Kickstarter - Hyperborea Adventure Three-Pack in Hand

There is something about in print gaming products. I love PDFs for the portability and the "read on my phone while in some random bathroom" readability but the collector in me adores print. Well, maybe "adore" is the wrong word, especially when dealing with the manliness of the Hyperborea adventures three pack, but screw it, it fits.

The adventures range from 48 to 56 pages in length and the inside covers are used for maps. Hard to get much more old school than that.

As you can see, even Ashley was excited by the latest additions to the gaming collection. She knows how to roll dice, if only she knew how to read them. Ah well.

Oh, and there are three bookmarks that aren't pictured. I guess I'll need to read more books ;)

I haven't had the chance to digest any of these properly, but they are well laid out and the art is damn good. I'm disappointed in myself for not opting to support the Kickstarter at a level that included a piece of original art. I think my first week of retirement next year will be 12 hours a day of reading gaming material. These three will be on the top of that list if I don't get to them sooner.

Estimated delivery was September and they arrived mid October. That's on time in my book :)

RPGNow Deal of the Day - The First Sentinel (Lesser Gnome)

You probably know Lesser Gnome / +Zach Glazar from the Whisper & Venom Kickstarter. If you don't know Lesser Gnome, you've been missing out on some damn good gaming material.

Today's RPGNow Deal of the Day is Lesser Gnome's stand alone adventure, The First Sentinel. Clocking in at 28 pages, it can be had for a mere $2.80 until 1059 AM tomorrow morning.

So, what do you get for your money?

Lesser Gnome is pleased to announce the digital release The First Sentinel by Edwin Nagy. 

Within its pages Game Masters have a complete adventure for three to six players using character levels between three and five. Characters are confronted with a small mystery involving a missing resident. Clues could offer muted warnings or, if followed closely, will bring them face to face with a vanguard of the demonic Nexid.

This digital release has piece of written content from the 2014 printed edition with a few extras PDF extras. With a completely new layout that designed to make the PDF more than just a printout on your screen it is meant for table-top use on a tablet or other devices.

The First Sentinel Interactive Features…

No watermarking
Separate text, art and vector layers.
Bookmarks to important tables and maps accessible via the PDF Reader
Hyperlinks to appendix entries and tables.
Interactive buttons for quick access to relevant pages
Image buttons that link to illustrations for players.

Bundle of Holding - The Strange and The One Ring

I've been remiss in checking out the recent Bundle of Holding offerings. I'm trying to rectify that now ;)

The One Ring has just over 3 days left to go. For 15 bucks you get The One Ring Roleplaying Game and the Loremaster's Screen and Lake-Town Guide. For 32 bucks you get to add in The Darkening of Mirkwood, The Heart of the Wild, Rivendell and Tales From Wilderland. Rivendell even has our very own +James Spahn as a contributor.

The Strange just hit the Bundle of Holding (It's got 10 days left to go.) For 10 bucks you get The Strange, The Strange Player's Guide, In Translation: The Strange Character Options and Swordbreakers. For under 21 bucks you get to add in Worlds Numberless and Strange, The Strange Bestiary, The Strange GM Screen, The Dark Spiral, Eschatology Code, The Estate Dossiers and When Worlds Collide.

I literally have nothing of either game, but I've heard good stuff about each. Actually, I've heard more about The Strange than it's older sibling, Numenera. Hopefully I don't have to get someone to clean up The Strange PDFs like I did Numenera (it was pretty much unreadable for me.)

Kickstarter - The Lost Lands: Borderland Provinces (S&W, Pathfinder and 5e)

I've never had a bad thing to say about a Frog God Games Kickstarter. You always get value for your money (even if the buy in is typically higher than many gaming products) and they are generally on time or damn close to it. Traditionally, Frog God has offered it's Kickstarter releases in Swords & Wizardry and Pathfinder flavors, but recently they've added 5e to the mix.

