Deal of the Day - Cha'alt (Gonzo Setting)

Let's get this out of the way: Cha'alt is written by Venger Satanis. V is a polarizing personality in gaming, to put it politely. I expect that that situation pleases Venger just fine. The thing is, the majority of his fantasy RPG work is pretty good to damn amazing (I'm not a fan of his Alpha Blue line, but that's my personal preference) in my humble opinion. If you like Venger, you probably already know that V has some solid releases. If he's on your shit list, today's Deal of the Day may be an opportunity to view the work separate from the man at a discounted price.

Until tomorrow morning at 11 AM, Cha'alt is on sale for 5 bucks - half of its regular sale price of 10 bucks. Cha'alt is about 200 pages of old-school gaming gonzoness.

Cha'alt is the beast of a book (218 pages) I've been working on for the past year.  It's a ruined world focusing on a couple of introductory dungeons before getting to the main event - the megadungeon known as The Black Pyramid.  

The Black Pyramid is like nothing you've ever seen before.  Unique design, purpose, feel, magic items, NPCs, monsters, factions, motives, agendas, strangeness, the works!

There's a decent amount of setting detail besides dungeoncrawling - space opera bar, domed city, mutants, weird ass elves, desert pirates, a city ruled by a gargantuan purple demon-worm, and much more!

Cha'alt is compatible with both old school and 5e D&D purposefully blended for maximum usability.  Full disclosure: aside from advantage/disadvantage and bounded accuracy, there isn't much in the way of 5th edition mechanics. It's predominantly OSR.

I've included my own Crimson Dragon Slayer D20 as an appendix, but you can use any of the hundred RPG systems available to run Cha'alt as your own.  The rules-language is fairly neutral, and my priority was helping the Game Master at the table.

The world is gonzo, eldritch, science-fantasy, and post-apocalyptic.  It's a wild ride, perfect for those players seeking something a little bit different, but also recognizable. 

The interior is gorgeous full-color art, layout, cartography and Lovecraftian aesthetics.  Gold ENnie winner Glynn Seal of MonkeyBlood Design went above and beyond his usual fantastic job.  Give the new 32 page preview a look.  I spared no expense making Cha'alt fantastic - this world is alive and spilling over with possibilities.

Cha'alt should give you years of solid, non-standardized gaming. 

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Kickstarter - AEON: Ancient Greece Volume 3 “Monsters of Myth” (DCC RPG)

I've covered previous releases in the AEON series of zines. During the funding period of AEON Issue #2, our group was playing in JoetheLawyer's bronze age setting, and the zine was a good fit for flavor. No, we weren't playing using the DCC RPG rules (we were using Joe's bronze age fantasy heartbreaker rules), but converting from DCC to other OSR systems is fairly easy, the difficulty is going in the other direction. 

AEON: Ancient Greece Volume 3 “Monsters of Myth” is as low as a single buck for the PDF, or 12 bucks for the Print plus PDF shipped worldwide.

Whether your campaign takes place in our Ancient Greek setting... In Lankhmar… On the Purple Planet… The Empire of the East… Mutant Crawl Classics…  Umerica… or your own doesn't matter because this brand new volume is going to help you bring the wondrous and downright terrifying to your campaign thanks to 36 new monsters inspired by Greek mythology for your Dungeon Crawl Classics game.

The Ancient Greeks measured their heroes by their mighty deeds.

And nothing will test your players’ mettle, luck, and their standing with the Gods, like a battle to the death with an epic monster.

Your players have better rested and healed up ‘cuz they’re gonna need all their HP, Spells, Abilities and Luck if they want to defeat, let alone live to tell the story of their legendary battles with these mythical monsters!

We guarantee your players have NEVER encountered any of these monsters before!

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Humble Bundle - Tales of the Space Marines Chapter 2022 by Black Library

I'm a huge fan of the Warhammer and Warhammer 40k fiction. There is just something about the default universe that I find exciting. The opportunity to pick up 24 Warhammer 40k Titles for 18 bucks in digital (Mobi/Kindle and ePub formats) makes this a deal I can't pass up. Besides, my old eyes no longer are treated well by most print products ;)

Tales of the Space Marines Chapter 2022 by Black Library gives you 24 books for $18. That's like 75 cents a book.

