Tenkar's Tavern: 2025-09-07

Saturday, September 13, 2025

Swords & Wizardry RPG Mega Bundle at Humble Bundle

I'm a huge fan of Frog God Games' Swords & Wizardry releases. The current Swords & Wizardry RPG Mega Bundle at Humble Bundle has some really nice picks, even at the $1 Bundle level.

At the $1 Bundle level, the titles that stick out to me are 1975 (Bill Webb), Against Tsathogga (Skeeter Green), and The Riot Act (James Spahn), among other titles.

The other sweet spot is the $18 Bundle level, which adds in City of Brass, Grimmsgate, Hall of Bones, all seven entries in the Hexcrawl Chronicles, and How Orcus Stole Christmas, among a total of 62 titles.

The level to avoid is the $38 bundle. You don't need a physical book that was a secondary part of a Kickstarter over a decade ago.

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The Tavern’s Amazon Storefront: amzn.to/41Jm0oG

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Friday, September 12, 2025

Bundle of Holding - Fragged Empire 2E

I have the First Edition of Fragged Empire, and it vaguely feels like Rifts with better rules. Am I allowed to say that? ;(

The Fragged Empire 2e Bundle is $19.95 on Bundle of Holding.

Adventurer! This all-new Fragged Empire 2E Bundle presents the 2024 revised edition of Fragged Empire, Wade Dyer's post-post apocalyptic tabletop roleplaying game from Design Ministries of fractured space and divided species. Fifteen thousand years in the future, humanity has gone extinct, but eight engineered species rule the wonders that remain. A century after the Nephilim and their X'ion master successfully defeated the Archons and their servile nations, your ragtag band of misfits rides the Ley Lines (ruptures in space that power both jump drives and psionic powers) to rebuild a galaxy devastated by factional politics, ancient grudges, and slumbering evils.
Funded in a spectacular March 2022 Kickstarter campaign, this Second Edition of Fragged Empire adds pre-war history, more systems to explore, and deeper dives into the setting's unique species and cultures. Slimmed-down mechanics and intuitive rules open the game to new players and gamemasters. The sprawling Fragged setting inspires adventures out of Cowboy Bebop, Firefly, and Farscape, with themes of cultural tension and transhumanism seen in modern space opera writers like Ann Leckie, Adrian Tchaikovsky, and Arkady Martine.
This new Fragged 2E Bundle gives you everything you need to build new nations and a better future – a really far future. For just US$19.95 you get all seven titles in our Fragged Collection (retail value $90) as DRM-free ebooks, including all three Fragged Empire Second Edition corebooks: Rules, the Setting Guide, and the Location Guide (plus the Archetypes supplement); two adventures – Eat Cake and Magician's Choice; and a rules-light high-action variant, RAG-TAG.

The Tavern uses affiliate links

Humble Bundle: humblebundleinc.sjv.io/da4WJ2

The Tavern’s Amazon Storefront: amzn.to/41Jm0oG

DriveThruRPG: www.drivethrurpg.com/en/?affiliate_id=1446

Thursday, September 11, 2025

Remembering 9-11-01

As I sit at my desk, I can't help but think of this day, 24 years ago.

Much like today, it was a beautiful, cloud-free September morning. I was sitting at my desk, preparing the weekly and monthly crime maps, with the office TV on to some news channel, with a report of a plane having struck the WTC.

As I watched the TV, a second plane impacted on the unstruck tower. I turned to my Sergeant at her desk, reviewing the prior week's crime reports, and said: "Michele, we gotta suit up. It's gotten real." Within a minute of the second impact, we were being mobilized to respond to the WTC from the South Bronx.

The rest of that day is burned into my brain like an etching on fine silver.

Driving downtown on the East side of Manhattan, using the sidewalk when needed so I could get through traffic with the Eight & One in my van.

Getting the intersection of Second Ave & Houston Street, and watching in awe as a homeless man and a businessman directed traffic so the emergency response could get through. I can still see the shopping cart off to the side, slightly, with a briefcase sitting on top.

Reality started to set in.

Getting as far as City Hall Park before the sea of people heading uptown was too great to travel through.

Feeling Tower 2 start to fall before seeing it or hearing it.

Hearing myself saying "My God! My God! Oh my fucking God" as if I was listening to a stranger say the words from outside of myself.

Turning to my Sgt and saying, "Michele, if this is the end, I'm in good company." Her response, "So am I, but we ain't dead yet. We're Bronx cops! What are we gonna do?"

And I responded, "Yell at people and hit them if needed!"

And we did. We yelled at the mass of people, at individuals. "You've got fucking legs! Use them!" "Stop looking over your shoulder- move your ass!" amongst other pleasantries. One person got poked by my nightstick, as they allowed shock to overcome them, and they stopped moving, but the poke woke them up.

Then the roaring wave of debris and dust came to us, sounding like a cross between a roaring ocean wave breaking and the most intense thunderstorm of your life.

I saw it, and I was at peace.

