March 2025 - A New Beginning!

Welcome, any and all readers, to our new RPG newsletter extravaganza! Subscribe to get links to our favorite projects and blog posts, gameable content, adventures, reviews, and more straight to your inbox (for free)!

Roll to Carouse!

1. Lighten your coin purse at the Projects Pavilion.
2. Pilfer ideas from the Blog Bazaar.
3. Sample the delights of the Gameable Gallery.
4. Hear the raving of Reviewers Row.
5. Stroll the Columnists Colonnade.
6. Languish in the Opinion Oubliette.

Projects Pavilion

If you are reading this relatively close to release, there is still time to sign up for Precognition, an online RPG convention whose organizing team includes our very own Hodag! Pick up event passes on the Kickstarter page, or sign up to run two games to get free access!

• Castle of the Veiled Queen by Nerd Sirens
  There’s a newly started Kickstarter campaign by Nerd Sirens - an adventure module zine for the amazing Beyond Corny Groń, running until March 12. - Tobias Adam
• The Evils of Illmire by Zack Wolf
  Illmire just got a huge free update, including improved layout, new hex crawling rules, an NPC directory, an index, and more. The peripheral content is now included in the main book, including a wealth of illustrations by HodagRPG! A full list of changes can be found here. - Rowan
• Fukuzatsu+ 複雑 (or Taured Poker) by NeonRot
  Tabletop Games can be so much more than dice and character sheets - They can be a cursed amalgam of marked cards, scrounged tokens and possibly a banana. - Sandro AD
• OddFolk by Maxwell Lander
  The game started development as a way to play old school adventures in a PbtA framework, but it has evolved into something much weirder and more delightful. A modular RPG based entirely around d4s, it has to be experienced. Currently itchfunding for a print run. - Markus M
• The Ruins of Castle Gygar by Onslaught Six
  Tidal Wave Games is releasing their last two Kickstarter projects for general purchase this month. The Ruins of Castle Gygar is a completed and edited #Dungeon23 project with one room for every day of the year. This is a dense product with very little blank space on the page as every inch is crammed with information. I was quite surprised to see a page dedicated to suggested procedures for dungeon crawling, as most adventures of its kind assume you will use it with a specific system, or at least one that handles such things for you. Offloading work to the system is not Castle Gygar's style, despite being written for Old School Essentials—with Stats for every included monster, even the "generic" ones you've seen before. My favorite part of the book is the multi-floor trading quest line, which starts with a Can of Tuna and ends with... well. That would be Spoilers. The Ruins of Castle Gygar will be available for purchase on March 15. - Farmer Gadda
• See You, Space Cowboy: Adventure Anthology
  This is the second of Tidal Wave Games' recently released Kickstarter projects: a collection of criminals and adventure sites for use with See You, Space Cowboy but easily slotted into your space-based TTRPG of choice. The tone of each self-contained adventure ranges from standard crime drama whodunits to Alien-esque horror, and each fits on a simple two page spread for easy use. (This Farmer is a smidge biased, as one of those Adventures has his name in the byline). See You, Space Cowboy: Adventure Anthology is now available for purchase. - Farmer Gadda
• Spell Shrine Dungeon: Pit by Zak H.
  An entry to the year-long Zungeon Jam, this Cairn 2e module is designed as a framework to drop Breath of the Wild-like Shrines into your campaign world, each themed around a spellbook. This hole in the ground features a plethora of burrowing critters and a mirror match for players to get mired in. - Zak H.
• Trespasser by Tundalus
  A system that mixes OSR sensibilities with tactical combat has released version 2.0. - Ty
• The White Horse of Lowvale by Tania Herrero
  Tania Herrero is on a writing rampage and after Crown of Salt brings us a folk horror module aimed at player‘s choice at flexibility-of-use at the table. A remote valley. Mysterious woods. A mythical beast on the prowl. What’s not to love? - Tobias Adam

Blog Bazaar

The next blog bandwagon, organized in the Prismatic Wasteland server, is happening on July 16:

Write a post for your blog that somehow, no matter how tenuously, relates to the theme of "hole." Possible topics include hobbits, vertical subterranean dungeons, the London Underground, the tactical significance of the "dig" move in Pokemon, plot holes, worm holes, leaving holes in your prep, how to make an adventure out of the movie/book "Holes", etc.

