Hey guys, I’m new to the forum and I was wondering what books or zines you recommend that are system neutral evocative setting books that are similar to Into the Wyrd and Wild. It doesn’t have to have a similar dark theme. I’ll start with the obvious, Into the Cess and Citadel which is by the same publisher.
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Vast In The Dark by Feral Indie Studio
The setting is very unique to me and gives me a similar isolating feeling as the Souls games (with a different aesthetic). Content-wise, I think it does well with one-shots or short campaigns. For something lengthier I would absolutely slap more zines on top to give it more longetivity. With what it has though, the worldbuilding is enough to hook me in wanting more.
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If you like underdark horror stuff, I can recommend Veins of the earth. It has rules for just about everything you need to run a underdark-crawl, even if some (like the cave generator) are a bit clunky. The bestiary is top notch and very evocative.
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I have only flipped through reviews and previews of Wyrd and Wild, so I may be off base but here are a few OSR setting-toolkits with a similar vibe:
The Gardens of Ynn: pushcrawl (i.e. a procedurally-generated point crawl) with evocative tables of fey horror exploring a twisted topiary garden dimension. Like Annihilation.
Ultraviolet Grasslands: Weird science fantasy epic caravan journey (a long pointcrawl) through psychodelic metal world. Very minimal systems.
the Dark of Hot Springs Island & the Field Guide to Hot Springs Island: many of the same setting tools from Into the W&W are incorporated here in a system agnostic wilderness hexcrawl that aggressively focuses on usability.
I’ve bought and used small portions of all these. They are masterpieces of OSR design, in my opinion.
You may also like the following: Ford’s Faeries, Rackham Vale, Yoon Suin, a Packet of Particular Peaks, Completely Unfathomable, Vaults of Vaarn, BEINGS from BEYOND, Veins of the Earth, Fire on the Velvet Horizon,
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