OSR News Roundup for October 12th

Welcome to the second News Roundup in October. As I write this we're getting heavy rains from Hurricane Isaias, a tarantula downpour as an old boss of mine used to say, and while we have power there's always a chance we lose it before I get this posted.

A couple of things I'd like to note before we get into the meat of things. It was announced this week that the workers who bring us Dungeons and Dragons and associated WoTC products (including Magic) have unionized. If you'd like to show support for their efforts, you can sign their petition here. Workers prosper where unions are strong, and whether you like where D&D is right now, it is the main face of the hobby and is responsible for bringing tons of new people in, some of whom get curious about "indie ttrps."

Secondly, I'm sure long-time readers of this Roundup will recognize the name direct sun, most likely as the creator of puzzle dungeons such as A Familiar Tower and Aberrant Reflections. I saw last week that they had released a VVT gaming platform called Just the Games. It's pretty awesome and looks to really be a boon to folks playing online. If it sounds like you might benefit from this you should check it out!

• Root Devil has released The Last Hunting of the Boar, an adventure written for Cairn and Into the Odd, in which a prize has been offered for the head of a legendary boar.

• Gila RPGs is raising funds for NOVA 2e. Nova is a game of mech action in a world where the sun has exploded, and the characters must venture into the Dusk in an attempt to find old technology that might help.

• Broken Shores 2e is funding on Kickstarter. It's drowned in water sandbox game, using a bespoke system and specifically written for both solo and co-op play.

• Octopus Ink Games has released Cold Case, a Mothership adventure with rising tensions. It's got bare-bones layout, to make it quick and easy to print at home.

• Triangulation is a dark humor horror game, designed for GM-less play, all about toxic family dynamics.

• Gnarled Monster has released a one-page adventure called The Basilisk Mines that's a 10 room, system agnostic adventure involving basilisks and beastmen.

• I'm a sucker for 8-bit style art and illustrations, and Chaotic Goods has just released an adventure they submitted to the Vaults of Vaarn summer jam, where the zine is laid out like an Atari manual.

• New to me is the Instant Lore series by Mellow Golem Games, specifically their new release, all about Dovecotes. It's system agnostic and provides a brief historical overview, plus hooks to add these to your adventure.

• Master adventure writer Joseph Lewis has released A Feast for the Eye, a one-shot adventure for characters of levels 4-5.

• Cesar Silva has released The Red Dawn Inn, a short, map-less adventure for Mork Borg.

• Table Rock Independent Press, just in time for Halloween, has released The Phantom Coachman, a one-shot adventure that involves a bunch of mimics.

• Hellwinter Forge of Wonders has released Until Dawn, an interesting adventure where the PCs are helping with a besieged town's defenses, hoping to hold out until reinforcements can arrive at dawn.

• Another scenario for the V of V summer jam is A Ta(Vaarn), a short adventure that focuses on smuggling.

• Brad Kerr has teamed up with the Merry Mushmen for Winter and the Wolf Princess, an adventure for mid-level OSE (or similar) characters.

• The original Microscope was a revolution in setting and game design, and now a 2nd edition is being crowdfunded. It's a fantastic resource to spark the imagination, whether by yourself or as a collaborative world-building exercise.

• SoulMuppet Publishing is Kickstarting Atropos, a Greek-tragedy inspired game of doomed characters cursed by the gods.

• I'm trying a little experiment over at Backerkit with A Game Master's Guide to Poisons. It's a short, 16-page zine all about poisons in OSR games -- harvesting them from monsters, synthesizing toxins from them, buying and selling, and randomly generating fun new poisons to bedevil your characters with. You can get the pdf for 2.00 and an offset copy for 6.00, and everything is written, laid out, and ready to be sent to the printers, so there will be a fast turnaround on this one.