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OSR publisher Directsun has made quite a name for themselves with the puzzle dungeon—Aberrant Reflections and The Seers Sanctum are two of their well-regarded releases with that theme, and they're currently fund-raising for another, entitled A Familiar Tower , for ZineMonth. Q:  Easy question first: Give us the elevator pitch of your project. Tell us about it in two sentences or less. A:   A Familiar Tower  is an escape room dungeon inside a non-Euclidean wizard tower. It's inspired by the puzzle box dungeons of The Legend of Zelda  series, where solutions click into place when you discover how the mechanics of the dungeon work. 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 will be my third ZineMonth project. The first two being The Seers Sanctum and Aberrant Reflections. This time around I decided that when the crowdfunding campaign launched, I wanted the project to be 100% done and ready for the printer. That wound up not happening, but we are close. I thought that this would alleviate some of the stress of fulfillment and get folks excited to see the adventure right away. It's instead shifted the stress to recouping project costs. For folks starting out, I would suggest having at least a first draft and a playtest out of the way before launching a crowdfunding campaign. Also, find a peer you trust to help with developmental edits. 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:  Without spoiling too much, A Familiar Tower  has some unique elements to it where utilizing a prop tower can be really fun. It's not needed to run the game, but I've included instructions in the zine on how to make your own tower out of an oatmeal box or paper towel roll. It doesn't have to be fancy—my then 4-year-old son helped me build ours. Watching the tower shift from the mere representation of a location into an interactive, manipulable prop has brought so much delight to my players' faces and I am super excited to share that experience with everyone else.

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!

Frank "Mottokrosh" Reding is currently raising funds for Knightcore , their project for ZineMonth 2026. They were kind enough to answer some questions for this interview series. Question: Give us the elevator pitch of your project. Tell us about it in two sentences or less. Answer: Knightcore: An aesthetic that combines gleaming armor, soft, flowing fabrics, and ethereal, haunting glows, now as a tabletop roleplaying g ame. 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 will be my second ZineMonth project. I did Wolden Issue 1 last year, and had originally planned to launch issues 2 (full adventure) and 3 (two new cults/classes) this time, and while they're almost ready, this whole Knightcore thing popped into my head, and before I knew it, I'm doing photoshoots, commissioning art, and writing and playtesting two adventures. My goal, as with Wolden, is relatively modest, as is befitting of my social reach. 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: A question often asked in game design is "how do the rules support or enable the desired play or setting", and here they're tied together. We have a dark, chaotic, and thus unpredictable world, modeled by the chaos die, we have a struggle between light and dark expressed by the Purity <> Depravity scale, and of course we have shining armor and silk fabrics,  embodied  by the Knightcore Aesthetics values. This I find quite exciting.

Anyway, I've been conducting and posting print interviews on the blog (you can search for them using the ZiMo26

Nessun Dove is a collective of (mostly) Italian creators, including momatoes, the award-winning Filipina best known for ARC: Doom. They're currently raising funds for The Magus & The Oracle, a solo-journaling game that explores lonelines. Question. Easy question first: Give us the elevator pitch of your project. Tell us about it in two sentences or less. Answer. momatoes' The Magus is a solo RPG about pathos, calamity, and the infinite loneliness of power where you use dice and pen to write the unique history of your character's quest for arcane mastery. Along your journey, you will be guided by the Oracle: a companion deck of system-agnostic inspiration cards filled with prompts, art and keyphrases to add new layers of meaning to your story. 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: NessunDove's first entry to ZineMonth was in 2023, with On the Way to Chrysopoeia, the first English edition of an epistolary ttrpg. It was a wonderful experience, partly because the studio had already worked on the Italian edition beforehand and had fallen deeply in love with the game. This collaboration with momatoes to create the first complete print run of The Magus follows the same premises: even though this is her first ZiMo, momatoes has always made creating community between gamers a priority, with projects such as AcrossRPGSEA gathering rpgs made by local and diaspora South-East Asian creators. Basically, it's a bit cheesy, but we believe teamwork (between creators and with backers) is the key to a good ZiMo project. 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: We've always found The Magus very cool for its ability to combine storytelling with crunchiness that goes beyond "draw a card and answer this prompt"... Which makes it kind of ironic that we decided to combine this new edition of the game to the Oracle inspiration deck. Turning the prompt tables from the game into card draws will greatly increase the variety of Spells and Bonds encountered during the game, making The Magus that much more replayable. It's also an excuse to create a beautiful object, brimming with weird inspiration from remixed public domain artwork and original illustrations from momatoes.

