#life in the valley zine
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my piece for @lifeinthevalley - featuring pony and gustafa!! i'm really proud of how my piece and everyone else's pieces came out, please check out the entire zine!!
#story of seasons#harvest moon#a wonderful life#sos: a wonderful life#gustafa awl#pony awl#zine piece#life in the valley zine#my art#2023 art#really really proud of this
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Here's my piece for @lifeinthevalley! I'm so happy I got the chance to participate as a guest illustrator.
Please check out the full zine to see all the other artists' wonderful contributions too!!
#story of seasons#a wonderful life#sos awl#harvest moon#AWL#bokumono#bokujou monogatari#pony#molly#muffy#life in the valley zine
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🐮Life In The Valley🐴
This was my piece for the @lifeinthevalley zine all revolving around Harvest Moon! It was such a lovely experience and I loved seeing and reading everyone's entries. Plus the mods did a great job of putting it all together. It's a free downloadable zine, link at the bottom!
🐮Life In The Valley🐴
Este fue mi ilustración para el @lifeinthevalley revista que tiene la tema de Harvest Moon! Fue una experiencia muy linda y me encantó ver y leer todas las entradas del grupo. También los mods hicieron un buen trabajo en organizar todo. Es una revista gratis para bajar:
#life in the valley#zine#harvest moon#a wonderful life#awl#illustration#ilustracion#celia#pony#cottagecore
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The Harvest Moon zine, @lifeinthevalley , has officially released!! Here's my piece, Daryl vs a Cow!! Click here to find the full zine, along with everyone else's amazing pieces!!
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Here's the piece that I made for Life in the Valley: A Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life Zine. Go check out the zine~
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"All hands on deck!"
My piece for the @ddzine2023 charity zine: The Mountains & The Valleys! Ft my favourite enemies and favourite region!
#darkest dungeon 2#darkest dungeon#the shroud#leviathan#captain#wharf rat#cabin boy#charity zine#fandom zine#zine art#The Mountains & The Valleys#It was an absolute pleasure to partake this zine despite my life being very chaotic at the moment of making this#thank you Os for organising this zine!#my joy when I was assigned to the Shroud: unlimited#of course I love the region with sea themed horror and fucked up sailors!
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SPIRIT TALK by JL
An 88 page photo zine collecting photos from southern Utah in May 2024.
Available now for Pre-Order http://www.jameslano.com
#james lano#photography#life#photo#canon#zine#travel#photo zine#zines#magazine#photo books#photobook#utah#southern utah#desert#canyon#monument valley#hiking#outdoors#adventure
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so annoyed, joined a zine discord and immediately was met with the rule "if you like dark content LEAVE NOW this is a SAFE SPACE" so i just rejected my invitation. not even "don't make dark content for this zine" which i wasn't going to anyway just in general if you make/enjoy dark stuff at all LEAVE... fine i'll go back to making sexy necrophilia yuri comics with my gf
#txt#i would get if it was a rule for the zine just to have pg13 content but why judge me by my other works :|#your loss my dark evil yuri comic is on shop shelves#a lot of younger queer people need to just go watch some john waters movies#it's crazy. real life art jobs won't pry about your sex life or the work you create outside the job#but a stardew valley shane zine wont let me participate based on my other works or private sex life or whatever. these ppl are insane.
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The Life in the Valley collab zine is finally out and free to download! Here are my pieces! 🎣
Nina and Galen mean a lot to me so I had to feature them :)
LINK 🌸
#harvest moon#story of seasons#bokumono#hm awl#sos awl#sos a wonderful life#food#fishing#animal death/#my art
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Shousetsu Bang*Bang: Distracting You With Happy Endings Since 2005!
Sure, our whole zine focuses on smutty queer romance with a happily-ever-after aesthetic. But we asked our Discord which stories are especially warm and particularly fuzzy. Here's a list of the recommendations they gave, just in case you need something like that in your life right now, for whatever reason.
Arame Cove: Stardew Valley yaoi
c:\rano.bergerac: the Mechanical Turk, but make it sexy
Cheesecake and the Art of Political Warfare: the electoral college… IN SPACE!
