Felicia Day and the original Knights of Good cast are reuniting for a new feature-length film, The Guild: Ren Faire’d, marking the groundbreaking web series’ upcoming 20th anniversary.

The crowdfunding campaign launched on Kickstarter today, aiming to make the feature film entirely independently. In a note shared on the campaign page, Day revealed the catalyst for returning to grassroots funding: early in 2025, a Hollywood executive pitched bringing The Guild back but wanted to recast the series with younger actors. Rather than compromise on the core cast, Day chose to go straight to the fans.

That gamble paid off almost immediately. Within its opening hours, the project smashed past its £1,114,347 ($1.5 million) funding target, clearing over $1.5 million with thousands of backers jumping on board on day one.

The feature reunites original cast members Felicia Day (Codex), Amy Okuda (Tink), Jeff Lewis (Vork), Robin Thorsen (Clara), Vince Caso (Bladezz), and Sandeep Parikh (Zaboo) for a story set in a Renaissance Faire. The project is executive produced by Ryan Copple and directed by series veteran Sean Becker.

Along with funding the movie, the campaign serves as a massive fan event with multiple backing options. Backers can jump in at several tier levels, including:

• Entry Tiers: A $20 option offering a digital copy of the film alongside Discord tags and digital backer cards, through to $35–$50 single-item tiers focused on Swords & Sweethearts (a dating-sim card game created by Ryan Copple and Scrungo Games), the 120-page The Guild tabletop roleplaying game written by Vince Caso and published by Hit Point Press, or a collectible “Poopcorn” popcorn bucket.
• Curated Bundles: Options range from the $55 Wearables Bundle (shirt, blind-box enamel pin, and sticker sheet) up to comprehensive collections like the $125 Game Night Bundle, $130 Entertainment Bundle (including a complete series Blu-ray set and Image Comics graphic novel omnibus), and the $330 Everything Bundle.
• Experiential & Collector Tiers: High-tier options range from the $615 Signature Bundle featuring a signed script and poster to premium backer packages offering set visits, premiere tickets, and executive producer credits.

Felicia Day interview

Geek Native caught up with creator and star Felicia Day to discuss returning to independent funding, transitioning to a feature film format, and reuniting the cast.

You’re once again bypassing Hollywood infrastructure to bring The Guild: The Movie to life through Kickstarter on July 20, already breaking records as the most followed film project on the platform. What creative freedoms do you gain by engaging directly with the community this time that a standard studio deal would compromise?

We went directly to fans in 2007 to fund and finish season 1. So it felt natural to go directly to Kickstarter to bring the show back. I never contemplated anything different. Community involvement and fan participation is part of the DNA of the show. In the past, I never had notes from a studio or outside financier the whole of our 6 seasons. It was just me, my producer, my director and my cast making what we love. Clearly our fans liked what we did. To go to the traditional route, getting notes based on analytics and test audiences, trying to explain to an Hollywood executive why the show matters at ALL, was not something I wanted to explore. We have done the show our way for almost 20 years, we’ll continue to do it that way going forward.

When The Guild first aired, mainstream media misunderstood online gaming spaces as isolating. Now, MMOs and digital tabletop games are community hubs. How will the Knights of Good reflect this shift from niche subculture to mainstream entertainment?

I spent a long time thinking about how to bring the cast back together in a relevant way. Rest assured, our audience will be delighted with our setting and how far the characters have come since we saw them. On July 20th when we unveil details, it will be a fun moment for everyone.

The Guild pioneered the short-form webisode format, but transitioning to a feature-length film requires changes in pacing and structure. How will you maintain the fast-paced comedic energy of the original series while crafting a cohesive two-hour story?

A large portion of our audience actually experienced “The Guild” for the first time as movie-length seasons. On Netflix all the episodes were edited together to run continuously. So developmentally, it’s not that different. In fact, I have always written the show as a feature-length script and cut it up later, this will truly be no different, just in scale and size.

There’s tension in indie media between high-budget demands and keeping access affordable for fans. As the third most-followed campaign in Launch Oracle history, how will you balance production costs while keeping this campaign grassroots?

We are doing a movie Kickstarter unlike any other to raise enough money to make a high-quality, theatre-worthy piece of cinema. Film is expensive. No matter what we raise, we will be a low-budget movie. But I do hope that fans are excited enough about all the different opportunities to back we’re offering them that we raise enough to bring this story to life in the way I dream we can.

With Codex’s original costume in the Smithsonian, the show’s legacy is solidified. What does “critical success” mean to you when you wrap production and reunite the original cast in 2027?

Critical success means making the movie independently and giving our backers a reason to celebrate 20 years of making stuff together. It’s the legacy I’m most proud of, that we have been a community together

Thanks, Felicia!

With two decades of community support behind it, The Guild continues to prove that creator-led, fan-funded projects can thrive outside the traditional studio model. Reuniting the original Knights of Good for a feature-length Renaissance Faire adventure isn’t just a nostalgic nod to the series’ webisode roots; it’s a celebration of the community that built it from day one. As the campaign continues to break records, fans have a front-row seat and a direct hand in shaping the next chapter of gamer culture history.

Backers can view the full tier lineup and support the project directly on The Guild: Ren Faire’d Kickstarter campaign page.

Edinburgh-based designer Sam Zhao has returned to crowdfunding with Lord of the Dice II – Light VS Darkness, a hardware campaign seeking to replace an entire seven-piece polyhedral dice set with a single 50mm metal cube. The campaign has comfortably passed its initial £3,000 funding goal, securing over £15,000 from nearly 200 backers. Building directly on the mechanical design of its predecessor, the new hardware iteration addresses long-standing physical reliability issues by introducing completely glueless internal mechanics.

The die design centres on modularity and thematic aesthetics, offering two visual styles: the Reliquaries of Light and the Caskets of Darkness. Each face of the 6-in-1 cube houses an integrated mechanical spinner mapped to standard roleplaying game dice ranges, allowing players to roll d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, and d20 results from a single unit. Designed explicitly for Dungeons & Dragons and other tabletop roleplaying games, the updated construction allows individual spinner faces and outer frames to be detached and reconfigured.

Glueless Engineering and Hardware Modularity

The primary engineering upgrade focuses on long-term physical durability and friction reduction. The original campaign relied on internal adhesive that occasionally seeped into the spinning mechanism. By removing glue entirely, the hardware manages a smoother spin and allows complete user customisation.

Two main issues that we had with the original Lord of the Dice were loose spinner and spinners not spinning freely caused by excessive glue getting in to the spinning mechanism. With our new Lord of the Dice II, we overcame these issue by removing glue entirely from the product.

Beyond the main 50mm cube, the campaign introduces standalone single-spinner Prisms, thematic Monster Coins weighing 0.05kg each, and dedicated storage Dice Boxes. The modular construction underpins a “Build Your Own” tier, allowing collectors to mix and match individual spinner plates, frames, and central chassis units.

Pledge Tiers and Campaign Fulfilment

The crowdfunding tiers span entry-level accessories to full multi-unit bundles, providing options for both solo players and retail storefronts.

