OSR Christmas - Day 12 Gifting

I apologize for the delay in getting to the Day 12 of OSR Christmas, but the gaming world was rocked by the OGL 1.1/2.0 leaks and the accompanying reactions, both public and private. I've been sitting at my desk for 8 to 12 hours a day since the end of two weeks ago nearly, fielding phone calls, video calls, PMs, and recording videos (sometimes multiple times per day), and I'm only now beginning to catch my breath. Yes, I still have emails to answer from last week.

The following are the gift receivers from Day 12 of OSR Christmas. If you see your name below, you are being gifted. Email me at tenkarsDOTtavern at that gmail thing with "OSR Christmas" in the subject. Digital gifts need an email, and physical gifts need a mailing address. Note, the two packages shipping from The Tavern likely won't go out until next week.

So, without further delay, the gifts (and those being gifted) in today's OSR Christmas Day 12 mix are:

$10 DTRPG Gift Certificate, donated by The Tavern - Worldwide - Mark

OSR Refrigerator Magnet, donated by Thadeus Moore - Worldwide - PSFam

Shadowdark PDFs, full set, donated by James Mishler Games - Worldwide - Johnathon

Arduin Map - Physical, donated by Emperors' Choice Games- Worldwide - Brian S

Arduin Grimoires 1 – 9 – Emperors Choice - US Only GMJasonGURPS

Endless Encounters PDF (choice of B/X or 5e), donated by Pacesetter Games - Worldwide - Rob

The Haunted Ruins - Physical, donated by Wizard Tower Games - US Only - Jeremy "frothsof" Smith

Hyperborea – Print Set from Kickstarter, Standard Cover with Damaged Players’ Book ($90 value before postal damage - thank you US Postal Service– The Tavern (US Only) - Christopher Stodgill

Random Box of Goodness from the Tenkar Game Collection - priceless ;) - (US Only) - RhinoDino1973

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 cast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar  

Wake me when it's my turn to roll....

I will freely admit I have kind of lost interest in the whole Ha$bro OGL debacle because, well because I am a bit jaded and I think everything Ha$bro is doing going forward is self-serving and an attempt to placate the masses while still getting what they want. I don't believe for a minute that they actually give a shit what the player base thinks, especially the like of use over here in the OSR. Those surveys.....nobody is really reading them. A few might make their way out of marketing and onto the desk of someone with power, but those will be hand-selected to reinforce what that person wants to see.

"Chris, you're so wrong......Ha$bro doesn't want to lose money on D&D..." 

Yeah....I've worked for a few larger corporations in the past, pretty far down on the food-chain mind you, and from my experience, the good idea fairy rarely makes a visit, but dumb-assed ideas will have an inordinate amount of resources thrown at it until those that executed the idea are no longer around. A lot of companies will "step over a dollar to pick up a dime" and even a few screwed-up P&L statements won't get the point across.

Actually, and this is probably a bad analogy, but bear with me here.....this whole shebang really reminds me of a shitty GM. Now I'm speaking generically, but I'm recalling an actual bad GM I had.

So Ha$bro has this game they don't consider sacred, but they do figure they can do whatever the fuck they want because it's the only game in town (or so they think). Oh....they also have their own PC at the table and want the best of everything for themselves. If you come up with a good idea, they're going to steal it and use if for their PC. If you make too much noise about how they're running the game then you can just fuck right off. They'll tell you that there was a meeting and "everyone" decided they'd rather not game with you, but you'll both know that it's just the GM making that call. The GM, and by extension the GMPC, is infallible it doesn't take long to realize that sitting at this table may have its moments, but at what cost?

I do understand that this OGL, or more importantly the future of the Old OGL, is important, but it's way above my head to do anything about it, but I hope that those that can do something about it (i.e., have resources and clout to do so) kick Ha$bro's ass. I'll "speak" with my wallet, but I don't think for second Ha$bro will listen to my whispers.....

Is anybody else like, "Wake me when this bullshit is over and it's time for me to roll some dice."?

Humble Bundle - RPG Worlds by Kobold Press & Friends (5e and OSR)

I'm quite sure you read of and/or heard of the recent uproar over WotC's plans to cancel the 1.0(a) OGL, upon which nearly every 3rd party D20 system/scenario/ campaign is built. If you only care about OSR material, you are well covered and have amazing value in the RPG Worlds by Kobold Press & Friends Humble Bundle. If you play 5e or are willing to convert from 5e to OSR, the value is off the charts.

