Post TotalCon Wrap Up - First Time Attending - Definitely NOT the Last ;)

Alright. I'll say this out loud - I shouldn't have waited this long to attend. Rach and I had a blast and next year will be even better as Frog God will be having more table space, more Swords & Wizardry and possibly even more Tavern Chat. Seriously had a blast recording live at TotalCon.

Oh, and for those that asked about business cards - yes, coming soon to a convention near you ;)

Convention staff treated us like aces. Hotel and bar staff were top notch.

It was great meeting the different fans of The Tavern - both blog and podcast. Its a really special time when I get to meet members of The Tavern's community face to face and now I have a New England convention where I can do just that. Huzzah!

The ride back to NYC was messy with steady light rain and fog. Just under four hours including a pit stop at a rest stop for a Subway sandwich. Any port in a storm ;)

Now its time to catch up before Gary Con arrives in a week and a half ;)

TotalCon Day 3 With the Real Wives of the OSR :)

The ladies have taken over the Frog God table at TotalCon. I've been blessed with meeting and talking with a number of Taverners at the convention and I'm having a blast.

Our neighbor Jeff. We try to keep him well fed and happy. You won't like Jeff if he's angry... ;P

Stefan Pokorny is all his glory.

Gen Con Bans Zak S

Yep. The final nail may have just been pounded into Zak S' RPG coffin. Here's the original link: https://www.gencon.com/attend/gencon_policies

Gen Con's Stance on Abuse & Harassment

Friends, 

At Gen Con we have a policy of not disclosing the names of individuals who have been sanctioned or banned from our events. However, our statements regarding a recent ban have caused confusion and more importantly, made people feel that Gen Con doesn’t care about attendee safety. To clarify, I want to state that Zak S has been banned from Gen Con and that we flat-out don’t tolerate harassers or abusers in our community or at our convention. 

As a gamer and con-goer myself, I believe that everyone deserves space in their lives for the fun, excitement, and community that tabletop gaming brings, and that action needs to be taken to make spaces safer and more inclusive, especially for marginalized communities and survivors of abuse.

We have and will continue to ban from attending those individuals who threaten the safety of our attendees or members of our community. Before, during, and after the show, we review incident reports and accusations, we investigate claims, we coordinate with local authorities, and we ban people who violate our policies regardless of their stature in the industry or their relationship to Gen Con. We ban people for actions that range from theft and counterfeiting all the way up to harassment and assault. We also ban people for actions that occur outside of Gen Con’s immediate control in accordance with our policies. When we decide to ban someone, we inform the individual they are no longer welcome to attend our show, we block them from buying a badge through our site, and if they show up anyway, we remove them from the convention center and event spaces. It’s a very important part of our regular process for managing the show and the community that surrounds it, and we are always looking for ways to improve. 

We admire the bravery of victims who report their abuse or harassment, and we’re here to support you. If you witness or experience abusive behavior or harassment at or around our event (or in online spaces), we want to know about it so we can take action. That said, reactive bans alone are insufficient and as an industry we need to do more. Earlier in the year we revised our Code of Conduct and Anti-Harassment policies and published them on our website under a Creative Commons license for anyone to use and improve upon. We’ve improved our on-site reporting procedures and developed a Policy Enforcement Team to review incidents and take actions, whenever they arise, anytime of year, and we will continue to focus on this going forward. You can email us confidentially at policyteam@gencon.com if you have any questions or need to report an incident or concern. We will continue to work to make Gen Con safer, more inclusive, and of course more fun. Please do reach out if you have further thoughts or questions. 

Sincerely,
Peter D. Adkison
Co-owner of Gen Con and Chairperson of the Board 

TotalCon 33 - Day One - Road Trip

This is the first TotalCon for Rach and I. Its also the first con we've driven to that we are staying overnight at because we drove up from NYC.

That snow last night made for some beautifully frozen trees in the early morning sun. I'm guessing there was a nice coating of freezing rain. Door to door, including a Burger King visit for breakfast, was about 3 hours, 40 minutes. Not too shabby. Rach doesn't know it yet, but my lower and mid back is going to need some repair work. Sciatica is not fun :(

Cell service sucks. Period. Hotel internet is poor. Period. I will survive. Somehow. This may be a pic free post. That is how long its taking to upload a single photo.

Other than that the con is great. Zach and Bill are dong a fine job of filling my trunk with goodies I will need to ship to them. Sigh

Looks like the photo isn't uploading. I need a drink...

Back to the Frog God booth in the AM :)

edit - internet is down - back to trying phone back to hotel internet

The Fantasy Trip Legacy Box - Photos and First Impressions

Yesterday I met Phil Reed and his assistant Amy (well, way over-qualified to be called an "assistant") for lunch in Manhattan. Lunch was great but what I left with was damn near priceless. One of three copies of The Fantasy Trip Legacy Edition to make it to the states. Kickstarter backers should expect to see theirs in late March or early April.

I plan on bringing this with me to TotalCon. I suspect if you drop by the Frog God booth you may catch a peek of it at some point.