• Ktrey continues to publish fantastic d100 tables on d4 Caltrops at an impressive rate. Somewhat Sinister Settlement Secrets was a recent highlight. - Rowan
• Community Copies on OBS Sites: this is just incredibly useful information to have for anyone using DTRPG or DMSGuild. - Farmer Gadda
• Dice Goblin makes a case for using natural campsites in your hexcrawl maps, along with a neat list of ideas. - Tobias Adam
• At The Dododecahedron, I wrote a room-by-room design analysis of Brad Kerr’s adventure The Sinister Secret of Peacock Point. - Rowan
• Dungeon Scrawler is honestly my favorite blog right now. Totally new and every post a banger. Super helpful tips and showcases of different dungeon room types. - elmcat
• Clayton of Explorers Design considers How We Design a Gaming Community and reflects on the role awards play in those communities. It's a thoughtful piece with advice born from experience and some amusing anecdotes. - Rowan
• An exploration of a gacha game as a trans text from our own Sandro - I found a fascinating deep dive into queer representation in video game media, regardless of authorial intent. - Will
• At Fallen Constellation, Saoirse wonders, what if memorizing spells was like filling a dishwasher or playing tetris? - Tobias Adam
• The first blog post from Forest Oath explores what makes Solo RPGs feel gamey. - Tobias Adam
• On Hobby Best Practices, a five-part series on the Gorgon Bones blog, concluded last month. - Rowan
• Idle Cartulary has started a movement on Playful Void, with a call to worry less and treat dungeon-writing as a local craft movement: The Zungeon Manifesto: Demystifying Dungeon Creation. - Zak H.
• Pushing the limits of "a blogpost," Rise Up Comus and ICastLight! have teamed up to create the Designing Dungeons course, serialised over the last 2 months. It's a huge undertaking and an incredible resource for any budding dungeon scrawlers. - Zak H.
• I found Adventures in Prepping from Vile Cult of Shapes a very thoughtful discussion on something we all face. Maybe doesn't break any new ground, but helps to organise some thoughts I've had for a while. - Will
• Make Better Mind Pictures: A pseudo manifesto on how we should be describing our worlds, with some incredibly evocative material for inspiration. The rest of this blog is a gold mine for the imagination. - Will
• d4 Explorations of Accidental Fascism in Games: An important consideration for your escapism in a difficult world. How does one grapple with the possibility that your table will tell a story where characters take harmful action? - Farmer Gadda
• At Weird Wonder, Amanda P. offers concise, actionable tips for writing dungeons with Opposed Themes and Natural Tension. - Rowan
• At Widdershins Wanderings, Naeolin considers how and when to use hard and soft locks in A Lock With No Key. - Rowan

Gameable Gallery

Moon Orb

by Tobias Adam
A grapefruit-sized ball of stone, made from actual regolith to resemble the campaign worlds' moon, found in an ancient temple dedicated to some forgotten being. If the world is accompanied by several moons, the Orb resembles its biggest or nearest one.

Once a day, the Moon Orb can be activated by shaking, basking the surroundings in actual, full moonlight for an hour, with all possible side-effects that might entail. The orb otherwise functions like a torch for the duration.

Starting next full moon, a giant hand print resembling the hand of the last person to activate the orb, will appear on the surface of the moon for the duration of the moon cycle, perfectly visible from the characters POV. Its appearance will be treated as an omen in various cultures and religions, possibly leading to societal turmoil and upheavals. If the Orb is activated by the same person for twelve subsequent moon cycles, the hand print on the surface becomes a permanent mark.

