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Saturday, November 28, 2020

Tech Picks for Gamers - Amazon 10" Tablet for 80 Bucks and More Goodies

So, if you are like me you've been accumulating your share of PDFs. I prefer to read in bed or my recliner than at my desk, so a tablet is a must. Not everyone has the cash for an iPad (nor does everyone like Apple products, but Amazon has its Fire HD 10 Tablet (10.1" 1080p full HD display, 32 GB) on sale from 149.99 down to 79.99. Amazon's Fire HD 8 Tablet, 8" HD display, 32 GB is marked down from 89.99 to 54.99. There's even a 7" option, but that isn't really suitable for PDF reading. 

I'd personally go with the 10" Fire.

Now, for the young kids in the family, you might consider the Fire 7 Kids Edition Tablet, 7" Display, 16 GB, Blue Kid-Proof Case. I bought this for my niece 2 years ago. It broke and Amazon replaced it without a fuss.

Additionally, you might want a multi-charger if you have more than one device to charge at a time, like a phone and your tablet. Oh, and a portable battery back up just in case your phone is about to die and you're not home. Maybe even something with international plug adaptors. And what about that wireless charging your phone can do? Look no further:

High-capacity 6700 mAh power bank w/LCD for 39.99 less 10.00 - 29.99! fits in any book bag or even your pocket, doubling as a standard wall adapter. It is also compatible with all Qi-enabled devices (see list) – such as iPhone 8, 8 Plus, Samsung Galaxy Note 8, Note 9, S8, S8 Plus, S9, S9 Plus, Google Pixel & more! And can quickly charge your smaller MacBooks, iPhone, Samsung, and many more devices either at home or on the road! (C-type Charging for Smaller Macbooks Only) Normally $79.99, SALE Price $39.99. But wait. We have a $10 coupon: use 10FREEBUCKS - Note, I own this and it works as advertised. I am happy with it, may need to buy a second at this price. For 30 bucks with the coupon, it is a steal (Not from Amazon - Decibel Electronics)

It's the World of Covid. Contactless Thermometers are the in thing. Grab yours for 16 bucks (13 Deals - Again, not Amazon)

Bonus Pick: RPG Dice, a buck a set. 2 dozen 7 dice sets for 24 bucks plus shipping. To NYC it was 35 bucks shipped for 24 sets. Random colors. Free delivery if you do in-store pick up. Great for game clubs, libraries, giveaways, conventions, and simply for gaming. If the dice don't cooperate, throw them away ;) (Dollar Tree)


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.

Don't forget to subscribe to The Tavern's weekly Newsletter! We currently have 156 subscribers.              When we hit 200 subscribers, I'll award 2 random subscribers a $10 DTRPG Gift Certificate. 


Free RPG - CARBON 2185 | A Cyberpunk RPG Core Rulebook - Free PDF Through Monday 11/30/2020

I haven't delved into the CARBON 2185 rulebook yet, but if the rules are OGL based, so they should feel fairly comfortable for most of us. You simply can't beat the price and the art throughout looks truly awesome.

Grab your copy of CARBON 2185 for free thru Monday, 11/30/2020. Normally 20 British Pounds otherwise.

Play as a Cyberpunk, a rebel refusing to live life by the rules of the oppressive megacorporations that rule San Francisco in this PDF version of the high action tabletop roleplaying game by Robert Marriner-Dodds.

Carbon 2185 gives you the chance to play in the cyberpunk worlds you've seen in movies, television shows, and video games.

The Core Rulebook is the only thing you need to run and play hundreds of hours of games in the world of Carbon 2185.

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.

Don't forget to subscribe to The Tavern's weekly Newsletter! We currently have 157 subscribers.              When we hit 200 subscribers, I'll award 2 random subscribers a $10 DTRPG Gift Certificate. 

Friday, November 27, 2020

Black Friday Sales on DriveThruRPG Are Live - WFRP Latest Edition 75% off - Other Titles 20-40% off

DriveThruRPG is running its annual Black Friday Sale, with nearly everything running at 20-40% off in PDF.

Some 40% off picks include:

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay First Edition Core Rulebook, 9.99 down to 5.99

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Fourth Edition Rulebook (this is the current entition) from 29.99 to 7.50! (Dorbuster mabe?)

