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Saturday, December 10, 2022

Bundle of Holding - Cornucopia 2022 (includes Wolves of God)

Sometimes the collections available at Bundle of Holding make you scratch your head as to how they were bundled. 

The Starter Collection of the Cornucopia 2022 Bundle is 17.95, and worth it for Wolves of God (Kevin Crawford/Sine Nomine Publishing) alone, which goes for 19.99 in PDF on DTRPG. The other titles in the Starter Collection are picks I've never heard of: the family saga of restaurant management and hopping vampires, Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall (Wet Ink Games); and Jay Dragon's peaceful, pastoral game of animal travelers, Wanderhome.

Yeah, it's a pretty random collection, so YMMV.


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 cast on AnchorYouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar  

Friday, December 9, 2022

New Release - Falkrest Abbey (OSE Adventure)



Falkrest Abbey is an OSE adventure for levels 1-3 that was released back in September. Of course, my OSE Advanced books were delivered yesterday, and that made me think of Falkrest Abbey. Timing is everything ;)

Falkrest Abbey is currently on sale for a buck, and at that price, it's a must-grab for any OSR DM.

Note: I'm not a fan of the map, but that is simply my taste. It is certainly usable, and the adventure itself is worth well more than a buck.

Content:

  • A 19 room dungeon with exploration, combat, mystery, puzzles and NPCs
  • Encounters and events along the way on the icy Lune Mountains
  • Several hooks and alternate outcomes with possible repercussions on your campaign
  • 3 new monsters
  • 2 new magic items, plus one almighty magic vial of miraculous water
  • Original art by Zaira Diana
  • Map drawn with dungeonscrawl

Utility:

  • Treasure & monsters overview sorted by room
  • Interactive hyperlinked map and index
  • Interactive hyperlinked map snippets accompanying room descriptions
  • Printable hand-outs (optional)
  • Extra files: VTT friendly maps without room numbers, monsters, secrets doors etc


 

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 cast on AnchorYouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar  

Thursday, December 8, 2022

Kickstarter - SimpleQuest (d100 Fantasy Rules)

A small complete D100 Fantasy Roleplaying Game.

I'm a huge fan of Newt Newport and his D101 Games company. Crypts & Things is one of the best OSR rulesets, and OpenQuest is a convenient entry to the Basic RPG Engine (CoC, RuneQuest, and the like).

SimpleQuest is a streamlined version of OpenQuest, focused on the fantasy genre. I personally find D100 games work best with small parties of players (or at least better than D20-style games) as they are skill-based and not level-based. For a party of 2 to 3 players, SimpleQuest may be a perfect choice.

13 bucks for the SimpleQuest PDF with the at-cost POD is a sweet deal. It's already written, so January 2023 is pretty sweet.

SimpleQuest is a short fantasy adventure roleplaying game. Within its 150 pages, it contains everything you need to play.  

SimpleQuest is ideal if you want a short yet comprehensive D100 fantasy ruleset. 

A Bit More about the Game

Last year I released OpenQuest, a simple, straightforward D100 Table Top Game, as an all-in-one book. SimpleQuest is a concise and compact version of that game, with a few extra rules to make it more pickup and play.

Compact for travelling and viewing on phones/tablets

Concise for straightforward fantasy games, one-shots and short campaigns.

The book weighs in at just over 150 pages, in 6x9 inch format, with full-colour illustrations by Jeshields and a gorgeous wrap round cover by Jon Hodgson.

It will come in three formats.


A Digital Pdf - fully bookmarked with hyperlinked page references.

A Print on Demand version, fulfilled by DriveThruRpg.com

A Printed version, with sewn pages, endpapers and a ribbon. Sent directly from me in the UK to you, postage payable after the campaign via my website.

This book contains the following chapters:

Characters. Use a points allocation or random system to generate motivated characters capable of going on fantastic and thrilling adventures.

Equipment. This chapter deals with the tools of the adventuring trade. Things like weapons, armour and general gear such as rope, backpacks and transport costs.

Rules. In this chapter, the system's workhorse, the D100 Skill Test, is explained in its basic and opposed versions. There is also a section of Spot Rules for common adventuring situations.

Combat. This subset of the rules looks at what happens when blades are drawn and used in anger.

Magic. This chapter details a single magic system that every player character uses.

Creatures. Monsters and animals to populate your adventures.

Gods and Goddesses. To use either as patrons for the characters or religions for them to join.

 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 cast on AnchorYouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar  

Wednesday, December 7, 2022

Kickstarter - 1000+ RPG MAGICAL ITEMS ILLUSTRATIONS! (AI Art)

High-quality illustrations for your magic items and artifacts! Monster Eggs, Potions, Magic books, Rings, Necklace, Wands, Armors...

Yep, it's an interesting Kickstarter, and not just for the amount of art you get for your money (the latest update estimates 2,500 art pieces for 31 bucks American that you can use in commercial projects) but because the art is being generated by Artificial Intelligence. 

