This is the Analog Union newsletter for May 7th, 2026. Keep in mind that if you’re reading this in the distant future, some timely information may be out of date. Sign up to get the newsletter delivered to your inbox every week!
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Author: admin
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Tuesday, May 7th Special Edition
Special Edition – Vampires! Vampire Farts (The Game), Non-Drac Vampire Flicks and a poll! -
Tuesday, May 5th
This is the Analog Union newsletter for May 5th, 2026. Keep in mind that if you’re reading this in the distant future, some timely information may be out of date. Sign up to get the newsletter delivered to your inbox every week!
Abattoir Hymnal, Smurfs, Neon Bastardz, New Music, GM Hacks, and more! 
May 5th, 2026
Abattoir Hymnal
The Smurfs!
Neon Bastardz!
Hambone’s Fast Five
GM Hacks
ModCon
In this newsletter
Ham & Egg Publishing | Saltheart RPG | Solarian Games
Super Savage Systems | Tiger Wizard
Tiger Wizard
Abattoir Hymnal Launching May 5th on Backerkit!
Abattoir Hymnal is an adventure for Old School Essentials Month set in the bloody Butchered Realm. Adventurers will plunge into the gory realm, most likely without their skin, in search of answers and to defeat the grotesque Skin Taker, Ahrakmadt.
If you love Hellraiser, Silent Hill, etc., you’ll probably enjoy this disgusting adventure!
Back Today! Hambone!
Hambone’s Fast Five: Featuring Tiger Wizard!
Ahoy!
Hambone here, reporting for duty, back with another creator spotlight. This week, I am stoked to introduce you to one of my favorite artists and creative minds in the hobby, Tiger Wizard. He is here to talk about Abattoir Hymnal, his contribution to OSE Month on BackerKit. So without further ado, here’s Tiger Wizard.1) Tiger Wizard, introduce yourself to our readers and let them know what you do in the TTRPG hobby.
Hey Hammy, thanks for inviting me over for the fast five! I work as an illustrator, mapmaker, game designer, and editor in the indie TTRPG space. I love old sword-and-sorcery books, cats, and fried-chicken tacos!
2) You, alongside writer Doug Stroud, are currently crowdfunding Abattoir Hymnal (launching May 5th) on BackerKit. What’s the elevator pitch?
Okay, first. I hit the emergency stop button of the elevator. The lights go out, and an eerie blue light pierces the slim crack in the doors. Two pink, skinless hands reach through and open the doors, not on the 3rd floor, but into the dark under-realm of butchery.
At this point, the skinless creature will sit down and let everyone on the elevator know that Abattoir Hymnal is a bloody adventure for 3rd-level characters that sees such gruesome sights as the Gore crawler (an intestine spider) and the Offal-spire (a singing tower of flesh), while seeking the creator of the skin-paged hymnal. If you love Hellraiser, Silent Hill, etc., you’ll probably enjoy this disgusting adventure!
3) This year’s OSE Month’s focus is on adapting the demonic for Old School Essentials. What was the design process like for you when approaching subject matter like this for such a streamlined system?
Pretty similar to the way I approach most projects. I start with a vibe or key element, and then work from there. The system rarely matters to me. At least, it doesn’t matter initially. As long as the core vibe fits within the system or setting, I don’t worry too much about the stats and stuff until the concepts are filled out. Then adjust for rules and such later. Having worked with and on OSE creators at Exalted Funeral has given me an intimate familiarity with them.
The bonus with Abattoir Hymnal was having a partner to bounce ideas off of and collaborate with. Donn is such a great writer to work with, and we are constantly running ideas like a loom, weaving them back and forth into a gross skin rug.
4) Having experienced the idea of demonic entities throughout books, cinema, games, and even TTRPGs, are there any themes here that will feel familiar or homages to the classics?
Oh, absolutely. The vibes we’re riffing off are heavily inspired by The Thing, Hellraiser, and Silent Hill. For the book’s overall look, we’re using a simple pink-and-blue color palette that I think will pump up the classic 80’s horror vibes.5) Thanks for the chat, Tiger Wizard. Where can people find your stuff?
Thank you, Hambone! Abattoir Hymnal is live on BackerKit, and feel welcome to follow along with my mapmaking and goofy antics over on patreon.com/tigerwizard
Cheers.
Back Today! Saltheart RPG
Working with established IP takes time: The story of The Smurfs
Three years ago, I wondered what was next after successfully Kickstarting BURN 2d6. I looked around the IP landscape and realized a wondrous thing, that the everyman of my childhood, the Smurfs, did not have a role-playing game. The Smurfs had adventures involving ghosts, dragons, spies, sickness, witches, wizards, robots, and aliens. What a great IP!
BURN 2d6 had made $3,724 on Kickstarter. For a nobody who was pitching a new tabletop roleplaying game system, I thought it was a pretty good haul. It paid for the art, but not my time. So, back to the Smurfs…
I reached out to Peyo (the company) in Belgium and began a conversation about obtaining the rights. I submitted a pitch deck with my business plan, and before you know it, Peyo agreed. They had a North American partner, Maestro Media, and asked that we talk and consider working together. I met with Javon Frazier, Maestro Media’s CEO, and we agreed that a collaboration would be a great idea.
The truth is, I am a part-time game designer, and this offer from Maestro Media alleviated many of my concerns about managing a large IP all by myself. So, we signed agreements and got started. I already had a draft copy of the game ready to go.
A Kickstarter followed as I continued to develop the game. A team of folks supported the work, folks like Jon Gilmour-Long and Jason Azevedo. The Kickstarter made $138,565, which was a heck of a lot more than BURN 2d6 made. Content development continued until everything was locked in and my writing task was complete.
By the time my pen was truly down, it was eighteen months before I had the game in my hands. Not only do I now have a cool product in my hands, but my first truly paid gig is also complete.
The Smurfs Roleplaying Game is really a better version of BURN 2d6, and I am grateful to Maestro Media and Peyo for letting me take on this beloved world of little blue imps three apples high. As the blogger Barking Alien wrote, Smurf’s a better game than it had to be. Check out the blog here: https://barkingalien.blogspot.com/2025/11/
More to come on a new project soon!
Kevin
Super Savage Systems
Neon Bastardz – Only 3 Days remain!
In the oozing wastelands of Bastard Urth, brave skumdogs enter a world of danger, mutants, slime, and Khaos! With every roll, your mission gets weirder. With every room, the danger gets grosser. Battle disgusting creeps! Grab radical loot! Survive brutal missions! And become the most legendary dirtbag the cassette-apocalypse has ever seen!
But beware… the Kickstarter ends soon!
Back Neon Bastardz now, before time runs out!
Neon Bastardz: Rad Adventures in the Forgotten Future! Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland Vibez. Mörk Borg Rulez. Meaning this puppy is fast, brutal, and if you’re not careful, will steal your lunch money! POGs Included!
Already backed? You can still help big time by sharing the Kickstarter with one weird friend, one Mörk Borg maniac, one zine goblin, or one tabletop mutant who needs more neon slime in their life. Let’s make these last 3 days loud!
Back Today! 
Ham & Egg Publishing
Of A Harmonious Nature – Die Before You Buy!
Ahoy!
First up, I just wanted to say thanks to everybody who has already supported my Dark Double Feature on BackerKit! THANK YOU!!! We’ve got 17 days left and can still use your support. With that said, I had a fun idea. Why not let you, dear reader, DIE BEFORE YOU BUY!!!This campaign looks pretty cool, right? That said, looking cool is NEVER enough. I want to show you why the Dark Double Feature rules, and I want to do it LIVE.Now, you might be thinking, “But I don’t usually get to play a game before I back it.” It’s a wild idea, I know, but stay with me here.When I got into sales, I cut my teeth selling a high-end blender at big-box stores and on the State Fair circuit. I loved it because there was always a tangible connection between the crowd and me.Such a thing doesn’t really exist anymore, right? Instead, what do we get? Ephemera and social media static.It’s confusing, especially when you are considering plunking down your hard-earned money on a new game.Luckily, I have a solution.Come play Of A Harmonious Nature with me. No strings attached, no obligation to back this campaign.Just pick a date and let me run you through a killer folk horror adventure, designed for the system that it’s perfect for: Shadowdark RPG.All I can promise you is a good time and maybe, just maybe, you’ll survive your stay in Skogstrand.At the end, I’ll even mail you a commemorative pin from the session.
You’ve got nothing to lose, right? So let’s roll some dice. Click here to book your session.
Back It Now! Solarian Games
GM hacks from the hardware store!
A while back, Jolly Blackburn (Knights of the Dinner Table) shared a photo of his “Box of Doom,” essentially a cash box he turned into a GM screen/tackle box by creating a miniature screen to put inside and keeping dice in the coin drawers.
That inspired me to think about my own GM tools. Anyone who’s been in one of my games at a convention will know that I have a lot of moving pieces, and by the end of the game session, I’m pretty disorganized. So I went looking for something that would solve the problem for me, a la Jolly’s Box of Doom.
Harbor Freight, for anyone who doesn’t know, is a discount hardware store (tool store, really) that’s got something of a cult following. Recently, they began selling miniature tool boxes that went viral for their low cost and bright colors. I picked one up to try out as a GM “tackle box.” It was pretty good, but the biggest drawback was that it had no handle, which made it hard to carry at a convention.
Happily, not long afterward, Home Depot got in on the trend by doing an exclusive product with Husky, their own take on the mini toolbox. This time, the build quality was a bit better, with drawers that moved more easily, but the important feature they included was an handle. Best of all, it’s about the same price – $19.99.
It’s got three drawers and a top compartment. That’s enough room for a ton of dice, some 25 mm miniatures, index cards, pencils, wooden cubes (more on those in a moment), and some Sharpies. It’s also a great place to put all the cool stickers I get from other game creators.
Now, on to the other cheap GM tool I’ve found – wooden cubes!
I usually run Top Secret at conventions, since we publish the game. Top Secret is not a minis game, it’s got some tactical rules in it for convenience, but it really isn’t built to be a minis skirmish game or anything. That being said, it’s good to know where your characters are sometimes in relation to others.
In the picture above, I’m running The Bank Job, which is part of our mission module, Forged With Fire. The players have to rescue a hostage from a bank where terrorists have taken over the building.
At our local Dollar Tree, they sell bags of little wooden cubes, about 40 for a dollar ($1.25 actually, ugh inflation). As it happens, you can write on them with a pencil, pen, or Sharpie. I grabbed them because I was in a hurry on the way to Rising Phoenix Con. As it turns out, they were the best $1.25 I’ve ever spent on gaming.
Each player got a cube with the initial of their character on it. The terrorists (Italian anarchists from “Punto Zero”) got a little anarchy symbol, and other things like hostages, cops, and even cameras and drones all get their own cubes.
They’re cheap, they’re plentiful, and endlessly flexible since you can just write something on the cube when it shows up in the game, even if you hadn’t planned on it beforehand. I was even able to hide information by writing on the bottom of the cubes, such as identifying which hostage was the secret agent they were trying to find.
I hope these tools are inspirational to you, and maybe you’ll even try them out for yourself. If you have any cool GM hacks of your own, or if you try these, please drop me a line at jayson@solariangames.com and share your experiences!
GameFace Con Baltimore, MD – May 23rd & 24
Baltimore’s Annual Tabletop Game Convention at Peabody Heights Brewery
12 pm – 8 pm both days.
