Deal of the Day - GM's Miscellany: Urban Dressing II (System Neutral Edition)

What can I say about Raging Swan's GM's Miscellany Series that hasn't been heard before? It is, quite simply, an amazing resource, both for game prep and for use in game, when your party zigs and you had planned for a zag.

Until tomorrow morning at 11 AM Eastern, GM's Miscellany: Urban Dressing II (System Neutral Edition) is available for 7 bucks in PDF, half off its usual 13.99 pricetag.

Tired of your towns and cities being boring, bland places in which your PCs show little or no interest? Want to bring them alive with cool, interesting minor features of note? Then Urban Dressing is for you! Each instalment in the line focuses on a different kind of town and gives harried GMs the tools to bring such locales to life with interesting and noteworthy features.

This compilation presents loads of great features, NPCs and minor encounters to add to the towns in your campaign. Designed to be used both during preparation or actual play, GM’s Miscellany: Urban Dressing II is an invaluable addition to any GM's armoury!

 The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. 

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 

Humble Bundle - Battletech Legends (Fiction Bundle)

I literally had no idea how much fiction had been written for the Battletech universe. For 18 bucks, you get 60 titles from the Battletech Legends series of books in epub and mobi format, so whether you use a Nook or Kindle or something in between (or an app that works with such) you're in good hands.

An arsenal of BattleTech fiction

Explore a science-fiction universe of Great Houses, mercenaries, and BattleMechs with this collection of BattleTech tales! This library of 60 Legends ebooks features The Warrior Trilogy, The Gray Death Legion Saga, and more. Immerse yourself in thrilling sci-fi stories from Catalyst Game Labs, and help support Global Foodbanking Network with your purchase!

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. 

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 

Deal of the Day - EZD6 Core Rulebook

What's the best way to put this? EZD6 is on my short list of "games I want to run but seriously lack the time to do so, including Tiny d6, the latest edition of RuneQuest, and ICRPG. So many games to play, and so little time to do so.

Until tomorrow morning, EZD6 is 50% off in PDF format, making its price 6.25. I'd jump on it, but I already own it in Print AND PDF ;)

Here's what you can expect:

• -EZD6 Core rules: D6 dice pooling with a few key innovations like boons and banes, strikes instead of hit points and variable damage, and a fun player micro-resource called karma.
• -9 Hero Paths: Scotty cooks the classics with his own spices. Each hero path is nicely separate from the next, with key roles to give you that MVP feeling in your group.
• -20 classic monsters, 20 crazy ones: This is my favorite section of the book. Placing emphasis on a monster's narrative specialities, rather than numeric, seems too open-ended, but these horrors just nail it. The entries are tight enough to play cold, but weird enough to mod and enjoy from memory. 
• -Tables: No RPG is complete without random ways to select baddies, treasures, NPC names, lair details, story twists, and more. We got those covered.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. 

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 

Kickstarter - Scoundrels of Brixton (Traveller/Cepheus Engine)

A sci-fi setting of crime and conflict compatible with Cepheus Engine.

First, let me get the disclaimer out of the way. Jeff Jones, the main man behind Scoundrels of Brixton, did the layout for Torchlight Zero and Torchlight #1, as well as the forthcoming Continual Light digest-sized edition. To say I know Jeff may be a bit of an understatement. Jeff also publishes some of the most professional Zine in our corner of the universe, to the extent that our very own Bad Mike says it may be a disservice to refer to them as "zines".

Earlier tonight, Mike & I had Jeff and Adam Kovac on Talking Crit Live!, to discuss Scoundrels of Brixton and other projects, as well as going off-topic in many different directions. Give it a watch, you won't be disappointed.

Scoundrels of Brixton is funding on Kickstarter for another week. You can snag it in Print plus PDF for 15 bucks (plus shipping), or as little as 3 bucks in PDF. There is even a POD version available to help those who live outside the States.

