Deal of the Day - Filling in the Blanks (OSE/OSR)

I am a sucker for campaign resources and tools.

Filling in the Blanks is a guide to populating hexes with lairs and features to use in fantasy role-playing games. While written specifically for Necrotic Gnome's Old School Essentials it is compatible with virtually all OSR-style games, and can be used with more modern versions of the game with little effort.

It provides tables for randomly generating the number and type of lairs and features that can be found while exploring the wilderness and guidance on how to craft the results into coherent setting details.

I literally just purchased the Filling in the Blanks PDF and expect to do a deep dive in a week or so.

Filling in the Blanks is normally 10.95 in PDF, until tomorrow it is 4.38.

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Kickstarter - Palace of the Golden Princess #1 (5e Adventure & Comic Book)

5e module and comic based on the first RPG adventure written by a woman.

In 1980, Jean Wells, the only woman in TSR's design department, was assigned to write an adventure for the "B" (Basic) series that would teach new players how to play D&D using rules for the D&D Basic Set. This module would be unique as it was the first TSR adventure authored by a female designer. Wikipedia - Palace of the Silver Princess

It's not often, if ever, that I start a blog post with a quote from Wikipedia, but I thought it was appropriate this time ;)

Now, on to the "connections". The project creator, author of the comic, and co-author of the adventure is Preston Poulter. Preston is a frequent participant in The Tavern's weekly hangouts on Thursday Nights on our Discord Server and loves creating comic books. Courtney Campbell is a prolific and highly skilled writer of RPG material. Courtney has a blog - Hack & Slash - and can often be found lurching in the Common Room of The Tavern's Discord Server. Heck, he was there earlier today.

So yes, I know the main folks behind the Palace of the Golden Princess #1 Kickstarter project. Quite simply, if Courtney is writing RPG material, I want it. If Preston is publishing a comic book, it will literally look amazing (parental supervision may be required on some comic book titles, as the artwork can be risque ;)

So, what can you get and for how much?

The comic book, the adventure, and character sheets in digital format will be 10 bucks. Print of the comic book adventure will be 20 bucks. Then it goes a bit crazy but in a good way. There's a Deck of Many Things, limited covers for the comics, resin minis, replica swords, wall tapestries, and more. Phew! Have at it. Damn, but the sword tempts me ;)

Subsequent to the success of the Palace comic, I sought to build a campaign to offer a module set in the world of Palace. Ultimately, I partnered with prolific module writer Courtney Campbell to bring you an adventure that, while published under the current 5e ruleset for the world's most popular roleplaying game, has been customized by Courtney and myself to embrace the play style of the 1980s. I invite you to download our introductory release, available on drivethrurpg as a "Pay what you want" PDF. 

Rejecting the modern notion of roleplaying which seems to have evolved into what can best be described as "fantasy superheroes," Courtney and I dispatch the modern notion of character "builds" straight away by declaring that character stats should be generated by rolling 3d6 for each stat in the order the appear on the sheet, just like you would have done back in 1981 to play Jean Wells original work.

Of course, you are free to ignore our rules recommendations, but we feel you will be cheating yourself and your group out of a different kind of roleplaying experience that delivers a lot more fun. 

The module offered with this campaign incorporates all the material of the introductory release, and expands upon it to offer a multi-session adventure designed for 4-8 characters of levels 1-3. 

 

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nuTSR Discord Channel Screen Captures for All to Read and Use as They See Fit (Google Drive)

My anonymous source (that provided me the screenshots for today's earlier video on Vince Florio) has decided to share all the screen captures they have from the TSR Discord and put a Google Drive link for folks to access.

Here's the link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ii1iTjlLdQqlkjih2i20UERN7ZLsh9mm?fbclid=IwAR3pjzHrV9pc16fthveSjALExDfpQkBBZIObkOlq5OwaAoLWlrQmF7VJSY0

From the beginning, it's been about the truth when it comes to nuTSR, not the clicks. I'm very happy to be able to give this wings and hope others will use the included information to make their own decisions about nuTSR.

Feel free to use it on blogs, websites, videos, etc.

ConManKen PSA for Those That Don't Watch the Tavern on YouTube

I only follow a handful of blogs, of course the Tavern is on that short list. I can also be kind of lazy and tend to go and review a whole week of posts on these blogs over the weekend, or when I have a quiet moment at lunch.....well, allegedly I'm on lunch.

Imagine my surprise when I'm going through the last week of posts here at the Tavern and I simply cannot find the post I'm looking for. I could've sworn that there was an update regarding Ken Whitman, er Con Man Ken? What is it that Erik calls him....Whitless? I know I could do a search and figure it out, but lazy and I'm already on the blog, posting.....

....of course I forget that most every web browser has something call "tabs". Maybe I should have more coffee before hopping online....

OK, ConManKen and Whitless are things and not my creation or imagination. Was it my imagination that there was an update? I could've sworn I heard about one and Whitless is really where my introduction to the Tavern, as a guest poster, began. Kenny managed to bilk my household out of $450 on the KoDT: LAS Kickstarter and Erik let me rail on about it.

The thought that Kenny might get back into our community, in ANY capacity other than as an inmate requesting we send him gaming materials to make his cell time more comfortable (hey, a guy can dream, right?), well it gives me chills.

I did find the info I was looking for....it was on the Tavern's YouTube channel. Not listed here in any easy capacity. No, that will not do:

I know this is essentially double-dipping, but it's not Erik's fault.....it's mine. Kenny is working an angle...has to be, he's done it before, actually multiple times IIRC, and him popping up to solicit Erik for an interview cannot be a good thing. You have to dig through the YouTube comments, well all 14 at this point, to see that info.

While I should really have, well a "real" post for today, I can't let this one go. The thought that this KickScammer might circle back around to us......*shudder*

If Kenny does an interview, I really hope it is documented online outside of YouTube. 

Deal of the Day - The Palace of Unquiet Repose (OSE Version)

The Palace of Unquiet Repose (OSE Version) is a solid 5 Star release with eight 5-star ratings and one 5-star review on DTRPG. The Palace of Unquiet Repose (OSE Version) is also today's Deal of the Day, taking the PDF down from 10 bucks to a mere $3.

The Palace of Unquiet Repose (OSE Version) is an adventure for levels 3-5, although sadly there isn't much of a product description on the DTRPG splash page.

Uyu-Yadmogh. Prince of Princes. Archmage. Devourer of Children. Under the earth he built himself a palace in which he could abide eternity. Now he is only half-remembered legend.

The ground trembles, the earth is split asunder. In the sunken depths of the earth, the Palace awaits.

An adventure for those who dare.

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Free OSR Adventure - The Sepulchre of Seven

Earlier tonight on the Random Party Generator Livestream, Matt Jackson mentioned The Sepulchre of Seven adventure module, which had maps from himself and Dyson.

The Sepulchre of Seven is a FREE OSE/OSR adventure for levels 5-7 and clocks in at 70 pages. At the price of free, you really can't go wrong downloading this well-rated adventure. I know I just did ;)

A free OSR adventure module for character levels 5-7

Designed for use with the Old-School Essentials ruleset, compatible with most old-school pen-and-paper RPGs.

Long ago a half-elf, half deer-centaur named Jayne led a small guerilla band against the armies of an evil fae witch.

They prevailed at terrible cost.

Over centuries, the Church erased all memory of Jayne’s fae nature.

Monsters moved into her hideout-turned-sepulchre, still haunted by Jayne’s ennemies and companions, and a ghost longing to complete his vengeance...

In this 39-room dungeon, adventurers will discover the fates and true faces of Jayne and her unremembered companions.

Will they get out with forgotten riches, or become the latest victims of a centuries-old tragedy?

The product includes: a fully-linked interactive PDF + player-friendly VTT maps.

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Humble Bundle Doctor Who 2022 Comics Bundle

Journey through time and space with Doctor Who and a cast of companions in this bundle from Titan Comics! Discover mind-bending tales of civilizations in peril, interstellar war, dangerous Dalek plots, and more in 50+ volumes & collections—and delve deeper into the comic adventures of your favorite Doctor Who incarnation. Plus, your purchase helps support BBC Children in Need!

Doctor Who is an amazing IP. I may need to catch up and read the comics via Humble Bundle. You can grab 56 Doctor Who Releases in the current Humble Bundle for $35.

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Bundle of Holding - Amazing Adventures 5E Bundle (Troll Lord Games)

This all-new Amazing Adventures 5E Bundle presents the current (2020) edition of Amazing Adventures, the Troll Lord Games multi-genre tabletop roleplaying game based on the Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition rules.

I own a copy of the original Amazing Adventures, built with the SIEGE Engine that powers Castles & Crusades, and it was very well done. I can only imagine that the 5e-powered version is just as solid.

For just US$9.95 you get all four titles in our Starter Collection (retail value $41) as DRM-free ebooks, including the complete Amazing Adventures 5E core rulebook (plus the Character Journal), the campaign sourcebook The Brotherhood of William St. John, and the location sandbox Ruins of Ends Meet.

Deeper Dark Trilogcy cover for Amazing Adventures for Fifth EditionAnd if you pay more than the threshold price of $18.30, you'll level up and also get our entire Bonus Collection with four more amazing scenarios worth $34, including the paired scenarios Rise of the Red God and Rings of the Red God, the Deeper Dark Trilogy, and Day of the Worm.

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When Do You Officially Call a Project "Dead"? re: City State of the Invincible Overlord (Judges Guild)

Tonight as I was flipping through Facebook, I saw a post from The Tavern from exactly three years ago - Oh My! Crowdfunding Update from Judges Guild (CSIO). Well, three years later (and a final update over two years ago on the CSIO Kickstarter page) and I think we can all agree, CSIO is NOT going to get the Marmoreal Tomb treatment. No publisher is going to swoop in and spend the dollars, nor the man-hours, to fix this failure. Unlike the Marmoreal Tomb, there are no funds left to pay for layout and development. There's nothing left but promises and disappointed backers.

CSIO didn't fail to complete its obligations because of Bob II and Bob III going out in burning flames on social media, it failed because neither Bob II nor Bob III had the faintest ideas about:

- handling business finances

- managing a budget

- writing RPG material

- project management

- layout (oh my God, the layout horror stories)

Most of all, and perhaps the crux of their issues, is that they lacked simple honesty. With their backers. With their freelances. And yes, even with each other.

This isn't unique to Judges Guild. I wish it was. We see it right now, with companies taking money for products and never shipping them. If it isn't straight-up malfeasance, it's most likely due to one or more reasons stated above.

I am not judging Judges Guild by the social media insanity of its owner but by the incompetence of that very same owner. Bob II has set a new standard that I hope no other companies come close to meeting, but I suspect one or two may actually surpass, and do so with glee in their eyes.

Judges Guild is dead, and its best years were well over 40 years ago. It was a slow death, but a death nonetheless.

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Charity Auction @ The Goodman Games Twitch Channel This Friday, July 8th, 2022

I've been told I don't mention The Tavern's LiveStreams often enough on the blog side to remind folks, but this time I'm going to recommend something other than The Tavern's Weekly Friday Night Livestream - I'm strongly recommending that you check out the Goodman Games Twitch Channel this Friday Night at 8 PM Eastern. Jim Kitchen will be hosting a charity auction for Aaron Koel.

Here's Jim's post from Facebook regarding the auction:

A friend of mine, Aaron Koelman, is currently fighting a battle with Stage IV Pancreatic Cancer. Aaron's spent most of the last year undergoing grueling chemotherapy sessions and doing his best to win a battle that has some pretty steep odds.

Aaron's a single dad to an amazing little boy. His son means everything and when Aaron revealed his cancer to me in March one of the things we talked about was fatherhood, particularly in his current circumstances.

Aaron is trying to put together a college fund for his son. To help with that effort I've organized a charity auction next week on Friday. It will be a virtual auction on Twitch. Joseph Goodman has been kind enough to donate the space on his companies channel. (As well as some pretty amazing things!)

We will have a lot of RPG items, original art and some great and unique items. I am still working on collating donations but here's a list of fine people who have already donated:

• Michael Badolato /NTRPG
• Julian Bernick
• Hector Cruz
• Jen Brinkman & Bob Brinkman
• David Baity
• Joseph Goodman
• Jon Hershberger
• Kenneth Kessenger
• Jim Kitchen
• Doug Kovacs
• Ian McGarty
• Peter Mullen
• Erol Otus
• James Pozenel
• Yorkus Rex
• James Michael Spahn
• Dak J. Ultimak
• Loz The-Eye

If I have somehow missed you please send me an email, PM or smoke signal. Work has had me extremely busy and I worry I have missed something somewhere.

If you have zero interest in RPG's or original artwork then you can still help. Donations can be made via Jon Hershberger's company Black Blade Publishing. Donations can be sent to tacojohndm@yahoo.com via Paypal.

100% of all monies raised are going directly to Aaron. Winners of auction items will be pay shipping charges but no handling fees or premiums. 

If you can skip a few coffees or a lunch for a week please know that it would mean a great deal to me. Aaron is a dear friend.

I'd like to add, that if you make a donation for the College Fund via Paypal via Black Blade Publishing at tacojohndm@yahoo.com, The Tavern will match the first $250 raised by this community. Simply comment below with how much you donated, or email me at tenkarsDOTtavern at that gmail thing. 

I had Jim Kitchen as a special guest on the Tavern's YouTube Channel earlier today to discuss Friday's auction, complete with pictures of donated auction items. Link below:

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern. 

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A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats......or Does it?

A lifetime ago I worked in an industry that often had way too much competition, which was kind of dumb (if you ask me) because the client base is/was simply too large to be serviced out of existence. Of course many companies spent a metric but-ton of money chasing after the top-end clients with top-end money. My employer felt much the way I did and did what he could to get the industry to work with instead of against each other.

One thing he frequently said with regards to this competition was, "A rising tide lifts all boats."

Now we're all loosely associated with another industry that seemingly has a lot of competition, but I like to think, "Does it really?" Sure, if you're at a game convention wandering the dealer hall and you only have $X to spend, there is going to be competition for said dollars.

Overall though, I think as gamers we tend to prefer one system (or three), but most of us buy a lot of stuff outside of our norm and it isn't uncommon to pick up new stuff to check it out and maybe beg, borrow, or steal it for our home game. Maybe I'm wrong, or this is more a behavior for us OSR types........but I think I'm closer to the truth than not.

Now I do not play the current edition of D&D and generally don't care about it. I mean I have actually purchased it, but IIRC I gave it away to a buddy's kid so they could game at school with their friends. I recall having to get it at the FLGS, which I'm generally happy to support. The thing is, as I also see things, the current edition of D&D is pretty much a gateway RPG drug, which is an inside joke.....

.....so imagine my surprise when I was walking through my local Walmart and I saw this gem:

OK, big freaking deal...I saw a lame-assed cookbook...actually is it lame? I have no *actual* clue as I haven't picked it up and looked at it. Honestly I already have too many cookbooks as it is, so one more...yeah, not something I need to have, and if I don't pick it up, I can't decide it is another cookbook I *have* to have collecting dust next to the others....

.....ok, I might have a problem, but whatever....don't judge me.

While I didn't pick it up, it did peak my interest and I turn around to find this:

Seriously? Of course this Monster Manual was upside down, but still......what else can I find? I'm pretty sure the MM was in the wrong spot, especially since I doubt it was $10.

It really didn't take me long to find the PHB and DMG, but then I stumbled across what looked like a hardbound adventure campaign book. Really not something I'm interested in, especially at that price point.

The cool thing is that I found these on the shelves pretty much in the middle of nowhere. I'd have killed to be able to get these books at the local store back in my day! Of course I remember getting the Magenta Box at pretty much any Waldenbooks cheaply enough we bought them just to take the dice out, ditching the rest. Sounds great, but the nearest Waldenbooks was a couple counties away so not as cool & convenient as it sounds.

I really think that the easy availability of D&D is great for our community at large. The more people that play the current edition of D&D, the more potential player we have for other editions of D&D and even other RPGs in general......

.....and it takes a LOT of books to enter the supply chain to get D&D on the shelves of a random WalMart, so if you haven't picked up the current edition, you'll eventually find some discounted somewhere when WalMart takes them down.....

Bundle of Holding - Fat Goblin Planners

I've been a fan of Fat Goblin Games for years. They publish some of the most useful, system-neutral material I've ever seen, and I'm currently tempted by the planners included in the Fat Goblin Games Planner Bundle of Holding.

For just US$7.95 you get all fourteen titles in our Planner Collection (retail value $55) as DRM-free ebooks:

• Five campaign planners: Cartographer's Companion, DIY Monster Manual, Gamemaster's Star Log, Pocket Campaign Planner, and Starmaster's Campaign Journal (for Starfinder)
• Four gamemaster journals (all previously in our Worldbuilder's Toolkit 4, November 2016): Allies and Adversaries Journal, Gamemaster's Adventure Planner, Monster Memoir, and Worldbuilding Journal
• Three class-oriented journals and record books for D&D Fifth Edition characters: 5th Edition Cleric's Chronicle, Fighter's Chronicle, and Wizard's Chronicle
• The Roleplayer's Arcane Spellbook and Roleplayer's Divine Prayerbook

I suspect I'll get more than value for my dollars even leaving the D&D 5e titles on the table ;)

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Bundle of Holding - GURPS 4e Bundles - Essentials, Fantasy, & Space

I've always enjoyed GURPS for its sourcebooks. It's a solid system and well balanced. The sourcebooks are amazing, and often can carry over to other systems without too much work.

If you never experienced GURPS, go to the Bundle of Holding website and grab the GURPS 4e Essentials Bundle. It will give you what you need to enjoy the the bundles, GURPS Fantasy and GURPS Space.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern. 

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Deal of the Day - Index Card RPG: Master Edition

One of the players I infrequently game with, but frequently bust balls with is none other than OSR Mapper extraordinaire, Matt Jackson. Matt is a HUGE fan of the Index Card RPG. I guess it is time to see what his words of praise are all about.

Until tomorrow morning at 11 AM Eastern, the Index Card RPG: Master Edition is the Deal of the Day at DTRPG, and is on sale for 8.25. Print plus PDF is 16.50.

Index Card RPG has slowly built a die-hard following of DIY RPG creators and players over the past 5 years. Until now, it has been found in 3 hardcopy books and numerous PDF's published by Runehammer. 

This newest edition, the MASTER EDITION, combines ICRPG's numerous worlds, streamlined D20 rules and critically acclaimed GM know-how all in one PDF, all revised and updated with its latest playtest data, magic system, LOOT tables and so much more. 

-400 pages of DIY goodness: a D20 system YOU command

-Free PDF updates for life (all ICRPG past buyers will receive a FREE core rules update PDF)

-All 5 main ICRPG worlds: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Weird West, Superheroes and Ice Age

-Newly rebuilt advanced magic system

-Huge monster listing

-Collection of d100 LOOT tables and content creation tables 

-Includes FREE 150 page ADVENTURES supplement: all previously published adventures in one

-Includes portrait and landscape character sheets

 

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Deal of the Day - Black Pudding Heavy Helping Vol. One (OSR Zine)

In case you've missed it, Black Pudding is a well-done OSR Zine. So, what is Black Pudding Heavy Helping Volume One? It is the current Deal of the Day and marked down from 6 bucks to 3.00 

It glorps! It shlorps! It absolutely bevoorps! It is the first official Black Pudding zine collection, available in glorious print!

This collection features everything from the first four issues of Black Pudding, a zine of OSR RPG gaming goodies. Monsters, spells, character classes, character sheets, adventures, and more!

The materials from each issue are presented here in categories. Flip to the classes section and roll up a Black Knight or a Summoner. Scoot over to the monsters and stock your dungeon with a horde horror or a gravity guard. Drop the Glittering Tome of the Silver Sage into your adventure and make the wizard drool with anticipation. Send the PCs to the Bleeding Ox to hire Jilliantha Stormshot or Father Mug to join them on the quest.

You can use this tome to enhance your old school dice rolling adventure sessions but remember... do not EVER strike the tome! If you must kill the pudding, kill it with fire.

