So, I just got the following as a comment on this morning's post just a few minutes ago:
Of course, the profile is blocked, so he or she was kind enough to cast shade without actually standing behind their words. I didn't have to approve the comment, but if I didn't I'm sure the individual in question would have used that to convince themselves and others that I was taking money to make posts for advertisers. Because you know how such shit spreads.
Just to be clear - I've never taken money to post about a product, Kickstarter or ANYTHING on the blog. When I've been provided with free product (commonly for review purpose) I've indicated such in the posts in question. When I have a personal relationship with a publisher or creator, I indicate it in the post. If there are affiliate links in a post I state so - explicitly.
Do folks bring their Kickstarters or new releases to my attention? Sure as shit they do. Do I share them all? No. Do I personally back all the Kickstarters I share? If I had limitless funds, I would, but I don't so I can't. Doesn't mean others shouldn't get a chance to make that decision for themselves.
Am I considering paid sponsorship from the community for the Tavern Chat podcast? Yes, but if I were to do so it would not be allowed to impact the content of the podcast itself - just a 15-second sponsorship spiel. And I still haven't decided if I'm going to follow that idea to implementation. And no, I haven't taken money to talk about someone product (there were sponsorships going via Anchor for Flipboard and that was effectively a commercial)
FYI - I've been blogging at The Tavern since May 31st, 2009. This year will make 10 years. Like The Tavern or hate it, I'm not going to sully its reputation by taking money for posts now, after nearly 10 years of honest posting.
Of course, the response I initially wanted to make was not so polite ;)
Sunday, March 3, 2019
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
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
Blogs of Inspiration & Erudition
-
-
ShadowDark Goes Nuclear - *Atomic Shadows: Post-Apocalyptic Role Playing Game* is Gamma World updated for use with ShadowDark, the retroclone inspired by both the Old School Renais...9 hours ago
-
October Horror Movie Challenge - Helloween (2025) - SynopsisDuring Halloween 1997 young Carl Cane commits several grisly murders. He is locked in a maximum psychiatrics institute. Jump forward to the pre...10 hours ago
-
Stygina: The Land of Ice and Plunder - By Christopher WilsonSelf PublishedOSELevels 9-12 During the War of the Heavens, it is said that an acrchangel of Janu deseneded from the skies like a grea...15 hours ago
-
Manifestation of the Yellow Stone Horror - A Mini Campaign Idea Using The Victorious Rpg & Wreched Eqoque Session Seven - Deep In The Red Zone - We pick right up from last session and find ourselves deep on the road to London but a quite alien one! London has been choked out by the Red Weed of HG W...20 hours ago
-
88s In The Offing - This is a Flak 36-38 88mm in 15mm scale (1:100) that I FDM printed a few years ago. Dragged it out of the junk pile, since I want a couple of 88s for ...1 day ago
-
October Horror Movie Challenge: Death of a Unicorn (2025) - [image: Death of a Unicorn (2025)] Time for a change of pace. *Death of a Unicorn (2025)* There are movies that wear their absurdity on their sleeve, an...1 day ago
-
At the Earth's Core and Pellucidar - *It was a huge tiger—such as hunted the great Bos through the jungles primeval when the world was young. In contour and markings it was not unlike the nobl...1 day ago
-
Dungeons & Dragons White Box 05 - *Clerics: Clerics gain some of the advantages from both of the other two classes (Fighting-Men and Magic-Users] in that they have the use of magic armor ...1 day ago
-
The Last Temptation of the DM: Why a Living Breathing World Needs Systematising - Is it possible to create a sandbox that is a 'living, breathing world'? No. It is possible to create one that to all intents and purposes *resembles* suc...2 days ago
-
Some detail on local Islands around Ethyria - *Players started asking questions....Triton Island*Where fishermen of the Village Psaras who trade with Tritons say this barley exposed rocky reef of ...2 days ago
