Upcoming Projects For 2025
“Things are turning to shit out there, aren’t they?”
John Trent’s prophetic words in John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness have been rattling around in my brain more than usual lately. While things are going from bad to worse for many people in the US and beyond, it is important, more than ever, to Not Let the Bastards Get You Down.
This means finding time to pursue the goals you have and the things you enjoy. For me, that is working on projects for Muzzleland Press and others. Creative pursuits do not take priority over mutual aid or support for political action, but art has and will always be a key part of my life, even and especially when things are looking grim in the world at large.
Here are a few updates on the projects I’ve been working on—those things helping to keep me sane in a world that feels very much the opposite. Regrettably, I have missed the hoped-for release window for a number of these, but work and family had to take priority the last six months.
Splatter Zone
Splatter Zone is an upcoming solo dungeon crawler played with grid paper, pencils, and RPG dice inspired by the violent creature-feature video games and films of the 1980s and early 90s. The first draft is done, playtesting is almost complete, and all the art assets are in.
The game follows simple procedures: generate rooms in a given stage, stocking them with monsters, traps, events, and items, and striving to reach objectives and defeat powerful boss monsters by using your supernatural abilities and propensity for ghoulish violence.
Character creation is quick and stages can be completed in about 10-15 minutes—it’s a game I designed to be easy to learn and easy to run, but with enough variation and options to encourage repeat playthroughs. It’s very much inspired by solo RPG games like Dark Fort and Four Against Darkness.
You can expect a digital and physical release of Splatter Zone in May or June.
Vampyrvania Core Rules and The Clock Tower – Re-release
I am working with artist Pete Lazarski to re-release the first two Vampyrvania books in 5.5x8.5 inch format, making the books easier to use in PDF. The NES manual format of the original print runs will be something of collector’s items—a fun experiment, but the new format is more practical and easier to distribute. Copies of the original booklets are still available.
Vampyrvania: The Cursed Cloister
This new scenario for Vampyrvania is finished—we’re just working through the re-release of the first two books, first, before getting this laid out. This adventure concerns a monastery that has fallen silent in the long dark night of the Vampire Lord. Are you and your party brave enough to find out what happened to the poor monks who call this place home?
This scenario will be followed by The Ghostly Galleon.
StokerCon
Pete and I will be attending StokerCon on June 12-15 in Stamford, CT. We’ll have copies of Vampyrvania, Splatter Zone, a demo of Don’t Kill the Bats, and more Muzzleland Press books. It’s been a while since I’ve made it to a major convention, so I hope to see you there.
Further Out
Once these projects are wrapped up, I’ll be turning my attention to a pair of fiction projects: getting my short story collection The Secret Goatman Spookshow back in print under the Muzzleland Press label, and a sword & sorcery novel, Darkvoid Deathship. Darkvoid is unlike anything I’ve written before, but if you like weird fiction and sword & sorcery, this will absolutely tickle your dungeon crawl-receptors in your pleasure centers.
Thanks for sticking with me—this is a part-time pursuit, and life tends to get in the way. I hope you’ll enjoy what’s to come this year.
Stay spooky,
Jonathan
