Update - Charles "Chuck" Wright (Frog God Games) had Leg Amputated Below the Knee - Please Consider Giving to His Medical and Therapy Expenses

I got this update last night and I'm sharing this with The Tavern's Community:

Some of you may have been following the developments of the recent hospitalization of Frog God Games' own Charles Wright. Charles is our friend, art director, layout artist, and an owner of Frog God Games, and he has been struggling with health issues for several years. From the GoFundMe site that we established as well as other fund raising efforts by members of the this tight-knit RPG community we enjoy you are perhaps already aware that Chuck went into the hospital recently for complications related to infection in his foot that are secondary to his diabetes. We knew he would be losing a few toes and maybe a larger portion of his foot but were awaiting word of the surgeons' determination of the extent of the infection. Well, I have just gotten off the phone with Bill and learned that Chuck underwent a full Below-Knee Amputation, so it was considerably worse than expected. Our thoughts and prayers as well as those of the community as large go out to Chuck, and we appreciate all the support that has been given to help offset the considerable expense that Chuck is going to experience from his surgeries and rehabilitation.

The generous readers of The Tavern have already contributed over $750 to Chuck's medical and therapy expenses. With the $250 that The Tavern matched, we've raised over $1,000. Still, we need to raise more as the situation is more severe than initially imagined.

We have a large number of gifts available for those that donate and indicate their donation here at The Tavern. A very large number of gifts.

Here's the updated gift list:

- $50 gift certificate for adventure modules (Print) at Pacesetter Games 

- $50 gift certificate for miniatures at Pacesetter Games (thanks Bill Barsh)

- 2 PDF copies and 1 SC Print copy of Sisters of the Aquarian Order ( +Timothy Brannan )

- 10 bundles of Class Hack and Race Hack for the Black Hack RPG ( +Mark Craddock )

- 1 PRINT HC Copy White Star Core Rulebook

- 1 PRINT HC Copy (B&W) The Hero's Journey

- 10 PDF Bundles White Star Core Rulebook and White Star Companion

- 10 PDF Copies of The Sunken City Adventures Omnibus & Guide

- 5 PDF Copies of The Carnival of the Damned

- 5 PDF Copies of Far Away Land: Tome of Awesome

- 5 PDF Sets of a full run of Crawling Under a Broken Moon (issues #1-#13)

- 1 PDF Bundle of everything +John Stater has published (NOD, Blood & Treasure, Grit & Vigor, much more)

- 1 Stock Art Bundle by +Denis McCarthy

- 2 $25 RPGNow Gift Certificates donated by The Tavern

For those that donate and don't receive something from the above list, +Steve Gilman is offering PDF copies of Betrayal at Lucir for Swords & Wizardry or Pathfinder

Here's how the gifting will work. For every $10 donated to Chuck Wright's Medical and Recovery Expenses by a Tavern Reader, that reader get's their name thrown into a hat with the other readers that donated. Donate 10 bucks, name goes in once, donate 50 bucks, your name goes in 5 times, etc.

You can receive more than one gift. You can not receive the same gift more than once.

I was going to pull the names tomorrow, but with the amount of donated gifts we have, I'm pushing off the drawing to Saturday Night, April 30th. Get those donations in by 9PM Eastern Saturday Night to be in the drawing.

Here's the link to Chuck's Fundraiser at GoFundMe

I am NOT a mind reader, so you will need to identify your donation as a comment on this post and who you donated as and how much your donation was for. (if you have already identified your donation on a previous post, I have it. No need to comment again)

The goal is to raise at least $10,000 for Chuck and I'd like to see The Tavern's Readers hit at least 10% of that. Actually, I'd like to see us hit substantially more.

A huge thanks to +James Spahn , +Jon Marr , +David Baity , +Far Away Land RPG , +John Stater , +Denis McCarthy , +Reid San Filippo and everyone who has donated thus far.

(For publishers that are looking to donate additional gifts, please hold on to them for now. There may be further need of them down the line, either for Chuck or another member of our community. We are not taking donations of further gifts for donors at this time.)

