Kickstarter - The Lost Lands: Borderland Provinces (S&W, Pathfinder and 5e)

I've never had a bad thing to say about a Frog God Games Kickstarter. You always get value for your money (even if the buy in is typically higher than many gaming products) and they are generally on time or damn close to it. Traditionally, Frog God has offered it's Kickstarter releases in Swords & Wizardry and Pathfinder flavors, but recently they've added 5e to the mix.

The Lost Lands: Borderland Provinces is Frog God's latest Kickstarter, and it's the setting for which it's other releases take place in. Better yet, you can get the setting in typical Frog God high quality hard cover print for $35 plus shipping (that includes the PDF.)

How can they do it at $35? The setting book is separate from the adventures book, which is another $35 if you want it. Keeping them as separate products allows one to only pay for what they need.

There are other add ons for the completists among us, but $35 for the Borderland Providences setting book in hard cover and PDF is damn exciting.

The central part of the Kickstarter is the Core Campaign Book for the Borderland Provinces, a complete guide for running campaigns here. There are also several additional resources that can be added to the campaign book to assemble an extended kit for sandbox adventuring and traveling through the wild and tumultuous realm of the Borderland Provinces. The main campaign book contains rich descriptions of countries, cities (some with individual maps), encounter tables for road and airborne travel, several individual lairs, historical background of the area, and much more. The Adventure Book provides a set of stand-alone adventures much larger than the lairs in the campaign book, and the Journey Generator is a resource for GMing free-form traveling adventures on the stone high-roads left behind by the ancient Hyperboreans. You can pick and choose what kinds of resources you want, and put together the kit you need for your particular kind of game. 

And that's not all! There are two player books to introduce the campaign to players in different ways, including a copy of the poster map (don't worry -- the secret locations aren't shown on it). Plus, there's a free first-level adventure module, Rogues in Remballo, to let you get started right away!

I'm in at $95 for the Complete GM book set, but then again, I am a completist ;)

Neoplatic Press Halloween Sale - Lusus Naturae, Teratic Tome, more - PWYW

+Rafael Chandler shared this out on G+ and I'm just strengthening the signal:

HALLOWEEN SALE: EVERYTHING MUST GO!
From now until October 31st, all of my PDFs are pay-what-you-want. This includes Lusus Naturae, Teratic Tome, and the rest of it! No particular reason -- I just thought a Halloween sale sounded like fun! You want a PDF for free? Go for it, no problem! You want to get it for free, then maybe come back later and toss some coins into the open guitar case? I'll be here, strumming along.

Neoplastic Press Halloween Sale

Tavernt Chat Tonight - 9PM to 11PM Eastern

Yep, another Tavern Chat tonight.

Topics may include:

- Frog God's latest Kickstarter

- NTRPG Con 2016 and the room The Tavern is sponsoring (last I checked, only Frog God was sponsoring a room)

- my Random Overnight series of post

- other sordid topics as they come up

Random Gaming Thoughts at 2 AM

I've got NTRPG Con on my mind. Very excited to be sponsoring a room.

Remember, this room is (hopefully) going to be a central hub for bloggers, podcasters and everyone else.

Oh, and beer. Hopefully...

Tenkar's Tavern is Sponsoring Trinity I at NTRPG Con 2016 for OSR Bloggers and Podcasters

See the Trinity Ballroom? Lower left corner is Trinity I.

That will be Ground Zero for the OSR Blogging and Podcasting Communities at NTRPG Con. I'm happy to give back to Doug and Mike as best I can while giving bloggers and podcasters a place to call their own. Besides, the beer is sold just outside the door to Trinity 1 ;)

We will have 2 vendor tables (which I expect will have business cards, flyers, bumper stickers - whatever) and 1 gaming table to schedule gaming around. I'm expecting some planned slots, some open slots.

Need a corner that's away from the crowds? One of the vendor tables can be set up for podcasting.

Still need to work out the details, but we do have a room...

(edit - if +Richard LeBlanc has the same table as last year in the main ballroom, i can knock on the wall between us in morse code and send messages ;)

Random Gaming Thoughts at 1 am

Sometimes the mind kicks in early.

Any suggestions / wish list for OSR Christmas? I'm hoping to get other blogs involved in hosting giveaways.

Kickstarter - Frog God Games' Borderland Provinces Kickstarter kicks off on October 15th - Pricing May Surprise Some Folks

I just awoke from a 4 hour nap (as apposed to my 4 hours of sleep this morning) to an email from +Matt Finch explaining some of the details and pricing for the forthcoming Borderland Provinces Kickstarter from Frog God Games.

The basic buy in price point is 12 bucks in PDF. Let that sink in for a bit.

Hardcover with GM extras is $35 with poster map (and PDFs)

Heh ;)

Here's what Matt sent me:

We're planning on launching the Borderland Provinces Kickstarter for the core region of the Lost Lands campaign on October 15, 2 days from now. Many people have asked about pricing: the answer may be a very nice surprise: 

(1) The Basic Campaign Price is $12  

Yes, you did read that right. You can start a Borderland Provinces campaign on a $12 budget if your goal is just to have basic information about what's around Rappan Athuk and the other major locations. By getting the pdf Player Guide and Gazeteer, which comes with a pdf of the poster map, you're all set for that type of bare-bones campaign if you're a DIY game master who doesn't plan on using encounter tables, secret GM information, lairs, etc. The Player Gazeteer gives basic descriptions of the map locations, enough to work with if you're a build-it-yourself Game Master. And since the campaign also comes with a free adventure, Rogues in Remballo, you have a pretty complete set of resources to work with. 

