OSR News Roundup for August 26th, 2024

Last week was a little light on releases, I'm assuming because the kids are heading back to school and summer is winding down. However, there's still some interesting releases (I think) that I've included.

• Liminal Horror is an, I think, oft-overlooked gem of a system, but there is a Liminal Horror jam going on over on itch, and Ex Infernis is one of the entries. Drawing on the ghost ship theme, it's set on the Great Lakes but can be easily adapted to any location or even system.

• Karate High Noon is a short and sweet one-page rpg inspired by 90s action movies. If you want to play a Jackie Chan or Walker, Texas Ranger inspired game where the PCs get to beat up hordes of mooks this is the game for you.

• One of the entries into the recent (which ended yesterday) One Page RPG Jam is Small Town Gods, a game about playing minor deities who grow in power as their communities grow.

• I've been seeing a number of releases recently relying on Into the Odd, and Plasmodics is currently raising funds on Kickstarter. It's a gonzo, weird, and wacky game set in the far, post-apocalyptic future. The publisher is a first time Kickstarter, so there's always the caveat that comes with that, but they seem to have a good handle on the process and aren't, I don't think, overpromising.

• Stefan Surrat is well known in the DCC community for their releases, and are currently Kickstarting Bloody Barbershops and Sanguine Scissors, a "zine for barbers and fans of barbering", which aside from being one of the more niche markets I've seen, includes a bunch of new stuff for DCC, including a new class, a 0-level funnel, and more.

• The Cult of Kluckee the Chicken is a gonzo, tongue and cheek adventure set in the post-apocalyptic future (another one!) and statted for 1e and 5e. It's also billed as being broadly compatible with MCC, Gamma World, Mutant Future, and more.

• I have been waiting patiently for Hydra Cooperative to release Completely Unfathomable, by Jason Sholtis. This release combines the Ennie Award-winning Operation Unfathomable with new material. Hydra Cooperative is known for releasing some of the highest quality OSR material out there, and I'm really glad they've been able to make this release happen, and hope this means we'll be seeing more new releases down the road.

• Graveyard Dirt is a new undead-themed release for Knave 2 and similar games. It includes new adventures, skeleton varieties, spells, and more.

• There've been more new class releases for Shadowdark than pretty much everything else, and I haven't been including the bulk of them, but the Runemaster class caught my attention as being something interesting to mine for ideas.

• The Sorcerer's Fate is a 0-level funnel for DCC that aims to be the first in a series of semi-connected adventures.

• I've long admired the art of Castle Grief, and they're currently crowdfuning Kal-Arath: Sword and Sorcery, a Conan-inspired sword and sorcery game and setting.

• I'm currently running a Kickstarter for Issue 38 of Populated Hexes Monthly, in which the series gets back on track with a new hex every month. This month's hex is a densely wooded northern forest with a prophetic raven, and includes guidelines for adding prophecies to your game as well as the eldritch warrior class, a fighter subtype that blends spell and steel but is also not an elf reskin.