Tenkar's Tavern: mythmere games

Showing posts with label mythmere games. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

Kickstarter - Tome of Worldbuilding (Mythmere Games)

Matt Finch, the main man behind Mythmere Games, is best known for the Swords & Wizardry retro-clone, but Matt is virtually the Godfather of the OSR. What is often overlooked is he was one of the guiding hands behind OSRIC which helped kick off the old school renaissance as we know it.

Matt's current Kickstarter is the Tome of Worldbuilding, a system-neutral sourcebook to fuel your desire to create new worlds. As it's from Matt Finch, you know it going to be damn good.

30 bucks get you the Tome of Worldbuilding and the Nomicon (a book of names) in PDF. 55 bucks get you the Tome of Worldbuilding in Print plus PDF.

These sourcebooks for world creation are system-neutral, and can be used with any fantasy roleplaying game, of any edition.
The Tome of World Building is written by ENNIE-award winning author Matt Finch, author of the critically-acclaimed Tome of Adventure Design. Using the Tome of World Building, you can create fantasy worlds quickly and fill them out with a wealth of detail from the random-generation tables in this book.
This Kickstarter offers two high quality hardcover books to create a trilogy of creative power with the Tome of Adventure Design. The first is the Tome of World Building, allowing you to create maps, cultures, countries, wilderness regions, and all the history and backstabbing politics of a fantasy world. The second is the Nomicon, with tables to invent fantasy names for everything you'll generate using the Tome of World Building.
This book contains advice, real-world facts, systems, and LOTS of random generation tables to help you create a fantasy world for tabletop adventuring.

Want to know more? Join the live stream, Wednesday Night, September 25th, at 8PM ET

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Tuesday, October 3, 2023

Kickstarter - Tome of Adventure Design - Fantasy Adventure Builder

PC/Mac/tablet app for designing and creating adventures for D&D and other fantasy role-playing games AND to create your OWN generators!

Ever had an app you didn't know you needed until you saw it, and then you couldn't even think of being without it? Tome of Adventure Design - Fantasy Adventure Builder fits that definition for me. I own two copies of ToAD from the Frog God era and one copy of ToAD Revised. I REALLY like the Tome of Adventure Design if you couldn't tell ;)

The Tome of Adventure Design - Fantasy Adventure Builder (TM) is a PC/Mac/tablet software product that helps you build creative adventures for fantasy roleplaying games such as Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, Swords & Wizardry, and similar games. Many tabletop gamers may already be familiar with the Tome of Adventure Design, from Mythmere Games and this software takes it to the next level.

"we are going to approach it as a multi-stage plan along with our collaborators at RPG Stories and Brave Alice. The first step is to release a two-part piece of PC/Mac software. The first part is an interactive version of the Tome of Adventure Design tables, with a few modifications and improvements. The second part is a table builder that allows you to modify the tables from Tome of Adventure Design and create and share your own generators using those tables and any new tables you make."

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

Tuesday, March 28, 2023

Kickstarter - Swords & Wizardry Complete Revised Rulebook

Swords & Wizardry (White Box plus Supplements) is one of the original three retro-clones, including OSRIC (AD&D 1e) and Labyrinth Lord (B/X) (others may include Castles in Crusades in this discussion but I see C&C as more "proto" retro-clone).

One of the major changes Swords & Wizardry made from its source material was whittling the number of saving throw categories down to a single save number.

I am, personally, a great fan of Swords & Wizardry in all of its flavors - White Box for its streamlined ruleset, Core for its expanded rules while keeping the classes to the core four, and Complete for being, well, essentially "complete".

Matt Finch and his company, Mythmere Games, are kickstarting Swords & Wizardry Complete Revised Rulebook, which is essentially the 5th printing of S&W Complete and the first to not be released under the OGL, but most likely the upcoming ORC license or something similar.

The S&W Complete Kickstarter has already hit $50k in funding in less than 12 hrs. Now that's impressive!

Looks like I'll be adding another printing of Swords & Wizardry Complete to my collection :)

For anyone who's completely unfamiliar with the game, Swords & Wizardry is a tabletop fantasy roleplaying game. All the rules are in this book, and all you'll need in addition are a set of gaming dice (20 sided, 8 sided, etc.), paper, and pencil. Many people also play with miniatures, but they aren't necessary.

Swords & Wizardry is one of the oldest of the Old School Renaissance ("OSR") games, originally written in 2008, with a large following throughout the world. Hundreds of adventures have been written for use with the system by multiple publishers, and these are still compatible with this version of the game.
The game is much more "rules-light" than most fantasy roleplaying games, so it's fast and easy to learn the basics and start playing.
Swords & Wizardry contains a full set of 9 character classes, all the rules you need to play, including all the monsters, spells, and treasure tables.
The game rules of OD&D are similar to the B/X rules, so this game can be viewed as an "advanced" version of the B/X rules in many ways.

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Why "Swords & Wizardry?"

Believe me when I say I have them all in dead tree format. I have OSRIC in full size, trade paperback and the Player's Guide. I have LL and the AEC (and somewhere OEC, but I can't find it at the moment). Obviously I have Basic Fantasy RPG. Actually, I have the whole available line in print. Way too much Castles & Crusades. We all know my love for the DCC RPG. I even have Dark Dungeons in print, the Delving Deeper boxed set, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. BOTH editions of LotFP's Weird Fantasy and some dead tree copies of the Greyhawk Grognards Adventures Dark & Deep

I am so deep in the OSR when I come up for breath it's for the OSR's cousin, Tunnels & Trolls

So, out of all that, why Swords & Wizardry? Why, when I have been running a AD&D 1e / OSRIC campaign in Rappan Athuk am I using Swords & Wizardry and it's variant, Crypts & Things, for the second campaign? (Actually, now running a S&W Complete campaign, soon to be with multiple groups)

Because the shit works.

It's easy for lapsed gamers to pick up and feel like they haven't lost a step. I can house rule it and it doesn't break. It plays so close to the AD&D of my youth and college years (S&W Complete especially) that it continually surprises me. Just much less rules hopping than I remember. (my God but I can run it nearly without the book)

I grab and pick and steal from just about all OSR and Original resources. They seem to fit into S&W with little fuss. It may be the same with LL and the rest, but for me the ease of use fit's my expectations with S&W.

Even the single saving throw. That took me longer to adjust to, but even that seems like a natural to me now. Don't ask me why, it just does. Maybe it's the simplicity of it. At 45 52, simplicity and flexibility while remaining true to the feel of the original is an OSR hat trick for me ;)

Swords & Wizardry Light - Forum

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