Meet creators, shop, and play tabletop RPGs and board games
NeonCon 3-D, Virtual Convention – May 23rd & 24
NeonCon 3-D! May 22nd-23rd over on the Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland discord!!!
Come play Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland and all its offshoot games, as well as other indie RPGs and old out-of-print games!!!
Make sure to bring your 3D glasses! Each night we will show an old 3D movie!
Sign Up ModCon 2026 Northampton, MA – May 30th
Game submissions are open now, and badges are on sale for the first-ever ModCon.
It’s happening May 30th at the beautiful Smith College Conference Center in Northampton, MA. ModCon is a one-day convention dedicated to the modern-era genre of TTRPGs.
That includes games like…321 RPG • Call of Cthulhu • World of Darkness • Cyberpunk • Shadowrun • Marvel Super Heroes
• Mutants & Masterminds • Delta Green • Savage Worlds • Burn 2d6 • Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland • WHPA and more!
It’s going to be a great day of gaming, dedicated to all kinds of settings in the 20th and 21st centuries, in worlds both like our own and very, very different. Sign up below, and we’ll see you there!
Sign Up ArcaneCon Northampton, MA – October 16th & 17th
ArcaneCon is returning October 16th & 17th, 2026. Join us in a celebration of indie, old school, and old school-inspired RPGs, miniature games, board games, and more! ArcaneCon is Western Massachusetts’s premiere tabletop hobby convention! Game submissions will go live on March 1st! See more information at Tabletop Events.
Your editor this week has been Hambone of Ham & Egg Publishing.
Keep on emailing us at hello@analogunion.com to let us know what you’d like to see more of/less of and to share ideas.
If you enjoy the Analog Union newsletter, please tell your friends to sign up at AnalogUnion.com.
Until next time!
—JHM
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Tuesday, April 28th
This is the Analog Union newsletter for April 28th, 2026. Keep in mind that if you’re reading this in the distant future, some timely information may be out of date. Sign up to get the newsletter delivered to your inbox every week!
Goodman Games Sale, Magazine Madness, Grit System Game Jam, and more! April 14th, 2026
Goodman Games Sale!
Magazine Madness!
Grit System Game Jam!
In this newsletter
Arcane Sword Press | Ham & Egg Publishing | Horse Shark Games | Stillfleet Studio
Horse Shark Games
It’s Almost Over! The Great Goodman Games Sale!
Goodman Games is having a huge sale on DriveThruRPG! Get 25% off of selected titles now until the end of April.
All of Horse Shark Games, including Netcrawl RPG, are on sale, too!
This is also the last few days to pick up physical books from Horse Shark Games. Everything is 25% off, too. Just click visit us at https://horsesharkgames.com/store or hit the button to visit the online store.
Act fast – The sale ends April 30th, 2026!
Ends Soon! Stillfleet Studio
Coming Soon: The First-Ever Grit System Game Jam
Stillfleet Studio is proud to announce that we are hosting our first-ever game jam across all of the Grit System games. The jam features simple, commercial-friendly third-party licenses for all games, an SRD, guest judges, and prizes for the judges’ top picks. (Judges and prizes to be announced soon.)
This is a fun, informal celebration of our having passed the 6+ game mark using the Grit System, which powers Stillfleet, Blister Critters, and Danse Macabre: Medieval Horror Roleplaying. If you like intuitive and easy-to-learn dice resolution, epic narrative powers, and highly hackable rules modules, check out the Grit System and consider submitting something to the jam. We’ll post more about designing adventure-friendly, story-forward TTRPGs using the system in future updates.
The jam runs all summer. More details soon. Have fun making games!
Join The Jam! Arcane Sword Press
Magazine Madness continues with Challenge Magazine from Game Designers’ Workshop!
As I power through the list of magazines I established at the beginning of the year, there are a few I am personally looking forward to checking out. Challenge was one of them, simply due to the fact that it is the continuation of one of my favorites – The Journal of the Traveller Aid Society (JTAS), a quarterly publication that would add new concepts to the core three Traveller books. However, Challenge is a departure from this, which makes sense since GDW was expanding its RPG offerings past Traveller. This also makes Challenge function like JTAS for their other games, focusing only on emerging rules for their other products that will get a formal release later.
And this is cool! Issue 25 is technically the first issue of Challenge, but it continues where JTAS left off at issue 24. In fact, issues 25-28 still have half of the magazine under the JTAS branding, with the same structure found, but reserved in the second half of each issue. They even include an official JTAS cover in the original digest-sized layout, but printing in the middle of the now US Letter-sized layout. This also means the whole magazine is laid out to this larger, more typical US magazine form factor, but I can’t help but think this makes the Traveller content different. Maybe it’s how it’s presented, or maybe the material isn’t as strong as other JTAS content. But this might also be because
1) GDW was preparing for Megatraveller, where they handed the reins to a 3rd party publisher so they could focus on other games like Twilight:2000 and their board game division
2) GDW was splitting creative work into Twilight: 2000, Traveller: 2300, and eventually Space 1889, so whatever was here seemed to be more of the remaining material written or planned before the change to Challenge
3) I have a bias and expect hard-hitting Traveller content to be presented to me in Digest format only.
It’s honestly probably all of the above, but I’m just not as compelled by what is here. This also marks a moment in Traveller where GDW has a third-party work on Traveller so the main team of in-house designers can focus on Twilight:2000 and Traveller: 2300 while having Digest Group Publishing focus on the Traveller rebrand into Megatraveller.
The final covers of JTAS in order from #25 to #29
This split magazine format was gone by issue 29; oddly enough, the issue that celebrates the 10th anniversary of Traveller. From this point forward, we are getting a big dose of Twilight: 2000 and Traveller: 2300. If you’re not familiar, these games are inspired by something called “The Game“, a geo-political house game developed by the GDW staff, where it inspired the setting of both games.
This means Twilight: 2000; a game where the final nuclear war between NATO and the USSR happened and the players are abandoned soldiers in a wild-west style game but in ruined Poland. Traveller: 2300 takes place three hundred years later (After the “Twilight War”), where Humanity develops the means to interstellar travel. Both are interesting concepts and have their fans. The games also use GDW’s new house mechanics, a product of the mid-1980s Simulation crunch that plagued the hobby – a far departure from the slick 2D6 mechanics of Traveller.
Challenge maintained being an RPG-focused magazine, highlighting their other RPGS like Megatraveller, then later Traveller: The New Era, Space 1889, Cadillacs & Dinosaurs, and Dark Conspiracy, but also eventually opened up to other publishers like Battletech, Call of Cthulhu, Shadowrun, d6 Star Wars RPG (West End games), and Cyberpunk 2020. And with these game changes and how the market was going, each adventure and supplement became more and more word,y as was the trend of the time. This leads to the adventures being more difficult to run at the table, with mechanics or important notes being buried within paragraphs of fluff – a trend that still seems to plague some publishers to this day.
The spirit of the 1990s is alive in the final issue
By issue 77, Challenge magazine ended its run, lasting into the mid 1990s, adapting along the way to include the latest and coolest games, along with its own. Game Designer Workshop closed on Leap Day, February 29th,1996. This magazine was a bit harder to track down, due to limited issues scanned online and not being able to purchase PDFs easily. I still have some issues coming in the mail as I write this, but I’m looking forward to kicking back on the porch and reading some editorials from one of my favorite publishers.
Next time– The General by Avalon Hill!
Bryan
A Quick ArcaneCon update! Just a reminder: game submissions are OPEN! Each approved game you submit will grant you $10 off your entry fee, for up to $30 off online registration (not including fees!) when they go live on May 31st. There is already a fantastic selection of games, which you can check out here! Games must be submitted by May 30th to receive the discount, so make sure to get your games in!
Ham & Egg Publishing
Of A Harmonious Nature – Free PDF Preview!
Ahoy! First up, I just wanted to say thanks to everybody who has already supported my Dark Double Feature on BackerKit! THANK YOU!!!
We’re fully funded and have 24 days left. If you haven’t yet, I’d love it if you checked it out.
Here is a little more about the project:
Ham & Egg Publishing joins forces with prolific TTRPG writer Levi Combs to bring you a dark double feature designed for use with Shadowdark RPG. Two adventures. Two flavors of horror. One unforgettable campaign.If Of a Harmonious Nature was written to be the best parts of an A24 film in the Hammer Horror style, then Nothing Left to Lose is SAW in H.H. Holmes’ Murder Castle. This is horror with range: slow dread and frenzied ritual on one side, desperate survival in absolute darkness on the other.Back it now! Some folks also requested a PDF preview of the project, and I was happy to oblige. Click the button below to check out a FREE 9-page PDF preview. It is definitely a work in progress, but it will give you a sense of what is in store for the full book.
Free PDF Preview! Finally, this weekend I will be at Ecclesicon in Palmyra, New Jersey, Saturday, May 2nd, running Of A Harmonious Nature and hanging out. There are currently spots left in my game if you want to jump in. Click the button for more information.
Get Tickets! Ecclesicon Palmyra, NJ – May 1st and 2nd
Ecclesicon is a two-day gaming convention founded by Wes Allen of DM Tales and hosted by the Central Baptist Church of Riverton-Palmyra
The convention is a fundraiser, splitting proceeds between Central Baptist Church’s roof-replacement loan and Booksmiles, a literacy advocacy non-profit based in South Jersey.With plenty of games, some seminars, cool vendors, a charity auction, and a free pizza bash sponsored by the Philly Area Gaming Expo Saturday evening, Ecclesicon’s got something for everyone!Come on out to roll some dice and do some good!.
Get Tickets! GameFace Con Baltimore, MD – May 23rd & 24
Baltimore’s Annual Tabletop Game Convention at Peabody Heights Brewery
12 pm – 8 pm both days.
Meet creators, shop, and play tabletop RPGs and board games
ModCon 2026 Northampton, MA – May 30th
Game submissions are open now, and badges are on sale for the first-ever ModCon.
It’s happening May 30th at the beautiful Smith College Conference Center in Northampton, MA. ModCon is a one-day convention dedicated to the modern-era genre of TTRPGs.
That includes games like…321 RPG • Call of Cthulhu • World of Darkness • Cyberpunk • Shadowrun • Marvel Super Heroes
• Mutants & Masterminds • Delta Green • Savage Worlds • Burn 2d6 • Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland • WHPA and more!
It’s going to be a great day of gaming, dedicated to all kinds of settings in the 20th and 21st centuries, in worlds both like our own and very, very different. Sign up below, and we’ll see you there!
Sign Up ArcaneCon Northampton, MA – October 16th & 17th
ArcaneCon is returning October 16th & 17th, 2026. Join us in a celebration of indie, old school, and old school-inspired RPGs, miniature games, board games, and more! ArcaneCon is Western Massachusetts’s premiere tabletop hobby convention! Game submissions will go live on March 1st! See more information at Tabletop Events.
Your editor this week has been Hambone of Ham & Egg Publishing.
Keep on emailing us at hello@analogunion.com to let us know what you’d like to see more of/less of and to share ideas.
If you enjoy the Analog Union newsletter, please tell your friends to sign up at AnalogUnion.com.
Until next time!
—JHM
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Tuesday, April 21st
This is the Analog Union newsletter for April 21st, 2026. Keep in mind that if you’re reading this in the distant future, some timely information may be out of date. Sign up to get the newsletter delivered to your inbox every week!
A Dark Double Feature, Goodman Games Sale, Pizza Party, OSE Month, and more! April 14th, 2026
A Dark Double Feature!
Goodman Games Sale!
Deathblow!
OSE Month!
