Welcome to this week's OSR and indie News Roundup. As many readers might already be aware, Jennell Jaquays, one of the seminal figures in the development and evolution of D&D, is having pretty serious health issues and can use some support from the community. If you've got money to spare, her wife has set up a GoFundMe to help with hospitalization costs. If you're unfamiliar with Jennell's history and contributtions, you can check out this interview I conducted with Jennell. We are wishing her a speedy recovery.
It's been another kind of slow week in releases, for some reason, but I've compiled a decent sized collection of ones that have caught my eye. Also, I don't usually plug individual websites or blogs, but Shane Thayer (formerly of Wizards and Wobblies podcast) has done a ton to promote and support independent and minority creators in the rpg space, and they've just done a soft launch of the website of their new project, the Hobo's Collective, which in addition to the eponymous podcast is also meant to be a community publishing project.
Friend of the Roundup Howard Andrew Jones has just published City of Marble and Blood, book 2 in his Chronicles of Hanuvar series. I've just started reading the first book in the series, and it is an excellent entry into the Conan-inspired sword and sorcery genre.
I've mentioned Moonlight on Roseville Beach before (and you can find my interview with the author here), and they're Kickstarting a second printing of the book along with some bonus content. The art in this book, especially the cover, is an absolutely amazing example of using public domain works and captures the feel of the game effortlessly.
An Infinity of Ships is another project I've had my eye on. It's raising money on Kickstarter, and the goal is to produce a book chock full of system agnostic sci-fi ships and vessels. Again, the art for the ships is pretty great.
I don't know if I mentioned this or not, but Appendix N Entertainment is Kickstarting another in their bestiary series, this one appropriately (for October) focusing on the Cthulhu Mythos. The Mythos Manual has just over a week to go and is halfway to funding.
Doomsong: Lord Have Mercy Upon Us is also Kickstarting. It's a macabre horror game, set in the time of a biblical apocalypse.
Populated Hexes Monthly, Year Two, is winding down its campaign and entering the last week of funding. We're funded, but I'd love to see more pledges and perhaps even hit one of the new stretch goals that will enable grants to independent game designers. The book is a compilation of issues 13-24 of Populated Hexes Monthly, and contains nearly 200 pages of setting locations, new classes, monsters, and spells for OSE or other OSR games.
I'd mentioned Savvy Donkey Press a few weeks back; they've just published the Travel Challenge Generator, a 72-page, system-agnostic book of challenges you may encounter while traveling.
Gield is a nordic setting for the low magic game Heroic Tales. It's billed as a system-neutral setting, so you should be able to adapt it easily to other games. The use of art in it reminds me of that found in the RC clone Dark Dungeons.
I've recently become somewhat enamored by tri-fold adventure supplements, and just found a new one the other day. Something Wicked on Picnic Point is written for OSR games, and inspired by a real-world location in Madison, Wisconsin.
Dungeons Regularly Issue #1 popped up in my feed the other day. For 3.33 Canadian you get a workbook with a unfilled but numbered dungeons that are licensed for commercial use with attribution; if you double that, you get the same product, but with filled in dungeons statted for Cairn. I thought that was a pretty neat idea and presentation, appealing to both creators who might need an empty dungeon to customize and DMs looking for short dungeons to plop into a sandbox setting.
I love supplements with new spells, and Archives of Nabu: School of Water, is one such supplement, with 36 new water-themed spells written for OSR-style games.
Living Hive is a new class for Mork Borg, individuals whose bodies are host to swarms of insects they can control and command.
I'd mentioned Volume 1 of Medieval Margin-arie when it came out awhile back and was super excited to see Volume 2 is now available. It's an old school bestiary based upon medieval marginalia, the weird, funky doodlings in the margins of medieval books.
10 Downing: A Mausritter Campaign, is 50-pages of setting and adventure for use with the Mausritter system. As may be guessed from the title, it takes place at Number 10 Downing St, the home of the British Prime Minister.
Jacob Fleming of Gelatinous Cubism has been producing some quality products, and they've just released Scourge of the Northland on Drivethru. It's a sandbox setting designed for low-level characters.
Sabre Games has recently added some new titles to their webstore, including the whimsical Taming of the Slugirrafe solo game and Hull Breach, Vol. 1, written for Mothership. We've also got a week to go on our Halloween Horror Sale, where you can save 20% on a selection of horror-themed titles.
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