Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Danielle Osterman

@dubdubpub.itch.io

This is going to go really hard with one of the other upcoming MG2e Jam entries, but I don't want to spoil the surprise...

Folks are cooking up some excellent stuff.

Kaid Brenen Sacander @arkhadtoa24601.bsky.social · 11h

The Puppeteer Worm for @dubdubpub.itch.io's MONSTER GUTS 2e is basically:
"Okay, let's hunt this monster"
"Wait, why is it already beat up?"
"Okay we killed it--OH GOD THERE WAS ANOTHER MONSTER INSIDE OF IT AAAAAAAA-"

It's a good time 😁

You can find it here: arkhadtoa.itch.io/core-hunting...

January 30, 2026 at 6:13 PM

Danielle Osterman

@dubdubpub.itch.io

My favorite is No (Positive)

January 30, 2026 at 6:12 PM

Danielle Osterman

@dubdubpub.itch.io

This is a sick collection of nuisances and monsters for MG2e. Kaid was instrumental to the development of MG2e, and he makes phenomenal stuff. Check it out!

And if you want to dream up your own MG2e stuff, join the jam! itch.io/jam/mg2e-jam

January 30, 2026 at 1:52 AM

Reposted by Danielle Osterman

Kaid Brenen Sacander

@arkhadtoa24601.bsky.social

Whoof, it took a lot of work, but my first submission for the MONSTER GUTS 2e Jam is done! It's almost all of the original monsters I made for the first edition updated to the much more robust 2e rules. Check it out here! arkhadtoa.itch.io/core-hunting...
#MG2e #MONSTERGUTS2e @dubdubpub.itch.io

Core Hunting Zones Expanded by Kaid Brenen Sacander

A supplement for MONSTER GUTS 2e

arkhadtoa.itch.io

January 29, 2026 at 11:52 PM

Danielle Osterman

@dubdubpub.itch.io

Oh, also, @egallagher.bsky.social absolutely knocked the weapon designs out of the park. Hiring them do design the weapons was one of the best decisions I've ever made. They designed MG2e's cover as well, and you can see their incredible work here dubdubpub.itch.io/monster-guts...

January 29, 2026 at 10:58 PM

Danielle Osterman

@dubdubpub.itch.io

It's no secret that MONSTER GUTS 2e takes a lot of inspiration from the Monster Hunter series, and one of the design goals of MG2e is to mirror the gamefeel of the weapons from MonHun. Let's talk about how I did that with the Greatsword. #MONSTERGUTS2e #MG2e #MonsterHunter #indiettrpg #ttrpgdesign

Image of a page from MONSTER GUTS 2e featuring the Greatsword. The following text surrounds a pink-and-black picture of a Greatsword:

"Greatsword. Bide your time and unleash tremendous power.

"Weighted: When something tries to Send you Flying, you may spend 1 Edge to stay put.

"Crush: 3
"Slice: 0
"Pierce: 1
"Health: 10
"Edge: 5

"Techniques
"Lean In (1)
"Reaction
"Charged Swing (2)
"Shrug through the next enemy blow, preventing it from canceling any Patient attack and reducing incoming Harm by 2 (minimum 1). If you start your turn with a Patient attack ready to activate, you may Dash before releasing the attack.

"Charged Swing (2)
"Close, Crushing, Patient
"Prepare a massive swing that will deal 4E Harm and Stagger your foe.

"Follow-Through (1)
"Close, Crushing, Cleaving
"After landing Charged Swing, whip your sword around your body into a second attack that deals E+2 Harm."

January 29, 2026 at 10:56 PM

Reposted by Danielle Osterman

Kaid Brenen Sacander

@arkhadtoa24601.bsky.social

This is honestly one of the coolest parts of MG2e; the monsters represent the greed, cruelty, and other worst parts of humanity, and lets you go beat them to a pulp.

Designing 3p monsters for it is great: pick a part of society you hate, make a monster around it, and watch players take it apart.

Danielle Osterman @dubdubpub.itch.io · 2d

MONSTER GUTS 2e gives a face and flesh to our modern
ghosts, the horrible, bodiless, seemingly inexorable forces that
plague our world, and tells you to go kill them, cut them up,
salvage the useful, and repurpose the rest.

Happy Hunting, scavengers.
dubdubpub.itch.io/monster-guts...

MONSTER GUTS 2e by Wheels Within Wheels Publishing

Action-focused TTRPG inspired by monster hunting videogames

dubdubpub.itch.io

January 28, 2026 at 8:59 PM

Danielle Osterman

@dubdubpub.itch.io

MONSTER GUTS 2e gives a face and flesh to our modern
ghosts, the horrible, bodiless, seemingly inexorable forces that
plague our world, and tells you to go kill them, cut them up,
salvage the useful, and repurpose the rest.

