Indie/Zine RPG Interlude: Organizing Zine RPGs by Underlying System

Consider this post me organizing some of my thoughts on the indie/zine RPG review process I've been going through. 

As I've been reviewing the many various rules lite, indie-driven, zine RPG styled game systems out there it turns out there are really two or three dominant game systems. Some of this is due to the origin of many of these games, which so far cluster around the Stockholm Cartel via Free League Publishing, through Exalted Funeral, or through Old Skull Publishing....all of which tend to lean on common systems for their products. But there are outliers, and for many of these Exalted Funeral or Free League may publish and distribute, but the developers are all over the place.

Anyway, I thought it might be useful to provide a short overview of which systems are related and/or cross compatible either by design or by virtue of their common systems. They break down as follows:

Powered by Into the Odd Mechanics

I am not 100% sure but I think Into the Odd is the best title for the system, though it may have first been used in Electric Bastionland (or the original Into the Odd). This system has been used by several designers for several genres:

• Into the Odd 
• Electric Bastionland
• Screams Amongst the Stars
• Running out of Time
• The Dead are Coming
• Liminal Horror

...I searched to see what else might be powered by this system and was not surprised to find a reddit thread on the subject (here), which lists no less than 12 other systems with the ITO engine, only three of which I mention above!

Powered by Mork Borg

Deliberately meant to be rules-lite, part of Mork Borg's charm is an obsessive focus on randomized characters and setting content, along with basic rules with lots of character "development" through emergent gameplay and survival. The very open game license has opened it up to other genres given similar thematic treatment, including:

• Mork Borg
• Forbidden Psalm 
• Death in Space 
• Pirate Borg 
• Vast Grimm
• CY_BORG
• Frontier Scum (I do not have this, but have been told it is Mork Borg powered)

Powered by the Old Skull "Adverb Noun & Adverb Noun" System

I don't know what else to call this one, but it deserves a spot. The only games using this system are by the same author through Old Skull Publishing, but they are each really decent in what they do. I already reviewed one, but have a lot to say soon about the others:

• Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells
• Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells
• Dark Streets & Darker Secrets

The Tunnels Goons Micro Game System

So far this category consists of Tunnel Goons and Dead Mall, but may have others out there. Noted for being basically a game that fits on a sheet of paper.

The Mothership Universe of Games

Mothership is a single game system, but it holds a special spot as it has by far the most supplemental and hackable content out there in both print and PDF. You can find a lot of weird scenarios and mods for Mothership that would ordinarily qualify as their own game systems otherwise.

Unique Systems (So far)

These all are really simple and lite, sufficiently so that they may bear mechanical commonalities, but ar otherwise operating in their own space. So far this includes:

• Into the Zone
• Liminal (the simplest system with the most complex scenario generator I have seen yet)
• Ultraviolet Grasslands 2E
• Scoundrels
•  Zyborg Commando RPG
• A Grim Hack (arguably this belongs in an adjacent category of "Warhammer Fantasy RPG retroclones")
• Dancing with Bullets under a Neon Sun

The Enigma of Old School Essentials

This system arguably deserves a spot in the indie/zine RPG scene because it bridges a gap between OSR retroclones and the style and feel of the contemporary minimalist/artsy style of readdressing how a game must present and communicate its rules and scenarios to players and GMs for use. OSE, despite being the best retroclone of classic D&D so far, is also the most stylistically devoted to this new wave approach to minimalist design and extremely straight forward mechanical interpretations. So...as of this list today, I feel it probably deserves to be on this list, as its own system in the indie/zine RPG scene, albeit with the caveat that it also fits on the adjacent list of OSR retroclones that also spring out of the indie and fan developed movement.

The Fighting Fantasy Origins of Troika!

Troika! is quite familiar to Fighting Fantasy fans, so I am including Advanced Fighting Fantasy here even though its not, itself, an indie/zine RPG, demonstrating that its not so much the game system that dictates how you get this designation, but how you use (and present) it:

• Troika!
• Advanced Fighting Fantasy
• Triune (maybe? I don't have it, yet)

...there may be others. I feel like there must be.

The Rest

There are still a lot of systems out there I haven't tracked down, couldn't muster personal interest in, don't yet know about, or can't find print editions of. Some I really do want to find, but I have my cash limits into how many $100s of dollars I want to send to Exalted Funeral every month!