OSR Christmas - Day Nine - Post 1 - A Different Type of Shield Get's Attacked (Ships Worldwide)

So, 'tis the night before the night before Christmas and all through the house mad wrapping is occurring and gift finding (as gifts bought way too early get squirreled away in locations one can certainly use the mad skills of an "expert treasure hunter") is in full swing.

Digging through random drawers revealed to me that I have some extra NYPD Sergeants Benevolent Association "Courtesy Cards" from prior years taking up space. While they have no value in and of themselves, they are collectible by some folks and are certainly rare, especially outside the NYC area.

I also have, thanks to SquareHex ( +Peter Regan ) some combat reference cards (both sides of the card are pictured above) and some business card sized character sheets.

So, this is what I'm going to do.

Five random commenters below who can tell me about their first PC in three or fewer sentences will be in the running to receive one randomly chosen SBA card from one of the years pictures above, one combat reference card and one business card sized character sheet.

Yes, this will be open to anywhere in the world.

Comments will close sometime Saturday morning, December 26th.

The Frogs are Having a Sale - Stoneheart Valley for 20 Bucks in Hardcover and Much More

I really like Stoneheart Valley. It's a nice collection of adventures and enough hooks to keep your group adventuring for months. This might be the next set of adventures I run.

At 20 bucks, it's a steal.

But wait, there's more :)

Rappan Athuk Expansions Vol 1 (Regularly $34.99)

Cyclopean Deeps Vol 1 (Regularly $34.99)

Cyclopean Deeps Vol 2 (Regularly $34.99)

All for just 20 bucks in hardcover (which should include the PDF for those looking for instant gratification)

Use this coupon code at checkout:  CHRISTMAS-20 

So, that must be all, right? Nope

Get the following 4 Softcovers for $2 each!

Rappan Athuk Battle Maps (Regularly $9.99)

Rappan Athuk Bestiary (Regularly $9.99)

Rappan Athuk Players Guide (Regularly $9.99)

Rappan Athuk Pregenerated Characters (Regularly $9.99)

Use this coupon at checkout:  RA-SALE-2015

And if that's not enough,

Buy Rappan Athuk, get Rappan Athuk Expansions Vol 1 for free!
(Hardcover or PDF)
 
Use this coupon at checkout:  RA-BOGO-FREE

Sale ends midnite Dec 25th. Go to the Frog's site here.

I ran RA for the better part of a year. It's a great mega dungeon so long as your party knows when to run. I ran it with S&W. I can't say how it plays in Pathfinder but we had a blast with the S&W rules. Apparently the party's wizard was a closet gambling addict ;)

Thoughts From Your Local Bartender This Holiday Season

First off, let me say this right out of the chute - this community, and by this community, I'm referring to YOU, is one of the most generous communities anywhere of any background that I'm been blessed to be a part of. I thank you for letting me be a part of it.

There is still a lot of gifting to be done this OSR Christmas season. Lots. More generous folks stepped up as things took off and I'm literally playing catch up. Which isn't a bad thing. It just shows what an awesome community we have.

The Tavern has morphed into an online version of a Holiday Music Radio Station - The past few days have been nearly all OSR Christmas posts. I've already had more posts this week than we've had in months - and it's only Wednesday ;)

No Tavern Chat this week. I thought we might squeeze an earlier night of the week in but I'm still ass deep in presents to wrap.

Next week I'll share some thoughts and ideas as to where I'd like The Tavern to go in 2016. Come spring of 2016 I should have the spare time to accomplish the things that I'd currently like to do but have nowhere near the free amount of time to do so.

I will say an online OSR Con is certainly on the list of things I'd like to accomplish in 2016, no matter how small the initial offering is. It's been brought up when I've been talking with others and the potential is certainly there. If we could do it in conjuncture with some name rec - wait, I shall say no more. Besides, it was just tossing ideas back and forth ;-P

RPGNow Deal of the Day - Adventures Dark and Deep Players Manual - $5.97

The other night I had a dream with EGG himself in it. We were having lunch at some restaurant, drinking wine and eating grilled cheese of all things.

Gary turns to me and says: "I'm making you the Director of the AD&D line."

