project-image

PIRATE BORG: These Bloody Sails

Created by ThisEffinGm

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:

More Great Things to See! A These Bloody Sails update
5 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 — KickstarterProject

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 — KickstarterProject

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 — KickstarterProject

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 — KickstarterProject

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 — KickstarterProject

Anyway, that's it for now. There are a ton of other great Kickstarter projects we can't wait to sink our teeth into, such as Skarr Awakened: The Adventure Begins by David Barrentine — Kickstarter and Courts of Rememory: A Supplement to Song of the River Prince by Mark Meredith — Kickstarter, but I didn't want to overload you with awesome. Anyway, I hope you are having a great start to the new year and I look forward to seeing you all soon when I have more updates to give.

-William "This Effin' GM" Tramp

Wow! A These Bloody Sails update.
6 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. 

-William "This Effin' GM" Tramp