Rach and I did something we rarely do these days - we ventured into Manhattan (often referred to as "The City" by New Yorkers). I had forgotten that hell's Furnaces are directly linked to the Subway system in The City, and I couldn't wait to venture out of the warrens known as the NYC Subway System and into the surface reaches of Manhattan.
Heh!
In any case, we were meeting up with Professor DM, JoetheLawyer, and a few others for what is now a yearly tradition of gamer shopping, followed quickly by gamer eating and gamer drinking.
A fun time was had, stories were told, and the attendees left (hopefully) satiated.
As usual, we forgot to take a photo to commemorate the event, but I'm toying with the idea of adding a January meet-up to the schedule. I mean, gaming purchases, Irish food, and good beer are timeless, correct? ;)
The picture above shows my acquisitions for this trip :)
The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.
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
I'm a huge fan of Gaming Ballistic, ever since I first laid hands on Dungeon Grappling. It simply showed that Doug was wired into what people want AND can readily use at their game table. Be it for OSE, Dungeon Fantasy, The Fantasy Trip, or his own system, Doug releases top-notch products.
I love fantasy settings, and I'm looking forward to seeing what Doug has put together. I've also promised to run The Fantasy Trip at NTRPG Con 2024.
The Infinite Archipelago: The Isle of Sedra Kickstarterhas about 24 hours left in its funding period as I type this, and it's hit its funding goal, so we should be seeing the results around November of this year. Print plus digital is 50 bucks (plus shipping) and purely digital is 30 bucks.
A setting guide to the land that includes Gwalathar and Ironskull Castle. The major cities and locations are expanded on, and factional alliances and conflicts provided, supporting all manner of adventures, including dark gothic fantasy, monster hunting, labyrinth and wilderness adventuring, and political intrigue.
The Barony of Gwalathar: A fertile land surrounded by deadly foes, and a vassal state to the Holy Kingdom of Elazar over the sea. With the baron's soldiers fighting overseas, it's up to heroes to step up, especially with neighbors like....
The Duchy of Thorn: A tormented ruler sees conspiracies and threats everywhere. In a land where even the duke's daughter was taken and slain by a vampire, who can blame him? Can his new Monster Hunters' Guild turn the tide?
The Warlock Kingdoms: Five petty states ruled by sorcerers and inhuman lords, locked in a bloody conflict. One free city that has cast off the ancient chains of feudalism in a parliamentary revolution. Can it survive?
Vixengard: Fabled city of beasts, ruled by a kitsune queen said to be fabulously rich in spices. What ships would dare the long voyage to treat with her? And what of the rumors of dire threats from the Queen of Swarms?
The Emerald Mountains: Home to gold, gems … and dragons. There, the goblin prince Rykzaor schemes against his neighbors.
The City-State of Tamaz: Sitting on the fringe of the Red Desert and its Scorpion Sands, trading caravans and adventures cross the monster-haunted expanse. Ruins of the ancient Scorpion Empire dot the rugged waste. Its entombed queens and warlords may not be as dead as they appear....
The Reaver Coast: Dotted with the ancient burial mounds of the Sea Reavers and relics of times where they sacrificed and worshipped in the strange rites of serpent cults. It is an unquiet place, peppered with treasure-filled barrows.
The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.
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
Holy crap! This RPG collection just went live on Humble Bundle and it's stunning! Not just OSR releases, but some truly classic D20 era picks.
My OSRpicks, simply best of the best, are:
Monstrosities, Dark Secrets Darker Secrets RPG, The Beaten Path series, Gangbusters B/X RPG, Hall of the Rainbow Mage, and a bunch of others. Damn, it's such a good selection!
My D20-era picks are:
Rappan Athuk: Reloaded, Demonheart, Lost City of Barakus, Tome of Horrors, The Bonegarden, Book of Taverns, and a few others.
I'm already in for 25 bucks. 54 RPG releases. Impossible to beat...
Gritty fantasy, bands of thieves & barbarians, and dark necromancy rule in this treasure trove of tabletop RPG resources! This eclectic collection of rulebooks, campaign settings, and supplements explores the pulpier side of fantasy role-playing. Delve into Rappan Athuk, the world’s deadliest dungeon. Discover Wonders of the Ages in the Tome of Artifacts. Stock your temples, forests, and seas with creatures of the massive, popular Monstrosities tome. Get all the digital goods for $25, or double down with the 580+ page softcover edition of Monstrosities for $65—and help support Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society with your purchase!
The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.
