RPGNow Deal of the Day - The Sinister Stone of Sakkara (ACKS Adventure)

ACKS (Adventurer Conqueror Kings System) was one of the first Kickstarters I backed. I'm excited to see they are putting out some adventures for it.

The Sinister Stone of Sakkara is an adventure for levels 1 to 3 written for ACKS. It clocks in at 80 pages for the PDF and surprised me by having some full color interior art.

I haven't read enough to offer a proper review, but I've been happy with Autarch's releases in the past. I expect this to be no different, and at $2.50 until sometime tomorrow morning, I suspect it's a steal.

Over a millennium ago, when the borderlands were in the dark grip of the Zaharan Empire, the empire’s sorcerer-priests erected a profane temple to house the terrible artifact known as the Stone of Sakkara. Using the Stone, the sorcerer-priests could birth monsters and abominations with frightening ease and magically command the loyalty of chaotic creatures. The Stone brought its evil masters great power throughout the fell empire. 

In the centuries since the fall of Zahar, the Stone has lain dormant and forgotten. Now it has awakened, and warbands of beastmen have begun to gather sacrifices to power the Stone’s birthing pools again. Local farms and hamlets have been sacked and pillaged, and entire families have gone missing. The local legate has too few men to even patrol the border; he has none at all to hunt down the source of the evil. Adventurers are needed… 

AX1: The Sinister Stone of Sakkara is a ready-to-play adventure presented for use with Adventurer Conqueror King System™ and other d20-based fantasy role-playing games. AX1 includes a two-level dungeon filled with chthonic horror along with a friendly stronghold from which your adventurers can explore the region. The Sinister Stone of Sakkara is the perfect introductory adventure for a campaign starting in ACKS’s official setting but easy to adapt to your campaign setting of choice. Begin your rise from adventurer to king today!

Kickstarter - Legends of Mesenia - RPG (with adult themes... and beer)

This anthropomorphic something or other has no feet!

When this is your tagline:

Legends of Mesenia is a 18+ role playing game. Filled with monsters, empires, quests, chicks and beer!

and you can't get past 30 bucks of a $9k goal with just over 2 days left to fund, you should have pulled the plug weeks ago.

Just look at the amazing world map:

The first chapter of the game will take place in Erdora. Thank God it's detailed.

Thankfully there is a blog where you can view screenshots and such:


http://legendsofmesenia.blogspot.com

Oops. Looks like that's gone now. Maybe he pulled one of the plugs on this project.

Damnit. The demo was deleted too.

At least there are 2 concept sketches in the first (and only update):

I think I need that beer now...

Extra Life - Children's Miracle Network Hospitals - The Time to Support Gamers Helping Children is Coming Soon

(we have a guest poster and an extremely important post this morning - The Tavern is currently backing for $100 - we may spread more love closer to kick off - Tenkar)

Warning, it’s Extra Life season!  Every year since 2008 gamers have been coming together for 24-hour game-a-thons to raise money for the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.  Although the dates are flexible, most of these happen Nov. 7—just over a month away.  The game-a-thons take all forms from online teenage videogame fests to face-to-face board game benders.  Like all a-thons, they follow the model of persons A-Y giving money to support person Z doing something that A-Y would rather not.  I first heard about Extra Life on NPC Cast, a general gaming podcast, and I thought that was a great plan—for somebody else.

Well, this year one of the players in my home gaming group challenged me to DM twenty-four hours of D&D, and to get my friend and writing partner, +Zach Glazar , to sponsor us.  Well, I tell you—Lesser Gnome is not about to be outdone by a bunch of folks holding their Wiis for 24 hours!  We are here to represent the OSR in raising money for the next generation of gamers.

