It's that time of the year when DriveThruRPG puts just about their entire PDF storefront on sale for the GMs Day Sale. Sure, there are some exceptions, but if you were waiting to buy something, now is probably a good time. The percentage off runs from 15% to 30%.
The entire Tenkar's Tavern Gamen cataloge is on sale. That includes Torchlight Zero (15%), Torchlight #1 (15%), and Swords & Wizardry Continual Light (30%).
For those asking, we are getting closer to the release of the digest-sized edition of Continual Light (note the new branding). Prior purchasers of any of The Tavern's releases will get a discount when the new edition releases.
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
I suspect every GM has tried their hand at designing at least one dungeon, if not dozens. At some point, most GMs even start toying with the idea for a world, even f it doesn't get very far in the actual design. But designing an urban environment/setting has been the downfall to many a GM. Even though it is much smaller than a country, the details required to bring an urban environment to life are daunting.
Why not let the work be done for you, much like Gabor Lux has done with today's Deal of the Day - Baklin, Jewel of the Seas. Normally 8 bucks for the 72-page Baklin setting guide and adventure module in PDF, until tomorrow morning it is marked down to $3.20.
“Oh Baklin, Jewel of the Seas, great gateway of Erillion! Minstrels sing of its wealth and marine power; and of the refinement and taste of its magnates and nobility. Minstrels of all kinds, of course, are prone to grandiloquence; and perhaps Baklin is neither as mighty nor as fair as the ballads claim. And yet, there is reason the minstrels sing so, for Baklin has wealthy patrons, its fleet is not inconsiderable – and are its streets not the loveliest within so many weeks of travel? Indeed, those who brave the high seas often believe so… and they will gladly pay for a song to remember their visit.”
A 72-page setting guide and adventure module for low to mid-level player characters, Baklin: Jewel of the Seas describes a medium-sized merchant city, including its rulers, criminal underworld, establishments, and three-level Undercity. Baklin is meant as both a campaign hub a party can depart from and return to (with numerous hooks for wilderness adventures), and as a complex adventure location of its own. It can be used along with the materials published for the Isle of Erillion mini-setting (Echoes #02–05), or it can double as almost any neutral-aligned port town in your own setting.
In any case, Baklin is meant to be played: it is focused on city intrigue, exploration, and dungeon crawling. Go shopping for great deals in port or at the stores of the reclusive Masters’ Guild; be careful not to fall afoul of the Sea Laws or anger the Knights of Yolanthus Kar; discover what lurks in the Tower of Gulls; and brave the Shrine of Roxana and the Thrones of Judgement!
This is two identical-length modules in one: a city guide with 39 major locations and a dungeon setting with 112 keyed areas, connected and bound together via multiple secret entrances, plot threads, and NPC agendas.
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
Griffith Morgan was kind enough to gift me with a copy of The Lost Dungeons of Tonisborg. (a more detailed review of Tonisborg is in the works) It's a book that simply reeks with gaming history, and I've been enjoying my time traveling experience. It has, however, put the documentary - The Secrets of Blackmoor, back into the forefront of my thoughts. I decided today, it was time to rewatch it.
I am literally watching as I type this post.
To put it simply, I had forgotten how good The Secrets of Blackmoor was, not just as a gamer and a History Major, but simply for the pure enjoyment of an amazingly well done documentary. I may need to watch this again with Rach. I think she'll enjoy it.
You can rent The Secrets of Blackmoor on Amazon for less than 4 bucks, or own it in digital for less than 11 bucks.
What if everything you knew about the history of Dungeons & Dragons was wrong?
6 Years, 12 Cities, 200 Hours of Interviews, 20,000 Documents and Photos: An unprecedented investigation into the history of D&D - the game that spurred a multi-billion dollar industry.
Be among the first to know the Secrets of Blackmoor.
Blackmoor is the name of a fictional world created by David Arneson. It is also the prototype of Dungeons & Dragons, the first published role playing game. Unlike other fantasy worlds, such as J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth, Blackmoor is a living world that is being explored to this day. Secrets of Blackmoor investigates the origins of the role playing game, through candid interviews, archival footage, and newly discovered artifacts.
In 1963, David Wesely becomes a founding member of a club that includes history buffs, model makers, and miniature collectors. Hiding within the group, however, are a bunch of college students who are interested in war gaming. Within a year, the gamers meet a high school kid named Dave Arneson who is playing war games with his friends in his parents' basement.
