(BackerKit) Food & Evil RPG by Goosepoop Games #Zinetopia2026

Another great entry from BackerKit's #ZineTopia2026 is Food & Evil, the tabletop roleplaying game where you don’t hunt demons…you are the demons. Your party runs a food truck, serves questionable cuisine, gathers cursed ingredients, and causes just enough chaos to keep business booming.

The ZineQuest Haul Over the Years #ZiMo2022

Another month, another theme that dominated the blog.  

For Kickstarter moving #Zinequest to August, there were a LOT of various campaigns launched for the traditional February launch, hereby renamed #ZinMo2022

Kenneth Newquist over at Nuketown listed his acquisitions, as well as ones from previous years.  It's only fair I follow in suit.

2022

Attack from Space: The RPG - Perhaps the most perfect 'zine for 2022.  

The Banshee of Billfort - DuckQuest RPG Adventure Zine - A decent adventure for a campaign full of ducks?  I'm in.  

In Soviet Russia, Spy Are You! - A nice, cheap espionage game that should fill a growing need .

Last Sentinels: A Mecha RPG Zine - Indy press and collaborative mecha game.  Deal!

Planet 28, 2nd Edition -  On the borderlands of the 'zine scene now, might as well collect all the books into the second edition.

2021 

Blackvale - Still nothing, communication is intermittent, but the concept of "Fantasy Pittsburgh" had me. 

Brutal Quest - The younger sibling of Planet 28.  Still haven't played it.  

A Complicated Profession -  Perhaps the most used/successful of all the 'zine Kickstarters I supported.  Two sessions of it confirmed the cool concept and acceptable poor editing (It is a 'zine afterall).

The Merovingian Hack  -  Nothing like playing in Merovingian Gaul, not played yet, but at least I made a character for it.

Gamma Zine #3 - Chock full of Post-Apoc stuff, and rekindled an interest in Gamma World

2020

Planet 28, 1st Edition - Great little series of booklets.  Still haven't played, but I have statted out a bunch of characters for the Gnomish Space Marine Universe.

2019

Girl Underground - A game of Alice in Wonderland, the Wizard of Oz, and Labyrinith.  Quite capable girls and their companions in mystical lands.  I got it to play with the girls, and someday we'll have the time to read through it and try it out.

And with this posted, I'm happy to report that this is my 4,000th post on the blog.  A couple of these might have actually been pretty good.

(Kickstarter) #ZineMonth2020 - Orbiters Local 519

 #ZineQuest,  #ZineMonth2020, #ZiMo2020, no matter how you hashtag it, should be a release of cool trendy little games... and a million iterations of trendy little games.

In Orbiters Local 519, you're part of a scavenger crew about disassembling derelict starships, it focuses of dungeoncrawling (in space), and focuses on the dangers, the "instabilities" of the ship.  

I may have an interest in this game... because I've already pledged five years ago to a Kickstarter for Scavengers, a game where you're a team of scavengers disassembling derelict starships and debris from an intergalactic war.  Instead of instabilities, PCs get into more and more situations were everything could turn sideways in a heartbeat.    The Travis Hanson art lets off a completely different vibe, but we officially have a new genre:  The all-out Space Scavengers. 

MetalWeave Games, the publishers of Scavengers, is still in business and the rules are still available in pdf and print on demand, but a fresh look at the theme and print & pdf for only $12, it's definitely worth a look.  The only drawback I see is that they have scheduled delivery of a product for February... of next year.  

  

(Kickstarter) #ZineMonth2022 - The Last Sentinels

You know the one thing missing from this year's #ZineMonth2022?  A good wholesome mecha game, and that was recently fixed.

 The Last Sentinels is a GM-less storytelling tabletop roleplaying game for 3 or 4 players.

Play to tell the story of the Sentinels; giant, humanoid mechs capable of wielding devastating weapons and performing agile manoeuvres in zero gravity.

You’ll focus on one main protagonist, a gifted young civilian who escapes the besieged planet of AUGUR-V on a titanic starship with their remaining people.

They must defend these survivors against overwhelming odds as a vast fleet pursues the ship through their former empire.

But your protagonist is doomed.

Their story will end in death or betrayal when they succumb to the intense pressures of hope, despair, scheming foes and high-stakes mech combat.

LAST SENTINELS is written to be played as a one-shot game over one or two evenings.

But it's also designed so experienced players can use simple alternative rules to play a campaign spanning many sessions.

The author, Jason Price, also produce the ZineQuest product, A Complicated Profession, which I finally got to run recently, and it was as good as I hoped it was.  

Can't wait to see just how doomed this mech pilot is....

(Kickstarter) #ZineMonth2022 - Dungeon Local 001 by Michael Elliot

 #ZineMonth2022 should be producing a lot of unique items that I have not interest in. 

