Deal of the Day - For Coin & Blood: Classic Edition (OSR)

Today's Deal of the Day is For Coin & Blood: Classic Edition. Built off of the Swords & Wizardry: White Box Edition, For Coin & Blood is on sale until tomorrow morning for 2 bucks (normally 9.99).

FOR COIN & BLOOD is a classically inspired d20 fantasy roleplaying game with a twist...

...a twist of the knife!

Embracing the literary genre known as "grimdark", and inspired by stories of mercenaries, sellswords and blackguards, FOR COIN & BLOOD keeps you on your toes, as you tell stories about the terrible things that happen to people, when they head out in search of coin, passion, and revenge...

FOR COIN & BLOOD uses a modified version of Swords & Wizardry: WhiteBox, but is a complete game.

 

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.

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Bundle of Holding - Wyrd Breach

Some games look interesting simply for the default setting. The Wyrd Breach Bundle is in that category. I'm not sure I'd play the system, but I may snag it at this price for inspiration.

Fated one! We've resurrected our November 2021 Wyrd Breach Bundle featuring the Through the Breach Lovecraftian-Wild West-steampunk tabletop roleplaying game based on the Malifaux miniatures game from Wyrd Games. In the magic-saturated parallel world of Malifaux, you take on the roles of unique Fated citizens such as Gunfighters, Drudges, Dabblers, and Entertainers. Your destiny, or Fate, is created during character creation, and it affects every aspect of your life. As the game progresses, the destinies of the Fated entwine, driving you all inexorably toward a final reckoning. Will you fall to Fate, or cheat it?

This revived offer once again gives you five Expansion Books and many adventures. For just US$17.95 you get all five titles in this revived offer's Starter Collection (retail value $100) as DRM-free ebooks, including the complete, full-color 412-page Through the Breach Second Edition core rulebook (2017) and four full-length Penny Dreadful adventures, ideal for introducing the Gothic, necromantic-industrial city-state of Malifaux: Days Without Accident, Fire in the Sky, The Obsidian Gate, and A Stitch in Time.

And if you pay more than the threshold price of $31.34, you'll level up and also get this revival's entire Bonus Collection with eleven more titles worth an additional $164, including five Expansion Book rules supplements – Above the Law, From Nightmares (play a monster!), Into the Bayou (play a Gremlin!), Into the Steam, and Under Quarantine – and six short Penny Dreadful One-Shots designed for a single play session each: Bubbling Up From Below, The Iktomi Shuffle, Jurassic Faux, The Show Must Go On, Silurid Showdown, and Uncontainable.

 

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 - Ambition & Avarice: 2nd Edition

It's Greg Christopher's Birthday Week, and he's put Ambition & Avarice: 2nd Edition on sale for 5 bucks in PDF (regularly $15). A&A 2e is one of the best OSR games on the market (and I'm not just saying this because Greg is a good friend, which he is). A&A 2e should be on every Grognard's game shelf, as the equipment charts Greg has included would be an asset to any OSR campaign, regardless of the ruleset.

Ambition and Avarice is an action-adventure roleplaying game with an easy-to-understand OSR chassis. The 2nd edition maintains focus on character classes and races that walk the line of respectability.

2nd Edition at a Glance:

- Simple OSR-style resolution mechanics

- 10 Races: Dark Elf, Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Goblin, Halfling, Hobgoblin, Human, Lizardfolk, and Orc.

- 12 Classes: Brigand, Conjurer, Cultist, Elementalist, Enchanter, Knave, Ranger, Savage, Shaman, Witch, Veteran, and Zealot.

- More powerful low-level magic users + more powerful high-level mundane characters.

- Pre-built backpacks to grab off the shelf for quick character creation.

- The most comprehensive medieval fantasy equipment chapter in the RPG industry (I checked).

- Monster trophies to take after the battle and use as magic items; Cyclops eyes, Giant frog tongue, Nymph hair, and more.

- Catalysts: A spell component system that is actually fun to use.

- Clear and useful rules for hex crawling, managing retainers, and building your own barony.

- A complete customizable cosmology system with major/minor gods and demigods of your own creation.

- 596 spells: a mix of old favorites and reimagined wonders divided across six traditions: conjuration, elementalism, enchantment, primeval, salvation, and vexation.

- NPC design system mixing reaction rolls and attitude to determine exactly how far each NPC will go to help or harm you.

- A dungeon familiarity mechanic to allow the players to gather information BEFORE going down the steps into darkness.

- Full Bestiary of 182 monsters with a simplified combat stat block system for easy management.

- Monster entries include formulae for creating your own twisted undead.... if you don't mind dabbling in necromancy.

- Treasure chapter with rules on magic item creation and numerous treasure tables to stock your dungeons.

Each class features;

- Expertise in a class-specific task; like the Conjuror's binding circle ability or a Cultist's ability to sacrifice humanoids to curry favor with their god.

