Bundle of Holding - RuneQuest 6

I like RuneQuest 6, but I find the character generation to be a tad tedious. Others will find it extremely thorough and just their cup of tea.

At $6.95 for the core book and the Book of Quests (basically a campaign's worth of adventure right there) it's probably hard to go wrong.

OSR Christmas 2014 - Day 2 - The Loot!

Sorry for the assorted delays. Work life has been interfering a bit with gaming life (and all other life labels I might have.)

OSR Christmas Day 3 will be tomorrow. Get ready to comment. (tomorrow the emails from the Day 1 recipients will be forwarded to those gifting - yes, the week turned out to be that kind of week.)

In the meantime, here's the list of recipients for OSR Christmas Day 2:

- Lesser Gnome, aka +Zach Glazar , has been a generous supported of The Tavern and it's patrons the moment Whisper & Venom was released. Zach claims he owes me a beer at the next NTRPG Con, but the truth is, I owe him a dinner or two. (Edit - Zach WILL ship this internationally-indicated if you are out of the US, so I can put you in the right pool)

This year, Zach is offering two gifts, given to one random patron as a bundle. One of the very last Whisper & Venom boxed sets AND The First Sentinel (Limited).

And the lucky Holiday Child that will be receiving this at his or her doorstep? +Dyson Logos 

+James Spahn , he of Barrel Rider Games, is offering a signed copy of the Player's Companion for Swords & Wizardry. I'm very happy to have had some small influence on bringing James to the dark side to the world of Swords & Wizardry ;)

And the lucky Holiday Child that will be receiving this at his or her doorstep? Boris Worm

+Joseph Bloch , the man behind Adventures Dark & Deep and the Greyhawk Grognard blog, is offering a set of his Castle of the Mad Archmage megadungeon books in softcover as a bundle. This is the adventure book, map book and illustrations book. I've been running this with my Friday Nite "B Team" for a number of months and my players eagerly return for more with each session.

And the lucky Holiday Child that will be receiving this at his or her doorstep? Matt Snodgrass

Email me at tenkarsDOTtavernATgmailDOTcom with DAY 2 GIFT in the subject. Provide me with the mailing address you want this sent to and I'll forward it to the proper gift giver.

My Frog God Games Holiday Grab Bag was Waiting for Me (Swords & Wizardry)

Wow. Simply "wow!"

This year's Frog God Holiday Grab Bag was full of Swords & Wizardry goodness. With the exception of the core Razor Coast book, I don't think any are dupes of what I currently own (and one of the three D20 releases included was Caverns of Tracia.

Now, each grab bag is different, so if you order one expect your contents to be different. Mine were divine ;)

Tavern Doors to Reopen Tomorrow

I worked 30 hrs straight from yesterday until today. I napped for about 2 hrs this afternoon and expect to fully crash shortly.

I know that The Tavern is known for consistent posting and my plan is to obviously continue with that, conditions permitting.

Tomorrow expect updates for the 2014 OSR Christmas (as well as emails out to those providing PDF gifts from Day 1), list of Day 2 gift receivers, photos of my amazing Frog God Games grab bag and other bits and pieces.

As for now - I do believe sleep calls...

Tavern Doors Temporarily Closed

Doors will reopen ASAP.

In the meantime, listen to some podcasts from The Brainstorm; )

OSR Christmas 2014 - Day 2 - Whisper First, and find a Companion before entering the Castle of the Mad Archmage (Print - US Only)

Wow. Simply wow. Putting the 12 Days of OSR Christmas together, I never expected the amazingly generous response it received. I know our community is awesome, but they have outdone themselves.

Day 2 is an "In Print - US Only" Day. Have no fear my international patrons of The Tavern - there are physical gifts that will ship internationally coming up and more PDF goodness to be had.

Where to start?

- Lesser Gnome, aka +Zach Glazar , has been a generous supported of The Tavern and it's patrons the moment Whisper & Venom was released. Zach claims he owes me a beer at the next NTRPG Con, but the truth is, I owe him a dinner or two. (Edit - Zach WILL ship this internationally-indicated if you are out of the US, so I can put you in the right pool)

This year, Zach is offering two gifts, given to one random patron as a bundle. One of the very last Whisper & Venom boxed sets AND The First Sentinel (Limited). 