Michael Putlack is raising funds for Be Kind: Rewind, a solo journaling game he has written. Question: Easy question first: Give us the elevator pitch of your project. Tell us about it in two sentences or less. Answer: Be Kind. Rewind is a solo journaling game that asks you to reach into your past and remember a time when video stores were a huge part of your life. All you need is the zine, something to record your thoughts, and a deck of cards. 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 second Zine Month/Quest project after funding MechTek in 2021, and I funded another zine, Blades & Heart, last October. The big differences between this campaign and my last two are that I'm already done with the project! I wanted to make sure this campaign is as smooth as possible since I have a lot on the docket in the months following Zine Month, so by already having the zine done, I don't have to worry about things taking longer than expected to finish or whatever issues crop up to delay things. I even have some physical copies already printed from a recent zine fest I tabled at. I also have learned from my last zine project that including my back catalog as add-ons are a great way to get more of my games into the hands of the people (and from a business perspective, increase the average sale price). If you want to get my entire game back catalog, it's only going to cost you an extra $4. You can even get some remaining stock of older physical zines, too! 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: This game really hits that sweet, sweet nostalgia spot for Gen Xers and Millennials (like me). Going to the video store was a ritual we all practiced, and was such a huge part of many of our formative years. Walking through the aisles waiting for something to catch your eye, or rushing there when the store opened on Friday to make sure you got a new release. I have a terrible memory, but writing and playing this game myself kicked loose so many vivid scenes in my mind. It's really been a trip to experience that, and it reminds me of going to therapy in some ways. It's my first journaling game, too. Most of my audience knows me from the Shadowdark RPG corner of the internet, but I hope they'll find this project a bit intriguing even if they usually play swords & sorcery games. Like my last game, this one's also available for only $1!

Tanuki Games, a four-person collective based in Japan, is crowdfunding for HIC: Tapestry Toilet Roll Paper Game. Question: Easy question first: Give us the elevator pitch of your project. Tell us about it in two sentences or less. Answer: In HIC:Tapestry, Toilet Roll Paper Game, players will draw, destroy and discover a Tapestry that tells the epic story of a pivotal moment in a lands history. Inspired by the art and story of the Bayeux Tapestry which depicts the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and the Norman conquest of England. 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: We have and it was a great experience. We are happy to have found and become part of this beautiful space which allows us to bring new ideas to a wider audience each year. Right now we are focusing on supporting what we have already done while pushing forward with a series of "Draw Your Own Adventure" books. These are TRPGs which have a collaborative piece of art at their center. Last year we made a map drawing game called Four Kingdoms. This year it is a tapestry drawing game. Next year .... well, we have some very cool plans. We are launching a website this month with supplements for our previous game (for free). It is important for us to say to our backers that we aren't producing finish and ship it products. We are continuing to support our games long after the kickstarters finish. 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: We want people to know that while the premise of drawing on toilet or kitchen roll sounds silly it is in fact inspired by incredible history. The Bayeux Tapestry is an amazing historic artifact. The game draws richly from not only what the is on the Bayeux tapestry, but also the history of the object itself. Who made it? Why? How did it survive 1000 years of European turmoil - including being used as just a plain old wagon cover during the Napoleonic Wars! The story of art and what it is used for is often as interesting as the art itself. Would the Mona Lisa be as famous if it had not been stolen? It is brilliant fun to draw crazy Medieval style art on kitchen Roll using felt tip pens and tell stories of battles and betrayal. Trust of on that! But it also super fun to tell the story of the object afterwards. Most traditional role playing is as much about mythical and important objects, lore and history as it is about people and this game really explores those ideas. Also, did I mention you make an epic scroll out of rolls of paper!

