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Saturday, August 29, 2015

White Star "Proof" in Hand - Auction Monies Going to Jim Ward's Medical Bills


I won the auction for the marked up soft cover proof copy of +James Spahn 's White Star (it was for a damn good cause, and my $250 bid along with my matching The Tavern's Community Donations at $250 hopefully has helped Jim Ward with his medical bills. You can still donate here )

The above copy was waiting when Rach and I returned from our visit to the Finback Brewery (yumm!)

How do I know it's authentic? The ever faint smell of pipe tobacco ;)

This one is going up on the display shelf shortly. The moment the POD is live I'll be buying a hardcover for use at the game table.


Far Away Land strikes it's Own Claim - New FAL Store With Lower Prices


Most of you know how I feel about Far Away Land. It's the one game I'm able to comfortably run that doesn't have heavy roots in the OSR (it does, however, have deep roots in the OSR which shows itself at different points.)

The one complaint I've heard is the price of the books in PDF, especially the Tome of Awesome, which is really 4 books in one (not the monthly adventure releases, which have been PWYW as well as high quality.

Now Dirk is no longer just using RPGNow to sell his products and the new FAL store comes with lower prices.

At the moment, the new store is just selling digital versions but print is in the works.

Some price comparisons:

Far Away Land Core Rules -              RPGNow PDF $8     FAL Store PDF $5

Far Away Land Tome of Awesome - RPGNow PDF $25   FAL Store PDF $15

If you haven't checked out Far Away Land, now is the time to do so.

Of course, you can always sample the free FAL Quickstart first.

Friday, August 28, 2015

Frog God Does Right by Those Screwed by Center Stage Miniatures

+Matt Finch posted this on his blog Wednesday evening. I saw it yesterday afternoon right before heading to work, so this is my first opportunity to share it. 

As a quick summary, Frog God Games is stepping up to help right the wrong created when Center Stage Miniatures went bankrupt. Yes, this was one of the more stellar Kickstarter fails and it's nice to see an attempt to make things right - or at least not as screwed up - for those that got caught up in this mess. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Frog God is a stand up company.

I'm just adding to the bandwidth and giving credit where credit is due:

Frog God Games re: Center Stage Miniatures

Okay, this is long, but it's the Frog God Games Apology-Giveaway for the fiasco with the Center Stage Minatures Kickstarters that we licensed our monster images to. Bottom line, free pdfs dollar for dollar on your loss to the CSM Kickstarters.

Frog God Games is well aware of the disappointment, frustration, and monetary loss suffered by backers of the two Centre Stage Miniatures Kickstarters, Tome of Horrors Complete and Tome of Horrors Complete II, for which we had licensed monster images to CSM. Lots of our most loyal fans bought miniatures because they have our monster books and wanted miniatures for monsters from those books. When those Kickstarters did not deliver their products we watched in dismay as backers were left with nothing to show for their support of the Kickstarter campaigns. While Frog God Games did not run the Kickstarters, have control of the manufacture or delivery of its products, nor have any affiliation with Centre Stage Miniatures beyond the licensing of our art properties for the purposes of the Kickstarters, they did involve our licensed materials, and we did publicly support the Kickstarter campaigns. Since that time we have been looking for a way to lessen the blow suffered by the backers of the campaigns in a show of good will to our fans and those who might have supported the campaigns because they saw our name associated with it.

In recent dialogue on public forums with some of the backers of these Kickstarters, it was suggested to us that maybe we could offer free pdfs from our own product catalogue to backers of those Kickstarters so they could at least have something to show for their support. This was something we had considered doing at the time when the Kickstarters first seemed to have failed in their promised delivery of miniatures. At the time we thought an offer like that might be seen as adding insult to injury for trying to somehow diminish the severity of the loss suffered by the backers or otherwise wholly inadequate and inappropriate for the occasion. However, from our recent discussions with backers, we have learned that some would be receptive to such an offer as a way to at least ease their frustration.

We’ve spent the last few days talking about the logistics of how to do this because we’re a company of part-time gamers, not very automated, and lots of backers are involved here. Unquestionably there are going to be a lot of glitches and delays as we get a handle on the process. There’s also got to be an absolute time limit on this program to not only limit the consumption of our already-limited technical resources but also to protect us from a potentially years-long process of receiving, processing, verifying, and tracking these orders—a task of no small measure for our technical limitations.

