Looking for a short, low-level distraction for your group? Maybe something to run at a gaming convention in a 3 to 4-hour time slot.? Look no further thanUnder Tenkar's Tavern, Levels 1-3 from Throwi Games.
I ran Under Tenkar's Tavern this morning at Central NY Con. With character generation for a party of six characters (using Swords & Wizardry Light), we brought the first level of the dungeon to a successful conclusion in about 3 1/2 hours. Objective achieved and fun had by all.
I would expect the full 3 levels to play out in about two sessions in a home campaign, with enough story hooks to keep your group coming back for more.
Priced at PWYW pricing, I'd give Under Tenkar's Tavern4 1/2 beer steins. It's short, sweet, and easy to prep, and the price is right :)
The first time I saw the system that became Fantasy Age was the adaptation of Dragon Age from console RPG to TTRPG, and I was impressed with what I saw and read. A very playable, not too crunchy, classic-feeling fantasy RPG.
I haven't checked out Fantasy Age 2e yet, but I am tempted to after I return from Central NY Con early next week...
Adventurer! This all-new Fantasy AGE 2E Bundle presents the 2023 Second Edition of Fantasy AGE, the tabletop fantasy roleplaying game based on the Adventure Game Engine from Green Ronin Publishing. With the easy-to-learn, flexible Fantasy AGE system you can create a character in minutes, pull off heroic stunts, cast worldshaking spells from 19 mix-and-match arcana, and fine-tune your campaign with optional Peril, Daring, Fortune, and Horror rules. And if you know other AGE system RPGs like The Expanse, Dragon Age, Cthulhu Awakens, Blue Rose, and Modern AGE, you already know how to play Fantasy AGE – all the basic systems are the same.
Techno-Fantasy supplement for Fantasy Age Second EditionFor just US$19.95 you get all seven titles in our Fantasy AGE 2E Collection (retail value $88) as DRM-free ebooks, including the complete full-color 290-page Fantasy AGE 2E Core Rulebook, plus the Second Edition Game Master's Toolkit, the VTT Token Pack, and the free Quickstart; Technofantasy; and three 2E adventures: Lair of the Horned Giant, Menace of the Grave Warrens, and Return to the Valley of the Whispering Titans.
The town of Warnell, straddling a trade route that crosses two great forests, seems at first like any other backwater on the borderland of civilization, but menace and mystery lurk beneath the surface: a rash of disappearances from the shanties outside the town walls, a ruthless drug cartel operating with impunity while the town watch are powerless to stop them, and marauding bands of brigands and slavers ravaging the countryside. Rumors point would-be heroes and fortune seekers to the enigmatic sanatorium and casino outside of town that draw strange and wealthy travelers from far-away lands, to the abandoned (and reportedly haunted or cursed) old salt mines, to a remote mist-shrouded logging camp with an unsavory reputation, and deep into the trackless primeval forest where the xenophobic elves have forbidden all trespassers. While these locations likely hold death and destruction for the careless and foolhardy, they may also hold the keys to drawing this afflicted town and its hapless inhabitants away from the brink of calamity.
A First Edition fantasy campaign adventure for 4-20 players with characters of levels 1-6, compatible for use with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (1st Edition), OSRIC, or other old-school style fantasy roleplaying game rules and utilizing the concepts and rules additions found within The Heroic Legendarium.
This book, years in preparation and playtesting, presents a complete ready-to-play campaign in a book that covers an 8,000 square mile wilderness map with 30+ detailed locations, a detailed town (plus two detailed villages), five dungeon areas with 16 combined levels and several mini-dungeon lairs, 7 new monsters, 4 new magic items, 140 named & detailed NPCs, extensive rumor and random encounter tables, dozens of potential plots and character interactions, and notes for further expansion. Enough to easily fill at least 20 sessions of play. Includes a revised and expanded version of the previously-published (award-winning) Melonath Falls dungeon together with over 150 pages of never-before-seen new material.
Note to buyers: If you are purchasing the print edition please buy the print+pdf bundle (which costs the same as buying the print edition alone) so that you can print out extra copies of the maps for use during play. Due to the limits of POD formats the maps are bound into the back of the book rather than in a separate booklet so if you only have the book you will have to flip back and forth to the back of the book during play which would be a hassle.