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
I am a HUGE fan of The Dread Thingnomicon from Raging Swan Press. I went ahead and ordered The Dread Thingnomicon in hardcover, after snagging the PDF on sale, it is that good in my opinion. The Dread Thingnomicon is over 475 pages in length, and the first 50 pages are available for free to preview on the sales page (20 of which literally are the Table of Contents). Yes, The Dread Thingnomicon is simply huge ;)
The Dread Thingnomiconis normally27.95 in PDF, but until tomorrow morning it is marked down to 16.77. Yes, this is not a cheap offering by any stretch of the imagination, but you get what you pay for and The Dread Thingnomicon is the rare beast that I feel comfortable paying that price for a PDF.
Are you a busy GM? Does session prep take too long? Do you never have time to design the cool little details that bring your game to life? Fear not! That’s where the Dread Thingonomicon comes in.
Crammed full of system-neutral themed lists, flavourful NPCs and more, the Dread Thingonomicon is designed to give you—the time-crunched GM—the tools to effortlessly add flavoursome verisimilitude to your game.
If your campaign features abnormal lesser undead, alchemist’s laboratories, ancient necropolises, archives & libraries, bandits & brigands, besieged castles, black dragon lairs, blue dragon lairs, bustling marketplaces, corpses, creepy graveyards, crypts & catacombs, cultists’ lairs, curio shops & pawnbrokers, dark caverns, fairs & festivals, fallen dwarven holds, fanes of evil, fanes of good, farming villages, fecund jungles, forts on the borderland, ghostly hauntings, goblin lairs, green dragon lairs, haunted houses, henchfolk & hirelings, hill giant steadings, items most wondrous, kobold warrens, lich’s lairs, local landmarks, lunatic asylums, merchant caravans, minions of evil, necromancer’s lairs, noble’s manor houses, noisome marshes, noisome sewers, ocean voyages, orc villages, red dragon lairs, roads, ruined castles, ruined cities, ruined monasteries, ruined wizard’s towers, seedy taverns, shadowed borderlands, slavers’ compounds, smugglers’ villages, smugglers’ lairs, snow and ice, subterranean mines, sun-scorched deserts, sunken ships, thievish doings, torture chambers, travellers’ inns, troublesome treasures, urban chases, urban events, urban landmarks, urban oddities, vampire’s castles, war-ravaged lands, white dragon lairs, wilderness camps, windswept moors, wizard’s towers and wrecked ships (and whose doesn’t?) the Dread Thingonomicon is for you!
Comprising the entire 20 Things line, the Dread Thingonomicon weighs in at 476 pages of content and is the culmination of seven years of design.
Use the system-neutral material herein either before or during play and bask in your players’ adulation.
This product is a Dual Format PDF and comprises two versions, one optimized for printing and use on a normal computer and one optimized for use on a mobile device such as an iPad.
The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.
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
Through Sunken Lands and Other Adventures is normally 9.99 in PDF, but until tomorrow morning, it is on sale for 4 bucks. This should be a bargain that is hard to pass up...
In the common rooms of the great city’s countless inns, in the bathhouses of the merchant quarter, and before the altars of a thousand gods, brave and desperate adventurers meet and make plans. They leave every day and seek their fortunes in the Sunken Lands.
Travel with us through sunken lands...
Lots of times, we want to play a roleplaying game but just don’t have the time for all the prep work involved. No more. Through Sunken Lands is a kit to make a motley crew of ruthless sellswords, gifted sorceresses, and cunning thieves, and send them off in search of gold and glory. Now we have this simple swords and sorcery roleplaying game that gives a group all the tools they need to play an exciting adventure in a single evening, no homework, no fuss.
Anyone with a background in OSR games will already be comfortable with the core rules of Through Sunken Lands.
• Inspired by the works of Michael Moorcock, Fritz Leiber, and Robert E. Howard.
• Character Playbooks and Scenario Packs for play in a single evening with no prep.
• Player driven setting design for fleshing out the great city and the world beyond.
• A sample sword and sorcery setting: the impossible city of Jundarr and the Hundred Seas.
• Nine Character Playbooks, including the Spell Thief and the Eldritch Sorcerer King.
• Three Scenario Packs: the Mysterious Island, the Treasure Hunt, and the Wizard’s Tower.
The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.
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
Back in the later years of the first half of my time in the RPG World of Gaming, I became truly infatuated with The World of Darkness series of games, especially Werewolf the Apocalypse and Mage the Ascension, to the point that my collection of said releases was fairly complete and included the GURPS conversions. Never actually had a chance to run any of it, as my players had ZERO interest, but they were good reads.
Flash forward to the decade or so when I wasn't actively gaming, just collecting and reading, and the release of Monte Cook's World of Darkness. THIS was a version of the setting my old group would have gladly played, but alas, we were no longer gaming at that point. I still have my copy on a bookshelf.
