Kickstarter - The Mosidian Temple: an OSRIC/1E Adventure

Over the year I've shared some of my early "game design" and "campaign design" work here at The Tavern. You know the type - 40 orcs in a 10'x10' room, and nearly every box on the sheet of graph paper mapped out - because graph paper could be hard to come by...

I've even had a few offers to help "professionalize" my attempts from back in the 80s, although I've never taken up any of the offers. Dunno, it just never seemed worthy, but after seeing what David Flor has brought forth from the past, I'm beginning to rethink my reluctance ;)

The Mosidian Temple: an OSRIC/1E Adventure Kickstarter from David Flor is David bringing back a piece of his personal history from when he was 12 and offering both the historical snapshot as well as a reimagined version for "modern sensibilities", or at least current expectations of presentation. You may still find a dragon or two occupying an undersized room, but truly, who in 1983 was taking proper measurements :)

You can snag a PDF of the original The Mosidian Temple for 4 bucks, PDFs of the original and the modern update for 15 bucks (that's where I'm at), or for 60 bucks, get a print copy of the modern update, a set poly dice, a POD code (essentially a second print copy) and a bunch of PDFs. Phew!

        This Kickstarter is meant to create two things:

The original adventure and supplemental materials, published as-is in digital format only. 

A "reimagining" of it, making it a more viable product. Not only does this include editing, art, and proper layout, but adjustment of the mechanics as needed to make it compatible with OSRIC, 1E and other systems (see "Stretch Goals" below).

The Kickstarter funds will be used to pay for editing and at least the front cover art. Depending on how things go, I may do art for the back cover as well.

FULL DISCLOSURE: The original adventure has... issues. It's not great. It has a lot of flaws. As any 12-year-old would probably do, I put things in it because they looked cool without any respect for plot, appropriateness, or even the laws of physics. 

For example, I put a T'ien Lung - yes, a 50-foot-long celestial dragon from my favorite book, the Fiend Folio - crammed into a 20'x20' room in the center of the dungeon. Why? Because celestial dragons looked amazingly cool and why the hell not?

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DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar 

Travel Pains Got Me Thinking About Travelling, Go Figure.

Unless we're Facebook friends (and no, we really don't need to be...I'm just saying) you probably don't know that I've had a painful return trip from two weeks in Alaska. I had to go last-minute to fill in for a guy and Alaska is great.....outside of the city. I spent two weeks in Anchorage and let's just say I'm glad to be home. My flight back got slipped 17 hours and that meant I had to "sleep" in the terminal last night and just not a good time all around.

Now I generally love travel...going places....I just don't care for the actually travelling portion of a trip. Of course, when things go stupid, and they went quite stupid on this trip, it's hard to NOT think about travelling in general.....

....I've got notes for a way-too-big random (Travel) event generator that I should probably get back to someday, but it had so many sub-tables that it should really be put together for TableSmith or Inspiration Pad. Thinking about the myriad of things that can, and do, happen while travelling.... 'cause murder hobos have to travel.

In most of the games I've played in travel isn't generally hand-waived, or more importantly travel to a new destination isn't hand-waived. Quite often "routine" travel maybe gets some random, not-sure-the-GM-even-looks handful of dice rolls, but the travel to a new place gets the standard wandering monster checks, maybe some planned side encounters, the whole she-bang.

Now I've always thought the biggest problem with "travel" in RPGs is that there is too much freedom, while at the same time the illusion of no freedom at all. I've seen a few different GMs just make some random encounter rolls and if nothing happens, maybe have the group stop each night. Other GMs...no results, just push on through until the destination is reached. That can make things seem a little rail-roady (that's a word......). On the flip side, especially if you have some "special" or just bored, players, the GM can get a bunch of interjections where a player wants a description of the area they're in and anything described for them is an opportunity to go "off the rails".

There's probably a few ways to find a middle ground.....but one of my favorites comes from an old-school (video) game designer whose name escapes me......he took the map and marked out "rational" decision points and got in the habit of describing to the players the surrounding at each of these decision points. The party could be travelling between two cities and the first day is a long boring stretch of road, so that is one generic increment. When the party gets to the swollen river they can choose to cross, or go up or down the bank to find a better crossing. These decision points may be close together in some areas and further away than others, but the idea is that the party has to do some minimal interactions along the route, and there isn't a scramble to describe some random area because these conversations (as it were) were somewhat scripted.

