Lulu Has a 30% Off Coupon Through Cyber Monday

Lulu.com has a 30% off coupon through Cyber Monday. When you go to the Lulu website, the coupon code is at the top of the page.

If somehow you mise the code, it is: SAVE30

Now, I could list and link to a bunch of OSR related releases, but it's been done already by many others, so I'm going to send you to OTHER sites that have done the work and deserve the traffic.

https://initiativeone.blogspot.com/p/rpgs-on-lulu.html

https://hobbygamesrecce.blogspot.com/2015/05/my-lulu-osr-wish-list.html

https://rpggeek.com/thread/1146165/lulucom-what-best-osr-lulu

https://www.dieheart.net/lulu-recommendations/

https://oldskulling.blogspot.com/p/rpg-books-on-lulu.html

Enjoy your holiday weekend and God Bless you all :)

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern. 

You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on Anchor, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar 

Humble Bundle - Voices of Heresy by Black Library (Warhammer 40k Audiobooks)

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of audiobooks, but damn, they are usually cost-prohibitive. So when audiobooks pop up on Humble Bundle, I'm all over it. Currently, Black Library has a Voices of Heresy Bundle - you can get four titles for as low as a buck, or 23 titles for 18 bucks. Being that a single title can often cost 18 bucks, this is a bargain and a half.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern. 

You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on Anchor, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar 

A Heartfelt Thanks from Your OSR Bartender on this Thanksgiving Day

(art by Craig Brasco)

It's Thanksgiving here in the United States, and there is much that I am thankful for.

Let me get this out of the way, right out of the box - I am happy for my health. After the trifecta of hospitalizations in 2020, I have taken steps to turn my poor health-related habits into better ones. I've lowered my A1C by three points, my weight by about 50 pounds, and have changed my diet to a much healthier one. All it took was pneumonia, sepsis, and congestive heart failure (followed by four stents). Take my advice, correct your course earlier than I did :)

I am thankful for knowing the friends that I have lost, and those I will likely lose in the coming weeks and months. As painful as the losses are, there would be an emptiness in my soul were I to have never known them. 

This is especially true for Doug Rhea, who touched more lives than anyone I know. I have cemented more friendships because of Doug and the convention he founded, NTRPG Con, than can be counted on my fingers and toes. Rest well Doug, you more than earned it.

I am thankful for the opportunity to give back to my community, not just where I live physically, but where my heart is, the gaming community. In a few days we'll be kicking off another OSR Christmas celebration, and it wouldn't be happening without all of you.

Most of all, I am thankful that you, my readers, my viewers, and my listeners, allow me into your lives for a few minutes each day. There can be nothing more gratifying, nor more humbling, than that simple amount of trust in me that you have shown over the past decade and more.

I thank you all :)

Tenkar

May your Thanksgiving be blessed with the comfort of family and friends, near and far. 

Humble Bundle - Black Friday RPG Bonanza (C&C, DCC RPG, 5e, Bunnies & Burrows)

Sometimes it's the little things that please us most. Other times, it's the large things that make us smile. Today, I'm happy and smiling because of the amazing selection of RPG titles in the Black Friday RPG Bonanza Humble Book Bundle (say THAT five times fast ;)

In the Black Friday RPG Bonanza Bundle, we have releases from Troll Lord Games (C&C Core rules and more, as well as 5e World of Airde adventures), Frog God Games (Bunnies & Burrow Core book and more, as well as 5e), Goodman Games (DCC RPG Core Rules and adventures), and Kobold Press (5e and System Neutral).

The Black Friday RPG Bonanza Bundle is 25 bucks for all 41 products shown above and below.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern. 

You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on Anchor, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar 

Arduin - A Treasure Trove of Gaming Goodness Landed at The Tavern

It was about a week and a half ago that I was bitten by the Arduin bug. Sure, I'd owned the initial trilogy of three little books for a number of years, an eBay acquisition that I briefly leafed through and promptly put away. Who actually reads everything in their gaming collection? ;)

The print in the originals was too small for my older eyes. But when Emperors Choice announced they were rising like a phoenix and Arduin was going to be distributed again, I brought those books out of their place of hiding.