Discover the fearless exploits of the Adeptus Astartes—the elite Space Marines of the Warhammer 40,000 universe—in this collection of novels & fiction from Black Library! This galaxy-spanning bundle gathers war stories of Chapters and squads from across the Imperium, charged with defending humanity against the relentless forces of Chaos. Explore the grim darkness of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, and support EveryLibrary with your purchase!

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Kickstarter - TileForge: Software to Batch-Generate Mapping Tiles (Mapping Program)

This software for Mac & Windows PCs will create batches of custom geomorphic tiles for use in creating top-down battlemaps for RPGs.

I've been a huge fan of Heruca/BattleGrounds Games for over a decade. Not only did he offer a useful VTT, but he also offered links to the VTTs of competitors, and he also offers links to competitors of his mapping software. 

BattleGrounds Games used to be best known for offering a competitive VTT, but now I believe they are best known for their popular mapping software, MapForge.

The TileForge Kickstarter is BGG's latest offering, to allow one to design and print out battle maps on demand for their game sessions.

25 bucks is a very fair price, especially when you consider the price and storage issues of Dwarven Forge terrain and the like.

TileForge is a new program that I would like to develop, to support the creation of maps for tabletop RPGs (e.g. Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, etc.). It should serve quite well as a companion app to my map-making software, MapForge, but that software is not required.

Whereas MapForge is focused is on creating battlemaps, TileForge is for creating geomorphic mapping tiles and stand-alone assets. These tiles and assets can later be used in your favorite image editor, map-making app, or even in a virtual tabletop app (e.g. Roll20, Foundry, Fantasy Grounds, etc.), to quickly assemble custom map layouts from the modular assets.

Creating geomorphic mapping tiles can be a tedious and labor-intensive process. TileForge will automate that process. Simply choose a few textures (you'll be able to drag-and-drop texture images right onto the app), and TileForge will apply the necessary shape masks, drop shadows, bevels and other effects, and create an entire set of geomorphic map tiles using those textures.

And TileForge won't be limited to creating just modular hallways or roads. You will also be able to create rooms or buildings, including multi-tile ones. Even create them without a background, so that you can place them anywhere on your maps.

Depending on the textures you use, you can make tilesets for a variety of genres: Fantasy, Modern Day, Sci-Fi, etc. Some examples of tilesets you could create include space station/base, dungeon, fantasy castle corridors/rooms, modern city roads, etc.

Entrepreneurs take note: If the textures that you utilize in a tileset allow commercial use, you could sell your TileForge-generated tilesets on sites like DriveThruRPG, the Roll20 marketplace, Etsy, Fiverr, and/or other online stores that cater to RPG fans. Or run your own crowdfunding campaign to deliver your tileset/s printed on card stock designed for use with dry erase or wet erase markers.

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Deal of the Day - Bottomless Pit of Zorth (OSR Adventure)

I have to admit, I'm a bit of an adventure junkie. No, not in real life, but I enjoy reading adventures, especially adventures written for the OSR. Its few and far between where I run them as written, but I mine the shit out of them for the sessions I run. 

Bottomless Pit of Zorth is today's Deal of the Day, written for OSRIC/OSR for a party of levels 3 to 5. I wish they mentioned the level range on the sales page, but I'll forgive that sin. Sure, it's on the cover, but you'll only be able to read that bit if you click on the thumbnail. Bottomless Pit of Zorth is normally 7.50 in PDF, but until tomorrow morning, it's on sale for 4.50.

This OSRIC/OSR adventure can be run as a stand-alone or as part of the Gunderholfen and Darkness at Nekemte setting. It includes approximatlely 65 keyed locations + random site/event and encounter tables. It's heavy on curious oddities; viscous oozes; and squishy, mutated monstrosities, with a healthy dose of push-the-red-button and see-what-happens interaction thrown in for good measure. 