...and then there's Dungeon Local 001 by Michael Elliot. 

Directly off the Kickstarter: 

The dragon is dead.
The adventurers are gone.
Time to organize.

Dungeon Local 001 is a reverse-dungeon crawling RPG where players take on the role of denizens of a typical fantasy dungeon tasked with rebuilding and mapping their home. You'll create characters with jobs (their assigned role under the old overlord) and passions (what they really want to do with their life) and memories (events and locations throughout the dungeon). You'll take turns exploring the dungeon, creating a map, overcoming dangerous encounters, and sharing old stories.

Dungeon Local 001 lets players occupy the other side of the GM screen. You'll play as kobolds, dwarves, goblins, and more. No bosses, and no game masters. Just storytelling and remapping your home after the old tyrant has been slain. Were you the ones who slayed the dragon? Was it the last group of malevolent adventurers who invaded your home? Or was it the monstrous insect, a cave-in, or the result of a scheme gone wrong? Play to find out what happens!

Dungeon Local 001 uses the Forged in the Dark system, based on John Harper's Blades in the Dark. Whenever a character does something risky or uncertain, players make an action roll and build a pool of six-sided dice based on their job, passion, and whether they will spend stress or get help from their friends. When characters get too much stress or harm, the crew makes camp, cooks some food, and shares memories of their time in the dungeon.

And somehow all of this is also 5e compatible. Color me interested in the latest take on the reverse dungeon, with a lot more collaborative storytelling.

(Kickstarter) #ZineMonth2022 - Arcane High: Magic Infused '80s TTRPG by Savage Cree Hess

From the Kickstarter:

Arcane High is a dive into an 80's drenched in spectacular magic!

As part of Zine Month 2022, we're finally launching this massive project. Inside you'll find rules to play out your oddly specific fantasy of having magical abilities in the 80's. Included are 100 unique quirks to mix and match along side 20 different schools of magic! Each school comes with 3 unique and abstract spells that can be wickedly twisted to suit your every need. You'll find your classics like Illusions, Alteration, and Divination but you also find plenty of modern style schools like Electro, Gravity, and Mechanicy! We're also planning on a genre system that lets you set up different stories from romance, sports, to slasher. A trip through this stand alone game system will take you through 4-5 sessions, each 2-4 hours long.

(Kickstarter) #ZineMonth2022 - Party First: Twilight War

Party First: Twilight War is an espionage themed supplemental book to the Party First RPG.  It is a true horror game, covering not only the supernatural and the cosmic, but the true evil of human and bureaucratic.  

From the Kickstarter:

Players take on the roles of individuals living within the nation of the USRA in THE TWILIGHT WORLD set during the year 1985. THE TWILIGHT WORLD is similar to our own in some ways, but dramatically different in others. You may see some aspects that you recognize, and in most cases, it is by design. Other aspects will be more emphasized, dramatized, or horrific than the world you are familiar with.

The biggest difference you will see is that of the horrors of THE TWILIGHT WORLD. Monsters are real here. They are real, and at best humanity is nothing to them. In the scope of this universe, we are seen as ants. At worst, these monsters actively seek the end of all life in the world. The majority of humans have no idea what sort of horrors wait just outside their narrow scope of the world, and even the player characters themselves may only have the smallest inkling of the truth - at the start. As a story progresses the players will come face to face with the horrific truth and either overcome or, more likely, be mercilessly killed or driven mad by their newfound knowledge.

(Kickstarter) #ZineMonth2022 - Barkeep on the Borderlands by Prismatic Wasteland

 Barkeep on the Borderlands is a pubcrawl pointcrawl system-neutral adventure that takes place in and around the pubs and taverns of a distant Keep. It also introduces new procedures for running pubcrawl adventures and simple rules for drinking and inebriation.

(Kickstarter) #ZineMonth2022 Downtime in Zyan by Ben Laurence

 Downtime in Zyan is a rules-agnostic system for managing downtime between adventures. 

From the Kickstarter itself:
The unified but flexible system of downtime procedures presented in this zine allows players to leave a lasting mark on the campaign world beginning at the end of their very first adventure. The zine presents flavorful but simple rules for building institutions, cultivating relationships, crafting splendid items, gathering intelligence, mastering martial techniques, researching obscure topics, engaging in wild revelries, plumbing the perilous depths of spellcraft, mastering skills, and seeking enlightenment through spiritual exercises.

(Kickstarter) #ZineMonth2022 - Unchained Mysteries by Jesse Burenko

Unchained Mysteries is a game agnostic critical examination of mystery scenarios in role-playing games in three parts. The first part deconstructs the popular linear or branching scene structure whereby a mystery unfolds as the players follow a chain of clues from one encounter to the next. It's a hard look at the creative limits, unfair demands, lack of uncertainty and removal of player agency in this common scenario format.

