A wild nautical adventure zine full of bizarre locations, rules for travel and chase scenes, and random tables for your crew!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Sailing along and A Look at Cool Projects
3 months ago
– Thu, Feb 05, 2026 at 05:29:13 AM
Sailing Along
Good morning everyone! These Bloody Sails is sailing right along towards 300 backers and that is just phenomenal. Again, thank you to all of you who have backed it, you are all amazing. Josh and I are both over the moon with the response to this.
Editing is getting finished up and Josh has been hard at work with getting pages into layout. There's not much to report on the zine other than we aren't going to stop working until the work is done!
If you haven't yet taken a look at our video and want an idea as to what to expect from the project/who is involved, take a look at this:
A Look at Cool Projects
These Bloody Sails is a project we are really proud of, but it's not the only projects we are excited about. Our editor, John Baltisberger, has a sick looking game coming out called It's Shadow Means Death. It looks AWESOME.
Its Shadow Means Death (ISMD) is a rules-light roleplaying game where players take on roles of massive kaiju. They wanted to create a fast and easy game where players could step into the scales of giant monsters and duke it out while causing glorious destruction.
They were inspired by their love of kaiju films like Godzilla, Gamera, and Pacific Rim, and wanted a way to recreate that feeling. If you have the toys available, they fully recommend busting them out and recreating the action on the table as you play.
In fact, the rules are so light that if you wanted to, you could slap ISMD in the middle of another game, using it to control Kaiju/Giant Robot moments! But that's not all; with the expanded rules, you can take on the role of cities defending against monsters or get into mass monster melee a la FINAL WARS or GIANT MONSTERS ALL-OUT ATTACK.
Next, our friend Mark Merideth is over halfway to his goal of bringing Courts of Rememory: A Supplement to Song of the River Prince to life.
Return to the Riverlands with a supplement to Song of the River Prince. Courts of Rememory is an exploration of the Fey and the way they touch every life along the routes of the Wide River. The entities are strange and mysterious, inscrutable to most mortal folk.
This supplement will bring you a collection of Fey Courts pledged to the High Courts of the Fey, Archfey, Lesser Fey, Fey Creatures, Borderlands between the mortal and immortal worlds, along with Spell-songs and tales of commonfolk meeting with the Courts of Rememory.
This supplement is great for any fantasy roleplaying game, allowing you to drop these creatures and worlds into your own campaign, though it is designed for the Song of The River Prince RPG.
And finally, I would be remiss if I didn't point out that Matthew Sargent (a great artist and fan of ska music) has a new project coming out in a week for Dungeons and Dragons 5e, Magika Nostalgika.
Throughout history, mages have hidden their magical secrets in mundane objects, from carvings to clothing... even humble playthings.
Discover the arcane origins of your favorite childhood toys within the pages of the Magika Nostalgika!
Inspired by popular toys of the 90s and the wish-inducing catalogs that contained them, Magika Nostalgika is a zine of magic items for D&D 5e. Inside, you'll find over 20 fantastical twists on old favorites like.
I appreciate you letting us fill your email box with news of our project and other indie projects we are excited about. There's just too many cool things going on for us to sit by and let them pass with without word! I look forward to talking to you all soon.
-William "This Effin' GM" Tramp
100% Funded in less than 1 Hour? THANK YOU!
3 months ago
– Tue, Feb 03, 2026 at 08:17:52 AM
Wow.
Our collective minds are absolutely blown. Thank you so much for your generous support in this endeavor. Funding this quickly absolutely relieves a ton of stress.
While you are looking at great Pirate Borg things, make sure to take a look at SkeletonKey Game's Tales from the Locker #1, currently on Kickstarter
Also, my friends at Suffety Games are launching a music based TTRPG, Tales from the Tape Deck! This is a pretty fun idea and I hope people are ready to follow and back when this hits
And if you want to see more of my own work, check out Expeditions into the Blood Sands from RPG Ramblings, where I wrote the free adventure available to backers in the first 48 hours!
Anyway, we still got a few more weeks to go, but the work continues! Onward!
-William "This Effin' GM" Tramp
These Bloody Sails Preview Information and Early Bird Special!
3 months ago
– Mon, Feb 02, 2026 at 08:47:37 AM
Hello everyone!