One year ago, eldritch horrors of cosmic malevolence called the Iconnu attempted to destroy our reality.
They failed, but the attempt left the world in rapidly darkening shadow. Dead souls returned to claim living bodies, creating blood-drinking undead fiends: vampires. Bestial spirits came as well, to create werewolves, and demons formed bodies from worldly matter. Magic crashed back into the world, and mages wield its power for whatever purpose suits them. Humans called the Awakened unknowingly keep the darkness at bay.
These supernatural creatures struggle against each other and clash in the shadows, most attempting to destroy the world, but a few fighting to preserve it. And over it all, the Iconnu still lurk, squeezing the world like an eggshell.
This book includes a complete setting: a new vision of the World of Darkness.
Characters play as vampires, mages, werewolves, demons or Awakened and wield frightening supernatural powers against their own kind.
The world is the one we know, but now much darker: destruction in the central United States, nightmares coming to life and beasts roaming shattered cityscapes.
This game uses a variation of the most popular roleplaying game system in the world.
The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.
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
I'm busier than expected today, just life & work "stuff", but I've been (im)patiently waiting for a particular online auction for an old adventure I want to pick up. This last week I started going through what printed adventures I have, cataloging them, and then putting into storage. A select few I'm going to display (somehow) and I've always wanted to have a big display of every version of Tomb of Horrors from each edition. Maybe it'll happen, maybe it won't.
I have a few old TSR adventures that have never been played. Whenever I look at one of them I'm reminded of an old friend I know I've posted about here at the Tavern (Link if it matters). I still wish I had a microphone handy when he went on a truly epic rant about how about the only pristine adventure should be the one that wasn't sold. Adventures should be dog-eared, highlighted, notes in the margins, maps all marked up.....
.....and I kind of agree with him, but I'm not going to do that to an adventure that is almost as old as I am!
Since most of the adventures I've written were made for specific tournaments, they didn't have print runs, but local copies. I fondly remember taking my outline, doing a preliminary copy, and then marking the ever-loving-sh....stuff out of it. Those notes went back into a re-write and I wish I had the foresight to keep that original marked up copy.
Now I know I'm no Gary, but can you imagine how many people would lose their shit (I said it this time) and the contents of their wallets to get their hands on a personally-destroyed Gary Gygax copy of an adventure? Or maybe his initial outline/notes/whatever his system was? That would be an epic auction, for sure!
I haven't GM'd in far, far too long, but I assume I'll do more like last time and play a little fast & loose by stitching parts of multiple adventures together. I like to have set "events" planned with each event mostly taking place at the player's pace, but some stuff just happens and if the players aren't involved they'll get to see any aftermath, assuming there is one.
Until then though, I'll probably still be picking up new, or just new to me adventures and not destroying them through play.....
All Dogs Go To Hell
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This is an adventure review, so there will be spoilers.All Dogs Go To Hell
is a Lamentations of the Flame Princess adventure by Semen Tsevelev that
was inc...
d100 Druidic Circle Missions
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*old related stuff*
https://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2019/07/d100-thieves-guild-missions.html
https://elfmaidsand...
Gamma World 1st Edition Tech Roll Hack
-
While I quite like the game within a game of figuring out technology in
Gamma World 1e. It does leave something to be desired when playing
online.
He...
Down in Yon Forest
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By Zzarchov Kowolski Self Published NGR/OSR Level ? Down in Yon Forest is a
seasonal adventure about a small town dealing with the threat of Krampus
and to...
The State of Mythic Bastionland
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I'm still toiling away on the pre-Kickstarter Quickstart version of Mythic
Bastionland, which is taking slightly longer than expected. In short, I
want t...
FR14: The Great Glacier (1992)
-
From the Back of the Book:
"A village is only as livable as its surroundings. We are caretakers not
only of our homes, but of our world."
-Inum
Strange ...
Felltower: Power Casting
-
After a quick discussion Sunday, here is a ruling for *Power Casting*:
*Power Casting*
As written; one level maximum. A caster with this and 6 levels of ca...
#ReaperCon #Dungeon23 Session Reports 3-5
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In case you missed the first part, click here for Sessions 1+2
*Session 3*
***Short session, as I played Blood on the Clocktower (after dark 21+
session...
Miskatonic Monday #220: The Great American Dynasty
-
Between October 2003 and October 2013, Chaosium, Inc. published a series of
books for *Call of Cthulhu* under the Miskatonic University Library
Associati...
Playtest session #3
-
Playtest session #3 was held today, very eventful and fun but not too
rewarding. All four of the players from the previous session returned
(including th...