The second part is all about rebuilding the very idea of a mystery from the ground up. It starts from the premise that role-playing is its own unique medium not beholden to the constraints, assumptions, structures, and tropes of other media. Proceeding from the heart of a dramatic mystery: a desperate crime and building outward through a vibrant cast of NPCs impacted by that event, a methodology for scenario construction that is teeming with unresolved dramatic tension is revealed.

The final part discusses the practical execution of the scenario in play. The focus is to move away from the idea of concrete clues and planned reveals and instead to focus on active and motivated NPCs that work to bring the player characters into their crises. The mystery is no longer an inert thing to be discovered but rather a set of conflicts still in motion desperate for resolution

(Kickstarter) #ZineMonth2022 - Wine Management by Matt Parkinson

 With the plethora of offering during #ZineMonth2022 (or #ZineMo as the cool kids are calling it).  There's got to be a one of two that are... wanting a bit.

There's plenty of Kickstarters I simply never mention because, well, they're presented horribly, or have overdone concepts, or exude an utter lack of trust to think about a pledge (even a buck, just to see it blow up spectacularly.  

The good news is that, Wine Management by Matt Parkinson, is none of those things.  But I also don't know exactly what I'm getting for my £3 pledge.   

It appears to be a solid solo resource management exercise involving a vinyard.  It seems to to only involve one sheet of paper of a game, and a few dice for randomization.  It also shows multi-player, GM-less capability, but I haven't the foggiest to even a vague answer of how.  

But even with this utter lack of an editor to the Kickstarter page, the great thing about #ZineMonth is that "an about $5" pledge keeps my interest growing, and if things work for vinyards, then it can work for other resource management mechanisms for games.  Color me intrigued.  

(Kickstarter) The Station by Pidj Sorensen

While I will mention some of the questionably presented Kickstarters for #ZineMonth2022, The Station, by Pidj Sorensen, is certainly NOT one of those.  It is presented so well, I will just leave these two sentences and a snippet of the Kickstarter for your consideration:  

“The Station” is a GM-less worldbuilding game where players take turn answering prompts about a train, the station it is headed for, and the people there. In the vein of "i'm sorry did you say street magic" and "The Quiet Year", The Station is a worldbuilding game. It is a game about how places shape people and people shape places. The Station uses no dice. Instead, it uses playing cards, paper (such as index cards) and tokens or other ways of representing points. Play time is adjusted by setting the number of Train Progress cards and by changing the size of the playing card deck. Throughout the game, draw cards, ask and answer questions and gain and spend points. Along the way, you will discover the world you have built together. Then, at the end of the game, a bitter-sweet resolution happens. Spend your points to resolve the stories of the characters you have collaborated on and bring your time to a close.

(Kickstarter) #ZineMonth2022 - Faereld - A Rules Light Sword & Sorcery RPG by Andrew Hand

 For some reason I continue to watch YouTube videos, and listen to podcasts of utter nitwits apologizing for Kickstarter dropping the ball with #Zinequest4 and the subsequent #ZineMonth2020 #ZinMo response for February.  

One of their reasons for additional funding is the improved physical quality of zines.  Glossy pages, full color, indices, all those things akin to professional publishing is what they want in a zine?

I don't think the talking heads understand the concept of a zine, much less the history of where they came from.  

One zine on Kickstarter that gets the general feel of the zines, and concept about what they're great for, appears to be Faereld, a rules-light sword and sorcery RPG by Andrew Hand.

I don't know the rules engine, I don't know anything about this game, but for $10 for the physical zine and $5 for the pdf, I think it's worth a shot.

(Kickstarter) #ZineMonth2022 - Goblin Errands by Martin Nerukar

 No one has necessarily cornered the market with silly humanoid RPG rules, possibly because once the creature hear "cornered," they immediately think of corn and hilarity usually ensues. 

German game designer Martin Nerurkar is launching his first Kickstarter, Goblin Errands, a no-prep RPG for 2-4 players full of silly humor.  

Shipping costs from Germany seem crazier than the inflated UK prices, but it should be noted US shipping costs parallel domestic shipping inside Germany.

(Kickstarter) #ZineMonth2022 - How to Start Cults and Sacrifice People by Vivid Worlds

Thanks to the Kickstarter for How to Start Cults and Sacrifice People by Vivid Worlds, you too can take your first, third, and final steps in starting and running a successful cult!

With our handy and easy to follow guide, you too can take your first, third and final steps in starting and running a successful cult! Fancy spilling blood in the name of dark gods? We’ve got your back. Have a desire to petition forgotten entities from outside of reality for their eldritch knowledge? We can help. Just want to assemble a group of weak willed sheep under the towering force of your own personality? Say no more.

