April Foes Day Sale
Frog God Games is offering both Fifth Edition Foes and Book of Lost Spells (Fifth Edition) at 50% off, exclusively to our social media followers, now through April Fool's Day!
Fifth Edition Foes features 260 pages of monstrous mayhem drawn from our classic Tome of Horror I - IV series, plus a plethora of perlious predators inspired by classic monsters harkening back to First Edition!
Fear not, brave and foolish players! You'll have the Book of Lost Spells to defend yourself! With over 137 pages of new spells for the discerning and desperate spellcaster, you're sure to survive the new and dangerous adversaries coming your way... hopefully.
Fifth Edition Foes for $9.99 (normally 19.99): https://www.rpgnow.com/browse.php?discount=97dc569007&affiliate_id=1446
Book of Lost Spells for $12.49 (normally 25.00): https://www.rpgnow.com/browse.php?discount=97df1aed1a&affiliate_id=1446Yeah, it says its for Frog God Games social media followers, but I'm their "Convention Coordinator" and you are following me, so the degrees of separation are small ;)
The City of Great Lunden is a city setting for use with old school roleplaying games. It is designed to be used alongside The Midderlands setting and hence is 'The Midderlands Compatible'. Game stats are presented for use with Swords & Wizardry Complete, which means they are easily adopted for old school games/retroclones. Much of the content is designed to be as system-neutral as possible, so feel free to use it with any fantasy game system you like.
This book DOES NOT require The Midderlands setting, but it is greatly enhanced with it. There might be references to things found in the other books.
The book itself will be 224 pages of great, city-based, game-juice, all in glorious, high specification, hardback and/or digital format. Here's how the current content is looking:
16 bucks for the PDFs of the following:
- Introduction - includes a short story focused on the pre-generated characters.
- The City of Great Lunden - A touch of history, details of the inner wards, outer wards, and beyond the outer wards.
- The streets, law and order, defences, waste, etc.
- 22 detailed structures comprising a full page elevation view art piece, a page of floorplans/maps, and a page of information about the structure.
- The Great Thameswater river
- Beneath the city (sewers)
- Above the streets (rooftops) - Includes rules for rooftop adventures
- Oddities - more magic items, spells, flora, and fauna.
- Bestiary
- Some factions, guilds and institutions and notable NPCs
- Adventure hooks and a short heist adventure
- Appendices
Throughout your project, you’ll be communicating with backers and keeping them informed of your progress. Project updates, your spotlight page, Kickstarter Live, and our messaging system will help you keep backers in the loop.Facebook is not the proper venue to post project updates at the exclusion of Kickstarter itself. Not all of your backers will be on Facebook and many of those that are will not know to look there. If I can point out one of the larger failures of this project, its lack of proper communication with backers, who on average, invested 100 bucks each to see this project come to life.
No Amount of Outside Energy Will Speed This Up
Posted by Ernest Gary Gygax Jr (Creator)
As of this time the whole project status is waiting for Benoist to complete the writing of the creations we generated together. Then he will pass them on to me and days later we will on video chat finish cleaning the material up. He has no desire to hear or see any comments on the KS page since it fires him up to defend the LATE status instead of working on it at all. He is a finicky artist and will not release parts of anything until it is completed.
He does not have access to the funds and they sit at about 78K now (lots of art and other original business expenses, as well as an expensive worthless accountant to start with). As soon as the project fulfills I will be closing down the LLC and Ben somehow wishes to keep a company somehow, I do not.
I playtested the Marmoreal Tomb on three of the four games I ran at Gary Con XI and I will be running some more games at NTRPG con in June. I don't have the finished level 2 or the level 3 Caves of Chaos although some of the monsters and ideas I generated for them are lots of fun and Mark Allen has a fantastic bit of art on my favorite creature of Chaos.
I don't respond to these statements for the same reason I don't get into blogs and all that. If you want to talk to me about something send me a facebook message: Ernest Gary Gygax JrIn summary - we won't communicate via Kickstarter because we don't like negative feedback on our lateness. On Facebook we can control negative feedback. Ben has to finish writing (and mapping) the ideas we brainstormed together. Levels 2 and 3 aren't complete yet.
The Secrets of the World Harvesters is a standalone, level 1 DCC-compatible adventure and setting guide that blends fantasy and science fiction as the players unravel the mysteries of their planet’s past.