The box is huge. Even the inside of the lid cover has a use (there are instructions on using it to drop dice on various drawings of the hex tiles to make an instant dungeon.) When Phil told me it weighed 8 pounds, he was NOT kidding.

 Aventure time!

I need to unfold the map later and take a pic of it in all of its glory.

 Character sheets

Mini character sheets Oh, and pre-gens.

 Dice and a handy folder.

GM's screen on its side. Grrr. 4 panels and solid.

Hexes for maps - and a dragon too!

Who the hell reads the Read This First first thing? Heh. I had to squeeze other goodies in my may and the sheet got a bit squashed ;)

The following doesn't exist either. Well, just a handful, as its a proof copy of Phil's zine. Half the pages of the final zine, as folks made it bigger and better ;)

Reminder - Tavern Chat Tonight - 9 PM Eastern - Dramatic Readings Anyone?

Today is Wednesday and that means tonight is Tavern Chat, where a bunch of geeks hang out in a voice channel on the Tenkar's Tavern Discord and talk geeky things. Last week there was even a "dramatic reading." Go figure ;)

Use the following link if you desire to drop in tonight. The festivities kick off at 9 PM Eastern in the Speakeasy Channel:

https://discord.gg/fReGmuD

James Raggi / LotFP Cancels All of Zak Smith's Upcoming Work

You can read the original post on Facebook (sharing without comment)

LotFP: RPG
5 hrs ·
'allo all... 

Jim here. Let's get this over with.

Do note that I have been advised by legal counsel to not comment about the content of statements released by various parties involved in the current situation. 

Similarly, I have been advised by legal counsel that LotFP is responsible for the comments left on our pages, so we will have to be heavy-handed moderating comments about this matter. There's a whole internet out there for you to express your unfiltered opinions, please respect our situation concerning this matter in our spaces. 

(thank fucking christ for lawyers, eh?) 

And something I would have thought could go without saying, but I have been advised to go ahead and state: Lamentations of the Flame Princess publications are purely fiction. There are many things our books portray imaginatively that are absolutely unacceptable in reality, including all forms of violence, which also includes sexual harassment and assault. Keep the bad things in make-believe, and the good in reality. 

And now on to the business at hand: 

1. All of Zak Smith's upcoming work with LotFP is canceled. We are not destroying stock or erasing things that have already been published (there isn't anything on this Earth that would make me a book burner), but should current stocks sell out, they will not be reprinted. 

Breaking this out, and clarifying the grey areas: 

2. Zak's financial interest is in Vornheim, Red & Pleasant Land, and Frostbitten & Mutilated, and that's it. He is not and has never been LotFP management and doesn't make decisions concerning books that he's not specifically credited on, and he doesn't have further financial involvement in the company beyond royalties from sales of just these three books. 

3. Zak had some time ago received considerable advances for two new books. One was in quite late stages of development and was planned to be released in April, and we had been preparing another printing of Red & Pleasant Land. These of course are not moving forward. Zak's Ref book contributions will also not be happening. I think that's all that was on his docket for us, but if I've missed mentioning anything here, they're still canceled. 

4. A new printing of Death Frost Doom, that has a considerable amount of Zak's work, is already at the printer and there's not much to be done about that. At this point I'm getting charged a near five-figure printing bill whether they deliver the books or send them straight in the landfill, and I'm not sending them to the landfill. His work on this one was done and paid for in early 2014 and he does not receive any royalties from sales of this book. 

5. Zak is credited as editor of Veins of the Earth but the writing there is all Patrick. Zak's involvement in that project ended in 2015 and he was paid his fee at that time, and he does not receive any royalties from sales of this book. 

6. We've got two full-time (including myself) employees and one part-time employee (who doesn't have another job), and investments in literally dozens of other Zak-free projects in various stages of completion. Many people are making royalties off of books that have nothing to do with Zak. Some people already have bailed from their upcoming projects. Some might still. But I plan on fulfilling all my current obligations and continuing to release for a long time to come a lot of things that uphold the LotFP standards of quality, intensity, and pure "What the hell were they thinking?" 

And now a personal note... 

I've talked to a lot of people this past week, people with different perspectives, from the deeply affected to my printer representative who doesn't know anybody involved. People who had all sorts of opinions on the matter, some favoring one side, some favoring the other. People I agreed with, and people I disagreed with. 

You know what they all had in common? They were bummed out. They recognized this was a tragedy from top to bottom. Even the people who agreed with my course of action here, hell, even someone that thought I wasn't going far enough, recognized what we were losing, even while they said we needed to lose it. 

But there are other people out there. People who don't think this is a tragic situation. There are people out there thrilled about how things have turned out. They're going to tell you they were right all along about things. And they'll be most helpful suggesting all the things that still need to be done.
You all need to keep your eyes out for these snakes slithering among us, feigning compassion when they once spat only cruelty, loving what this has done to us, ready to take advantage of the situation for themselves and further erode what we've all collectively built as a creative community. 

Don't let them. 

And one last thing. I'd like to thank Zak for all the work and support over the years. I am absolutely crushed that we cannot continue to collaborate.