The Circlet of Immortality

by Markus M
A dented metal circlet, it has a socket for a gem, which currently sits empty. It is accompanied by a piece of parchment, reading "Whomsoever wears this circlet, he shall never die." along with a sketch of the circlet, complete with a diamond in the socket.

The circlet is currently inactive, a diamond must be mounted in the socket to reactivate it. If someone dons the reactivated circlet, they become unable to die. They still take damage as normal, but death will never occur. In addition, they will no longer recover naturally, healing only from magical sources, not from rest. The circlet is impossible to remove unless the diamond is destroyed.

CC1: Capture the Flagon

by Taylor Bush
It's the Feast of the Blue Rose!

Once a year, the great flower in Blue Rose Plaza blooms wide, thinning the veil between here and elsewhere. Merriment, yes, revelry, yes, but more important: competition. Mysterious flagons manifest in two random bars on the square, with a strange reward going to whoever can break in, retrieve one, and return it to the impatient rose. Beware: tensions are high and liquor is flowing; juiced-up clientele are ready to defend the flagons with their lives.

Tonight, competition is stiff. Nobody's succeeded in retrieving a flagon from the two chosen bars: 12 Light and Night Terroir. Failed thieves nurse their wounds in the square. The crowd rides strong, waiting for all hell to break loose once someone actually gets their hands on a prize.

Are you prepared to Capture the Flagon?

(An adventure for Mark of the Odd games, full adventure available here!)

Reviewers Row

Best Free & PWYW Adventures 2024

by Rowan H & Taylor Bush

Rowan H looked through about 130 free and PWYW adventures released in 2024. These are his favorites, including a fantastic recommendation from Taylor Bush. Spoilers abound.

Beneath the Spindle

Michael C. Madsen, for Knave 2e

This 14-room dungeon features a hall of slugs, a crystal-raining cloud, and a lonely pocket dimension. The opening spread boasts an absolutely gorgeous fully-illustrated isometric map of the dungeon rendered with impressive detail and exquisite colors. Seriously, go download this thing right now—even if only to feast your eyes on this incredible map. The next page has a brief introduction and adventure summary and the first room keys. The intended way that players arrive at the dungeon feels quite contrived, but it'll work fine for a one-shot and could easily be adjusted.

The room keys feature read-aloud text written in the second person and then sections that expand on important features for the referee. I don't love the read-aloud text, and the text in general could have benefitted from an editor. That said, Beneath the Spindle offers a wealth of weird and creative ideas. Highlights include a hanging uvula that opens a mouth door and four fantastic wizard robes, such as the Robes of Too Many Rats: "Robes made of a hundred large rats sewn together, tails hanging like tassels. Each rat functions as a pocket." Beneath the Spindle presents a delightfully weird environment to explore and includes one of the best dungeon maps I've laid eyes on. - Rowan

Godhead

Shanon Stevens, for Knave 2e

Godhead consists of a small village and 26-room dungeon, a corrupted temple that features a restless (and headless) GodBody, a weeping ghost, and mutations galore. The first page has tables for mutations, delve shifts, and encounters. Then there's a summary of the adventure and a list of rumors—one for each named NPC! There's a map of the village and an illustration of the village as viewed from afar. The fully-illustrated isometric dungeon maps are very nice, and the NPC portraits have lots of character. The layout is quite clean, and although the room keys are too sparse for my taste, they're supplemented by the illustrated map, and all 26 rooms fit on two pages. The text could have used another proofreading pass and could have been better organized (the NPCs page is weirdly removed from the village map and rumors, for example).

The NPC writeups are quite nice: "Ex-soldier, she moved to Rontoc to find peace and quiet, which she demands through threats and force. Her shop is well stocked, organised and ready for anything. Grudgingly tolerates the farmer visiting..." The dungeon is Jaquaysed as hell, with several entrances and routes between levels. It's also highly thematic, full of green slime, mist, and wretched, mutated creatures. The rubberized skeletons were the highlight for me: "The long buried bones of priestesses have been altered by the ooze. They will spring from their burial holes, and stretch like rubbery spaghetti, clutching at anything that comes close by." All in all, Godhead should make for a gross and exciting one or two-session romp. - Rowan

Mountain Underground

Colm Norrish, for Into the Odd

The terrible mountain. Deep, the moon's heart. She dances at midnight on the graves of your wants. A strange, vibrant module detailing a town plagued by lost memories and haunting dreams.

