The Gaming Shelf Haunts The Woods at Blight's Hollow

The Gaming Shelf Haunts The Woods at Blight's Hollow

October may be ending, but horror is here to stay. We've got tons of scares including Forgery, Vecna's Vile Book of Darkness, and Do Not Adjust Your Set.

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Illustrations for The Woods at Blight's Hollow game
The Woods at Blight’s Hollow
Image: Corey Brickley

Believe it or not, after two decades, Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive is getting a TTRPG. This isn’t breaking news—it was announced well before Gen Con this year—but the reveal of its three team writers and designers is. Additionally, MCDM has announced that in December it will begin crowdfunding for its own game, using its own system. Lots to look forward to!

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Also notable is that the Games for Gaza fundraiser for Medical Aid for Palestinians, hosted by Esther Wallace of Oak Grove Games, has already raised over $200,000. The bundle will end on November 9, so if you’d like to snag over 250 games from 140 creators for just $10, now’s your chance. The bundle includes award winning and notable games like Anamnesis, Monster Care Squad, I’m Sorry Did You Say Street Magic, and Doikayt: A Jewish TTRPG Anthology.

Feel free to submit recently released or crowdfunded games for the Gaming Shelf through io9's new form. We also accept news and Actual Play announcements.

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Recently Released: Curios: Jasper Park; Bunny, We Bought a Dungeon; The Bloom; Planar Compass Vol. 3; Meet Me Where I Am; Vecna’s Book of Vile Darkness; Forgery; Rise; Let Justice Be Done; Demonic Deals; Urban Decay

Recently Released: Curios: Jasper Park; Bunny, We Bought a Dungeon; The Bloom; Planar Compass Vol. 3; Meet Me Where I Am; Vecna’s Book of Vile Darkness; Forgery; Rise; Let Justice Be Done; Demonic Deals; Urban Decay

Image for article titled The Gaming Shelf Haunts The Woods at Blight's Hollow
Image: Seb Pines

Curios: Jasper Park is an investigative horror mystery experience. An infectious story told over a series of missing persons reports, diary entries, and recovered footage.”

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Bunny, We Bought a Dungeon is a GM-less OSR story game for 2-6 players. After creating your bunnies, you drop some dice onto a sheet of paper. Based on that, you draw your dungeon map and narrate the exploration and renovation of the dungeon by your bunny group. Twenty-two random roll tables support you with ideas.”

“Asking, ‘What if Twin Peaks had a Last of Us arc?’ The Bloom is a sandbox adventure for Liminal Horror. Something sinister is creeping beneath the town of Coldwater. Campers have gone missing, but the townsfolk won’t say a word and the authorities are less than helpful. Can your team of Investigators find out the truth and save the town before it’s too late?”

Planar Compass is a science-fantasy zine for Old-School Essentials about multi-dimensional travel to find memorable characters, strange locations, mind-bending treasures, and terrifying monsters. Issue 3 brings you to Ordo, the plane of Law and Time, home of the mysterious Chanicoids and center of their theocratic empire.”

Meet Me Where I Am invites players to enforce their own boundaries while exploring emotional and physical intimacy.”

“Turn back the darkness or be consumed by it. Your choice. Vecna’s Book of Vile Darkness is a 5e supplement featuring dozens of player and DM-facing options for wading into morally gray campaigns.”

Forgery is a story of a down-on-her-luck art forger named Tempest, who receives a new commission to recreate a painting that they discover is cursed over time. It is a solo tabletop roleplaying game where the player (you) will be coloring in a paint-by-numbers image. The colors that you choose determine the outcome to the story.”

Rise is a Creator Kit that focuses on the evolution of characters within a story.”

Let Justice Be Done is a one-shot murder mystery game inspired by Brindlewood Bay, Eat The Reich, and Blades in the Dark. In it, you play ingenius Consultant Detectives who use their skills of deduction to discover (and invent) Clues to frame the wealthy for crimes they absolutely didn’t commit.”

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Image: https://morganeilish.itch.io/demonic-deals

Demonic Deals is a two-player game of negotiation. It includes rules for in-person play using a tumbling block tower and for online play using a D100 instead. Players can argue for what they want and try to sweeten the deal while trying to not give away too much.”

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Image: Bob Crum

Urban Decay is a roleplaying game of fast-moving beat ’em up action inspired by classic arcade video games, movies and comic-books—take to the streets, take on the gangs, take back your City!”

