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Saturday, September 9, 2023

Far West RPG Releases Nearly 12 Years After Promised Release Date

I will give credit where credit is due. Gareth Skarka, nearly 12 years after the promised delivery date, has finally released Far West - in PDF. Don't hold your breath for print copies any time soon. 

Years ago, when Gareth felt he was being unfairly forced to offer refunds, refunds for print books were offered at full price less 10 bucks - as that was the assumed price of the PDF. Instead, Far West is currently on sale for 29.95 at DTRPG for a 278-page PDF. I can't speak for the gaming content, as I haven't read it yet and likely won't get to it for a while (after 12 years, what's the actual rush, right?), but I will offer some samples of the included art - art that was likely paid for by individual backers, like myself (59 of us), to be included in the book. You be the judge of whether or not THESE specific backers got / will get, their money's worth.




Tonight on Gamers' Health, Rach & I have a Special Guest, Author Daniel Hand. Daniel recently released Role-Playing Games in Psychotherapy: A Practitioner's Guide. Needless to say, Rach is taking the lead tonight 😉

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.

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, September 8, 2023

Humble Bundle - Trail of Cthulhu RPG

It's pretty good timing to release Trail of Cthulhu on Humble Bundle in September, just as stores are gearing up for Halloween. I always find that horror RPGs play out better in the fall, the atmosphere just seems to fit well.

Trail of Cthulhu brings The Cthulhu Mythos to the Gumshoe System. I have ZERO experience with the Gumshoe System, but I've been curious about the Trail of Cthulhu RPG for years, and this seems to be a low-risk opportunity to check it out.

With the Trail of Cthulhu Bundle, 18 bucks get you the core rules, adventures, a GM screen, audio, fiction, and more. 

Explore the sublime, horrifying worlds of H.P. Lovecraft at your gaming table with this Trail of Cthulhu bundle from Pelgrane Press. Utilizing the GUMSHOE RPG system to foreground the investigative elements of the Cthulhu mythos stories, this award-winning RPG delivers an experience that makes clue-finding engrossing and interactive for players, while amplifying the cosmic dread. Get the Trail of Cthulhu rulebook plus more than 20 other sourcebooks, adventures, and more to fuel uncountable campaigns’ worth of unfathomable eldritch horror, and support Cancer Research UK 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.

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, September 7, 2023

Top Secret / New World Order Core Rules for 1.99 in PDF

I nearly missed this! There is currently a Setting Sale over at DTRPG. One of the deeply discounted titles is Top Secret / New World Order Core Rules. Normally 9.99 in PDF, for a short time Top Secret / New World Order is on sale for 1.99!

I've played Top Secret / New World Order at NTRPG Con and Total Con, and it is a blast to play :)

The new espionage role-playing game from Merle M. Rasmussen, creator of the first espionage role-playing game.

The time: now. The place: everywhere.

Your mission: preserve peace and stability in a world rife with conflict, mistrust, duplicity, and shadowy organizations.

You are an agent of ICON: The International Covert Operatives Network. You have been recruited from your former life, trained in the ways of tradecraft, and sent into the field to handle the missions that other agencies cannot, or will not handle.

One player is the Administrator, describing and controlling the game world, while the other players take on the role of international spies, working behind the scenes where governments won’t go.

Tense negotiations, dangerous combat, thrilling car chases, tradecraft, surveillance, intrigue, and subterfuge are all at hand with the roll of the dice.

Top Secret: New World Order is a tabletop role-playing game recommended for 2–8 players. 

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.

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, September 6, 2023

Deal of the Day - Holy Mountain Shaker (OSE pointcrawl adventure for 5th to 6th)


I really enjoy Old School Essentials and the adventures they release. Even if I don't run them directly under OSE, they convert easily enough to the OSR system of your choice.

Holy Mountain Shaker for OSE is today's Deal of the Day at DTRPG. Normally 7.50 in PDF, but until tomorrow morning Holy Mountain Shaker is on sale for $3.