I was stunned. Thrilled. Finally, I was confused.

"Gary" I said. "Isn't the AD&D line dead?"

His response was priceless: "Exactly."

At which point I woke up and wrote this shit down. I don't often get visited by the dead in my dreams, even if its my own subconscious playing games with me.

Which brings us to the Adventures Dark and Deep Player's Manual . +Joseph Bloch wrote it with the idea of "what would AD&D 2e have been if EGG had been allowed to write it?" It's a what if. It's also an excellent game unto itself with classes that can easily be placed in the OSR rule set of your choice.

All that for $5.97

Grab a copy for yourself if you haven't already (I have the hard copy on my gaming shelf)

OSR Christmas - Announcing the Winners of the Lesser Gnome Gift Giveaway

Lesser Gnome, aka +Zach Glazar . These is very little "lesser" about the publisher or the main man behind it. If less is more, that lesser is much morer... or something like that ;)

The generous scoundrel, er businessman offered up some amazing loot for those participating in the holiday known as OSR Christmas. Below are the winners (and even the losers have won something if they choose to use it.) Now, without further ado, Zach in his own words: 

There were 57 entries out of 72 comments. The remaining were replies by me and others previously entered. Two were from scoundrels (Erik Tenkar and Edwin Nagy- both knowing they were ineligible but wanted to mess with my counting :) ). I used an online dice roller to make a custom dice for winner and removed that winner for from the pool (the second winner was selected with d57, 3rd, d56 etc.).

For those who did not win I am going to offer the consolation offer of an additional $10 off the box until January 1st. The winners (and those who want to get the extra discount) should contact me via email (zach@lessergnome.com) so we can arrange for shipping.

There were enough entries for 4 Bronze (or 3rd Edition) level prizes. The winners can chose between either of our shorter modules or a multipack of figurines. They are…

1.       22 - Peter Schweighofer
2.       27 - Doug
3.       28 - Benjamin Wade Hruby

The silver (or second edition) prize, the Whisper & Venom bundle goes to

1.       6 - Chris Dawson

The Gold (or 1st Edition) Prize, the Death & Taxes Collector's Set goes to

1.       11 - Ryan Hixson

The last minute prizes of a free dice bag and set of “evil encounter cards”  (They) was not taken out of the prize pool though, they just lost on that) go to -

Dice bag-

Shot of Entropy

He won because of this…

I hate to see a nerd without a dice bag, especially during the holidays.

Evil encounter cards-

Robert Lambert

A winner thanks to this…

As a “businessman” I can appreciate evil and greedy.

:)

Thanks to all who entered!

Happy Holidays,

Zach Glazar
Head Gnome

OSR Christmas Day Eight - Post 1 - Bearing Swords & Slinging Six-Siders (Print - International)

It's the morning of Day Eight of OSR Christmas. Your bartender work up with a cold. To be more precise, your bartender woke up overnight with a cold. Colds suck. OSR Christmas is awesome.

What on the gift giving plate this morning? Two copies of Swords & Six-Siders courtesy of +Sophia Brandt  and her blog Die Heart.

So, what is Swords & Six-Siders?

Swords & Six-Siders (S&SS) is the ultra rules-lite, 1d6 only, OGL fantasy RPG inspired by 0E, BX, and T&T. S&SS is great for both new RPGers and old schoolers alike who are looking to get more gaming done in less time. 

Two copies of the game shipping anywhere in the world.

How do you get a chance to score a copy? Head over to the Die Heart blog and leave a comment where indicated. Easy-peasy.

Day Seven of OSR Christmas - Post 3 - It's All Manor of Assorted Gothridge

Day Seven - Post 3. So it was that I was in the midst of learning about moonshining when all manner of shenanigans started at The Manor. Or rather, all manner of assorted laminated half sheets and 4" x 6" cards and card stock zine style adventures were put up for grabs by +Tim Shorts of Gothridge Manor fame.

How can you grab yourself a grab bag of adventures and encounters to keep your campaign going for a long, long time?

Head over to Gothridge Manor and follow Tim's simple instructions.