Yep. One PWYW adventure covers three systems - Old School Essentials, ShadowDark, and Cairn.Today's Free OSR Pick:Perilous Path of the Cursed Camelis an adventure for 2nd and 3rd-level characters that stands alone - it isn't written as part of a series, so you'll need to massage it into a campaign if that is how you are using it. To my eyes, it makes for a fine tournament adventure for conventions - now it's got me thinking...
What do you say when a bizarre camel appears and says you’re doomed to have your soul eaten by witches… unless you can steal as many ancient Relics as possible from all over the world in the next few hours?
…hopefully, you say: Let’s go!
Embark on a whirlwind tour of the strangest and deadliest places in the world as you search for a way to escape the Witches of Grome! Players have just 30 minutes to explore each location, negotiate with the locals, and find a Relic or two before they are transported to the next location.
GMs can choose how many locations they wish to play (of the 12 provided) in order to make the session run longer or shorter to meet their needs. Perfect for convention play!
THREE SYSTEMS
This adventure is written with simple keys for monsters and treasure, and provides handy one-page guides so that it can be played in three different systems:
Shadowdark
Old School Essentials
Cairn
Intended for a large party of Level 2 PCs, or a small party of Level 3 PCs
FLEXIBLE LENGTH
Each location is meant to be played for about 30 minutes of real time. There are 12 random locations to explore, plus the 13th final location where the PCs confront the Witches. Thus, the GM can easily choose how many locations they wish to play to precisely fit the time they have alloted for the session.
I've always been intrigued by solo RPG/Story systems, be it Tunnels & Trolls, the old UK gamebooks from Steve Jackson (yes, the other one), or even more recent releases. The Drifter is a solo RPG experience in the setting of the American Western Genre.
The Drifter is a solitaire, story, dice game based in the fictional wild west.
The drifter is reminiscent of games like Barbarian Prince (1980), where every game is a unique story experience every time you play.
You are a gunslinger who has been living a hazy existence. Your brief time in this world has been mostly spent on the outside of the law, killing, stealing, carousing with undesirables, living a dangerous life full of excess and violence. Recently, you feel life might have more to offer. You know this way of life will not last and now are looking to maybe put your wild ways away, buy a ranch and settle into obscurity. You determined you need $300 and are willing to get it by any means you feel necessary.
Will you fall victim to the endless dangers that lurk in the wild west or will you enjoy your remaining days in a serene retirement, tending to your ranch?
Monty Python’s Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Programme. That is a mouthful and a half! I backed the Kickstarter, and the physical product is beautiful. It also reads well. I am not sure how well it plays, but I do enjoy the occasional distraction of the truly silly, and Monty Python’s Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Programme certainly fits the bill :)
If you were curious, the PDF for Monty Python’s Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Programme is currently the Deal of the Day at DTRPG. Normally 40 bucks! (and it isn't even a Goodman Games release) Until tomorrow morning, Monty Python’s Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Programme is on sale for $16 (a 60% discount). If I hadn't already backed this from the Kickstarter, I'd be all over this like white on rice, as I'm a huge Monty Python fan.
Betwixt these firm yet supple ( binary) covers, one shall find everything one needs to experience the joy of Mediaeval study, from character creation and factions to ready-to-run quests and monsters – including the French! One need not be familiar with Monty Python’s work, nor is experience with ‘role-playing games’ required. If you have experience with the latter, you are probably too silly a person to participate and should stop reading immediately.
Features:
An original rules-lite gaming system with spam.
Guidance on designing adventures with spam.
Ready-to-run quests, spam, and guidance on designing one's own adventures.
Character creation, spam, bestiary, spam, and Dramatis Personae sections.
Tables for generating all sorts of things with spam.
Original hand-painted illumination
6.2% more spam.
This is a fully licensed educational programme for serious students of History.
It is by no means a comprehensive manual for running imaginative, Mediaeval-themed role-playing games lovingly ripped off from the works of Monty Python.
Witchcraft Wednesday: Fane-born (Occult D&D)
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[image: Photo by Vanessa Pozos:
https://www.pexels.com/photo/mystical-halloween-portrait-of-a-witch-28759465/]
Got some game time in my oldest last night...