As a result of this process, for the next 6 months Frog God Games is opening the pdf catalogue of our online store at froggodgames.com and will give store credit for pdf purchases to match dollar-for-dollar the amount that a backer paid to the Tome of Horrors Complete and/or Tome of Horrors Complete II Kickstarters from Centre Stage Miniatures. Obviously there are some difficult logistics involved in this both to verify backers for the issuance of the credit and to handle the resulting online transactions. To try and create a smooth process and save the sanity of our web master and keep him from being overrun with countless details to keep track of, we will initiate the following processes:

1. If you were a backer of either the Tome of Horrors Complete or Tome of Horrors Complete II Kickstarters from Centre Stage Miniatures, please send an email to Chris at froggodgamesfreepdf@gmail.com. In the subject line of your email include the name under which you pledged to either or both Kickstarters, indicate whether it was one or both Kickstarters, and include the total amount you pledged to both of them combined (Example subject line: Joe Backer, TOH and TOH2, $375). Include in the body of the email any screenshots, emails, or other documentation you have to show your support as a backer and the amount of the Kickstarter pledges that you made. (We’re not looking for some kind of legal standard of evidence here; we just need to be able to see that you were in fact a supporter of the Kickstarters and for what amount to help us sift out any unscrupulous opportunists who were otherwise unassociated with these Kickstarters and just see this as an opportunity to take advantage of our offer for free products.)

2. Chris has prepared coupons to the froggodgames.com web store in increments of $25, $50, $100, $150, $200, $250, $300, $350, $400, $450, $500, $600, $700, $800, $900, and $1,000. He will respond to your email with one of these web store coupons in the full amount of your documented pledges, rounded up to the nearest coupon increment. For example, if you pledged $200 between the two Kickstarters, you will receive a froggodgames.com coupon in the amount of $200. However, if your pledges total $201 you will receive coupons totaling $250, so Chris will not have to worry about creating hundreds of different coupons unique to individual backers. As a small game company, that sort of thing is frankly beyond the capacity of our personnel and online resources to handle. (Please note that if your pledge total was in excess of $1,000, Chris will issue multiple coupons in increments to get you closest to your pledge rounded up.)

3. In addition to the above offer, we are aware that due to hard drive crashes, loss of email accounts, and various and sundry other reasons all backers may not have documentation of their backing of the Tome of Horrors Kickstarters or may not be able to show the amount by which they backed one or both of the Kickstarters. To reasonably account for this we make this additional offer. If you cannot show us documentation of your support of one or both of the Kickstarters, send us an email at the above address and in the subject line state your name, the name of the Kickstarter(s) you backed, and write “No Documentation” (Example subject line: Joe Computercrash, TOH and TOH2, No Documentation). There is no need to include any information in the body of the email. In these cases we will take your word for it and will issue a coupon to you in the amount of $25. We apologize for being unable to honor higher dollar values in these instances, as we will already be opening ourselves to considerable exposure to illegitimate claimants, however we will honor emails sent to us in this manner, no questions asked. Please be advised, though, we will not issue more than one of these coupons to a single individual.

4. Please be sure that the email account through which you have sent these emails is one that Chris can reply to with the attached coupons and will not be sent to a spam folder or otherwise lost. This process is already going to be putting a great deal of stress on a part-time employee, and we are not going to be able to spend additional resources in tracking down email errors and hiccups, so please help us to get these right on the first try.

Important Note 1: This offer has an absolute time limit of 6 months. After March 1, 2016, Frog God Games will no longer honor any claims for backers seeking to receive coupons. Emails from backers received on or prior to March 1, 2016 will be honored even if we are not able to issue the coupons until after that date due to any backlog in processing. Coupons issued under this offer do not expire on March 1, 2016 and will be good until their normal expiration date of September 1, 2016.

Important Note 2: Please note that the store credit coupons are for pdf purchases only. They will not work for the purchase of physical product or in combination with purchase of such products. If you wish to purchase physical products, you will need to do so as a separate transaction so that our fulfillment process will not get messed up. Thank you for your cooperation in this.

