OSR News Roundup for August 17th, 2026

Welcome to the third News Roundup for August. All across the country, kids are either back in school or getting ready to go back, GenCon is over, and we're all trying to hang on to the last little bits of summer. Here in Charlottesville, we marked the ninth anniversary of the Unite the Right rally and the death of counterprotester Heather Heyer, who was killed a block up the street from Sabre's current location. It's a somber day in Charlottesville; the city closes 4th Street off, and the memorial wall to Heather is festooned with newly picked flowers. Stay safe, everyone, and fuck fascism.

• Someone reached out to me on Reddit asking me to plug their new release: a PWYW Playtest document of Barbarians and Bugbears, an OSR-compatible rpg that, I think, has quite the Conan vibe to it. I'm always happy to promote personal projects like this, that began as a series of homerules in the author's campaign.

• I'd plugged Bartosz N's collection of collage hexmaps before, and it looks like they've recently updated it with a couple of new maps. It's a really neat concept that uses public domain art images in place of hex terrain, and is incredibly evocative, great for games like (they specifically mention) Mythic Bastionland or Cairn.

• Joseph Lewis has released Wake the Dead, a Shadowdark adventure for levels 2 or 3, designed as a one-shot exploring a graveyard where the dead yet walk.

• Sickest Wretch is a new release for the Ennie-nominated Sickest Witch horror game, introducing a collection of non-witch classes, a one-shot, and some more content.

• Pacesetter Games has released Q1 The Screaming Temple, a low-level adventure based around a mysterious temple that appears overnight. It's broadly compatible with BX-style games.

• Postmarked Peril is a collection of short, one-shot adventures for Pirate Borg that can also be linked together to form a mini-campaign.

• You Need More Hexmaps is a collection that solves the problem referred to in the titled; a collection of 30 hexmaps with differering climes and biomes, and just enough seeding to grab your imagination and shake it.

• A new (to me) fanzine is Torchbound, now on its 4th issue, and featuring articles covering a wide range of topics in gaming, both old and new.

• Joe Wetzel, who has made the life of Referees so much easier with their Worldographer mapping software, has just released the Shadowdark version of Rock & Roar, a supplement that brings classic rock songs to life as monsters and places for your OSR games.

• Nagval's Curse is an adventure for Pirate Borg that features werejaguars attempting to raise a god.

• Cage of Eternity is an adventure for the nonexistent (but I'm sure soon to be released) Bunny Borg system, a mashup of Watership Down and Fallout. I must admit I've become a teensy bit weary of the Borg spinoffs and clever names, but Bunny Borg is one I can fully get behind.

• Written for Shadowdark, Dungeon Death bills itself as a 16-bit game, based around the premise of normal teens getting sucked into a world of fantasy by a magical VCR tape.

• Tales from Wyll is a collection of three short pamphlet adventures for Mausritter.