Swords & Wizardry Light - Forum

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Free OSR - OSRIC Player's Guide


OSRIC has been around for over a decade. So how is it that what is old is also something new? Well, as far as I can tell, the OSRIC Player's Guide has the player-facing content of the OSRIC Pocket SRD, but the new layout seems a tad cleaner. Kinda reminds me of AD&D 2e, if that makes sense.

One small quibble - the PDF is long enough to benefit from bookmarks. Not a huge issue, just an observation.

The price is certainly right ;)


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, March 15, 2024

Gamer in Need - Owen KC Stephens Has Cancer

Folks, as many of you know, I'm a cancer survivor. Rach was diagnosed with breast cancer this past fall and recently completed her radiation treatment. Cancer doesn't discriminate, it comes for those of all ages, all races, and all economic backgrounds.

If there's anything that you can use in the linked bundle below, I ask you to consider purchasing it to support Owen in this time of need - Tenkar

Owen KC Stephens is currently undergoing radiotherapy for cancer that went undetected for a decade. In the USA, this is really expensive. We want to help him.

If you’ve played an RPG in the last little while (as in ‘in the last twenty years or so’), odds are quite good you’ve seen, read, and enjoyed something Owen has worked on. As this bundle is up at DriveThruRPG, the odds are even higher. A brief bit taken from his resume:

"Hi, I’m Owen K.C. Stephens. I’m a tabletop RPG writer, developer, consultant, and publisher. I’ve worked on official products for four editions of Dungeons & Dragons, two editions of Pathfinder, and also the tabletop RPGs: The Black Company, Call of Cthulhu, d20Modern, Dragon Age, EverQuest, Fantasy AGE, Gamma World, Everyday Heroes, The Song of Ice and Fire, Thieves World, and Wheel of Time. I’m also the co-creator of the Starfinder and Star Wars Saga Edition RPGs, and founder of Rogue Genius Games."

Owen is a good friend to many creators and publishers across the industry (look at the list below!). We want to help him, but there’s a limit to what we can do medically (nobody’s the right class and level to cast remove disease). Surgery is inadvisable, chemotherapy didn’t do the job, and now we’re down to radioactive lasers shooting him in places no one wishes to be shot.

Instead, this bundle aims to help relieve his financial burden. Not only have the publishers below contributed to this bundle, DriveThruRPG is taking only a 10% cut: 90% of all proceeds — $27 per bundle sold — goes to Owen.

  • 2 Kings Games, LLC
  • AAW Games
  • Ad Infinitum Adventures
  • Applied Vectors
  • Catacombs & Comedians
  • Darrin Drader Designs
  • Echelon Game Design
  • Evil Robot Games
  • Fainting Goat Games
  • Fat Goblin Games
  • Legendary Games
  • McNabb Games
  • Monster Mage Games
  • Nerdburger Games
  • Production Platform 3
  • Random Wyvern Publishing
  • Rogue Genius Games
  • Rusted Iron Games
  • Schwalb Entertainment
  • Tabletop Adventures, LLC
  • Wandering Star LLC

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, March 14, 2024

Humble Bundle - Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay - Enemy Within Campaign & More

I've been a fan of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay since the first edition hardback. I ran an amazing Enemy Within Campaign back in the late 80s. Sure, it ended with a near TPK at the start of Death in the Reik, but it was probably the most fun anyone in my gaming group, including me, had up to then, and perhaps after. 

I own all of the Enemy Within Campaign installments for WFRP 4e in print, but I'm snagging the Humble Bundle for the convenience of digital copies to read on my iPad. 

For 25 bucks, you can snag Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Core Rules, WFRP Starter Set,  all 5 installments of the Enemy Within Campaign (and 5 companions), and 6 other WFRP Adventures. Phew! If you're not sure, you can grab the WFRP Starter Set, the first part of the Enemy Within Campaign, and a stand-alone adventure for a single buck. All purchases get a 20% coupon to the Cubicle 7 web store.

Bring the stirring legacy and grim, neverending conflict of the Old World to your table with this jam-packed library, and treat your players to the Director's Cut of The Enemy Within, the revered five-part campaign that inspired a generation of gamers. On top of the core rulebook and starter set, you'll get everything you need to get into the beloved Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay system. Dive into this storied setting with books like Middenheim: City of the White Wolf and Altdorf: Crown of the Empire, along with a host of sourcebooks and adventures to enable countless epic sessions for your group.



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, March 13, 2024

DaggerHeart - Open Beta Playtest


While I don't think DaggerHeart is a rule system that will fit my gaming group, it may fit yours.

Here's the DTRPG link to the Daggerheart Open Beta.