Swords & Wizardry Continual Light, 3.00 to 1.80

The Midderlands - OSR Bestiary and Setting, 19.85 down to 11.91

Dark Places & Demogorgons - Survive This!! - Core Rule Book - 4.99 to 2.99

And of course, Frog God Games has nearly every title for Swords & Wizardry, Pathfinder 1e, and D&D 5e at 70% off

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.

Don't forget to subscribe to The Tavern's weekly Newsletter! We currently have 156 subscribers. When we hit 200 subscribers, I'll award 2 random subscribers a $10 DTRPG Gift Certificate. 

Thursday, November 26, 2020

Humble Bundle - Campaign Cartographer Mapping & Royalty Free Music

Ah, two diverse Humble Bundles, but both are damn good values.

First off is the Campaign Cartographer Bundle. Let me get right to the price point-unless you already own the software, you really need to be in at 30 bucks. But those 30 bucks gets you:

Campaign Cartographer 3+ Lifetime License, Floorplan Collection, Tome of Ultimate Mapping, Perspectives 3, City Designer 3, and Dungeon Designer 3 and more.

Sigh. And it looks like I can run all of this using Crossover on my Mac...

Guess I'll be diving into CC and Dungeon Designer in December :)

The second bundle that caught my eye was Big Royalty-Free Music. Royalty-free music is simply an awesome resource for podcasters and Youtubers. 25 bucks get you 26 albums and over 400 tracks. The samples sound real good, and I can see myself using some to change out the music for the podcast. Heck, I'm not even talking about using it in-game sessions for atmosphere, where it would also rock. You can grab it for as little as a buck for 5 albums and 100 tracks, which probably would suffice for most ;)

Royalty-free music and sound effects to be used in video game development, live streaming, movies, YouTube, content creation and more! Get 26 albums and over 400 tracks, which include .wav, .mp3, and seamless premium licenses for music such as Shadows guild, Superheroes, Dreamagination, and Slasher. 

 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.

Don't forget to subscribe to The Tavern's weekly Newsletter! We currently have 156 subscribers. When we hit 200 subscribers, I'll award 2 random subscribers a $10 DTRPG Gift Certificate. 

News - Paizo Licenses its Adventure Paths to Pinnacle for use with Savage Worlds

I seriously did NOT see this coming. Sure, Paizo converted one of its previous projects to 5e, and yes, Pinnacle has licensed Rifts from Palladium, but Pathfinder Adventure Paths to Savage Worlds? Damn. I actually have the first 2 or 3 adventure paths from Paizo. They made for a good read.

I may need to give my Savage Worlds ruleset another look. I never really grokked their spells and powers...

Press Release

It’s Thanksgiving here in the United States. For our international friends, that’s a time when we come together as friends and family and tell everyone what we’re thankful for.

Today, Pinnacle Entertainment Group is INCREDIBLY thankful to our good friends at Paizo for letting us play in their amazing world of Golarion, setting of the phenomenally successful Pathfinder Roleplaying Game!

Following the incredible reception we had with Kevin Siembieda’s phenomenal world of Rifts®, we’re bringing Pathfinder’s fantastic Adventure Paths to the Savage Worlds™ system, starting with the best-selling Rise of the Runelords™!  

The Kickstarter begins mid-January, 2021, and will feature the Savage Pathfinder core rules, a boxed set with all the usual Savage Worlds accessories, AND the Rise of the Runelords boxed set with all six books of the Adventure Path and other deluxe accessories!

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.

Don't forget to subscribe to The Tavern's weekly Newsletter! We currently have 155 subscribers. When we hit 200 subscribers, I'll award 2 random subscribers a $10 DTRPG Gift Certificate.

Wednesday, November 25, 2020

RPG Black Friday Sales - Buy 2 (at a discount), Get 1 Free and More Goodies

So, last week I highlighted that Amazon was offering some deep discounts on the WotC 5e titles. Well, those deep discounts are stacking with a Buy 2, Get 1 Free promotion. Holy Crap. Tasha's Cauldron of Everything is 23.33 after coupon (not part of the buy 2, get 1 promo)

The Conan Board Game from Asmode - usually around 110 bucks on sale for 77.01 - might be worth it for the minis alone.

