Bundle of Holding - Metamorphosis Alpha

I picked up many Metamorphosis Alpha releases from the Goodman Games Kickstarter at NTRPG Con in one of the silent auctions this past weekend. Seriously good stuff. Also, coincidentally, much of what is in this Metamorphosis Alpha Bundle.

If I were to run some sci-fi, Metamorphosis Alpha is likely where I'd hang my hat :)

Adventurer! We've resurrected our August 2021 Metamorphosis Alpha Bundle featuring the vintage 1976 First Edition of Metamorphosis Alpha, the tabletop roleplaying game created by James M. Ward of mutants and monstrosities on a colossal generation starship. In 2290 humanity launched its first colonization ship, the Warden. A radiation storm in deep space struck and crippled the gigantic starship. The ship's human crew died – the few survivors mutated and formed primitive civilizations – tribes struggled against a world they could not comprehend. Generations later, as a human, mutant, or robot on the Warden, you fight to survive, unaware even that your irradiated world is a spaceship. Can you uncover the secrets of the Warden and steer it back on course, or will you simply try to live another day?

For just US$9.95 you get all seven titles in this revived offer's Starter Collection (retail value $42) as DRM-free ebooks, including the 2016 Goodman Games reproduction of the complete 1976 Metamorphosis Alpha 1E First Printing rulebook (originally presented as Chapter Two of Goodman's MA 1E Deluxe Collector's Edition), plus the Referee's Screen (retail $6); three MA supplements – Creatures & Gadgets, The Mutation Manual, and Warden Armory; and two adventure sourcebooks: the introductory campaign Death Ziggurat in Zero-G and Warden Adventures.

And if you pay more than the threshold price of $25.72, you'll level up and also get this revival's entire Bonus Collection with six more titles worth an additional $70, including the full-length campaign adventure Doom on the Warden, the location sourcebook Epsilon City, and several more short adventures on the Warden: The Android Underlords, The Captain's Table, and Level of the Lost, along with the Book of Handouts.

 

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

Kickstarter - Mystmoor (Horror/Fantasy Setting)

A TTRPG Fantasy Horror Campaign & Setting - System Agnostic e.g. DND 5e OSR etc. with support for EZD6 and Shadowdark

We had Bruce on the Talking Crit Livestream last night, and not only was he a great guest, but his knowledge of horror fiction and movies is second to none. I highly recommend Bruce's Mystmoor Kickstarter.

MYSTMOOR is a system-agnostic* fantasy-horror setting and campaign you can easily use with your favourite TTRPG game.  Its design gives experienced Game Masters (GMs) the flexibility to run the materials in most low-magic, medieval-fantasy settings. 

It’s packed full of plot hooks, mysteries, threats, and everything you need for a campaign. 

This content is 100% Human created with absolutely NO A.I. involvement.

Blending heroic action with horrifying mysteries, take your players on a journey that allows them to feel like heroes, but always on edge at the horrors that lurk just outside their view, lying in wait in MYSTMOOR.

MYSTMOOR is inspired by the fantastic and horror materials the author was exposed to growing up; this includes major tributes to the works of Richard Matheson, M. R. James, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert E. Howard, Ramsey Campbell, Bram Stoker, Sheridan Le Fanu, Dashiell Hammett and more. There are numerous tributes and homages to them as well as many classic films (Black Sunday (check out the Demonic Mask you will see floating around much of the Mystmoor art), Night Stalker, The Legend of Hell House, Night of the Eagle, Night of the Demon, Cat People, the Maltese Falcon, Tombs of the Blind Dead, Trilogy of Terror, etc.), television shows (Kolchak, Night Gallery, Twilight Zone, Space:1999, Star Trek, etc.), books (Sherlock Holmes, Conan, Cthulhu Mythos tales, etc.), comic books (Dr. Spektor, Dr. Strange, Man-Thing, Swamp Thing, etc.), computer games (anyone remember Donjonquest and Brian Hammerhand?), and old-school RPG modules (Griffin Mountain, Keep on the Borderlands, etc.).  This is a passion project! 

