RPGNow

Saturday, July 9, 2022

Deal of the Day - The Palace of Unquiet Repose (OSE Version)


The Palace of Unquiet Repose (OSE Version)
is a solid 5 Star release with eight 5-star ratings and one 5-star review on DTRPG. The Palace of Unquiet Repose (OSE Version) is also today's Deal of the Day, taking the PDF down from 10 bucks to a mere $3.

The Palace of Unquiet Repose (OSE Version) is an adventure for levels 3-5, although sadly there isn't much of a product description on the DTRPG splash page.

Uyu-Yadmogh. Prince of Princes. Archmage. Devourer of Children. Under the earth he built himself a palace in which he could abide eternity. Now he is only half-remembered legend.

The ground trembles, the earth is split asunder. In the sunken depths of the earth, the Palace awaits.

An adventure for those who dare.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPGAmazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern. 

You can catch the daily Tavern Chat vidcast on YouTube - Tenkar  

Friday, July 8, 2022

Free OSR Adventure - The Sepulchre of Seven


Earlier tonight on the Random Party Generator Livestream, Matt Jackson mentioned The Sepulchre of Seven adventure module, which had maps from himself and Dyson.

The Sepulchre of Seven is a FREE OSE/OSR adventure for levels 5-7 and clocks in at 70 pages. At the price of free, you really can't go wrong downloading this well-rated adventure. I know I just did ;)

A free OSR adventure module for character levels 5-7

Designed for use with the Old-School Essentials ruleset, compatible with most old-school pen-and-paper RPGs.

Long ago a half-elf, half deer-centaur named Jayne led a small guerilla band against the armies of an evil fae witch.

They prevailed at terrible cost.

Over centuries, the Church erased all memory of Jayne’s fae nature.

Monsters moved into her hideout-turned-sepulchre, still haunted by Jayne’s ennemies and companions, and a ghost longing to complete his vengeance...

In this 39-room dungeon, adventurers will discover the fates and true faces of Jayne and her unremembered companions.

Will they get out with forgotten riches, or become the latest victims of a centuries-old tragedy?

The product includes: a fully-linked interactive PDF + player-friendly VTT maps.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPGAmazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern. 

You can catch the daily Tavern Chat vidcast on YouTube - Tenkar  

Thursday, July 7, 2022

Humble Bundle Doctor Who 2022 Comics Bundle


Journey through time and space with Doctor Who and a cast of companions in this bundle from Titan Comics! Discover mind-bending tales of civilizations in peril, interstellar war, dangerous Dalek plots, and more in 50+ volumes & collections—and delve deeper into the comic adventures of your favorite Doctor Who incarnation. Plus, your purchase helps support BBC Children in Need!
Doctor Who is an amazing IP. I may need to catch up and read the comics via Humble Bundle. You can grab 56 Doctor Who Releases in the current Humble Bundle for $35.



The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPGAmazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern. 

You can catch the daily Tavern Chat vidcast on YouTube - Tenkar  


Wednesday, July 6, 2022

Bundle of Holding - Amazing Adventures 5E Bundle (Troll Lord Games)


This all-new Amazing Adventures 5E Bundle presents the current (2020) edition of Amazing Adventures, the Troll Lord Games multi-genre tabletop roleplaying game based on the Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition rules.

I own a copy of the original Amazing Adventures, built with the SIEGE Engine that powers Castles & Crusades, and it was very well done. I can only imagine that the 5e-powered version is just as solid.

For just US$9.95 you get all four titles in our Starter Collection (retail value $41) as DRM-free ebooks, including the complete Amazing Adventures 5E core rulebook (plus the Character Journal), the campaign sourcebook The Brotherhood of William St. John, and the location sandbox Ruins of Ends Meet.

Deeper Dark Trilogcy cover for Amazing Adventures for Fifth EditionAnd if you pay more than the threshold price of $18.30, you'll level up and also get our entire Bonus Collection with four more amazing scenarios worth $34, including the paired scenarios Rise of the Red God and Rings of the Red God, the Deeper Dark Trilogy, and Day of the Worm.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPGAmazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern. 

