I answered, forwarded, and read all outstanding OSR Christmas related emails this morning. I am all caught up as far as I can tell, but there are still unclaimed gifts. If you have a gift pending and you haven't emailed me to claim it, please do. If you haven't heard from me, and you have emailed me, comment below. I dug through my spam folder and there were no OSR Christmas-related emails in it.
There WILL be a Gamers' Health Livestream tonight but at 10 PM Eastern instead of the usual 8 PM. We want to ensure we have time to spend with family AND our community.
OSR Christmas gifts will likely be awarded Monday, Dec 26th. OSR Christmas still has a few days left ;)
The DCC RPG is the only RPG I've run that had the same magic to me as running AD&D 1e. Sadly, it was short-lived, as my group didn't enjoy the rules as much as they enjoyed the adventures. Now, I convert the DCC RPG adventures I like to Swords & Wizardry on the fly.
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 cast on Anchor, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar
It's the most, wonderful time of the year - it's time for OSR Christmas! I just verified, and this is officially the 10th Year for OSR Christmas. Holy Santa, but that's a lot of gift-giving!
Now, this is Day 8 of OSR Christmas (and the assigning of gifts for OSR Christmas Day 6). Some may ask: "where was OSR Christmas Day 7?" Day 7 was on the Tavern's Youtube Channel on the Wednesday Night Livestream and Day 9 will be Friday, 8 PM, again on the Youtube Channel Livestream. Day 5 was awarded to subscribers of the Tenkar's Tavern Substack.
The following are the gift receivers from Day 6 of OSR Christmas. If you see your name below, you are being gifted. Email me at tenkarsDOTtavern at that gmail thing with "OSR Christmas" in the subject. Digital gifts need an email, and physical gifts need a mailing address.
$10 DTRPG Gift Certificate, donated by The Tavern - Worldwide - MGSherm
OSR Refrigerator Magnet, donated by Thadeus Moore - Worldwide - davrion
Shadowdark PDFs, full set, donated by James Mishler Games - Worldwide - Matt
Arduin Map - Physical, donated by Emperors' Choice Games- Worldwide - Tim Baker
Endless Encounters PDF (choice of B/X or 5e), donated by Pacesetter Games - Worldwide -
Fire in the Mohle! in PDF for MCC, donated by Silver Bulette - US ONLY - Narmer
Frog God Gift Pack - Either Splinters of Faith for 5e or an Assortment of Soft Cover Modules - Print - US Only - Trainer
To be in the mix to be potentially gifted one of the following gifts, you need to comment below. One random gift receiver will be picked for each gift sometime on Saturday, December 24th. So you have 2 days to get your comment in. Note: if you are outside the United States, I need you to indicate such. Some gifts are cost-prohibitive to ship outside the US. Blame the USPS, not us.
So, without further delay, the gifts in today's OSR Christmas Day 8 mix are:
$10 DTRPG Gift Certificate, donated by The Tavern - Worldwide
OSR Refrigerator Magnet, donated by Thadeus Moore - Worldwide
Shadowdark PDFs, full set, donated by James Mishler Games - Worldwide
Arduin Map - Physical, donated by Emperors' Choice Games- Worldwide
Endless Encounters PDF (choice of B/X or 5e), donated by Pacesetter Games - Worldwide
Dice Tower and Tray – Set – Archania Workshop - Note: US ONLY
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 cast on Anchor, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar
Bundle of Holding has been hitting it out of the park recently. Their latest bundle, 13th Age MEGA, is an amazing value for a truly well-spoken system. I have had the core book on my shelves for a number of years, and with this bundle, I think I'll complete my collection in PDF format.
Especially suited for new 13A players, this bargain-priced Megabundle gives you everything you need to run your own 13th Age campaign in the Dragon Empire. (Even if you bought our December 2015 13th Age Bundle and its December 2019 companion offer 13th Age Adventures, the six recent titles here might still entice you.)
For just US$24.95 you get all nine titles in our Starter Collection (retail value $158) as DRM-free ebooks, including the complete 13th Age Core Book (plus the Free RPG Day adventure Make Your Own Luck), the 13 True Ways rules expansion, the Bestiary and Bestiary 2, The Book of Loot and Loot Harder, The Book of Ages, the introductory adventure Crown of Axis, and the Game Master's Screen and Resource Book.