We are ready for print. The writing, editing, layout, and art are all complete (except for the senior crewmembers page).
The adventure leads the players to an ancient ruin unearthed by receding glaciers as the planet thaws from a millennia-long ice age. Beneath the ruins, an even older piece to the puzzle of their forgotten past awaits discovery.
The adventure section details the history of the players’ homeworld, including regional, village, and dungeon maps, and hooks for further adventures, if desired.
The World Harvesters setting presents a storyline that, at the conclusion of the adventure, allows the Judge to seamlessly transition players to new worlds and genres. Create your own world, choose from the many beloved existing DCC settings, or watch for Purple Pirates Games’ next offering in the series.
Every page has a beautiful border, hand drawn by our professional artists. There are no "white spaces" in the book; original art fills those spaces thanks to the lead artist doing the layout. Part adventure, part campaign setting, part artist sketch book, I think you will love this book.
The book:
Wow. Ready to go to print BEFORE funding. When does that happen on Kickstarter? Not fucking often is the answer.
- 60 saddle-stitch pages on 8 ½ x 11 premium silk paper.
- Glossy coated color cover.
- 45 pieces of original art, including 6 full-page pieces plus numerous nearly-full page pieces, and 9 hand-drawn maps.
- A 10-page patron write up of Takisaka, the Mother of Serpents, by Daniel J. Bishop (prolific RPG author for DCC) including a full page illustration, 3 new spells, Invoke Patron table, Patron Taint table, and a Shedding Your Skin random table (a situation that happens to followers of the deity).
We have suffered an unfortunate and unexpected setback with the off-set print run. On March 20th, the Chinese government ordered the destruction of our books. Although the printer returned our deposit, we need to find another printer and this will result in a delay in fulfillment. We are committed to completing the print run and fulfillment.There is a Youtube video explaining more in depth below.
You play as legendary Wraith Recon teams, dedicated special forces trained and equipped to operate deep within hostile territory. Entrusted with the direst of missions, the Wraiths are capable of overcoming almost any obstacle. Armed with the latest in Dardarrick Magick, and kept informed by the mysterious SpellCom system, Wraith Recon units are tasked with assassinations, raids, reconnaissance, and hostage rescue missions, in the name of truth, liberty, and justice.
As a member of Wraith Recon Four - a team of special covert operatives in a world beset by magic, wars, and mystery - you will soon be called to serve king and country. You will be sent to the four corners of Nuera to make Dandarrick safe for its people; risking your life under a blanket of secrecy to keep a population free and blissful in a world that does its damnedest to rob them of it at every turn.Hmmm, seems like your party certainly has a reason to adventure, with set goals and such. Shouldn't be much trouble generating adventure seeds. Might even be a restraint on the usual "murder hoboing" ;)
It's a resource book full of cool stuff to add some Dungeon-Punk spice to your tabletop games. What kind of cool stuff? Glad you asked! We have a whole bunch of weird crap to add some grimy and gritty nonsense to your world.
NPC's for your players to interact with:
Plot Hooks to awaken your players' sense of adventure:
- A Hedge Witch with a "thing" for Lycanthropes
- The butcher's son who is... not a werewolf. Why? Who told you that, what do you know?!
- Hillbilly Hobgoblins who've been cooking up some Crystal Magic-amphetamine
- A one-eyed gnomish Alchemist who's been brewing potions in his bathtub
- A mysterious drifter who just rolled into town
Monsters & Mooks (complete with art & stat blocks)
- What happens when a rival gang tries to muscle in on the Hobgoblins and unseat them from their place as kingpins of the local Crystal Mage trade?
- Is the bartender at the local tavern undead or just suuuuper goth?
- They say the dreams of a Beholder can shape reality. What happens when a Beholder gets sick and starts having fever dreams? What if the Beholder starts to dissociate?!
- If you think the Hedge Witch and the butcher's son don't have something going on, you must be high on Crystal Mage
- Kinda burying the lede with this one, but a cult of evil necromancers have defiled a local temple (the titular Wizard Burial Ground) and your party needs to cleanse the place.
Maps (with at least one dank ass dungeon)
- Necromancers and Liches and Undead, oh my!
- Can you make a zombie out of a mechanical construct? Well when a mommy Necromancer and a daddy Artificer love each other very much...
