adventure for OSE. I like seeing shorter high level adventures that can be slotted in as part of a larger campaign or hexcrawl without the baggage of a longer campaign setup.

• Land of Mist is a campaign supplement written for Old School Essentials. It looks like it's got an interesting variety of new classes, monsters, and, what may be of interest to some people, rules for achieving Immortality.

• We've added two games by Jimmy Shelter to the Sabre Games webstore. A Visit to San Sabilia is a solo journaling game about visiting an everchanging city, and Hiria, the Eternal City, is a recently crowdfunded project that is another solo journaling game about tracking a quarry through different versions of the same city.

• Populated Hexes Monthly Issue 32 is now available in pdf and print. This issue is the first in a two-part look at creating artifacts and relics for OSE and other similar games, and provides plenty of tables and tools to create both them and mortal magical items.

• I've decided that the only Third Kingdom Games books that I'll be keeping in stock will be offset versions, which means I'm putting my remaining inventory of print on demand titles on deep discount, 50% off all titles. The POD titles will still be available via Drivethrurpg and Lulu, but my goal is to only stock offset versions in my own webstore. If you'd like to pick up some books at 50% off now is the time to do so.

• There's about a day left in the BX Advanced Bestiary Kickstarter, which expands on monsters E-K in the Old School Essentials Classic rules. It adds new monsters, classes, spells, psionic powers, and more. Illustration below is bee-folk soldier, by Marco Ortiz Walters.