What Gaming Stuff Did You Get for Christmas?

This time of year I'm usually excited to get back to work/school so I can do a little gaming "show & tell" with my fellow nerds. Since I'm 51 and the only gamer in my family, the only "nerds" I know are of the sports type I work with. They don't know what a d20 is to save their life, but can tell you who was the coach for any given professional football team in 2005.

As an allegedly grown-ass man I don't get to give my family lists of the shit I want so I generally get money if I get any gifts at all. That isn't an *actual* complaint, mind you....I'm more than fine with not getting gifts at all and money is nothing to sneeze ever since I learned that people will exchange money for stuff I want!

Last year I gave my gaming group some Lulu-printed game books that cover much of our weekly game, albeit with a custom cover I tweaked from the Rick & Morty D&D comics. There were...issues with everyone getting the books and I think it was June or July before everyone got their stuff. This year I didn't do anything....yet. If it's going to be June before people get things then I might as well make it Christmas at NTRPG when I see almost everyone....at least that's the plan.

EDIT: I just found out now (1930 on January 1st, 2023) that two of the players got their 2021 gifts last weekend!

I do have something for one buddy, but since I haven't mailed it off yet, I'm not going to mention it here lest I spoil the surprise. I could wait until June for that one too, but I won't.

Now, that's kind of a lot on what didn't happen this Christmas season, so I'll try to focus on the one dumb thing I did actually do, well kind of two things I did, but one is just random that happened while out and about in December.

Now I've managed to go to NTRPG for the last five years (not quite, but close enough for this blog) and during the year I try to support the con where I can, predominately by hunting for booze to be featured at a future Whiskey Tasting (it's becoming a thing), but also by bidding in the various Facebook auctions the con has (North Texas RPG Con Auctions). I've probably paid too much for a few items, but it helps the cons and usually it's something I really want anyway, so availability is worth the premium. I will also admit that I'll bid on stuff if it hasn't gotten much action and I don't really figure out what items are allegedly worth to begin with......

I also, evidently, do not always remember what I bid on or purchase. This last summer (?) I won a bid of an item and when it arrived I just set the package aside and promptly forgot about it. I'm not even sure how many months passed by before I realized that this was now a mystery package. When I was wrapping up my Christmas gifts, I just threw it in the stack and gave it to myself to unwrap at the family Christmas. I thought it was funny, but my family thought it was a little weird.....but let's be honest, because I game they already think that.

What did I buy, forget, and then gift myself?

Just a cover artist signed copy of Dragon Magazine #206. I have have a cover artist signed #200 already (got it signed in person at an event), and I'm rather pleased with myself. I still do not remember buying this...at all, so it was really a surprise.

The other thing was something I discovered at Half-Price Books in early December. These days it isn't easy to find gaming materials at this chain since "everybody" knows about the place, but occasionally a surprise can be found. I've been looking for some rather obscure reference materials for a family member (so not gaming related) and if I have time I'll stop in to look at the "old" book section as that's where it'd be. I had time to kill before a flight and stopped in this one HPB that has never had much for me, but it was on my way to the airport. I was surprised to find a boxed copy of the FASA Star Trek RPG from 1982. It was marked as "missing pieces" and not that expensive.....BUT it also had a sticker on it indicating that the rulebook had been signed by James "Scotty" Doohan. From what I gather the signature alone goes for 4x what the asking price for the boxed set was!

I was allowed to open it up and while I didn't do a complete inventory, the cards were unpunched and it looked like only one d20 was missing! It appears that whoever got this set only used it for the dice, which is funny to me because I remember, around that time, buying multiple sets of Basic D&D at Waldenbooks on clearance because it was cheaper and easier to get the set for the dice than it was to acquire rpg dice on their own.

So I think I had a decent RPR haul this Christmas......how did you fare?

Happy Chrismahanukwanzika

 

Why are you here reading this?! Do you know it's Chrismahanukwanzika?

Erik and I (I'm comfortable speaking for him on this one)....and I assume Rach...want to wish you & yours a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Cool Yule....whatever it is you celebrate....even Festivus.