The Bottomless Pit of Zorth has stood as a place of inscrutable mystery and dread since time immemorial, yet not few of the brave and reckless have tried their luck within its deep and reportedly never ending depths. Those lucky enough to survive can attest to its apparent bottomless nature, but spoke more of the alienness and oddness of the place: the unfathomable purpose of the giant rotating pin that pierces down into the depths; the otherworldly machinery; and the crazed and demented denizens that for reasons unknown defended the hellish hole. These survivors often left with a sense that there was a deliberate design and purpose to the Pit and that a terrible but inhuman intellect ruled and guided all, though none have yet seen or met this assuredly dreadful master.

 

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Free RPG - Call of Cthulhu Quickstart and Alone Against the Flames (Solo)

You say you want to play a scary RPG and have no one to play with? Well, with the Call of Cthulhu Quickstart and the Alone Against the Flames solo adventure, you can get the full CoC experience by yourself for the price of free. No, no one else will see you lose points of sanity, and only you will know if you cheat on your dice rolls, but your experience will be truthful to the CoC genre.

Alone Against the Flames: An Introductory Solitaire Adventure for Call of Cthulhu

This is a solo adventure for the Call of Cthulhu game. It is a horror story set in the 1920s where you are the main character, and your choices determine the outcome. It is also designed to lead you through the basic rules of the game in a gradual and entertaining fashion. Although most such adventures are played with your friends, this one is just for you. 

Before you begin to play, make sure you have a copy of the Call of Cthulhu Seventh Edition Quick-Start Rules. You’ll also need a pencil, an eraser, and some roleplaying dice. 

You don’t need to read the rules before you start playing. Just settle in a comfortable chair before a roaring fire. Then read on and follow the instructions. 

…On second thought, don’t sit too close to the fire.

 

Welcome to Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition Quick-Start Rules, a booklet that collects the essential rules for Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition and presents them in abbreviated form.

This book comprises a complete basic roleplaying game system, a framework of rules aimed at allowing players to enact a sort of improvisational radio theater—only without microphones—and with dice determining whe­ther the characters succeed or fail at what they attempt to do. In roleplaying games, one player takes on the role of the gamemaster (or Keeper, in Call of Cthulhu), while the other player(s) assume the roles of player characters (investigators, in Call of Cthulhu) in the game. The gamemaster also acts out the roles of characters who aren’t being guided by players: these are called non-player characters (NPCs).

From its origin, Call of Cthulhu was designed to be intuitive and easy to play. Character attributes follow a 3D6 curve, and the other Call of Cthulhu mechanics are even simpler. Virtually all rolls determining success or failure of a task are determined via the roll of percentile dice. This means that there’s less fiddling with dice of different types, and the concept of a percentile chance of success is extremely easy for beginners and experienced players to grasp.

Use this booklet to play  Call of Cthulhu immediately, and to discover the improvements to the system. Games rules, an updated character sheet, and a classic adventure are included.

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Picking Up Some New Dice from Monday Knight Adventures (DCC/MCC compatible 14 dice set)

Just a head's up that today's post is 110% me "abusing" the privilege of being able to post "whatever I want" here at the Tavern.........

Now I will admit that as a (RPG) gamer I like dice. I mean who here doesn't?!

I'm also a self-diagnosed dice snob, using my old-school Gamescience dice to exclusion of almost any others. Kind of a difficult position to be in since I cannot really get any more GS dice. Sure, there are some available, but my ability to get all the dice I want, like another d30, yeah.....just not going to happen. I lucked out getting the last two d30's Zocchi had, but that tale has been told (hence the link).

As an almost aside, I used to play HackMaster 4th edition (I know, as if I've never brought that one up before) and I went through a stupid number of dice in that game. Like at one point I HAD to have a metric shit-ton of d6s and d4s for some of my DS Invoker's spells (including some for penetration rolls), but luckily back then I had the means and ability to purchase Gamescience dice, so I have a good supply of dice I'm not currently using....unless I want some of the odd ones, like d3's, d5's etc. While I have some, they are mismatched and not quite what I need when I'm playing Dungeon Crawl Classics or Mutant Crawl Classics.