The Lost Lands: Borderland Provinces is Frog God's latest Kickstarter, and it's the setting for which it's other releases take place in. Better yet, you can get the setting in typical Frog God high quality hard cover print for $35 plus shipping (that includes the PDF.)

How can they do it at $35? The setting book is separate from the adventures book, which is another $35 if you want it. Keeping them as separate products allows one to only pay for what they need.

There are other add ons for the completists among us, but $35 for the Borderland Providences setting book in hard cover and PDF is damn exciting.

The central part of the Kickstarter is the Core Campaign Book for the Borderland Provinces, a complete guide for running campaigns here. There are also several additional resources that can be added to the campaign book to assemble an extended kit for sandbox adventuring and traveling through the wild and tumultuous realm of the Borderland Provinces. The main campaign book contains rich descriptions of countries, cities (some with individual maps), encounter tables for road and airborne travel, several individual lairs, historical background of the area, and much more. The Adventure Book provides a set of stand-alone adventures much larger than the lairs in the campaign book, and the Journey Generator is a resource for GMing free-form traveling adventures on the stone high-roads left behind by the ancient Hyperboreans. You can pick and choose what kinds of resources you want, and put together the kit you need for your particular kind of game. 

And that's not all! There are two player books to introduce the campaign to players in different ways, including a copy of the poster map (don't worry -- the secret locations aren't shown on it). Plus, there's a free first-level adventure module, Rogues in Remballo, to let you get started right away!

I'm in at $95 for the Complete GM book set, but then again, I am a completist ;)

Neoplatic Press Halloween Sale - Lusus Naturae, Teratic Tome, more - PWYW

+Rafael Chandler shared this out on G+ and I'm just strengthening the signal:

HALLOWEEN SALE: EVERYTHING MUST GO!
From now until October 31st, all of my PDFs are pay-what-you-want. This includes Lusus Naturae, Teratic Tome, and the rest of it! No particular reason -- I just thought a Halloween sale sounded like fun! You want a PDF for free? Go for it, no problem! You want to get it for free, then maybe come back later and toss some coins into the open guitar case? I'll be here, strumming along.

Neoplastic Press Halloween Sale

Tavernt Chat Tonight - 9PM to 11PM Eastern

Yep, another Tavern Chat tonight.

Topics may include:

- Frog God's latest Kickstarter

- NTRPG Con 2016 and the room The Tavern is sponsoring (last I checked, only Frog God was sponsoring a room)

- my Random Overnight series of post

- other sordid topics as they come up

Random Gaming Thoughts at 2 AM

I've got NTRPG Con on my mind. Very excited to be sponsoring a room.

Remember, this room is (hopefully) going to be a central hub for bloggers, podcasters and everyone else.

Oh, and beer. Hopefully...

Tenkar's Tavern is Sponsoring Trinity I at NTRPG Con 2016 for OSR Bloggers and Podcasters

See the Trinity Ballroom? Lower left corner is Trinity I.

That will be Ground Zero for the OSR Blogging and Podcasting Communities at NTRPG Con. I'm happy to give back to Doug and Mike as best I can while giving bloggers and podcasters a place to call their own. Besides, the beer is sold just outside the door to Trinity 1 ;)

We will have 2 vendor tables (which I expect will have business cards, flyers, bumper stickers - whatever) and 1 gaming table to schedule gaming around. I'm expecting some planned slots, some open slots.

Need a corner that's away from the crowds? One of the vendor tables can be set up for podcasting.

Still need to work out the details, but we do have a room...

(edit - if +Richard LeBlanc has the same table as last year in the main ballroom, i can knock on the wall between us in morse code and send messages ;)

Random Gaming Thoughts at 1 am

Sometimes the mind kicks in early.

Any suggestions / wish list for OSR Christmas? I'm hoping to get other blogs involved in hosting giveaways.

Kickstarter - Frog God Games' Borderland Provinces Kickstarter kicks off on October 15th - Pricing May Surprise Some Folks

I just awoke from a 4 hour nap (as apposed to my 4 hours of sleep this morning) to an email from +Matt Finch explaining some of the details and pricing for the forthcoming Borderland Provinces Kickstarter from Frog God Games.