(2) The "Core" Campaign Hardcover + Map + PDF is $35  

A library-quality hardcover of the GM campaign book is only $35 plus shipping, and it comes with the poster map of the region (and free PDFs). This contains all the information we mentioned that's not in the Player Gazeteer. Also available just in pdf, of course. 

(3) Additional Resources (make-your-own "resource kit")  

An extensive pick-and-choose set of additional resources is where the Kickstarter gets fun, and where you can assemble whatever additional elements you want to supplement your core book, creating an extended "kit" tailored to the way you run your games. The main one is a hardcover book of seven brand-new, full-length adventures, called "Adventures in the Borderland Provinces," which gives you an instant starting point for general campaigning. Plus, there's the above-mentioned Player Gazeteer, a Player Guide, a book we call the "Journey Generator," and lots more. None of these are necessary for play, but all are excellent supplemental resources to add.

I'm very interested in seeing how this all works out

Random Gaming Thoughts at 4 AM

I guess I better not sleep the day away. I've got things to do when I get home from work...

Troll Lord Games Goes 5e - A0 The Rising Knight -- Adventures for 5th Edition Rules

It looks like WotC has made a D&D 5e publishing license irrelevant at this time. Publishers are either using the 3x OGL or trademark fair use and publishing 5e compatible works. Instead of having some influence over what get's published, they no have none.

Troll Lord Games, publishers of the Castles & Crusades RPG, are now the latest to jump on the 5e bandwagon, converting one of their C&C adventures, The Rising Knight, to 5e.

D&D is dead! Long live D&D!

From the blurb:

Complete with customized anchored hyperlinks! Click on the map for locations in the Rising Knight! 

This is an introductory adventure for those playing the 5th Edition of the world's best known and oldest RPG. The module has been designed to allow for the players and Game Master alike to begin play immediately.  

The Drunderry River runs narrow and fast through much of its course, before tumbling into the lowlands beneath the Fallow Hills, in the shadows of the Blacktooth Ridge. 

From there, the river spreads out across fertile plains, laboring slowly to the south before emptying into the Elmarsh Lake. Until recently this area was unsettled, but a writ of the King's has brought many people to the area. The village of Malforten, nesteld along the banks fo the Drunderry River, near the Fallow Hills, is just such a place.  

A quiet village with simple people, they learned the hard way the Blacktooth Ridge casts a deep and dark shadow. Seeing rich prizes in cattle and grain, people and other movables, Gritznak the Gnoll has come down from the Blacktooth with loot on his mind.

All they've done to drive him off have failed, at their wits end the villagers turn to others, more experienced in combatting evil. They look to a rising knight to save them . . . .

New Big Dragon Games Unlimited to Publish Steve Marsh's Shattered Norns #1: Into the Shadows

Yeah, I'm nearly a week behind in sharing this announcement. As much as I'm adjusting to working overnights, I'm not adjusting to working overnights ;)

New Big Dragon Games Unlimited is going to publish Steve Marsh's Shattered Norns #1: Into the Shadows. It's being published for 5e (and who says you need a license to publish for the latest edition anyway?) although it was developed with earlier editions. Not surprising for the man who was the lead editor of the D&D Expert set and the main man behind the aquatic creatures in the AD&D Monster Manual.

What does that mean for us, the consumers? 5e is pretty easy to convert to earlier editions and with New Big Dragon Games behind the project, it should be a good one.

Something tells me this deal was worked out during NTRPG Con 2015...

Here's the full press release.

Kickstarter - The Encounter Brick Construction System for Tabletop Games (More Gaming "Lego")

You know what I hate? When a Kickstarter omits any pictures at all. See the above? That's a screenshot of the initial video.

I like when Kickstarters have a video included. I do not enjoy it when I'm forced to watch the video to even have a clue.

And yes, The Encounter Brick Construction System for Tabletop Games is more "Gaming Lego." More affordable and slightly more attractive than the last bit we saw. Still pricey.

Surprisingly, this isn't being done by (or used to fund) a 3D printer.

We would do this by milling a set of cold steel dies to be used in a state-of-the-art, hot-runner, injection molding process at Epsilon Industries in Dallas, Texas.

I guess that's why they look better.

I'd still opt for Lego, or even better yet, a cheap Lego knock off. I may not be the Frugal GM, but even I need to pinch corners at some points.

Kickstarter - Hubris: A World of Visceral Adventure (DCC RPG Setting)

Yet another reason to give up drinking. She looked fine at the bar...

Hubris: A World of Visceral Adventure is a DCC RPG setting (but should be fairly easy to convert to other OSR flavors) that being Kickstarter by +Mike Evans . If you are an OSR styled gamer and are active on G+, you've probably stumbled across Mike or his blog. Actually, his blog has some of the more raw entries and thoughts that led to this project.

So, what is Hubris? According to Mike, it is:

Hubris is a weird fantasy setting inspired by various things, such as: Alice in Wonderland, Conan the Barbarian by Robert E. Howard, HP Lovecraft stories, Vornheim by Zak Smith, Lamentations of the Flame Princess RPG by James Raggi, Labyrinth, The Thing, Hellboy comics by Mike Mignola, Hellraiser, Evil Dead and Army of Darkness, and not to mention the awesomness that is Dungeon Crawl Classics and the whole DIY RPG community!  

My favorite description by a supporter of Hubris is "Hubris is like a high octane meat-grinder!"  That captures Hubris amazingly.  Hubris is brutal, epic, and weird.  Players will not know what to expect at any given moment and it keeps them on their toes. 