• Pledge £3: Coin x1. Includes one thematic metal monster coin with custom design choices.
• Pledge £18: Prism x1. Features a standalone single-spinner module, including the spinner plate, outer frame, and base.
• Pledge £25: Dice Box x1. A dedicated metal storage enclosure for housing dice or individual spinner accessories.
• Pledge £42: Cube x1. The core Lord of the Dice II 6-in-1 metal cube, offered at a 20% discount off retail pricing.
• Pledge £47: BYO Cube x1. A Kickstarter-exclusive build-your-own tier featuring six customizable spinners, six frames, and a central base.
• Pledge £166: Sentinel’s Bundle. A comprehensive bundle containing two Cubes, two Prisms, two Dice Boxes, and six Monster Coins.

The campaign operates under an all-or-nothing funding model, with the funding window remaining active until Thursday, 30 July 2026 at 8:00 PM BST. All physical reward tiers carry an estimated fulfilment delivery date of April 2027. International shipping costs will be calculated post-campaign via a pledge manager, with flat-rate ocean freight shipping capped for major regions, including a £68 maximum estimate for UK deliveries.

Quick Link

• Lord of the Dice II – Light VS Darkness on Kickstarter

SoulMuppet Publishing’s lo-fi space Western tabletop roleplaying game, Orbital Blues, has returned to Bundle of Holding in a double-barreled offer. The site has resurrected its original June 2024 starter offer alongside an all-new companion deal, Orbital Blues Afterburn, packed with fresh supplements and sourcebooks.

If you have ever wanted to live out the sad, melancholic life of an interstellar outlaw chasing bounties and struggling to pay off debt, now is your chance to jump into the Frontier Galaxy. Both collections offer DRM-free digital PDF rulebooks and expansions at a fraction of their usual retail cost.

Orbital Blues (June 2024 Revival)

Starter Collection – $7.95

Pay the minimum price of $7.95 to unlock $38.00 worth of core rulebooks and starter adventures.

• Orbital Blues core rulebook
• Orbital Blues – Chega de Saudade
• Orbital Blues – All That Glitters

Bonus Collection

Beat the dynamic threshold price of $18.29 to level up and unlock an additional $43.50 in expansions and artbooks, taking the total retail value to $81.50.

• Orbital Blues – A Starborn Resistance
• Orbital Blues – Everjoy
• Orbital Blues – Trouble at the Rock of Tariq
• Orbital Blues – Wayward Stars artbook

Orbital Blues Afterburn (New Companion Offer)

Afterburn Collection – $9.95

Get all three new expansions plus bonus preview material for a flat entry price of $9.95 (total retail value $45.00).

• Orbital Blues – Afterburn
• Orbital Blues – Rogue Anthems (8 short pamphlet adventures)
• Orbital Blues – The Wanderer (solitaire adventure)
• 4 SoulMuppet quickstarts (Atrapos, Doomspiral, Mad as Hell, Paint the Town Red)

Orbital Blues captures the aesthetic of classic 90s anime like Cowboy Bebop, gritty sci-fi like Firefly, and retro-futuristic space Westerns. Built on the rules-light chassis derived from Best Left Buried, the game uses a straightforward D6 pool system driven by three core stats: Muscle, Grit, and Savvy. Instead of complex character classes or heavy tactical skill paths, player narrative and interpersonal relationships sit front and centre.

Your characters are Interstellar Outlaws: folks operating on the margins of a hyper-capitalist galaxy where space travel is cheap, life is hard, and debt is ever-present. Every character balances Gambits, their special talents and heroic tricks, against Troubles, which represent their past heartbreaks, flaws, and personal baggage. Crews must manage their ship, scramble for salvage or bounty contracts, and try to keep enough fuel in the tank to make it to the next system.

The Afterburn companion bundle expands this sandbox considerably. The main Afterburn sourcebook provides an in-universe ship brochure, full rules for android characters, and guidance for running sandbox campaigns. Alongside eight standalone pamphlet adventures in Rogue Anthems and the card-driven solo game The Wanderer, this dual promotion delivers everything needed for long-term campaigns across the galaxy.

Both offers run simultaneously and expire at midnight Pacific time on Wednesday, 29 July. All files delivered through Bundle of Holding are strictly DRM-free and can be synced directly to your DriveThruRPG library.

Quick Links

• Bundle: Orbital Blues
• Bundle: Orbital Blues Afterburn

The culmination of global sporting milestones, such as the FIFA World Cup, inevitably highlights a striking cultural disparity: while team sports, specifically football, serve as the world’s most-consumed form of narrative drama, they are almost entirely absent from the tabletop roleplaying game market.

As billions of eyes turn to the 2026 tournament final between Spain and Argentina, representing eleven players passing a fake leather sphere across a grass pitch remains one of the most stubborn design challenges in the history of analogue games. Independent developer Daniel Papaterra has launched a direct challenge to this trend with Roll’d Cup, an experimental, sci-fi football roleplaying game set in the distant year of 8194.

The project introduces an automated, math-heavy simulation that moves entirely away from the rules-light, drama-first focus of contemporary sports roleplaying games. Alongside its specialised goalkeeper expansion, Kaderimin Oyunu, the game forces players to handle tactical math, locker room morale, and the intense mechanical realities of the pitch rather than relying on abstract narrative choices.

Breaking the Geek versus Jock Divide

Historically, a clear cultural divide separated traditional geek hobbies from organised team sports. For decades, the target audience for roleplaying games favoured pure escapism, turning toward high-fantasy combat instead of athletic competition. It is likely that the rise of tabletop roleplaying games until recent years was, in part, geeks trying to escape football jocks. This divide created a market where sports gaming was left entirely to competitive board games, video games, or quantitative fantasy sports leagues.

Roll’d Cup actively shatters this boundary. The game embraces a progressive, inclusive approach to team building that completely removes modern political and gender divides from the table.

Daniel Papaterra, Designer at papaterra, said in a statement:

Characters may have any gender description possible. This is RPG and we do not have to replicate our own world’s bullshit in it.”

The Cold Math of the Pitch

Traditional roleplaying games struggle with sports because turn-based dice mechanics create a massive computational bottleneck when tracking continuous, real-time movement. If a game master forces a roll for every single step or pass, the game quickly becomes unplayable.

Roll’d Cup resolves this issue by combining a dedicated calculator spreadsheet with a highly structured match system.

The Match Architecture

• Automated Advantage Calculations: The game compares a squad’s offensive dynamic directly against the opponent’s overall defence. The spreadsheet instantly outputs whether a player rolls their actions with advantage or disadvantage.
• Fixed Play Structures: Matches are split into ten fixed real-time plays. The division of these plays is dictated strictly by possession percentages.
• Personal Play Clocks: Players get a specific number of personal plays equal to their character level, rolling a d100 to see exactly when their personal highlights hit the match clock.

The core mechanics rely on a simple d6 system using seven key attributes: Strength, Speed, Finishing, Defence, Passing, Dribbling, and Psychological. Striking from outside the penalty box inflicts a natural disadvantage, while closing within one meter of the net gives attackers a distinct mechanical edge.

