It's that time of year when bargains and truly deep discounts can be found for RPG PDFs at DTRPG. Our last batch was on Black Friday. Our final batch is here for Cyber Monday—prices are good through tomorrow. Also, there is a Deal of the Day at the bottom of the post.
Tomorrow City - it has a cool cover; this is the first I've heard of it. It sounds like steampunk supers, which is my least enjoyed genres. The price is right at 4.90
Cities Without Number - by Kevin Crawford, the OSR machine. For 4.99, its a hell of a bargain for OSR style Cyberpunk
When the Wolf Comes- Viking roleplaying always strikes my interest. At 3.99, it's a tempting buy.
Rokugan - this appears to be an art book for Legend of the Five Rings. 5.99
Tales of the Valiant Player's Guide - brought to you by the debacle known as OGL 2.0, Tales of the Valiant is Kobold Press' rejiggering of 5e. Personally, I preferred it under the working title Black Flag. 6.99
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I'll be honest with you. I last attempted to integrate audio effects into one of my gaming sessions in decades. That being said, Ol' Man Grognard, aka Glen Halstrom, makes ample use of such effects, and they certainly add atmosphere and flavor.
The Monument Studio TTRPG Audio Compendium Bundle at Humble Bundle nearly escaped my attention, but it's here now. Time is short, so if you want to grab any of this (for as little as a buck), don't hesitate.
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 Rumbleor YouTube - Tenkar
BattleGrounds Games, the maker of MapForge, has been in the VTT business for over a decade and has been producing mapping software for about half that time. Heruca not only does good work, but he's also a solid supporter of the gaming community.
This campaign is to fund the creation of 13 new isometric content Add-Ons for MapForge, whose aim will be to allow the creation of Modern Day and Post-Apocalyptic maps. This new content will supplement all the great isometric content that is already available for MapForge.
If you're not already a MapForge user, no problem, since during this campaign you can pledge for a discounted MapForge license as an Add-On to your pledge. So even if you have zero interest in isometric mapping (or perhaps in the Modern Day and Post-Apocalyptic game genres), you can join the growing MapForge user base and go make some nifty top-down or hex-tile maps.
If you're not already familiar with MapForge, here's a quick recap:
MapForge is easy-to-use software for Windows and Mac OS that makes high-quality maps for printing or for use in virtual tabletop software (e.g., Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, Foundry VTT, Arkenforge, etc.).
It can be used for free (no license required for low resolution output).
There are a staggering 60 free content Add-Ons available for MapForge, to start you off with over 9000 mapping assets covering a variety of game genres and mapping styles.
You can download and try the software out for yourself, to evaluate it and see for yourself if the program is what you want/expect it to be.
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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 Rumbleor YouTube - Tenkar
I always enjoy the deep Discount Doorbusters at DTRPG on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and today's Black Friday picks aren't bad, either. Actually, they are pretty good :)
Let's start with Gods of the Forbidden North for OSE Advanced. This 480-page campaign is the first of three volumes, and it is a 4.99 deal that will give you months of adventures for levels 1 to 5. It can be run as a sandbox or episodic adventure path. It has 4.9 stars and 38 reviews. This is one I had missed, and I'm grabbing it now!
Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory, Core Rulebook. I returned to active gaming via the Warhammer 40k: Dark Heresy ruleset in 2008 or so. Warhammer 40k holds a special place in my gaming heart. 7.49
I already own the Witcher Pen & Paper RPG. I haven't run it, but I thoroughly enjoyed the lore aspect. 7.49
The Walking Dead Universe RPG. Honestly, I gave up on The Walking Dead sometime around Season 4. But for 4.99, I could be tempted.
I've only heard good things about Rivers of London, really good things. At 5.99, I'll gladly take the plunge.
Exalted: Essence. I'm not a fan of the Storyteller System. Admittedly, this is a streamlined version of Exalted 3e. Maybe I'd like it. Doubtful. 5.99
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I have only one of the RPGs offered in the Humble Bundle Free League Megabundle—DragonBane. I backed the Kickstarter for that, and the boxed set is pretty, and the game reads well.