In this newsletter
Get Haunted Industries | Ham & Egg Publishing | Horse Shark Games | Tiger Wizard
Ham & Egg Publishing
A Dark Double Feature is LIVE on BackerKit
Ahoy! Today is the day when my Dark Double Feature launches on BackerKit!
Ham & Egg Publishing joins forces with prolific TTRPG writer Levi Combs to bring you a dark double feature designed for use with Shadowdark RPG. Two adventures. Two flavors of horror. One unforgettable campaign.If Of a Harmonious Nature was written to be the best parts of an A24 film in the Hammer Horror style, then Nothing Left to Lose is SAW in H.H. Holmes’ Murder Castle. This is horror with range: slow dread and frenzied ritual on one side, desperate survival in absolute darkness on the other.
Back the project at a physical tier within the first 48 hours and receive a FREE glow-in-the-dark mini of Prastr-Vem, the big bad from a harmonious nature.
Back it now! 
Look at this mofo glow!
Watch Us Live!
To celebrate the launch of our BackerKit for the Dark DoubleFeature, I put together a killer crew for a one-night-only live play. Join Joey Royale, Brian”Neon Lord” Shutter, R.Alex Murray, and a couple of other very special guests as we run through Of A Harmonious Nature.
LIVE on the Sewer RatsYouTubee. 8 pm EST, Tuesday, April 21st.Watch it live!!!! Horse Shark Games
The Great Goodman Games Sale!
Goodman Games is having a huge sale on DriveThruRPG! Get 25% off of selected titles now until the end of April.
But. That’s. Not. All!
Goodman Games invited its legion of third-party publishers to the party! So you can pick up the Mutant Crawl Classics RPG rulebook and toss in a copy of Enchiridion of the Computarchs, both at a 25% discount.
The sale is on selected titles, but Horse Shark Games is offering all its PDFs at a 25% discount. So, all of Netcrawl RPG is on sale as well.
What’s that: you want to buy some physical books? Well, Horse Shark Games has also placed all its products on sale until April 30th, 2026. Just click visit us at https://horsesharkgames.com/store or hit the button to visit the online store.
Act fast – The promotion ends April 30th, 2026!
Shop Now! Get Haunted Industries
You Like-a Da Pizza? I Got Da Pizza!
Look at you! You look great. Why don’t you stop by Joey Royale’s Pizza Party on Wednesday, April 22nd, at 8 pm EST on the Sewer Rats Inc. YouTube channel? For the uninitiated, some pals and I talk about RPGs, comics, toys, movies, and chicken cutlets.
Our April edition is one for the ages. We got Chuck from Dark Future, one of the premier brick-and-mortar (and online) game stores that goes out of its way to support true indie gaming. Our old pal Ian McGarty is stopping by for his insane new game “Bad Mother Cluckers: Pollo Lucha Edicion”– yup, chicken fights! Last and certainly not least, I am honored to have Henry Richardson of Richardson Games, creator of Deathblow, one of the major inspirations that got me into writing zines. Deathblow is a real gem and deserves way more attention. From Henry’s site:
In Deathblow, you roleplay Gang Warriors in a concrete wasteland known as Reaper City. Marauding gangs stalk the night, cruising streets & highways in search of their next target. While in dark lairs lie the city’s hidden rulers – The Innersanctum – a court of powerful Houses & lords, each with an army of contract killers & gang warriors at their command.
Check out this video for crying out loud!
My partner in crime, The Neon Lord, will be on the couch, and Alana on the ones and twos.Grab your napkins- It’s going to be a mess!
Tune In! Tiger Wizard
Ripping the flesh for OSE Month
Demons are coming to Old-School Essentials in May. That’s right, in the way only Backerkit knows how, there will be a full month of collaborative crowdfunding projects focusing on all things demonic.
I’ll be joining forces with the incredibly talented Donn Stroud to bring our horrific vision of the demon on the rise, Arakmadt, the Skin Collector, to life. Bloody, flayed, painful life.
Oh, yuck! Look at that guy. All shriveled up from wearin’ a buncha skins! He’s a gross wizard who wants to be a Demon.
Arakmadt must collect the flayed skins of willing supplicants to add to his songbook. Only then will he ascend to true Demonhood. It’s a skin-ripping, flesh-tearing, blood-drenched demonic “good time.”
Adventurers will descend into the Butchered Realm, decide who to rescue and who to ally with, and find a way back to their normal lives.
This’ll be a hardback book-style book.
If you love Hellraiser, Silent Hill, etc., you’ll probably enjoy this disgusting adventure!
Abattoir Hymnal is an adventure for OSE Month 2026!
OSE Month launches on Backerkit on May 6th.
Click below to sign up! We’ll make sure your name is added to the list of supplicants, and the servants of Arakmadt the SKINTAKER will come to collect your skin!
I hope you’ll join Donn and me on this meaty quest.
Cheers
-Tiger Wizard
Please take my skin and use it to feed the butcher realm! Geek Flea Kearny, NJ – April 18th
Ecclesicon Palmyra, NJ – May 1st and 2nd
Ecclesicon is a two-day gaming convention founded by Wes Allen of DM Tales and hosted by the Central Baptist Church of Riverton-Palmyra
The convention is a fundraiser, splitting proceeds between Central Baptist Church’s roof-replacement loan and Booksmiles, a literacy advocacy non-profit based in South Jersey.With plenty of games, some seminars, cool vendors, a charity auction, and a free pizza bash sponsored by the Philly Area Gaming Expo Saturday evening, Ecclesicon’s got something for everyone!Come on out to roll some dice and do some good!.GameFace Con Baltimore, MD – May 23rd & 24
Baltimore’s Annual Tabletop Game Convention at Peabody Heights Brewery
12 pm – 8 pm both days.
Meet creators, shop, and play tabletop RPGs and board games
ModCon 2026 Northampton, MA – May 30th
Game submissions are open now, and badges are on sale for the first-ever ModCon.
It’s happening May 30th at the beautiful Smith College Conference Center in Northampton, MA. ModCon is a one-day convention dedicated to the modern-era genre of TTRPGs.
That includes games like…321 RPG • Call of Cthulhu • World of Darkness • Cyberpunk • Shadowrun • Marvel Super Heroes
• Mutants & Masterminds • Delta Green • Savage Worlds • Burn 2d6 • Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland • WHPA and more!
It’s going to be a great day of gaming, dedicated to all kinds of settings in the 20th and 21st centuries, in worlds both like our own and very, very different. Sign up below, and we’ll see you there!
Sign Up ArcaneCon Northampton, MA – October 16th & 17th
ArcaneCon is returning October 16th & 17th, 2026. Join us in a celebration of indie, old school, and old school-inspired RPGs, miniature games, board games, and more! ArcaneCon is Western Massachusetts’s premiere tabletop hobby convention! Game submissions will go live on March 1st! See more information at Tabletop Events.
Your editor this week has been Hambone of Ham & Egg Publishing.
Keep on emailing us at hello@analogunion.com to let us know what you’d like to see more of/less of and to share ideas.
If you enjoy the Analog Union newsletter, please tell your friends to sign up at AnalogUnion.com.
Until next time!
—JHM
-
Tuesday, April 14th
This is the Analog Union newsletter for April 14th, 2026. Keep in mind that if you’re reading this in the distant future, some timely information may be out of date. Sign up to get the newsletter delivered to your inbox every week!
Secret Country, Printing Zines for Cheap, Hot- Foil Macabre Previews! April 14th, 2026
Get Cheap with Joey Royale!
Secret Country!
All-Things Macabre!
In this newsletter
Get Haunted Industries | Ham & Egg Publishing | Stillfleet Studio
Joey Royale, Get Haunted Industries
I’m Cheap and So Can You
Ciao Paesans! Let’s talk business.
So you’re sitting in the park feeding firecrackers to squirrels like one does, and BAM—an idea from Olympus smacks you in the head. Now what?
Want to see my eyes glaze over like a donut? Corner me at a party and start telling me about the great idea you’re totally going to start one day.
Baloney.
Just do it. Get it out there.
“How do I get it out there?” you ask. Here are some quick tips:
Graphic Design
I’m cheap. I downloaded Affinity Publisher through Canva for free and watched a few YouTube videos about moving things around and changing colors. I only stopped using Microsoft Publisher because it’s going out to pasture next year.Printing Zines
I’m cheap. I send a PDF to Mixam, and then my zines magically manifest on my doorstep a week or two later. I keep the orders small, so I don’t stretch myself too thin. That leftover money goes straight into the next print run.Printing Stickers
I’m cheap. Sticky Brand is fast, and they run a sale every five minutes. Stay away from Sticker Mule unless you like jackasses.Set Up an Online Store
I’m cheap. I use DriveThruRPG for PDFs and Etsy for physical stuff. Both are free to set up, but they take a cut of sales. There are tons of platforms, and everyone has opinions about them. My advice: pick one that feels right, stick with it, and treat your customers well.Mailing
Did I mention I’m cheap?Stay away from ULine:
https://refuseuline.comGet a label printer. Seriously. It will save you hours of stress. I grabbed a BT620 Bluetooth thermal label printer for about $80. I print labels downstairs while watching Unsolved Mysteries upstairs.
For the WHPA BackerKit, I printed hundreds of labels and never hit a snag.
For A5 zines, grab a stack of 6×9 envelopes. I like the stiff white ones that prevent bending. Thin envelopes can get mangled. Bubble mailers are good too. I buy whatever’s cheapest in bulk.
That extra touch:
I slide my zines into 6×9 self-sealing clear plastic bags for extra protection.Media Mail
$4.47 for a package under a pound, and it usually lands in 2–8 days. Bada bing, bada boom.LLCs and Taxes
Once you have some steady ground under you, think about forming an LLC so your zine business is separate from your personal accounts. I got my Connecticut LLC license online for about $100.
Etsy and other platforms make it easy to report profits for tax purposes. I write off everything mentioned above—but I’m not an accountant, so take that advice however you want.
I’m no expert, but I’ve learned from my pals and my mistakes. Reach out if you need advice on any of this stuff: lordbludd@gmail.com
Ok, speech over—go have a sfogliatelle and relax. If you want to go deeper, check out my homeboy Hambone McGuire’s masterpiece: Crowdfund Your F#@king Life. Oh yeah, and PWYW! Throw the guy a couple of bucks if you can, though.
Ham & Egg Publishing
This Week in Hambone
Ahoy! It’s your old buddy Hambone here with a few cool things I’d love to hip ya to.
Firstly, while most know me as a podcaster and writer, I am also a lifelong musician. It’s been one of the great joys of my life, and I’ve been lucky to be able to play just about everywhere with everyone I’d wanted to over the last three decades. But for the last ten or so years, I have been holding it down as the bassist of an Outlaw Country band called Secret Country.
Now, I know that when people hear the term “country,” many negative connotations come to mind. But we don’t play any of that crybaby modern country bullshit. Secret Country is a bunch of punk rock kids who play Outlaw Country in the tradition of Waylon and Willie, albeit faster.
You can check out our latest single, Hoppin’ The Hudson at the link below. Our next full-length album, Word To The Wise, will be out in May from Killing Horse Records.Yee Haw! What I’m Reading
This week I also burned through a couple of books, one of which, Here Lies A Vengeful Bitch by Codie Crowley, stood out as my favorite. It’s a paranormal thriller about a murdered bad girl back from the grave and bent on revenge, set amongst a cast of characters who feel lived-in and real. I had a blast reading it. Check it out at your local library or snag a copy at your friendly local bookstore!
