News, See Page XX
See Page XX – September 2026
See Page XX: The Pelgrane Press webzine
September 2026 Edition
VIEW FROM THE PELGRANE NEST: JACK O LANTERN EDITION by Robin D. Laws: Studio update covering the arrival of Fear Itself: Shattered Veil, Book of Unremitting Horror, and The Ocean Game, printing plans for Trail of Cthulhu 2E and Hamlet’s GM Screen, and progress on 13th Age and Merryshire projects. Also introduces Hunger Awakes and explains the temporary webstore closure outside the US and Canada.
BIGGER HEROES FOR SMALL GUMSHOE GROUPS by John-Michelle O’Shea: Help small GUMSHOE groups take on bigger challenges with a simple house rule: roll two dice and keep the best. Narrative advantage and disadvantage, alongside rarer complications, give heroes more room to act and make their ability pools last longer while preserving the risk of failure.
13TH AGE 2E PREGENERATED CHARACTER BUILDS: WOODLAND WARRIOR RANGER by Jay Godden: A sword-and-shield Ranger build that fights alongside an animal companion, combining reliable melee damage with extra attacks and turns. Includes a level-by-level plan, later Cleric spells for healing and support, and downloadable character sheets.
13TH AGE 2E PREGENERATED CHARACTER BUILDS: WAR MONGER WIZARD by Jay Godden: A direct-damage Wizard build that combines powerful spells against groups of enemies with defensive magic to keep casting safely. Includes talent choices, suggested spells, a level-by-level progression, and downloadable character sheets.
13TH SAGE: FORGEBORN BARBARIANS AND ISEKAI’D PCS by Wade Rockett: Clarifies how the forgeborn’s Never Say Die kin power interacts with a barbarian’s Grim Determination, then explores bringing characters from our world into the Dragon Empire through One Unique Things, backgrounds, and interdimensional adventures.
MEMORIES OF MOTHER by David Springer: A Fear Itself scenario set on Jekyll Island, where recurring dreams of a mother’s song lead ordinary people into an increasingly disturbing investigation. Designed to introduce The Ocean Game, with guidance for running it as a standalone mystery.
THIS MONTH’S PREVIEW
Pillars, Spines and Connective Tissue
by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan
How do you turn a collection of adventures into a campaign that feels personal to your players? Gareth looks at the different structures of campaign books, from adventures built around a central threat to anthologies with looser connections. Using Pillars Built on Sand, he explores ways to bring the heroes’ histories, relationships, and ambitions into the story. A familiar face can replace a supporting NPC, a character’s past can give an encounter emotional weight, and a personal goal can draw the group toward its next adventure. He also explains how sharing the spotlight across successive adventures can gradually give every hero a stake in the campaign.
Order Now!
Pillars Built on Sand
Plunge the heroes of your Swords of the Serpentine game into an epic campaign of mystery, intrigue, and swashbuckling action with Pillars Built on Sand. Designed with dark bravura by fantasy master Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, this thrilling cycle of five interconnected investigations features warring merchant houses, resourceful urchins, ancient curses, loot-hungry pirates, and marauding toad folk.
Page Turners
Page Turners is the game of personal storytelling for one player and one GM.
Acclaimed tabletop roleplaying designer Robin D. Laws won the coveted Diana Jones Award for his game of dramatic group play, Hillfolk.
Page Turners scales its dynamic down to the intimate scale of a single main character whose fiction you weave on the fly with one other creator.
The Paragon Blade
Enter a realm of powers and perils!
In The Paragon Blade, you play a hero in a fantastical land, still scarred by the evil of the fallen Hellbound Empire. Mystery and magic collide in tales of conspiratorial wizards, monstrous foes, and arcane intrigue.
Gather your wits, your allies, and your blade!
Pre-Order Now!