 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 

Humble Bundle - Maps Extravaganza Revisited

Campaign Cartographer is pretty much the go-to mapping program for RPGs, and the Maps Extravaganza Revisited Bundle is an amazing value for CC3+.

Design maps for your own tabletop campaigns, fantasy settings, and more! This bundle includes everything you need to create stunning, print-worthy works of art that will bring your worlds to life. Get powerful software like Campaign Cartographer 3+ (including a Lifetime License), City Designer 3, Dungeon Designer 3, Tome of Ultimate Mapping, and more. Unlock a treasury that will take your tabletop games and fantasy stories to the next level, and help support Save the Children 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. 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

Bundle of Holding - Operation Unfathomable

I have half of the stuff in the Operation Unfathonable Bundle in print, and I'm snagging this for the stuff I'm missing :)

Adventurer! This new Operation Unfathomable Bundle features Operation Unfathomable, the gonzo fantasy roleplaying campaign setting by Jason Sholtis for Old School Revival tabletop retro-clones. (This offer also includes a version for the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG from Goodman Games.) The Sorcerer-King's son stole a powerful relic, the Nul Rod, and fled into the Unfathomable Underworld, a subterranean wilderness of unsurpassed strangeness and peril. Your fledgling 1st-level adventurers pursue him into a vast and incomparably bizarre cavern-world of civilized fungoids, bat-winged dwarves, two-headed giant ape mummies guarding franchise temples, decapitante soldiers, psychephages, death-ray revolvers, the ruins of the now-extinct Genocide Beetle civilization, the Fizzy Drink of Ocular Autonomy ("causes eyeballs to leave their moorings and levitate freely"), and Shaggath-Ka the Worm Sultan. In most circumstances, fragile beginning characters would be doomed. But explorers with good sense (and a willingness to hide) can hope to gain great treasure and speedy advancement.

This new offer brings you the entire Operation Unfathomable line for an unbeatable bargain price. For just US$14.95 you get all six titles in our Unfathomable Collection (retail value $69) as DRM-free ebooks, including the complete the complete 108-page Operation Unfathomable core campaign book, plus the Player's Guide; the sequel setting Odious Uplands and its free Map Pack; the complete conversion for Dungeon Crawl Classics, Completely Unfathomable; and both volumes of Jason Sholtis's brilliant D12 tables, The Dungeon Dozen Volume 1 [previously in our November 2014 Worldbuilder's Toolkit 2] and Volume 2.

 

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

Humble Bundle - Stories from the World of Warhammer 2024 from Black Library

I'm a huge fan of Warhammer Fantasy fiction. My old gaming group loves the Warhammer 40k setting for fiction. Two great settings, all in one huge Warhammer Fiction Bundle.

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

NTRPG Con - Day 4 - Con Wrap Up

All good things must come to an end, and NTRPG Con 2024 is no different. Sure, a handful of games are still running, but the dealer's room is mostly packed up, if not totally.

Yesterday was the Awards Ceremony and the Main Auction. ShadowDark won the Three Castles Award this year. Above is Kelsey with the first of the new Three Castles Awards designed by TSR alumni Diesel. Note, that Kelsey and Diesel have agreed to come on the Talking Crit Livestream with me and Bad Mike later this summer. Oh, and also James Raggi, Chris Clark, Ben Burns, and one or two others that Bad Mike and I currently are holding up our sleeves. It's going to be a great summer :)

Thanks to all the supporters of The Tavern that I had the amazing opportunity to speak with over the last few days. Your support means more than I can ever put into words.

NTRPG Con - Day 3 - Dealer Room Pics and More

 

Random NTRPG Con Day 1 Pics

 

Someone Donated a Very Special Item for the Saturday Night Midnight Auction @ NTRPG Con

Better start saving those nickles, boys and girls! This opportunity might not come again ;)

Heading to NTRPG Con in the AM

Over the next few days, posts may become spotty as I enjoy everything that NTRPG Con has to offer.

