Saturday, June 8, 2024
Friday, June 7, 2024
Wednesday, June 5, 2024
Tuesday, June 4, 2024
Heading to NTRPG Con in the AM
Over the next few days, posts may become spotty as I enjoy everything that NTRPG Con has to offer.
I'll try and regal you with con photos and more :)
Monday, June 3, 2024
Humble Bundle - Delta Green RPG Collection
I remember Delta Green when it was a supplement for Call of Cthulhu. My, how times have changed. Now it's a full-blown RPG in its own right. The Delta Green Humble Bundle is 18 bucks for 20 PDFs
This is like nothing anyone has ever understood. This is the apocalypse.
Fan of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos? Delta Green is the premier modern day setting for cosmic horror roleplaying, casting players as operatives for a top secret government organization tasked with keeping the eldritch at bay. This bundle includes everything you need for endless adventure in this thrilling world! You’ll get the Agent’s Handbook and Handler’s Guide core rulebooks plus an entire library of sourcebooks, adventures, and game aids to keep your gaming group busy for as long as your sanity can handle!
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
Sunday, June 2, 2024
Final Sunday Before NTRPG
No...this year will be much more laid-back than my norm. Between a work trip kicking my ass (I brought home a summer cold that I'm just recovering from) and some unexpected home repairs having to take up my most valuable of resources....oh, and my workplace kind of sort of tried to tell me I couldn't go to the con this year. Yeah, that wasn't going to fly. I take one scheduled vacation a year (NTPRG) and they can have me do whatever for the other 360 days of the year. They've had this on the books for a year and if management cannot get the manpower figured out, that's not my burden to bear.
So yeah...I'm not going to take on undue stress so I can enjoy myself.
NTRPG is basically the beginning of the summer convention season, so if you have things you need to do before Origins, or maybe GenCon.....here's your sign to check in on your state of affairs now.
I'm happy with the games I've gotten into to play, but I don't have and guests coming in this year like I've had in the past. Just gaming...some drinking, and giving Bad Mike too much money.....
Hopefully I'll have a good end-of-con report.
Blogs of Inspiration & Erudition
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Model Storage Sabots - I have a number of relatively cheap plastic storage boxes that I use for a variety of purposes, one of which is to store wargaming models. The models c...5 hours ago
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To Save Santa's Workshop - A Castles & Crusades One Shot Using Nuelow Games Campaign Setting - the Ghost of Hong Kong including session report - The Ghost of Hong Kong wandered into the snows leaving our party of adventurers to settle events themselves. She walked into the flames and smiled at the ...10 hours ago
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Shadow of the Torturer (review) - Shadow of the Torturer (1980), by Gene Wolfe, the first part in The Book of the New Sun series, is an amazing work; so much that the first thing I consider...14 hours ago
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Character Creation Challenge: Day 4, Áine nic Elatha - [image: Photo by T Leish: https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-in-black-witch-costume-with-a-black-book-5600078/] Photo by T LeishToday I want to revisit Ái...17 hours ago
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Strontium Dog I - In 1988, Games Workshop would have published its fourth home grown roleplaying game. Like its second, Judge Dredd: The Role-Playing Game, this would have ...20 hours ago
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Delay - I'm sorry, I'm not going to manage a February edition for the Lantern. I'm not going to blame in on that 4,000 word post on language, but I won't say tha...1 day ago
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Werewolves of Lenden - By Christopher WilsonSelf PublishedOSELevels 1-3 The Armlaws Guild is the true power in the city of Lenden, accepting protection money and extorting nearly...1 day ago
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Black Company postponed - Unfortunately, I caught a cold and I can barely speak. We put off the playtest session until next Friday.2 days ago
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On a Happy New Year - We are about to experience the most social upheaval since industrialization. What will that look like in sixty years? Sinless is starting it's third yea...3 days ago
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More Reading in 2026 - I need to feed my brain more. I used to eat up books like Cookie Monster ate...cookies. I've gotten out of the habit. My reading time has been replaced ...3 days ago
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May the Dice be Kind to You in 2026 - Me, when some of my graduate students tell me that they are into role-playing games: Me, when it becomes clear that by "role-playing games" they mean ex...4 days ago
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Myconid Boletaceae: Map25.07 - Deep in the Scarborough Bluffs to the far east of Bamblgulf and hidden in a soft soil is a cavern home to the myconid people. They are extremely protective...4 days ago
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Galaxy Laser Team comic #1 (Ekatón) - English translation - If you know your GLT, you'll probably notice that I'm missing the turtle-crab... Happy Holidays all! I hope your season has been amazing so far and that ...4 days ago
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Chasing the (Savage) Dragon - What To Expect - I still think this is crazy that I'm trying to do it, but yeah I want to collect all issues of The Savage Dragon (as well as associated miniseries and rela...6 days ago
