A Kickstarter on Fire - Torchbearer

In 2 days Torchbearer has raised over $25k against a goal of nearly $15k - it is funded and then some.

It appears to be using The Burning Wheel for it's core rule elements, which is all Greek to me, as I no nothing about The Burning Wheel. Well, I know about it, but not how it plays.

Still, extremely strong support so early in the Kickstarter should indicate this game has potential, so I'm in for the PDF at $15 for the moment.

I find the following quote interests me - a lot:

In the spectrum of BWHQ games, Torchbearer is advanced Mouse Guard. It’s not as complex as Burning Wheel or Burning Empires, but it’s certainly more involved than Mouse Guard or even FreeMarket. From a broader perspective, it's Basic D&D on Hard mode. 

Basic D&D on Hard Mode. This I have to see ;)

From the blurb:

Torchbearer is a riff on the early model of fantasy roleplaying games. In it, you take on the role of an adventurer seeking his or her fortune. To earn that fortune, you must explore fornlorn ruins, brave terrible monsters and retreive forgotten treasures. However, this game is not about being a hero. It is not about fighting for what you believe. This game is about exploration and survival. You may become a hero. You might have to fight for your ideals. But to do either of those things, you must prove yourself in the wilds. Because there are no jobs, no inheritance, no other opportunities for our deadbeat adventurers. This life is their only hope to prosper in this world.

Zaramen - The Astral Planes Hopping Elf / Dwarf Hybrid for Swords & Wizardry - Prelude

They say anything can happen when you travel the astral planes. It's also been said that what happens in the astral planes, stays in the astral planes. The second part is a load of elven crap.

Elves don't like to admit that the Zaramen, a humanoid race that travels the astral planes like waterborne pirates travel the oceans, have elvish blood. The facts, so far as scholars can tell, line up with the truth the elven race as a whole refuses to believe - The Zaramen race has it roots in the astral journeys of long since forgotten adventurers. They are believed to be the descendants of an illicit romance between an elven magic user and her dwarven fighter / thief lover. Yes, strange things can happen in the astral planes and even the laws of nature can be warped and turned upon itself.

There is a school of thought that the lovers in question actually come from a future time, an alternate timeline or both. It matters little the true origin, as the reality is this highly intelligent and violent race has found itself a foothold in the world. This world and possible others.

They are not evil as some would define the goblinoids and the orcs races. No, they are more calculating. Devious might be the word. The ones that are here have given up their careers of piracy for something even more profitable. You'll find them in the markets these days, hocking wares few need but often buy. They are good at what they do.

A few still have the bloodlust. Those that do find the world of trading and cheating to hold little excitement for them. These few are the ones you may find sitting next to you in a tavern, looking for work as adventurers. Best you befriend them when you can, for as foes they have few equals.

                                                                                         Rathman Brecht
                                                                                         Wizard (Retired)
                                                                                       
As told to the patrons of Tenkar's Tavern, on the last night of the 4th month.

(a future entry / entries will flesh out the Zaramen as a PC race for Swords & Wizardry and possibly include a racial class - yep, starting the month of May's "One a Day Swords & Wizardry Posting" just a tad early ;)

A Monster of a Kickstarter - Adventures Dark and Deep Bestiary

Let me start by giving you a number:

900

That's not the funding goal (that's $1,500 and has already been surpassed).

No, 900 is the number of monster entires in the Adventures Dark and Deep Bestiary.

The game is written. The Player's Handbook shipped EARLY, and if you are even an occasional reader of this blog you know how rare that shit is.

Money raised past the initial goal of $1500 pays for art. Each $25 raised pays for an illustration. No wacky stretch goals for extra shit that is peripheral to the actual project. The stretch goals are for the art.

I'm in for a hard cover. I may up that later on down the line.

+Joseph Bloch delivers and delivers early. I like to put my gaming dollars down on a sure bet, and in the world of RPG Kickstarters this is about as close to a sure bet as you can get...

Post 3K - One Random Commenter Will Get a $10 GC to RPGNow

Three thousand posts. It doesn't feel a hair more that 2,500 ;)

In any case, we are celebrating the occasion by giving away a $10 Gift Certificate to RPGNow to a random commenter on this very post. Add your comment by 1PM tomorrow NYC time (That's May 2) for your chance at the cash.