These gamers have no idea that they will change the face of this hobby forever. Their only concern for now, is how to simulate the reality of war, and above all, they just want to have fun. Their voracious hunt for new rules and knowledge leads them to the University of Minnesota Library where they discover an old manuscript, Strategos; the American Game of War. Within the dense pages are a few sentences that inspire them.
The influence of Strategos changes how they play their war games. But are they really following these old rules, or have they stumbled onto something truly unique by misinterpreting what it says? Should a game be constrained by rules, like Monopoly, or should there be no boundaries at all, like a game of make believe?
One thing is very clear--something magical was going on in the Twin Cities.
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
I'm heard the name "M.T. Black" in the past but truly can't tell you what he has written (looking at his self-published work, he's published a sizeable amount). The Anatomy of Adventure is a Platinum Best Seller at DTRPG, less for telling you how to write an adventure and more for showing you how to write adventures for publication. As there is certainly a large overlap between the two, The Anatomy of Adventure is a bargain at 1.98 until Thursday, 3/3/22 at 11 AM Eastern.
"It's a lovely read and hugely helpful."
"Tons of great advice for an aspiring adventure writer."
"Inspiring!"
In just a few short years, M.T. Black has established himself as one of the most successful indie-writers on the Dungeons & Dragons scene, with thirty-five platinum best-sellers and over a hundred thousand book sales. In this practical and engaging book, he shares many of the principles, tricks, and secrets he has learned along the way.
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
Two Mörk Borg Compatible adventures in print-on-demand hardcover! 100% completely written, edited, illustrated, and test printed.
I'm putting this post up as I listen to the State of the Union speech. I know, dangerous but I am focused. Kinda. Not turning it into a drinking game. I promise ;)
Truth in posting, Thom Wilson is a friend of mine. I've been a special guest of Thom's Shire Con every year he's held it. I consider Thom a good friend of mine. That being said, Thom produces consistently good Kickstarter projects.
I'm in for PDF plus Print plus POD costs at 15 bucks. PDF only is 7 bucks.
Two Separate Print-on-Demand Hardcovers, Both Compatible with Mork Borg!
There's only one thing better than a Mörk Borg adventure: two Mörk Borg adventures! That's right, two fully compatible adventures for the award-winning roleplaying game that we all love. Each adventure is 100% complete - fully written, edited, illustrated, and even test-printed! Backers will receive completed PDFs just weeks after the project wraps up and print-on-demand books within a few months.
The Two Adventures
Sacrifice Before Sunrise, The Child Must Die!
Whispers of dark work drift from the twisted mouths of temple priests in Schleswig. Doom approaches in the form of a small child, begat by an unnatural union between Nechrubel and the arch-priestess of Galgenbeck. A plan to dethrone King Fathmu IX by replacing him with the grotesque child-god is mere days from success. Soon, Two-Headed Basilisk temples will burn and all will praise their rival, the shadow lord who awaits his true position in the world.
Buckets of silver will be showered upon a group who succeeds where others have dared not even try. Your skills are in alignment with the task: infiltrate an abandoned village, capture the unnatural offspring of Nechrubel and Josilfa, and sacrifice him to the Two-Headed Basilisks before the next sunless day begins.
Initially Written for the Anti-Christmas Jam at Itch.io. Mixture of 29 b&w and color pages*, hardcover. Approximate print cost: $9.50.
The Demon's Arse
Demons plague the eastern Wästlands, decimating villages and mutilating travelers seemingly for sport. Dense, acrid smoke billows from a wide hole under a remote hill. This is the legendary Demon’s Arse, rumored to be the home of unearthly creatures both demonic and dead. Who dares enter?
Initially written for TotalCon 36 (play-tested at the convention). A mixture of 19 b&w and color pages*, hardcover. Approximate print cost: $8.00.
Each adventure has been designed for 3-6 desperate characters, and can generally be completed in 1-2 sessions.
*While several pages feature colorful backgrounds and bright-colored text, more than half are in standard B&W. These books were designed in typical MB fashion (bright colors, different fonts), but many pages have a layout similar to that of Rotblack Sludge (from the MB rulebook).
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
Three Deals of the Day in three days. I don't think that has ever happened before at The Tavern.