Coming to BackerKit on 4/21
Finally, we’re just one week away from the launch of my next crowdfunding campaign for use with ShadowDark RPG. Check it out.
Darkness isn’t creeping in; it’s already here.Of A Harmonious Nature launches on BackerKit April 21st as part of a brutal Dark Double Feature with Nothing Left To Lose.
Two nightmares. One system you already love.
If Shadowdark thrives on tension, risk, and the fear of what’s waiting in the next room, this is where it gets worse because this isn’t just horror. This is SAW inside a murder maze built to break your players!
Early birds. Minis. Twisted choices you don’t walk away from.
Follow the Project Now! Stillfleet Studio
Bringing Danse Macabre to Un-Life
Hey y’all, here is a quick peek behind the scenes of the production of a run of books using offset printing—in this case, the five books that make up Danse Macabre: Medieval Horror Roleplaying by Christopher Pickett and the Stillfleet Studio (a medieval zombie apocalypse TTRPG).
Above, you can see the physical proofs of the Danse Macabre books. These are actually digital samples, not offset prints. Offset printing looks great and makes individual books cheaper, at scale, but it’s an expensive process: you can’t do it more than once per product, basically.
To figure out how to tweak your margins/bleed, CMYK colors, matte or glossy lamination (cover finishes), and any extras such as foils or spot UV layers, you go back and forth with the printer using quicker, cheaper digital prints.
Digital prints are cool, but they never look exactly the same as the offset versions. The main issue we’ve found is that black ink comes out splotchy in a digital print, whereas it looks rich and smooth in the offset run. Below is an example of this from the physical proof of the Reliquary, which won’t have splotchy patches on the final version:
Another tricky issue is foil. The softback version of the Danse Macabre Rulebook has silver foil, and the hardback has bronze foil (see below). Turns out, it’s really hard to take accurate pictures of shiny things! You can’t rely on pictures or video to proof foil.
Also, foil is hot-stamped onto books. (I’m picturing a James Bond-villain machine for dripping out boiling-hot metal…) It can be tough for printers to nail the placement of foil over very fine lines and text. Hence, we have to look at the proofs in-person, up-close, and send detailed notes. (This also helps us double check the text for typos.)
You can compare these nigh-final covers to our crowdfunding images, which were made earlier on in the process, before we knew what foil would look best over which layers of art.
The takeaway for me—after having led the development of three games that were offset-printed—is the offset printing can be a good fit for indie TTRPG creators, but you have to make it worth your while.
In addition ordering a certain minimum number of copies, you really have to pay careful attention to physical samples and take more time when you need it for proofing, making extra room in your schedule to check finicky extras such as foil.
If you enjoyed this quick look at the evolution of a few books by a small team of indie artists (all humans, no bots), let us know! We’re happy to share more.
Late Pledges—Ending Soon Geek Flea Kearny, NJ – April 18th
Saturday, April 18, in Kearny, New Jersey, Geek Flea returns! Browse over 50 tables of toys and collectibles, books, knick-knacks, video games, crafts, art, snacks, and more! Get ready for spring with the coolest geeks in North Jersey. Entry is FREE for all, 10 am to 3 pm.
———
We organize Geek Flea for one main reason: to hang out and have a good time with our local North Jersey geek scene. We’re glad to be back once again, so thank you for your patronage!
GameFace Con Baltimore, MD – May 23rd & 24
Baltimore’s Annual Tabletop Game Convention at Peabody Heights Brewery
12 pm – 8 pm both days.
Meet creators, shop, and play tabletop RPGs and board games
ModCon 2026 Northampton, MA – May 30th
Game submissions are open now, and badges are on sale for the first-ever ModCon.
It’s happening May 30th at the beautiful Smith College Conference Center in Northampton, MA. ModCon is a one-day convention dedicated to the modern-era genre of TTRPGs.
That includes games like…321 RPG • Call of Cthulhu • World of Darkness • Cyberpunk • Shadowrun • Marvel Super Heroes
• Mutants & Masterminds • Delta Green • Savage Worlds • Burn 2d6 • Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland • WHPA and more!
It’s going to be a great day of gaming, dedicated to all kinds of settings in the 20th and 21st centuries, in worlds both like our own and very, very different. Sign up below, and we’ll see you there!
Sign Up ArcaneCon Northampton, MA – October 16th & 17th
ArcaneCon is returning October 16th & 17th, 2026. Join us in a celebration of indie, old school, and old school-inspired RPGs, miniature games, board games, and more! ArcaneCon is Western Massachusetts’s premiere tabletop hobby convention! Game submissions will go live on March 1st! See more information at Tabletop Events.
Your editor this week has been Wythe Marschall of Stillfleet Studio.
Keep on emailing us at hello@analogunion.com to let us know what you’d like to see more of/less of and to share ideas.
If you enjoy the Analog Union newsletter, please tell your friends to sign up at AnalogUnion.com.
Until next time!
—WM
-
Tuesday, April 7th
This is the Analog Union newsletter for April 7th, 2026. Keep in mind that if you’re reading this in the distant future, some timely information may be out of date. Sign up to get the newsletter delivered to your inbox every week!
Magazine Madness, Neon Bastardz, Women’s Hockey! April 7th, 2026
Neon Bastardz is LIVE!
Women’s Hockey!
Magazine Madness
In this newsletter
Arcane Sword Press | Ham & Egg Publishing | Super Savage Systems
Super Savage Systems
Neon Bastardz is live on Kickstarter!
WELCOME TO THE CASSETTE-APOCALYPSE
Neon Bastardz is a fast, brutal, no-prep tabletop RPG built for pure, unfiltered action.
Get ready for:
Explosions
Mutations
Reckless decisions
And consequences that hit like a Monster Truck
This is what happens when the world ends…
and keeps going.Give the future a wedgie; it’s time to get radical in the end times!
WHAT YOU DO
Play as a skumdog surviving the neon wastelands and mega-cities
Smash through creeps, corpo skum, khaotic weirdness, and ninjas
Snag bizarre gear and fantastical relics
Mutate. Adapt. Get Rad.
Try to stay alive long enough to matter
Are you a bad enough dude to become a Neon Lord?
Want to see for yourself? Download the Sick-Start Rulez and try not to get SLIMED!
Operators Are Standing By! Ham & Egg Publishing
Two cool things and some promo!
Ahoy!
Hambone here to chat you up about the coolest things I have seen this week.
First up, I celebrated the 30th anniversary of my 17th birthday this past Wednesday and popped by my local multiplex to check out They Will Kill You.This movie is so gloriously grindhouse that it defied all my expectations. They weren’t kidding when they said they couldn’t show anything but a staredown in the ads.
If you are not opposed to over-the-top blood and guts, They Will Kill You is a must-see in theaters. Solid story, superb casting, killer action sequences, and mostly practical effects.
I cannot recommend They Will Kill You enough.
Photo by me using my CampSnap Pro
Secondly, at the start of the 2025 PWHL (Professional Women’s Hockey League) season, my wife, Sally, was invited by a friend to check out a New York Sirens game. She immediately fell in love with the sport. She’s since gone to almost every home game at the Prudential Center–A.K.A. The Rock–in Newark, New Jersey.
Yes, they are the New York Sirens and play in New Jersey. Don’t get me started on that.
For a sport founded in 2023 with an inaugural season in 2024, the women on these teams have worked diligently to prove why they deserve a spot at the table*. They have fought for every inch, showing the world why women’s sports are so important.Having been to many games myself, I can attest to the talent, grit, and heart these athletes bring to every time their skates touch the ice. Inspiring not only their local fans, but folks around the world when the US Women’s Hockey team brought home the gold in the 2026 Olympics.
So on Saturday night, Sally and I went to “the world’s most famous arena”, Madison Square Garden, to watch the Sirens take on the Seattle Torrent. Holy cow, what a game. The Sirens won in overtime 2-1 after a shootout that had every one of the 18,006 fans in attendance on their feet.
It was one of the most magnificent things I have ever seen. Wee F’n Woo.
*Flavor Flav would be the first one to tell you that women’s sports are underfunded, undersupported, and unappreciated. Now has never been a better time to get in on the ground floor of something great. Support women’s hockey.
Finally, if you want to do something nice to commemorate the 30th anniversary of my 17th birthday, click the link to get notified of the launch of my Dark Double Feature. Of A Harmonious Nature and Nothing Left To Lose: designed for use with ShadowdarkRPG, will be launching on BackerKit on April 21st. Get Notifed Of Launch! Arcane Sword Press
Magazine Madness Returns! – Adventurer Magazine by Mersey Leisure Publishing
Sorry for the delay, I had to put more effort into this one! Primarily because Adventurer magazine lasted eleven issues between 1986 and 1987, so I wanted to see how it compared with its two most notable peers- Dragon magazine and White Dwarf Magazine, which I will get to later in this article. With my focus on earlier published magazines and issues, I had to get a general glimpse into the hobby magazine style of the mid 1980s to help understand the publishing zeitgeist. I first heard about Adventurer magazine from fellow cohort/comrade Ben (Empty Castle Press) a few years ago after he stumbled upon it. So I figured I should also cover it while doing this series. Let’s dive in!
With that out of the way, I’m gonna just say – Adventurer Magazine punches well above its weight. It is the perfect mix of content and style, capturing a level of enthusiasm for the hobby while also being as visually engaging as possible. This magazine was so effective at advertising its games that I literally went on eBay and ordered some (Flashing Blades, among others)! This magazine got me so fired up that I couldn’t stop looking around each uniquely laid out page with original ornamental artwork and headers for its featured articles. On top of that, their aesthetics just get better each issue! This magazine was really something. Unfortunately, it burned so brightly, only for it to burn out quickly. I’m under the impression that this magazine was meant to fill in the hole that Imagine Magazine left after TSR shut it down, but wow, Adventurer eats Imagine’s lunch.
Adventurer – The Superior Fantasy & Science Fiction Games Magazine honestly lives up to its title. After looking at issues of Dragon and White Dwarf from the same 1986-1987 period, Adventurer crushes them. It’s the aesthetics of White Dwarf, but with the density of content of Dragon BUT with a maximalist approach to layout that White Dwarf specialized in, where there were no empty spaces at all. But what really makes it stand out? Mersey wasn’t promoting their own game. In turn, there is more shared game content and advertisements for other games that are able to float to the top and get your attention. This also means you get some great original content to support generic game systems or articles to help inspire players and GMs alike. You also get the occasional short story here and there. But! You also get Zine reviews, which are far more positive and endorse the small publishers than Imagine did. Which- this is also something I’ve noticed with the UK published gaming magazines; They talk about fanzines which I don’t see in the US-based mags. This, in effect, makes the UK gaming scene feel more palpable and enthusiastic about the hobby, especially with more professional magazines promoting it. What are the main featured articles and editorials for Adventurer?
Town Crier: Rumors, Gossip, and News in the hobby/industry
Live by the Sword: Letters to the Editor
Figures Front: a feature on miniatures, essentially ‘eavy Metal from White Dwarf.
Shop Window: Short reviews of game releases
Fanzines Forever..?: Zine reviews
Classified: personal ads for hobby meet-ups, trades, miniature painting, etc.
Voyages Beyond: Media reviews
“What is Play By Mail?” An overview and insight into play-by-mail, along with some reviews of ongoing Play-by-mail games.
Comics such as Return to Arkham, a Horror comic, “Whip-lash”, which is another gothic horror comic of sorts, “Once Bitten”, a fantasy comic, and “Bomber”, the Wormy analogue for Adventurer.
