Welcome to the Crowdfunding Carnival for February! You know what time it is…it’s ZineQuest time! Kickstarter’s celebration of small-format RPGs is settling back into a regular cadence, with 2025 being the second ‘normal’ year after two relatively abnormal ones given scheduling and, well, Web3. Just like last year I’m going to do a quick overview of the full-sized campaigns running and then dive headlong into the zines, categorizing them into full games, supplements, and RPG-adjacent or system-agnostic materials. In two weeks time we’ll do it all again, covering the zines we don’t get to or that haven’t started campaigning this week, and instead of covering major campaigns we’ll go over the five-year retrospective, looking at ZineQuest 2020.

There are currently 147 live projects on Kickstarter tagged Zine Quest, meaning it’s going to be another hefty month of campaigns. I’ve already gotten notifications from a bunch of designers I’ve backed before, so I’m looking forward to the spread of projects that are out there. Zine Month is also technically still a thing, I can’t say I’m seeing a lot of energy outside of Kickstarter. Crowdfundr’s alternate event, Tabletop Nonstop, has six whole campaigns listed. Out of the scant coverage of Zine Month 2025 I’ve found, most of the projects being discussed and linked are on Kickstarter, meaning that the energy for Zine Month to be an alternative to Kickstarter-run Zine Quest is, well, gone. I’d love to be wrong about this, But the current ratio is somewhere between 20 and 23 to 1, and that’s just not a good look.

I’m not going to discriminate though; the Crowdfundr (and scant Backerkit) Zine campaigns will get coverage just like everyone on Kickstarter, but I’m back to just calling it Zine Quest at this point. For the goings-on that are truly outside Zine Quest, we have a few major campaigns that will be running through February, putting out games in a decidedly not-zine format.

Major Campaigns

A few bigger games to highlight before getting into the meat of the month. Onyx Path is continuing (ahem) the Trinity Continuum with Steam Wars, a game set in one of the mainline game’s many parallel realities. Speaking of parallel reality, CthulhuTech is back from the dead with a new crowdfunding campaign; while The Shadow War isn’t explicitly a second edition of CthulhuTech, it is a recasting of at least half of the original game while they figure out to do with all the mecha nonsense that eventually came out of it. Finally, Monomyth games, creators of Borg-like Castaway, have returned with Yokai Tales, a game set in feudal Japan which focuses on paranormal investigation, of all things.

These campaigns look like they’re all worth checking out, especially if you’re interested in the Trinity Continuum or enjoyed the original CthulhuTech. That said, this month is about the zines. I’ve rounded up about 75 campaigns for you. There are standalone games, which can be played on their own, Supplements of Note, which accompany existing games, and System-Agnostic Gems, which are useful for any game. In addition, I’ve broken out each category into further categories, making it easier to find what’s most interesting to you. That said, the zines which I’ve found most intriguing follow no particular pattern, so I’d recommend you at least peruse them all.

ZineQuest Highlights

Standalone Games

Tons of standalone games available during Zine Quest as always. This year I’m highlighting solo games, duet games, games using existing rulesets, and novel ideas that just seem neat. In addition to those categories I’ve picked out my top choices out of the rest of the games which have cool premises and production.

Solo games

CarQuest!: A solo game that puts you in the shoes of a multiverse-spanning rideshare driver.

Heavy Weighs the Crown: A game of magical crowns and the rulers who wear them.

Homeward: A ‘survival sim’ zine taking place in a post-apocalyptic world.

O Patron Mine: A prompt-driven game about a person and their meeting with a supernatural entity.

Only Way Home: A journaling game about being an astronaut stranded on Mars.

Perigon Falls: A solo game about hiking through the mysterious Perigon Falls national park.

Pirouette: A solo horror RPG about dancing ballet.

Realms: Etria: A storytelling game that uses different ‘rollbooks’ to guide the player. Can be solo or played with a group.

Rustpunk: A post-apocalyptic solo game.