Important Note 3: This doesn’t affect any of the above but is intended as an FYI to anyone that is intending to buy a physical product as well. All purchases of a Frog God Games physical book include the pdf of that book for free as well, so don’t use your coupons to buy the pdf of a book that you were already going to buy the physical copy of anyway.

Disclaimer (because we legally have make sure this stuff is clearly stated): Frog God Games is not affiliated with Centre Stage Miniatures or any of its principles and is not serving in any agency capacity for these entities. This offer of free pdfs is not considered or intended as a release of any claims or rights enjoyed by the backers in relation to the above-mentioned Kickstarters, and the claim or use of these pdf coupons is not intended to be considered as binding to the recipient for any legal purposes. Furthermore, in creating this pdf-coupon redemption offer Frog God Games is not making any statement or claim in regards to the Kickstarters, their outcomes, their hosts, their backers, or any pending claims or legal matters in regards to the Kickstarters or related entities.

Thursday, August 27, 2015

WTF Were They Thinking? Tournament of Rapists (OGL)


I'm assuming Tournament of Rapists is OGL and not Pathfinder because the Pathfinder must have some minimal moral code attached to it. This reminds me of F.A.T.A.L. but with a far more disturbing title.

I know what you're thinking. "Tenkar is taking this all out of context."

Here's the publisher putting it into context:
The Tournament of Rapists details the sadistic Rape Pure Fight circuit, expanding on what you’ve seen already and introducing dangerous new sexual predators. This sadistic bloodsport takes place in abandoned office buildings and atop Tokyo rooftops. An assortment of superhumanly powerful and inhumanly misogynistic men, and even worse women, step into impromptu fighting arenas, killing and raping the weaker in search of a multi-billion yen fight purse provided by a half-oni billionaire in thrall to dark impulses.
I'm not sure what disturbs me more - that someone wrote this or that the someone that wrote this sees a market for this.

We, as a hobby, truly are our worst enemy at times.

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Is Safe Water and Sanitation a Concern in Your Campaign?

The default fantasy world is pretty much built off of an idealized middle ages / medieval Europe, but we tend not to see the open sewers and open pits for refuse and other personal waste that was common in those urban environments.

Is it avoided out of convenience? Is it assumed that there are magical ways to remove the refuse and the potential illnesses associated with it? How clean is the water in these urban areas? Are the churches and temples constantly casting purify water and cure disease to keep these environments running?

Beer may (or may not) have been the alternative to clean water back in those days, but it wasn't nearly as strong as the beer we know.

Do we just assume that in our magical worlds, refuse and water don't mix and refuse and open sewers do not lead to illness and disease?

Hand wave or magic or make it real? What's you take on it?


Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls Exists - Seven Soft Cover Copies in Hand


Yes, Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls is huge. Those seven copies are quite heavy. My copies took a little wear on the edges as there was no packing on the top inside of the box to keep them from sliding around and the box was made for 11 copies (so the side of the box says). There were some inserts included. Some were folded over but in truth that doesn't matter much. I doubt I'd find myself hanging Fellowship of the Troll posters on my walls at the ripe old age of 48 ;)

I'm still waiting on my hardcover copy (which may not be back from the printers) and three more softcover copies. I'm going to assume they were (will be?) shipped separately, as it was over 16 bucks in postage just to get me these seven copies.

So yes, it looks like we can just about stop the clock on this project. Let me know in the comments of this page if you got your copies...

Far West Funded Four Years Ago Today - Another Month Nears an End and Still No Book - Another Successful Failure



+Eric Franklin over in the G+ Kicksnarker Community was nice enough to point out that Far West, the albatross of RPG Kickstarters, funded today. Add 2 weeks before Gareth got the funds and hopefully he invested the money well. Yeah, probably not. We all know how much postal rates have gone up in the last 4 years. Maybe Gareth can do a Pencil Dice Kickstarter to fund shipping the books - assuming there's funds left to print the books - which assumes the book is ever completed.

Far West was the third successfully funded Kickstarter that I backed. The fifth was Quantum, which was a total crash and burn - the project is abandoned. The tenth was Dwimmermount - oh the drama, but it did complete and ship. In total I've backed 162 successfully funded projects. The failures and partial failures are famous (Nystul, Myth & Magic, Appendix N Adventures, Champions of Zed, Whitman) but less than I would have guessed, and certainly less than my perception of it.

