Zine Month 2026: Part One

Every February there’s a festival of RPG folks making zines. It began on Kickstarter with ZineQuest but after a few too many rakes being stepped on, expanded out to sites like BackerKit and Itch.io as their own thing. Zine Month aka ZineQuest, ZineTopia and I’m sure several other iterations. I’m just going to go with Zine Month or ZiMo for ease of use.

The site, “I Want to Play Games” has a lot of guidance and promotion for ZiMo projects, as well as this neat logo:

Personally, I always like to have a bit of an examination of different projects, see what catches my eye and what I’d like to shine my admittedly fairly little spotlight on.

There are a lot of different sites and places to check out, so I put a shout out on BlueSky to see what projects folks had. A number of people responded and I specifically have to thank Chaotic from The Gauntlet community who hammered out the majority of responses. I also asked at a couple of RPG Discords. If you have a project which I might like to look at in my next article, email me at charles (dot) etheridgenunn (at) gmail (dot) com. My rule is no 5E and no AI. I try to do my due diligence, but I am only human, so if I have accidentally covered something with AI, tell me and I’ll burn it from my article.

One last thing, I won’t be backing everything I cover, which isn’t necessarily a value statement on the campaign, I’m just one guy and can’t afford every RPG that intrigues me.

LIE TO HIM

By Michelle Kelly

First of all a quick disclaimer. I’m pretty sure Michelle and I are both writing for the same RPG at the moment (The Lands Remaining, coming soon!).

What’s it about?

Lie to Him is a solo RPG about honesty & dishonesty, trust & mistrust, all played with a tarot deck and wooden block tower. One of the stretch goals which has been reached is an app allowing you to play without either (as someone with terrible coordination, I appreciate this).

The game sounds like the specifics of theme are chosen by the player, the project says it’ll be a short zine on recycled paper with an intentionally water-damaged look to it. Also if you back at any level, Michelle will tell you a lie about herself. As someone who offered burnt script pages to their comic to backers, I appreciate this kind of offering.

Campaign: https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/michelle-kelly/lie-to-him-a-solo-roleplaying-game-about-dishonesty

Demo: https://michellicopter.itch.io/lie-to-him

Conclusion: Backed to a physical level! (and a lie, of course)

THE CRYPT HAS OPENED

By When Suddenly! Games

Disclosure time! One of the people involved here is Chaotic, who has worked on Sprigs & Kindling, an RPG anthology I’ve contributed to.

What’s it about?

An EC comic-styled RPG about cryptids in small towns. This is one of those games that sounds entirely like it was made for me, even if I’ve never really been an EC guy. It looks pulpy, eerie and definitely worth a look.

There are several different cryptids to choose from and player-facing town creation. The “Imposition Dice System” makes a lot of appealing comparisons to Blades in the Dark, Brindlewood Bay and Cypher. The expansion books also include some comic pages as well as new places and cyptids. That’s pretty rad.

Campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/whensuddenlygames/the-crypt-has-opened

Beta Rules: https://www.whensuddenly.games/

Conclusion: Backed digitally. It looks like outside of the US, that’s your only option.

FOOD & EVIL

By Goosepoop Games

What’s it about?

You play a demon who runs a food truck, trying to complete orders for customers. This is primarily a comedy game, with a deck of playing cards used in a deckbuilding fashion to manage ingredients. The campaign states that it’s able to be run as a self-contained game or dropped into any other game as a side story (removing demons if you’re playing a cyberpunk or science fiction world). The campaign contains several adventures and promises more as the campaign goes on.

Campaign: https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/goosepoop-games/food-evil

Conclusion: Intrigued, following but not backed.

FLESH WARE!

By StoicheinCat

What’s it about?

Look, it doesn’t have to be Mothership Month for there to be Mothership modules.

This campaign is for some cursed cybernetics, talking in Alien, Tetsuo: The Iron Man and FLCL as reference points, so you can see the kind of thing we’re talking about here.

Campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1330486051/flesh-ware-cursed-cybernetics-for-mothership-ttrpg

Conclusion: Following, not backed.

RIGS & RACES IN ROOMINO!

By Erik Oakland

What’s it about?

I’m not familiar with the Explore ROOMS RPG, but the style of this campaign is gorgeous. There are not one but two books: RIGS in Roomino and RACES in Roomino.

This looks like a really nice RPG primarily for kids, with short puzzles for them to go through in 10 minutes to an hour. Races RIGS makes multiple rooms into a story and RACES add chase mechanics for an escape or pursuit.

Campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/scalybeast/rigs-and-races-in-roomino

Free ROOMS Pocket Guide: https://www.explorerooms.com/pocketguide

Conclusion: Following, not backed. I’ve emailed them to get a copy of the pocket guide to see what it’s like and whether it’s something to recommend to friends with kids.

FANTASY IN MY BACKYARD

By James Quigley & Chase Call

What’s it about?

I like worldbuilding RPGs. I’ve used Ex Novo and Quiet Year to build settings for RPGs. This looks like it’s doing the same sort of thing for urban fantasy games, specifically name-checking Monster of the Week, Monsterhearts and World of Darkness.

You use a map of a city (real or fictional) and a deck of cards to add locations, myths, faction locations and so on. While I like Quiet Year as a way of building up an establishing situation, games like this and Ex Novo look a bit better as a way of constructing a history, factions and making somewhere feel like it’s been lived in.

