OSR News Roundup for September 8th, 2025

I try to catch as many new releases as I can, but sometimes I miss one, and I'll try to plug stuff that I missed that seems really interesting. Back in March Thunder Toad Games released their first adventure Titan's Throne: Infested Archives, a sandbox-style adventure for characters of level 1-3. It features giant ants and a dying race of stone-skinned humanoids (that you can play as a character!).

Anyway, there were a lot of releases last week, and I've compiled some of the ones that caught my fancy below.

• The Crescent Monastery is an adventure for 4th level character using the OSE ruleset, in which the monks inhabiting a distant monastery famed for the healing oil it produces, have been transformed into undead monstrosities.

• 1pagedungeons has released https://1pagedungeons.itch.io/urban-crawlBazaar of Lies, a one-page urban puzzle dungeon written for Cairn or the Odd-like series of games.

• Crystal Hollow and the Barony of Duskvale is a system neutral(ish) sandbox setting book that is designed more as a toolbox than a complete setting, and is designed as a tool for experienced Referees.

• The inimitable Kevin Crawford is running a Kickstarter to reprint the offset version of Stars without Number. Crawford's stuff is a must back for many people, and I'm glad to see SWN back in print in the offset version.

• There's an itch jam currently going on for the Crown 2e rpg. It's pretty open ended, but the general theme should revolve around the end of summer/autumn/approach of winter.

• Hauler's Handbook is a supplement for Mothership that provides rules and guidelines for deep space hauling and transport.

• mtb-za released Open Season, a system-agnostic, lightly sci-fi adventure about a big game hunting safari.

• Written for Cairn, The Dreaming Well is a short adventure about a banished wishing well that haunts everyone's dreams.

• Paolo Greco consistently produces some of the most beautiful products in the indie rpg field, and they're currently crowdfunding Pergamino Barocco, a beautiful, system agnostic collection of weird and unusual spells that would fit just as well in an occult modern game as a fantasy setting.

• Bill Edmunds is Kickstarting Inn to the Deep Deluxe, a collection of four adventures all tied to a single inn that can be used as a base for the party, in a deluxe boxset collection. There are options to back it for OSE and for Shadowdark.

• I like the recent trend of bestiaries that expand on existing monsters, and Malum Monstrum Vol. 1 is a new series that does just this. Published by Wytchin Hour, this first volume looks at goblins, and is written for Basic Fantasy.

• Land of Blood and Honey is the inaugural issue of an OSR-system agnostic setting zine that explores a desert campaign world. It looks a lot like Al-Qadim, and there are what looks to be some interesting twists.

• It was a sad day when Lee Gold announced she was shuttering Alarums and Excursions, but Ever & Anon has picked up the mantle and run with it. They've just published Issue 3, 161 pages of free material.

• The Lamplit Market is a short, PWYW adventure for Shadowdark, focused more on social interactions than combat.

• Hellwinter Forge of Wonders has released Hearts of Steel, a solo gamebook for Old School Essentials. It looks really well done, and the pdf is hyperlinked, making it super easy to use.

• I saw the Magical Compendium Companion mentioned on Discord earlier this week; it's a free, 130-page adaption of spells from advanced editions to OSE rules. It's a pretty amazing piece of work.

• James Spahn has released Chickendark, a collection of fowl rules, classes, and options for Shadowdark.

• Red Ruin Publishing, the folks behind the free Dragon Warriors zine Casket of Fays, have released Issue 17. It's jam packed with lots of interesting material.

• Relics and Ruins is a dungeon crawl for OSE set in the Little Ice Age period of our world on the Italian peninsula. It looks really interesting, and I like the premise. It's also available in a Knave version.

• I'd mentioned Sapphire Seas when it was Kickstarting, and I see it is now out on Drivethru. It's an adventure path for Shadowdark, taking characters from levels 1-10, and is set in a Phoenician-inspired world.

• I'm a huge fan of Arden Vul, and was excited to see that the folks behind it have released a bullet-point pdf of a couple of the areas: Level 1 -- The Basement, and The Pyramid of Thoth and the Tower of Scrutiny. I believe the eventual plan is to revise the entire document, a daunting task. I think what they've done so far is a nice compromise between a complete bullet point layout and text, making it easier to run but not reducing the lore and information which makes the book so unique.

• Silver Bulette has released Temple of the Sheep God, an adventure for Shadowdark for characters level 2-4, that includes a dungeon as well as a 24-mile hex filled with dangers and treasures.

• The Frontier 2nd edition is a Borderlands-inspired sci-fi quickstart guide of high-octane energy and excitement. It's unabashedly a shoot-em-up style game.

• I've launched a Kickstarter for the Bree-YARC Quickstart Rules. The rules are already available for free online, and this crowdfunding project is to raise funds for art and an offset print run. Bree-YARC is a mash-up of BX and 3rd edition D&D.

• We've added a number of indie and small press titles to the Sabre webstore, including Dead Orbit Mall (by Evlyn Moreau, and we're the only place to buy it in the States), Gnome and St. Witold's Bell by Perplexing Ruins, and Inevitable, by Soul Muppet Games.