A percentage of sales through The Tavern's affiliate link for Humble Bundle will go to support The Tavern and The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

Note - OSR Christmas Day 12 Gifting will be done on Monday

The New "Playtest" OGL 1.2 Survey is Live - Please Give Your Feedback

Yep, the OGL 1.2 "Playtest" Survey is live. I guess they figured "Draft" was a poor label to use after the OGL 1.1 fiasco ;)

Here's the link: https://t.co/75JmccffF1

And here's my closing comment:

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 cast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar  

Guest Poster - James Raggi IV - On Potential Inclusivity/Morality Clauses in RPG Licenses (OGL, ORC, etc)

I woke this morning to a Facebook PM from James, and after I responded he asked if I had the time to read the following text, the script, if you will, of his video planned for today (linked here and below). I read it out loud, so I could get Rach's reaction, and we both agree it was damn near perfect. I told James such, but I insisted that he also share a text version of it, to get it to the widest audience possible. I am honored that James chose The Tavern for this purpose. Tenkar

Hello. My name is James Edward Raggi IV, I am the creator and publisher of Lamentations of the Flame Princess, a tabletop role-playing game.

I'm here to talk to you about declared or possible inclusivity clauses (also referred to as morality clauses, or political exclusion clauses) as part of upcoming game licenses. Specifically, I'm here to tell you why they are a bad idea for creators of the licenses, publishers who will use the licenses, and for the fans and customers of the games using the licenses, even if you agree with all of the positions the clauses would promote.

I know that proponents of inclusivity clauses mean well. They want to create an environment where good people, and good things, can thrive, without the pressures and stresses of having to deal with the bad things, and the bad people.

But things aren't so simple.

If you're not familiar, I recommend you research the Hays code governing motion pictures from 1934 to 1968, and the comics code which governed the comics industry from 1954 to 2011, and the TSR writing guidelines of the 1980s and 1990s in roleplaying. All of those codes were, like inclusivity clauses today, designed to promote what were at the time thought of as good values in creative work, and prevent bad things from being disseminated through the creative work governed by their codes. (for shits and giggles, let's also consider the Book of Erotic Fantasy controversy of 2003 I think it was)

How are any of those codes looked at in hindsight? Do you think they helped progress the art forms they administered? Or did they retard them? Do you think they helped marginalized people find and express their voices? Or did they help to silence them?

Do you really think such a code or clause made today will in the future be judged any differently? Do you? Sure, you might think you're smarter than the people of the past, but what about the people in the future? Is your inclusivity clause going to ultimately be seen as a good thing, when all of these previous efforts to accomplish the same great and good things have failed?

Because there is one complication that will make future perceptions very important. The current controversies and conversations about gaming licenses involve whether licenses are perpetual, whether they are revokable. How are you going to convince people to adopt a new license to invest all their creativity and their business investment and livelihood in, without addressing whether the license is revokable?

And if you do what is largely right now considered the good thing and make your new license irrevokable, then whatever you specify in any inclusivity or morality clause, that's forever. Are you really up to the task of defining that, not even for all time, but even for the next five, ten, twenty years, to be more realistic about it?

You don't know which way the winds are going to blow, not in the halls of power and influence in our culture, and not on the ground amongst the people. The New Deal era gave way to McCarthyism, which gave way to the free love 60s, which gave way to the recessionary and inflationary 70s, which gave way to the Reagan/Thatcher 80s, which gave way to the Clinton years, which gave way to the Bush years, which gave way to the Obama years, which gave way to Trump. Now we're two years into the Biden years. What's next? 

What do you do if Ron DeSantis, with his "stop woke" policies and his "ok groomer" supporters, wins the next US election? What happens to your license and its administration if not only political power, but the cultural zeitgeist becomes more conservative? How would you feel if your inclusivity clauses in your irrevocable licenses are used to protect the sensibilities of the most white, Christian, regressive class, and the majority of your customers support this? Do you really think such a thing is impossible over just a few years time, given the history of the last century? 

And while Wizards of the Coast will have to wholly own their Open Gaming License, this new ORC thing is being put together by a consortium of publishers, and last I heard the plan was that the license would be owned and administered by a third party. So whatever controversies and conflicts arise surrounding that license, it will still forever be associated with the companies and people that created it, but who will not control it. 

You might think that's fine, you're in good with the people who will administer the license... but things change. It doesn't even take a cultural shift. Just imagine some rich person who wants to rid their precious gaming hobby of "wokeness." You don't think there's an Elon Musk type out there willing to burn a fortune to "fix" gaming the way Musk wanted to with Twitter? What happens to your relationships, those connections, when someone is buying companies, buying influence, with millions or even billions of dollars? Do you really think such a thing is impossible, given the history of just this past year?

Do you think the presence of an inclusivity or morality clause in a license is more or less likely to trigger such a situation?

But even without cultural shifts, or billionaires enforcing their will, I believe these clauses will be publicity and administrative nightmares for anyone implementing them.