If you haven't played DCC or MCC, the game can get a bit crazy with odd dice rolls, but the extreme randomness is part of the game's balance. You can get by replacing some dice rolls with others, like using a d30 for a d14 and ignoring any roll of  15+, but that doesn't work out that great......and just sucks if you're dice fan, and most of us are dice fans.

What normally happens is I use my normal GS dice set and then somehow I manage to get into a DCC or MCC game and then have a last-minute burning desire, nay need, for the full range of odd dice for a DCC/MCC game. Then I have to make a run to the dealer's hall and cough up $30 for whatever I can get. One set of dice for a pick-up game is fine, but not enough......I like to use two sets of dice when I play because, well.....you know.....sometimes dice just go cold and shit. If I'm stuck using a bum d20 I guess I could grab one of my regular dice, but then I'm mixing sets.....

....and you know how the dice don't like it when you mix them up.....

.....and sure it works for a d20, but what if it's your d14 goes bad for a spell?

No, I need two matched sets of dice. Since we have North Texas RPG Con coming up I figured I'd grab one of my older "emergency purchase" sets and find another matching set. Well that was my plan....

....until I found out that a couple of guys I knew from my HackMaster 4th Edition days had contracted with Impact! Miniatures to get their own batch of DCC/MCC compatible dice made. They're making them under the company name of Monday Knight Adventures and the dice can be found on eBay for now. 

Now since I know the guys behind Monday Knight Adventures and despite their public attempts to sometimes come off as indifferent a-holes, they're actually good guys. Back in the day when I was fortunate enough to be on a business trip to Nashville, I'd make the 2 hour trip to sit in on their Monday night home game.....and when I needed some help play-testing some tournament adventures I knew if I flew across the country they'd free up a weekend to run through the adventures.

On a more personal note, when I was going through some tough times during my volunteer days, these guys (the whole group, not just the two behind MKA) epitomized the saying "Who's got your back?", which (ironically) was a HackMaster "thing".

Clearly I think it would be cool if anyone who is interested in supporting some good guys, or who needs some cool dice, heads over and picks some of these "Poisoned Skulls" dice off of ebay. Now I'm into this for more than just a cheap Tavern shout-out.....since I'm pretty much on business trips until right before NTRPG, I don't have the ability to make my normal GM thank you gifts this year. *Spoiler Alert* if you are reading this and happen to have me playing at your table this year, you're getting a set of these dice.

I figure this is pretty much a win-win-win.

Free OSR - Castles & Crusades Players Handbook & Fiction [BUNDLE]

My doorway back to old-school gaming was Castles & Crusades, and you were able to get the C&C Player's Handbook for less than 10 bucks a copy from Buy.com back in the day. That was back with the first printing of Castles &Crusades.

Today, you can get the 7th printing of the Castles & Crusades Players Handbook in a bundle, along with a short selection of C&C-themed fiction in PDF for the price of FREE. As in the price of air.

You could, alternatively, pay 20 bucks for the C&C Players Handbook PDF and forgo the fiction, but I think free is an even fairer price ;)

We’ve moved to the 7th printing of the Castles & Crusades Players Handbook. A pillar of the table top RPG industry, Castles & Crusades embodies the spirit of the old-school gamer with the easy to use modern mechanics. The Players Handbook has all you need to get started in a wild ride of adventure! It’s easy to learn attribute-based rules system allows players to choose among 13 archetypal character classes and 7 races to create their characters. Spells, equipment, fast-paced combat rules, and all essential information needed to play a game of Castles & Crusades is in this book. Dice and Monsters & Treasure sold separately.

A Houseless God and Other Tales   The landless knight, Eurich Gunshoff, had no master, but served those in need, sometimes for money, but mostly for the honor of it. He went hungry often, slept in the wilds, endured the rain and snow, the heat and wind. He fought creatures, great and small. It was a hard life. Or so he thought, until he passed beneath the eaves of the Darkenfold Forest. A collection of short stories woven together by one of the creators of Castles & Crusades, follow the adventures of Eurich Gunshoff, Count of Kleaves.

