A Familiar Tower is an escape room adventure for Old-School Essentials. It's the latest in a series of puzzle dungeons written by me, directsun. 👋 Hello.
It's more than rooms filled with puzzles, the dungeon is the puzzle. Each space teaches players about the unique mechanics of the dungeon or re-contextualizes previous information in new ways. Inspired by the puzzle box dungeons of The Legend of Zelda series, A Familiar Tower delivers challenges that feel natural to its world—mechanics that click into place the moment you discover how they work.
A Familiar Tower is a 40-page staple-bound booklet, half-letter size (5.5" x 8.5"), with minimal colors. Inside you'll find about 13 areas and enough content for 3 to 5 hours of play. Perfect for a one-shot, convention game, or to drop into an existing campaign world.
The adventure is designed for use with Old School Essentials fantasy role-playing game and is broadly compatible with most rulesets.
3rd level OSE characters should feel sufficiently challenged. Old-School Essentials is a trademark of Necrotic Gnome. The trademark and Old-School Essentials logo are used with permission of Necrotic Gnome, under license.
Both Aberrant Reflections and The Seers Sanctum are available as add-ons or in a discounted bundle.
The Seers Sanctum has recently had a remaster with tighter text approved by an actual editor—Yossi Krausz, layout by Jesse Winter, cover by Jacob Fleming, and illustrations by Munkao. This will be the first time the remaster will be available in print.
The Seers Sanctum adventure itself is almost identical to the original. It's just been punched up and reformatted with beautiful art. If you've purchased Seers before, the digital remaster is already available to you for free via DriveThruRPG or Itch.io. Go take a look!
48-Hour Early Bird Backer Sticker
If you back A Familiar Tower at a physical tier (that is, not just the PDF) within the first 48 hours of the campaign, you'll receive a special BackerKit-exclusive vinyl wizard sticker. It looks like this:
It's not needed to run the game, but there are included printable textures and instructions on how to make your own tower out of an oatmeal box or paper towel roll. Once your players realize how it's used, it'll be a small thing with a big impact that'll put smiles on their faces.
$ 6,000 - Funded! This is enough to mostly break-even. $10,000 - All tiers get pregenerated characters with illustrated portraits. This is enough to print a surplus of zines!
$15,000 - Physical tiers get newstickers. This is enough to invest in my next project! 666 backers 🤘 - Skullboy summons forth a demon sticker for physical tiers.
I'm the author, directsun (Chris M). Puzzle Dungeons are one of my favorite types of adventures to run or play in. I like them so much, I hosted a game jam to encourage others to drag more into existence. I also wrote, published, and crowdfunded Aberrant Reflectionsand The Seers Sanctum.
Returning co-creator Sam Sorensen has been keeping me in check with development, copy, and line editing. This time Sam's also done the layout. It's his "jazzy InDesign skills" you see on this page. A couple of his previous projects include Time After Time andSeas of Sand.
Art by Cameron Maas (cover not final)
I'm thrilled to be teaming up with fellow creator, Cameron Maas.Cameron is working on an expanded version of Puzzle Dungeon Jam's own fleshy abomination, Reservoir. We're making a digital trifold adventure you'll get for free if you back both of our projects.
The light has been there for as long as you can remember. Now it's gone and signs all point to the end. The DARK is closing in.
The listed backer prices do not include shipping charges - all physical orders will be required to pay for shipping at a later date via a pledge manager. Exact costs will be determined based on the customer's shipping address. These are only estimates and are subject to change.
US Shipping Estimates: A Familiar Tower Zine: $8.50 Puzzle Pack (A Familiar Tower, Aberrant Reflections, The Seers Sanctum): $11-12 Additional Zines: +$1
International Shipping Estimates: A Familiar Tower Zine: $17-25 Puzzle Pack (A Familiar Tower, Aberrant Reflections, The Seers Sanctum): $22-30 Additional Zines: +$3
VAT costs are not included. Packages will be properly marked as "Books." Orders will ship from Philadelphia PA, in the United States. All efforts will be made to reduce tariffs and avoid carrier exploitation.
Please note that for all physical tiers, the following countries are excluded due to shipping requirements: AF, BT, BR, BN, BY, CF, TD, CU, GF, GP, IR, IL, LA, LR, LY, YT, PM, MM, MN, NU, KP, PG, RE, RU, PM, WS, SL, ZA, SS, SY, TJ, TL, TM, AE, YE. Sorry! The digital-only PDF tier remains available.
Digital fulfillment will be handled by DriveThruRPG.
Words and art for A Familiar Tower are polished and finished. The layout is currently being tweaked. Digital fulfillment for AFT begins shortly after that. Print proofs can take 2-4 weeks to come back and if all looks good, I'll put in the order to Mixam and they'll ship it to the distribution warehouse. We estimate zines starting to get in backer hands August 2026.
February: Crowdfunding and layout tweaks. March: Finishing touches. April: PDFs sent to backers. Print proofs and any needed corrections. May: Final prints made and shipped to warehouse. June: Packing and shipping to backers. July: Buffer. August: Zines start arriving in backer hands.
There's a lot of "months" thrown around these days. It's easy to get lost. Zine Month is a community driven effort to make cool shit and not ask permission. Here are some projects that I think are worth your eyeballs.
Orcs & Crafts - Hands-on crafting advice with top-notch presentation. This is some damn fine work from Marcin and Katarzyna. Outcast Unseelie and the Ooze Between - This oozes style. Jesse Winter brings a puzzle dungeon that will dip your toes in gooey green mechanics. RESERVOIR - More than enough sentient flesh to graft into a puzzle dungeon. Get turned inside-out and upside-down exploring orifices. Cameron Maas uses his illustrative mastery to gate to the dimension of flesh in this adventure. CAIN SUN - You are the alien. You will not trust your friends. These things I am sure of. Waco has been helping produce players that feed their own paranoia with adventures like CRYO-SIQ and he's back at it again. Twisting Unseen - Chris Air wants me to portal hop for my life and I'm here for that. Tell me which swirling vortex we're stepping through next.
This project is participating in Zinetopia! A Small-format TTRPG event celebrating Zine Month running February 2–27, 2026.
📖 What is Zine Month? Zine Month is a month-long online celebration observed every February by the tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) community where creators share and launch new DIY zines.
🔥 Unlock the Limited Zinetopia Freebie! Receive the limited edition Zinetopia 2026 Group Zine when you back 5+ projects featuring 60+ pages from participating creators full of mini-games, sketches, activity pages, and more!
