‘Best-laid plans of mice and men’ is the saying of this week.

We have been copping a relentless cavalcade of music-related content, more than I can possibly keep up with as site owner/podcast host, and the blog thematically reflects as such since our last #TabletopThursdays segment. It’s that part of the press-release/touring cycle both in Australia and abroad.

I had best-intentions on providing a fair bit more coverage in the gaming/hobbyist space this week but, alack, time, mental health, the Aussie February afterburner-in-your-eye-socket temperatures, etc.

In lieu of folding everything from the week into the one Tabletop Thursdays post (seeing as it’s already 1am and I really should pretend to feign not being nocturnal), I’ll be posting the remaining many great deals and, to quote fellow staffer Spiro, HYPE titles coming up, in subsequent pieces on the morrow, over the weekend and into the following week.

Let’s begin with what I consider the biggest news of all, then hit up the rest later. This one is BIG.

Peace, Love and Grindcore-Whilst-RPing xoxo - Brady.

INNER-STRENGTH CHECK - STAFF ADVENTURES, week of 13th Feb:

ELODIE HAS RELEASED HER FIRST TTRPG KICKSTARTER!

For those landing on our site for the first time, I encourage you to go back and check out recent content from our resident RPG-designer/visual arts whizz, Elodie. In a strange twist of fate (that being, the untimely and unexpected death of our site right on New Year’s Even 2024, RIP) I haven’t gotten around to casting Animate Dead on the original introduction to our TTRPG wunderkind staffer.

Suffice to say, she’s already done a fantastic job so far in 2025 with her first bit o’ ISC content via this interview with Steve Dee, a prolific and well-regarded industry designer whom is spearheading the Kickstarter with his stellar title in The World Well. There’s also more Elodie-pieces incoming as I revive them from the old blog, as well as a couple more further below.

BUT!

Here’s the lush banner art from said campaign, right here and now:

Robots! World-Sundering! Stressed Puppers!

You can (and should) have a look at the Kickstarter campaign right here!

If you like the sound of a very diverse and fun three-part indie-RPG campaign, please consider a pledge at a tier that’s affordable for you. Thank you in advance for a) supporting the indie scene and b) doing your bit to destabilise the WotC-dominance of the tabletop space.

As mentioned, I’ll personally be writing up a ‘beta’ playtest of a solo run I completed of Elodie’s love-letter to Transformers, mecha and futurism in BRASS RPG.

Given the amount of life-admin, blog-craziness and general stress/brain-machine-broke caper I have been under lately, as an #auDHDer who is maths-allergic, too-right-brained and time-poor I can confirm that her product is very accessible, fluid, fun, easy to pick up and play, and evocative!

Those are all elements of which I’m looking for in the vast majority of my TTRPG experiences in… waves to whatever the hell 2025 and, by extension the 2020’s so far is supposed to be. Except classic Battletech. Weirdly, I’ll always have crunch-love for Classic Battletech even though Alpha Strike is more doable (more on that later/I digress).

Full write-up of a playthrough of Elodie’s BRASS RPG from myself will be coming soon. I also utilised the incredible Starforged solo/co-op RPG by legend Shawn Tomkins to help create a player-perspective ‘GM-less’ test. Between the two titles, there was absolutely no friction whatsoever, and I’m currently having a literal blast.

Sample artwork, because damn if someone people aren’t just multi-talented in their art AND RPG design, eh: