Random Loot: Issue 9

The functional internet is dead. Long live newsletters.

I’m so averse to the idea that I might be annoying, so unwilling to impose my presence on people, that sending this email so soon after the promo email for The Moss Mother’s Maze feels weird. I feel like I’m intruding on your inboxes in a way I don’t like. But it’s the beginning of July and this newsletter is scheduled for the beginning of July, and here we are!

If you’ve picked up a copy of Moss Mother (either physically or digitally) or just checked out the free web version, thank you so much! It’s been great to see them arriving with people and to hear people responding positively to it. I’m particularly happy to hear people saying that they want to run it even though they don’t usually care for dungeon crawls, and that the introductory guides I included with the adventure have helped with that. I think we all know how I feel about onboarding new players and the ways we could be better at it in this industry, so seeing my initial attempts at making these games more approachable actually being well received is very heartening.

At the time of writing this there are still 9 copies of the lettered edition and 34 copies of the numbered edition of the hardbacks available, so if you’ve just been paid and feel like you want to treat yourself now would be a very good time to do that!

What’s new with me?

• If you’re on Twitter at all you’ll know that the site was once again in its death throes this week. As a result of that uncertainty I’m trying to be a bit more present on other sites as well, just so I can get used to using them if the bird site does finally disappear on us. If you’re reading this then you’re in the best place to keep up to date with the big stuff going on with me, but if you for some reason like hearing every stray thought that crosses my mind in real time as you do on Twitter, here are the other places I’m hanging out:

  • Cohost is a site I treat similarly to Twitter, just with more space. If you want to see me indulge my latest obsessions at great length, this is the place to be. Right now I’m watching all of the WCW/WWF Monday Night Wars and blogging my way through them, and I’ve also started watching all of the video nasties and writing about them.

  • On Tumblr I’m being very focused on photography. You’ll see my photos, and I’m blogging about my experiments, learning, etc. as I explore this hobby. I also occasionally post stuff to my Instagram as well, though I don’t use that platform much to actually interact with people.

  • BlueSky and Mastodon feel much more like Twitter alternatives to me and so I’m using them less actively purely because Twitter still exists and I’m still active there. We’ll see how they develop.

  • I want to love TikTok, I really do. I like using it and I find a lot of cool stuff on it, but I’m so painfully camera shy that I really struggle to make regular posts on it. It’s more time consuming/more effort for me to post there, which is largely a good thing because it means being more thoughtful about what I post. So I go through periods of activity and inactivity on it, and that cycle will probably repeat.

  • I’m trying to make more use of the blog on Loot The Room for RPG thoughts. I’ve let it flounder for a few years and have just treated the site like a store, but I have it and want to utilise it more. Most stuff that goes on there goes on Detritus first, though, and a lot of the stuff on Detritus never gets released for public consumption.

  • That’s it, I think? That’s so many places. No wonder we’re all exhausted.

• The Moss Mother’s Maze finally released, which you all know because I emailed you but it’s also the most recent thing I’ve done so it goes into this newsletter as well. It’s available digitally here and in print here and if you haven’t checked it out yet I obviously would love it if you did!

• Speaking of restarting the blog on Loot The Room, I put two fairly lengthy posts up last month. The first is a look at my process for creating book covers with no budget. The second talks about the issues that arise when we try to make books containing high levels of illustration without the budget (and other considerations) of larger publishers.

• I have an article in the new (and penultimate) issue of MCDM Arcadia. Dungeon Invasions is a set of three very horrible boss monsters for 5e, designed for you to drop into your campaign to absolutely ruin your players’ day. People have been responding really well to them and that makes me very happy. I’m honestly gutted that Arcadia is ending after the next issue. Both of my articles represent some of the best freelance writing I’ve done, and the way they treat their freelancers (in terms of pay, conditions/expectations, and just generally Not Being Assholes) is industry-leading and it’ll be sad to see them go. In a lot of ways, Filthy Peasants! was a test for what I’m trying to do with A Dungeon Game and its adventures in terms of introducing old school play styles to people who largely play modern trad, and I’m very thankful for the opportunity to work on this magazine while it was alive.

• I’m working on layout for two adventures for Leyline Press’ Salvage Union and they’re looking really nice, if I do say so myself. You can see some progress stills here.

• I spoke to Iko over at The Lost Bay about Dungeon23, megadungeons, and dungeon design in general.

What’s cool?

• Over on Cohost, Thursday Garreau took an in-depth look at Songbirds 3e. It’s a beautiful book (as is everything Snow does) and I really, really want one of the limited editions.

• Will Jobst announced the Kickstarter for Big Grave Fashion Fantasy, a game they’ve been talking about off and on for years. I’m really excited to see it finally take shape.

• Lari Assmuth has released T-DEF 2, the sequel to T-DEF. It’s a GMless tactical combat/resource management RPG that’s heavily inspired by X-Com. I really loved the original game and this sequel looks bigger and better in every possible way.

• Adam Vass released Ritual, a card-based folk horror RPG that is both visually stunning and a ton of fun. Adam remains one of my favourite people working in games, and their physical releases are always works of art. They also crowdfunded 1978: The Night THEY Came Home, a 1v1 slasher horror storygame that’s currently up for pre-order on BackerKit. I’ve read this (though haven’t played it yet) and it’s very good.

• JVC Parry is returning to Mörk Borg with CHVRCH OV THE WVRM, a “filth crawl” scenario through rancid sewers beneath Schleswig. As someone who also wrote a grimy sewer crawl for Mörk Borg it should be no surprise that I’m really into this in a big way.

• INFINITE REVOLUTION is coming to Kickstarter and it looks amazing. If you’re not sold on just the phrase “lightspeed exosuit dogfighter” I can’t help you. While I was writing the guides for players new to OSR games Gwen’s insight into modern trad play culture and the issues players face in shifting play style was invaluable to me. She’s super smart and has a ton to say about games and how we play them, so I know this is going to be amazing.

• Sivad’s Sanctum has started work on the Ghosts of the Sierra Verde Grande Campaign, a massive weird west hex crawl campaign that makes use of Luke Gearing’s Wolves Upon The Coast. It’s already great and you should grab it now before the price rises.

• Bakto’s Terrifying Cuisine is coming to The Vanilla Game. The original pamphlet adventure is one of the best things in the modern OSR and this expanded edition is going to be amazing. The Isle was one of the best books of last year and I strongly suspect this will follow in its path.

What’s playing?

• Zulu are my new favourite band. I saw them at Outbreak Fest a couple of weeks ago and they were incredible, and I’ve had their album on repeat ever since. Modern hardcore is in very good hands.

• Speaking of modern hardcore, Knocked Loose are back and as good as ever.

• I’m obsessed with Alex Melton’s pop punk covers of pop songs, especially his Taylor Swift stuff. At the time of writing this I’ve just spotted his latest video which I’m also including because Natasha Bedingfield works way too well with guitars.

• Hot Water Music are back. While I liked Feel The Void and Light It Up I didn’t love them. It’s really nice to hear a new track that feels like the Hot Water Music I love.

There’s tons more I could include this month but this is a long one so I’m going to end it here. Thanks, as always, for reading!