[REVIEW] Alchymystyk Hoosegow
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*Alchymystyk HoosegowAlchymystyk Hoosegow (2023)*
by Alex Zisch
Self-published
Level 7 “with some fatalities”
Hello, and welcome to part SEVEN of **THE...
Non-rule Rules in my Campaigns
-
Someone asked on Enworld about informal conventions and customs in people’s
games that go beyond the mechanical rules of the game system, and it
occurred t...
Autumn Is Gam(ing) Season...
-
No, not football. Tabletop roleplaying. It was autumn of 1977 when I fell
in love with the Rankin/Bass Hobbit, and autumn of 1979 when I found out we
wer...
Four Books on War
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“ .. Belgium’s leading living poet whose life before 1914 had been a
flaming dedication to socialist and humanitarian ideals that were then
believed to e...
Classic Fantasy Imperative now available!
-
*Classic Fantasy* is the *Mythras* version of classic (1970s and 1980s) “*Dungeons
& Dragons*.” The “Imperative” version is a somewhat stripped-down version...
Into the Megadungeon
-
Just a quickie to let you know that if you're not following Ben Laurence's
new podcast Into the Megadungeon, you are doing yourself a serious
disservice....
Proxy? You Misspelled Patsy! Part 1
-
Mechane, Atomo and Spatia had a delightful little trade union going.
Things improved with time. Spatia's ships improved their drives and began
reaching ...
The Cult of Flesh (and the Three Great Gifts)
-
The Third Age
In the Beginning was the Authority, and his house was the Throne. In the
First Age he created the stars, but their songs disappointed him. In...
A Girl Called Samson - book review
-
I am going to deviate slightly from my usual gaming topic today. I have a
'mini book club' with a friend and she likes to read books I typically
would not...
Martel Tankette
-
This is a niche product if ever there was one — the 1925 wooden prototype
of the tiny one-man British *Martel *tankette.
The model is designed at 1:100...
The Fires of Lost Tlarba
-
A dense and dusty city toils under a flickering yellow sky. None may enter,
but everyone does. All may leave, but none do.
Prickly selks stand at the gat...
Arnecon
-
I've got a busy gaming schedule coming up. I'm playing in Virtual Greyhawk
con and running 2 games (Lakofka's Devils Dung and Lost Dungeons of
Tonisborg...
Change is in the air! I'm moving to Substack!
-
TLDR; Moving here: https://chgowiz.substack.com
I've been using Blogger, formerly Blogspot, since 2008, when I was at my
old blog http://oldguyrpg.blogs...
New! Book of Lost Tables
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What’s this, a new book? Yes! The Book of Lost Tables is a revised and
expanded version of the Random Encounter and Terrain Generator. You can
find the det...
Free GM Resource: Dungeon X
-
[image: Free GM Resource: Dungeon X]
I came across this on Facebook and while it is a Free GM Resource, it's
also an ad (of sorts) for a Kickstarter than ...
The Dreams In Gary’s Basement Update
-
Pat Kilbane’s documentary of Gary Gygax and Dungeons and Dragons, The
Dreams In Gary’s Basement, was released online to Kickstarter backers
today. This mul...
On the OSR Christmas in July
-
Isn't it disappointing that only digital files are on sale at DTRPG?
So I've dropped the prices of print copies of my books!
Bestial Encounters Caused By...
Warsmith's Words: Preparing for 40K 10th edition
-
Welcome back to the Vault! Since my last post we've had the release of
10th edition, and I've spent a fair amount of time building the shiny new
models ...
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...
Sorcery & Super Science! Bundle of Holding
-
Heya folks, we've got a quick-deal Bundle of Holding going on right now
that includes *ALL* (yes, you heard right) *ALL* of our Sorcery & Super
Science! ...
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...
Random Encounters: Love Them!
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Picture swiped for my own purposes from Random Encounter. I want this
sticker!
It's been a while since my last entry. More health issues. More computer...
Magical Magic That Feels Magical
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*14. Heart Of The Beast: Cast this spell on a slain monster’s heart (or
reasonably equivalent organ or portion), then consume it. At any time, you
may ...
Flux Space
-
I’ve been inspired by my time working with Gus on Tombrobbers of the
Crystal Frontier, and want to play at making something similar: a big intro
adventure ...
The Blade Itself
-
I just finished listening to the audiobook of The Blade Itself, volume one
in Joe Abercrombie’s The First Law trilogy. This was my first exposure to
his wo...
Genteel Magistrate at FenCon XVIII
-
Victorious author Mike Stewart will be a guest at FenCon XVIII this weekend
at the Sheraton DFW Airport hotel, 4440 W. John Carpenter Freeway, Irving,
TX, ...
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...