I once wrote an adventure where I initially drew a rough map and had an idea for the (simple) plot. When it came time to actually write the parts between the main planned encounters I made a "simple" decision point map, overlayed it on my actual map, and then wrote up brief descriptions to each decision point. The adventure was a mystery, but the players were trying to figure out and track down a BBG, so most of the decision points guided the players along the way.......most. If the players wanted to go left instead of right when right seemed to make the most sense, I made sure the "wrong" way reinforced the "correct" direction of travel. I think it gave the players a bit more freedom, allowed them to skip over some areas if that's just the way they worked, and gently guided them along the adventure.

The more I think about this methodology the more I realize my random table generator idea would need a lot of work to make it not be a "here's all the crap that happened along the way", but I am tired and in much need of sleep....

New Release - The Lair of the Leopard Empresses (M!M!/T&T Powered RPG)

Yep, I'll say it. Monsters! Monsters! is essentially Tunnels & Trolls with the serial numbers removed from it. If you are a fan of Tunnels & Trolls, Monsters! Monsters! will scratch your itch.

The Lair of the Leopard Empresses is a stand-alone swords & sorcery RPG powered by Monsters! Monsters! It is a thing of beauty. I'm not sure if I'd ever thought of swords & sorcery being a good fit for Tunnels & Trolls, er, I mean Monsters! Monsters!, but damn if it isn't a perfect fit.

Now, to be fair, Sarah Newton, writer/publisher, did send me The Lair of the Leopard Empresses PDF a few days before release, so I had an early and free peek. The first thing I did after it went live for sale on DTRPG was order a print copy. It quite simply is that good.

Clocking in at 400 pages, I haven't finished reading through all of The Lair of the Leopard Empresses, but I'm knee-deep in doing so. I get an Astonishing Sorcerors & Swordsmen of Hyperboria vibe along with the familiarity of a well-worn glove like Tunnels & Trolls (I mean Monsters! Monsters! Old habits die hard). Very much a "you got your peanut butter in my chocolate" moment. Somehow I feel this was written to perfectly emulate Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser. Then again, Conan also makes a good fit and so many others.

While I am mind blown by the number of spell lists within these pages, its also been eye-opening to me. While I have been struggling to make a supers game using the M!M! ruleset, Sarah Newton has revealed the path to take is both old and new. To say The Lair of the Leopard Empresses is inspirational doesn't do it justice. I'm looking forward to future releases in the series as well as the opportunity to inflict some d6-based swords & sorcery on my regular gaming group.

Being both a setting and a complete ruleset, The Lair of the Leopard Empresses does a fine job of keeping everything presentable and well-organized. My old eyes aren't getting any younger and this was perfectly readable ;)

You can snag The Lair of the Leopard Empresses for $25 in PDF or $60 in HC print plus PDF.

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.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar 

Kickstarter - OSE Quest for the Ruby Heart Adventure Path #1

Old-School Essentials introductory module and comic book, Palace of the Golden Princess

It's interesting to watch the success of OSR Kickstarters after the OGL fiasco by WotC earlier this year. Wizards practically gave steroids to their competition, at all levels, by instilling a 5e backlash in the general gaming environment. 

The Quest for the Ruby Heart Kickstarter for OSE is one of those Kickstarters set to ride the anti-WotC wave. Funded and then some within hours after launch, Preston has a history of putting out professional comic book releases. Quest for the Ruby Heart is his first OSE release, and it includes the first two issues of Palace of the Golden Princess. Oh, and STL files for 3D-printed miniatures. You get all this in PDF for 10 bucks or 29 bucks for print plus PDF.

This Kickstarter offers...

...a 28 page full color adventure written for the Old School Essentials system. If you are interested in seeing that 5e version of it, click here for a free copy. 

I took the spirit of the original B3 adventure to create a femdom town next to a dungeon to explore. I went a bit further and created a world for this adventure, behold!