Campaign: https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/james-quigley/fantasy-in-my-backyard

Conclusion: Following, not backed, mainly as I ran Monster of the Week fairly recently and don’t know when I’ll be getting my urban fantasy on in the near future.

TOWNIE(S)

By Irving Benitez aka Jellyfishlines.

Full disclosure time, once again. Irving and I have both worked on Sprigs & Kindling and will both be on The Lands Remaining.

What’s it about?

A game about how a town changes over time, using the Lost & Found engine which was built from Artefact and Bucket of Bolts by Jack Harrison. This time you’re looking about a Rust Belt town and what happens after capitalism guts a place full of living people. The system has you play an object, and in this case it’s a town and how it changes over time.

I’m not someone who lives in the States and I’ve never been there (or will go there in its current form), but this kind of town fascinates me.

Campaign: https://itch.io/s/179104/art-for-townies-drive for the game, which is mechanically finished but currently wants some art. It’s on ‘reverse sale’ on Itch rather than another crowdfunding platform due to restrictions on SSI in the US. While not necessarily there with all the bells & whistles of a ZiMo project, it’s still part of the month.

Conclusion: I have already bought this as part of Solo But Not Alone 6. If it still needs more direct contributions, I’ll add to it.

I HAVE LIVED A THOUSAND LIVES

By Rachel Bennett

What’s it about?

This is a solo RPG about reading and entering the worlds of different books (also movies, TV, etc, but mainly books). You go through five books and are changed by them. The project mentions that this is a shamelessly self-indulgent game, and yeah, it sounds it. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2018387307/i-have-lived-a-thousand-lives

Conclusion: Followed, but not backed.

DON’T TORTURE PUPPIES

By Gal Pal Games

What’s it about?

You’re starting a small business and trying to keep from doing anything too evil. Like torturing puppies, for instance. This is another game that uses a block tower to see how much you can keep or fail to keep your values.

I’ve used a similar game at my workplace to show collaboration in pitching, I’d be interested in seeing how this would work to show how compromises in service of capital.

Campaign: https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/gal-pal-games/postcard-games

Conclusion: Following, not backed yet.

NOIR NEO

By Wyvern Den

What’s it about?

A cyberpunk noir game where two runners (human, hybrid or android) are trying to find proof about whether a gang leader’s dead or not. It uses the 24XX system which I’ve yet to try myself and is mostly looking for art and funds to make a starter adventure.

Campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wyvernden/noir-neo

Conclusion: Followed but not backed. A good reminder that I should check out 24XX at some point.

DRAGONFLY MOTEL: A ROLEPLAYING GAME OF DREAMS AND MIRAGES

By Thomas Munier & Bläckfisk Publishing

What’s it about?

A revised version of Dragonfly Motel and threatened/promised to be weirder than Bläckfisk Publishing’s previous works. You play travellers lost in a trap of dreamlike slices of life.

The intent is sessions from 30 minutes to two hours, involving everyone in character and setting creation. There are two modes: Feathers (accessible, intense) and Roses (demanding, profound). It sounds pretty surreal and intriguing.

Campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/blackfiskforlag/dragonfly-motel

Previous (French) Edition: https://thomas-munier.itch.io/dragonfly-motel

Conclusion: Followed, probably going to back.

THREE PUNK GAMES

By Côme Martin, Nimaël & Lisa Banana

What are they about?

SEX/VIOLENCE/POOP 3 is an RPG printed on toilet paper. Players are slaves on Turd Planet and rebel against their Master, who’s played by the GM. Printing a game on loo roll seems like the act of a strange mind, but also I love that RPGs can be this kind of thing.

HEX & THE PUNKS has players as punch magicians with two stats: Hex and Punk. It sounds a bit Lasers & Feelings, but with flipping coins.

We Were Punks has no actual mechanics, but is an epistolary game about the punk scene, mainly involving making things up about it.

Campaign: https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/come-martin/three-punk-games

Conclusion: Following, but not backed. I’m a fan of Côme’s work though, so we’ll see.

ON CALL

By VJH Creations aka VJ Harris

What’s it about?

You’re a werewolf with a phone job, on call to deal with any of your pack’s issues as you actually can’t shift in the full moon. It’s a 1-2 player game and sounds like a fun mix of urban fantasy and mundanity.

Campaign: https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/vjh-creations/on-call

Conclusion: Backed! How could I resist a pitch like this?

FINAL THOUGHTS

There’s more out there, I know there is. I already have items earmarked for a second article.

Before Zine Month started, I saw some folks mentioning that there was likely to be an abundance of AI art in entries and I’m pleased to say that I only found a few. Obviously none will be covered here.

One thing to note is that almost everything shared here is actually written and some have seen a basic/prototype release already. It’s normally best to launch late into the work so that you’re not trying to deal with making the project, printing and fulfilling it all in the post-project time. I’m still sitting on some Zine Month entries from last year, after all. I’m pleased that it feels like projects have been doing more to be organised like this.

Stretch goals are still present in most of these projects. Fortunately they’re not ludicrously ambitious which again, would be a mark of concern in a project’s ability to get fulfilled.

I didn’t really pay attention to Zine Month projects prior to the start of the month and I like what I’m seeing so far.