Alignment Shirts at Woot! (one day only)

If you don't know about Woot.com, it's a site that rotates in daily sales. They are also geeks and gamers, and today's shirt selection is a Dungeon & Dragons alignment collection.

Shirt Neutrality Shirtstorm
There are three types of people in this world. Well, three types of people, and then some subtypes of people. And sometimes some people might change, and other people might also become a bit different, and other people might stay the same overall. Anyway. Hope this was helpful.

Here's the link to the shirts. Prices aren't bad at all.

A Freebie - Savage Worlds: Test Drive 2015

Since Savage Worlds: Rifts is surging through Kickstarter, I figured it might be a good time to link the Savage Worlds: Test Drive 2015. It's a beautiful piece of work (but don't even dream of printing it out, as you'll use up all your ink) and a fine introduction to the Savage Worlds system.

It also highlights Pinnacle's Lankhmar license, so if you have a soft spot for Lieber, it does a fine job with that too.

Best of all? It's free...

Kickstarter - Irregular Webcomic!: Burning Down the Alehouse

Fire. It solves every problem in an RPG session

I don't normally respond well to links dropped in the comments section for another post, but this didn't actually feel spammy, so I looked.

It's got an Alehouse in it's title, so it has to be at least worthy of a quick peek.

To my surprise, Irregular Webcomic!: Burning Down the Alehouse looks to be entertaining.

I only backed at the $6, PDF level and it has just over a day to go and about $700 to fund, so funding is iffy.

Ah well, back to teaching myself Savage Worlds for the Savage Worlds Rifts Kickstarter.

Kickstarter - Rifts® for Savage Worlds - $85k in 3 hours

Yep, Rifts® for Savage Worlds is set to break some records. It's at over $85k in less than 3 hours of funding.

My old group in college had a blast playing Rifts (yes, I'm omitting the "®", fucking sue me Kevin). Heck, my copy of Rifts was signed by the Palladium crew. Great setting. Broken system.

And now we have it for the Savage Worlds system, oh so many years later.

I guess I need to learn me some Savage Worlds ;)

Really, what else can I say? This is an awesome setting and a strong system. Its like Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. Perfect together.

This shit sells itself.

The only question is, how much pain do I inflict on the wallet...

Fundraiser for Charles "Chuck" Wright's Medical Expenses - A Boatload of Gifts for Random Taverners That Donate (Please Share This Post)

Share this post far and wide!

I am overwhelmed by the generosity of the OSR Community and The Tavern's Readers in particular. Tavern Readers have raised over $600 for Chuck Wright's Medical and Recovery Expenses. That's pretty much 10% of the total monies raised. The Tavern also matched the first $250 raised by it's readers, which it not counted in the over $600 number.

There have also been donations of gifts from various publishers to reward those Tavern Readers that have or will donate to Chuck's immediate needs. The donation list is impressive. Gifts will be awarded randomly as explained below.

- 1 PRINT HC Copy White Star Core Rulebook

- 1 PRINT HC Copy (B&W) The Hero's Journey

- 10 PDF Bundles White Star Core Rulebook and White Star Companion

- 10 PDF Copies of The Sunken City Adventures Omnibus & Guide

- 5 PDF Copies of The Carnival of the Damned

- 5 PDF Copies of Far Away Land: Tome of Awesome

- 5 PDF Sets of a full run of Crawling Under a Broken Moon (issues #1-#13)

- 1 PDF Bundle of everything +John Stater has published (NOD, Blood & Treasure, Grit & Vigor, much more)

- 1 Stock Art Bundle by +Denis McCarthy

- 2 $25 RPGNow Gift Certificates donated by The Tavern

For those that donate and don't receive something from the above list, +Steve Gilman is offering PDF copies of Betrayal at Lucir for Swords & Wizardry or Pathfinder

Here's how the gifting will work. For every $10 donated to Chuck Wright's Medical and Recovery Expenses by a Tavern Reader, that reader get's their name thrown into a hat with the other readers that donated. Donate 10 bucks, name goes in once, donate 50 bucks, your name goes in 5 times, etc.