For 18 bucks, you get the core rules of DragonBane, Mutant Year Zero, Tales From the Loop, Symbaroum, Forbidden Lands, Twilight 2000 4e, and Coriolis. Including sourcebooks and adventures for the games above, you get 29 books. That is simply an outstanding deal!
Treat yourself for the Holidays :)
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 Rumbleor YouTube - Tenkar
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 Rumbleor YouTube - Tenkar
You've got to give it to Goblinoid Games. They did a great job with their initial releases, offering Free, No-Art versions of their PDFs.
Mutant Future is often seen as an OSR hidden gem. It is effectively a retro-clone of Gamaa World without going into the weird dice mechanics of Mutant Crawl Classics. Mutant Future should be in every OSR gamer's PDF library, and at the price of free, there's no reason not to.
The sinister and sadistic bleating of spidergoats echoes in the night, a complementary chorus to the rustling of an unfortunate victim caught in their webs. In deep, dank caves to the north, corrupted humans take communion with an unspeakably evil abomination they worship as a god. Shrill cries from the fields can only mean the vomit flies are back, molesting your livestock.
In short, just another day in the Mutant Future!
Mutant Future is a post-apocalyptic science fantasy RPG, in the same flavor of similar genre games from the late 70s and early 80s. The game is almost entirely open game content, and a free trademark license allows anyone to publish materials compatible with Mutant Future.
From the back cover:
Enter a post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland filled with mutants, ruins, and radiation! You can take the role of an android, mutant human, mutant animal, pure human, and even a mutant plant! Seek wealth and ancient technological artifacts. Enter vast underground complexes and avoid killer robots!
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 Rumbleor YouTube - Tenkar
I have been a fan of the various Engine GM Guides for years and have bought all these titles individually. At less than $10 for six titles, this is a must-have for any DM's reference collection.
Gamemaster! We've resurrected our November 2022 Engine GM Guides Bundle featuring ebooks from Engine Publishing that help improve your skill in running tabletop roleplaying games. Written by the experienced GMs at the widely read gamemastering blog Gnome Stew and by many of the field's leading RPG designers, Engine's system-neutral guides show how to prepare and run a game session, conjure interesting characters and storylines, manage an ongoing campaign, and (ahem) improvise when your players gleefully destroy your game sessions, characters, storylines, and campaign.
This revived November 2022 offer once again gives you the complete six-book Engine collection for less than the retail price of one guide. For just US$9.95 you get all six titles in this revived offer's Engine Collection (retail value $78) as DRM-free ebooks:
Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots to Inspire Gamemasters
Focal Point: The Complete Game Master's Guide to Running Extraordinary Sessions
Masks: 1,000 Memorable NPCs for Any Roleplaying Game
Never Unprepared: The Complete Game Master's Guide to Session Prep
Odyssey: The Complete Game Master's Guide to Campaign Management
Unframed: The Art of Improvisation for Game Masters
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.
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Zines. Zines & dice. These are two of my favorite things. My collection always has room for more dice, and zines can fit on any shelf, physical or digital. Zines generally have far more "bang for the buck" than other gaming purchases, and they often fit into the "impulse buy" category. I really like zines :)
Issue 2 of Carcass Crawler — the official Old-School Essentials zine! Each issue is packed with new material for your games, including new character classes and races, new spells and magic items, new monsters, optional and expanded rules, referee advice, news, previews of in-development products, short adventures, and more!
In This Issue
New classes and races: Two new elf variants. The phase elf and the wood elf.
Item-based encumbrance system: A simple system for tracking characters' loads and movement rates, based on the number of items carried. (No more need to add up coins and weights.)
Town services: Guidelines and prices for inns, jewellers, money changers, and traders, including a simple optional rule for haggling.
Hiring retainers: Tables and extra guidelines for locating and hiring retainers.
Quick equipment: A set of tables for expediting character creation by randomly selecting starting gear.
Energy weapons: Complete rules for introducing high-tech energy blades and guns into your game, either as alien relics found in long lost treasure hoards or to accompany the sci-fi inspired classes in Carcass Crawler issue 1 (the hephaestan and kineticist).
Snake cult monsters: 8 brand new monsters: creepy undead, guardian constructs, and devious serpents.
The Tomb of Aum-Pharath: A mini-adventure in the trap-filled ruins of a snake cult temple.