Daggerheart is a fantasy tabletop roleplaying game of brave heroics and vibrant worlds that are built together with your gaming group. Create a shared story with your adventuring party, and shape your world through rich, long-term campaign play.

This free download contains all the current materials for the public Daggerheart Open Beta Playtest, with the full game expected to release in 2025. As this is a playtest, future changes are coming and will be updated in this product. The current version is 1.2, released March 12, 2024.

After your play sessions, please head to daggerheart.com to bring us your feedback using the official surveys!

ABOUT DAGGERHEART:

When it's time for the game mechanics to control fate, players roll one HOPE die and one FEAR die (both 12-sided dice), which will ultimately impact the outcome for your characters. This duality between the forces of hope and fear on every hero drives the unique character-focused narratives in Daggerheart.

In addition to dice, Daggerheart’s card system makes it easy to get started and satisfying to grow your abilities by bringing your characters’ background and capabilities to your fingertips. Ancestry and Community cards describe where you come from and how your experience shapes your customs and values. Meanwhile, your Subclass and Domain cards grant your character plenty of tantalizing abilities to choose from as your character evolves. Craft your unique character through the cards you choose and the story you tell, and become the hero you want to be!

This download contains PDFs of:

  • A Quickstart Adventure, plus 5 pregenerated characters
  • The full draft core rules
  • Print-ready card sheets for your character options (Ancestry, Community, and Subclass) as well as your abilities (Domain Cards)
  • Character sheets for each class: Bard, Druid, Guardian, Ranger, Rogue, Seraph, Sorcerer, Warrior, Wizard
  • Player and game master references
  • And more!

 

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, March 12, 2024

Deal of the Day - Sandbox Generator


Wow! I own the Sandbox Generator in Print. It is literally that good. As a Deal of the Day, it is a Don't Miss!

Normally 12 bucks in PDF, the Sandbox Generator is on sale for 7.20 in PDF until tomorrow morning.

The Sandbox Generator is a simple but powerful tool for DMs. It allows you to easily create a world from scratch when you prepare your next campaign. It will provide you with all the necessary information about your world: from the biomes map, to a lord’s coat of arms and the menu of the local tavern! It is also convenient for solo players and DMs who want to generate their world during the game session.

This book aims to create a pseudo-feudal fantasy world and is meant to be used with your favorite OSR ruleset and bestiary.

New worlds await: they are only a few rolls away…

This product includes procedures, generators, tables and examples for:

  • Hex maps (biomes, features, content, factions, encounters),
  • Landmarks (natural, artificial and magical),
  • Settlements (names, hamlets, villages, cities, castles, towers and abbeys),
  • Monsters lairs,
  • Dungeons and megadungeons,
  • Coats of arms,
  • Criminal organizations,
  • Dragons,
  • Guilds,
  • Houses,
  • NPCs,
  • Taverns (including menus and signs),
  • Wizards,
  • Sea adventures.

This book is black and white, is in A5 format and contains more than 80 hand drawn (vectorized) illustrations. The PDF version is bookmarked.


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, March 11, 2024

Deal of the Day - Trilemma Adventures Compendium Volume I (System Neutral)

Sometimes having an adventure with a baked-in RPG system is refreshing. As a GM who likes to improvise, finding systemless adventures that are well-written and cleanly presented is a boon. This describes Trilemma Adventures Compendium Volume I to a "T".

Until tomorrow morning, Trilemma Adventures Compendium Volume I is DTRPG's Deal of the Day. Normally 15.00, until tomorrow morning it is on sale for 6 bucks in PDF

I'd be all over this, but I already own it ;)

This book brings together the award-winning Trilemma Adventures: 48 one- and two-page adventure locations for fantasy role-playing games. 2020 ENnie Award winner for Best Adventure (silver) and Best Cartography (gold)!

Each location is written to be usable separately, perfect for one-shot sessions, side quests, or to help populate your home grown campaign setting.

All have been lavishly illustrated and laid out to make them easy to run, straight from the book.

This book is packed with caverns, castles, underworld cities, labyrinths, mansions, flying tombs, hidden temples, and fallen shrines.

Also inside is more than 60 pages of new material:

  • an illustrated bestiary
  • an appendix of magical items
  • ten solid pages of hooks, rumors and secret lore
  • six regional gazetteers tying the adventure locations into a ready-to-use campaign setting
  • a full-color regional map, in GM and player versions
  • a complete index
  • a bonus location, set in the aftermath of the Kickstarter invasion scenario

This compendium is an essential part of your GM kit!