Are you a referee looking for a gritty science-fiction setting? Do your players crave mayhem? Scoundrels of Brixton injects player characters into a seedy civilization in the far future. A role-playing environment where there's no shortage of action and moral dilemma. A setting tailored for space-going heroes driven to fight injustice, or interstellar villains seeking to launch a criminal empire.

Contents Include:

• 20 Dynamic NPCs to immerse the party.
• 5 Factions/Gangs to complicate the characters' lives.
• 8 Major Corporations exerting influence in the Brixton system.
• 6 Distinct Districts to experience in Sky City.
• 8 Diverse Settlements on the planet Deluvia.
• 7 Explorable Planets to support a variety of genres. 
• 5 Star Systems that set the political backdrop.
• All wrapped within a concise but detailed setting that's loaded with crime and conflict.

 The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. 

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 

Bundle of Holding - FASA Traveller

Back in the Way Back, in the early days of roleplaying games, Traveller was the first Scifi RPG of any note, and FASA was one of the early licensees.

My collection of FASA Traveller releases is very incomplete, and a current Bundle of Holding has FASA Traveler for the taking in PDF, starting at 9.95.

Traveller! This all-new FASA Traveller Bundle presents .PDF ebooks of the early 1980s Classic Traveller supplements published by FASA Corporation. Later known for BattleTech and Shadowrun, FASA started as a Traveller licensee, publishing starship deck plans and adventures, many by the prolific designer J. Andrew Keith and his brother William. Still admired today, these modules represent old-school Traveller design at its best. Now you can get .PDFs of almost the entire FASA Traveller line for an unbeatable bargain price.

(These adventures and deck plans require one or another version of the Classic Traveller rules, such as our Little Black Books Starter Pack in the Bundle of Holding Store.)

For just US$9.95 you get all eight complete titles in our Starter Collection (retail value $66) as DRM-free ebooks, including 15mm-scale deck plans for the luxury spaceliner King Richard, along with its accompanying module Action Aboard: Adventures on the King Richard; five Classic Traveller adventures – The Harrensa Project, Ordeal By Eshaar, Rescue On Galatea, The Stazhlekh Report, and Uragyad'n of the Seven Pillars; and the large map set for a towering Starport Hotel Complex.

Traveller deck plan for the Aslan Hero starship Engineering DeckAnd if you pay more than the threshold price of $22.57, you'll level up and also get our entire Bonus Collection with twelve more titles worth an additional $104, including the much-admired Sky Raiders module trilogy by J. Andrew Keith and William H. Keith; the FCI Consumer Guide equipment book; four sets of starship deck plans – Leander, Fenris and Valkyrie, Tethys, and Vlezhdatl; and four collections of ship plans in FASA's Adventure Class Ships series.

 The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. 

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 

Deal of the Day - Borderlands (RuneQuest)

The first sandbox campaign I ever ran was Pavis and Big Rubble, using the RuneQuest 2e rules. It was an amazing summer campaign in the late 80s.

I always wanted to grab a copy of Borderlands, but I was never able to find it at the time (RuneQuest 3 was the in-print edition at the time).

Until tomorrow morning, Borderlands is 3 bucks in PDF (normally 15). This is an amazing value, whether you play RuneQuest or not.

This is a completely remastered version of the Borderlands boxed set into a single PDF. 

The original boxed Borderlands supplement contained two referee’s booklets, seven separately bound scenarios, a 17”x 22” regional map, play-aids, and inserts.

The Referee’s Handbook contains notes on referee and player functions, regional history, cultural/ecological background for the peoples along the River of Cradles, short studies of Duke Raus of Rone (holder of the Weis Domain) and his family and servitors, geographical information, magical items, and generic statistics for natural animals and unnatural monsters in the area. This book tells the referee how the land lays, giving him, or her, plenty of ammunition with which to answer player questions and elbow room by which to alter scenarios or to create new ones.

The Seven Scenarios are arranged so that they form an extended adventure when played in sequence; any of them can be used individually with slight adjustments.