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DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar 

Bundle of Holding - Dungeon Age (Adventure Modules for 5e and B/X)

I hadn't heard of Joseph R. Lewis, the author of these adventure modules before seeing this bundle, but I have to say, at a buck and a half an adventure, I'm in.

Adventurer! This all-new Dungeon Age Adventures Quick Deal presents ten short tabletop fantasy roleplaying modules in the Dungeon Age series by writer and game designer Joseph R. Lewis. Set on Joseph's ancient world of Harth (inspired by classic fantasy authors like Jack Vance, Michael Moorcock, and Fritz Leiber), and presented in dual versions for Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition and for Old School Revival-style retroclones, these ready-to-run Dungeon Age scenarios fit easily into any ongoing fantasy campaign. Explore a toxic city (Acid Metal Howl) – ride a flying merchant ship across the Great Sand Sea (Desert Angel Fiasco) – try to escape a cursed village (Witches of Frostwyck) – and two of these modules are titled, accurately, Kraken Corpse Delve and Orbital Vampire Tower.

For just US$14.95 you get all ten modules in our Dungeon Age Collection (retail value $66) as DRM-free ebooks, each presented in versions for both D&D Fifth Edition and for old-school B/X-style retroclones such as Old-School Essentials.

 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.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar  

Kickstarter - Tome of Essential Horrors (OSE)

The Tome of Essential Horrors contains more than 100 monsters, as well as an OSE stat block, B&W art, and an encounter description.

I love monsters in my RPG games. It's why, when I first decided I was going to play around with self-publishing, I kicked it off with what was essentially, two mini monster zines. I've also designed and published many monsters under the OGL right here at The Tavern.

The Tome of Essential Horrors Kickstarter is simply more monsters for my old-school RPGs and that rocks. Written for OSE but easily usable with any of the retro-clones with little if any effort, it brings over 100 monsters from prior Swords & Wizardry (and likely Pathfinder) versions of the monsters up to OSE standards, with new art and layout.

It has been more than 20 years since Necromancer Games first unleashed the Tome of Horrors, and our philosophy has not changed: Everybody needs more monsters! Necromancer Games has always been known for its monsters, and with the Tome of Essential Horrors, we would like to introduce those unique and mysterious creatures to your Old-School Essentials' table.

This beast of a book contains more than 100 monsters and brings classic monsters from Frog God Games and Necromancer Games to OSE referees and players. Each entry includes a full OSE stat block, classic black-and-white art, and an interesting encounter that highlights the creature. The Tome has been designed with Advanced Fantasy Old-School Essentials in mind but is compatible with both Classic Fantasy and Advanced Fantasy OSE.

Personally, I love the encounters. Many of the encounters can be likely be fleshed out into full mini-adventures, so there's lots of gaming material within the pages. Frog God is offering a sneak peek at the contents, with the Naga section of the book available for free download at DTRPG.

Here's how the Print versions line up (note: PDF starts at $15)

Print Formats

The Tome of Essential Horrors has two formats available. The interior pages and trim sizes are identical (A5, approximately 5.8" x 8.3"). These will be printed via DriveThruRPG’s Print-on-Demand Service*.

1. Softcover: Tome of Essential Horrors Softcover ($28) and Tome of Essential Horrors SC + VTT ($43)

Full-color laminated cover pages and paperback covers are glued together at the spine.

2. Hardcover: Tome of Essential Horrors Hardcover ($48) and Tome of Essential Horrors HC + VTT ($63)

Hardcover (Case Laminate). Pages are glued to hardcover at the ends.

*A traditional, offset printed book is not planned, but if we exceed 750 physical hardcover book orders before project completion, we will assess and re-evaluate the offset printing option.

 

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.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar 

Sale - Creality Ender 3 V2 3D Printer for 99 Bucks at Microcenter

One of our loyal Taverners sent me the link for the exceptional sale price I've seen for a quality 3d Printer.

The Creality Ender 3 V2 3D Printer is on sale for 99 bucks (over 200 at the Creality website), thru June 2nd (or when supplies last) at Microcenter. I believe this sale is in-store only. You need to be a NEW Microcenter Customer, so make sure you use a NEW email when you sign up.

