OSR Christmas 2014 - Reaching Insane Levels of Holiday Cheer - Final Complete List of Holiday Cheer

This is the final update to the list of Christmas Gift Giving for the OSR Christmas. Well, unless I missed something. In which case the final update will need an update.

In any case, here we go :)

 - A Basic Fantasy RPG Print Bundle (US Only) including the Basic Fantasy RPG Core Book, Morgansfort, Monkey Isle, Chaotic Caves and the Fortress, Tomb and TowerAdventure Anthology 1 generously donated by Billy's Books & More on Amazon (billysbooks1968 on Ebay)

- 2.5D Print & Paste Dungeon Tiles Starter Set [BUNDLE] - donated by Middle Kingdoms Exploration & Trading Co

-1x HL-MEGA Havenland Mega icon set, 1x NR-CORE Narrasil Core icon set and 1x NTH-CORE Neath 3D Dungeon/Cavern Components for SketchUp donated by MonkeyBlood Design

-Set of Swords and Wizardry card decks - Monster, Spell, Hireling, and Equipment decks
-Swords and Wizardry Monstrosities hardcover
-Swords & Wizardry adventures - Grimmsgate, MCMLXXV, and Strange Bedfellows
-DCC adventure - Sailors on the Starless Sea
-Necromancer Games d20 adventures - The Six Spheres of Zaihhess, The Coils of Set, Vindication
-Necromancer Games d20 supplements - Tome of Horrors III hardcover; Unusual Suspects NPC Gallery

Above donated by Keith N - Mark these as US only

- The novel Heraclix and Pomp in print - ships worldwide - donated by the author, Forrest Aguirre

- a set of 5 miniatures, a human cleric (male) with a tome on a stand and 4 elves (male) in heavy plate and big @$$ swords. US only - donated by Boric Glanduum

edit:

- 6 PDF copies of Assault on the Southern Horn (osr) and six pdf copies of Paranormal Investigators and Exterminators (PIE) for mini-six donated by +Johua De Santo

and here's the previous listing of Holiday Cheer:

- Rob Kuntz's The Original Bottle City adventure, reprinted by Black Blade this past summer;

- Rob Kuntz's Cairn of the Skeleton King adventure, originally published by Rob's Pied Piper Publishing imprint, now out of print;

- Rob Kuntz's Tower of Blood adventure, originally published by Rob's Pied Piper Publishing imprint, now out of print;

- Rob Kuntz's and Lance Hawvermale's Campaign Treasuries supplement, originally published by Rob's Pied Piper Publishing imprint, now out of print.

The above is being donated by +Jon Hershberger and Black Blade Publishing. Jon will ship the above anywhere in the world on Black Blade's dime, so unless Jon tells me otherwise, this is a bundle of Holiday Cheer ;)

But wait, there's more!

- TWO sets of Dyson's Delves Volume I+II in Print (softcover) +Dyson Logos

- 3 PDF copies of Adventurous Locations I - The Broken Tower donated by +Anthony Hunter

- 1 full set of The Undercroft zine, shipping anywhere in the world donated by +Daniel Sell

- 3 sets of Dungeonmorph Dice (Adventurer, Explorer & Spellunker) as a bundle sent pretty much anywhere in the world. Donated by +Joe Wetzel

- two copies of the elite and very rare "A Collection of Presentations, Cartographical in Nature" donated by +matt jackson

- Print copies of Cryptworld and Timemaster donated by +Tim Snider and Goblinoid Games, as a bundle shipped anywhere in the world

- a complete set of The Manor zine in PDF, donated by by +Tim Shorts

If I've missed anything (and I probably have) let me know at tenkarsDOTtavernATgmailDOTcom. Tuesday is the last day to add to Santa's Bag of Holding ;)

and of course the previously donated loot:

- Peril and Plunder in Print donated by Jeff Carpenter

- Attack of the Frawgs (PDF), Haunting of Larvik Island (PDF), Stronghold of the Wood Giant Shaman (PDF) donated by +Stephen Newton (yes, more DCC RPG goodness)

