Ho, Ho, Ho.....Frugal Xmas 2023

In a previous life I worked retail management at Fred Meyer and I was (unfortunately) in charge of my store's Seasonal Department. From just before Thanksgiving until New Year's Day my 45 hour work-week turned into 65+ hours a week. The holiday bullshit, especially dealing with Christmas Trees (both fresh cut and artificial) really took it's toll on me and these days I'm largely "Eff Christmas". I'm not so much Ebenezer Scrooge or Grinch, but maybe more like Margo Chester....

......and now you're looking up who that is. It's ok, this can wait.....

Thing is, I do like gift-giving. Receiving not as much, but I am a single guy in my 5th decade of life.....one could argue that everyday is Christmas for me. I wouldn't, but some could....

What I normally do is buy stuff throughout the year and save said stuff to give on Christmas. That's more for close friends and family at best. I do make gifts for most of my friends and co-workers and at my workplace I'm pretty much the only one who gives gifts....which is internally humorous to me since I'm not a fan of Christmas.....yes, I'm cognizant that so much of my life is oxymoronic.

See, I love tinkering and usually have a large handful of projects that I'm ignoring in order to watch TV or play video games.....but I do have fun with the projects when I get around to them. Being as I am a single guy there's only so much my cats and I need, so a lot of projects produce a surplus.....which means if I play my cards right I can have fun with the tinkering and then I have stuff to give away as needed.

Seeing as Christmas is now just over a week away I have a few projects/gifts to finish up. I did, however, get on top of my Gaming gifts this year and I can share what I did this year since my local group has already gotten everything and the two...ok three people I missed in the initial mailing have their packages enroute....

This year I picked up a few mystery dice bags from the Mystery Dice Goblins and I had some custom notepads made up with my version of the OSE PC Sheet. I do wish I had upgraded the backing, but overall I'm happy with the notepads. For the record, this was an edited copy of an "Official" OSE sheet that I had made just for my use, but I was given permission to share/distribute as long as I actually attached my name to it (which I thought was weird, but ok). The notepad is 5x7 inches with 25 front & back printed PC sheets. While it is small, there's more than enough room to handwrite a new PC, unless you like to use a fat sharpie or china pen.

Now my group plays B/X, so these sheets work well, and now I have more than enough left over (bought enough in bulk to get enough of a price break to justify the expense) that the cats and I will not need to print a new sheet off for a while...

Bundle of Holding - Dragonbane and Year Zero

I'm going to pick a nit with this Bundle of Holding - usually, you highlight a title in the Starter Collection, not the Bonus Collection. Dragonbane is in the Bonus Collection, not the Starter Collection, but I digress.

I've heard only good things about Vaesen and Forbidden Lands. I backed the Dragonbane Kickstarter and damn, but it's a beautiful set. If the rest of the releases in this bundle are of the same quality, it's a bargain and then some.

The Starter Collection Bundle of Dragonbane and Year Zero includes Vaesen, Forbidden Lands, Coriolis - The Third Horizon, and Mutant, Year Zero for 19.95 in PDF. The Bonus Collection is approximately 39 bucks and adds the Dragonbane Core Set, the Twilight: 2000 Core Set, Vaesen: Mythic Britain & Ireland as well as the Coriolis Atlas Compendium.

Adventurer! This new Dragonbane and Year Zero Bundle presents English-language tabletop roleplaying games from Free League Publishing, including the new Dragonbane game of magic, mirth, and mayhem, along with five Free League RPGs – Twilight: 2000, Vaesen, Forbidden Lands, Coriolis, and Mutant: Year Zero – that use the Year Zero Engine rules system also used in ALIEN, Blade Runner, The Walking Dead, and Tales From the Loop.

Dragonbane reimagines Drakar och Demoner (1982) with modern rules for fast and furious magical adventure, presented in a beautifully illustrated full-color core set including two books, maps, cards, pregenerated characters, and more, funded in a gigantic August 2022 Kickstarter campaign. And Year Zero games play just as fast, giving you meaningful and decisive results in one die roll. Well suited for harsh, survival-focused settings, Year Zero games are often deadly, and player characters are rarely safe from danger no matter how experienced they are. The YZE system is player-focused, story-driven, and adaptable. 

