Swords & Wizardry Light - Forum

Saturday, January 9, 2021

Deal of the Day - Bloodwraith Setting Book (OSR)



I've been a fan of Jim Pinto's work for years. He simply has a certain touch with RPGs that few have, and he's willing to take chances and push expectations. The Bloodwraith Setting Book is Jim's delving into the OSR.

Normally 9.99, until tomorrow morning (about 13 hours) the Bloodwraith Setting Book is on sale for 4.47

Bloodwraith is a stand-alone, self-contained fantasy setting for any roleplaying game system, specifically ones that focus on gritty or low-tech fantasy. This book is about the setting and style of bloodwraith, with extensive time spent on plot, setting, and tone. Mechanics and die rolls are informed by the systems used to play.

The adventure challenges of this game world focus on survival and dealing with the world in front of the characters, than dungeon-delving and super-heroics. That won’t stop people from doing those things in this world, but that is not the intent of this game world.

Any OSR system like ACK™, Dungeon Crawl Classics™, Osric™, or Swords and Wizardry™ are ideal for use with Bloodwraith, if players do not want to use the Bloodwraith rules system.

the myth

Sixty years ago, the sky erupted with blood. Not rain. Blood. Sacramental blood, born of the heavens and all the dead gods. This blood rain was known as the purge. And from this purge, faith died. Humankind knew the gods were dead. They sensed it. Felt it. The world was coated in the viscera and blood of the supreme beings who once created them.

And from this blood was born all manner of horrors. Dwarves, elves, goblins, orcs. Just to name a few. Humankind went from being a tranquil race to living at the edge of a knife overnight. Entire nations were wiped out and replaced with the despotic dwarves, powerful elves, chittering goblins, and warlike orcs. Humankind scattered to the world’s edges, leaving the bloodmarshes to the mongrel races that fell from the sky.

Humans who once stood together, became divided, forming into small enclaves. Each disconnected from the other. Each afraid to unite together again. For who could be trusted?

Which is exactly what the bloodwraiths wanted.

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Friday, January 8, 2021

Awarding Day 9 Gifts - Patches? Patches! Who Needs Patches!?!

Thad was the generous donor of OSR patches this year (and many years prior).

Thank you, Thad!

So, who is being gifted today?

Mike Bauer & Big Cc

I need the above to email me at tenkarstavern at that gmail thing so I can forward your snail mail to Thad.

Day 10 was Wednesday Night on the livestream. Day 11 will be tonight at 8 pm on the livestream at YouTube.com/ErikTenkar. Day 12 will be sometime this weekend here on the blog.

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.  

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Thursday, January 7, 2021

Deal of the Day - Into the Wyrd and Wild (OSR Setting Book)

I always enjoy a good setting book, but ones that are more sourcebook and GM tool are priceless. Into the Wyld and Wild looks to be the second type. I think I need this book. Normally 19.95 in PDF, its 9.97 until tomorrow morning.

Into the Wyrd and Wild is a supplemental book for those seeking to incorporate a weird and terrifying wilderness into their role-playing game. Players and GMs who enjoy a level of horror and prefer the sweeping, darkened landscapes of forest and mires to the well-trodden cobblestone of dungeons need look no further when it comes to books. Presented within the book is a light overhaul of the adventuring system, modified to fit better with a campaign centered around forays into the frightening wilderness.

The book contains:

Rules for wilderness travel and survival

Rules for Moon Cycles and strange phases.

Rules for hunting, tracking, and butchering monsters.

40+ dangerous and terrifying monsters.

40+ strange and savage items.

40+ spells and rules for channeling the Wyrd.

An essay and guideline on running and creating "wilderness dungeons."

A step-by-step guide for generating your own wilderness adventure.

100 random wilderness locations.

Tables upon tables of random diseases, wilderness dressings, traps, hazards, flora, encounters, and MORE.

All illustrated with over 150 pieces of original art.

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.  

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Wednesday, January 6, 2021

OSR Christmas - Day 9 - The Patches are Coming


Day 9 of OSR Christmas is here (Day 8 was earlier tonight on the livestream at YouTube.com/ErikTenkar)

WE have 2 sets of OSR patches thanks to our very own Thad! Thad will ship worldwide, all you need to do to be in the running for a set of OSR patches is... tell us what you would put the patches on :)

Simply comment below by Noon on January 8th, 2021.

Pretty simple, huh?

Tuesday, January 5, 2021

Ken Whitman is Apparently Giving Away IQ Points

Ah, sweet, sweet Ken Whitman. Ever so generous Ken apparently awarded Marcus King some bonus points in IQ. I guess Marcus made IQ his dump stat and Ken was being a generous GM. Seriously, other than how to effectively scam people via Kickstarter, the local film industry, and/or comic book sales, what else can Ken really instruct anyone on? How not to run a Print-On-Demand business perhaps? Maybe how to print your own copies of rare cards for collectible card games? The mind boggles at the very thought...

I understand that Marcus feels indebted to Ken for apparently saving his life many years ago when (details of which are vague), but this is some cult-like adoration at this point.

In any case, thank you Ken (and Marcus) for closing out 2020 (a hellish year, pandemic or no) in a very appropriate way ;)


Tip of the hat to one of The Taverners for the above screenshot

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Monday, January 4, 2021

OSR Christmas - Awarding the Day 7 Gifts


TableTop Adventures was kind enough to donate some PDF bundles of their releases for OSR Christmas Day 7.