On November 20th, I will be running Lesser Gnome’s latest adventure Death & Taxes for about eighteen hours with seven players.  The other six hours I’ll get a break and play in some Call of Cthulhu and a midnight special haunted dungeon delve.  But that’s not all—we are planning to broadcast the whole thing on TwitchTV.  You can get a preview from some of our actual play recordings.  And, if we get enough interest, we’ll arrange some real time feedback.  $25 for a potion of healing?  $50 and another dragon shows up?  How much for a reroll?  A critical hit?  It’s all up for grabs. Oh yeah—the best part is that we’ve arranged with a local brewery to host us.  Nothing can wrong with this plan!

One of the things that I most love about this community of old school gamers is our willingness to stand together and support each other.  So I’d like to challenge you all, as members of this great community.  Start your own Extra Life campaign and have a 24-hour game fest.  Perhaps it’s finally time to revisit Ravenloft or one of those mega dungeons you bought but have never played.  If you do, let me know, and I’ll kick in some money.  And if you don’t want to do that, be person A-Y and head over to our Extra Life site and throw some money at Team Lesser Gnome Bangor.  As I write this, our team is in the top 200 and I am just below the top 1000 individually.  I really want to see some more good old table top RPG groups in the top fifty, and frankly, if I don’t raise more money than my players, I’m gonna be in trouble.
Thanks.

Edwin Nagy

P.S. I just saw that +Tim Callahan is another OSR gamer doing good on Extra Life.  I’m going to head over there a drop $20 on the man.

OSR Tag Mysteriously Disappears at RPGNow - Should Magically Reappear Tomorrow ;)

The missing "OSR" tag at RPGNow was brought to my attention earlier tonight. I had this whole conspiracy theory running through my head that is was in response to a handful of loud OSR publishers ranting about censorship and the need to come up with a viable competitor to OBS / RPGNow / DriveThruRPG.

So what happens?

+Matt McElroy-OneBookShelf put that theory out to pasture.

Sometimes it's good to be wrong...

SmiteWorks Acquires Tabletop Connect (Fantasy Grounds VTT to go 3D?)

I back LOTS of Virtual Table Tops on Kickstarter. I like VTTs in general, even if the only one I've ever used as a GM is Roll20.

Tabletop Connect was an interesting project when it was kicked on Kickstarter 2 years ago. It raised over $34k and is about a year late on projected delivery but that is not unexpected. Software plus Kickstarter usually means later than sooner.

This isnt the first VTT merge either. Roll20 is itself the result of a successful merging.

Time will tell whether Smiteworks acquisition of Tabletop Connect leads to major changes in the Fantasy Grounds interface, but it should be interesting to follow in the near future.

Here's the press release from Carl Pinder / Tabletop Connect:

I am pleased to announce that Tabletop Connect has been acquired by SmiteWorks USA, LLC, the developer of the industry leading Fantasy Grounds virtual tabletop. As part of this acquisition I will be joining the SmiteWorks team to accelerate the port of Fantasy Grounds to the Unity platform. " 

Doug Davison, President and Co-Owner of SmiteWorks added, "We have a distinct vision of what virtual tabletops can and should look like over the coming years and how Smiteworks can accomplish those things with Fantasy Grounds. For that reason, we began porting the core engine for Fantasy Grounds to Unity so that we could streamline and enhance the experience for players and GM's alike and distribute it more easily across all platforms. We've been following the progress of Tabletop Connect since it launched on Kickstarter and we've been very impressed with what Carl has been able to produce as a one-man operation. He shares the same vision we do on many areas and brings a unique level of talent, passion and creativity that is very hard to find. After some great one-on-one discussions, we believe that together we can do more than we could working separately. Work has been progressing on the Unity rebuild for the last year and I am genuinely excited about how the addition of Carl to the team will allow us to speed up the completion of this project and provide additional enhancements to the resulting product. " 

During the development of Tabletop Connect your feedback and support have been invaluable. This is a unique opportunity to contribute to the next generation of virtual tabletops and to deliver the experience that you deserve. 

As a backer of Tabletop Connect, you should soon receive the details of the realignment to Fantasy Grounds and your options during this transition. 

Sincerely, thanks again for all of your support and I look forward to you joining me on this exciting new adventure!