If you implement these inclusivity/morality clauses, you are setting yourself up to be the arbiter of what exactly is racist. What is sexist. What is transphobic. You get to tell activists "no we don't think that is really racist," or you get to tell publishers to destroy their work because they've done a bad thing. And you get to do that over, and over, and over, and over, forever.

Because these arguments are out there. If you're putting this license together, you've seen the arguments. And obviously if you're wanting to implement such a license, you want to prevent your work from being used to facilitate racism, sexism, transphobia, whatever -isms and -phobias are out there now or will become a thing in the future.

But you know, you absolutely know, that there are people out there who have definitions of these things that are far more expansive than that of the general public. Or more expansive than your personal definition. What are you going to do when these people come to you demanding the cancellation of someone's license? What exactly do you think is going to happen when you say no? You are going to have to say no to these complaints at some point or another, aren't you?

Is this a mess you really want to deal with?

Or what about the other side, the people who will get their licenses cancelled, or will have to go through the hardships of destroying work they believe in and have invested in? You don't think they're going to make noise? You don't think there will be a loud and active community to take their side? What do you do if the good and progressive thing to enforce is contrary to what the larger community thinks is OK?

Are classic conceptions of elves and dwarves and evil orcs and such evidence of white supremacy and bio-essentialism, or are they classic fantasy tropes that all should be able to employ?

You want to own the final say on that controversy?

I don't know what any potential morality clause in ORC would look like as far as administration and appeals processes, but the OGL 1.1 that leaked from Wizards of the Coast states that they have unilateral power to decide such things, but that they are open to being convinced they made a wrong choice based on "community pushback and bad PR." They're inviting twitter mobs to influence them.

Why would anyone think this is a good idea?

And it only gets more complicated the more you look at it.

A lack of diversity in a work is sometimes cited as racist, sexist, etc. all on its own. But writing outside your demographic can be considered insensitive or appropriation. You know this is a thing. And you know by implementing an inclusivity/morality clause, you are inviting people to use you to enforce their thinking on the matter. How much of this do you really think is your job to decide on, for everyone else?

How will your inclusivity clause work for statements or actions outside of the actual products? If someone says something against popular opinion on Twitter, if despicable statements five, ten, twenty years ago are unearthed, if someone takes a picture with a person deeply unpopular with much of the community... what are you going to do when people come to you with this proof of transgression against inclusivity and demand you do something with their license? How do you judge this? And again, is all the blowback from every individual judgment directed at you something that is productive for you to deal with?

What do you do if there's another competing license out there with an inclusivity clause, and they decide to enforce something that you've passed on. Do you want the publicity of not fighting racism etc. as well as your competitor? How do you navigate that without your hand being forced?

What about retroactivity? I'm going to give a ridiculous example but I'm sure you'll get my gist. Let's say some lauded RPG writer goes all Kanye West tomorrow. And they make part of their new Hitler-loving brand their little pet pug dog. Let's say that pugs become the new dogwhistle (if you will) for the bad people class because of it. Sure, you may want to police new instances of pug-related gaming material for your license... but what happens when people start complaining about prior pug material released under your license? Or released not under your license by someone now using your license? How are you going to enforce that, or not enforce that, with a minimum of uproar and headache?

We're starting to get ridiculous now, but the point is there are an infinite number of edge cases for people to get very invested in, and very invested in you, as license manager, being on their side. There is no way for you to maneuver through these controversies in a way that doesn't get their shit all over you. This is what inclusivity clauses will get you.

Again, even if you somehow perfectly craft and word it for today's cultural environment, the only constant about the cultural environment is that it changes.

Nevermind who exactly the person will be that is in charge of making these decisions. I would think nobody in their right mind would want that responsibility once all the edge cases show up in their inbox. And I wouldn't trust anyone who really wants the job.

Would you?

And then there's one final argument, the one that I think will be least sympathetic to the people putting these licenses together, but I think it is a useful practical argument.

Varg Vikernes is the perfect bogeyman for both gaming and heavy metal. He's not an edge case, there is no question that his views and his actions are reprehensible. Yet here he is, in the shadows of two scenes I care very much about. I'm afraid of taking up knitting for fear of finding out he's into it, ya know? But he's published a role-playing game. Can any of you say, off the top of your head, without looking it up, whether or not he used any sort of license in publishing his game? OGL, Creative Commons, Nazi Free-Use License, any damn thing. Do you know?

If you don't know if the actual worst verifiable example has used a license, what in the world is any of this about?

If he has used a license... how has that fact affected anyone? Anyone at all? Is anyone associating him right now with anyone that created or uses that license? Is anyone currently using the OGL somehow bound or associated with anyone else also using the OGL? I don't get the purpose of this at all.

If he hasn't used a license... well, how has that stopped him from doing exactly what he wants to do? Has any victory over racism or racists been won because he is using a different way of rolling the dice in his game than you use in yours? What exactly is trying to be accomplished through an inclusivity license?