I'll try and regal you with con photos and more :)

Humble Bundle - Delta Green RPG Collection

I remember Delta Green when it was a supplement for Call of Cthulhu. My, how times have changed. Now it's a full-blown RPG in its own right. The Delta Green Humble Bundle is 18 bucks for 20 PDFs

This is like nothing anyone has ever understood. This is the apocalypse.

Fan of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos? Delta Green is the premier modern day setting for cosmic horror roleplaying, casting players as operatives for a top secret government organization tasked with keeping the eldritch at bay. This bundle includes everything you need for endless adventure in this thrilling world! You’ll get the Agent’s Handbook and Handler’s Guide core rulebooks plus an entire library of sourcebooks, adventures, and game aids to keep your gaming group busy for as long as your sanity can handle!

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

Final Sunday Before NTRPG

We're less than a week away from NTRPG, which means I'm "busier than a one-legged Indian in an ass-kicking race", as my grandpa used to say. There's always a few RPG projects that I'm trying to finish up and this year is no exception. I am though, throwing in the towel on probably half of my "things" because I just don't want the stress. Most of these things are for me and nobody will be the wiser on what doesn't see the light of day this particular convention.

No...this year will be much more laid-back than my norm. Between a work trip kicking my ass (I brought home a summer cold that I'm just recovering from) and some unexpected home repairs having to take up my most valuable of resources....oh, and my workplace kind of sort of tried to tell me I couldn't go to the con this year. Yeah, that wasn't going to fly. I take one scheduled vacation a year (NTPRG) and they can have me do whatever for the other 360 days of the year. They've had this on the books for a year and if management cannot get the manpower figured out, that's not my burden to bear.

So yeah...I'm not going to take on undue stress so I can enjoy myself.

NTRPG is basically the beginning of the summer convention season, so if you have things you need to do before Origins, or maybe GenCon.....here's your sign to check in on your state of affairs now.

I'm happy with the games I've gotten into to play, but I don't have and guests coming in this year like I've had in the past. Just gaming...some drinking, and giving Bad Mike too much money.....

Hopefully I'll have a good end-of-con report.

Kickstarter - DRAGONLOCK: Lost City of the Dwarves

Discover a 3D printable dwarven city, featuring expansive caverns and mine terrain, perfect for enhancing your tabletop D&D games!

I'm a huge fan of dwarves, as anyone who follows me should know :) I've also used Dragonlock at conventions, and it's quality stuff. I just need to figure out where I can fit the 3d printer that I own...

This Kickstarter campaign offers 3D printable terrain models of an underground dwarven city and the expansive caverns and mines beneath it. Discover the exquisite craftsmanship of our new Lost Caverns sculpts, with intricate details and expertly crafted undercuts on stalactites that bring your cavern layouts to life. As the campaign progresses, additional stretch goal models will be unlocked for free, allowing you to further expand and enhance your cityscape!

Each set is delivered in a downloadable .stl format via our online distribution partner DriveThruRPG.com, and once you have the set, you can print as many pieces as you like and never run out or need to purchase more. These terrain sets represent the culmination of nineteen years of gaming terrain design experience.

So, of the two backer levels for DRAGONLOCK: Lost City of the Dwarves do I recommend?

Dwarven King

$49

With this pledge, you receive the Lost City of the Dwarves starter set (63 models), the Lost Caverns Master Set (over 200 models), and all unlocked stretch rewards! All models will be delivered as downloadable .stl files via DriveThruRPG. This pledge level also includes everything from the Dwarven Warrior pledge level. Stretch rewards will start being delivered in July, with timing depending on the number of rewards unlocked.

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

Kickstarter - WWII: Operation B/X TTRPG for Old-School Essentials

Wow. It has to be 8 or 9 years since the release of the 1st edition of WWII: Operation WhiteBox. What an amazing interpretation of the Swords & Wizardry White Box rules in a WWII setting. Now, Pete Spahn, along with Eric Bloat of Bloat Games, have teamed up to bring us WWII: Operation B/X TTRPG for Old-School Essentials via Kickstarter.

Bloat Games has partnered with Small Niche Games (SNG) to publish WWII: Operation B/X for Old-School Essentials, a reimagining of SNG’s hugely popular game WWII: Operation WhiteBox!  This Kickstarter will include two books: OBX: Core Rules (non-supernatural) and OBX: Into The Dark (a supernatural WWII version).

