It's been a truly blessed Christmas Day spent with family and friends. I'm literally taking a breather by putting up this OSR Christmas Post :)
Here's the skinny:
Comment by 8 PM Eastern December 28th, 2021 to this very post.
PLEASE indicate if you are in the US. If you do not indicate, I will assume you are from outside the US, and that will affect which gifts you are eligible for.
God Bless you all on this holy day of days.
Now, on to the gifts:
Emperors Choice Games and Miniatures is giving away Volumes IV through IX of Arduin (six books!), in print, to one lucky gift receiver (US ONLY for this package)
Torchlight Issue #1 - Print (Limited Print Run - Signed by Tenkar if Requested - US Only)
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
ONE $10 DTRPG Gift Certificate to one non-US commenter.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
ONE $25 DTRPG Gift Certificate (anywhere in the world)
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
Earlier today we had a really amazing dinner and gift exchange at my sister's house. My niece, Shannon, gave me some amazing gifts and reminded me of the simple blessing of being an uncle.
Parking was horrible upon returning home, so I dropped off my parents and Rach, before spending nearly 30 minutes looking for parking, finally finding a spot a 10-minute walk from home.
Fate was in my favor, because our local church was but a block away from where I parked, and I was able to say a few prayers before walking to the house.
Which almost didn't happen, as a block later, crossing in the crosswalk, I was nearly run into by a careless driver making a turn and likely thinking they had found a parking spot - it was a hydrant instead.
The driver "didn't see me" (their words), which is quite likely, as they turned the corner so sharply I expect they thought they were sliding into a hard sought-after parking spot.
My heart rate spiked about 25 beats according to my watch, and it took me another 2 blocks to appreciate what had actually happened.
Not the near accident. That wasn't an important event. It's what didn't happen, or the end result of what didn't happen.
A healthy and living me.
I'm alive, after a 2020 that could easily have flipped that script. Tonight could have flipped that script. On Christmas Eve.
Instead, I'm here, typing away, marveling at my blessings and appreciating what I have.
Today and tomorrow, heck, the whole entire year, are not times to mourn what you've lost, but to appreciate what you have.
I am truly blessed, by family, friends and community.
I'll try to improve on myself a little more in the coming months. I'll continue attempting to give back, both to my local community and our gaming community.
I have some thoughts on such, probably more on that as we get closer to the new year.
In the meantime, may God bless you all, and may your holy season be blessed - Tenkar
6 bucks in PDF, 10 bucks (plus shipping) for the print plus PDF.
Get ready to take your Greek themed campaign to the next level.
Published by Sharktopus Games and written by acclaimed author Christopher Willett (Prison of the Forgotten Goddess, Planeswalkers of Ravnica, Ravnica Revealed, Creature Compendium of Ravnica, Forces of the God-Pharoah, AEON: Ancient Greece Volume 1 and more), comes the second in the series of zines designed for Dungeon Crawl Classics set in Ancient Greece.
For those who got Volume 1 and managed to defeat Asterion the Minotaur and escape from the deadly labyrinth alive. Volume 2 picks up where volume 1 ends…
*IMPORTANT*: While it’s helpful, we designed this adventure specifically so you don’t need to own volume 1 in order to play and enjoy this second issue.
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
We are sneaking up on Christmas in three days. I'm not sure whether OSR Christmas Day 9 will fall on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day itself, so check in on Saturday at the very least. It should be epic (OSR Christmas Day 13 will finish us for the year on Three Kings Day - January 6th, 2022).
Tomorrow I am catching up on emails, so if you haven't emailed yet to claim an earlier gift, now's the time to do so.
The gifts being gifted below are for Day 8 of OSR Christmas. See if you are being gifted:
Emperors Choice Games and Miniatures is giving away Volumes IV through IX of Arduin (six books!), in print, to one lucky gift receiver (US ONLY for this package)
ONE $10 DTRPG Gift Certificate to one non-US commenter.
IL
The above need to email me at tenkarsDOTtavern at that Gmail thing. Put OSR Christmas Day 8 in the subject.