- Identification of something in the world; like the Witch's ability to identify sickness/disease or the Savage's ability to recognize familiar scents and follow them.

- Recruit followers to serve as henchmen; like the Knave's ability to recruit spies or the Conjurer's ability to create imps to serve them.

Six flexible magic-using classes have a varied selection of new and exciting spells. There are easy methods to create your own enchantments, raise unique undead to serve you, or craft cursed items to give to your enemies. The non-magical classes have their own rich choices and don't fade away in importance as the magical characters advance in level.

These classes can then be combined with 10 classic fantasy races; from elves and dwarves to orcs and lizardfolk. You can combine them however you wish, creating everything from goblin rangers to dwarven brigands. Your race is no longer central to your destiny, playing a marginal role in restricting your actions in the game world.

The entire package is designed to allow quick character generation and presented in a format that is clear and easy to read. The text is packed with explanations of not just the rules, but the reasons behind the rules. It is an ideal choice to hand to a new player who is looking to get into the great game, but turned away by dense technical rulebooks with byzantine organization. The adventuring mechanics are also OSR compatible and allow easy integration with a variety of old school campaign material. You can pick up this game, grab an old module, and get playing in a very short amount of time.

 

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 - They Came From Beneath the Sea!

 

1950s horror-movie tabletop roleplaying! From Onyx Path!

This is the first I have heard of this line of RPG releases, and I wonder how I missed it. This is the type of gaming that RPG conventions are made for, and I'm grabbing my copies right after this post goes up. I want to run a session using Them! and one for the Blob! :)

They Came From Beneath the Sea (B-Movie Collection) is 12.95 at Bundle of Holding.

EEEEYAAAHHH! This all-new They Came From Beneath the Sea! Bundle presents They Came from Beneath the Sea!, the tabletop roleplaying game of drive-in B-movie horrors from decades past – of melodrama, science fiction, and farce – from Onyx Path Publishing. PLAY heroic humans driving back watery threats that seek to invade, destroy, or subjugate humanity! CAPTURE everything great about monster movies of the 1950s and 1960s – the thrills and (optionally) the campy humor – using the cinematic Storypath dice-pool system! GRAB your chocolate malt, turn on the jukebox, and ready your harpoons! Don't be caught unawares when it's revealed that They Came From Beneath The Sea!

For just US$12.95 you get all twelve titles in our B-Movie Collection (retail value $58) as DRM-free ebooks, including the complete They Came From Beneath the Sea! Core Rulebook, plus the Party Beach Creature Feature Jumpstart, the Beneath the Sea Quips and Cinematics Cards, and the Director's Screen; the bestiary Monsters of the Deep! and the character book Heroic Land-Dwellers!; the scenario collection Tales of Aquatic Terror; and five "Tasty Bits" mini-scenarios that highlight the many places They Come From: The Bikini Beach Party!, The Bermuda Triangle!, North Herald Beach!, Outer Space!, and Plan 9!

Onyx Path has also provided purchasers a coupon code good, while supplies last, for 50% off one copy of the hardcover They Came From Beneath the Sea Core Rulebook at Indie Press Revolution. Your coupon code appears on your Wizard's Cabinet download page.

 

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   

Deal of the Day - Through Sunken Lands and Other Adventures (OSR Ruleset)

Through Sunken Lands and Other Adventures is probably the OSR ruleset I'm dying to play or run at some point. I'll be using bits and pieces in my own campaigns, that's for sure.

Through Sunken Lands and Other Adventures is Today's Deal of the Day. Normally 9.99 in PDF, on sale for 3.99 until tomorrow in PDF.

Danger and glory await the bold...

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   

Kickstarter - HYPERBOREA: Modulistic Terror

Just mentioning Hyperborea (formerly known as Astonishinh Swordmen & Sorcerors of Hyperborea or ASSH) should be enough to draw your attention. The modules published for Hyperborea by Jeff Talanian are second to none in terms of content and quality, and can literally be run with ANY D20-based OSR ruleset. Yes, even the DCC RPG, but it would take some tinkering ;)

You can get all three modules of the HYPERBOREA: Modulistic Terror collection, in Print and PDF, for 85 bucks plus shipping over at Kickstarter.

THE OBLATION SLAB OF THE HEPATOMANCER™

An adventure in Hyperborea for four to eight characters of 5th to 7th levels

Abductions and murder! For many months, small villages and farmsteads along the eastern coasts of New Vinland, and up the River Maedbh as far north as Bogrest, have been plagued by swift and deadly attacks. The few surviving witnesses describe a vicious band of Viking berserkers—led by a giant of a Viking and a beautiful Keltic woman—descending without warning in their sleek longship. They seize victims (some scarcely older than children), loot and burn homes, and slay any who resist. Rumours of these raids have reached your ears, as tales spread through mead-halls and taverns as far distant as Khromarium. Tensions are high in New Vinland; the jarls eye their neighbors warily, speculating upon the identity of the raiders and placing the political stability of the entire region at risk. Attempts by Keltic and Viking chieftains to suss out these malefactors have thus far been fruitless—but your party has now become privy to information that could put a stop to these murderous slavers.