We have 2 bundles of the Fantasy Cities Collection, a 28.70 value. Those being gifted are:

Joel Watkins & Baron Greystone

We also have 2 copies of Into the Future Bundle a 15.90 value. Those being gifted are:

.Greensage & Jeff Bernstein

Last, we have 2 Bits of the Wilderness Quartet, (a 35.50 value) . Those being gifted are:

Jonathan & ch\/\/olfgang

I will need those named above to email me at tenkarsDOTtavernAT that Gmail thing so we can get your gifts out to you.

Day 8 of OSR Christmas will go live tomorrow, Day 9 will be Wednesday night on the Talking Crit Livestream, Day 10 should be Thursday here on the blog, Day 11 will be on the Iron Rations Livestream on Friday Night and Day 12 should be here on the blog side sometime this weekend. Phew! ;)

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.  

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Sunday, January 3, 2021

Some Thoughts on Player vs. Player at the RPG Table

 

Some Thoughts on Player vs. Player at the RPG Table
Even though lately I've been fortunate to be more of a RPG Player, at my heart I'm most definitely a GM, and I tend to approach things from a GM perspective.

From a GM perspective I theoretically have absolutely no problem with Player vs. Player (PvP) combat and that bleeds over to my thoughts as a Player, but in reality I am hit with the full-force of what I can only call the "societal norms" that PvP is bad.....m'kay. Sure, you may be sitting around the table with friends, family, and/or strangers trying to have fun, and stabbing your fellow party members in the (proverbial) back really takes away from that shared fun.

I think the argument for PvP is the "anything goes, we're all adults here" mentality that kind of assumes that a) we're all adults here and b) we're all rational adults at that. The thing is, my personal experience with PvP runs about 50/50, at best, with the actual reasons for players attacking each other's PCs being in-game vs. out-of-character, and even then the in-game stuff often seems like an excuse for actual out-of-character issues.

I know I've related my 1st HackMaster kill which was my then Brother-in-Law's charismatic Bard being set upon by the clingy party Druid when he switched allegiances to the Big Bad Guy (BBG) in the final battle. Sounded 110% like an in-game reason, but in reality the situation was that my BIL wasn't into RPGs in general and was writing off the experience as a one-off.

Then there was the time, again HackMaster, where we were at one of the two "big" tournaments...we being four of us from our home group and a couple of add-ons. We had a problem player who just didn't play well with others. I won't go into details, but we later found out he had an illegal PC, and his actions eventually got him banned not only from our events, but from the convention itself for a couple of years. Before that happened, however, we just asked the tournament organizers if he could be removed from our table as he was not only dead-weight, but we didn't want him to play with us for reasons....

The organizer's initial response was that we should just handle the situation in-character and assassinate his PC. Of course being a tournament, that would have just hurt our point-total, taken up too much of our limited time, and we'd still have had to play with the guy up until then....and deal with the fallout after.

Ugh.

I really doubt my experiences are that far off with regards to PvP than a lot of other Players and GMs. I'm going to assume that these shared experiences are what help shape the aforementioned societal norms that dictate you just don't attack fellow party members......

....unless.

Of course for some of us there is no "unless". Breaking these norms is just taboo and even if you can somehow justify or rationalize your "bad" behavior, you run the risk of being admonished, ostracized, or even being removed from the group. At a minimum, unless you've got some mental/personality defect of character (narcissism, psychopathy, etc.) you should feel really, really bad for breaking a taboo.

So imagine my thought process when I decided, kind of on a whim, to have my Magic User attack a party member. Yes, I had a rationalization......and it still makes sense to me, but fuuuuuuuuuuuck I really thought I might get myself kicked out of the group. These guys have been playing together for a while now, or at least it feels like they've been gaming together for years, if not decades. Me, I think it's been about a year now. Regardless I'm the newb of the group.

We're exploring these ruins and know there is a BBG somewhat secured in a big-assed room/chamber. We don't know what this BBG is, and based on the motifs and henchmen we've encountered I'm thinking maybe....maybe it is a Medusa. I'm sure now it isn't a Medusa, but not in-character, and definitely not at the time of this event. We have this Thief sucking on fumes hit-point wise and he volunteers to quaff a potion of Gaseous Form and seep into the room and scout things out for us. See if our efforts to contain the BBG are effective or not. My MU is tapped for spells, as is the Cleric, and it's been a bit of a slog, although we're probably much better off than I'm realizing. 

Anyway the Thief comes back and he's completely enamored with whatever this BBG is. Clearly he's been charmed and it's clear this is the BBG's passive effect, probably a line of sight kind of thing. I'm off to the side grilling the Thief to the best of my ability and all he wants to do is let the BBG out and make some introductions. I'm playing along a bit in character, but I'm thinking it's a matter of time before this goes sideways.

This is when I openly tell the GM I'm going to sucker-punch the Thief in an attempt to knock his Charmed ass out. The group is surprised, rightly so, and the GM's initial ruling is that I out-right killed the Thief with the attack......

.....wait....what?

So not my intention.

The GM walks it back, not sure if it was a rule/ruling or holy-fuck the MU just killed the Thief. Wearing my GM hat I suspect it was walked back 'cause it didn't make sense for the MU to bitch-slap the Thief to death. It wasn't a crit and I was clear about my intention. I think the whole thing was a bit of a shock.

We ended the session minutes after and the time between my declaration and the end of the Zoom call.....man did I feel like I just ripped a massive fart in church. Everyone was staring and judging and it was a matter of time before the GM reached out to me to have "the talk". I've been on the receiving end of "the talk" once before (but seriously, fuck that GM....I had already quit, so asking me to not come back was more like him trying to save face). 

Well, that talk never came and everybody seemed ok at last night's session, and maybe it is. I think I've survived and probably will survive this PvP session, but I don't plan on making this a regular thing....