- 2 PDF copies of the complete Straycouches collection (Crawl! and other goodies) and one Print copy (US Only) of said collection donated by +Dak Ultimak

- Complete PDF Collection of Spes Magna Games releases by +Mark Chance

- A Guide to the Astral Plane (AD&D Planescape) and The Glory of Rome Campaign Sourcebook(AD&D Historical Reference) - Print copies of these TSR Classics again donated by +Mark Chance

- free commissioned piece of artwork (a4, b/w, old school styled) donated by +m foczka , a sample of whose work graces this post above

- First Sentinel Limited & One of the last Whisper & Venom boxed sets donated by Lesser Gnome Games - +Zach Glazar IS The Man. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

- Hard copy of Trolls of Mistwood (DCC) by +David Fisher

- A PDF copy of The Caves of Ortok (choose between LL, S&W, or OSRIC)

- A PDF copy of Bearing A Grudge (choose between LL, S&W, or OSRIC)

- A PDF copy of the Noh-Cha Classbook

- A sub to Issues 1-6 of Another Bunch of Content in PDF (the above donated by Infinibadger Press +Jason Paul McCartan )

- Dyson's Delves Volume I + II donated by +Tony T

- An assortment of +Purple Duck Games  DCC Adventures in print (they are in The Tavern's Prize Closet - need to verify what is in there)

- 1 set of print copies of Crawling Under a Broken Moon DCC fanzine (print) +Reid San Filippo

- PDF copy of the Sunken City Omnibus (DCC) +Jon Marr

- a complete set of Crawljammer (DCC) (print) +Tim Callahan

- Complete Vivimancer and the first issue of the new zine Wizardzine (print copies) +Gavin Norman

- Castle of the Mad Archmage books in softcover +Joseph Bloch

- 12 PDFs of Far Realms, 12 PDFs of Far Realms - More Spells and 1 print version of Far Realms(holy crap if I must say so myself ;) +Rick Stump

- print copy of the S&W Player's Companion, signed +James Spahn

- PDF copy of the LL Class Compendium +James Spahn

- some gems from The Tavern's vaults (my wife is making me downsize my collection, even as I upsize it ;)

holy shit but this is amazing!

James Mal Returns with "The Excellent Travelling Volume", an Empire of the Petal Throne Fanzine

A quick check of Grognardia shows that December 11th, 2012 was the last post at the blog. Nearly 2 years. In that time, the Dwimmermount drama came and went (I got my print copies last week). Now, James Mal is back in the fold of old school fandom with his new zine, The Excellent Travelling Volume, an Empire of the Petal Throne zine set in the world of Tekumel.

There have been numerous RPGs set in Tekumel - heck, Jeff Dee just recently released one himself. This zine tho uses the first ruleset set in Tekumel, and the RPG has been out of print for over 30 years.

I'm intrigued by James' latest project. Tekumel is not a light setting. From what I've read of Empire of the Petal Throne (I own the boxed set), it is closely derived from OD&D but the setting is dense and it's fans are fairly rabid. James hasn't chosen an easy path.

The Excellent Travelling Volume is print only - 10 bucks shipped to North America, 12 bucks to the rest of the world. Coming in at 28 pages in digest size, that may seem a little steep. I'll be interested in any reviews or feedback from those that grab a copy to see if they get a fair shake for the prices.

Tekumel certainly seems to be a hot commodity recently.

OSR Christmas 2014 - Day One - DCC Did a Job on Me and Now I am a Real Sickie (with apologies to the Ramones) - PDF - International

We are kicking off the OSR Christmas Celebration with some PDF for the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG.

Let's see, where to begin?

I have Attack of the Frawgs and Haunting of Larvik Island. Both read very well and Frawgs played real well when I ran it. The group had a blast and I did too.

Crawl! zine is quite possibly the best gaming zine on the market of any gaming system. I can't praise it enough (not taking anything from any of the other zines, but Crawl! sets one hell of a high water mark.)

Sunken City Omnibus is a great set of DCC adventures wrapped into one comprehensive collection.
Another blast to read and run.

