Yeah, this post was supposed to have been posted yesterday. Ah well, it is here, today, so let's get to it - Tenkar
PS - I'll be diving into outstanding emails from the last few days of OSR Christmas tonight and tomorrow - Tenkar
The following gifts will be gifted on Tuesday, January 2, at some point after 7 PM Eastern, so make sure you comment before the cut-off and check back here on the blog side to see if you are receiving a gift from OSR Christmas Day 9.
If you want to be considered for an OSR Christmas Day 9 gift, simply comment below before 7 PM, Tuesday, January 2nd, 2024. PLEASE include if you are in the US.
From DiceBro:
•PDF Bundle of issues1-3 of Wizard Funk, an OSR zine
•OSR Stickers and Barrowmaze patches to give away (1 US)
From The Knotty Works:
•Bundle of BX Game Options Volume I-XII in PDF
From On the Tabletop:
• PDF copy of Holmes & Clark, along with digital goodies
From James Mishler Games:
•Set of 12 PDFs (by my count) of James Mishler releases for Shadowdark as well as the Isle of Eldisor for Labyrinth Lord in PDF
From Tenkar's Tavern:
$10 DTRPG Gift Certificate
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 remember this system and this series of supplements recently being Kickstarted. I know literally nothing about the Everyday Heroes RPG (ah, Modern 20 5e-ified) or its rules system, but the sourcebooks are damn tempting.
For 18 bucks, you get the full Everyday Heroes Bundle - core rules, Escape From New York, Universal Soldier, Rambo, Total Recall, Highlander, Pacific Rim, Kong: Skull Island, and The Crow. That's one hell of a line-up.
Don’t forget to pack the popcorn for your next RPG night, because it’s time to bring the movies to your table! This bundle from Evil Genius is packed with games inspired by some of the silver screen's most exciting names. Get ready to walk in the shoes of elite special forces fighters and take on larger-than-life missions in Rambo, based on the beloved films and fully compatible with 5e! Hop into your Jaeger and protect mankind from vicious kaiju in the 5e-compatible Pacific Rim! And more! Get games based on The Crow, Kong Island, Highlander, and other great films, and help support Gameheads 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
If your name is found below one of the following gifts, you are receiving that gift. Email me at tenkarsDOTtavern at that gmail thing. PLEASE include "OSR Christmas Day 7" in the subject, and please mention the gift you are receiving in the body of the email. This makes it easier for me to match up everything.
Note - if you are awaiting a gift from Day 6 of OSR Christmas or earlier, email me, with "OSR Christmas Day X", where X= the day in question, and mention the gift you are waiting on in the body of the email.
1x The Cartomancer 2 Bundle (physical boxed set containing all three HandyMaps content) delivered anywhere in the world for free. https://monkeyblooddesign.co.uk/product/bundle-handymaps-the-cartomancer-2/
•An Arduin Bundle with the hardcover trilogy 1-3, all the grimoires 4 - 9, and Vaults of the Weaver, which has 7 Dungeons in It. All printed material worth $155.00 bundle for Christmas Day! (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. 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
If your name is found below one of the following gifts, you are receiving that gift. Email me at tenkarsDOTtavern at that gmail thing. PLEASE include "OSR Christmas Day 5" in the subject, and please mention the gift you are receiving. This makes it easier for me to match up everything.
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
but today went a little pear-shaped at the end. Fires are put out, and everything is fixed (for now - heh), but I am emotionally drained and physically worn out..
OSR Christmas emails? The first thing to address after Rach's appointment in the morning.
I know, I haven't distributed gifts yet for OSR Christmas Days 4, 5, and 6! I know, this weekend was a time crunch, and I'll be tackling that gift-giving TOMORROW, December 26th.
The following gifts will be gifted on Thursday, December 28th, at some point after 7 PM Eastern, so make sure you comment before the cut-off and check back here to see if you are receiving a gift from OSR Christmas Day 7.
If you want to be considered for an OSR Christmas Day 7 gift, simply comment below before 7 PM, Thursday, December 28th. PLEASE include if you are in the US. ONLY US ADDRESSES WILL BE CONSIDERED FOR THE ARDUIN BUNDLE.