We ( +Christopher Helton , +Matt Finch and myself) are closing in on awarding the prizes for the Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day blogfest. If we do this again next year, I need two days off from work - one to run it and one to recover and read the posts.

So, what are you waiting for? Add some comments!

heh ;)

Kickstarter Round 2 is the Charm - The Way of Tree, Shadow & Flame for The Secret Fire

The first time The Way of Tree, Shadow & Flame for The Secret Fire Kickstarter was up, there was a screwup with the payment set up that prevented folks from making pledges. Well, there was also the issue that there weren't pledge levels designed for folks that already owned The Secret Fire RPG.

+George Strayton has fixed the payment set up (the new Kickstarter is taking pledges) and there are now pledge levels for folks like me that already own The Secret Fire. I'm in for $25 - pledge number 11 ;)

I don't know if the project is going to hit it's $10k stretch goal, but if it does there will be few folks happier than me:

$10,000 - Bruce Heard to author a gazetteer of The Secret Fire world!

I'm still pissed at Jim Ward for dumbing down The Crusader when it was under his editorship (I think it's irrelevance was mostly his doing) and Frank Mentzer and I butted heads over his Lich Dungeon. I'm happy to be able to look at +Bruce Heard  as one of the old TSR crew that still does quality work. I'm hoping Bruce gets to work on this project and I look forward to his next project.

I've Decided on the 3K Post, 4 Year Blogging Anniversary Theme

Yep, I've decided on the theme for the Tavern in the month of May - A Swords & Wizardry related post every day. Thirty-one days of monsters, magic, NPCs, encounters, locations - the list goes on. It's a good way for me to warm up for the Copper Droppings e-zine.

So, what's in it for you? Besides my words of wisdom that is ;)

Each week I'll make a post asking for you to link your Swords & Wizardry themed post / article. The following week, I'll pick my favorite and give them a $5 RPGNow gift certificate. If you submit your article to Copper Droppings and it's accepted, you also get 5 bucks - but that's later on down the line.

As for the 3k post itself? When it goes up, add a comment. A random commenter will find themselves with a $10 RPGNow gift certificate.

At least you know where my referral cash from RPGNow goes - right back to the community that reads my shit ;)

+Matt Finch , +Christopher Helton and myself are still working out way through the 140+ posts from the S&W Appreciation Day blogfest - prizes will be awarded once we are done digesting...

Level Limits - Do You Use Them?

I've pretty much scratched level limits from my current AD&D / OSRIC game. Main reason?

I don't expect the campaign to go much beyond the "by the book" level limits for demihumans anyway ;)

The party ranges from 5th to 7th level. They started around 3rd or 4th (depending on class and / or class combinations) and that was back in December. If we end the campaign after a year of play, more or less, they'll probably be around 9th or 10th level at this rate.

In my opinion, why limit options by limiting levels. Besides, both of my demi humans are multiclass, which by itself throttles down the level gain. If the game was going to level 20 I'd probably have have some level limits on the demi humans, but it would still be higher than BTB.

So, do you limit levels for the demi humans in your game?

In Four More Posts The Tavern Hit's It's 3,000 Post - How Shall We Celebrate?

We are sneaking up on the Big 3k Post. It's a bit sooner than I expected, but I'm not complaining ;)

What shall we do to celebrate?

I literally have no ideas. I should, but I don't. It's a cool mark to hit, but I'm actually more excited to be hitting the 4 year mark of blogging on May 31st (ignore the lone post from 2008).

Maybe I should make May a special month...

ENWorld Removes the Major Catch from the "Design an RPG" Contest Win a $1000 Prize

Thanks to Callin to pointing this out and props to Morrus for making the changes:

The catch? I (as in EN World) get to own and [try to] sell your game if you win (if I don't publish it, I'll simply return it to you). That's how I - hopefully - make my $1000 back... I may well also approach some of those who didn't win with an eye to publishing their game, but no promises!

So, you only give up the rights to your work of you win the thousand bucks, not just by entering (win or lose, you were giving up the rights to your entry before). That's not half bad at all. Contest runs through May 5th, British odd time ;)

Original post on this by me is here.

Link to the article on ENWorld is here.

Busy Weekend - Little Accomplished on the RPG Side

Sure, I got some short blog posts up - which were squeezed in when "Uncle Duties" would allow. My niece was over Saturday and Sunday, as my sister is finishing edits on the novel she sold (yay!) and needed some time to write and not be "the mother". Shannon thinks "Uncle" is awesome, which actually is awesome but oh so tiring...