So then, to wrap up, I will again state that I expect any inclusivity or moralities clauses will have no practical benefits for anyone implementing or using them, but they will create conflict and controversies.

Are these controversies being connected to your companies, having created these clauses, going to improve the performance of your businesses? Are they going to facilitate a welcoming atmosphere for potential new players or customers, or in convincing new publishers to use the license? Are they going to improve the quality of conversations online? 

Are these controversies going to do anything to protect the people these clauses are in place to protect in the first place?

I think the answer to all of these questions is no.

I think we should leave political and moral questions about creative content to the individual creators to navigate with the public, and not create choke points for some to enforce their views upon others.

Thank you for listening.

And now for a more personal note concerning all of this. This is pure speculation, more imagination, but imagination is what we are supposed to be doing around here, instead of... this license stuff. It isn't out of the realm of possibility that an OGL or potential ORC inclusivity or morals clause becomes widely adopted. What if it became the wide industry standard? Sort of the way ratings dominate the movie and video game industries.

In that way I'm sort of putting myself in the place of EC Comics right before the Comics Code took over. It's not good.

And... let me talk about this book (Blood in the Chocolate). It was released in December 2016, and in the summer of 2017 it won a gold Ennie award. A little ol' Lamentations of the Flame Princess publication won in a public vote over offerings from Chaosium, Pelgrane, and Green Ronin. Holy shit, right?

Three years later, another publisher refuses to enter the ennies because of this win, claiming it's all sorts of bad things. The author of the book even denounced his own award-winning creation. Just last week in January 2023 somebody described it as a Nazi entry point into the hobby. I still think of it the same way I did when it won the award.

You think you're doing the right thing. You think you're going to continue to do so, and you're going to have the good and popular responses to whatever comes.

Well good luck to you. Because I know how fast things can turn.

Be very careful what you set into legal stone.

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 cast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar  

Bundle of Holding - Alternatives to D&D

Yep. That OGL nonsense is bleeding into everywhere ;)

In this case, Bundle of Holding is putting together a nice assortment of D&D alternatives.

For just US$9.95 you get all three complete games in our Starter Collection (retail value $58) as DRM-free ebooks, including Sigil Stone Publishing's Five Torches Deep (nice rulebook); Gallant Knight's Tiny Dungeon 2E (would love to play with my niece); and the current (fifth) edition of the venerable Chivalry and Sorcery (haven't read yet but have heard good things of) from Brittannia Game Designs. As a convenience to customers, we also add two acclaimed free retroclones: the Basic Fantasy RPG Third Edition (one of the better retroclones) and Gurbintroll's Lightmaster Core Rulebook (looks to be a Rolemaster clone).

And if you pay more than the threshold price of $28.23, you'll level up and also get our entire Bonus Collection with five more complete titles worth an additional $107, including the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG (speaks for itself) rulebook from Goodman Games; Schwalb Entertainment's Shadow of the Demon Lord (have and would love to play a session or ten); the HackMaster Player's Handbook from Kenzer & Company (plus the free HackMaster Basic(have)); and the original 2015 Fragged Empire First Edition Core Rules (backed the KS, nice setting and rules) from Design Ministries, along with its fantasy setting Fragged Kingdom.

 

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 cast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar   

Kickstarter - Realms Of Elghrune Box Set

Explore the dungeon planet! Welcome to the Realms of Elghrune - a brand new Science Fantasy RPG.

In the current post-OGL gaming world, you need options that aren't strongly tied to any version of the D&D SRD.

Realms of Elhrune appears to fit that bill suitably well. Sure, it uses a d20, but it ONLY uses a d20. So, technically it IS a d20 game, but it is certainly not a D20 game.

It's not often that you see boxed sets from smaller publishers in the RPG field, and seeing such here tells me that Realms of Elhure is a passion project. Atmospheric art adds value.

Pricing of the Realms of Elghrune Kickstarter is extremely fair. Looks like most backers see it as I do, as the majority are backing at the Exclusive Box Set level (personally I love mini-GM screens). Rach won't mind another gaming box on our shelves - yes, I'm a backer ;)

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 cast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar  

Announcing Sovereign Monsters! for Monsters! Monsters!

Need I say more? Coming in 2023, with Glen Hallstrom (and possibly others).

Above thanks to Steve Crompton! Amazing! I'm psyched!

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 cast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar  

Support You Local Con...or My Local Con

I don't know about you, but I'm so done hearing about the Ha$bro D&D OGL fuckery. Don't get me wrong, I feel it is an important issue and I've read some real good points about a bunch of stuff I hadn't realized/considered/etc. I could do a consolidation of some of the best stuff I've read this last week, but it is Sunday and Erik has spent enough Tavern time on the subject (and will probably do some more).

