Welcome to the first News Roundup for October, as we start down the home stretch to the end of the year. I wanted to remind everyone about the Orctober itch jam happening right now, sponsored by Forlorn Skulk. There's still plenty of time to come up with an entry. Also, I'd like to shout out Reddit user u/lokeshdhakar who compiled a website with almost 1.5 million searchable public domain engravings. It's fantastic, and a great resource for anyone, especially folks who want to publish without...

Welcome to the final News Roundup for September. Next week will be October, and if previous years are anything to go off of, we're going to get scared with a bunch of spooky, Halloween-themed releases. There's a new His Majesty the Worm 3rd party dungeon out there: Lighthouse of the False Sun, by CrinkyCrongler, is set in a lighthouse that has been absorbed by the underworld. Yochai Gal and Cairn Press have just launched a new Kickstarter. A Sliver of Evidence is by Karly Andersen and...

Welcome to the penultimate News Roundup for September. Early voting has started in a number of US States for the November election, and I strongly urge everyone to go out and vote this year. Otherwise, it was a pretty busy week for releases. I've compiled what I think are the highlights. Prismatic Wastelands just added the pdfs for Into the Oddish to itch. It mashes up Into the Odd with Pokemon, and is truly something to behold. Another Into the Odd-hack is One Hundred Odd Acres, a...

Welcome to the second News Roundup for September. Last week was curiously light on releases, so let's take a look and see what has come out since then. In my goal to be on the lookout for more game jams, I wanted to let everyone know that Forlorn Skulk is hosting an Orctober Orc-themed jam. It doesn't start until September 30th, but now you've got a little bit of time to start thinking about what you want to do. If you're interested in writing for Mothership, Tuesday Knight Games has open...

Welcome to the first Roundup for September, 2026. In the US we're celebrating Labor Day and remembering the struggles of those who fought for the rights of workers. Over on itch, the Mystic Wood Adventure jam is now over. It had a pretty short run-time, and I was honestly pretty shocked that it received almost one hundred entries given the quick turnaround. You can check out all of the entries here. Speaking of jams, I'm a big baseball fan, ever since growing up in St. Louis during the 80s...

Welcome to the final OSR News Roundup for August, a month which has, at least for me, seemed endless. In an attempt to get better at finding and promoting itch jams, I've been scouring itch and social media. One jam that might be of interest to folks is the 2nd iteration of Hexcrawloween, starting on October 1st and running through November 3rd. It's a jam to create a seven hex, system-agnostic hex flower. I'm expecting releases this week to be a little thin, what with summer winding down and...

Welcome to the fourth and penultimate News Roundup for August. I try to mention itch jams whenever they come across my radar, but itch certainly doesn't make it easy. I did, however, discover A Mystic Wood OSR jam, which launched last week, hosted by RedMageGM, in which participants are encouraged to create mystical, mysterious forest-based adventures or locations. Speaking of missing itch jams, there's currently one running for Vaults of Vaarn, with another month left for submissions. I had...

Welcome to the third News Roundup for August. All across the country, kids are either back in school or getting ready to go back, GenCon is over, and we're all trying to hang on to the last little bits of summer. Here in Charlottesville, we marked the ninth anniversary of the Unite the Right rally and the death of counterprotester Heather Heyer, who was killed a block up the street from Sabre's current location. It's a somber day in Charlottesville; the city closes 4th Street off, and the...

Welcome to the second News Roundup for August, 2026. I've been plugging the work of Demi ElGato recently for their OSE releases, and wanted to give them a special shoutout for their first Kickstarter: Flowers of Fantasy and Fate Vol. 1. It's a micro hexcrawl for use with OSE, and while it has already funded it can use your support! Vodka_Gobalsky has released a collection of free templates to use with Affinity publisher, called generic product. They're pretty basic, but sometimes basic is...

Welcome to the first News Roundup in August. At the time this is posted, Gen Con will be over, and there will be thousands of tired gamers heading home. I hope that it was a successful con for everyone who went. The Appendix N jam I've been plugging is also over and voting is now ongoing. If you'd like to take a look at the entries and cast your vote you can check it out here. A jam that just started is the Flimflam Jam, by Sivad's Sanctum. It's a jam focused on content by the Flimflam: Crime...