Justin Vandermeer is another designer using the new Crowdfundr platform, raising funds for Ailing Away. Q: Easy question first: Give us the elevator pitch of your project. Tell us about it in two sentences or less. A: AILING AWAY is a solo mystery game with romantic historical elements. It's about a consumptive detective trying to solve a murder by charming the suspects into sharing their secrets. 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 not only my first ZineMonth project, this is my first real crowdfunding campaign! Crowdfunding with big platforms like Kickstarter always seemed very big and intimidating to me. I really wanted to make sure I had all my metaphorical ducks in a row before I got in over my head. Now that I have a few games and a bit of experience getting things printed, I felt more prepared to jump in, myself. I have always been a huge fan of Zine Month and have discovered some of my favourite creators through ZiMo campaigns over the last few years. I'm new to the game development scene and have a very small following. Participating this year will hopefully help me reach a larger audience. I know my odds of doing that would have been better if I had signed up with a bigger platform, of course, but I'm a li'l indie guy and I'd like to support smaller companies. (Besides, Crowdfundr lets me assign custom images to the reward tiers and I think it's really cute.) 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: If I I have made a bit of a name for myself in the community, it's because my most popular titles are solo journaling games. AILING AWAY is a solo RPG, but it's not strictly a journaling game. There are 48 clues to keep track of, and that requires a certain amount of organization that a diary or letters just can't provide. Players are meant to keep track of their game in the form of a detective's notebook-- a print-your-own version of the notebook is available in all of the reward tiers, and a physical copy is available in the Fancy Stationary and Love Letter tiers. The notebook is completely optional, of course-- players can use any stationary that tickles their fancy-- but I think that there's something really satisfying and thematic about making a little conspiracy board in a secret notebook that you may or may not have ripped a few pages out of to draft love-letters. It is also worth mentioning that AILING AWAY does not discriminate. Players can play a dandy, a lady, or anything in between. Gender doesn't limit detectives from pursuing romantic relationships with any of the eight suspects, and while the mechanical advantages of developing a top-tier platonic relationship in-game is different than the ones a romantic relationship provides, they aren't inferior. There's something in the romance genre for everyone. If you play your cards right (literally, in this game) you should be able to kiss who you want to kiss-- or just hold hands if that's what makes you happy.

The married duo that publish as Meldar16 are raising funds for two projects this year, both on Crowdfundr. The fourth issue of the Altera Redux zine and the Die versus Die game system. Q: Easy question first: Give us the elevator pitch of your project. Tell us about it in two sentences or less. A: Issue #4 of our Atera Redux Zine: Marbordaj Sorĉistoj is a ttrpg adventure compatible with MÖRK BORG, Troika!, and our own Die versus Die system. Explore a formerly airborne wizards' tower to see what still creeps inside. DIE versus DIE is a fantasy ttrpg that was written specifically for people that love playing with their dice, have a giant collection of dice, and/or share dice goblin memes. While the rules can be picked up quickly, every mechanic in the game was designed with, you guessed it, dice rolls in mind. 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 our 2nd time doing Zine Month. Last year we were actually getting our start with Meldar16 as a ttrpg maker, so we released our very first Atera Redux Zine for it. Like a lot of other people, we felt burned by Kickstarter moving the date of their ZineQuest, and KS's commitment to using blockchain technology, so we ended up not doing any crowdfunding at all. We just submitted it to the Zine Month site that Feral Indie Studio put together. We printed all the zines for local shows ourselves, and have it posted on DriveThruRPG now. We kept up that strategy with our other releases. Just last year, we had the first 3 issues of the zine (Mounts, Monsters & Cursed Items for the shameless plugs), another Atera Redux adventure book (Our Lady of Chaos) for 2 different systems (5e & Mazes), a small Troika! release (Fascination Street), and another standalone game (Beans Beans the Flammable Fruit). This year, we are going the crowdfunding route for our 2 Zine Month releases. We checked out a whole bunch of the new crowdfunding platforms, and landed on Crowdfundr. They have a Tabletop Nonstop campaign going that specifically lines up with Zine Month. These are our first crowdfunding campaigns, and their staff has been super helpful from the get-go. Both the Atera Redux zine and DIE versus DIE were something that we had pretty much ready to go, so we felt it made sense to release them with as much help as we could get. 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: Our Atera Redux zine usually has stats for 5e, Fate, and Mazes. We were debating switching different systems in and out for Issue 4 already, but then the OGL kerfuffle was a huge trigger that we felt compelled to pull. So absolutely nothing against Evil Hat or 9th Level. They are phenomenal companies, and we love their games. We just wanted to only use free and open licenses for this release, so 5e was out for the obvious reasons. We were releasing with Fate since they also used the OGL. Evil Hat Productions uses some other licensing sometimes too, but neither of us are lawyers, so we decided to avoid it completely for now. We have a paid license with 9th Level Games so we could use Mazes, but wanted to stick with free systems too for this issue. We basically had Issue 4 ready to release in January, but paused once the OGL news hit to switch to new systems. MÖRK BORG, and Troika! are both games that we play at home, and their licenses and SRDs are easily found online. These games have some real weirdo energy, so we thought they'd be a natural fit for an Atera Redux issue. This is the first short one-shot that we've done, so we took a little extra time to make sure it was something that was not only useful for our own campaign setting, but could be dropped into a homebrew game too. The Ruĝa Nano wizard tower's adventure can be completed in a night, and we hope that it could be a re-occurring location afterwards for everyone with longer campaigns. This started out as a parody of the show Red Dwarf, so there are tons of references for other fans. DIE versus DIE is something that we've had in the works since we started Meldar16. We used a super-simplified version of the rules for Beans Beans the Flammable Fruit. This was to make sure that the core mechanic worked standalone. We got great feedback on that, so kept moving forward with how DIE versus DIE was structured. Again, the OGL brouhaha kicked us into high gear. We want to spread beyond our friend group to get more sweet sweet feedback, and also so other small time publishers had another free and open resource out there. Writing and play testing a whole game system has been a very arduous project, so I hope that people have as much fun with it as we have. We're going to have an open license inside the zine itself, and hope it's straightforward and clear that other people can freely use it with the single caveat that you credit us. And you tell everyone we're smart and handsome. So maybe 2 caveats. The balance of the game rules in DIE versus DIE was tricky to get right. Like I mentioned in the elevator pitch above, my main mission for writing the game was to use dice for everything. Want to make an attack? Roll a die. Want to defend? Roll a die. Want to know your hit points? Check your dice too. The balance then became how to use random dice rolls for so many things without descending into chaos every game. What we ended up with was like a marriage between the d20 system where you have skills and modifiers, and a video game like Zelda with different meters for health & mana. We expect all the Meldar16 releases will use the DIE versus DIE system going forward, so there will be more content in the near future besides this Atera Redux issue. So thanks for taking the time for these interviews. The Crowdfundr campaigns for both zines are running straight through February. We expect everyone to get their pdf copies within 2 days of the campaign ending. The rest of our immediate time and energy will be used printing and shipping physical copies to backers. Best of luck to everyone putting out releases for Zine Month!

