The author of the Gygax legacy "hatchet piece" and the more recent TSR "rift" piece came to Lake Geneva and tried to interview a number of people prior to the first article and most wouldn't speak with her. It's my understanding Gary's widow was unaware this author seemingly had an agenda. When that writer contacted me (she contacted lots of locals who were formerly in TSR or who are in the current gaming scene), I told her to feel free to come by the game store (figuring she would anyway and I'd rather be aware she was there) but told her I wasn't interested in being recorded or interviewed, though I was happy to talk to her, since she said she was a gamer. It was very clear from the start she was asking leading questions and looking to find quotes and sound bites to further a predetermined narrative. She hung out around twenty minutes or so and our conversation led me to believe her gaming background was with console and video games rather than tabletop games, though she had a smattering of TTRPG knowledge. I was not looking forward to the article given my experience talking to the author. The second "rift" article just confirmed what we already knew from the first piece.Read the full piece. Comment over on the Creative Mountain Games blog. It's posts like Mark's that will help put some balance back in place.
The new printing of the LotFP Referee book is taking way longer than expected (surprise), so with no in-print Referee book the geniuses over at LotFP thought that maybe some sort of Ref information should be available. So here, free of charge, is the Referee book that was included in the Grindhouse set.
Keep in mind that LotFP is a living game and this PDF here isfoureight years old. The next printing of the Ref book will be a complete rewrite and expansion (will be at least three times this size), new layout and graphic design, all new artwork, etc.
This PDF does include the beginning adventure A Stranger Storm, which will not be reprinted.Yep, that is an affiliate link above. Yes, this is a free product, but maybe you'll buy something else when you snag this. Bartender needs beer... BADLY! ;)
The world of Far Away Land expands with the discovery of the continent known as Nuzoz! This project introduces the newest Far Away Land book to the Far Away Land Universe. New lands. New monsters. New spells. New Awesome! (This book contains rules for the originall Far Away Land rule system - not the OSR version).
What is the Land of Nuzoz?
Nuzoz is a rugged land full of jungles, monsters, beaches, seas, floating landmasses, great maelstroms, towering spires, mysterious structures, rainbow lakes, rings of fire, and strange cities. Nuzoz introduces new playable PC races like the anthropomorphic parrot folk called kreeah as well as terrible monsters like Bigzilla and cave anglers. It’s a tough land that will test the mettle of even the most intrepid adventurers.
The Classic Game of Beer and Pretzels RolePlaying!
For kobolds In the service of King Torg (ALL HAIL KING TORG!) their life will undoubtedly be silly, brutal, and short. They may be crushed by cows falling from the sky. They may be obliterated by meteorites, betrayed by friends, or brained by frying pans. They may cheerily march to their death upon the beaks of chickens or from the tentacles of eldritch magicks. If they are really lucky, they may survive long enough to bring back a tasty treat to the Kobold Caves and avoid becoming lunch themselves.
In KOBOLDS ATE MY BABY! you are a KOBOLD!
Being cannon fodder has never been this much fun!
The classic game of Beer and Pretzels Roleplaying returns in this definitive, full colour edition. This book includes everything you need to play except some dice, some friends, and a wicked sense of humour.
A Game by Chris O’Neill & Dan Landis
Illustrated by John Kovalic
ALL HAIL KING TORG!I almost missed this. About 12 hours left in the sale as I type this.
After meeting some dice companies at GenCon 2018 I was inspired to try my hand at designing some RPG Dice and these Bloodstones are the first of many I want to retail out to consumers.
Unlike most Dice Kickstarters I want this one to be straight forward, short and to the point.
This is Kickstarter is for a 7 die set of Bloodstones. That's is. No hidden stretch goals locked away under a crazy high price, no 101 sets to choose from, no hidden strings.
These dice have a Bloody Red font and have tiny particles of crimson glitter to help the color POP!
OK everyone! ACTUAL NEWS! It took a little longer than planned to get going after Gen Con, but I have a major update.
I have reached an agreement with a freelancer, Göran Stahl, to be a consultant/taskmaster to get this damn thing done. He is a lifelong RPG fan with knowledge that reaches from the 1974 OD&D boxed set to the latest indie obscurities, he's into horror movies and heavy metal, and he is quite familiar with LotFP.
