Greetings Horizoners,
January and February are a fun if hectic couple of months for indie TTRPG creators across the scene. Not content with committing to creating expansive and encompassing new settings, lots of publishers are putting out incredible, beautiful, and intriguing zines through the grassroots creator-led Zine Month (ZiMo) or the Kickstarter project ZineQuest.
There are probably hundreds of different zine projects out there, so instead of writing something about creating this time, I asked in the Far Horizons CoOp Discord server what their top picks were. Here’s what they came back with:
Wraithlands
Describing itself as “lo-fi roleplaying on the cursed celtic isle of Nullona”, one FHC member dubbed Wraithlands as "Dark Souls Ireland”, which doesn’t feel out of place. With beautiful-looking lineart, a deeply unsettling-sounding setting, and ultralight-feeling rules, Wraithlands looks like it will please all kinds of RPG fans, but perhaps particularly those in the NSR/OSR traditions. It’s a British project, so its inspirations read more like a who’s-who in miniature skirmish games, as well as drawing heavily from the TTRPG scene. All-in-all, this looks dope. You’ve got until February 25th to back it.
The Electrum Archive Issue 02
Indie veteran Emiel Boven is back with another zine exploring the rich science-fantasy setting of Orn. The first zine gave you the core rules, and this one focuses on one particularly city, Titan Port, which looks and sounds clever and engaging. The Electrum Archive has garnered a lot of support over the last little while, and it’s exactly the kind of thing that ZineQuest is supposed to be about. If you want to get in on this, it finishes on February 28th.
Terminus
CoOp members Jonathon Boyle and Bri de Dannan have teamed up to make a tarot-powered zine about exploring the history and impact of liminal spaces. Pick up the game and your favourite deck of tarot cards, and head out to your local liminal hotspot, and play through this lovely game feature bright, vibrant colour illustrations of some of the major arcana. The campaign has blasted through nearly all of its stretch goals, and it’s going to be well worth jumping in on this campaign, which runs until March 6th.
Zephyr
Not technically part of ZiMo, but nonetheless a worthy addition here. This is an anarchist roleplaying game of fleeting identities by CoOp member Federico Sohns. The flavour text is tantalising: “Travel across the wandering, sentient landmass of Ophoi on a strange journey to fulfill sacred obligations and find your way back home.” The art, layout, text, and design here is all incredible, and I’ve been waiting for this for what seems like an age. If you buy no other major game this year, get this one. You won’t regret it.
Roundup of the rest
Here are more than a handful of my own picks:
Kickstarter:
The Connection Machine by Tanya Floaker, a science fiction RPG about attachment, trauma and meaningful connection.
These Stars Will Guide You Home by Albi, a solo journaling RPG about a voyage in search of home, and the myth written about it centuries later.
Strictly Between Us by Eli Seitz, a larp for gamers who want to move and dancers who want to tell stories.
Chiron’s Doom by Nick Bate: “A mysterious monument. An ill-fated expedition.”
The Ink That Bleeds by Paul Czege, a zine about bleed, immersion, writing to find out, self care, and the landscape of your unconscious, with insights from [his] own play.
Broken Cities by Côme Martin: “Travelers explore a strange and ever-changing surrealist City in this GMless, diceless RPG with asymmetrical roles!”
Hiria: The Eternal City by Jimmy Shelter, a solo journaling RPG in which you travel through different manifestations of the same city tracking down your quarry.
Earth to Jupiter by Pidj Sorensen, a solo epistolary roleplaying game about being left on an apocalyptic Earth.
Hopes and Dreams of the Orbital Bound by Craig Duffy, a Dyson Eclipse slice-of-life sci-fi RPG.
Crowdfundr:
Horse and Rider by Robin Small, a two-player game about a horse and the person trying to tame them.
Pelogos by Basil Wright, a multiplayer TTRPG where you play as a paranormal investigator known as a Lantern Keeper, or as a sea ghost known as an Echo.
S.A.D Zines Volume 2 by Logan Timmins, tiny games that connect you to yourself and the place around you through the lens of everyday objects and natural features.
News
The Big Wizard Game
Don’t buy it, don’t play it, don’t watch it on stream. Listen to trans and queer people when they tell you that endorsing this product supports and encourages hate speech, not only with money but with cultural clout. All you have to do is nothing; it’s easy to not buy a $70 game, actually (and spend the money on some of the games from the above, maybe?!).
Project Updates
Gungamesh is preparing for a long-term playtest this month or next, depending on scheduling. Keep your eyes peeled for updates on how this is going, and what that means for the project as a whole.
Far Horizons Guide to Cults has moved fully into the art phase, having passed the editing phase. Expect a Kickstarter update on this soon with a preview to another cult.
A Thousand Burning Stars
O Morningstar! is out and published, and is still available in physical at Knave of Cups (US), Ratti Incantati (Canada), Beyond Cataclysm (UK), and Indie Press Revolution (worldwide).
Little Gods (who hide on street corners) is out and published, and will shortly be available at at least some of the places listed for O Morningstar! thanks to our printing partners Tabletop Hotdish.
Sam Leigh, creator of Anamnesis, is our first A Thousand Burning Stars creator-in-residence. She’s creating a Wretched & Alone hack about being a scientific experiment supervisor when your test subjects appear to be not totally human. To be published in May.
I was alone so I set a fire
Brandon George’s dungeon-crawling boardgame/TTRPG crossover is lining up nicely for publication this month. In Brandon’s words:
"i was alone, so i set a fire" is a cooperative, board game-style dungeon crawler in which players start separated from one another in a labyrinth and have to find each other and escape. It uses 40 out of a standard deck of 52 cards, which each correspond to often whimsical dungeon room prompts players must roll under using one of their three skills—Sentimentality, Pragmatism, or Inquisitiveness—to pass. As players find one another, they are able to roll for prompts together and combine their supplies, therefore giving the game an inverse difficulty curve as they come together and help one another.
You can expect publication on February 21st. I’ll let you know when it’s live.
That’s all for this missive. Until next time – make cool games. wage class war.
Best Wishes,
— Marx // F.H.C.
You can catch me writing about the art and layout process in little gods at https://twitter.com/duamnNFR/status/1618041443674906625