Humble Bundle - Old School Fantasy Roleplaying Bundle (Everything PLUS the Kitchen Sink)

This is probably the best and greatest Old School bunde anywhere - forget Bundle of Holding - the Humble Bundle - Old School Fantasy Roleplaying Bundle is what you want to grab!

Why? Well, if a picture says a thousand words, I've got a couple of thousand words for you ;)

Let's look at the One Dollar level. You get all the following for a buck:

All the above plus the following for Eight Bucks:

All the above and the following for 18 bucks:

I dare you to find more old school gaming value for your gaming dollar.

Yes, that's an affiliate link above. When you shop using The Tavern's affiliate links, a small portion of sales made go to support The Tavern. Huzzah! for beer ;)

Gary Con Wrap Up - 2019

When I was packing for Gary Con I realized I never brought anything with me to have members of the gaming community sign. It didn't take long to realize that my AD&D Player's Handbook from 1980 (one of my first two RPG books - the DMG being the other) was the perfect book to bring. Thanks to all that signed it. I'll track down more folk at NTRPG Con. (Beware Tom Tullis)

I ran the last (convention) session of Rappan Athuk: Mouth of Doom today. I must say, not having to assemble the dungeon at every con going forward is a blessing, but not running it again is a shame. There will be another level of Rappan Athuk in 3d terrain up and running by Gamehole, or so I've been told. Leaner, more deadly and possibly cavelike ;)

It was great meeting folks from the gaming community. I'd name you all but I'm sure I'd forget to mention more than would get shout outs. I appreciate every kind word said.

Gary Con was a blast. Hopefully, Rach and I will get the opportunity again next year. And the year after that. And the year after that. And...

Kickstarter - Rappan Athuk for 5e $160k Stretch Goal Revealed - Go Down The Well and Make Me a Jolly Grip!

Ah, fun times:

As stated earlier in an update the $160,00 Stretch Goal is.. 

Mystery Stretch Goal from Bill Webb free for everyone who gets a physical copy of the book- including the softcover Pathfinder & Swords & Wizardry updates. We will keep you postered on the reward as it gets closer ;) 

Well, we can now reveal that it is... 

A handsome 2-panel color poster folded for proper placement inside your books. All backers receiving a physical book in their pledge get the Poster free. Oh, yeah a free high-resolution PDF of the same is available for FREE to all backers of $5 or more.

Ah, to be a "Jolly grip" has been a lifelong dream. WTF is a "Jolly grip" anyway?

 Rappan Athuk: Reborn for Fifth Edition! Go down the Well!

9 hours left and almost at the $160k stretch goal...

Kickstarter - Rappan Athuk: Reborn for Fifth Edition! Go down the Well! (28 Hours Left Reminder)

Time is running short to back the Rappan Athuk: Reborn for Fifth Edition! Go down the Well! Kickstarter. 28 hours and counting as I type this. If you are a 5e player, especially a DM, it should be a no-brainer. But what if you are a Swords & Wizardry gamer or (gasp!) Pathfinder? What's in it for you?

The sweet point is the $35 backer level for folks like us.

Now, what stretch goals are included at the $35 level?

UNLOCKED $33,000 High-Resolution Wallpaper #1 FREE

UNLOCKED $43,000 High-Resolution Wallpaper #2 FREE

UNLOCKED $45,000 New Level from Bill Webb and Tom Knauss available to all backers as a bonus (5e/SW/PF PDF only)

UNLOCKED $50,000 Player's Guide to Rappan Athuk (2012) PDF free to all backers

UNLOCKED $75,000 The First Ever Release of Rappan Athuk, The Upper Levels, for D20 becomes a free stretch goal PDF for all pledges above $5. ($3.99 value)

UNLOCKED $100,000 Adventures in Zelkor's Ferry by Alex Kammer for Fifth Edition, Swords & Wizardry or Pathfinder. Add-on $15 Softcover / $7 PDF

UNLOCKED $120,000  The second ever Rappan Athuk title, the Middle Levels, for D20 becomes a free stretch goal PDF for all pledges above $5. ($3.99 value)

UNLOCKED $140,000 The third ever Rappan Athuk title, the Lower Levels, for D20 becomes a free stretch goal PDF for all pledges above $5. ($6.38 value)

LOCKED $150,000 Mystery 3-D print file stretch goal.