Center spread Poster of the cover!
There is also the occasional setting guide to the publication’s own fantasy city, “Scatophagium”, a fantasy city somewhere between Lankhmar and Altdorf of Warhammer Fantasy, based on the comic Once Bitten. What a name! British Fantasy is truly its own vibe.
I’d also like to outline the different RPGs that get featured or supported with content and scenarios in Adventurer, starting with what I found in Dragon and White Dwarf from 1986-1987:
Dragon Magazine: AD&D, Top Secret!, Marvel Superheroes, Star Frontiers, Gamma World (All TSR), Traveller, Champions, Space Opera (?!), Villains & Vigilantes. We have some cool stuff here, but obviously, TSR will use its own magazine to publish its own game content for promotional purposes. Some of the non-TSR games were relegated to the Ares section of the magazine, only to fall away and be hidden between ads in later issues.
White Dwarf’s offerings: Warhammer Battle, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Blood Bowl, AD&D, Bushido, Runequest, Traveller, Pendragon, Call of Cthulhu, Judge Dredd RPG. Again, some cool stuff, including Games Workshop game support as expected. But it’s all cool! And on top of that, you get support for Chaosium games, including a Pendragon article by the one and only Greg Stafford. Plus a Bushido scenario, a Fantasy Games Unlimited RPG that was popular for a moment after Shogun aired in 198,0 but seemed to have legs well into the mid 1980s in the United Kingdom.
Now let’s take a look at what games Adventurer features: STORMBRINGER!, Middle Earth Roleplaying (MERP!), Runequest II, Basic D&D, AD&D, Bushido, generic SCI-fi scenarios advertised for Traveller/Space Opera/Star Frontiers/STAR TREK!, Villains & Vigilantes, Chivalry & Sorcery! Wow, what an assortment! MERP, Stormbringer, C&S, and Star Trek all get equal coverage as the D&D juggernaut here. As with Imagine at the time, some scenarios were written to be generic, but with stats and conversions at the end for use with different game systems. So if there was a fantasy scenario, it would have Runequest, MERP, and D&D. But you will also get dedicated game scenarios like a Stormbringer adventure in the first issue. Awesome.
After eleven issues, the magazine stopped. Mersey Leisure Publishing didn’t release anything else besides this magazine from what I can find, which is a shame. Maybe it’s because it was a magazine that wasn’t also a part of a more profitable gaming publisher like Dragon or White Dwarf, but that’s also why I like it- It felt fan-made without an agenda. Do yourself a favor and take a dive into this lost treasure from the hobby scene. This is easily in my top 3 gaming magazines of all time.
Next Time – Challenge Magazine by Game Design Workshop!
Bryan
Geek Flea Kearny, NJ – April 18th
Saturday, April 18, in Kearny, New Jersey, Geek Flea returns! Browse over 50 tables of toys and collectibles, books, knick-knacks, video games, crafts, art, snacks, and more! Get ready for spring with the coolest geeks in North Jersey. Entry is FREE for all, 10 am to 3 pm.
———
We organize Geek Flea for one main reason: to hang out and have a good time with our local North Jersey geek scene. We’re glad to be back once again, so thank you for your patronage!
GameFace Con Baltimore, MD – May 23rd & 24
Baltimore’s Annual Tabletop Game Convention at Peabody Heights Brewery
12 pm – 8 pm both days.
Meet creators, shop, and play tabletop RPGs and board games
ModCon 2026 Northampton, MA – May 30th
Game submissions are open now, and badges are on sale for the first-ever ModCon.
It’s happening May 30th at the beautiful Smith College Conference Center in Northampton, MA. ModCon is a one-day convention dedicated to the modern-era genre of TTRPGs.
That includes games like…321 RPG • Call of Cthulhu • World of Darkness • Cyberpunk • Shadowrun • Marvel Super Heroes
• Mutants & Masterminds • Delta Green • Savage Worlds • Burn 2d6 • Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland • WHPA and more!
It’s going to be a great day of gaming, dedicated to all kinds of settings in the 20th and 21st centuries, in worlds both like our own and very, very different. Sign up below, and we’ll see you there!
Sign Up ArcaneCon Northampton, MA – October 16th & 17th
ArcaneCon is returning October 16th & 17th, 2026. Join us in a celebration of indie, old school, and old school-inspired RPGs, miniature games, board games, and more! ArcaneCon is Western Massachusetts’s premiere tabletop hobby convention! Game submissions will go live on March 1st! See more information at Tabletop Events.
Your editor this week has been John “Hambone” McGuire of Ham & Egg Publishing.
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.
Until Next Time!
– JHM
-
Tuesday, March 31st
This is the Analog Union newsletter for March 31st, 2026. Keep in mind that if you’re reading this in the distant future, some timely information may be out of date. Sign up to get the newsletter delivered to your inbox every week!
Tavers, Shadowdark, Neon Bastardz, Free Stuff! March 24th, 2026
Taver’s Last Days on Kickstarter
Nothing Left To Lose
The POG Initiative, AKA The Initiative Sack
Stillfleet is now on Alchemy VTT!
Free Patreon for April
In this newsletter
Tiger Wizard | Ham & Egg Publishing | Super Savage Systems | Stillfleet Studio | Solarian
Tiger Wizard
Taver’s Last Days on Kickstarter
TAVERS: The Meow Wolf Roleplaying Game, an immersive, collaborative, exploration-based storytelling TTRPG set in a universe of multiple worlds, is wrapping up its Kickstarter run on Friday, April 3rd.
Here’s a synopsis:
Tavers: The Meow Wolf Roleplaying Game invites you to wander through shimmering storyscapes and impossible landlines, places where mystery hums around every corner, and immortal cybernetic hamsters, underground rat punks, shadowy agents of the Charter, and community radio are just the beginning. Taste the delights of Fishy Delishy, dance the night away on stage wth a pan-dimensional skeletal terpsichorean, surf the info-waves of the Techstream on cyber-boards, and so much more.
Tavers: Gameplay Primer – FREE Preview PDF
Players take on the role of TAVERS, beings connected to SOURCE, the raw creative energy flowing through everything. By harnessing that energy, they are able to do some really cool stuff—far more than just opening portals. They dare to manifest impossible ideas that defy logic, shift perception, and reshape reality itself.
Check out the How-To-Play video:
TAVERS: The Meow Wolf Roleplaying Game is fully funded with most of its stretch goals unlocked. Click the button below to join us in the TAVE.
Learn More Ham & Egg Publishing
Nothing Left To Lose
Cover art by Charles Ferguson Avery
Ahoy! It’s your ole buddy Hambone here!
I am stoked to announce that Nothing Left To Lose, a dungeon crawl zine designed for use with Shadowdark, is coming to BackerKit on April 21st.
Here is a teaser synopsis:Set free by your captor after a failed rescue mission, you are reunited with your friends, your gear, and a way out. The only problem is, it isn’t the same way you came in. The only thing standing between you and freedom is the dark…and whatever is lurking in its shadows.
Nothing Left To Lose is a dungeon crawl for 4-6 characters, levels 3-5, designed for use with Shadowdark RPG. A three-level dungeon that will take every bit of your wits and grit to survive. Time is of the essence, and it is not on your side. Because if the torchlight fades to black, you’ll learn that freedom really is just another word for Nothing Left To Lose.
Nothing Left To Lose will be offered alongside Of A Harmonious Nature as a Dark Double Feature during our BackerKit campaign.
The campaign is set to bring players two great flavors of horror for one incredible system and is not to be missed. Because if Of a Harmonious Nature was written to be the best parts of an A24 film, in the Hammer Horror style, then Nothing Left To Lose is SAW in H.H. Holmes “Murder Castle.”Learn More Super Savage Systems
The POG Initiative, AKA The Initiative Sack
With the advent of Neon Bastardz, I felt like it was high time the POG was put back in the spotlight. I always loved POGs. We would go to MJ Designs on Saturdays and just dig through their massive tubs of POGs (.35 cents a pop!). Glow POGs, holographic POGs, skulls, daggers, monsters, and anything else you can toss on a circle of cardboard were represented. It was a magical time. Sad to see them go the way of the Beanie Baby. I managed to fill that POG-shaped hole in my heart with this new game called Magic: The Gathering, and the rest was history. From time to time throughout the years, I’ve gotten a nostalgic itch to revisit the wonderful POG world, but never pulled the plug. That is, until the creation of Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland.
With the world ending in the late 80’s/ early 90’s and the Gnarly Age’s craze for everything of that era, it was a no-brainer to add POGs into the neon mix, and on a dusty hot day in Afghanistan, the POG Initiative Sack and Stack was born.
Fast forward to now, I’m happy to say the RAW way to play Neon Bastardz is the Initiative Sack, and the regular Mork Borg rolling initiative is the optional rule. With that being said, I’m going to try to run Neon Lords classic from now on using the POG method!
Also, if you see me at a con, get ready to throw down on some POGs! Anyone who beats me to a round will get a FREE secret zine!!
Neon Bastardz goes live on April 7th, 2026!! Click the link below and sign up to be notified when we go live!
Operators Are Standing By! Stillfleet Studio
Stillfleet is now on Alchemy VTT!
Confession time: we—the team that makes all of the narrative-focused, epic and adventuresome, player-empowering Grit System games at the Stillfleet Studio—don’t typically use virtual tabletops (VTTs), being old-school theater-of-the-mind types.
But of course we know what VTTs are and what they offer to players who enjoy tactical combat, and we want to support players however they want to play indie TTRPGs!
So we are thrilled to announce our flagship sci-fi game, Stillfleet, is now available on Alchemy VTT. Alchemy is a slick VTT that allows for a lot of customization, streaming video, beautiful backgrounds and maps, and easy access to rules—now including the Grit System.
You can pick up the Alchemy version of the Stillfleet Core Rulebook in the Alchemy Marketplace or test drive Stillfleet in the VTT environment, free.
Try the Base System Check out the Marketplace Solarian Games
Free Patreon for April
Our Patreon is where we build and expand everything around Top Secret RPG. Each month, we release roughly 50 pages of new material, including missions, organizations, gear, and full setting support designed for modern action and espionage play. While it’s built with Top Secret in mind, the content is system-agnostic enough to drop into games like Outgunned, d20 Modern, Delta Green, SpyCraft, or even GI Joe with minimal adjustment.
For April, everything is open. You can jump in for free and download the entire past year of content. It’s a good chance to see what we’ve been building and decide if it fits your table.
This month’s releases…
Albania: Agents find themselves in an environment where geography, corruption, and transnational crime intersect. From the busy port of Durrës to the isolated routes of the Albanian Alps, agents will navigate unreliable partners, active smuggling corridors, and a mix of state and criminal actors who often blur together. The document provides a full country profile, key locations, border infiltration options, and a detailed breakdown of counter agencies, criminal organizations, and legal adversaries.
Legion: This decentralized hacktivist collective targets powerful institutions through data breaches, infrastructure disruption, and strategic leaks, often exposing real corruption while creating unpredictable fallout. For agents, Legion represents both an opportunity and a liability, capable of revealing critical intelligence or destabilizing operations without warning. The document outlines Legion’s structure, capabilities, operational methods, and cultural mindset, along with ICON’s cautious assessment of the group as a wildcard actor.
US Combat Commands: This document breaks down the United State’s Unified Combatant Commands into clear, usable intelligence for modern espionage play. Each command is presented with its history, mission, and operational scope in plain language, making it easy to understand how these massive military structures actually function in practice.