Luke Gygax follows up on Frank Mentzer's removal as Guest of Honor at Gary Con

Luke posted the following on Facebook earlier this morning. I think it sheds some light (though not a lot) on what led to Frank's removal as a guest of honor at Gary Con.

Link to Luke Gygax's FB Post:

It’s been a very busy and long day between the Army and GC but I feel this is important. 

I want to share some more information to stop the rumors and give those of you that care to know some insight as to why I made the decision to remove Frank as a Guest of Honor. I believe that it was Frank himself who emphasized the importance of communication in our community way back in Polyhedron number one. That is sage advice that I want to heed. The way things get better is through communication and that is what I was trying to do with Frank. I called him several times over the past months. Sunday was the first time he called me back and we had a chance to talk. 

I needed to talk to him about something that had become clear to me; making Frank a Guest of Honor gave the perception that Gary Con condoned some behavior that was against our policies. I feel I am taking better actions now than I have in the past. The gaming community is in the midst of change and it is change for the better. Gamers are speaking up and demanding that we provide safe and inclusive environments for all of us to gather, play games and have fun. In the past we have had to talk to Guests about their behavior at Gary Con and even tell some not to come back the following year. Sometimes an attendee has crossed the line with a volunteer, and we addressed that with them and got resolution. I believe that due to Frank’s status and friendship with my Dad, I treated him differently in the past. 

However, I want to make some things clear. No one strong-armed me into making a decision. Sure people talked to me and gave me their opinions, but no one demanded that I remove Frank as a Guest of Honor. In fact when I talked to Frank I left the door open for him to attend Gary Con as he did last year. At the end of our communication it was Frank that closed that door. I respect Frank’s contributions to our hobby and all that he did to help Gary Con over the years. I hold no animosity towards him, he is a practically an uncle to me along with Tim, Jim, Tom and Mike. Quite the opposite is true; I wish Frank well. I am saddened by this entire situation. 

This is our hobby and in my mind it is about friends sharing good games and going on great adventurers together. Someone messaged me saying that a GM or GMs were considering canceling their plans to attend in protest. I hope that isn’t true, but if anyone is thinking about it they should realize that the people you are punishing is your fellow gamers who signed up to play in your game. As I said above, communication is critical, it is what will help us be better. I am willing to listen and I have read and replied to the messages that I received. If you have a concern or a suggestion please contact me. I hope that we can focus on what things unite us and get back to enjoying ourselves by rolling dice, creating new stories and forging strong bonds of friendship.

Tonight at 9 PM Eastern - Bill Webb and Mark Greenberg talk Lost Lands in Frog Chat - 9 PM Eastern

We host a weekly Frog Chat every Tuesday Night on the Tenkar's Tavern Discord Server. Tonight we'll have two special guests who you can pepper with all of you Lost Lands questions - Bill Webb and Mark Greenberg of Frog God Games.

Here's your handy link to tonight's chat:  https://discord.gg/fReGmuD

Have a great time :)

Removal Day - Zak S' Consultant Credit to be Removed from Future Print & Digital D&D Player's Handbooks

Interesting day. An interesting day indeed. Zak S actually made the news at the WotC D&D page. Let's read along, shall we?

To all D&D fans, 

We spent the last week listening and learning from the D&D community. 

Zak Smith, along with many others, was engaged by Wizards to provide feedback on D&D Next, the playtest which evolved into D&D fifth edition. We have not contracted with him since, and regret our choice to do so in 2014. Because of that, we are removing Zak’s credit from future physical printings and digital versions of the Player’s Handbook. 

We applaud how the D&D community supports one another and fully support the planned Dungeon Masters Guild bundle raising funds to donate to RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network). The bundle is live now and we will be amplifying it going forward! 

We are grateful to be a part of this wonderful community, and we thank you for your passion. We remain committed to working with and learning from you, the D&D community. You may always share your comments and thoughts with us on our social media platforms and we are setting up an email address to receive feedback more directly. 

Sincerely,
The D&D Team

Interestingly enough, now there are NO consultants at all listed anymore:

Frank Mentzer Removed as a Guest of Honor from Gary Con

Sometimes it seems like we are in a time of un-personing the main influencers in the OSR. The removal of Zak S from the community over the last week was huge. I'm guessing Contessa is feeling its oats because now Gary Con has removed Frank Mentzer as a Guest of Honor from Gary Con.

Heres the announcement (you can read in full here:  https://garycon.com/blog/2019/02/18/harbinger-unheeded/)

Note that I am highlighting certain text that I will be commenting on below.

Harbinger Unheeded

          February 18, 2019  

By MELF

After much deliberation, I made the decision to remove Frank Mentzer as a Guest of Honor from Gary Con. His past misconduct and threatening behavior violate the ethics and harassment policies established by Gary Con. This was a difficult decision for me because Frank was a long-time friend and employee of my Dad, he has been to every Gary Con and had the honorarium of Old Guard attached to his name. He made significant contributions to the gaming industry in the 1980s with Basic D&D and the RPGA. However, Frank’s harassing behavior, threatening communications, tone-deaf and unapologetic responses are unacceptable to say the least and not the kind of behavior that represents what Gary Con is about. This form of toxic aggression is detrimental to the safe space we as a gaming community strive for.

