OSR Christmas - Day 12 - The Day of Three Kings

Yep, OSR Christmas will wrap up with the gifting of these last few gifts. Comment below if you wish to be considered for one of these fine gifts. Note, that there is a physical gift in the mix, so only those who expressly state in their comment that they have a United States mailing address will be considered for such.

Gifts from OSR Christmas Days 9, 10, and 11 that haven't been addressed yet will be tackled tomorrow. If there are outstanding gifts from earlier days, ping me. With many balls in the air, I expect to drop one or two.

Comments must be in by Tuesday, December 9th, 2024 at 1800 hrs.

So, without further ado, here's the gift list:

From DiceBro:

• PDF Bundle of issues1-3 of Wizard Funk, an OSR zine

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/Solarian Games

New Copy of Top Secret: New World Order

Shipped in the 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  

OSR Sale - Shadowsun (ShadowDark RPG)

First things first. I've been a friend of, as well as a fan of, Greg Christopher for well over a decade. Greg ran the D&D Next (5e Beta) playtest for me and others. He writes some of the best gaming material for OSR gaming that one can find on the market IMHO.

ShadowSun is Greg's homage to Dark Sun, using the rules of ShadowDark. I have had an earlier PDF version of ShadowSun that Greg had shared with me earlier, but while looking at the current sale, I noticed that the Print plus PDF is only 14.95 for a hardcover version, and that is dirt cheap for my gaming collection - so I ordered it :)

ShadowSun is marked down to 4 bucks in PDF (from 8) for a 216-page setting book. Quite simply, a bargain.

ShadowSun is a dark, apocalyptic, desert setting designed for use with ShadowDark. It presents a bleak world scorched by an angry sun and defiled by powerful Mage-Kings. A land where metal, food, and water are scarce resources. Player ancestries are Elves, Dwarves, Hawkfolk, Humans, Lizardfolk, and Mantisfolk. Class choices are Explorers, Mentalists (psionics), Shamans, Sorcerers, and Warriors. Extensive equipment choices and spell/power options. Also contains 124 ShadowDark monsters and extensive internal hyperlinks.

 

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    

Bundle of Holding - The Midderlands (OSR Dark Fantasy Setting)

First things first - Glynn Seal is one of the most generous, both in his time and his work, creatives in the OSR, if not tabletop gaming as a whole. As a mapper, an artist, a creative, and a writer, in the field of OSR fantasy creation he has no peers. He is the very definition of the Renaissance Man, and I am very happy to call Glynn a friend.

After saying all that, Gylnn's Midderlands setting is probably THE setting in the OSR that I am dying to run. I've backed each of Glynn's Kickstarters, but if you haven't backed all of Glynn's Kickstarters, the current The Midderlands Bundle of Holding is the answer you've been waiting for.

Adventurer! This all-new Midderlands Bundle presents The Midderlands, the grim, green, grime-smeared old-school tabletop fantasy roleplaying campaign setting from MonkeyBlood Design. Designed by ENnie-winning writer-artist-cartographer Glynn Seal, the Midderlands setting is a green-hued, dark-fantasy, late-Middle Ages, early-Renaissance land based on Glynn's home in the United Kingdom, the Midlands. Many Midderlands locations are grounded in reality, others pure fantasy from the designer's fevered imagination. This atmospheric (not to say fetid) sandbox setting adapts easily to any Old School Revival rules set such as Old-School Essentials, Swords & Wizardry, and many other Dungeons & Dragons retroclones, or you can add any of the horrific Midderlands monsters, weird locations, and beautiful maps to your own campaign. (The sewers. We recommend the sewers.)

For just US$14.95 you get all three titles in our Starter Collection (retail value $60) as DRM-free ebooks, including the complete Midderlands OSR Setting and Bestiary corebook, The Midderlands Expanded, and The City of Great Lunden.

And if you pay more than the threshold price of $30.33, you'll level up and also get our entire Bonus Collection with seven more titles worth an additional $70, including Adventures in Great Lunden, Fighting Folk of the Haven Isles, Folk Magic of the Haven Isles, Bats of Saint Abbans, Chewer of Fingers, Behind the Walls, and Rivers and Lakes.

 

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    

OSR Christmas - Day 9 - Gifting the Gifts

Today is the day for gifting the gifts of Day 9 of OSR Christmas (I know this post was meant to be up yesterday, but a more important post took precedence)

If your name/handle/screen name is below one of the following gifts, you MUST do the following (it helps with my sanity):

Email tenkarsDOTtavern at that Gmail thing (note - DOT equals a ".") In the Subject of the email, please put "OSR Christmas Day 9". This SHOULD keep you from getting caught up as spam. Note - should. It's failed once already. In the body of the email, state your name/handle/screen name that is down below, state the gift you are receiving, and both your DTRPG email and, if you are getting the stickers and patch, a snail mail address.