Alternate Skills: We’re in the process of modernizing Agent 13 for the Lucky 13 system. As part of that, we had to refine the skill list to fit pulp action heroes. This document contains the rules for a new list of skills that will allow you to play non-spy heroes in Top Secret. This is great for those of you who want to run a John Wick or 6 Underground type campaign. Best of all, you can have two characters, each using different skill lists, and still play them in the same campaign.
Get Some Free Stuff! ModCon 2026 Northampton, MA – May 30th
Game submissions are open now, and badges are on sale for the first-ever ModCon.
It’s happening May 30th at the beautiful Smith College Conference Center in Northampton, MA. ModCon is a one-day convention dedicated to the modern-era genre of TTRPGs.
That includes games like…321 RPG • Call of Cthulhu • World of Darkness • Cyberpunk • Shadowrun • Marvel Super Heroes
• Mutants & Masterminds • Delta Green • Savage Worlds • Burn 2d6 • Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland • WHPA and more!
It’s going to be a great day of gaming, dedicated to all kinds of settings in the 20th and 21st centuries, in worlds both like our own and very, very different. Sign up below, and we’ll see you there!
Sign Up ArcaneCon Northampton, MA – October 16th & 17th
ArcaneCon is returning October 16th & 17th, 2026. Join us in a celebration of indie, old school, and old school-inspired RPGs, miniature games, board games, and more! ArcaneCon is Western Massachusetts’s premiere tabletop hobby convention! Game submissions will go live on March 1st! See more information at Tabletop Events.
Your editor this week has been Peter B. Bryant of
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.
Until Next Time!
– Peter
-
Tuesday, March 24th
This is the Analog Union newsletter for March 24th, 2026. Keep in mind that if you’re reading this in the distant future, some timely information may be out of date. Sign up to get the newsletter delivered to your inbox every week!
Folk Horror, Stillfleet, and Magazine Madness Continues. March 24th, 2026
Of A Harmonious Nature
Magazine Madness Continues
Worlds Beyond Number × Stillfleet
In this newsletter
Arcane Sword Press | Ham & Egg Publishing | Stillfleet Studio | Horse Shark Games
Ham & Egg Publishing
Of A Harmonious Nature is coming to BackerKit!
Ahoy! It’s your ole buddy Hambone here! It is spring, so once again, a middle-aged man’s fancy turns to crowdfunding.
I am stoked to announce that Of A Harmonious Nature, a folk-horror adventure designed for use with Shadowdark, is coming to BackerKit on April 21st.
This is an adventure that Levi Combs and I had been working on a while back, and we are finally ready to unleash it on the world. Here is a teaser synopsis:
The fog-shrouded mountain town of Skogstrand has been quietly beset by a terrible entity from beyond the veil. This creature, known in tales of old as Prastr-Vem, is a skulking, malicious thing that slithers its way into the hearts and minds of those around it, holding them in a grip of frenzied, ritualistic terror. It has set its sights on Skogstrand and its people, with no intention of releasing them until its foul will is made manifest.As characters enter the town, they quickly realize that something unusual is afoot. Bizarre rituals and unsettling practices reign, as an annual festival known as Scythperchten looms in just a few days.
Dare you discover what is behind the trouble in Skogstrand, or will you too fall prey to Prastr-Vem?
For me, using Shadowdark for this adventure was a no-brainer because I fell in love with the system the minute I cracked the cover. It is the perfect complement to the dark themes of this story.
Of A Harmonious Nature was written to be the best parts of an A24 film, in the Hammer Horror style, with art by Sally Cantirino and a story by Sally, Levi, and me.Learn More 
Arcane Sword Press
Magazine Madness Continues – Ares Magazine by SPI
Ares magazine is a bit of an outlier with the other gaming magazines I’ve covered, because the gaming component is mostly secondary in the magazine. Now, i’m saying “in the magazine” because Ares was published with a boardgame in each issue! So the actual game is a tear-out from the magazine. This means the rest of the issue is essentially unrelated to the board game itself (for the most part). Which is fine! But the actual meat of the magazine isn’t gaming-focused, but gaming-adjacent. I’m talking about a focus on narrative short stories, science articles, and media reviews specifically. That’s the bulk of the magazine! The only usable gaming content is the pack-in game, and the rest of the issue is primarily inspirational content for hobbyists. While that may sound dull, I’m kinda here for it. Yes – there aren’t houserules for your favorite RPG in it, but there are articles on the practicality of rocket propulsion in interstellar travel! The short stories are also provided by notable authors for those into genre fiction of the era, including the occasional Appendix N author. Why is this magazine worth mentioning? Well, in the world of simulation games, SPI was the Pepsi to Avalon Hill’s Coca-cola. SPI produced some very notable games that I’d argue are far more visually compelling and interesting than vast swaths of Avalon Hills releases, but I also admit my own lack of experience with this era of simulation games. SPI also produced some well-regarded games from them period and even tried its hand with fantasy and sci-fi, including Dragonquest- their answer to D&D, Universe – their answer to Traveller (which I may talk about in the future), the Lord of the Rings board game trilogy (Sauron, Gondor, and The War of the Ring), Dragonslayer – the Game, and some failed licensed tie-ins (Dallas the board game!) that may or may not have led to its financial woes.
So what happened? Ares was published bi-monthly for 11 issues starting in 1980 before SPI ran out of cash and was taken over by TSR, who then published issue 12 in 1982. Almost immediately, the magazine became an afterthought- moving to quarterly then becoming an article in Dragon magazine, until it evaporated entirely. Most of the SPI talent went to Avalon Hill as TSR was gutting the remains of SPI in 1983.
Something I ask myself when I’m flipping through these issues is – what value does this magazine have for current hobbyists? Usually, the main appeal is the contemporary look into the hobby from the period, from terminology, to seeing trends as they form. Ares did surveys and would publish the results in each issue, sort of making a billboard top 100 but for games, which I think is cool (space game did something similar as well). But the dedication to constantly polling readers about their game rankings is interesting, Beyond ethnoecological interest – some magazines do provide something usable or insightful that still applies. I’d say almost every magazine offers this like adventures or some alternate rules. But what Ares brings is tangential inspiration from the science articles about astrophysics or the inspired short stories. Speaking of- some of the short stories are tied into the pack-in game. For example, issue 10 features a game based on The Stainless Steel Rat, a popular sci-fi rogue created by Harry Harrison who also has a short story in this issue. This issue may be my favorite of the initial 12 because it also features media reviews of Outland and Escape from New York (both reviews praised them, as they should). This issue also shows its attempt to be more like its peers by including a Dragonquest adventure included within it- using this as a resource to promote SPI’s own emerging RPG game. There are also expanded rules or updated rules for prior issue’s pack-in games. Sometimes these are rule corrections based on player feedback or reviews, showing a lack of playtesting which I would expect for someone trying to pump out and print games every two months outside of their typical simulation board game development. However, the frequency of this is troubling- indicating a lack of quality and then publishing a fix. It feels analogous to some current video game development trends (you can patch it out later, etc.)
Did gamers want stuff like this in a gaming magazine? I genuinely don’t know
Two more things I would like to point out: First- the cover art is easily some of my favorite so far, and is honestly some of the stronger covers I’ve seen from the era. SPI has a unified design to all of their products around this time, so the fonts, layouts, and artwork all look good across the board, including the games from this period as well. You can tell they cared about what their products looked like. The second thing I would like to point out is in issue 1, there is a section called “A Galaxy of Games: Reviews of the Most Significant Science Fiction and Fantasy Games” where a team of writers attempt to review all notable games published by the “major” publishers (including SPI). So this functions as a short form collection of ranked reviews of a significant number of games available to purchase in 1980. But that’s not the notable part- What’s notable is that a good amount is done by David Ritchie and Eric Goldberg. The David Richie reviews are incredibly robotic and joyless, which is always funny seeing a rating of 8 out of 10 at the end of a review that seems like he was unimpressed with. Granted if i had to do most of the reviews for a single issue within a word count, i would also be joyless myself after a period. Another reviewer is Greg Costikyan, a celebrated game designer later into the 1980s so it’s cool to see his opinions on current games.
So what are my thoughts on Ares magazine? It’s not very interesting especially since I’m reviewing these without the main selling point (the pack-in game), except for issue 10 due to their rarity to come across a complete game for cheap so I feel like I’m missing half of the magazine’s charm. The few reviews I found for the pack-in games often said some games weren’t fun. Uh-oh! If I received these bi-monthly in 1980 and 1981, I could see myself being very excited about it but after looking at other contemporary magazines, it’s not as impressive with a limited scope which only focused on tangential content. It feels like the pack-in game was the main selling point and the magazine was tacked on. Having said all of that, I’m glad I have a complete run of issues 1-12 for my library as a piece of history.
Next week – Adventurer: The Superior Fantasy & Science Fiction Game Magazine by Mersey Leisure Publishing
Bryan
Stillfleet Studio
Worlds Beyond Number × Stillfleet
The flagship sci-fi TTRPG by our scrappy little indie game studio, Stillfleet, has been picked up by the actual-play legends over at Worlds Beyond Number. We could not be happier to see what folks who have mostly been showing off traditional d20 games do with the Grit System’s dice ranges and narrative powers.
Whether or not you usually listen to AP podcasts, if you like far-future political sci-fi, check out the new season of WBN, Solari! It’s a great introduction to the Grit System and Stillfleet (which we’re reworking right now for a 2.0). Content warning: sex, politics.
Listen to Episode 1 Horse Shark Games
Taking It to the Streets
Over the past few months I made two trips to the east coast visiting Boston & Eastern Massachusetts and New York City & Long Island. I attended cons and spoke to university students who are pursuing education in game design and speculative fiction. I have had the singular pleasure of meeting a bunch of new people.
First off I spent the 3rd week of February in Massachusetts where I was invited to speak to game design students at Fitchburg State University about RPGs and Netcrawl. I was given an hour and half slot and I knew that I wanted to end with an actual play. I had nothing else prepared before the trip and hastily planned a talk for about 30 minutes giving a brief history of RGPs and various core concepts.
As talks go, it was fine; the payoff was asking if anyone wanted to play. The 20 or so students immediately started pushing the tables together. The president or the RPG Club pulled out multiple sets of dice for anyone without a set. It was magic! All eight pregens were grabbed and another 3-4 watched. I ran the scenario out of the back of Netcrawl RPG and it was a blast. Everyone was D&D 5e players, but as true students of game design they were all about trying something new. They asked about how it was paid for and we paused a few times to talk about specific mechanics.
Then I attended Total Con 40. I was able to meet some new people like Jeffrey Talanian, Erik Tenkar (Tenkar’s Tavern), and Ian McGarty (Silver Bulette) put names and faces together like meeting Wolf Manzella, Jayson Elliot (Solarian Games), Bryan Larkin (Arcane Sword Press) in person, and see good friends like Joey Royale and Tim Duchene.
My latest trip started with an appearance at SUNY Stony Brook where, just like Fitchburg State, I briefly outlined RPGs and then talked a little about Netcrawl. Again we ended the talk with a demo. In contrast to the players at Fitchburg State, almost everyone in attendance had never played a TTRPG and had never rolled RPG dice before. It only took a little bit of cajoling to get them to push the desks together and play, but they immediately took to it like fish in water.
