RPGNow

Saturday, October 31, 2020

RPGNow Deal of the Day - Warlock! (Old School British RPG)


Today's Deal of the Day at DTRPG is Warlock!

If you are like me, you might react WTF is Warlock!? Well, it appears to have its roots in the Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, which I always thought of as solo adventures (and greatly enjoyed) but apparently make a decent tabletop RPG too. The system is light, which I like, and revolves around D6s, which always aids in bringing in new players. I'm looking forward to digging through my copy and using the rules with my 10-year-old niece :)

Normally selling for 6.99 in PDF, until tomorrow morning Warlock! is on sale for 3.49. Hell, it's practically worth it for the cover art alone :)

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Friday, October 30, 2020

Tenkar's Tavern Community Newsletter - Mail Call for News!


The second issue of the Tenkar's Tavern Newsletter is coming in two days. If you have gaming news to add to it, email me at tenkarsDOTtavern at that Gmail thing. It aims to be your one-stop shopping for weekly OSR news and beyond, but it needs YOUR help to achieve such.

Not subscribed yet? Why not? It's free! 

https://tenkarstavern.m-pages.com/F12oyy/signup-form

We currently have 73 subscribers. When we hit 100 subscribers, one random subscriber will receive a $10 DTRPG Gift Certificate. Woot!

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPGAmazon, and Humble Bundle are the affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  

You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on AnchorYouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection.

Thursday, October 29, 2020

Open Call for Topics for Bad Mike & Tenkar to Talk Crit about

Mike & I are digging in and getting ready to do our Talking Crit Live on Wednesday Nights @ 8 PM Eastern, afterwards the audio will get uploaded to the Tavern Chat Podcast.

Our usual "go-to", WotC doing something stupid, was fine when we were doing Talking Crit once or twice a month, but we can't rely on WotC fucking up often enough for us to Talk Crit on a weekly basis - so we are putting our crit talking into your hands.

While we plan on doing an episode on some of the bigger Funded & Failed Kickstarter Creators (a list that is sadly, far too long) we need more and varied topics, and that where you come in.

What do you want us to talk about? Some sample ideas are:

  • The best, and worst, of each of the D&D / AD&D editions
  • The best, and worst, of the early RPGs (pre-1980)
  • The Gygax Memorial Fund - an overview
Comment below, because we want to hear from you!

You can watch Talking Crit live via Facebook or YouTube each Wednesday Night @ 8PM Eastern, but if you want to comment during the podcast and be sure we get a chance to read it, we recommend you watch via YouTube, as the Facebook commenting is iffy.

The link to The Tavern's YouTube Channel is YouTube.com/ErikTenkar

You can watch the last two episodes of Talking Crit at the above link.





Wednesday, October 28, 2020

OSR Christmas 2020 - Time to Start Making the Lists (Blog, Mailing, Podcast & YouTube)

It's that time of year again. Days are getting shorter. Leaves are falling along with the temperatures. OSR Christmas is in the air :)

This year, we are going to do things a bit differently. As always, we are looking for publishers to offer gifts, both in print and PDF (electronic). Those gifts will be gifted through this website, TenkarTavern.com unless you ask otherwise.

 If you can donate gifts this year, please email me at tenkarsDOTtavern at that Gmail thing with "OSR Christmas" in the subject line. and let me know what you plan to gift, how many copies, physical and/or PDF, and if physical, where it does, and does not ship to.

In addition to the gifts you all know and love that are gifted via The Tavern Website, I will be gifting AT LEAST $500 worth of DTRPG Gift Certificates, but it WON'T be via the blog. Instead, it will be gifted to readers of The Tavern's Mailing List, callers to the Tavern Chat Podcast, and subscribers and commenters of The Tavern's Youtube Channel. Yes, we have a presence in more media than just the website and all members of The Tavern Community should have the opportunity to be gifted.