Thanks to all of the gifters and to all those commenting. We are just about halfway through OSR Christmas with plenty more surprises to come :)
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
There are a number of Tabletop RPG Bundles available at Humble Bundle at the moment, and I will list them below. It should be noted that you can gift Humble Bundles (I was gifted a bundle a number of years ago) and said bundles can make for nice gifts for the gamemaster in your life (if you wish to steer them towards a new system - hint, hint) or inexpensive gifts (at the lower price points) for the players in your group.
It should be noted, that if you use any of the links below, they are affiliate links that will go to support The Tavern. If that makes you uncomfortable, you can always go directly to the Humble Bundle site and avoid the affiliate links completely. The choice is yours.
In no particular order, the Tabletop RPG Bundles are:
Cyberpunk by R. Talsorian - If you are looking for Cyberpunk 2020 you'll likely be well covered. You can even get the Cyberpunk Red Jumpstart Kit. 18 bucks get you 30 releases, and as always you can scale down to pay less.
Pathfinder Second Edition Beginner's Bundle - one of the best values in tabletop RPGs was the Pathfinder First Edition Beginner Box. It was a version of Pathfinder I would be willing to play, but the value of the included pogs/tokens is second to none. The PF2 Beginner Box ALSO has the pogs/tokens (I own it - my only PF2 purchase - can't speak for the rules but the contents give value for money). This bundle gives the option of receiving a physical Pathfinder Second Edition Beginner's Box. There is also a Fantasy Grounds Pathfinder First Edition Ultimate GM Kit Bundle available. (edit - I initially mislabeled this for 2e)
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
OSR Christmas. Never duplicated, but it should be.
Day 8 of OSR Christmas is back to a two-day turnaround. This means you have about 48 hours to get your comments in.
You'll need to check back each day to see if you are gifted, as well as comment each day to be eligible to be gifted for each of those days.
Note, there are still unclaimed gifts from prior days of OSR Christmas. (Another note: I have emails from some recent gift receivers that still must be read and forwarded from Days 5 and 6. You are not forgotten, I've just been juggling many balls :)
The gifts being gifted below are for Day 7 of OSR Christmas. See if you are being gifted:
Emperors Choice Games and Miniatures is giving away Volumes IV through IX of Arduin (six books!), in print, to one lucky gift receiver (US ONLY for this package)
ONE $10 DTRPG Gift Certificate to one non-US commenter.
Dave Thompson
The gifts being offered for Day 8 of OSR Christmas are as follows. Note, you need to indicate if you are located in the US if you wish to be considered for a US-Only gift, or elsewhere for a non-US gift. Comments close at 10 PM Eastern 12/22/2021. Just under 48 hours to make your comment as I post this. Get at it!
Emperors Choice Games and Miniatures is giving away Volumes IV through IX of Arduin (six books!), in print, to one lucky gift receiver (US ONLY for this package)
ONE $10 DTRPG Gift Certificate to one non-US commenter.
The above need to email me at tenkarsDOTtavern at that Gmail thing. Put OSR Christmas Day 6 in the subject.
We have more goodies in the hopper, and if all of the planning goes off correctly, there should be three days of OSR Christmas for Christmas Week itself.
Thanks to all of the gifters and to all those commenting. We are just about halfway through OSR Christmas with plenty more surprises to come :)
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
So I might have mentioned that in my bi-weekly OSR (BX) game my Magic User has made it to the coveted 5th level, AKA "Enchanter" (Note: I checked I did mention it on December 5th....must be extra special proud of this occasion).
Now it has been my general experience, gaming wise, that most Magic Users are run by players that also GM. I don't know if it's a factor of the extra "stuff" that can go into playing a Magic User, the extra details having to do with spell casting, or maybe that GMs acting as players like to be able and sit back a bit more during games (low-level Magic Users are largely strap-hangers for a long time). In some, possibly crunchier games, it can be hard to play "stupid" since you have GM knowledge and maybe running a naturally smarter PC helps. My 7th level HackMaster Double Specialist Invoker had an Intelligence of 21......and hopefully that's my one HackMaster reference for the post (doubtful).
One thing I do really enjoy in a less "crunchy" OSR game is magic in general. Since I'm sitting at someone else's table (so to speak since I'm in an online game) I might have some some assumptions about how the magical world works, but I'm constantly surprised by how another GM interprets or even tweaks their particular campaign/game wurld/rules.