The Isolated Goalkeeper

The companion module, Kaderimin Oyunu (The Game of My Destiny), turns its absolute focus to the goal line. In real football, goalkeepers are isolated figures who train completely independently from the outfield squad. The game captures this separation perfectly.

Goalkeepers operate under completely unique character generation rules, receiving four standard points to distribute across these specialist blocks alongside an additional 1d4 variable points. They also select specialised character perks like Miracle Worker, which allows a crucial once-per-game reroll, or Crazy, which forces a d8 check before every single action to see if the keeper completely loses their head on the pitch.

Career Trajectories and Multi-Dimensional Stakes

Roll’d Cup does not stop at the touchline. A player’s career spans six distinct divisions, climbing from muddy local highland fields all the way up to inter-dimensional elite pitches where teams use space portals to play across the multiverse.

The game presents distinct failure states that reflect the harsh realities of professional sports. Characters can develop expensive, damaging personal habits that tank their psychological scores and drain weekly club finances. If a player drops below 30 experience points in a single season, or if a manager lets their locker room dressing room points hit zero, the club will instantly sack them, ending the campaign.

Quick Links

• Itch: Roll’d Cup

Oxford-based indie studio Midnight Tower has launched a crowdfunding campaign for its latest fifth edition adventure, The Body in the Mage Tower. The project is an 80-page murder mystery heavily inspired by Mary Shelley’s classic Gothic novel, Frankenstein. Following their recent appearance at the UK Games Expo in Birmingham, creators Tove and Erik have returned to their established fantasy setting of Eastern Farraway with a story designed specifically to challenge players’ deduction rather than simple combat mechanics.

The adventure begins with a classic hook: the characters receive a frantic plea for help from an old acquaintance, Dr Ivan Mortenberg. Upon arriving at Mortenberg Hall on a stormy night, the party discovers the doctor’s lifeless body inside his locked laboratory, with an attic window left swinging open and a bizarre creature reported roaming the nearby settlement of Coppertown. Written primarily for level 7 characters, the module features scalable encounters that allow it to be adapted for any party from level 1 to level 20.

Gothic Themes and Mechanical Investigation

This module provides a distinct shift from traditional dungeon crawling, focusing on social interaction, witness interviews, and physical clue gathering. The book includes eight fully detailed non-player characters, each outfitted with distinct backgrounds and hidden agendas that players must unravel to identify the killer. The layout is supported by original artwork, featuring character portraits from Alaina Milare and a two-page centrefold spread of Mortenberg Hall by concept artist Oleksii Chernik, whose previous illustration credits include work on major properties such as Diablo and Fallout.

The expansion is fully compatible with both the 2014 and 2024 core rules for the Fifth Edition, as well as adjacent RPG systems like Tales of the Valiant and Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition. For groups operating on alternative game engines, the investigative mechanics are designed for straightforward conversion into systems like Pathfinder Second Edition. Alongside the main text, all backers receive The Secret Research Notes, a companion compendium that aggregates all unlocked stretch goals, including unique magical items, regional lore, and thematic custom character sheets illustrated by the artist Bookwyrmling.

Campaign Scale and Backer Tiers

Rather than offering only basic digital files, the campaign features structured tiers that scale from low-income PDF access to comprehensive physical archives. Digital backers receive the core book and the stretch-goal compendium as high-resolution files, along with a virtual tabletop asset pack containing tokens, gridless maps, and digital handouts. Physical options introduce full-colour softcover and hardcover printings produced on FSC-certified recyclable paper within the United Kingdom.

• Pledge £1: Midnight Tower Supporter. Access to updates, community involvement, and project tracking.
• Pledge £6: Body in the Mage Tower (Low Income). Full digital PDF copy of the 80-page book and compendium, reserved for students, veterans, healthcare workers, or those facing economic hardship.
• Pledge £12: Body in the Mage Tower (PDF). Standard digital tier containing high-resolution full colour PDF copies of the adventure, the stretch goal compendium, and your name printed in the book.
• Pledge £25: Body in the Mage Tower (Softcover Book). Premium full colour softcover print edition with perfect binding and a glossy cover, plus accompanying digital PDF rewards. Shipping collected after the campaign.
• Pledge £35: Body in the Mage Tower (Hardcover Book). Case bound full colour glossy hardcover printing of the adventure and compendium, alongside complete digital file access. Shipping collected after the campaign.
• Pledge £75: The Mystery Collection (Digital format). Digital bundle containing seven complete mystery adventures spanning over 560 pages of investigative gameplay.
• Pledge £80: For Retailers. Five physical hardcover copies of the book intended exclusively for brick and mortar retail stores, with store names featured in the print edition.
• Pledge £150: The Midnight Tower Digital Library. Complete digital archive containing 23 adventures and over 1,500 pages of content published by the studio since 2019.
• Pledge £200: The Collector’s Edition Box. Signed and uniquely numbered hardcover edition with an exclusive alternate cover. Includes liquid core dice, a leather journal, an engraved leather bookmark, a campaign poster, and worldwide shipping.
• Pledge £250: The Mystery Book Collection. Physical hardcover editions of all seven mystery modules released by the studio, plus a physical Gamemaster screen and a glow-in-the-dark dice set.
• Pledge £450: The Midnight Tower Book Library. Ultimate physical collection compiling 13 hardcover books, the complete campaign guide, a custom Gamemaster screen, and specialised dice accessories.

The campaign has already surged past its initial funding target of £2,300, securing over £18,000 from digital and physical tabletop players. The funding window is fixed on an all-or-nothing basis, concluding on Thursday, 13 August 2026 at 3:31 PM BST. Digital rewards are scheduled to begin distribution via DriveThruRPG in November 2026, with final physical printing shipments estimated to go out to backers by February 2027.

Quick Link

• Back this Campaign

Welcome home. This is Audio EXP, the weekly podcast from Geek Native. I am your host, Girdy, and today is the 18th of July, 2026. This week, we dissect a sudden platform restructuring that alters how players access official rule archives, look at changing retail logistics designed to protect collectors ahead of the summer convention season, and celebrate local performance groups finding creative workarounds after Wizards of the Coast’s London cancellation.

[The following is a transcript of Audio EXP: #342]

[Also on Stitcher | Spotify | Apple | YouTube]

Before we dive into the headlines, I have a slight behind-the-scenes confession. Our weekly industry digest, Routinely Itemised, was accidentally late this week. I was completely certain I had published the update on Friday night or in the very early hours of Saturday morning. However, when I checked after breakfast, WordPress had rolled back slightly, and the post wasn’t live. Website gremlins are an ongoing reality of digital publishing, but the post has been sorted out, and the full column is functional and online now.

On a brighter administrative note, we are completely caught up with our July community features. Our exclusive spotlight interview with Menagerie Press and William MB is officially live on the site. William shares some incredible insights into how the studio streamlines classic d20 rules, balancing mechanical depth with table speed while keeping their modules accessible to independent game masters.