Tavern Chat Tonight - 9PM Eastern - Where the Cool (Adult) Kids Go

Just a quick reminder before I head to bed - Tavern Chat is tonight at 9PM Eastern until at least 11PM.

What is Tavern Chat and where is it held? It's right here at The Tavern using the chat box on the right hand side of this very page. It's where myself and others talk about this, that and everything in between. You never know just who might drop in.

Hang out with myself and various others. No appointment necessary. Open invites. BYOB ;)

See you then...

Dachshunds... In... Space!!! (Magnusson Does Sci-Fi Canines)

When I suggested to +Jim Magnusson that he do a sci-fi version of his humanoid dachshund hybrid, I never expected to actually see it, let alone so quickly.

I'm going to try and work on racial write ups for both Swords & Wizardry and White Star. Jim is simply an inspiration machine for me :)

How Do Adventurers Track Time in a Dungeon?

I got to thinking about how time passes in a dungeon as my work hours changed - and changed again. Sleep cycles are strange things. I work overnights 5 days a week and am in bed by 7 am when I return from work, but the two nights that I don't work, my body wants to sleep like a "normal" person. This is with the help of clocks and alarms to keep track of time.

Just how well do adventurers keep track of time in a dungeon or the like? Perhaps by burning torches or lanterns, but that often get's replaced by the light of magic swords and such. How does the spell caster know he spent 8 hours resting and can now memorize new spells? I don't see the party bringing along a water clock just for the occasion ;)

I'm not saying these thoughts keep me awake at night, but they certainly make me think.

More Magnificent Magnusson - Canine Warrior - The Deucheragh

+Jim Magnusson is quite simply amazing. I've got the workup of a new race for Swords & Wizardry bouncing around my head now because of him. All because of the man's Patreon page (when he refers to "The King", that's me ;)

Jim, if you have any more in you, how about a sci-fi outfitted Deuchheragh? (hint hint)

What Do You Get When You Cross a Dachshund with a Bugbear?

What do you get when you cross a Dachshund with a Bugbear? According to +Jim Magnusson , you get the following ;)

edit: (I back Jim's Paetreon and have influenced a number of Jim's releases - and I'm damn proud of it)

Surprisingly, Jim captured the essence of our Dachshund "Danke" perfectly. I know I've posted a few pics of her on G+, but I doubt Jim used them for reference. Yes, even Rachel approves.

I really like this pic (and the other one that Jim is releasing to his Patreon backers - I'll post that up soon.) One of my favorite things from Palladium Fantasy was the Wolfen. I'd love to do a Swords & Wizardry work up of a canine interpretation of such.

Where I Return to Podcasting - The Grievances Podcast

It's been a while since I've sat down and recorded a podcast. I've recorded them in the Poconos, I've recorded them on my commute home from work. Working the evening shift was the major hiccup. It really limited my ability to match up my hours with other hosts. Strangely enough, working the overnights has made podcasting workable again.

Roll For Initiative has a sub-podcast for supporters of the Wild Games Productions Patreon Program. So far there are two episodes in the bag hosted by +Vincent Florio and Sal ( +Ordo Monstrum ) and I should be coming on board with either the 3rd or 4th episode. I'm excited. Vince, Sal and I have an excellent chemistry and I am looking forward to working with them again.

So, what is The Grievances Podcast like?

Each show we take a topic and explore that topic from the DM’s point of view and air our the “grievances” about how we believe it should go down and what MOST DM’s think. 

Will it be a bitchfest? Sure 

Will it be funny? We think so. 

Don’t like it? We don’t care.

Yeah, it should be fun :)

Mini Review - GM's Miscellany: Wilderness Dressing (System Neutral Edition)

Tables. It seems like everyone is publishing tables these days. 101 Names for the Tavern Keeper's Wife is probably on sale somewhere. I like tables but they need to be useful. GM's Miscellany: Wilderness Dressing (System Neutral Edition) is extremely useful, especially if you like to run sandboxes as a DM.