• Carborundum Glass Platform

• UL Certified Meanwell Power Supply

• Print Resume Function

• 220 x 220 x 250mm Print Size

 

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.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar 

Bundle of Holding - Arc Dream Mythos

I will certainly say I don't play enough Call of Cthulhu. By not enough, I don't play it at all these days and haven't in years, but I gladly devour support material for CoC when I come across it. The Unspeakable Oath is an amazing zine dedicated to all things CoC.

The Arc Dream Mythos Bundle includes the content of eight issues of The Unspeakable Oath as well as a 200+ page Dreamlands campaign for 12.95.  Simply an amazing deal for Call of Cthulhu fans.

Investigator! This Arc Dream Mythos Bundle presents Cthulhu Mythos tabletop roleplaying supplements and magazines from Arc Dream Publishing. Best known for its Delta Green RPG line, Arc Dream has also published the extraordinary Dreamlands campaign The Sense of the Sleight-of-Hand Man and many issues of The Unspeakable Oath, a digest of arcane lore supporting Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu and other Mythos RPGs. Each issue of the Oath presents Arcane Artifacts, Mysterious Manuscripts, Tales of Terror, Messages in a Bottle, Unconventional Firearms, and full-length scenarios. Contributors include some of the hobby's best and most knowledgeable Lovecraftian gaming writers.

For just US$12.95 you get all six titles in our Unspeakable Collection (retail value $64) as DRM-free ebooks, including the 294-page Call of Cthulhu Dreamlands campaign The Sense of the Sleight-of-Hand Man; the Old Ones Rising compilation that gathers The Unspeakable Oath issues #18-21; and four more individual Oath issues: The Unspeakable Oath issue #22, issue #23, issue #24, and issue #25.

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.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar 

Acquired an "Emergency" Game

1st off, Happy Mother's Day to all the Patrons here at the Tavern, I hope you've been able to celebrate appropriately......

Today I'm supposed to be busy prepping for NTRPG 2023, but I was asked to go on a last-minute business trip to a far-away location in place of a coworker who had a loved one admitted to the ER. Now normally I enjoy travelling, but this trip.....well I'm having a less-than-stellar time in my hotel. I'm not mentioning this to complain here, 'cause 1) why would you care, 2) how would you benefit from that info, and 3) I don't think venting would do me any good.

No, I'm mentioning this because I have learned what I think is a valuable lesson and I'm kind of surprised that I haven't (obviously) learned this lesson before: one should bring some "emergency" gaming supplies while travelling.

Now I did bring a set of dice and a reprint of the D&D B/X rules with me so technically I did bring some gaming supplies, but we weren't having an online game while I was travelling and even if we did, the bandwidth here at this hotel would preclude me from taking part in the game if we did have one. Ugh.....

Luckily for me there is one decent FLGS here in this city and I was able to pickup a copy of EPIC Zombies.....which is odd, because I think I have a copy of EPIC Dungeons at home that I definitely should have picked, and probably definitely will in the future. This boring Sunday morning I'm fixing to open up this game and I'm kind of stoked because it seems like an ideal, even better than the EPIC Dungeons I already had (and mentioned a year or so ago). Small footprint (for packing) game, 1-5 players? So I can run this solo or with a small group.....

....but there's ALSO like five different game modes? Wait...what?

Fortunately there is an EPIC Zombies entry in the Dized app and there is even a YouTube video showing how to play the basic Humans vs. Zombies cooperative mode.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some mothers to call and some zombies to kill.....

Kickstarter - Back to BasiX Issue #12 Fanzine (OSR)

I have every issue of Back to BasiX but nearly missed this one. Somehow I missed Thom's announcement that the Kickstarter was live!

Back to BasiX is an amazing series of old-school zines. I don't care if you missed the prior eleven, grab Back to BasiX #12 now!