LOCKED $160,000 Mystery Stretch Goal from Bill Webb free for everyone who gets a physical copy of the book- including the softcover Pathfinder & Swords & Wizardry updates. We will keep you postered on the reward as it gets closer ;)

Pledge level is just short of $144k as I type this.

Pretty good value for your 35 bucks...

Gary Con - Wherein I Was Summoned to Run a Table of 5e Rappan Athuk...Transformed into Swords & Wizardry

I was working the Frog God booth when I was told shortly after 2 PM: "Dude, you gotta run a 5e Rappan Athuk session - our DM never made it to the Con!"

There were a few issues with that:

1 - I don't run 5e.

2 - I didn't bring any of the 5e rules with me.

3 - I don't run 5e.

Thankfully:

1 - I ran the same table last night for Swords & Wizardry

2 - I can run SWL pretty much without opening the rules

So, I got to the table and announced that yes, you are expecting a 5e session but your DM isn't here. I own but do not run 5e, so therefore we are going to be playing Swords & Wizardry. I'll do my best to ensure everyone has fun and if for some reason you don't, et me know where i went wrong at the end of the session.

15 minutes later, we were up and running. No one left the table at the start (but two dropped out at the 2 hr break and we added a new player)

Results?

1 - Only one PC death, and that spot was quickly filled by the character's torchbearer.

2 - Two players (a couple) went to the Frog God booth immediately after to grab their free Swords & Wizardry Legion folders (we have more available at the Frog God Booth - just tell them Tenkar sent you)

3 - Treasure was well earned and the players, for the most part, played it damn smart. The dice were in their favor, as least more so than Friday Night's group.

4 - I had a blast and feedback from the players was that they had a good time too.

5 - It left me exhausted, but in a good way. The area we were in was very noisy, and i had to keep my voice projected fairly strongly to be heard.

We lose an hour tonight. Time for bed. Drop by the Frog God Booth tomorrow and take some freebies (and some $5 a pound Pathfinder. Shit, at that price you can convert to S&W right on the actual page. Imagine being able to write in your $15 copy of Swords of Air ;)

Kickstarter - Rappan Athuk: Reborn for Fifth Edition! Go down the Well! (New content for S&W and PF)

I know folks have been waiting for this and its finally here - Rappan Athuk: Reborn for Fifth Edition! Now, that's exciting for the 5e players (its an excellent megadungeon) as they get additional new content and brand new color art.

But that's not what I've been waiting on. I've been waiting on the new content for Swords & Wizardry and that will be published as its own, stand alone book. Woot! (oh, and Pathfinder too for those interested)

Just as exciting to me is ability to get the redrawn Rappan Athuk maps as JPEG files for use with VTTs.

Then there is the add on for 3D Printer Files from Fat Dragon games including the very handsome entrance to the Mouth of Doom. If you like dungeon terrain and have a 3d printer, this is huge!

I may need to kick off a new Rappan Athuk campaign for SWL this fall.

The Kickstarter has been live for 2 hours as I type this and its already passed 19k of a 30k goal. Damns!

At the moment, the Frogs are casting live on Facebook. If you drop in, tell them The Tavern sent you :)

This is How a Kickstarter Video Should Look - Rappan Athuk 5e

Rappan Athuk 5e Kickstarter launches at 9 PM Eastern tonight.

Awesome video. Just 2 minutes longnd no dirty socks ;)

Kickstarter - 100+ Rappan Athuk Color Maps- JPEG, PSD for PFRPG, SW,& 5e

I love Rappan Athuk, but it wasn't the easiest to run on a Virtual Table Top. Sure, I could screenshot the maps from my PDF copy, but room numbers, traps and secret doors were all exposed when revealed via "the fog of war." With the 100+ Rappan Athuk Color Maps- JPEG, PSD for PFRPG, SW,& 5e Kickstarter, I won't have those issues. Then again, what REALLY excites me is the outdoor maps!