From MonkeyBlood:
•1x The Cartomancer 2 Bundle (physical boxed set containing all three HandyMaps content) delivered anywhere in the world for free. https://monkeyblooddesign.co.uk/product/bundle-handymaps-the-cartomancer-2/
From Emperors' Choice:
•An Arduin Bundle with the hardcover trilogy 1-3, all the grimoires 4 - 9, and Vaults of the Weaver, which has 7 Dungeons in It. All printed material worth $155.00 bundle for Christmas Day! (Note - US Only)
From DiceBro:
•PDF Bundle of issues1-3 of Wizard Funk, an OSR zine
•OSR Stickers and Barrowmaze patches to give away (1 US/1 Int)
From On the Tabletop:
• Softcover copy of Holmes & Clark (OSR Ruleset) (US Only)
• PDF copy of Holmes & Clark, along with digital goodies
From James Mishler Games:
•12 Sets of 12 PDFs (by my count) of James Mishler releases for Shadowdark as well as the Isle of Eldisor for Labyrinth Lord in PDF
From Tenkar's Tavern:
$10 DTRPG Gift Certificate
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 enjoying Christmas at the family farm, which is a long (almost exactly 12 hours) drive from where I live & work. That's too long of a drive for me so I tend to break it down into two 6 hour drive times. On my way up I managed to stop by an Ollies and pick up a copy of the D&D terrain case and the creature case. I had actually seen these for sale a a game store for $65, online for a bit under $20, and I paid $2.75....
I mention the prices not as a humble-brag, which would be applicable since I am a Midwesterner and it's common for us to say what price we paid for something as a casual part of conversation. I mention it know because I wanted to see how much value I felt there was in this product.
I'm going to only cover the Terrain Case because that's what I have in-hand and I'm not putting on pants, going outside, and digging through the truck to find the other case amongst the Christmas presents I have to unload later. Yes, I'm lazy....deal with it.
I'm probably going to be a bit petty about this "review" because if Hasbro (and that one game store) wanted me to pay $65, it better be a damned fine product.
The box has a hefty weight to it and my first issue was trying to actually open the thing. The outer wrap is glued pretty well and I had to flip it a few times to find a weakness I could rip off. While I had a knife I was loathe to use it because I didn't want to scratch the case.
Case is pretty enough, but I really don't care for the thick rope handle. It seems out of place aesthetically and the case isn't so heavy it has to have a handle. Now if I had a small issue opening the outer wrap I'm damned if I can get this actual case opened easily. Seriously? Do I need to look up a effing unboxing video to figure it out?
Ok, now I feel stupid, but it actually opened easily, just not the way I was trying to open it. The sides of the case have a small V cutout at the top/front and between these cutouts and the stupid rope handle make sit seem obvious that the internal box slides out of an external box. No....the top of the case is magnetic and it flips open, revealing a forest path scene on the inside of the lid and a removable tray set on top of a larger tray/open-sided box. The inside box has two paper-wrapped tile sets and the smaller removable tray has a big red ribbon sticking out of it. Pulling up the ribbon lets you remove the folded map board and an actual folder containing five pages of static clings.
Ok the clings are pretty cool and the maps/tiles are both wet & dry erasable marker capable. There are really only two map designs: generic grassland & generic stone. That's it.
Honestly I'm not impressed. Don't get me wrong, it's a pretty case, but $65.....no. Now if I paid $65 to Hasbro I'd get a digital DMG, but I don't want/need a digital DMG. Not knocking the game, but if I played it and was looking for terrain that means I'm the DM and I would already have the fricken DMG. Even if I didn't have a digital copy if that had value to me then I'd have already bought the thing. Adding something I don't want/need that costs the company nothing does not magically add $30 of value to a physical product.
Now I like the clings. I will use the clings, BUT.....I really wish they had provided a handful (five maybe) of empty cling backing sheets because once I remove a cling from the sheet, it's not going back on perfectly. Trying to fiddle with this in-game will prove to be an exercise in frustration. Now going ahead and peeling off all of the on-item cling and throwing it away gives me a lot more wiggle-room to replace items. Instead of spending money on producing a rope handle or and art insert I'll not use, give me something useful.
Speaking of useful, only two map designs? Really? Between the tiles and the foldable map that's four surfaces. If they had switched out the designs on the tiles then I could have used them with the foldable. A marsh map, rubble, rocky/hilly, cart path, creek, river, generic water......anything would have greatly increased the value of this terrain product.
IMNSHO the D&D Terrain Case is not worth the MSR of $65. It is too much style over substance and I think it isn't worth $20. Actually it is worth $20, but probably not to one person. I think any GM can get good use out of the clings and as far as the maps or tiles....pick one. I think I'd prefer the folding map, but I could totally see assembling the tiles and pre-drawing my map on it and then number & break it back up. As you play you only have to lay down the tiles as you need them. It really depends on your particular style. If I was running a con game I might like the tiles, already loaded with clings (obviously where appropriate) that lets me save time trying to draw things out during the limited convention game time.