Announcement - Artist Steve Zieser Passed Today

I just read the post by Dan Proctor over at the Goblinoid Games blog that Steve Zieser has died. I never knew the man but I knew of his work. Recently, I had heard that he was ill, but never knew that it was from cancer.

It always hits me hard when I hear of someone being taken by cancer. I get that survivor's guilt, having been diagnosed nearly ten years ago and given the all clear a little more than four years ago.

Here's someone whose work I admired (even before I knew who Steve was) and what he has shared will us thus far is all we will have. His family and friends are left holding memories.

I wish I had the words to lessen the pain for Steve's survivors, those he left behind. I don't. I just have thoughts and prayers for for those that are feeling the pain of their loss. We have the legacy Steve has left us. That is priceless as well as a constant reminder of the man we lost earlier today.

Day Seven of OSR Christmas - Post 2 - Empires Fall and Gygaxes Rise (DCC and Gygax Magazine)

Day Seven, Post 2. I'm in the trenches here in OSR Christmas. Gifts to the left of me. Gifts to the right of me. Into the red depths of Santa Hell rode they who will not be named.

Er, fuck it, I'll name him. +James Carpio . There It's out there for all to see.

James is gifting some awesome goodies:

James is giving away one copy of Tales From the Fallen Empire hardcover, one copy of Tales From the Fallen Empire softcover (both with a referee’s screen), and two copies of Gygax Magazine issue # 6

Yep, four gifts up for grabs. So, whataya gotta do to get your hands on such loot?

So in order to try and win some of my Christmas swag, I need you to entertain me with a holiday gaming story. Tell me about how Sir Thurstan saved the town from Kobolds stealing presents, or about how a cyborg Santa came to town looking to kill off Gandalf. It can be a short story, a limerick, or a poem.  Those that I find amusing, I will randomly choose to win a holiday OSR gift. I may even have a few other goodies up my sleeve, so others might receive something cool as well. So please, give me a great gaming story. I will announce the winners by New Years eve and get mailing information from them at that time.

You need to got to James's blog, Hexgeneration and follow the directions above. FYI, I backed the Kickstarter for Tales From the Fallen Empire and it's worth the price of admission.

Day Seven of OSR Christmas - Post 1 - Heraclix and Pomp: A Novel of the Fabricated and the Fey (Signed Hardcover x 3 - US & Canada)

OSR Christmas is picking up speed so you better hang on tight. You wouldn't want to miss Santa and his mutated red nosed reindeer as they make another pass with the gifting :)

The first offering of the day is a chance to acquire one of three signed print copies of the novel Heraclix and Pomp: A Novel of the Fabricated and the Fey by +Forrest Aguirre . Forrest is a longtime gamer and as he states over at this blog Forrest for the Trees, his first novel has its roots in gaming:

The impetus for the novel came out of a conversation I had in a hallway with members of my gaming group as we were talking about "next steps". I mentioned my desire to write an adventure for two characters and we discussed various options for a pair of heroes that could viably make it through a dungeon crawl on their own. This conversation stuck in my mind, and I finally settled on the idea of a flesh golem and a pixie as an adventuring party. They'd have all the muscle, magic, and sneaking skills any low-level party would need. So I set about writing a short story, which eventually morphed into the novel, Heraclix and Pomp.

How do you give yourself a chance to be gifted a signed copy of this excellent novel? Head over to Forrest for the Trees and tell Forrest about your favorite heroic duo. Don't tell me as it won't put you in the running to be gifted. Besides, I'll be peeking over there throughout the next two days to read your answers.

Remember, Christmas Week means OSR Christmas is hot and heavy. Expect another gift coming later today :)

Day Six of OSR Christmas - Post 3 - Time to Tell Some Tales in the Game Tavern

It's been a busy day in the world of OSR Christmas. Guess what? Tomorrow should be busy too :)

Tonight we have an OSR zine for some lucky gift recipients thanks to +Grand DM. He's giving away 3 copies (print and PDF) of the latest issue (#2) of Tales from the Game Tavern.

How do you give yourself a chance to score a copy?

Head over to the Ultanya blog and follow the instructions there.

Yep, it's that simple.

Remember to check the OSR Christmas link often to see if you've missed any chances for OSR gift receiving ;)

Kickstarter - Spy-a game of action and espionage Tabletop Roleplaying game (what it says on the tin)

First impressions are, if not everything, a huge part of the Kickstarter puzzle solving / funding experiment. Your project can do a large amount right and come out of the gate wrong and it's all for naught. FYI - I always copy-n-paste the project's title as is, because that's where first impressions start.

Does the above look right to you? At the very least "Tabletop Roleplaying game" should have each word capitalized. Even then it still looks awkward as part of that opening statement / project title.

I'm surprised there isn't a "Spy" named RPG put there, but checking Wikipedia there doesn't seem to be.

What does "Spy" do right? Lots.

Cover art and sample art presented to backers.

Game system basics explained.

Game mostly written and art acquired.

Sample character sheet.

Low / maybe too low funding goal.

IMHO, you should never charge a Print backer for the PDF copy. Here, it's an extra 7 bucks to go from Print to Print + PDF. Bad call.

As for how everything is presented on the Kickstarter page, I find it lacking. There's no excitement, nothing bringing me in. There are a number of instanced where it could have used editing (this is where you need perfection, because if your pitch isn't perfect we expect more of the same in the final project.) Nothing to show how this spy game is going to succeed where others haven't. In addition, I'm all for realistic funding goals, but $2,500 isn't much of a goal - especially when the funding as it's trending now shows the goal won't be met. This should have been a print on demand offering at RPGNow.

So, admirable try but I'm not backing. Not that my backing would make a difference as it's not going to fund anyhow.

Day Six of OSR Christmas - Post 2 - A Treasure Hoard of Maps - (Hand Drawn - Ships Worldwide)

A representative sample of Matt's fine work

Did you notice that little bit of extra in the post title? Yep, this is actually Christmas Week, so expect the gift giving to be hot-n-heavy (I also expect OSR Christmas to spill over into next week but that is nothing new - lots of gifts to give out.)

This time, none other than +matt jackson , map maker extraordinaire, if donating the gifts, and my what gifts they are!

Here's what Matt's offering:

I have tons of original maps scattered around the house. How about I fill two large manila envelopes with the original, hand drawn maps. Mailed anywhere on the planet.

So, two folks will receive gifts from Matt. How frikkin' cool is that?

How do you get one of these two packages of map nirvana?

Tell us how you would use the map pictured above. It can be as short as a sentence or as long as a paragraph or two. One package will go to a random entry and one will go to the entry I consider the most creative. Leave your comment on this very post before noon, Wednesday Dec 23, 2015.

Remember, there are other OSR Christmas offerings that are still welcoming potential gift receivers :)

Day Six of OSR Christmas - Post 1 - Start Your Engines and Adventure in The Manor

Did you notice that little bit of extra in the post title? Yep, this is actually Christmas Week, so expect the gift giving to be hot-n-heavy (I also expect OSR Christmas to spill over into next week but that is nothing new - lots of gifts to give out.)

This morning's post is linked to +Tim Shorts / Gothridge Manor giveaway of Starter Adventures. It's an awesome collection of exactly what it says on the tin - adventures to kick off a campaign.

In Tim's own words:

A good place to start new players and even GMs.  Lots of small adventures and situations to help teach the game.  In addition there is a fully developed tavern and when your new players can tell a d8 from a d12 you can graduate them to the full adventure in the back.

How do you get yourself gifted such a piece of awesomeness? 

You need to go to Gothridge Manor and follow the instructions Tim has left. That's all. Good luck!

OSR Christmas - The 3 Month Subscription of Mythoard Goes to...

I've been on "Uncle Duty" all weekend, so the spare time I thought I had has not been there. Which is OK, in truth, because I love being super Uncle for a just turned five year old girl. Future gamer too ;)

This is my way of apologizing for not getting an OSR Christmas post up today. We'll make up for it over the next few days.

That being said, we have an awesome gift to give to somebody - a 3 month subscription to Mythoard!

Just who is our lucky person?

+Bob Brinkman !

Bob, email me at tenkarsDOTtavernAT that gmail thing and I'll get that gift out to you.

Everyone else, you can get 30% off a one month trial of Mythoard using the following code (you'll thank me when you get your package):

TAVERNTRYOUT at sign up at Mythoard.com

Kickstarter - Brave New World (Pay to Play an NPC on Someone's VTT)

Yes, you read the blog post title correctly. You can pay to play an NPC in someone else's campaign world... virtually.

Here's the elevator pitch of Brave New World:

Then here's the reality:

So no, you aren't going to be "an adventurer." Instead, you're the blacksmith or the town guard. You get your 5 minutes before they move on - and you get to pay for the privilege.

Eh, here's the rest in a copy and paste, because fuck me if this doesn't deserve some snark-like commenting.

Have you ever read a book and wanted to be part of that world? (sure!) Maybe watched a movie that made you want to join the adventure? (hell yeah!) Do you enjoy tabletop gaming but can't find the time or a group to play with? (I've had that problem) Then I have a great suggestion for you! (you do? awesome!) We are building a game world from the ground up and you can be there for the first adventures. (er, huh? I'm not going to be one of the adventurers?) This will be your chance to shape a city. Exploration, politics, managing resources. It's all there. There are several slots for almost every conceivable position. Want to shape the government? You can! Want to protect the citizens? Be a city guard. Want to shape the agricultural aspects of an entire country? Be a land owning farmer. (WTF? I'm a fuckin' extra in the movie? I'm the faceless guard that get's killed and never named?) The majority of available spots are for npc type players but you will help to give the city a real life with personality. (but I want to be a Player Character, not the background noise. I want to be part of it, not a piece of shit. Wait? And I'm expected to pay for the privilege?) Once we are up and running there will be games run for actual player characters with which the real life human run npc's can interact. (so I get to pay so that the PCs can play for free and have more fun...)

This is a player and npc driven style campaign. We as game masters will be ensuring rules are obeyed and refereeing the interactions of all the characters. We are the gods and goddesses (this says it all right here - someone hasn't broken from their teenage fantasies), the environment the monsters, and in the beginning the king. Want to go exploring? Tell us where and why. What to start a business? Tell us what and we will tell you what needs to be accomplished. Want to create an organization? Tell us what kind and why and we will incorporate it into the game. 

The campaign starts with Bolkas Icebolt (that is so not an exciting name) finding 100 people plus a small band of adventurers to go start a colony on a habitable world with no current civilization that he discovered. The planet, Falgyth, is earth sized with a slightly cooler atmosphere. Each pledge award above $10 secures a backer a slot in the settlement where they can help create this new rpg world. The higher the pledge the more influence the NPC has in the creation of this new settlement (pay to play, but only as a secondary character). Everyone has a chance at interacting with the adventurers (well ain't that just exciting). The main story being streamed on Twitch is about the adventurers. We hope the campaign will grow beyond the initial 100 inhabitants. These additional settlers will have to subscribe to participate in the world we are creating (wait? folks after the KS will have to pay a monthly fee to play an NPC? my God, WoW and the rest missed out on a huge money making opportunity). All the backers of the initial 100 settlers get to participate subscription free for the life of the character. 

We are raising money for equipment and software to aid in producing the stream and managing the scale of the campaign (mind telling us the equipment and software you'll be buying with the money your backers are theoretically kicking in?). The software we are investing in will allow us to manage a large scale of people and share information and maps with ease. We hope we find plenty of backers with a pioneer spirit. If there is enough interest we may open up future settler slots for additional backers as stretch goals. (yeah - er, no)

Risks and challenges 

The greatest risk is not getting all the programs we intend to use (name them already!). They are going to make managing so many players and npc's all together much easier. Having managed campaigns with 13 to 20 people at a time, we understand many of the complications a project like this could have. We have spent a great amount of time developing rules and planned structures to make the experience better than past experiences (wait, you've done this before?). The software we are looking at purchasing will make this experience fuller and richer than most get to experience at home with friends. (I was so going to make a sexual joke - but I'm sure there will be better ones left in the comments :)

Mythoard is Offering 30% Off to Tavern Readers for a One Month Trial

You heard it right. Due to the huge response to the Fifth Day of OSR Christmas (where there is a gift of a 3 Month Mythoard subscription up for grabs until sometime tomorrow), +Jarrod Shaw (he of Mythoard fame) is offering The Tavern's readers a 30% discount code just for you! This is an awesome deal for Mythoard and truly an amazing amount of gaming product.