You can receive more than one gift. You can not receive the same gift more than once.

I was going to pull the names tomorrow, but with the amount of donated gifts we have, I'm pushing off the drawing to Saturday Night, April 30th. Get those donations in by 9PM Eastern Saturday Night to be in the drawing.

Here's the link to Chuck's Fundraiser at GoFundMe

I am NOT a mind reader, so you will need to identify your donation as a comment on this post and who you donated as and how much your donation was for. (if you have already identified your donation on a previous post, I have it. No need to comment again)

The goal is to raise at least $10,000 for Chuck and I'd like to see The Tavern's Readers hit at least 10% of that. Actually, I'd like to see us hit substantially more.

A huge thanks to +James Spahn , +Jon Marr , +David Baity , +Far Away Land RPG , +John Stater , +Denis McCarthy , +Reid San Filippo and everyone who has donated thus far.

(For publishers that are looking to donate additional gifts, please hold on to them for now. There may be further need of them down the line, either for Chuck or another member of our community)

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

One thing I've learned over the years as an "Old School" DM is that you can never have enough random tables. Well, that's not totally true. I don't need 101 Things Found in the Middens (actually, bad example, as I can see my PCs digging through that shit). The thing is, one good set of tables is worth more than a thousand tables that are so esoteric they will rarely, if ever, come into play.

The tables in GM's Miscellany: Urban Dressing II (System Neutral Edition) WILL come into play. Sandbox prep often means lots of basic info but little drilled down. These tables help solve that problem for urban environments.

That's a ton of inspiration in those tables listed above. Hell, the Hooks, Complications and Opportunities could probably keep a campaign going for years with the right group. Here's just a small example:

I really do like the System Neutral versions of the GM's Miscellany series as they forgo the usual Pathfinder bloat and easily fit in an OSR or even 5e campaign.

$12.99 isn't cheap for a PDF, but put this on your tablet for easy reference and you should be as good as gold.

And yes, I'm trying to complete my GM's Miscellany collection. I'd like to try and do some "live" campaign prep at The Tavern as a series of posts using this collection and the D30 series by New Big Dragon.

Adding 5 PDF Copies of the Far Away Land RPG: Tome of Awesome (and more) to the Chuck Wright Medical Expenses Fund Raiser - Give and Ye May Get Gifted

Yesterday I announced The Tavern would match the first $250 raised by Tavern Readers for Chuck Wright's medical and physical therapy expenses.

You folks gave about $400 that I know off (in less than 12 hours), and we did match the first $250.

I later announced that The Tavern would give away two $25 RPGNow Gift Certificates to two randomly chosen readers of The Tavern that give to the Chuck Wright Fund prior to 9PM Eastern, Wednesday, April 27th.

This morning I  announced that +Jon , he of Purple Sorcerer Games, is donating 10 PDF copies of the Sunken City Adventure Omnibus & Guide to be given to ten random Tavern Readers that give to Chuck's Fund prior to 9PM Eastern time, Wednesday April 27th.

Well, now thanks to the generosity of +Far Away Land RPG 's Dirk Stanley, we are now adding five PDF Copies of theFar Away Land RPG: Tome of Awesome to the mix.

Edit - Huge thanks to +Reid San Filippo for offering add 5 sets of a full PDF run of Crawling Under a Broken Moon (issues #1-#13) - the gifts just keep on coming - ET

Another Edit - +John Stater  just added a PDF copy of everything he's published - NOD, Blood & Treasure, Grit & Vigor, etc. Holy crap!

Again, all you need to do is indicate your donation on ONE of the FOUR posts I've made in regards to the Chuck Wright Fundraiser (not all four please) and you'll be in the running for all the gifts. You can win more than one gift, but no one can win the same gift twice. It's weighted, so $10 gives you one chance and $50 gives you five chances and so on.

What is the Far Away Land RPG: Tome of Awesome?

