GAST

Gast is two things:

• It's a solo horror zine collection created by Rich & Kathryn of Hatchlings Games, Kat 'the Lore Mistress' Southern and Josh of Art of Arklin.
• And it's a crowdfund to establish Hatched Games, a publishing startup aiming to produce and sell horror zines by creators from around the globe.

Gast is a small box game specifically constructed for a complete play experience, and comes in two editions:

• The Standard Edition will include our trio of zines, a custom card deck, a journal, and a wooden six-sided die. If we unlock any guest writer stretch goals, backers can select one zine to add to their box.
• The Deluxe Edition is jam-packed with extras, including a striking alternate box design playing cloth for the card spread, a character Meeple, an upgraded handmade d6 from UK artisan RuneFable, and something special we can't talk about yet!

“I knew you would come. What you’re smelling is beneath the floorboards in the corner where the ceiling is at its lowest. I’ve scratched a symbol into the wood to guide you. Pry the boards up, carefully lift out the cadaver, and place it on the workbench."

Preservation Tapes was originally a novel called Foxglove written by Rich during his MA degree in creative writing. The game will ask you to listen to cassette tapes left by your late Grandmother. In exchange for the deeds to her house, she'll ask you to perform taxidermy on a slowly rotting animal cadaver.

The materials for this task will not be easy to come by, and to find what you need, you'll have to explore the village of Ashchrist and its surrounding forest. But what else dwells beyond the treeline? And what is trying to stop you from restoring the animal?

As I lay me down to sleep,
I hope and pray my teeth, I'll keep...
If all are claimed, and snatched away,
I'll lose my soul to the Tand-Fé...

Tand-Fé was originally a micro-RPG, written by Katrina for the 24 Word RPG Jam and inspired by folklore surrounding the Tooth Fairy, and the rather questionable decision made by parents to hand their children's teeth over to a member of the fair folk.

You, and your thirty two teeth, have made a bargain of Tand-Fé - and a strange, whiskered creature (is Tand-Fé its name? Or its price? You aren't sure...) emerges from the dark every night to play a simple game that hinges solely on the repeated flip of a new coin. Win, and your chosen request is granted. Lose, and your teeth and soul belong to the creature!

“These fields have been picked clean...
Has someone been here before me?"

In Undersoil, you play a metal detectorist, hired by the museum curator of Ashchrist village to locate four artefacts from beneath the surrounding fields. One of these artefacts rests in the surface of an ancient wooden door excavated decades ago, now propped up in the exhibition space. Even looking at it through a thick pane of glass sets your nerves on edge.

Digging up these objects starts to have a detrimental effect on the village and its inhabitants, but you can't afford to pass up this opportunity. How else will you pay for Sam's dog food? Maybe it's all in your head, anyway?

Hatched Games plan to publish zines in seasons, using a different system for each. Carta represents Season One of our plans, and then we'll shift to a new SRD for Season Two in 2026. We haven't selected which SRDs to explore in the future, but some frontrunners include Wretched & Alone by Chris Bissette, Breathless from Fari RPGs, and Anamnesis by Blinking Birch Games.

Though we’re initially focusing on folk horror projects, 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 SRDs specifically for Gast!

To keep the zines consistent and recognisable, the team at Hatched Games will follow a style guide to encompass cover art, interior illustrations, and layout. Where possible, we’ll collaborate with the same creatives across projects to ensure everyone’s work is easily recognisable.

Our overriding ambition is to make Gast feel like a shared universe, with an ancient and malevolent darkness at the heart of every game we publish. We want to create a folklore similar to The Magnus Archives or The Silt Verses.

If the project interests you, please head to our BackerKit teaser page and give us a follow. We'll be posting updates regularly as we head towards launch on March 13th. You can also follow us on Bluesky.