For example I have a list of spells my PC already knows and they're in my spell book. Now I've gone above & beyond statting out my spellbook particulars, largely using HackMaster 4th edition rules.....because I want to. It's probably more something that my GM can handicap with in the future, but whatever. I also currently have a captured and I know what spells are in that particular book. When my PC leveled the GM had me roll up a new spell and *ding* that's a spell I now know. While he was at it he had me make a few other rolls and *ding* there were some other spells I was automagically able to figure out. The rationale was that I'd been kind-of taught these spells before, but I just couldn't "get them" until this point. Since this was an OSR game and not my all-too-often-referenced HackMaster, this was pretty much handwaved as opposed to the result of a bunch of tables after having ponied up a bunch of GP and formally sent my Enchanter off to a training school to formally level up.
Close enough to the same results but this go-around was so much less constrained and clearly simpler. The thing is I don't think I'd have done this easy hand-waving bit if our roles were reversed. I'm not even sure it would have occurred to me. Now I may very well have sent the PC to do some research/mentee program and used those HackMaster tables for the results and hand-waived the nit-picky costs and formal schooling bit, and maybe even tweaked the results as needed, but to skip the tables entirely? Probably not.
Probably just me. I clearly like coming up with, or straight up "borrowing" cool tables and using them in my game. I prefer the creativity of coming up with possible results and letting the dice fall where they may (that tweaking earlier wasn't so much results based, but which tables and modifiers to use).
Now in this case my PC automagically knew those spells, but the GM could have had me roll to see if I actually understood them, based on my INT. Access to said spells is, or could be, one part of the equation. The ability to comprehend could be another. Is there a maximum number of spells of each level my PC is able to learn? Again, these are already HackMaster concepts, but I've seen a mix and match in other systems as well. I could very well see my GM not having these limits because of reasons, but I could also see being presented with a "You already know 8 1st level spells, well that's your limit........" and I don't think I'd even be mad because in-character how the hell would you know there's a hard 8 spells per level limit? Sure maybe knowing there is a limit, but the actual number....meta-gaming right there.
Having played such a strict, crunchy, game for so long (it was strict for the purposes of Tournament play....it didn't have to be otherwise). Not knowing things is really getting back to the OSR roots, more rulings than rules. Of course this particular GM has a tendency to through new OSR supplement ideas at us for playtesting, so even if I knew the original rules front & back I'd still have plenty of new stuff coming my way if we were playing with a more strict direct interpretation of the BX game.
If you're coming to the Tavern from a stricter game, like HackMaster or one of the more current editions of D&D, you might enjoy picking up some dice and playing in an OSR game.
Random Thoughts & Links for 4/26/2024
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A few links for a Friday.
- A look at Kara-Tur. I agree it feels a little uneven. But the maps are
gorgeous and looking at them makes me really want to pla...
Kickstart Your Weekend: Horror and Sci-Fi!
-
A nice mix today. Let's get to it.
*Frightshow Classics*
[image: Frightshow Classics]
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/frightshowclassics/frightshow...
Friday Fantasy: Asterion
-
It is difficult to describe what *Asterion* is without being as direct as
its author is. So not to beat about the bush, *Asterion* is a sex dungeon.
*Ast...
QuarHammer
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I stumbled, addled, into my local semi-rural game store in search of
off-brand Contrast paint to finish up Ionus Cryptborn, and while wandering
around, I ...
More (Mostly Pointless) Messing About
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I thought I would try an experiment: I re-scaled one of Bergman's 1:100
Char B-I (bis) models to 1:200 and printed it on my Mars Pro. It's the
yellow ...
Stonehell: Dipping their toes in the sewer
-
Session 227 was played on 9/24/23
Morgana, Magic User (Rob)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5...
AD&D ability tests, streamlined
-
As I've mentioned in my Hyperborea review (check it pout!), I really liked
how the game tries to streamline AD&D ability checks:
This is a simpler versi...
On preparing adventures for the Ghostbusters RPG
-
With my mind on a lot of things lately related to West End Games' classic
RPG *Ghostbusters*, I was thinking of putting together a blog entry
offering so...
d100 Wasteland Weirdos
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Possibly some Charginspire leaked onto our new album.
