Patreon Highlight - Genius Loci Games (Johua De Santo)

I've been remiss in highlighting some of the Patreon Projects I support. (Actually, I'm behind in almost everything these days) +Johua De Santo is one of those that get's my backing.

Why?

Because he's consistently putting out small adventures / encounters that are easy to prep and run with short notice. When you have as little free time as I have these days (I'm in the midst of 7 days of overtime in an 8 working day stretch) it's nice to have short pieces, even if it's just to read in the moments between.

These days he's giving away a one-sheet to show the type of adventures his Patreon backers have access to. Just go to Johua's Patreon, download the free adventure and treat yourself. You won't be sorry.

Nap time for the old man before heading to work this evening ;)

New Big Dragon Games releases Basic Psionics Handbook (Mind Powers that Don't Cloud the Mind)

If there was one part of the AD&D 1e ruleset that never made much sense to me (there was more than one actually, but this was probably the worst) was the Psionics Rules section. It didn't follow the rest of the AD&D rules in flavor or mechanics. They felt shoved in, not even tacked on. We tried to use them and never could really figure out how to make them mesh with the core rules.

+Richard LeBlanc has found a way to bring psionics to the common gamer with the Basic Psionics Handbook. It looks very usable with a quick glance through (and if Rich's previous works are any indication, it should be immensely useful.) This is going to the top of my long neglected review pile and has already been uploaded to my tablet ;)

The normal price is going to be $7.95 but it's currently at $5.95. I'm not sure how long the lower price is in effect, so I wouldn't wait to long to bite at this one.

Here's the blurb:

Unleash the powers of the mind into your BX/LL campaign! 

Finally, after 40 years of waiting, there’s a psionics system for the classic editions of the world’s original fantasy role-playing game. It’s simple, intuitive, andprovides a gameplay experience that feels at home alongside the original rules of the game. Within this jam-packed 56-page book, you’ll find: 

a simple, easy-to-play psionics system, tailor-made for classic versions of the world’s first role-playing game 

2 complete BX/LL character classes—the mystic and the monk—specifically designed to support the system 

support for basic and expert player levels 

an easy-to-use psionic combat system based on the classic attack and defense modes
complete descriptions for 114 psionic abilities... broken into 6 different chakra/discipline groups... adapated from the best existing resources 

tables for generating wild psionic abilities in non-psionic player classes 

full stats and descriptions for 38 psionic monsters 

tables for generating phrenic creatures 

instructions on converting psionic monsters from other classic editions 

conversions and additions for 8 monsters from Old School Adventures™ Accessory CC1: Creature Compendium

background information on psionic items, and descriptions for 13 specific items
support for mixing spellcasting and psionics 

And much more!

A Look at The Tavern's Demographics (According to Google Analytics)

I saw +Russ just did this over at ENWorld, and I was curious as to how The Tavern shook out.

Nothing all that surprising. We are a bunch of middle aged, male gamers ;)

(I rounded off the numbers)

1) 35-44   39%

2) 45-54   33%

3) 25-34   19%

4) 18-24     6%

5) 55-64     2%

6) 65+        1%


Male       95%

Female     5%

Then we have some self identifying categories:
 

RPGNow Deal of the Day - A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore (OSR Rules Supplement)

If I missed telling y'all about A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore being today's Deal of the Day at RPGNow, I'd have no one to blame but +Joseph Bloch himself. Good thing I get email notifications. Now I just need to read the emails ;)

At $4.23, A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore is a steal. I've had my print copy for a while now, and have used bits and pieces in my Swords & Wizardry campaigns without my players' knowledge. Needless to say, it's been fun ;)

So, what is A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore? Here's the blurb:

A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore is a rules supplement that will enhance most old-school role-playing games. The rules are based on Gary Gygax's plans for a 2nd edition of the world's most popular role-playing game (that unfortunately never happened), and are the product of years of meticulous research. The book contains: 

Five new character classes: the bard, jester, mystic, savant, and mountebank 

Hundreds of new spells 

A new alternative combat system that is at once streamlined and more realistic 

Rules for shipborne adventures and combat 

Quick and easy rules for common hazards and weather 

New magic items 

New monsters 

And much more! 

