30 FREE GAMES & ZINES + Update: The Final Stretch!

Saturday is Free RPG Day, and we decided to run a bundle with some friends and other awesome creators. You get 30 of our best, newest, and most "us" creations for the low, low price of FREE! If you pay anything (including $1) they'll also be linked to your account, but that's 100% optional. Any purchases are also split between creators, so you'll be supporting small creators! 🥳

Check it out here -->  https://itch.io/b/2542/free-rpg-day-2024

The bundle runs through Monday, the 24th of June, at 3 am Eastern.

Status Update: The Final Stretch!

Angel and I each have only TWO REMAINING ZINES to make!!!!! OMG it feels so great to be on track to hit the June 30th deadline for fulfilling Zineuary. That doesn't include our other rewards, of course, but it's the biggest chunk of it! 

As part of the update, here's a bit about the SEVEN zines we've made since late May.

There is Always a Door (by Beth)

There is Always a Door is titled after Bioshock: Infinite ("there is always a lighthouse, there is always a man, there is always a city"). But the zine itself has nothing to do with the game. Instead, it's a reminder that life has infinite possibilities and that losing out on something is hardly a reason to give up. 

The Notebook's Lament (by Beth)

This is a perzine I wrote about the life of a neglected notebook. I originally intended to imbue it with impostor syndrome ("how can I have any value when laptops exist?"), but it took me in a different direction.

Instead, The Notebook's Lament is about a notebook filled with hopes and dreams, then tossed aside and forgotten about until years later when it's rediscovered with joy. It's based on me, actually: I used to bring a notebook to work with me and joyfully write ideas, work, or whatever else in it. 

It also includes some not-so-sneaky transitioning on my part 🏳️‍⚧️ 

Oh the (Wholesome) Horror! (by Angel)

When I was first planning my zine for the wholesome horror prompt, it took me a bit to come up with what I wanted to do with this zine. Horror is really not a genre I go to when creating things and this seemed horror adjacent and I just knew it was going to take me a bit to warm up to the idea. But the more I thought about the idea of wholesome horror the more I understood why it was voted for us to make it. After really thinking about what that would mean to me, I came up with a plan to hand-make a zine for the first time. After all, that’s pretty horrifying for someone who can craft all day but arting… is another story.

I also quickly nixed/chickened out of that plan when my erasers were just not erasing good enough and I’d thrown away many pages to start over. I’m harsh on myself but seriously this was YIKES y’all. So I RAN (not walked) back to my good ol’ pal Canva and was much happier to create this zine there. I still liked the idea of stick figure art for this and found some pretty cute assets to use there.

So, now that I’m not horrifying people with my art, I still had the idea to make a zine about everyday scares because everyday life is scary enough! So I filled the little zine with things like songs that get stuck in my head, and other things that send me running away. I had fun making Oh The (Wholesome) Horror!! and hope everyone enjoys my silly take on the prompt.

Their Shadows Slumber - The Xenoarchaeologist (by Beth)

I made Their Shadows Slumber a month or two ago in a few hours for a limited-time jam. I thought it was okay, but I couldn't figure out how to improve it so I just left it.

When I saw the "Wholesome Horror" prompt, I knew making a supplement would make perfect sense. The game is about a crew who finds "sleeping planets" where everything has gone extinct, then collect what they can to preserve their civilization and learn their lessons. This allows them to live on forever!

However, on the way to the planet, the ship is hit by an asteroid and is damaged. Instead of preserving the items, you have to convert them to energy to use them to return home. This, to me, is terrifying: imagine if that was Earth, and everything we ever did was converted to fuel so someone could return home!

This zine adds a bunch of journaling prompts that are also intended to allow you to play the game with a new viewpoint. You're also journaling about what you find, so that even if the items can't make it home, at least your notes and discoveries about them can. There are also a couple of prompt tables for mechanical changes, too, and everything in the zine is separate so you can just use one journaling part or just the mechanical changes or whatever you want!

Anyone who backed at any tier level will also get a copy of Their Shadows Slumber when we fulfill Zineuary, which I updated quite a bit and I'm far more happy with now 🧡 

Insomniac's Lullaby (by Angel)

Option 35 was a funny glitch in our form that happened to win the vote anyway! So after some deep thought about what to do with this prompt, I made another prompt list: 35 zines I’d be interested in making right now. I put that list into a randomizer and instead of doing the 1st option that was picked, I did Option 35, Insomniac’s Lullaby.

I made a darker version as this is to represent trying to sleep at night, and a lower ink version to keep it friendly on other people’s printers.

I’ve had many sleep issues over the years and there are times I have gotten a total of about 4 hours of broken sleep over a week's time. When your best friend threatens to conk you over the head with a frying pan, you know something’s got to give. Lack of sleep makes me a bit… annoyed at EVERYTHING and everything just feels exhausting and overwhelming. So I wrote a poem that is sort of a lullaby for insomniacs. Something to say we’re not alone and sleep will eventually find us.

The Rambling Raconteur (by Beth)

This is actually TWO ZINES! One is for multiplayer, and one is for solo. Now, normally these would just be slightly different rules, but in this case, it's actually two different games with slightly different situations, but a general overall sameness to them.

In multiplayer, you're collaboratively telling a story about an adventure you had with your fellow party members. You each secretly list something someone else might talk about, and if they mention that thing they're eliminated until only one remains, the 35th story is told (this is for the "option 35" prompt), or a joker is drawn. If you're creative enough, everyone can win!

In solo, you're making up a story about the legendary heroes, drawing cards to share what each hero had done at the time. You can go back and forth in time with the story ("Oh wait, I forgot to tell you about this part!"), but have to stick to the hero drawn. You have up to three "favorite heroes" that you really want to paint in a good light, but you can't actually win or lose. It's based on a modified version of the "I Went to Japan Once" system!

The first image below is from the multiplayer zine, and the second is from the solo zine.

Angel and I are super excited to get these zines out to everyone, as well as the ones we made before and the few we have remaining. This has been such an incredible experience, and we're so happy to have had you along with us!