Corvus, Cancer, And Other Constellations: friends don't let friends go through cancer treatments without smutfic
El Presidio Rides North: hurt/comfort while escaping zombies
A Fish Story, OR, The Ones That Got Away, OR, The Mermaid Solution: pretty much what the title implies
Moonstricken: knife-throwing, paperwork, chains, and other unorthodox ways to (not) approach your crush
Busted: same as above, but with 100% less werewolves and 100% more explosions
oh Charlie Harper we love you get up: everyone knows elocution lessons are very sexy
Out in the Wash: and you thought your laundry mix-ups were incriminating
Sid Stills’ Blues (Three-Quarters in the Bag in Alphabet City): aging musician falls in love, does not die of cancer
Up the Garden Path: D&D&D (Dungeons & Dragons & Dicks)
War Bonds: just two gals bein' pals while the men are off fighting in WWII
And of course if you're looking for something even more specific, we have https://www.s2b2search.com/ to help you navigate our enormous back catalog. You can search all 1200+ pieces in our archives by issue, by author, by artist, by tagged content, or by some combination of the above. Enjoy!
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Anywhere You Go | Read on Ao3
My piece for the @boatemvillagezine! The zine turned out spectacular, be sure to give it a read <3
—☾—
The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the air is fresh in Pearl’s lungs as she slides open the van door and steps out into the small parking lot, gravel crunching beneath her boots. Turning around, she offers a hand to Mumbo, who still looks queasy from the bout of carsickness that’d struck him earlier on the road.
“Grian is trying to kill me personally, I think,” Mumbo mutters, holding Pearl’s arm for stability.
“If I wanted you dead, I would’ve been rid of you by now,” Grian comes around the front of the van saying, offering Mumbo a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.
Mumbo harrumphs, “You took that last turn faster than you had to and you know it. Why did we let you drive, anyway?”
“I’m a perfectly adequate driver, I’ll have you know! In my defense, I did not see that bend coming up—”
Scar climbs out of the backseat next, adjusting the tiny version of his scarlet top hat he’d insisted on bringing along, though his Swaggon attire had been swapped out for a more practical shirt and shorts combo of the same color scheme. Pearl admires the dedication to the theme, really.
Hooking an arm around Grian’s shoulders, Scar says, “Now, now, gentleman! Let the worries of our travels fall away as you admire the magnificent view all around us.”
Still sitting in the passenger seat, maps spilling out upon the dashboard in front of him, Impulse snorts, “You make it sound like you’re trying to sell them the forest, Scar.”
“Well, you know what they say, there’s profit to be had everywhere you look!” Scar hums, getting that all-too-familiar gleam in his eye.
“As your CEO, I appreciate the mindset, but you can’t sell us public land,” Mumbo points out with a laugh, straightening up looking significantly less ill. Scar shrugs, a cheeky smile on his face.
Adjusting the bandanna she’d tied around her braided hair, Pearl bounces on her feet. “Profits aside, we’re finally here! Let’s get going already!”
Earlier in the week, Impulse had proposed an overnight hiking trip, following a trail through the scenic foothills of the closest real mountain range, ending the day out by camping around the lake found in one of the higher-up valleys, to give the Boatem crew a break from building. The idea was met with enthusiasm, and just a couple days later, Pearl found herself crammed between Scar and everyone’s luggage in the backseat of Mumbo’s van as Grian drove and Impulse directed, Mumbo clutching the front of his pineapple-patterned shirt next to Scar for dear life.
After hours being stuck in the same uncomfortable position, Pearl’s more than ready to start up the trail. The others are quick to agree, and after packs are assembled, shoelaces are tied, and the van is locked, they’re off.
The woods feel like an entirely different world than the lot they parked in. Tall, thin trees with fluffy foliage form a lush canopy high above Pearl’s head, and between the trunks the ground is alive with brush, pocket-marked with fallen logs and framed by the soft brown pine needles of the forest floor. Lichen creeps up the boulders scattered throughout, and steep rock faces contrast beautifully with the greens of the plant life.
Mumbo’s the first to break the hush that had fallen over the group. “Wow,” he breathes, “just, wow.”