The rules are designed to be completely modular; take what you like, leave what you don't. Want mountebanks and savants but not the new combat system? No problem. Everything will still work fine.

At $4.23 its a bargain and then some.

Kickstarter - DCC RPG 4th Printing (Already Funded and Knocking Down Stretch Goals)

There is just something about the DCC RPG. It's massive yet approachable. If you buy into the fairly random magic system, it's an amazingly solid game. The art is some of the most evocative in the OSR and the adventures work well with other OSR systems (so long as you are comfortable converting on the fly.) It's the first and only game that brought back that magical feel of my first few sessions of D&D as a teenager. It's familiar and yet comfortably different.

If you haven't checked out the DCC RPG system you really should, and Goodman games is giving old fans and new players an excellent opportunity to get the new DCC RPG 4th Printing. $40 for the new edition of the rulebook PLUS an adventure module PLUS free swag? If you want in, know is the time to do so. Backer spots are limited for the extras .

Me, I like the new Mullen cover. Damn it looks sweet.

Sure, it's an extra 20 bucks, but it includes an art folio and for the DCC completist, this is awesome.

Did I mention the stretch goals?

I just put the project over $30k, so you can thank me for the judge's reference panels ;)

Ken Whitless, Come on Down! You are the Next Contestant on "Which State Attorney General is Going to Sue My Ass?"

I apologize, as I've been remiss in following up on the Ken Whitman's various scams and sagas. Normally I'd be checking up on his Kickstarters for his "Whit-icisms" but the new work hours have run roughshod over my free time.

Lo and behold, I awoke from a nap this afternoon (it happens when you work overnites and then try and adjust on your days off) to an interesting piece over at the Kicksnacker Community at G+. This bit was originally posted over in the Pencil Dice Kickstarter comments section, and it is Whitman Gold:

Now, I've read that D20 Entertainment doesn't actually exist as a legal entity, which would leave Ken holding the bag without corporate cover. I wonder if that's why he's bee so quiet on his Kickstarters these days...

As an aside, I see Brave Halfling is in the State AG mix. Not a surprise, as John has handled Appendix N in about as poor a manner as is possible. Of course, John is more "business incompetent" whereas Ken is "scam artistry taken to new highs and lows."

Bundle of Holding with Halloween in Mind - Bundle of Nerves +3 (Savage Worlds Horror, Silent Legions and More)

Silent Legions is +Kevin Crawford 's entry into the horror genre using an OSR styled ruleset. Savage Worlds is, well, Savage Worlds. This offering includes the Horror Companion for Savage Worlds.

Two games, three books, 40 bucks worth of gaming for $10. A pretty good deal.

At approximately double the price you add in the Rippers storyline for Savage Worlds, Shadows of Esteren Book 0 - Prologue and Book 1 - Universe and Accursed. A $60 value for about 20 bucks more.

My only disappointment is that it lacks any Call of Cthulhu in the bundle. That being said, Bundle of Nerves + 3 is a very good bundle for the price.

Best Ruleset to Introduce Noobs to RPGs?

So, last night it happened. Well, actually, it started on Saturday night, but I was off so it really happened last night.

What am I talking about?

One of my Lts. and another Sgt. spent Saturday night tracking down my blog and attempting to track down my podcasts.

I was greeted by my blog shown on phones, +Douglas Cole 's interview of me playing on YouTube and questions about RPGs in general AND a desire to have me run a session. For cops that have never played before. Damn tall order, I know.

I'm so damn deep into RPGs I'm not even sure what would be the best choice to introduce them to the hobby. Free in PDF is obviously good, but I work with folks that want to READ the rules and come away with some knowledge of how it plays out.

So, I'm looking for suggestions from the fine readers of The Tavern.

Tavern Chat Tonight - 9PM Eastern - I'll Have Questions

Tonight is Tavern Chat Night. It's something I look forward to these days after a long week at work (my work week ends at 6AM Thursday morning and kicks off again at 930PM Saturday Night.)

I'll have some questions for those that drop by, mostly related to my cover being blown at work. Yes, the blog and some podcasts have been found and aside from the usual ribbing, it's generated lots of curiosity in my hobby.