 

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Deal of the Day - RuneQuest Companion (Glorantian Fiction)

I'm really getting psyched about running a Glorantha Campaign in the next few months. Understanding the world and its lore is something I've been working on via the setting books. The opportunity to read some classic Glorantha fiction is exciting.

Until tomorrow at 11 am Eastern, the RuneQuest Companion is the DriveThruFiction Deal of the Day. Normally 10 bucks in PDF, it's on sale for        4 bucks.

THE COMPANION is a sourcebook of articles, stories, and pictures useful to or entertaining to RuneQuest referees and players alike; its wide variety of subjects and forms will stimulate new adventures in any campaign or fill up quiet evenings at home.

The Companion fills a void left by the demise of Wyrms Footnotes, a magazine dedicated at the last solely to RQ articles; it was then the best source for RQ rules variants and steadily published new Gloranthan arcana.

Frustratingly to many, the earliest issues of the Footnotes were never reprinted, so that only savvy collectors had access to important material for RuneQuest® and White Bear & Red Moon (since retitled Dragon Pass). The most RQ-pertinent of those essays and illustrations appear here.

But the majority of the Companion is new material* – a lot of research and writing has occurred since the first issues of WF in 1976!

Note: *This is a fully-remastered PDF true to the original printing (1983).

Open D6 System Books on Priced at 1.79

I don't think I truly appreciated the potential for the D6 system back when I ran WEG Star Wars in the late 80s. After WEG lost the Star Wars license, they used the core D6 system for other genres. 

You can get the self-standing genre books for the Open d6 System for 1.79 each in PDF.

D6 Fantasy

D6 Space

D6 Adventure

I really need to run an Open D6 Game in the future. The system is simple and natural.

I'll be highlighting free and cheap RPG options over the next week or so...

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Magic World (Basic Roleplaying/Complete Game/Setting) on Sale for 2.99 in PDF

I actually happened to notice that Magic World was on sale yesterday when Basic Roleplaying from Chaosium was the Deal of the Day.

Magic World is powered by the Basic Roleplaying System, Chaosium's d100 house ruleset, but it is self-contained and complete unto itself. No need to buy Basic Roleplaying to enjoy this high magic/fantasy take on the d100 system. Magic World is on sale for 2.99 in PDF (marked down from 24.42(?)) 

Enter a world of fantastic adventure, where your destiny is limited only by your imagination. Where powerful sorcerers manipulate the very essence of reality, and where warriors decide the fate of kingdoms with blade and spear. A world of magic, myth, and menace... a MAGIC WORLD!

MAGIC WORLD is a self-contained fantasy roleplaying game using the classic Basic Roleplaying system. The game allows you to play characters in a world of fantasy, adventure, and excitement. The rules of MAGIC WORLD are simple to grasp, while having enough options and complexity to suit any gaming style. Characters grow in experience organically, without relying on artificial constructs such as classes, levels, etc. Any sort of fantasy character you can imagine, you can play. MAGIC WORLD contains:

• Full rules for creating characters in a world of magic and fantasy.
• A robust magic system with nearly one hundred spells. Any character may become a spell caster with the right combination of raw talent, and training!
• Detailed, yet streamlined skills and combat rules.
• Complete rules for nautical adventures.
• A bestiary of more than sixty creatures to use as foes for the characters, or as the characters themselves! Play as any species imaginable: Human, Elf, Orc, Centaur, Troll, Talking Beast, and more!
• Gamemaster advice, and resources.
• A gallery of enchanted items which might be found in your characters adventures.
• A complete sample campaign setting, "the Southlands", to jump start your adventures.
• And more!

 

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Deal of the Day - Basic Roleplaying (Chaosium D100 System)

I've been a fan of Chaosium's D100 System since I first found RuneQuest 2 and later Call of Chtulhu. I've owned Basic Roleplaying for years in print and I'm a huge fan of the ruleset, but apparently, I never snagged the PDF. I'll rectify that momentarily.

Normally 21.95 in PDF, Basic Roleplaying is today's Deal of the Day and is currently 4.39 (an 80% discount) until tomorrow morning.