Subscribe to The Tavern's Mailing List and to our YouTube Channel, and listen to the Tavern Chat Podcast starting in late November to increase your opportunities to be gifted. I will remind folks when the season officially kicks off ;)

Note: Bad Mike and & are recording an episode of Talking Crit live tonight at 8 PM Eastern @ YouTube.com/ErikTenkar

Another note: I've been told for some The Tavern's Newsletter is landing in your Spam Folder. It was emailed on Sunday. If it hasn't shown up in you IN Box, check your Spam Folder - Tenkar


Tuesday, October 27, 2020

Deal of the Day - Trilemma Adventures Compendium Volume I (System Neutral)

If you are looking for "oomph" for your gaming buck, look o further than today's DTRPG Deal of the Day - Trilemma Adventures Compendium Volume I. It's a system-neutral compendium of 55 adventure sites, regions, and settlements. Literally a campaign or more of material for your gaming sandbox laid out for perfect use on your computer screen or tablet - with hyperlinks. Trilemma Adventures Compendium Volume I was worth some of my admittedly limited gaming dollars and should be in every DM's toolbox for inspiration.

Note, there is a systemless bestiary PDF included. The bestiary is also available in B/X and 5e flavors at additional cost.

(For more "oomph" for your gaming buck, see last night's DCC RPG Humble Bundle post - less than a buck an adventure)

Each location is written to be usable separately, perfect for one-shot sessions, side quests, or to help populate your home grown campaign setting.

All have been lavishly illustrated and laid out to make them easy to run, straight from the book.

This book is packed with caverns, castles, underworld cities, labyrinths, mansions, flying tombs, hidden temples, and fallen shrines.

Also inside is more than 60 pages of new material:

an illustrated bestiary

an appendix of magical items

ten solid pages of hooks, rumors and secret lore

six regional gazetteers tying the adventure locations into a ready-to-use campaign setting

a full-color regional map, in GM and player versions

a complete index

a bonus location, set in the aftermath of the Kickstarter invasion scenario

This compendium is an essential part of your GM kit!

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPGAmazon, and Humble Bundle are the affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  

You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on AnchorYouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection.

Monday, October 26, 2020

Humble Bundle - Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC) RPG (Goodman Games)

Certainly NOT expected but very exciting to see, the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG Humble Bundle is live! Holy shit, I'm about to have a crapton of DCC adventures to read and inspire me.

I LOVE DCC RPG adventures. They ooze with style and are perfect for one-shots and episodic play. A few years ago, I ran a bunch of DCC RPG adventures using the Swords & Wizardry rules, converting on the fly. We had a blast. 

Although I have more than a few in this collection, it's still an unbelievable bargain to get the DCC Rules, 21 adventures, the GM screen, and tokens for as little as 8 bucks. 17 more adventures for a total of 15 bucks. Plus 2 annuals.

God damn!

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPGAmazon, and Humble Bundle are the affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  

You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on AnchorYouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection.


Gareth Sharka tells Dying Man that Far West is Expected to Deliver by the End of This Year

 


I have no idea how I missed this back in September. 

Oh wait, that's right. All Far West updates are via a forum for which new sign-ups are broken and Gareth never posts on.

Until now.

Here's the direct link to the thread in the Far West Forums

Darq has been asking about progress on Far West since 2014. I hope and pray Darq doesn't truly have a terminal illness, but if he does and Gareth has made yet another promise he can't keep it will be a new low, even for him.

I'm at a loss for words.


Sunday, October 25, 2020

Deal of the Day - Mythic World of Oldskull - Oldskull Warriors (OSR)

I've enjoyed the various Oldskull releases I've snagged over the years. High quality and useful in your old school gaming, the prices aren't those that will break the bank. At a buck, Mythic World of Oldskull - Oldskull Warriors is less than a cup of coffee at the corner bodega. That's my kind of pricing. Note, you have until 11 AM Eastern, October 26th, 2020 to grab this special pricing.

This detailed volume features the fully refined and corrected classes of the warrior archetype: the doughty Fighter (with clarified rules for weapon specialization), the revised Oldskull Barbarian, the intrepid Hunter, and the deadly Ranger of Queen’s Cambria. All classes have been fully integrated with world mythology, folklore, weird fiction, and detailed campaign notes from the author’s campaign that will bring your warrior characters alive in the World of Oldskull. All of the classes and rules have been reimagined and updated throughout with extensive sagely advice along with out-of-print magazine and newszine errata, supplemented by notes and musings derived from E. Gary Gygax in accordance with his vision for his never-attained Advanced Second Edition.