My niece is 2 1/2. My son is nearly 20. I forgot how little free time there is when you fill the parental role for young ones. I think I need a vacation ;)

In any case, I'm hoping to get the interview I mentioned last week up tonight or tomorrow. It's with Richard Iorio II from Rogue Games and I think it came out pretty well. Rich is a nice guy with a lot of stuff on his plate and it's impressive to watch him keep the balls in motion.

I also have some work on one of my own projects that's overdue, but thankfully the little that I still owe should hopefully be an easy update... knock on wood

Free RPG - Crumbling Epoch (OSR-ish)

+Andrew Shields is one of the most prolific writers of free games that I know. He's also the guy that is in the process of pulling Mike Nystul's ass out of the Kickstarter fire for Mike's failure to accomplish pretty much anything of value with Axes & Anvils before Andrew's participation (that's all my spin on the situation - I never asked Andrew).

Anyhow, in 8 pages of Crumbling Epoch (based on Searchers of the Unknown) Andrew has put together a ruleset that is pretty much B/X compatible with a whole lot of non-standard stuff going on. Including no stats, but if you are rolling 3d6 in order, lack of stats and associated bonuses / penalties probably isn't much of a loss

What I would like to do is take some of the new classes / races that Andrew has introduced and rework it for Swords & Wizardry - the Blooded and the Thirsters come to mind.

Interesting stuff to play with, and Devilmount is also part of the inspiration.

A Kickstarter I Want to Support Just for a Single Piece of Art - Edara: A Steampunk Renaissance Tabletop RPG

I'm not into steampunk. I know what it is, but it doesn't do much for me.

Edara: A Steampunk Renaissance Tabletop RPG is obviously a Steampunk themed RPG. I watched the short video on gameplay, and it does nothing for me.

The above dwarf with a rifle that was the largest barrel I can recall seeing ever is awesome. The game may be a heartbreaker, but that rifle looks like it makes some major holes in things ;)

What's a Wish Worth?

My players recovered an Efreeti Bottle last night in Rappan Athuk. Not having any desire for the party to have an Efreeti at their beck and call for a year and a day I had the Efreeti offer the opener of the bottle a wish.

I've never seen a game session come to a screeching halt faster in my life. They wanted to take a week to decide on the proper wish and it's wording. I wasn't going to stop them - I understand the importance, but I've never fucked a player over for a wish that didn't ask for it.

What I mean is this - in my mind, a wish is something that is appropriate for your relative level or a bit higher. So if you're level 7, something appropriate for a level 9 or 10 character, but if you are wishing for something appropriate for a 15th or 20th level character, it probably won't work out as you expect.

Sure, it's all rule of thumb, but my rule is basically "only screw the players if they are being extremely greedy or foolhardy."

That all being said, I'm very interested in seeing what the intervening week brings...

A Kickstarter That Makes Me Go "Urh"? - Skape Rend URPG

I'm not even sure what the Skape Rend URPG actually is. It claims to be a tabletop RPG, but it's also app driven and has actors...

Skape Rend is a massive universal app driven tabletop RPG that's constantly evolving with the actions and decisions of players.

That still doesn't say much, but the following speaks volumes:

Launched April 17th, 2013

Raised $40 so far.

Needs to raise $50,000 by May 18th.

Critical failure? Yep

ENWorld is Giving Away a $1000 "Design an RPG" Contest Prize With a Major Catch

Lets be honest. Even some fairly good game designers would be hard pressed to get a thousand bucks for their game idea up front in the economics of our hobby. The chance for the hobby designer to get 1k for their idea before it's even published is pretty awesome, but there is a major catch - just by entering you give up all rights to your entry, win or lose. (link to article on ENWorld)

You enter your game - preferably as a PDF, but you can use any file format you like; it's being voted on, so the more inaccesible your file format, the fewer votes you'll get - and the RPG community spends a week voting on them. The winner gets $1000, which I will send by Paypal immediately the week's up.  

The catch? I (as in EN World) get to own and [try to] sell your game, whether you win or not. That's how I - hopefully - make my $1000 back. Yes, I might try to sell all of them, if they're any good (and I may have to spend a bunch of money on them to make them pretty for sale). Please, please - if your work is precious to you, has sentimental value, is the product of years of development, is a mark of your genius and is worth much more, or is too good for a competition like this, don't enter it. Same goes if you have any reservations, compunctions, disagreements and general dislikes about this competition. It's utterly, utterly, utterly voluntary. But if you feel like writing an RPG over the next 7 days (or have one you've written that you'd like folks to see), this is a fun way to do that. Plus, hey, maybe $1000!