During the playtests, my players were brutalized in the wilds and sought shelter in the safety of civilization of Fairweather, thinking they were "safe"...  However, they quickly realized that the city was just as weird, brutal, and horrific as the wilderness (if not worse in some ways). 

The buy in for the PDF is 10 bucks. That appears to be a bargain and a half. The print version is POD.

I must say, Mike has assembled an "A Team" to work on this.

Hubris is 100% written by me (Mike), but I have bribed, blackmailed, begged, or paid off some serious kickass talent for this project!  I have the amazing Alex Mayo as the layout man, David Lewis Johnson, Jez Gordon, Doug Kovacs, Jeremy Duncan, and Jason Sholtis have done (or will do) some kick ass illustrations, and the incredible Dak Ultimak will be doing the final Hubris edits.  Oh and Doug Kovacs will do one of his amazing dungeon pieces for Hubris as well!

I'm in for the PDF myself. I may opt for the POD version later.

So, I'm Working on an Article About Crowdfunding...

I've been working on a crowdfunding article (not blog post) off and on since the beginning of September. It's died on the vine more times than Far West has had release dates.

That's a joke, son ;)

Anyhow, my main issue is that I find it often goes off on tangents of Kickstarter failures. Which is fine for later articles, but I seriously find that Kickstarter is more boon than bane, and I want to reflect that.

I want to showcase the +Kevin Crawford s, the +Joseph Bloch s, the Frog God Games' and the like that know how to run a Kickstarter and deliver on what they promise.

I also want to give some examples of Kickstarter "Do's" (and some "don'ts, especially when paired with the "do's")

Give me some positive vibes and thoughts please. I'll take the negative ones, but they may be held back for a later article.

Yes, I'm crowdsourcing an article on crowdfunding ;)

A WTF Kickstarter - Project Laghima (a perpetual motion space engine)

What can I say about Project Laghima?

It has attempted funding twice before. Failed miserably both times. So, what do you do when you can't raise $6,000? Ask for $20,000 the next time.

Yes, they need $20k to build a mockup of something that is bound to fail.

No, trust me. It will fail. Science says so.

But at least their Kickstarter page has lots of animated gifs. (and watch the damn video, I beg you)

So, what kind of education does Masud Harouny have that qualifies him to ignore the laws of science? None that he mentions. This is from his website.

For the past few years, I’ve been reading about the physics of propulsion and promising new technology that strives to break free from old conventions such as the rocket or airplane models that are clunky, and require massive amounts of fuel to be hauled. In doing so, I have understandably come up with some of my own ideas.

Sadly, he's using the wrong platform to raise his funding. Indiegogo would have been more than happy to allow hi to use flexible funding to bilk the few fools he could find.

Who Was Asking for SciFi Themed Header art at The Tavern?

I'll be adding this to the rotation soon.

See, The Tavern spans genres ;)

Huge thanks to Eren Arik.

I'll be putting together artist links in the next week or so.

Tavern Chat Tonight - 9PM to 11 PM Eastern - Bright Eyed & Bushy Tailed

Thursdays are sleeping day for me now that I'm working the midnight tour at work. Slept from 9 am to 1 pm and from 330 pm to 7 pm.

Hopefully I'll be cleared of any cobwebs before tonight's chat ;)

9 to 11 PM, right here at The Tavern. All you need to do is follow the chat box on the right side of the page.

What are we going to chat about?

Damned if I know :)

Coming Soon From Frog God Games - Rogues in Remballo (Free - Urban Setting / 1st Level Adventure)

Looking for an urban setting to kick off your next Swords & Wizardry campaign? Look no further. Rogues in Remballo will have you covered. Sure, it hasn't released yet, but it exists and it is good. How do I know? Because I have my copy and I'm reading it already.

Did I mention that Frog God will be offering this for free? Think of it as an enticement to check out the forthcoming The Lost Lands: Borderland Provinces "sandbox campaign resource" (quoting +Matt Finch directly there.) Rogues of Remballo is over 20 pages of sandboxie urban adventuring, and it will be coming your way in about a week or so. No worries, I'll remind you when it does release ;)

For those wondering where the Borderland Provinces lie, it's the area that contains Rappan Athuk and the Lost City of Barakus, and Cyclopean Deeps. Yep, it's adventure central.

Now, just to be clear, Rogues in Remballo might be a 1st level adventure but it is written for experienced players, or at least an experienced DM. Herding cats is hard enough in a sandbox. When you make that sandbox an urban environment with lots of interesting locations it may be hard to keep the party's attention on the adventure at hand. Me personally? I wouldn't worry too much. My groups tend to have a knack at finding their own trouble, er... adventures.

I do love the way this adventure can be resolved (or not resolved) with many different outcomes for the future of the campaign. One little adventure. Many ripples.

I'm not supposed to give too much away before it actually releases in a week plus time, so I've been more vague than I'd like to be but Rogues in Remballo really is a nice product. As an urban setting it it very likely it will be used in your campaign multiple times and at the awesome price of "FREE" it would be foolish to not grab a copy and at the very least strip it piece by piece for your own ideas.

Oh, as an aside, it will also be available in Pathfinder and 5e flavors. I guess WotC doesn't need to worry about a 5e OGL anymore as no one else seems to be worried...

RPGNow Deal of the Day - Book of Lairs (ACKS / OSR)

Holy crap!

I almost missed this, and if I had missed it y'all would have been screwed. Or at the very least, out of luck.

+Simon Forster 's very own The Book of Lairs in on sale for $3.08 in PDF. It might be a weird price point but the Book of lairs isn't weird, it's simply awesome. Did I mention the art is my the magnificent +Jim Magnusson and his wife?