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Currently Crowdfunding:The Woods at Blight’s Hollow, The Molt, Ritual, Scurvy Buggers, Afterburn, Do Not Adjust Your Set, Bullet and a Blank, Outer Rim Uprising, Kaiju Invasion

Currently Crowdfunding:The Woods at Blight’s Hollow, The Molt, Ritual, Scurvy Buggers, Afterburn, Do Not Adjust Your Set, Bullet and a Blank, Outer Rim Uprising, Kaiju Invasion

The Woods at Blight’s Hollow is a TTRPG of folk horror and fairy tales inspired by Angela Carter, Guillermo del Toro, and Robert Eggers. Based on Brindlewood Bay, the game sees the children of Blight’s Hollow, a small village in the midst of a trackless forest, face the monsters that live in the forest and the conspiracy upheld by their parents over the course of a year and a day.”

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“Here, beneath the surface of the planet, an intense heat has been boiling and bubbling, waiting to erupt. For centuries, the denizens of the Kör have awaited the widening of a crack large enough for the Molt to commence. And now, in Grift, one such rupture has torn a gash through the human realm. This is a rules-light game about championing the destruction of humanity.”

Ritual is a solo horror TTRPG in which you enact physical ritual and spell movements to defeat an ancient, pre-biblical evil.”

Scurvy Buggers is a found family roleplaying game. It’s the Golden Age of Piracy! You have your crew, you have your flag, but can you find lasting friendship or even love?”

Afterburn is an expansion for Orbital Blues—a lo-fi rules-light space western—featuring: spaceship handbook, sandbox adventure, GMs guide, and an adventure boxset packaged in a VHS box.”

Do Not Adjust Your Set is an anthology of six system-neutral adventures based on writers’ favorite urban legends. With everything from infernal paintings and extradimensional arcade games to masked vigilantes and cutthroat academic competition, creepy one-shot TTRPG opportunity oozes from between the ectoplasm-slimed pages.”

Bullet and a Blank is a card-based, western story-building game for two to five players. In it, you are a gang of outlaws in the Wild West. Unfortunately, your friendship has come to the end of a dusty road, and now you draw at high noon. The game is based on For the Queen game system using the Descended from the Queen license.”

Outer Rim Uprising is a bundle for the sci-fi horror roleplaying game Mothership. It’s set at the fringes of the galaxy, where corrupt corps push their tech experiments beyond the limit, xeno horrors lurk, and humans and Androids assemble and organize into factions. The Outer Rim is where the adventure happens!”

Kaiju Invasion from Kurotonid is a high-level encounters with kaiju to encourage exciting combat. A supplement for DnD 5e.”

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In Other News

In Other News

  • TabletopTown is launching its new mobile app to play TTRPGs with a system agnostic interface. Now with Pathfinder 2e and a new collection of indie, mystery-centric games.
  • Game Kastle College Park will host a fundraiser for Break My Game on November 19 as part of its regularly hosted BMG playtesting sessions that day. Sign up now.
  • “Midnight,” the official theme song for the RPG Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is now available on the World of Darkness YouTube Channel.
  • Cohors Cthulhu: Adventure Wargaming in the Hidden War will launch in the spring of 2024
  • Late pre-orders are open for Moria – Through the Doors of Durin setting expansion for The One Ring RPG from Free League.
  • The Critical Role Foundation in partnership with Comic Relief US is hosting a choose-their-adventure charity show with comedians and actors Sam Richardson and Tony Hale. The story elements that gain the most donations will be utilized in the adventure, which will air on Giving Tuesday, November 28, on Critical Role’s Twitch and YouTube channels.
  • Games for Gaza—a charity bundle of over 250 games that has currently raised over 200,000 for the charity Medical Aid of Palestinians—is available through November 9. Buy now for $10.
  • Healing Potion Dice is a new crowdfunding campaign for Dungeons & Dragons that uses advanced math to emulate the gaussian curve of probability with Healing Potion spells.
  • A new adult coloring book and campaign, The Düngeonmeister Goblin Quest Coloring Book, is now available to purchase.
  • Sneak in fast and start NaNoWriMo writing with this humble bundle of journalling and worldbuilding games, which expires on November 1.
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Feel free to submit recently released or crowdfunded games for the Gaming Shelf through io9's new form. We also accept news and Actual Play announcements.


Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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