Tenkar's Tavern: 2021-04-11

Saturday, April 17, 2021

Holy Crap! There was a Collectable Live Action Hygiene RolePlay Game at GenCon 2001

Sometimes a post just writes itself. THIS is one of those times :)

I received an email from a listener/viewer of the Talking Crit Cast (VidCast / PodCast). Actually, Glen and I did a follow up last night on Dungeons, Dragons & Discourse (VidCast / Podcast) After listening to either Bad Mike and I or Glen and I broach the topic of "gamer funk", he sent me the following pics of, as he put it:

"something I picked up at GenCon 2001. They had lots of these laying around in common areas. It’s obvious that the gamer hygiene issue is not small is someone felt the need to make these."

If any others happen to have an original copy of the above, I'm sure Bad Mike would love the donation for the NTRPG Con Midnight Auction.

A HUGE tip of the hat to Taverner JW for the above. You made my weekend as only a Taverner can ;)

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern. You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on Anchor, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar

Friday, April 16, 2021

Humble Bundle Comics - New & Classic D&D by IDW Publishing

Through my early 30s, I was an avid comic book collector. When I stopped collecting (nearly 20 years ago), I stopped cold turkey. Now, I'm quite happy to buy comic book bundles to read on my iPad, as it no longer requires poly bagging and storage issues. It is simply so much easier. :)

The Humble Comics Bundle: New and Classic D&D by IDW Publishing has a large selection of D&D comic book titles. Most tempting for me personally are the Dragonlance titles. I don't think I have the patience to reread the original novels, but in comic book form on my table, I'm good to go. You can grab a bundle for as little as a buck.

Thursday, April 15, 2021

Humble Bundle - Warhammer 40,000 Stories 2021 by Black Library

I've always enjoyed the fiction set in the Warhammer and Warhammer 40k settings. The stories are generally suitably dark and quirky and scratch that itch for me that more general sci-fi can't.

The Warhammer 40,000 Stories 2021 by Black Library eBook Humble Bundle is a steal and a half. If I read two books from the whole collection in the next 12 months I'll more than make my money's worth, and I expect I'll read much more than that ;)

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

Deal of the Day - Pyramid of the Lost King (Swords & Wizardry)

Today's Deal of the Day is Pyramid of the Lost King for Swords & Wizardry. I've owned this is PDF since it released and I am dying to run it, as it is as much setting as it is an adventure. There is a lot of meat on this bone, and it's in my wheelhouse, as it's geared to levels 1 to 5.

Normally 15 bucks in PDF, until tomorrow morning Pyramid of the Lost King is on sale for 7.50

Millions of year ago the lands of Usarm were devastated by a great Cataclysm in the final days of the war between the Gods of Usa’arm and the demonish threat of the N’zi. In the wake of a final assault by the Usa’arm the very fabric of reality was torn asunder flooding the world with arcane energies and rips that sundered other worlds and realities … and in the process sank Usarm into the dark depths of ruin.

Now, Usarm is home to races and monsters dragged through those rips; refugees who now call a world ravaged by magic home. Wars between some races is common, and a dark threat rises in the North and another in the far south. A south that until now was left unexplored by the peoples of Usarm.
Intrigued by the prospect of riches the Merchants Guilds of Newrk stretch their arms and money into the great southern desert of the Saragubi hoping to find new peoples and new cultures to trade with and to grow more wealthy by.
Pyramid of the Lost King is designed for play with Frog God Games Swords & Wizardry and can be enjoyed by characters of the first to five level and is as much a campaign as it is an adventure. Within this book lay the trade city of Basq, the Rift Bridge, the Saragubi Desert, and hours of adventure for all who are foolhardy enough to venture into the Desert.

edit: I was reminded there was a guest review for this from back in 2018:

https://www.tenkarstavern.com/2018/04/guest-review-pyramid-of-lost-king-by.html

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

A Wayward Kickstarter - Apocalypse 5e

Sometimes you simply have to wonder. Maybe even scratch your head. Everyone and their mother want to have THAT Kickstarter. The one that makes them a household name in the gaming industry and means they will never have to be a cog in someone else's business model ever again. Another rich and famous game creator. Sadly, the reality is that Kickstarters that hit those life-changing amounts of pledge dollars are somewhere on par with the odds of hitting it big with Lotto. It can be done, but it needs more than luck, hard work, and name recognition. It often needs something resembling the planets coming into alignment.