If you're still reading this I'm going to assume it's because you're bored, which is unfortunate....but here's some appropriate time-wasters:

I made the Christmahanukwanzika GIF above, feel free to use if you'd like to....

Indiegogo - Beware the Yule Cat (OSE, C&C, and 5e)

I do enjoy a good holiday-themed adventure to read and even occasionally play ;) Frog God Games has had a strong run of amazing Christmas-themed adventures, and Beware the Yule Cat looks like it will hit a similar high water mark as its predecessors. 

Beware the Yule Cat is 12 bucks in PDF or 24 bucks (plus shipping) for print plus PDF. There is a Print on Demand option for those overseas looking to potentially save a bit on overseas shipping.

You all know the cat of Christmas

— that cat was huge and fat.

No one knew where he came from

nor where he was at.

Night is falling across the frozen plains of the Northlands. It's Yule Eve, but you're tired, hungry, and footsore. Ahead lies the village of Köldhorn — Cold Corners in the Common tongue — where you are sure to find warmth, food, and shelter, especially on this festive night. But upon arrival you find the streets deserted, and the villagers hidden behind locked doors. Soon, you realize that you've inadvertently found yourselves in the middle of a generations-long struggle between the people of Cold Corners and the evil fae troll Grýla, her husband Leppalúði, their sons the mischievous Jólasveinar — or Yule Lads — and worst of all her favorite pet, the fierce Jólakötturinn, better known as the Yule Cat.

 

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The Time to Start is Now!

I'm going to post something probably a bit unpopular here, for readily apparent reasons, but bear with me: you should be starting to think about your gaming group and Christmas, like now.

I now, I know.....some of you are probably going, it isn't even fall yet! *SPOILER ALERT* It is! Fall started last week even though its still in so much of this country clearly Summer or Summer-ish.

Now I spent too many years in retail and I can tell you that even if you don't see it, odds are there are Christmas items in your local store. This week I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, Christmas ornaments on a wing panel at my local store. That's not a big deal as sometimes those go up as early as July, but seeing as October starts next week, a lot of stores are going to have Halloween stuff up (if they haven't already) and might have an "Early Christmas" section as well. Most of the larger chains will backfill in Halloween season items with Christmas stuff as they can, but this post isn't about retail, well not directly.

You may or may not realize that Christmas falls on a Saturday this year, which means at least one weekend is shot for gaming because most of you have families and such. That leaves three weekends in December before the big day, and even if you game every single weekend (lucky SOBs), you know damn well that you'll have at least one, if not seven, Christmas parties to attempt to attend between those three weekends. Work,, Church, neighborhood, clubs, etc......it will probably feel like everyone is vying for your otherwise prime gaming time in December.

When you couple this with all the other holiday shit you have to get done I'm just saying it is probably a good idea to write off December when it comes to gaming or getting together with your regular group. I know a lot of you will manage it anyway....but for planning purposes, best to assume otherwise.

Now if you want to get your fellow gamers anything for the holidays that means you're effectively down to two months. No problem if you just plan on buying some stuff off of Amazon or at a local store. Plenty of time to grab some dice or what you think is a good unpainted mini for their favorite character, but if you prefer to build vs. buy...well two months might not be a lot of time.

Clearly we're all different so I can only speak for myself on this, but I'm a grown-ass man with no kids and no local family. I make a decent enough wage. Pretty much everyday is Christmas so I'm 110% happy not getting Christmas gifts period, much less from my fellow gamers. I do enjoy a little bit of gift-giving though, but usually only if I make something. I really enjoy the creative process and Christmas is sometimes more an excuse to take on projects that don't make a lot of sense if it's just for me.

Anyway, I already have an idea for this year and two months might be a little tight, but we'll see. I've got my main idea for "everybody" which might translate well for my gaming group but I have some other ideas that...well again we'll see.

