Weird fiction meets fairytale whimsy in this dungeon on your doorstep! For Old School Essentials and other roleplaying games.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
The Final 48!
11 months ago
– Tue, Nov 04, 2025 at 09:25:07 AM
Greetings, Eager Adventurers!
As of the time of this update, there are less than 48 hours remaining on the Duginthroat Divided Kickstarter campaign. If you've been sitting on the fence, now's the time to commit: this project is moving so fast, we won't have time for late pledges!
To illustrate: Daniel just got back from the riso shop with a big, beautiful stack of prints, all hand-cranked and hand-numbered.
Even the misprints look cool (these will not be sold, of course)
He's also hard at work on our most recent unlocked Stretch Goal: beautiful, foil-embossed dust jackets for each and every physical copy of Duginthroat Divided.
Furthermore, we have excellent news for international backers: we've partnered with Peregrine Coast Pressto provide cheaper and more eco-friendly shipping options for the UK, Canada, and Europe! Here's the new price breakdown:
Physical Tier:
UK: £5.50
Canada: £9.50
Europe and RoW: £13
Deluxe Tier:
UK: £5.50
Canada: £10.50
Europe and RoW: £14
Plus, EU countries include all VAT and handling fees, so you fine folks will get your packages without having to pay anything at the border.
Again: this is your last chance to back Duginthroat Divided in 2025. We're going straight to print pretty much as soon as this campaign funds, and while we'll definitely have some books for sale after fulfillment ends there's no guarantee they'll be available forever, so back it if you want it!
Let's take this straight to 20k! -DAI
New Month, New Spreads!
11 months ago
– Sat, Nov 01, 2025 at 03:40:10 PM
Greetings, Patrons of Page Design!
Daniel is now about 80% done with the interior art and layout. This has been a huge undertaking, because the quantity of art and maps is truly staggering: nearly every single one of the 130+ pages features original, evocative art tailored to the area and its encounters, along with cut-out and alternate-view maps for just about every single room in the castle. We're striving for form and function, with no compromises on at-the-table usability. Check it out:
As we're rapidly approaching both the end of the campaign and the completion of the book, Daniel has also been busy hand-delivering the massive reams of paper that the book, its maps, and all the assorted handouts will be printed on. Have some action shots of the shop floor:
Suffice it to say, we're doing everything in our power to get these books out to you excellent backers as quickly as possible. Our road map as it currently stands has us starting fulfillment by Christmas, well before our expected August 2026 date. Keep an eye on this page, folks, because things are moving fast!
Expect another update soon as we head into our last 48 hours! -DAI
PS: Are you a fan of pulp fantasy, gonzo zines, and Dungeon Crawl Classics? If so, make sure to check out STEEL & STONE, the latest from the team at BIG SWORD. With over 70+ pages of material, Steel & Stone expands the game with new classes, martial orders, monsters, magic, and equipment, all steeped in the lost lore of exiled dwarven clans. Designed as both a standalone supplement and a companion to Graves & Groves and the Dungeon Crawl Classics system, it carries forward the BIG SWORD promise: beautiful, brutal utility for your table.
Three Stretch Goals Down, Three To Go!
11 months ago
– Fri, Oct 24, 2025 at 10:37:19 AM
Greetings, Character Sheet Connoisseurs!
We've broken our third stretch goal, which means Daniel is now hard at work designing a brand-new character sheet for OSE themed around Duginthroat Divided. This is a great opportunity to both show off some more art and create something that we hope people will continue using even after their Keep-crawling days are over, so we're doing our best to create something both evocative and user-friendly.
WIP, if that's not obvious.
To that end, we'll be hewing pretty closely to the OSE benchmarks for information presentation, but with some nice twists that we think will be well-received. Daniel likes the slot-based encumbrance rules from Carcass Crawler #2, for example, and I've always been a fan of the custom titles characters get as they level up, so there will be a place for those too. We'll share more pictures as it starts to come together.
This is a shorter update than usual, but we're still working behind the scenes to keep up with all the great stuff we're hoping to unlock. Next up is big one for physical backers: a removeable, foil-embossed dust jacket on every book. I've seen Daniel's tentative design for this, and it is easily one of my favorite pieces he's done -- but that won't be revealed until we've passed €15,000!
From one sharpened pencil to another, -DAI
Delving Deeper!
12 months ago
– Mon, Oct 20, 2025 at 09:19:48 AM
Greetings, Daredevils and Dungeoneers!
To begin, thank you so much to all the backers who have helped us unlock two stretch goals! We're achingly close to surpassing the third, which will have Daniel design a brand-new OSE character sheet. This is an exciting prospect, so let's hit it soon so he can get right to work on it!
Speaking of Daniel's tireless efforts, we've got some new spreads to show off. We're about 60% done with the layout of the book as it currently stands, and it's really coming together nicely:
The Inner Keep is overgrown with strange plants, strange secrets and powerful magical remnants. It features five independent adventuring sites to explore, as well as multiple entrances to the Inner Tunnels.
The Crow-Crones are likely to be a regular nuisance to the adventurers early on in their quest.
The machinations of the Lunar Tasklings and their dreaded Taskmaster are unknown, but they will make Duginthroat a far more dangerous place the longer they are allowed to exist within.