Need something to throw at the party at a moments notice? It's all here. One page for the map, another page for the creature themed encounter. Approximately 70 pages of such goodness. So easy to print out what you need, when you need it.

And it's dirt cheap. At least for the next 15 hours or so.

Kickstarter - Table Top Blocks - 3D RPG Terrain

"Man, I wish I had some versatile building blocks to use with my gaming mats."

"Why not use lego, or even better, one of the cheaper knockoffs?"

"No! I can build uglier, more expensive blocks on my own using a 3d printer! Kickstarter, here I come with Table Top Blocks - 3D RPG Terrain!"

Really, is there all that much more that needs to be said?

Here's what you get for the basic $25 pledge:

Now, what could you get for about 25 bucks from Lego?

Well, for 30 bucks (shipping Prime from Amazon, so you get it in 2 days, not 4 overly ambitious months) you could get this:

Where's your bang for the buck going?

Kickstarter - Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game (Yep, Stand Alone RPG)

I'm sure most of The Tavern's readers have at least heard of Delta Green. It is / was a supplement / setting for the Call of Cthulhu RPG. Modern day secret society fighting the forces that man is not meant to know about. Or something like that.

Now Delta Green is all grown up. Not content to be an add on to CoC, it is now a stand alone RPG "based on the Basic Role-Playing rules engine, which is available under the Open Gaming License."I thought it was Legend / MRQ I+II that were OGL, not the Basic Role Playing rules engine itself. OpenQuest builds off of Legend if I recall correctly. Ah well, not that it really matters.
(edit - just checked my copy of the BRP Rules Quickstart - there is no OGL attached to it)

Delta Green has always been of the highest quality in the past. I never ran the material, but it was so rich in story hooks and plots and subplots I probably could have run a campaign for years. Not that the characters would have survived that long - heh.

If only I could make heads or tales of the Kickstarter backer levels. Why is there a maximum amount of backers at the $100 "All new in PDF" level? It's in PDF - it's not like they have to worry about a print run. If I was an international backer, this is just what I would want. Sorry, all gone with 23 days of funding left to go.

Talking about funding, they had a goal of $40k, which is fairly rich for a Kickstarter (especially one where most the the rewards are in PDF - only the core book is in print.) Where are they sitting now? $137k and growing.

I told you Delta Green was good. I'm just afraid it's too rich for my blood in it's current incarnation. If I wanted to go in at Hardcover and all of the new PDF releases, it would set me back 150 bucks. Not that it's causing all that many to blink, as they already have over 270 backers at that level. I need to work more overtime...

Nice and clear...

Do PCs and Their Adversaries Operate Under the Same Set of Rules in Your Campaigns?

Some DM's handwave based upon likely results. Some DM's have a roll for everything with success or failure depending on that roll.

Today's question is two-fold:

Do you prefer to handwave, roll or some combination of the two?

and

Do the PCs and their adversaries operate under the same set of rules? If not, why?

Kickstarter - Battletech - (Turn Based Tactical Computer Game)

I've been a Battletech fan since it was Battledroids (damn Lucas and his "droid" trademark.) Although I liked the tabletop game just fine, Battletech really shined on my C-64 as a computer game. Yeah, I guess I'm showing my age.

Anyhow, a new turn based tactical computer game version of Battletech is being Kickstarted. It's already funded and then some. It seriously has the potential to be the most funded computer game on Kickstarter.  The fact that it's releasing in Windows, Mac and Linux flavors is the icing on the cake.

Can you tell I'm excited?

The goal was $250k. It's currently passed $1.3m will 31 days of funding to go. Yeah, this should be a fun ride.

RPGNow Deal of the Day - The Sinister Stone of Sakkara (ACKS Adventure)

ACKS (Adventurer Conqueror Kings System) was one of the first Kickstarters I backed. I'm excited to see they are putting out some adventures for it.

The Sinister Stone of Sakkara is an adventure for levels 1 to 3 written for ACKS. It clocks in at 80 pages for the PDF and surprised me by having some full color interior art.

I haven't read enough to offer a proper review, but I've been happy with Autarch's releases in the past. I expect this to be no different, and at $2.50 until sometime tomorrow morning, I suspect it's a steal.

Over a millennium ago, when the borderlands were in the dark grip of the Zaharan Empire, the empire’s sorcerer-priests erected a profane temple to house the terrible artifact known as the Stone of Sakkara. Using the Stone, the sorcerer-priests could birth monsters and abominations with frightening ease and magically command the loyalty of chaotic creatures. The Stone brought its evil masters great power throughout the fell empire. 

In the centuries since the fall of Zahar, the Stone has lain dormant and forgotten. Now it has awakened, and warbands of beastmen have begun to gather sacrifices to power the Stone’s birthing pools again. Local farms and hamlets have been sacked and pillaged, and entire families have gone missing. The local legate has too few men to even patrol the border; he has none at all to hunt down the source of the evil. Adventurers are needed… 

AX1: The Sinister Stone of Sakkara is a ready-to-play adventure presented for use with Adventurer Conqueror King System™ and other d20-based fantasy role-playing games. AX1 includes a two-level dungeon filled with chthonic horror along with a friendly stronghold from which your adventurers can explore the region. The Sinister Stone of Sakkara is the perfect introductory adventure for a campaign starting in ACKS’s official setting but easy to adapt to your campaign setting of choice. Begin your rise from adventurer to king today!

Kickstarter - Legends of Mesenia - RPG (with adult themes... and beer)

This anthropomorphic something or other has no feet!