And quickly remembered I couldn't read the small typeface with anything coming close to comfort.

I found I did possess a copy of the Arduin Trilogy in PDF, likely acquired via the generosity of my readers and their use of The Tavern's affiliate links (see how useful they are?). I started reading that easy to read, thank the gods for a font size my old eyes can enjoy, PDF, and I was hooked. Line and sinker. 

George DeRosa of Emperors Choice reached out to me to discuss Arduin, as I had mentioned Arduin on the YouTube side of The Tavern. He told me what I had barely scratched the surface, and if I wanted, he could send me a small package of Aruin goodness, as they were processing a large number of orders, and adding one more to the process wouldn't be an issue. I excitedly said yes, expecting a book or two from the "odds and ends" pile.

Instead, what arrived is pictured above.

I have enough to occupy my Aruin fever for months, likely years even.

As it currently stands, I intend to have some articles covering the crunch - classes, monsters, magic, and more, here on the blogside, and discuss Dave's various essays within the pages of Arduin on the YouTube/Anchor side of things.

If you have topics you want to be covered, here or on the Cast, let me know in the comments below.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern. 

You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on Anchor, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar 

Humble Bundle - Maps Bonanza (Campaign Cartographer 3)

Campaign Cartographer has been offered on Humble Bundle in the past, but if you've missed it before, this is an amazing opportunity to grab Campaign Cartographer 3 (lifetime license) and a ton of resources for 30 bucks.

 

Following the amazing success of the Maps Extravaganza Humble Bundle, we present the Maps Bonanza, featuring Fractal Terrains 3+, a powerful world-generator and editor. Whether it's starships and solar systems, entire worlds, historical maps or fantasy floorplans, this treasure trove of assets and apps has what you need for your cartography. Plus, your purchase will support Carbonfund and Oceana!

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern. 

You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on Anchor, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar 

Finally Getting to Appreciate a Collectable

Well I had plans for this weekend, plans for my time and my money.......but, well you know...shit happens.

Usually it's the bad kind of stuff that gets in your way and ruins your weekend, but every once in a while it's an actual fricken opportunity. Saturday was one such opportunity and I just had to go for it.

I like to think I have a couple cool collectibles, but some of my crap....er stuff, I mean collectibles are kind of hidden away and if you can't see something & enjoy it, does it really exist?

One of these tucked away items is an old HackMaster promotional poster that was never really for sale, but sent out to game stores to push the upcoming (2001) Player's Handbook. I've seen them for sale for around $30 every once in a while (Noble Knight, eBay, etc). Thing is outside of one on display at the KenzerCo office, I've never seen one that hasn't bee folded up for shipping to a game store.

That made my rolled poster, that had been sitting in a tube for a decade or two, a bit on the rarer side......is it valuable? Meh, but to me it is.

The big problem, until Saturday, is that it's a huge poster... a hair over 35" x 24". This makes it kind of a pain in the ass to frame up nicely. I was planning on purchasing some frame chops and getting some glass cut, but if I wanted any kind of matting that was going to be... problematic., and really expensive. Unless I go to a custom glass shop, I can't do glass and plexi is going to cost $90-110. The frame will run $55 before shipping, which will be high since it's considered "oversize". With matting I'm probably looking at $200 for this poster, and that's for plexi, not glass like I'd prefer.

Fortunately for me, somebody had some custom frames made at Hobby Lobby (actually multiple somebodies) and then didn't pick them up. A trio of HUGE wooden/glass frames were marked down from $240 to $67.

Hell yes!

I didn't plan on buying some frames and matt boards, digging out my matt cutter and framing supplies, and nervously do the math and cut out some HUGE matts....but I did and now I have to find a place to display one of my favorite RPG collectables.

 

The Return of the Tavern Chat Podcast to Anchor/Spotify is Now!

