OSR News Roundup for October 13th, 2025

This is going to be a bit of a short Roundup; I had covid and flu boosters on Saturday and they really knocked me for a loop. Just a caveat before we dive into the week's releases: I hope that I'm not coming across too critical of some of these projects, specifically when discussing lead and production times. When I first opened the webstore, and then a physical FLGS, I was backing a lot of Kickstarters, primarily as a retailer, but over the years I've been burnt by a number of projects, as I'm sure many of you have. Even if a project releases successfully, if it is more than a couple months for me to get product I won't back it; as a retailer it is too difficult for me to have cash tied up for that long. I've grown leery of games that have such a long lead time from crowdfunding to fulfillment, especially those that have a lot of add-ons or stretch goals.

• I'm a big fan of Colin Le Sueur's work (We Deal in Lead, Runecairn), and they made the interesting choice to slowfund their most recent release, Midnight of the Century, on itch, and it's within striking distance of hitting the funding goals. It's a lovesong to 90's serial killer and murder investigation shows, where the streets are dirty, the rain is omnipresent, and the Pacific Northwest is where the action is. I'd like to sit down and chat with Colin about the process, because I think it's an intriguing way to fund projects.

• Duginthroat Divided is funding on Kickstarter. It's a large-ish dungeon for OSE, designed to take PCs from levels 1-4. The art is astonishing, and the adventure looks really solid, but the only thing that gives me pause is the lead time; it's planning on releasing in August, 2026, and that just seems like an awfully long time with everything going on in the world.

• Another Kickstarter with a long lead time and a host of add-ons is RagnaBorg, a Mork-Borgian take on the end of the world and raging against the dying of the light. It looks super cool, and has already shot past its funding goal, but the number of add-ons and year to fulfillment is giving me pause.

• I've been seeing KOKOTÖNA promoted on socials recently; it's a grimdark take on precolonial MesoAmerica, using the MorkBorg system. It's written by a LatinX author, and brings in a host of others from the community, so it looks like this will be a great project to back if you're looking for a perspective written by indigenous voices.

• The Wandering Cities is a zine funding right now on Kickstarter, and is about a vast grasslands and the cities, built upon the backs of giant isopods, that wander the plains. It's system agnostic.

• Written for Forbidden Psalm, 1540 Salt War looks like a pretty fascinating scenario set in war-torn Italy of the 1500s. I've been seeing more of these historically grounded adventures or settings recently, and it seems like a rich vein for exploration.

• I've mentioned Ever & Anon before; it aims to fill the spiritual shoes of the sadly discontinued Alarums & Excursions, and E&A is now out with Vol 4, almost two hundred pages of free content for your gaming pleasure.

• I feel like at least half of these offerings are some version of Mork Borg, and Super Borg is no exception, with art that evokes the golden age of comic books.

• Just in time for Halloween, Black Flies is funding on Backerkit. It's a rules-lite, GMless game where you play the villains all vying to turn the residents of your town into flies.

• The SoloRPGList popped up on my socials this weekend, and it looks like a fantastic resource; a collection of links to solo and duet rpgs.