And if you pay more than the threshold price of $40.66, you'll level up and also get our entire Bonus Collection with ten more titles worth an additional $172, including the supplements The Book of Demons and Book of the Underworld; the adventures Shards of the Broken Sky, Elven Towers, Eyes of the Stone Thief (plus the conversion for D&D 5E), and Shadows of Eldolan; three sets of iconic Battle Scenes (with their accompanying Map Folios) – High Magic & Low Cunning, The Crown Commands, and Fire & Faith; and the 171-page adventure Diamonds and Shadows, a collection of seven modules from the 13th Age Organized Play program available exclusively in this offer and nowhere else.
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 cast on Anchor, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar
It's the most, wonderful time of the year - it's time for OSR Christmas! I just verified, and this is officially the 10th Year for OSR Christmas. Holy Santa, but that's a lot of gift-giving!
Now, this is Day 6 of OSR Christmas (and the assigning of gifts for OSR Christmas Day 4). Some may ask: "where was OSR Christmas Day 1?" Day 1 was on the Tavern's Youtube Channel on the Wednesday Night Livestream and Day 3 was last night, Friday, again on the Youtube Channel Livestream. Day 5 was awarded to subscribers of the Tenkar's Tavern Substack.
The following are the gift receivers from Day 4 of OSR Christmas. If you see your name below, you are being gifted. Email me at tenkarsDOTtavern at that gmail thing with "OSR Christmas" in the subject. Digital gifts need an email, and physical gifts need a mailing address.
$10 DTRPG Gift Certificate, donated by The Tavern - Worldwide - Helen
OSR Refrigerator Magnet, donated by Thadeus Moore - Worldwide - The Malum
Shadowdark PDFs, full set, donated by James Mishler Games - Worldwide ShadowStalker
Endless Encounters PDF (choice of B/X or 5e), donated by Pacesetter Games - Worldwide - Lasgunpacker
Fire in the Mohle! in Print for MCC, donated by Silver Bulette - US ONLY - goeticgeek
To be in the mix to be potentially gifted one of the following gifts, you need to comment below. One random gift receiver will be picked for each gift sometime on Thursday, December 22nd. So you have 2 days to get your comment in. Note: if you are outside the United States, I need you to indicate such. Some gifts are cost-prohibitive to ship outside the US. Blame the USPS, not us.
So, without further delay, the gifts in today's OSR Christmas Day 6 mix are:
$10 DTRPG Gift Certificate, donated by The Tavern - Worldwide
OSR Refrigerator Magnet, donated by Thadeus Moore - Worldwide
Shadowdark PDFs, full set, donated by James Mishler Games - Worldwide
Arduin Map - Physical, donated by Emperors' Choice Games- Worldwide
Endless Encounters PDF (choice of B/X or 5e), donated by Pacesetter Games - Worldwide
Fire in the Mohle! in PDF for MCC, donated by Silver Bulette - US ONLY
Frog God Gift Pack - Either Splinters of Faith for 5e or an Assortment of Soft Cover Modules - Print - US Only
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 cast on Anchor, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar
The Fantasy Trip Bundle presents The Fantasy Trip, the tabletop roleplaying game designed by Steve Jackson in its 2018 Legacy Edition from Steve Jackson Games.
The Fantasy Trip is one of the few early RPGs I didn't encounter in my early days in the hobby. I was lucky enough to get an early copy of the Kickstarter Boxed Set directly from Phil Reed of Steve Jackson Games a few months before I got my Kickstarter copy. It was an impressive box. Reading The Fantasy Trip, you can see the roots of GURPS in its design.
This all-new TFT Bundle brings you a Cidri-sized lineup for an unbeatable bargain price. For just US$14.95 you get all four titles in our Core Collection (retail value $47) as DRM-free ebooks. The star attraction is the mammoth The Fantasy Trip Legacy Edition that includes Melee, Wizard, In the Labyrinth, both Death Test solo adventures, the dungeon crawl Tollenkar's Lair, and tons of extras. You also get the solo adventure Red Crypt and two play aids: the Labyrinth Planner and Deluxe Character Journal.
The Fantasy Trip CompanionAnd if you pay more than the threshold price of $25.58, you'll level up and also get our entire Bonus Collection with four supplements worth an additional $57, including The Fantasy Trip Companion, TFT Adventures Volume 1, The Book of Unlife, and the first issue of the Fantasy Trip magazine, Hexagram.
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 cast on Anchor, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar
It's a week before Christmas and it's pretty much crunch time for a lot of people. Last-minute presents, wrapping what you already have, maybe one too-many holiday parties/obligations, oh, and the inevitable travel plans (even if it's people coming to you).
