Top Secret^® Tradecraft Manual is launching December 9th!

Going Green.

Last Chance to join the circus!

Rats Rule!

Zines! Zines! Zines!

A little help for a friend.

The Top Secret^® Tradecraft Manual is on the way

You can get in early on the new Top Secret® Tradecraft Manual – coming to Kickstarter on December 9th!

Thousands of gamers worldwide have made Top Secret® a success since its newest edition, New World Order, was released in 2018. Players take on the role of secret agents in the modern world, deploying to locales around the globe on covert missions.

At the heart of Top Secret are the skills that characters use to complete their missions, known in the language of spies as tradecraft.

The core rulebook for Top Secret describes the various tradecraft, or “specialized skills,” that agents can learn, devoting a paragraph or so to each skill. 

In the Tradecraft Manual, every skill has been expanded upon and enhanced with detailed descriptions, explanations of the mechanics and rolls required, new tables to help the GM determine difficulty levels, methods player characters might employ when using the skill, and narrative in-game examples of agents using the tradecraft while on a mission.

New tradecraft skills are introduced, including intelligence evaluation, psychological profiling, melee, thrown, and projectile weapons, a new kind of first aid for faster healing under the right conditions, skills in disarming weapons of mass destruction, and a “makeshift engineering” skill for those MacGyver moments in your game.

You also get new rules for Top Secret, such as faster and easier car chases, foot chases, perception checks, attacking from a moving vehicle, simplified hacking rules, and streamlined options for initiative and actions.

Scott Kongable, the author of the Tradecraft Manual, is the foremost GM for Top Secret®: New World Order, having run multiple campaigns bi-weekly for over six years. The updates to Top Secret in this book are the culmination of literally hundreds of sessions in both campaign play and convention play. 

Everything in the Tradecraft Manual is compatible with the existing corpus of published rules and missions for Top Secret. We hope you’ll get many, many hours of fun as you and your players use this book to take your spy game to the next level!

The carnival is coming! Get ready to get weird!

Tiger Wizard and I are in the homestretch on our Mausritter Month project, Tails from the Night Market—an adventure where you and your fellow mice courageously scavenge the remnants of a Big People carnival. Freakish mutants and amazing wonders run amok under the “big top” and across the midway, creating a perfect playground for tiny heroes with big hearts.

Working with Tiger Wizard has been awesome. I’m used to being a one-mouse operation, but collaborating has made everything weirder in the best way. Over the last few meetings we’ve focused on making every location as playful and imaginative as possible. That’s one of the true joys of Mausritter: the mundane becomes fantastic.

Instead of a traditional big top, you’ll explore an overturned popcorn bucket. An oversized stuffed animal becomes a five-room dungeon filled with fermented fruit, writhing maggots, and bloodthirsty horseflies. The ordinary becomes extraordinary—and dangerously fun.

When you back this, you receive four pamphlets of adventure beats, locations, special items, and conditions for your characters to experience. All the art is done by Tiger and I by our own hands.

Stay Weird!

-Joey Royale

Zines, zines, and more zines! 

Boy, do I love a zine! And luckily the gaming community is full of them! The corner of the hobby space I tend to lurk around in is full of DIY creators who compile, edit, and do layout for their personal gaming zines just for their fellow hobbyists that is at a creative quality I find a step above anything officially released by larger publishers. The next few newsletters I will be giving my personal take on gaming zines and magazines from across the spectrum I personally enjoy. First Up- Independent and DIY tabletop hobby zines!

28 Mag: 28 Mag is a wild publication not only for its quality in layout, design, and content, but the fact that it is FREE! This magazine makes all other professional game magazines feel extremely dated. The community that has developed around this publication is known as the 28 Community, which is full of artists and creative folks who make their own games, miniatures, and treat the hobby as a place for artistic expression. On top of that, the sense of encouragement and inspiration that drips off of its digital pages blows any other miniature-focused publication out of the water. Each issue functions both as an art magazine while also being a gaming magazine. Incredible.

Glaive: A new, full color zine coming straight out of the Hothead Collective in NYC, edited by a gaming enthusiast who creates seriously professional quality publication. Glaive is filled with interviews and opinions on different gaming events, creators, color photo spreads, and related content. While 28 Mag is digital only (except when they release compilation hardcovers), this feels like a high end glossy magazine you can hold in your hand and leave out on your coffee table to impress guests. Glaive feels like a subculture magazine like style magazine, music magazine, or skateboarding magazine but for us subculture types who ended up into RPGs and Wargaming. A glossy and classy mag, available in print!

Under The Dice: If Glaive is inspired by high-end color-print subculture magazines, then Under The Dice is the equivalent of a black & white punk/hardcore music zine but focused (mostly) on games! The back issues are in black and white that has a similar aesthetic quality to a Maximum Rock n Roll or HeartattaCk you expect from a photocopied music zine. However, Steve has been putting this one out for years (over a decade now?) and each issue becomes more and more honed in and focused. It still maintains the soul of its roots, but with Steve’s commitment to quality that goes above and beyond, you know you’re going to find something you like in each issue. And personally, it is the first zine I ever submitted written work and artwork to so while I  may be biased, this was the zine that made me have an “a-ha” moment that bridged my DIY music background to the DIY gaming space.

That’s it for now! 

• Bryan

Oh! If you have a recommendation for a tabletop gaming zine, please send it my way!

Ever want to relive a great movie? A24’s The Green Knight was a dark film for sure, but filled with fantastical encounters reminiscent of a roleplaying game.  They put out a companion roleplaying game to give you the opportunity to confront the Green Knight yourself. But, how does the game perform?

Listen to the podcast and find out!

Analytic Dice reviews a new game every month. Follow us to get notified when each new episode drops. Also, check out the 29 previous episodes for your favorite game.

