Tenkar's Tavern: the black isle

Showing posts with label the black isle. Show all posts

Saturday, February 2, 2019

Now Available in Print - Eilean Dubh: The Black Isle Gazetteer (At Cost Crowdsourced Setting)

I'm very excited to announce that Eilean Dubh: The Black Isle Gazetteer is now available in print at cost, which comes out to $25.66 for 442 pages of setting goodness. This crowdsourced setting was assembled by members of the Tenkar's Landing community on G plus. It is a work of love and generosity by all of those involved.

Seriously, it's damn good stuff.

You can grab the PDF of Eilean Dubh: The Black Isle Gazetteer for free. You'll also find a full-color setting map in the folder, which is shown below. Ay update to The Black Isle will be reflected in the folder, so bookmark it :)

tenkars-tavern.games/TheBlackIsle

Coupon Code LKAB317CD currently gets you 15% off at Lulu. Codes change all of the time. Always Google for a new code. Why pay full price?

Friday, July 20, 2018

Color Map Available for The Gazetteer to Eilean Dubh: The Black Isle (New Download Link)

Map by Ian Christy

This map is gorgeous! You really should grab it :)

Seriously, it's my desktop background now.

We have a new link to grab all things Gazetteer to Eilean Dubh: The Black Isle. It is:

tenkars-tavern.games/TheBlackIsle

It's now linked to a folder, so it is much easier to add new things (like the above map) and update the PDF file.

Notice, its NOT a bit.ly link. Apparently, you can't edit your bit.ly links unless you are paying 99 bucks a year.

The above link is hosted by Rebrandly.com. For 2 bucks for the first year (25 to renew I do believe), I now have the tenkars-tavern.games domain for my redirects. I'll be updating links for Swords & Wizardry Light and some other stuff moving forward using the tenkars-tavern.games domain.

The Tavern Chat Podcast - Episode 65 - The Tavern Wins a No-Prize & The Black Isle

A smallish rant and some background on how The Black Isle setting came to be.

I talk about why The Tavern (in any of its forms) will never win an award. More importantly, I talk about the free, crowdsourced sandbox setting, The Gazetteer to Eilean Dubh: The Black Isle.

Link to Episode 65 - https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/episodes/Episode-65---The-Tavern-Wins-a-No-Prize--The-Black-Isle-e1r3uf

Link to The Gazetteer to Eilean Dubh: The Black Isle - tenkars-tavern.games/TheBlackIsle

Thursday, July 19, 2018

The Gazetteer to Eilean Dubh: The Black Isle (A Free Crowd-sourced Fantasy Sandbox Setting)

I'm sitting here at my desk, simply amazed at what I am looking at. I had this silly little vision, this idea of crowd-sourcing a sandbox setting. What you see now is so beyond that vision I had. My touch on this is small, I got the ball rolling and then work threw me a curve ball that caught me off balance until retirement. A HUGE thank you to Milton Murphy for taking over the reins of the project. A better project manager you couldn't find. A shout out to Jed McClure, for putting the pieces together as you see here. Of course, thanks to all that contributed. I am forever in your debt. Erik Tenkar

The Gazetteer to Eilean Dubh: The Black Isle Free Download Link:
tenkars-tavern.games/TheBlackIsle

List of Contributors:

Jason Barker
Frabrice Brabon
David Brawley
Hal Burdick
Blackie Carbon
John Ivor Carlson
Ray Chapel
Ian Christy
Dirk Collins
Alasdair Cunningham
Carlos de la Cruz
Mike ‘Carlson’ Davis?
Thomas Drevon
Charley Phipps, aka Druvas
Andrew C. Durston
Kyrinn S. Eis
Pehl Ferebas
Follow Me And Die!
Simon Forester
Pat G
Owen Gannon
Tim Groth
Dale Houston
Malcolm Iggleden
Ed Kann
Fred Liner
Jonathan Linneman
Stephen Manuele
Jed McClure
Duncan McPhedran
Milton Murphy
James Patterson
Benoist Poiré
Michael Prescott
Doyle Wayne Ramos-Tavener
Doug Rector
Content Statement
Jason Reilly
Rorschachhamster aka Christian Sturke
Matthew Ruane
Charles Saeger
Lorenzo Santini
Andrew Schwartz
Alan Skinner
Brett Slocum
Chris Stieha
Christian Sturke
Chris Tamm
Erik Tenkar
V.A
Josephe Vandel
Pieter T. “Viking”
Alex Welk
Benjamin Wenham
Chris Wellings

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 ;)

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