As many have remarked recently, and justifiably complained, I had stopped uploading recent episodes of the daily Tavern Chat Youtube series to Anchor. The reason was simple - it could take up to half an hour for Anchor to upload and format a 15-minute video as a podcast, and the process often crashed. The process was worse for the live streams, as they are often 2 hours in length. The process hadn't always been so long and tedious (it was never quick), but something had changed on the Anchor side of things.

Recently, Anchor invited me to apply for their new "videocast" program, which promised to have uploaded videos available as video AND audio feeds on Spotify, and audio elsewhere. I applied and was accepted.

Late this afternoon I uploaded one of the recent videos I had recorded on Arduin. I went to the YouTube page to copy and paste the description, and in that time, the file had uploaded and converted. Literally, as fast as I could copy and paste, episodes were going live on Anchor.

I put up five episodes thus far, all touching on Arduin. I'll likely start uploading some Talking Crit live streams next, and see how long that process takes. I'm very hopeful.

I never thought I'd be saying this, but Anchor not just fixed a problem, but they improved the process from where it was before the slowdown.

It's almost like an early Christmas gift :)

(edit - the new episodes are now Season 2, with numbering starting from 1)

(edit two - this week's Talking Crit took less than 5 minutes to upload and process to Anchor - holy shit!)

Here's the link to the Anchor Tavern Chat Channel

Kickstarter - Uncommon Monstrosities (3d Printable Miniatures)

One of these days I'm going to have to take the plunge and get a 3d printer. I've been saying that for at least two years now, and when I see things like James Shields's latest Kickstarter, it makes me want it more and more. The issue for me is space, but I may have a solution after Christmas. Of course, I'd have to back for the STL files now. Hmmm, maybe I'll ask for a nice 3d printer for Christmas...

Oh, and look at that! 25 bucks for the base buy-in. 75 bucks if you want a non-exclusive license to print and sell the minis. At 125 you also get non-exclusive stock art rights to the art. Damn you Uncommon Monstrosities! I'm in for $125.

Some monsters get all the attention. Why use the same old monsters when there are so many diverse creatures in fantasy worlds? Challenge your players with... Uncommon Monstrosities!

This project offers 20 unique creatures with unusual approaches to classic monsters. Every model is inspired by tabletop artist, Jeshields and modeled by Dionizo Lopes.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern. 

You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on Anchor, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar  

Kickstarter - Nordlond Bestiary and Enemies Book (Dungeon Fantasy/GURPS)

A bestiary and enemies book for the Dungeon Fantasy RPG (Powered by GURPS).

I'm going to fanboy for a moment, so forgive me. Doug Cole is one of the rare Kickstarter producers that dots his "I's" and crosses his "T's", and then double checks himself before launching his page. The writing and editing are high quality and the art is simply to die for. Although I don't currently run GURPS or Dungeon Fantasy, I'm a backer of the Nordlond Bestiary and Enemies Book Kickstarter and intend to convert on the fly, as needed, for Continual Light.

Whether riffing off Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, or the more genre-appropriate Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith, there’s no question that a giant book of creatures is a boon to gamers wanting to keep campaigns fresh and exciting.

For a long time, the classic big book of monsters has been hard to come by as a fully supported work for Powered by GURPS games. 

No longer.

The Dungeon Fantasy RPG is purposefully generic: It is Powered by GURPS, after all. The Norðlond setting is not generic, borrowing from the literary tradition of the Viking culture. The sagas of looting, pillaging, and raiding for wealth and fame made a natural match for a game with a tag-line of “Smash Evil for Fun and Profit.”

Even with that in mind, the monsters here can be—and should be—repurposed and transplanted to other campaigns. Many of them are thinly disguised transplants from other cosmologies anyway: The nautamaðr is clearly based on the Minotaur; the Blóðughúfa, or “bloody hat” is the redcap, a fixture of Northumbrian folklore, perhaps derived or parallel to the Irish fear dearg, meaning “red man,” said to wear a red coat and cap.  Animals—normal, giant, and dire—don’t require any work to move between campaigns. Much as the player characters pillage loot, GMs should pillage the worked examples here to make their lives easier when running games in any campaign.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern. 