This book comprises a roleplaying game system, a framework of rules aimed at allowing players to enact a sort of improvisational radio theater—only without microphones—and with dice determining whe­ther the characters succeed or fail at what they attempt to do. In roleplaying games, one player takes on the role of the gamemaster (GM), while the other player(s) assume the roles of player characters (PCs) in the game. The gamemaster also acts out the roles of characters who aren’t being guided by players: these are called non-player characters (NPCs).

From its origin, Basic Roleplaying was designed to be intuitive and easy to play. Character attributes follow a 3D6 curve, and the other Basic Roleplaying mechanics are even simpler. Virtually all rolls determining success or failure of a task are determined via the roll of percentile dice. This means that there’s less fiddling with dice of different types, and the concept of a percentile chance of success is extremely easy for beginners and experienced players to grasp. There aren’t many easier ways to say a character has a 70% chance of succeeding at an activity.

The core virtues of the system are as evident today as they were when it was first introduced. Primary characteristics of Basic Roleplaying that have emerged from decades of play, across many different varieties of the system are as follows:

• The system is remarkably friendly to newcomers. It is easy to describe the basics of the game system, and the percentile mechanics, to non-gamers.
• Players of other game systems often find Basic Roleplaying to be much less mechanistic and less of a barrier to the actual act of roleplaying. Less time spent on game systems usually equals more time available for roleplaying and thinking “in character.”
• Most of the information players need to know is present on their character sheets.
• Characters tend to evolve based on practicing the skills they use the most. They do not arbitrarily gain experience in skills and qualities based on ephemeral elements such as levels or experience ranks.
• Combat can be very quick and deadly, and often the deciding blow in a conflict is the one to land first.
• Basic Roleplaying is remarkably modular: levels of complexity can be added or removed as needed, and the core system works equally well with considerable detail as it does with a minimal amount of rules.
• The internal consistency of Basic Roleplaying allows for rules judgments to be made rapidly and with little searching through the rulebook for special cases.

This book represents a first for Basic Roleplaying—a system complete in one book, without a defined setting. Previously, Basic Roleplaying has been an integral part of standalone games, usually with rich and deep world settings. Due to differences in these settings, Basic Roleplaying has had many different incarnations. Variant and sometimes contradictory rules have emerged between versions, to better support one particular setting over another.

Chaosium’s Basic Roleplaying system reconciles these different flavors of the system and brings many variant rules together between the covers of one book, something that has never been done before. Some of these rules are provided as optional extensions, some as alternate systems, and others have been integrated into the core system. By design, this work is not a reinvention of Basic Roleplaying nor a significant evolution of the system. It is instead a collected and complete version of it, without setting, provided as a guide to players and gamemasters everywhere and compatible with most Basic Roleplaying games. It also allows the gamemaster the ability to create his or her own game world (or worlds), to adapt others from fiction, films, or even translate settings from other roleplaying games into Basic Roleplaying.

If you want a free peek, the Basic Roleplaying Quickstart can be found here. 

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Best of Print Sale at DTRPG - 10% Off

I don't recall seeing a platform-wide sale on print titles at DTRPG in the past. I know that 10% isn't a huge discount, but for those that were on the fence about getting certain titles in print, this may just be the thing to put them at the tipping point.

Heck, I already own two of the top five titles on the print list - Worlds Without Number and Ascendant. Not every print title is included, but nearly 150 of the top selling titles.

Here's the link to the sale page. No coupons required :)

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Noticing Some Small Details That Could Bring an OSR Campaign Some Realism

Initially I thought I'd ask anyone if they had stats for Zombie Jesus because of Easter, but I figured that'd probably piss a few people off. Of course a good part of those that would be pissed off already are because I mentioned it in passing (I know you know....you were there).....

I've had a couple day to think about the content of today's post and over the last few days I've been really thinking about how, for the most part, most OSR/D&D games are set in a general "medieval" period, and how the majority of OSR/D&D players are American. There are plenty of players world-wide, but based on my experiences it's mainly a US & English (language) based hobby. 