+James Spahn , he of Barrel Rider Games, is offering a signed copy of the Player's Companion for Swords & Wizardry. I'm very happy to have had some small influence on bringing James to the dark side to the world of Swords & Wizardry ;)

+Joseph Bloch , the man behind Adventures Dark & Deep and the Greyhawk Grognard blog, is offering a set of his Castle of the Mad Archmage megadungeon books in softcover as a bundle. This is the adventure book, map book and illustrations book. I've been running this with my Friday Nite "B Team" for a number of months and my players eagerly return for more with each session.

Now, you know what to do, right?

Add a comment to this post and sometime after 830 PM tomorrow night (NYC Time) three random commenters will be drawn to receive the above gifts.

Current events in NYC may delay me, so this post may remain open longer than expected, but don't delay - comment now!

(remember, these ship to US addresses only. If you are outside the states and can strong arm a US resident to forward any possible gift to you, by all means, jump in)

OSR Christmas 2014 - Day 1 - the Loot!

Yep, time for OSR Santa to pick the recipients of the Day 1 gifts.

Drum roll if you will...

- Attack of the Frawgs (PDF) goes to  +Tim Snider

-  Haunting of Larvik Island (PDF) goes to +Jason Vines 

- Stronghold of the Wood Giant Shaman (PDF) donated by +Stephen Newton goes to ProudBaptist

- 2 PDF copies of the complete Straycouches collection (Crawl! and other goodies) +Dak Ultimak go to Tom (time stamp 8:36 am) and +Boric Glanduum 

- PDF copy of the Sunken City Omnibus (DCC) +Jon Marr goes to +Sophia Brandt 

Here's what y'all need to do:

Email me at tenkarsDOTtavernATgmailDOTcom with DAY 1 GIFT in the subject. Provide me with the address you use at RPGNow and I'll forward it to the proper gift giver.

Congrats to All!

Day 2 goes live sometime tomorrow :)

OSR Christmas 2014 - Reaching Insane Levels of Holiday Cheer - Final Complete List of Holiday Cheer

This is the final update to the list of Christmas Gift Giving for the OSR Christmas. Well, unless I missed something. In which case the final update will need an update.

In any case, here we go :)

 - A Basic Fantasy RPG Print Bundle (US Only) including the Basic Fantasy RPG Core Book, Morgansfort, Monkey Isle, Chaotic Caves and the Fortress, Tomb and TowerAdventure Anthology 1 generously donated by Billy's Books & More on Amazon (billysbooks1968 on Ebay)

- 2.5D Print & Paste Dungeon Tiles Starter Set [BUNDLE] - donated by Middle Kingdoms Exploration & Trading Co

-1x HL-MEGA Havenland Mega icon set, 1x NR-CORE Narrasil Core icon set and 1x NTH-CORE Neath 3D Dungeon/Cavern Components for SketchUp donated by MonkeyBlood Design

-Set of Swords and Wizardry card decks - Monster, Spell, Hireling, and Equipment decks
-Swords and Wizardry Monstrosities hardcover
-Swords & Wizardry adventures - Grimmsgate, MCMLXXV, and Strange Bedfellows
-DCC adventure - Sailors on the Starless Sea
-Necromancer Games d20 adventures - The Six Spheres of Zaihhess, The Coils of Set, Vindication
-Necromancer Games d20 supplements - Tome of Horrors III hardcover; Unusual Suspects NPC Gallery

Above donated by Keith N - Mark these as US only

- The novel Heraclix and Pomp in print - ships worldwide - donated by the author, Forrest Aguirre

- a set of 5 miniatures, a human cleric (male) with a tome on a stand and 4 elves (male) in heavy plate and big @$$ swords. US only - donated by Boric Glanduum

edit:

- 6 PDF copies of Assault on the Southern Horn (osr) and six pdf copies of Paranormal Investigators and Exterminators (PIE) for mini-six donated by +Johua De Santo

and here's the previous listing of Holiday Cheer:

- Rob Kuntz's The Original Bottle City adventure, reprinted by Black Blade this past summer;

- Rob Kuntz's Cairn of the Skeleton King adventure, originally published by Rob's Pied Piper Publishing imprint, now out of print;

- Rob Kuntz's Tower of Blood adventure, originally published by Rob's Pied Piper Publishing imprint, now out of print;

- Rob Kuntz's and Lance Hawvermale's Campaign Treasuries supplement, originally published by Rob's Pied Piper Publishing imprint, now out of print.