Instead I'll bore you with some PC stories!

I kid.....I kid.....or am a I?

Gaming hasn't picked up from the holiday lull yet, well......table-top RPG gaming, so lately I've been doing the Xbox thing (I find Minecraft to be a good time-waster and far more relaxing than anticipated) and I'm slowly working on a new small form factor PC. I found an Intel i9 12th Gen processor that had two SATA slots....normally this tiny size only has one. Also this....

.....and I think I lost a few readers there. Damn, I guess those kind of PC stories aren't going to fly either!

Well I am looking forward to the next few months, because I have a few things going on, but they're more time-fillers until NTRPG in June. We should have game registration soon and I was hoping to run something this year, but I have to travel a bit lighter this year for a convention I drive to....just one of those "goings on" overlaps NTRPG  a teensy bit (Sunday).

I mentioned NTRPG Facebook Auctions a couple of weeks ago, and as we get closer (up to a point) the auction activity will likely pick up. I would imagine some of the primo stuff will be be held for the actual NTRPG Auction and/or Squeeky Wheel (raffle), but there is clearly a lot of good stuff going up on Facebook....oh, and it looks like there are still convention tickets available! 

....as much as I don't want competition on this good stuff, it does benefit the con, so maybe you should check it out. Just do it tomorrow though 'cause I think I'm still winning the auction for some zines I had my eye on. 

In the meantime I have some Minecraft on standby.....

In case you really needed an "actual" PC story:

This one time, in HackMaster, my brand-new 1/2 Ogre Fighter (Dual Wielding 2H Longswords!) was fighting in this arena and he climbed up real high (like 120') onto a platform where he was promptly pushed over the edge by a wall of force. Facing his imminent demise (12d6 penetrating, average of 48 hp of damage!) I asked the GM if he could draw both swords as he fell to face death like a bad-ass....which was allowed. The GM gave an evil laugh as he rolled the 12d6p damage....until he realized there were a lot of 1's and 2's and no 6's (penetration)! Oh, and falling damage is crushing damage, which 1/2 Ogres only take half damage! My lucky SOB was able to get up and dust himself off to fight another day!

OSR Christmas - Day 12 Gifts (and giving gifts for Day 11) - FINALLY!

I apologize for the delay in getting to the Day 12 of OSR Christmas, but the gaming world was rocked by the OGL 1.1/2.0 leaks and the accompanying reactions, both public and private. I've been sitting at my desk for 8 to 12 hours a day since the end of last week, fielding phone calls, video calls, PMs, and recording videos (sometimes multiple times per day), and I'm only now beginning to catch my breath. Without any further delay, let's jump into gifting for Day 11 of OSR Christmas and the gifts for Day 12. - Tenkar

Now, this is Day 12 of OSR Christmas (and the assigning of gifts for OSR Christmas Day 11). 

The following are the gift receivers from Day 11 of OSR Christmas. If you see your name below, you are being gifted. Email me at tenkarsDOTtavern at that gmail thing with "OSR Christmas" in the subject. Digital gifts need an email, and physical gifts need a mailing address. 

$10 DTRPG Gift Certificate, donated by The Tavern - Worldwide - IL

OSR Refrigerator Magnet, donated by Thadeus Moore - Worldwide - AEIOU

Shadowdark PDFs, full set, donated by James Mishler Games - Worldwide - MGSherm 

Arduin Map - Physical, donated by Emperors' Choice Games- Worldwide - Rob

Endless Encounters PDF (choice of B/X or 5e), donated by Pacesetter Games - Worldwide - Jason Jensen

The Haunted Ruins - Physical, donated by Wizard Tower Games - US Only - Nathand Christenson

Shadowdark Quickstart & Cursed Scroll (Bundle) – Print Copies – Donated by The Arcane Library – US Only - (Note: This is a different Shadowdark than above) -   Mike Bauer

To be in the mix to be potentially gifted one of the following gifts, you need to comment below. One random gift receiver will be picked for each gift sometime on Thursday, January 19th, 2023. So you have 5 days to get your comment in. Note: if you are outside the United States, I need you to indicate such. Some gifts are cost-prohibitive to ship outside the US. Blame the USPS, not us.