Universe at your door: The Traveller: A storytelling game about exploring extrasolar planets and what keeps you whole so far from home.

Underneath: A map-making and journaling game about underground cave systems.

Duets

Along the Leyline: Fantasy sword fights between two players.

Commander Cosmic: Two players in an epic pulp sci-fi face-off.

Gay games to play in the car: A queer roadtrip game played between a driver and their passenger.

Horse Majeure: You play as two people in a horse costume. Seriously.

Soul to Keep: Two players struggle to possess the same body.

The Words we Leave Behind: Fight a war across the timeline in this epistolary duet game.

Existing rulesets

Crowns 2e: A standalone OSR system, still ‘compatible with the classics’.

Goblin Head Choppers: A scalable goblin zine using Lasers and Feelings, Mork Borg, and 5e.

Honorbound: Spacefaring adventure using the Tension Engine.

My Name is Hood: Robin Hood meets The Usual Suspects using the latest version of QAGS.

Polymorph Engine games: Both Starlee Davidson and The Devils Doorbell are built using Polymorph, the quick-rolling system where each archetype gets to claim a die.

Teen Noir 2e: A, well, teen noir RPG based on Swords Without Master.

Zones: Take on STALKER in this game based on Cairn.

Neat and unique

52-Pickup: TTRPG Collection 2: A collection of six zine-sized original games.

They Burned the Books: A game about literacy that requires you to destroy a book to play it.

The Crawling Chaos: Instead of one GM many players, one player, many GMs.

Fast Fables: A family-friendly storytelling game with its own custom 27 card deck.

Kaiser Cucumber’s 3-Night Heist: A tile stacking game that happens to come with a steampunk RPG.

Knight Forlorn: A collaborative storytelling game where all the players control a single knight on their quest through a dying world.

Midnight Marathon: Five distinct horror zines from Adam Vass of World Champ Game Co.

Passage to Yondoor: A two player dungeon crawler that also comes with its own 3D-printable minis and terrain.

Thieves of the Tome: Generate a spellbook heist from books on your shelf.

Wiki Articles are Wizards [citation needed]: Generate wizard characters from wiki articles.

Something new

Boxcars: The Game: Play as hobos riding the rails at the turn of the century.

Bonds Between: You are dragons aiming to restore neglected and run-down domains.

Sock Puppets: A sock puppet RPG, which will require you to make sock puppets.

Mission Impawsible: Play as three raccoons in a trench coat. Literally.

Retrograde: A retrofuturist investigation/survival RPG inspired by Letterpress printing. Very slick.

Nightbringer: A fantasy RPG where everyone must be ‘squishy wizards’.

Every Villain is a Loser: Play this comedic RPG as all the ‘henches, minions, lackeys, and goons’.

Fluff ‘n Fury: Over the top Cyberpunk action…except you’re all teddybears.

Out of Orbit: A troupe RPG of crash landing on a foreign planet with slim hopes of survival.

Here Lies a City: A worldbuilding and archaeology game.

Magic Tails: Play as animals in magic school before they go off to become wizards’ familiars.

So Many Horrid Ghosts: Play your favorite Shakespearean character in order to exact your revenge on Shakespeare himself.

Supplements of Note

Mothership Missions

It’s another big year for Mothership zines, with four different new modules to check out. Corpo Missions, Fear of a Daily Planet, A Secret Chord, and Cryo-Siq all tell new stories in the space horror game. In addition there’s one larger supplement, called Starships & Soldiers: If you ever wanted to play Starship Troopers in Mothership, here’s your chance.

BORG Buddies

Mork Borg continues to be a popular target for zine additions, given both its active community as well as the art style that lends itself to immense freedom on the part of zine makers. While Mork Borg is the first game in this style it’s not the only one, this year spin-off Pirate Borg is getting some love with some zines, including Accursed Deck Scum and Tangled in Shrouds.