Welcome to the last News Roundup for July. We're a week out from GenCon, and the Ennie awards, which is typically a slow time for the Roundup as a lot of folks concentrate on getting ready for the event, but let's take a look and see what's on the menu for today. I haven't been promoting individual releases for the Appendix N jam, but I've been thoroughly enjoying what I've been seeing pop up on my social feeds. It's too late to enter, as it ends on Saturday, but you can check out the page...

Welcome to the third News Roundup for July. We're coming in fast to GenCon season, and Ennie voting is officially over as of a few days ago. I hope everyone had a chance to vote for your favorite games and publishers this year. Last year was a little skimpy on new releases, but I'd like to apologize to the fabulous folks at 3d6 Down the Line: I somehow managed to neglect to mention that they've released their first adventure: The Tomb of Armansquagulat. It's available on Drivethru, itch, and...

Welcome to the OSR News Roundup for July 13th, 2026. Ennie voting is in full swing, with a number of titles in the OSR-sphere in consideration. You can cast your vote here. I'd mentioned it back in June, but wanted to remind folks that the Appendix N jam is now live on itch, running through August 1st. It was an amazing success last year, and it looks like this year is going to produce the same quality of projects. You can check it out or follow it here. Otherwise, it's a bit of a slow week;...

Welcome to the OSR News Roundup for July 6th, 2026. I may or may not get a chance to wrap this up today; as I'm compiling my list of releases we're seeing some pretty major thunderstorms roll through the region, and our power is flickering on and off. Still, it is rain, which we desperately need. This weekend was also Sabre's birthday, the end of our third full year as a brick and mortar location. To celebrate, we're having a 15% off sale through the end of today (Monday) on everything in...

Welcome to the last news Roundup in June. Saturday was FreeRPGDay, when a number of FLGS around the world have free products their giving away. By all reports this was an extremely successful year (although customs delays means that stores in the UK don't have their product yet); I ordered for Sabre at the same time I always do, and was only able to order one box instead of two. I also have a submission in the bundle, From Here to There, an OSR hexcrawl. You can download the pdf for free from...

Welcome to the third (for me) OSR News Roundup for June, 2026. The solstice has passed, and from here on out is but a gradual decline into darker and darker days. But! There are still games to keep us entertained, so let's take a look and see what was released last week, shall we? It's a bit of a slow week, but it always seems to hit the doldrums around this time of year, as folks get ready for Gen Con. If you're in or around Portland Oregon next week, Yochai Gal and the Between Two Cairns...

As many of you may have noticed, there was no news roundup last week; I was out of town and decided to take a break, but I'm back today and I'll try and cast my net back through time and cover releases from last week and the week before. The one thing I wanted to plug in advance is a new pdf platform designed specifically for rpg sales, RPGTrader. It launched last week to some fanfare, and from everything I've gathered online is a joy to use for both publishers and consumers. The interface is...

It's the first Monday in June, and time for the first Roundup in June. Time has been flying by, as it always does. I don't seem to catch as many of the Bundle of Holding deals as I would normally like, so was glad when I caught wind of the current one, featuring the works of Dyson Logos, map-maker extraordinaire (I also really dig their other stuff, as well). Grok (named before Musk ruined the word forever), by Lester Burton, is one of my favorite gonzo rpgs, and they've launched a...

Welcome to the last News Roundup for May. One of my goals for this Roundup is to promote small press and indie creators, people who may not otherwise get much publicity, or are dipping their toes into the world of publishing and have just released their first title. If I have the choice between highlighting someone's first release versus a big, well-known project like the OSE demon month, I'll pick the former every time. The OSE project has plenty of eyeballs on it, and a small blog like mine...

We're steaming through the year, and are into the third week of May. There's a really great bundle up on itch right now, raising funds for Typhoon Sinlaku, with a host of great titles, including a number of OSR products. I'd mentioned Dungeon Cookbook Delves a few weeks ago, and the publisher has just released Vol. 2 in the series, written for Cairn, as a drop-in location in a dungeon that can, potentially, be used as the party as a safe haven . . . provided they can remain on the kobold...