What Morrus has done here is pretty much pure genius, as that $1000 prize could potentially return him the rights to a dozen or more RPGs.

I wouldn't want to give up my rights to my creations for the chance to win a thousand bucks, but I'm fairly certain Morrus will get a sufficient number of entries to make this potentially profitable. I say potentially, as little is ever certain in this hobby.

This will certainly be interesting to follow if nothing else.

What Class Do You Usually Play in a D&D Type Game?

We all have our "go to" character type. Well, almost all of us ;)

For me it seems to usually be a Cleric or a Fighter / Cleric type multiclass. A Dwarven Fighter / Cleric to be precise.

I like to mix it up in combat AND I like the chance to cast the occasional spell. I tend to find the lower lever Magic-Users to be difficult to stay engage with as a player, especially after you throw your spell or two. M-U / Thief or a Bard type class work for me too.

So, what class / class combo is your default? Maybe you don't have a default...                

Do Dead Rats Leave Copper Droppings?

Artwork by Gary Dupuis

Dead Rats tell no tales. Or is it that they tell tales, but their tails may fall off?

I'm working out the details of a Swords & Wizardry flavored ezine to be published under the Dead Rat Banner. Tentative name is "Copper Droppings". Hey, sounded good to me as I was falling asleep last night ;)

With the return of Knockspell we don't need another full pledge magazine but a fairly regular ezine for Swords & Wizardry just might work. This is where I'll work on some alterative class ideas, spells, encounters, monsters, Tenkar's Landing setting stuff and whatever else strikes my fancy. Or your fancy. I'm thinking of "buying a beer" for those that contribute to the ezine - 5 bucks for those that contribute an article or artwork. Pretty much like Knockspell - you own it but Dead Rat / Copper Droppings has the right to publish it in the ezine or print on demand compilations (if those ever happen). Heck, maybe Copper Droppings has the beta version and Knockspell has the perfected one ;)

In either case, I see Copper Droppings more as a supplement to Knockspell than a replacement. I plan on submitting an article or two to Knockspell myself, as I see it's return as something that will only add to the already strong Swords & Wizardry Community. That and I'm just excited as all hell to see it's return :)

How soon can you expect the the first issue of Copper Droppings? No date yet. I still need to finish Volumes II & III of Minor Magiks & Miscellaneous Arcana. Hopefully I can finish Volume II early this week. Sooner rather than later is my guess, and fairly regular after the first issue drops, or at least that's the plan.

In any case, that's my current plate. I'm almost done reading the 140 some odd posts from the Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day, so hopefully we can get some prizes out to folks during the upcoming week.

Razor Coast Releases for Swords & Wizardry!

Have you followed the history of the Razor Coast getting published? No? Google it ;)

In all seriousness, if Frog God hadn't picked up the ball and run with it, this probably never would have happened and folks that had preordered years ago would still be SOL.

Now, the Razor Coast was written for Pathfinder and we certainly wouldn't have a Swords & Wizardry version if it wasn't for the Frogs. Their habit of producing a Pathfinder and Swords & Wizardry version of pretty much all that they do is pretty damn awesome.

I didn't support the Kickstarter, as the added third party goodies were almost universally for Pathfinder, so the S&W version wasn't as good a deal. Sad but true. The PDFs, however, just released over at RPGNow last night.

Razor Coast is a 400+ page swashbuckling campaign for Swords and Wizardry.

Heart of the Razor adds four more adventures and the Freebooter's Guide adds races, spells, a gazetteer and more.

I just downloaded Heart of the Razor and the Freebooter's Guide. I'll try to say more about them after I give them a closer look but a quick glance at the Freebooter's Guide gives me the impression of a lot of campaign goodness for 10 bucks.

A Kickstarter That is Flying Under the Radar: The Way of Tree, Shadow & Flame for The Secret Fire RPG

Do you remember The Secret Fire RPG? I do, and while I'd be hard pressed to find my print copy at the moment, I was looking at the PDF the other week wonder why it never got more attention than it did.

Same may be said for the Kickstarter of The Way of Tree, Shadow & Flame for The Secret Fire RPG. Two days into the Kickstarter and not a dollar pledged.