-
On Bounty, Questions worth asking. - Well? Will we? Available Now! https://sinlessrpg.com ------------------------------ *Hack & Slash* Follow, Twitch, Support, Donate to end Cancer (5 ...3 days ago
-
Strange Knights - You’ve probably met knights from other realms, but these are different. While they resemble familiar knights in many ways, they have a different oath and...3 days ago
-
Rob Kuntz at Lucca Comics & Games 2025 - If you are planning a trip to Europe (like right now) and wish to catch up with me in person, make sure to book a detour via *Lucca Comics & Games*, ...4 days ago
-
Community Greyhawk – The Song of Iara - Today’s community Greyhawk takes us to The Song of Iara, a sequel/expansion of 2019’s Ghosts of Saltmarsh. It’s a 117 page pdf, with a standard 5E interior...5 days ago
-
ChatGPT seems to have opinions about the sort of games I want to play - I've been continuing my experimentation in using AI to code games/game aids by playing around with a character generator for the various threads of gamin...6 days ago
-
The Follow Me, And Die! Kickstarter Is Now Live! - Follow Me, And Die! The Card Game is now Live on Kickstarter! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1587147156/follow-me-and-die-the-card-game1 week ago
-
Random Links for 10/10/2025 - - AD&D Asassination. Seems straightforward in the PHB, and then the DMG comes and takes it away. Thanks, Gary. - Next game is in 3 weeks.1 week ago
-
Stonehell: B-Team Meets the Chosen of Zunbar & Rocky - Session 290 was played on 7/27/25 Sonara, Wizard 3 (Rob) Adorellen, Elf 2 (Me) Glimmer, Kobold 3 (Lanse) Kessaren, Cleric 3 (Cindy) Loahn, Halfling 3 (Josh)...1 week ago
-
What is the point of the OSR? - Over on Reddit, Kaliburnus asks What the point of the OSR is? He concludes his post with some questions. So, honest question, what is the point of OSR?...1 week ago
-
Ten Marlinko Townies To Annoy Your Party With - # Name Description 1 Mother Feketa Mummified, animate matriarch who rules her tenement block from a tub of heated mud. Gives quests in exchange for...1 week ago
-
Tombs: Fantasy Made Mortal... - So Gregorius 21778 has released *The Tomb of Ferkhat the Dreaded* for Blood of Pangea, complete with an excursion into an Egyptian-inspired burial. We lo...1 week ago
-
A review of The Golden Peaches of Samarkand - by Edward H. Schafer tldr; this book has a whole sub-section on Dwarfs Its 1962 and Edward H Schafer delves into ream upon uncounted ream of scholarship ...1 week ago
-
Unboxing the 2025 D&D Starter Set - I grabbed the 2025 Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set at Barnes & Nobles on Friday. An 'undented' copy. Because it is a Starter Set and meant to assist he...2 weeks ago
-
Musings on the OSR Blogosphere and Forums - Link to discussion There are some posts on the historical OSR blog scene that I’ve read recently from the Grumpy … Continue reading →3 weeks ago
-
How do you do piracy… in SPACE!? - Interstellar space travel in Iridium Moons was always going to be a form of hyperspace jump like in Star Wars or Traveller. Simply because it’s the one for...4 weeks ago
-
Free GM Resource: Freep!k Icon Generator - [image: Free GM Resource: Freep!k Icon Generator] Last week I mentioned a *secret project* and while I'm not going to divulge the project yet, I am bringi...4 weeks ago
-
The line has been crossed - I hope all you fuckers enjoyed your Blue Sky. It is coming. You reap what you sow.The right to free speech is a hill I will die upon.Slight update: Anyone...5 weeks ago
-
Zock Bock Radio return engagement - German AD&D superfan and podcast host Settembrini (who already had me on his show a couple-three years back) recently completed a two-year-long run thro...1 month ago
-
Greyhawk News You Can Use - Harvester 2025 Edition - I’m well-overdue for another Greyhawk news roundup, and a recent post by /u/talktoh in /r/Greyhawk prompted me to complete catchup on Greyhawk news for the...1 month ago
-
Against the Starmaster: Playtest materials available - I thought that I would mention that there is a space opera version of *Against the Darkmaster* coming out. It’s called (somewhat unsurprisingly) *Against ...1 month ago