Zine Quest 2026 has officially begun and soon it will be our turn to enter our Zine into the mix. I want to keep this message short and sweet, so I'm going to launch into it.
Preview PDF
Anyone want a free preview of what we are putting together? How about all that you need to run The Island of 10,000 Flamingos? Click on the picture below to see a downloadable preview.
US physical backers who back within the first 24 hours are in for a special treat: FREE STICKERS. Josh put together a wonderful set of three stickers, and any US based backer of a physical tier in that first day is going to get a sheet of these for free.
For those of you in the US who are unable to back in the first 24 hours, the stickers will be available as a $5 add on.
International Backers: We are fulfilling through Lulu internationally to keep the shipping costs from being astronomically high, but we were not able to find a way to ship sticker sheets overseas in a reasonable way. I'm sorry.
Launch Time
We launch at 8 AM CST on February 3rd, 2026. That's tomorrow! We hope to see you all bright and early, and thank you so much for your support.
-William "This Effin' GM" Tramp
More Great Things to See! A These Bloody Sails update
4 months ago
– Sun, Jan 04, 2026 at 12:32:23 PM
Hey all! Will "This Effin' GM" Tramp here
First a quick update: the first draft is off to our editor! John is taking a look at the text to make sure we have something worthy of publishing, and Josh is working hard on getting some of the layout put together. Things are moving a long in a wonderful way and we can't wait for this to launch on February 3, 2026.
Also, we have surpassed my personal goal of 300 followers on this project pre-launch. WOW! Thank you SO MUCH.
Speaking of launch, I wanted to take a minute to highlight some other awesome Kickstarter projects that will also be hitting Kickstarter soon.
First, The Winds of Hell is a new pirate borg 3pp adventure written by Zac Goins of Limithron. Zac describes the adventure as a daemonic campaign swarming with bloodthirsty undead, Inquisition zealots, and enough pirates to fill all the hulks in the Colonies, and all of that sounds pretty awesome to me! You should check it out here: Pirate Borg: The Winds of Hell by Snapback Game Studios — Kickstarter
Next, I'm going to toot my own horn here for a moment because Jeff Jones of RPG Ramblings is launching Journal of the Blood Sands Vol 1 and 2! This OSE sci-fi/fantasy setting is written with stories like John Carter of Mars and Star Wars in mind, and Jeff describes the project as a mysterious region set on the moon Xanathos, one of 97 terraformed moons orbiting a colossal gas giant. This is a land of bizarre technology, peculiar inhabitants, corrupt cities, and ancient ruins ripe for exploration. It's a Sword-&-Planet setting, perfect for adventures brimming with wonder and peril.
Of particular interest to me is I wrote for this, not only in the main texts but also designed Rising Tides, the Free PDF Adventure being offered in the first 48 hours. This project will; also be launching for Zine Quest, so I hope you click on this link and take a look! Expeditions into the Blood Sands by Jeffrey Jones — Kickstarter
Speaking of people I have worked with, I am sure fans of D&D 5e and Shadowdark are well aware of the great works from Jeff Stevens Games. Jeff has a new setting coming out for Shadowdark called The Savage Arctic and I am really excited to back this one. Jeff is describing this as an arctic campaign setting where miners and settlers battle its harsh elements, forbidding land, and unique creatures, designed for use with ShadowDark RPG. OSR, OSE, 5E Compatible. PDF, Foundry VTT, Print-on-Demand options. It includes the talents of Amanda Leftridge, Jeff Mueller, Greg Christopher (aka Chubby Funster), Ryall Hyatt, and John Mitchell. Check it out here! The Savage Arctic - for the ShadowDark RPG by Jeff Stevens — Kickstarter
Moving back to Pirate Borg for a moment, I would be a fool not to mention another great Zine Quest 3pp Zine, Tales from the Locker #1 brought to us by Skeletonkey Games! Skeletonkey has assembled a crew of Borg creators from around the world for the maiden voyage of Tales from the Locker. Upon launch, Tales from the Locker #1 will be a 28 page zine containing robust adventure locations, a heist one-shot, a new character class, heaps of creatures (including creatures that are heaps), thematic NPCs, and loads of tables. Skeletonkey has a history of great Kickstarter runs, including the phenomenal Three from the Locker, and I am really looking forward to getting my copy of this great collection. Check it out here! Tales from the Locker #1 by SkeletonKey Games — Kickstarter
Finally, for now, our buddy Ahmed Suffety (a man of many talents) along with J. Yamil is currently hard at work on Tales from the Tape Deck, a TTRPG system in a tape cassette case. Multiple "Zine"-style booklets fit in the case, providing a TTRPG experience in each "volume." Setting resources, adventures, and character options are all packed into multiple booklets using the rules-light Mork Borg system inside the cassette case jacket. Every volume of Tales from the Tapedeck is inspired by a genre of music and has a playlist that goes with it. If you get a chance to take a look, do so here! Tales from the Tape Deck: A Music focused OSR TTRPG by Suffety Games — Kickstarter
Wow! A These Bloody Sails update.