You can catch the daily Tavern Chat vidcast on YouTube - Tenkar  


Tuesday, July 5, 2022

When Do You Officially Call a Project "Dead"? re: City State of the Invincible Overlord (Judges Guild)

Tonight as I was flipping through Facebook, I saw a post from The Tavern from exactly three years ago - Oh My! Crowdfunding Update from Judges Guild (CSIO). Well, three years later (and a final update over two years ago on the CSIO Kickstarter page) and I think we can all agree, CSIO is NOT going to get the Marmoreal Tomb treatment. No publisher is going to swoop in and spend the dollars, nor the man-hours, to fix this failure. Unlike the Marmoreal Tomb, there are no funds left to pay for layout and development. There's nothing left but promises and disappointed backers.

CSIO didn't fail to complete its obligations because of Bob II and Bob III going out in burning flames on social media, it failed because neither Bob II nor Bob III had the faintest ideas about:

- handling business finances

- managing a budget

- writing RPG material

- project management

- layout (oh my God, the layout horror stories)

Most of all, and perhaps the crux of their issues, is that they lacked simple honesty. With their backers. With their freelances. And yes, even with each other.

This isn't unique to Judges Guild. I wish it was. We see it right now, with companies taking money for products and never shipping them. If it isn't straight-up malfeasance, it's most likely due to one or more reasons stated above.

I am not judging Judges Guild by the social media insanity of its owner but by the incompetence of that very same owner. Bob II has set a new standard that I hope no other companies come close to meeting, but I suspect one or two may actually surpass, and do so with glee in their eyes.

Judges Guild is dead, and its best years were well over 40 years ago. It was a slow death, but a death nonetheless.


The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPGAmazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern. 

You can catch the daily Tavern Chat vidcast on YouTube - Tenkar  




Monday, July 4, 2022

Charity Auction @ The Goodman Games Twitch Channel This Friday, July 8th, 2022

I've been told I don't mention The Tavern's LiveStreams often enough on the blog side to remind folks, but this time I'm going to recommend something other than The Tavern's Weekly Friday Night Livestream - I'm strongly recommending that you check out the Goodman Games Twitch Channel this Friday Night at 8 PM Eastern. Jim Kitchen will be hosting a charity auction for Aaron Koel.

Here's Jim's post from Facebook regarding the auction:

A friend of mine, Aaron Koelman, is currently fighting a battle with Stage IV Pancreatic Cancer. Aaron's spent most of the last year undergoing grueling chemotherapy sessions and doing his best to win a battle that has some pretty steep odds.

Aaron's a single dad to an amazing little boy. His son means everything and when Aaron revealed his cancer to me in March one of the things we talked about was fatherhood, particularly in his current circumstances.

Aaron is trying to put together a college fund for his son. To help with that effort I've organized a charity auction next week on Friday. It will be a virtual auction on Twitch. Joseph Goodman has been kind enough to donate the space on his companies channel. (As well as some pretty amazing things!)

We will have a lot of RPG items, original art and some great and unique items. I am still working on collating donations but here's a list of fine people who have already donated:

  • Michael Badolato /NTRPG
  • Julian Bernick
  • Hector Cruz
  • Jen Brinkman & Bob Brinkman
  • David Baity
  • Joseph Goodman
  • Jon Hershberger
  • Kenneth Kessenger
  • Jim Kitchen
  • Doug Kovacs
  • Ian McGarty
  • Peter Mullen
  • Erol Otus
  • James Pozenel
  • Yorkus Rex
  • James Michael Spahn
  • Dak J. Ultimak
  • Loz The-Eye

If I have somehow missed you please send me an email, PM or smoke signal. Work has had me extremely busy and I worry I have missed something somewhere.

If you have zero interest in RPG's or original artwork then you can still help. Donations can be made via Jon Hershberger's company Black Blade Publishing. Donations can be sent to tacojohndm@yahoo.com via Paypal.