• Scenario 1: Scouting the Land
• Scenario 2: Outlaw Hunt
• Scenario 3: Jezra’s Rescue
• Scenario 4: Revenge of Muriah
• Scenario 5: Five Eyes Temple
• Scenario 6: Condor Crags
• Scenario 7: To Giantland!

The Encounters Book contains the individual NPC statistics used in the scenarios as well as various encounter charts. Monsters or NPCs specific to particular scenarios will be found in those scenarios. Statistics for Raus, Daine, and Daryli can be found in the Referee’s Handbook.

The map of The Domain in the Referee’s Handbook shows the extent of the duke’s River of Cradles holding, with the land to either side from Vulture’s Country to Horn Gate, and from below the Sun Dome temple to above Corflu. Routes of travel should be plotted using this map.

The play-aids at the end of this book include a copy of Daine’s Map and a copy of the map to the Fish Temple. A copy of the Duke’s Contract can be found in the Referee’s Handbook.

Note: This is a fully-remastered PDF true to the original printing.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. 

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 

The Unwritten Agreement that is a Convention Game

Last night I was in a small group helping our GM in prepping for an up-coming convention game. We're playtesting some rules and helping him tweak the adventure. After we were done with what bit of the game we had managed (it was largely a character creation and rule dissemination session) the GM asked what we felt about the adventure setup and  how the beginning/intro went.

Now I've got quite a bit of tournament/convention game experience under my belt, not only as a player, but as a writer and even organizer. I can honestly say I've seen some shit. Good shit, bad shit, and the HUGE gambit of the in-between....especially as it pertains to setting up the game/session for a convention.

Oooof....I've got stories upon stories here, but I'll spare you for the most part. The thing is, at it's core, the setup for a convention game isn't nearly as important as you might expect. When players sit down at a convention table to play, they've already signed off on a whole slew of gaming parameters. They've already agreed to a system and a specific time-frame within which they make themselves available. This isn't a home-game where they have the freedom to whatever the eff they want. "Hey, let's spend 6 hours roleplaying spending all our gold on hookers and booze whilst planning which tomb to plunder next."

No, players are generally focused and in the convention setting a little railroading goes a long, long way. The GM doesn't need to convince the players to do much of anything, so an hour or so of role-play can easily be condensed down into a paragraph or two of setup flavor text. Actually from my experience, the setup should be a paragraph or two of flavor text.

Story Time (Example) 1: As an organizer I once had a writer send me, I shit you not, 4+ pages of adventure setup. A page for the table GMs I get, but pages of backstory, NPC motivations, and role-playing the pre-adventure.....ugh. Now that was bad, but what was worse was that the writer was sending me adventure updates as late as the morning of the convention game.

Story Time (Example) 2: I was playing in an online convention tournament that had absolutely no setup whatsoever. It was a HackMaster (4th edition) game and the way tournaments ran your PCs would essentially be plucked from your home game/wurld (this misspelling was a thing) and plopped down into essentially a new wurld to do a thing (the adventure). Maybe it was the Gawds, maybe not...who cares? You hopefully survive, do the thing, get some loot, and get popped back where you were plucked from. In this one online convention game my PC just gets plucked from the home wurld and dropped into a void. No outside stimuli whatsoever. Now as a player I'm like, "W..T....F!" Nope, that's it....I'm out. If I was at a physical convention table I'd have sat for a few minutes (at best) then just noped the fuck out. The GM wasn't too thrilled when I immediately informed him(?) that I was done, but as far as I knew my PC was dead. Well, dead or dying.

There is an unwritten agreement when it comes to convention games......players have come to play and they really just need to be pointed to the start so they can work through the middle towards the end. They are much more likely to take extra, even suicidal, risks with their PCs that they would never do in a home game, BUT they need a reason to do so....not much of a reason...at least a paragraph or two of flavor text.....

The Johnathon M Thompson Memorial Bundle will be Ending Soon - Get it NOW!