For me, my "crunch-time" is trying to figure out just how I'm going to get in all of my Christmas movies: Elf, Bad Santa, Bad Mom's Christmas, Scrooged, Miracle on 34th Street, A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas, Anna and the Apocalypse, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Die Hard (I know it's not a...whatever), It's a Wonderful Life, Office Christmas Party, Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Story, Eight Crazy Nights (I know, it's a Hannukah film, but deal), Fat Man, Mixed Nuts, and the Guardians of the Galaxy Christmas Special (for the 4th time). I have some other Christmas movies, but I don't need to see .....every .....single .....one.
Now as far as the holidays and gaming intersect, I have rarely seen a GM/campaign that has regular holidays as a thing. My HackMaster campaign did (I can envision of few readers rolling their eyes.......of course HackMaster had holidays!), but to be fair I didn't use my calendar, but one provided by somebody else. He had this whole bit of math done up to track lunar cycles (three moons) and specific holidays based on intersecting moon phases with some set holidays. I took all the math and created an Excel sheet so all you had to do was enter the year and *poof* here's a calendar for the year with holidays marked. My campaign was set thousands of years after the destructions of the Old Gawds, so I had to use Excel to make it work.
Granted, since Christmas is a religious holiday, as is Hannukah, and the majority of RPG campaigns have multiple gods...so would there be a LOT of "Christmas" holidays? Or maybe there is a predominate religion in each region and only that one has a "Christmas"?
Since before modern times almost all of our/the holidays we had were religious, not secular...holy crap that would be a HUGE amount of holidays to figure out for a campaign calendar. I mean I think it could be fun to do all of your gods, but if you use the Petty Gods book (like I do/would), you might need to lump a few together or your calendar would be only religious holidays!
Now.....if I can find the time between Christmas movies (and other last-minute holiday tasks), I think I'm going to stat-up Santa Claus for OSR....I'm thinking a dual-identity Fae that is Sinterklaas/Krampus that is (unfortunately) real easy to strike a bargain with, but like all dealings with the Fae.....there can be issues.
The Shadow People (book review)
-
*Thoughts draw them. They are sensitive, they pick up something from us,
they can track us by our thoughts as dogs can track by scent. Angry or
disturbed o...
Pirates and Necromancers, a Play Report
-
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...
My Mince Pie Odyssey
-
Undoubtedly, many of you reading this have also seen the comprehensive
mincemeat pie reviews written by Kelvin Green over at his Brainsplurge blog.
If not...
The Witch for ShadowDark - Amaranth Lilis
-
Yesterday, I talked about my "Can I play it as a witch" character, Esme
Valethorne for my *Witch Book of Shadows* supplement for ShadowDark. Today,
I wa...
River of Cradles (1992)
-
From the web:
The complete and essential player and gamemaster reference for RuneQuest
adventures and campaigns in civilized Prax. Revising and updating...
Phony Stark
-
Elon Musk is a tool for so many reasons (not just because of this). He's
the modern day Thomas Edison and I mean that in all the worst ways. I saw
this sta...
Cult of the Sky Titans
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By Into the Weird Blue YonderSelf PublishedKnaveLevel 1 A blight creeps
across the land. Trees blacken and die. People disappear in the night, only
to retu...
The Rules Made Me Do It
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There are essays about this, so I'm not about to add my own to the mix.
Instead, just a couple of thoughts that always come to mind when I think of
this ...
Crowdsourced Dungeon: Blue Sky Temple
-
I joined Bluesky last month and decided to pretend that it's actually G+
and the year is 2015.
This means that I'll be trying to have conversations, bu...
Twelve Module Ideas
-
Apropos of nothing, here are 12 ideas for modules with one-sentence
descriptors. If you like this post, write your own variant.
1. The Tophet of the Gia...
Games, Grinches, and Good Ideas...
-
As we enter the holiday season, yours truly can't help but remember what
was doubtless the most important (and consequential) Christmas gift to ever
grac...
TCT - Maybe going back?
-
Sometimes I just hate our hobby. Many of us are creative types and we
generate so much amazing things that my attention I end up getting lost and
halting a...
Soft-Heads - VotE Development
-
The friendly Neurovore familiar to so many is only one expression of a much
more complex life-form which, over the course of its existence, takes on
many...
More VTT questions for Felltower
-
I've had a little more time, so I've been spending it on learning my VTT of
choice more in order to enhance Felltower. I found a good source of tokens,
so ...