When this is your tagline:

Legends of Mesenia is a 18+ role playing game. Filled with monsters, empires, quests, chicks and beer!

and you can't get past 30 bucks of a $9k goal with just over 2 days left to fund, you should have pulled the plug weeks ago.

Just look at the amazing world map:

The first chapter of the game will take place in Erdora. Thank God it's detailed.

Thankfully there is a blog where you can view screenshots and such:


http://legendsofmesenia.blogspot.com

Oops. Looks like that's gone now. Maybe he pulled one of the plugs on this project.

Damnit. The demo was deleted too.

At least there are 2 concept sketches in the first (and only update):

I think I need that beer now...

Extra Life - Children's Miracle Network Hospitals - The Time to Support Gamers Helping Children is Coming Soon

(we have a guest poster and an extremely important post this morning - The Tavern is currently backing for $100 - we may spread more love closer to kick off - Tenkar)

Warning, it’s Extra Life season!  Every year since 2008 gamers have been coming together for 24-hour game-a-thons to raise money for the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.  Although the dates are flexible, most of these happen Nov. 7—just over a month away.  The game-a-thons take all forms from online teenage videogame fests to face-to-face board game benders.  Like all a-thons, they follow the model of persons A-Y giving money to support person Z doing something that A-Y would rather not.  I first heard about Extra Life on NPC Cast, a general gaming podcast, and I thought that was a great plan—for somebody else.

Well, this year one of the players in my home gaming group challenged me to DM twenty-four hours of D&D, and to get my friend and writing partner, +Zach Glazar , to sponsor us.  Well, I tell you—Lesser Gnome is not about to be outdone by a bunch of folks holding their Wiis for 24 hours!  We are here to represent the OSR in raising money for the next generation of gamers.

On November 20th, I will be running Lesser Gnome’s latest adventure Death & Taxes for about eighteen hours with seven players.  The other six hours I’ll get a break and play in some Call of Cthulhu and a midnight special haunted dungeon delve.  But that’s not all—we are planning to broadcast the whole thing on TwitchTV.  You can get a preview from some of our actual play recordings.  And, if we get enough interest, we’ll arrange some real time feedback.  $25 for a potion of healing?  $50 and another dragon shows up?  How much for a reroll?  A critical hit?  It’s all up for grabs. Oh yeah—the best part is that we’ve arranged with a local brewery to host us.  Nothing can wrong with this plan!

One of the things that I most love about this community of old school gamers is our willingness to stand together and support each other.  So I’d like to challenge you all, as members of this great community.  Start your own Extra Life campaign and have a 24-hour game fest.  Perhaps it’s finally time to revisit Ravenloft or one of those mega dungeons you bought but have never played.  If you do, let me know, and I’ll kick in some money.  And if you don’t want to do that, be person A-Y and head over to our Extra Life site and throw some money at Team Lesser Gnome Bangor.  As I write this, our team is in the top 200 and I am just below the top 1000 individually.  I really want to see some more good old table top RPG groups in the top fifty, and frankly, if I don’t raise more money than my players, I’m gonna be in trouble.
Thanks.

Edwin Nagy

P.S. I just saw that +Tim Callahan is another OSR gamer doing good on Extra Life.  I’m going to head over there a drop $20 on the man.

OSR Tag Mysteriously Disappears at RPGNow - Should Magically Reappear Tomorrow ;)

The missing "OSR" tag at RPGNow was brought to my attention earlier tonight. I had this whole conspiracy theory running through my head that is was in response to a handful of loud OSR publishers ranting about censorship and the need to come up with a viable competitor to OBS / RPGNow / DriveThruRPG.

So what happens?

+Matt McElroy-OneBookShelf put that theory out to pasture.

Sometimes it's good to be wrong...

SmiteWorks Acquires Tabletop Connect (Fantasy Grounds VTT to go 3D?)

I back LOTS of Virtual Table Tops on Kickstarter. I like VTTs in general, even if the only one I've ever used as a GM is Roll20.

Tabletop Connect was an interesting project when it was kicked on Kickstarter 2 years ago. It raised over $34k and is about a year late on projected delivery but that is not unexpected. Software plus Kickstarter usually means later than sooner.

This isnt the first VTT merge either. Roll20 is itself the result of a successful merging.

Time will tell whether Smiteworks acquisition of Tabletop Connect leads to major changes in the Fantasy Grounds interface, but it should be interesting to follow in the near future.

Here's the press release from Carl Pinder / Tabletop Connect:

I am pleased to announce that Tabletop Connect has been acquired by SmiteWorks USA, LLC, the developer of the industry leading Fantasy Grounds virtual tabletop. As part of this acquisition I will be joining the SmiteWorks team to accelerate the port of Fantasy Grounds to the Unity platform. " 

Doug Davison, President and Co-Owner of SmiteWorks added, "We have a distinct vision of what virtual tabletops can and should look like over the coming years and how Smiteworks can accomplish those things with Fantasy Grounds. For that reason, we began porting the core engine for Fantasy Grounds to Unity so that we could streamline and enhance the experience for players and GM's alike and distribute it more easily across all platforms. We've been following the progress of Tabletop Connect since it launched on Kickstarter and we've been very impressed with what Carl has been able to produce as a one-man operation. He shares the same vision we do on many areas and brings a unique level of talent, passion and creativity that is very hard to find. After some great one-on-one discussions, we believe that together we can do more than we could working separately. Work has been progressing on the Unity rebuild for the last year and I am genuinely excited about how the addition of Carl to the team will allow us to speed up the completion of this project and provide additional enhancements to the resulting product. " 

During the development of Tabletop Connect your feedback and support have been invaluable. This is a unique opportunity to contribute to the next generation of virtual tabletops and to deliver the experience that you deserve. 