Adjudicating traps: Advice and optional guidelines for making traps a fun and engaging part of the game.
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Kevin Crawford / Sine Nomine Publishing is well known for the various "Without Number" titles, all of which have a "Free Version." If you don't yet own Worlds Without Number, Kevin's fantasy ruleset, here ya go ;)
The stars gutter and the skies fade and the earth grows weary with years. Ages of men and of Outsiders have ascended and been forgotten, and only the bones of their cities and the dust of their dreams remain upon this tired world. The Legacy of their laws is woven deep now, the edicts of dead gods and fallen sorcerer-kings made to trace patterns of power we no longer understand. We are heirs to their unseen empires, and our lives are built upon their ashes.
Worlds Without Number is a fantasy role-playing game, one fully compatible with the hit sci-fi game Stars Without Number. It's built from the ground up to provide gritty, hard-edged adventure in the fathomless future of the Latter Earth, a fantastic realm of time-lost sorcery, savage foes, and barbaric splendor. The cold steel in the fists of your heroes and the half-understood sorcery in their tomes must suffice to overcome the monstrous remnants of ancient alien rulers and the present depredations of ruthless lords and hideous beasts alike. The riches of lost ages await in the subterranean Deeps that once held their kingdoms, and even the heavens above are not beyond the reach of the recklessly daring.
Worlds Without Number isn't just a savage game of steel and sorcery. It's packed solid with system-neutral GM tools and worldbuilding support, with hundreds of pages of useful tools, tags, tables, and practical advice usable by any GM, regardless of their favorite setting or system. The well-loved sci-fi tools of Stars Without Number are reworked here to support fantasy gaming, whether in the provided setting of the Latter Earth or in your own carefully-crafted homebrew world. Even GMs who don't prefer the OSR-compatible game system of WWN will find more than half the book dedicated to tools they can use in the systems they like best.
So what do you get in this book?
Sword and sorcery heroes of blade, cunning, and spell. The proven OSR-compatible character creation system of Stars Without Number is redone here for a fantasy world of blade and black magic.
OSR-compatible rules, allowing you to plunder decades of existing adventure material for your play. You can even pull in Stars Without Number content, as it's fully compatible.
The Gyre region of the far-future Latter Earth, a premade sandbox for quick play. Venture forth to clash with the sinister powers that gather in the shadow of the waning rule of the Reaping King.
Worldbuilding tools crafted to the renowned Sine Nomine standard. Did you like the hundred different world tags in SWN? Then have two hundred inspirational tags to help you build ruins, courts, communities, and wilderness points of interest. Grab a wealth of tools for building histories, societies, governments, religions, and geography, all written with a keen eye toward producing good, playable content for your adventuring group.
Adventure creation tools to soothe the pangs of a working GM, with guides for building adventures out of combat, exploration, social, and investigative challenges. Use the tags you picked in the worldbuilding section to speed up your creation of a good night's gaming.
Faction rules for fantasy worlds, with dark cults, fierce lords, grasping abbots, and greedy merchants all serving to keep your world in motion even when the PCs aren't on the scene.
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Yep, it's that most wonderful time of year. It's when OSR Santa gets together with the OSR Elves to ensure there are 12 Days of OSR Christmas goodies for good (or bad) boys and girls of all ages.
If you are a publisher of OSR-related products, or simply a generous member of the gaming community, and you want to provide gifts for OSR Christmas, hit me up at tenkarsDOTtavern @ that Gmail thing (doing what I can to avoid the scrub bot s;) Please put "OSR Christmas 2024" in the subject. Let me know what you are looking to gift to the community, and we will make it happen.
Santa requests that physical gifts be sent from the gifter directly to the giftee and that you tell Santa if there are restrictions on the physical gift (US Only or similar). PDF gifts using DTRPG coupon codes or similar are also great.
OSR Christmas started in 2013, over a decade ago, and has had a strong showing every year.
Thanks to all in advance.
Let's try to get all offers in by the end of November :)
Tenkar
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 Rumbleor YouTube - Tenkar
I'm a huge fan of Kevin Crawford and his Tag System. I own all of Kevin's core books in print and his non-core books in print and/or PDF. Ashes Without Number brings post-apocalypse roleplaying to the "Without Number" RPG Engine.