So, without further delay, the gifts in today's OSR Christmas Day 12 mix are:

$10 DTRPG Gift Certificate, donated by The Tavern - Worldwide

OSR Refrigerator Magnet, donated by Thadeus Moore - Worldwide

Shadowdark PDFs, full set, donated by James Mishler Games - Worldwide

Arduin Map - Physical, donated by Emperors' Choice Games- Worldwide

Arduin Grimoires 1 – 9 – Emperors Choice - US Only 

Endless Encounters PDF (choice of B/X or 5e), donated by Pacesetter Games - Worldwide

The Haunted Ruins - Physical, donated by Wizard Tower Games - US Only

Hyperborea – Print Set from Kickstarter, Standard Cover with Damaged Players’ Book ($90 value before postal damage - thank you US Postal Service– The Tavern (US Only)

Random Box of Goodness from the Tenkar Game Collection - priceless ;) - (US Only)

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 cast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar  

Bundle of Holding - Non-OGL Fantasy

My God! There are a number of titles in this package that I've been dying to read and have never gotten. Now, I have them - and some dupes. What happens if you already own one or more parts of a Bundle? Can you pass them on? Hmmmmmm

I've already snagged the Non-OGL Fantasy Bundle for the Bonus Collection - it's just that good a collection. It's 9.99 for the Starter Collection and it's about 30 bucks for the Bonus Collection.

And yes, OSR Christmas keeps getting pushed back, but time is ticking on this bundle. There are 3 days left as I type this.

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 cast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar  

RuneQuest and Call of Cthulhu Starter Sets On Sale for 99 Cents Each!

I own both the RuneQuest Starter and Call of Cthulhu Starter Sets in physical and PDF and they are the best values in RPG material that I've found in the last few years. Hands down.

You can currently snag both for 99 cents.

Grab them both. For far less than a Starbucks coffee, you will have a huge amount of d100-based gaming material.

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 cast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar  

Monsters! Monsters! Has a Licensing Agreement that Doesn't Suck the Soul Out of Your Body

 

Yep, I just signed an agreement to produce a supplement for Monsters! Monsters! (similar enough to Ken St Andre's more famous Tunnels & Trolls to be familiar, different enough to stand on its own). Sovereign Monsters! will be a superpowered supplement for Monsters! Monsters!, written by myself with Glen Halstrom, and art by Glen himself.

Basic terms are pretty fair - $10 upfront and 4% of sales. Besides, I like the system and I'm comfortable working with Ken and Steve.

Continual Light 2e (now a true Second Edition) is still coming, but it does require a rewrite to remove OGL/SRD content, the same position as many OSR systems are in.

Reach out to Steve Crompton on Facebook if you are interested in joining in for some Monsters! Monsters!

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Basic Roleplaying for 99 Cents!

Note: Another day without OSR Christmas. Tomorrow I HOPEFULLY will catch up.

Instead, here's something EVERYONE can treat themselves to - Chaosium's Basic Roleplaying is on sale for 99 cents (marked down from 19.99). An excellent ruleset at full price, for 99 cents it should be in everyone's gaming library!

I'm not sure how long the sale is on for, so grab a copy now and read later ;)

Welcome to Chaosium’s Basic Roleplaying system, a book that collects in one place rules and options for one of the original and most influential role playing game systems in the world.

This book comprises a roleplaying game system, a framework of rules aimed at allowing players to enact a sort of improvisational radio theater—only without microphones—and with dice determining whe­ther the characters succeed or fail at what they attempt to do. In roleplaying games, one player takes on the role of the gamemaster (GM), while the other player(s) assume the roles of player characters (PCs) in the game. The gamemaster also acts out the roles of characters who aren’t being guided by players: these are called non-player characters (NPCs).

From its origin, Basic Roleplaying was designed to be intuitive and easy to play. Character attributes follow a 3D6 curve, and the other Basic Roleplaying mechanics are even simpler. Virtually all rolls determining success or failure of a task are determined via the roll of percentile dice. This means that there’s less fiddling with dice of different types, and the concept of a percentile chance of success is extremely easy for beginners and experienced players to grasp. There aren’t many easier ways to say a character has a 70% chance of succeeding at an activity.

The core virtues of the system are as evident today as they were when it was first introduced. Primary characteristics of Basic Roleplaying that have emerged from decades of play, across many different varieties of the system are as follows:

• The system is remarkably friendly to newcomers. It is easy to describe the basics of the game system, and the percentile mechanics, to non-gamers.
• Players of other game systems often find Basic Roleplaying to be much less mechanistic and less of a barrier to the actual act of roleplaying. Less time spent on game systems usually equals more time available for roleplaying and thinking “in character.”
• Most of the information players need to know is present on their character sheets.
• Characters tend to evolve based on practicing the skills they use the most. They do not arbitrarily gain experience in skills and qualities based on ephemeral elements such as levels or experience ranks.
• Combat can be very quick and deadly, and often the deciding blow in a conflict is the one to land first.
• Basic Roleplaying is remarkably modular: levels of complexity can be added or removed as needed, and the core system works equally well with considerable detail as it does with a minimal amount of rules.
• The internal consistency of Basic Roleplaying allows for rules judgments to be made rapidly and with little searching through the rulebook for special cases.