Pete Spahn of SNG and creator of Operation WhiteBox, has fully written and developed OBX and Bloat Games is excited to bring his creative vision to the world. Peter Frain of 77Studios (Movie Night RPG) has created complimentary matching cover art for both OBX: Core Rules and OBX: Into The Dark, and Luigi Castellani will return from OWB to handle the interior art needs. Eric Bloat is tasked with layout duties, and Brandon Goeringer (RPG Overviews, Pocket Fantasy RPG) and Jeffey Scifert (Evolved) are onboard to assist with editing.

From the desk of Pete Spahn:

“In 2016, I released WWII: Operation WhiteBox. In the game, characters play WWII special forces spies and operatives working for organizations like the British Commandos, U.S. Army Airborne, and Special Operations Executive. The game used the Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox rules (by Matt Finch and Marv Breig) as its core and received high praise for its focus and ease of play, especially at conventions.

Almost immediately I began receiving requests for an “occult” version of the game. I hesitated. For one thing, I love history, so I really enjoyed running “pseudohistorical” games set during World War II with no myth or magic involved. What’s more, other game companies had already tackled “German werewolves and vampires” and “Nazi Cthulhu” so I knew if I was going to do WWII horror, I had to come up with my own take on the genre. Something that would be customizable to monsters, myths, and legends from all over the world.

So I started taking notes on the types of horror I liked to play and run and soon came up with something that was heavily inspired by some of my favorite media including the Masque of the Red Death/Ravenloft TSR settings, the Silent Hill games and movies, various works Stephen King, and even the TV show Stranger Things. Sprinkle in some actual Nazi occult history and lore and I had the makings of a good horror expansion for WWII: Operation WhiteBox.

I had already stumbled onto Old-School Essentials years earlier and immediately fell in love with the look and feel of the game. This was the way I had played D&D fantasy in the 80s and I started wondering what an OSE conversion of WWII: Operation WhiteBox would look like. After Gavin Norman of Necrotic Gnome gave his blessing, I decided to make it a reality. And thus, Operation B/X (core rules) and OBX: Into the Dark (occult expansion) were born!”

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

The Original D&D Cartoon from the 80's is Available for Free on YouTube

We know WotC has plans for the Original Dungeons & Dragons Cartoon characters from the 80s. They appeared in last year's movie Honor Among Thieves, they appear in the 2024 Player's Handbook, and Venger appears on the cover of the 2024 DMG (there are some theories on Venger)

Enjoy the complete run of the Original Dungeons & Dragons Cartoon:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW8q9E0mB4_GgHu9cj7w6lItvJJUDo3dl

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

Deal of the Day - Magical Industrial Revolution

There are some resources for RPGs that you might not need NOW, but you'll be happy to have down the line. Magical Industrial Revolution is one of those resources and, as the current Deal of the Day, until tomorrow morning is on sale for 40% off in PDF.

This book is about Atlantis before the tide turned. It’s about Hyperborea before it vanished between dimensions. It’s about Nu Yark Citee before the Mushroom Bombs hit.

It’s a setting guide to the greatest and most ambitious city in the world: Endon. It’s about a world slowly tipping onto its side, and all the interesting things that begin to slide at the start of a revolution. It’s about people with grand dreams pushing the boundaries of the possible, and the strange machines and devices they create along the way.

But mostly, it’s about magic.

Magical Industrial Revolution: A Pre-Apocalyptic Setting Guide contains a wealth of information to supplement Role Playing Games, including:

• Maps, People, Buildings, Dungeons, Factions, and Villains of Endon

• Eight Pre-Apocalyptic Innovations

• Hundreds of Magic Items and Spells

• Rules for Magical Industry

• Useful Tools for Urban Campaigns

• Horrible Monsters and Nightmarish Creatures

• And much, much more.