Impulse nudges Mumbo and points to a tree with a thicker trunk and hole in the center that, paired with the bits of bark surrounding it, almost resembles a mouth of sharp teeth. “Hey, look, it’s Treesa!”
Following his gaze, Mumbo laughs. “I see it! Could be Treesa’s cousin, maybe—it doesn’t quite have her eyes.”
“I knew it was going to be pretty, but I didn’t expect it to be this amazing! Would you just look at the shape of those trees!” Scar walks in front of the group and waves vaguely to the left, grinning.
“Uh, Scar, we’re surrounded by trees,” Grian teases in a deadpan.
“And they’re all beautiful,” Scar agrees, stretching out the syllables of “beautiful” with a studious nod.
“Oh, I completely get you. Look at this terrain! I’m getting so much inspiration for my mountain already.” Pearl wishes she’d brought her sketchbook with her. Such beautiful shapes! She’s determined to commit everything to memory to recount on paper later.
Scar and Pearl fall into step together as they walk, the path beneath their feet nothing more than a line of dirt trodden enough to be distinguishable from the undergrowth, laughter from Grian, Mumbo, and Impulse echoing all around them. Sunlight filters through the trees, dappling against the gorgeous landscape, and the conversation between Pearl and Scar is nothing short of gushing about every detail.
—☾—
The first three forks in the trail are marked with signs, and it’s easy to follow the arrow pointing towards the lake. The forth fork’s signpost, however, must’ve succumbed to the elements at some point, and now lays half buried in the mud puddle gathered on the side of the path.
“I can’t make out what any of it says, can anyone else?” Grian squints at the muddied sign, whose lettering has weathered away almost completely. After a chorus of no’s in response, he asks, “Impulse, would you be able to find the route on the map?”
“I sure can!” Impulse sticks a hand in his shorts pocket, only to frown. Checking the other pockets, his expression grows more worried, until he pulls off his backpack to root around its compartments. “I must have it here somewhere.”
Remembering the stack of maps piled on the dashboard of the van, Pearl sucks in a breath through her teeth and asks, “Did you actually grab it from the car? Before we left?”
Freezing mid-action, Impulse’s eyes go wide. “Now that you mention it… no, I didn’t. Do we go back for it?”
Grian shakes his head. “We’ve already been hiking for hours. If we go back now we’ll be trying to find the campsite in the dark. Should we just… follow the path and hope for the best?”
“It’s a terrible idea, but it might be our best option, and if that doesn’t sum up our group as a whole, I don’t know what does,” Mumbo agrees.
“Then it’s settled! Onwards!” Scar marches forward, before seemingly remembering that they haven’t decided which route to take. “Actually, which way are we going?”
Impulse points to the right, where the slope they stand on continues uphill. “The lake’s in a higher valley, it’d make sense to keep going up until we find it, right?”
With a shrug, Grian says, “Seems like a reasonable plan to me.”
From there, of course, it doesn’t take very long for things to go wrong.
Right over the crest of the hill they’ve been hiking over is a pool of sticky, deceptively shallow-looking mud that spans too far on either side to be avoided without getting tangled in dense vegetation. In their attempt to cross, Scar missteps and ends up in mud up to his ankle, his boot completely trapped underneath. Mumbo and Impulse manage to free Scar, but his shoe is lost forever, and the spare pair Impulse loans out to Scar is a size too tight.
On the other side of the puddle, the trail is notably not nearly as worn down as the rest of it has been so far, and after a while it fades entirely, leaving the group stranded.
“I can’t see anything!” Mumbo throws his hands up in defeat. “Isn’t a lake supposed to be big? Surely it should’ve been visible by this point?”
The part of the forest they’ve found themselves in is densely wooded, the trees close enough together that it’s near-impossible to see anything beyond the small clearing they’ve stopped to rest in. Paired with the slowly setting sun, Pearl’s suddenly struck by the feeling that she does not want to be here past dark, thank you very much.
Shrugging her pack from her shoulders, Pearl suggests, “I could climb a tree? See if I could spot anything from up there?”
The idea is met with mixed responses. “It’s definitely illegal, and stupid, and dangerous,” Impulse starts, “but… it would be good to reach a higher vantage point.”