Welcome to the quirky and bizarre world of Far Away Land. This is a world where noknil clones are part of a hive mind, where clown plants hurl terrible jokes while stabbing their victims, where a cataclysmic event of the past has sewn together the various realms of creation to a forge a nexus point on a fantasy world known as Far Away Land. 

Far Away Land is a rules-lite fantasy role-playing game that uses six-sided dice. It mixes fantasy, sci-fi, and apocalyptic elements to create an immersive and rich world full of history and adventure. It is easy to learn and a perfect game for new (young) gamers as well as veteran gamers. All of the Far Away Land books contain colorful artwork, humor, and rules that allow gamers and GMs to pick and choose the level of crunch they want in their game. 

The Tome of Awesome contains everything from the Far Away Land Core Rules, Creatures Volume I, Companion Rules, and Tales of Awesome under a single cover. It features a bunch of extra artwork. The Tome of Awesome is available as both pdf and hardback. The physical book is hardback, full color (with about 200 pieces of artwork), 5.5x8.5 inches, and over 300 pages.

Here is what you will find in the Tome of Awesome... 

The Far Away Land RPG Core Rules is the book you need to get started in the world of Far Away Land. The Core Rules contain rules for PC and NPC creation, magic, combat, gear and equipment, crafting, abilities, spells and more. 

The Far Away Land RPG Creatures Vol. I contains over 70 creatures, monsters, and races. It is an essential part of any campaign as it not only features a boatload of ready made encounters, but also the rules to create your own monsters from scratch. 

The Far Away Land RPG Companion Rules are set of optional rules that feature worldbuilding games such as The Gods, Historians, and Architects of Far Away Land. It also has rules for Mass Combat, Training Montages, and running kingdoms. 

The Far Away Land RPG Tales of Awesome is a book of setting material for Far Away Land. It features a history of Far Away Land, a pantheon of gods and goddess, various lands and locations in Far Away Land and in the cosmos, heroes and villains, languages, religions and cults, and hex maps of important FAL locations.

New Banner by Del Teigeler To Join The Tavern's Rotation!

I've always been impressed by +Del Teigeler 's work, but I was blown away by the samples of Del's work that I saw on +Jeff Talanian 's recent AS&SH Adventure Kickstarter, The Mystery at Port Greely. It was simply DAMN GOOD.

I knew I had to make it mine. The art that is. I backed the Kickstarter the moment I hit the page. And make it mine I did. Del did an awesome job.

I love the different interpretations of Tenkar's Tavern by the various artists. They are all very different but it's all the same place. Maybe it should be a chain of taverns ;)

As an aside, Del's prices are extremely fair. If you have a project where his style might be a good fit, reach out to him. You'll kick yourself if you don't.

Adding 10 PDF Copies of the Sunken City Omnibus to the Chuck Wright Medical Expenses Fund Raiser - Give and Ye May Get

Yesterday I announced The Tavern would match the first $250 raised by Tavern Readers for Chuck Wright's medical and physical therapy expenses.

You folks gave about $400 that I know off (in less than 12 hours), and we did match the first $250.

I later announced that The Tavern would give away two $25 RPGNow Gift Certificates to two randomly chosen readers of The Tavern that give to the Chuck Wright Fund prior to 9PM Eastern, Wednesday, April 27th.

I'm delighted to announce that +Jon , he of Purple Sorcerer Games, is donating 10 PDF copies of the Sunken City Adventure Omnibus & Guide to be given to ten random Tavern Readers that give to Chuck's Fund prior to 9PM Eastern time, Wednesday April 27th.

Again, all you need to do is indicate your donation on ONE of the THREE posts I've made in regards to the Chuck Wright Fundraiser (not all thee please) and you'll be in the running. It's weighted, so $10 gives you one chance and $50 gives you five chances and so on.

What is the Sunken City Adventure Omnibus & Guide?