The adventure takes place in three acts:

• Investigating a mansion that disappeared whole cloth ages ago, now returned
• Descending a shifting tower that spikes deep underground
• A climactic encounter with the Faceless Woman, wish granter, memory thief

Each act takes the party deeper into unreality as they follow their shared dreams of a mountain underground. I ran just the first section as a one-shot in Electric Bastionland. My group had no OSR/NSR experience, but everyone caught the vibe quick and had a blast. Colm has an excellent eye for color and pulls from public domain art to create psychedelic collages that set the tone incredibly well.

Like many Mark of the Odd modules you're getting a lot of flavor with little meat, so it'll take a GM with good improvisational foundation to really make it shine. If you can get on its level, though, the juice is worth the squeeze. - Taylor

Rise of the Blood Olms

Yochai Gal, with editing by Derek B., cover & map art by Ari-Matti Toivonen, layout & Rusal art by Adam Hensley, for Cairn 2e

This eleven-room cave dungeon features a lost expedition, a dying tree, an eccentric river spirit, and blind, blood-crazed cannibals. The opening pages offer a clear hook, a concise summary of the situation, and efficient writeups of the locale and dungeon inhabitants. There's a clear, easy-to-reference map, a charming illustration of Rusal, and clean, unembellished layout. Room keys feature short paragraphs with bolded keywords expanded upon in bulleted lists—perhaps my favorite method room keying that doesn't involve elaborate layout. A referee would need five minutes at most to scan the contents before running this adventure straight from the page.

Rise of the Blood Olms offers about all one could ask for from a dozen-ish room dungeon. The flammable gas trap feels natural and easy to telegraph. High Lector Geteli presents a fine OSR-style challenge: there's a reward for his safe return, but he's been driven mad and is hellbent on remaining within the cave. Environmental clues facilitate investigation and discovery, providing everything curious players would need to piece together what happened. The blood olms present a threat and act as a barrier between the characters and the dam—the key to achieving what is likely the most desirable outcome. For me, Rusal is the highlight of the adventure: the consummate weird dungeon denizen. He can offer excellent boons, and players will no doubt delight in conversing with him and considering his bizarre deals. I could see the adventure benefitting from some additional oddity for players to mess with, but that's my only real quibble. Rise of the Blood Olms is mightily impressive for a dungeon of its size and scope. - Rowan

Trouble in Twin Lakes

Yochai Gal, with editing by Derek B., editing assistance by Yossi Krausz, cover art & region map art by Ari-Matti Toivonen, layout & locale maps by Adam Hensley, for Cairn 2e

This small regional sandbox consists of a town and a handful of wilderness locations, including a ten-room dungeon. It features two parallel situations involving an embezzlement scheme, a time loop, a frog witch, a crashed airship sunken in a bog, and a lich queen yearning to be reborn. The adventure proper opens with a pair of hooks, an overview of the two main situations, and writeups on key NPCs. The NPC writeups consist mostly of what each person knows and are a bit scant on roleplaying prompts. They facilitate the investigation aspect of the adventure nicely but would have benefitted from more thorough characterization and motivations. There's a very nice overview and map of the Twin Lakes region complete with roads that list travel times between locations. The layout is quite similar to that of Rise of the Blood Olms, though its denser text makes this adventure less easy to skim.