Age of Conan board game. Normally  89.90. Now, 30 bucks.

I know I pick on Starfinder, but it's 26.66 with coupon. I know somebody out there wants it ;)

Pacesetter Games and Simulations - 50% off Print and PDF. I just picked up the four Swords & Wizardry Light adventures and the BX RPG System Boxed Set at half off.

Fire HD 10 Tablet (10.1" 1080p full HD display, 32 GB) - We all need a tablet to read our numerous PDFs in bed. Here's a very affordable option.

Did I mention Tim Shorts has a Mystery Box of Adventures for sale for 50 bucks? The Mystery Box of Adventures consists of 25 items from Tim's warehouse. All randomly packed by Whisk. Inside each box, all of these are possible: Micro-Adventures, small and zine-sized, Micro-Locations, small and also zine-sized, NPC Cards, Mini Manor Zines, Issues of the Manor, Hunters in Death, and other surprises.

That's all for today. For those waiting on the Talking Crit podcast from Bad Mike and myself, Anchor's site is currently offline, so it will (hopefully) go up tomorrow.

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.

Don't forget to subscribe to The Tavern's weekly Newsletter! We currently have 155 subscribers. When we hit 200 subscribers, I'll award 2 random subscribers a $10 DTRPG Gift Certificate.  

Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Frog God Games - 70% of Nearly All PDFs - Swords & Wizardry Picks Below

It's the most, wonderful time, of the year. Alright, maybe not with Covid, but for those looking for RPGs on sales, it certainly is the right time of the year.

This year, Frog God Games is running a 70% off sale on nearly all of its PDFs. Why "nearly all"? Because I'm sure a handful of titles slipped through the cracks.

I will give some Tenkar's Tavern Swords & Wizardry Picks below. Remember, I am associated with The Frogs, I wrote Swords & Wizardry Light and Frog God publishes it and in a non-Covid year, I'd be running the Frog God booth at many cons. So, there are like zero degrees of separation ;)

Sale prices should run through Tuesday, Dec 1st, at 11:00 am.

Monstrosities - 4.50 - Possibly THE monster bok for the OSR. Every creature has a plot hook or an encounter with it. Yep, there are many campaigns of improvised gaming within these pages. I can't recommend it enough.

Tome of Horrors Complete - 5.40 - Need MORE monsters with plot hook or encounters? Here ya go. More monsters is more better :)


The Lost City of Barakus - 6.00
- A complete campaign for levels 1 to 6. There's even a dragon. It's a blast.


MCMLXXV (1975) - 1.50
- Bill Webb rocks 1975 :) Introductory adventure -Snazzy updated version 2.40

Island of Sorrow - 2.70 - I don't have this one. Shit. Levels 3-5 with ship travel rules.

Hall of Bones - 0.90 - Yep, less than a buck for more Bill Webb. Introductory adventure.

Isle of the Angry Apes - 1.80 - An isle of ape for levels 5 to 8.

Rogues in Remballo - 0.18 - an introductory adventure from Matt Finch set in the Lost Lands for less than the price of a quarter gumball. Don't be a fool, grab this!


Bard's Gate - The Riot Act - 1.43
- a 2nd level city adventure from James Spahn, Mister White Box himself.

Feast of the Gobbler - 1.44 - A Thanksgiving adventure at an amazing price. 

How Orcus Stole Christmas - 1.44 - Just in time for Christmas, James Spahn brings us an adventure with Orcus, Christmas, and characters of levels 3 to 5.

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.

Don't forget to subscribe to The Tavern's weekly Newsletter! We currently have 155 subscribers. When we hit 200 subscribers, I'll award 2 random subscribers a $10 DTRPG Gift Certificate.  

Monday, November 23, 2020

Kickstarter - The Bats of Saint Abbans - An OSR Adventure (Swords & Wizardry)


Glynn Seal / Monkeyblood Designs is quite simply one of my favorite creators of setting material and adventures in the OSR. Period. He has never, in my experience, released anything that was less than excellent in quality. I expect nothing less from his latest Kickstarter - The Bats of Saint Abbans

Set in the Midderlands (but usable in pretty much any OSR setting) The Bats of Saint Abbans is a low-level adventure written for Swords & Wizardry (but suitable for any OSR system of your choice).