The Sunken City Adventure Omnibus & Guide contains four complete beginning adventures and a host of new material to enhance your Dungeon Crawl Classics campaign (note - I convert DCC RPG Adventures to Swords & Wizardry on the fly all of the time) . Features include: 

-Every best-selling Sunken City Adventure (Perils of the Sunken City, The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, A Gathering of the Marked, Lair of the Mist Men) combined and refined into a single full-color volume. 

-Both a 96-page desktop/print version and a 200-page mobile version built from scratch for viewing on your tablet!   

-A massive 84-page master appendix containing extra content, pre-gen characters, player maps, 1-inch scale battle maps, and over 150 paper miniatures. 

-A patron write-up of Malloc, the devious master of secrets. 

-At long last... Opossuman player characters!  

-Adventure seeds, new monsters, 24 new magic items, judging tips, and more!

The Tavern Just Matched the First $250 Raised at The Tavern for Chuck Wright - Let's Keep it Going!

Readers of The Tavern have raised at least $390 for the Chuck Wright Medical Expenses and Recovery Fund and The Tavern just matched the first $250 - which means the readers of The Tavern helped raise $640 for Chuck and his medical expenses.

We're not done yet.

I'm going to give away two $25 RPGNow gift certificates to two random donors that identify their donation here at The Tavern (you can indicate your donation in this post or the original post but please, not in both places.) For each $10 donated you'll have one entry into the pool of chances to win one of the two gift certificates.

Donations must be made and identified by Wednesday, 9 PM Eastern, April 27th to be put in the pool. Gift certificates recipients will be announced during Wednesday's Tavern Chat and posted here at The Tavern.

Please, give generously.

Thanks to all that have given, especially those of you counted as regular readers of The Tavern. As always, you prove time and time again how generous and special you all are. It is an honor to be your bartender ;)

GoFundMe For Chuck Wright's Medical Expenses (Frog God Art / Layout Director) - The Tavern Will Match the First $250 Raised by It's Readers

The OSR Community and the readers of The Tavern never amaze me more than when they show their generosity to members of our community in need.

Well, that time has come again and I need to be amazed.

Chuck Wright, one of the Frogs, is in need.

It is with great worry and sadness that I share the news that our friend and our art/layout director at Frog God Games is in surgery today to remove all or part of his foot as a result of complications from diabetes.  

Chuck is a Gulf War veteran who lives outside of Tampa FL. The Veterans Administration hospital in Tampa is his only health insurance.  He currently lives over an hour from this hospital. He has no options for care closer to his home.  

When he gets out of the hospital, he will urgently need personal help (care and food), transportation to and from physical therapy, and income to support him until he is able to work again.  It's possible he may not be able to function in his current living space, so he will need financial help obtaining a handicapped accessible apartment and moving.  

He is scared and alone right now.  We hope everyone in the RPG community reaches out to him with love and supports this appeal. Money won't cure his diabetes or get his foot back, but it could keep him in a home and cared for during rehabilitation from the amputation.  

Please help Chuck by donating generously to this fund.
With gratitude, 

Bill and Krista Webb
Frog God Games

Now, here's what The Tavern is going to do. For each dollar pledged to Chuck's GoFundMe Page by readers of The Tavern by 9PM Eastern, Wednesday, April 27th I'll match those pledges, dollar for dollar, up to a total of $250.

You'll need to post a comment on this thread stating the amount you donated and the name you donated under so I can keep a tally.

Its a worthy cause.

Another WTF Kickstarter - The Lifestyle Design Journal: Living Well, Its An Art.

A Kickstarter that needs seizure warnings

"You're" and "your" shouldn't be an issue for someone making a product that is meant to be used for the written word.

Missing spaces, wrong use of "you're", random capitalization, missing words and simply makes little sense. Just think, this was sent to me as a spam message on Facebook to highlight. So, I'm highlighting the problems of The Lifestyle Design Journal. Maybe they should start by redesigning the Kickstarter page. 

Of course, how can one make it better? Leave in the default Latin gibberish. This is a first for me. It makes it extra special.

I full full faith that American Product Development to "get the job done like no other". I'm glad they love their backers. It makes be feel special. Wait, I'm not now, nor will I ever be, a backer.

