The Secret of Weepstone will reach that Old School Renaissance RPG itch you can't seem to reach

After years of experimentation with generative AI art supplementing my D&D game, I'm finally sick of its sterile sheen and predictable algorithms. I want that human touch put back into the art I consume. I want the hand drawn imperfections, the scratchy, uneven shading, and the tiny indicators that this artist may be working on their geography, while that one has a long way to go with their facial features.

That's what caught my eye immediately about The Secret of Weepstone. Its black-and-white dark fantasy line art takes it back to old school tabletop RPGs of the '70s and '80s. (Although, back then, we called them "pen and pad" RPGs, because the emphasis was on your character sheets instead of the gathering location, I suppose.)

In Weepstone, the local lord has fallen ill, and stuff is getting out of hand up in the abandoned keep. The town's fields are barren, its crops dead, its people crouched in fear. Who will come to save this poor town?

No one. No one is coming to save you. It's up to the very commonfolk of Weepstone to delve into the dungeon and defeat the D&D-styled menaces within. Character sheets are on cards, the party of inevitably dead commoners goes up to eight, and a stone-cold set of D&D dice are clattering around on the dungeon floor. 

Puzzles, traps, ghosts, goblins, and definitely a Rust Monster populate that place of suffering. Outfit your party with weapons, equipment, and magic items. Don't get too attached, however. A lot of them are going to die quick deaths. The inevitability of death grants you "Mortal Favors," though, so don't fear the reaper.

The Secret of Weepstone only has a release window of 2026. Though you can Wishlist it already on Steam. And a playable demo will be at PAX West 2025 on August 29 to September 1 at the DreadXP booth for anyone attending the show in the Seattle Convention Center.