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TSR Marvel - Reskinned into a Swinging 60s SpyFi Romp - Started a shared world game using characters from this post and B-Man's stats https://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/20...1 week ago
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Secret Santicorn 2025: Two Forges - The Forge of Yakul Yakul was obliterated, and his temples were sunk. Memories of the dead god were struck from the souls of men. A heavy punishment was ...1 week ago
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Merry Christmas Gift to Y'all : Creature Catalogue Vol. 1 - I wanted to wish everybody a Merry Christmas and decided that I should take one of the few Frugal GM titles that has a cost and make it free....well, tec...1 week ago
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The Importance of Having a Stake - Recently if I have some spare time during lunch at work I have been watching some recordings of Warhammer Total War 3 on YouTube. Don't judge me. One o...1 week ago
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Rappan: Worm Hunting and a new quest - Session 294 was played on 08/17/25 Morgana, wizard 10 (Rob) Borumar, Triton Thief 11 (Josh) Blotto, Goblin Fighter 8 (Lanse) Nick, Fighter 8 (Me) Koltic, ...1 week ago
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2025 Year End Roundup - AI Is Everywhere Gaming in 2025 started slow with the usual Wednesday night on Roll 20 that I’ve been in since March of 2014. We’re on campaign 3.5, which ...2 weeks ago
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[BLOG] News on the March! Episode XII. - 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...2 weeks ago
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Count Belisarius by Robert Graves - An overwhelmingly sad book about the worlds most heroic dude. A study in ressentiment. Rome’s summer in the east, before its very slow descent, produces an...2 weeks ago
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Fragging Out - Intergalactic work continues. I'm constantly reminding myself that the first *Mythic Bastionland* playtests (then *Primeval Bastionland*) were based on ...2 weeks ago
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Toys on the (Gaming) Table... - As Christmas approaches, toys spring immediately to mind. Yours truly has talked (ad nauseum) about getting Holmes Basic for Christmas, but never that much...4 weeks ago
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OSR: Treasure for Dungeon / Room Stocking - Dungeon stocking is tricky. Over and over, people ask "How much treasure should I include per room / dungeon level / PC?" The answer varies enormously be...4 weeks ago
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Weather in the Yatil Mountains - The players in my D&D campaign will soon be headed into the Yatil Mountains in search of the lost treasure hoard of the Archmage Iggwilv (see module S4: ...1 month ago
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Mutants and Wizards - Heya folks, long time no see. I've just started working on something new called Mutants and Wizards. It's going to be an OSE/OSR post-apocalyptic game t...1 month ago
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Resources Recommendation for Greyhawk's and Dave Arneson's Blackmoor - Over in /r/osr/, user *acathiadm* asked a question about the Egg of Coot: I am doing a take on the Egg of Coot, in Blackmore, Northern Greyhawk. If you ...2 months ago
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Ten Friggin Hill Cantons Wizards - 10 Wizards of the Hill Cantons # Name Description 1 Magister Dobromil the Cauterizer Specializes in magical “cleaning” of reality leaks. Wears fou...2 months ago
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Rob Kuntz at Lucca Comics & Games 2025 - If you are planning a trip to Europe (like right now) and wish to catch up with me in person, make sure to book a detour via *Lucca Comics & Games*, ...2 months ago
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What is the point of the OSR? - Over on Reddit, Kaliburnus asks What the point of the OSR is? He concludes his post with some questions. So, honest question, what is the point of OSR?...2 months ago
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Musings on the OSR Blogosphere and Forums - Link to discussion There are some posts on the historical OSR blog scene that I’ve read recently from the Grumpy … Continue reading →3 months ago
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How do you do piracy… in SPACE!? - Interstellar space travel in Iridium Moons was always going to be a form of hyperspace jump like in Star Wars or Traveller. Simply because it’s the one for...3 months ago
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The First Dungeon Crawl in History - Mapping a Lost Session Report, Part II - Today detailed reports from game sessions are common. Until recently, some of the oldest I knew of were to be found in Alarums & Excursions, but only ra...5 months ago
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A long overdue hobby update! - 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...7 months ago
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All Work and No D&D Makes Homer Something Something - I have a problem. I haven't played an RPG in about a year. Circumstances in my life are such that I have precious little free time. Now that I've written...7 months ago
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Playing at the World 2E V2 Arrives - 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 ...7 months ago
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Blogs on Tape season 6 has begun! - 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...8 months ago
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Lexicon of Klarkash-Ton, Hierophant of Atlantis: Lupanar - This time, we follow the good High Priest to the far future, to the final continent of Earth, Zothique, for a a tale of ennui and love: Morthylla. Witho...9 months ago
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Articulations - 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...1 year ago