I want to make something crystal clear, Gary Con is about celebrating the love of gaming, making friends, having fun and sharing camaraderie. All while we honor the memory of my father, one of the most important figures in RPG history. In order for Gary Con to continue to be the premiere gaming convention that it is, we must ensure that everyone feels welcome, safe, and believes that they are a valued member of our community regardless of their gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, or what edition that they play. I want everyone to understand that if someone acts inappropriately, the staff will take action swiftly to correct it.  It is my reasoned judgment that having Frank as a Guest of Honor was counter to these principles.  That is the bottom line.

Luke Gygax
Founder, Gary Con

Wow. So, nothing new. Its the same drama that was attached to Frank at last year's Gary Con and he didn't get uninvited. It is also especially harsh wording. After Frank was removed as a Guest of Honor from Gamehole in fall of 2017 he was left, primarily, with two of the three Old School Cons a year. This past fall, citing health issues, Frank was limiting his convention appearances to one on a year - Gary Con. It's looking like Frank is done on the convention circuit.

Frank's comment on the situation:

Kickstarter - The World of the Lost Lands (System Neutral Setting from Frog God Games)

My God. This is the setting book Frog God fans have been waiting forever for. Well, maybe not forever, but it certainly has been a long time. We've received the setting in bit and pieces prior to the World of the Lost Lands Kickstarter.

Where to start. $50k goal. After less than 7 hours it's already surpassed $29k. Yes, it's that kind of project ;)

So, what do you get?

Over 42 years in the making, this is the definitive guide to the world of the Lost Lands!
This massive volume includes the history of the Lost Lands, a wealth of detailed maps, cultural information about its nations and peoples, and a huge gazetteer containing descriptions of the world's countries, cities, waterways and geography. For the first time, readers can explore the length and breadth of the great continent of Akados, including regions never before described, and far Libynos, home of the Desert Kingdoms and many ancient cultures alien to the folk of Akados. 

The book weighs in at approximately 700 pages in full color, with maps by award-winning cartographers and beautiful, original artwork to place you directly into the world itself in all its glory and terror. 

Entirely system-neutral, the guide can be used with any game system you choose.
The Lost Lands are the setting for a tremendous array of over 150 individual adventures and sourcebooks already published by Frog God Games and Necromancer Games, many providing statistics in multiple game systems. All of this material is available to provide an almost inexhaustible resource of ready-made adventures and epic quests! Future Frog God Games products set in the Lost Lands will be built into the ever-growing canon finally revealed in this volume.

Yes, you can use it with The Fantasy Trip (a popular choice in the comments section of the Kickstarter.)

Now, at $75k there is a REALLY interesting stretch goal:

The Lost Lands are opening up! At $75,000, Frog God Games will set up a license agreement that, at no charge, allows third-party publishers to commercially publish adventures, supplements, fiction and other written material set in the Lost Lands. Frog God Games material older than 18 months is available to expand upon and use as a springboard for your stories and adventures. Rights to third party-created content are retained by the creator and can be sold through any gaming or fiction marketplace determined by the creator. Simple guidelines apply (no indecent material, no harassment or encouragement of harassment of actual persons, no *-cist or *-phobic, no real world intrusions into fantasy games, etc.). Want to create new levels in Rappan Athuk? Go right ahead. Wish to reunite the Sundered Kingdoms? Great. Desire to expand upon otherwise unexplored locations? By all means! Want to go into the past and explore ancient times? Go forth and conquer!

Example of the thousands of illustrations and maps that will be available for 3rd party publishers or really awesome Game Masters. 

What is more, Frog God Games is currently developing a community hub that will contain resources like reference materials, a published adventure directory and access to almost 2,000 illustrations that have appeared in Frog God Games and Necromancer Games products, all for use by creators. The Hub will be free to backers for at least 3 months and will have a very minimal fee thereafter (only to pay for maintenance and compensate the coordinator behind everything). 

Other details will be forthcoming in updates and other channels as they are developed.

Dare I say "Holy Shit!" This is literally more than I could ever have hoped for (and I pitched an idea to open up an unused corner of the Lost Lands nearly two years ago but as always, my shots were placing low on the target ;)

Note - there is no POD option for overseas customers so PDF might be your friend.

Sweet spots for backers? I'm in at $105

For PDF only I'd probably recommend the following:

I'm stoked. Really. I might help the Frogs out at conventions but The World of the Lost Lands setting book is something I've been hoping to see for years. Opening the world to third-party publishers? Simply icing on the cake.

Kickstarter - DRAGONLOCK™ 3D Printable Miniatures

Wow. I want o give a huge "fuck you!" to Tom Tullis. I think he's finally pushed me over the edge. I have enough terrain that I will rarely get to use that although tempting, wasn't enough for me to take the 3d printer plunge.  Minis on demand is simply beyond tempting. 6 to 8 cents to print a mini? Yes, Fuck You Tom Tullis and your Fat Dragon Games too! Heh ;)

Now I need to negotiate the buying of a 3d printer with Rach.

