Zine Month 2025
Zine Quest started a few years ago on Kickstarter as a way of having RPG designers and essayists release short books and games together, making a kind of community effort for affordable, interesting games. A lot of these have been ‘ashcans’ which ended up becoming larger games, some are expansions for existing games and some have gained lasting love from their fans.
While this project started on Kickstarter, their own issues caused it to migrate to other crowdfunding platforms as “Zine Month” has become its own thing each February.
There are a ton of different projects out there, so what’s interesting? I’ve asked some folks on BlueSky and on various Discords I’m on, as well as carrying out my own research, so here are a few that are active at the moment. I will be returning to this topic later in the month as projects are launching every single day.
Teen Noir
By Epistolary Richard
Teen drama and noir have had a great relationship in the popular culture. Brick is an amazing film noir even without the teen drama framing. Veronica Mars made a whole show of mysteries which delved into the seedy underbelly of a conflicted community. Even the bonkers Riverdale had some good noirish moments.
I’ve played an earlier version of Teen Noir where I literally played Jughead Jones and had a great time. This version looks like it’s going to have a massive revamp of the system, using an engine based on Swords Without Master.
Personally, even if this didn’t feature two genres I’m a fan of, I’d be interested as Epistolary Richard has designed some great games and been a good voice in the RPG community for years.
The campaign can be found here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1591846918/teen-noir-ttrpg-2e-zinequest
RPG Design Zine Two
By Nathan Paoletta
First of all a quick thing to disclose is that I’ve hired Nathan for some logo work in the past and was a member of his Patreon for a time.
Nathan Paoletta is a great RPG designer and has a good eye for layout. He created a cut-up zine where he took apart pieces of advice and laid them out in one place. This is more of that, reflecting how the gaming scene has evolved and varied in what an RPG even is.
The campaign can be found here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ndpaoletta/rpg-design-zine-two
The Crawling Chaos
By Mike Hutchinson
I’m a fan of Lovecraft’s horror, that big daft racist. People have made some fascinating games using the framing and type of cosmic horror that’s out there.
This game sounds a little Lovecraftesque-esque. You have one player who’s the Narrator of the story and a number of GMs who will build the story, create problems and elements for the Narrator to react to. It looks like the Narrator has currencies which run down as they explore their way to The Awful Truth at the centre of it all.
The campaign can be found here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/planetsmashergames/the-crawling-chaos
Mum Chums
By Tanya Floaker
I’m not a parent, but I get a lot of what the experience is like, from being very close with a parent and having dear friends who are parents.
This game is a slice-of-life game about parenthood from the perspective of mums going through the school year with their kids. They define themselves and random chance/other players help determine elements of the kids.
You play through not only the year but also a number of ‘cuppa’ scenes, which from my experience felt like it was an essential part of parenthood. This is the kind of project Zine Quest is perfect for, being fairly small, extremely out of the standard types of RPG out there and in need of eyes on it.
The campaign can be found here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/floaker/mum-chums
A demo can be downloaded here: https://floaker.itch.io/mum-chums
A Perfect Wife
By Zedeck Siew, Amanda Lee Franck & Scrap World, run & published by David Blandy
An adventure about a pontianak, a Malaysian/Indonesian spirit of women who died in childbirth. In this system-agnostic adventure, you’re surrounded by patriarchy and given the task of finding and either stopping or helping the pontianak.
In addition to this, the funds will also be paying for the authors to attend David Blandy’s art exhibition in Nottingham, which is a good cause.
The campaign can be found here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/davidblandy/a-perfect-wife-ttrpg-adventure-fundraiser
Pirouette
By Michael Sweeney
I like horror RPGs, and solo horror RPGs can be good fun, too. This is one where you’re a dancer having to perform for an Eldritch being. It uses a falling block tower and a tarot deck to help add to the tension and add to your story as you try to dance without suffering an injury.
The campaign can be found here: https://fnd.us/pirouette?ref=sh_61qiZ0YgmbX61qiZ0YgmbX
Fear of a Daily Planet: A Lost Colony Crawl
By Jordan Boschman, A Typical Faux
This is a Mothership colony crawl, which is set in an outpost made just to print out employee handbooks. Horrors ensue.
I admit I may have backed a few too many things in Mothership Month recently, but if there’s something which will get me interested, it’s printing-based horror.
The campaign can be found here: https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/atypicalfaux/fear-of-a-daily-planet-a-module-for-the-mothership-rpg?ref=bk-social-project
Knight Forlorn
By Lucas Falk & Alf Peter Malmberg
I’ve tried Soulsborn games and never really carried on with them. That said, I like the tone and RPGs which have channelled that kind of style (hello, Trophy).
Knight Forlorn is another game with a Lovecraftesque-style single protagonist driven through a fallen world by other players taking on GM and chorus roles. Looking at the bare bones edition it does different things which is great as Bleak Spirit already exists. You use a deck of playing cards to help define the world and to battle the monstrosities found there.
The campaign can be found here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/blackfiskforlag/knight-forlorn
The barebones edition is here: https://blackfiskpub.itch.io/knight-forlorn
Midnight Matrathon
By Adam Vass
This is not one but five zines, which feels weird, but I guess that’s fine with Zine Month.
- Blood Lock – Is a Descended from the Queen game about a vampire, their victim and their thrall, all while a hunter waits. I love For the Queen, and it’d be interesting to see a semi-competitive version.
- Michigan Dogman – A solitaire game about hunting for a dogman.
- Letters from the Liberty Motel – A solitaire epistolary game set on things like The Shining, with you generating rooms and exploring the horrors in there.
- The Rites of Exorcism – Children summon a demon in an expanded version of a 36 word RPG
- And a mystery game?
I’ve enjoyed Vass’ work previously, and it’s confidently funded.
The campaign can be found here:
https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/world-champ-game-co/blood-lock?ref=bk-social-project
Imagine Queer Worlds
By Jaclyn Lewis
This zine’s a guide to help with worldbuilding in a way which helps to discuss gender and sexuality, including ways in which fantastical worlds can play with these themes.
I love that there are RPG advice and essay projects in Zine Month/Zine Quest,
The campaign can be found here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/janatee/imagine-queer-worlds
Out of Orbit: A Troupe Survival TTRPG
By Andrew Beauman
Fuck you, Lost was good, actually. I felt I should get that out of the way before continuing.
This is a game where you play a group of survivors of a spaceship crash, exploring an alien world, living together or dying alone. There’s a cycle of play between times at the camp and times out on a mission, looking at new places, trying to survive and of course, having flashbacks.
The campaign can be found here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andrewbeauman/out-of-orbit-a-troupe-survival-ttrpg
That’s it for me for now, I’ll be back later in the month with some more campaigns for folks to check out!