Kevin 

Analytic Dice co-host

Viva La Rats! 

Ahoy Pals!

Hambone here to chat you up about a group of pals who made something truly cool! 


Sewer Rats Indie TTRPG Anthology 2025 is a showcase of adventures written and illustrated by a group of creative pals in the spirit of friendship and fun to celebrate the hobby. Each is a fresh take on another creator’s system, through the eyes and imagination of one of their peers. 

About the Sewer Rats:

Sewer Rats started out as a group of kindred individuals who became pals because of tabletop roleplaying games. Banded together in the spirit of friendship and fun with one simple goal in mind.

We wanted to give back to the hobby that united us by celebrating other independent creators of alternative RPGs.

We believe roleplaying games unite people, ignite creativity, and inspire joy. It is our hope that through championing other creatives, we can help foster a community where connection, imagination, and play thrive.

This zine is the physical embodiment of our goals, the power of friendship, and the promise that Springsteen described in song. The one “we swore we’d always remember. No retreat, baby, no surrender.”

Viva la Rats!

Sewer Rats Indie TTRPG Anthology 2025 includes:

• The Hungry & The Hunted for 321RPG by Joey Royale(link opens in new tab/window)

• Türbo Ratz Attack! for Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland(link opens in new tab/window) by John “Hambone” McGuire(link opens in new tab/window)

• The Crack in the Wall for Don’t Tell Mom & Dad by Levi Combs(link opens in newwindow)

• HoverSkull Ryders Below for Whatever by Tiger Wizard(link opens in new tab/window)

• Fairhaven Gazette for Weird Heroes of Public Access(link opens in new tab/window) by Ben Mazzochetti and Ted Gilbert(link opens in new tab/window)

• Crash of the Ratstar for Whatever by Brian “Neon Lord” Shutter(link opens in new tab/window)

The Team:

Written by Levi Combs, Ted Gilbert, Ben Mazzochetti, John “Hambone” McGuire, Joey Royale, and Brian “Neon Lord” Shutter Art By Sally Cantirino and Tiger Wizard
Layout by Tiger Wizard
Cover Art by Tiger Wizard

Get it here!

A Little Help For A Friend

Rocky’s a good dude who has been dealt a bad hand. Cancer can kick rocks. Please give a little if you can; every little bit helps.

From Jen Glazar:

Help Support the Gardner Family in Rocky’s Fight Against Cancer

Hello friends, and thank you for taking a moment to read this.

Zach and I have had the pleasure of knowing Jayson “Rocky” Gardner for over a decade, and we are humbled to help bring his story forward as we ask for support on behalf of his family. We are starting this fundraiser for Rocky, his devoted wife Kendra, and their three beautiful children—not because he asked us to, but because he never would.

Rocky is a loving husband to an incredible woman who works full-time to support their young family, doing everything she can to keep things afloat. Four weeks ago, their world changed. After five years in remission, Rocky was diagnosed with stage 4 squamous cell carcinoma in his lung. The cancer has spread to his windpipe and abdominal wall and is now threatening his liver. Without treatment, doctors estimate only one year.

But if you know Rocky, you know he is a fighter. Treatment has already begun, and he is giving this battle everything he has.

As you can imagine, this journey has forced Kendra to miss significant time from work as she drives Rocky to and from appointments, procedures, and treatments. PTO only stretches so far, and while insurance helps with some medical bills, the financial strain of missed wages and mounting expenses is becoming overwhelming. Things many of us take for granted—gas, groceries, housing, utilities—have suddenly become sources of worry for their family.

Our hope is to raise funds to help the Gardners replace lost income and cover essential needs during this difficult time. Your contribution, no matter the size, will directly support their daily living expenses and provide stability while Rocky continues his fight.

If you are unable to give financially, please know there are other meaningful ways to help. A meal train is being organized, and prayers, positive thoughts, and shared good vibes are deeply appreciated. Even simply sharing this fundraiser can make a tremendous difference.

Thank you for your compassion, generosity, and for standing with this dear family as they face the unthinkable.

Nominations are OPEN for the Golden Fez

awards!

This is the 2nd year for the Golden Fez awards, our annual tabletop RPG awards honoring game designer James Carpio. Held in conjunction with TotalCon, the awards will be given out at the convention on Saturday, February 21st.

Submit your own game, or nominate someone else’s game that you love. Awards are open to any tabletop role-playing game published in 2025, from the largest publishers to the smallest indie press. 

Last year, the Game of the Year award was won by Outgunned from Free League Publishing. Award categories include:

• The Holy Hand Grenade Award

  • Given for best new game mechanic.

• The Pick Up and Play Award

  • Easiest game to learn.
• Honey, I Shrunk the Dice Award
  • For micro-RPGs that will fit on one page or less.

• The Velvet Smooth Award

  • For best design and production.
• The Everlasting Fun Factory Award
  • This award is given to a game that was published prior to the current judging year. It is for the enduring classics as well as the hidden gems from the past.

• The Hack the Planet Award

  • Presented to the most unexpected idea. Originality in any form, whether it’s rules, setting, design, or anything else.

• The Bucket of Blood Award

  • Best combat rules
• The Golden Fez Game of the Year
  • Game of the Year is given to the one game published this year that we feel best embodies all of the things about gaming that James loved.

Your editor this week has been John “Hambone” McGuire  of Ham & Egg Publishing

Thanks as always for reading the Analog Union newsletter, and I hope you’re with someone you love this holiday season. And if you’re not with someone you love, I hope you love yourself. Do it. You’re worth it and you deserve it.

Keep on emailing us at hello@analogunion.com to let us know what you’d like to see more of, less of, or just ideas you’ve got.

If you like the Analog Union newsletter, please tell your friends to sign up at AnalogUnion.com.

See you next week!

-Hambone