Strange how brightly failure shines in comparison to a sea of success.

Happy anniversary to Far West, the gift that keeps on giving to the Kickstarter community. Another fine example of a successful failure, for even if if finally comes to a successful completion as a product, the ship has long sailed for it to ever be a successful product on the market.

Monday, August 24, 2015

Tenkar's Tap Room - The New Blog about Beer

Don't even say it. I'll say it for you:

"How the fuck are you going to find the time to run another blog!?!"

Better now?

The truth is, even though I'm getting hammered by work in the hear and now, the near future holds a
very pleasant retirement. One of the things I plan to do in retirement is explore my other hobby a bit more fully. The other hobby is "beer."

I've homebrewed in the past (and will again in the future) but Rach and I have decided to start a "brewery crawl" of sorts this coming weekend. There is simply a huge amount of craft beer being brewed in the NYC metropolitan area and we plan to explore what we can. The initial plan is to visit 2 breweries a month as well as exploring craft beers from around the world.

So, if we are going to have all that fun, why not blog about it?

That's where Tenkar's Tap Room comes in. It's an old blog from my early blogging days that hadn't seen a post in 5 years which should now see 4 to 5 posts a week. Posts about beer, breweries and beer related things. Guest posts are welcome, as we can't have a community without you.

I'm also hopeful that one of these small and local breweries would host a small PubCon, thereby mixing my two hobbies in one chocolate and peanut butter mess ;)

Join Rach and I as we go down the craft beer rabbit hole


Kickstarter - Carolina Game Tables

I've seen many game tables come and go, but the Carolina Game Table is the first one that I could see myself actually owning. Why? Because it serves as both a game table and a dining room table and looks classy both ways.

It's not a cheap table at $1500, but quality dining room tables aren't cheap. I've already convinced Rachel that if my son moves out (like every 22 year old threatens to do) we are ordering this table. For now it is too big for the available space we have.

Did I mention Clint Black is behind this? Yep, the same man whose name you see attached to many Save Worlds projects. Apparently his family is in the furniture business.

From the page:
You might know us already—Clint and Jodi Black—from our work with Savage Worlds and Pinnacle Entertainment Group. Clint and his family have made furniture for three generations in Hickory, NC, furniture capital of the world. We think we're uniquely qualified to bring you a classic looking table suitable for everyday dining and Game Night. 
We've designed the Carolina Game Table for roleplaying games, board games, and puzzle enthusiasts.  
There is a wide edge for leaning on (or placing a character sheet, game tokens, or puzzle pieces) with most of the play area in easy reach. The 32" x 50" play area is 3 inches deep and covered in burgundy cloth. 
The overall table is 4 feet wide and 6 feet long, and designed to seat six people comfortably. 
The classically styled table looks and works like any dining room table. The table top fits securely over the play area, covering it and extending to the table's edge.  There are no gaps or spaces, so spills and crumbs don't end up in your play area.  
The finish is called "French Couture" and is a nice medium brown finish falling between light and dark wood stains to be complementary with both. The finish also has red undertones so it pairs well with cherry or mahogany hues as well. We want it to look good with your existing furniture, no matter what shade you have. 

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Free - Lesser Gnome's Creature Catalogue (new monsters for your game)


Looking to add some new monsters to your campaign? Have all the Lesser Gnome products and want all the new creatures in one place? Do you like professionally released OSR products that are offered for free?

+Zach Glazar has you covered with the Lesser Gnome's Creature Catalogue.

Here's the details of this FREE (as in air) product:

Free compendium of creature descriptions from products released through 2015. 

The majority have their own original illustrations by Lloyd Metcalf

Includes creature sections from- 

Whisper & Venom
Bird of a Feather
The First Sentinel
Includes bookmarks, layers and interactive navigation buttons.

All creatures are presented in Labyrinth Lord style stats and description.

Tenkar's Tavern is supported by various affiliate programs, including Amazon, RPGNow,
and Humble Bundle as well as Patreon. Your patronage is appreciated and helps keep the
lights on and the taps flowing. Your Humble Bartender, Tenkar

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