OSR News Roundup for May 19th, 2025

Welcome to the third OSR News Roundup in May. Let's jump right in and see what is new today, shall we?

• First, I apologize for not mentioning this sooner. Wandering Blades is a wuxia-style game built on an OSR framework, and is a little more than halfway through its campaign. You can checkout the interview I conducted with the author a few weeks back, here.

• Ruins and Rogues is an intriguing one-page fantasy rpg with a streamlined set of rules, easy character creation, and an interesting take on combat.

• I've been really tickled with the content of the Appendix L products, and they've just released Issue 4: Savage Scavengers. This issue is all about harvesting monster parts, and includes an alchemical system, formulas for potions, and more.

• Torch Fail is an OSR system that seeks to straddle the divide between rules-lite and heavy systems. It's being constantly updated as the author refines it, and is currently on version .97. It's free, and the author is actively seeking feedback.

• Writer Ben has released Dunhollow -- the Town That Won't Let You Go, on itch. It's an adventure for their own Scouts and Scoundrels system, but is also fully compatible with Cairn.

• The excellent Liminal Horror game just finished a crowdfunding campaign for the deluxe edition, and I just saw yesterday that Roque Romero has released a bundle of original art assets for Liminal Horror and similar games. It's free, and really cool looking.

• Chekhov's Angels is out on itch. It's a fun, quirky, spy-thriller game inspired by Charlie's Angels and the ordinary household items that get turned into weapons in their movies.

• Lancer is one of my favorite 'mech games, and is a good example, I think, of how the much maligned 4th edition of D&D did tactical combat better than almost any other game. Another game I just saw that I think fits into that mold is Fathomless Gears, a ttrpg about building 'mechs out of tetris-like pieces and then hunting deep sea abominations. It's also got a companion app for ease of creating 'mechs, as well as Foundry VTT integration to make playing online a breeze.

• Wicked Cool Games has released Ashes of Rhu, an adventure for characters of levels 2-3, compatible with most OSR systems.

• Tombs of the Dead Gods is a rules-lite, d100 fantasy game designed to fit on a single page in A4 format.

• Seventh Son Publishing has released Demographics and Microeconomics of an Early Modern Fantasy City. It's a free release designed to provide guidance on creating the industry and inhabitants of a fantasy city.

• Shadow Beasties Two, by David Okum, is a collection of twenty monsters for Shadowdark, the second in their series. The illustrations are in a charming, woodcut-style.

• I hadn't heard of YouCanBreatheNowGames, but I was immediately struck when I saw their new adventure: Well Past Midnight in the Moonlight Kitchen. It's short and sweet, with charming illustrations and a gonzo charm. The entire adventure is available as a preview, so you can check out the whole thing in advance. But, IMHO, it's well worth the low price of two dollars.

• The prolific Alan Bahr has released two new adventures for their Tombpunk system: Gallowghast Manor and Sacred Places. Alan produces consistently great content.

• Man Alone just released Flint, a solo handbook for Cairn 2e. This looks to be a great product for a great system.

• Forsaken Scriptures is a fascinating supplement for Mork Borg that takes the traditional dungeon map and reinterprets them into condensed word maps. Like so much of Mork Borg (for me, at least), I'm not sure how much use I would get out of it, but it is a gorgeous release, and one that I think would be well-served by a POD option.

• Rovers and Riches 2e is now available. It's a rules-lite, BX-influenced rpg. One of the most appealing aspects of this system is the reworked thief class, called the rover, which has some promise as an excellent thief alternative. It's also written for a spread of 6 levels, which I find appealing.