-
Tomb of the Blind and Deaf Dead - So the cat is out of the bag thanks to Tobias Schulte-Krumpen, who posted the above image to the Lamentations of the Flame Princess facebook group. I ...1 month ago
-
Eyes of Idola, Part 2 - This is Part 2. Here is Part 1. *Concept 1: Entering the Dungeon* Descending the stairs into B1, the party reach rooms that are dark, crowded, flooded, a...1 month ago
-
[BLOG] News on the March! Episode X. - This post continues the series of brief play reports I have been posting on Discord. This does not cover every single session (sometimes, recon and setup...2 months ago
-
The First Dungeon Crawl in History - Mapping a Lost Session Report, Part II - Today detailed reports from game sessions are common. Until recently, some of the oldest I knew of were to be found in Alarums & Excursions, but only ra...2 months ago
-
A long overdue hobby update! - Welcome back to the Vault everyone! 2025 is going by in a blur; I last posted in February, almost started a post in March and now it's the end of May. W...4 months ago
-
Pulp: Adventure Location: Trindade & Martim Vaz - History is fractally interesting. Start examine any event, or following any citation, and interesting facts emerge. But some places, for whatever reason,...5 months ago
-
All Work and No D&D Makes Homer Something Something - I have a problem. I haven't played an RPG in about a year. Circumstances in my life are such that I have precious little free time. Now that I've written...5 months ago
-
Playing at the World 2E V2 Arrives - With the release of its second volume, the second edition of *Playing at the World *is finally complete. The two books combined total well over 1,000 ...5 months ago
-
Blogs on Tape season 6 has begun! - Hi everybody! Its been a minute. How are you? Everything is awful all the time? Horrors never cease? You’re being driven mad by the weight of the unfathoma...5 months ago
-
Lexicon of Klarkash-Ton, Hierophant of Atlantis: Lupanar - This time, we follow the good High Priest to the far future, to the final continent of Earth, Zothique, for a a tale of ennui and love: Morthylla. Witho...7 months ago
-
Articulations - Creating house rules, custom rules specific to a local group or campaign, has been common throughout the history of D&D. What makes an effective house rule...9 months ago
-
Writing playlists for all occasions - Hello again! Going off the idea of inspiration elaborated on by the prior post, I also have music playing while I write my various games and fiction pieces...9 months ago
-
The Tarot of Pips - Somewhere in your dice collection is a die like this one, the humblest of dice. Although you don't know it, this small white die carries with it a secr...10 months ago
-
Pirates and Necromancers, a Play Report - Over the Thanksgiving weekend we did a lot of gaming ranging from “off-table” domain level stuff to some solo adventures to spell and magic item rese...10 months ago
-
It's been a bit - Hey everyone, I hope you are doing well! I've had a lot going on and haven't had much time to blog lately. Heres a recap of gaming events and other st...1 year ago
-
*'s in SpaaaaaAaaaace - A lot of SF (including a certain 2D6 RPG grandaddy) deal with ancient aliens taking humans from Earth and dropping them, fleas and all, on one or more w...1 year ago
-
Last move - to self-hosting! - As my vote regarding Substack in the “marketplace of ideas”, I’m moving to self-hosting. I’m now at (and hopefully staying for a long time at) Blog: ht...1 year ago
-
Osamu Tezuka (1928 - 1989) - [image: Osamu Tezuka - Shonen Magazine Cover, 1970]Shonen Magazine Cover, 1970 [image: Osamu Tezuka - Shonen Magazine Cover Illustration 1970]Shonen Maga...3 years ago
-
Clean Your Room - Looking back at my little blog here. That last post… wow, I was having fun playing WOW Classic! That was August of 1999 and I was having a blast… it was ...3 years ago
-
-
Steve Jackson Interview - James Maliszewski recently did an interview with Steve Jackson over on his Grognardia blog. Steve chats about the beginnings of The Fantasy Trip and upcomi...5 years ago