We had a long session this week discussing RPG writing and LotFP's approach to it, my personal style and how it is that I work, and how that relates into the hows and whys of this project being so damn delayed. I think we've found a way forward.
The issue identified, and this is a good chunk of the problem, is that I'm using existing GM guides in the industry as a format guide, and then what I've been attempting to do for years is sit down and attempt to express my ideas in a format that I don't really believe in. That I actively hate when reading it from other games. "If I just come up with the right turns of phrase then it'll all be great!" But there aren't enough genius turns of phrase to make that format any good, and I've known it for a long long time, and that's why I've been writing and trashing so much over these years, never happy with anything. Even when I was making what I thought was major progress over the winter, revisiting that now is sterile as all fuck.
But when I talk about any of the subjects that the Ref book will contain, I'm a motormouth. I can go on rants about how things should be done, and the failures that occur in games when things aren't done right. There is energy and flow that just dies instantly when I sit down on try to communicate that in written form.
So I had the idea that I'll just talk about everything that needs to be in the book and record it all. Stahl is onboard, and will act as producer-interviewer-facilitator (his official title will be "Consultant") to the process, and had great ideas about how to go about the whole thing. Our meeting made me have dreams that the final product will be to regular RPG GM books as METAL's Reborn Through Hate issue, or ISTEN's Mädchen issue are to the usual music magazine format...
I know that referencing metal fanzines from 1997 and 2001 means exactly zero of you know what I'm talking about, but that's kind of the point. The presentation of this book can not be the same old presentation that's always been used, or it will never get done. With the added bonus that if it's done right, it'll be on its own an engaging read and be a valuable addition to the RPG canon.
So I'm basically going to ghostwrite my own book. He'll prepare his questions and bullet points, and I'll have my own notes and bullet points from all the work I've already done. When we have the recordings, I will hire someone to transcribe them. Then I will work with an editor (maybe this will be Stahl, maybe it won't) to determine how much verbal cruft needs to be taken out to make everything readable, and whether the conversational format serves the book. If not, we edit it down to something that does, and how that's done may change section to section. Whatever best communicates what needs to be communicated at the moment.
The key at this point is that everything going forward is collaborative and not just people waiting for me to get something done alone in front of my computer.
I will be traveling to Stahl's location for the first two sessions next week. After we see how those go, we'll figure out the schedule moving forward. When he's available, I'm available, until we're done.
I'll update at the end of next week on how things went.
Old-School Essentials is an adventure role-playing game of exploration, danger, monsters, and magic. The game is intentionally rules-light, putting the focus of play on imagination, improvisation, and fun. The rules are optimised for ease of use at the table, with meticulous attention to wording and layout clarity. What's more, Old-School Essentials is 100% compatible with the classic Basic/Expert game from 1981, meaning that decades of adventure are at your fingertips!
A Complete Game All in One Book
Old-School Essentials is a modular game where the core rules of the game are extended by additional "rules modules" which add content for different genres of fantastic adventure. The Old-School Essentials Rules Tome is a compilation of the core rules plus four rules modules, forming a complete game for Classic Fantasy adventures:
Core Rules: Rules for character creation and advancement, adventuring in dungeons, the wilderness, and at sea, magic and combat.
Yep, that is an affiliate link above. Using The Tavern's affiliate links keep the taps flowing and the beer cold.The material in this book forms a complete clone of the classic Basic/Expert game, including all rules, classes, spells, monsters, and magic items.
- Classic Fantasy: Genre Rules: Seven classic classes (cleric, dwarf, elf, fighter, halfling, magic-user, thief), complete lists of weapons and adventuring gear, extensive lists of vehicles, mounts, and vessels, mercenaries and specialists for hire, rules for stronghold construction.
- Classic Fantasy: Cleric and Magic-User Spells: The complete set of 34 cleric spells (from 1st to 5th level) and 72 magic-user spells (from 1st to 6th level), for use by players or cleric, elf, and magic-user characters.
- Classic Fantasy: Monsters: A selection of over 200 classic monsters to challenge adventurers of all levels.
- Classic Fantasy: Treasures: A hoard of over 150 wondrous magic items.
A 56-page, art-free sample of the basic rules of the game required by players is available here:
- The full introduction and character creation rules.