Note: The Jonathan M Thompson Memorial Bundle over at DTRPG will be coming to an end shortly. The value is hard to beat and the cause is a good one - the family of a fellow gamer and small publisher. Grab the bundle before its gone - Tenkar

The following is reposted from March 9th, 2023

When I was at Totalcon two weeks ago, I found out that Jonathan M. Thompson had passed. I was blessed to be able to share the GoFundMe to help Jonathan's family with their related expenses. 

Today I'm sharing the Jonathan M Thompson Memorial Bundle over at DTRPG. Pinnacle took the lead on this, but there are dozens of donors of RPG material, including yours truly, as every purchaser of the bundle gets a copy of Swords & Wizardry Continual Light as well as 147 other titles for a mere 25 bucks. It's for a good cause in the memory of a good man, and I ask that you simply give the page a look and decide if the offer interests you.

Lamentations of the Flame Princess is Looking for Artists

I was talking with James Raggi last night, and he mentioned that he looking for artists and wondered if I knew any. I figured I'd take it a step further and I asked James to put together a short pitch that I could share here at The Tavern. Below is that pitch. As an aside, every artist I know personally who has worked with James has only mentioned the interactions with professionalism and respect - Tenkar

"It's time to update the Lamentations of the Flame Princess artist files. We publish dark fantasy, horror (cosmic, splatter, all sorts of weirdness), and historical fantasy tabletop RPG books.

If you're an artist, send an email to lotfp@lotfp.com with a link to your portfolio.

We are ready to commission a number of pieces immediately.

If I'm interested in hiring you for the current projects, we will be in touch. If not, your info will be kept on file for possible future projects."

                            James Raggi - LotFP

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. 

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

Why is There A Lack of Alternative Digital RPG Storefronts to DTRPG?

Many of us have bemoaned the lack of viable alternatives to OneBookShelf/DTRPG for years.

Before OneBookShelf (actually, Roll20 now, if you look at your emails) merged with RPGNow, there WAS competition. Heck, DTRPG used to offer a "Free Game of the Week" (not a bad idea actually) in an attempt to lure customers to their site (some of these PDFs were protected by some weird Adobe security features that were a huge PITA). OBS kept RPGNow as a mirrored storefront of DTRPG for years.

There was also YourGamesNow. Never a huge site and barely used, I'm not sure many noticed its demise.

IndiePressRevolution has been around for years. Not sure how much use it gets from Old School Gamers, but I remember snagging Spirit of the Century from there a number of years back.

Lulu is an alternative, but it is a slog to navigate.

Frog God Games tried to launch a storefront for more than just their own products back at the end of 2015. It didn't go well.

Big Geek Emporium is a newer storefront that launched with minimal fanfare, or if there was fanfare, it missed my attention.

Venger has a post about supporting some alternative digital storefronts. Even if you have problems with the messenger, his message is the correct one - we need alternatives. We need competition. One company should not be the gatekeeper of the world of digital TTRPGs and PODs.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. 

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

Kickstarter - Tragedy at Wood-witch Rise: An Adventure for DCC RPG

While I like the DCC RPG, I tend to like the adventures written for the system more than the rules themselves, and I run them on the fly for Swords & Wizardry or the OSR system of my choice at the time.

Tragedy at Wood-witch Rise is a low level (level 1 or 0-level funnel) for the DCC RPG costing 5 bucks in PDF and 10 bucks in Print plus PDF.

Tragedy at Wood-witch Rise is a DCC RPG compatible adventure for 5-7 1st level characters, or 10-14 0-level characters if you'd like to use it as funnel. It should take 2-3 hours to complete. The encounter takes place deep in the woods off of the North Road, about 2-3 hours north of Stennard. However, it can be placed in the woods close to any town or village. 

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. 