Trouble in Twin Lakes is a mystery scenario at its core with two disappearances for players to investigate. Both investigations are on a clock, and failing to thwart either scheme results in devastating consequences. I appreciate that neither mystery is too convoluted and that there are plenty of clues and details that should arouse attentive players' suspicion. Trouble in Twin Lakes offers the joy of discovery in spades, with plenty of people to talk to, secrets to uncover, and locations to explore. The section on concluding the adventure offers excellent guidance on potential outcomes, supporting the referee in weaving the adventure into a broader campaign or capping a standalone experience with an epilogue. - Rowan

WitchCon

Franc, with illustration, cartography and layout by Gordy Higgins, for Troika!

WitchCon takes place at—you guessed it—a witch convention. There are sixteen keyed locations plus a dozen random booths. This adventure features a botched demon summoning, vengeful children trapping in a walk-in freezer, and all things witchy. The opening pages consist of illustrated maps of the convention's main ballroom and basement, as well as the "Charm Against Cutty-Sark" (the main witch). Next comes an overview of the situation and over a dozen fantastic hooks, including this absolute gem: "A huge half-baked pie crust runs by on four legs -- two children stuck inside. On extrication, they gasp excitedly that there's WITCHES in the CONVENTION CENTRE, swearing vengeance." After that there's a description of the convention centre, including possible means of ingress, and a timeline of events.

The layout is simple but effective and makes nice use of bolding and background shading. Gordy Higgins' maps and line art are totally delightful and really help set the tone. WitchCon is bursting with energy, theme, and a palpable sense of fun. There's a lot going on here, and the text is packed with playful details, such as "Two HARPY security guards stand out front. They shake down anyone who doesn't look convincingly witchy [...] No water, salt, or silver allowed in." This is a very social adventure. The five main witches are the focus, but there's also a salt crystal dwarf journalist in search of a scoop, a hapless orc manning the coat check, owl valets and cooks, escaped children, and random interlopers. One highlight is Cutty-Sark's Recipe Book, which features 15 weird and wonderful diegetic rituals. If you're looking for a high-energy, social one-shot with potential for chaos and shenanigans, WitchCon belongs at the top of your list. - Rowan

Columnists Colonnade

Affinity Smash Course - Blend Mode: Divide

by Sandro AD
If you enjoy high-contrast layout, consider using a text layer's Blend Mode (found next to its opacity in the layer window), specifically "Divide." When using Divide on a (usually black) layer, "Lower content is lightened based on luminance on the upper content. White has no effect. Lightness is increased progressively by gray through to black." You can use this to create striking titles, highlight text or even give black line art (with transparent background) some extra pop by slapping a mono-colored box behind part of it!

Three Sentence Theory - The One Punch Man Test

by Rowan H
When writing a conflict, consider One Punch Man. Could One Punch Man attain a satisfying resolution by punching particular belligerents to death? An answer in the affirmative likely indicates that you've written a boring conflict.

Dear Diem

Relationship Advice for People who Roll Dice
by Carp A. Diem.
Greetings, dear readers! Spring is upon us; a time of new life and new adventures! Let us not get carried away by the spirit, however, and spend time reflecting on adventures and mishaps past, as our submitted letters do.

Dear Diem,
I was invited to a game of medieval fantasy by a friend who was DMing, and wrote up my character using a class I saw online. When we started playing, he asked to look at my sheet and started making changes without asking me! I didn't complain, but it was embarrassing.
What should I do? - Painfully Proofread in Philadelphia

Dear Proofread,
It sounds like a social faux pas was committed by both you and your friend! A lot of homebrew on the internet is written by people who are passionate about games, but might not understand the nuances involved- it's common practice to run said custom material by the DM before the game starts to make sure it's good to use. However, it doesn't sound like you and your DM had a conversation about that before you started playing! Try asking your DM their opinion of homebrew, they may reject any unofficial content outright, but this limitation needs to be established so everyone is on the same page.

Speaking of pages, the embarrassment of having your sheet edited in front of other players is perfectly valid. Your DM may have been trying to help, but consider requesting they sort out any problems with your character sheet before or after a session if it bothers you. - Diem

As always, dear readers, remember that all relationships require mutual respect and communication. Until we meet again, Carpe Diem!