-
The Hero’s Journey 2nd Edition, Campbellian roleplaying at its best! - (this review done using the reviewers own purchased copy) I have been a James Michael Spahn fan since he wrote his Swords & Wizardry Companion. His writing...5 years ago
-
ToAD Monster of the Week: Crocoman - Now that I'm back doing the blog thing I thought I would use Tome of Adventure Design to create monsters for The Black Hack. Using the monster tables in th...5 years ago
-
More Arden Vul Art - Another great piece from Del, this one's the Forum of Set: a place that the PCs may spend quite a bit of time within.5 years ago
-
OCHRE SAND - Init +0 Ranged Atk • fire burst +3 (1d14+1, 20') AC 17 HD 3d6 MV 60 Act 1d24 SP 'breath' weapon, sideslip, perfect silence, morphing Fort +5 Ref +8 Will...5 years ago
-
Strange, Dangerous, and Inhuman: The Fey and Fairie - When I was a boy I loved fairy tales. Jack and the Beanstalk, Puss in Boots, Rumpelstiltskin - I devoured all of it. My fascination that there was a strang...5 years ago
-
The Faithful - An Optional Archetype for Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells Revised Edition - Work on the revised edition of Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells is moving along. This will be a hefty tome, with a LOT of tools and new options to customiz...5 years ago
-
Dungeons & Dragonmead Fall Schedule - *As you know, I run public classic Dungeons & Dragons games at **The Loaded Die**/Metro Detroit Game Night's Board Game Nigh at **Dragonmead**, in Warren...6 years ago
-
Fiction in Airhde - On a whim this weekend, I picked up some fiction off the TLG store. *A Houseless God & Other Tales* and *The Mirrored Soul & Other Tales*, both by the T...6 years ago
-
-
Ravensburg Reboot: Streamlined City Map - I mentioned in my last post how I was tweaking and reworking parts of my Ravensburg setting. Today I streamlined the city map. The old map had lots of redu...6 years ago
-
The Withered Crag available now - I just enabled the sale of the PDF version of The Withered Crag at DriveThruRPG a few minutes ago, and the custom print version will be available startin...6 years ago
-
Annihilation Rising Goes live - The latest in Fail Squad Games’ Quick Kick projects has gone live and needs your support!! This project is only running 11 days and ends on 5/28/2019! ...6 years ago
-
James's Celebration of Life - We could not have asked for a prettier day for James's service. It was a bit chilly and windy but gorgeous. A heartfelt thank you to all that joined us tod...6 years ago
-
Trap Tuesday: A step back - I will get back to Tomb of Horrors soon. I found a topic that was interesting enough to take a break. While interacting in a 5E group on Facebook I talked ...6 years ago
-
Let's Talk About Pacing! - The idea, I think, is that the RPG is ultimately about the long game. Even rolling back to the early days of Basic & Expert, the goal of the player was...6 years ago
-
Profane and Profound Prep Part 2 - This is part 2 of my work to edit my magic items for a DMsGuild release, along with adding cursed items along the way. Here is part 1. Bone of a Saint 8000...6 years ago
-
MIDDLE DUNGEONS LEVEL FIVE 158 STAIRS. - 158 STAIRS. These stairs descend thirty feet to Area 79 on Level 6.6 years ago
-
Please, I don't do paid advertisements - don't ask. - A little note since people have asked me about this. My video channel's *not* an advertising platform, so I'm not available for hire if you want to promote...6 years ago
-
New website! - Slowly but surely, all the content here will make its way — in updated form! — to my new website: timbannock.com. For fairly obvious reasons, that site wil...6 years ago
-
Please Update Your Link! - If you're seeing this, it means your link to the Greyhawk Grognard blog is out of date. Please update your link to www.greyhawkgrognard.com (RSS feed is h...6 years ago
-
Total Sales for WB:FMAG - Hi Folks, It's been a long time since I provided an update for the sales of White Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game. *LULU* Print: 396 PDF: 433 *OBS*...7 years ago
-