This book represents a first for Basic Roleplaying—a system complete in one book, without a defined setting. Previously, Basic Roleplaying has been an integral part of standalone games, usually with rich and deep world settings. Due to differences in these settings, Basic Roleplaying has had many different incarnations. Variant and sometimes contradictory rules have emerged between versions, to better support one particular setting over another.

Chaosium’s Basic Roleplaying system reconciles these different flavors of the system and brings many variant rules together between the covers of one book, something that has never been done before. Some of these rules are provided as optional extensions, some as alternate systems, and others have been integrated into the core system. By design, this work is not a reinvention of Basic Roleplaying nor a significant evolution of the system. It is instead a collected and complete version of it, without setting, provided as a guide to players and gamemasters everywhere and compatible with most Basic Roleplaying games. It also allows the gamemaster the ability to create his or her own game world (or worlds), to adapt others from fiction, films, or even translate settings from other roleplaying games into Basic Roleplaying.

 

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DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar  

The OGL, SRD, and a Few Days of Distractions - Why You Should Care About the Revocation of OGL 1.0

We have one more day of OSR Christmas and still need to wrap up with Day 12 Gifting, but I've been sleeping light and sitting at my desk the past few days, answering phone calls, text messages, PM on Facebook and Discord, and active on Facebook and Discord. 

This is what the OGL 1.1 fiasco has caused. Want to read OGL 1.1 yourself? Here's the link: http://ogl.battlezoo.com/ Be prepared, it ain't pretty.

Why is that? 

Well, 1.1 cancels 1.0 and 1.0a of the OGL. Like your OSR games? Expect many of them to be pulled from the market by the 13th of this month, the day we expect 1.1 to release and REVOKE the older OGLs. Perpetual no longer means what it means.

Oh, that applies to Pathfinder 1 and 2, Starfinder, Cepheus Engine (what? it's not based on a D&D SRD - but it does use the WotC 1.0 OGL), and others.

Lines of battle are being drawn. Companies big and small, dozens of employees and one-man shops, full-timers and those that supplement their income - all stand together in the face of WotC's likely unlawful action - but as many already know, the civil court system in the US isn't about who is right as much as who can outspend who.

As Alexander Macris (ACKS) put it so well earlier today: "In real-life courtroom dramas, the good guys don’t win. The rich guys win."

All publishers affected by the revocation of the 22-year-old OGL need to stand together. Gamers need to support these publishers. To paraphrase Bill Webb of Frog God Games: "Support your OGL publishers. We don't want your donations, simply spend your money and get value in return."

Some resources: 

Defend the OGL Discord Server https://discord.gg/MMq9GkNS  Go to the #what-to-do channel

Wizards/Hasbro - Do NOT Change the OGL License - Petition https://www.change.org/p/wizards-hasbro-do-not-change-the-ogl-license

The best resource is YOU. Comment on Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter. Get your voice into the discussion. Support your favorite game publishers and creators.

A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats

There has been a lot of brouhaha over Ha$bro updating, or at least contemplating/trying to update, the Open Game License to version 1.1 and start skimming money "off the top". This whole thing feels so far past ridiculous as to actually be recockulous.

Now I understand that this is alarming to some people, but to the average gamer, and I dare say small publisher, that would read this blog....meh, it's not something to get too worked up about....well, at least from a more common-sense perspective.

I am fully cognizant that there is always the possibility of a "frivolous" lawsuit from a big company like Ha$bro, which could just ruin a "small guy" even if they're in the right....because lawsuits and lawyers cost money up-front, but I'm discounting that for the purposes of this one-sided discussion.

1st off, if you read the SRD-OGLv1.1 (published January 1st, 2016...according to the PDF) and the OGLv1.0 (pulled WotC via the internet archive), I don't think you can get much clearer than the Offer and Acceptance, "By Using the Open Game Content You indicate Your acceptance of the terms of this License." and the Grant and Consideration, "In consideration for agreeing to use this License, the Contributors grant You a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license with the exact terms of this License to Use, the Open Game Content."

This legalese was deliberately written in an easy-to-understand language for a reason. I will postulate that the reason was to entice people to write compatible 3rd party materials for D&D. This is a good thing for Ha$bro, and I will argue that it is still a good thing!

Unless you really want to use the shiny & new version of D&D and need to use the updated OGL & SRD, you can just use the old one......let's see...oh, yeah...in perpetuity.

A lifetime ago I worked in an overly competitive industry and my boss, ever the salesman, worked to break down some of this competitiveness. He realized that there was no possibly way for all these companies to be able to service all of the potential customers. There was always going to be some high-level competition for the high-end(paying) clients, but the well of customers was (unfortunately) never going to run dry and there was far more value in everyone working together.

One of his favorite sayings was "A rising tide lifts all boats."

