[Dicey News] From The Twilight Zone (Apparently).
Well… okay then.
Apparently my totally-normal, always-routinised neurodivergent brain saw it fit to almost completely skip Tabletop Thursdays completely by way of me sleeping in until nearly 7pm last night!
Thus, you can consider the current iteration of Dicey News as a particularly-nocturnal offering. On that note - great album (Nocturnal, link below).
Trevor Strnad, Satan Himself rest his beautiful soul (Rest in Power, brother), was known to be very partial to tabletop roleplaying games. Totally unsurprising when you have a look at The Black Dahlia Murder’s very DnD-coded lyrical content, as well as the overall massive Venn Diagram circle-overlap between ‘metalhead’ and ‘geek’.
Ergo, I declare tonight’s Friday TTRPG/hobby news release to be in memory of a fantastic metal frontman. One who wore his geekdom just as brazenly on his sleeve as his vicious roars and metal-dude tattoos.
This week, we explore another fantastic charity bundle from the amazing folks at itch.io, as well as provide you a slew of upcoming/new releases from the independent/third-party RPG publishers. Don’t sleep on some of these deals like I slept on, uhh, almost all of Thursday.
Peace, Love and Leading Adventures To Sick Riffs In The Black of Night, xoxo - Brady.
RIP Trevor. One day we shall roll dice with you in Valhalla.
NocturNally Yours - Latest Tabletop/Gaming/Hobby News, 06.06.2025:
itch.io Continue Based-As-Hell Tradition, Announce Latest Charity Bundle:
Link to Bundle For Ukranian Hospitals HERE.
Yet another opportunity for you, a member of the tabletop/gaming/hobby community to a) support a fantastic cause and b) receive another ridiculously-stacked heap of independent titles for a very small minimum donation!
I’m still working through the Bundle For Ukraine announced earlier in the 2020’s, and have many amazing titles as a result.
Carrying on with an established tradition of pooling countless fantastic video game, creative writing, tabletop and other hobby titles from independent designers/publishers/developers together for a good cause, itch.io’s latest mission-statement regarding the cause is thus:
“Hospitals in Ukraine are under attack.
Russia’s full-scale invasion has already racked up $176 billion in damage to the health-care sector: 300 medical facilities have been completely destroyed and another 715 damaged. The Ministry of Health estimates that restoring basic capacity will cost at least $1 billion.
We can’t fix everything, but we can make a small, tangible contribution to help hospitals, patients, doctors and the ambulance crews who save lives every day.
So 145 creators from 25+ countries joined forces, donating 250+ tabletop RPGs, indie video games, zines, soundtracks and toolkits worth more than $1 200. Your contribution—whatever the size—puts modern medical equipment back where it’s needed most.
Where your money goes:
100 % of proceeds are transferred automatically to the Serhiy Prytula Humanitarian Foundation, one of Ukraine’s largest and most trusted NGOs. The war changes circumstances rapidly, so they are constantly communicating with hospitals in need and will be able to provide the most necessary support at the end of the bundle.”
Now, there’s over 252 titles in this badboy, and pretty much all of them look worth your attention. If nothing else, I have a penchant for writing some pretty long articles, but even I lack the time to exhaustively comment on a large number of the many great titles in here.
What I’ll do instead is focus on a few that have caught my eye not too long after purchasing the bundle. Links to individual store pages for titles are available below in underlined/italicised font, but you’re more than able to peruse the collection yourself via the above link if you so choose.
Here’s a select few of many, many great-looking titles from the Bundle For Ukranian Hospitals:
Mausritter - A cutesy but high-stakes TTRPG based around, you guessed it - adventuring as a mouse! I’ve seen this title come up a lot in both Tabletop-RPG Discord servers and the /r/rpg subreddit quite a lot, and it always comes with high commendation. (Physical copies are available from Games Omnivorous and Exalted Funeral).
(BONUS: The itch.io bundle also contains Mausritter: The Estate Collection, a series of 11 intertwined one-shots set within - you guessed it - an estate!)
FIST: Ultimate Edition - Wait, you mean there’s an indie alternative to Delta Green (a mercenary/military setting hack for the wildly Call of Cthulu RPG)?! And it has a metal-AF aesthetic?! Okay, colour me (in even more black than I’m wearing) very interested by this one.
Cairn (1st Edition) is another OSR (Old-School Renaissance) title that has generated quite a bit of buzz within the indie-RPG scene. And why not? Fantastic artwork, a focus on classless/narrative-based progression and an ability to be adapted from the inspiring titles (i.e. the popular Knave and Into The Odd RPG’s) into all manner of other OSR systems? Yeah, that’s got my interest piqued!
Eco Mofos - I’m one hundred and ten percent sold just on the basis of that gorgeous neo-punk, post-apoc artwork! It’s like 80’s punk-rock Borderlands! Not only that, but the entire thing is designed ground-up to be, well, ground-up - it’s compatible with pretty much any game and designed to be fit modular-style with an existing system, if you want something different from the Knave/Into The Odd rules-lite system.
One-Shot World - Does exactly what it says on the tin! Based on the accessible and popular Dungeon World TTRPG, this one’s unsurprisingly looking to be a solid choice for anyone needing a palate-cleanser break from their usual HP-slogfest-especially-at-high-level DnD/other-system campaigns.