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

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    

Humble Bundle - Pathfinder 2nd Edition Legacy Bundle

I am not a Pathfinder player. Never have been. That being said, the original Pathfinder Beginners Box was one of the best gaming values I've ever seen, and the Pathfinder 2e Beginners Box is damn close! You can snag a digital copy of the Pathfinder 2e Beginners Box for as low as 5 bucks with the cheapest bundle option.

The Pathfinder 2nd Edition Legacy Bundle includes THREE bestiaries in its collection - all under the OGL. So, it's ripe for the picking for other OGL systems (although future licensing and revisions will be under the ORC license)

Note: OSR Christmas emails for Days 1 and 2 will go out this weekend

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

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   

Gifting Gifts for OSR Christmas Day 1

Welcome to Day 1 of OSR Christmas for 2023 Day of Gifting. Note that Day 2 of OSR Christmas was on the Tavern Chat Livestream, on Wednesday Night, Dec 13th, 2023 @ 8 PM Eastern. Day 3 will be here, on the blog side, this weekend.

The following gifts are being gifted from OSR Christmas Day 1.

From MonkeyBlood: Gifted to Mark B

• 1 digital set of all three HandyMaps map content (Dungeons, Caves & Strange Locales; Buildings & Structures; and Towns & Villages) delivered via DriveThruRPG https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/7771/MonkeyBlood-Design/subcategory/22304_47441/HandyMaps (World Wide)

From DiceBro: Gifted to RhinoDino1973

• PDF Bundle of issues1-3 of Wizard Funk, an OSR zine\\

From On the Tabletop: Gifted to Ryan

•  1 PDF copy of Holmes & Clark, along with digital goodies

From James Mishler Games: Gifted to Jason Jenson

• 1 Set of 12 PDFs (by my count) of James Mishler releases for Shadowdark as well as the Isle of Eldisor for Labyrinth Lord in PDF

From Tenkar's Tavern: Gifted to Brian (December 13, 2023 at 12:58 PM) & Narmer

•  2 $10 DTRPG Gift Certificates

Folks listed above will need to email me at TenkarsDOTtavernAT that gmail thing (trying to avoid the email scrub bots). Please put "OSR Christmas Day 1" in your header and mention who you are and the gift you are receiving in the body of the email. It's best to also include your DTRPG email, as some gifts will include codes for such.

Congrats to all!

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

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 - Mongoose Traveller 2e

I had a blast with the original Traveller rules back in the day when dying during character generation was a thing. Now, with Mongoose Traveller 2e, it's not a thing, but the soul of the game has been refined and improved. Not sure I could convince my current group to play a Traveller campaign, but it would surely be fun. 

For just US$17.95 you get all three titles in our Player Collection (retail value $100) as DRM-free ebooks, including the complete Mongoose Traveller 2E Starter Set, with the rules and the Fall of Tinath campaign; the versatile Traveller Companion rules expansion; and the newly released Central Supply Catalogue Update 2023.

 

 The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

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    

Mike Mearls Fire from WotC! X-Mas Purge Strikes Deep!

 

Yep, Mike was let go today, one of the 1,100 employees on Hasbro's chopping block.

There are others let go from WotC listed on this thread at ENWorld.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/updated-hasbro-laying-off-1-100-employees.701567/

I assume the thread will be updated

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

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    

OSR Christmas 2023 - Day 1 - Its Time to Get into the Holiday Spirit!

OSR Christmas. Never duplicated, but it should be :)

Welcome to Day 1 of OSR Christmas for 2023. Note that Day 2 of OSR Christmas will be on the Tavern Chat Livestream, on Wednesday Night @ 8 PM Eastern. 

The following gifts will be gifted on Thursday, December 14th, so make sure you comment before Noon Eastern time on December 14th and check back here to see if you are receiving a gift from OSR Christmas Day 1.

If you want to be considered for an OSR Christmas Day 1 gift, simply comment below. 