You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on Anchor, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar  

Roll20 Goes Mobile (VTT)

Over the weekend, Roll20 announced their Mobile App. At the moment, it only works with Dungeons & Dragons 5e, but other rulesets/character sheets are apparently in the works.

Available for Android and iOS

Roll20 Player Companion

Your characters. Your friends. Your table.

Take your Roll20 characters with you, wherever you go. Keep your character in your back pocket at the game store or your living room! Reference and make rolls on your TTRPG character sheet from your phone or tablet.

* Free for all Roll20 users!

* Swipe and tap to select your games and character sheets.

* View your character’s stats, skills, features, and proficiencies.

* Roll for skill checks, combat, and spells (don’t worry, Roll20 will do the math for you).

* The sheet displays your character’s important information including their armor class, HP, speed, and character portrait.

* Send all your rolls right to the VTT chat, powered by Roll20’s signature quantum roll server.

 

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern. 

You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on Anchor, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar  

Deal of the Day - The Game Master's Book of Random Tables (System Neutral)

I prefer posting DTRPG Deal of the Day sales earlier in the day, but today's events kept me out of the house for most of the day. In any case, the following is on sale until 11/17/2021 at 11 AM Eastern.

Today's Deal of the Day is The Game Master's Book of Random Tables. I must admit, I'm a sucker for random tables, be it Frog God's Tome of Adventure Design, New Big Dragon Games D30 Companion series, Ultimate Toolbox and so many, many more. 

The Game Master's Book of Random Tables is normally 10 bucks, but until tomorrow at 11 AM Eastern, it is on sale for 5 bucks.

Welcome to The Game Master’s Book of Random Tables: A Collection of Quick Roll Tables for the Busy Game Master – your one-stop resource offering more than 80 quick roll idea inspiring tables to help you quickly create encounters, describe objects, build NPCs, add depth to your descriptions and much more for your favorite fantasy role playing games.

Chapters include:

• Towns - 27 tables to help you build towns and shops.
• NPCs - 10 tables to help you quickly build and describe NPCs for any situation.
• Weather - 12 tables to add the richness of weather conditions to your game.
• Quests - 7 tables of quests including city, forest, mountain, sea, dungeon, roadside and tavern quests
• Magic - 14 tables to help you quickly build unique magical items and curses for your adventurers enjoyment and befuddlement.
• Miscellaneous - 19 tables covering a variety of topics from gemstones and jewelry to oddities, riddles and landmarks.

Each table can be mined for ideas and in many instances, can be used as random roll tables to quickly gives you details without needing to make a (perhaps time-intensive) decision. For even more rich scenarios, combine elements from several tables to build a rich, immersive experience for your players. Let the tables do the heavy lifting so you can concentrate on spinning a tale that will be remembered by your players long after the gaming session ends.

Whether the tables are used to spawn ideas you can flesh out or just quick descriptive bits to enhance the descriptions of game objects, conditions and moods, this massive volume is one you are sure to refer to again and again as you create and play your favorite fantasy role playing game.

 

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern. 

You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on Anchor, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar 

Bundle of Holding - Traveller Imperium Tour (Classic Traveller)

I started my Traveller experience with the Starter Set, which was essentially the 3 digest-sized black books re-laid out to standard-sized. I always liked Traveller, even if I had issues with some of the science - I'm talking about YOU room-sized computers ;) 

The Traveller Imperium Tour Starter Collection is a bargain at $14.95. In many ways, this is the beginning of sci-fi RPGs, and certainly the first successful one, and it's a great price for a piece of history.

