Tenkar's Tavern

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

The Tavern Chat Podcast - E153 - I Guess D&D eSports IS a Thing! DnD Sports is Coming to a Twitch Near You

Well, when you are right, you are right. It looks like DnD Sports is coming in November.

Way back in Episode 70, I talked about how Hasbro's CEO mentioned D&D eSports, and everyone said that the CEO didn't know what he was talking about and I was being foolish for even mentioning it. Well, take a peek - dndsports.tv/news/what-is-dndsports/

Link to Episode 153: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/episodes/E153---I-Guess-DD-eSports-IS-a-Thing--DnD-Sports-is-Coming-to-a-Twitch-Near-You-e2do14

Link to Episode 70: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/episodes/Episode-70---5e-e-Sports--Say-What-e1sfbt

Link to July's Article: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/23/hasbro-ceo-dungeons--dragons-is-having-its-best-year-ever.html

Link to DnD Sports: https://dndsports.tv/news/what-is-dndsports/

DnD Sports article:

OCTOBER 1, 2018 BY WILL JONES

What is DnDSports?
Imagine if two parties fighting for opposite sides found themselves in the same dungeon. It’s kill or be killed. What will they do to survive?

DnDSports is the first online D&D Tournament in a cooperative Party vs Party setting from EncounterRoleplay & DnDBeyond with a grand prize of $5,000. Over the course of 4 weeks, 16 players will compete in teams of 4 in single elimination games. Each game is a best of 3 arena battle and played via Roll20.

How is it Played?

The full rules for DnDSports will be released shortly after our next round of Playtesting. We don’t claim to have created perfect balance, nor is that our aim, as every competitive game has an element of strategy. We’re also implementing MOBA-esque mechanics such as a Pick/Ban phase to help expand the strategy. We’ve been working closely with over a dozen talented DMs to create 15 pre-generated characters from which the players will choose, and adapt the pre-existing Dungeons & Dragons: 5th Edition rules.

We know that this will be an incredibly fun new way to play D&D, because as long as you’re having fun, you’re doing it right!

When is it?

Day 1: November 10th at 12pm PST

Heat 1: Team Beholder vs. Team Mindflayer

Day 2: November 17th at 12pm PST

Heat 2: Team Kobold vs. Team Tarrasque

Day 3: November 24th at 12pm PST

All Stars Charity game for 826LA foundation

Day 4: December 1st at 12pm PST

Grand Finals

Where can I watch it?

Watch live on Twitch here.

The VODs will be uploaded to Youtube here.

Who is involved?

The EncounterRoleplay & DnDBeyond crews have teamed up to bring this production to life!

As for who’s competing? Keep an eye on the DnDSports Twitter & here on the blog to learn more about the teams as they are revealed!

But D&D Shouldn’t be an eSport?!

It’s not an eSport. We created something that would make competitive gamers feel safe and comfortable trying out D&D5e for the first time. It’s a new way to display the versatility of combat in D&D5e in a unique setting. We encourage you to respect the way different people play D&D because we know that this will be a fun event and there is no wrong to play D&D, as long as you are having fun!

Monday, October 15, 2018

Free Map Mondays - Mapping Like Its 1980 :)

I spent parts of this evening cleaning and putting stuff aside for OSR Christmas - yes, the pile is fairly large.

I came across my bagged copy of Cyborg Commando (and now recall why I never tried to play it) as well as an early dungeon map that I drew and populated around 1979 / 80 or so.

Looks like I was using those random tables from the Dungeon Master's Guide...

God knows why anyone would WANT to use this map, but I'm releasing the map ONLY under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ / Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0). Enjoy :)

(no idea if the back is OGL-able, so not released)

Free Map Mondays - Squarehex Sampler Pack Giveaway - US Only

For those following along at home, your bartender has been under the weather the past few days. Not sure I'll be able to finish putting together a decent map for today.

But have no fear, even if nothing comes to fruition tonight I do have something to give away.

Digging out some boxes that have sat in a corner of the living room, I found a few spares of the SquareHex Sampler Pack. You can grab it directly through the SquareHex blog for:

I'm giving away a complete set, in the original packing, to one random commenter on this very post. US Only - sorry, but the shipping outside the states will kill me ;)

Your comment must tell our readers why you like drawing maps. Comment before 7 PM Eastern on Thursday, October 18th, 2018.

Remember, OSR Christmas is sneaking up and OSR Santa will need to start organizing soon ;)

The Tavern Chat Podcast - E152 - The Times, They are a Changin' - but I still have a cold ;)

I still can't believe I was in bed for 12 hours. Shit, I'm going to be late for my Monday pub lunch! Damn cold!

Yep, I'm still a miserable fuck, having woken up 1130 in the morning - damn cold. The Tavern has been around for nearly 10 years. I expect it will be around for many more 10s of years. If you look at the history of the Tenkar's Tavern blog, you'll see it has always been in a process of change.

Pexx over on the Discord side of all things Tavern is indexing those nearly 10 years of blog posts, and just a few months in he's already seeing changes. Growths. Missteps. All part of the process. All that which will bring us where we are, not just yesterday, but today and tomorrow too.

Yes, change sucks. Yes, change is great.

Link to Episode 152 - https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/episodes/E152---The-Times--They-are-a-Changin---but-I-still-have-a-cold-e2dfr1

Why "Swords & Wizardry?"

Believe me when I say I have them all in dead tree format. I have OSRIC in full size, trade paperback and the Player's Guide. I have LL and the AEC (and somewhere OEC, but I can't find it at the moment). Obviously I have Basic Fantasy RPG. Actually, I have the whole available line in print. Way too much Castles & Crusades. We all know my love for the DCC RPG. I even have Dark Dungeons in print, the Delving Deeper boxed set, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea (thank you Kickstarter) (edit) BOTH editions of LotFP's Weird Fantasy and will soon have some dead tree copies of the Greyhawk Grognards Adventures Dark & Deep ~~shipping shortly~~ in my grubby hands awaiting a review..

I am so deep in the OSR when I come up for breath it's for the OSR's cousin, Tunnels & Trolls (and still waiting on dT&T to ship).

So, out of all that, why Swords & Wizardry? Why, when I have been running a AD&D 1e / OSRIC campaign in Rappan Athuk am I using Swords & Wizardry and it's variant, Crypts & Things, for the second campaign? (Actually, now running a S&W Complete campaign, soon to be with multiple groups)

Because the shit works.

It's easy for lapsed gamers to pick up and feel like they haven't lost a step. I can house rule it and it doesn't break. It plays so close to the AD&D of my youth and college years (S&W Complete especially) that it continually surprises me. Just much less rules hopping than I remember. (my God but I can run it nearly without the book)

I grab and pick and steal from just about all OSR and Original resources. They seem to fit into S&W with little fuss. It may be the same with LL and the rest, but for me the ease of use fit's my expectations with S&W.

Even the single saving throw. That took me longer to adjust to, but even that seems like a natural to me now. Don't ask me why, it just does. Maybe it's the simplicity of it. At 45 48, simplicity and flexibility while remaining true to the feel of the original is an OSR hat trick for me ;)

Swords & Wizardry Light - Forum

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