From MonkeyBlood:

• 1 digital set of all three HandyMaps map content (Dungeons, Caves & Strange Locales; Buildings & Structures; and Towns & Villages) delivered via DriveThruRPG https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/7771/MonkeyBlood-Design/subcategory/22304_47441/HandyMaps (World Wide)

From DiceBro:

• PDF Bundle of issues1-3 of Wizard Funk, an OSR zine\\

From On the Tabletop:

•  1 PDF copy of Holmes & Clark, along with digital goodies

From James Mishler Games:

• 1 Set of 12 PDFs (by my count) of James Mishler releases for Shadowdark as well as the Isle of Eldisor for Labyrinth Lord in PDF

From Tenkar's Tavern:

•  2 $10 DTRPG Gift Certificates

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

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    

I Tried to be Creative Today

I'm currently in the middle of a two-week work trip and it's defiantly a lazy Sunday for me. Yesterday I hit up a local game store, bought some stuff (some minis and a small video game machine), did my laundry, etc., so al I have on my schedule today is to finally sit down and finish the d30 Foraging/Hunting table I had been working on since two weeks ago.

Of course I left on this trip with my table notes at home, but no biggie because I pretty much remember everything I'd come up with so far....

....but I cannot actually start the project because my layout software decided it doesn't have to work anymore. Evidently everything BUT Adobe InDesign CS5 wants to work on my computer. I tried reinstalling so many times. Looked up the error codes, went through with the suggested Microsoft C++ updates, but......nothing.

Ok now I'm pissed. I've been using Adobe CS5 Suite because I'm not spending a metric buttload of $ to rent the current cloud version with the bells and whistles I'm not going to get much use out of. I went ahead and looked at some alternatives, and I think I might have found something I'll like using (even if I have to cough up $70 to do so), but great..........I literally cannot open .indd files outside of InDesign.

FFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUU......you get my frustration, hopefully.

After a bit of online running around I decided to just download Adobe's Creative Cloud app and then Adobe Illustrator on a free trial. No, you didn't read that wrong (well somebody didn't really read it at all), I downloaded Adobe Illustrator and you can imagine how frustrating it was when Illustrator simply wouldn't load InDesign files......

Now, to be fair, if you don't use the products everyday you probably don't see that one logo is "Id" and the other is "Ai", especially if you only downloaded one......so you see "Ai" and that feels right for "Adobe InDesign".

One uninstall, cancel the free trial, and a different download and I finally am able to look at my files. It's been hours since I started this ordeal.....and you know, $22 a month....a FREAKIN MONTH to use Adobe InDesign, no thank you. I went ahead and opened up every file I could and exported it to a INDL file which allegedly could be opened with a newer design\layout program.....that is not Adobe.

At this point I feel like I've wasted a significant portion of my day and I don't feel like screwing around creating a new d30 table. Clearly I am not a fan of subscription models for basic stuff and while I don't mind paying for the likes of Netflix of Disney+, I'm not going to pay a lot of money (I shit you not, $90 a month for updated software) to essentially rent software. Now if I was a professional artist (imagine that with a snooty accent, 'cause that's how I said it in my mind) and needed the newest toys to increase productivity and bring in more $$$, then I'm sure I wouldn't mind the business expense, but my ham-fisted attempts at hobby "writing" doesn't warrant such an expense.

It's probably easy enough to see the connection I've made between a subscription model and the OSR gaming hobby for me, but as I'm typing this out I have this nagging recollection in the back of my mind that there is something I'm missing.....

.....that's right! Hasbro was trying out a subscription model with D&D Beyond.

Oh no, eff that noise.

Later Evening Edit: I decided that instead of playing video games or watching a movie, which I really wanted to do, I better take advantage of the trial period on one of the new InDesign alternatives and while Affinity Publisher 2 might have a few issues, if I save as a PSD file and then use Photoshop to create the PDF it works. Don't ask me why I just cannot print to PDF directly, but whatever. I'm clearly rusty AF, but I did get my table done: d30 Foraging & Hunting Table. If you hop over there from here, put in $0 in the Pay What You Want amount and do so guilt-free 'cause I just told you to!

OSR Christmas Kicks Off on December 11th - This Coming Monday!

Yep, OSR Christmas kicks off here at the Tenkar's Tavern Blog in 2 days, this coming Monday. There will be six days of gifting here on the blog side, four days on four consecutive weeks of Wednesday Nights' Talking Crit Live, as well as two of the Friday Night livestreams.