Our lead story this week focuses on an unexpected shifting of the digital tabletop landscape. Paizo has officially cut direct ties with the Archives of Nethys, forcing a sudden restructuring of official online reference documents for Pathfinder and Starfinder. For years, the volunteer-run archive served as the primary web-based platform for players seeking rapid rules lookups. The conclusion of this formal partnership marks a significant digital pivot for the publisher as they realign their digital property footprint, leaving the community debating how access to core mechanics will be managed in the future.

Turning to the physical collector market, major comic and merchandise publishers are introducing a fairer retail playbook ahead of San Diego Comic-Con. Mondo, Oni Press, and Titan Comics have announced limited print runs that ensure online subscribers get access to summer convention exclusives alongside attendees. Rather than forcing fans into frantic queues or leaving stock vulnerable to scalpers who clear out stalls in the opening minutes of a convention, these companies are guaranteeing digital inventory allocations for regular subscribers. It is a smart piece of customer management that balances physical booth hype against long-term digital community loyalty.

We also have a heartening story of community resilience following corporate cancellations. When Wizards of the Coast abruptly pulled the D&D Fan Expo from London’s O2 Arena calendar, many booked community acts were left stranded. Fortunately, the team at It’s Your Role has successfully adapted by taking their interactive dragon-bonding performance on tour instead. By securing independent regional venues, the group has managed to salvage their production schedule, proving that grassroots independent theatre can find its own audience when corporate safety nets collapse.

In independent game design releases, sci-fi storytellers have an expansive new data resource. Snowys Maps has released the Tome of Monsters: Galactic Edition, bringing cross-system sci-fi threats directly to the tabletop. The supplement focuses heavily on visual asset packages, featuring highly detailed digital battle maps and modular spaceship tokens that are completely uncoupled from a single ruleset, allowing them to integrate easily into Traveller, Starfinder, or independent space operas. What’s more, we got to talk to Snowy and have the interview woven around a look at her Kickstarter.

Over on the entertainment side of the blog, Bronwen has highlighted a highly cinematic trailer that marks a return for two prominent comedy directors. We host a look at the new trailer for Mayday, a wild action-adventure starring Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh. The project is helmed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, the creative duo behind the critically acclaimed Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves movie, and features fast-paced action comedy.

For high-end collectors with substantial budgets, high-tech decorations are pushing boundaries. A new licensed Lord of the Rings animatronic prop replica has entered the premium market at a staggering price tag of 25,000 dollars. The luxury piece represents a significant technical leap in high-end home theatre decoration, incorporating realistic motion engineering that bridges fine art sculpture with robotics. If you can consider a Balrog to be fine art, that is!

Finally, we close out the week with a comprehensive digital bundle to completely restock your retro toolkit. You can roll your way to glory with Kent David Kelly’s Oldskull Generators bundle on the Bundle of Holding. This extensive toolkit features dozens of random generation tables designed specifically for old-school fantasy settings, allowing game masters to instantly generate deep dungeons, custom treasures, and authentic campaign details mid-session.

That is it for this week. Thanks for listening to Audio EXP. For all the links, the spotlight text, and full stories, head over to Geek Native. Until next week, stay geeky.

The universe is decaying, and parasitic würms are turning humanity into a mutated alien hive-mind. If you fancy surviving a grim, neon-soaked space-opera horror setting where life is cheap, and death is messy, Creature Curation has you covered.

The new Vast Grimm deal on the Bundle of Holding brings you Brian Colin’s standalone tabletop roleplaying game. Heavily inspired by the artpunk fantasy rules of Mörk Borg, this science fiction game pits desperate survivors against grotesque alien parasites in a dying cosmos. Geek Native reviewed Vast Grimm in 2021.

Vast Grimm Collection – $9.95

The tier costs $9.95 and delivers a total retail value of $70. This collection contains the following DRM-free ebooks:

• Vast Grimm Skeleton Crew rules
• A Grimm Outlook
• Grimm Solitude
• Helltrap Barges
• Into the Asteroid
• No Safe Haven
• Sqwürmish miniatures game

Vast Grimm uses a streamlined system based directly on the Mörk Borg third-party licence. Characters are built using classic artpunk sensibilities, meaning your Twisted Biochemist, Soul Survivor, or Emo|Bot will likely die a fast, gruesome death. The game embraces high-fatality mechanics, but balances the filth with technomagical Tributes and highly addictive pharmaceuticals like Rocket Stick to give your crew a fighting chance.

The setting mixes the aesthetic of Guardians of the Galaxy with the horrific alien parasites of a space-based zombie apocalypse. This collection packs a lot of versatility, including a solo gameplay loop in Grimm Solitude for lone survivors. It also features a crossover option in Into the Asteroid to bridge your sci-fi crew directly into standard fantasy Mörk Borg sessions.

For miniature hobbyists, the inclusion of Sqwürmish expands the game into a standalone 28mm skirmish ruleset. Based on the Forbidden Psalm engine, it allows players to kit-bash their own starfaring monstrosities and run through a 13-scenario campaign, fighting against or alongside the infected hive-mind.

Grab these resources before the plague consumes what remains of the galaxy. This special offer runs until midnight Pacific time on Tuesday, 28 July. All files are completely DRM-free, meaning you can freely copy them to your preferred reading devices.

Quick Links

• Vast Grimm deal

Menagerie Press, a solo indie publisher founded by William Murakami-Brundage, is the July 2026 RPG Publisher Spotlight winner. The studio is currently running a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter for the Shadowfinder Game Master’s Guide, a supplement designed to blend classic d20 systems with modern dark fantasy rules.

Drawing on four decades of tabletop experience, including ten years of running open-table organised play, Murakami-Brundage focuses on creating modular tools for running games. This spotlight covers the development of Shadowfinder, which translates classic Pathfinder 1E and D&D 3.5E content into the rules of Shadowdark, alongside the designer’s thoughts on indie collaboration, zine culture, and recent licensing shifts.

Who are Menagerie Press? For readers who might be finding your books for the first time through the Fanatical bundle or DriveThruRPG, how would you describe the studio’s core philosophy?

Menagerie Press is just me, and occasionally a friend or two. It’s one guy. My design ethos is “I make things I want to see at my table.” That’s how I decide what to create. While running one of my games, I spot an opportunity or gap and say “I wish I had….[fill in the blank]” so I make it.

You’ve mentioned playing RPGs since you were “knee-high to a goblin.” What was the very first tabletop game that hooked you, and how did you eventually transition from a player to a designer with over fifty products under your belt?

I was hooked from 1st grade, really. Or before. When my mom and dad would have Friday date night, she’d hire one of her friend’s daughters as our babysitter. We’re talking my older sister and I, so I’m about 5 years old. This was very early 1980s. Our babysitter got tired of chasing us around, and decided to sit down and play this new game, D&D, with us. It was literally life-changing. It was Red Box Basic D&D. Everything about it swept me away. My sister and brother-in-law now run Rune & Board, a phenomenal game store (Beaverton, Oregon), and I’m an RPG publisher.