The latest Deal of the Day, M-Space, is a sci-fi ruleset based on Mythrus, which in itself, is built off of the Mongoose RQ/Legends rules. I'm on a bit of a RuneQuest kick recently, and this looks like a good fit. Normally 15.95 in PDF, until tomorrow morning at 11 AM Eastern, M-Space is on sale for 6.38.
M-SPACE is a d100-based science fiction roleplaying game. Everything needed to play is included.
With this book, you can create imaginary universes and play characters from a variety of cultures and careers. They can pilot starships, meet strange alien lifeforms and travel deep into unknown space.
Contents include:
Rich character generation, with unique, personal characters driven by Passions.
Rules for extended conflicts, applicable to any type of conflict, including social.
Intuitive, modular starship design.
Quick-paced and creative starship combat, based on the acclaimed Mythras combat rules.
Alien and culture creation.
World building.
Rules for how to create and run Organisations.
Modular vehicle design.
Creative combat rules - in both classic and simplified flavour.
Psionics.
Equipment.
The game engine used for all this is Mythras Imperative. If you are familiar with any closely related d100 game, you will feel right at home.
M-SPACE is published under a Mythras Gateway license by The Design Mechanism.
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
Let me get a few things out of the way. I'd rather be upfront than hear whispers in the dark.
1) Ascendant is written and published by Alexander Macris. I know there is a segment of the gaming community that has a hard-on for Alex. If you are covered by the prior statement, you can bugger off right now. This post isn't for you.
2) I consider Alex a friend. More than an acquaintance, less than a bestie. Still, it may color some of my observations, so you should be informed. Also, see Number 1, above.
3) Although I am a fan of the superhero genre, I've yet to find a supers RPG that I've felt comfortable with. At best, they've been "blah".
4) I bought the Print plus PDF version of Ascendant. Currently, the Print version is not for sale as it is being updated with errata. This purchase was made possible with your money, the readers of this fine blog, as it was funded by affiliate monies. This is NOT a review copy. When I do a review (so many books, so little time) it will be without obligations.
5) Alex DID send me the first chapter of his upcomingAscendantgraphic novel in PDF. I have done little more than look at some pretty pictures at this point.
6) The fucker has gone Platinum at DTRPG in 2 1/2 months. Very impressive.
Until tomorrow morning at 11 AM Eastern, Ascendant is marked down to 10 bucks in PDF from its normal 20 bucks.
Here's the sales blurb:
Ascendant is the superpowered role-playing game of infinite possibilities. In this 496-page standalone rulebook, you get:
Elegant game mechanics that swiftly simulate the physics of a comic-book world using easy-to-reference real-life benchmarks
Color-coded challenge action resolution tables that resolve complex actions with superspeed
Infinitely scalable system lets you play heroes of any power level, from streetfighters to living gods – and replicate virtually any character from your favorite anime, comic, manga, or movie settings
Countless powers all customizable with an easy-to-use system of modifier tags that lets you match your power’s specifics to your character concept
Comprehensive detective mechanics for investigating crimes, interviewing witnesses, and finding clues
Detailed options for super-geniuses to create inventions, cure diseases, and even bring their outlandish devices into mass production
Extensive rules for responding to emergencies such as asteroid strikes, avalanches, disease outbreaks, earthquakes, fires, nuclear disasters, tornados, tsunamis, and volcanoes
A huge catalog of pre-built characters and objects including major military vehicles such as aircraft carriers, attack submarines, and ballistic missiles
A dynamic mission generation system to help you create challenges for your heroes
An optional campaign setting with ready-to-use heroes, villains, and organizations
Spectacular artwork by industry-leading pencilers, inkers, and colorists
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
Un-American Activities
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I am halfing prices for all False Machine books held outside the U.S.A.
This discount will last until sales the the U.S. are re-started, OR until
the ...
October Lantern Advance Copy Available
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I've finished the advanced version of the October Lantern, posted on
patreon. I've taken the requisite three hours rest and now I'm writing
about it her...
Grozz keeps gettin' graphic...plus, a Soldier!
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I hate to start out posts by just lamenting my lack of posts...
BUT...man, I'm really having a tough time working regular blogging back
into my schedule,...
Miskatonic Monday #370: Rryonn
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Much like the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha
and The Companions of Arthur for material set in Greg Stafford’s
masterpiece of...
Return to the Cursed Labyrinth
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AI Toy catalogues make wildly inappropriate choices for the user. Automated
incencerity.