Now, do 13 10 (as three were canceled) successful prior Kickstarter projects mean you can hit a $100k payday with your latest?

Hmmm- The most backers Daniel had before his current project was 124. The most monies raised on a successful project by Daniel was $2,179. That's okay though because his eyes are big and are focused on the prize:

Now, over two weeks into the funding period of the Apocalypse 5E RPG Kickstarter, he has 72 backers and just shy of $3,700 in funds raised. With two weeks left to fund.

Simply put, this will not fund. Not now at $100k. Not if rebooted at $10k. Certainly not to raise 1 million. Dare I say it, but this is delusional. The leap it takes to go from where he is to where he wants to be is nowhere in the realm of reality, but I've seen this many a time. From names well known and not so well known.

The question to ask is "who will be to blame" for the project's failure to fund? Certainly not the creator. It never is.

Strangely enough, even the name of this project isn't accurate, as Apocalypse 5E RPG isn't a stand-alone RPG as the title would imply, but as the Kickstarter page itself says, it's a "post-apocalypse RPG setting handbook that allows you to use 5E rules and combine fantasy and sci-fi themes."

Or is it?

I'm sure this would have done well on the DM's Guild, though not in the amount that the author would have hoped for.

Monday, April 12, 2021

News - Jeff Grubb's Lost Manuscript of the Mystara Setting for AD&D 2e to be Released for Free Later This Year

WotC actually gets it!

Sure, their attempts to appease the loud voices that don't actually play their games often fall flat, both with fans and those with the loud voices. This time, it's the less loud, but consistent voices that got heard, and I tip my hat to WotC for doing right by the fans of Mystara, also known as The Known World.

On Saturday, April 10th, over on the Piazza, it was announced that Jeff Grubb's lost manuscript of the Mystara Setting for AD&D 2e was going to be released to fans for free later this year at The Vaults of Pandius

Indeed, the cat is out of the bag now - I had been intending to make the announcement on the release of the unpublished AD&D Mystara worldbook. I had been in contact with Wizards of the Coast from whom I received consent to release it. Since then I've been working on editing the document to tidy it up, and to learn some graphic design to put the product into a more polished output. Given that the 25th anniversary of the Vaults was coming up I thought that that would be an appropriate date to work towards its release.

Further details can be found at Havard's Blackmore Blog:

The Mystara Sourcebook was commissioned by TSR in 1990s and was to be part of the companies relaunch of the Classic D&D setting under the AD&D 2nd Edition rules. Mystara first appeared in published form in 1980 with the release of the adventure X1 Isle of Dread and was from that point on the default setting of the B/X and BECMI D&D line which also incorporated Blackmoor.
Sadly, the nearly completed book that Jeff Grubb had written was never published as curious reversals of decisions within TSR's management and sales department at the time suddenly decided that instead of a book presenting all of Mystara to AD&D 2nd Ed fans, they instead wanted a product focusing only on the Grand Duchy of Karameikos.

Jeff Grubb describes some of the contents of "the lost manuscript" on his blog, Grubb Street.

Lastly, there were suggestions of publishing this anyway. The document itself was in first draft state and then abandoned before it was completed, is awash in typos, sarcastic comments, and unfinished sections. It is unplaytested, unreviewed, unrevised, and untouched by human hands. Even with permission, it would need a lot of work. So I have doubts about its usefulness, other than as a historic artifact. But I am posting here a summary of what survived in the files I had printed out at the time. I'll point out that most of them are just gatherings of previous information scattered about the various Gazetteers, updated and brought into 2nd edition. Here's how it all broke down: (you'll need to go to the source to see the breakdown).