Can You Impartially Pick Your Own Products as a "Pick of the Week"?

So, earlier this afternoon I was doing some catch up reading on the internet and headed over to ENWorld. Say what you want about ENWorld (and I'm sure some will) but it does occasionally have stuff that relates to Old School Gaming. Sean Fannon has a weekly article of RPG related picks titled, accurately enough, Sean's Picks of the Week and as it was one of the articles that was prominent on the ENWorld home page, I figured I'd give it a look. I always expect it to be Savage Worlds heavy, but then I noticed something else.

4/11 Pick - Evil Beagle

One of his picks, A Random Magical Item Generator for Savage Worlds, was published by Evil Beagle Games. That's Sean's company.

So I followed the OBS link. Sean wrote it. Now, it no way does Sean claim his picks are reviews, but he pretty much does come off as endorsing the picks he posts. Endorsing yourself seems kinda greasy I guess. But it's just the one time, right?

Er, no.

4/1 Pick written by Fannon

It's not just the one time.

I went and looked at the other three Sean's Picks of the Week for the month of April and two of those weeks had products highlighted that Sean either wrote, his company published or his business partner at his company published (The post on 4/1 had two titles in question. The post on 4/15 has one by Evil Beagle.) The Shaintar release jumped right out at me, as I remember Sean being involved with the setting since the beginning.

I find those numbers to be distressing.

This comment by Sean, in jest (I assume) on April 1st was in reference to Accursed, written in part by his business partner at Evil Beagle Games:

Written by Ross Watson
Partner at Evil Beagle Games

"No, not doing any April Fool’s mess today, all the Picks are legitimate, friends. This is the latest for Accursed fans, featuring new information and game material for the world of Morden."

Are they legitimate? Two out of five picks that week were written by Sean or Ross Wilson, his business partner.

With the Evil Beagle releases Sean does mention his or Ross' involvement. The Shaintar release Sean doesn't mention mention his current involvement, but does acknowledge previous involvement ("Another in the cavalcade of Shaintar Guidebooks is out today, friends, and this one covers the kingdom I first created for this world I still love dearly.") and there is no mention of Ross' involvement in The Accursed.

Now, I didn't go back to March to see if the pattern was there too, but the idea that 20% of April's Picks are not just boosting the signal of friends in the industry but your own work and that of your business partner seems less impartial they I would like to see.

As an aside, I have absolutely no problem with the use of OBS affiliate links in the articles in question (it was brought up by an ENWorld reader as a comment to one of Sean's weekly posts.) I use them here at The Tavern. They are an unobtrusive manner it which to make a few coppers, which in my case get reinvested right back here for the most part.

A WTF Kickstarter - One Piece RPG (Second Time the Creator has Made the List)

Remember, only you can prevent crappy Kickstarters from actually funding.

One Piece RPG is actually his second attempt. (we posted about the first attempt here)

So, what is Nicholas talking about?



Goal? $275k

He really should go with Indiegogo next time - at least he'd have a buck...

Roll20 Industry Report - Q1 2015 - Nearly 1 in 10 Roll20 Players Express an Interest in AD&D

Roll20 has just released their most recent usage report and the numbers are interesting, at least as far as Old School Gaming goes.

But before we get to that, note that there are over 18k D&D 5e games listed and a hair under 22k players expressing interest in 5e - which should indicate an abundance of 5e games with room for players, which isn't the results I've heard.

Now lets look at AD&D. While only 1.59% (730 games) of the games listed on Roll20 are AD&D, 9.62% or 4,556 players express an interest in AD&D. That's nearly 1 in 10 players on Roll20.

Stars Without Number has 598 games and over 1,300 players. Basic Fantasy RPG has 432 games and over 1,110 players. OD&D has 193 games and over 1,600 players. DCC RPG has 75 games and nearly 400 players. Labyrinth Lord and Swords & Wizardry have 41 games each and 144 / 182 players respectively. Castles Crusades has 25 games and 124 players. This isn't even touching upon games like the Palladium System, Traveller, Warhammer, Hackmaster, CoC, RuneQuest, Rolemaster and the like.