The sample pieces look good enough, and out of 2,500, if one piece in 100 were usable (publishing quality), I'd certainly be getting my money's worth, but is this the wave of the future?





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 cast on AnchorYouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar  


Tuesday, December 6, 2022

Deal of the Day - Desert Moon of Karth (Mothership)


A good adventure transcends the game system. From what I've heard from others, and from what I've read online, Desert Moon of Karth is a VERY good adventure.

Until tomorrow morning at 11 AM Eastern, Desert Moon of Karth is on sale for 1.92 (marked down from 7.99 in PDF). At that price, I can hack it into the RPG system of my choice (assuming my choice is not Mothership).

One sits down on a desert sand dune, sees nothing, hears nothing. Yet through the silence something throbs, and gleams...  - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Desert Moon of Karth  is a space western sandbox adventure zine for the  Mothership  Sci-Fi Horror RPG . 

Karth is a tiny mesa studded moon on the galaxy's edge. The only way down is an antique space elevator to the lawless boomtown of  Larstown ; a place surrounded by even greater danger and strangeness in the wastes beyond. Survival or salvation is not guaranteed, partner.

Harvest ossified coral corpses to live forever. Become an involuntary organ donor. Dodge ancient orbital defenses. Explore sand blown ruins. Hunt the fearsome sandsquid. Ride camels through the dunes. Drink whiskey until you've forgotten your own name.

Karth's  inspirations include Dune, Firefly, Alien, John Carter of Mars, Cowboy Bebop, The Dark Tower, spaghetti westerns, and modern adventures like  Hot Springs Island ,  A Pound of Flesh ,  Ultraviolet Grasslands , and  Slumbering Ursine Dunes .

You'll find plenty to use for your other sci-fi RPG of choice like  Stars Without Number ,  Traveler , or  Starfinder  with a touch of back alley stat surgery.

Desert Moon of Karth  is a meaty  52 pages , chock full of evocative illustrations and also includes:

  •  10 detailed and dangerous locations  to explore including a ship graveyard, camel ranch, organic coral caves, and a decadent shattered spire.
  •  Regional Moon Map  and rules for point crawling navigation.
  •  Detailed Larstown map , rumors, NPC's, prospective jobs, and fine establishments.
  •  4  volatile factions  for players to interact with including immortal organ harvesters, tribal park rangers, extinct coral beings, and a colonial boomtown of prospectors.
  •  Evolving encounters based on the day/night cycle  (and it's sometimes night for a week).
  •  Tons of 1d10 tables  ranging from creepy prayers, to strange technology, to requested organs, to random drugs.
  •  Rules for sandsquid hunting  and a dungeon crawl within one, should you be devoured.
  •  3  detailed dungeon maps,  8 new creatures, the dark secrets of eternal youth and more!  

 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 cast on AnchorYouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar  

Monday, December 5, 2022

It's That Time Again - Time to Prep for OSR Christmas!

It's amazing. Christmas comes around every December 25th, and yet I'm always surprised when December rolls around and I need to start getting things ready for OSR Christmas.

Well, I actually started getting things organized yesterday, over at the Tenkar's Tavern Youtube Channel. Believe it or not, we already have three new donors for this year's OSR Christmas and I haven't even approached our regular gifters yet.

This year, the gifts will be given away using multiple "aspects" of The Tavern's network of sites. I suspect the breakdown to be roughly: six days of gifts here at Tenkarstavern.com, four days will be given away on The Tavern's Youtube Channel (Likely on the Wednesday and Friday night live streams), and two days will be given away via the tenkarstavern.substack.com newsletter (we just hit 101 subs as I'm typing this - huzzah!

If you wish to be a donor for OSR Christmas - and this means I'm looking at you Third Party Publishers in the OSR, email me at tenkarsDOTtavern at that gmail thing with "OSR Christmas" in the subject and we'll talk :)

If you wish to be gifted, you'll need to keep watching this space to see when things are kicking off.



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 cast on AnchorYouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar  

Sunday, December 4, 2022

From Grinch to Giver(?)....It's THAT Time of Year

From Grinch to Giver(?)....It's THAT Time of Year
There's a few things I'd like to chat about today, but it's the first weekend in December and we generally have one particular day, towards the end of the month, that kind of dominates this time of year.

Yes, for the dense one at the back of the room I am actually talking about Christmas. What, the red & white cap in my pic didn't give that away?

Undoubtedly I have mentioned before that I spent a decade or so in retail and the majority of that was spent overseeing the seasonal section of a larger box store, which has kind of biased me against Christmas. Now don't get me wrong, I like Christmas and I enjoy the season, but so many things rub me the wrong way this time of year and I know it's all me. Please don't ask me to to assemble another fake Christmas tree as I've done enough for several lifetimes (the idea of "fluffing" an artificial tree makes the back of my hands itch....like it used to back in the day). Christmas cards....meh. I'd rather visit with friends and family than send a card and maybe a letter of what I've been up to. 