What kicked all this off was a quick side-stop to my local hobby store and I thought, "Hey, what if I make XXX for my group this year. Is this something they'd like?" I went to check on some supplies I'd normally make instead of purchase and found out that the store put out a whole bunch of stuff I could use on clearance for 75% off. I may or may not have bought out that entire store and driven the hour down to Wichita Falls to buy out the other store as well.......

Now in retrospect the idea I had won't be a good one for my group since we play virtually, but I can still use the supplies so anything I did pick up would be worth the expense.

My entire point is that Christmas is kind of around the corner and if, like me, you want to create gifts for your gaming group, you might not have nearly as much time as you think. Between planning, prepping, and creating, you have essentially two months, tops.

 

Christmas Eve at The Tavern - My Niece Admits She's only Read a Half Page of SWL

So, Christmas Eve is spent at my sister's - we do the gift exchange, have dinner and all the regular holiday stuff in preparation for Rach and me hosting Christmas (and driving out to Connecticut Christmas morning for breakfast and gift exchange - its a busy couple of days NOT including picking my son up from the airport at 6 PM)

In any case, I recorded an episode of the Tavern Chat Podcast with my niece after dinner. I asked her about Swords & Wizardry Light - the game she told me at the time of release 2 years ago that I wrote it so I could teach her to read and she could play D&D.

Well, here we are, two years later and the girl is reading like she was born to it. She takes after her uncle in that regard. So, how much of the four pages of SWL has she read?

Half a page.

Sigh. But she's excited to play in 2019. She just has to find her copy of the rules again...

Merry Christmas everyone :)

Indigogo - How Orcus Stole Christmas! A Holiday RPG Adventure (Frog God Games - S&W, 5e and PF)

When I heard that James Spahn was pitching a Christmas themed adventure featuring Orcus, I was all in. Seriously, no hesitation. James Spahn is an awesome writer of RPG material - rules, supplements, adventures and more. James is also a good friend of mine, and I've gotten a few "peeks behind the curtain" and I think How Orcus Stole Christmas! A Holiday RPG Adventure is going to be one of James' best releases - ever.

Frog God Games wants your support for our first holiday adventure in over a decade -"How Orcus Stole Christmas!". Designed for lower-level characters both joyful and triumphant it has a wickedly humorous take on  classic holiday tropes. Yet it is still a perilous adventure full of the unexpected. Beware festive monsters, find joyous and jolly magic items and face an iconic villain with a holiday twist. 

O, Come All Ye Faithful....to Newville! 

This low-level adventure introduces the players to a contained wilderness environment known as Newville. It is designed to fit into most traditional fantasy campaigns, The open nature and local environment can extend the adventure across multiple sessions. So beware the danger behind the joyful cruelty of the enemies and their pathetic holiday slaves! 

It’s up to a small band of brave heroes to save Christmas this year, and without their unwavering Christmas spirit and willingness to face the cruelties of both winter and a twisted aspect of the great Demon Prince, they’ll never discover How Orcus Stole Christmas... 

Can the player characters discover why Orcus Claws is waylaying the town of Newville?  Will they survive the climb up cruel Mount Strumpet with its cannibal reindeer and treacherous avalanches? And for the love of Christmas, why are all these damn News singing all the time?! 

Inside the finished release you will find the following-

• An adventure which can be integrated into an existing campaign as a brief (yet twisted) celebration of the season.
• New and festive creatures which have a tendency to kill and/or feast on itinerant characters that are not prepared for danger amidst all the dark humor. 
• Joyful magic items with heartwarming powers.
• An description of the village of Newville, the demeanor of the News, plus exciting rumors about the surrounding valley. The valley is thought to be full of adventure.
• The author's manuscript was  bursting with bloody sarcasm and holiday humor.
• A visitor who arrives in the night upon a magical sleigh.

Palladium - 2017 X-Mas Surprise Package - $90 + value for $45 + shipping

Continuing with the Gaming Christmas Deals we are looking at the Palladium 2017 X-Mas Surprise Package. I bought this 2 years ago. My highlights were some signed prints and a signed copy of Palladium Fantasy - damn but I love those rules for flavor. Lows were some crappy minis - but its a grab bag, so overall I was pretty pleased.