As a backer of Tabletop Connect, you should soon receive the details of the realignment to Fantasy Grounds and your options during this transition. 

Sincerely, thanks again for all of your support and I look forward to you joining me on this exciting new adventure!

Tavern Chat Tonight - 9PM Eastern - Where the Cool (Adult) Kids Go

Just a quick reminder before I head to bed - Tavern Chat is tonight at 9PM Eastern until at least 11PM.

What is Tavern Chat and where is it held? It's right here at The Tavern using the chat box on the right hand side of this very page. It's where myself and others talk about this, that and everything in between. You never know just who might drop in.

Hang out with myself and various others. No appointment necessary. Open invites. BYOB ;)

See you then...

Dachshunds... In... Space!!! (Magnusson Does Sci-Fi Canines)

When I suggested to +Jim Magnusson that he do a sci-fi version of his humanoid dachshund hybrid, I never expected to actually see it, let alone so quickly.

I'm going to try and work on racial write ups for both Swords & Wizardry and White Star. Jim is simply an inspiration machine for me :)

How Do Adventurers Track Time in a Dungeon?

I got to thinking about how time passes in a dungeon as my work hours changed - and changed again. Sleep cycles are strange things. I work overnights 5 days a week and am in bed by 7 am when I return from work, but the two nights that I don't work, my body wants to sleep like a "normal" person. This is with the help of clocks and alarms to keep track of time.

Just how well do adventurers keep track of time in a dungeon or the like? Perhaps by burning torches or lanterns, but that often get's replaced by the light of magic swords and such. How does the spell caster know he spent 8 hours resting and can now memorize new spells? I don't see the party bringing along a water clock just for the occasion ;)

I'm not saying these thoughts keep me awake at night, but they certainly make me think.

More Magnificent Magnusson - Canine Warrior - The Deucheragh

+Jim Magnusson is quite simply amazing. I've got the workup of a new race for Swords & Wizardry bouncing around my head now because of him. All because of the man's Patreon page (when he refers to "The King", that's me ;)

Jim, if you have any more in you, how about a sci-fi outfitted Deuchheragh? (hint hint)

What Do You Get When You Cross a Dachshund with a Bugbear?

What do you get when you cross a Dachshund with a Bugbear? According to +Jim Magnusson , you get the following ;)

edit: (I back Jim's Paetreon and have influenced a number of Jim's releases - and I'm damn proud of it)

Surprisingly, Jim captured the essence of our Dachshund "Danke" perfectly. I know I've posted a few pics of her on G+, but I doubt Jim used them for reference. Yes, even Rachel approves.

I really like this pic (and the other one that Jim is releasing to his Patreon backers - I'll post that up soon.) One of my favorite things from Palladium Fantasy was the Wolfen. I'd love to do a Swords & Wizardry work up of a canine interpretation of such.

Where I Return to Podcasting - The Grievances Podcast

It's been a while since I've sat down and recorded a podcast. I've recorded them in the Poconos, I've recorded them on my commute home from work. Working the evening shift was the major hiccup. It really limited my ability to match up my hours with other hosts. Strangely enough, working the overnights has made podcasting workable again.

Roll For Initiative has a sub-podcast for supporters of the Wild Games Productions Patreon Program. So far there are two episodes in the bag hosted by +Vincent Florio and Sal ( +Ordo Monstrum ) and I should be coming on board with either the 3rd or 4th episode. I'm excited. Vince, Sal and I have an excellent chemistry and I am looking forward to working with them again.

So, what is The Grievances Podcast like?

Each show we take a topic and explore that topic from the DM’s point of view and air our the “grievances” about how we believe it should go down and what MOST DM’s think. 

Will it be a bitchfest? Sure 

Will it be funny? We think so. 

Don’t like it? We don’t care.

Yeah, it should be fun :)

Mini Review - GM's Miscellany: Wilderness Dressing (System Neutral Edition)

Tables. It seems like everyone is publishing tables these days. 101 Names for the Tavern Keeper's Wife is probably on sale somewhere. I like tables but they need to be useful. GM's Miscellany: Wilderness Dressing (System Neutral Edition) is extremely useful, especially if you like to run sandboxes as a DM.

See the sample above? The full table is 100 entries. How many tables are there? Here's the Table of Contents:

That's a sandboxing DMs treasure trove of content. Hell, the Folks section alone is giving me about a half dozen hooks I'd like to use and that's from just a quick read.

There's lots of stuff to love here if you are on the improvising side of the gaming table.

Much of this has appeared previously in individual releases. GM's Miscellany: Wilderness Dressing (System Neutral Edition) is a compilation of those releases and some new content, but if you have the prior releases the added value might not be enough to justify the complied purchase.

GM's Miscellany: Wilderness Dressing (System Neutral Edition) is currently $8.39 in PDF.

Kickstarter - Small Dungeon Maps (Map Tiles for Your FtF Game)

I must say, even though I have absolutely no use for the product of the Small Dungeon Maps Kickstarter (I game via Roll20 these days, and moving virtual map pieces together is not my thing) the quality appears to be high and best of all - it's all print at home and play.

No shipping costs or delay.

Unlimited number of copies for the home user.

Extremely low buy in (first set is a mere 3 bucks)

If you use minis at home in your games this might just be for you.

It's already funded (it's goal was $90 Canadian) and is a low risk / high potential Kickstarter.

Heck, for 3 bucks (Canadian) I may just add to the tip jar myself.

Kickstarter - Mermaids VS Zombies (a visual novel rpg hybrid - err?)