- A swarm of giant vampire bats that also teleport.
- Inside-Out Kobolds. Oh no, why? Why are they like that?!
- Is that a Bearsharktopus? Are you kidding me?
- You know what a "rat king" is? Okay. So that, but made of Dire Rats. A Dire Rat King. Is that freaky enough for ya?
- Just wait til you meet the Rag and Bone Man.
How dank? I mean, it's subterranean. It's super dank.
Magic Items (all homebrew, probably weird) For example:
I'm in for 10 bucks - Print plus PDF (including shipping in the US)
- Hot Peppers of Fire Breathing
- Psychotropic Potions
- Magic Wand that is also a Spork
- Boom-sticks (it's probably what you think it is)
- Cursed Weapons. All the cursed weapons.
Draugr & Draculas is a one-off zine for old-stye/OSR roleplaying adventure games. Dr&Dr focuses on vampires, undead, and spooky horror magic for use in your own fantasy RPG campaigns. The zine will be entirely written and illustrated by me, Josh Burnett. In accordance with the Zine Quest guidelines, Draugr & Draculas will be a 5.5” x 8.5” zine, staple-bound and printed in black-and-white. I estimate it should clock in at around 24-32 pages.
What's in the zine?
5 bucks for the PDF, 10 bucks (plus a buck shipping in the US) for the print plus PDF. I'm in at 11 ;)
- Count Dracula himself, as well as his origins and current motivations
- Details on Dracula's lesser servants
- Dracula's deadly rival, Elizabeth Bathory
- Draugr—northern undead of varying degrees of power
- The Draugr class
- Rules for magic users striking a deal with the Devil
- New magical items of perilous power
- Pagan's Well, a small dungeon full of traps and treasure
- And whatever else I can fit in this thing.
A fantasy adventure for a more refined RPG gamer in both classic AD&D and 5th Edition D&D formats.The Folio: Black Label #1 is a digital-only release at 10 bucks, so let's get some details:
The Folio: Black Label is going to have a more adult edge than is found in the standard Folio, and yes, there might be some nudity, and maybe some horror, and maybe a twisted quality here or there, but at the base its really just about the unfettered fun of hacking and slashing your way through a pulp style adventure with blatant evil doers, magical treasures, and exposed flesh.
What does the adventure for The Sins of the Three Sisters revolve around? Well, this will be a standard swords & sorcery based adventure that is based around a corrupted swamp with three old temples that are plaguing the lands with undead, monsters, and dark magic. The initial adventure will include 1 temple for exploration, but additional stretch goals (which have been reached!) can also provide temple #2 and temple #3, thus make the 'three sisters'.
Follow my (Alyssa's) work and become part of the conversation and creation process. At this level you won't receive the final hires digital maps I create, but you will be part of their creation, get to see how I do it, and will have access to my hints, tips, and training guides.
- Access to the mapping discussions: see the drawing in progress, get hints and tips, and influence the design through Patreon-only discussion and polls!
- Access to the patreon-only video streams; watch me work, talk to me as I do it.At the highest support level, you even get commercial access to certain maps.
Issue #4: Time of Crisis!
Like any other multiversal hyper-megalopolis, Ur-Hadad is no stranger to calamity. In fact, crisis is one of the First City's defining features! This issue provides a whole slew of tools for Judges to use to spin up their campaigns from small adventures into city-wide, culture-shaking phenomena! Including profiles of Ur-Hadad's most notorious crises and their causes (along with special rules introduced by each) and a Crisis Generator, this issue is all about turning your game up to 11!
This issue is almost completely written and will be ready for art & layout soon.
Issue #5: Murder Gangs of Ur-Hadad
First, we gave you Street Kids of Ur-Hadad. Then we gave you The Heist! Metal Gods has always focused on urban adventures and now we're taking them one step beyond! In Murder Gangs of Ur-Hadad, we'll present a system for running a thieves guild, assassins coven, coterie of smugglers or however your criminal taste run. This unique system builds on some trends already out there in the greater DCC-o-sphere, bringing them together in a tight, cohesive package. You'll also get to know the seedy underbelly of the First City, including profiles on some of her most notorious gangs.
This issue is currently in playtesting and is expected to be finished by mid-Summer and Doug Kovacs has signed on to do the cover!