It should cover settings from Fallout to The Walking Dead and everything in between.
Ashes Without Number is $25 in PDF, $40 for at-cost POD and PDF, and $80 for PDF, a Smyth-sewn, offset-print hardback copy of the game. I'm in for the latter.
Ashes Without Number is a tabletop role-playing game for the end of the world. Whether as a civil collapse, alien invasion, zombie uprising, or post-apocalyptic wasteland, the game is built to give a GM the tools they need to carve out their own special slice of Hell.
Campaigns set amid radioactive dunes and savage mutant perils are supported in these pages, along with near-future tales of civil collapse, global plagues, and horrific shambling hordes. Just as with all Sine Nomine games, however, the book is built to support a GM in fashioning their own personal apocalypse, building worlds and settings to explore the kind of games they want to run.
Ashes Without Number is built on the same sturdy old-school game system as its sister-games in the Without Number line. Whether the fantasy adventures of Worlds Without Number, the sci-fi explorations of Stars Without Number, or the cyberpunk desperation of Cities Without Number, the game within these pages is built to interface smoothly with all these resources. The old-school framework also allows easy importation of other OSR games and content to help flesh out your own campaign.
A classic framework of six attributes, hit points, saving throws, and other traditional elements is supported by genre-specific rules and tools for bringing the right flavor of ruin to the table. Gritty perils of disease, traumatic stress, lingering wounds, and starvation are pointed up for campaigns set in a tragic near-future chaos, while wasteland marauders have support for mutations, scrap-built gear, and enigmatic ancient tech. These systems are built to snap smoothly into place in your campaign, letting you pick the ones that fit the feel you're aiming to create.
But at its heart, Ashes Without Number is shaped around the same system-neutral Sine Nomine tools that have won the other Without Number games such a warm place in the hearts of working GMs. Tools for building adventures, ruins, survivor enclaves, looming crises, horrible mutant creatures, and a host of other useful content are all designed to be system-neutral and usable with your own game of choice. Need to put an exploration-worthy ruin into your game? Just follow these tables and guidelines to get a quick, playable chunk of gaming fun, from the site's first-glance impression to the useful salvage still left amid the rubble.
Genre-specific rules for supporting three different campaign genres: post-apocalyptic Mutant Wasteland games, zombie-infested Deadlands, and near-future societal collapse in After the Fall campaigns.
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 Rumbleor YouTube - Tenkar
Yep, Dungeons & Dragons - the Making of Original D&D: 1970-1977 is currently 50% off at Amazon (Limited Time Sale - ticker on the page) with "potentially" an additional 10% off coupon. If they properly stack, the price would be down to 45 bucks. Note: Some folks do not see the coupon - its a good price either way.
Ignore the preface and enjoy the contents, at least at this price :)
The holiday season is sneaking up...
Unearth the very first draft of original D&D, never released to the public until now. Crafted on Gygax’s home typewriter, this 1973 document contains handwritten notes by both Gygax and Arneson.
Discover approximately 30 early articles and rare documents that lay the foundation for modern D&D, including unpublished correspondence between Gygax and Arneson.
Peruse a remarkable collection of magazine and fanzine articles, many of which are no longer publicly available or remain undiscovered by D&D historians and fans of classic D&D.
Flip through facsimiles of all the first printings of Original D&D, compiled in a single book for the first time in D&D’s publishing history.
Explore the creation and development of the original 1974 game with insightful commentary by Jon Peterson, one of D&D’s foremost historians.
Commemorate our 50th anniversary with this homage to D&D's past. We invite you to look back on D&D’s history with a discerning eye as we celebrate how far D&D has come. Here’s to 50 years, and 50 more!
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 Rumbleor YouTube - Tenkar
I really enjoyed the "Ecology of..." series in the classic era of Dragon Magazine. It made common - or even rare - creatures more than just a set of stats to kill or be killed by.
Today's Deal of the Day, BX Advanced Bestiary, Vol 1, appears to do that and more for a selection of creatures from the Old School Essentials Basic Book. I liked what I saw in the free preview and picked up a copy. Peek at the preview and see if the BX Advanced Bestiary, Vol 1, would fit your campaign.