Happy Hunting, scavengers.
dubdubpub.itch.io/monster-guts...

MONSTER GUTS 2e by Wheels Within Wheels Publishing

Action-focused TTRPG inspired by monster hunting videogames

dubdubpub.itch.io

January 28, 2026 at 8:50 PM

Reposted by Danielle Osterman

Kaid Brenen Sacander

@arkhadtoa24601.bsky.social

The Koalurker (made for @dubdubpub.itch.io's MONSTER GUTS 2e) is one of my favorites. Koalas already eat poisonous plants, which makes their giant monster version perfect fits for the posionfruit-filled Once Emerald Forests. And, just like real koalas, their poisonous diet makes them dumb as rocks.

January 26, 2026 at 6:42 PM

Reposted by Danielle Osterman

Chris Bissette 🐻🌈

@loottheroom.bsky.social

Hello. It's my final week as a full time game designer, and as if to underline why I can't do this anymore, I currently can't afford to cover my bills at the end of the month.

All of my work on itch is on sale. Tell your friends, buy something, thank you very much.

itch.io/s/179351/jan...

January

A bundle by Chris Bissette, £150.00 for 60 games

itch.io

January 26, 2026 at 10:45 AM

Reposted by Danielle Osterman

Gila RPGs

@gilarpgs.bsky.social

If we can keep WYRM at the top popular spot on itch until tomorrow (one week after release), I'll reveal the cover of the first big supplement for the game.

The realm of Ren, and the many haunted regions and factions within.

gilarpgs.itch.io/wyrm

WYRM by Gila RPGs

OSR style fantasy adventure game

gilarpgs.itch.io

January 26, 2026 at 4:20 PM

Reposted by Danielle Osterman

BDS movement

@bdsmovement.bsky.social

Resisting the might-makes-right order, in solidarity with the peoples of Palestine, Venezuela, Cuba and Greenland.

Boycott, divest from, or exclude from contracts these complicit US companies.

January 26, 2026 at 3:32 PM

Danielle Osterman

@dubdubpub.itch.io

Wait, hold up. MONSTER GUTS 2e is the #9 Physical Game on itch right now? That's nuts.
itch.io/physical-games

Top physical games

Find physical games like WYRM, Lancer Core Book: First Edition PDF, Going Knowhere, Menagerie of Mayhem, Vol. 1, Mausritter on itch.io, the indie game hosting marketplace

itch.io

January 26, 2026 at 5:19 AM

Reposted by Danielle Osterman

Evil Hat

@evilhat.bsky.social

Our warehousing & fulfillment is based in Minnesota. The company is closed today (their employees are getting paid). We fully support them in their struggle against federal occupation of the state.
If you are not in MN, here's a link to some ways you can stand up and take action.
iceoutforgood.org

ICE Out for Good

On January 23, people across the country are taking action in solidarity with Minnesota to demand ICE out of our communities. Join the day of action.

iceoutforgood.org

January 23, 2026 at 5:58 PM

Reposted by Danielle Osterman

VISCOUNTESS VERMIN

@legendaryvermin.bsky.social

That girl is gonna dislocate her shoulder so fucking baaaaaad

IGN @ign.com · 9d

Check out the release date trailer for 1348 Ex Voto, an upcoming third-person medieval action game in which you embark on a quest through Medieval Italy as Aeta, an up-and-coming knight tasked with saving those close to her.

January 23, 2026 at 3:35 AM

Reposted by Danielle Osterman

Stephen 🇵🇸

@tgk.bsky.social

Everybody shut the fuck up and pay attention to the most important thing happening at this moment.

An instagram post by Sarah Michelle Gellar, where she shares a screenshot of a tweet by user @godimsuchadyke.

The tweet is a photo of Buffy and Faith standing close together lesbianly from Season 3 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with the caption "this was my heated rivalry".

Sarah thanks user @godimsuchadyke in the caption of her post.

January 22, 2026 at 6:05 PM

Reposted by Danielle Osterman

Jeff Stormer

@jeffstormer.gobirds.online

NEW EPISODE

Party of One Podcast @partyofonepodcast.bsky.social · 8d

NEW EPISODE! I'm joined by Emily Hartford, co-creator of the new musical audio fiction podcast METRA: A CLIMATE REVOLUTION WITH SONGS to play HARDCORE ECOLOGIST by @davidblandyrpgs.bsky.social, a game about cataloguing nature in a post-climate change Earth!

www.partyofonepodcast.com/2026/01/20/4...