I find this odd to an extent because as Americans we don't have a historical medieval period to draw from. We generally don't have this underpinning of history that still ripples into modern society. Well, we do, but it only goes back maybe 250 years or so.

Currently I'm in Germany on a business trip and I'm in Bavaria, which in my opinion is really the location most Americans think of when they think of Germany. Again, I could be way off base here, but that's my experience. When I was stationed here in the 90's I was a couple hours away, which in a country smaller, but roughly the size of Montana (357,588 km² vs 380,832 km²), a couple hours away could be a vastly different region.

As I'm puttering about I'm just bombarded with new notions and old reminders about just how different Germany is from the USA and how some of these differences could easily be used to tweak a OSR game world to bring in some historical flavor....because even some of the modern things I'm seeing have that connection to the medieval period.

I once went on a walk through the woods and came across a stone marker that was hundreds of years old. What I though was a simple trail through the woods was actually a trail between towns that has been in use for over half a century. I was surprised just how narrow the trail actually was, pretty much just single file for a man & a mule, no room for a cart. Evidently the old trail wasn't taxed but if you needed the use of a wagon, then you had to take the main road, which would be taxed.

A town I drove through today was 750ish years old. In this part of Germany nobody lives in the country, not even the farmers. Everybody lives in the town/village/city. It's just that there is a cluster of small villages surrounding every larger town/city and each one is maybe just a couple of kilometers away. Along a good stretch of road you might have a village every 2-3km, but in other areas there might be 25-30km between clusters of villages. Just depends on the region, or more likely industry. Oh and these old-assed villages....odds are every one almost has it's own dialect. It's probably just a couple of words they pronounce differently, but they do. It might take you years to figure out which words they are and a couple more to make the distinction, but the locals? Oh yeah, they know you're an outsider, even if that means you just come from the village 2km down the road.

Lots of small shrines and while every village has a church, they aren't necessarily the same, and there could be the odd second church or, as I found yesterday, a tiny church tucked off to the side of the village. While I know these are all Christian churches (no clue what denomination), I could totally see this working in a OSR game with multiple religions. This village's main patron deity is X, the village 2km down the road celebrates Y, and they tolerate the tiny church and/or shrines to the other gods, as long as they keep small. Whip out a copy of the Petty Gods books to devote the shrines to!

I know I'm just hitting the tip of the iceberg here........most of the stuff I've mentioned so far is old, but even the modern is ripe for ideas. At the Getränkemarkt (drink store) there was this big advertisement for bottled water, but just not any bottled water. No, this advert was pushing one brand of water for infants, another for children, a third for seniors, and even another for the athletic types. Knowing the area is littered with mines, heath spa pools, and artesian wells, I could totally see a whole industry of water merchants lugging "special" waters for people to drink and pilgrims travelling the trails between villages and even regions to get to the healing waters of mineral baths.

If I'm lucky enough to have the time & the inclination on this business trip I'm hoping to see if I can mine these ideas for inspiration for future adventures or adventure seeds. Until then I'll just have to enjoy the beer....and Currywurst...and Schnitzel.....

Kickstarter - HST.3.33, a Third-Party CY_BORG Musical Interlude (Phil Reed)

Phil Reed is the master of the One Dollar Kickstarter. It's not a level where you "kick in to support" but a level where you get all of the goods in digital format. It is really something special to see.

This time, Phil is offering both an MP# file and a PDF adventure for a buck (but you can back at a higher level to get physical copies of both).

The HST.3.33, a Third-Party CY_BORG Musical Interlude Kickstarter is Phil's latest offering.

The 22.08" x 10.48" double-sided pocket map ($12 reward) featuring game content, and the lathe-cut record ($36, $50, and $62 rewards) are both exclusive to this Kickstarter campaign and will not be offered in this form again. We may release the game and music content in other physical formats in the future, but they will not appear again in the versions introduced through this project.

The digital edition -- both game content and music -- will be released as free downloads if this campaign is successfully funded.

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Kickstarter - Swords of Cthulhu (OSR Rules Expansion)

Bring Lovecraftian horrors to your old-school RPG with this rules expansion.