This Mortal Coil - I’m just going to quote straight from the horse’s mouth here. How’s this pitch:
“In This Mortal Coil, you play a space traveler-turned-necromancer on a quest to achieve eternal life by constructing a magical device known as an anchor. You'll create undead thralls to do your bidding, gather energy to power your quest by harvesting living creatures, and master the forces of the Negaverse.”
Dude. YES. Trevor Strnad would totally approve of this too, by the by.
In The Light Of A Faded World - A rules-lite TTRPG about playing small creatures wandering into the spaces previously occupied by us humans, post-apocalypse? Damn man, indie RPG designers never cease to impress me with the fantastic ideas for settings and systems!
I’m a fan of having safety-tools in place for campaigns, and the ‘X-Card’ is one popular within the community. Awesome, then, that ImproVeto exists as a tool for practicing use of X-cards whilst having improv-fun with your group!
Sharing some fantastic Happy Tree Friends And Friends-esque artwork from the Mausritter RPG, as an example of many great samples of art from the products’ bundle.
This is both cute and metal as hell:
Additionally, these bundles are always stacked to high-heaven/nocturnal-hell with all number of solo/co-operative RPGs, zines and the like - many of them focused on journalling, story development and worldbuilding.
Here’s just a few of many which caught my eye:
Speaking of ‘zines, speaking of solo - here’s one of both those things you can print and play at home with minimal fuss: Dungeon Hero ‘Zine RPG.
RIG - a solo, Souls-like RPG based on mecha sci-fi tropes? Immediately, immediately smashing the want-to-play button!
LONE EONS - The solo iteration of LOST EONS, LE claims to be a ‘Science-Fantasy Solarpunk’ game for one player, with all that’s required being you, some paper, dice and a pack of standard playing cards. The artwork alone makes this one worth it, but I’m also intrigued by the rundown on the author’s page!
MØRK FÆNGSEL - Hold up. A Mork-Borg solo TTRPG where you play as a scummy ne’er-do-well trying to escape imprisonment amongst all manner of brutal-death-metal-coded dark horror nasties? You know this metalhead is interested.
p.s. Sharing some more delectable artwork from one of the above titles in LONE EONS, by David Blandy:
If you’d like to see any of the products listed reviewed or otherwise opined about here on the blog - let us know! Better still, if you’re an RPG designer yourself and have an up-and-coming/recently released tabletop/hobby product you’d like promoted - get in touch with us via our email: innerstrengthcheckmedia@gmail.com.
As podcast host, I’m also more than happy to have DMs, designers, players, fans etc on the show for an interview. Anything from discussing your works to just shooting the breeze about your favourite hobby-things. I’m always down for a chat and happy to get absolutely schooled on your area of passion/interest/expertise!
That in mind, let’s continue with some more Dicey News of late.
2. Latest Crowdfunding Ventures & New Releases From Geeks, For Geeks:
Had to share this great artwork for The Dream Shrine - part of the OSE Treasures Bundle of Holding via Exalted Funeral - link below in text.
For those of you based in Melbourne, you may or may not be aware that one amongst you is the designer of breakway post-apoc tactical TTRPG hit Fragged Empire. Wade has done a fantastic enough job on the first edition (as well as adjacent titles in Fragged: Aeternum etc) however the Melburnian locals’ just announced a new campaign for Fragged Kingdom: 2nd Edition! See here for link to the 2e Backerkit page.
Just 3 days remaining on Exalted Funeral’s Old School Essentials: Advanced Fantasy bundle over at Bundle of Holding! I often share EF’s latest news releases on Tabletop Thursdays roundups and with good cause - you’ll never find a more heavy-metal-coded independent/third-party publisher out there like these guys, and they’re chockers with fantastic OSR titles like OSE! One for the grognards and those unafraid to stow their godlike Level 20 5e character for a minute…
Better make that a few more minutes. Yes, we’ve just received word that in addition to their own stock, there’s a second Bundle of Holding for OSE! This one, named OSE Treasures, is focused on great third-party content such as The Shrike, Wyvern Songs, The Dream Song and three Gelatinous Cubism modules. Even more metal!
Guys… come on. What more proof do you need about my aforementioned point about EF being metal-AF? They’re releasing a ‘zine in June called Carcass Crawler (#5) for Jeff Walker’s sake. Link here.
A bit fatigued by all the heavy-metal fire-and-brimstone tropes thus far? Fair. Well, how about this new tabletop RPG about being a baker and going on adventures to secure and craft some wholesome/delicious ingredients? (via Rascal.com).
It’s Pride Month this month. Rather than loudly nasally exhale with cringe at [Insert Large Transnational Corporation Here]’s pithy attempt at corporate social responsibility via a limp-wristed off-hand share of their logo in rainbow-form… get yourself a bunch of fantastic LGBTIQA-themed titles in Thirsty Sword Lesbians, Moonlight on Loverose Beach and Star Crossed? In doing so, you’ll also directly be supporting LTBGIQ publishers whilst also avoid aforementioned marketing-cringe. (Bundle of Holding link right here).
That ought to do it for now!
As mentioned earlier in the article, I/we are keen to provide more tabletop/hobby/gaming-related coverage on both the Inner-Strength Check blog and podcast.
If there’s something you’d like for us to have a look at/review, think we should check out any specific RPG’s, games, supplements or other products etc - don’t be shy! You can email us via the address further up in the article and/or reach out to us on our Facebook, Instagram or BlueSky profiles below.
Thanks - Stay Geeky, Stay Metal. Brady.