I also briefly attended the Long Island Tabletop Gaming Expo in Garden City, NY. The convention is held inside the Cradle of Aviation Museum. Game tables were scattered throughout the aerospace exhibits which was amazing. I didn’t stay too long, but I did say “Hi.” to some people running DCC RPG at the convention and gave them all some swag.
The end of the trip was spent in Brooklyn and visiting Twenty Sided Store in the Williamsburg neighborhood (two metro stops or so from Manhattan). The proprietor, Lauren Bilanko, has a very nice FLGS with lots of OSR books, card game tables on the 1st floor, and a workshop/TTRPG tables in the basement. She is writing her own sci-fantasy setting and game system named Mystic Aether and does a ton of creative stuff. She and I did a workshop on adventure writing using the Sys Raid hexcrawl/pointcrawl adventure generator in Netcrawl:Arcologies. All the participants walked away with the bones of an adventure, which means I have something new to work on for the next few months!
These events have been very illuminating. We, inside our bubbles of the overall RPG gaming industry, sometimes fail to see the potential of going out into the streets to engage people that have never played. Instead we seem to focus more on people that already play games and TTRPGs. There is nothing like playing an RPG for the first time. My advice: get out there and find some new-to-the-hobby fans! Be their conduit to a new experience. Enjoy presenting your game to people who will always remember the time you introduced them to RPGs. Take your game to the streets!
ModCon 2026 Northampton, MA – May 30th
Game submissions are open now, and badges are on sale for the first-ever ModCon.
It’s happening May 30th at the beautiful Smith College Conference Center in Northampton, MA. ModCon is a one-day convention dedicated to the modern-era genre of TTRPGs.
That includes games like…321 RPG • Call of Cthulhu • World of Darkness • Cyberpunk • Shadowrun • Marvel Super Heroes
• Mutants & Masterminds • Delta Green • Savage Worlds • Burn 2d6 • Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland • WHPA and more!
It’s going to be a great day of gaming, dedicated to all kinds of settings in the 20th and 21st centuries, in worlds both like our own and very, very different. Sign up below, and we’ll see you there!
Sign Up ArcaneCon Northampton, MA – October 16th & 17th
ArcaneCon is returning October 16th & 17th, 2026. Join us in a celebration of indie, old school, and old school-inspired RPGs, miniature games, board games, and more! ArcaneCon is Western Massachusetts’s premiere tabletop hobby convention! Game submissions will go live on March 1st! See more information at Tabletop Events.
Your editor this week has been James A. Pozenel, Jr. of
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.
Until Next Time!
– James
-
Tuesday, March 17th
This is the Analog Union newsletter for March 17th, 2026. Keep in mind that if you’re reading this in the distant future, some timely information may be out of date. Sign up to get the newsletter delivered to your inbox every week!
Everything You Could Want: Vampire Farts, Fugazi, Imagine Magazine, Momentum. March 10th, 2026
Tales of the Tape Deck
More Magazine Madness
Crowdfund Your F#@king LIFE
In this newsletter
Get Haunted Industries | Arcane Sword Press |
Ham & Egg Publishing
Joey Royale’s Pizza Party returns this Wednesday, March 18, at 8 pm EST, live on YouTube: Sewer Rats Inc
Our old friend J. Yamil returns to the Pizza Party to share his new project, “Tales from the Tape Deck.” From the Kickstarter:
Tales from the Tape Deck (TTD) is a rules-lite roleplaying game system that fits in a cassette tape box! Tales from the Tape Deck is a mashup of ruthless, fast-paced, old-school gameplay and a narrative-forward approach. For fans of Mork Borg, Dungeon Crawl Classics, and Shadowdark.
Meldar16 is a dynamic duo making some innovative games with great graphic design. I just picked up the murder mystery masterpiece “I Got a Knife,” and it is the real deal. They developed a great resolution system named Die vs Die, which makes TTRPGs very accessible to all players.
From their site: https://meldar16.com/
Meldar16 Games is the brainchild of Melanie C. Green. Originally using Meldar16 as a personal art handle and then as a co-publisher for indie comics, she started making D&D adventures and zines in her Atera Redux series. While making her first non-D&D ttrpg, she also upgraded her partner Sean, from mere editor to co-writer and dishwasher.
Bring your napkins- it’s gonna be a mess!
Join the GHI Discord: https://discord.gg/5CjzBnsAt
Arcane Sword Press
Magazine Madness continues with Adventure Gaming Magazine by Manzakk Publishing
On December 30th 2025, the gaming world lost a legend- Tim Kask. A lifelong gamer who started with simulation board games in the 1960s, went on to become the Editor of TSR in 1975 after playing Chainmail. From there, he oversaw The Strategic Review (pre-Dragon Magazine), the OD&D supplements, and then established Dragon magazine. He fired the talent at TSR. He ended up leaving in 1980, a pivotal year for the company. Why did he leave? Well, other sources can get into deeper detail than myself within a limited word count, but my understanding is the change of focus for the company. Well, where is a person who edited significant works of the hobby to go next? Well, start their own gaming magazine of course!
Enter Adventure Gaming Magazine: A back-to-basics product that feels more along the lines of early issues of The Dragon. Actually, I would say that during the short 13 issue run of Adventure Gaming, there are three notable eras:
- Early period (#1-5; the Hex background cover)
- High (#6-10; The full art covers with gloss finish)
- Late (#11-13; Full art cover without gloss finish)
So why categorize the magazine like this? Well, those early issues are cool but somewhat visually sparse. You can tell that Mr. Kask was still developing it, but each issue does feel like a notable increase in layout quality and content. Once we hit issue 6, the gloves came off and we were swinging high! For a monthly magazine, the material is very well written and of good variety. Maybe too spread out? But it falls in line with Mr. Kask’s interest: fantasy role-playing games and tabletop simulation games. So in an issue you would find both alternate rules for a medieval variation of RISK or diplomacy along with an original Traveller adventure published by none-other than Marc Miller, the game’s creator (the infamous Stranded on Arden adventure!) In fact, there was a lot of support for military simulation board games in this magazine which made this very close to The General (future installment of magazine Madness!) One thing I also appreciate is that while the variety was there, it was still more or less 40-560 RPG and MilSim games overall. Some fantasy scenarios would be system neutral, but with conversion advice at the end for AD&D, Runequest, and Adventure in Fantasy (!!!) The magazine felt like a good look into what games were exciting to Tim Kask at the time, which is fun to experience his enthusiasm for them.
As a Traveller-pilled guy myself, there was usually something for me to find, and usually of good quality- although the Hardware Wars feature on real-world science to speculate on the function of beam weapons in Traveller might be a bridge too far (for me) but I’m glad it’s there! I can’t imagine how easily accessible information on how lasers work were easily accessible to teens in 1981, let alone sandwiched between movie reviews and game scenarios. Tangent aside- even with the variety going out for my realm of interests, I did find myself becoming more pulled into topics in the publication simply because they were well-written. Truly, the quality of writing here surpasses most of the other magazines I’ve looked at so far. You can tell care went into the quality of this magazine, which really shows in contrast to the issues of Dragon being published around the same time!
What else is in there?
- There would be a showcase of miniatures that were coming out under the familiar “Phigure Photos” used in early Dragon magazine,
- Comics including Finieous Fingers also from Dragon Magazine,
- media reviews,
- game and game adventure reviews,
- original short stories,
- etc. etc. the usual.
But the letter section, if felt, was well done, with the editor responses not being snarky or condescending as compared to other magazines. You get the sense the Tim Kask was always trying to improve on the magazine with each issue. One thing I noticed in issue 9 (probably the issue that really stood out to me) is that there was a readership survey asking “Do Adventure Games Discriminate Against Women?” asking for feedback about the prevalence of harmful stereotypes and the experiences of women gamers, offering to keep people anonymous.
I think this is pretty forward-thinking, and considering that Adventure Gaming was mostly staffed by women- this really highlights that this magazine was ahead of its time in this regard. Unfortunately, this feature never came, as the magazine officially stopped publishing around the time of its planned article. I’d be curious to see if this article was ever written or published elsewhere. Tim Kask received a brief push back in 1977 for publishing some poorly aged gender-specific rules for D&D, so seeing him being forward thinking and inclusive in this way in 1982 is awesome. If you are curious about the history of women representation in tabletop gaming, Jon Peterson wrote a fantastic article for Medium called The First Female Gamers about it (include link). However, by the “late” period, the print quality dropped and the lack of a tear out adventure scenario, but the articles were still cool, with some issues having certain themes or focuses, like Cowboys, or the game Illuminati. Then it ended! No warning!
So what is the final Verdict? Adventure Gaming is easily one of the best written and most diverse of the magazines I’ve covered so far. While it has similar topics and articles compared to others, The articles it does have are well written and researched (with sources cited!) Adventure Gaming also focuses on a wider range of tabletop games by providing variations for those games which I haven’t seen anywhere else. This is an easy cover-to-cover for me and definitely wasn’t the slog some other magazines were. Its also a great look into the era of tabletop gaming with the letters, response articles, and the decent GM advice. Recommended!
Next week: Ares Magazine by Simulation Publication Inc (SPI), then TSR!
- Note: It was supposed to be Adventurer Magazine “The Superior Fantasy & Science Fiction Game Magazine” by Mersey Leisure Publishing in the UK, but I am currently trying to De-stink my issues.
Just a reminder: Game Submissions for ArcaneCon are open! Submit your games before May 30th so you can get a discount on your badge! I have also updated the ArcaneCon webpage with all of the current info about the new location, states, and more!
Until next time!
-Bryan
Ham & Egg Publishing
Crowdfund Your F#@king Life: Second Edition out now!
Ahoy! This week, I am stoked to announce that Crowdfund Your F#@king Life: Second Edition is finally here! Since dropping the first one as a free community resource in January 2025, I intended to follow up with a second issue right away, but life had other plans. Lots of them apparently.
So now, ahead of issue 2–which you can get the articles for early on my patreon–I thought it would be a good time to revisit the first issue.
Crowdfund Your F#@king Life: Second Edition has been revised and expanded. It includes more helpful links, killer sidebars that round out the zine, and a bunch of cool public-domain and other art pieces to give it a real classic ‘90s zine feel.
As always, the PDF of Crowdfund Your F#@king Life will forever remain “$FREE.99”–or pay what you want–on DriveThru RPG. You can snag a physical copy on my Etsy.
Here is a description of the zine:
Crowdfunding is a lot of work. It is also how many creators who dream about bringing their projects to life get to do so. It is pretty cool when you think about it. However, for many folks, getting started can be daunting. The good news? It doesn’t have to be.Crowdfund Your F#@king Life was written by a former traveling blender salesman with six years of crowdfunding experience. This zine reads like a one-sided conversation between old friends, meant to help you navigate launching your first campaign. It is filled with helpful information, heartfelt encouragement, and a sprinkling of profanity.
So, if you are only in it for the money, keep walking.
If you are ready to do the work, have some fun, and bring your creative dream to life:
Let’s F#@king Go!
Check it Out ModCon 2026 Northampton, MA – May 30th
Game submissions are open now, and badges are on sale for the first-ever ModCon.
It’s happening May 30th at the beautiful Smith College Conference Center in Northampton, MA. ModCon is a one-day convention dedicated to the modern-era genre of TTRPGs.
That includes games like…321 RPG • Call of Cthulhu • World of Darkness • Cyberpunk • Shadowrun • Marvel Super Heroes
• Mutants & Masterminds • Delta Green • Savage Worlds • Burn 2d6 • Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland • WHPA and more!