Welcome to the second news Roundup in May. As I'm sure most readers are aware, it is OSE Month on Backerkit, and there are a number of projects being funded in conjunction with two official Necrotic Gnome releases: the Demonic Grimoire and the new 2026 Core release. There are a lot of really cool projects being funded, and a lot of community enthusiasm for the collab. For fans of the Casket of Fays fanzine, the publishers have provided this code to get 1.50 off the print version of Issue 18....

Welcome to the first News Roundup for May, 2026. To forestall questions, yes, I am aware that OSE Month, but I try not to plug stuff until they go live, so I'll be looking at those projects next week, since the official launch date is the 6th. Last week was pretty heavy on the releases, compared to the previous few weeks, and it really seems like back to normal. The Lone Legend has released Gloam, a stand-alone system using tarot that is inspired by His Majesty the Worm, Burning Wheel,...

Welcome to the last News Roundup for April. I don't usually post links to software-related projects, but I've got two this week that were brought to my attention: a simple turn tracker on itch, and there's also One More Adventure on Steam, an explicitly OSR hexcrawl rogue-like game. Halls of the Witch Queen is a free adventure for Cairn 2e, in which the adventurers are enticed to explore a ruined castle that is rumored to contain a relic of the witch queen. There's likely to be increased...

Welcome to the third news Roundup in April. It's a dry, dry month here, with temperatures way above normal, perfect for hanging out indoors and checking out some new games! I don't know how I missed this, but Johan Nohr, the driving force behind Mork Borg, is raising funds for Fomoria , their game of folk horror. The campaign is well and funded, and is almost over at the time this goes live, but I wanted to make sure to get a mention of it in. Simon Taylor is raising funds for The Cohort , an...

Welcome to the News Roundup for the second Monday in April. An astute reader pointed out that I have neglected to mention Inkvein , by Murkdice, currently funding on Backerkit. I interviewed Murkdice a few weeks back for Sabre Rattlings, and I totally conflated that with a Roundup mention. Sorry about that! At the time of this writing there's nine days left in the campaign, for a Mork Borg powered mega-dungeon. Also, just as an aside, I'm having a fairly difficult time finding new releases...

Welcome to the first News Roundup of April. I started off writing this thinking there weren't going to be many entries, but it turns out there are a bunch this week! Jimmy Shelter, publisher of Hiria, the Eternal City and A Visit to San Sibilia , among others, is raising funds for Pine Shallows , a Goonies and Stranger Things-inspired game of meddlesome kids. For the next eleven days, there are two Tunnels and Trolls bundles up on bundles of holding: one for the rulebooks , the other for the...

Welcome to the final News Roundup for March. This has been a pretty busy month for ttrpg releases, so let's see if we can keep the momentum going into April. Titan of the Verdant Maw , an adventure for OSE, was released last year, but it's recently been updated with some new material and clarifications of existing content. It's a really cool looking adventure with some sci-fi elements. S. Murphy has released Outpost 33 , an investigative adventure for Mothership set on an ice-covered planet....

It's the fourth Monday in March, and spring has sprung here in Central Virginia. Let's see what last week had in store for us, shall we? There are a lot of new releases to go over. One of my favorite things about doing this roundup is getting to promote the work of first time creators: viendhita has just released their first adventure, Like Flowers We Wither & Die , a system-agnostic horror pamphlet adventure. Looking forward to seeing what else viendhita releases! Someone who is not a first...

Welcome to the third News Roundup for March, 2026. Let's jump right in and check out the most recent releases! Utku has released Scalemail , a mass combat system for BX that has been released under the Creative Commons license. The release is currently in early beta. David Blandy is an author I really admire, and he's just released The Knight Errant: Expanded Edition . It's a sci-fantasy adventure designed to be run with any Mark of the Odd genre of games (Into the Odd, Cairn, Eco Mofos,...