I think a major part of the issue is that there isn't a pledge level that doesn't include a a copy of the  Secret Fire Rules, in print or PDF. I already have it in print and PDF - why do I need to pledge for a level that includes something I already own? I would suspect that this Kickstarter would attract those that already have an interest in The Secret Fire, so why not allow them to pledge for what they actually need?

Has anyone else seen this Kickstarter mentioned anywhere?

The goal is reasonable - 3k. At 6k The Secret Fire Companion for Swords & Wizardry is added. I'd jump in for that alone if I was being forced to rebuy a game I already own.

The listing of involved authors has some major writers of classic D&D and OSR fame:

Authors include Ed Greenwood, Logan Bonner, Michael Curtis, Thomas Reid, Bill Heron, Ronald Corn, George Strayton, and Bill Smith, with a foreword by Jim Ward.

I'm surprised none of them are mentioning their involvement on their blogs or social circles.


Here's the rest of the blurb:

This first supplement for The Secret Fire roleplaying game augments the material presented in the main rulebook, expanding upon existing elements as well as adding new dimensions of play. At the same time, The Way Of Tree, Shadow & Flame seeks to maintain the dark sense of mystery, uncertainty, and danger of the original system, while providing players and Master Creators with options and advice for creating and fleshing out three-dimensional characters to set forth on perilous quests in search of fortune, glory, or perhaps some greater cause, all within a realistic fantasy milieu. As The Secret Fire was always meant to be a free-wheeling game of adventure loosely bound by its rules and empowered by the varied imaginations of its various participants, so this book is the result of contributions from many veteran game designers responsible for some of the most popular game systems and campaign worlds in the history of the hobby. 

The Way Of Tree, Shadow & Flame contains new Callings (Assassin, Druid, Huntsman, Knight-Errant, Skald), new prayers, spells, and rituals, new Traits and Trademarks, expanded Energy Point options, backstory and relationship generation tables, new equipment, rules for building and running your own domain, new monsters and talismans, new ways to use the Elder Gods and the Character Wheel, optional rules to customize your campaign and increase immersion, random encounter tables for sandbox play, advice for MCs, and more!

Sounds interesting but unlikely at this time. George may be better served by rebooting this Kickstarter with a little more support up front and some friendlier support levels for those that supported the game with their gaming dollars when it released.

edit: from the comments on this post


Michael CurtisApril 26, 2013 at 10:35 PM
Check out the Updates on this Kickstarter. Apparently there's a problem between Kickstarter and Amazon which is not allowing contributions to be processed, hence the $0.00 funding. It looks like George is going to pull down the campaign and reboot it. Maybe he'll take your advice and reconfigure the pledge rewards as well.

I don't think he made a formal announcement regarding the Kickstarter due to the problems with the contribution process. He told me he'd let me know when it was underway, but I hadn't heard anything until reading this post.

Mini Review - Trouble Brewing (Barebones Fantasy)

Barebones Fantasy is one of those games I really need to play. It's simple and flexible, and has the rare ability of being one of the few non-OSR games that I actually can grok.

Trouble Brewing is a BBF adventure that takes place in the Town of Tenkar. Let that settle in for a minute. Yep, same town that was detailed in the Keranak setting supplement. Any world with a Town of Tenkar that is full of taverns and dwarves has to be good ;)

So, Trouble Brewing also has the party being deputized to investigate the source of the acts of violence in town. Man, this adventure really was made for me.

This isn't a huge adventure - most likely it will wrap up in a session or so.

It does look like it should play pretty well, but if I have any complaint it seems a bit linear. Still, that's fairly common with shorter adventures. A good GM can easily work around that but I figured it was worth mentioning.

I'm personally having second thoughts about having a beer tonight after reading this ;P

From the blurb:

Relaxing at a tavern in Tenkar, shedding the dust of the trail from your boots and clothes, you stumble upon a danger that threatens the peace of this town. The local constable and his deputies are too busy dealing with its symptoms to address the cause. Are you and your friends ready to deal with the sinister secret beneath Tenkar?  

This is a rank 1 adventure for the BareBones Fantasy™ role-playing game. It is set in the Keranak Kingdoms™, but could be placed anywhere in any setting. Written by Michael Wall, this is the first in a multiple part story arc which is continued in Slimy Trail of the God-Snail.