I may run a bit late tonight as I'll be taking my wife out to a well deserved dinner after some stressful weeks at her new job.

See y'all tonight :)

D&D 5e Most Played Game on Roll20 for the Last Quarter

I like that Roll20 makes it's stats public on a quarterly basis. There really is a small mountain of date for those that want to drill through such.

I get quarterly updates on those stats from the Orr Group, the parent company of Roll20 (the big daddy of virtual table tops, or VTTs.)

The most interesting thing to note from the latest update, from my perspective at least (and I guess the folks behind Roll20, as they made a specific mention of it in the email) is that Dungeons & Dragons 5e is the most played RPG on Roll20. Doesn't matter whether you use the yardstick of games played or players self identifying- 5e is number 1 in each case.

The percentage of players identifying with a certain system is actually greater than 100%, as they may identify with more than one system in the time the data was captured.

Less shiny snapshot with more detail:

What's Your Standard? Gold, Silver, Gems, Shells?

I know D&D is based on a gold standard, but it's never felt right to me. Somehow bringing hundreds of pounds of gold out of a dungeon just never seemed right to me. It just seemed to devalue gold.

Switching to the silver standard helps, so long as you treat silver in all ways like gold,except that it's silver. Or something like that.

Gems. Gems always felt better, travelled easier but were much harder to actually spend. The average barkeep is not going to cash out gems.

Letters of credit aren't too loot-able.

So, what's the standard in your campaign? Why?

Kickstarter - The Folio #5 & #6, in 1E & 5E Format

I've posted about previous releases in The Folio before. Here's the quick summary:

- On time or early

- Detachable covers

- Quality adventures

If you like Old School feel with modern production values, The Folio is the way to go. You can get The Folio 5 & 6 for a mere 10 bucks in PDF.

I'll be running this series of adventures come March / April when I enjoy some downtime ;)

P.S/ Did I mention I love the cover art to #5?

Frog God Games Free Adventure - Rogues in Remballo (S&W, PF and 5e flavors)

Quick and dirty post as I'm in the middle of an 18 hour work day.

Frog God Games has generously released Rogues in Remballo in PDF format to the gaming public.

How do you get your copy? Just go to the Borderland Provinces Kickstarter page and follow the link for the free adventure.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/froggodgames/the-lost-lands-borderland-provinces/description

posted from Bloggeroid

Had a Small Surprise Waiting for Me at Work Today

I got to work a little early this afternoon for the first of my two back to back tours and noticed a small change to my mailbox:




Kingggg! I will have my revenge!

Good investigative work though...

The Tenkar's Tavern - NTRPG Con Mini-Con G+ Community is Live

Yep, I did it. I sponsored a room for NTRPG Con 2016 for use by OSR Bloggers, Podcasters and Small Publishers (and the rest of the community that is involved in all things OSR.) Bad Mike bills room sponsorship as a sort of mini-con, and he's right. There's a lot we can do to make this ours.

I'll be looking for suggestions for games to be run at our sponsored table, requested GMs to run games at the table run by NTRPG Con in the room (we have 2 gaming tables in the room - one for us and one for the con, but we can request GMs for the NT table), podcasts that are interested in reserving time at one of our 2 vendor tables, blogs that want to be represented (either with banners, flyers, small giveaways, in person or other), small publishers that might want a piece of the 2nd vending table and much more.

The more being simple members of the community that want a voice in a little corner of the OSR universe for 4 days in June of 2016. Hopefully we can also use the room as a meet-up for OSR bloggers, podcasters, small publishers, readers, listeners, consumers and the like.

If you are going to be at NTRPG Con in 2016, I'm hoping you'll participate in the Tenkar's Tavern - NTRPG Con Mini-Con Community on G+. More importantly, I hope to see you there. If you aren't going, you can still participate. There's been talk of arranging some live (or nearly so) podcasting or video-casting from NTRPG Con, and if the logistics work out, the Tenkar's Tavern Mini-Con will be in the thick of it.

You can join the Tenkar's Tavern - NTRPG Con Mini-Con G+ Community by following the link. I'll see you there ;)

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