By Skerples, the author of the CoinsandScrolls blog, Tomb of the Serpent Kings, Kidnap the Archpriest, Epochrypha, and Magical Murder Mansion. Art by Jonathan Newell, Logan Stahl, & Luka Rejec. Editing, layout, and incalculably valuable assistance by David Shugars. Additional editing by Fiona Geist.

Three very useful pamphlets featuring magical industrial tips, hanging ballads, and local attractions are provided along with the 156 page book. The PDF is fully optimized and bookmarked.

 

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

Bundle of Holding - Crown and Skull

Crown & Skull talk has been making the rounds recently. From Runehammer, the creator of Index Card RPG and EZD6 (both really well-done RPGs), Crown & Skull is a game I had yet to come across. You can grab the player-facing rules for free here, but the full Crown & Skull digital package of the rules and digital media can be snagged at Bundle of Holding for 7.95 (normally 30 bucks at the Runehammer website)

Adventurer! This all-new Runehammer Crown and Skull Bundle presents Crown and Skull, the newest tabletop fantasy roleplaying rules system from Index Card RPG designer Brandish "Runehammer" Gilhelm at Runehammer Games. Crown and Skull puts the players at center stage: Players can build their own custom equipment and spells, roll all the dice in combat, and discover new setting locations, inhabitants, and events – and the Game Master is right at the players' side, discovering all this with them, and using the game's inventive no-prep tools to improvise legendary adventures across the North Holds. Characters earn hero points in play and grow their own way, eventually making the fateful choice: Crown (service to the kingdom) or Skull (independent destiny)?

For just US$7.95 you get the complete Crown and Skull Digital Bundle (sold on the Runehammer Games website for $30) with the 356-page, DRM-free Crown and Skull core rulebook, the North Holds setting map in hexgrid and no-grid versions, 30 image tokens suitable for virtual tabletop (VTT) platforms, and 23 atmospheric MP3 music tracks to enhance your game sessions.

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

New FLGS Store: Other Realms (Honolulu, HI)

So last weekend I mentioned I was in Hawaii and thankfully I'm back home. I'd wanted to post about a FLGS in Honolulu, but the only store I went to was some small hole-in-the-wall I stopped at with a coworker. I'm the only gamer in my workplace....ok the only TTRPG gamer, but at least one other guy likes comics so he was willing to swing by the one place that was on way back.

The next day I was able to get back out & about and found the store I actually wanted to go to....and holy crap the difference a day makes. The Other Realms was an awesome store, easily one of the top ten, if not top 3, game stores I've had the pleasure of visiting. Seriously, if you are on vacation to O'ahu, or on a business trip like I was, you need to make a side visit to Other Realms.

Getting there was kind of odd because it is nestled between (actually behind) a big-box retailer and a small industrial park. It really is a destination stop, because I cannot fathom accidentally finding it while out & bout. Parking also seemed a bit limiting as well, which means a customer really needs to intend to check out & shop here.

Right off the bat, the store was really clean but absolutely packed with product, pretty much floor-to-ceiling.  You'd think there wasn't a stockroom, but there was...I saw it. There was also a small back (game) room on the opposite side. Roughly one half of the store was comics and the other half games. The sales counter was more on the comic book side, but a large back-issue table occupied the games' side, so it was pretty even.

This place seemed to have a little bit of everything, but that was more of an initial impression. I didn't see any used TTPG or OSR materials, and they had but a single HeroQuest item (an expansion pack). Still, there were a lot of minis and maybe a solid three-foot section of Munchkin. The available board games were essentially the entire front wall (not pictured). I finally found myself a copy of Tiny Epic Dungeons, which I had been looking for over this last year or so. Other Realms pretty much had the whole Tiny Epic line, whereas I'm lucky to find one or two of the line elsewhere.

Not even 1/3 of the store

There was a great selection of comics as well, at least as far as comics I care about. I'm not a huge comic nerd, I mean I have a bunch, but I'm really only ever on the lookout for one particular comic. If I see a single Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos it's like a good month(?)....no, more like season. Other Realms had maybe a good dozen comics, including some single-digit issues. I picked up only half of what I wanted, which was half of what they had..... 

....seriously, if you find yourself in O'ahu you need to check out Other Realms. Just do it....