Issue #6: Mysterious Gods of Ur-HadadI think the sweet spot is 15 bucks - issues 4, 5 and 6 in print and all 6 issues in PDF.
From the Avenue of One Thousand Gods to the Gloaming Deeps beneath the city's docks, cults and mystery faiths permeate Hadadi society. In this issue, we'll explore some of the First City's stranger religions and sects, from the austere followers of the God of Blackened Skies to the debaucherous Last Adherents of the Sensate, we'll profile these bizarre faiths and how to use them in your game. We'll also include rules to integrate cults into your Murder Gangs of Ur-Hadad game, whether as foes or as your PCs' crew!
Lloyd Metcalf I think I did in saying that it was inspired by the "Your first adventure" in the video and ads. I also accidentally had the phrase Dungeons & Dragons in the text of one of my ads... or something. (how one does this "accidentally" is beyond plausibility)I was in a rush to pack for Gary Con and already tired at launch. lol.
Lloyd Metcalf To be fair - WOTC and TSR never released any product called "Ruins of Mistamere" - it was a paragraph title in the red box DMG titled - "Your First Group Adventure"
James Lowder This Kickstarter is very clearly using that as the springboard. It's not the rules that got you in trouble, but using their copyrighted content--characters, plot, etc. "This adventure is inspired by, and is a revisit of, the first 'Group Adventure' in a certain Red Box set of the world’s favorite basic roleplaying game." and "Borgle is well known in many original adventures and legends; many report that his name was spelled with an “a” in place of the “o”." The last is screaming "we just changed an A to an O but it is the copyrighted content."
Lloyd Metcalf Yeah - i know.... Again, I knew I was stepping up to the line in trying to bring the flavor of this adventure to 5E. I COMPLETELY knew I was rolling some dice on the idea.
James Lowder ... the mention of D&D probably got the project onto an automatic notification list. "Other people got away with similar" as a defense will just mean WotC (rightly) expands its notifications list, so that, say, RPG + "red box" are alerts. This project is clearly intended as a copyright violation. It announces itself as such. It is not a shock it got stopped. That's a much bigger issue than mentioning D&D.James Lowder voices my fear. Now that the bear has been awakened, it may decide to defend its territory. WotC has mostly played nice with the OSR and publishers of material for the current edition of D&D, even those projects and publications that may have entered and perhaps gone beyond any kind of grey area in the use of WotC IP and trademarks. This may have more of a longterm effect than Lloyd or anyone else may have initially expected.
Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes RPG was first published in 1983 by Flying Buffalo Inc. MSPE (as it came to be known) allowed players to run rpg adventures from the 1800's all the way to the modern era, ranging from Victorian steampunk, and crime noir, to super spy thrilllers in the cold war. Michael Stackpole wrote the MSPE role playing game, using the Tunnels & Trolls framework as a jumping off point.
In 1986, Flying Buffalo took a hit from an unrelated disaster, and sold the rights of MSPE to Sleuth Publications. They came out with an edition that had a black & white cover, and they left out a few things that Buffalo had included, and inserted a few new things that weren't in the Buffalo edition. The last existing copies of the Sleuth edition have sold out, so now Flying Buffalo is printing a third (Combined Edition of MSPE) which includes all the material that was in both editions!
The Combined Edition: What's in it? The new edition will contain all the original text and art from the Flying Buffalo and Sleuth editions. From the Buffalo edition, we will use the amazing painted cover and will include the Tunnels & Thompsons section (which was not in the Sleuth edition) along with some missing art. We have also made various corrections to the rules text that have been found by players and fans over the years.Shit, looks like even I need the new edition.
This is a true FanZine, with most of the material produced by Fans who are participating in the Traveller5 initiative. It's about discussion, example, and bold ideas rather than finished product. So, these issues are "non-canon", although content *could* be re-used in later publications.
Each issue is at least 16 printed half-pages (5.5 x 8.5) in a saddle-stitched booklet format. I'll mail the issues out in flat envelopes.
While the Fifth Edition is directly supported, these resources typically work with any version of Traveller, or science fiction role-playing games in general.Neither The Tavern nor myself receive compensation for Kickstarter coverage or Kickstarter posts. Some Kickstarters are brought to the attention of The Tavern by their creators. Such communication does not guarantee coverage here at The Tavern. I do not back every Kickstarter I highlight as my wallet's contents are not limitless but I do find all highlighted Kickstarters interesting for one or more reasons - Erik Tenkar
(It's a) 2 issue Setting for Untold Adventure and other White Box based OSR RPGs.Ok. Let's dig a bit deeper.