Welcome to the second news Roundup in March. I've started a little podcast as a part of Sabre, and part of what I'm aiming to do is have some short conversations with people in the indie and OSR gaming spheres. Last week I posted an interview I did with Josh McCrowell, author of His Majesty the Worm, and tomorrow there's an interview going live with Marx Shepherd of the Far Horizons Co-Op. You can find Sabre Rattlings, the podcast, on most major podcatching platforms, and this is the RSS...

Welcome to the first News Roundup for March. While ZineMonth is technically over, there are a number of projects that are still running that started late. The Roundup is pretty light this week; I think a lot of folks are just taking a deep breath and relaxing after a hectic month. Sivad's Sanctum has released Inn of the Red Roof , a thirteen level dungeon written for od&d. They've been posting WIP shots of this project on Bluesky for a month or so, and it looks really neat. The Dying River ...

Well, this is the last News Roundup in February, and ZineMonth is wrapping up, although there will be projects still running into March. I haven't really been covering specific projects (for one, there are really too many great sounding ones that would just overwhelm the Roundup), but have been trying to point to resources to help find them instead. I'd like to plug one specific project, though, that ends very soon (I believe on Tuesday): Seedling Games is raising funds for The Sierra...

Anthony Zinni is raising funds for A League of Dark Few, a collection of three zines designed to help run city-based campaigns focused on secret guilds and mysteries. He was kind enough to answer some of my questions: Questions: Give us the elevator pitch of your project. Answer:  City campaigns have always been tough to run. The League of Dark Few Saga is a zine series designed to help GMs run them from the perspective of a guild member, giving players a home and a reason to engage with...

Welcome to the third news Roundup for February. We're in the thick of ZineMonth, as I believe I've mentioned once or twice before? Anyway, I've been conducting and posting print interviews on the blog (you can search for them using the ZiMo26 tag ) and audio interviews that you can find on the nascent Sabre Rattlings podcast (the link is the RSS feed), all to promote ZineMonth creators. I don't know why I missed this last week, but the No ICE in Minnesota bundle is live on itch. It contains...

1pagedungeons is raising funds for their project Runes in Ruins on Kickstarter. They were kind enough to answer some short questions about their project. Question: Easy question first: Give us the elevator pitch of your project. Tell us about it in two sentences or less. Answer: Runes in Ruin is a zine-sized adventure that enables crafting diverse magic items in a system-neutral sandbox. It introduces a simple but open-ended runecrafting system to spice up mundane tools and weapons. Q: Is...

Frank "Mottokrosh" Reding is currently raising funds for Knightcore , their project for ZineMonth 2026. They were kind enough to answer some questions for this interview series. Question: Give us the elevator pitch of your project. Tell us about it in two sentences or less. Answer: Knightcore: An aesthetic that combines gleaming armor, soft, flowing fabrics, and ethereal, haunting glows, now as a tabletop roleplaying g ame. Q: Is this your first ZineMonth project or have you done it...

Welcome to the OSR News Roundup for February 9th, 2026. ZineMonth is in full swing, and I'll be releasing some print interviews over the month promoting various projects. I've also, because apparently I'm not busy enough, decided to start releasing a podcast. The goal is to release short, weekly episodes, with an emphasis on talking about topics in gaming that we're excited about. You can catch the first episode here (link is to podbean, but it should be available on all major podcatchers...

OSR publisher Directsun has made quite a name for themselves with the puzzle dungeon—Aberrant Reflections and The Seers Sanctum are two of their well-regarded releases with that theme, and they're currently fund-raising for another, entitled A Familiar Tower , for ZineMonth. Q:  Easy question first: Give us the elevator pitch of your project. Tell us about it in two sentences or less. A:   A Familiar Tower  is an escape room dungeon inside a non-Euclidean wizard tower. It's inspired by the...

Welcome to the first News Roundup for February. January felt like it was a year long, but now with February we're into ZineMonth, and all the projects that it entails. I'll be posting periodic interviews with ZineMonth creators for the next month and a half, and I encourage everyone to check out the projects being funded and to support small, independent publishers. As I'm writing this it's still too early for a lot of projects, so expect the ZiMo stuff to come at you fast and furious next...