So, there's the prizes. Simply an excellent way to kick off an OSR Christmas.

- and if you haven't tried out the DCC RPG yet, you can get a start for free using the links at the linked post.

Six winners will be drawn from the comments on this post. This post will be open for comments until at least 830 tomorrow night (Dec 2nd, NYC Time)

Get posting!



- Attack of the Frawgs (PDF) 

-  Haunting of Larvik Island (PDF)

- Stronghold of the Wood Giant Shaman (PDF) donated by +Stephen Newton

- 2 PDF copies of the complete Straycouches collection (Crawl! and other goodies) +Dak Ultimak 

- PDF copy of the Sunken City Omnibus (DCC) +Jon Marr

Brainstorm Podcast #18 - Magic Shops

Yes, we are BACK!

Listen to +Vincent Florio , +Glen Hallstrom and myself discuss magic shops in campaigns. Needless to say, the three differing perspectives cover a lot of ground.

If you aren't listening to The Brainstorm Podcast, you simply aren't listening ;)

Cyber Monday Sale at RPGNow is Live - Five Buck Bargains

Yep, RPGNow / DriveThruRPG went live with their Cyber Monday Sales.

My 5 buck picks?

The Traveller Main Rulebook - it's an excellent deal at 5 bucks and you might actually survive character generation with this edition ;)

A Song for Fire and Ice - Game of Thrones Edition - it says Game of Thrones on the tin. 'nuff said.

CthulhuTech - because sci-fi CoC is just what the doctor ordered

OSR Christmas 2014 - Reaching Insane Levels of Holiday Cheer - Kicks Off on December 1st (Oh Sh!t - That's Tomorrow!)

Yes, Christmas Holiday OSR Goodness kicks off tomorrow. What's it going to be? I have no idea, as we are still getting in some amazingly generous gifts. If this keeps up, there may be some bonus days snuck into the 12 days of OSR Christmas.

So, what's new to the list of Christmas Gift Giving Generosity?

- Rob Kuntz's The Original Bottle City adventure, reprinted by Black Blade this past summer;

- Rob Kuntz's Cairn of the Skeleton King adventure, originally published by Rob's Pied Piper Publishing imprint, now out of print;

- Rob Kuntz's Tower of Blood adventure, originally published by Rob's Pied Piper Publishing imprint, now out of print;

- Rob Kuntz's and Lance Hawvermale's Campaign Treasuries supplement, originally published by Rob's Pied Piper Publishing imprint, now out of print.

The above is being donated by +Jon Hershberger and Black Blade Publishing. Jon will ship the above anywhere in the world on Black Blade's dime, so unless Jon tells me otherwise, this is a bundle of Holiday Cheer ;)

But wait, there's more!

- TWO sets of Dyson's Delves Volume I+II in Print (softcover) +Dyson Logos

- 3 PDF copies of Adventurous Locations I - The Broken Tower donated by +Anthony Hunter

- 1 full set of The Undercroft zine, shipping anywhere in the world donated by +Daniel Sell

- 3 sets of Dungeonmorph Dice (Adventurer, Explorer & Spellunker) as a bundle sent pretty much anywhere in the world. Donated by +Joe Wetzel

- two copies of the elite and very rare "A Collection of Presentations, Cartographical in Nature" donated by +matt jackson

- Print copies of Cryptworld and Timemaster donated by +Tim Snider and Goblinoid Games, as a bundle shipped anywhere in the world

- a complete set of The Manor zine in PDF, donated by by +Tim Shorts

If I've missed anything (and I probably have) let me know at tenkarsDOTtavernATgmailDOTcom. Tuesday is the last day to add to Santa's Bag of Holding ;)

and of course the previously donated loot:

- Peril and Plunder in Print donated by Jeff Carpenter

- Attack of the Frawgs (PDF), Haunting of Larvik Island (PDF), Stronghold of the Wood Giant Shaman (PDF) donated by +Stephen Newton (yes, more DCC RPG goodness)