It’s going to be a great day of gaming, dedicated to all kinds of settings in the 20th and 21st centuries, in worlds both like our own and very, very different. Sign up below, and we’ll see you there!
Sign Up ArcaneCon Northampton, MA – October 16th & 17th
ArcaneCon is returning October 16th & 17th, 2026. Join us in a celebration of indie, old school, and old school-inspired RPGs, miniature games, board games, and more! ArcaneCon is Western Massachusetts’s premiere tabletop hobby convention! Game submissions will go live on March 1st! See more information at Tabletop Events.
Your editor this week has been Bryan Larkin of Arcane Sword Press
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.
Until Next Time!– Arcane Bryan
-
Tuesday, March 10th
This is the Analog Union newsletter for March 10th, 2026. Keep in mind that if you’re reading this in the distant future, some timely information may be out of date. Sign up to get the newsletter delivered to your inbox every week!
Everything You Could Want: Vampire Farts, Fugazi, Imagine Magazine, Momentum. March 10th, 2026
Vampire Farts
More Magazine Madness
Fugazi
Why We Roll
Momentum
In this newsletter
Severed Books| Arcane Sword Press| Ham & Egg Publishing | Get Haunted Industries
Justin Sirois, Severed Books
VAMPIRE FARTS launches in May from Severed Books!
In this fast and tense press your luck game, you are a vampire who must eat a well-rounded meal to fart the most succulent fart imaginable. You will be feasting on different people of varying “taste” (number values). At the end of each round, the vampire with the highest value meal wins. That is, if you don’t ruin your night by feeding on the same type of human twice.
Beware, rival vampires are also out to sabotage you. During your night hunt, you may steal other vampire’s meals, block them from hunting, and even end their night completely. Play smart and you’ll be the one to rip the juiciest fart and win. Welcome to Vampire Farts.
Sign up here for cool free loot:
https://www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/f41b6894-9f56-4d51-8cd3-fb318051cff6/landing
Box art is a placeholder as we’re waiting on Drew’s art for the game.
Sign Up Here for VAMPIRE FARTS! Arcane Sword Press
Magazine Madness continues! This week – Imagine Magazine by TSR UK
I honestly struggle to think of anything notable beyond that it is aggressively Mid. Nothing outstanding, but nothing bad either! Which is a disappointment because I was honestly looking forward to this one. I looked at a couple of issues from the beginning, middle, and end of its 30 issue run to help give me an insight into its lifetime (April 1983 – October 1985.)
I honestly struggle to think of anything notable beyond that it is aggressively Mid. Nothing outstanding, but nothing bad either! Which is a disappointment because I was honestly looking forward to this one. I looked at a couple of issues from the beginning, middle, and end of its 30 issue run to help give me an insight into its lifetime (April 1983 – October 1985.)
I think most notably, there were featured articles with new AD&D classes and rules written by Gary Gygax that were later compiled into Unearthed Arcana two years after they were in Imagine (three years after they were in Dragon Magazine). And just like Dragon, the majority – if not all of the issue’s table space was devoted to D&D content such as adventure modules, rule clarification editorial called Dispel Confusion (great name!), a bi-monthly article about play-by-mail called Chainmail (another great name!), plus the occasional review about films, books, plus other gaming magazines. In fact- there is a lot of focus on reviewing other magazines and fanzines, oftentimes being a bit too critical or even punching down on a teen doing their best.
What about game content beyond D&D? Well, it’s pretty slim but when I saw something written for runescape or traveller, it would be paired with AD&D and Star Frontiers respectively. So there seemed to be some editorial control on supporting systems outside of TSR USA’s interests. In fact, it seemed like TSR UK was doing its best to compete with the established juggernaut of White Dwarf by the time Imagine came around that Gygax probably treated it as an afterthought and merely as an advertisement platform for the UK scene. Which White Dwarf was doing just fine releasing their own AD&D classes and adventures.
Finally, I’d like to point out one thing that feels very contemporary – An article called A Beginners Guide to Role Playing that goes over aspects of playing an RPG and an associated comic strip called The Adventures of Nic Novice that is set up as an introduction to learning how to play D&D. Look at it!
What about game content beyond D&D? Well, it’s pretty slim but when I saw something written for runescape or traveller, it would be paired with AD&D and Star Frontiers respectively. So there seemed to be some editorial control on supporting systems outside of TSR USA’s interests. In fact, it seemed like TSR UK was doing its best to compete with the established juggernaut of White Dwarf by the time Imagine came around that Gygax probably treated it as an afterthought and merely as an advertisement platform for the UK scene. Which White Dwarf was doing just fine releasing their own AD&D classes and adventures.
Finally, I’d like to point out one thing that feels very contemporary – An article called A Beginners Guide to Role Playing that goes over aspects of playing an RPG and an associated comic strip called The Adventures of Nic Novice that is set up as an introduction to learning how to play D&D. Look at it!
That looks like it’s from a zine I would have picked up recently at a convention or find on Itch.io! This strip continues for many issues and was a joy to come across every time.
In summary, Imagine is like a literal mid-point between Dragon and White Dwarf, serviceable and technically good, but not memorable as the prior two.
Next week – Adventure Gaming Magazine by Manzakk Publishing!
Oh, before I forget- Game Submissions for ArcaneCon are open! Submit your games before May 30th so you can get a discount on your badge! I have also updated the ArcaneCon webpage with all of the current info about the new location, states, and more!
Until next time!
-Bryan
Ham & Egg Publishing
Fugazi: The Albini Sessions
Ahoy! Hambone here, and whilst I have nothing to promote, this was the coolest thing I heard about this week, and I could not wait to share it with you all. Fugazi, the legendary D.C. post-hardcore band, has chosen to release their shelved “In on the Killtaker” sessions, originally recorded with the late great Steve Albini, to support Letters Charity. I have included an excerpt from the article, and you can read the full story on Bandcamp in its entirety. It is worth checking out.
From Bandcamp: “In the fall of 1992, the members of Fugazi were deep in the process of finishing up the songs that would eventually come out as the “In On The Killtaker” album the following year. The band had been working on the songs for a couple of years and had gotten as far as recording a few of them at Inner Ear as well as making numerous practice recordings, but by late October, they seemed to have hit a bit of a wall. In an attempt to shake things up, it was decided that they would take up Steve Albini’s standing invitation to do a free recording at his Electrical Audio Studio, which at the time was located in the basement of his house on North Francisco in Chicago.”
“In those three or four days, 12 songs ended up getting recorded and mixed –the entirety of the eventual “In On The Killtaker” album. During playbacks in Steve’s upstairs mixing room, everyone was very excited by the results. However, once the band was driving back home to DC with cassettes of the rough mixes to check out, it was clear that this was a session that wasn’t going to be released. The two vehicles met at a rest stop in Ohio, and there both sets of band members realized they had come to the same conclusion independent of each other. It’s difficult to explain the issue, but, for as incredible as things felt while at Electrical, the songs sounded flat in subsequent listens. A few days after returning home, Albini wrote to the band with a similar opinion, and it was decided to nix the recording.”
“To honor Steve, who died in 2024, and to support the work that he and his wife, Heather Whinna, have done with the non-profit Letters Charity organization, Fugazi has decided to make Steve’s entire original mix officially available for the first time in transfers pulled directly from the master tapes.”
Check it Out Stillfleet Studio
If You Dig Indie RPGs, Tune Into Why We Roll
Do you play, GM, or even create indie TTRPGs? Eyyy, so do we! In fact, Stillfleet Studio hosts a biweekly stream/podcast all about indie TTRPG game design.
Each episode of Why We Roll with Christopher Pickett and Wythe Marschall is an in-depth hour-long peek into the mind of a leading contemporary designer.
We’ve been lucky to interview some truly amazing designers, including Daniel Kwan, Luke Gearing, Mark Diaz Truman, Laurie O’Connel, Spencer Campbell, Kayla Dice, Michael Sands, Jenn de la Vega, Will Jobst, Tanya Floaker, Adam Vass, and Analog Union’s own John McGuire! (Expect more AU crossovers…).
By focusing on RPGs × history and politics as well as the biz side of indie gaming, Why We Roll is a perfect entry point for new creators. Plus, we take questions in the chat during our streams! Roll with us~
Subscribe to the Pod Watch the Stream Get Haunted Industries
Keep Going — Responsible Momentum as an Indie TTRPG Maker
Look, pals—I’m no business expert. I’m just running Get Haunted Industries from a workbench in my basement. Making games is how I express myself and feed the muse. It’s great therapy, and I’ve met incredible people through it. But if I want the zines to keep flowing, I have to think about three things: money, my abilities, and forecasting.
Money
Zines cost money to print. Simple as that. I’m not great at asking for it. I love giving books to friends, and I’m a pushover at the con table. I want my games in people’s hands so that I can get loose with pricing.
But when it’s time to hit the “Pay Now” button on Mixam, reality kicks in. So let’s say it out loud: it’s okay to charge people for your work. Getting paid is what allows you to make more things and get them into more hands.
Take the money, leave the cannoli.
My Abilities
I have zero graphic design training. I work with a computer and a phone. Instead of fighting that, I use it to my advantage Use YouTube. Pick a simple, free program and learn the basics. I started with GIMP and Microsoft Publisher. Since Publisher is going away this year, I switched to Affinity and spent a week watching beginner tutorials. That was enough to keep moving.
You don’t need mastery. You just need momentum. Refinement happens as you grow and experience.
Forecasting
I have a million game ideas. Late-night Tubi binges keep adding more. That’s great—but you can’t make everything at once. So for now, I’m focusing on building around WHPA. Think of it like the old razor/razorblade model.
The Razor: a core product that’s cheap and easy to get into. Get it out there however you can.
The Razor Blades: supplements. In my case, every supplemental zine is $10 so customers know exactly what to expect.
The goal is one release every three months—steady momentum without overwhelming people.
This also means restraint. If you’re like me, you want to release everything immediately. Instead, I’m planning releases on a calendar like a big boy and trying to keep two finished projects in the can so the schedule stays consistent.
Last thing: Print Runs.
I never know how many copies to order, so I keep the numbers low. I can always print more. That’s better than stacks of dead stock collecting spiders in the basement. Platforms like Etsy help too—people can save an item and get notified when it’s back in stock. Everybody gets what they want.
Keep it small. Keep it steady. Keep going.
ModCon 2026 Northampton, MA – May 30th
Game submissions are open now, and badges are on sale for the first-ever ModCon.
It’s happening May 30th at the beautiful Smith College Conference Center in Northampton, MA. ModCon is a one-day convention dedicated to the modern-era genre of TTRPGs.
That includes games like…321 RPG • Call of Cthulhu • World of Darkness • Cyberpunk • Shadowrun • Marvel Super Heroes
• Mutants & Masterminds • Delta Green • Savage Worlds • Burn 2d6 • Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland • WHPA and more!
It’s going to be a great day of gaming, dedicated to all kinds of settings in the 20th and 21st centuries, in worlds both like our own and very, very different. Sign up below, and we’ll see you there!
Sign Up ArcaneCon Northampton, MA – October 16th & 17th
ArcaneCon is returning October 16th & 17th, 2026. Join us in a celebration of indie, old school, and old school-inspired RPGs, miniature games, board games, and more! ArcaneCon is Western Massachusetts’s premiere tabletop hobby convention! Game submissions will go live on March 1st! See more information at Tabletop Events.
Your editor this week has been Joey Royale of Get Haunted Industries
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.
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See you next week!
-Joey Royale