13 year old me would be all over this. The mermaid pictured above, not the game itself. Or is it a novel. Mermaid's VS Zombies is something, but I'm not even sure the creator knows what it is.

Why do I say that? Because their goal, which has been reached, is only $250.

So, what is the game about:

Mermaids vs. Zombies is about the underwater apocalypse. In short it's essentially about you and your cousin princess Bubbles, trying to find a way to end the zombie apocalypse, that's infecting Mertopia. It's an rpg visual novel hybrid.  The visual novel portions are almost all completed, however the rpg elements have yet to be implemented due to a lack of budget. (this is a huge flag, because wouldn't the RPG elements be the story itself?) 

Right now the most of the budget raised here will go into three categories. (finding a way to spilt that $250 goal equitably should be interesting) Advertisement. Programming and the main one, the Art resources (wait, I thought the visual novel parts were almost completed).  Right now I'm hesitant to show any game footage due to the game not being fully polished (not confidence instilling) . Shall I get requests from backers I'd be more then happy to show off what we have so far, but the reason I have yet to do so independently is because it's not fully polished.

But wait, there's more:

The programming aspect I have mostly covered. However I would like to recruit at least two more programmers so I'm not as swamped with work as I have been. (and pay them with what? there is no budget to speak of even with this being funded) 

Lastly Advertisement: shall we make it over three hundred I will do my best to not only get this game on consoles, but also on platforms such as Steam. Steam alone cost's around 100$ for you to even be considered. (well, there goes the ability to even buy those two programers lunch) 

Budget aside I plan to have this game, be very diverse. With characters across the board in marginalized groups. Right now the game has a racially diverse cast, with one or two disabled characters, and lgbtqia+ characters as well. Princess Bubbles, and the player are both Black, Zib and Pilo are asian, Zib is agender and visualy impaired, and Billino is bisexual. The only one not in some sort of marginalized group is Jerins, and he's...kind of a joke as a character.  (The creator self identifies as transgender, so I understand where it is coming from, but the only "non marginalized" character is the comic relief?)

Then we have the Risks and Challenges section. I'm just going to opt for the screen shot and avoid commenting. It really speaks for itself.

Red Tide on Sale for $4.79 in PDF This Weekend Only

You know about +Kevin Crawford 's Red Tide I hope. It does for fantasy OSR sandbox play what Stars Without Number did for sci-fi OSR sandbox play. It's one of the resources that sits on my desk, waiting to be used at a moment's notice. 

It's on sale for this weekend at $4.79 in PDF.

In this book a Labyrinth Lord will find all that is required to run a sandbox game of adventure in the Sunset Isles. In addition to the races, classes, and sorcery of this savage land, a referee will find special tools and resources for creating shadowed courts of quarreling nobility, cities rife with struggle, wild border settlements that cry out for the help of heroes, and dark places in the earth known only to the dead and the damned. These tools will aid not only campaigns in the Sunset Isles, but also those games set in other lands of savage mystery and bloodstained blades. 

Expanding on the tag system found in the free Stars Without Number sci-fi role-playing game, Red Tide includes more than fifty new tags for fantasy cities and borderland settlements, along with more than 25 pages of GM resources including culture-specific name and place lists, unkeyed blank maps for quick sandbox use, four pages of room dressing and treasure possibilities, and a new "diagram dungeon" method of quick dungeon generation with a worked example.

And if you are looking for something that would work directly with Stars Without Number - Suns of Gold is a merchant sourcebook for Stars Without Number. Suns of Gold is also 40% off for the weekend, coming in at $5.99 in PDF.

Did I mention Stars Without Number is free?

Pocket Creatures - Simareans - Ghost Walkers (Swords & Wizardry / White Star)

Art by Sidney Sime - Public Domain

"They swarmed like locusts yet seemed t' have a "hive mind" like ants. With barely a sound they descended upon Kraven's Hamlet, devouring the living, leaving just gnawed upon bones.  We seen them only when the sun went down. Don't know where these "Ghost Walkers" came from. Some called them the undead, but they lacked the weaknesses of those foul creatures. No, these are the Un-Living, as our priest soon learned. He was the first of us to fall. I am not proud that I abandoned my companions, but I am alive. They, sadly, are not."   Rathman Breckt, Manipulator of the Magical and Mechanical Arts, sole survivor of The Gathering of Fools adventuring party.

Simerians, often referred to as Ghost Walkers, are a dangerous site to see. Much like locusts, they come from seemingly nowhere, descend upon a location, devour all they can and leave. They aren't a conquering force, nor one of destruction, as buildings and such are left more or less intact in their wake. If it weren't for the bones left behind, no one would be able to guess the fate of the prior inhabitants.

It appears that the Ghost Walkers have a 7 year cycle of inactivity, followed by a month or so of feeding, following by 7 more years of no signs, no nothing. Where they are between feeding cycles, no one know but it is assumed that they are either in some form of stasis or another dimension all together. No Ghost Walker has been found alone, in stasis or captured alive so it is all conjecture.

Ghost Walker swarms number from 50 to 500, with the usual number in the 100 to 150 range. Ghost Walker bodies rot quickly in sunlight and few dead specimens have been recovered to study. Apparently needing neither water nor air and immune to extreme temperatures, small swarms have been known to attach themselves to starships for interstellar travel.