- 2 PDF copies of the complete Straycouches collection (Crawl! and other goodies) and one Print copy of said collection donated by +Dak Ultimak

- Complete PDF Collection of Spes Magna Games releases by +Mark Chance

- A Guide to the Astral Plane (AD&D Planescape) and The Glory of Rome Campaign Sourcebook(AD&D Historical Reference) - Print copies of these TSR Classics again donated by +Mark Chance

- free commissioned piece of artwork (a4, b/w, old school styled) donated by +m foczka , a sample of whose work graces this post above

- First Sentinel Limited & One of the last Whisper & Venom boxed sets donated by Lesser Gnome Games - +Zach Glazar IS The Man. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

- Hard copy of Trolls of Mistwood (DCC) by +David Fisher

- A PDF copy of The Caves of Ortok (choose between LL, S&W, or OSRIC)

- A PDF copy of Bearing A Grudge (choose between LL, S&W, or OSRIC)

- A PDF copy of the Noh-Cha Classbook

- A sub to Issues 1-6 of Another Bunch of Content in PDF (the above donated by Infinibadger Press +Jason Paul McCartan )

- Dyson's Delves Volume I + II donated by +Tony T

- An assortment of +Purple Duck Games  DCC Adventures in print (they are in The Tavern's Prize Closet - need to verify what is in there)

- 1 set of print copies of Crawling Under a Broken Moon DCC fanzine (print) +Reid San Filippo

- PDF copy of the Sunken City Omnibus (DCC) +Jon Marr

- a complete set of Crawljammer (DCC) (print) +Tim Callahan

- Complete Vivimancer and the first issue of the new zine Wizardzine (print copies) +Gavin Norman

- Castle of the Mad Archmage books in softcover +Joseph Bloch

- 12 PDFs of Far Realms, 12 PDFs of Far Realms - More Spells and 1 print version of Far Realms(holy crap if I must say so myself ;) +Rick Stump

- print copy of the S&W Player's Companion, signed +James Spahn

- PDF copy of the LL Class Compendium +James Spahn

- some gems from The Tavern's vaults (my wife is making me downsize my collection, even as I upsize it ;)

Free OSR Product of the Week - The Basic Illusionist (Swords & Wizardry)

First released around the time of the 2013 Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day, The Basic Illusionist adds the overlooked Illusionist class to S&W. It is a well designed class and an excellent addition to your S&W (or most any OSR) campaign. It was just recently released on RPGNow.

From the blurb:

The Basic Illusionist is a 34-page sourcebook for illusions and illusionists in Swords & Wizardry and other OSR-style games. Everything you need to play or GM an illusionist is included in one book.

The Basic Illusionist includes:

the illusionist class;

the montebank class variant;

types of illusions and their effects;

guidelines for running illusions for both players and GMs;

156 illusion spells of levels 1-9 in Swords & Wizardry format, including nearly every illusion spell from First and Second Edition and a selection of new OSR spells from more recent sources;

conditions, or disadvantages, revised for the Swords & Wizardry ruleset;

two illusion-related monsters, the psyche fungi and the piscidine, and the imago creature template for Swords & Wizardry and other OSR-style games.

From The Basic Illusionist FAQ:

Q - What is the most important thing to know about this book?

A – This book is not what it might seem. First and foremost, this is a book of choices. Great pains have been taken to not create new rules, restrictions, or requirements. Adding this book to your current OSR game should not make it more complex or cause your Referee to develop many more headaches or involuntary tics than usual.

The Basic Illusionist is an OGL product and 100% Open Game Content.

OSR Christmas 2014 - More is More Better - Santa is Gonna Need a Second Bag of Holding - Interdimensional Space is Bursting!

Holy crap! You don't realize how many email addresses you have until you start missing things.

+Dyson Logos is adding TWO sets of Dyson's Delves Volume I+II in Print (softcover.) This and the OSR ruleset of your choice could literally give you a lifetime of gaming (assuming normal human lifespan.)

There has to be an Android App for tracking this stuff ;)

I'm heading to the pub for a beer now...