A (Super)Girl and Her Dog
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Here's another DCU illustration by manga artist Yashiro Manabu. This time
featuring Milly Alcock's version of Supergirl and the true star of Superman
(2025...
You Could Tell I Was No Purple Worm
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The idea that the dreams we create in our minds while we sleep could emerge
into reality is a rich seam for creators of imaginative fiction to mine.
But ...
d72 Squires
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By the book, Squires get a pony, a dagger, and an okay weapon from a d6
table.
[image: A person in armor riding a horse with two men in helmets
AI-gener...
The Mystery of the Moon-Haunted Spire
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By Scott CraigCutter Mountain SimulationsB/X - ShadowdarkLevels 1-6 (?) For
hundreds of years, the Lunamancer conducted his magical research in the
pinnacl...
Bio One (1974)
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From the introduction:
Rules for exact hit location and damage determination; for use with
gunpowder period man-to-man rules.
*Bio One* provides a compl...
The Lantern is Now Tiered
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Going forward, for those who are interested in seeing The Lantern PDF,
copies must be paid for, either by joining the new $7 tier on my patreon or visitin...
Christmas in July (2025) picks
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Christmas on July sale over DTRPG is on! Here are my usual picks, with some
additions.
It includes many of my titles!
This includes my latest work, Basic ...
Chagrinspire Roadside Rubbish
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I need this now road is well used.
If you are in a car, you might miss these items.
*d10 Quick Types*1 Camp
2 Rubbish
3...
Miskatonic Monday #362: Bunny The Eldritch Slayer
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Much like the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha
and The Companions of Arthur for material set in Greg Stafford’s
masterpiece of...
It's time to get graphic with Grozz...
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And now, for something completely different...!
(Sort of.)
I've mentioned my good friend Art (AKA Grozz) before here on Monstrous
Matters when I wrote a b...
On the Best Art
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I just wanted to say, I don't know if people know this.
I hire Jeshields to do art for my projects because he captures that classic
style in his black a...
Ogre Miniatures at Historicon 2025
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I got to run two games of Ogre Miniatures at Historicon this weekend. Both
times I ran the Ceasefire Collapse scenario, and both times had one person
who’d...
Expanded Iridium Moons map doodle
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Because scope creep is a fact of life, I’ve been tinkering with several
ideas to give some additional detail for the rest of known space outside of
the For...
Stargazer (A New System)
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I haven’t had a regular over-the-table tabletop game in years. In that
time, I’ve wandered pretty far afield. Time for a new system, methinks.
Inspira...
Somua S-35
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The French Somua S-35 is widely regarded as one of the best tanks in the
world in 1940, when the Germans invaded.
It was well armed, well armou...
Mythic Armorica for Mythras
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The *Mythic Britain* series for *Mythras* has a new instalment: *Mythic
Armorica*. (I first mentioned this supplement – and included a preview of
its map...
A Twisted Tale of the Tongue...
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nce upon a time, when yours truly was a much younger DM, I planned what was
supposed to be your standard town-next-to-the-dungeon affair. Problem was,
re...
How I Run OD&D Combat
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Link to discussion
Over the years I’ve settled on a way to run 0e/OD&D/White Box combat that
keeps the action moving and is pretty simple, while covering...
[NEWS] July 30% off site-wide sale
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Now 30% off!
I am pleased to announce that, starting from July 1 and ending July 20, I
will be holding a site-wide sale on all currently available EMDT pr...
Loopy Tombs
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This poast was inspired partly by reading James Holloways 'Tome of Tombs'
- a zine of Tomb creation which you can find here;
https://james-holloway.itch...
Into the Majestic Fantasy Realms, Last Day!
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My Kickstarter for Into the Majestic Fantasy Realms: the Northern Marches
is now in its last day!
Link to the Kickstarter
Random Party Generater
Everyb...
What to do on a Gaming Break
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It's summer again. Well it's supposed to be but with temperatures lingering
around 40 it doesn't feel like it. Most summers I take time off. A couple
mon...
I come from the land of the ice and snow
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So I got a wild hair and created 81 pages of demographically accurate
random birthplace charts covering every hamlet, village, town, city,
castle, and...
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...
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,...
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 ...
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...
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...
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.
-
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
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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 ...