Just looking at the number of games (as players can and do identify with more than one system, so those numbers will add up to over 100%) shows how strong Old School Gaming is on the Roll20 VTT platform.

About The Orr Group Industry Report 

We pull our data from two locations within Roll20 member profiles. Player numbers are drawn from the “Enjoys Playing” and “Seeks Group For” sections, while Game numbers come from the “My Campaigns” section. Our percentages can total more than 100%, particularly Player numbers, since each player will list their interest in multiple games. The report is meant to be a representative sample, and the game listings are curated by Roll20 staff. 

Frog God Games - 30% Off Sale - Site Wide

I know. I'm costing some of you money ;)

This weekend it's Frog God Games. They are offering a 30% off sale "site wide" - which I would assume (dangerous) it applies to everything. If you come across something the discount does not work on, let me know and I'll update the post.

The link to the Frogs is here. Code is good through Sunday.

And here's the code: CHRIS-30

Gygaxian - Use It or Lose It (in use online since at least 2007)

It's pretty much common knowledge that all things Gygax(TM) are, well, trademarked by The Trustees of the GAIL C. GYGAX REVOCABLE TRUST (what's a "revocable trust" you may ask - that, my friends, is time for another post).

Gygaxian has an application for trademark (from the same The Trustees of the GAIL C. GYGAX REVOCABLE TRUST) with a letter of suspension. Which means, no, they don't have the trademark yet BUT they have reserved their first place in line IF its decided the word is trademark-able.

Interestingly enough, one must use Gygax(TM) itself as an adjective, which would seem to make the trademarking of Gygaxian a bit of a reach, as it isn't in and of itself a product or a brand. Below explains the proper use of Gygax(TM) when referring to the brand and not the man:

Now, of course, there hasn't been a new Gygax RPG product released by the Trust in, like, ever (or never). So using Gygax(TM) as an adjective isn't going to come up much. Unless you refer to D&D as a Gygax RPG,

Back to Gygaxian. Its been in common usage in the RPG community AT LEAST since 2007, and that's where the trademark would apply - with RPGs.

https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?361362-Gygaxian-Dungeon October, 2007

http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/13/off-the-grid-gygaxian-game-design/ March, 2008

http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2008/09/gygaxian-naturalism.html September, 2008

http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2iuh6?4Es-Rejection-of-Gygaxian-Naturalism October, 2008

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=gygaxian January, 2009

http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/waxing-gygaxian March, 2012

https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/2f8blk/serious_why_is_gygaxian_dd_considered_antiplayer/     September, 2014

edit - wow, hat tip to Davrion - mentions here go back to the 90s! 

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/rec.games.frp.dnd/%22gygaxian%22

 (there are hundreds more uses to be found with a nice Google search)

How does the Urban Dictionary define Gygaxian?

If a word is already in common usage, it is harder to claim a trademark on it.

Want to keep Gygaxian free from trademarking? Use it freely and use it well. We still might lose it, but without usage, the odds shift in an ill direction.

Dungeons & Dragons: Lessons from a Media Panic | Retro Report (Video)

Tip of the hat to our very own +Tim Kask for pointing me to Retro Report's video on D&D and the satanic panic.

It clocks in at just under 13 minutes (and has a nice little segment where Tim comments on the time period in question and the TSR days).

Watch it. It's well worth your time.

There's a 5e Sale Going on at RPGNow Right Now

Yep, there's a D&D 5e sale going on as RPGNow as I type this and it lasts for the next 9 days or so.

Now, to be honest, the depth of my 5e product knowledge is pretty shallow compared to the OSR but there are some things that deserve highlighting.

Depths of Felk Mor - an old school styled megadungeon for you 5e game that will take your party from levels 1 to 10. I have the soft cover next to me for review purposes (I need to read the whole thing - like what I see thus far) and it has a nice heft to it ;)

What follows are repackaged Encounters storylines...

Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle - this was written for (and includes) the last of the 5e / D&D Next playtest rules. Includes all you need to get your characters to level 10. Nearly 300 pages.

Dreams of the Red Wizards: Scourge of the Sword Coast - continuing the storyline from Ghost of Dragonspear Castle.

Dreams of the Red Wizards: Dead in Thay - continuing the story from Scourge of the Sword Coast.

Murder in Baldur's Gate - comes without 5e / Next, 3.5 and 4e stats. Yes, editionless.

Legacy of the Crystal Shard - again, without monster stats, so edition is flexible.

Strangely enough, the current Adventurer League releases are not included in the sale, unless you grab the bundles, which come in at 40% off.

Kickstarter - TOXICITY - I Am Zombie RPG

Color me confused.

TOXICITY - I Am Zombie RPG is a Mark Rein•Hagen (Vampire and such) production YET he claims it is OSR BUT it does not have mechanics that most any would consider OSR BUT it's a dungeon crawl AND it's in 3 booklets made to make you think about the Little Brown Books. And breathe...

Oh, and like a few other games, it's building it's own (obviously) false history of originally being released in 1975, yadda yadda, look at me! I'm the other classic RPG!

Even better, you can't copy and paste from the Kickstarter page as all the text is actually graphics. Sigh.

One would certainly NOT describe this as OSR. Old School Games are built off of Old School Rules. Dungeon Crawling does not make a game OSR. It is interesting that the OSR is being used to pitch a game that isn't very much OSR - I guess there is money to be made off of us.

Now, this MIGHT be a decent game. No idea. Probably not going to find out either.

Tenkar's Tavern Mid-Week Roundup for Thursday, April 21, 2016

By Tenkar using OWM

What is the mid-week roundup?

It is events and interesting posts from our corner of the OSR. Could be links to previous posts here at The Tavern or from other blogs in my "I read their blogs" circle or other stuff that strikes my fancy. Just call me "Mr. Fancypants"




Mini Review - Other World Mapper (So Easy Even Tenkar Can Figure it Out) - Yep, my mini-review of the Other World Mapper program. Sure, it's 60 bucks to buy int the beta, but if 60 bucks can get me a mapping program that someone like me can get decent results from AND it's only going to get better, you've got something awesome. (results not guaranteed. typical results may exceed those shown. Tenkar is currently considering treatment for his OWM addiction)

By Dyson using Pen & Paper

Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day - Yep, last Sunday was the annual Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day. Lots of goodness to share. +R.J. Thompson of the Gamers & Grognards blog hosted it this year and you can visit for the links to S&W festivities.

Leadventures in Miniature - one of the things I told myself I'd get back into when I actually retired is painting miniatures. I was never all that good at it, but it was fun to do in the spare time of my college days and I do have way too many Reaper Bones. I'll be digging deeper into LiM for painting
inspiration.

By Matt Jackson using Colors

Monkey House Games (Jeff Dee and Jack Herman) Reaches Settlement to Publish Villains & Vigilantes - simply good news for Jeff and Jack AND for the hobby in general. Now the lads can get back to what they do best - making games.

The Fevered Caves - obligatory +Dyson Logos entry of the week. Yeah, simply oodles of gaming inspiration in this one map. Yes, oodles is a word - my spell check says so.

The Implicarius of Archdeacon San Denaramis - more mapping goodness by +matt jackson . Yeah, I'll never come close to the masters. Hell, I never hit "pro-am". But I';; always have something to strive for ;)

The Hero's Journey - Now in Print (With Lulu Code for 25% Off and Free Shipping)

If you are going to strike on this deal, do it now!

+James Spahn 's The Hero's Journey, is now available in print in BOTH color and Black & White versions.

Here's the link for the black and white print copy.

Here's the link for the color copy.

and of course, if you haven't checked this out yet, here's the link for the PWYW PDF copy.

Oh, and here's the Lulu code for 25% off AND free shipping:   LULURC 

(I already ordered my copy)

No idea how long the code is good for, so don't wait too long...