OSR News Roundup for August 11th, 2025

Welcome to the second News Roundup in August. If you're in the States you're probably looking at the start of school and the winding down of summer. Let's jump right in and check out last week's releases, shall we?

• Perplexing Ruins has published Saint Witold's Bell, an adventure for Shadowdark written for characters of levels 2-4. Perplexing Ruins is a fantastic artist (full disclosure, they've done work for me) and they're trying to make it full time in the rpg field, so can use your support!

• Matt Kelly has released Reputation, a simple system for tracking a character's renown and reputation as they adventure. It's written for Cairn, but should be broadly applicable to other OSR systems.

• I'm glad to see support for the excellent post-apoc game Glowburn and Radscars; Terror Beneath the Sunken City, by bread wizard, is an adventure set in a swamp, featuring a city of the Ancients covered by the muck and water.

• Rat in a Suit released their entry into the one-page rpg jam currently running on itch: The Grand Melee. In this game, each player takes on the roll of a knight in a medieval melee tournament to see who will be the last knight standing!

• I'm not familiar with yanahn, but they've just released a really cool adventure: Enter the Whalefall is an underwater depthcrawl/dungeon inspired by the death of whales and the ecosystem that forms around their bodies at the very bottom of the ocean. It looks really neat.

• YouCanBreatheNow Art just released a bundle of ruin art for use with the Creative Commons License. I'm a big fan of their work, and their recent release is a really nice combination of peaceful landscape and forgotten ruins.

• Zones is a neat looking new game with fantastic art that's now out on Drivethru. It uses the Into the Odd rules system, and is a post-war, post-apoc game inspired by Escape from Tarkov, Twilight 2000, and others.

• Temple of the Cybernetic Cult is a short adventure for Shadowdark that brings some advanced tech to the game.

• I'm always happy to promote the work of a new publisher, and Crookhorns is Muzgrob's second release. It's a kindred for the newly released Dolmenwood game/setting.

• Casey Garske has released Issues One and Zero of Oubliette, a mega-dungeon published in a serial zine format. I really like their use of public domain art.

• Sandbox Casual bills itself as a "small press indie mixtape RPG from a parallel universe where 1979 never ended". It looks pretty interesting, and has some great art.

• Tales from the Skieg River is on Drivethru in both English and Italian (I've linked to the English version). It's a collection of three system-agnostic one-page dungeons written for OSR/NSR-style games.

• Based on the Brindlewood Bay rules engine, Fiendgazer is a game of small-town weirdos and misfits protecting their town from supernatural horror. I stumbled across this because it features the art of Tony Tran, who I really admire and think does great work. I also really like Brindlewood Bay.

• Another Brindlewood inspired project is Serving up Disaster, a game of kitchen nightmares. One player takes on the role of the fiery celebrity chef visiting struggling restaurants, and the other players take on the roles of the staff of said restaurants.

• I've been a big fan of Idle Catulary and their blog -- especially their bathtub reviews -- and I saw that they've just released The Frost-Wreathed Heart, a grim game where the players are trapped in a labyrinth and not everyone will be able to get out alive.

• After four straight years of consistent monthly releases, Populated Hexes Monthly is taking a month off (I needed a break). We'll be back in October with Issue 49, this time beginning an exploration into the oft-mentioned, but as not-yet covered, Scarlet Principalities.