Volume 1 of the BX Advanced Bestiary takes the monster entries A-D from the OSE Basic book and expands them with options, added details, use for monster parts, additional monsters, and playable classes based upon the same theme. A sample preview of the book can be foundhere. Each entry is illustrated.
It includes rules for monster and animal training, several new race-as-class options (advanced cave locust, changeling, cyclopskin, dragonborn, and genasi), as well tables showing the monsters organized by HD, terrain, and type.
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 Rumbleor YouTube - Tenkar
I remember running a handful of sessions of Twilight 2000 back in the 1980s when the Cold War was on everyone's mind. My gaming group was more focused on D&D and other Fantasy RPGs than modern or sci-fi genres, so we never stuck with Twilight: 2000. I think it would have been fun.
Newly updated to be fully compatible with Traveller: The New Era
The War has raged for years The high-tech ammo is almost gone. High-tech equipment is failing, piece by piece, with no spares to fix it. The front lines are held by a few grim, desperate soldiers.
The US 5th Division holds the line in Poland. Now, a Soviet encirclement has cut it off in a province ruled by ambitious warlords, local militias, and bands of marauding deserters. HQ is 200 klicks to the rear and powerless.
Your last order sets you free...
"Good Luck. You're on your own."
Here's What You Do
Generate Your Character: You select your nationality, chracter type, and your military and nonmilitary backgrounds.
Equip Yourself: use your money for weapons, ammunition, equipment, vehicles and spares.
Start Moving: You're in hostile territory. Your next encounter may be a friendly farmer, a frightened refugee, or a dangerous deserter. You pick your course of action; you decide your own fate in the chaos of World War III.
Twilight 2000's award-winning game rules provide the foundation for role-playing in the chaos of World War III.
Combat: Fast-playing, easy-to-resolve comabt system gives the feel of modern battles.
Travel: Types of travel, time scales, vehicles, encounters, maintenance, fuel, repairs.
Encounters: Dangerous environments, radiation, disease, contaminants, reasons for encounters and typical adventures.
Danger: Places to go and reasons to go there. Plus reasons you wish you hadn't.
Background:Chronology and history of World War III
Twilight 2000. The adventures are fast and furious. The prize is survival, and maybe, just maybe, a safe place to spend the night.
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.
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The DOOM of the DARK is coming...
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The Black Casket of Night has indeed been opened beneath our feet, soon,
only days will remain!
I have been posting here and there about ‘Doom of the Dar...
Jackson, IL: Am I Evil? NPCs of the Satanic Panic
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Last week, I talked about running two different 80s-style teenage horror
campaigns. My Sunny Valley, OH game with Dark Places & Demogorgons and my
curren...
Free GM Resource: 1shotadventures
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[image: Free GM Resource: 1shotadventures]
I came across this blog consisting of adventures written by J.C. Connors.
The adventures are for a variety o...
Jonstown Jottings #106: Marsh Attacks!
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Much like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition,
the Jonstown Compendium is a curated platform for user-made content, but
for ma...
Music Monday - Go Monkey Go
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This one is a blast from the past. Released in 2000 and performed by Devo,
Go Monkey Go is a tribute to Mojo Jojo, the primary antagonist of the Power
Puff...
The Singing Lake
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By Nicole Mattos, Icaro Agostino, Davide TrammaAngry Golem GamesOSELevels
2-4 After being denied recognition as the supreme lord, Severo cursed the
region,...
Dungeon Crawler Carl (book review)
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This was a fun read if not particularly meaningful. It takes place in an
RPG world that works like a televised tournament, similar to The Running
Man and...
d100 Worst Weird Inn & Guest Rooms
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My current map with player exploration of my D&D5.5 game
Yellow is where players been and exploration has been fun
While we had 3 clerics nobody really imv...
The Great Nobility of Harry Potter
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I am of the view that there is no pursuit that is more noble and no task
that is more worth doing than writing novels. Call me romantic; call me
delud...
Circuits and Rallies
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I'm back from holiday! I guess coming back to familiarity after a few weeks
of novelty got me thinking.
Sometimes you repeat the same stuff over and over...
AD&D's Demi-Foot Forward...