And for those who enjoyed our tribute to Jennell Jaquays, you're in luck: we're adding high-quality, risographed prints of Daniel's "Hellpits of Nightfang" front and back cover tributes to the add-on store! These a4 prints are being risographed on Rives Iain Nature white 120smg paper, and printed by Daniel and Emil themselves in collaboration with the Blekksprutn Riso Club in Oslo, Norway. These will be limited to 50 hand-numbered prints, so get yours now!
Wolves: the true bane of adventuring parties since 1979. (digital mockup)
We'll see you at €12,500! -DAI
From the Hellpits of Nightfang to the Caverns of Thracia...
12 months ago
– Tue, Oct 14, 2025 at 07:49:45 AM
Greetings, Duginthroat Dungeoneers!
Daniel here. I wanna talk about some of the design choices I went for with Duginthroat Divided,and what better day than October 14th, the birthday of one of the most prolific and influential adventure designers in the history of tabletop games: Jennell Jaquays (1956–2024).
Jennell is the original Judges Guild writer that made a lot of things "click" for me, and the cover art from the original Hellpits of Nightfang (the only Runequest adventure released by the Judges Guild, as far as I'm aware) was the major reference point for the color scheme and art in Duginthroat Divided. There are a lot of cool and strange underground art in early TTRPG books, but nothing from that era speaks to me like this cover:
One part of me even wonder if we would ever have Ravenloft if it wasn't for this moody gothic delve. Art by Jennell Jaquays for the Hellpits of Nightfang, published by the Judges Guild in 1979.
As a visual communicator, the artwork in Jaquays' adventures reached out and grabbed me by the throat. She did everything from scratchy, heavy inkwork to collages, and I was beyond thrilled when I realized that I actually possess some of the same decorative dry transfer sheets she used for her adventures. Some of the earlier drafts of the Duginthroat dungeon maps even feature the same textures!
However, working with old, dried-out sheets of paper is a tedious and time-consuming process, and I realized pretty early on that the sheer volume of maps in the book, and the need to keep the style and line weight consistent throughout, meant that I'd need to use another method (also I don't even know if anybody's still making these things, so I want to keep a few around). But I still have the scans of those early maps, and there's just something about them that feels like a TTRPG should, you know?
Left: An early rendition of the Inner Tunnels (featuring the Salty Escape Tunnels, the Glistening City of Tonguithia, the Underground Abbey, and the Western Pneumatic Station)Right: The Ruins of Thracia map by Jennell Jaquays for her adventure The Caverns of Thracia.Just check out that stipple pattern!
The Caverns of Thracia, and Jennell's reactive and layered environments in general, were an active reference point for me while writing Duginthroat Divided —though I can't deny my transitions between areas and environmental changes feel positively one-sided compared to the escalator gargoyles, underground rivers and deadly drops to underground civilizations so often featured in Jaquays' work.
And yet, I often catch myself subconsciously, even compulsively referencing them. Let me present an example while displaying some connections featured in Duginthroat Divided:
CROSSING THE CRACK When the players are first presented with the obstacle of crossing the chasm separating the Inner and Outer wings of the Keep, there are many given ways to do so that can be revealed by exploring the "safer" premises of the Outer Keep. - The party can attempt to climb the walls of the Outer Keep (risking RIpple Effects and Crow-crone attacks). - There is an old witch that can give them a potion of gaseous form, but they will still need to find a way back across the chasm and will be underequipped when reaching the other side. - There's a monstrous, valiant ally that will agree to help them cross in return for a questionable offering. - A neurotic inventor can build a human slingshot to launch the adventurers across, but he needs the right components to construct it.
Besides these options, Players can use any number of items, skills, or spells to overcome this challenge, all of which help to create organic and meaningful choices during play (PlusOneEXP's solution? climb aboard a floating disc and, with the magic-user hanging from a rope over the edge, "swim" through thin air to get across).
And what proper tribute to the Queen of Dungeoncraft would Duginthroat Divided be without a good amount of Jaquaysing? The Keep is a labyrinth of corridors, hidden passageways, and other surreptitious means of travel, including but not limited to:
Magical recreations of long-gone structures that organically grow and change over time
One- and two-way portals activated by alien crystal dust
Collapsing floors, ceilings, and other vertical passageways
"Mutations" received by spending too much time exposed to the pink mist might also give hidden advantages to Players seeking non-traditional locomotion.
I hope our many attempts at Jaquaysing the dungeon comes across clearly in the book. We did our best.
So, to all the colleagues, family members, close friends and all the practitioners of the fantastic hobbies she lived and breathed for, I hope you take a minute today to flip through the pages (or PDFs) of her work and give yourself permission to get inspired. It's outstanding stuff. Myself, I took some time off working on layout to recreate my favorite cover of hers:
Happy Jaquays Day, everyone! —Daniel, Mudknight Media
PS: Saintly Hollows and the Wildendrem Codex LIVE on Kickstarter!
While we're talking iconic creators, Jedediah Berry and Andrew McAlpine shook the foundations of what a modern adventure module/setting can be with The Valley of Flowers. It's a favorite of mine, and their follow-up module Wildendrem Volume II: The Saintly Hollows is going live on Kickstarter today! It features a wild, swampy Arthurian region of poetic apocalypse and a whole book of supplementary material for your Wildendrem games, designed for use with both Cairn and Old-School Essentials.