The duo of William Thompson and David Thomas are raising funds for Seven Murders 'Til Midnight. Q: Easy question first: Give us the elevator pitch of your project. Tell us about it in two sentences or less. A: Seven Murders Til Midnight is a solo, card-driven, journaling RPG about hunting a killer. Inspired by films such as Se7en, Silence of the Lambs, and True Detective, this game is for anyone who likes psychological thrillers. Seven Murders is a follow-up to Transformation, using the same base game mechanism. You'll play a detective in this game, investigating a string of connected murders. As the story progresses across seven in-game days, you'll begin to learn the mind of the killer and a bit about your character's own fears and humanity as well. 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: David and I have worked together on three other Zine Quest projects. The first two were 5e adventures and the third was Transformation, our first solo RPG. We've learned a lot from each of these projects. Each time we refine our process, improve our engagement with backers, and make better products. Our campaign for 7 Murders will be pretty similar to what we did with Transformation, though we are making a few changes. For one, we experimented with AI art for the backgrounds on Transformation. We won't be doing that again. There are too many issues with AI for us to support it going forward. We will, however, keep working with Aster Kordona and Charlie Kim to do our art. Their work was fantastic on Transformation. We think this is going to be even better than our previous effort. You can expect a lot of the same stretch goals that we did on Transformation, though we may rearrange them. 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: Doing another game with the Transformation system gives us a chance to refine the mechanics and really dig into the experience. For 7 Murders, we are replacing the "Mementos" and "Bonds" mechanics we used in Transformation with clues and details about the killer's psychological profile. The "Changes" in Transformation are replaced with details about the crime scene. All of this should come together to make some really unique scenes in this game.