How can We Destroy this Campaign World? - d12 1. You must trick a bard into strumming the *Chords of Fate* on the *Lute of Annihilation* 2. Legends tell of thermonuclear weapons beneath megadunge...7 years ago
-
Mord Mar - Session 5 - We had another successful delve into the dungeon yesterday. The delvers: Moira, the Magic-User Radovan - Human Cleric (of Odin?) Khazgar Stonehand - Dwarf ...7 years ago
-
Yodeling For Yokels or The Further Misa(d&)dventures - This is the one of those posts that points out the lack of current posts. Over the last week or three, there has been postponed Labyrinth Lord (twice, one...7 years ago
-
Bundle of Fantasy Age - Bundle of Holding: Dragon Age/Fantasy Age: Available until March 12. PA Presents: Fantasy AGE Freeport live play Green Ronin in 2018 The Fantasy Age RPG ma...7 years ago
-
New Free PDF Module: The Hyqueous Vaults - A new dungeon module—written in celebration of OSRIC's 10th Birthday—by Rebecca Dettmann, Allan T. Grohe, Jr., Jimm Johnson, Matthew Riedel, Alex Zisch, a...7 years ago
-
Session XCIII: One Pissed Off Dragon! - Our ongoing Swords and Wizardry sandbox campaign... *Current Player Characters:* *Thenus* (Ranger) *Wang Du* (Monk) *Wolfheir* (Viking) *Arg* (Half-orc) ...8 years ago
-
Swords & Wizardry Light: Session # 6 - Two months after our last session (thanks to things like 8th grade finals, a 4 year-old's birthday and party, Father's Day, etc.), we finally had our next ...8 years ago
I am sorry that my question caused you to respond in this manner. I did not submit my question as being blocked. In the form where I submitted it, it states "comments as: " and then my email address.
ReplyDeleteI asked the question simply because the post was very oddly done. It wasn't a recommendation per se. It wasn't exactly informative other than basically saying, "here is a thing, and a link to said thing." It was unlike most other posts I've read here which are generally much more informative and/or have a touch of personal touch to them. In short, it read like it might be a paid post and I wondered if in fact whether it was.
Not sure why you initially wanted to make a post that was less polite than the one you gave. I was satisfied with that post. I didn't think a simple question by one of your followers would cause that type of reaction.
The one currency bloggers and podcasters have is reputation. We don’t do any of this for the money. Insinuating that the Tavern takes money for posting about a KS is about as insulting as it gets.
DeleteAgain, I was asking a question. There was no insinuation about it.
DeletePerhaps you could tell me how I should have asked that question. What would have been the correct way to phrase it?
The problem is in written communication inflection and tone and body language is absent.
DeleteErik read it with an inflection you didn't intend. So is the internet.
My two cents? A question like that in an open forum seems slightly confrontational. You're literally questioning the author's motives for posting. I think without any kind of context or previous relationship with the poster, something like that can very easily be misconstrued.
Delete/Perhaps you could tell me how I should have asked that question. What would have been the correct way to phrase it?/
I very well may be speaking out of turn here, and I don't mean to answer for Eric, but I don't think it was the phrasing so much as the forum. Had you asked the same question in a PM, I think it would have been clearly answered and been a non-issue.
It was the question coupled with the anonymous / unknown / private profile that sparked the reaction in me. The Tavern has been trolled in recent months - thus the moderation of every comment (not because I like it like that but because it needs to be like that at this moment in time) and 90% of the troll have private / blocked profiles that come up as "Unknown" - It was, for lack of a better term, a Perfect Storm
DeleteErik is the most unbiased commentator in the game community, which is why I read him. He works hard to elicit the facts and separate them from gossip and rumor.
ReplyDeleteErik has unimpeachable integrity as far as blogging goes. I don't know him personally so I can't say anything else about him, but he has my respect.
ReplyDelete