The basic buy in price point is 12 bucks in PDF. Let that sink in for a bit.

Hardcover with GM extras is $35 with poster map (and PDFs)

Heh ;)

Here's what Matt sent me:

We're planning on launching the Borderland Provinces Kickstarter for the core region of the Lost Lands campaign on October 15, 2 days from now. Many people have asked about pricing: the answer may be a very nice surprise: 

(1) The Basic Campaign Price is $12  

Yes, you did read that right. You can start a Borderland Provinces campaign on a $12 budget if your goal is just to have basic information about what's around Rappan Athuk and the other major locations. By getting the pdf Player Guide and Gazeteer, which comes with a pdf of the poster map, you're all set for that type of bare-bones campaign if you're a DIY game master who doesn't plan on using encounter tables, secret GM information, lairs, etc. The Player Gazeteer gives basic descriptions of the map locations, enough to work with if you're a build-it-yourself Game Master. And since the campaign also comes with a free adventure, Rogues in Remballo, you have a pretty complete set of resources to work with. 

(2) The "Core" Campaign Hardcover + Map + PDF is $35  

A library-quality hardcover of the GM campaign book is only $35 plus shipping, and it comes with the poster map of the region (and free PDFs). This contains all the information we mentioned that's not in the Player Gazeteer. Also available just in pdf, of course. 

(3) Additional Resources (make-your-own "resource kit")  

An extensive pick-and-choose set of additional resources is where the Kickstarter gets fun, and where you can assemble whatever additional elements you want to supplement your core book, creating an extended "kit" tailored to the way you run your games. The main one is a hardcover book of seven brand-new, full-length adventures, called "Adventures in the Borderland Provinces," which gives you an instant starting point for general campaigning. Plus, there's the above-mentioned Player Gazeteer, a Player Guide, a book we call the "Journey Generator," and lots more. None of these are necessary for play, but all are excellent supplemental resources to add.

I'm very interested in seeing how this all works out

Random Gaming Thoughts at 4 AM

I guess I better not sleep the day away. I've got things to do when I get home from work...

Troll Lord Games Goes 5e - A0 The Rising Knight -- Adventures for 5th Edition Rules

It looks like WotC has made a D&D 5e publishing license irrelevant at this time. Publishers are either using the 3x OGL or trademark fair use and publishing 5e compatible works. Instead of having some influence over what get's published, they no have none.

Troll Lord Games, publishers of the Castles & Crusades RPG, are now the latest to jump on the 5e bandwagon, converting one of their C&C adventures, The Rising Knight, to 5e.

D&D is dead! Long live D&D!

From the blurb:

Complete with customized anchored hyperlinks! Click on the map for locations in the Rising Knight! 

This is an introductory adventure for those playing the 5th Edition of the world's best known and oldest RPG. The module has been designed to allow for the players and Game Master alike to begin play immediately.  

The Drunderry River runs narrow and fast through much of its course, before tumbling into the lowlands beneath the Fallow Hills, in the shadows of the Blacktooth Ridge. 

From there, the river spreads out across fertile plains, laboring slowly to the south before emptying into the Elmarsh Lake. Until recently this area was unsettled, but a writ of the King's has brought many people to the area. The village of Malforten, nesteld along the banks fo the Drunderry River, near the Fallow Hills, is just such a place.  

A quiet village with simple people, they learned the hard way the Blacktooth Ridge casts a deep and dark shadow. Seeing rich prizes in cattle and grain, people and other movables, Gritznak the Gnoll has come down from the Blacktooth with loot on his mind.

All they've done to drive him off have failed, at their wits end the villagers turn to others, more experienced in combatting evil. They look to a rising knight to save them . . . .