Oscar Biffi, of the Italian game design company Nessun Dove, is raising funds for an English translation of On the Way to Chrysopoeia. Q: Easy question first: Give us the elevator pitch of your project. Tell us about it in two sentences or less. A: On the Way to Chrysopoeia is a letter-writing ttrpg for two alchemists, a Master and their Disciple working together and traveling apart from each other to accomplish a world-changing Great Work. It's also a real and imaginary travel journal, inviting players to transmute the objects and places of the real world around them into elements of the characters' fictional journey by enriching each letter with sketches, photographs and little keepsakes. 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: We've often participated in ZineMonth as backers, but this is our first time on this side of the breach, even though it's our fourth RPG crowdfunding campaign overall. Our first projects, the Crescendo Giocoso series, were anthologies that spanned across different genres of chamber larp, with bilingual editions and plenty of contributors. Not the easiest pitch, but we could count on the support of our fellow Italian players, and we were indeed taken aback by their overwhelming enthusiasm as well as the interest it generated abroad. This time, however, our keyword is "simplicity": a single game, in English only. On the one hand, On the Way to Chrysopoeia is a project whose charm is more readily apparent: we're confident it'll grab the attention of players who would enjoy a slow-paced, intimate experience that leaves as much space for developing a relationship between its protagonists as it does for adventure and wonder in a fantasy setting. On the other hand, we're stepping out of our comfort zone by focusing entirely on the English-speaking world: the game was originally released in France by Morgane Reynier, with amazing watercolor art by Marion Bulot, then we worked with her to update the book with a new layout and translate it into Italian. We've always felt it was a shame that more people didn't get to play it, so here we are, trying to push the borders of the World All Around a little bit further. We can only hope people will embrace it as wholeheartedly as we did. 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: The way Chrysopoeia manages to blend fantasy and reality, focused entirely on their players' creativity, is what first attracted us to the project. Its setting, what I've been referring to as the World All Around, is painted in broad strokes within the book itself, which features a few tableaux of floating cities, vast deserts and wind-powered sail-trains soaring across the landscape. The gaps are there for you to fill in. The game actively dissuades you from googling pictures of castles to match the imaginary wizard's tower you've made up in your head; rather, it wants you to look at the neat building across the street from you and wonder whether a wizard is hiding up there. You snap a picture, attach it to your letter, and reinvent the story of a place close to you to make it part of the fictional setting. I played a long game of Chrysopoeia with our translator Chiara during the pandemic, when taking a short walk around the house felt enough like a miles-long journey, and I can assure you that thinking about the game was a great way to look at my restricted corner of the world with new eyes. Which leads us to the neatest little thing about the game: its online component. In-game, the Floating Archives are the greatest library ever built, a repository of all knowledge-- and in the real world, they're a website that hosts players' contributions to the setting. You can draw as much or as little inspiration from it as you like for your own games, and upload your own additions to the World All Around for other people to enjoy. It already exists, in French and Italian, with a small but dedicated group of contributors; the final stretch goal of the campaign will be to translate the entire thing into English and provide continued trilingual support, curating and translating future entries for the time to come. In the end, On the Way to Chrysopoeia is a new avenue for daydreaming: with your eyes open and other people joining in.

The Greek design team Edge of Mythos is raising funds for A Home Reforged on Kickstarter. Q: Easy question first: Give us the elevator pitch of your project. Tell us about it in two sentences or less. A: A Home Reforged is a dwarven-themed OSR setting, contained in a 60-page zine format. Its system is inspired by David Black’s The Black Hack, but its core concept is based on original rules, so no other product is required to play. 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: We’ve been following ZineQuest for some years now and to see so many new designers and creators, with such interesting and innovative ideas, getting their works published was really inspiring. So, we decided this could be a good debut for us too, into the world of tabletop RPGs. We wanted to start small and let people know us with something original, fun and intriguing. 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: Our project came into being with a very simple question in mind: Why did the dwarves HAD to keep digging deeper and further? (Which resulted in their own doom) and that’s what became the basis of our whole dwarven concept. In A Home Reforged, the dwarven royals are to blame for their kin's demise as it was their own greed and avarice which made their fellow dwarves dig ever deeper. Their actions ended up creating a revolution against them so great, that It consumed the whole dwarven nation. Now, each dwarf (as the players) has only its comrades to rely upon and they must venture back into these caves in search for their long-lost homes. The idea that the party has no leaders and that they gather treasure not to amass wealth, but to rebuild and make their strongholds stronger (which results in the players game experience change as they pour more and more treasure into their rebuilt settlements), combined with the fact that their perilous journey does not end with death, since when a player dies another dwarf of his lineage will take their previous character’s place (this is what we call the “Heritage mechanism”), really drives home the idea that the players are fighting for something greater than themselves. They fight to reclaim their civilization and prove that it was greed and corruption, not their nature, which brought them to the brink of extinction.