What’s Next for OSE and Dolmenwood? Find Out Here!

Development Diary: Zines, Lairs, Domes, and Tomes

We’ve been busy cooking up a storm in the old cauldron back in the Gnome’s den. Here's what you can look forward to this fall and beyond:

Carcass Crawler #7 and Wormskin #1 are now fully written, with the final rounds of playtesting almost complete. Watch this space for sneak previews of the zines as they enter the final stages of production.

Meanwhile, Beneath the Radiant Dome has been printed and is on its way to our warehouse. We've already got an advance copy in hand, and we think you're going to love how it turned out.

Playtesting also continues for Dolmenwood Book of Lairs I, with roughly half the adventures now tested at the table. More sessions are planned over the coming months, so if you'd like to help shape future Dolmenwood releases, you can sign up here:

Dolmenwood Playtester Signup

Finally, work continues apace on the Old-School Essentials Necrotic Tome, which is now around halfway written. Expect a host of new monsters to populate your dungeons, along with the grim Lords of Death—the dark deities who preside over mortality, undeath, and the afterlife. We're currently developing their concepts, with one Lawful, two Neutral, and one Chaotic power (the infamous Orcus!) to expand your campaign's mythos.

Coming Soon

We're aiming for the following release schedule, with products debuting in the new Necrotic Gnome Ssore, directly from our company website:

• Beneath the Radiant Dome — Late October
• Carcass Crawler #7 — Late October
• Wormskin #1 — Late November
• Dolmenwood Book of Lairs I — Mid to late 2027
• Necrotic Tome - Late 2027

As always, thank you for your support of OSE and Dolmenwood. Whether you love classic adventure, fairytale wanderings, or both, we can’t wait to get these books into your hands!

An Update on the OSE Starter Set

We've made an important decision about the Old-School Essentials Starter Set. Rather than releasing a boxed set, we're splitting the project into two separate products: Rise of the Undermoon adventure module and a free PDF OSE Quick-Start.

The main reason for this change is simple: the cost of producing boxed sets has risen dramatically over the past couple of years. By focusing on hardcover books and digital releases, we can offer a more reliable production schedule while keeping the adventure itself available as an affordable standalone product.

Rise of the Undermoon

The town of Zingra and the dungeon adventure will now be released as a standalone 80-page hardcover adventure. This book will be a perfect ready-to-run campaign starter that people can pick up without having to pay extra for a full boxed starter set and all its components (e.g., introductory rules, dice, character cards, etc). 

The book is currently in final layout and illustration, with artwork by Kyle Patterson, and we're very excited to share more as it nears completion. We're aiming to send this to print around October, with release planned for early next year.

OSE Quick-Start

The introductory material will be released as a free digital download. This will include basic player rules, pre-generated characters, referee guidance, an introduction to the Plains of Fnaan, and a brand-new introductory adventure, currently titled The Mud Shrines of Lorgg. 

The Quick-Start will be split into separate player’s and referee’s  PDFs, each around 40 pages, and is currently scheduled for release in November.

Creative minds across the Old-School Essentials and Dolmenwood community have been hard at work. Here are a few recent releases we think you'll enjoy:

• The Overlords of Steel, the new OSE megadungeon and campaign setting from Pulp Hummock Press, creators of Gods of the Forbidden North, now crowdfunding!
• Flowers of Fantasy and Fate #1, a 32-page OSE hexcrawl zine, is funded on Kickstarter and still accepting pledges!
• Adventures in the Mist, a campaign guide and adventure collection for the Land of Mist OSE setting, is available on DTRPG.
• Golbinesque, an OSE adventure where you play goblins exploring a strange, shifting mansion.
• The Mouth of Mentius, a meaty OSE adventure with an ancient-world inspired setting and progression from levels 5 through 10! Reviewed The Best on tenfootpole.org.
• Laboratory of Gnarlgruff, a PWYW Dolmenwood adventure for levels 3-4.
• Gnydron 3, a ceremonial magic-themed OSE supplement with new rules, classes, monsters, and more. Also available as a POD book.
• The Unleashing of St. Nimuanne, an OSE sandbox with multiple towns and dungeons for levels 1 through 6.
• Rock and Roar, music-inspired monsters, places, and items for Old-School Essentials.

If you're creating your own adventures, settings, or supplements, our third-party licences provide everything you need to publish compatible content.

And if you'd like your work featured in a future newsletter, send us the details (and a copy, if possible) at 3pp@necroticgnome.com