From DiceBro:

• PDF Bundle of issues1-3 of Wizard Funk, an OSR zine

ch\/\/olfgang

• OSR Stickers and Barrowmaze patches to give away (1 US)

Tim Baker

From The Knotty Works:

• Bundle of BX Game Options Volume I-XII in PDF

IL

From On the Tabletop:

•     PDF copy of Holmes & Clark, along with digital goodies

DungeonMapper

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

Tim Baker

From Tenkar's Tavern:

$10 DTRPG Gift Certificate

Peter D

OSR Christmas Day 10 will be tonight, on the Talking Crit Livestream. OSR Christmas Day 11 will be here, on the blog, either tomorrow or Friday. Day 12 will be on Friday Night's Livestream with Glen Halstrom :)

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   

GoFundMe for Funeral Expenses of Ben Shields, Son of James Shields

I was just informed of the suicide of Ben Shields, son of artist James Shields. I have no words. I have seen suicide impact the families of friends and coworkers far too often. If you find yourself in a desperate state, the Suicide Hotline Number is 988 in the United States. You can also text the number if that is a more comfortable form of communication for you.

The Tavern will match the first $250 raised for Ben's funeral expenses by the members of this community, with a minimum donation of $100. We'll be making the donation no later than 6 PM Thursday Night, January 4, 2024. Simply comment below with the amount of your donation. When we hit $250, The Tavern will make a matching donation - Tenkar

Here's Gary Oliver's post from Facebook:

It is with great sadness that I am reporting one of our NTX family members and contributors, James Shields lost his son Ben to suicide on 12/31/23. The family is in mourning and very overwhelmed by all of this. James told me I could inform the community and let everyone know that they appreciate everyone’s condolences and support but may not respond directly to people for a while.

James has helped the convention with our logo the last couple of years. He is also a good friend to me personally as well. To help the family with expenses related to the final arrangements and other costs I am setting up a GoFundMe for Ben’s memorial. I know that this group will be supportive with not only post of condolences but will also help financially in this time of great despair and sadness for the Shield’s family.

Thank you, as always, for your support of NTX and all of the friends and family that make this such a great community - Gary Oliver

GoFundMe Link for Ben Shields 

 

State of The Tavern - 2024 New Year, New Stuff Edition

Well, 2023 was one hell of a year. It could have been better, and certainly could have been worse, but overall I think it ended up pretty positive.

So, what does 2024 have in store for The Tavern and its community, and even the OSR at large?

First off, a huge thanks and shout out to Don Semora over at Wizard Tower Games, we now have a gamershealthonline.com site to support the community with links, resources, and a forum. It's not just for those who join Rach and me on our Saturday Night Gamers Health live streams, but anyone in the gaming community who is looking for some support. The forums are still in their infancy, but they will grow with use and need.

The Tenkar's Tavern Substack will return as a monthly newsletter/ links to gaming channels/gaming content later this month. Weekly was simply not feasible, so I'm retooling it. As it grows, I'm hoping to build on the gaming content it will provide its readers. Wish me luck :)

Tenkar's Tavern Youtube Channel - We'll be adding Shorts and excerpts from the various live streams. The live streams are very popular but can last, at times, over two hours at a clip, so I'm going to be pulling out bits and pieces so folks can sample an episode. 

Additionally, we'll be commencing with Fireside Chats, a series in which I sit down with various creators in the gaming hobby, learn how they got into gaming, how they got into creating for the hobby, and what keeps them going. We'll aim for 10-20 minutes a session. These will be released first to paid members of the channel but will be released to the general public approximately a week after the limited release of each episode. Membership is only 1.99 a month ;)

This here blog - as requested, I'm aiming to do some reviews, likely weekly, possibly with an accompanying video depending on the material. Possibly even some gaming content, in earlier, beta versions before releasing on the Substack.

Now, to dive into the backlog of OSR Christmas emails...

Talking Crit Short - Fauci Doesn't Like Spiders!

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  

Next Year's RPG Goals (Aside from Playing More)

Whelp, this is it. If you had plans for something in 2023 you've got this evening to finish it up.

I rarely have "by year's end" goals. "This weekend" or generalized goals, yes, but not "this year" type goals. This weekend I'm taking out two closets and making custom shelves....and I clearly forgot that I'm old and broken because my two-day project will go at least three days, if not four or four-plus.

FFFFFFF....UUUUUU.......Fun! So much Fun!

Luckily there has been very little bleeding on these two builds and I did get the "big stuff" done. The work has given me time to think a bit and when I wasn't thinking about Starfield Damn this hurts Did I measure twice cut once? other things, I thought about what kind of goals I should have for this next year. In other words, I actually want to have some "by year's end" goals.

I think it's important to actually state (share) goals and I also think one should have at least three goals: a big one, a medium-size one, and small/easy goal. How your goals fit into each category will be up to you, but for me small is easy, medium is probably (but with difficulty), and big is something I will really have to work hard to accomplish.

So my 3 goals, and these are gaming goals here, would be:

Small: I want to buy/build a wheeled gaming case to hold all my shit for a convention. Instead of lugging around my backpack and having to go up to my room to switch-out/resupply, I want a cool case I can wheel around and have easy access while at the table.

Medium: The project I think I can get done, but will take some effort, is to get a pet project of mine published. I have to be a bit secretive on that one.....but I'll be self-publishing and I want to be done this year.....it's been on my mind for far too long. The graphic for this post was inspired by this particular idea that I've not been progressing on. 

Big: Another writing/publishing project, but a big one, is to write an adventure. I want to get the artists lined up, have it written and playtested, do the layout....etc.

Feel free to comment with your goals for the next year. Put a voice to that idea......an important 2nd step. Later this year, after NTRPG we can circle back and see if we (we......not just me) have been making progress on our goals.