$237 at Amazon - ships Prime - https://amzn.to/2GOICeQ (affiliate link)

$209 at Creality https://www.creality3donline.com/official-creality3d-ender-3-diy-3d-printer-kit_p0019.html (no affiliate)

Enough about me. Let see what you get with the DRAGONLOCK™ 3D Printable Miniatures Kickstarter.

DRAGONLOCK™ Miniatures are specifically designed to be the easiest-to-print minis you can buy for 3D printing. These miniatures are optimized for FDM-type 3D printers and do not require slicer-added supports to successfully print, as the sculpts are designed to self-support or in some cases have pre-designed supports built in. All of this means you can print highly detailed miniatures easily without having the hassles often associated with printing miniatures at home. Best of all, the miniatures in the photos you see are all printed on a $220 3D Printer and a standard 28mm miniature only costs around 6-8 cents in plastic to print!

Files are distributed via DTRPG (you AREN'T getting physical minis. You are getting the files to print your own)

Here's what you get:

(note - pledge levels include the lower level pledges before them, so $60 pledge level includes all)

$20 pledge

$40 Pledge Level

$60 Pledge Level

Stretch Goals (for $60 pledges)

Indiegogo - Encephalon Gorgers on the Moon (Frog God Games - S&W/PF/5e)

Its time for another Frog God Games softcover release, this time penned by none other than Casey Christofferson . Encephalon Gorgers on the Moon. Yeah, I had to look up "encephalon" - it means "brain". Damn you and your SAT words, Casey!

The pitch:

The Forest of Night has always been a strange place. The trees are far too tall and far too thick here. So full in fact that they block out the very sun leaving the entire forest in the perpetual murk of night. Even the bravest and most experienced of hunters shy away the forest’s higher paths. Far too dark they say, and far too easy to become lost on the winding trails of the primeval wood. 

Recently the folk who live upon the slopes of the mountain have complained of strange occurrences, especially around the time of the full moon. Weird shrieks have been heard in the trees. Small creatures acting strangely and deer stumbling into the meadows below the mountain with their brains leaking from their ears. 

The locals have turned on one another. Some suspect witch-craft. Others believe an ancient curse has returned to the land centered on hidden ruins thought to be located on the high slopes of Midnight Mountain. Is it a plague? Are the rumor of a curse true? Have demented beings from Sybil descended on the denizens of Hurrie Inn? What’s the deal with all the cats? 

One thing is certain. It is going to take a brave band of adventurers to unlock the secrets of Midnight Mountain and perhaps save the land from the depredation of the Encephalon Gorgers on the Moon!

The details:

Encephalon Gorgers on the Moon by Casey Christofferson- available in Fifth Edition, Pathfinder or Swords & Wizardry versions is an adventure for mid-level characters. We expect this will be the only  time we offer the premium softcover option for sale. 

Within its covers (or the digital PDF file) you will find: 

• A stand-alone adventure completed in 2-3 gaming sessions
• A horror mystery from beyond space and time
• Exploration of new worlds and dimensions
• Full Color Maps by Robert Altbaur
• Richly Illustrated by Michael Syrigos
• Cats!

The price:

6 bucks for the PDF
16 bucks (plus shipping) for the Print plus PDF

Kickstarter - Ghostlike Crime: An RPG Zine of Modern Weirdness (Zine Quest)

Another zine for Zine Quest - Ghostlike Crime: An RPG Zine of Modern Weirdness.

An RPG zine series bringing magical realism, the paranormal, and cryptid terrors to a modern day setting. Compatible with DCC RPG.

Catchy elevator pitch, but what's the actual skinny?

Ghostlike Crime is a tabletop role-playing game zine bringing magical realism, the paranormal, and cryptid terrors to a modern day dystopia using Dungeon Crawl Classics rules. It expands and hacks the original rule set to place it in a familiar yet darkly skewed setting. The intention is not to unnecessarily complicate the rules or bore you with voluminous background fluff, but to hand the players some quirky character options and throw them into conflict with things that go bump in the night. Imagine the Alpha-team facing off against a family of yeti or Ghosthunters trying to figure out how to keep the local for-profit coroner from continuing to resurrect a mass murdering slasher. 

The adventurers are monster hunters and defenders of humanity from paranormal threats. They are not a part of any government program, but an autonomous and clandestine group that also works to keep power out of the hands of oppressors. They are the nail that sticks up. This parallel reality is a dystopia where magic exists, but open practitioners are unheard of. Wealth hoards power and these usurpers who cannot wield it enslave those who do. Ghostlike Crime is set up to be as grim or gonzo as you like.

As for contents:

• Modified Classes for The Warrior, The Thief, and The Halfling
• New Class: The Scrapper - Like the whiskey hiding in the corner of a bottle in the recycle bin, forgotten enchantments linger on objects left out on a curb. The Scrapper can see the aura of these enchantments, more importantly they can wield them as a weapon.
• New Class: The Paratechnologist - An artificer of weird science devices. They jury-rig everything from tethers for the incorporeal to anti-matter silver bullets.
• Equipment: Weapons, paratechnological items, and trash artifacts
• Adventuring party archetypes for the modern hero
• A collection of adversaries from the Cabals of the Corporatocracy to the Unstoppable Killing Machine
• Two full adventures ready to put your players through the paces of weird sci-fi horror gaming.