Simareans / Ghost Walkers

ARMOR CLASS   4 [14]
HIT DICE   2
TOTAL HIT BONUS   + 2
ATTACKS   2 x 1d6 (Claws)
SAVING THROW 17 (immune to fire / cold attacks)
SPECIAL - Hypnotic eyes. Instead of attacking, may use eyes to stun opponent. Save or no actions for 1 round. Save every round after first round until successful to negate effect.
MOVEMENT - 15 Ground

OGL

(I'm hoping to get the first Pocket Creature Collection in PDF to Patreon Backers this weekend, with another following in 2 weeks or so. Print copies to the high end backers next weekend if all goes well. Slowly adjusting to my overnight tours ;)

Is That DCC on My Beer? Perhaps...

Tip of the hat to +Harley Stroh and props to +Jeff Sipko for the find and the pic.

Beer & The OSR. Those are my passions. It's rare that they intersect so perfectly, but Dragon Lady Doppelbock Beer from Rinkuskiai Brewery at first glance is that intersection. DCC RPG art on an imported doppelbock beer? I'm in heaven. Or I would be if it were a legal use of the art.

Yep, it appears Caldwell's art is being used without the artist's permission. This isn't some home brewer slapping labels on beer he's handing out to his friends. Nor is it some fan writer using a commercial RPG setting for her own stories.

Rinkuskiai is one of the top 5 breweries in Lithuania. Sure, that's like being one of the top five breweries in the NYC borough of Queens, but they are a legitimate company that's been brewing beer since the 1990s.

Using art without a license? That's something I wouldn't expect from a company located in the EU.

Aiko is the US Importer. I wonder if they would be responsible in the US for the unlicensed use of Caldwell's art. From what I can gather, the beer released two years ago. It looks like they've already gotten decent mileage from the art. Maybe they could just cut Caldwell a check and make it all legal.

Shame that this beer / OSR intersection isn't all it seemed at first glance.

Tavern Chat Tonight - 9PM to 11PM Eastern

Yes, I finally fixed the heading for the Tavern Chat app with the new day and times.

Will I be distracted by the Giants game in the background? If they play like the last two Sunday's I'll probably be all in the chat ;)

Come by and say hello.

Looking forward to seeing y'all there. Er, here. Whatever...

Going Down the Sidney Sime Rabbit Hole (Public Domain Art)

Strange how something can just grab you from behind and choke the shit out of you. Such it is with Sidney Sime's art.

I'm going to blame +Eric Diaz and his post over at the Methods & Madness blog which in turn links to the Monster Brains blog which led me to +Aeron Alfrey 's Flickr collection of Sidney Sime art.

Holy shit.

I've been in a creative "black hole" of sorts recently. My work hours have literally changed around the clock (overnight shift is the latest and I hope it sticks until retirement in March.) I owe pieces of creative work not just to readers of this blog but to others but the well has been dry this summer. I suspect the well is no longer going to be as dry as it was.

I'm not quite sure what is going on above, but I suspect the d30 Sandbox Companion will tell me - this just screams for use of the Cult Generation table.

There is so much going on in this piece the adventure nearly can write itself. Color me inspired. I may print a piece or three out to throw in my work bag and reference during downtime for creative productivity :)

RPGNow Deal of the Day - The Graveyard at Lus (White Star)

Looking for a high end hex crawl for your White Star campaign at bargain basement pricing? Act fast, because The Graveyard at Lus is the RPGNow Deal of the Day for the next 20 hours or so (I would have posted this earlier, but I was still sleeping.)

Normally $4.99 on PDF, The Graveyard at Lus is currently on sale for $2.99. Heck, the softcover is $9.99 with the PDF. That pricing is hard to beat.

Space Graveyards - what's left behind when battles are fought among the points of light that map out the universe. Sometimes there's good salvage to be had there. There's always danger, though. Not everything is dead in a Graveyard, and you're not the only one that's come looking for the good stuff. And that's not even mentioning the radiation and debris left behind, or the dangerous creatures that end up finding their way there like graveworms and ... the undead. 

-A comprehensive toolkit for creating space Graveyards - the result of battles between forces at war in the stars
-Multiple tables for the creation of starship damage, system damage, and crew survivorship
-An event table to ensure that exploration is dynamic during sandbox play
-New rules for Cinematic and Realitic space combat
-New starship technology including sensors and rules for targeting/repairing specific systems
-Additional rules for space-based phenomena, space-based explosions, and boarding other starships
-Four new alien races for your White Star RPG campaigns
-Updated starship usage for four of the core alien races in the main game
-Five new creatures, including The Unquiet, a horriffic form of undead
-Use the pregenerated Graveyard At Lus for your own games, or as a guide to create your own Graveyards.
-Worksheets and sample hexmaps at the rear of the book to help with generation of Graveyards
-Designed for use with the White Star RPG, but easy to convert for other OSR sci-fi systems. 

The Graveyard at Lus will be continually supported by the release of FREE expansion material that includes additional rules and other content, including new races, creatures, and tables to help support additional sandbox usage of the product beyond the core book here. This material will not be included in the core book, but as separate products. The first of these will be the release of all of the silhouettes of the starships in the book (and many more) for use in creation of your own counters for table-based play or use with a VTT. 

Crawl Fanzine #11 is Here - Nautical Madness (DCC RPG)

Well, alright. Maybe not "Nautical Madness." Crawl #11 is certainly nautically themed. Alright, technically it's "The Seafaring Issue."

It's Crawl!, so you know it's gonna be quality. It's also fairly easy to port most of this issue over to other OSR rulesets, either directly or as inspiration. Very cool.

What's inside?

Features:
-Naval Warfare for Ocean Crawlers
-Nautical Mighty Deeds
-Fantastic Forms of Sea Ship Propulsion
-The Deep Elders - Deep sea servants of Dagon
-Life Aboard - Ship morale and on-board events

All that for $2.99