New Big Dragon Games Unlimited to Publish Steve Marsh's Shattered Norns #1: Into the Shadows

Yeah, I'm nearly a week behind in sharing this announcement. As much as I'm adjusting to working overnights, I'm not adjusting to working overnights ;)

New Big Dragon Games Unlimited is going to publish Steve Marsh's Shattered Norns #1: Into the Shadows. It's being published for 5e (and who says you need a license to publish for the latest edition anyway?) although it was developed with earlier editions. Not surprising for the man who was the lead editor of the D&D Expert set and the main man behind the aquatic creatures in the AD&D Monster Manual.

What does that mean for us, the consumers? 5e is pretty easy to convert to earlier editions and with New Big Dragon Games behind the project, it should be a good one.

Something tells me this deal was worked out during NTRPG Con 2015...

Here's the full press release.

Kickstarter - The Encounter Brick Construction System for Tabletop Games (More Gaming "Lego")

You know what I hate? When a Kickstarter omits any pictures at all. See the above? That's a screenshot of the initial video.

I like when Kickstarters have a video included. I do not enjoy it when I'm forced to watch the video to even have a clue.

And yes, The Encounter Brick Construction System for Tabletop Games is more "Gaming Lego." More affordable and slightly more attractive than the last bit we saw. Still pricey.

Surprisingly, this isn't being done by (or used to fund) a 3D printer.

We would do this by milling a set of cold steel dies to be used in a state-of-the-art, hot-runner, injection molding process at Epsilon Industries in Dallas, Texas.

I guess that's why they look better.

I'd still opt for Lego, or even better yet, a cheap Lego knock off. I may not be the Frugal GM, but even I need to pinch corners at some points.

Kickstarter - Hubris: A World of Visceral Adventure (DCC RPG Setting)

Yet another reason to give up drinking. She looked fine at the bar...

Hubris: A World of Visceral Adventure is a DCC RPG setting (but should be fairly easy to convert to other OSR flavors) that being Kickstarter by +Mike Evans . If you are an OSR styled gamer and are active on G+, you've probably stumbled across Mike or his blog. Actually, his blog has some of the more raw entries and thoughts that led to this project.

So, what is Hubris? According to Mike, it is:

Hubris is a weird fantasy setting inspired by various things, such as: Alice in Wonderland, Conan the Barbarian by Robert E. Howard, HP Lovecraft stories, Vornheim by Zak Smith, Lamentations of the Flame Princess RPG by James Raggi, Labyrinth, The Thing, Hellboy comics by Mike Mignola, Hellraiser, Evil Dead and Army of Darkness, and not to mention the awesomness that is Dungeon Crawl Classics and the whole DIY RPG community!  

My favorite description by a supporter of Hubris is "Hubris is like a high octane meat-grinder!"  That captures Hubris amazingly.  Hubris is brutal, epic, and weird.  Players will not know what to expect at any given moment and it keeps them on their toes. 

During the playtests, my players were brutalized in the wilds and sought shelter in the safety of civilization of Fairweather, thinking they were "safe"...  However, they quickly realized that the city was just as weird, brutal, and horrific as the wilderness (if not worse in some ways). 

The buy in for the PDF is 10 bucks. That appears to be a bargain and a half. The print version is POD.

I must say, Mike has assembled an "A Team" to work on this.

Hubris is 100% written by me (Mike), but I have bribed, blackmailed, begged, or paid off some serious kickass talent for this project!  I have the amazing Alex Mayo as the layout man, David Lewis Johnson, Jez Gordon, Doug Kovacs, Jeremy Duncan, and Jason Sholtis have done (or will do) some kick ass illustrations, and the incredible Dak Ultimak will be doing the final Hubris edits.  Oh and Doug Kovacs will do one of his amazing dungeon pieces for Hubris as well!

I'm in for the PDF myself. I may opt for the POD version later.

So, I'm Working on an Article About Crowdfunding...

I've been working on a crowdfunding article (not blog post) off and on since the beginning of September. It's died on the vine more times than Far West has had release dates.

That's a joke, son ;)

Anyhow, my main issue is that I find it often goes off on tangents of Kickstarter failures. Which is fine for later articles, but I seriously find that Kickstarter is more boon than bane, and I want to reflect that.