Thunder and quake have come to the old town. Towers crumble, homes tumble, the quick become the dead. What omen could be more obvious? The Pharaoh Fish under the mountain is displeased. This God must be propitiated. Brave heroes must venture to buy the city's salvation. At the very least, the Town Council needs to appear in control and send some 'expert adventurers' into the depths.

  • A fantasy pointcrawl adventure for characters of 5th to 6th level.
  • Local town, 17 pointcrawl regions, dungeon inside the Pharaoh Fish.
  • Pointcrawl mechanics for Old-School Essentials.
  • Keyed in a quick-reference, bullet point format.
  • Statted for Old-School Essentials (B/X), usable with any vintage adventure game.
  • Unlabelled map included for VTT use.

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.

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, September 5, 2023

Castle Zagyg is Back - The Town of Yggsburgh is the First Available in PDF (and Print)


It was announced near the end of August that many of Gary Gygax's works that were released (and later pulled from distribution) well over a decade ago were returning to distribution.

Castles & Crusades Castle Zagyg Yggsburgh is the first of those releases. It can be grabbed in Print plus PDF at the Troll Lords Store ($65), and in PDF from DTRPG (19.99 - 5 bucks cheaper than the TLG store).

Beneath the shadows of the ancient, dreaded Castle Zagyg stands the fortified town of Yggsburgh. Its stout walls and cobbled ways give ample refuge to those bold and worthy adventurers who come to the Four Tors to plunder the dungeon deeps of the Mad Mage. Beyond the protective covering of the town’s walls and the deep waters of the Urt and Nemo Rivers, lie a vast rolling countryside from the Glittering Knobs,the Uplands to the Lonely Valley.

Enter the environs of that most dread of magi, test your mettle and make ready for the heroes forge that is Castle Zagyg!

The book you hold in your hands is the Setting for the famed Castle Zagyg, the monstrous dungeons of legend.

More than a Campaign Setting!

This book consists of the town of Yggsburgh and its Environs, which include the town of Garham and 60 different geographic locales, each with their own peculiarities and adventures. The map charts over 1500 square miles of adventuring terrain, allowing the inclusion of Yggsburgh and Environs into almost any fantasy campaign setting. Each geographic locale has one or more adventures associated with it, offering hundreds of different plots, themes and escapades, players can take their characters on.

What to Expect!

  • 1 Full Color, fold-out, 24" x 30" Map of the Environs of Yggsburgh
  • 1 Full Color, fold-out, 24" x 30" Map of the Town of Yggsburgh
  • Nine Interior Maps of Points of Interest
  • 600+ Non‑Players Characters
  • 30+ Random Encounter and Event Tables
  • 50+ Random Encounters, offering hundreds of adventure venues
  • Orders of Battle for everything from Goblins to Knights
  • New, Monsters, Magic Items & Spells for the Castles & Crusades® Role Playing Game
  • Crime and Punishment for Yggsburgh
Over 1000 Adventures and Adventure ideas!

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.

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, September 4, 2023

Bundle of Holding - Delta Green Mega (Cthulhu Espionage)

I remember coming across Delta Green shortly after it was released in 1997 (actually, I think I first saw it earlier in the zine Unspeakable Oath) as a supplement for the Call of Cthulhu RPG. Now, it is a stand-alone RPG. I've yet to run it or play in a session, but the rules read really well and I long for the day I can do so.

With the Delta Green Mega Bundle at Bundle of Holding, you get the Delta Green Agent's Handbook, The Complex, and Agent Dossiers for 7.95.

For about 38 bucks, you get the above and add the following: the Delta Green Handler's Guide and the recent major supplements The Conspiracy and The Labyrinth (plus its Evidence Kit), the full-length campaigns Iconoclasts and Impossible Landscapes (plus its STATIC Protocol expansion), the item collection ARCHINT, and the DG Handler's Screen. Phew!