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Writing playlists for all occasions - 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...1 year ago
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The Tarot of Pips - 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...1 year ago
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Pirates and Necromancers, a Play Report - 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...1 year ago
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It's been a bit - 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...1 year ago
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*'s in SpaaaaaAaaaace - 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...1 year ago
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Last move - to self-hosting! - 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...1 year ago
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Osamu Tezuka (1928 - 1989) - [image: Osamu Tezuka - Shonen Magazine Cover, 1970]Shonen Magazine Cover, 1970 [image: Osamu Tezuka - Shonen Magazine Cover Illustration 1970]Shonen Maga...3 years ago
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Clean Your Room - 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 ...4 years ago
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Steve Jackson Interview - 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...5 years ago
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The Hero’s Journey 2nd Edition, Campbellian roleplaying at its best! - (this review done using the reviewers own purchased copy) I have been a James Michael Spahn fan since he wrote his Swords & Wizardry Companion. His writing...5 years ago
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ToAD Monster of the Week: Crocoman - 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...5 years ago
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OCHRE SAND - Init +0 Ranged Atk • fire burst +3 (1d14+1, 20') AC 17 HD 3d6 MV 60 Act 1d24 SP 'breath' weapon, sideslip, perfect silence, morphing Fort +5 Ref +8 Will...5 years ago
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Strange, Dangerous, and Inhuman: The Fey and Fairie - 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...5 years ago
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The Faithful - An Optional Archetype for Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells Revised Edition - Work on the revised edition of Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells is moving along. This will be a hefty tome, with a LOT of tools and new options to customiz...6 years ago
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Dungeons & Dragonmead Fall Schedule - *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...6 years ago
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Fiction in Airhde - 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...6 years ago
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Ravensburg Reboot: Streamlined City Map - 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...6 years ago
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The Withered Crag available now - 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...6 years ago
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Annihilation Rising Goes live - 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! ...6 years ago
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James's Celebration of Life - 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...6 years ago
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Trap Tuesday: A step back - 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 ...6 years ago
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Let's Talk About Pacing! - 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...6 years ago
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Profane and Profound Prep Part 2 - 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...6 years ago
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MIDDLE DUNGEONS LEVEL FIVE 158 STAIRS. - 158 STAIRS. These stairs descend thirty feet to Area 79 on Level 6.7 years ago
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Please, I don't do paid advertisements - don't ask. - 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...7 years ago
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New website! - 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...7 years ago
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Please Update Your Link! - 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...7 years ago
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Total Sales for WB:FMAG - 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*...7 years ago
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How can We Destroy this Campaign World? - 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...7 years ago
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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 ...7 years ago
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Yodeling For Yokels or The Further Misa(d&)dventures - This is the one of those posts that points out the lack of current posts. Over the last week or three, there has been postponed Labyrinth Lord (twice, one...7 years ago
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Bundle of Fantasy Age - 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...7 years ago
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New Free PDF Module: The Hyqueous Vaults - 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...8 years ago
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Session XCIII: One Pissed Off Dragon! - Our ongoing Swords and Wizardry sandbox campaign... *Current Player Characters:* *Thenus* (Ranger) *Wang Du* (Monk) *Wolfheir* (Viking) *Arg* (Half-orc) ...8 years ago
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Swords & Wizardry Light: Session # 6 - 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 ...8 years ago



