I want to showcase the +Kevin Crawford s, the +Joseph Bloch s, the Frog God Games' and the like that know how to run a Kickstarter and deliver on what they promise.

I also want to give some examples of Kickstarter "Do's" (and some "don'ts, especially when paired with the "do's")

Give me some positive vibes and thoughts please. I'll take the negative ones, but they may be held back for a later article.

Yes, I'm crowdsourcing an article on crowdfunding ;)

A WTF Kickstarter - Project Laghima (a perpetual motion space engine)

What can I say about Project Laghima?

It has attempted funding twice before. Failed miserably both times. So, what do you do when you can't raise $6,000? Ask for $20,000 the next time.

Yes, they need $20k to build a mockup of something that is bound to fail.

No, trust me. It will fail. Science says so.

But at least their Kickstarter page has lots of animated gifs. (and watch the damn video, I beg you)

So, what kind of education does Masud Harouny have that qualifies him to ignore the laws of science? None that he mentions. This is from his website.

For the past few years, I’ve been reading about the physics of propulsion and promising new technology that strives to break free from old conventions such as the rocket or airplane models that are clunky, and require massive amounts of fuel to be hauled. In doing so, I have understandably come up with some of my own ideas.

Sadly, he's using the wrong platform to raise his funding. Indiegogo would have been more than happy to allow hi to use flexible funding to bilk the few fools he could find.

Who Was Asking for SciFi Themed Header art at The Tavern?

I'll be adding this to the rotation soon.

See, The Tavern spans genres ;)

Huge thanks to Eren Arik.

I'll be putting together artist links in the next week or so.

Tavern Chat Tonight - 9PM to 11 PM Eastern - Bright Eyed & Bushy Tailed

Thursdays are sleeping day for me now that I'm working the midnight tour at work. Slept from 9 am to 1 pm and from 330 pm to 7 pm.

Hopefully I'll be cleared of any cobwebs before tonight's chat ;)

9 to 11 PM, right here at The Tavern. All you need to do is follow the chat box on the right side of the page.

What are we going to chat about?

Damned if I know :)

Coming Soon From Frog God Games - Rogues in Remballo (Free - Urban Setting / 1st Level Adventure)

Looking for an urban setting to kick off your next Swords & Wizardry campaign? Look no further. Rogues in Remballo will have you covered. Sure, it hasn't released yet, but it exists and it is good. How do I know? Because I have my copy and I'm reading it already.

Did I mention that Frog God will be offering this for free? Think of it as an enticement to check out the forthcoming The Lost Lands: Borderland Provinces "sandbox campaign resource" (quoting +Matt Finch directly there.) Rogues of Remballo is over 20 pages of sandboxie urban adventuring, and it will be coming your way in about a week or so. No worries, I'll remind you when it does release ;)

For those wondering where the Borderland Provinces lie, it's the area that contains Rappan Athuk and the Lost City of Barakus, and Cyclopean Deeps. Yep, it's adventure central.

Now, just to be clear, Rogues in Remballo might be a 1st level adventure but it is written for experienced players, or at least an experienced DM. Herding cats is hard enough in a sandbox. When you make that sandbox an urban environment with lots of interesting locations it may be hard to keep the party's attention on the adventure at hand. Me personally? I wouldn't worry too much. My groups tend to have a knack at finding their own trouble, er... adventures.

I do love the way this adventure can be resolved (or not resolved) with many different outcomes for the future of the campaign. One little adventure. Many ripples.

I'm not supposed to give too much away before it actually releases in a week plus time, so I've been more vague than I'd like to be but Rogues in Remballo really is a nice product. As an urban setting it it very likely it will be used in your campaign multiple times and at the awesome price of "FREE" it would be foolish to not grab a copy and at the very least strip it piece by piece for your own ideas.

Oh, as an aside, it will also be available in Pathfinder and 5e flavors. I guess WotC doesn't need to worry about a 5e OGL anymore as no one else seems to be worried...