Roll20 Security Breach - They Were Hacked

Here's the direct link to the announcement: https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/7209691/roll20-security-breach

Here's the full text:

Steve K. Roll20 Team

Earlier today, Roll20 was named in a report as one of several victims of an attack by cybercriminals. While we can confirm a breach did occur, we are currently focused on finding out all the facts. For now, it’s important to note the report makes clear that no financial data was included in the breach.  

Our security teams work tirelessly to fix potential weaknesses in our systems, and we take seriously our responsibility to safeguard our users’ personal information.
Here’s how we do that: 

Roll20 only maintains the following personal information: users’ name, email address, hashed password, last login IP and time of login, and the last 4 credit card digits.
We use Stripe and PayPal to process transactions; all billing information is handled by them and never touches our servers.  

We utilize bcrypt for password hashing, which means that it cannot be reverse-engineered for utilization with other sites or to access Roll20. 

We know it’s frustrating to not have all the facts, and we’re working to uncover the full extent of this breach. We will be continuously updating our members with information as our investigation continues.

Thanks to Vince Florio for the tip: https://www.theevildm.com/2019/02/reporting-news-roll20net-data-breach.html?fbclid=IwAR2cHya_uOtgpQhls_jp2BnjTbovQPYzY2OFXwiZDUpOY8zTmXSj-3MXCdk

Link to report: https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/14/hacker-strikes-again/

Looking for Contributors for The Tankard Zine by the Designers & Makers on the Tenkar's Tavern Discord Server

Didn't think I'd be making this announcement so soon but the team of Designers & Makers at the Tenkar's Tavern Discord Server behind The Tankard Zine are chomping at the bit.

What is The Tankard Zine? We expect it to be a showcase for writers, artists, and mappers - both established and new. We are working with various publishers to allow access to their IP for use in the zine.

What kind of content? Maps, articles, adventures, magic items, spaceship designs, etc. While some may be system specific, much will not be restricted to any particular system or genre.

Pricing? Free in PDF. We want it to be read and shared for the greatest exposure. There is talk about a yearly POD compilation. We'll cross that bridge if and when we get there.

Looking for - an Editor in Chief as well as contributors of content. None of these are paying gigs, at least not out of the box. If / when we get some advertising within the pages we'll revisit that.

Want to know more or participate in the conversation that will help form the direction of The Tankard? Join the Tenkar's Tavern Discord Server: https://discord.gg/fReGmuD

For what it is worth, @Pexx and I will be acting as co-publishers in a mostly "hands-off" status (there is a ton of stuff in the works for all things Tavern and we simply don't have the time to "monkey up the works ;) Whoever becomes Editor-In-Cheif of The Tankard will be very influential in the final product.

Damn it! We need some official Tankard art...

Kickstarter - Check This Artifact - More Deadly Artifacts for Your Mutant Crawling Game (by Jim Wampler)

Simply put, Jim Wampler writes good stuff. Heck, he's the author of Mutant Crawl Classics, a game that DCC RPG-ified a world full of gamma radiation. See what I did there? ;)

Check This Artifact is along those lines:

Clocking in at over 56 pages and crammed with content, Check This Artifact contains 30 brand-new artifacts of the Ancient Makers, plus a brand-new godlike AI, all for use in your mutant crawling or other post-apocalyptic role playing game. Penned by the creator of Mutant Crawl Classics RPG and published by Mudpuppy Games, these powerful technological treasures are more than mere artifacts, because each item in this book is a plot hook and a potential mini-adventure in the making. 

Check This Artifact presents artifacts for your players to attempt to track down, tame, and temper — including weapons, armor, robots, AIs, and those extra-special items that are the sole purview of far-future fiction. Just check out the contents page. 

So, how much is the buy-in? 10 bucks for the PDF. 15 bucks for the softcover plus PDF (shipping not included). I think I'm in for the softcover :)

Reminder - Tavern Chat Tonight - 9 PM Eastern - I Suspect Zak S will be a Topic of Discussion

Even today, three days later, there are further personalities in the gaming sphere doing their best to put distance between themselves and Zak S. Its almost comical. Yes, I'm sure it will be one of a number of topics in tonight's Tavern Chat :)

Where? The Tenkar's Tavern Discord Server: https://discord.gg/fReGmuD

Voice Chat Room - Speakeasy

See you then :)

News - Stranger Things' Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set coming May 1st, 2019

ComicBook.com has an article about the upcoming Stranger Things' Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set. It comes with two, yes two Demogorgon figures. Pretty cool.