(Kickstarter) #ZineMonth2020 - Fairyland by Max Moon Games

Fairyland is an RPG zine written by Kyle Reimergartin and published by Max Moon Games. Like all Max Moon zines, Fairyland will be hand-crafted giving its physical form a preciousness to match the immaterial contents.

Within the pages, you will find a microsetting easily adaptable to any rule system, light enough to drop into an ongoing campaign, yet with enough flavor to use as a primary setting.

In addition to setting material and the plethora of random tables, Fairyland contains an introductory adventure, The House of the Sunken Stars with an illustrated map by Andy Webber.

(Kickstarter) #ZineMonth2020 - 9 Lives to Valhalla by Gem Room Games

9 Lives to Valhalla is a frenetic, gleefully ultraviolent new ttrpg from Gem Room Games about death metal viking cats earning their seat in Valhalla through glorious violence and death (all 9 of them)!

Nine lives to stalk the earth! Nine times to die with sword in paw! Nine Lives to Valhalla!

You are a death metal viking cat, earning your place in the drinking halls of Valhalla by casting a wake of blood and carnage upon the blighted earth in each of your 9 lives. Guided personally by DEATH, your merry band will leave a wake of ruin ending only at the hands of a truly worthy foe. Find treasures, trade with merchants, mercenaries, or ghosts, and follow DEATH to seek worthy foes, fiendish traps, and ensure your place among the greatest warriors of catkind!

(Kickstarter) #ZineMonth2020 - You're (Not) a Wizard by David Esarey

You have been accepted to Smitherton Academy, the finest school for the study and practice of magic in this or any realm. Your placement is confirmed, tuition paid, and you are all set to begin matriculating with our elite student body this fall.

There's only one problem:

You have no magical ability.

That's the fun concept of the You're (Not) a Wizard by David Esarey, part of the #ZineMonth2020.  

(Kickstarter) #ZineMonth2022 - Life on the Veg by Sophie Atkinson

#ZineMonth2022 isn't all about edgy zines, there's also fighting the good fight against vegetarians.... or at least running away with life.

Life on the Veg by Sophie Atkinson is a RPG where you're a sentient vegetable trying not to be eaten.

From the Kickstarter:
Life in the allotment was idyllic. You slept peacefully in the soil, nourished by the sun and rain, communicating with your fellow veggies via the magic of your roots. Until one day, everything changed. Rough hands pulled you from the earth and shoved you into a basket. Your eyes and mind opened, suddenly you could think, and feel! Who are you? Why are you here? Are you more of a jazz guy or a classic rock fan? Now’s your chance to find out as you explore what it means to be alive, and more importantly, try to stay that way!

Life On The Veg is a short, whimsical one-shot RPG in which you play a newly sentient vegetable as you attempt to escape the kitchen in which you find yourself and avoid your fate of becoming dinner.

This is a game for 3 or more players (but more players = more fun!), one of whom will take the role of ‘Kitchen Master’ - directing the action and controlling the non-player characters.

(Kickstarter) #ZineMonth2022 The Unquiet Dark by Alicia Furness

One of advantages for a February #ZineMonth2022 is the ability to discover not only new products and designers, but whole games and systems I've missed over the past year!

The Unquiet Dark is a 1920's prequel campaign supplement for Brindlewood Bay. 

First off, for the uninitiated, an intro in Brindlewood Bay:

Brindlewood Bay is a roleplaying game about a group of elderly women—members of the local Murder Mavens mystery book club—who frequently find themselves investigating (and solving!) real-life murder mysteries. They become increasingly aware that there are supernatural forces that connect the cases they are working on and, in particular, a cult dedicated to the dark, monstrous aspect of the goddess Persephone will come to vex them.

The game is directly inspired by the television show Murder, She Wrote, but also takes inspiration from the works of H.P. Lovecraft, “cozy” crime dramas, and American TV shows from the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s.

Now that we have that awesome concept embedded in my brains, let's look a The Unquiet Dark:

Before the Midwives of the Fragrant Void, there was a different darkness rising in the quaint seaside town of Brindlewood Bay. Explore the world of Brindlewood Bay in the height of the jazz age! Set in 1922, The Unquiet Dark has players working to uncover and stop a new threat in the midst of a war of morality. Set against a backdrop of prohibition, technological advancement, and capitalism run rampant, The Unquiet Dark promises hours of jazz age eldritch terror fun!

The Unquiet Dark is a new campaign supplement for Brindlewood Bay. The campaign covers a year of in-game play, with 4 mysteries each set in a different season, a new Dark Conspiracy sheet, and guidance for setting your game in the 1920s. This supplement requires you to have the core rules of Brindlewood Bay.