They do require you list AT LEAST 10-15 items on your "wish list" of not more. Personally, I'm heavily weighted towards art and prints myself. Not sure if I'm getting the bundle this year as I'm literally running out of room for more "gaming shit" ;)

45 bucks plus shipping for 90+ worth of gaming goodies with signed game books of you so desire isnt a bad deal.

NOT as exciting is the Palladium Digital Christmas Surprise Package (I received this info via email)

For the first time ever, Palladium Books is offering a Digital Christmas Surprise Package! 

The Digital Christmas Surprise Package gets you a minimum of $50 (usually $60 or more) worth of Palladium PDF books and digital products (like Game Master’s Kits, Primers, maps, paper miniatures, etc.) for just $24.99. That’s right, $50-$60+ worth of PDF titles and digital products for only $24.99 during this holiday special. Offer ends December 24, 2017, so order yours now. Christmas is only two and a half weeks away. 

If the title is available from DriveThruRPG, you can request it in your Digital Surprise Package. It’s a surprise package because you never know exactly what you’re going to get. We ask that you send us a “Wish List” of 10-15 items. Then we select a bunch of them and may surprise you with stuff you are not expecting. PDFs like issues of The Rifter®, or a Palladium RPG or sourcebook(s), or other items that we think you might enjoy. All items are “hand-picked” by a member of the Palladium staff from YOUR Wish List. We have left fans thrilled with what they received every single year with the traditional Christmas Surprise Package, and we plan to do the same with the Digital Surprise Package.

How to Place an Order 

Place your order online at the Palladium website (palladiumbooks.com) just like you would any order in our online store. We accept ALL major credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover). You may also order by telephone (734-721-2903; order line only). 

Make sure you give us your entire email address, and double check it to make sure it is accurate. A link will be e-mailed to that address within five (5) business days of placing your order. When you click on the link, you will be taken to a shopping cart on DriveThruRPG’s website, with the PDF from your Surprise Package already entered into your shopping cart and the price set to zero. Simply click the red Check Out button to get your PDF titles via this special offer.

I'll personally pass on a digital grab bag...

Troll Lord Games "Advent Calendar Sale" with Bonus Flash Sale to 8 PM Eastern Tonight!

First, the flash sale, which was posted earlier today on The Tavern's Discord Channel by one of the Taverners:

Castles and Crusades is really cheap today if anyone is interested. 

Looks like you can get a Player's Handbook, Monsters & Treasures, Castle Keeper's Guide, CK Screen, Lion in the Ropes Adventure Modules, Character Reference Sheets and Arms & Armor for about $58 plus shipping. 

Valid until 8pm EST, code FLASH50NOW and it's applicable on the bundles.

The Troll Lord Games Advent Calendar Sale reveals a new sale every day for the month of December until Christmas. Prior day's sales do NOT appear to expire.

Merry Christmas :)

The Gamers - The Series - Season 0 - Episode 1 - For Your Christmas Enjoyment

Merry Christmas to all!

What's on Your Christmas List?

As I spend free moments updating the OSR Christmas spreadsheet, it got me thinking about Christmas (or Hanukah) list in general - alright, specifically gaming related.

Earlier today Amazon had the Dell Venue Pro 8" Windows 8.1 Tablet for $229 - it sold at shortly after I snagged it. This could certainly be my alternative to using a laptop on my trips to the Poconos, and as a player at least, the screen size should be sufficient to run Roll20 within Google + Hangouts when used in conjunction with a bluetooth mouse and keyboard. I've asked for some accessories already for Christmas (case, adaptor, mini SD Card)

What do I want for Christmas that is more directly gaming related?

Maybe I can convince my wife to get me one of the Palladium Books X-Mass Grab Bags. Not sure exactly what I would request, but I always dig original art and signed prints.

I already did the Goodman Games Grab Bag, and the loot hit a value of about $140 (at a cost of $42.35 including shipping)- even if half was 4e stuff, I can convert the two adventures to S&W for use. I did get a 3rd Printing of The Dungeon Alphabet and two DCC RPG adventure amongst the loot in question.