You can back for digital files (JPEG or PSD) or even go for physical copies. I want it all, but I'm a map freak anyway.

I think my sweet point is 75 bucks for the printed folio and JPEG maps for GMs and players. Damn you Frog God! I thought I had left Rappan Athuk behind me! heh!

Did I mention it funded in hours?

Note: I swim the the Frog God's pond these days and they printed and distribute Swords & Wizardry Light for free. They produce good shit and this looks to be more awesome stuff.

NTRPG Con - We Followed a Skeeter into Rappan Athuk

Last night, after running my second session of Beneath the Battered Dwarf Tavern for Swords & Wizardry Light (went very well and as before had an extra player show up) it was time to venture into Rappan Athuk using Swords & Wizardry Complete with Skeeter Green as out DM.

There was some sort of side bet going on with Edwin Nagy who was running the same at the same time for 5e - who could kill more PCs in less time than the other. Skeeter won hands down ;)

My halflng thief survived much longer than I had expected with only 1 HP (we rolled 1st level characters with max HP, b ut I took damage early on and our party of 10 or so had not a single cleric. Actually, we had only one caster but a plethora of thieves. Go figure. Heh.)

What was really cool was the 3d presentation of a level of Rappan Athuk. My understanding is that the 3d printer files will be available in a forthcoming Kickstarter. I'm beginning to feel I need a 3d printer :)

Afterwards, meaning - after the vast majority of the party was killed - Rach and I chatted up one of the "Peripheral Frogs" (a position similar to what I hold ;) and we brainstormed some really cool ideas for SWL to present to the head honcho himself.

Afterwards, Rach and I headed to the hotel bar where we met with a  couple of NYC gamers. We just may have put in motion a very exciting project for the fall of 2018. Damn but I really love NTRPG Con. It really is "where the deals get made in the OSR."

After the bar kicked us out, it was time to hang out on comfy chairs and finish out beers, which allowed us to end the night with Dennis Sustare. Before we knew it 4 am was knocking at the door (5 am back in NYC)

It was a very good day - and night.

"A Copper for a Wish Sire!" or "What My Party Finally Wished For"

Some of you may remember my post from last week, where I mentioned that my party found a genie in a bottle and were granted a single wish in  return for releasing him. The group asked to end the session at that point, because they wanted to phrase their wish properly because they were afraid I (as the DM) might "fuck with them.

Perish the thought ;)

In any case, there was a strong push to send the Dung Monster after the Rat King - which would have been strong for the storyline, but weak for the player characters' actual benefit.

I really started to feel like I should read all of those online "user agreements" that go on for 78 pages of lawyer speak instead of just clicking "I Accept"...

They made their decision. They wanted every member of the party to see twice as well as a Dark Elf in the dark while keeping their "normal" vision. Or was it, they wanted to have the vision of a Dark Elf at the same distance as their normal vision while maintaining their normal vision. Something like that.

They got their dark vison. The genie took his bottle and flew away. I do have an idea for a nice twist down the line that would really push the campaign and the players to some new heights, but it may never come up - and may never need to depending on the course of the players' actions.

And they didn't get screwed. Dozens of blog readers can no sigh in relief ;)

My Swords & Wizardry Kickstarter Package Arrived Today (and boy are my arms tired ;)

Holy crap but that was a heavy package!

Rappan Athuk comes in at 490+ pages, Monstrosities (the new S&W monster book) comes in at 550+ pages and S&W Complete comes in at 130+ pages. Not to mention two adventures, the DM Screen, 2 copies of the coloring book, graph paper, dice and a pencil. Oh, and a 2nd copy of the S&W Complete rulebook that I grabbed as a gift. There is a ton of gaming goodness here.