...and presents for the sake of buying presents for people....no thanks.

I'm at least self aware enough to know that I'm a bit....grinchy during Christmas and when kiddos are involved I can and will suck it up. While I am making note of my more negative feelings of the holidays, don't think for a second I don't participate. I do, just on my terms.

I do like giving gifts, I just loathe the obligation of gift-giving. I tend to get things year-round as I see them for friends and family. I may or may not hold off on giving them until Christmas, but with one exception (and not kids) I'm not going to feel bad if I didn't get someone I call friend or family a Christmas gift. I also don't feel the slightest bit unhappy if I don't receive anything from others this season. Like a few of us I'm a grown-ass adult with no children and grandchildren. Everyday is Christmas for me!

One thing I do this season though, is make gifts.....more for my friends and co-workers. I probably spend more than I should doing so and I don't leave any of my coworkers out, and this flies pretty much in the face of everything I've typed out so far. The thing is I really enjoy making gifts, probably much more than I should. I'm like 20% hoarder to begin with so the collecting of raw materials and tools required to make said gifts is sometimes a scavenger hunt that takes months. Often there is a fair amount of research involved, maybe some test runs and tweaks.....it's a freakin process!

My gaming group is definitely part of my extended family (sorry guys, that's how I roll) and they may or may not be in my recipient list.......last year Christmas came in May or June because my elf had dissemination issues....which are only being pointed out to make fun of him today (Hi Richard!). Last year I did something special for the group in addition to the "normal" gift I made which was a small collection of homemade bitters.

Now clearly I've been rambling on a bit, as I do, but if you're still with me and haven't said, "Screw this, Elf is playing on Netflix, or somewhere..." you might be hoping I'll come around to a point, which is....if you are the "normal" type you might want to get something for your fellow gamers. Again, for my home group, I really hope the previous paragraphs highlight how I'm 110% not needing anything, but for anyone/everyone else the thought of having to add a few more gifts to your Christmas shopping list might be a bit much, so maybe we can brainstorm this thing....and (obviously) I'm going to have some biases thrown in.

If I was feeling any pressure to get some gaming gifts my inclination would be to make something, so that's where I'll start. I like to double-dip somewhat so my initial recommendation would be to get some printed "books" from a small publisher. I'm d30 biased and the man behind New Big Dragon Games Unlimited is my home GM, so I'm suggesting heading over to Lulu.com and getting some of his materials. You can also do DriveThruRPG if you want to print it locally (a quick trip to FedEx Kinkos can work in a last-minute pitch). Now I'm a dice snob, so generally giving me dice (not that this is about giving me anything) isn't ideal, BUT I've recommended Monday Knight Adventures DCC compatible dice sets before. I gave out a few sets last summer and I used some in a game and I actually liked them. The D30s rolled well for me and after my "lost dice" scare this summer I'm totally using one of these as my relatively-expendable travel dice.

I'm also a big fan of Inkwell Ideas and Inked Adventures. Giving the gift of some mapping software or cool map dice from Inkwell Ideas or getting some of Billiam's (Inked Adventures) token or dungeon tiles is cool. As I'm thinking about it I'm seriously considering getting some IA dungeon tiles printed out, glued to some cheap Dollar General foam core, and then cut out as maybe a gift to myself........

I like the idea of getting some digital products, supporting those creators, and then using that to make some physical products as the gift. It does take a little more work, but it isn't that expensive (cash-wise) and I'm really burying the lead here.....at least for me this kind of creation is mentally and physically relaxing during what can otherwise be a stressful holiday. Can't get some normal games in and things are feeling a little hectic? Spend some time building terrain as a gift.....

You could take some of JV West's character sheets and printed them up as a small pad of PC sheets. If you have a decent enough printer you could print them to blank 4x6 index cards and then take some binder clips (to use as a vice) and some white/rubber glue to make a pad.....might even find a small tin/box at the dollar store that can hold a pencil and some dice (let them supply the dice.......) and you're good. Honestly I'd buy a package of gridded index cards for a buck or so and toss in a few so they could map if needed, but you do you....go nuts.

These are just some gaming related things......if your gaming group's waistlines can handle it a plate of cookies or fudge always works in a pinch. Yet, again just me.....I'd go off-book a bit and do something like some Hot Sauce Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies......

......now as a small gesture of goodwill and kind of a present to you for suffering my ramblings not just today, but all year......here's a cookbook I put together a few years ago of previous food gifts I've made over the years. I do recall adding a couple of different "family" recipes and I'm 110% that some of these came from other unattributed sources, but may or may not have been tweaked by me. At least one recipe is totally mine because it took me a good 10 years to get from the initial, somebody-else's recipe (actually a conglomeration of like three recipes) to mine. 


I'll have to update this cookbook 'cause this year I'm making my own concoction I'm calling Triple Fermented Mustard.








PS. IIRC the cookie recipe is on page 23.
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