Pro (ok personal experience) tip: If you're running multiple games (I'm specifically thinking multiple games at once as a head GM), but this will work for one game at a time as well, you can go to a fabric store and purchase clear vinyl "fabric" of various thickness/gauge material. It's normally 3-6' wide and sold by running foot. You can cut that up into smaller bits and draw your map out as individual rooms/halls, essentially creating your own clings! When you have multiple tables going at once you can easily lay one piece of vinyl over another and trace out a copy so all the table GMs have the same map layout all prepped in advanced.
Lastly....Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you all get to enjoy the holiday with friends and loved ones.
The Labyrinths of the Ancients
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All my greek inspired stuff in a compilation on Patreon in next day or so.
It wasn't planned but I needed it for my camp...
New Release Tuesday: The Left Hand Path in Print
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I am happy to announce that my newest Basic-Era witch book is now available
in print-on-demand.
*The Left Hand Path - The Diabolic & Demonic Witchcraft T...
On the Cyberpunk now.
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It is a universally acknowledged truth that science fiction always examines
current issues, fears, and anxieties in a foreign setting: The Terminator
and...
Easy Tracks in Blender
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There's an add-on for Blender called BagaPie, which adds a whole lot of
functionality in various arenas (scattering etc.). The one that is most
useful ...
[Fanzine Focus XXXIX] The Travellers’ Digest #6
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On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the
rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial
public...
Musings on the Original Thief Class
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Link to discussion The story of the Thief class is well-known by now, with
the idea being given to Gary …
Continue reading →
Beneath the Ruins of Griffon Keep
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By Aaron GustwillerAaron's Gaming StuffS&WLevels 1-5 As long as anyone can
remember, Griffon Keep has been in ruins, with only vague rumors of strange
rite...
A long overdue hobby update!
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Welcome back to the Vault everyone! 2025 is going by in a blur; I last
posted in February, almost started a post in March and now it's the end of
May. W...
[BLOG] News on the March! Episode VIII.
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This post continues the series of brief play reports I have been posting on
Discord. This does not cover every single session (sometimes, recon and
setup...
Weekly Wrapup 5/23/2025
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- Basically no gaming this week. Lots of grappling practice. One of my
friends is competing for the first time tomorrow so that's dominated my
time.
- I d...
Evolved - Part III (Judge Material)
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In Evolved (and all other Crawl Classics games) the gamemaster is referred
to as the judge. While it's not used throughout the beginning of the Judge
secti...
Community Greyhawk: Citadel Cavitius
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Today we look at a new book by a name that should be familiar to readers
and viewers of my YouTube channel; Christopher Hamwell. Citadel Cavitius:
Expandin...
Dark Tower (1979)
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From the back cover:
*An Ancient Evil* has overtaken a once holy shrine. Thus, a sleepy mountain
hamlet becomes a focal point for mysterious disappear...
A Review of 'Memoirs of Hadrian'
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(My friend and I did a multi-hour podcast on this. You can listen to it
here.)
A slender and capacious book, like the shadow of a flame on sunlit marble.
...
Link: Taskerland on NSR
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This feels a bit like the old days, when we used to have a discourse about
the RPG world between our sites. Taskerland also has some things to say
about wh...
How Did they Die?
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Old characters in *Mythic Bastionland* stand a chance of just dying
off-screen between Ages.
But what happened to that person?
*Roll d66*
11: The life...
Progress With My Card Game
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On February 9, 2018 I was struck with inspiration for a card game idea that
I brought to Gary Con 10 and play tested away most of the rough edges. I
had th...
Pulp: Adventure Location: Trindade & Martim Vaz
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History is fractally interesting. Start examine any event, or following any
citation, and interesting facts emerge. But some places, for whatever
reason,...
grodog's Top 10 Favorite Greyhawk Adventures
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On tonight's *Gabbin #353* "The Top Published Greyhawk Adventures!" show,
Jay Scott, Anna Meyer, and Mike Bridges feature Erik Mona, Carlos Lising,
and J...
OSRIC the Third
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The wise sages at Mythmere Games are hard at work on the third version of
*OSRIC* (“Old School Reference and Index Compilation”). You can support
this proj...
Tripping the Death-Cult OSR...
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So last month (I don't remember when) I read a bog post (I don't remember
which, except that it wasn't previously familiar) explaining old-school D&D
in ...
Playing at the World 2E V2 Arrives
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With the release of its second volume, the second edition of *Playing at
the World *is finally complete. The two books combined total well over
1,000 ...
Adventure Writing Session Turns Into a Hex Crawl
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Last Thursday I got on to do another Adventure Writing Session and Paul
Turner joined me. We decided to use his zine, Critical Hit to roll up a hex
flowe...
Blogs on Tape season 6 has begun!
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Hi everybody! Its been a minute. How are you? Everything is awful all the
time? Horrors never cease? You’re being driven mad by the weight of the
unfathoma...