I like that Monstrosities continues with the "each monster gets a story hook" idea that I first saw Frog God use with Tome of Horrors Complete. One monster per page, each with art, is fine by me.

The Session That Almost Wasn't - And a Random Application of "Save or Die"

So, last night was the game session that almost wasn't, or to be more accurate, the game session that mostly wasn't. It was to be out first session using Roll20, so I expected some hiccups. Our issues weren't with the interface, but with lack of players.

Two bowed out a few hours before game time (but after I'd already turned down some guests for lack of virtual seating) and the third wound up being 2 hrs late - but we called the game after 90 minutes ;)

In any case, the players that were there got to play with the Roll20 interface, and we even had +Joshuha Owen as a lurker to help us with our questions.

You would think with half the party missing - in this case all 3 of the party's fighters, there would be no gaming to be had. You would be wrong.

One of the fighters ( +Craig Brasco )  had forwarded us his character sheet   - he intended for his character to participate even if he couldn't. That gave the party a fighter with HP and damage dealing. It also gave +Joe D a chance to use the "Rappan Athuk Slot Machine" Chamber. And use it he did.

Joe's character Glabe hit the 100XP numbers twice, but he also hit the Save or Die (1-1-1). Glabe needed a 13 or better for his save, and I was already thinking about how to work Joe's next character into the campaign when Joe rolled - a 13. Go figure.

Joe also rolled (6-6-6) TWICE. Which resulted in the appearance of two demons (individually) that wanted to return from whence they came with Glabe's soul. It didn't happen, and a decent amount of expo was gained by those that were there. Well, decent for the 90 minutes we were logged in for ;)

Hopefully next week we'll finally get the party into "The Gut".

Slate, Gargoyle Wanderer and Guide of The Gut

Artwork by Bruno Balixa

Slate, Gargoyle Wanderer and Guide of The Gut

While it is true gargoyles by nature are some of the most vile, evil things about, there are always the exceptions that prove the rule. Such is "Slate". It's not that Slate isn't evil, but his own morbid curiosity tend to keep his evil nature in check.

Slate has found himself an unlikely occupation - guide to wandering adventurers in The Gut, the underground highway that connects different parts of Rappan Athuk. It wasn't always such for him, but he doesn't recall much of his early days after his creation. Blood and violence are the only images he has retained of those times.

He does not recall eating the young ranger named Eramus nearly 100 years ago, but the event changed him. Slate become self aware and found he had desires beyond killing. He desired to wander, to explore and strangely enough, to be around people. It didn't hurt that he understood the common tongue  and with some effort could even speak it.

Slate knows most of the factions operating in The Gut and can help parties negotiate safe passage in many cases. All he asks in return is to be allowed to observe the violence when negotiations fail or are impossible. Oh, and be allowed to eat the slain from either side.

When Slate talks, the words tend to be said slowly and enunciated clearly and distinctly.  If at all possibly, he keeps his sentences short and to the point.

(I think I'm going to go through many of the standard D&D monsters and write up some "unique" variants on the some ole' same ole'. Should be fun ;)

Some How, Some Way, THIS Will be Making it's Way to "The Gut" in Rappan Athuk

This a a piece of art by Nicholas Cloister of the Monsters By Email website / soon to be subscription service. He was kind enough to allow me to peek at some additional pieces of his work. The stuff is amazing.

Anyhow, my party will be entering "The Gut" in our next session of the Rappan Athuk campaign I'm running, which is kind of like a huge underground "highway" between sections of the megadungeon.

I don't know what this guy will be doing there just yet, but he looks intelligent enough to have a purpose.

I guess I have a week and a half to figure out what that purpose is although I am open to suggestions ;)

Playing With Pestilance (a Rappan Athuk Session Report)

For those following at home, my players were mostly running around level 3C of Rappan Athuk - The Fountain of Pestilence last night. I can actually name the level, as they found the fountain last night and almost immediately said - "Hey, this is like camping a Spawn Point in a MMO!" Which it was, until the numbers started increasing ;)

Prior to that, they had a lot of "Left Hand Teleports". Teleports are a bitch to map, even the ones that aren't traps. (We did have two that were potential traps, but the players hadn't played with enough pestilence yet to make that happen). They are able to figure it out via trial and error, which was rewarding even from my side of the table. They done did well.