Part 2 of that question: I was the forever GM from middle school on. My friends couldn’t be bothered to learn to DM, so I ran games in Basic D&D, AD&D, and Runequest. That continued until I was an adult, when I ran Earthdawn, Pathfinder 1, and D&D 3.5E. My creative designs come from 40+ years of actual play experience.

You previously ran Organised Play games for nearly a decade. How did that massive amount of time at the table, running games for so many different real-life groups, shape the way you design adventures today?

Organized Play was a huge part of my push for modular design. With Organized Play via Pathfinder Society or Adventurers League, you can’t predict who you’ll have at your table session to session. Tables are often public sign-up, no reserved seating. It taught me that I couldn’t allow a single PC, player, character, or plot hook to drive my entire campaign. There must be multiple paths to progress, but progress also needs to be defined by the players in that specific session. I’m guessing I’ve probably run open table games now for 10+ years, including Organized Play, and I’ve probably played with at least 500 different players across all my tables. Maybe more, I don’t really have a way to track the # of people I’ve GM’d for.

Let’s talk about Shadowfinder. It is described as a hybrid of 3.5e/Pathfinder 1E mechanics reworked for Shadowdark. What was the spark that made you realise these two distinct eras of gaming could be smashed together so beautifully?

I have a lot of players I regularly play with from my Pathfinder 1 days, and I had a thought one day, “It would be nice to run this shelf of Pathfinder modules I’ve collected, but with a simpler rule set.” And thus, Shadowfinder was born. They’re both rooted in fantasy d20 origins, with Shadowdark being more akin to Basic D&D w/ 5E influences. The foundation of Shadowfinder is “All the Pathfinder flavor, but streamlined.” It’s made to be more accessible, and uses random character generation (3d6 for stats, random backgrounds and starting gear, etc.) Pathfinder 1, especially past level 5, becomes a game of finesse, rewarding extreme rules mastery. Shadowfinder removes the plethora of rules and optimal builds, but retains iconic classes, spells, and tries to keep all the Pathfinder 1 thematic elements.

Converting all six massive PF 1E Bestiaries into nearly 1,800 Shadowdark stat blocks sounds like a colossal task. What was the hardest part of translating that decade of high-fantasy content into Shadowdark’s leaner, deadlier framework?

Making the Shadowfinder Bestiary was a bit Sisyphusian. I regularly posted updates, and they were like “Bestiary 3: 41/289.” The Shadowfinder Bestiary includes every Pathfinder 1 Bestiary creature, every Shadowdark core rules creature, and approx. 30-40 Pathfinder 1 NPC stat blocks from the NPC Codex (so a GM has humanoids on hand like the ogre-slayer, gambler, or cavern druid). I had to develop really early on a kind of mental framework, a “this means that, X equals Y, keep A not B” rubric. For example, Shadowfinder’s stats rarely get above +4, with only a few creatures going above +6 for a stat. Meanwhile, in Pathfinder 1, stats frequently cruise into the +10 or higher category. And I couldn’t just do a straight conversion, it was more a kind of curve: yes, a humanoid with STR 18 in Pathfinder 1 may have a STR +4 in Shadowdark, but a construct with STR 30 may only be STR +5, because of the flattened math. And that didn’t hold true across physical vs. mental stats. Very few Pathfinder 1 creatures have INT 30 or CHA 25, but there are quite a few monsters with STR 30+ or CON 30+. So it wasn’t straightforward. It required an analysis for each creature to understand the Pathfinder 1 intent.

Your current Kickstarter is for the Shadowfinder GM Guide. Without giving away any spoilers for GMs wanting to surprise their players, what can backers expect to find inside this specific book?

The GM Guide is a foundational book that has tons of magic items, random encounter tables, random adventure elements, traps, poisons, diseases, all the Pathfinder 1 standards a GM needs to run almost any Pathfinder 1 adventure. It’s made so a GM can swap in the Shadowfinder equivalent of almost any Pathfinder 1 adventure element. But it also leans on the Pathfinder 1 extra content, like fame/infamy, alternate spellcasting like spell slots (Vancian casting) or spell points (mana), monster templates (so you can make fiendish giant frogs or an umbral ogre), and more. I just finished writing the optional rules sections on Wounds and Vigor (in case a GM wants a flat HP, very high lethality game like you’d find in Runequest or Warhammer) and Words of Power, for when an adventurer learns a single-use, potent magical word (in style, think of the Dragonborn’s Thu’um shouts in Skyrim, or the incantation Ash Williams recites from the demonic book in Army of Darkness).

You’ve mentioned that the recent OGL history influenced your decision to step away from it for Shadowfinder, which sadly meant sunsetting Westlands, your 2D6 fantasy heartbreaker. How has navigating that shifting legal landscape changed your perspective on independent publishing?

I felt betrayed when the OGL fiasco hit the news. I think we all owe a big thank you to Lin Codega for breaking that news. The effects of the OGL problem are still rippling down, even now. I know several creators who abandoned projects or were forced back to the drawing board. It’s put a chill over RPG design ever since. I know that WOTC released their D&D 5E SRD into Creative Commons, but we haven’t seen a D&D 3E Creative Commons rules set. I don’t have much hope that WOTC will ever make good on their promise to release a Creative Commons 3E SRD.

Your new adventure, Night-Stitcher, draws from the Brothers Grimm and old fey stories, with a distinct Dolmenwood vibe. What draws you to that specific style of dark, folklore-infused fantasy?

My friend John Watson is running Dolmendark (which is, as you can imagine, Dolmenwood in Shadowdark). I love mash-ups, I love mixing things together, fusion cuisine style. I was already working on Night-Stitcher, so I asked John for suggestions for Dolmenwood substitutions. I’ve heard feedback from GMs that they love Night-Stitcher, so his feedback was very on point.

You’ve launched some gorgeous special edition custom A5 zines for Night-Stitcher, citing Gabor Lux’s Fomalhaut series as a major visual inspiration. Why do you think the old-school zine format has captured the imagination of modern tabletop players so strongly?

I think Fomalhaut is a world of its own. I love Gabor Lux’s work and zines. I didn’t want to be a Fomalhaut hack, and wanted to find my own design style for the zines. I know that Arcane Library released the Cursed Scrolls #1-6, which are also incredibly popular and worth reading. Just kind of going off the cuff, the zine format reminds me of the early DIY 1990s punk zine culture, and also the earliest TSR modules you’d buy for $6.99 at the local game store, like Expedition to the Barrier Peaks or Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. Functionally, zines are good because they’re ephemeral. If a module or zine costs you $14, you can run it, mark it up, pass it to a friend. You’re not out 50 bucks, it’s the cost of a foot-long sandwich and soda. It gets wrinkled and worn, because it’s like a paperback you grab off the shelf near the checkout line: meant to be used.

You’ve openly put out a call for collaborators, particularly creators who want to help convert best-selling Pathfinder 1E adventures to Shadowfinder. What does an ideal collaboration look like to you, and what kind of projects are you itching to tackle next?

