With the month half over we're plunging straight into fall here, and I'm seeing more and more horror-themed releases, which is only appropriate. One thing I'd like to mention for any publishers out there: I've mentioned before that I won't be promoting products that contain AI assets in any form, and there were several interesting-looking products this week that I passed up promoting because I couldn't tell if there were AI assets or not, so I erred on the side of caution. This applies mostly to releases on Drivethru; if your product image clearly includes artwork, but the artist credit is "N/A", I am going to assume it is AI generated and give it a pass. Even if it is public domain that is helpful information, and if it is stock or commissioned art those folks deserve credit for the work they have done.
Long-time readers may have noticed that, while I also use this newsletter to promote my own work, I typically keep those announcements until the end to focus the attention on the releases of others. Today I'll be subverting that norm to announce the launch of my current Kickstarter that can use your support; I'm raising funds for a 2025 Daily Wilderness Hex tear-away calendar and workbook. The calendar has a different hex for each day, and the workbook is an accompanying spiral-bound, 380+ page notebook for use in developing hexes. It's gotten off to a slower start than I expected, and if this sounds like something that you could use yourself or give as a gift your help is appreciated.
Minimal OSR FKR Dungeon is a rules-lite complete OSR/FKR (inspired by the Free Kriegspel wargaming movement). It manages to fit a ton of stuff into 37 pages, including rules for random dungeon generation, a starter adventure, and guidelines for using it for solo play.
I totally missed Song of Eastlake when it was in the planning stages; billed as a "multiversal" hexcrawl, it's a free compilation of 16+ hexcrawls by different creators that were all made using the same prompt. I think it's really interesting because it shows how different people can interpret a single idea . . . plus, it's really good.
I've mentioned FTW before, and the author has just released a new version. There's about 10 pages of rules, 100 pages of spells, monsters, and treasure, and some really cool looking art.
Luna Rose Manor has just released Soho Lakes, a solo journaling game about documenting cryptids in a haunted forest. It's got a really cool hook where if your character dies you mail the journal you've been keeping to another player to pick up where you left off.
Stalls of the Blood Queen is an adventure for Mausritter. It's somewhat horror-themed, and comes with a ton of content, including printable item cards and paper minis.
The works of xiombarg on itch are new to me, but I just saw they've released a massive, centuries-spanning adventure for Liminal Horror called QU33. It looks like there's a ton of content in this mega-adventure.
Bite-Sized Gaming has released Faction Relics for Pirate Borg, which contains pretty much what it sees on the tin. We're actually hosting two games of Pirate Borg this week in conjunction with speak like a pirate day, and I always love seeing new supplements for PB.
Pirates of the Goblin River is a 2nd level adventure for DCC that is part of a planned adventure path by the author. I'm not positive, but it looks like it can be easily used as a stand-alone adventure as well.
Another DCC adventure, this one also for 2nd level characters, is Tragedy at Wood-Witch Rise. It's designed to be run in a single session.
7th Impact is a zine written for Mork Borg. What caught my eye is that much of the content is inspired by Neon Genesis Evangelion. This is apparently a compilation of work the author has previously released, although I must confess it is the first time I've been aware of their work.
I've mentioned previous works of Hellwinter Forge of Wonders, and they've just released a new adventure, Raiders of the Forlorn Gods. Full disclosure, the author sent me a comp copy of the adventure, and I'm in the process of reading through it right now.
Every once in awhile when compiling releases I come across something that reminds me I need to order a restock of a product. This morning, that release is Visitors to Fairhaven, a new 'zine for the Weird Heroes of Public Access setting by Stefan Surratt. We've had the . . . previous three issues, I think, in stock, and they've all sold out super quickly. The new release has an adventure plus some supplemental material to help flesh out Fairhaven. I'm a big fan of WHPA, and am glad to see that the line is continuing.
Unbreakable Pathways crossed my social media feed and I was immediately intrigued. It's a collection of Asian-focused adventures, written for a variety of systems (including Errant, an OSR system by Ava Islam that I don't think gets nearly enough love), and by largely Asian authors. It looks like there's some really nice stuff in here.
Casket of Fays is out with Issue #14, a real milestone for this free Dragon Warriors fanzine. I'm always happy to help promote these, as it's truly a labor of love by the authors. This issue has 32-pages, and even if you don't play Dragon Warriors there's plenty of great inspirational material in here.
I'm always interested in seeing new releases that help with solo gaming -- solo games make up a surprising percentage of the rpg sales at Sabre, exceeding sales of official D&D products -- and oraKVLT is an intriguing new release that bills itself as a "sandbox line crawler". The one downside I see is it is designed to be printed on an 11 x 17 sheet of paper, which not everyone has access to, but it otherwise looks to be an excellent addition to solo play oracular engines.
Also, pursuant to the interests of many readers, we just got in a huge lot of used OSR and indie titles, many of them in near mint condition, and have added them to our used games inventory on the website.
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