There is one thing that came up that I had to remind them of, and that was an earlier clue from 2 (3?) sessions ago, but was only 2 days time in game. Which actually worked out well, because even with the clue and following it's coded instructions successfully, the impulsiveness of certain party members came close to leading to deep doo doo for the rest of the party. I love it when a plan comes together, and in the next round falls apart. Priceless ;)

As we wrapped up for the night the players came across the the Entrance to "The Gut", the main underground thoroughfare to the primary location of Rappan Athuk. I have plans for this trip, and two weeks to finalize them. I'm looking forward giving the party some nice surprises - pleasant and otherwise (mostly otherwise).

I know, my recaps are sparse, but I don't like to give too much away when talking about a commercial product in use - Rappan Athuk. I will say that we've had the most focused play as a group delving through this megadungeon, so that speaks volumes right there :)

Just Another Night in Rappan Athuk

It Almost Looks Like "Demon Chucky"

Last night my players continued their exploration of Rappan Arthuk, We found ourselves more derailed then recent nights, but we admittedly had a shitload of catching up to do. Once we finally got their feet in motion they did okay.

They went from the 2nd level, back to the 1st (and a section they had skipped initially), down to the 3rd. We use Tabletop Forge, mostly because I feel comfortable with it, but the one feature we've found to be sorely lacking is the ability to save play maps between sessions. I run with just a grid and we map as we go along, so session to session we lose all the mapping. As I'm typing this, I wonder if I could screen shot just the play map at the end of the session, then import it into TTF with the next session. Leave of the grid as it's already on the old map. Only problem is we'd lose tabletop space, as the gridded map section would be limited to the screenshot from the previous session. Scrolling the mapping "tabletop" would scroll us off grid. I need to think about this.

They got to deal with a large talking head (which swallowed one PC) but in the end, they came out "a head" of the game ;)

It was fun watching them encounter the demon buggers pictured above. If I didn't have a knack of rolling "1's" for my damage rolls, it would have been a bit more dangerous. Ah well, can't kill them all. I suspect the 3rd level of the dungeon will finally put them to a true test of skills and luck.

They didn't cover as much ground as either of the last two sessions, but I think we were all feeling a but run down. Besides, the distractions were damn glorious.

Oh, and I found that one of my players has an adventure coming out in the nearish future from one of the 3rd party DCC RPG publishers. My, but I have a talented gaming group :)

My Bloodthirsty Players Let Captives Go Last Session - It's a Sign of the Apocalypse

Somehow this escaped me when I did the quick session recap on Sunday. The party got the drop on a bunch of bandits in Rappan Athuk - they got both surprise AND won initiative. This resulted in the bandit leader, the ogre and 2 or 3 others dead before the bandits could even respond. Moral roll was failed and they threw down their weapons after the party's thief called for their surrender.

The survivors, both human and orcs, asked to be spared and promised to flee the dungeon. The party asked them to map the part of the dungeon they knew, which they did (pretty much a beeline to the dungeon entrance). In return, the bandits asked if they could retain their daggers. I was surprised (and I'm sure the bandits were too) when the party agreed and let them leave.

No torture.

No fire.

I'm fairly stunned.

Of course, you know this will have to become a seed for something else down the line. This will have an impact on events in the area. No matter how it plays out (and boy, I've got some ideas) the players will know they had a hand in it ;)

The Theme For the Second Session of Rappan Athuk - "Focus"

Yep, the party fought a room full of Giant Rats.
The treasure recovered was:
20 gp, 100 sp, 231 cp, a silver necklace, a worthless fork and a spoiled potion.
Somehow the party was expecting 2,000 cp...

