ZineQuest 4: The Old-School Essentials Projects!

 ZineQuest4 is happening now, with 70 active projects as of today.

Lots of cool projects, but apparently less than usual, what with the decision to skip February, and August being the month of Gencon, and people trying to be on holiday, maybe.

But still more than enough projects to make a list! So let's get it going.

The Old-School Essentials ZineQuest4 Projects - plus a bunch of not-zine projects worth checking!

Please note this list includes active projects as well as some in pre-launch.

Delver Issue 5 - The fifth installment of the zine series that provides LOTS of random tables for the OSE referee. Each issue also includes an adventure. The previous issues are available at DrivethruRPG.

Inn to the Deep - A five-booklets deal by Bill Edmund, offering four dungeons, a bestiary, and an inn connecting the whole thing. Check out those sweet annotated maps!

The Beast of Borgenwold - A level 1-3 adventure with a big bad reanimated taxidermied manticore! Written by Harry Menear, with cool art by Yuri Perkowski.

Zines With Class For Old-School Essentials - Offers 5 new classes and advanced races for OSE, including a chimpanzee folk and necromancer. 5 more classes are listed as stretch goals, and each class is featured in its own individual zine. By Appendix N Entertainment.

Gary's Appendix - A zine with articles by various authors, offering advice, inspiration and guidance for OSE referees. At $1 fr the PDF, it's definitely worth checking.

The Scourge of Northland - By Jacob Fleming, a new adventure module in the same vein as Tower Silveraxe and Valley of the Manticore.

Blackmore: a high fantasy Rock & Roll zine for 5E & OSE - A zine with three connected adventures, inspired by the Rainbow rock band albums.

Worldbreaker / Dark Tides of Zaratos - A HUGE double-feature campaign offering a pirate/psionic campaign setting and adventure (Zaratos), AND a sourcebook to end your campaign world with a bang (Worldbreaker). The whole campaign actually delivers 6 zines!

Into the Space Worm - A dungeon adventure inside a colossal space worm, from Knight Owl Publishing, authors of the Old School & Cool zine series.

Old-School Solo Adventures - Four zines each with a scenario that can be played solo like choose-your-own-adventure books, or used in regular group play with a referee.

Secret of the Black Crag - Written by Chance Dudinack, author of The Black Wyrm of Brandonsford. Nuff said.

BIG EYE CHUNGUS - From Levi Combs (check the Phylactery zine!), a zine dedicated to those tentacled, big-eyed, floating sphere monsters of the deep. Not officially associated with Old-School Essentials, but still close enough to make it into the list, as the OSE Advanced Rules has the eye of terror monsters available. You know, those with beauty in their eye...

The Den of Nightmares and Sweets - A "spoopy" adventure for low level characters.

Loot Hunters - System agnostic set of regional, city and dungeon maps, with a great old school feel and a bargain €1 pdf pledge.

The Medieval Margin-agerie Zine - A generically osr of bizarre content, by Paul Baldowsky, acclaimed author of award-winning The Dee Sanction.

Ogre's 11 - Not OSE-licensed, but a zine with heist scenarios by Mark Finn. Plus I love puns.

Black God's Kiss - An OSE adventure and "microgame" based on C.L. Moore's tale The Black God's Kiss (still in prelaunch as I write, so this is all I know).

Have I missed something? A new project has launched? Hit the comments so I can update the list

d20 Curses for OSR Games, and Some Zine News!

What with the holidays and my baby girl being sick, I've missed a couple of my usual Saturday tables, so here I am to make amends.

In the meantime, though, a lot has happened! ZineQuest4 has been officially postponed to August, but the creators' community has organized an alternative for this February: ZineMonth, or ZiMo!

And that's not all! I've set up the pre-launch page for Axian Library, my contribution to the ZineMonth! If you've enjoyed my random tables and OSE-licensed electronic/print-at-home zines, the project is definitely for you: more information in Axian Library post.

And that's not all, again! My friend & designer Danilo Moretti has launched his very first Kickstarter with a cool OSR offering: a series of Pamphlet Islands, which just got funded!

I think that's enough for today, whew!

So here's the table: d20 curses for OSE and other OSR games. These are also a preview of my upcoming Pious Prayers & Powerful Prodigies.

1. Hands tremble (-4 to attack rolls).
2. Crippled, movement halved.
3. STR halved (minimum 3).
4. INT halved (minimum 3).
5. DEX halved (minimum 3).
6. CON halved (minimum 3).
7. Painful sores: 20% of the character’s total hp don’t heal in any way.
8. Bad luck, -2 to saving throws.
9. A permanent Blight spell on the character.
10. The character cannot lie and must always tell the truth.
11. Vision is obfuscated past 40’.
12. Daylight imposes -4 to all attack rolls.
13. Nightmares disturb the character’s sleep: healing from rest only works after a successful WIS check.
14. The character can no longer read (includes scrolls).
15. The character’s spoken words become an unintelligible gibberish.
16. Magic items don't work for the character. Cursed items are not affected.
17. All retainers, followers, hirelings, specialists, etc, turn their back on the character.
18. All shields and armor fall off from the character, who can no longer use them.
19. The character’s words are only understood by creatures of the same alignment.
20. Roll and combine two results, or devise something based on the character’s story and current situation.