Sampler short
https://youtube.com/shorts/Yj7jn40iomM?si=dflfJ10EdYYJqMYr
My Gunderholfen solo play...
Standoff at Sandfell Sea Fort
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By MalrexThe Merciless MerchantsOSR/1e/2eLevels 4-7 Eerie lights? Strange
noises? Ships are sailing blind into the rough shores of the Bay of
Saurvorn. Why...
A World in a Magazine
-
Four years ago, I wrote about my history with miniature games and getting
back into them during the lockdown. Summer 1995 saw me seduced by the world
of ...
New Printable Scenery Campaign: Ramshackle & Ruin
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[image: New Printable Scenery Campaign: Ramshackle & Ruin]
I don't know how many of my peeps here are into 3d printing, but I'm always
collecting the STL ...
Play as Sculpture, Play as Prism
-
Watching my eldest child and friends engaging in imaginative play, I'm
often struck by the fact that what seems to excite them is deciding who
gets to be...
Session #12 & Adventure Sites Compilation
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Firstly, I wanted to let everybody know that Adventure Sites I by Coldlight
Press is now available as a free download on DriveThruRPG. It includes my
own...
Clerics of the Flanaess, Part 2
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Sorry it took so long to get to the next article in this series, but here
we are! This continues the details of specialty clerics for the World of
Greyhawk...
On the Sector Turn
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It's very simple.
There are many important things cybertechtronically enhanced secret agents
need to do: Buy illegal tanks with railguns. "Convince" the...
Arsenic & Old Lace (a Review)...
-
The free-kriegsspiel revolution (or FKR; sometimes free-kriegsspiel
roleplay) has been getting a lot of attention lately, which seems
inevitable given re...
The Light Dawns
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THIS!!! Yes, a thousand times, this!
Back in the day, I referred to this as “neo-classicalgaming,” which is to
say, the sorts of games that came ou...
Improvised Awful Lights Missions
-
Asking about The Awful Lights, a commenter asks:
*I'd love to hear about how this is run - with the Handler determining
mission location and objectives ...
Jim Ward's Adventure in Gygax's Wonderland
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Last weekend at GaryCon, many of us raised a glass to the memory of Jim
Ward, who passed away just days before the convention. Ward was very
helpful to m...
It’s Tolkien Reading Day
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I recently started rereading *The Silmarillion*. I had last read it over
two decades ago. I liked it then but I’m really enjoying it this time!
Despite b...
Osr anchorites?
-
It's been a long time since I listened to any osr podcasts. Anchor was a
lot of fun. I'm not sure if the community is still going? I deleted the
app ...
Chaos War Dogs
-
Welcome back to the Vault! My gaming partner and I had a fun day at the
Meme Team doubles last weekend, placing mid-table results wise. My eye is
now lo...
ShadowDark Magic Items
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The next campaign I run will use the ShadowDark RPG. I'm not sure when
that'll be (I'm hoping a little later this year), but ShadowDark is my
choice. I'v...
Xandering, Jaquaysing, or Arneson-ing the Dungeon?
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Yet another gamer firestorm arose shortly after the passing of Janelle
Jaquays when it was noted that Justin Alexander had changed a rather well
known p...
GLOG Class: Bioweapon
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I got this idea from mad gods on bear blog.
Crab Evo from Kagaku Sentai Dynaman
A thousand soldiers were slain. Too many to be tragic--this is just a fact...
The Economy Engine, v0.2
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I made a thing. For D&D 3rd edition, so it might not be that interesting to
a lot of people. But I made it and I think it’s cool. The 3rd edition
Dungeon M...
*'s in SpaaaaaAaaaace
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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...
What Else Have I Got in Me?
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Brechewold's been done for a little while. Still incredibly pumped to have
this labor of love out in the company of LotFP's marvelously creative body
of ...
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...
Time Rolls On
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Today is December 31, 2023, in the mid-afternoon. In less than ten hours it
will be 2024. 2023 2023 was a good year. But all years are good years. Both
goo...
Play Report: Skull Mountain
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At the end of the last Skull Mountain session the PCs had retreated to
safety at Owen's redoubt, met with visiting elves, and recovered from
injuries ...