November ‘24 In Review
-
Fuck. Just…. Fuck. We're all going to be dealing with the negative
consequences of this election for years, if not decades. My wish is that
everyone who ...
City of Scorn
-
City of Scorn is one of the centerpieces in my current Shadowdark Campaign.
I've never spent the time to draw each sector. Each of those black squares
i...
Warsmith's Words: Magic Trev the Sorcerer
-
Greetings fellow Warsmiths! A very quick update to share a picture of the
latest addition to the Iron Warriors. This is Magic Trev the Chaos Sorcerer.
I...
Fokker D-II and D-III
-
The Fokker D-II was a fairly mediocre and uninspired successor to the E-III
monoplane responsible for the “Fokker Scourge” of 1915-’16. The D-III
impr...
Keeping busy with the Trolls!
-
Hello all, My apologies for the inactivity on this blog over the past bit.
Life is Lifin’ as the “kids” say. 😉 As some of you know I’ve been tapped
by Tro...
Open Ended Games 2024 Q&A
-
I’m currently running two campaigns using the *Against the Darkmaster*
("VsD") fantasy role-playing game, one set in my homebrew setting of Ukrasia,
the ...
OSR: Magical Industrial Gunboats
-
Here's some useful information for river-based adventures using *Magical
Industrial Revolution*. Skip to Part 3 or click this PDF link if you just
want t...
Quick Convention Report: LongCon 2024
-
[image: Quick Convention Report: LongCon 2024]
Last weekend I was able to attend LongCon in Longview, TX. I had a work
trip to the Nashville area that en...
Welcome new Greyhawk Fans!
-
With the publication of the new Dungeon Master’s Guide, there are doubtless
going to be a lot of new D&D players interested in my favorite setting, the
Wor...
[BLOG] Year Eight: New Foundations
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The Hall of Mirrors stretches beyond the Two Infinities...This blog started
on 5 August 2016, making this part of the year a good time to take stock
and...
Knave Jammin’
-
Ben Milton, Mr. Questing Beast, is holding an adventure jam for the release
of the much-celebrated second edition of his game, Knave. Short form,
October...
D&D Player’s Handbook 2024
-
Being an incomplete, visual review of the 2024 Player’s Handbook. I got a
copy of this almost entirely on the strength of the new cover art: (This is
the “...
Concerning the Future of Traveller
-
I have been a fan of Traveller for a long time and have bought various
books over the years from just about every Traveller licensee, as well as
from Ma...
Grimdark vs. Eucatastrophe
-
Noisms has some interesting ideas in this post about his desire for some
depth to his grimdark, and turns to Gene Wolfe and Tolkien for relief.
Now, it ...
Musings on Sleep in OD&D – Is it Over-Powered?
-
Link to discussion
Let’s look at the sleep spell in Men & Magic:
>Sleep: A Sleep spell affects from 2–16 1st-level types (hit dice of up to
1 + 1), from...
It's been a bit
-
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...
Session #12 & Adventure Sites Compilation
-
Firstly, I wanted to let everybody know that Adventure Sites I by Coldlight
Press is now available as a free download on DriveThruRPG. It includes my
own...
Improvised Awful Lights Missions
-
Asking about The Awful Lights, a commenter asks:
*I'd love to hear about how this is run - with the Handler determining
mission location and objectives ...
Jim Ward's Adventure in Gygax's Wonderland
-
Last weekend at GaryCon, many of us raised a glass to the memory of Jim
Ward, who passed away just days before the convention. Ward was very
helpful to m...
The Economy Engine, v0.2
-
I made a thing. For D&D 3rd edition, so it might not be that interesting to
a lot of people. But I made it and I think it’s cool. The 3rd edition
Dungeon M...
*'s in SpaaaaaAaaaace
-
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!
-
As my vote regarding Substack in the “marketplace of ideas”, I’m moving to
self-hosting.
I’m now at (and hopefully staying for a long time at)
Blog: ht...
Time Rolls On
-
Today is December 31, 2023, in the mid-afternoon. In less than ten hours it
will be 2024. 2023 2023 was a good year. But all years are good years. Both
goo...
-
Heya folks, the 21st Salt Mine book, Import Export, has hit the digital
shelves! In the 21st book we follow Aaron Haddock-codename Stigma-as he
tries to ...
Moving On...
-
So, my D&D 5e experiment has blown up the lab in a puff of green smoke
leaving my face blackened like Wile E. Coyote after a failed roadrunner
Acme trap...