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, March 10, 2024

Roleplay Rev is AI Assistance for RPGs

Roleplay Rev is AI Assistance for RPGs
So I was screwing around on my phone, as one does, and I came across this AI adventure generator called Roleplay Rev. While I'm not a huge AI fan, I have played around with it some and I liked the idea of a tool that could conceivably be used to help create an adventure quickly.

I know all too well that sometimes it takes a metric shit-ton of effort to create a good effort. Actually just creating an adventure can take a lot of time.....one that is good(?).....can take freaking forever. While I don't expect a ton of quality from an AI generator, I figure it could be good at getting some of the grunt-work done so I could edit the generated adventure. Editing/Tweaking can take a lot less time, at least in my experience.

So I created an account at Roleplay Rev and started out with three credits. My initial thought was, "Oh so it's kind of free...great" It costs a credit to generate an adventure and while it didn't state it upfront, you get a credit per day you log in. Pretty much up front is that if you want some of the cooler/finer tools it costs $5 a month (normally $10?). After the fact I can see $5 a month being worth it, but that's probably something that would be covered in a summary paragraph.

Anyway, I started with this prompt: "The world is dominated by Man and organized into distinct countries. A valuable mountain range has been taken over by the ruling country and the party consists of dwarves that have to organize a resistance to retake their ancestral homeland from the army of men." Now I'm not sure that was worded well for an AI prompt since I haven't used AI stuff very much but I was pleased to find that the generator re-worded my prompt, that I could then tweak if needed and it even gave the damn thing a title: 

The Battle for the Mountain

The dwarves must organize a resistance to retake their ancestral homeland, a valuable mountain range, from the army of men who have taken it over.

Nice, I can work with that.....I was led through a few options for potential plot hooks and I settled on my favorite:

The players start the adventure in the depths of the mountain range, where they witness the men's army setting up mining operations to extract valuable resources. The dwarves are outraged at the desecration of their ancestral home and feel compelled to take action to reclaim it.

Then the AI generated some lore/background and I got this:

The players receive a distress call from a group of dwarven miners who managed to escape the army's occupation. They describe the devastation brought upon their once-thriving community and plead for the players' help in organizing a resistance to retake their homeland.

The players witness a fierce battle between the dwarven resistance and the army of men, where the dwarves are outnumbered and struggling to defend their territory. Witnessing the bravery and determination of their kin, the players feel a deep sense of duty to join the resistance and fight for their people's freedom.

The central conflict stems from the ruling country's desire to exploit the valuable resources within the dwarven ancestral mountain range. The ruler of the country, King Thorian, seeks to strengthen his kingdom's economy and military power by gaining control of the rich mines and strategic location of the mountains. To achieve this, he has dispatched a formidable army led by General Rendak to forcibly occupy the dwarven territories, displacing the native inhabitants and suppressing any resistance.

King Thorian's ultimate plan is to establish permanent control over the mountain range, leveraging the resources to enrich his kingdom and solidify his rule. The dwarves, however, refuse to relinquish their ancestral lands and are determined to fight back. The villainous General Rendak is tasked with not only subduing the dwarven resistance but also ensuring that the mountain range remains under the control of the ruling country. His cruel methods and ruthless tactics have further fueled the dwarves' resolve to reclaim their homeland and drive out the oppressive army.


Honestly, for free, I'd have been good with what I got so far, but some actual encounters would help...and then it gave me three potential encounters. Thing was I didn't just get three potential encounters. No, I got three types of encounters to choose from and it defaulted to one skill encounter, one social encounter, and one combat encounter. If I wanted three combat encounters I could've done that. It's important to note that I got to establish the general "feel" for the campaign, the size of the party, and the level, which was all factored in. For the record, I went with "realistic", 6 party members, and 1st level.

So the thing spit out the three encounters, gave me some NPCs and saved everything. The $5 paid content would go so far as to let me generate battle maps (IIRC they don't actually generate battlemaps but they have a large stockpile of ready-made maps that the AI chooses from) and generate PCs. There is also, and I think this is free, a way to basically play a solo adventure through the adventure you just made as well. I started messing with that but didn't even start the adventure portion.

Pretty much everything is tweakable and while it looks like it's set up for maybe 5th Edition D&D, I don't know it's definitely not OSR, there's a LOT of meat on those bones. You can not only create adventures but also campaigns and worlds as well, all with AI assistance. I do not think it would be difficult to take a few minutes to create an adventure and basically tweak on the fly. Combined with your own map collection and your own bestiary......this could be a great help.

For $5 a month I think the organization factor (world, campaign, adventures) alone might be worth it, especially if I can get some AI assistance and prompts to help fill in gaps. For the price of free, definitely worth checking out Roleplay Rev.