If you enjoy this type of content, check my other random tables posts, and my OSR stuff on DrivethruRPG: the Land of Legends series and my pwyw e-zines for Old-School Essentials: Wondrous Weavings Warped and Weird, Mysteriously Missing & Merrily Met, and Notable Novices & Notorious Newcomers!

My next pwyw Old-School Essentials e-zine will be released this month! To find out what it'll be about, and grab it as soon as it's out, follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Telegram!

Kickstarter, Blockchain, ZineQuest 4 and Zine Month - Whaaaa?

UPDATES! See end of post!

February is coming, and February means ZineQuest. Or does it?

It seems there we'll be no ZineQuest this year:

Anya is Anya Combs, director of games at Kickstarter, so we can assume she knows what she's saying. Let's take a closer look:

"Officially", yeah, but all we have for now is Sam saying Anya said... That's not my definition of "official". If anything, this proves that KS doesn't care much about ZQ anyway.

 Note the specifics: it is not happening in February... which leaves the door open for another time frame.

Other sources say ZineQuest 4 might still be a thing, but in August:

And that's Tony Vasinda of Plus One Experience, one of the most important voices in the zine/indie rpg scene. (I interviewed him some time ago). He's been encouraging creators to try different platforms instead of Kickstarter for a while now, such as GameFound, which he's been working with when crowdfunding Down We Go.

So where are all the zines going? Tough question.

The indie/zine rpg community truly is a community: Charlie Fergaves is already setting up Zine Month, a site to showcase all zine projects on any crowdfunding platform. And the RPG Zines Facebook Group is always there. 

And yet, many creators are reluctant to leave Kickstarter. Even now that ZQ4 isn't a thing! 

The acclaimed Old-School Essentials zine Planar Compass is crowdfunding their third issue on KS next month, ZQ or not ZQ. And they are not the only ones. Project pages are being filled and activated as I write.

I have a zine project for next month too. Haven't made up my mind 100%, but I think it will be on KS anyway. If you've enjoyed my electronic/print-at-home OSE zines, and the Lands of Legends series, you might definitely be interested.

I'm the smallest creator. I've only run one crowdfunding last year during ZQ3, and it well very well, because yes, KS and ZQ give you a lot of momentum. Besides that, I only have a bunch of zines on Drivethru. I believe Kickstarter is still my only option for now, ZQ or not.

But all this commotion about Kickstarter is not only because of ZineQuest 4!

At the root of the general disaffection towards KS is their announcement on December the 9th of their intention to move to the blockchain technology, in partnership with Celo.

The news only mentions blockchain, but has been generally received as bad news because 1. blockchain is the technology associated with cryptocurrencies and NFTs, which are generally viewed as scams, and 2. this type of technology seems to have a terrible environmental impact.

It must be noted that the KS announcement doesn't mention cryptos nor NFTs at all, so the association is a bit arbitrary, for now at least. It must also be noted that very little information has come after that, regarding when the new technology will be implemented, and how.

Tech-savvy people have spent hours on social medias to discuss and explain the details of blockchain, and the difference between proof of work and proof of stake blockchains, which have largely different consequences on the environment.

But as of now, there is very little to discuss as facts are scarce.

My friend Alan Bahr of Gallant Knight Games has just launched their own "GallantFunding", after deciding to stay away from KS. Their original plan was to crowdfund both War of the Magi and the awesome Kosmosaurs (both by Diogo Nogueira) in a "double-feature" Kickstarter, but things have changed. War of the Magi is being crowdfunded now on their own web store, and Kosmosaurs is temporarily on hold.

Even before that, Pinnacle Entertainment (a veteran on Kickstarter) has experimented with other platforms (East Texas University on GameFound), and even on their own platform with the Super Powers Companion for Savage Worlds.

So there is that. Creators are skeptical about the blockchain change, and ZQ4 isn't happening. Is this going to be the end of ZQ as we know it?

One thing I'm sure is the community that has grown around will go on and prosper!

I've made this post to collect the info I've found so far, and to help other creators (small, big, aspiring!) to figure out what's going on. If I've missed some important piece of info, drop it in the comments!

UPDATE!

ZINEQUEST 4 IS COMING AUGUST 2022

UPDATE 2!

A cool article at Cannibal Halfling with solid opinions on the matter. 

UPDATE 3!

ZineMonth site is live!

UPDATE 4!

My zine Kickstarter is coming!