The above is being donated by +Jon Hershberger and Black Blade Publishing. Jon will ship the above anywhere in the world on Black Blade's dime, so unless Jon tells me otherwise, this is a bundle of Holiday Cheer ;)

But wait, there's more!

- TWO sets of Dyson's Delves Volume I+II in Print (softcover) +Dyson Logos

- 3 PDF copies of Adventurous Locations I - The Broken Tower donated by +Anthony Hunter

- 1 full set of The Undercroft zine, shipping anywhere in the world donated by +Daniel Sell

- 3 sets of Dungeonmorph Dice (Adventurer, Explorer & Spellunker) as a bundle sent pretty much anywhere in the world. Donated by +Joe Wetzel

- two copies of the elite and very rare "A Collection of Presentations, Cartographical in Nature" donated by +matt jackson

- Print copies of Cryptworld and Timemaster donated by +Tim Snider and Goblinoid Games, as a bundle shipped anywhere in the world

- a complete set of The Manor zine in PDF, donated by by +Tim Shorts

If I've missed anything (and I probably have) let me know at tenkarsDOTtavernATgmailDOTcom. Tuesday is the last day to add to Santa's Bag of Holding ;)

and of course the previously donated loot:

- Peril and Plunder in Print donated by Jeff Carpenter

- Attack of the Frawgs (PDF), Haunting of Larvik Island (PDF), Stronghold of the Wood Giant Shaman (PDF) donated by +Stephen Newton (yes, more DCC RPG goodness)

- 2 PDF copies of the complete Straycouches collection (Crawl! and other goodies) and one Print copy (US Only) of said collection donated by +Dak Ultimak

- Complete PDF Collection of Spes Magna Games releases by +Mark Chance

- A Guide to the Astral Plane (AD&D Planescape) and The Glory of Rome Campaign Sourcebook(AD&D Historical Reference) - Print copies of these TSR Classics again donated by +Mark Chance

- free commissioned piece of artwork (a4, b/w, old school styled) donated by +m foczka , a sample of whose work graces this post above

- First Sentinel Limited & One of the last Whisper & Venom boxed sets donated by Lesser Gnome Games - +Zach Glazar IS The Man. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

- Hard copy of Trolls of Mistwood (DCC) by +David Fisher

- A PDF copy of The Caves of Ortok (choose between LL, S&W, or OSRIC)

- A PDF copy of Bearing A Grudge (choose between LL, S&W, or OSRIC)

- A PDF copy of the Noh-Cha Classbook

- A sub to Issues 1-6 of Another Bunch of Content in PDF (the above donated by Infinibadger Press +Jason Paul McCartan )

- Dyson's Delves Volume I + II donated by +Tony T

- An assortment of +Purple Duck Games  DCC Adventures in print (they are in The Tavern's Prize Closet - need to verify what is in there)

- 1 set of print copies of Crawling Under a Broken Moon DCC fanzine (print) +Reid San Filippo

- PDF copy of the Sunken City Omnibus (DCC) +Jon Marr

- a complete set of Crawljammer (DCC) (print) +Tim Callahan

- Complete Vivimancer and the first issue of the new zine Wizardzine (print copies) +Gavin Norman

- Castle of the Mad Archmage books in softcover +Joseph Bloch

- 12 PDFs of Far Realms, 12 PDFs of Far Realms - More Spells and 1 print version of Far Realms(holy crap if I must say so myself ;) +Rick Stump

- print copy of the S&W Player's Companion, signed +James Spahn

- PDF copy of the LL Class Compendium +James Spahn

- some gems from The Tavern's vaults (my wife is making me downsize my collection, even as I upsize it ;)

holy shit but this is amazing!