Here's what is currently in The Tavern's OSR Christmas Gift Closet, with much thanks to the generous donors. In no particular order:

From MonkeyBlood:

• 5x digital sets of the all three HandyMaps map content (Dungeons, Caves & Strange Locales; Buildings & Structures; and Towns & Villages) delivered via DriveThruRPG https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/7771/MonkeyBlood-Design/subcategory/22304_47441/HandyMaps
• 1x The Cartomancer 2 Bundle (physical boxed set containing all three HandyMaps content) delivered anywhere in the world for free. https://monkeyblooddesign.co.uk/product/bundle-handymaps-the-cartomancer-2/

From Emperors' Choice:

• An Arduin Bundle with the hardcover trilogy 1-3, all the grimoires 4 - 9, and Vaults of the Weaver, which has 7 Dungeons in It. All printed material worth $155.00 bundle for Christmas Day! (Note - US Only)

From BRW Games:

• A PDF Bundle including Book of Lost Lore, Book of Lost Beasts, and Book of Lost Tables
• A PDF Bundle including Swords of Wuxia and Swords of Cthulhu

From The Knotty Works:

• Four Bundles of BX Game Options Volume I-XII in PDF

From DiceBro:

• 10 PDF Bundles of issues1-3 of Wizard Funk, an OSR zine

From On the Tabletop:

•     2 Softcover copies of Holmes & Clark (OSR Ruleset)
•     1 Hardcover copy of Holmes & Clark (OSR Ruleset)
•    12 PDF copies of Holmes & Clark, along with digital goodies

From James Mishler Games:

• 12 Sets of 12 PDFs (by my count) of James Mishler releases for Shadowdark as well as the Isle of Eldisor for Labyrinth Lord in PDF

From Tenkar's Tavern:

• At least 12 $10 DTRPG Gift Certificates. There may be additional physical gifts mailed out from The Tavern

OSR Christmas Gifting Days will be open for comments for at least 48 hours each. 

OSR Christmas Gifting on the Livestream will happen at approximately 9 pm on the nites of the livestreams in question. Gifting will use the Streamyard Giveaway app to determine gift receivers. You MUST comment in the livestream chat 5 minutes or so before the random determination for the app to include you in the gifting.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

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     

Save Some Kitties - Buy a DCC/ MCC/ Weird Frontiers Insulated Tumbler!

If you know David Baity and you should, it's likely because of his DCC RPG engine-powered stand-alone weird western Weird Frontiers RPG. You may also know David from his yearly Stray Kitty Benefit Raffle.

This year, David is still supporting stray kitties, but this year he is offering 20oz tumblers/ cups with DCC/ MCC/ Weird Frontiers logos with the proceeds helping a kitty in need. I'm simply adding bandwidth.

Heya folks! I won't be doing the annual charity raffle this year to raise cabbage for local feline shelters, but Joseph Goodman was kind enough to give permission to add DCC & MCC logos along with Weird Frontiers to have a limited run of 20oz cups made for charity. 

100% of profits from sales go directly towards helping feline rescues in my hometown. You guys know how dear the felines are to me, so this is my way of helping those who help them. Once the cups are gone they're gone, so please consider making one or more of them a present under the tree for your favorite gamer and helping a cat or kitten in need.

The easiest way for me to set this up is by a direct PayPal link and set a shipping included price of 35.00 for each cup. If you know of anyone not on FB that might be interested please let them know I'm selling them. Upon payment, you'll be asked to provide type/quantity/shipping address

I'll begin mailing cups as soon as boxes arrive this weekend and continue until they're gone. 

paypal.me/mysticmousers

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

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 - Old-School Setting: The Isle of Sedra

I'm a huge fan of Doug Cole/Gaming Ballistic / gamingballistic.com. Doug was a regular part of The Tavern's "B-Team" 7 or 8 years ago - my once-a-month second group running through Joe Bloch's Castle of the Mad Archmage using Swords & Wizardry Complete. Ah, the good old days. 

I consider Doug a friend as well as an amazingly prolific publisher of fantasy gaming materials for multiple game systems. I own The Isle of Sedra for The Fantasy Trip and it looks beautiful. I'm also a backer of The Isle of Sedra Kickstarter for OSE and other OSR systems.

On this Friday Night at 8 PM Eastern, over at the Tenkar's Tavern Youtube Channel, youtube.com/@TenkarsTavern on the Random Party Generator Livestream, Douglas Cole of Gaming Ballistic will be our special guest. Join us live to support Doug and/or ask him questions about his current projects and potential future projects.

Located in a vast ocean, the Isle of Sedra (and its neighbor Elazar) forms a compact regional campaign setting small enough to be manageable by the GM but large enough to contain a wide variety of adventures. Sedra provides a unified home for several of the adventures published by Gaming Ballistic for Old-School Essentials (and other systems).