For Mork Borg specifically we have a number of adventure zines covering different inspirations for setting and subject matter. Enter the Wonderdark takes Mork Borg to Wonderland, while He Who Croaks Last goes to a forest of hallucinogenic mushrooms. Calpini leans horror while Strang Beorn is inspired by Celtic mythology, and both Pulvis Et Umbra and Selene Obscure are driving towards the traditional black metal/dark fantasy inspirations that Mork Borg is known for.

Old-School Adventures

OSR support continues to be a hallmark of ZineQuest, with a number of zines aimed either at popular OSR titles or towards old-school d20 gaming in general. For new up-and-comer Shadowdark there are a couple zines: Dark Visions is a cult-centric expansion, while Void Echoes is a zine for a space hack of Shadowdark, Darkspace. DCC is also seeing some specific representation with Into the Dark, a funnel adventure, The Wanting Wizard, a hexcrawl, and Isle of the Ancients, a dinosaur-themed adventure (which can also work with Shadowdark). The final specific game worth noting is Black Sword Hack, which got some love in the form of Love Songs of the Death Goddess.

Most of the old-school zines are in the form of adventures, but a couple, both the latest issue of Populated Hexes and Strange Tales of the Painted Wastelands, are more broadly focused on providing new locations for your old-school adventures. As far as adventures are concerned there are plenty, including Ardens Adventures, Witch Lords of Skull Mountain, The Howling Tomb, Sharky, Mill of the Twelve Dead, Nice Weather for Fish, and The Rook and the Crook.

Outside those three big categories, there are still a number of supplements for other existing games:

Beneath the Pyramid’s Shadow: A modern horror micro-setting for Savage Worlds.

Red Death Party: A horror masquerade one-shot for Candela Obscura (and I guess 5e).

Shadows in the Dark: Not for Shadowdark! No, this is an introductory campaign for Blades in the Dark, including five pre-written scores.

Sometimes, We Were Infinite: A zine of Troika backgrounds from the last people of a dying universe.

System-Agnostic Gems

Some of the wildest and most interesting zines have always been inspiration and setting material with no specific rules material, and this year is no exception in that respect:

Airships: Because every setting is better with blimps.

Beside the Lesser Travelled Road: A zine of 20 fantasy camping spots.

The Doomed Stronghold: A stronghold-generating zine.

FOLK Volume II: A ‘love letter to character creation’ with a new set of characters, illustrations, and descriptions for whatever space station or starship you may come across.

Forest of Moon Denizens: Ten creatures found in the Forest of Moon. Also, incidentally, preview material for the forthcoming game Expedition to the Forest of Moon.

Greasy Spoon: ‘Infusion tables’ that present random tables for characters, locations, encounters, and all sorts of other weirdness you may find at a greasy spoon diner of a particular multidimensional bent.

Imagine Queer Worlds: A worldbuilding zine about being thoughtful and bucking your internalized normativity.

Planet Vesta (Expansion): A system-agnostic star system which is an expansion off of the original 8-page Planet Vesta zine.

Relics + Reliquaries Part II: Encounters, random tables, items, NPCs, and even mini-supplements for Mork Borg, FIST, and Mothership.

RPG Design Zine Two: The sequel to the cut-and-paste how-to zine written by Nathan D. Paoletta for the first ZineQuest six years ago.

Rumbling of the Giants: A mini-zine with new lore and stats for giants.

Sylvanna: Play Fey Games, Win Fey Prizes: A fey board game to introduce diegetically in your fantasy campaign.

Wayfinding Wares: 12 travelling merchants and some alternate loot tables to keep them fresh.

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As you know, Zine Quest is just getting started. In two weeks I’ll return and do another roundup, focusing on campaigns which have not yet started as of this writing. Additionally I’ll do the five year retrospective at that time, looking back to Zine Quest 2020 and seeing what’s changed. For the whole month, though, there’s an embarrassment of riches to check out here in the RPG crowdfunding world. Read some campaigns, back some games, and be prepared for even more Zine Quest as we continue through this Crowdfunding Carnival!

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