James Mal Returns with "The Excellent Travelling Volume", an Empire of the Petal Throne Fanzine

A quick check of Grognardia shows that December 11th, 2012 was the last post at the blog. Nearly 2 years. In that time, the Dwimmermount drama came and went (I got my print copies last week). Now, James Mal is back in the fold of old school fandom with his new zine, The Excellent Travelling Volume, an Empire of the Petal Throne zine set in the world of Tekumel.

There have been numerous RPGs set in Tekumel - heck, Jeff Dee just recently released one himself. This zine tho uses the first ruleset set in Tekumel, and the RPG has been out of print for over 30 years.

I'm intrigued by James' latest project. Tekumel is not a light setting. From what I've read of Empire of the Petal Throne (I own the boxed set), it is closely derived from OD&D but the setting is dense and it's fans are fairly rabid. James hasn't chosen an easy path.

The Excellent Travelling Volume is print only - 10 bucks shipped to North America, 12 bucks to the rest of the world. Coming in at 28 pages in digest size, that may seem a little steep. I'll be interested in any reviews or feedback from those that grab a copy to see if they get a fair shake for the prices.

Tekumel certainly seems to be a hot commodity recently.

OSR Christmas 2014 - Day One - DCC Did a Job on Me and Now I am a Real Sickie (with apologies to the Ramones) - PDF - International

We are kicking off the OSR Christmas Celebration with some PDF for the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG.

Let's see, where to begin?

I have Attack of the Frawgs and Haunting of Larvik Island. Both read very well and Frawgs played real well when I ran it. The group had a blast and I did too.

Crawl! zine is quite possibly the best gaming zine on the market of any gaming system. I can't praise it enough (not taking anything from any of the other zines, but Crawl! sets one hell of a high water mark.)

Sunken City Omnibus is a great set of DCC adventures wrapped into one comprehensive collection.
Another blast to read and run.

So, there's the prizes. Simply an excellent way to kick off an OSR Christmas.

- and if you haven't tried out the DCC RPG yet, you can get a start for free using the links at the linked post.

Six winners will be drawn from the comments on this post. This post will be open for comments until at least 830 tomorrow night (Dec 2nd, NYC Time)

Get posting!



- Attack of the Frawgs (PDF) 

-  Haunting of Larvik Island (PDF)

- Stronghold of the Wood Giant Shaman (PDF) donated by +Stephen Newton

- 2 PDF copies of the complete Straycouches collection (Crawl! and other goodies) +Dak Ultimak 

- PDF copy of the Sunken City Omnibus (DCC) +Jon Marr

Brainstorm Podcast #18 - Magic Shops

Yes, we are BACK!

Listen to +Vincent Florio , +Glen Hallstrom and myself discuss magic shops in campaigns. Needless to say, the three differing perspectives cover a lot of ground.

If you aren't listening to The Brainstorm Podcast, you simply aren't listening ;)

Cyber Monday Sale at RPGNow is Live - Five Buck Bargains

Yep, RPGNow / DriveThruRPG went live with their Cyber Monday Sales.

My 5 buck picks?

The Traveller Main Rulebook - it's an excellent deal at 5 bucks and you might actually survive character generation with this edition ;)

A Song for Fire and Ice - Game of Thrones Edition - it says Game of Thrones on the tin. 'nuff said.

CthulhuTech - because sci-fi CoC is just what the doctor ordered

OSR Christmas 2014 - Reaching Insane Levels of Holiday Cheer - Kicks Off on December 1st (Oh Sh!t - That's Tomorrow!)

Yes, Christmas Holiday OSR Goodness kicks off tomorrow. What's it going to be? I have no idea, as we are still getting in some amazingly generous gifts. If this keeps up, there may be some bonus days snuck into the 12 days of OSR Christmas.

So, what's new to the list of Christmas Gift Giving Generosity?