The Isle of Sedra contains supplemental information for the solitaire adventures Vampire Hunter Belladonna, Dark Lord’s Doom, Dragon Hunt, and Monster Hunter Belladonna. 

Use Sedra as a campaign start ... or drop it in as a destination and trading partner a few weeks sail from wherever your current campaign is playing out. 

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

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 - Dungeon Fantasy Bundle Powered by GURPS

Dungeon Fantasy is probably the one RPG I own, that I've never played, that I dearly want to at some point. I ran some GURPS back in the '80s and '90s and always had fun with it, but at times the system was so open it was overwhelming. Dungeon Fantasy seems to be the perfect balance and a nice change from D20-style gaming.

Dungeon Fantasy Bundle Powered by GURPS is currently available on Bundle of Holding.  The Dungeon Fantasy Starter Set is 17.95, and includes the Dungeon Fantasy Core Rules, Companion 1, the GM's Screen, and the Dungeon Planner.

And if you pay more than the (current) threshold price (suggect to change) of $38.06, you'll level up and also get our entire Bonus Collection with five more supplements, including Dungeon Fantasy Companion 2 and Companion 3, Dungeon Fantasy Magic Items and Magic Items 2, and Monsters 2.

 

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

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    

Deal of the Day - Sword Weirdos (Old School Skirmish Rules)

I tried to get into Warhammer Battles and Space Marines back in my 20s to no avail. The rules were too cumbersome and the number of minis required to field an army was way out of the reach of my gaming group.

So, at the ripe old age of 56, I stumble across Sword Weirdos - 24 pages of skirmish goodness, a Platinum Seller on DTRPG that aims for 5 to 10 units PER side. Did I mention it includes solo rules? If I weren't away for a few days I'd give this a trial run right now ;)

Swords Weirdos is normally 4.99 in PDF, but until tomorrow it is on sale for 2.99

Sword Weirdos is the fantasy sequel to the surprisingly popular Space Weirdos. "When will you write a fantasy version?" people asked. So I did. Sword Weirdos is a skirmish wargame that allows you to build stats for just about any fantasy or historical model in your collection. Your model's class and weapons determine its special abilities. With 26 classes and 54 weapons and other pieces of equipment to choose from the possiblities are...a lot. I'm not that great with math.

You’re wondering what makes Sword Weirdos different from other games. Not much! It takes what I like from other games and mashes it all together.

• Low model count: 5-10 models or so for each side.
• Use any fantasy/historical minis you have.
• Short but comprehensive. Everything in one 24 page zine.
• Minimal tokens, but still a few because I like them.
• No tape measures or rulers, all movement and ranges are measured with 5” sticks.
• Uses all your RPG dice (except the d20, d20's get enough love) because dice are fun.
• A points system, but you shouldn’t worry about it too much.
• Alternating activations, opposed rolls, Maneuver Points, and random tables mean everyone is involved and rolling dice all the time.

Also includes:

• A separate 4-page solo rules document.
• A pdf with tokens, hobby advice, and a warband sheet. 

If you like minis games but giant rulebooks turn you off or seem intimidating, maybe give this a shot.

Why Goodman Games is Abandoning the OSR for Future 5e Refugees

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

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      

USPS reveals designs for 2024 stamps celebrating Dungeons & Dragons

 

Cool stuff! I haven't collected stamps in over four decades, but I'll snag these stamps for sure!

https://www.linns.com/news/us-stamps-postal-history/usps-reveals-designs-for-2024-stamps-celebrating-dungeons-dragons-ansel-adams-more

On Nov. 30, the United States Postal Service revealed additional stamps to be issued in 2024. Also announced were issue dates and locations for 13 previously announced issues that will debut during the first three months of next year.

According to the Nov. 30 press release, 10 stamps will be issued in recognition of the 50th anniversary of the iconic role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons.

“By inviting participants to imagine themselves as wizards, warriors and other adventurers in exciting and treacherous fantasy worlds, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS opened doors to whole new universes of creativity for generations of players,” the USPS said.

The stamps, which are to be issued in panes of 20 (two of each design), feature richly detailed images of characters and creatures that will be familiar to Dungeons & Dragons players. Veteran USPS art director Greg Breeding designed the stamps and pane using existing illustrations.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

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     

How Much World Building Do You Require to Become Engaged?

