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Voros

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I was going to post about this new OSR zine Through Ultan's Door and realized we apparently don't have a thread dedicated to OSR and other RPG zines. So this will be that. I'll post some others I dig and have recently discovered. Feel free to post your favs as well.

TUD is really a mini-setting and dungeon rather than a conventional zine. A nicely surreal and trippy feel with unique monsters and magic items. Very nice art, maps and well laid out. Recommended.

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It's older and long since gone the way of the Dodo, but I really liked Paul Mason's Imazine, the later issues of which are still online.

Also older and not an online zine, Interactive*Fantasy was a fascinating read while it lasted, and can be had for cheap in pdf from Drive-thru
 
The first OSR zine I got into was Black Pudding by J.V. West. He illustrates and writes almost all of it himself. For me the best stuff are his NPCs and mini-dungeons.

He also occasionally includes some cool monsters and magic items. He also has new classes, some look fun but for me part of B/X's attraction is the way it cuts back on class bloat.

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And while B/X is the system the zine is designed for but it would be ridiculously easy to use for other editions or even other systems. James also designed the cool rules light system The Pool way back when, which I guess makes him a heretic in some OSR circles. He has a taste for curvy cheescake and his cartoon style is reminscent to me of Bode.

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I've been buying BP from the beginning but those who haven't now have the awesome option of getting the first four issues in the Heavy Helping hardcopy POD for a reasonable price.


 
I haven't checked out Through Ultan's Door yet. I've followed his blog for a while and heard nothing but good things about the zine, so I'll probably pick it up soon.

My favorite OSR zines are Wormskin (Dolmenwood) and the aforementioned Echoes from Fomalhaut. I also loved Fight On! back in the day, but I have a sad feeling that issue 15 is vaporware at this point.
 
Ben L. has a new issue of Through Ultan Door up on Drivethru. Cover by Russ Nicholson!

Go through Ultan's door in this second issue into the Catacombs of the Fleischguild, an Egyptian Revival dungeon replete with fiendish butcher traps, blood demons, flayed heretics, and much more. This 36 page zine also contains house rules for playing in the dreamlands, an article on the undead of Wishery, and new spells and magic items. It is brought to life with 50% more art than issue 1, including a cover by the great Russ Nicholson, gorgeous cartoraphy by Gus L, and lavish art by Huargo, Gus, Jeremy Duncan, Orphicss, and Matt Hildebrand.
 
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Grodog's The Twisting Stair is pretty good. Three issues so far, and they've sold enough copies to be in reprint mode. (Black Blade Publishing is the official group selling these, I think, but my Google-fu gives sends me to Grodog's blog pages.)


 
Ben L. has a new issue of Through Ultan Door up on Drivethru. Cover by Russ Nicholson!

Go through Ultan's door in this second issue into the Catacombs of the Fleischguild, an Egyptian Revival dungeon replete with fiendish butcher traps, blood demons, flayed heretics, and much more. This 36 page zine also contains house rules for playing in the dreamlands, an article on the undead of Wishery, and new spells and magic items. It is brought to life with 50% more art than issue 1, including a cover by the great Russ Nicholson, gorgeous cartoraphy by Gus L, and lavish art by Huargo, Gus, Jeremy Duncan, Orphicss, and Matt Hildebrand.
It prompted me to order print copies of both issues. Fantastic stuff.

Good customer service too. I haven't gotten the print copies yet, but Ben emailed me yesterday to let me know that someone else had just gotten some copies that were damaged and he wanted me to be sure to contact him for replacements if mine show up in bad shape.
 
Cool thread, I'd like to see more recommendations. So far I have collected Echoes from Formalhaut, Fight On, Knockspell, Green Devil Face, Megadungeon, Metal Gods of Ur-Hadad, and Wormskin.
 
The Excellent Travelling Volume is a favourite, although if you're not a fan of Tékumel and in particular TSR's Empire of the Petal Throne then it may be of only limited interest.

It used to be print only, shipped from Canada, but older issues are now also available as PDFs and there's a new arrangement for European orders to ship from the UK. tetv_07_cover_low.png
 
Temple of the Blood Moth sounds pretty cool.