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

2023 Annual Charity Raffle for Feral Cats - Organized by David Baity

Sadie, our current feline daughter

A few words from your bartender: I am a cat guy. Always have been, and always will be, although marrying Rach also turned me into a dachshund guy too ;) My deceased feline daughter was adopted by my son's mother as a kitten (I inherited both when his mom passed) and my current feline daughter adopted Rach and me in 2020 (she was a stray that literally walked into our back door that October). I am honored to give some extra bandwidth to David's Annual Charity Raffle - Tenkar

(Edit-04/20- Original art has been added-checklist and pics below)

(Edit- 04/17- I'm including a list of prizes at the bottom of the post. Some great prizes have been added thanks to some very special people and I don't want them to be overlooked.)

(Edit- to share this post go to my profile and share from there. I wasn't aware you can't share a post if made in a private group)

If you know me, and/or you love cats, please take the time to read this post: 

Hey guys! Most of you know that I try to do something every year to help a local feline (mostly) rescue that really goes above and beyond to rescue cats and kittens who are on the street and are destined for a very short and miserable life. Paved Paws Animal League ( https://pavedpaws.com/ ) not only participates in the local TNR (Trap Neuter Return) program, but they feed several feral colonies daily, come rain or shine. Last year, the organization rescued 113 felines. We’re just getting into 2023, and they’ve already reached 65 since February (which means it’s going to beat last year, sadly). Right now, the rescue has 24 kittens, 2 teenagers, and 6 adults. They’re at capacity, and money for food, litter, and medical care is quickly becoming scarce. 

There are a few reasons why I do this every year, but the main one is to give back to a rescue to honor the best thing to ever happen to me that also came from a rescue. Sadie was my world and until it’s my turn to pass on to whatever lies beyond, I make it a point to help in the little ways I can. One way is by doing a raffle that offers some nice RPG items for winners to pick from. All it takes is $1 to enter, and you get an additional entry for each additional dollar you donate (for example $10.00 would get you ten chances to win). In anticipation of this year,

I knew my prize closet was getting shallow, so I asked a legendary artist in the field if he might consider taking a commission for something feline. San Julian agreed and sent two pieces of original art that serve as the main focal point of the raffle. I’ve added a handful of additional items into the mix in hopes that it might entice you to throw the cost of a cup of coffee into something that will go directly towards saving the lives of kittens and cats in my hometown of Greenville, South Carolina. 

To enter the drawing, please use one of the links below. Please consider using “Friends and Family” if you donate through PayPal. Remember to enter “raffle” in the notes of your payment so that your name and entries will be recorded properly. All donations are tax-deductible as Paved Paws Animal League is a 501 (c) (3) charity.

Venmo- https://account.venmo.com/u/pavedpaws

PayPal- https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/pavedpaws

The raffle begins tonight and will end on 4/30/23 at midnight EST. I will have a DCC celebrity draw numbers randomly at this time and match the numbers with a name. Right now, I have 12 prizes (shown below) to award. That number may grow by the end of the raffle. Thank you for taking the time to read, and please spread the word on the raffle. It really does help!

Thanks,

D

Prizes- 

San Julian pencil sketch (batcat)

San Julian oil painting (white cat), 

Weird Frontiers package A (standard cover book, 5 adventures, character sheet pad x 2, dice tube, dice bag, t-shirt), 

Weird Frontiers package B (limited edition cover book, 5 adventures, character sheet pad x 2, dice tube, dice bag, t-shirt)

Metamorphosis Alpha: Epsilon City Kickstarter

Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea boxed set

Carnival of the Damned adventure and DCC dice

HUBRIS softcover

Dying Earth Kickstarter boxed sets

DCC rulebook (hardback) and dice set

Transylvanian Encounters hardback

Weird Frontiers digital bundle x 3 (everything I've published)

The shadows about hope adventure (2 physical and 3 digital copies) donated by author Mar Zio Marzio Muscedere

Judge Smith's tube of Boons and Hexes for Weird Frontiers RPG donated by Paul Smith 