This week on Party of One
HARDCORE ECOLOGIST
Feat. Emily Hartford
Creator, METRA: A CLIMATE REVOLUTION WITH SONG

A solo RPG about exploring a world post-climate change, and the many fascinating lifeforms that persist in spite of it all.

You’ll dig this episode if you like: Weird landscapes, even weirder creatures, imagining a world that survives, exploring an unrecognizable Earth and making note of what survives

partyofonepodcast.com

January 22, 2026 at 6:54 PM

Reposted by Danielle Osterman

Fred Hicks

@deadlyfredly.bsky.social

Hold onto your butts, data nerds. I've been looking Evil Hat's distro performance — solely based on our distro invoicing that we do through Freshbooks; we don't invoice IPR there so they aren't represented in these data.

The TLDR:

2025 was the worst year for EH's distribution in the past 10 years.

A line graph showing the performance of various distributors — as invoiced by Evil Hat — between 2016 and 2025.

I'll paste the data matrix in the alt text for the other image on this post, but honestly it's not easy figuring out how to alt-text a line graph like this one... follow along in the thread for some narration!

Distro 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
ACD $33,613.60 $94,409.40 $103,181.45 $79,319.25 $72,511.84 $80,754.58 $83,188.43 $113,672.50 $90,661.51 $94,542.23
Aetherworks $0.00 $5,447.20 $8,431.00 $10,852.50 $8,523.40 $9,844.30 $9,472.60 $9,170.70 $6,713.40 $5,900.10
Alliance $61,481.60 $133,904.40 $110,589.60 $116,125.96 $94,411.60 $119,744.65 $160,520.75 $161,476.00 $101,756.80 $85,366.80
Asmodee Nordics $5,836.00 $20,084.80 $9,462.00 $4,396.80 $3,012.80 $3,273.60
Asmodee UK $29,124.00 $59,082.40 $42,112.00 $49,464.80 $25,047.20 $21,559.20 $18,385.60 $24,176.40 $10,193.60 $5,631.20
Blackfire $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $17,428.00 $8,289.60
BNW $0.00 $4,853.20 $9,273.60 $8,158.80 $13,137.20 $13,725.20 $15,766.40 $28,087.20 $16,327.20 $21,874.40
Flat River $50,905.60 $153,284.80 $134,873.60 $170,128.80 $191,055.20 $199,732.80 $112,922.87 $146,095.20 $63,184.80 $41,337.60
Fun Supply $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $18,723.20 $2,961.60 $7,136.80 $2,916.00 $4,108.00
Golden $2,889.20 $5,026.80 $6,016.40 $4,137.20 $3,170.80 $3,799.60 $1,566.00 $3,931.20 $772.00
GTS $9,531.60 $35,076.80 $18,169.20 $14,574.00 $6,849.20 $8,863.20 $10,865.60 $11,768.80 $8,339.20 $2,594.00
Intrafin $0.00 $3,072.00 $11,040.00 $16,503.20 $3,883.20
Lion Rampant $5,817.20 $13,200.40 $3,990.80 $2,990.40 $6,610.00 $8,286.40 $12,516.00 $15,370.40 $15,680.00 $1,194.00
Outland $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $2,939.20
Pegasus Spiele $2,840.40 $9,006.00 $5,444.40 $4,968.40 $1,296.00
PHD $0.00 $15,252.80 $1,075.60 $770.00 $0.00 $360.00 $1,814.40
Southern Hobby $10,570.40 $21,301.60 $6,678.40 $712.00
Spiral Galaxy $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $12,038.50 $19,521.60 $23,180.00 $33,784.80 $30,174.40 $21,448.80
Ulisses Spiele $3,153.20 $1,112.80
Universal (Canada) $0.00 $3,379.00 $13,799.60 $20,461.60 $10,471.60 $12,996.80 $17,878.80 $30,039.60 $20,206.00 $19,269.20

January 9, 2026 at 8:23 PM

Reposted by Danielle Osterman

VISCOUNTESS VERMIN

@legendaryvermin.bsky.social

If anyone told me they preferred the green cover of Palace I would definitely think less of them afterwards.

As they say in the blog, Travis is more or less the only interesting piece added/upgraded here, and that doesn't much make for a better adventure.

Woefully Encysted Creature @forlornencystment.bsky.social · 9d

I wrote a comparison of both versions of Dungeon Module B3: Palace of the Silver Princess - Jean Wells's original orange cover version & Tom Moldvay's revised green cover version. I give some reasons why you might run one over the other, then explain which version I prefer & why.