I’m big on collaborating. I love mixing things around and seeing what comes brewing up. An ideal collaboration can look like a few different things: it could be another creator with a great product, like Stephen Grodzicki’s Tales of Argosa (previously Low-Fantasy Gaming). I converted almost two dozen Argosa adventures to Shadowdark because I love the Argosa writing and play style. In that case, Steve already had everything written, I just had to convert things over. Owen KC Stephens and I are working on converting Rogue Genius Games’s Pathfinder 1 adventures to Shadowfinder, so keep an eye out for that in the very near future. We’re starting with The Black Skull Laughs, an Ed Greenwood adventure we’re converting to Shadowfinder. Attila Nagy is doing some amazing art for it.

Aside from the GM Guide, do you have any secret projects currently in the pipeline or new roleplaying games you are experimenting with that readers should keep an eye out for this year?

I don’t usually talk about secret projects. As Cain said in the Sandman comics: “I keep telling you: It’s the mystery that endures. Not the explanation. A good mystery can last forever.”

Thank you, William!

William Murakami-Brundage continues to expand the project with upcoming collaborative conversions alongside industry veterans, focusing on bringing classic high-fantasy story modules to a faster, deadlier style of play. The current campaign provides the remaining tools needed for game masters to adapt older d20 resources directly into these retro-styled rules.

Quick Links

• Support the Shadowfinder Game Master’s Guide on Kickstarter.
• Explore the full catalogue at the Menagerie Press DriveThruRPG Store.
• Visit the Oregon tabletop outlet Rune & Board.
• Read industry reporting at Lin Codega’s Journalistic Portfolio.
• View the illustrations of artist Attila Nagy on Facebook.
• Check out Pickpocket Press’s Adventure Anthology for Shadowdark.

Finnish tabletop designer Jan-Erik Ehrström has announced a crowdfunding launch date of 22 September 2026 for his massive solo project, Hex Ferrum. The upcoming dark fantasy roleplaying game arrives as a completed two-book system spanning 830 pages of detailed mechanics, worldbuilding lore, and tactical options.

Hex Ferrum is built as an evolution of the Parabellum RPG engine, which Ehrström originally published two decades ago. The system uses a modular rule framework centred on a custom d20 mechanic. This design approach lets gaming groups dial the complexity up or down. You can resolve encounters with high-detail simulationist tactical combat featuring precise hit-location tracking, or switch seamlessly to a streamlined, fast-paced playstyle using the same core metrics.

The game world, Vidoq, comprises 24 distinct realms, each with competing religious factions, airship fleets, occult guilds, and parallel mechanical progression tracks for social influence, craftsmanship, and reputation. To demonstrate the mechanical split, Ehrström has released a free quickstart rulebook. The standalone introductory module features an adventure called The Black Wedding, pregenerated characters, and a simplified ruleset compatible with the wider core framework.

While the text, setting, and systems are entirely human-authored, the project relies significantly on generative artificial intelligence to hit its massive visual scale. The rulebooks include over 550 illustrations created using AI-assisted image generation. The layout, selection, and digital post-processing were handled manually by Ehrström. This visual strategy drew notable community scrutiny during the campaign’s preview phase, driving the designer to retroactively update the project description to guarantee full transparency and meet platform guidelines.

The complete package splits across two distinct A4 hardcovers: the Player’s Rulebook and the Game Master’s Rulebook. Alongside the general mechanics and character development pathways featuring 50 professions and 300 skills, the books bundle a full 120-creature compendium and a dedicated core-rules scenario titled The Ashes of the Inquisitor. Physical copies and digital formats will be available when the crowdfunding portal goes live.

Quick Links

• Free quickstart
• Back this Campaign

Good evening. Bronwen is off in Glasgow watching Gary Numan, and I’m here getting to review this week’s most exciting TTRPG news.

• Pay if you can. Don’t if you can’t. It’s a generous indie charity bundle for Accessibility in TTRPGS!
• Chaosium dominate the news with
  • their first IP in years and Time Without Tide
  • a free quick start with Age of Vikings
• Paizo changes their license deal with the Archives of Nethys

Oops! This is attempt two to publish Friday the 17th Routinely Itemised. It’s now Saturday morning, and I’m here investigating a 404 error page? What happened? I don’t know. Fortunately, it looks like not much has been lost, and I don’t have to rewrite the whole column!

Phew.

If you’re tracking Geek Native’s Kickstarter metrics, you’ll see we’ve had a boom this week. That’s because of ‘Side Quest’, a Kickstarter project to help get some RPG supplements extra coverage and a coordinated launch campaign.

On with the TTRPG news!

Spotlight: Menagerie Press.

RPG news from Geek Native

• What do you do if your actual play was signed up for the (now cancelled) D&D Expo? It’s Your Role gets cheerful.
• Save money. It’s Christmas in July for gamers.
• It’s upset people. Paizo takes the license from Archives of Nethys.
• We talk to Snowy / Lois Brewer about the Tome of Monsters.
• Can you work with GitHub? If so, City_Net is a free Cyberpunk VTT.
• Need Games’ Fabula Ultima release a Demiplane.
• We’re gearing up for Nathan Baldes’ City os Espers.
• We’ve got solo RPG tips from Black Armada.
• In crowdfunding, we write up the Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster and the post-apocalyptic Embers of Humanity.
• There’s a Bundle of Holding deal on the dangerous Torchbearer 2e, Oldskull Generators

Support: Patreon.

RPG news from around the web

• Wargamer covers Chaosium’s first original TTRPG in 30 years is a game of fallen moons, monstrous mutants, tactical battle, and impeccable puns.
• The Guardian writes up D&D players raise millions in real-life campaign against ‘corporate elite’.
• Checking in with Rascal, there’s news about Finland Recognizes Roleplaying As Living Heritage And Culture Worth Preserving.
• The team at Polygon covers Warframe is showing love to tabletop games with this ‘legally distinct’ RPG.
• Finimize notes that Hasbro’s Q2 Hinges On Wizards Of The Coast.
• The folks at ComicBook.com discuss Every D&D Class Getting A New Subclass In Arcana Unleashed, Including One You Won’t Expect.
• Vice’s Denny Connolly pens Dungeons and Dragons Reveals 9 New Magical Faction Backgrounds and Origin Feats.
• Lizzie Magnolia has opinions worth noting about Deathbringers’ marketing and sales pitch.
• You can read about ICv2: ‘Planet of the Apes RPG: Solo Play Rulebook’ Deets over on ICv2.
• Darrington Press announce Daggerheart at San Diego Comic-Con 2026.
• WotC announce the D&D Tower for Gen Con.
• The folks at Dungeons and Dragons Fanatics deliver a breakdown of Beadle & Grimm’s Unveils New Arcana Unleashed: Deadfall Platinum Edition Box Set.
• GameSpace clocks that D&D Fans Can Soon Cook Like Adventurers With Two New Official Cookbooks.
• EN World’s Morrus shares thoughts on D&D General Fiends & Foes is a D&D lore book of beasts, villains, and monstrosities from across the planes.
• Cincinnati UC News wrote up Rolling with it: Dungeons & Dragons & the University Honors Program.
• NME’s Ali Shutler rightly notes that Gerard Way pauses My Chemical Romance’s Wembley Stadium show to talk about ‘Baldur’s Gate’.