It literally stopped about 10' in front of our van. I saw a man, covered in drab grey dust and debris, kneeling about 20' in front of me. I touched his shoulder, and he fell over. A nearby medic ran over and checked his pulse, shook his head, and we left him where he was to tend to the living.

Then Tower 2 came down.

It was a long day. A long week. A long month. A long fall season.

I lost friends that day. I've lost friends due to 9-11 in the days and years following.

When I finally pass, it will be due, at least in part, to complications and illnesses from 9-11.

I have no regrets. I would do it again.

God bless the victims and God damn the perpetrators.

Wednesday, September 10, 2025

Bundle of Holding - Rifts Plus...

Over at Bundle of Holding, we don't just have ONE Rifts Bundle, not TWO, but THREE Rifts Bundles.

Look at the screenshots to see the offerings.

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Humble Bundle: humblebundleinc.sjv.io/da4WJ2

The Tavern’s Amazon Storefront: amzn.to/41Jm0oG

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Tuesday, September 9, 2025

Deal of the Day - Tales of Argosa (Low Fantasy Gaming)

In the time before COVID, my gaming group was playing with Low Fantasy Gaming. While not a ruleset I would have chosen at the time of play, it felt similar to an OSR ruleset, in that ruling , not rules, ruled the day. There is much I would borrow for my OSR gaming.

Today's Deal of the Day is Tales of Argosa, which is essentially Low Fantasy Gaming 2e. Normally, 24.95 in PDF, until tomorrow morning, Tales of Argosa is on sale for $9.98.

Core Features
Familiar d20 based system.
9 Classes Artificer (or Alchemist variant), Barbarian, Bard, Cultist, Fighter, Monk, Ranger, Rogue & Magic User; only two of which involve magic.
9th Level max caps PC power levels.
Flatter HP Curve Most PCs will have approx 10-40 hit points over their nine levels.
Unique Features Every 3rd level design your own PC ability in conjunction with your GM, or choose from 40+ examples.
Roll Under for Attribute checks, making every stat point matter. Degrees of success via Great Successes and Terrible Failures.
Roll High for attack & damage rolls.
Wisdom is split into Perception and Willpower. Perception mod applies to ranged attacks instead of Dex.
Simple Skills grant a +1 bonus on relevant Attribute checks, but more importantly allow a PC to access their limited Reroll Pool if they fail. The Variant Rules chapter includes a further simplified "Class, Race & Background" combo to replace the skill list, if desired.
Minor, Major & Rescue Exploits on top of damage, not in lieu, promote improvised stunts and moments of greatness.
Fast Initiative Side based initiative, but a different PC rolls each round. Initiative is a derived stat (average of Dex & Int). If the PC makes their Initiative check the party goes first, otherwise the monsters do. On a Great Success the party also acts before any Heavies or Bosses.
Diminishing Luck attribute replaces saving throws, ratcheting up the danger with each save.
Fierce Battle Martial Exploits, Nat 19s, Crits, Fumble ripostes, Morale checks, Trauma rolls, Heavies, and Bosses make for action packed battles! When reduced to zero hp, healing takes 1d3 minutes (magical or otherwise). Players don't roll to find out if their PC lives until after the combat, when an ally checks the body...
Unbalanced Encounters ToA is designed for unbalanced combat. Clear escape rules put the fate of the PCs in the players’ hands - do they fight another round, or run?
Short Rests PCs make two Willpowers checks during a Short Rest to attempt to recover hp and class abilities, encouraging them to press on rather than camp.
Dark & Dangerous Magic Roll to Cast and DDM tests threaten to unleash Veil monsters, madness, mutation, or worse!
Downtime Rules for Carousing, Pets, Black Market Trade, Masterforged Gear, Gambling, Recovery, Potion Brewing, Magical Research, Scroll Inscribing, Rumours, and more.
Emergent Play & Solo Support via mechanics, procedures, and massive GM Toolbox to facilitate improv, including: Lone Wolf PC rules, Range Bands (for smoother Theatre of the Mind), Reaction & Activity rolls, Major Exploits & Rescues, Morale checks, Consult the Bones Dice Oracle, Read the Signs Card Oracle, Hexploration Procedures, Dungeon Tally & Events, Travel Events, Random Encounters, XP Awards, NPC Tables, Treasure Tables, Madness Table, Disease & Parasite Table, Trap Tables, Dungeon Generator, and more!
Easy Compatibility with most OSR and 5e style adventures; just swap out monster stats, treasure, and spells for ToA equivalents, and you're good to go! We've been playtesting with adventures from LFG, Forbidden Lands, Dragonbane, B4 The Lost City, Hot Springs Island, The Toxic Wood, Mines of Perinthos, and very recently Moria (from The One Ring, alpha PDF). Conversion tips are included.
Rules as Guidelines - The GM is the final authority on all rules, which are expected to be tweaked to fit table preferences. The Variant Rules chapter includes suggestions such as more/less deadly, less dangerous magic, movement in feet rather than range bands, individual Initiative checks, etc.
Creative Commons Licence - ToA has been released under CC BY-SA 4.0. You can create and sell your own supplements, adventures, etc, without needing any authority from us.