“Oh, super illegal,” Grian agrees. “I’ll go with you, Pearl. We’ll make sure not to litter or destroy the tree. I’m sure the forest will understand.”
After leaving their bags with the rest of the group, Pearl and Grian set off to find a good climbing tree. The forest is predominantly made up of tall trees with narrow trunks, with their shorter, bushier counterparts dotted in between—nothing ideal for climbing.
“Oh, this one is pretty good!” Pearl says, as they come across a tree suitably large, with branches low enough down to act as footholds.
“Sure is,” Grian says, bending down to tie his shoe. As he straightens up, he tosses Pearl a grin. “Race you to the top!”
“Oi!” Pearl exclaims, grabbing at the first branch and hoisting herself up. The limb creaks, but holds fast, and Pearl reaches for the next. Partway up the tree, Pearl and Grian are neck and neck, and Grian sticks his tongue out at Pearl around the trunk, Pearl wrinkling her nose in response.
In the highest boughs that’ll support her weight, Pearl gives a whoop of victory, holding her hand out to Grian to help him up the last bit of the way. There’s no real place to sit, so instead Pearl takes to crouching on her branch with an arm around the trunk, Grian standing, holding a hand up to shield his eyes from the sun.
“See anything?” Grian asks, after a quiet moment of taking in the view.
Scanning the land around them, Pearl sighs. “No. It is quite lovely from up here, though.”
From so high up, the mountains are visible through blue-tinged fog, ringing the horizon like a crown. Rolling hills stretch out as far as the eye can see, and Pearl can just make out the rocks that break up the woods below. The cool spring breeze rustles the treetops around them as it does the loose hair around Pearl’s face, and when she inhales, Pearl’s surrounded by the scent of sweet, refreshing pine.
“Well, this was a bust, then.” Grian lowers himself, readying for the climb back down.
Carefully shifting her grip to join him, Pearl takes one final sweeping glance, when something shiny catches her eye. Turning fully towards it, she gasps, “Wait! Grian! I see the lake!”
“You do?”
“Yeah! Over there!” Pearl points to where the last remnants of the sunset sparkle over the water of the lake, mostly obscured by trees and uphill to their current position. “It’s not too far! We’ve been running parallel to it, looks like.”
Grian laughs, full of incredulous relief. “Sounds about right for us. Let’s grab the gang and get going!”
Feeling rejuvenated in their discovery, Pearl and Grian sprint to where the others are waiting in a small clearing, seemingly focused on the ground at their feet.
“Please do not destroy my shoes,” Impulse is saying as Pearl and Grian come into earshot. Scar, wearing said shoes, pouts in response, and Mumbo looks to be weighing the merits of the option.
“We found the lake!” Grian shouts in excitement. “It’s just beyond that hill over there!”
The trio looks up from the shoe debacle in almost perfect sync, which Pearl can’t help but snicker at. “You did? We’ve been this close the whole time?” Mumbo passes a hand over his hair. “I thought we’d have to camp out right here!”
“Don’t be dramatic, my good sir, have some faith in us! We would’ve been fine,” Scar assures. “Though, having an exact location streamlines the process, I will admit.”
“You were just planning to cut Impulse’s trainers into sandals!” Mumbo retorts. “You have no standing to be calling me dramatic.”
“My toes are all cramped! I see where Impulse is coming from, unreasonable as it is, but it would’ve been worth—”
“Fellas!” Grian interrupts. “We can keep arguing about shoes all you want later, but for now it’s getting dark and we still have a couple hundred blocks to go. Let’s get a move on.”
“Fair point,” Mumbo concedes, holding a hand out to help Scar to his feet. After Scar’s up, they’re moving, anxious to get to the campsite.
The woods beyond the clearing are far darker than Pearl expected them to be, and the torches are broken out almost immediately. The birdsong that had accompanied the daylight is quiet, save for a few stray chirps here and there. Even amidst the shadow, while surrounded by the glow of the torchlight and soft chatter of her friends, tired from a long day of hiking, Pearl feels safe.
Nighttime has settled over the land entirely once they reach the lake. Stumbling through thick brush, Pearl breaks through to the water’s edge—only to find herself looking at the campsite, tiny from so far away, on the other side of the lake.