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.

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, September 3, 2023

A Rambling Thought About A Bit of American History that can be Introduced to a Campaign World.

A Rambling Thought About A Bit of American History that can be Introduced to a Campaign World.
The other day I was reviewing some....interesting demographic data about the rural community I grew up in. This data was from just before the American Civil War, right about the time that the state was created from the territory (keeping it vague deliberately). The house I kind of grew up in was built by the 1st Doctor in the county and at one time my little town was the biggest in the area because it had an early rail-line stop in it.

Anyway, that roughly two-decade time period always fascinated me a bit because, like many of us, I'm at least a little bit of a history nerd, and in some ways I can mentally equate that time period to the typical OSR campaign setting.

Hear me out here.......clearly there isn't a direct connection, but I'm thinking the edge of civilization with plenty of open/wild lands around. You don't have to go too far to find danger. There is an increased level of technology and industrialization, but it isn't ever-present. In a land where there is one Doctor for the county, no paved roads, but there is a single narrow gauge railroad. There are still plenty of predators/wild animals about and mankind basically has small carved-out enclaves throughout the area (I think the county had 9 tiny townships).....this isn't too far off from the typical medieval fantasy world. Just replace the "technology" with "magic". 

This rural county would be akin to a borderland state. There's a number of small churches, but only one Priest of middling level that can Cure or Heal. People live in small towns that are pretty much a half-day's ride away across minor trails. You can get some wonderous magic from the trader that comes into town once or twice a week, but there really isn't much more than a hedge-wizard around. People largely work the land, keep an eye out for danger from the woods, and are pretty insular when it comes to "others".

Now I'm not advocating for trying to game in an Age of Expansion America, but I am saying that there might be some value in seeing how people lived back then and using that info to influence the game world of your own campaign. I think for a lot of us that history might be a lot more approachable than say, picking up a book like Life in a Medieval Village. Of course that book might help to understand feudalism, but in a world of magic (both divine and arcane) I'm not sure how feudal we can go....of course, you do you.

I just think when you add in murderhobos, the magic, and the fantasy elements, this more American-history model makes a bit more sense than a strictly feudal setting.....

...anyway, this has been a long, rambling segue from my initial findings to something I think would add a lot to a typical campaign: "secret" societies. I was pretty much astonished by the numbers of these "secret" (it seemed like more than a few weren't actually secret, just pretended to be) organizations. Many were just fraternal organizations and if the numbers were to believed, most men belonged to at least two organizations, if not three.

It seemed like these organizations were anything from simple drinking clubs and mutual-aid societies to bonafide charities. There were some that overlap of members and others that by design had no overlap. Basically these were communities within-communities and served to connect people that might otherwise be separated (like Catholics and Protestants in highly religious communities). These groups would have regular meetings, special events, and would definitely form bonds between outwardly appearing disparate groups.

I like to think there could be a ton of role-play potential by using secret societies to connect the NPCs of your game world. The PCs could tick off one merchant and find out that a week later the fishmonger will no longer sell the party Mage that Giant Octopus Ink he needs for his scrolls. Why? Well those two are in the Fraternal Order of the Owlbear and that group decided "Eff those murderhoboes". There normally isn't too much of a goblin problem in the area, but lately there have been a periodic rash of break-ins and thefts attributed to the creature...

....Well there is this secret society that holds ritualistic goblin hunts and they have had to import goblins, set them loose, and then track them down for the hunt. The goblins are trying to do resource grabs so they can flee. It's a bit of a mess, but those guys throw one mean party every other month or so....

Those are just two quick ideas, but when I start up a new campaign or introduce a new town I like to think that the world doesn't revolve around the PCs and adding bits of lore that clearly exists without PC input makes that work better. This is why I like to have an established game calendar. I can set certain events, like normal society meetings or special events and if the party is in the right place at the right time, good for them. If not, well maybe that fishmonger and merchant have something cool from last night's event to be talking about...