We had two drop in players joining our Sat...
Designing Tables
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In my Friday Twitch stream where I share my work in progress for building a
campaign world that is an ocean world with archipelagos instead of
continental ...
Monstrous Mondays: Guardians of the Library
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[image: Photo by Дмитрий Пропадалин:
https://www.pexels.com/photo/knight-in-iron-armor-9968878/]
Photo by Дмитрий ПропадалинStill working through a bunch o...
August ‘25 In Review
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Starting the month with a thunderstorm and a cold front making the
temperature much more bearable, and ending it with a long weekend was
definitely the w...
Music Monday - Cry Little Sister
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My friend Stew sent me think link to this video with the message "Relevant
to your interest" and before clicking it I knew at least one hot alt chick
would...
Greyhawk News You Can Use - Harvester 2025 Edition
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I’m well-overdue for another Greyhawk news roundup, and a recent post by
/u/talktoh in /r/Greyhawk prompted me to complete catchup on Greyhawk news
for the...
Brink of Calamity
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By Trent SmithStorm Fetish Productions1eLevels 1-6 The town of Warnell,
straddling a trade route that crosses two great forests, seems at first
like any ot...
Rock Troll #4 (and last, probably)
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Yet another 3d printed Rock Troll, this time painted red.
This will probably be the last one, unless I develop a pressing need for
more, which is unlik...
Random Links & Notes for 8/29/2025
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- 9 and 30 Kingdoms talks a bit about mapping. I'm okay with players
mapping or not mapping. It's up to them, as long as their characters can do
it. If the...
On Two in one Day!
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Free quickstart, has everything you need to get a group up and playing in
10 minutes. Contains *everything *you need to play.
drivethrurpg.com/en/produ...
Up Your Game with Rubber Stamps
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[image: Up Your Game with Rubber Stamps]
This isn't a Free GM Resource, but a product, well company really, that I
think is a useful resource for the prep...
Halflings (ODD Race)
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I discovered a handful of recent stripped down D&D hacks online this last
week. One immediately jumped out at me, probably because of the old school
aesthe...
Mythic Rivers
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Not *The *River, of course.
A typical *Mythic Bastionland* realm, following the procedure in the book,
has a navigable river. It’s an extremely fast way t...
Tomb of the Blind and Deaf Dead
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So the cat is out of the bag thanks to Tobias Schulte-Krumpen, who posted
the above image to the Lamentations of the Flame Princess facebook group. I
...
Eyes of Idola, Part 2
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This is Part 2. Here is Part 1.
*Concept 1: Entering the Dungeon*
Descending the stairs into B1, the party reach rooms that are dark,
crowded, flooded, a...
The 'I Want' PC
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Readers who do not live in the dank earth beneath rocks with only woodlice
and earthworms for company will no doubt have heard of something called *K-Pop
D...
More Star Wars/Traveller ship scale
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Today’s contribution to I Made It So I Might As Well Share It. Might be
interesting or useful to someone else as well. A selection of some of the
most icon...
[BLOG] News on the March! Episode X.
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This post continues the series of brief play reports I have been posting on
Discord. This does not cover every single session (sometimes, recon and
setup...
A New Epoch: Stone and Spell...
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Why does fantasy have to be medieval? It doesn't, and our hobby provides
numerous examples (Call of Cthulhu comes immediately to mind). Great stuff;
but ...
GM Companion for Shadowdark
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Let's talk about Mr. Chubby Funster. Greg. If you go on RPG DriveThru and
check out the Shadowdark section you'll see he had three books in the top
ten....
Rulings, Not Rules: A Foundation, Not an Oversight
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There's been a lot of discussion over the years about how Original Dungeons
& Dragons handled (or didn't handle) the common situations you'd expect in
a ...
How I Run OD&D Combat
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Link to discussion
Over the years I’ve settled on a way to run 0e/OD&D/White Box combat that
keeps the action moving and is pretty simple, while covering...
A long overdue hobby update!
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Welcome back to the Vault everyone! 2025 is going by in a blur; I last
posted in February, almost started a post in March and now it's the end of
May. W...
Pulp: Adventure Location: Trindade & Martim Vaz
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History is fractally interesting. Start examine any event, or following any
citation, and interesting facts emerge. But some places, for whatever
reason,...
Playing at the World 2E V2 Arrives
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With the release of its second volume, the second edition of *Playing at
the World *is finally complete. The two books combined total well over
1,000 ...
