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Amidst this February’s storm of big PC game releases, there’s one annual tradition I want to make sure doesn’t get overlooked: ZineQuest. If you’re not familiar, it’s a whole month of independent tabletop RPG creators crowdfunding quick ‘n’ dirty projects on Kickstarter—usually adventures or supplements, but also small self-contained games.
There’s always a scrappy, DIY energy to it all, and tons of creativity flowing. The result is a bunch of great and often very weird ideas that might not otherwise get the chance to blossom in the hobby. It’s a perfect opportunity to pick up a few things to spice up your shelf or your campaign without breaking the bank.
But there are a lot of projects to go through, and it can be hard to find the ones for you. That’s where I come in. Just like I did last year, I’ve searched high and low for the cream of the crop and picked out my favourites for you, across a wide range of styles, genres, and games. Read on, and find your new favourite zine.
After the success of last year’s GAS! GAS! GAS!, designer Waco Matrixo is back with another adventure for brilliant sci-fi horror RPG Mothership. This time it’s a spooky space slasher flick, with a crew newly awakened from cryo-sleep being stalked by a chemically-enhanced killer. I shudder to think what’s in the “coffin-sized box” they’ve been hired to transport. Expect twists and turns, great layout, and art packed with personality—Waco has been doing great work with Mothership adventures and videos for years now.
Unusually, this project isn’t an adventure, supplement, or game at all. Instead, it’s pitched as an accessible guide to the mathematics of dice-rolling, including how various rare dice types—your d16s, d40s, etc—can be simulated with dice you already own. In fact, creator and YouTuber Z Gosck claims that with this guide, you could replace your entire dice collection with just a d12 and a d10 and still be able to make any roll you needed. Efficient! And it all looks to be delivered with enough personality and humour to make it all entertaining to boot.
If you like messing about with miniatures, and especially 3D printing, this two-player tactical combat RPG seems like the perfect excuse. One of you plays a party of heroes, the other the GM, building out a procedurally-generated dungeon full of monsters as you play. The nice thing about this campaign is that if you’re curious, you can actually already download for free not only the core rules but a whole set of STLs for the models too. If you like what you see there, you can back the campaign for a printed version of the rulebook and more STLs, including a fun set of dungeon blocks that have a charming Minecraft-esque look.
A troll has fallen down a well and his body’s exploded into dismembered parts, and somehow that’s kicked off a goblin cult uprising in the depths. This 5e-compatible adventure promises “the opportunity to get slapped around by a severed troll hand or kicked up the backside by an enormous foot”, which would be a hard pitch to pass up on its own. Paired with the wonderfully quirky art, it’s irresistible.
This one falls into the ‘it’ll be fascinating if they can pull it off’ category. You play book thieves out to steal magic hoarded by corrupt wizards, but the twist is that all the elements of the game are dictated by what actual books you have at home. Everyone grabs one off the shelf and uses the writing in it to design their characters and spells, and the GM even does the same to determine what will appear in the adventure. It’s the sort of high concept pitch that might just not work at all in play, but if there’s ever a time to throw a bit of money behind a cool, mad idea, it’s ZineQuest month.
Shakespeare characters that were killed off in their plays unite to take revenge on their creator. Now that’s a perfect premise for a one-shot RPG. Even better, the mechanics are influenced by iambic pentameter—when you take an action, you roll a d10 and get that many syllables to describe it, with only a perfect line of ten being a guaranteed success. Playable heroes include Lady Macbeth, Mercutio, Ophelia, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as one combined character. Finally, the tabletop fan/English Lit nerd demographic is being served.
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Kurt Indovina
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