See the sample above? The full table is 100 entries. How many tables are there? Here's the Table of Contents:

That's a sandboxing DMs treasure trove of content. Hell, the Folks section alone is giving me about a half dozen hooks I'd like to use and that's from just a quick read.

There's lots of stuff to love here if you are on the improvising side of the gaming table.

Much of this has appeared previously in individual releases. GM's Miscellany: Wilderness Dressing (System Neutral Edition) is a compilation of those releases and some new content, but if you have the prior releases the added value might not be enough to justify the complied purchase.

GM's Miscellany: Wilderness Dressing (System Neutral Edition) is currently $8.39 in PDF.

Kickstarter - Small Dungeon Maps (Map Tiles for Your FtF Game)

I must say, even though I have absolutely no use for the product of the Small Dungeon Maps Kickstarter (I game via Roll20 these days, and moving virtual map pieces together is not my thing) the quality appears to be high and best of all - it's all print at home and play.

No shipping costs or delay.

Unlimited number of copies for the home user.

Extremely low buy in (first set is a mere 3 bucks)

If you use minis at home in your games this might just be for you.

It's already funded (it's goal was $90 Canadian) and is a low risk / high potential Kickstarter.

Heck, for 3 bucks (Canadian) I may just add to the tip jar myself.

Kickstarter - Mermaids VS Zombies (a visual novel rpg hybrid - err?)

13 year old me would be all over this. The mermaid pictured above, not the game itself. Or is it a novel. Mermaid's VS Zombies is something, but I'm not even sure the creator knows what it is.

Why do I say that? Because their goal, which has been reached, is only $250.

So, what is the game about:

Mermaids vs. Zombies is about the underwater apocalypse. In short it's essentially about you and your cousin princess Bubbles, trying to find a way to end the zombie apocalypse, that's infecting Mertopia. It's an rpg visual novel hybrid.  The visual novel portions are almost all completed, however the rpg elements have yet to be implemented due to a lack of budget. (this is a huge flag, because wouldn't the RPG elements be the story itself?) 

Right now the most of the budget raised here will go into three categories. (finding a way to spilt that $250 goal equitably should be interesting) Advertisement. Programming and the main one, the Art resources (wait, I thought the visual novel parts were almost completed).  Right now I'm hesitant to show any game footage due to the game not being fully polished (not confidence instilling) . Shall I get requests from backers I'd be more then happy to show off what we have so far, but the reason I have yet to do so independently is because it's not fully polished.

But wait, there's more:

The programming aspect I have mostly covered. However I would like to recruit at least two more programmers so I'm not as swamped with work as I have been. (and pay them with what? there is no budget to speak of even with this being funded) 

Lastly Advertisement: shall we make it over three hundred I will do my best to not only get this game on consoles, but also on platforms such as Steam. Steam alone cost's around 100$ for you to even be considered. (well, there goes the ability to even buy those two programers lunch) 

Budget aside I plan to have this game, be very diverse. With characters across the board in marginalized groups. Right now the game has a racially diverse cast, with one or two disabled characters, and lgbtqia+ characters as well. Princess Bubbles, and the player are both Black, Zib and Pilo are asian, Zib is agender and visualy impaired, and Billino is bisexual. The only one not in some sort of marginalized group is Jerins, and he's...kind of a joke as a character.  (The creator self identifies as transgender, so I understand where it is coming from, but the only "non marginalized" character is the comic relief?)

Then we have the Risks and Challenges section. I'm just going to opt for the screen shot and avoid commenting. It really speaks for itself.

Red Tide on Sale for $4.79 in PDF This Weekend Only

You know about +Kevin Crawford 's Red Tide I hope. It does for fantasy OSR sandbox play what Stars Without Number did for sci-fi OSR sandbox play. It's one of the resources that sits on my desk, waiting to be used at a moment's notice. 

It's on sale for this weekend at $4.79 in PDF.