-
Heya folks, the 21st Salt Mine book, Import Export, has hit the digital
shelves! In the 21st book we follow Aaron Haddock-codename Stigma-as he
tries to ...
Moving On...
-
So, my D&D 5e experiment has blown up the lab in a puff of green smoke
leaving my face blackened like Wile E. Coyote after a failed roadrunner
Acme trap...
How to Keep Megadungeons Fresh
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People often consider megadungeons boring. Not because the play style is
boring, but because they are in the same locale for a majority of the
campaign. If...
The Blade Itself
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I just finished listening to the audiobook of The Blade Itself, volume one
in Joe Abercrombie’s The First Law trilogy. This was my first exposure to
his wo...
Genteel Magistrate at FenCon XVIII
-
Victorious author Mike Stewart will be a guest at FenCon XVIII this weekend
at the Sheraton DFW Airport hotel, 4440 W. John Carpenter Freeway, Irving,
TX, ...
This is an Important Game Mechanic
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*"That's the GM's Regional Map from my AOWG. And it's a damned good
regional map. It's not a good map for a Simple Homebrew Campaign. It does
some s$&...
Clean Your Room
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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 ...
My RPG Zine Trilogy is on Kickstarter!
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I can't believe I didn't post about it here!
The Dead are Coming, Screams Amongst the Stars and Running Out of Time are
on *Kickstarter right now!* Thes...
Maximum HP 004, one week to go
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Just one week to go for Maximum HP issue #004, the undead. We are pushing
through stretch goals and wracking up contributions for the best issue yet.
We...
Steve Jackson Interview
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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...
Undermountain Map Origins
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As documented on the Ruins of Undermountain sales page, "TSR didn't
actually use Ed Greenwood's original maps," at least not in their entirety.
This post d...
WB:FMAG Total Print Sales
-
Hello Folks,
The last time I did a quick sales report was in September 2018.
I pulled reports from Amazon, Lulu and DrivethruRPG from October to current
fo...
The Minotaur for Old-School Essentials
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*Minotaur*
*Requirements:* Minimum STR 9, Minimum CON 9
*Prime Requisite:* STR and CON
*Hit Dice:* 1d10
*Maximum Level:* 8
*Armor:* Leather, including shield...
WIZARDS OF POHJOLA
-
Init +0
Melee Atk
• sword or dagger +1 (1d5 or 1d3)
Ranged Atk
• hot iron sparks +3 (1d4+2 to two targets within 20' but not closer than
5')
AC 14
HD 12d...
Dungeons & Dragonmead Fall Schedule
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*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...
D&D Sling Damage vs. Large Targets
-
In many early editions of D&D, weapons were assigned two damage values: one
for small/medium targets (i.e. man-sized) and one for large targets (giants
and...
James A. Smith, Jr. Memorial Video
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A beloved father, devoted friend, and D&D Dungeon Master extraordinaire. We
miss you! To view video, click here Memorial Video
Note - The original video...
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...
Profane and Profound Prep Part 2
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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...
SHORT BREAK.
-
I'm going to take a break for a week or so and will start up again in the
New Year. Thanks for reading and we'll start with Level 6 when I get back.
Iain Lovecraft, 3D Sculptor
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Nope, it's got nothing to do with Cthulhu. I just did a video conversation
with Iain Lovecraft, who designs 3D miniatures and terrain. If you're not
doi...
New website!
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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...
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...
Mord Mar - Session 6
-
We weren't able to play Mord Mar last week, due to a family funeral. This
week we played on Monday for the first time, due to kids returning to
school and ...
A Small, Quiet Plea
-
There has been a great deal of discussing political agendas, social
grievances, and personal attacks within the little corner of gaming that is
my hobby....
Don’t Sleep It’s Broken
-
Expanding/editing my comments from What Makes Something Broken G+ thread:
“Broken”, for me, is anything that makes normal character choices, tactics,
or ro...
Swords & Wizardry Light-Themed Birthday Party
-
Last month, my wife and I helped our oldest to celebrate his birthday in
style. Ever since 2013, we have hosted a themed birthday party for our
now-15-ye...