ZiMo2026: 1pagedungeons

1pagedungeons is raising funds for their project Runes in Ruins on Kickstarter. They were kind enough to answer some short questions about their project.

Question: Easy question first: Give us the elevator pitch of your project. Tell us about it in two sentences or less.

Answer: Runes in Ruin is a zine-sized adventure that enables crafting diverse magic items in a system-neutral sandbox. It introduces a simple but open-ended runecrafting system to spice up mundane tools and weapons.

Q: Is this your first ZineMonth project or have you done it before? If it's your first, talk a bit about what inspired you to give it a shot this year. If you've done it before, what's something you've learned from previous crowdfunding projects that you may be doing differently this time, or, if you're not doing anything differently, talk a bit about your previous projects.

A: This is my first zinemonth project. I've been writing a lot of one-pagedungeons for the past year, and wanted to take a shot at something bigger. I've really found my place in the OSR/NSR sphere and hope to mold the lessons learned from my time there into a uniquely challenging setting. In many ways, this project is my loveletter to the kind of gameplay I learned to love from the community.

Q: Finally, tell us something about your current project that really excites you but the average backer may not be aware of. Maybe a twist to an old trope, a new way of presenting something, or maybe just something you've never tried before that you're using this as an opportunity to try out.

A: I'm a big Zelda fan, so have littered a TTRPG variant of Zelda shrines throughout the adventure, which unlock special (but non-essential) magical effects for crafting. Playtesting revealed how creatively rewarding those kinds of challenges can be for players. They're also easy to drop into any setting, as we can never have enough of them in our toolbox!