How to Keep Megadungeons Fresh
-
People often consider megadungeons boring. Not because the play style is
boring, but because they are in the same locale for a majority of the
campaign. If...
This is an Important Game Mechanic
-
*"That's the GM's Regional Map from my AOWG. And it's a damned good
regional map. It's not a good map for a Simple Homebrew Campaign. It does
some s$&...
Clean Your Room
-
Looking back at my little blog here. That last post… wow, I was having fun
playing WOW Classic! That was August of 1999 and I was having a blast… it
was ...
My RPG Zine Trilogy is on Kickstarter!
-
I can't believe I didn't post about it here!
The Dead are Coming, Screams Amongst the Stars and Running Out of Time are
on *Kickstarter right now!* Thes...
Maximum HP 004, one week to go
-
Just one week to go for Maximum HP issue #004, the undead. We are pushing
through stretch goals and wracking up contributions for the best issue yet.
We...
Steve Jackson Interview
-
James Maliszewski recently did an interview with Steve Jackson over on his
Grognardia blog. Steve chats about the beginnings of The Fantasy Trip and
upcomi...
Undermountain Map Origins
-
As documented on the Ruins of Undermountain sales page, "TSR didn't
actually use Ed Greenwood's original maps," at least not in their entirety.
This post d...
WB:FMAG Total Print Sales
-
Hello Folks,
The last time I did a quick sales report was in September 2018.
I pulled reports from Amazon, Lulu and DrivethruRPG from October to current
fo...
The Minotaur for Old-School Essentials
-
*Minotaur*
*Requirements:* Minimum STR 9, Minimum CON 9
*Prime Requisite:* STR and CON
*Hit Dice:* 1d10
*Maximum Level:* 8
*Armor:* Leather, including shield...
WIZARDS OF POHJOLA
-
Init +0
Melee Atk
• sword or dagger +1 (1d5 or 1d3)
Ranged Atk
• hot iron sparks +3 (1d4+2 to two targets within 20' but not closer than
5')
AC 14
HD 12d...
Dungeons & Dragonmead Fall Schedule
-
*As you know, I run public classic Dungeons & Dragons games at **The Loaded
Die**/Metro Detroit Game Night's Board Game Nigh at **Dragonmead**, in
Warren...
D&D Sling Damage vs. Large Targets
-
In many early editions of D&D, weapons were assigned two damage values: one
for small/medium targets (i.e. man-sized) and one for large targets (giants
and...
James A. Smith, Jr. Memorial Video
-
A beloved father, devoted friend, and D&D Dungeon Master extraordinaire. We
miss you! To view video, click here Memorial Video
Note - The original video...
Let's Talk About Pacing!
-
The idea, I think, is that the RPG is ultimately about the long game. Even
rolling back to the early days of Basic & Expert, the goal of the player
was...
Profane and Profound Prep Part 2
-
This is part 2 of my work to edit my magic items for a DMsGuild release,
along with adding cursed items along the way. Here is part 1. Bone of a
Saint 8000...
SHORT BREAK.
-
I'm going to take a break for a week or so and will start up again in the
New Year. Thanks for reading and we'll start with Level 6 when I get back.
Iain Lovecraft, 3D Sculptor
-
Nope, it's got nothing to do with Cthulhu. I just did a video conversation
with Iain Lovecraft, who designs 3D miniatures and terrain. If you're not
doi...
New website!
-
Slowly but surely, all the content here will make its way — in updated
form! — to my new website: timbannock.com. For fairly obvious reasons, that
site wil...
Please Update Your Link!
-
If you're seeing this, it means your link to the Greyhawk Grognard blog is
out of date.
Please update your link to www.greyhawkgrognard.com (RSS feed is
h...
Mord Mar - Session 6
-
We weren't able to play Mord Mar last week, due to a family funeral. This
week we played on Monday for the first time, due to kids returning to
school and ...
A Small, Quiet Plea
-
There has been a great deal of discussing political agendas, social
grievances, and personal attacks within the little corner of gaming that is
my hobby....
Don’t Sleep It’s Broken
-
Expanding/editing my comments from What Makes Something Broken G+ thread:
“Broken”, for me, is anything that makes normal character choices, tactics,
or ro...
Swords & Wizardry Light-Themed Birthday Party
-
Last month, my wife and I helped our oldest to celebrate his birthday in
style. Ever since 2013, we have hosted a themed birthday party for our
now-15-ye...