Mutants and Masterminds 3rd edition hardback donated by Paul Smith 

Atlas of Hyperborea for use with Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea donated by Paul Smith 

Conan RPG Players Guide hardback donated by Paul Smith 

Necronomnomnom cookbook hardback donated by Paul Smith  

Tournament of Pigs boxed set with stamps, sleeves, and a judges screen donated by Thom Denick of Weird Works LLC 

Star Crawl Classics Bundle donated by author/publisher Jonathan Snodgrass 

Tales of the Smoking Wyrm limited edition boxed set containing issues 1-3 all signed by the creators donated by Trevor Stamper

Original art by Del Teigeler from Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea donated by Keith Nelson

3 pieces of original art by Ballyraven donated by Keith Nelson

Wendigo art by Ballyraven donated by Keith Nelson

Signed prints (frogman) by Ballyraven donated by Keith Nelson

Devilskull art by Kevin Manklow donated by Keith Nelson

Snail god cultists Weird Frontiers art by Christopher Torres donated by Keith Nelson

Owl woman art for Weird Frontiers by Christopher Torres donated by Keith Nelson

more pics can be seen in the original post:

https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02jyCqasSUnEoMxQicYnuiY6cjkmveGF2AEqrXsapfnRMUYHkaTRSzZNfk8aMSRvMrl&id=704030695&mibextid=Nif5oz

Bundle of Holding - GameMaster's Apprentice

The GameMaster's Apprentice was the Deal of the Day recently over at DTRPG (the same place your Wizard's Cabinet at Bundle of Holding is mirrored at) recently, and I heartily recommended it then, and I will heartily recommend it now.

The GameMater's Apprentice Bundle is 7.95 and is simply a great price for the resources you are given. For less than 19 bucks, you can snag a full set. I have much of this in print as cards, and it is invaluable for me as a DM

This GameMaster's Apprentice Deck Bundle presents PDFs of the complete GameMaster's Apprentice line of idea-generator cards by Nathan Rockwood at Larcenous Designs. For tabletop roleplaying GMs, solo gamers, or writers – for any creator seeking inspiration – the thousands of snippets in these digital GameMaster's Apprentice decks suggest story seeds, encounters, characters, and randomizers at the flip of a card.

For just US$7.95 you get all three 120-card digital decks in our Starter Collection (retail value $30) as DRM-free .PDFs and as separate .JPG images for use with virtual tabletops: the complete GameMaster's Apprentice Base Deck and the theme decks for Fantasy and the Age of Sail. We also include Nathan Rockwood's pay-what-you-want ALONe Solo Game Engine beta version and a free preview, available nowhere else, of 30 cards from the forthcoming Cyberpunk Deck.

And if you pay more than the threshold price of $18.34, you'll level up and also get our entire Bonus Collection with five more 120-card theme decks worth an additional $50, including Sci Fi, Horror, Weird Horror, Steampunk, and Demon Hunters (a deck custom tailored for the Demon Hunters: A Comedy of Terrors RPG, co-designed by GMA creator Nathan Rockwood but not included in this offer).

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. 

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

Wait, This is a Thing? (World's Largest D&D Game)

Yesterday was the biggest game of D&D ever played.

I only know because a buddy of mine was telling me about his weekend gaming plans and mentioned this was happening. My initial thought was, "Oh he's playing in a big-assed tournament." No, no he was not. Him and the Mrs. were slinging dice at the single largest group of players sitting down to the same game, not a single adventure being played at 200 tables of 5 players and a DM, but basically one big-assed table of 1000 players and 200 DMs.

Wait...what? This is a thing?

Well according to the Guinness World Records folks this is a thing, and is so knew it isn't even on the website yet, but the hosts have a pic of their record on their Facebook page.

The session was four hours and a massive war front against an undead army lead and the PCs, all 1K of them, are the ad-hoc army of the Kingdom of Grand. It was called Dead Wars.