If you'd prefer a video recap, you can find it here:

Sunday, April 11, 2021

My Brief Run-In with Dave Arneson

Although I've been a big volunteer for a game company squaring-away the "big" convention tournaments, I've only attended GenCon two or three times. I've always been much more a Origins fan.....far more "bang for my buck" and GenCon is just too much, well for me......"too much".

Regardless, I have attended a few times and most importantly for the purposes of today's post, I attended in 2008. I managed to be able to stay after the con closed and helped KenzerCo tear down their booth, something I was able to do quite a few times at Origins. The lead-in pic is from the Steve Jackson Games guys letting me try on the Munchkin head.....despite several extremely poignant warnings and attempts to dissuade me from doing so. It was as hot, sweaty, and post-con nasty as you'd expect a big mascot head to be.....but also a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me.

That wasn't the only once-in-a-lifetime opportunity during that convention.

Now I'm not sure how many Tavern patrons are aware, but last week (April 7th) was the anniversary of the passing of Dave Arneson. We all seem to remember Gary Gygax's passing, but we have his children running a memorial game convention every year that helps all of us remember.....

Anyway, GenCon 2008 was Dave Arneson's last GenCon with us and I briefly got to meet him at the KenzerCo booth. He was being pushed around in a wheelchair and it just seemed he knew it was his last big con. That seems sad, it did in the moment, but at the same time I have to give the man credit 'cause he was (literally) rolling with it. He was going around giving other game designers/artists these little baggies with d20's and a note in them. I was gifted one of these and they were two Gamescience d20's and the note was on a Westin Hotel sticky notepad:

"Rubbed in the hair of a live game designer

-Dave Arneson"

I've never rolled the dice and being a KoDT/HackMaster fan, the whole "fame rub" on a game designer (there is a long story arc about this in the comic) makes this a special memento in a couple of ways.

Now while I have seen The Secrets of Blackmoor, but I personally don't think I quite "get" Arneson's full contribution to this hobby we all share. I know there are some books I probably should pick up someday that might help, but I already have a few "history" books on the early days of this hobby I haven't gotten around to reading yet as it is.

Why "Swords & Wizardry?"

Believe me when I say I have them all in dead tree format. I have OSRIC in full size, trade paperback and the Player's Guide. I have LL and the AEC (and somewhere OEC, but I can't find it at the moment). Obviously I have Basic Fantasy RPG. Actually, I have the whole available line in print. Way too much Castles & Crusades. We all know my love for the DCC RPG. I even have Dark Dungeons in print, the Delving Deeper boxed set, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. BOTH editions of LotFP's Weird Fantasy and some dead tree copies of the Greyhawk Grognards Adventures Dark & Deep

I am so deep in the OSR when I come up for breath it's for the OSR's cousin, Tunnels & Trolls

So, out of all that, why Swords & Wizardry? Why, when I have been running a AD&D 1e / OSRIC campaign in Rappan Athuk am I using Swords & Wizardry and it's variant, Crypts & Things, for the second campaign? (Actually, now running a S&W Complete campaign, soon to be with multiple groups)

Because the shit works.

It's easy for lapsed gamers to pick up and feel like they haven't lost a step. I can house rule it and it doesn't break. It plays so close to the AD&D of my youth and college years (S&W Complete especially) that it continually surprises me. Just much less rules hopping than I remember. (my God but I can run it nearly without the book)

I grab and pick and steal from just about all OSR and Original resources. They seem to fit into S&W with little fuss. It may be the same with LL and the rest, but for me the ease of use fit's my expectations with S&W.

Even the single saving throw. That took me longer to adjust to, but even that seems like a natural to me now. Don't ask me why, it just does. Maybe it's the simplicity of it. At 45 52, simplicity and flexibility while remaining true to the feel of the original is an OSR hat trick for me ;)

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