Hamlet’s GM Screen
In Hamlet’s GM Screen, Diana Jones and ENnie award winning roleplaying game designer Robin D. Laws applies his rigorous story beat analysis to the staple moments of a roleplaying session. Sharpen your game moderating decisions with directly actionable advice teased from a close study of sessions zero, opening sequences, information gathering, character interaction, and combat. Explore the paradox of choice. Remove the buzzkill from treasure finding. Learn how to rescue the mood when an ultra-competent PC gets Worfed. Plumb the emotional mysteries of the Total Party Kill.
You can track the status of planned releases and works-in-progress from the Google Sheet in this article:
Boundary of the Darkness
The Lunar Society are a dining club of natural philosophers, industrialists, and radical intellectuals, the embodiment of the Enlightenment. They have wealth, knowledge, and principles. Simultaneously, members of the Bluestockings Society, who meet to discuss art, literature, and politics, have—in their most secret meetings—formed Friends of Blue, a private organisation set up to protect the world from the devastating knowledge of the Mythos. Boundary of the Darkness is an 18th century campaign frame for Trail of Cthulhu by Phil Masters and Sarah Saltiel. STATUS: Print buying. PDFs are available through the Pelgrane webstore, DriveThruRPG, and BackerKit.
Cassilda’s Song
A massive scenario series by Robin D. Laws for The Yellow King Roleplaying Game, which spans all four of its core sequences. Its overarching plot turns on a contest between the two daughters of the King in Yellow, Cassilda and Camilla, who race with one another to destroy the timelines, winning the favor of their pallid father. Camilla seeks a cataclysm of blood and fire. Cassilda intends to dissolve reality into hallucinatory delirium. STATUS: Illustration in progress.
Merryshire Detective Club
In Merryshire Detective Club, an upcoming core GUMSHOE game from the brilliantly comforting mind of superstar writer-designer Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, you play amateur detectives in a cosy-fantasy setting. Your band of plucky investigators solves mysteries (quite often, murder mysteries) that crop up with remarkable regularity in the lovely little village you’ll design together. Gameplay mixes deduction and investigation with comic absurdity and plenty of cakes. (No giant tentacle monsters or vampiric conspiracies, we’ve quite enough of those, thank you.) STATUS: Additional scenarios are in playtesting.
Outside Entities
Raging from the indifferent depths of a hostile universe, gods and creatures cut from Trail of Cthulhu Second Edition come rampaging back in Outside Entities. Chill once more to revamped envisionings of Daoloth, Mordiggian, Quachil Uttaus, and Y’golonac. Send your Investigators into deadly confrontations with sand-dwellers, shan, and lloigor. Submit to the bizarre imaginings of Trail of Cthulhu designer Kenneth Hite as he fever-dreams of a new titan, avatars of Y’golonac, those strangely under-utilized space vampires the Nioth-Korghai, and the malitia vetus, a never before gamified beastie straight from Lovecraft’s nightmares. STATUS: Holding for print.
13th Age Starter Set
Rob Heinsoo and Wade Rockett have been working on a 13th Age Starter Set. This slimmed-down rules set and a one-arc introductory adventure in a box will serve as a lower-cost entry point than the full two-book Second Edition slipcase. STATUS: Editing.
Crowdfunding News
There are no running crowdfunding projects right now.
Prophet of the Pyre and Iconic Adversaries
Our next 13th Age 2E crowdfunding campaign brings together two major new books. Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan’s Prophet of the Pyre is a full campaign that takes heroes from 1st level to an epic 10th-level finale, packed with maps, monsters, and set pieces. Iconic Adversaries is a huge bestiary featuring more than 500 NPCs, creatures, and organizations connected to the icons, ready to use in published or home campaigns.
Sign up now for campaign news, previews, and a free Iconic Adversaries sampler.
Eternal Lies Boxed Set Crowdfunding
We’re excited to announce plans for a crowdfunding campaign to reprint Eternal Lies! This edition will feature exciting improvements, which we’ll reveal soon. Eternal Lies Boxed Set crowdfunding is postponed to 2027. Follow our updates for first looks inside the box, schedule news, and a preview link ahead of the late 2026 campaign.
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