Twenty of the new elements and systems you will find herein include: extensive themes and evocative level titles for all classes, social standing guidelines by level, freehold guidelines for fighter lords, fighter command ranks, fighter morale and loyalty effects on soldiers, corrected and more intuitive weapon specialization, jumping rules, non-thief climbing rules, rebalanced barbarian role-playing guidelines, 11 iconic Oldskull barbarian tribes (the Amazons, Cimmerians, Stygians, etc.), full barbarian skills based on Gygax’s hunter notes, snare setting rules, wound binding rules, full hunter skills, beast mastery rules, spirit hounds for high-level hunters, free-from-problematic-IP background lore for the ranger class, fully corrected and justified ranger spell casting rules for druidic and magical powers, corrected tracking rules (following from the Unearthed paradigm), and rebalanced and fairer thematic disadvantages for the ranger class.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPGAmazon, and Humble Bundle are the affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  

You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on AnchorYouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection.

A Little Bit of Impromptu Show & Tell

 

A Little Bit of Impromptu Show & Tell
I'm going to start this week's Not Erik post (I don't know why I find the Not Erik tag funny, but I do.....) with a bit of a confession: I'm something like 1/2 a hoarder, but please be nice and refer to my problem with the adjective "collector".

I collect things. I cannot help it, it is in my blood. My father's a collector, I moved around a lot as a kid and the only two constants for me were my brother (and then only up through High School) and my stuff. I'm not going to necessarily say I really enjoy having "stuff", but as a collector I love the hunt. I enjoy searching for things and get a bit of a thrill when I find that thing I've been looking for....and sometimes I admit I didn't even know I was looking for it!


I've mentioned a few things before, like my growing Appendix N collection and probably my Gamescience dice, but I have a bunch of other potentially cool things that I've picked up over the years. Not necessarily part of some larger collection, because face it......one piece of a larger collection probably doesn't hold a lot of meaning, but it can. I pretty much buy every used copy of Lawrence Watt-Evans' The Misenchanted Sword I come across in the wild. I only have the one copy at home, but those other copies get given away rather quickly.


Anyway, my point is I have some gaming "things" I've picked up over the years that I enjoy which aren't part of a collection per se and I thought I'd share them with you today. My inspiration for doing so is one of the items that I have hanging over my TV so it overlooks where I play my every-other-weekly-Saturday-Night-OSR-game. When looking for a picture of it I came across this one I took four years ago and I realized pretty much everything in the shot has some story or some such behind it:

A modified picture of my one display case

Now this picture has been quickly photoshopped to remove the reflection of my ugly mug from the empty top right quadrant of the display case. This was a well-built case discarded from one of the liquor stores I was working at. It was missing shelves, but nothing I couldn't throw together.

In no particular order (except for the last show & tell item):

KoDT Resin Busts
A buddy of mine, along with his brother, got a license from Kenzer & Company to produce these resin busts of Knights of the Dinner Table Characters. KenzerCo got some cash and some figurines for themselves and they sold some on behalf of the brothers. I cannot recall if it was Origins or GenCon, probably Origins, where I had been volunteering running GMs/Tables/Games everyday and hanging out helping with the booth in the vendor hall when there wasn't a game. My (ex)wife and I would do this every year and help tear down/pack the booth. Technically a big no-no as we usually had regular attendee badges, but if you hide your badge and work like you're getting paid for it, con staff/security can be cool about it. Anyway, I had decided I was going to buy the set of the Knights at the con, IF there were any left when the con closed on Sunday. We made the drive from Boise to SLC regularly enough that we could purchase them directly easily enough. Sure enough there was a complete set left at the end of the con so I bought them......only to find out we got set #3! Sets 1 & 2 went to the brother's home group and we weren't looking to get a low-numbered set, but nobody had really gone through them so we just lucked out. Knowing we had set #3, when the other seven figures came out I was allowed dibs on the #3's. I enjoyed picking up the Blank Hands and later Gary & Squirrely. 