100% of all monies raised are going directly to Aaron. Winners of auction items will be pay shipping charges but no handling fees or premiums. 

If you can skip a few coffees or a lunch for a week please know that it would mean a great deal to me. Aaron is a dear friend.

I'd like to add, that if you make a donation for the College Fund via Paypal via Black Blade Publishing at tacojohndm@yahoo.com, The Tavern will match the first $250 raised by this community. Simply comment below with how much you donated, or email me at tenkarsDOTtavern at that gmail thing

I had Jim Kitchen as a special guest on the Tavern's YouTube Channel earlier today to discuss Friday's auction, complete with pictures of donated auction items. Link below:


The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPGAmazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern. 

You can catch the daily Tavern Chat vidcast on YouTube - Tenkar  


Sunday, July 3, 2022

A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats......or Does it?

A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats......or Does it?
A lifetime ago I worked in an industry that often had way too much competition, which was kind of dumb (if you ask me) because the client base is/was simply too large to be serviced out of existence. Of course many companies spent a metric but-ton of money chasing after the top-end clients with top-end money. My employer felt much the way I did and did what he could to get the industry to work with instead of against each other.

One thing he frequently said with regards to this competition was, "A rising tide lifts all boats."

Now we're all loosely associated with another industry that seemingly has a lot of competition, but I like to think, "Does it really?" Sure, if you're at a game convention wandering the dealer hall and you only have $X to spend, there is going to be competition for said dollars.

Overall though, I think as gamers we tend to prefer one system (or three), but most of us buy a lot of stuff outside of our norm and it isn't uncommon to pick up new stuff to check it out and maybe beg, borrow, or steal it for our home game. Maybe I'm wrong, or this is more a behavior for us OSR types........but I think I'm closer to the truth than not.

Now I do not play the current edition of D&D and generally don't care about it. I mean I have actually purchased it, but IIRC I gave it away to a buddy's kid so they could game at school with their friends. I recall having to get it at the FLGS, which I'm generally happy to support. The thing is, as I also see things, the current edition of D&D is pretty much a gateway RPG drug, which is an inside joke.....

A Hero's Feast

.....so imagine my surprise when I was walking through my local Walmart and I saw this gem:

OK, big freaking deal...I saw a lame-assed cookbook...actually is it lame? I have no *actual* clue as I haven't picked it up and looked at it. Honestly I already have too many cookbooks as it is, so one more...yeah, not something I need to have, and if I don't pick it up, I can't decide it is another cookbook I *have* to have collecting dust next to the others....

.....ok, I might have a problem, but whatever....don't judge me.

Monster Manual
While I didn't pick it up, it did peak my interest and I turn around to find this:


Seriously? Of course this Monster Manual was upside down, but still......what else can I find? I'm pretty sure the MM was in the wrong spot, especially since I doubt it was $10.

PHB & DMG

It really didn't take me long to find the PHB and DMG, but then I stumbled across what looked like a hardbound adventure campaign book. Really not something I'm interested in, especially at that price point.

The cool thing is that I found these on the shelves pretty much in the middle of nowhere. I'd have killed to be able to get these books at the local store back in my day! Of course I remember getting the Magenta Box at pretty much any Waldenbooks cheaply enough we bought them just to take the dice out, ditching the rest. Sounds great, but the nearest Waldenbooks was a couple counties away so not as cool & convenient as it sounds.

Call of the Netherdeep
I really think that the easy availability of D&D is great for our community at large. The more people that play the current edition of D&D, the more potential player we have for other editions of D&D and even other RPGs in general......

.....and it takes a LOT of books to enter the supply chain to get D&D on the shelves of a random WalMart, so if you haven't picked up the current edition, you'll eventually find some discounted somewhere when WalMart takes them down.....



Tenkar's Tavern is supported by various affiliate programs, including Amazon, RPGNow,
and Humble Bundle as well as Patreon. Your patronage is appreciated and helps keep the
lights on and the taps flowing. Your Humble Bartender, Tenkar

Blogs of Inspiration & Erudition