(quick reminder - Tuesday is the last day to add to Santa's Bag - email tenkarsDOTtavernATgmailDOTcom if you have something you wish to add - use OSR Christmas in the subject)

Santa's OSR Gift Bag is bursting at the seams. We'll need to upgrade his Bag of Holding.

I've got more to add to the list of donated goodies, but before I do, I want to give an overview on how this should work. No guarantees about the time table - I've already been told Dec 1st thru 3rd is "no excusals" at work along with the possibility to mobilized for potential protests. So, what follows is "the plan". The plan may or may not work out. We'll see.

Starting December 1st and following every other day in December, there will be an OSR Christmas Post. Each post will be labeled in some vague way to hint at the gifts up for grabs and will state wether the gifts are international or US only. PDF gifts are international and many of the donators of physical products are willing to ship internationally (if you don't already realize, international shipping outside of the states is akin to highway robbery these days.) A post may mix PDF and physical gifts, but it is either all or nothing when it comes to international availability - I won't be mixing PDFs and US only shipping on a given post.

When the post goes up you'll have at least 24 hours to add a comment and put yourself into the mix. Only one comment per post please. Post may go up early in the morning, mid afternoon, in the evening - it will vary. In any case, they will be open for comments for at least 24 hrs. The post will be closed to new comments when I make the announcement on the post. Sometime shortly thereafter, a post will go up listing the lucky gift recipients.

Remember, many of the gift givers are publishers freely giving their wares to members of our community. So them some love :)

- TWO sets of Dyson's Delves Volume I+II in Print (softcover) +Dyson Logos

- Peril and Plunder in Print donated by Jeff Carpenter

- Attack of the Frawgs (PDF), Haunting of Larvik Island (PDF), Stronghold of the Wood Giant Shaman (PDF) donated by +Stephen Newton (yes, more DCC RPG goodness)

- 2 PDF copies of the complete Straycouches collection (Crawl! and other goodies) and one Print copy of said collection donated by +Dak Ultimak

- Complete PDF Collection of Spes Magna Games releases by +Mark Chance

- A Guide to the Astral Plane (AD&D Planescape) and The Glory of Rome Campaign Sourcebook (AD&D Historical Reference) - Print copies of these TSR Classics again donated by +Mark Chance

and of course the rest of the list:

- free commissioned piece of artwork (a4, b/w, old school styled) donated by +m foczka , a sample of whose work graces this post above

- First Sentinel Limited & One of the last Whisper & Venom boxed sets donated by Lesser Gnome Games - +Zach Glazar IS The Man. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

- Hard copy of Trolls of Mistwood (DCC) by +David Fisher

- A PDF copy of The Caves of Ortok (choose between LL, S&W, or OSRIC)

- A PDF copy of Bearing A Grudge (choose between LL, S&W, or OSRIC)

- A PDF copy of the Noh-Cha Classbook

- A sub to Issues 1-6 of Another Bunch of Content in PDF (the above donated by Infinibadger Press +Jason Paul McCartan )

- Dyson's Delves Volume I + II donated by +Tony T

- An assortment of +Purple Duck Games  DCC Adventures in print (they are in The Tavern's Prize Closet - need to verify what is in there)

- 1 set of print copies of Crawling Under a Broken Moon DCC fanzine (print) +Reid San Filippo

- PDF copy of the Sunken City Omnibus (DCC) +Jon Marr

- a complete set of Crawljammer (DCC) (print) +Tim Callahan

- Complete Vivimancer and the first issue of the new zine Wizardzine (print copies) +Gavin Norman

- Castle of the Mad Archmage books in softcover +Joseph Bloch

- 12 PDFs of Far Realms, 12 PDFs of Far Realms - More Spells and 1 print version of Far Realms(holy crap if I must say so myself ;) +Rick Stump

- print copy of the S&W Player's Companion, signed +James Spahn

- PDF copy of the LL Class Compendium +James Spahn

- some gems from The Tavern's vaults (my wife is making me downsize my collection, even as I upsize it ;)