Munchkin Bobble-Head

After 2009's GenCon....I was again helping tear down the booth the the guys from the Steve Jackson Games were nearby tearing down their booth and they brought out the Munchkin costume. For some reason I HAD TO try it on and after some hard-core convincing they let me try it on. They knew it was disgustingly wet with sweat, but it was still better than spending a few hours in MOPP4 gear (I know a couple of you get that reference...and felt that pain!). I got a picture of me wearing it and the next year I was able to show John Kovalic the picture and get him to draw me wearing it on a blank Go Up a Level card. You can't see the card, but it's with the bobble-head I purchased as part of the transaction (was more a buy something and get something signed kind of thing....those Steve Jackson Games guys know how to sell).

Stone Carving

Harder to see is this stone carving of a dragon and village scene. It's pretty cool and I practically stole it for something like $5, maybe $10 at the CONduit convention in SLC. This is the convention I first got to play HackMaster. We used to go every year until we realized we were paying $$$ to basically sit in a room and play HackMaster with our friends. Everything else we did at the convention was free: the dealer's hall and the art show/auction. We eventually transitioned to playing at our hotel and visiting the convention afterwards. The convention would have this silent auction every year for a bunch of cool art, with the proceeds going to the conventions literacy charity. As expected, most of the art was traditional prints/painting, but there were sometimes things like painting on silk, carvings, sculpture, etc. I would make a point of bidding on these commonly-overlooked items and in this case I got my item on the low opening bid. It's actually pretty cool, and definitely took some skill, but just not what the masses wanted I guess.

Lewd Beholder Miniature

The next three items all come from the same source, but I'll go over each individually. This mini is a bit on the delicate side so it doesn't go in with my regular minis. It's of a "Lecherous Beholder" and was painted/gifted by Jolly Blackburn. He's a rather generous guy and just thought I'd like this when I was over for a visit. He was right. I wasn't able to get one of these and the eyes are delicate enough I'm pretty sure I would still have it in a blister pack had I managed to get one. I have a metric butt-ton of KenzerCo minis, but very few have been painted, so this unique one gets a place in the shelf.

Callie

How many of you can legitimately claim to have an actual Callie from the Origins Awards? I've had two now, both were ones that Jolly had won/earned. This is the second one which was actually gifted to me by Jolly.....more on that later. The first one was straight-up stolen, not by me mind you, but filched at the big party we all had after the awards ceremony (there were several Callies at the party). It was given to me, I think, by the thief himself/herself and we decided it would be cool to turn it into a travelling trophy of sorts for the fans. I took a bunch of pictures and even started a blog of Callie's adventures. It was more a "letters home" kind of thing and the blog had pictures of the letters (in original Greek, mind you) and then the translation. Callie went from Ohio to Illinois to Idaho and then was sent to Canada, or was it Australia? Either way the whole affair got cut short when she got lost in customs. So not cool.

This second Callie was gifted as part of a joke. Jolly thought it'd be funny to cram it in my suitcase so either I'd be surprised when I got home or strip searched at the airport when I unintentionally lied about my bag being packed by me and being aware of all its contents. I'm going to assume the former, but the latter is funnier in my opinion. I travelled enough to know what 50 pounds feels like and I noticed the bag was a couple pounds off (I used to travel a LOT), so the ruse was discovered before we even left the house, but I told him I'm keeping it....so I did.

Knights of the Dinner Table Poster

The biggest thing, and probably one of my most precious gaming "things" is this large hand-drawn & colored "poster" of the Knights done by Jolly as a gift. He's probably done a few more by now, but at the time this was the second one he had ever done, the first being for a charity auction. I was unemployed and at the time money wasn't terribly tight, but only because I was draining my 401K. Jolly did this drawing up and gave it to me with the intention that I could put it up on eBay and get maybe $300 for it. I was touched by the sentiment, but I'd sell a kidney (I don't know if that' actually a thing) before letting something this sentimental go. It looks good (much better than the picture implies) on the wall and reminds me daily of the friendships I've made over so many different gaming tables. It is a heartfelt message that brings back a lot of memories....and promises of more memories to be made.

That concludes this particular entry of Not Erik Show & Tell.





Bonus Pics:
2009 GenCon
Frugal Munchkin
Frugal Munchkin













2010 Origins (Staged)
Callie #1 the Morning After
Next Morning w/Callie


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