ZineQuest 3 - A Tangled Web leads to the Curse of the Tomb of Immolation

ZineQuest 3 is possibly the easiest way to spend money on Kickstarter. It's one-stop shopping of gaming goodness in small packages that will fill my mailbox throughout the year. Christmas in July & December? Screw that - I want that special feeling of opening gifts of gaming goodness all of the time ;)

I am doing a series of interviews with ZineQuest creators. Of the zines I'm covering with this post, Michael Harmon and his Tomb of Immolation zine will be on deck Thursday morning at 10 AM Eastern. You can catch them all at YouTube.com/ErikTenkar

A Tangled Web -Benjamin McCown - I'm a huge fan of GM resources that help the improv style of gamemastering. A Tangled Web looks to be right up my alley.

A Tangled Web is all about connecting your NPCs with one another using relationships and breathing life into your world. This zine contains 5 precreated sets of 6 NPCs each themed with a generic multi-race fantasy setting in mind (humans, dwarves, elves, and halflings.) Each set contains its own unique narrative. There will also be 3+ “Create Your Own Tangled Web” fill in the blank style worksheets (more depending on stretch goals) that will help you generate your own collection of NPCs that are actually interesting and know each other.

Each of these NPC sets exist within a web of relationships woven to bring drama, secrets, and interesting interactions to your game. Every web has an illustrative diagram showing these relationships with unique icons. NPC descriptions are kept short and sweet and are meant to spark creativity. Random tables are provided for each web to provide different flavor, motivations, and secrets every time you use the web in a new story.

For the most part these webs are kept system and setting agnostic. Volume 1 is focused on stories within cities and towns, so you won’t find any wilderness setting NPCs here. But if you’ve got a city, town, or outpost in your game, then you’re all set to use these webs in your existing stories.

Curse: The City of One Thousand Martyrs - I'm a big fan of system-neutral setting material, as I'm more interested in the fluff than the crunch. This looks to fit that bill.

Curse, The City of One Thousand Martyrs is a 24-page zine exploring the world in and around the city. The book will look at the four ancestries of people who have traveled to the city, the different factions who inhabit the city, the city's ruined wards, the surrounding lands, and the terrible monsters that inhabit Curse.

Recommended systems for Curse: The City of One Thousand Martyrs include Torchbearer, Burning Wheel, Zweihander, Hackmaster, Dungeon World, Shadow of the Demon Lord, Dungeons & Dragons, Forged in the Dark, Warhammer Fantasy, and wargames including Frostgrave and Mordheim.

Tomb of Immolation - I'm a sucker for dungeons. 5e and OSR in the same package is a win-win. Of course, I'll ignore the 5e crunch ;)

The Tomb of Immolation is a short but dense dungeon crawl with a variety of puzzles, traps, and role playing challenges to keep the players busy.

• 70+ pages (truly, a hunk-a-burning love!)
• Designed for a party of five 5th level characters
• The party should have a character with the ability to turn undead 
• The party should have a character with good disable device and lockpicking skills
• Five new 5e and seven new OSR monsters described in the Bestiary
• Three adventure hooks
• Numerous new magic items described
• Printer friendly maps and a set of five pre-generated player characters in both 5e and OSR formats provided in the appendices.

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