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A science-fantasy horror dungeon for Old School versions of Dungeons & Dragons.
What is The Temple of the Blood Moth?
The Temple of the Blood Moth is an OSR dungeon zine full of horrible moth-creatures, a doomsday cult, strange mutants, and rusted, blood-pumping machinery.
The biological life-cycle of the central creature, the Moths, is a framing element of the dungeon itself, inspired by movies like Alien and The Thing. Each subterranean level of the dungeon corresponds to a different life-cycle stage of the Moth.
This dungeon is designed to be directly compatible with OSR systems and easily adapted to 5th Edition and other systems. All monsters include stat-references which can be used to figure out how they work in basically any game with a Monster Manual.
Though Temple of the Blood Moth has some sci-fi elements like mutation, biological horror, and machinery, it can be comfortably incorporated into any D&D-like medieval fantasy setting.
 
Hey guys please keep the suggestions rolling in. I don't have much to contribute but I buy pretty much every weird fantasy OSR recommendation.
 
I was a big fan of both Fight On! and Knockspell when they were still being published -- in fact, I contributed a number of articles to both zines.
I don't remember why they stopped coming out, but miss them.
The old issues are well worth getting if you're into OSR gaming.

There's a fanzine for Crypts and Things (S&W-based swords-and-sorcery OS game) called "From the Shroud" (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/3240/D101-Games/subcategory/5545_9121/Crypts-and-Things).
 
The Corruption of Pelursk is a neat ‘pocket dungeon’ by Shel Kahn that combines a small town and point crawl. I picked it up a while ago and want to check out her other work now. There is an episode of Fear of a Black Dragon on it as well.

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Pocket Dungeons presents: The Corruption of Pelursk, a tabletop RPG dungeon zine!
The Corruption of Pelursk is a system-agnostic tabletop RPG dungeon, written by Shel Kahn. The Isle of Pelursk holds a glowing, steaming, mist-shrouded secret at its heart, and once you've entered its clutches it does not want to let you leave.
The Corruption of Pelursk was designed to fit easily as a sidequest into an ongoing campaign or stand confidently on its own!
This Pocket Dungeon includes: the dungeon zine, a 60 page PDF, and the B&W map, a 11x17 print-at-home black and white map supplied on two 8.5 x 11 sheets, with a set of 12 cut-out hexes, as well as a .zip file of digital play assets including a colour map and colour hexes provided individually in web-friendly formats for use in online play.
 
I've had my eye on a few of those; any in particular you recommend?
There's a number of adventure scenarios, so if you're looking for something like that, they should be easy to spot by the title.
For Medieval-Authentic fantasy, issues 27, 30, 31, 35, 37, 38, 41, 44, 54, 58, 60, 62, 69, 74, 78, 86 are particularly useful.
For Gonzo-Fantasy, issues 3, 4, 16, 19, 20, 23, 26, 36, 47, 49, 53, 55, 75, 77, 79, 81, 85 are fun and ripe to enhance your own Ideas.
Some issues work best with previous ones, but can still be used on their own for the most part.

I know. It didn't help narrow it down much. What sort of aids do you prefer?
 
I know. It didn't help narrow it down much. What sort of aids do you prefer?
I don't tend to think of them in terms of sorts of aids, I focus on whether the specific topics seem interesting. The ones I have on my DriveThru wishlist are #44 The Dragon's Egg, and #53 and #55 Floating Islands and (Sky)Ships, which I see are all three on your list.
 
#77 is one of the floating islands.
Thanks - the "Gonzo" ones tend to be a little too gonzo for my tastes, but I do like what I think of as the 2E/Spelljammer/Planescape worldhopping aesthetic. I actually pulled a couple more from that main list you linked with a similar sound to them (#25 The Door of 16 Gates and #69 The Path of Trees).

Also, I'm currently reading through New Big Dragon's Wherein Evil Lies, the first issue of what Richard LeBlanc calls Volume II of his revived Dragon Horde 'zine. It's good stuff so far.
 
The Corruption of Pelursk is a neat ‘pocket dungeon’ by Shel Kahn that combines a small town and point crawl. I picked it up a while ago and want to check out her other work now. There is an episode of Fear of a Black Dragon on it as well.