Today I had the opportunity to watch a movie.....the type of movie I generally like even if they're bad (the genre isn't actually relevant here), but I was only able to get maybe half-way through when I had to nope out. I thought this movie just sucked and the suckage kind of sat in my head and I spent a few hours just stewing as to why I thought this movie sucked. I clearly didn't like it, but I just couldn't quite grasp why I didn't like it.

Eventually, after a bit more of an expenditure of brain-power than I like to waste on this particular form of entertainment, I realized that this movie tried, and failed, to be set in what should have been a recognizable location, within a world that shouldn't need a lot of explanation. It felt like a ton of disparate details just being crammed together and the audience was just supposed to ....I don't know, get it? It was maybe halfway through the movie, maybe 10' before I turned it off, when I kind of confirmed what country this movie was set in. It felt like the audience was expected to simply absorb all of the exposition and enjoy the ride.

To me it wasn't too unlike many Anime movies. They tend to just drop the audience in and run with the story and you have to figure it out as they go along. The thing is most Anime that I've seen doesn't go so heavy-handed with the details.

It quickly occurred to me that most convention/tournament games kind of do the same thing, but it's not the same because while players may be thrust into a completely unknown setting (heck, even sometimes completely unknown game mechanics!) player at least have some level of agency and can work at their own pace to learn about the setting they're in for a few hours. I'm sure the fact there is some amount of interactivity instead of just passive viewing helps.......

I'm honestly wondering just how much world-building players require in their games, not just the convention game but the home game as well. I'd like to think I'm more easy going myself, but I distinctly recall an online tournament game that essentially started each player all alone in some kind of void, kind of like some existential sensory deprivation tank. One minute your PC is doing their thing then nothingness. I have no clue what the GM was trying to accomplish, but I basically sat silent for 10' then noped out of the game.* For all I knew, from my PC's perspective, was that I was dead and in purgatory. Why would I try to do anything about it, especially since I basically have no sense of, well any senses....

When I'm writing an adventure I really don't like to write a novel for the GMs to have to read and comprehend. If there's more than a single page of backstory I think I've failed. I want to set something up, but I'm not able to anticipate everything the player may want to know and I hope that if there's some kind of framework the GM can decide what the player needs on the fly. I had a quick "learn-to" game that I had to add two paragraphs to for the two most-encountered left-field player actions that I ran into, mostly because players doing a learning session have no desire to see their PC live and want to push the envelope until the PC was dead or the clock ran out (as in convention time-block, not a timed game otherwise).

I think I need to go through an assortment of written adventures and see how widely the world-building parameters are. The aforementioned movie clearly didn't have enough, and when the entire movies was an entire arsenal of Chekhov's Guns....

*One of the hardest lessons I've managed to live in my half-century of learning can be summed up from a quote from one of my favorite cheesy PCs: "If we don't like it we can always leave." I don't know why people....ok, younger me....feel like they have to throw good resources after bad when things aren't worthwhile. Watching a crappy movie, stop. Not enjoying your meal, why finish it? You know, stuff like that.

New Release - Escape from Miklagard (OSE)

I need to confess. My To Be Reviewed Pile continually grows, and with "life happening" all around me, I expect it to keep growing. It isn't just a physical pile either, it co-exists with the digital world of PDFs. There simply is a large amount of gaming material hitting the market and not enough time in my already busy days to do proper reviews.

Instead, I'm going to highlight some New Releases and put a small spotlight on some items that I feel deserve some attention.

The first title to be highlighted in this irregular series of posts is Escape from Miklagard for OSE. What I really like about Escape from Miklagard it is essentially a hex, or more accurately, point crawl in an urban environment. Urban hex crawls / point crawls are how I like to run urban adventure sessions, as they literally give your party free rein to explore and take initiative. There is nothing worse than an urban railroad of an adventure.

The fact that it is a low-level adventure - it actually states it is for beginning characters, is a blessing for me, as I usually run Swords & Wizardry Light at conventions. I will need to see if Escape from Miklagard is adaptable for convention use, as I don't recall ever playing in an urban environment in a convention game session, and it would make for a nice change of pace.

Alright, the more I look at this, the more I want to do more than just give it a quick glance and put it back in the To Be Reviewed pile. That's definitely a good thing.

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