Text: Joe Maccarrone 

Editing: Ben Ball, Jeffrey P. Talanian

Front Cover Art: Del Teigeler

Back Cover Art: Johnathan L. Bingham

Interior Art: Johnathan L. Bingham, Mick Fernette, Skye Talanian, Del Teigeler

Cartography: Andreas Claren

Book Format: Saddle-stitched softcover book with #60 unfinished paper and two-colour interior layout.

THE THOUSAND EYES OF THAUMAGORGA™

An adventure in Hyperborea for four to eight characters of 3rd to 5th levels

Bold is the man who travels to the Skarag Coast, where the fell bargains of desperate ancient folk birthed the terrible dæmon-blooded race known as the orc—a species of abomination which now rules the land with blood and iron. Bolder still is he who would dare to erect a stronghold on that accursed shore in open defiance of those Hell-spawned horrors. Just such a man is Ronan Svendoros, a fighter lord of renowned courage who left distant Brigand’s Bay to rear a keep at the mouth of the Bloody River Basin. Now your party journeys to his holding, lured by the promise of gold and glory. Will you triumph, or will your bleached bones join those of countless others who have vanished into the darkness of the dæmon-haunted Skarag Coast?

Text: Ben Ball

Editing: Jeffrey P. Talanian

Front Cover Art: Adrian Landeros

Back Cover Art: Mick Fernette

Back Cover Colours: Glynn Seal

Interior Art: Ian Baggley, Johnathan L. Bingham, Mick Fernette, Adrian Landeros, Glynn Seal, Phil Stone, Del Teigeler, Mike Tenebrae

Cartography: Ben Ball

Book Format: Smyth-sewn hardcover book with #60 unfinished paper and two-colour interior layout

THE VANISHING ISLES OF THE SUMMER KING™

An adventure in Hyperborea for four to eight characters of 4th to 6th levels

Avoiding the lawless pirates of the Zangerios Islands and the blood-thirsty half-bulls of Minotaurios, your party sails to the Isles of Maedsid, deep in the Hyperborean Sea. Maedsid is surrounded by treacherous waves and clinging mists, a place of mystery since time immemorial. Over three centuries ago, the isles became the sacred home to a clandestine sect of sun-worshipping druids called The Awakening Dawn, but they have not been heard from for about forty years. Concern has grown amongst mainland druids, prompting calls for inquiry. Furthermore, speculators, treasure hunters, and curiosity seekers of all stripes are attracted by growing rumours of treasures undreamed and the possibility of unravelling peculiar mysteries. Now, your party voyages to investigate the fate of the lost druids, but perhaps some things are best left unknown.

Text: Johnathan L. Bingham

Editing: James T. Demers

Additional Development: Jeffrey P. Talanian

Front Cover Art: Val Semeiks

Front Cover Colours: Daisey Bingham

Back Cover Art: Johnathan L. Bingham

Back Cover Colours: Skye Talanian

Interior Art: Johnathan L. Bingham

Cartography: Johnathan L. Bingham, Glynn Seal

Book Format: Smyth-sewn hardcover book with #60 unfinished paper and two-colour interior layout. 

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   

Looking for a Different Sort of Campaign Setting

I know I've mentioned a few times that I travel for work, which is great because I get to see FLGS all over the country. I see plenty of crappy stores too, but that's par for the course. Unlike the majority of my travels, the trip I have coming up is to a ....how do I put this.....a place that did not have a "European Medieval Period" (EMP).

The overwhelming majority, if not damn near 100%, of my TTRPG gaming experience is located in an EMP setting.

I've read, or at least thumbed-through, Oriental Adventures, but never played in an Oriental campaign, and as far as AD&D goes, that's the only non EMP setting out there. No African setting, Middle East, Southwest Asia, South America, North America, or even a generic Polynesian campaign setting. This really seems like a missed opportunity in the TTRPG world. 

The majority of the players I've played with undoubtedly have the same general experience, but maybe I'm wrong. I just think if there were some good non-EMP campaigns settings, that more experienced (i.e. old as fuck like me) players would have a bit of a culture shock, as it was. A foreign (pun intended) campaign setting could let players experience the game anew. A lot of things we take for granted just might not exist, or better yet, be tweaked just enough.....

I think it could be a lot of fun, but honestly this isn't something I could just "do" as my genealogy is European and I think this would require more than just some research.......

Of course maybe I'm lucky in that some people have already done this and I'm just unaware. If that's the case, please feel free to educate me because I don't know what I don't know.