Kickstarter - Deck of Old-School Encounters Set Two, OSR Fantasy RPG Cards (Phil Reed)

72 more encounter cards for use with almost any fantasy RPG! May be used alone or combined with Set 1. Written by Philip Reed.

I'm a huge fan, and a friend, of Phil Reed. I've been following Phil for decades, back when he had an email list with gaming ideas. These days, he's the master of the small and quick RPG Kickstarter. Phil's current Kickstarter, Deck of Old-School Encounters Set Two, OSR Fantasy RPG Cards is only live for a short time, and as I type this has less than 3 days left in its funding period.

The Deck of Old-School Encounters Set Two includes 72 more random encounter cards, each one illustrated. This deck – for use by gamemasters and solo players – gives you a quick way to generate the next random encounter in your game. 

Fully compatible with the first set (or use this second set of cards on their own)! You can select the first deck in the $8, $12, and $30 rewards. Or, if you wish, buy it today at DriveThruRPG!

These systemless cards work with any classic fantasy RPG. They are also a good fit for modern campaigns looking to add a touch of old-school flavor.

Each card also features the baseline reaction of the encountered character or creature. The reactions are divided into three categories.

• Friendly. The encountered character(s) are open to assisting the party of adventurers . . . so long as the heroes are also friendly.
• Indifferent. The encountered character(s) or creature(s) are likely to ignore the party if the adventurers don't do something stupid. Events during gameplay may turn some indifferent situations into hostile (or maybe even friendly) reactions . . . depending on the players' actions.
• Hostile. The encountered character(s) or creature(s) are prone to violence and very likely to attack the party. Of course, the heroes may be able to sway the opposition, possibly turning an armed conflict into a tense – yet peaceful – meeting of two groups. (Who are we kidding? The adventurers are more likely to engage in fisticuffs than they are in conversation.)

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Kickstarter - Hex Dek, Systemless Fantasy RPG Hexcrawl Cards

To be honest, I thought I posted about Phil Reed's latest Kickstarter already, but it appears I did not. I'm already backing Hex Dek for 50 bucks, which tells you how excited I am to back yet another project from Phil, but the actual post never actually got made. Well, there are 3 days left to back, so don't wait too long to pull the trigger on Hex Dek.

Note: Hex Dek is a purely digital, PDF plus Print on Demand (POD), project. Phil won't be doing any mailing on this one. It also means, if you are backing for a physical (POD) product, you will have an additional "at cost" charge from OneBookShelf when you do order the POD.

Hex Dek consists of 50 double-sided cards:

On the front of the card we have:

• A seven-hex mini-map. (Each hex represents a two to three-mile section of land. Of course, the GM is free to adjust this scale as they wish.)
• A short description of one location. 

On the back of the card we have:

• Expanded information on the location described on the card front.
• At times, a second location description.
• A random encounter table.

The cards are completely systemless. There are no game stats at all. Instead, these are encounter prompts that are intended to inspire the GM. They may also prove useful to solitaire RPG players in need of more prompts for their game sessions.

Hex Dek POD is 7 bucks (plus at-cost printing and shipping upon final order) via Kickstarter, but you can back for more to get more. If you are the least bit interested in hex crawls, I strongly suggest you back for the core deck. :)

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    

Inkwell Designs - SideQuest Decks - Pick a Card, Any card (or store)

Inkwell Designs has its SideQuest Decks available to order from three different store fronts:

Amazon - $14.95 with free Prime shipping

RPGNow - $14.95 with the PDF of the deck included

Inkwell Designs - $13.95 with the PDF of the deck included

From the Inkwell site:

We’re excited to revise, expand & update our popular Encounter Decks to Sidequest Decks! 

Why the name change?  It is a more accurate description.  As you likely know, each card is a mini-adventure, not just one encounter. 

What else is new?  Decks 1 & 2 didn’t have the map match the adventure on the other side of the same card.  Now the map is the most important/unique map to the adventure, as in Decks 3 & 4.  If the adventure needs other maps you may pick another card’s map as needed.  Also, Decks 1, 2, and 3 have been sorted into four new decks based on sub-genre/setting and new adventures have been added.  Another improvement: many new maps have been added even for previous adventure outlines to ensure the map matches the adventure.  The new maps are wonderful and some older maps have been tweaked for easier reading. Deck 4 (Science Fiction) only changed the name.

I have the original decks and their are great for inspiration (or emergency adventures when unprepared)

Given the choice I'd get the decks directly through Inkwell Design, as +Joe Wetzel will keep a bigger cut of the price and supporting publishers is where's its at. Purchases made through The Tavern's Amazon or RPGNow affiliate links will generate a portion of the sales to support The Tavern, but I'd rather you support Joe directly. He offers some really solid releases for the gaming community.

Pick a Card, Any card - Looking at the AD&D 2E Deck of Encounters

Probably the most useful thing ever to come out of AD&D 2E was NOT the endless collection of Complete Player Handbooks (hard to believe, I know).  Nope, the most useful accessory I found in my nearly complete collection of 2e books and assorted crap is my Deck of Encounters Sets One and Two Boxed sets.

These little treasure chests offer nearly limitless opportunities to challenge your players and work very well in a sandbox style campaign.

Generally, I'd grab a dozen or so cards before the party would head out to their adventuring destination (if they had one) and randomly pick a card when circumstances dictated.  Most were level appropriate, one or two would be weaker, one or two would be on the more dangerous end.

It was a great tool to lower prep time and still keep things exciting and different for the players.  They have been a great rediscovery as I've been doing renovations.  I'm sure to have more to say about them as I spend time perusing them again ;)