- The four core human classes: cleric, fighter, magic-user, thief.
- Full lists of adventuring equipment, weapons, and armour.
- The rules for dungeon adventures, encounters, and combat.
- The full rules for spell casting and the complete set of 1st level spells.
Adventurer! This Goodman Gems Bundle assembles the crown jewels of Goodman Games: The Dungeon Alphabet and other system-neutral supplements and sourcebooks for fantasy tabletop roleplaying games. Entertaining and inspirational, these key works of the Old School Revival enhance any fantasy campaign with new character backgrounds, locations, setting elements, monsters, a yearlong calendar, and two alphabetic compendia that help you rethink your OSR games at a fundamental level.
For just US$9.95 you get all four titles in our Starter Collection (retail value $37) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks, including The Adventurer's Almanac, a calendar of events to fill your campaign world's year; the handy DM Campaign Tracker; and two collections of tips and tricks for players and gamemasters, PC Pearls and GM Gems.
And if you pay more than the threshold price of $25.73, you'll level up and also get our entire Bonus Collection with six more titles worth an additional $61, including the latest edition of the famous Dungeon Alphabet, along with its sequel The Monster Alphabet; two collections of fantasy world settings, Points of Light and Points of Light 2: The Sunrise Sea; The Random Esoteric Creature Generator; and the popular treatise How to Write Adventure Modules That Don't Suck.
Tales from the Sorcerer Under the Mountain, an A5 hardback OSR rule book, which as well as a concise version of the Swords & Wizardry rules, with a chapter which holds the House Rules I use in my games, and contains the adventure with OSR stats. Overall it weighs in about 230 pages, with black and white art throughout, cover by Jon Hodgson.as well as:
The Sorcerer Under the Mountain, 5th Edition Adventure module in 8″ by 11″ format, black and white art throughout.The 5e adventure is $10 for the Print plus PDF. Shipping extra.
A minimum* 8-page adventure in PDF designed for any fantasy RPG system. Each standard letter-sized page will be filled with encounter details in a style that is geared toward character senses: "What do I see? What do I smell? What do I hear?" Instead of walls of text to parse through, GMs can quickly look at the details by sense to get the answers to the players' questions.
For those that prefer to craft their own backstories and would rather not use pre-written read-aloud text, this adventure is for you. You'll get a couple of short paragraphs of background before the book delves right into encounter areas. It is up to the GM to develop adventure hooks and detailed reasons for the Lost Depths to be what they are and why they exist.
The adventure is designed as System Neutral. This means that empty stat blocks for foes, treasure, traps, and other system-specific points will be provided for the GM. The GM can add the stats for their preferred system into the space provided. Since this is a PDF, it can be printed out several times to be run for different systems!
*Minimum 8 pages; likely more with project funding total stretch goalsHere are the stretch goals:
Fate is a strange mistress. For today is August 24th and that is Rick's Birthday. Unfortunately today is also the sad, sad day that I have to tell you all that Rick Loomis passed away, just seven hours before his birthday of complications of his cancer.
Rick was an amazing person. He had the ability to inspire and nurture talented people to be more talented than they thought they could be. He had the ability to give his people the freedom to develop their own solutions to problems and then he would calmly guide them. He did this in every facet of his life, whether it was in gaming or management or even his church softball league. Maybe that's one of the reasons why so many people loved Rick and loved working with and for him and why he attracted so many talented people like Mike Stackpole, Larry Ditillio, Liz Danforth, Jennifer Roberson, Ken St Andre and so many others who went on to create entire worlds and realms -- Rick encouraged that in a way few do.
Rick sacrificed his life for a dream. A dream of wonderful, fun games and worlds of adventure. Games that inspired creativity and fun. Rick' s games were always in the end, about fun - not winning. Rick's dream will live on and we who he has left behind will do our part to carry that dream forward.
And we will never forget what he taught us - patience, persistence, fun and kindness.
That is what Rick stood for. His loss will leave a hole in our community, our industry and our hearts - but I urge you to remember to be kind to each other, be patient with each other and don't let go of your dreams. Rick never did.
The world is lessened by your absence Rick, and you are missed...I'm literally at a loss for words. Cancer is such a fucking horror. For a civilized word to be no closer to a cure today pisses me off. Not at the world. Not at science. But fucking cancer.
