Throughout February, Kickstarter held their first ever Zine Quest, a month of projects that harken back to the days of old-school zines and gaming. It shall also henceforth be known as the month I spent too much money on gaming zines!

I wanted to write up a list of the zines I backed and why. Many of them are closed now, but perhaps seeing this list will give you someone new to check out and follow. The following is sorted in order of how excited I am for them, with most excited on top.

Girl Underground This is the first thing I backed for Zine Quest. I love Alice in Wonderland, Spirited Away, and the various other inspiring sources of this PbtA journey into whimsy. Additionally, it’s a game to come out of the gauntlet community, so it prioritizes all the things I love about gaming with that community. This is one of my favorite zines I backed, and I can’t wait to get my hands on it. I backed at the physical zine level.

Black Mass This is a game about two women in Salem (love it) who are excommunicated from their community probably because people think their witches (love it) and go into the forest (love it) to have their own black mass (love it). Players act as personas of the women (love it) and work to have the women sign their names in the devil’s book (love it). Basically, the only reason I thought twice about this one was because it’s EXPENSIVE. $15 for the physical zine and no included shipping! In the end, I just had to have it though. I backed at the physical zine level.

Casket Land The art got me on this one before I’d even read the description, and the concept only made me more intrigued. This game is about a bleak occult western world and is meant to be played with friends in just one session. This one looks so professional and slick and I can’t wait to read it. I backed at the physical zine level.

A Rasp of Sand This roguelike supplement for OSR games gave me strong feels off of what I imagine Children of the Whales is about (I still have not watched past episode 1 of CotW). I’ve had a stronger yen to do dungeon-crawl games even though I hate combat in RPGs, so I was thinking this would be a great start. I backed at the physical zine level.

Dangerous Times: Muckrakers and Magic in Old New York! This one is a bunch of stuff I love that hasn’t been mentioned yet: 1920s era, magical realism, Call of Cthulhu-esque investigating, and the primary goal isn’t to beat the big bad. I backed at the physical zine level.

Verona This Shakespearean drama game uses a deck of cards as a resolution mechanic. Each player controls three characters from a feuding family that are not long for this world. It is GM-less and has tarot-themed archetypes. I threw down when I saw the expanded art, which has an anime-influence that I dig. I backed at the physical zine level.

Fall of Magic: Songs from the Axe and Fiddle I’ve never played the original Fall of Magic, so when this one came out, I figured it would be a good way to pick it up. I didn’t expect to be enchanted to the point where I threw down for the ultra-deluxe edition, but here we are. I backed at the level to get the physical zine + the scroll edition of the original game + some extra tokens and cases. I feel like that gif of the baby throwing money out the window at this point.

POWERED by the DREAMR I loved the description of this, which was basically Inception, but don’t bother with the limitations of movie realism or “not letting people know we’re in their dreams”. The art is not my cup of tea though, so I only backed at the PDF level.

Exodus This No Dice No Masters hack had caught my eye before on itch.io, but I never got around to buying it. Angels and demons are a favorite thing in supernatural fiction for me, so this felt delightfully on-brand. Seeing the KS reminded me of it, and I jumped on at the physical zine level.

OBACHAN PANIC! A roleplaying game where neurotic grandmas & aunties save the world—and look good doing it. Honestly, I backed it before I even read the description; with a concept like that, how could I not?! I backed at the physical zine level.

The Demon Collective, Vol 1 This collection of four horror adventures for D&D 5E are rubbing up on that desire I have to do more dungeon crawl-adjacent stuff. I’ll likely either just absorb these or maybe run them in World of Dungeons. I backed at the physical zine level.

Strings Honestly, I backed this one mainly for the art. I still don’t have a clear idea of what this is about, but the vague description felt in my lane and it was inexpensive, so I backed at the physical zine level.

The Lesser Key to the Celestial Legion I almost passed on this one, but backed it at the last minute. Basically, it’s angels and how to use more of them in RPGs, so obviously it was my bag. (Look at the lettering on that logo!) I backed at the physical zine level.

Tome & Wish You Were Here This is a two-pack of zines. Tome, a system-agnostic RPG supplement, & Wish You Were Here, a compilation of mini RPGs. Honestly, the art on these got me, even though I’m not familiar with the content. I backed to get both physical zines and the kickstarter unlocked a third zine called Return to Sender.

The RPG Design Zine This zine originally caught my eye because I’m at a point in my gaming journey where I’m starting to create my own content. I thought this one would be a great way to inspire myself and see what I could do. I backed at the physical zine level.

The Playmakers Zine This one reminded me of the work I did running the chapter of AIGA New Mexico for a few years. I’m always interested in the ways communities come together and how they are managed, so I definitely backed this one. I started at the digital level, but bumped to the physical level because in the last day, I was nervous it wouldn’t get funded (it did).

Two Apocalypse World Zines Confession: I’ve never played Apocalypse World. Considering many of my favorite games are Powered by the Apocalypse, this one feels like a huge oversight for me. I backed this one mainly as a motivation to maybe one day read and play AW. I backed both zines at the PDF level.

Typing all that out took way more time than I thought it would, and I’m still keeping my eye on nine more zines that I may back.