💀 Exeunt Press projects in 2025

Upcoming game development in 2025, Skeleton Code Machine gets a Bloggie nomination, and the Lizard Cult in Root

Welcome to Exeunt Omnes, the official newsletter for loyal fans and sworn enemies of Exeunt Press, creator of games such as Exclusion Zone Botanist and Eleventh Beast. You can find digital games at games.exeunt.press and physical products at shop.exeunt.press.

TL;DR Summary

• 💀 EP projects in 2025

• 🏆 SCM gets a Bloggie nomination

• 🎲 Recently played: Root

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💀 EP projects in 2025

Encouraged by

M. Allen Hall

and his recent 2025 preview at Ink & Dice, I wanted to share a few of the projects in the pipeline for Exeunt Press this year:

🌿 Exclusion Zone Botanist: Epsilon

This stand-alone sequel to Exclusion Zone Botanist is the main focus of 2025. Epsilon is far more than just an expansion. It is a complete reworking on the original, using a new system. I want to retain the feeling of the original (cosmic horror, tension, push-your-luck) but with more ways to interact with the game — character creation, equipment, and more. Follow the pre-launch on Kickstarter to get notified when it launches Spring 2025.

🧑‍🚀 Medusa

A solo space horror survival game based on this quote from “The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane: “A particular danger of the sea is the fact that after successfully getting through one wave, you discover that there is another behind it.” Some of the ideas in Medusa show up in the crisis management article.

🐀 Ratsail

I stepped away from Ratsail last year after rethinking it. I’m now hoping to incorporate some ideas from the special problem of naval games. Ratsail has turned into two games: exploration at sea and adventure on land. Making both equally compelling and engaging is a challenge to be solved.

⛰️ Mountain*

Not the actual title, but a game I’ve had in my notes for almost two years.¹ A solo survival roleplaying game, but with euro-game style resource management.

👑 Turtchester*

Again, not the actual title.² More board/card game than adventure game or TTRPG. Could this be the first Exeunt Press game with custom components?

🩻 TUMULUS

I launched TUMULUS in November of last year, a Skeleton Code Machine quarterly. Issue 1 began shipping in December, and work is underway on Issue 2 which will begin shipping March 2025. I am in love with this project, and can’t wait to put out a new issue every quarter.

🎃 MÖRKTOBER

Without a doubt, MÖRKTOBER will be back again this October. I look forward to this all year, and really enjoy the energy and community of the event. Prompts will be released in September 2025.

📄 Multiple small projects

In addition to these large projects, I’d like to release more small items this year. I had a fun time working on Three Knife Ash and Invitation to a Dark Masquerade. Hoping to do more of that this year, including another entry in the One-Page RPG Jam.

That’s not everything in the pipeline, and not all of these might be completed this year. It’s still good to have a plan and make some priorities. I was able to publish eleven projects last year, and hope to exceed that this year.

Which projects are you most interested in? Which one should I post about more as I work on it? What’s on your plan for this year?

FOLLOW: Exclusion Zone Botanist: Epsilon on Kickstarter

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🏆 SCM gets a Bloggie nomination

The Bloggies, is a TTRPG award event that began at

Prismatic Wasteland

. Run much like a sports bracket, individual blog posts go head to head via popular voting.

Skeleton Code Machine’s “How fragile is your game design?” post was nominated for a Bloggie. Although it was knocked out in the first round of voting (58.6% vs. 41.4%), it was still an honor to participate! Also, the list of finalists is the best part — a great selection of blog posts covering theory, game-able content, advice, and reviews. If you enjoy long-form content, this is a gold mine!

READ: The Bloggies 2024 finalists at Sachagoat.

Skeleton Code Machine is an ENNIE-nominated weekly publication that explores tabletop game mechanisms. It’s been called a “Seemingly endless source of gaming ponderings” and a “Goldmine.” Check it out at www.skeletoncodemachine.com.

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🎲 Recently played: Root

Played Root (Wehrle, 2018) in person (vs. online via the app) for the first time in a very long time. I had forgotten how much fun that game is in person. Sure, handling the asymmetric faction rules is easier in the app, but there’s something about having easy visibility to the entire table. It really renewed and reinvigorated my love for this game.

It also helped that I was able to play the Lizard Cult faction.³ Don’t mind me… just building gardens.

PLAY: Root: The Riverfolk Expansion (2018) published by Leder Games

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- E.P. 💀

1. This isn’t uncommon. Tollund was in my notebook for about a year before I pulled it off the shelf when inspiration struck and then finished it. I’ve learned that it’s OK to step away from a game idea indefinitely. I’ll get back to it when I get back to it.

2. It’s a randomly generated word I used for the project title. Playtesters universally hate it.

3. I’m terrible at Root in general, and with the Lizard Cult specifically. That said, I really enjoy how the lizards play and would do it again.