The adventure contains:

  • Details about the town of Saint Abbans, some of its useful NPCs, the Abbess and the monks that reside at the abbey-cathedral.
  • A random generator for creating additional abbey monks.
  • Adventure Flow and NPC Relationship charts.
  • Details of the abbey locations.
  • 4x Handouts, 15x pages worth of maps
  • Appendices of Ecclesiastical Time and all the encounters that could happen during those times.
  • New class, spells, and items. 8 New creatures, including a Church Bat Generator.
  • NPC and Creature quick reference tables, NPC Gallery
  • Books 1 to 3 are fully indexed. Play Notes

Seven bucks for the PDF version, 20 for at-cost POD with PDFs, and 40 bucks for Special Edition print with PDFs. Note, the cost for physical copies does not include shipping.  

I'm in at 40. Glynn, take my money bro! :)

You can use the links above to visit the Kickstsarter page are the link here: https://tenkars-tavern.games/SaintAbbans

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.

Don't forget to subscribe to The Tavern's weekly Newsletter! We currently have 154 subscribers. When we hit 200 subscribers, I'll award 2 random subscribers a $10 DTRPG Gift Certificate.  

Sunday, November 22, 2020

Hostage for the Holidays

 

Hostage for the Holidays
Here we are, less than a week before Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and the disruption to normal life that is the Christmas season.

Bah Humbug.

Actually I'm not against the idea of Christmas, but the execution is usually not that much fun for me. I spent far too long working retail and let's be honest: in general people suck and the stress of the season all too often brings out the worst in them.

I'm no longer in retail (and hope I never have to go back), so that holiday stressor isn't gone. As an alleged adult I don't care if I get Christmas presents or not and I generally don't buy presents for friends and family. Sure I'll set-aside stuff as I see it throughout the year, but I don't get bothered if I don't find something to buy for someone simply for the fact that I have to.....basically I decided that I don't have to anymore.

What I do....do (I know I typed doodoo) is try and make Christmas presents for my immediate coworkers and my family if I know I'll be home for the holidays. Usually it's a food-related "thing" and I put my own spin on it. I enjoy the entire process, well except maybe spending the money because I always go a bit overboard, and sometimes Christmas is more of an excuse to try something out.....

.....I have to admit that I don't always succeed when "trying something out". I still remember the year I thought it'd be cool to make up a bunch of dice bags for my home group and my other gaming friends. That was a HUGE fail. So many felt "squares" went unsewn that year. I think I'd have have been better off just buying everyone a set of dice.....

I'm not sure what I want to do gaming gift-wise for my current home group, but it has to be digital since I'm not in the mood to mail stuff out. I have an idea or two, but I might need some more time to think about that.

Gift giving is just part of the holidays and depending on the point of view it might be the better part. On the flip side, and the part I dislike the most, is that...at least for me, but I suspect a few others here are in the same boat, the holiday season negatively impacts one's ability to game. With all the traditional obligations comes the inevitable stresses and depletion of resources, mostly time and energy.

My group had to cancel our last session....well the GM and a few players were still down to sling dice, but I felt a bit bad doing so without the rest of the group. A big portion of my group are educators and they had online testing and grading to do for their students before the holiday break. I'm not faulting them or the GM (to be fair we could have done a side-quest, but that still felt iffy to me at least), it's just par for the course.

Clearly I'm not a fan of the holidays encroaching into dice time and I'm sure there are plenty of players who are fine with that....doesn't mean I'm any better/worse than they are, no judgement here. Clearly I'm already a bit biased against the season and this is just one other thing to add to the list.....

As the pressures of the season ramp up, and your ability to meet with your gaming family decreases, I hope that you manage to set-aside some time to deal with the pressure and keep connected to your hobby and your fellow players. Maybe chill by reading some RPG-appropriate Appendix N books, or have a short gaming-group Xmas party. 

Whatever you do, keep those dice warm! The sad truth of this season is that there is going to be at least one gamer reading this who has to go a long stretch of not gaming during this holiday and maybe doesn't get back to it for an additional few weeks/months/years. Don't let this be you! Don't become a hostage for the holidays....and beyond!

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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