“…Well, at least we found the lake?” Impulse winces.
Mumbo sighs, picking loose a few thorns stuck in his shorts. “There’s no way we can walk all the way around, is there?”
“We could take boats across?” Scar suggests.
“That’s a great idea, actually! I packed a few extra, just in case.” Pearl pulls the boats’ compacted versions from her backpack, setting three down in the water and watching them grow to full size.
“You’re a lifesaver, Pearl,” Grian thanks, climbing into one of the boats. Scar settles in behind him, and Mumbo and Impulse get into the next one together, leaving Pearl with her own.
Grian’s boat leads the way, and as Pearl rows behind it, she catches sight of the stars, reflected against the water, disrupted by the ripple of her oars. Slowing to a stop, Pearl lets her boat drift as she looks up to admire the scene, filled with more galaxies than she could count, the moon hung high above. Stars all around her, in the water and night sky, Pearl feels like she’s floating through the void beneath the Boatem hole, untouched by the chaos of the world above.
Apparently noticing Pearl’s inaction, Impulse’s rowing peters out, and she waves to let him know she’s alright. After a moment, Mumbo calls out for Grian and Scar to stop, and the soft lapping of the water against Pearl’s boat and rustles from the surrounding forest are the only noises to break the silence as they all take in the view.
They soon start for the site once more, docking against the sandy bank. Five tents are arranged in a semicircle around a campfire, and dinner is shared over it. S’mores are an irreplaceable classic to any good camping trip, and after a proper mess of sticky marshmallow and gooey chocolate is made, Pearl bids her goodnight, and heads for her tent, exhausted in the best way.
In the morning, the hike back is easier than the one the day earlier, and they make it back to the van in the early afternoon. The drive back home is filled with blasted music and recounts of their adventures, and towards the end of it, Pearl isn’t the only person to catch a quick nap on the final stretch of road.
Returning to Boatem, Pearl sets down her bag and immediately goes for her sketchbook, stored by her bed in her little starter boat. She has so many ideas for her megabase.
(Reblogs do more than likes!)
#hermitcraft#pearlescentmoon#grian#mumbo jumbo#goodtimeswithscar#impulsesv#boatem#boatem village zine#hermitfic#my writing#zines#YEAHHH BOATEM ZINE#i adore everything about how this project came out
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Please take a look at this zine and all the fantastic work everyone contributed!!
I also drew this piece for the zine
#story of seasons#story of seasons a wonderful life#sos awl#harvest moon#bokujou monogatari#bokumono#harvest moon another wonderful life#hm awl#my art#fan art#digital art#video games
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Queer Book Recommendations
It's pride season in Wellington, New Zealand and my local library has published its second "Teen Staff Picks" zine! In that spirit, I bring you, a collection of lesser-known queer books featured in the two that have been released so far! I've narrowed the lists down to books that have 1000 or fewer reviews on Goodreads as of posting (though I actually use Storygraph personally). I haven't read most of these, they're new to me as well but looking forward to getting into them.