Blogs on Tape season 6 has begun!
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Hi everybody! Its been a minute. How are you? Everything is awful all the
time? Horrors never cease? You’re being driven mad by the weight of the
unfathoma...
Articulations
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Creating house rules, custom rules specific to a local group or campaign,
has been common throughout the history of D&D. What makes an effective
house rule...
Writing playlists for all occasions
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Hello again! Going off the idea of inspiration elaborated on by the prior
post, I also have music playing while I write my various games and fiction
pieces...
The Tarot of Pips
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Somewhere in your dice collection is a die like this one, the humblest of
dice. Although you don't know it, this small white die carries with it a
secr...
Pirates and Necromancers, a Play Report
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Over the Thanksgiving weekend we did a lot of gaming ranging from
“off-table” domain level stuff to some solo adventures to spell and magic
item rese...
It's been a bit
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Hey everyone, I hope you are doing well! I've had a lot going on and
haven't had much time to blog lately. Heres a recap of gaming events and
other st...
*'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...
Last move - to self-hosting!
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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...
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 ...
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...
ToAD Monster of the Week: Crocoman
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Now that I'm back doing the blog thing I thought I would use Tome of
Adventure Design to create monsters for The Black Hack.
Using the monster tables in th...
Strange, Dangerous, and Inhuman: The Fey and Fairie
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When I was a boy I loved fairy tales. Jack and the Beanstalk, Puss in
Boots, Rumpelstiltskin - I devoured all of it. My fascination that there
was a strang...
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...
Fiction in Airhde
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On a whim this weekend, I picked up some fiction off the TLG store. *A
Houseless God & Other Tales* and *The Mirrored Soul & Other Tales*, both by
the T...
Ravensburg Reboot: Streamlined City Map
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I mentioned in my last post how I was tweaking and reworking parts of my
Ravensburg setting. Today I streamlined the city map. The old map had lots
of redu...
And Now the News Draft Download on Patreon
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It's self-styled Throwback Thursday and *having just released the 34-page
draft booklet of Hill Cantons news to my Patreon backers* I am going to
indulge m...
The Withered Crag available now
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I just enabled the sale of the PDF version of The Withered Crag at
DriveThruRPG a few minutes ago, and the custom print version will be
available startin...
Annihilation Rising Goes live
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The latest in Fail Squad Games’ Quick Kick projects has gone live and needs
your support!! This project is only running 11 days and ends on 5/28/2019!
...
James's Celebration of Life
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We could not have asked for a prettier day for James's service. It was a
bit chilly and windy but gorgeous. A heartfelt thank you to all that joined
us tod...
Trap Tuesday: A step back
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I will get back to Tomb of Horrors soon. I found a topic that was
interesting enough to take a break. While interacting in a 5E group on
Facebook I talked ...
Let's Talk About Pacing!
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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...
Please, I don't do paid advertisements - don't ask.
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A little note since people have asked me about this. My video channel's
*not* an advertising platform, so I'm not available for hire if you want to
promote...
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!
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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...
Total Sales for WB:FMAG
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Hi Folks,
It's been a long time since I provided an update for the sales of White
Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game.
*LULU*
Print: 396
PDF: 433
*OBS*...
How can We Destroy this Campaign World?
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d12
1. You must trick a bard into strumming the *Chords of Fate* on the *Lute
of Annihilation*
2. Legends tell of thermonuclear weapons beneath megadunge...
Mord Mar - Session 5
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We had another successful delve into the dungeon yesterday. The delvers:
Moira, the Magic-User
Radovan - Human Cleric (of Odin?)
Khazgar Stonehand - Dwarf ...
Bundle of Fantasy Age
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Bundle of Holding: Dragon Age/Fantasy Age: Available until March 12. PA
Presents: Fantasy AGE Freeport live play Green Ronin in 2018 The Fantasy
Age RPG ma...
New Free PDF Module: The Hyqueous Vaults
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A new dungeon module—written in celebration of OSRIC's 10th Birthday—by
Rebecca Dettmann, Allan T. Grohe, Jr., Jimm Johnson, Matthew Riedel, Alex
Zisch, a...
Swords & Wizardry Light: Session # 6
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Two months after our last session (thanks to things like 8th grade finals,
a 4 year-old's birthday and party, Father's Day, etc.), we finally had our
next ...