 

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OneBookShelf - Updates to Publisher Conduct Guidelines (Updated June 27th, 2022)

Here's the link to the original: https://onebookshelfpublisherservice.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/227866447-Publisher-Conduct-Guidelines

There are no prior pages saved on the Wayback Machine BTW

We have outlined below several issues that we feel would jeopardize our working relationship with publishers. The intent of this document and its contents are tripartite: to protect customers’ shopping experience, to promote the interests and business goals of all publishers, and to ensure that our team is protected from bad actors. 

Our goals are to operate a fair, ethical environment where you can sell your titles and to have a professional relationship with you, built on trust, cooperation, and mutual respect. 

Quality of Titles: The quality and content of your titles and cover images directly affects the quality of our store and our customers’ shopping experiences. 

Please see our Product Standards Guidelines for details.

Pricing: We expect fair treatment on the pricing of your titles. Please price your titles as low on our marketplace as you do anywhere else; we understand that short-term sales on backlist titles can vary between stores temporarily (for up to a week or so), but having titles constantly reduced elsewhere for cheaper, or pricing them differently upon initial release, does not constitute fair treatment in our view. Likewise, including extra content for no extra cost in alternate versions made available only elsewhere is not fair treatment. 

Release Schedule: We expect that if you create a title that you wish to sell at our store, you will release that title on our store within 24 hours of releasing it elsewhere. 

We expect that once you release a title on a particular date, you will not try to manipulate or maximize marketing exposure by re-creating or re-releasing that same title at a later date. Any unethical manipulation of site features or algorithms to get more front-page exposure for a title is unacceptable.

Links: We ask that you put a link to our store on your website. In turn, we offer consumers a link to your website from each of your titles’ product description pages. We currently allow some links to social media and news sites, which can be seen under “See More” above Description on the “Edit a title listing” tool page for any title. 

Aside from the links described above, we do not allow external links on title product description pages. An exception to this rule is that titles listed only within the Publisher Resources category may contain external links to a license or licensing guidelines or to external reviews in their descriptions. 

You may not add links or suggest even vaguely that customers should go to other websites to acquire or purchase your titles. 

If you have any questions regarding links within product descriptions, please feel free to contact us by email (at publisherservice@onebookshelf.com).

Trade Dress: We expect publishers to respect one another’s trade dress, designs, and motifs. It is not acceptable to copy the look and feel of other publishers’ titles. 

Front-Page Flooding: Please do not flood the front page of our site (under New Releases) with many releases on the same day. Not only does flooding the front page in this way use all your “new release” marketing clout up at once, but our research indicates that publishers typically see more sales from regular releases over time than from a large group of them launched all at once.

We will attempt to back-date any more than two (2) titles released on the same day. If you would like to release several titles at once, please notify us so we can adjust the release dates for you. 

Reviews: Publishers may not review their own titles or those of other publishers. Similarly, people having a professional relationship with a publisher, such as authors or illustrators, are also barred from leaving reviews of associated publishers’ titles. 

Sending complimentary copies of your title to an alternate customer email that you have created so that you can review your own titles is also not allowed.

We periodically check for publishers who abuse our marketplace review system and have suspended publishers from our marketplace for such abuse.

Note that titles listed under the “Publisher Resources” category or any subcategory thereof are an exception to this rule and may be reviewed by publishers or contributors, since such titles are meant to be purchased by other publishers. 

POD Process and Print Proofs: When you upload new files for print-on-demand (POD) to a title listing, once they are approved, you must order a proof copy of your title, at cost, to make sure that everything is working as intended.

After your POD title is activated, if you make changes to the print files and upload a new version, then that print format of your title is deactivated automatically. Without exception, you must go through the entire premedia process again, regardless of how minor the changes to your files, and you must then order a new print proof before we can reactivate your title for sale. 

Treatment of Staff: We do not expect our staff to deal with publisher clients who demonstrate abusive or threatening behavior, whether personal or professional, either in business communications or on social media.

We consider any of the following behaviors to be grounds for immediate closure of a publisher account: 

Threats of physical harm or violence

Threats to disseminate or share anyone’s personal information on the internet

Threats or derogatory comments that are homophobic, sexist, or involving other forms of discrimination based on a person’s protected characteristics

Inappropriate comments or insults regarding religion, culture, or race

Social Media Behavior: We know we are not perfect. When we make mistakes, we hope that our publisher clients will bring it to our attention first. Publishers who make derogatory or defamatory statements on social media about OneBookShelf or our staff may be subject to modification or termination of their publisher account. 

Hostile Marketing: Our policy regarding potentially offensive content (see Product Standards Guidelines) reported by customers is to deactivate such titles while they are being reviewed. Publishers who deliberately court controversy by making public declarations or accusations of censorship resulting from this process in order to draw attention to their products will be considered to use hostile marketing. 

Publishers who direct or support public accusations of impropriety or censorship toward OneBookShelf when their controversial titles are rejected or removed from our marketplace will also be considered to use hostile marketing. 

This behavior will not be tolerated. We have adopted a strict one-warning policy for those who engage in hostile marketing: The first incident will prompt a warning, and after a second incident, their accounts will be removed from our site permanently and immediately.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern. 

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My Thought on Amending Saves vs. Death

While I technically started playing something akin to D&D in the winter of 78/79, I'm probably better off saying that my first "real" D&D experience was in 6th grade....so spring 1983? We had some weird elective period thing where I elected to sling dice out of the Magenta box.

My first PC was an Elf and he should have died in the first adventure when some Green Slime landed on him. The GM was rather gracious and treated the slime attack more like a degenerative disease and allowed my PC to continue adventuring as the slime slowly overtook his body. In retrospect a good idea to not kill off a newb's character in the first session, but....

...well I've NEVER liked Green Slime and I've only used it a couple of times as a GM. Both times I telegraphed it's presence big time and the best I did, adversarial-speaking, was get a Magic-User to voluntarily have the Ranger lop off his (MU's) hand at the wrist. That was actually good times as a GM, but the player did that to his own PC....as that interaction was completely avoidable.

All of this is more of a related side-note to a larger issue I've always had with essentially instant-death. Now if a PC jumps off a big-assed cliff unprepared and plummets hundreds of feet to the ground....splat-city and no sweat off my ass. Suck it up and start rolling 3d6.

Right up there is the whole idea of Save vs. Death. Seriously? I've got an AD&D 20th level Magic User and his Save vs. Death is 10......so outside of having a Ring of Protection or some magical aids, he's got a 50/50 shot at surviving. Years of me playing this guy and some event comes down to a single die roll? Sure lots of crap comes down to a single die roll, but usually it's really more like a series of die rolls. A monster has to hit and has to roll high enough to do the PC in, but some random creature has an overpowered effect and your PC just happens to be nearby? Roll that d20 and hope it rolls high.....

OK, clearly something happened in last night's game.....

My group was fighting some plant-based monster and it had a spore attack that was Save vs. Death. Half of the party died, well would have if the GM didn't roll it back. Statistically it should have killed half the party and I don't think he expected that. Now I'll admit I didn't have a huge attachment to this PC, so death was no big deal, and even if I had said attachment......I know I should have taken my own advice and reached for the d6's.

Thing is it's not the PC loss that bugs me, it's the unexpected sudden and seemingly randomness that gets me. I just don't like that at all. 

My thoughts on this aren't just to complain, otherwise this would be just a whiner post.

Harkening back to my earliest experiences, I think that the results of a Save vs. Death shouldn't be just straight up death. At a minimum I'd add in another die roll. If you fail the initial Save, do a 3d6 CON check. If you fail that, then kill off the PC. Otherwise, the PC's hit-point maximum is halved, and increases back to normal at the rate of level per day (i.e. a 6th level Fighter PC currently at 25hp, but has a maximum of 60hp, fails the Save vs. Death, but makes the CON check, his new maximum HP is now 30hp. He still only has 25hp and magical healing will only bring him to 30hp. The next day his maximum will be 36hp, the next day 42hp, etc.) The GM should describe the degradation to the PC appropriately and the nature of the injury should be such that magical aid (specifically healing spells) will not restore the damage, but it will bring the hit points back up to the current maximum. 

My thought is that a Save vs. Death should be serious, but not detrimental to the point that a single die roll will doom the PC. The PC might luck out and make the Save, but if that is failed there is still a chance that the PC takes a serious blow that might very well lead to its death....., but if the PC is careful, the damage can be overcome.