Should you PAY your GM?
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Let's start with the conclusion: GM-for-pay is okay.
In other words: there is nothing wrong with paying someone to run a game
for you, or charging people f...
36 units sold on day one
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Not big Kickstarter-type numbers or anything but still pretty personally
gratifying to me, because 1) it'a more copies than the first book sold on
its fi...
Fight On! number 16 is out.
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The new issue of *Fight On!* has been out for a bit. You can get copies via
drivethru or lulu.
I haven't finished reading my copy, but I'd like to reco...
The Hungering Dark
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Go into the earth, and reality will walk alongside you.
Walk further, and you will eventually be walking alone.
The world is plastic down there. Tar Lat...
Articulations
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Creating house rules, custom rules specific to a local group or campaign,
has been common throughout the history of D&D. What makes an effective
house rule...
Writing playlists for all occasions
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Hello again! Going off the idea of inspiration elaborated on by the prior
post, I also have music playing while I write my various games and fiction
pieces...
The Tarot of Pips
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Somewhere in your dice collection is a die like this one, the humblest of
dice. Although you don't know it, this small white die carries with it a
secr...
Pirates and Necromancers, a Play Report
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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...
It's been a bit
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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...
*'s in SpaaaaaAaaaace
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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!
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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...
This is an Important Game Mechanic
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*"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
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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 ...
Steve Jackson Interview
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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...
ToAD Monster of the Week: Crocoman
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Now that I'm back doing the blog thing I thought I would use Tome of
Adventure Design to create monsters for The Black Hack.
Using the monster tables in th...
Strange, Dangerous, and Inhuman: The Fey and Fairie
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When I was a boy I loved fairy tales. Jack and the Beanstalk, Puss in
Boots, Rumpelstiltskin - I devoured all of it. My fascination that there
was a strang...
Dungeons & Dragonmead Fall Schedule
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*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...
Fiction in Airhde
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On a whim this weekend, I picked up some fiction off the TLG store. *A
Houseless God & Other Tales* and *The Mirrored Soul & Other Tales*, both by
the T...
Ravensburg Reboot: Streamlined City Map
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I mentioned in my last post how I was tweaking and reworking parts of my
Ravensburg setting. Today I streamlined the city map. The old map had lots
of redu...
And Now the News Draft Download on Patreon
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It's self-styled Throwback Thursday and *having just released the 34-page
draft booklet of Hill Cantons news to my Patreon backers* I am going to
indulge m...
The Withered Crag available now
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I just enabled the sale of the PDF version of The Withered Crag at
DriveThruRPG a few minutes ago, and the custom print version will be
available startin...
Annihilation Rising Goes live
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The latest in Fail Squad Games’ Quick Kick projects has gone live and needs
your support!! This project is only running 11 days and ends on 5/28/2019!
...
James's Celebration of Life
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We could not have asked for a prettier day for James's service. It was a
bit chilly and windy but gorgeous. A heartfelt thank you to all that joined
us tod...
Trap Tuesday: A step back
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I will get back to Tomb of Horrors soon. I found a topic that was
interesting enough to take a break. While interacting in a 5E group on
Facebook I talked ...
Let's Talk About Pacing!
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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
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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...
Please, I don't do paid advertisements - don't ask.
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A little note since people have asked me about this. My video channel's
*not* an advertising platform, so I'm not available for hire if you want to
promote...
New website!
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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!
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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...
Total Sales for WB:FMAG
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Hi Folks,
It's been a long time since I provided an update for the sales of White
Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game.
*LULU*
Print: 396
PDF: 433
*OBS*...
How can We Destroy this Campaign World?
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d12
1. You must trick a bard into strumming the *Chords of Fate* on the *Lute
of Annihilation*
2. Legends tell of thermonuclear weapons beneath megadunge...
Mord Mar - Session 5
-
We had another successful delve into the dungeon yesterday. The delvers:
Moira, the Magic-User
Radovan - Human Cleric (of Odin?)
Khazgar Stonehand - Dwarf ...
Bundle of Fantasy Age
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Bundle of Holding: Dragon Age/Fantasy Age: Available until March 12. PA
Presents: Fantasy AGE Freeport live play Green Ronin in 2018 The Fantasy
Age RPG ma...
New Free PDF Module: The Hyqueous Vaults
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A new dungeon module—written in celebration of OSRIC's 10th Birthday—by
Rebecca Dettmann, Allan T. Grohe, Jr., Jimm Johnson, Matthew Riedel, Alex
Zisch, a...
Swords & Wizardry Light: Session # 6
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Two months after our last session (thanks to things like 8th grade finals,
a 4 year-old's birthday and party, Father's Day, etc.), we finally had our
next ...