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AD&D's demi-humans are primarily known for their multiclassing abilities.
After all, what adventurer doesn't occasionally dream of casting spells
from th...
Adventures Dark and Deep (Lite)
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This arrived for me today, a PoD hardback via DriveThruRPG.
Including postage, it cost me about $40 yankeebucks, so about $65 Kiwibucks.
I got it purel...
[BLOG] News on the March! Episode XIV
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This post continues the series of brief play reports I have been posting on
Discord. This does not cover every single session (sometimes, recon and
setup...
Moldvay Basic D&D now Available in Print
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Just a quick note that (finally) Moldvay Basic D&D is available in POD from
DTRPG – previously, only the Cook/Marsh …
Continue reading →
Abstraction in My Liege,
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I think the aspect of *My Liege,* that could potentially put off the most
people is its lack of accounting granularity. It does not track Court
wealth in...
SoloDark: Four Drunk Priests
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Dabbling into some solo play using SoloDark. Rolled up the party last
night. 3d6 down the line and pick the best class for the results. It was
tragic.
ht...
Consolidated AD&D Weapon Characteristics List
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Having spent the last few days down a research rabbit hole, I ended up
compiling a chart of AD&D weapon characteristics, adding some "missing"
entries an...
Referee Sabotage
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It is an old saw that players are bad at executing their plans. Imagine
this common scene: the party have some big job that requires planning;
perhaps robb...
The March 1636 Lantern is Published
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Okay, The March Lantern is available. Those fast on the draw may have
noticed that I mistakenly published it as free access for 56 minutes. I
was just so ...
Gary Con 2026 Registration
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Silver Badges get to register for events at Noon Central today (February
21, 2026). Somehow I thought I failed to register for running games this
year and ...
On a Happy New Year
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We are about to experience the most social upheaval since industrialization.
What will that look like in sixty years?
Sinless is starting it's third yea...
Mutants and Wizards
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Heya folks, long time no see.
I've just started working on something new called Mutants and Wizards. It's
going to be an OSE/OSR post-apocalyptic game t...
Ten Friggin Hill Cantons Wizards
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10 Wizards of the Hill Cantons
#
Name
Description
1
Magister Dobromil the Cauterizer
Specializes in magical “cleaning” of reality leaks. Wears fou...
Rob Kuntz at Lucca Comics & Games 2025
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If you are planning a trip to Europe (like right now) and wish to catch up
with me in person, make sure to book a detour via *Lucca Comics & Games*,
...
How do you do piracy… in SPACE!?
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Interstellar space travel in Iridium Moons was always going to be a form of
hyperspace jump like in Star Wars or Traveller. Simply because it’s the one
for...
A long overdue hobby update!
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Welcome back to the Vault everyone! 2025 is going by in a blur; I last
posted in February, almost started a post in March and now it's the end of
May. W...
Playing at the World 2E V2 Arrives
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With the release of its second volume, the second edition of *Playing at
the World *is finally complete. The two books combined total well over
1,000 ...
Articulations
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Creating house rules, custom rules specific to a local group or campaign,
has been common throughout the history of D&D. What makes an effective
house rule...
Writing playlists for all occasions
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Hello again! Going off the idea of inspiration elaborated on by the prior
post, I also have music playing while I write my various games and fiction
pieces...
The Tarot of Pips
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Somewhere in your dice collection is a die like this one, the humblest of
dice. Although you don't know it, this small white die carries with it a
secr...
Pirates and Necromancers, a Play Report
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Over the Thanksgiving weekend we did a lot of gaming ranging from
“off-table” domain level stuff to some solo adventures to spell and magic
item rese...
It's been a bit
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Hey everyone, I hope you are doing well! I've had a lot going on and
haven't had much time to blog lately. Heres a recap of gaming events and
other st...
*'s in SpaaaaaAaaaace
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A lot of SF (including a certain 2D6 RPG grandaddy) deal with ancient
aliens taking humans from Earth and dropping them, fleas and all, on one or
more w...
Last move - to self-hosting!
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As my vote regarding Substack in the “marketplace of ideas”, I’m moving to
self-hosting.
I’m now at (and hopefully staying for a long time at)
Blog: ht...