If you are able to, look at your gaming stuff. Do you have more than one rulebook? More than one set of dice? How about adventures and/or other sourcebooks? If you're here odds are you have multiple game systems, multiple editions, and possibly even multiple copies of certain books of the same game system! I'm willing to be $$$ that you will be adding to your library of material. Most of my gaming friends like to share with new players and each other as well, and I think that's more common than not.

The thing is, all of as, as players, are not just going to pick up a Player's Handbook and call it good. You know this, I know this....hell, Ha$bro knows this! They should know this....I mean most companies do research and have marketing people! Heck, Marketers usually like to segment customer groups and give them interesting names somewhat indicative of their perception of said customer group..... 

I'm sure somebody at Ha$bro realized that everyone is making more money off of RPGs than they are, but I'm not sure that they realize that more than likely nobody is making more money than they are. Obviously by "everybody" I mean collectively. Trying to get a chunk of change off of everyone successfully making products using the OGL & SRD will only reduce the effectiveness of these 3rd party producers, raise their prices, and shrink the number of "competing" products. This is basic economics....seriously Econ 101.

The thing is, there isn't a set, defined pool of customers and customer dollars (although Marketers act as though there is). Getting a 3rd party vendor to lose $100 of profits does not mean that Ha$bro makes $100 more. Instead it just means there is less product "out there", which assuming full utilization of purchased products (no collections, etc.) means there is less gaming going on.

Ha$bro needs more gaming in general, and I'd argue it needs more new gamers than anything. Most of us reading here probably do not play the current edition of D&D, and even if you do, it probably isn't your preferred system. Now, this is going to be my weakest point because it is my "gut" feeling here, but I think there are two main purchasers of the current edition of D&D: die-hard fans, and brand-new-to-rpg players.

Some people will always pick up the current flavor and run with it until there is a new edition. These purchasers are not likely to be "lost" to 3rd party vendors and would be labeled, by the marketers, as "Brand Loyal". This OGL/SRD issue is lost on them.....

Now the other group, new players....they're going to pick up the core books and supplements/adventures. If they enjoy themselves they may pick up 3rd party materials and/or more "in house" products. With any luck, these new players, that marketers would label as well....I'll jokingly call them "Newbs", will become Brand Loyalists.

I've already insinuated it, but there is a 3rd group of potential D&D players and that is the established RPG player that isn't a Brand Loyalist or a Newb.....and odds are most of you reading this fall into this third group. For the sake of this discussion we'll say the Marketers label us as "Gamers". Now the Gamers might interact with the Brand Loyalists and even the Newbs, but this would be in addition to our normal gaming, and with regard to Newbs it might be to help establish non-players as Newbs. Gamers are much more likely to pick up a 3rd party vendor product for a variety of reasons, but one I'll highlight is the likelihood that there is little to no chance that a Brand Loyalist or Newb has seen the 3rd party product (pretty much by group definition). In this instance the availability of 3rd party OGL/SRD products directly impacts the the creation of a new D&D customer. This is a bit of a stretch, which I understand.

The absolute best way for Ha$bro to increase their sales of D&D products is threefold: Make quality products, making playing RPGs more socially-acceptable, and increase the number of RPG players overall.

1. The availability of 3rd party products does not have a direct impact on the quality of Official D&D products from Ha$bro, but if an author/designer is making good product for someone else, it stands to reason they could be a good designer/author for Ha$bro....
2. There has been a concerted effort by Ha$bro to make D&D more socially-acceptable. Movies, affiliated products, and time have all been a factor here.
3. More players means more customers. It doesn't mean Ha$bro gets a larger slice of the pie per se, but the pie itself is bigger, so kind of the same thing?

2nd (I had a 1st off, so I need a 2nd), if Ha$bro is going to play corporate fuck-fuck games, then they can probably expect more dumbfuckery to follow. I'm assuming that since the original OGL is pretty well spelled out that the only way Ha$bro is going to be able to get their skimming operation going is to force 3rd party publishers to update from the old OGL to a new one that has these profitable provisions in it. My assumption is that if you want to make "stuff" compatible with the newest, shiniest edition of the game you have to use the new OGL and it'll be provisioned such that you cannot use the old OGL. What can a publisher do?

I'll tell you...they'll form a new corporate identity to publish material just for the new OGL and keep the old company working under the old OGL. Clearly IANAL (I am not a lawyer), but since companies are essentially people, you just have one person doing one thing and the other person doing the other, and they're brothers in the same family. 

TL;DR

This whole Open Game License update is a lame cash-grab that is more likely going to hurt D&D and Hasbro than it is to bring in gobs of cash, unless you're of the opinion that any publicity is "good" publicity. Hasbro made a very legal promise to the gaming community and trying to rescind that promise is going to cost in multiple ways. They're much better off growing the gaming community overall than they are tearing it apart.