Everyone's favorite fantasy RPG, drinking themed board game is now a dungeon crawl! Instead for drinking your opponents under the table you'll be delving under the tavern in Tales from the Red Dragon Inn . This award winning cooperative tactical combat game is set in the same world as the original Red Dragon Inn and you'll play as some familiar faces while delving into the titular location's basement. It's scenario driven campaign system will have you and up to three friends face unique...

Welcome to the last News Roundup for January 26th. If you're reading this right now, it means we haven't lost power today; like much of the US, we're being hit by a severe winter storm. I hope everyone stays safe and as warm as possible. Last week was pretty light on releases -- I'm assuming many publishers are getting ready to launch projects for ZineMonth -- so let's see what is on tap for today. Also, fuck ICE. Matt Kelly has gradually been releasing supplements that expand on Cairn's core...

Welcome to the third News Roundup for January. ZineMonth is just around the corner; last week there were a lot of new releases, so let's see what this week brings us, shall we? The Fracture Between Jade and Ash is a system-neutral, city-based scenario that relies on the conflict between two factions -- Jade Serpents and Ash-born -- to ratchet up the tension in the adventure. Moonwhisper Magic has released What Hirelings , a collection of 35 NPC and hireling cards statted for general OSR...

Welcome to the second News Roundup in a 2026 that has already felt about six months long. ZineMonth is three weeks away, and I've already collected some interviews to promote projects; if you're participating in this year's ZineMonth and want some promotion please get in touch with me and I'll send over some short interview questions. The first thing I'd like to plug is the free zine released by the NSR Cauldron Discord server. To me, this Discord has some of the same energy as the heady days...

Welcome to the first News Roundup for 2026. The holidays (in the US, at least) are over, and we're heading towards ZineMonth in a matter of weeks. I've already got some interviews lined up, and just want to remind folks that if you're participating in the event, and want some free press, there are a few options: You can send me an email at thirdkingdomgames at gmail dot com and I'll hook you up with a few short and sweet questions. I've started a thread on rpgnet for people to promote their...

Welcome to the last News Roundup for 2025. I know this year was fraught and stressful, at best, for a lot of people, and we're looking at a 2026 with plenty of unknowns and economic uncertainty. A big bright spot for me in the upcoming year is going to be ZineMonth2026, starting in February. I've already seen a number of people start promoting their projects, and I'd love to help with that. If you're going to be participating in the event, and have time to answer a few short, softball...

Welcome to the penultimate News Roundup of 2025, and, as it happens, the anniversary of this newsletter. The first Roundup was published on December 20th, 2021. I hope that readers have gotten some benefit from it; I know for me it has opened up a wide range of indie and OSR publishers and some fantastic products that I otherwise might not have heard from, and the simple act of maintaining this as a routine as helped motivate my writing in general (I am, if anything, a routine-driven person)....

Welcome to the second News Roundup for December, 2025. Last week was a bit slow on releases, so let's see what this week looks like as we steam towards the end of the year. One development that I'm really pleased about is that Drivethrurpg has now made it mandatory for publishers to indicate if their releases contain any AI assets, as opposed to just an optional disclosure. It should hopefully make my job easier; I'd like to see them ban all content with AI assets, but that's a long uphill...

Welcome to the first News Roundup for December, the last month in the year. I hope all of the USians reading this had a nice, relaxing Thanksgiving. We, like pretty much everyone else in the world who runs an online business, are having a Cyber Monday sale . If you use the code CyberSabre at checkout on Monday (today), you can get 20% off everything in your cart. Releases are a bit thin last week, I think because they were split between PAX U, Thanksgiving, and Dragonmeet in the UK, but...

It's the last Monday in November, and we're entering the home stretch to close out 2025. It felt weird missing last week's Roundup, but I just didn't have any energy last weekend to compile it. I'm hoping to do my interview series to promote ZineMonth in 2026, so if you're planning on participating in the event, and have the bandwidth to answer a few softball questions about your project, please reach out and I'll get some questions sent over. If you are participating, and you'd like to try...

No Roundup this week, I'm afraid. Was sick this weekend and just didn't have the energy.