Clean Your Room
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Looking back at my little blog here. That last post… wow, I was having fun
playing WOW Classic! That was August of 1999 and I was having a blast… it
was ...
Steve Jackson Interview
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James Maliszewski recently did an interview with Steve Jackson over on his
Grognardia blog. Steve chats about the beginnings of The Fantasy Trip and
upcomi...
ToAD Monster of the Week: Crocoman
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Now that I'm back doing the blog thing I thought I would use Tome of
Adventure Design to create monsters for The Black Hack.
Using the monster tables in th...
Strange, Dangerous, and Inhuman: The Fey and Fairie
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When I was a boy I loved fairy tales. Jack and the Beanstalk, Puss in
Boots, Rumpelstiltskin - I devoured all of it. My fascination that there
was a strang...
Dungeons & Dragonmead Fall Schedule
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*As you know, I run public classic Dungeons & Dragons games at **The Loaded
Die**/Metro Detroit Game Night's Board Game Nigh at **Dragonmead**, in
Warren...
Fiction in Airhde
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On a whim this weekend, I picked up some fiction off the TLG store. *A
Houseless God & Other Tales* and *The Mirrored Soul & Other Tales*, both by
the T...
Ravensburg Reboot: Streamlined City Map
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I mentioned in my last post how I was tweaking and reworking parts of my
Ravensburg setting. Today I streamlined the city map. The old map had lots
of redu...
The Withered Crag available now
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I just enabled the sale of the PDF version of The Withered Crag at
DriveThruRPG a few minutes ago, and the custom print version will be
available startin...
Annihilation Rising Goes live
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The latest in Fail Squad Games’ Quick Kick projects has gone live and needs
your support!! This project is only running 11 days and ends on 5/28/2019!
...
James's Celebration of Life
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We could not have asked for a prettier day for James's service. It was a
bit chilly and windy but gorgeous. A heartfelt thank you to all that joined
us tod...
Trap Tuesday: A step back
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I will get back to Tomb of Horrors soon. I found a topic that was
interesting enough to take a break. While interacting in a 5E group on
Facebook I talked ...
Let's Talk About Pacing!
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The idea, I think, is that the RPG is ultimately about the long game. Even
rolling back to the early days of Basic & Expert, the goal of the player
was...
Profane and Profound Prep Part 2
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This is part 2 of my work to edit my magic items for a DMsGuild release,
along with adding cursed items along the way. Here is part 1. Bone of a
Saint 8000...
Please, I don't do paid advertisements - don't ask.
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A little note since people have asked me about this. My video channel's
*not* an advertising platform, so I'm not available for hire if you want to
promote...
New website!
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Slowly but surely, all the content here will make its way — in updated
form! — to my new website: timbannock.com. For fairly obvious reasons, that
site wil...
Please Update Your Link!
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If you're seeing this, it means your link to the Greyhawk Grognard blog is
out of date.
Please update your link to www.greyhawkgrognard.com (RSS feed is
h...
Total Sales for WB:FMAG
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Hi Folks,
It's been a long time since I provided an update for the sales of White
Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game.
*LULU*
Print: 396
PDF: 433
*OBS*...
How can We Destroy this Campaign World?
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d12
1. You must trick a bard into strumming the *Chords of Fate* on the *Lute
of Annihilation*
2. Legends tell of thermonuclear weapons beneath megadunge...
Mord Mar - Session 5
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We had another successful delve into the dungeon yesterday. The delvers:
Moira, the Magic-User
Radovan - Human Cleric (of Odin?)
Khazgar Stonehand - Dwarf ...
Bundle of Fantasy Age
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Bundle of Holding: Dragon Age/Fantasy Age: Available until March 12. PA
Presents: Fantasy AGE Freeport live play Green Ronin in 2018 The Fantasy
Age RPG ma...
New Free PDF Module: The Hyqueous Vaults
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A new dungeon module—written in celebration of OSRIC's 10th Birthday—by
Rebecca Dettmann, Allan T. Grohe, Jr., Jimm Johnson, Matthew Riedel, Alex
Zisch, a...
Swords & Wizardry Light: Session # 6
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Two months after our last session (thanks to things like 8th grade finals,
a 4 year-old's birthday and party, Father's Day, etc.), we finally had our
next ...