Use the code TAVERNTRYOUT at sign up at Mythoard.com and get 30% off your first box. Its good until the 10th of January 2016, and applies to US month to month subscriptions only.

I'm serious - If you haven't checked out Mythoard yet, now is the time to do so. What are you waiting for?

What a second. I'll do this one better. I'm sure +Jarrod Shaw can tell when folks sign up with this code. I'll send the first five sign-ups at Mythoard using the code TAVERNTRYOUT a $5 RPGNow GC. I'll figure out the logistics with Jarrod later. This is a surprise even for him ;)

You're still here? Go get your Mythoard!

Kickstarter - Bōken: A Tale of Ninjas (It's About Ninjas - Need We Say More? Apparently Not)

Sometimes certain Kickstarter projects leave me scratching my head. Bōken: A Tale of Ninjas almost made me pull out my hair.

The video starts with some animated ninja shit before moving on to some boring ass talking heads. The the thing is, if you don't listen to the talking heads, you wouldn't even know what broad type of RPG system it is (dice pools apparently.) Color me not impressed.

How much are they asking for? $32,000

Any sample art on the Kickstarter page?

Nope.

How about the approximate length of the book (which they are claiming a March 2016 delivery date)?

Why would they.

You don't even need to go to the Bōken: A Tale of Ninjas Kickstarter page to read the whole pitch as it fit into a single screenshot:

Too much coffee? How about not enough of anything else to justify even a buck to get backer only updates. Hell, they've all been public thus far so why bother.

For all of the good projects out there it's the quick attempts at a cash grab that really annoy the shit out of me.

If You Had Stuck Around to the End of Last Night's Tavern Chat...

You might have caught the conversation talking about a possible podcast in last night's Tavern Chat. It was out there for all to see.

+Michael Badolato (Bad Mike)

+Zach Glazar (the Lesser Gnome)

+Erik Tenkar (myself)

Off the cuff, no scripts, no mailbags, immature (adult language) and sure to offend most people. Old school gaming as raw as it can be.

Is it a done deal? Of course not. Are we excited? Hell yeah.

Enter to win a Death & Taxes Boxed Set and tell +Zach Glazar you want to hear him on a podcast. Cause you know you do :)

Day Five of OSR Christmas - Look! Over Yonder! A Mythical Hoard!

Before we get to today's main event, there is a prize I must award here at The Tavern:

Joel Priddy - email me at tenkarsDOTtavern at that gmail thing and I'll get that $10 RPGNow GC to you.

So, what's in Santa's Bag today?

Something totally unexpected, as it wasn't on the initial gift list, but when offered, there was no way OSR Santa could say no:

a Three Month Subscription to Mythoard

What is Mythoard? You don't know? It's like Loot Crate on OSR steroids! Not that it's all OSR, but the OSR is a damn strong presence in every monthly release, which means it's easy enough to convert to the edition (or ruleset) of your choice.

I've been a subscriber since the beginning. It's like a gamer's Christmas once a month! (or Hanukkah or the religious gift giving holiday of your choice / your diety's choice / the choice of "He That Shall Not Be Named" / the day your dog chose to chew on your shoe and you just needed to be cheered up / etc)

Three months of Mythoard for free. How cool is that?

Just a heads up - this gift is for US Only. It is for three monthly shipments. Imagine the joy the US Post Office would have had charging international postal rates to +Jarrod Shaw for three months in a row. You want a real Scrooge? The US Postal Service...

So, how do you get yourself this most awesome of gaming gifts? Simply make a comment here, on this very post, about why you deserve such an epic gift. The gift receiver of the Mythoard subscription will be chosen randomly, but the answer that stands out to me, your bartender, will earn themselves a $10 RPGNow Giift Certificate. Gift receivers will be chosen sometime on Sunday, December 21st, 2015.

Remember, there are other events still going on for OSR Christmas. You can't be gifted if you aren't in the mix.