It was a 5th Edition D&D game, which I know next to nothing about and probably won't (not any OSR snobbery, just my buddy said he really doubt I'd care for it and I trust his opinion to not waste my resources). All I could think of is how much of a logistical nightmare setting things up could be, both in and out of game.

Still, kind of cool to have the chance to participate in a bit of history and maybe even find some new gaming friends. Unfortunately for most of us, this happened in Provo, Utah. Now I used to live in Boise, so I know where Provo is, but for the rest of the US.....it's a suburb (of sorts) to Salt Lake City. Of course your probably guessed that because most Americans can only name Salt Lake City as a city in Utah.

Now I don't know how far those Guinness folks want to drill-down, but I'm down for a big-assed 1st or 2nd edition game.......

Oh, and congrats to We Geek Together, you pulled it off.

State of The Tavern Keeper - Covid Round 2 - the Colding

Rach & I had Round 1 of our Covid experience ringing in the new year in 2021. It was a mostly miserable experience, and largely resembled a nasty flu that lingered for over a week, and lethargy and sleeping 10-12 hours a night for the better part of a month. For me, brain fog lingered for a few months before slowly lifting. Not fun, but could have been far worse. 

Last Saturday, Rach got hit with a bad cold. I had some severe stomach issues on Monday, but nothing that would raise Covid flags. Rach still had cold symptoms on Tuesday, and with my mother's nagging (which is a prerequisite of motherhood) we tested Rach on Tuesday for Covid. She was positive. I was negative but started to have cold symptoms. By Thursday, I was testing positive.

No meds - we were both too far along for plaxlovid to be effective according to our docs, with Covid expected to last 5 to 7 days (Rach called her doc Wednesday morning). We were both up for a 40-minute dog walk this afternoon, although we have spent all of our energies now.

My spirits are high, my sinuses are slowly drying up, and I look forward to getting back into the swing of things next week. Maybe I'll go to sleep reading my ShadowDark PDFs on my iPad...

Deal of the Day - Demon Dog (Stand Alone Mork Borg RPG)

Demon Dog is a role-playing game set in a medieval history that never was. You play "Dogs", revenants that were snatched from purgatory by Demon Barons, seeking redemption and a pint. You're not a hero now and you weren't one before you lived, but you're possibly making things better, or worse, or at the very least less boring.

I must admit, Demon Dog looks interesting. I'm not sure if it would work well as an ongoing campaign, but Demon Dog looks like a fun change of pace for a one-shot or convention play.

Demon Dog is usually 17.50 in PDF, but until tomorrow morning, it is on sale in PDF for 5.95.

This book here, well, the PDF of it as that's what's here on DTRPG, its got Nightfall Games' splatterpunk style and dark humour, but they've cranked it up to 12 cause this here game is an ode to punk and the OSR revival. An' just cause we use words like "ode" an' shite, don't mean we didn't make an awesome game. Demon Dog is an irreverent game set in an irreverent age. It is MÖRK BORG, punk-style.

What Do I Get? 

A full colour, high-quality A5-sized PDF, including all you need to pick up and play Demon Dog:

• 80 messy pages of background, art, stats and rules.
• A brief look at the world and history of the Dogs. 
• The six Demon Barons and their back story.
• Background for the world of Demon Dog.
• A smattering of locations for the Dogs to get drunk in and kicked out of.
• Loads of creatures and baddies to stick the boot into.
• Fun tables to chuck dice at.

Be sure to grab Eight Page Goose (it's the PWYW Quickstart you've been waiting for)!  

Demon Dog is based on MÖRK BORG, a fantastic lightweight and brutal system that gets out of the way as much as it can, allowing you to get your havoc on without getting bogged down with complicated tables and stuff. MÖRK BORG is a rules-lite doom metal album of a game in the OSR genre and Demon Dog takes the same thesis and applies it to the Punk aesthetic.

While iinspired by MÖRK BORG and is compatible with it, Demon Dog is a stand-alone product. You can smash together the ideas in both books or pull ideas from one into the other!

 

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