I've referred to DM'ing for my group as occasionally resembling the act of herding cats. As a group, we like to socialize, catch up, tell funny stories, talk game design - when you have a gaming group full of creatives that only gather via G+ Hangout once a week, it isn't always easy to get them to focus on the job at hand.

They are currently working their way through Level 1C of Rappan Athuk - The Mouth of Doom. The have covered the east, north, west and south - all that is left to explore os the center of the Tootsie Pop. Not bad for 2 sessions of gaming.

Last night they were focused. I mean really focused. Cracking jokes left and right but men with a mission. Well, until they got sidetracked by the "slot machine" room. I think they very well might have stayed there until they ran out of coin if they had come close to hitting it big ;)

I'm enjoying Rappan Athuk. Heck, it's already given us 2 nights of gaming and we haven't even finished the first level they've come across (they have found 2 ways to go down 1 level and 1 way to go down 2 levels - next week's session should be interesting.

The players are enjoying Rappan Athuk too. I see it in the focused play. I see it in the desire to figure out the traps and puzzles. I see it in the amount of ground we cover in a game session. What takes us 3 hours now would take us over 5 previously.

I have found one thing - I need to pencil in the monsters' THAC0 numbers alongside their entries - the few times I've had to look something up, it was that.

As an aside, I find the OSRIC monster section annoyingly organized by type, which makes it hard to flip through and actually find what you need quickly. A minor quibble over an otherwise excellent book.

Whereupon My Party Asked Me to Run "Rappan Athuk" RAW, and I Hedged My Bets

Yes, the party fought off a random encounter of 7 Giant Rats.
Now they want to find the Pot of Copper at the Rat Nest ;)

RAW - "Run As Written". It's also turned into "Really? Oh Well :( " for my group in the past.

Last night we kicked off the Rappan Athuk part of our AD&D 1e campaign, and my players, initially half in jest but then suddenly serious, suggested I ran Rappan Athuk RAW. The last gaming material I had run RAW was the uncompleted Dwimmermount, and that left a sour taste in our mouths (and a new meme running around the wilds). Admittedly  the material we had for Dwimmermount was incomplete and Rappan Athuk is complete and published, but I don't wish to risk a repeat.

Besides, that, my party is 3rd and 4th level, and they are going into Rappan Athuk through a side entrance dozens of miles away from the main entrance. They are, as written, a bit overpowered for the dungeon section they are in.

So, I compromised.

I would leave the flavor text and treasures as they were, but I would be allowed to adjust the monsters' numbers and HP to maintain a challenge.

It went remarkably well. Truth to tell, it went beyond my expectations. Heck, my herd of cats went from old town to new outpost, gathered info on dungeon location, hired a handful of men at arms, were ambushed by a pack of gnolls (and interrogated a survivor), entered the dungeon, explored approximately 40% of the level and found stairs down - all in less that 2 1/2 hours of actual play.

Amazingly productive. Fucking remarkable.

The comments at the end of the session? They actually enjoyed the traps and tricks, as they were conquerable with some trial and error and thinking. Even the ones that nabbed them. Or dropped them. Or got them stuck.

They were, to a man, excited to play the next session and learn more of Rappan Athuk. Or maybe they were just looking forward to killing more things and taking their stuff.

In either case, we seem to have found their Megadungeon niche.

Tonight - Rappan Athuk! Tomorrow? The World!

Tonight the party will move on to Rappan Athuk, after spending two sessions dealing with the Rat King. Sure, they defeated the bugger - but what's with all that icky fluid and glass coffin like chambers?  How were party members tortured, perhaps killed and healed? Yeah, moving on might be the wisest choice.

This will be the third time delving into a megadungeon for my group. The first trip, where they dipped their toes into The Barrowmaze for a few sessions, went remarkably well. The second trip to a megadungeon was a foray into Dwimmermount. That went... less remarkably well. Tonight will be Rappan Athuk.

I'm not sure which entrance the party will choose, let alone learn about. We'll play that out tonight, when they get to their new "Base of Operations".

The players are psyched, and that's always a good thing ;)