Sapphic
Trouble Girls - Julia Lynn Rubin
Planning Perfect - Haley Neil
Improbable Magic for Cynical Witches - Kate Scelsa
The Meadows - Stephanie Oakes
Never Trust a Gemini - Freja Nicole Woolf
This Is All Your Fault - Aminah Mae Safi
The Year My Life Went Down the Toilet - Jake Maia Arlow
Youngblood - Sasha Laurens
In the Role of Brie Hutchens - Nicole Melleby
Achillean
We Are Totally Normal - Rahul Kanakia
Two Can Play That Game - Leanne Yong
Blaine for the Win - Robbie Couch
I Like Me Better - Robby Weber
The Language of Seabirds - Will Taylor
The Feeling of Falling in Love - Mason Deaver
Charming Young Man - Eliot Schrefer
Emmett - L. C. Rosen
Pages I Never Wrote - Marco Donati
Trans Characters
Across a Field of Starlight - Blue Delliquanti
Welcome to St. Hell: My Trans Teen Misadventure - Lewis Hancox
The Borrow a Boyfriend Club - Page Powars
If I Can Give You That - Michael Gray Bulla
Transmogrify!: 14 Fantastical Tales of Trans Magic - G. Haron Davis
Jess, Chunk, and the Road Trip to Infinity - Kristin Elizabeth Clark
Magical Boy - The Kao
Kisses For Jet: A Coming-of-Gender Story - Joris Bas Backer
Between Perfect and Real - Ray Stoeve
Featuring Queer People of Colour
Ander & Santi Were Here - Jonny Garza Villa
The Loophole - Naz Kutub
Spell Bound - F. T. Lukens
Tim Te Maro and the Subterranean Heartsick Blues - H. S. Valley
Rise to the Sun - Leah Johnson
Never Kiss Your Roommate - Philline Harms
Rainbow! - Bloom & Sunny
Other Ever Afters: New Queer Fairy Tales - Melanie Gillman
Anne of Greenville - Mariko Tamaki
#lgbtqia#books#books & libraries#public libraries#queer books#lgbtqiia+#lgbtq+ books#pride#sapphic books#gay books#trans books#bipoc lgbt#wlw#mlm#reading#wellington pride#lgbt#lgbtq#diverse reads#diverse books#graphic novel#fantasy#contemporary romance#romance#coming of age#is this enough tags yet#libraries are important#support your local library#libraries are cool#transgender
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Here's my piece for the Life in the Valley: A Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life zine! I chose to draw Pui/Murrey with some familiar critters enjoying the forest pond! 🌿 I'm really happy with how this came out, thank you for having me in the zine! You can read the zine here for free!
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The Life in the Valley: A Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life Zine is now up! I wanted to share some of the cosplay photos that my friends and I submitted. I had the best time spending the afternoon with these gals and was so happy to be a part of this love letter to the Bokumono fandom. 🌻✨
We really put our all into our cosplays and had such a fun photoshoot at our local sunflower farm! You can check out the full zine here!
Thank you so much to Renai_Photo on Instagram for being our photographer and to @iron-rose-revolution-blog for helping me with my Molly cosplay!
Cecilia: @princessvanellopevonschweetz Molly: @mahoushojo Lumina: @sunfloradesu
#story of seasons: a wonderful life#story of seasons#sos awl#bokujou monogatari#bokumono#sos molly#sos cecilia#sos lumina#molly#cecilia#lumina#cosplay buddies#kasei cosplay#sunfloradesuu#we stan these queer queens! 👑
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THEME: System-Neutral Settings (Fantasy Edition)
Sometimes what you need, rather than a new ruleset, is a setting that makes your system sing. These are a series of system-neutral settings that you can pick up, borrow from, or use wholesale in a game of your choice!
All of these settings would work very well in fantasy or fantasy-like games.
Into the Riverlands, by Ostrichmonkey Games.
The Riverlands rests at the heart of the world. A great current of life and movement that winds and weaves its way through the mountains and valleys of the central continent. The Riverlands stretch from the south to the far north, acting as the lifeblood of continental travel and trade.
The Riverlands are a region of vibrancy and mystery. A colorful mosaic of peoples that call it home, and the strange twilight forest that surrounds it. Explore the bustling and vibrant City of Bridges, the mysterious and primeval Forest, the distant and crumbling Empire, and even further afield.
The backgrounds of The Riverlands have interesting themes, from the mercurial Trickster-Poet to the strange Forest Dweller, to the patient Marsh Apiarist. Picking up a game that is very light on rules, such as Tunnel Goons or Into the Odd, would allow you to slot in a character that fits inside the Riverlands without having to carry as much of the dungeon-delving as traditional OSR games.
Ultraviolet Grasslands and the Black City, by WTF Studio.
The Ultraviolet Grasslands and the Black City is a tabletop role-playing game book, half setting, half adventure, and half epic trip; inspired by psychedelic heavy metal, the Dying Earth genre, and classic Oregon Trail games. It leads a group of ‘heroes’ into the depths of a vast and mythic steppe filled with the detritus of time and space and fuzzy riffs.