The Isle of The Amazons (TIOTA) is an optional setting designed specifically for Untold Adventures by Ennie Award winning author and designer, James M. Spahn. However, as such TIOTA, is compatible with Swords & Wizardry and really any White Box based game as well as easily convertible to be used with all OSR RPG games.
TIOTA showcases the island paradise of Elencia, the home of the Amazons. It also features Amazon City, the Amazons ways, their history, other inhabitants of Elencia, dangerous locations and monsters and much more.
TIOTA details the 7 new playable classes: The Aristocrat, Disciple of the High Priestess, Guard, Muse, Psion, Sorceress & Sungia.Not a secret but it needs to be mentioned. James is a good friend of mine. Almost like a brother but without the family baggage ;) That being said, he does amazing work and I'm backing this in a heartbeat!
With your support, we're going to bring back the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game with a second printing and, more importantly, expand the line with a new book: Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 2! This companion to Dungeon Fantasy Monsters introduces even more foes to the dungeon, giving the GM new tools to use when designing adventures and the players more beasties to slay and loot.If you already have the Dungeon Fantasy boxed set, the Monsters 2 book is 20 bucks in print plus PDF.
An RPG and OSR setting zine for adventuring in a strange fantasy version of colonial America. Fearsome creatures, witchcraft and weird.The above is the elevator pitch and it calls to me. I'm sorry, but I was a history major, and American history, up to the Civil War, is one of the areas I concentrated in. Of course, that was 30 years ago, so don't expect much fact checking from me ;)
Strange New World is an OSR-compatible campaign setting set during the colonization era of North America (1600/1700's era) but set in a world where magic, monsters and, more importantly, strangeness have returned to the new world. Soldiers and monster hunters fight side by side trailblazers and mountaineers. Witches weave terrible magics while preachers vanquish chaos and shepherd the people.
(Strange New World content is compatible with any WhiteBox / B/X / BECMI or AD&D system, we use a hacked version of Lamentations of the Flame Princess as our OSR base. SNW content could even be used with OSR-adjacent games such as Dungeon World.)
Compared to a traditional fantasy world, the Strange New World is a points-of-light setting. Colonization of the new world has slowed and exploration in many regions has ceased after proving too risky. There are fewer settlements than there were in actual history and they are spread very thinly through the perilous frontier. The land rages against colonization, it cracks and leaks hellfire pockets of poison gas, it births powerful megafauna guardians, and summons woeful bogeys from the fey realms in efforts to protect itself. Society has instead packed itself into well-protected cities, increasing urban population above historical levels, while spending more resources on military outposts and organizations opposed to the chaos of the new world.
This is also a world where gonzo weirdness has found a home in history. Ancient alien visitation shaped the beliefs of the native people, once-mighty and now-lost civilizations that existed thousands of years ago in the new world are there to be discovered or pillaged. This is a world where fables and folk lore are not merely cautionary tales but historical accounts. A world where the mythical Underworld is a real land of the dead that can be visited. Strange New World also exists in the meta-setting of 400 Billion Suns, where "billions and billions" of possible worlds could have interacted with each other through the magical eons.
Monsters, magic and bedlam must be dealt with before man may progress in this Strange New World.Even if I never use the setting, I'm going to enjoy the hell out of it :)
The Strange New World setting will be supported through a dedicated website that will function as an information hub and lore encyclopedia.
A living, updating, OSR compatible setting guidebook will be offered online, containing core setting information and rules hacks. Each Gazetteer volume will be available in print and feature expanded setting information, lore and rules (all OSR compatible!) such as classes, magic, monsters and adventure hex-ploration sites.
The Gazetteer will be presented as an in-universe gazette written and presented by characters from within the Strange New World itself. Such characters include Willam van Dook, renowned world explorer; Jeremiah Shagbark, famous bogey hunter with the Fang and Fur Company; Wolf-that-Sings, a Hopi warden with ties to the western world; and more!I'm in for the signed, alternated cover plus PDF for 12 bucks shipped within the US. Huzzah!