I've known Joe Bloch / The Greyhawk Grognard for a number of years. I first met Joe in person at the release of Gygax Magazine Issue #1 at the Brooklyn Strategist back in January of 2013 (has it already been over 9 years? Damn!) Joe's knowledge of Greyhawk is second to none, and I've thoroughly enjoyed the various releases he has issued under the BRW banner.

Swords of Cthulhu is Joe's current Kickstarter, and it is the one I find myself the most excited about (and I've backed them all). I always enjoy myself a little Dark Ones in my fantasy gaming, and I expect Joe will hit the mark with his latest offering.

Swords of Cthulhu is already written. The Kickstarter funds will pay for editing and art. You can back for the PDF version for 10 bucks, POD plus PDF is 15 (plus about 9 bucks for the POD itself).

Joe Bloch will be the special guest on next Wednesday's Talking Crit Livestream.

The book features:

• Two new character classes; the scholar and the cultist, with multiple specialty cults, each with unique powers and spells
• Two new character races; the deep one hybrid and the degenerate
• New secondary skills, including technology of other times and worlds
• New insanity rules, building on existing saving throw mechanics
• Over 150 new spells
• Nearly 30 new monsters
• More than 30 new magic items, including Mythos grimoires
• Tips on adding Lovecraftian horror to a fantasy-style campaign
• Everything is completely modular, and designed to be used or not used as you see fit for your campaign.

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Dave Johnson Games KNOWS Alarms & Journeys is the Successor to Gygax Magazine

There's something about Dave Johnson that implies douchebaggery (in my humble opinion - your opinion may vary). Maybe it's the game Dave has turned the release of Star Frontiers: New Genesis into. Note, I'm not talking about the actual ruleset, which likely only exists in a tangible format in the rocky crags of Dave's mind. I'm talking about the "release game" - free copies of SFNG at TSR Con! No Dave Johnson at TSR Con and no copies of SFNG at TSR Con (apparently due to Dave getting hit with Covid, and then recording the announcement of the delayed release of SFNG at a restaurant while still suffering from the effects of Covid), announcing the shipping of SFNG the end of last week, followed by the announcement of limited playtesting and a very limited number of playtest copies available. (so, copies apparently AREN"T shipping). Good luck getting into the playtest, Dave's blocked about half the community in the official Star Frontiers: New Genesis Facebook Group ;)

If you think that timeline is a bit bizarre, read the above pic at the top of this post. Notice the reference to Gygax Magazine, including using the magazine's logo. Did you happen to see Dave couldn't be bothered to do a simple google search to determine if it had been "5 or 6 issues"? What kind of lazy fuckery is that? You claim to have "taken the mantle" of Gygax Magazine, and you have no clue how many issues of Gygax Magazine was published. Dave, as a simple FYI, it lasted six issues. Always looking to have others do your work for you I see ;)

Below is the official response of Solarian Games (formerly known as TSR before the latest fiasco)

So, of course, Dave does what Dave does best - a very sloppy correction.

Did I mention that Alarms & Journeys is an obvious attempt to invoke the thought that it is a spiritual successor to Lee Gold's Alarums and Excursions, or even be mistaken for such?

I'd like to quote Time Kask, from David Flor's share of Solarian Games post over on Facebook:

Damn it Dave, I also failed to have an original thought ;)

Edit:

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Hasbro/WotC Acquires D&D Beyond from Fandom for $146.3 Million in Cash

Last year, after the D&D survey was making the rounds, I surmised that WotC would be staking its claim very firmly in the digital world and VTTs. Well, it looks like the first step has happened.

Hasbro/WotC just spent nearly $150 Million to buy D&D Beyond from Fandom. If this isn't the first step toward a WotC branded VTT, I don't know what is.

If I were Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, and the rest that have a customer base that is mostly composed of D&D 5e players, I'd be very nervous right now.

Here's the WotC announcement.

Here's the BusinessWire article discussing the purchase.

Huge tip of the hat to Rob Conley over at Bat in the Attic for the heads up :)

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