Letter Submissions may be sent care of carousingcollective [at] proton [dot] me, titled "Dear Diem." Letters may be edited for space and anonymity.

Prompt, Check, Revise: A Preloader For Safety Tools

by SprintingOwl

Raise your hand if you’ve run into this before. “We’re playing a TTRPG. Does anyone have any content they want to avoid?” And then everyone sits in silence for a beat trying to think about All Possible Content That Might Occur.

Without a clear expectation for a game’s content in advance, do you immediately start naming and forbidding the most horrific stuff you can think of? Or do you hesitate and see if someone else is going to give a clue as to what the group expects?

This awkwardness is avoidable with a simple preloader.

When you’re GMing, before you introduce your safety tools, set expectations. “This game will generally be at a PG-13 level.” “This game will involve romance.” “There will be combat, economic horror, and clowns.”

From there, bring in your preemptive safety tools. Lines & Veils by Ron Edwards is a common preemptive safety tool---it establishes stuff you don’t want to see at all (Lines) and stuff that you don’t want to see in detail (Veils.)

Next, introduce your reactive safety tools. This might be X-Card by John Stavropoulos or Script Change by Beau Jágr Sheldon. Both allow you to pivot out of stuff you didn’t realize you didn’t want to run into.

Finally, bring in any safety tech that is unique to the game you’re playing. Coyote & Crow, for example, has specific carve-outs for how it’s meant to be played by first nation groups and non first nation groups. A system that you play with knives might include a primer on what to do if a player gets stabbed.

The important thing is to structure your information. Give players context first, then ask within that context what they’d like to do, then make adjustments based on the result.

Put that way, it’s kind of like regular GMing.

Opinion Oubliette

The Soul of the Zine does not live on Kickstarter

by Markus M
Many words have been written by better writers than I about what constitutes a zine. Personally, I tend to favour an inclusive definition: if you call your printed work a zine and it’s not a hardback, I reckon that’s a zine. If you want a scrappy zine, great! If you want to make a highly produced booklet, also great!

However, the soul of the zine lies in the non-commercial, DIY culture that spawned it. Zines that were made because people cared about the contents, not because of a profit motive. Of course, we can’t get around the fact that even if you make all the content yourself, printing a zine costs money, and so does sending it across the world, and zines are often made by people without the financial means to do this. Of course, these people should be able to collect the funds to produce their art however they like!

However, with the multitude of platforms out there, the obvious question is, why Kickstarter? Looking at the alternatives, and then back at Kickstarter, the answer seems obvious, and it’s a big flashing dollar sign. Kickstarter is a well-oiled machine for selling ideas to the game hungry masses, all you need is a set of highly produced graphics for your page, a social media ad campaign, and a “projects we love” sticker from the Kickstarter team. Kickstarter, like most other investment rounds, works better if you already have the funds to show off something cool, and what you’re producing lends itself well to easy selling points: lots of pretty art, big names attached, cool special backer-exclusives, and dare I say it, good value deals for backers?

This is of course all great if you’re making a commercial product, and (sadly) absolutely a vital part of the way many tabletop businesses run these days, if they are hoping to pay their staff (or even themselves), and that’s okay!

It doesn’t really feel very “non-commercial, DIY culture”, does it? A lot of these thoughts were prompted by Max Lander choosing to itch-fund the printing of their upcoming game zine, rather than mounting a Kickstarter campaign, and while Itch is obviously still a storefront etc. The decision to leave the funding window open until enough money has poured in to fund the print-run, rather than hoovering up as much money as you can during a brief Kickstarter marketing blitz, feels much more in the spirit of the zine.

Of course, it is a privileged position to be able to make this choice without having to worry about how it impacts your ability to make rent. And it’s easy for me to say anything I want, I have never even tried to print any of my works. Feel free to yell at me! But take note of this:

I’m not saying you shouldn’t put your next RPG Zine on Kickstarter, I’m just saying it’s not where the soul of the Zine lives.