Zine Quest 4: Tiny indie games about outlaws, outer space, and an animal drag race

polygon.com:

This year’s Zine Quest has been a contentious one. Founded in 2018, the annual celebration of small-format tabletop role-playing games traditionally takes place each February, helping independent game designers kick off the year with a little cash on hand. This year the hosts at Kickstarter elected to place the event in August instead to better line up with Gen Con. Designers were not happy, with many jumping ship altogether in favor of Zine Month. Consequently, Zine Quest 4 has been a comparatively subdued affair. But while there aren’t as many projects filling the associated tag, that doesn’t mean there aren’t some bangers in the mix.

One of the best things about Zine Quest, whatever and wherever its iteration, is seeing relatively unknown artists come out of the gates with a killer idea that fits the small-book format and two-week funding period perfectly. We’ve selected some standout RPGs, adventures and supplements from the current entries that carry the torch high.

One of the largely hidden gems of the indie RPG scene is Jason Tocci’s 24XX system, a modular ruleset that the designer has massaged over dozens of genres and story structures. 1400 Lo-Fi Hi-Fantasy follows suit by packaging five micro-games all designed to a low-fidelity, high-fantasy setting — exactly as it says on the tin.

These five tiny games from designer James Lennox-Gordon have been available digitally for a minute, but this is the first opportunity for players to grab them bundled together in a physical zine. Quest is about as classic D&D adventure as you get, while Planes leans into a more interstellar fantasy. Sneak and Mage aim to replicate their respective classes’ experiences in a contained game, and Below delves into dungeons both dark