March: A gazillion beautiful zines
TLDR
48h left on the SKYREALMS Deluxe Pack - L.F. OSR made
SKYREALMS, now or never
We’re close to the finish line with SKYREALMS: pre-orders close next Tuesday, and if you haven’t checked the project yet, you should, it’s here.
But Iko, what is Skyrealms?
It’s a fantasy setting, featuring three floating islands stuck between the kingdoms of the mortals and the lands of the Gods, filled with eerie creatures, as cute as they are dangerous. I’m super excited because we’re going to print the Skyrealms Deluxe Pack at L.F. OSR, and Singer Bind the square back zines. This will provide a better reading experience, as the combination of Singer Binding and square back allows to open the books flat. Which is particularly useful, as Skyrealms is not only a tabletop RPG, but also a coloring book!
The crew behind the Skyrealms Pack is amazing: Evlyn Moreau is the lead artist, adventure by Emiel Boven (The Electrum Archive), solo game by Armanda Haller (Grandmothership), maps by Bordercholly (Knights of the road) and editing by Sam Leigh (Anamnesis) - And I contribute with text and layout.
The core elements of the Deluxe Pack are two zines: Skyrealms - Creature and folks, a collection of playable backgrounds and NPCs, and the Almanac, a deep dive into the setting with rumors, encounters, weather, a full fledged magic system, a dungeon adventure, adventure sparks, loot/stuff, and more. Skyrealms is system neutral and comes with PDF conversion helpers for Troika, DCC, DURF, and Cairn! We’ll start to fulfill it at the end of March.
Skyrealms Deluxe Pack contents:
Skyrealms (creatures and folks) - digest size, color cover (on color paper), black and white interior, 44p
Almanac - digest size, color cover (on color paper), black and white interior, 44p
Atlas - foldable and colorable map, folded to digest size
Chromatic flute - adventure - digest size, black and white, 8p including cover
Solo game - 4"x 6", black and white, 12p
Lostronaut card - digest size, black and white
Goddess card - digest size, black and white
Preorders close Tuesday March 7 - don’t wait, get Skyrealms now, there won’t be reprints of the L.F. OSR Deluxe Pack!!!
The Lost Bay game
I’m calling dibs on October! I’ll be Crowdfunding The Lost Bay game, running a jam, and hopefully releasing actual plays. You’re warned!
The game system is streamlined, I’m still tweaking a few things, but I’ve reached a cool “the core rules fit on one page” point. It's simple, fast, and supports emergent narration through the actions of the PCs. That was the main design goal: create a tool to spark and play immersive horror stories.
The Lost Bay world has a nice mood, it’s an alt suburban place/story, with a strong weird/paranormal vibe, sometimes a bit gory, depending on how much you push the difficulty level (Difficulty Level being an actual mechanic of the game). I can anticipate that there should be a setting book describing the main Districts of the Bay and what’s going on in each one of them: Places, NPCs, Scary MOFOs, Saints, Dukes of Hell.
If you can’t wait until October and you’d like to know more about the game, you could join The Lost Bay open table: I run bi-monthly sessions for new and returning players. We play a slow burn campaign, featuring a spooky mystery that impacts the whole Bay, giving the players the possibility to hop in and out the campaign. Want to know more? Join the cult at The Lost Bay discord server
If you don’t feel like hopping on the server right now, but still would like to take a peak in the game, you could check one of the Actual Play reports. They are written by the awesome campaign players, as diary entries of their characters. Here’s the AP Report #3 written by Mia, a teen Spirit, played by Caleb Zane Huett.
So many things
Enough said about The Lost Bay studio, as usual a gazillion cool things are happening in the indie TTRPG scene. Here are the creators/projects that have caught my attention in the last weeks
Brandon Yu
Little is known about Brandon Yu, video game and TTRPG designer from Singapore except they are an awesome artist! I’m constantly blown away by their fantasy, eerie, sometimes grim, art. You should take a look at their twitter feed. Brandon recently started taking commissions which is a blessing for all of us. I’m going to commission something from them for sure. I mean look at this, isn’t this cool as hell?
ECO-MoFos by David Blandy
Full disclosure I’ll be doing some editing on the game, that’s why I had a chance to read the draft and talk about it with David, and that’s why I know it rocks!
I’ve always been a sucker for post-apocalyptic nerdom. I’m excited by anything loosely related to a dying world, scorched Earth, gangs of wandering survivors. Lucky me David Blandy is itchfunding Eco-MoFos a “mid-future ecopunk ruin-delving survival game”, “Weirdhope not Grimdark”. I feel like David is sowing the seeds for a new sub-genre of the post-apocalyptic family, as the undead world he features is as freaky as it is filled with a sense of wonder.
I particularly dig how ancient times are present throughout the game with “Old Stuff”, and the way characters grow, taking in new adaptations via Key Items. For example: the Electro-Skullcap Implant gives the Technomancer adaptation, or the Yellowleaf Tea, gives Emptah. You can find ECO-MoFos on itch and if you feel like it, you can participate in the Eco Mofos jam.
Camp Elementa by Edaureen Muhamad Nor
A new game by Edaureeen, where you play teenagers with the supernatural ability to control an elemental: the four traditional Earth, Wind, Water, Fire, plus Metal, and Void. The game is GM-agnostic, meaning you can play it with or without a GM figure, or even dive in a solo run. Edaureen has been putting out super creative games, she delivers the Kickstarter rewards at an unbelievably fast pace, and reading content she writes infallibly puts a grin on my face. I wholeheartedly recommend to check Camp Elementa, here. Cherry on top, Momatoes is going to draw the cover for the game.
MIRU 2 by Hinokodo
The solar punk solo game MIRU is back! This second opus gives more depth to both the post-apocalyptic world and the game mechanics, adding spice and dangers to the exploration process. MIRU features a successful and clever blend between map-making and hex-crawl, packed in a zine with a slick layout. MIRU 2 is kickstarting right now, and comes with cool add-ons and reward goodies, like dice, tokens, minidisc! Check it right here, there are only a few days left before the campaign ends!
That’s all I got for today, as I’m writing those last words, I’m wearing my plastic boots, and my Shark mask. I’ll be heading soon for the Sinking Marshes with my spear, where I’ll wait patiently for tonight’s The Lost Bay Open Table guests. Have a great Sunday!
Iko