4 months ago
– Tue, Dec 30, 2025 at 12:46:47 PM
Hello all! William "This Effin' GM" Tramp here, wanting to introduce myself and give an update on These Bloody Sails for Pirate Borg.
First off, let me start with a massive WOW and Thank You. As it stands right now, there are 268 of you who are looking forward to seeing this project launch. That's huge! As our first kickstarted project, this is a big deal to us and we are overwhelmed with the amount of support we are seeing even before the launch. Very humbling, that's for sure.
Next, let's talk about the current state of These Bloody Sails. As it is our goal to have this product to you as soon as we can, the work is well under way. In fact, as of about 10 minutes ago, the first draft of writing has been completed. That's right! Neither Josh nor I want to launch a project that ends up fizzling out at the end of the Kickstarter, leaving you to wonder "Are they ever going to finish this?" so we have been working for months to get as much of this zine completed prior to launching.
Speaking of, I want to talk about Launch Date. Some of you may have wondered when we will see this project go live on Kickstarter and the answer is looking like February 3rd, 2026. Zine Quest begins in February and we want to make sure we take advantage of being a part of that wonderful event, which really brings a lot of indie projects to the forefront. Since the first day of Zine Quest falls on a Sunday, we figure that may not be the best time to launch this, so we are waiting until that Tuesday to open the floodgates.
So what's next? Now that the first draft is done, the writing needs to be reviewed by some folks to ensure the vibe is right. Then, we hand it off to our Editor to make sure all of the i's are dotted and the t's are crossed...
Oh, did I forget to mention we secured an Editor? We did. We are so proud to be able to state that the amazing John Baltisberger (a PHENOMENAL writer, check out his credits here: Published Works – John Baltisberger) has agreed to join us on this endeavor. John and I have worked together on a number of projects already, including Dark Devilry and The Devoured Labyrinth and when it was pointed out to me by our mutual friend Zac Goins that John was an editor, it was a no brainer. Welcome aboard!
...Ok, so once the first draft is edited and John and I work out what needs to be said, the writing will go into Layout where our artist and layout specialist Josh Christoffersen will turn these 8K+ Words into a work of art. He has already started some of the work getting this project looking like a million bucks and I have no doubt this project is going to be a welcome addition to Borg Enthusiast's collections.
Once layout is done and the art assets are completed, we sprint for the finish line! We will get ourselves a proof copy, make sure everything looks on the up and up, and then we can get to the fun part of ordering as many as we need and getting them into your hands! But we are a ways away from that point. I'm getting ahead of myself, but I am just so excited right now.
Before I sign off on this update, I want to give a special thank you to some great people and companies in the TTRPG community for helping us get the word out. Limithron (Pirate Borg) has been including us in their monthly updates, Broken Brain Games (Ragnaborg) has spread the word, longtime friend Matthew Sargent (Skipping Infinity) has included us in his newsletter, and Daniel Fox of Zweihander has been sharing info about this project within their discord.
In general, this project would not even be possible without the support of Zac Goins, Daniel Fox, Steven Hamilton, Jeffrey Jones, and my bestie Sean K. Reynolds who have all provided a lot of insanely useful feedback on the content and on how Kickstarter works. Thank you all, this would have been much harder to navigate without your input.
Anyway, that's it for now. I hope you all had or are having a great holiday season and I hope you have a happy new year and I look forward to talking to you all soon.