Support: Fight the Algorithm.

RPG reviews and interviews from around the web

• The RPG Gazette reviews the Pendragon Starter Set.
• Take On Rules thinks Back to Powered by the Apocalypse.
• TechRaptor gives a review of Hamel’s House of Oddities.
• Over at The Kind DM, the team reviews The Hangman’s Due.
• If you’re looking for a review on Seven-Part Pack, Timothy Linward has you covered over at Wargamer.
• The folks at Ill Met by Morrslieb take a closer look at Warhammer Companion.
• TTRPG Fantatics review Pathfinder Lost Omens High Seas.
• Prismatic Wasteland reviews A Book of Beasts.
• 2d6 Stingbats reviews When the Shimmer Fades.
• Magnolia Keep reviews Dawn of the Orcs.
• Screen Rant looks into Twilight Sword.
• Idraluna Archives reviews He Ain’t Gonna Jump No More.
• Over at Reviews from R’lyeh, the team reviews Sironomandidi, Lost Library and The One Ring’s Realm of the Three Rings.
• Iron & Ink shared a playtest review of Laumry’s Shadowdark Theseus is Dead.

RPG new releases

• Chaosium has hit publish on the free Age of Vikings Quickstart.
• A Couple of Drakes released HEDGE – Dark Fairytale RPG.
• Mongoose has hit publish on The Deep and the Dark | Roll20 VTT.
• Available now is Greywood Publishing’s QUERP Modern Core Rules and Fantasy Gamesmaster’s Companion – Revised Edition.
• We now have Goblin Archives’ Liminal Horror Deluxe Edition.
• WatcherDM released the 5-star rated Blood Prairie Game Master’s Guide.
• Lucky Dice Games released The Old Tales Are Hungry: Ten Dark Folk Horror Adventures for 5e.
• Silver Wyrm Games published 20XX: Handbook for the Recently Deceased.
• Oranges and Olives has published THE BITTER HARVEST: 80 Cursed Elixirs: A 5e Dark Mediterranean Compendium of Potions, Penance, and Power.
• Tedankhamen has unveiled NUNA RPG Quickstart.
• Dark Dice Adventures has hit publish on 5-star rated What the Dead Carried.
• The Third Place released The Trolling Engine.
• Available now is Grey Wolf Writes’ Stonebridge : A Fantasy Game Setting.
• We now have Reaper Miniatures, Inc’s Dungeon Dwellers Roleplaying Game: Character Sheet for free.
• Open Sesame Games has hit publish on the 5-star rated Ecryme: The Player’s Guide.
• In physical releases and pre-releases, we have;
  • Dungeon Crawler Carl: Dice: Loot Pack.
  • Icons Of The Realms: Miniature: Hollow Dragon.
  • Icons Of The Realms: Miniatures: Aarakocra Flock.
  • Icons Of The Realms: Miniatures: Eldritch Enemies Of Ravenloft.

RPG bundle deals

• Save $106 (100%!) with Indie charity bundle for Accessibility in TTRPGS!.
• Save $10 (17%) in Old Oak Games’ Beyond the Woods: Irish Inspired Fantasy Setting for 5e bundle.
• Save $10 (33%) with the Arcverse’s DM Essentials: Fighters bundle.
• Save $5.00 (14%) with Need Games’ pre-order on Fabula Ultima Atlas Natural Fantasy | PDF+Nexus.
• Save $1.05 (35%) in Infinite Initiative’s Cheese Goblins bundle.

RPG ideas, tips and discoveries

• The Angry GM writes up Mental Models in Roleplaying Games: They’re Not Bullshit.
• To Be Resolved investigates Fight or Flight, Tense Decisions in Tabletop RPGs.

RPG Crowdfunding

There’s more! You can catch up with the Kickstarter campaign we’ve written up in more detail at Kickstarter watch. Here are some noteworthy industry projects to mention:

• Fright at the Museum by Andrew Misisco is currently raising funds for “A Prehistoric Adventure Zine for the Subterranean Fightin’ Freaks RPG”
• Fantasy RPG Zine Double Feature – Delver 21 and Runes 11 from James Floyd Kelly seeks funding for “Delver and Runes – Two Zines for GMs and Players of OSR Fantasy RPGs”
• Harmony, a very cozy TTRPG is a project by Fabled Adventurers Extraordinaire Games that invites players to explore “A game of cooperation and personal growth.”
• Breath of Life – The Artificer (Pathfinder 1st Edition) from Orphaned Bookworm Productions LLC shares “A 1-20 magic-item-focused class for Pathfinder 1st edition”
• Gary’s Appendix: Issue 11 (Goblins!) by Jeffrey Jones is currently raising funds for “Articles and creature entries by a menagerie of designers for OSE and the wider OSR.”
• D100 Crime Events – Lists for 5E by Laura MCL is currently raising funds for “Which Crime event will you choose!”
• The Ritual: A Sapphic, Tarot-Based Solo TTRPG by Questward Press is offering “AKA “The Shadow Mommy Project,” originally created for Fistful of Crits’ Romantasy TTRPG Jam!”
• The Forbidden Schools of Magic- D&D 5e by Ana the halfling is currently raising funds for “A 5E-Compatible TTRPG Campaign Setting & GM Toolkit for Dark Arcane Academies”
• The Book of Many Books is a project by New Heart Games that is described as “A fantasy TTRPG supplement containing 100 books that work as items.”
• Osteum Dice: Skeletal Anatomy Metal Dice Set by Art.D.dice is currently raising funds for “Solid metal skeletal dice with detailed carved motifs, inlaid engraved numbers, expertly balanced for steady fair rolls.”
• Taios’ Library of Everything – DnD 5e Player Options Book! from 5e Family is nominating “A father & son passion project bringing new player options to the 2024 rules.”
• Postmarked Peril – Envelope-Sized Pirate Borg Adventures from Creature Curation offers “3 inter-connected Pirate Borg compatible adventures with player-facing maps on one side and GM information on the other.”
• DarkSpace Ship Catalogue – Volume 2 by DMing the World Press is now live, described as “12 Designs, 20+ Ships for use with DarkSpace and Shadowdark.”
• The Vharos Run | DarkSpace RPG is a project by Midgar Press LLC that is described as “The Vharos Run is a Lv 2 DarkSpace brochure fold one-shot for SideQuest. An escort mission, crystal mysteries, and starfighter combat.”
• Beneath Sacred Ground: A Zine for Lies By Omission from Chain Assembly is working on “The Church of San Antonius sat upon a field of wind swept grasses for over 1400 years. The secrets beneath its stone are much older.”
• WyrmCodex: The Dragon-Forged DM Screen from WyrmCodex shares “Open it. Behold a command center. Close it. A dragon on your shelf.”
• Pirate Borg: Fantastic Figureheads…And Where to Find Them from ThisEffinGm offers “A trifold of fun! 20 Figurehead Ship Relics and an Adventure Scenario for the World’s Worst Pirate RPG!”
• The Shadowed Cathedral of St. Orsolya from Gregory Harris proposes “Horror and Intrigue for MÖRK BORG / A 16-page scenario zine by Gregory Harris”
• Righteous Violence! from Crawl Club Publishing brings us “A Pirate Borg Compatible Double Feature with new adventures written by Bill Harvat and Erica Lowe-Tarpley”
• The Blacklight of San Morro | Pirate Borg is a project by Steve Gibbs that is “When the black beacon burns, the drowned remember the way. A one-session trifold adventure for Pirate Borg.”
• The Fingertip Isles – for the ShadowDark RPG by Jeff Stevens is a new roleplaying games project for “A brief region setting Designed for use with ShadowDark RPG. PDF, Print-on-Demand, and Foundry VTT options.”
• Pirate Borg: Freebooting Bookmarks is a project by Snapback Game Studios that promises “Table-laden, high-utility, double-sided bookmarks for the World’s Worst Pirate RPG!”
• Shadowdark Triple Feature by Joseph R. Lewis is now live, described as “Three one-shot adventure zines by Joseph R. Lewis”
• Dark Kingdom Koreana: Dragon’s Wake from Dave Thaumavore proposes “An A5 zine that brings naval combat into 1590s East Asia. Compatible with Pirate Borg.”
• Pirate Borg:Admiral Mara Veil’s Field Guide to Bad Decisions from Mosey is pitching “A Pirate Borg Zine about Smuggling, Booze, Drugs, Contraband and all around FAFO.”
• Delivered! A Solo Journaling RPG Card Deck is a project by Rage Kage Games that looks at “Deliver parcels across the galaxy with ease using the Delivered! A Solo Journaling RPG custom playing card deck.”
• PIRATE BORG: Rise of the Kelp Lords by Madness Heart Games is now live, described as “A Trio of Tri-folds: Adventure, Bestiary, & Player Class!”
• Avenge the White Mare – an Adventure for Shadowdark RPG from Michael Putlack has introduced “The first Attack the Light zine! Features amazing hand-carved reduction print art. Are you ready to face the imposing Sárkány dragon?”
• Damp, Dark Doom: A Sodden Delve for Use With Shadowdark RPG from Jesse Winter is crowdfunding “A high-stakes pamphlet adventure for Shadowdark RPG”
• The 5th Element 2 from LunaDice is working on “A unique set of dice based on the film The 5th Element”
• RPG Trap & Spell Dice/Dungeon Dice is a project by Mythica Gaming that invites players to explore “Randomly create traps, spells and dungeons for your RPG campaign.”
• Zombie Survivor RPG – A Solo RPG Game is a project by Crow Heart Roleplay Resources that promises “Zombie Survivor RPG is a solo roleplaying game set in a modern-day, post-apocalyptic world overrun by zombies.”
• Hope vs Fear: Dual Dice Towers – Dreams vs Nightmares by Fantasy3DTabletop is offering “3D Printable Dual Fantasy Dice Towers for D&D, Daggerheart & More. Optimized for FDM printing, with Single-Color and Multi-Color files.”
• SOLO RPG • Alone Against… The Death Lords of Daemonrot is a project by Outland Games that is described as “A solo RPG adventure… where even your pledge level is a fate-filled decision…”
• Saixar’s Spell Markers for D&D Miniatures by Saixar Collectibles is an upcoming supplement for “3D Printable Spell Markers for Tabletop RPGs like D&D 5e. Thematic STL files to track spells and effects.”
• RealmMaker: Frontier Wilds from YOUNGHO SON is nominating “Trading posts, ancient tree lairs, dungeons, ruined shrines and wilderness scatter terrain for 28–32mm for Tabletop RPG”
• The Living City: Velmoris, A Complete City For D&D 5E by Pars is now live, described as “A Complete Dark Fantasy City, More than 200 Pages of 60 Interactive Buildings Filled with NPCs, Shops & Quests for 5E and TTRPGs.”
• The Oni Bureau, 5e is a project by Anthony David that is “Tokyo, 1926. The Dead are not always gone. Some things do not want to leave. The Bureau keep the truth contained…mostly.”
• THE BOUNTY BOARD: grimdark bounty toolkit quests for TTRPGS is a project by strange arcade that is “A collection of system netural bounty quests with hand drawn maps: compatable with mork borg shadowdark 5E and other ttrpgs.”
• Fourthmarches RPG by Adam Christopher Boyd is an upcoming supplement for “A weird-fantasy open-table game of exploration and rediscovery”
• Familiars & Companions for D&D 5e – The Familiar Forge by Adventurica is offering “A DnD 5e collection of unique magic items designed for familiars, companions, and those who share a bond with them.”
• Astromythos: Lair of the Spider Lord for Foundry VTT [D&D5E] is a project by Hod Publishing that features “A cosmic dark fantasy 5E adventure from the Astromythos series, adapted as a ready-to-run Foundry VTT module”
• 50 STL Bases for DnD and Wargames 4 from MikleJane seeks funding for “STL bases for your wargame, rpg games, miniature, DnD and sculpting adventures”
• NPC Vault 1, The Wicked: 20 Thematic D&D BBEGs, DnD 2024 is a project by Bradley Horton that features “20+ Thematic Villains for DnD & Other TTRPGs, with Secrets, Plans, Minions, and Lairs. D&D 5E Big Bad Evil Guys”
• Steg-O-Spire. A 3D Printable Dino theme Dice Tower-Lamp STL. is a project by MYTHIC LAYERS STUDIO LLC that is described as “A 3D printable stegosaurus inspired Dice Tower which doubles as Lamp.”
• Gardenia’s Compendium of Character Customization is a project by Piper Rush that invites players to explore “A supplementary sourcebook with new lineages, subclasses, backgrounds, weapons, and wondrous items for D&D 5e (2014).”
• The Cursed Realm: Dark Fantasy Terrain is a project by MiniArtCreations that is described as “3D Printable buildings for Your RPGs, Dioramas, and Wargames”
• The Black Box: A Mothership RPG Adventure from Jane Beswick-Wright offers “An intrapsychological extraction mission”
• Old Wild Western Rush: Complete Edition by CHIYOKO YOSHIDA is an upcoming supplement for “3D Printable Old West Terrain for Tabletop RPGs, Wargames & Miniatures”
• Cults of the Cthulhu Mythos is a project by Robert James that is described as “60 Zero-Prep Cults for D&D 5E and Lovecraftian Investigation RPG. Every cult hides a conspiracy waiting to awaken, a secret to uncover,”
• Cryptids of the North — A Folk-Horror Bestiary, Vol. I by Gabriel Arjona The5thPlayer is touted as “59 Adversaries, Tier 1–4 — Daggerheart Compatible. Explore a world of Pan-American folklore and danger. 59 American Cryptids”

[What’s this chart? We use Kickstarter Heat to measure how busy the crowdfunding season is.]

Do you know of any RPG news sources we might not know? If so, please let us know or leave a comment below.