Now, I find it interesting that the article says: "At New York Toy Fair 2019, Hasbro / Wizards of the Coast unveiled something that we should have seen coming - a Stranger Things-themed Dungeons & Dragons starter set!" Why is the statement interesting? Because the New York Toy Fair runs from February 16-19, 2019. Today is February 13th. Ask Phil Reed how I know ;P

Here's the link to preorder the Stranger Thing' Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set at Amazon for 24.99  https://amzn.to/2SRUS4o   (this is an affiliate link - a small portion of your purchase will help support The Tavern)

Here are some details from the Amazon webpage:

• Stranger things themed of Dungeons & Dragons: embark on an exciting dungeon & Dragons adventure, hunt for the thessalhydra, "created" By the character Mike from the Netflix original series, stranger things
• Great game for new dungeon & Dragons players: whether players are new to D&D, or looking for a new adventure, this stranger things themed roleplaying game includes everything a group needs to PLAY
• Detailed rules, adventure book and game dice: The exciting adventure book and colorful rulebook contain tons of information on how to play the game, strategy, and tips for players to advance a character beyond the Fifth level, plus 6 Polyhedral dice so you're ready to play
• Stranger things character sheets: play as a favorite stranger things character
• Includes 2 Demogorgon figures: the game includes 2 Demogorgon figures, one that players can paint and customize

DriveThruRPG Bans All Future Titles Associated With Zak Smith

Oh boy. Its been a busy couple of days since Mandy Morbid accused Zak Smith of some fairly disturbing actions. You can read Mandy's post at the following link:

https://www.facebook.com/amandapatricianagy/posts/10215845527064252

Since that post went live a number of folks in the gaming industry have distanced themselves from interacting with Zak, professionally and personally, moving forward. 

Then this got posted today on the DriveThruRPG Blog:

https://oneblogshelf.blogspot.com/2019/02/drivethrurpg-responds-to-current.html

Tuesday, 12 February 2019
DriveThruRPG Responds to Current Industry News 

Thanks to everyone for your patience as we deliberated on the situation that has unfolded regarding Zak Smith (aka Zak Sabbath). At DriveThruRPG, we want to do our part to keep bad actors out of the roleplaying community, and we don’t want business relationships with such people. As such, you’d think there wouldn’t be much deliberation needed on our part. However, the situation posed a number of challenges for us to consider in terms of precedent and collateral impact on other parties. 

I have decided that we will not accept future titles for sale on DriveThruRPG (or our other marketplaces) if Zak is a contributor on the title. If any publisher has a title-in-process to which Zak is a contributor and this policy would impact you financially, then we’d ask that you please reach out to us via the publisher services link to have a dialogue about that title. 

For titles currently on our marketplace in which Zak is listed as a contributor, we have checked those publisher accounts, and none of these titles have us paying money directly to Zak. While it is likely that Zak does earn a royalty on some titles sold on DriveThruRPG, any such royalties would be paid directly by the publisher of the title, not by DriveThruRPG.  

Further, whatever royalty Zak might get from any publisher on our store is unlikely to be the entirety of what we pay that publisher. We do not feel it’s fair to penalize financially those who worked with Zak in the past, including both publishers and possibly other contributors earning income from these titles. Therefore, we expect publishers to make their own decision to continue selling these titles or not, presumably after consulting with all other contributors. 

For our part, we will be identifying all titles to which Zak contributed and diverting all of the revenue shares that DriveThruRPG might make from sales of these titles as a donation to RAINN (https://www.rainn.org/). 

I’ll try to pre-emptively answer other possible questions below.

When this happened, why did you not suspend sale of Zak’s titles while you deliberated? 

When we expect that it will take us a few days to deliberate on a title reported for offensive content, our policy is to temporarily suspend sales of that title. In this case, though, it was not the content of any particular title under discussion, and we did not find any titles where we directly paid Zak for ongoing sales during our deliberation. 

So DriveThruRPG is now banning certain creators? Will whoever the “outrage brigade” complains about next be banned as well? 

We all share a responsibility for the health of our hobby. Any demographic measure we’ve ever seen on the roleplaying hobby shows women are under-represented. Things won’t improve if people shirk the responsibility to make our hobby inclusive. 

Zak Smith has a long and well-documented history of behaviors antithetical to a healthy community. In light of recent allegations, which we find credible, we think our business and our hobby is better off without him, so we’re doing our part. 

We already have a small list of other bad actors in the industry with whom we refuse to do business: people who have repeatedly abused crowdfunding platforms for personal enrichment, who repeatedly engaged in IP violations, who have repeatedly treated our staff or customers in unacceptably unprofessional ways, and so on. If you repeatedly act like a jerk (or worse, a predator), we won’t wait for other people to complain about you. We’ll just quietly stop doing business with you.  

Why are you not banning his existing titles?
Because we don’t want to hurt other people who also contributed to those same titles just to diminish Zak. Banning those existing titles risks doing just that.  

Thanks,
Steve Wieck
President
OneBookShelf / DriveThruRPG

Indiegogo - With a 5 Year, 3 Month Window to Complete on Time, the LOTFP Weird Fantasy Referee Book is Late

Kinda makes you wonder, doesn't it? The LotFP Weird Fantasy Referee Book funded on October 17, 2013 and James Raggi gave himself a due date of January 2019. Five years and three months time. And still, he has failed to deliver on time.