For just US$14.95 you get all eleven titles in our Starter Collection (retail value $69) as DRM-free ebooks, including the new Classic Traveller Facsimile Edition -- a "Little White Book" that reproduces the 1981 rulebooks in new scans with errata corrected; two landmark 1983 releases, The Traveller Book and The Traveller Adventure, six sets of starship deck plans by longtime Traveller developer Loren Wiseman; Supplement S12 Forms and Charts; and the Classic Traveller Orientation Pack, a collection of resources originally compiled for the February 2014 Classic Traveller Bundle of Holding.

And if you pay more than the threshold price of $33.07, you'll level up and also get our entire Bonus Collection with thirteen more titles worth an additional $162, including all eight Alien Modules and all five of GDW's 1980s M-series guides to the Imperium: Tarsus, Beltstrike, The Spinward Marches Campaign, Atlas of the Imperium (plus the 2016 Enhanced Edition), and Alien Realms.

Damn. I may need to get this in PDF myself, even though I have much of it in the original print.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern. 

You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on Anchor, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar 

Any Non-Gaming Gaming Plans for this Upcoming "Season"?

By my rough mental math, and I hate to be the person to point this out (but....), we've got only a good week of gaming left for the foreseeable future. That's right, make sure you have a game scheduled, hopefully, for next weekend, or wait until 2022.

Think about it. We have next weekend free and then it's Thanksgiving. Turkey Day rolls into Black Friday, Cyber Monday and then it's all fricken downhill until Christmas. Holiday parties, Christmas shopping, and all the crap that comes with the social obligations of work, school, church, extended families, etc. Sure, you might have some good blocks of free time, but do they align with those free blocks for the rest of your gaming group? Probably not.

So what are you going to do to get your gaming fix on?

There are always video games, maybe some board games with your family (assuming you're lucky enough to be able to do so. Don't get me started about the 3 hour attempt to teach my in-laws a "quick" game of Munchkin.).

Now for me the holidays is a time I try to work on my gaming projects. "Try" is usually the operative word as I tend to bit off more than I can chew. For example, this holiday season I have on my "to do" list:

1. Build a miniature storage case
2. Work on reformatting my d30 tables for publications
3. Create some player tablemats
4. Create some miniature dioramas
5. Paint my minis (well, some of them)
6. Build some dice-rolling towers
7. Work on my digital gaming table
8. Frame the last of my RPG Art
9. Work on my travel table-side RPG case
10. Add to my Appendix N library
11. Work on my mobile arcade rig(s)
12. Build some table-top terrain

Now some of these items have to wait on my getting myself into a new house where I can setup a small woodshop I can actually use during the winter. Assuming that happens I can get some of these done...if it doesn't then all I can do is refine my blue-prints. 

Oh, and we all already know that I'm not going to get my minis painted. That's a pipe dream for certain!

Everything else, is doable and realistically I'll get about half of this list done between now and the end of January.

Now that I'm publicly stating what I'm working on it'll be really embarrassing if I can't follow-through! 

Assuming that you've made it this far and, presumably, have had a hot minute to think about it, do you have any specific non-gaming (as in not around the table) gaming plans for this "off season"?  

Tenkar's Blue Hair - Part One of Thre

Tonight, live on the Gamers' Health LiveStream, Rach and my niece Shannon, colored my hair blue. This was due to raising over $1500 for St Jude's Children Hospital 2 weeks ago, when we had a Tenkar Does Yoga LiveStream.

Next up is walking the dog at Forest Park with blue hair and the clothing worn 2 weeks ago, and then part three where I wear the clothing with blue hair and go food shopping.

Thanks to all for the support :)

Potential Deal Forthcoming in the E Gary Gygax Estate Dispute

It appears we will know more come January 6th, 2022.

Court link so you can follow ar home: https://wcca.wicourts.gov/caseDetail.html?caseNo=2020PR000058&countyNo=64&index=0#records

Gorn is the attorney for Luke.

Attorney Koch is the Personal Representative. "A personal representative or legal personal representative is the executor or administrator for the estate of a deceased person." They were appointed by the court over Gail Gygax's objections and Luke's agreement. 

Attorney Johnson is Gail's attorney.

More when we have it, but this is an interesting development.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern. 