- Rob Kuntz's The Original Bottle City adventure, reprinted by Black Blade this past summer;

- Rob Kuntz's Cairn of the Skeleton King adventure, originally published by Rob's Pied Piper Publishing imprint, now out of print;

- Rob Kuntz's Tower of Blood adventure, originally published by Rob's Pied Piper Publishing imprint, now out of print;

- Rob Kuntz's and Lance Hawvermale's Campaign Treasuries supplement, originally published by Rob's Pied Piper Publishing imprint, now out of print.

The above is being donated by +Jon Hershberger and Black Blade Publishing. Jon will ship the above anywhere in the world on Black Blade's dime, so unless Jon tells me otherwise, this is a bundle of Holiday Cheer ;)

But wait, there's more!

- TWO sets of Dyson's Delves Volume I+II in Print (softcover) +Dyson Logos

- 3 PDF copies of Adventurous Locations I - The Broken Tower donated by +Anthony Hunter

- 1 full set of The Undercroft zine, shipping anywhere in the world donated by +Daniel Sell

- 3 sets of Dungeonmorph Dice (Adventurer, Explorer & Spellunker) as a bundle sent pretty much anywhere in the world. Donated by +Joe Wetzel

- two copies of the elite and very rare "A Collection of Presentations, Cartographical in Nature" donated by +matt jackson

- Print copies of Cryptworld and Timemaster donated by +Tim Snider and Goblinoid Games, as a bundle shipped anywhere in the world

- a complete set of The Manor zine in PDF, donated by by +Tim Shorts

If I've missed anything (and I probably have) let me know at tenkarsDOTtavernATgmailDOTcom. Tuesday is the last day to add to Santa's Bag of Holding ;)

and of course the previously donated loot:

- Peril and Plunder in Print donated by Jeff Carpenter

- Attack of the Frawgs (PDF), Haunting of Larvik Island (PDF), Stronghold of the Wood Giant Shaman (PDF) donated by +Stephen Newton (yes, more DCC RPG goodness)

- 2 PDF copies of the complete Straycouches collection (Crawl! and other goodies) and one Print copy of said collection donated by +Dak Ultimak

- Complete PDF Collection of Spes Magna Games releases by +Mark Chance

- A Guide to the Astral Plane (AD&D Planescape) and The Glory of Rome Campaign Sourcebook(AD&D Historical Reference) - Print copies of these TSR Classics again donated by +Mark Chance

- free commissioned piece of artwork (a4, b/w, old school styled) donated by +m foczka , a sample of whose work graces this post above

- First Sentinel Limited & One of the last Whisper & Venom boxed sets donated by Lesser Gnome Games - +Zach Glazar IS The Man. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

- Hard copy of Trolls of Mistwood (DCC) by +David Fisher

- A PDF copy of The Caves of Ortok (choose between LL, S&W, or OSRIC)

- A PDF copy of Bearing A Grudge (choose between LL, S&W, or OSRIC)

- A PDF copy of the Noh-Cha Classbook

- A sub to Issues 1-6 of Another Bunch of Content in PDF (the above donated by Infinibadger Press +Jason Paul McCartan )

- Dyson's Delves Volume I + II donated by +Tony T

- An assortment of +Purple Duck Games  DCC Adventures in print (they are in The Tavern's Prize Closet - need to verify what is in there)

- 1 set of print copies of Crawling Under a Broken Moon DCC fanzine (print) +Reid San Filippo

- PDF copy of the Sunken City Omnibus (DCC) +Jon Marr

- a complete set of Crawljammer (DCC) (print) +Tim Callahan

- Complete Vivimancer and the first issue of the new zine Wizardzine (print copies) +Gavin Norman

- Castle of the Mad Archmage books in softcover +Joseph Bloch

- 12 PDFs of Far Realms, 12 PDFs of Far Realms - More Spells and 1 print version of Far Realms(holy crap if I must say so myself ;) +Rick Stump

- print copy of the S&W Player's Companion, signed +James Spahn

- PDF copy of the LL Class Compendium +James Spahn

- some gems from The Tavern's vaults (my wife is making me downsize my collection, even as I upsize it ;)