This game is designed with a d20 game in mind but much of the setting feels very fitting for an OSR-style regardless of the dice you use. There are 200 pages of interesting locations with encounter tables and plot seeds. Some of the locations in this city include The Porcelain Citadel, The Steppe of the Lime Nomads, The Glass Bridge and The Forest of Meat. The world is weird and resists the tones of high fantasy by populating the world with insectoids, fungal colonies, strange drugs and ancient machines. If you want acid fantasy that mixes the in a bit of weird science or post-apocalypse, this is the setting for you. The designer of this setting also has a free player guide, as well as a creature generator supplement.
Into the Wyrd and Wild, by Feral Indie Studio.
Beyond the reach of roads, past the scope of mortals there is a darkened place. A shadowed tree-line where no-one dares cross and whose boundaries go undisturbed.
This is not the woods of peaceful fey and beast, but the dark and twisted children’s tale that kept you full of terror. It is a world of fear, madness, and bloodshed; ruled over by the uncaring watch of ancient trees. There is no bargaining with the primal forces that rule the uncivilized world, as you have nothing they could ever want.
The woods do not care for you. Never forget that.
Another dark fantasy setting, Into the Wyrd and Wild includes more than a list of beasts and NPCs for the characters to encounter. It includes a way to think about money in the setting, how to emphasize exhaustion, and various other rules that demonstrate the danger and violence to be found inside the Wilds. One of my favourite sections of the book is about the Court of Broken Branches, a faction built out of abandoned children, stitched up with silver stitches and led by a magical Queen. An incredibly evocative setting and a top-tier piece of work in terms of design.
Guidebook to the Viridian Maw, by Orbis Tertius Press.
This 24-page PDF of the digest-sized zine contains fodder for a wilderness sandbox campaign in the Viridian Maw: an overgrown meteor crater, mutated and reshaped by fungal influence. To get a sense of it, check out the free download for the one-page version of the setting.
Everything is system neutral & stats agnostic, though the material is written with genre assumptions leaning toward D&D/OSR games (but usable for games like Apocalypse World or Dungeon World, too).
If you want a game that sinks your players deep into a thick, dangerous forest, this is a great option for you. There are tons of great descriptions of beasts and plants that your characters can encounter, including Driftnettle, a floating kelp-like creature that prey on the unaware and asleep, and the Sporehorn elk, a symbiotic partnership between an elk and a colony of fungi. Much of the encounters you’ll find in this zine will prompt changes to characters that make them weirder, so it might be a good idea to let your players know about that before playing in this setting.
This game works for dark fantasy, but I’ve also used it as inspiration for a Changeling: the Lost game as well!
Into the Sea Woods, by Diwata Ng Manila.
The Sea-Woods is the way it has always been: just beyond the village, across a wall that bars the rest of the roots from coming forward. No one ever knew why that wall was built. Was it meant to keep the Woods out or keep the Village in? One thing's for sure, things changed when a tree stood up from its spot and punched a part of the wall until it collapsed. It then promptly walked deeper into the woods, clearing through a small path.
Never heard of a tree walking before? Ah, then you really must be new here, aren't you?
This is a small collection of micro-settings that are whimsical and evocative. This is more of a friendly forest than a scary one - great for setting a Studio-Ghibli kind of tone. There’s a bit of a formatting issue with the current version, but the ideas present in each setting give a great amount of inspiration for making locations that feel safe and yet unique for your play group. My favourite is the Cabin, a house that always has a warm cup of tea and a freshly made bed, despite having no visible caretaker. Rumour has it the Keeper only appears at night, and if she does, she’ll bet her heart on a game of poker. I've also used inspiration from this setting in a Changeling game before, to great success!
The Gardens of Ynn, by Dying Stylishly Games.
The Gardens of Ynn is a point-crawl adventure set in an ever-shifting extradimensional garden. Each expodition generates its route as it explores, resulting in new vistas being unlocked with every visit. It's a big garden full of whimsy and delight and surreal perils.
The Gardens of Ynn are a constantly re-arranging set of gardens that act as a magical maze. As a point-crawl adventure, this is a great option for a point-crawl game, but it might also be an interesting piece of inspiration for a horror game of some kind. This book begins with some basic lore about the Gardens themselves, followed by a d20 table that adds how deep you are in the Gardens to determine which area you happen upon next. Each area has a description, and many areas have additional roll tables to determine what can be found, or what kinds of encounters you might find within.
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