It's a horror zine collection created by Rich & Kathryn Oxenham, Kat 'the Lore Mistress' and Josh Arklin.
And it's a crowdfund to establish Hatched Games, a publishing startup aiming to produce horror zines in "seasons", showcasing a new tabletop RPG system (SRD) each time.
The project is a collaboration between three creators with diverse experience and skill in the TTRPG industry, now united in their passion for horror, folklore, and storytelling. The zines we create for GAST will represent some of the most exciting writing talent out there, and we hope to support the project for years to come with multiple seasons and game jams.
We are running a cross-collab with Chris Bissette at Loot the Room on his solo horror zine Blood in the Margins. If you back physical pledge tiers on both projects, you'll receive a pair of exclusive bookplates!
Gast is a small boxedgame available in two editions:
The Standard Edition will include our trio of zines, a custom card deck, a journal, and a wooden six-sided die.
The Deluxe Edition is jam-packed with extras, including a playing cloth, a sheet of punch-out tokens, a handmade d6 from UK artisan RuneFable, and a zine from horror maestro, Gabriel Robinson, lead writer of The Silt Verses RPG.
The small boxes are designed as a shelving solution for our zines, making GAST easilyaccessible amongst often cluttered RPG collections.
Season One of GAST explores folk horror with three unique zines using the Carta system from Cat McDonald of Peach Garden Games. Carta RPGs are designed for solo play and typically use a spread of playing cards to represent a setting for players to explore. In all instances, the writers have taken the SRD and adapted the mechanics to better suit their themes.
The Digital PDF Collection and Deluxe Edition box both include Gabriel Robinson's game Bog Berries.
Padlocks will be unlocked each time we hit a stretch goal. If we somehow surpass £15,000, we'll add some extra flourishes to the project and may even pay ourselves something!
With Carta representing Season One of our plans, if we fund successfully, we'll look ahead to new SRDs for Season Two in 2026. We haven't selected which to explore, but some frontrunners include Wretched & Alone by our Pocketopia collaborator, Chris Bissette, Breathless from Fari RPGs, and Anamnesis by Blinking Birch Games. We'd also like to champion some underrepresented systems and their designers who may not have had the same industry recognition.
Though we’re initially exploring folk horror, once we’re fully established, we’ll look to publish all subgenres of horror, and even zines designed for group play. We may even create an SRD specifically for Hatched Games!
To keep the zines consistent and recognisable, the team will follow a style guide to encompass cover art, interior illustrations, and layout. Where possible, we’ll collaborate with the same creatives to ensure everyone’s work is easily recognisable.
Our overriding ambition is to have each published zine explore recurring themes and imagery, gradually building a unique and terrifying mythos as found in productions such as Rusty Quill's The Magnus Archives and RPGs from The Gauntlet.
Making Gast accessible to everyone is really important to us. To honour this commitment, we've hired Chris Hopper, one of the most experienced consultants in the industry. Chris has credits with MCDM, Brotherwise Games, Underground Oracle, and Cryptid Creeks from our affiliate publisher Hatchlings Games.
Chris will work alongside Sebastian and Luna to ensure our digital PDFs are screen-reader friendly, feature alt text, and have hyperlinks throughout. We'll also make plain text versions available.
The physical zines, including any stretch goal games and future publications will be colour-coded.
We aim to keep shipping rates as low as we can, but please be aware that charges may be subject to change, especially with tariffs being introduced around the globe. The estimates below are based on the standard game box. Shipping and any applicable VAT will be added to pledges through BackerKit surveys following the campaign.
We'll be producing the zines with Standart Impressa, the printers behind Free League games such as Vaesen and Alien. Fulfilment will be divided between Critical KitLtd here in the UK, and Indie Press Revolution in the US.
Human made, just like these other diverse horror projects launching for Pocketopia alongside us...