In this book a Labyrinth Lord will find all that is required to run a sandbox game of adventure in the Sunset Isles. In addition to the races, classes, and sorcery of this savage land, a referee will find special tools and resources for creating shadowed courts of quarreling nobility, cities rife with struggle, wild border settlements that cry out for the help of heroes, and dark places in the earth known only to the dead and the damned. These tools will aid not only campaigns in the Sunset Isles, but also those games set in other lands of savage mystery and bloodstained blades. 

Expanding on the tag system found in the free Stars Without Number sci-fi role-playing game, Red Tide includes more than fifty new tags for fantasy cities and borderland settlements, along with more than 25 pages of GM resources including culture-specific name and place lists, unkeyed blank maps for quick sandbox use, four pages of room dressing and treasure possibilities, and a new "diagram dungeon" method of quick dungeon generation with a worked example.

And if you are looking for something that would work directly with Stars Without Number - Suns of Gold is a merchant sourcebook for Stars Without Number. Suns of Gold is also 40% off for the weekend, coming in at $5.99 in PDF.

Did I mention Stars Without Number is free?

Pocket Creatures - Simareans - Ghost Walkers (Swords & Wizardry / White Star)

Art by Sidney Sime - Public Domain

"They swarmed like locusts yet seemed t' have a "hive mind" like ants. With barely a sound they descended upon Kraven's Hamlet, devouring the living, leaving just gnawed upon bones.  We seen them only when the sun went down. Don't know where these "Ghost Walkers" came from. Some called them the undead, but they lacked the weaknesses of those foul creatures. No, these are the Un-Living, as our priest soon learned. He was the first of us to fall. I am not proud that I abandoned my companions, but I am alive. They, sadly, are not."   Rathman Breckt, Manipulator of the Magical and Mechanical Arts, sole survivor of The Gathering of Fools adventuring party.

Simerians, often referred to as Ghost Walkers, are a dangerous site to see. Much like locusts, they come from seemingly nowhere, descend upon a location, devour all they can and leave. They aren't a conquering force, nor one of destruction, as buildings and such are left more or less intact in their wake. If it weren't for the bones left behind, no one would be able to guess the fate of the prior inhabitants.

It appears that the Ghost Walkers have a 7 year cycle of inactivity, followed by a month or so of feeding, following by 7 more years of no signs, no nothing. Where they are between feeding cycles, no one know but it is assumed that they are either in some form of stasis or another dimension all together. No Ghost Walker has been found alone, in stasis or captured alive so it is all conjecture.

Ghost Walker swarms number from 50 to 500, with the usual number in the 100 to 150 range. Ghost Walker bodies rot quickly in sunlight and few dead specimens have been recovered to study. Apparently needing neither water nor air and immune to extreme temperatures, small swarms have been known to attach themselves to starships for interstellar travel.

Simareans / Ghost Walkers

ARMOR CLASS   4 [14]
HIT DICE   2
TOTAL HIT BONUS   + 2
ATTACKS   2 x 1d6 (Claws)
SAVING THROW 17 (immune to fire / cold attacks)
SPECIAL - Hypnotic eyes. Instead of attacking, may use eyes to stun opponent. Save or no actions for 1 round. Save every round after first round until successful to negate effect.
MOVEMENT - 15 Ground

OGL

(I'm hoping to get the first Pocket Creature Collection in PDF to Patreon Backers this weekend, with another following in 2 weeks or so. Print copies to the high end backers next weekend if all goes well. Slowly adjusting to my overnight tours ;)

Is That DCC on My Beer? Perhaps...

Tip of the hat to +Harley Stroh and props to +Jeff Sipko for the find and the pic.

Beer & The OSR. Those are my passions. It's rare that they intersect so perfectly, but Dragon Lady Doppelbock Beer from Rinkuskiai Brewery at first glance is that intersection. DCC RPG art on an imported doppelbock beer? I'm in heaven. Or I would be if it were a legal use of the art.

Yep, it appears Caldwell's art is being used without the artist's permission. This isn't some home brewer slapping labels on beer he's handing out to his friends. Nor is it some fan writer using a commercial RPG setting for her own stories.

