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OSR News Roundup for September 4th, 2023

Welcome to the first news roundup of September. We're entering the end game of 2023, and will soon be getting into Halloween and a number of horror-themed releases. For now, though, let's see what was released during the last week of August. The past week was pretty slow on the new releases front, as far as I was able to find.


  • King Arthur versus the Devil Kitty is a story-book retelling of what the author claims is an ancient Arthurian myth. While on first glance it doesn't really belong in this roundup, it does include D&D stats for the Devil Kitty (plus, the art is pretty adorbs).

  • Tidal Wave Games has released Ceres, the City that Never Sleeps. It's written for See You, Space Cowboy, but can be easily adapted to any OSR-style sci-fi rpg.

  • I think I mentioned Mixed Success awhile ago, when they first announced they were looking for submissions. The first issue is now out. It's a combination fiction/gaming/philosophy zine available on itch, and issue 1 is based around the theme of negative space in OSR games, with the contention that if there no are negative spaces to fill you're not playing a game, you're reading a novel.

  • Scrap, the Gathering, is available in both Italian and English versions, and is a tongue-in-cheek send up of Magic, the Gathering. It's available as PWYW on itch, and the art for it looks really cool.

  • The Vaarn Game Jam is now over, and squeaking in just before the deadline is Dreamsands of Vaarn, a UVG-inspired caravan crawl written for Vaarn.

  • Water Hoard Honeypot is another entry into the Jam, and is a one-page adventure based around a group of bandits luring innocent victims to their doom.

  • Written as a system-neutral fantasy adventure, HISS takes place in an elven village and focuses on the doom that (may) befall it.

  • atelier pilcrow has released tulgey #2, an Alice in Wonderland-themed zine based on Cairn.

  • Seth Ian has written Red Eye at 40,000 Feet, with art by Evlyn Moreau, an adventure where gremlins are transported onto an airline flight. Hijinks ensue.

  • Crawl Issue 13, by the Rev. Dak V. Ultimak, is now available. This excellent OSR zine has been on hiatus for some time, and it's good to see that it is continuing forward, hopefully with more issues to come.

  • I don't see that much published for OSRIC these days, but The Tree and the Titan, by Anachronistes Press, is now available on Drivethru. It's a low-level adventure in a quasi-Mesopotamian setting.

  • The big release this week is the long awaited Cities Without Number, Kevin Crawford's cyberpunk game. I've been a longtime fan of his work, and am currently playing in two online WWN games. I'm excited to see what he brings to the cyberpunk table. As with all of this books, there's a free version available as well.

  • Frolicking: Kid Friendly Carousing, is a neat little addition to the OSR sphere that tones down a lot of the carousing tables that have proven to be pretty popular and makes it more appropriate for a younger audience.

  • With artwork by Dyson Logos, Lair of the Wild Hunt is an adventure for OSE designed for characters of level 4-6, which is a nice range.

  • The Mountain Adventure Bundle, by Christopher Wilson, collects a number of the author's Braunhaven books into a single bundle. It's written for Old School Essentials, and you can catch the author's actual play set in Braunhaven on Youtube.

  • Speaking of actual plays, you can hear episode Nine of the Basilisk Hills Breakdown is now live. The adventurers return to civilization in time for the monthly festival in Liwil which promises to bring as much adventure and excitement as the perilous wilds they had been exploring.

  • I've released Issue 25 of Populated Hexes Monthly on my website. This issue is the first of a two-part series that introduces a new way of doing psionics to old school gaming, one that doesn't rely on points or high ability scores to determine success. You can get it in saddlestitched or pdf.

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