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Pocket Dungeons presents: The Corruption of Pelursk, a tabletop RPG dungeon zine!
The Corruption of Pelursk is a system-agnostic tabletop RPG dungeon, written by Shel Kahn. The Isle of Pelursk holds a glowing, steaming, mist-shrouded secret at its heart, and once you've entered its clutches it does not want to let you leave.
The Corruption of Pelursk was designed to fit easily as a sidequest into an ongoing campaign or stand confidently on its own!
This Pocket Dungeon includes: the dungeon zine, a 60 page PDF, and the B&W map, a 11x17 print-at-home black and white map supplied on two 8.5 x 11 sheets, with a set of 12 cut-out hexes, as well as a .zip file of digital play assets including a colour map and colour hexes provided individually in web-friendly formats for use in online play.
Is Rachel Kahn and Shel Kahn the same person?
 
The storygame and PbtA zine Codex has their Dark 2 issue up for free. It includes the cool horror fantasy game Trophy, about a band of adventurers losing themselves in a forest ruin.

 
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Cockamania! is a system-neutral fantasy South Asian mini-setting based to some degree on the Phillipines and its folklore. It also includes recipes for adobo and other yummy dishes. I picked this up and it is pretty cool.


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Cockamania! is a fantasy adventure setting that lies at the heart of Southeast Asian culture. Explore the native habitat of the red junglefowl, wade through the monsoon rains, bet on the biggest or meanest cock, and parley with the gods!

This game is system-neutral, which means that no new rules are required to be learned in order to understand this RPG. If you already have a fantasy RPG of choice, feel free to use it to explore the town of Sabungan. Two statblocks are included in the Appendix for a couple of unique personalities, but all other creatures and people are expected to exist in most bestiaries and monster lists.
 
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Baktos Terrifying Cuisine is a cool pamphlet dungeon with a fun theme and details.

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A DELICIOUSLY DANGEROUS CULINARY ADVENTURE FOR A GROUP OF STARVING LEVEL ADVENTURERS.

In Demon Chef Bakto’s dungeon, a fresh party of adventurers is ready to make him a dangerously delicious dish, or die trying. Have you the creativity and skills to please this legendary chef or will you find a way to end his evil cuisine?

EXPLORE Bakto’s kitchen dungeon in search of the best and weirdest ingredients in fiend cuisine;
ENCOUNTER some of the most bizarre creatures in the multiverse as you delve deeper into the dungeon’s mysteries;
COLLECT up to 6 new magic items and 10 powerful ingredients found throughout the adventure;
CREATE a fantastic, original dish to please Bakto or find a way to beat him at his own game
 
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Okay just one more, I went on a itch.io spending spree. But these are so cheap and neat it is hard to resist.

Mr-Kr-Gr: The Death Rolled Kingdom


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FIVE DAYS BY BOAT, UPRIVER
You come to wide lake, watched by limestone cliffs. Shapes lurk in the water. Shapes wait up ahead.
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Riches clog Mr-Kr-Gr's rivers -- but its citizens build neither soaring temple nor palace spire. It is forbidden to set stone upon stone, in Mr-Kr-Gr.
The crocodiles say so. The crocodiles rule, here.
What stone cities exist in Mr-Kr-Gr are overgrown ruins -- haunted by corpse-honey hosts; mosquito witches; gods trapped in the prison of their idols.
These old cities are proscribed, also. The crocodiles say so. Doesn't stop downlander expeditions, though. Old cities are always full of treasure.
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Mr-Kr-Gr is an adventure setting inspired by riverine life, the crocodiles of Negeri Sembilan, and the lost cities of Southeast Asia. A rules-less, 44-page gazetteer filled with characters, locations, and detailed black-and-white art. Random NPC, encounter, and magic-crocodile generators.

Part of A Thousand Thousand Islands, an RPG zine series inspired by the material cultures, lived stories, and mythistories of Southeast Asia.
 
I didn't want to go back to d20 based systems but I like this idea so much I'm willing to give it a try when I can grab a physical copy, should have backed the KS.

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I'm looking for OSR classless systems or ideas, as always your recommendations are welcome. Also looking for alternative progression systems. I really love chaosium basic rpg progression where you get better with what you use, no xp and no levels and passion system.
I'm wondering If I can hack something of my own with the OSR materials and Open Quest to try some crazy ideas in the future, for now I just want to see what is already available.
 
I backed Ultraviolet Grasslands, and the PDF is truly beautiful. It is brimming with great art and ideas. I'm very excited to get the physical book.
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Knave is a classless OSR game. It's only $2.99, so you should be able to get your money's worth of ideas out of it even if you don't use it as-is.
 
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