Rinkuskiai is one of the top 5 breweries in Lithuania. Sure, that's like being one of the top five breweries in the NYC borough of Queens, but they are a legitimate company that's been brewing beer since the 1990s.

Using art without a license? That's something I wouldn't expect from a company located in the EU.

Aiko is the US Importer. I wonder if they would be responsible in the US for the unlicensed use of Caldwell's art. From what I can gather, the beer released two years ago. It looks like they've already gotten decent mileage from the art. Maybe they could just cut Caldwell a check and make it all legal.

Shame that this beer / OSR intersection isn't all it seemed at first glance.

Tavern Chat Tonight - 9PM to 11PM Eastern

Yes, I finally fixed the heading for the Tavern Chat app with the new day and times.

Will I be distracted by the Giants game in the background? If they play like the last two Sunday's I'll probably be all in the chat ;)

Come by and say hello.

Looking forward to seeing y'all there. Er, here. Whatever...

Going Down the Sidney Sime Rabbit Hole (Public Domain Art)

Strange how something can just grab you from behind and choke the shit out of you. Such it is with Sidney Sime's art.

I'm going to blame +Eric Diaz and his post over at the Methods & Madness blog which in turn links to the Monster Brains blog which led me to +Aeron Alfrey 's Flickr collection of Sidney Sime art.

Holy shit.

I've been in a creative "black hole" of sorts recently. My work hours have literally changed around the clock (overnight shift is the latest and I hope it sticks until retirement in March.) I owe pieces of creative work not just to readers of this blog but to others but the well has been dry this summer. I suspect the well is no longer going to be as dry as it was.

I'm not quite sure what is going on above, but I suspect the d30 Sandbox Companion will tell me - this just screams for use of the Cult Generation table.

There is so much going on in this piece the adventure nearly can write itself. Color me inspired. I may print a piece or three out to throw in my work bag and reference during downtime for creative productivity :)

RPGNow Deal of the Day - The Graveyard at Lus (White Star)

Looking for a high end hex crawl for your White Star campaign at bargain basement pricing? Act fast, because The Graveyard at Lus is the RPGNow Deal of the Day for the next 20 hours or so (I would have posted this earlier, but I was still sleeping.)

Normally $4.99 on PDF, The Graveyard at Lus is currently on sale for $2.99. Heck, the softcover is $9.99 with the PDF. That pricing is hard to beat.

Space Graveyards - what's left behind when battles are fought among the points of light that map out the universe. Sometimes there's good salvage to be had there. There's always danger, though. Not everything is dead in a Graveyard, and you're not the only one that's come looking for the good stuff. And that's not even mentioning the radiation and debris left behind, or the dangerous creatures that end up finding their way there like graveworms and ... the undead. 

-A comprehensive toolkit for creating space Graveyards - the result of battles between forces at war in the stars
-Multiple tables for the creation of starship damage, system damage, and crew survivorship
-An event table to ensure that exploration is dynamic during sandbox play
-New rules for Cinematic and Realitic space combat
-New starship technology including sensors and rules for targeting/repairing specific systems
-Additional rules for space-based phenomena, space-based explosions, and boarding other starships
-Four new alien races for your White Star RPG campaigns
-Updated starship usage for four of the core alien races in the main game
-Five new creatures, including The Unquiet, a horriffic form of undead
-Use the pregenerated Graveyard At Lus for your own games, or as a guide to create your own Graveyards.
-Worksheets and sample hexmaps at the rear of the book to help with generation of Graveyards
-Designed for use with the White Star RPG, but easy to convert for other OSR sci-fi systems. 

The Graveyard at Lus will be continually supported by the release of FREE expansion material that includes additional rules and other content, including new races, creatures, and tables to help support additional sandbox usage of the product beyond the core book here. This material will not be included in the core book, but as separate products. The first of these will be the release of all of the silhouettes of the starships in the book (and many more) for use in creation of your own counters for table-based play or use with a VTT.