Why January 2019? Here's James in his own words:

Being honest... a great many crowdfunding campaigns greatly underestimate the time it takes to get the projects together and to the backers and end up being late. LotFP still has some stuff outstanding that's past deadline. Guessing a "real" date seems like a losing proposition. 

Because there is no real deadline for the book. 

But the Ref book is essential to LotFP as a game and as a business, and the company is basically in neutral gear until it's done. So it's in everyone's interest to get it done in as timely manner as possible. And we will do our best not to drag our butts. But we won't cut corners. 

Layout for the Rules & Magic book took longer than expected, but the same template will be used for this book so who knows how that will affect things. We might hit some of the stretch goals that affect the book's content (more art, color layout, developmental editing), and those will add unknown amounts of time to the project. Someone pointed out in the run-up to this campaign that "You mean if 50 people add on commentary by Zak, he's going to write 5000 words?" and if that happens to one (or more...! One can dream...) of the commentators, that might add more time in. 

While all of these things add time to the project, they also make the book better. And I hope they happen and will push for them to happen, but at the end of the day the people doing most of this stuff are freelancers who will need to fit this book into their schedules at the time it's ready for them. 

So the actual delivery date is "When it's done." That isn't an option to enter into IndieGoGo for a delivery date though, and any reasonable guess is still pretty much blindly throwing darts. So why not January 2019 and poke fun at myself and others who have failed to correctly divine past completion dates? 

So... You either want the book, or you don't. You either trust that it'll get done, or you don't. 

If you don't want the book or don't trust that it'll get done, then backing this project is a bad idea no matter what date we stamp on it. 

If you do want the book and do trust that it'll get done, we've put together some incentives to get you to back now instead of waiting until it's properly released.
It's up to you to decide whether those incentives are effective.

Five plus years is a long time to develop any project. Earlier tonight, Ken Hite stated: "I will, however, not work with Zak on any future projects, knowingly share a credits page with him on any future projects, or increase his social media reach." That's going to be an interesting conflict.

Last update on the project's page was in July of 2018.

I see on the comments section that the requests for refunds have begun.

Maybe, just maybe, an update would be in order...

When I'm Asked "Why Swords & Wizardry Light?" THIS Will Be My Answer

I've been asked "Why Swords & Wizardry Light?" more than once. I've been told it wasn't needed, dumbs down the game and basically has assailed the senses of a handful of Grognards.

I wrote the four pages in question to help ease lapsed gamers back into the hobby, introduce other gamers to the OSR, bring new players into tabletop roleplaying, but even more importantly as a lowered entry bar to RPGs that kids would not feel intimidated by.

My niece was just a month short of her sixth birthday when I showed her an early copy of the Swords & Wizardry Light rules. Her response? "Uncle, did you write this for me? Its only four pages. You can teach me to read four pages and then I can play D&D!"

The above picture was shared by Carl Heyl (podcaster at Save or Die, an active member of the Tenkar's Tavern Discord Server and apparently a skilled ambassador to younger gamers.)

To quote Carl: "How's this for cool Erik Tenkar? Gave a kid a copy of Swords & Wizardry Light last week at our gaming group and this week he came on with his own mapped out dungeons."

This. This is why Swords & Wizardry Light exists. Sure, it's a great ruleset to run at conventions. That's a bonus. The kids, that's where it's at. They are the future, both in our gaming and in life beyond.

I'm stoked and all smiley. Can you tell? heh

Kickstarter - RPG Zine Challenge: The Compleat Beastman (OSR / 5e))

So, RPG Zine Challenge: The Compleat Beastman is part of Zine Quest Month on Kickstarter. Let's see what we get with this one.

Every issue has at least one full character class, compatible with the various OSR rules systems, Multiple generic NPCs, one or more named NPCs with adventure hooks, history, culture, and societal notes to make these species come to life in your games. 

Each issue is a small, black and white zine that also contains pin up art pieces of different varieties of the highlighted species. Here's something awesome that you don't get with other zines- every backer gets FREE ART with a commercial license to use in your own products! 

Additionally, I'm releasing them with 100% open content. Use this stuff in your own books. ALL OF IT! 

The material is setting- and even genre- neutral. Each of the beastmen societies gets presented as a a living culture, with notes not only on traditional fantasy themes, but also notes on how they colonize and fight in space. Yes, fantasy and sci-fi gonzo goodness.

Size? Small

Page count? Unknown

How about pledge levels?

The basic $10 pledge includes a PDF of every issue that we produce from this campaign, as well as stock art. The @25 level gets you the discount print code for each issue, as well as discounted minis.

If it only produces a single issue of unknown page count, that becomes fairly expensive for a small PDF. "Print code" I am guessing means POD through DTRPG at cost. That's a significant chunk of change for potentially a single issue in print (plus POD cost and shipping). Yes, you get access to the art as future stock art, but that is only an incentive if you plan to do some self-publishing yourself.

I'm giving this a soft pass. Further details on page count and printed size of the zine might change that. Hitting stretch goals will also make this more attractive, but it has to hit critical mass before that starts to open up.