Kenzer doesn't seem to be doing any specials for this Christmas season.

So, what's on your list?

Compiling the List of Goodness For the "12 Days of OSR Christmas"

I received an email earlier today from a patron of The Tavern, offering a package of OSR goodness if I were running a Christmas Giveaway. The fact it, I am running a Christmas Giveaway here at The Tavern. 12 Days of it to be exact.

So, currently on the list of things to be given away:

1 set including the following -S&W Whitebox (softcover), Heroes & Other Worlds Adventure Game and Whitehack (a generous donor)

1 DCC RPG Core Rulebook (1st Printing) (your tavern keeper)

AL 4 - The Way Station and AL 5 - Stars in the Darkness for the DCC RPG (set - possibly more than one set - donated by Purple Duck Publishing)

2 copies of Lords of Gossamer & Shadow (hardcover - your tavern keeper)

1 copy of Dwarves & Dragons (strategy game by Ken St. Andre - signed and numbered 33/100)

1 copy of Three Days Until Retirement (donated by Stuart K - who also wrote and Kickstarted it successfully)

1 copy of Treasure Awaits (excellent OSR styles game donated by +Brett Bernstein )

1 copy of Lords of Olympus (softcover B&W donated by +Brett Bernstein )

Other items I find in the prize closet / basement (old games, duplicates, etc)

Other items donated in print and / or PDF

RPGNow store credit.

If you want to gift the patrons of this fine blog, email me at tenkarsDOTtavernATgmailDOTcom

The Giveaway will kick off on or about December 12, 2013

Prizes will be awarded randomly to blog readers that comment in the relevant day's thread, and comments will be open about 24 hrs on each thread, give or take.

NOTE TO READERS OUTSIDE THE US! 

The US Postal Service hates you. Really. The cost to ship anything to you will probably exceed the value of the items shipped. I'm running this using RPGNow referral sales credit, and unless someone makes like a thousand dollar purchase and we get some extra referral funds, shipping overseas will be way too costly.

So, PDF prizes / RPGNow credit for you UNLESS you want to paypal me (or possibly a donor if they are shipping direct) your shipping fee. It sucks. I know.

edit: I'm sure I missed a donor or 3 ;)

The "Amazon Carousel" and First Mention of "The Tavern's 12 Days of Old School Gaming Extravaganza!" Contest

I'm trying to make the contests here at the Tavern self sustaining - they should cost me little out of pocket and have some nice prizes paid for by the readers of this blog using the different referral links. As I've said many a time, referral money that The Tavern earns makes all of these contests viable. Well, that and the awesome publishers that donate prizes certainly help big time.

This is part of the reason I just added the Amazon Carousel Wheel to the right. The other part is this - the prize(s) is(are) on the wheel already, and will be determined by the funds raised by the Amazon referrals.

I figure the contest will kick off on December 15th, and only part of the contest will be funded this way. I have donated prizes and RPGNow credit to award, so there should be lots of prizes and lots of fun.

So, it should run from December 15th through December 26th. "The Tavern's 12 Days of Old School Gaming Extravaganza!"

There is one caveat - I won't be shipping prizes outside the US, so winners from the rest of the world will probably be looking at RPGNow credit. I've seen what shipping costs can do to a Kickstarter, and I'm not looking to be put at a huge loss ;)

Post Christmas Update

Well, didn't get the reading in that I had hoped to.  Ah well, maybe next weekend.

However, I did get some cool gamer gifts.

I mentioned Skyrim earlier.  My god, but this is a time sink.  Closest thing to a true roleplaying experience in a single player computer game in... forever in my opinion.  I'm going to have to set a limit on my game play, or I'll find myself doing little but playing it.  And playing.  It's that good.

The wife got me the Call of Cthulhu Card Game.  She doesn't realize yet, but she'll be my main partner in playing this one.  Time to test the sanity ;)

She got her own Kindle Fire from me.  Yeah, I'm turning her into a gadget geek too... heh