You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on Anchor, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar 

Roll20 ORR Report for 3rd Quarter 2021

 

Yep, the latest ORR Report has landed for the 3rd Quarter of 2021. Some numbers of note:

D&D 5e - 53.7% of campaigns on Roll20

Pathfinder 1e has over 2x the campaigns compared to Pathfinder 2. Together they have 4.6% of campaigns.

Call of Cthulhu comes in at 11.9%.

All others and Uncategorized come in at 31.3%.

I'm disappointed that the third-quarter report lacks a detailed breakdown of the lesser-played RPGs.

Now I need to see if Fantasy Grounds has updated numbers...

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern. 

You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on Anchor, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar  

Dungeons & Dragons 100 Postcards: Archival Art from Every Edition Cards

I was messaged by a member of The Tavern's Community that they had purchased a set of D&D postcards on Amazon. I found it to be interesting, but then they sent me a few pics of their favorite postcards from the set. That's when I realized I was all in. I ordered the set yesterday and it arrived today.

This is just a small sample of the art in the Dungeons & Dragons 100 Postcards: Archival Art from Every Edition Cards boxed set. At 19.49 (free shipping with Prime) it comes to less than 20 cents a postcard. You get 2 full sets of 50, so you can mail out 50 postcards and still keep a full set for yourself ;)

I think I need to frame a few...

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern. 

You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on Anchor, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar  

Cyberpunk Sale at DTRPG - Cyberpunk Red Jumpstart Kit 4.99 (and more)

The best treatment I can recall of the Cyberpunk Genre in RPGs was the original Cyberpunk 2020 (4.99 in PDF). It was inspiring. More importantly, it was fun.

For the next few days, you can snag Cyberpunk 2020 and the new edition, Cyberpunk Red, and a host of other titles, for some need discounts (the deepest discounts are pictured above.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern. 

You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on Anchor, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar  

News - Diamond Comic Distributors Hit With Ransomware Attack - Robinhood Investing Gets Hacked, 7 Million Customers Exposed

Diamond Distributors were offline over the weekend, the victim of a ransomware attack.

From Bleeding Cool (linked above):

As many of you may know, we are currently experiencing systems issues affecting our order processes and communications. Our IT department and a team of third-party experts are working around the clock to address these issues and restore full operations.

We've determined that the systems issues we're experiencing are the result of a ransomware attack. These attacks have, unfortunately, become increasingly pervasive in recent months, impacting organizations around the world. We want to assure you that customer data and financial information is not stored on our network and as such we have no reason to believe it has been impacted by this attack.

In addition to the investigation underway by our team of third-party forensic experts, we've also notified law enforcement. While some of our systems remain down, rest assured we are continuing to ship product and fill orders to the greatest extent we can. Our retailer services portal is online and available for FOC this evening and tomorrow.

Thank you for your patience as we work to restore full operations as quickly as possible. We're grateful for your support and will share updates with you as we have them.

Robinhood Investing was hacked last week, exposing the data of 7 million customers.

From The Verge:

Trading platform Robinhood said Monday that personal information for more than 7 million customers was accessed during a data breach on November 3rd. The company said in a news release that it does not appear that Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, or debit card numbers were exposed, and no customers have had “financial loss” due to the incident.

An unauthorized third party “socially engineered a customer support employee by phone,” Robinhood said, and was able to access its customer support systems. The attacker was able to get a list of email addresses for approximately 5 million people and full names for a separate group of 2 million people. For a smaller group of about 310 people, additional personal information, including names, dates of birth, and zip codes, was exposed, and for about 10 customers, “more extensive account details” were revealed.

The company did not provide further information about what those “extensive” details were, but a spokesperson said in response to a query from The Verge that even for those 10 customers, “we believe that no Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, or debit card numbers were exposed.” The spokesperson declined to say whether any of the customers may have been specifically targeted in the hack, but the company said it was in the process of notifying those who had been affected. 

Coming soon to a hobby community near you...

 The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern. 

You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on Anchor, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar