Fear of a Daily Planet is a lost colony crawl for the sci-fi horror RPG Mothership. Burgom's Haven, an outpost built solely to print employee handbooks for Etaoin Shrdlu Stellarcomms, was quietly forgotten 1,000 years ago in the company's tumultuous switch to digital. But the presses never stopped, and now a charismatic new preacher, known only as Inside Source, is printing secrets from "Hell."

This digest-sized (5.5 x 8.5 in), roughly 36-page black-and-white book, features:

Whether bounty hunting a target who's hoarding corporate blackmail, following the trail of bizarre prints on plastic paper cluttering local space, or responding to an ancient distress call, the player crew will explore what remains of Burgom's Haven, a bleak printer colony once established by the long-defunct Etaoin Shrdlu Stellarcomms, starving and festering with cults after centuries of isolation.

Into this volatile mix, Inside Source arrives, the colony's first visitor in centuries. The Smudges in Lowercase claim he brings with him the secrets of a place called "Hell," thousands if not millions of lines of text magically condensed into a stick no bigger than your thumb. He tells the colonists that their ancient, forgotten practice of Delivery ceremonies, publishing prints into the black quartz above, brought him here, so he is reviving the tradition despite the wishes of the people of Standard-Herald.

Now, flanked by his Loyal Guard who see him as their only means of salvation, Inside Source has newspapers made from his Hell archive and places them alongside historical prints ransacked from the reliquary of Burgom's Haven, to be once more sucked out into space each Deadline, beseeching the hidden, two-faced god Etaoin Shrdlu for aid. But the other three cults have their own solutions to the colony's impending demise...

All Physical and Deluxe backers in the first 48 hours (before Feb. 6th, 9 AM Central) will receive the "Born of Ink" patch free of charge. You do not need to include it as an add-on to your pledge unless you want to purchase an additional patch.

You'll get Fear of a Daily Planet and every RPG release that I have had printed to date, all at a discounted rate (MSRP: $44). This pledge includes print and PDF versions of:

You'll get a print and PDF copy of Fear of a Daily Planet at a discounted rate (MSRP: $16).
Shipping will be charged in the BackerKit Pledge Manager after the campaign.

You'll get a PDF copy of Fear of a Daily Planet at a discounted rate (MSRP: $9).

None. I don't want to expand the project, increase risk, increase production costs, or drag out the delivery timeline. I want to focus on making the book itself.

Any of these can be added to a Physical or Deluxe pledge.

If you missed out on backing in the first 48 hours, or just want more than one patch, you can add this to your Physical or Deluxe pledge.

Add a print and PDF copy of The Stone-Flesh Gift to your pledge. In this 40-page TTRPG module with a focus on exploration and body horror, the players will wade through the innards of a lost ceremonial offering, an ancient alien bioengineering factory and living ship called The Gift, as they work to avoid its dangers, discover its secrets, and plug their brains directly into its organs to feel their thoughts. Learn more about it here.

Add a print and PDF copy of So You've Been Chump-Dumped to your pledge. This one-shot adventure pamphlet begins with the players having been scammed on cheap jump ship tickets and ejected into space. Saved at the last minute by a mysterious force pulling them into the covert research ship Blacklens, the players find it in disarray, and most of the crew are missing. In search of survivors and an escape route, they'll have to contend with a gravitational distortion that may be hunting them and, of course, whatever left the walls coated in a mealy pink paste... Learn more about it here.

Add a print and PDF copy of Skeleton Justice Warriors to your pledge. This is a hack of John Harper's Lasers & Feelings. In this one-page TTRPG, you play as the undead, freshly risen by a cosmic pull to correct injustice and the only force that can stand up to the despotic wizard's magic. Your stats are Skeleton, Justice, and Warrior. Learn more about it here.

Add a print and PDF copy of Serious Reading to your pledge. The only game inspired by the brow-furrowing and spine-shuddering evoked by opinion columns, this a satirical solo journaling RPG where you take on the role of a grossly overpaid opinion columnist who probably should have quit years ago, as most of them should have if we could only be so lucky. You'll use separate tables of prompts to determine the topic of your fictional opinion pieces, ostensibly about very serious matters, and excerpts from those articles that reveal little to nothing about their supposed subject matter but everything about the bizarre, broken life of your columnist character. Learn more about it here.

Fear of a Daily Planet is crowdfunding as part of Zine Month 2025, a creator-run community event to promote indie RPG zines without being beholden to any one crowdfunding platform.

My project for last year's Zine Month began shipping to backers about a month after the campaign's end date, as the book was just about print-ready during crowdfunding. This time, I'm currently wrapping up the first draft of Fear of a Daily Planet. I'll need some time to playtest, revise, finish the art, and lock in my layout design.

Because of that, I'm estimating the book will ship to backers in Q3 2025.

Physical books will be printed and shipped from the US. Digital PDF copies will be fulfilled via itch.io.

Shipping will be charged in the BackerKit Pledge Manager after the campaign. The USD estimates below are predictions of my shipping charges based on quotes received at the time of this campaign and are subject to change, but barring new price increases from tariffs, trade wars, or similar nonsense, they should be reliable.

International shipping will be handled by Pirate Ship's Simple Export program, which should see your local postal service completing the final delivery. The backer is responsible for paying any taxes, duties, or other fees to import their rewards into the destination country. I cannot provide quotes or estimates of any taxes, duties, or other fees you may have to pay.

Shipping Charge Estimates (in USD)

*Unfortunately, there are no EU shipping options at this time. It has become more complicated and expensive to ship to the EU due to the December 2024 update to GPSR regulations. I do not think I will have enough EU backers to cover the cost of an EU fulfillment partner, nor the cost of retaining an EU GPSR representative, while keeping shipping costs (including VAT/duty fees) at all reasonable. Please follow the project to get updates on potential availability at stores that sell to the EU or possible POD options in the future.

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