Top of the day: A quiet stretch for the US indie and OSR scene. The biggest news is on the shelf: a new Mothership tomb-crawl just reached US retail for $25. A Philadelphia studio is bringing an OSR/NSR-flavored alien-ruins game to BackerKit this month, and people are still talking about how Grimwild’s players rebuilt the game after its designer went silent.
News
- Awaiting the Burning Gods (Mothership): This 44-page Mothership 1e short campaign is a sci-fi tomb-crawl, sold as a $25 softcover zine through Tuesday Knight Games’ store. For a limited time it comes with a 48-page bonus zine, The Smuggler’s Guide to 1365. It made this week’s retail print roundup. (EN World, Tuesday Knight Games)
- Under the Shadow of the Noon-Day Witch (Sickest Witch): Severed Books’ new $34.99 hardcover takes the grimdark game into a fading Slavic duchy gripped by witch trials. It’s listed in the same retail roundup. (EN World)
Crowdfunding
- ULTRADELVE (Stillfleet Studio, Philadelphia): This new Grit System game is about gig-economy “Delvers” picking through alien Structures, with a nod to Roadside Picnic and Annihilation. The book has four classes, five ready-to-play Biomes, and OSR/NSR-style tables in place of lore. It’s coming to BackerKit this November as a PDF or softcover, along with the first issue of DELVER Magazine. (Rascal)
Community & Gossip
- itch.io’s “slop” problem: itch.io is treating the recent flood of low-effort uploads as a spam problem, not a generative-AI one. It has added filters for users and stopped short of banning AI-made games. The decision is still a live topic among the indie creators who sell zines and games there. (Rascal)
Ins & Outs
- Grimwild goes community-run: Grimwild won a Gold ENnie, but designer J.D. Maxwell went silent in mid-2025. Because the text was released under CC BY 4.0, players have now rebuilt it as a free Community Edition. The new edition adds five classes and softens the lethality. It’s on itch.io and RPG Trader but not DriveThruRPG, and an at-cost print option is under discussion. (Rascal, EN World)
Sources
- EN World: RPG Print News – Dungeon Crawler Carl RPG, Sickest Witch, Mothership, and More
- Tuesday Knight Games: Awaiting the Burning Gods
- Rascal: ULTRADELVE—a New TTRPG of Alien Ruins & Gig-Economy Survival
- Rascal: itch.io frames inundation of “slop” games as spam problem
- Rascal: After Grimwild’s creator disappeared, the community designed its own free edition
- EN World: Grimwild: Community Edition
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