Back to BasiX is a periodic fanzine focused on the B/X version of the world's most popular tabletop role-playing game. The zine premiered in June 2017 and ended its initial ten-issue run in September 2019, with an special eleventh issue released as part of a hardcover compilation in 2021. The zine was offered in PDF and print formats, and while PDFs are still accessible at DriveThruRPG.com, individual print issues are becoming harder to find. The hardcover print-on-demand is also still found at DriveThruRPG.com.

This project delivers the twelfth issue of that series.

Product Reviews

In each issue of Back to BasiX, an old-school product designed for the B/X system is reviewed. Covering everything from rule books to supplements and adventures, the fanzine’s creator takes readers through all the highlights of each product examined.

New products supporting the B/X system, mostly from independent creators, are also reviewed in each issue.

In issue 12, we review X2 Castle Amber by Tom Moldvay and New Big Dragon Games's Adventurers Wanted! (a North Texas RPGCon exclusive).

Interviews

Each issue of Back to BasiX features an interview with a legendary creator of the industry, from pivotal authors to fantastic artists. In previous issues, the voices of icons like Merle Rasmussen, Frank Mentzer, David Cook, Erol Otus, and Douglas Niles were highlighted, providing thoughts on the game, their influences, the industry, and much more.

In this issue, we chat with Gavin Norman of Necrotic Gnome.

New Content

Back to BasiX also provides a wealth of all-new content for readers to explore. Each issue includes one to three custom adventures of various B/X levels, as well as original monsters and magical items that are featured in those adventures. Each entry also includes a spell-casting article, taking readers through new and existing spells from B/X rule books.

This issue contains Part 2 of The Lost Recipe of the Drunken Zymurgist, an ongoing story that unfolds as both a playable, section-segmented adventure and a thrilling comic illustrated by Travis Hanson.

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.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar 

Humble Bundle - Starfinder Solidarity Bundle

I will admit, I've never touched Starfinder. That being said, it's an OGL system and ripe for riping material for other OSR systems, or even to experiment with on your own, as even buying in as low as 5 bucks for a bundle includes the Starfinder Core Rulebook and Starfinder Beginners Box.

If you want everything in the Starfinder Solidarity Bundle, it's 25 bucks. Or 45 for a book in print and some cards in print. I'm thinking that 5 bucks and 25 bucks are the sweet points.

Gather up your starfaring crew and journey into the storied Starfinder tabletop role-playing game with this bundle of books and digital resources!

Start playing today with the digital Beginner Box, essential rulebooks, and supplemental manuals.

Discover the six-part Fly Free or Die Adventure Path and more one-offs and scenarios.

Bring your voyage to life with a collection of digital maps, pawns, and more PDF resources.

 

 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.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar 

LotFP Sale! ALL PDFs $1.25 Each!

James "LotFP" Raggi is running a sale on ALL Lamentations of the Flame Princess releases in PDF over at DTRPG. Looking at the Hottest Titles, I'm reminded that I have a few holes in my Lamentations collection.

The entire LotFP Catalogue is priced at $1.25 each in PDF.

Time to spend some of those "Affiliate Monies" and maybe do some reviews...

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.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar 

Deal of the Day - A Magical Society: Silk Road

Certain resources are timeless, and the A Magical Society series of releases is such a resource. Today's Deal of the Day is A Magical Society: Silk Road. Normally 30 bucks in PDF, but until tomorrow morning it is on sale for 8.04 in PDF.

A Magical Society: Silk Road is a 160-page supplement detailing great overland trade routes. Borrowing extensively from the caravans of Central Asia,

A Magical Society: Silk Road covers a variety of topics: what factors engender great overland trade routes, what elements accompany the existence of silk roads, and how do caravans function on the road (with consideration to terrain). Due to general unfamiliarity with Central Asia, an entire chapter is dedicated to the historic Silk Road with maps detailing the major trade destinations. And last but not least, there is a trade system with over 1,000 trade goods, giving ultimate tools for economic simulation.

 

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.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar 

Bundle of Holding - Iron Kingdoms: Requiem

While I am not a fan of 5e, I am a fan of unique and different settings. For the most part, settings, even those built on a particular system, are fairly system neutral, especially those built for later editions being converted to earlier ones (or their clones).

Steam power and gunpowder meet sword and sorcery in the Iron Kingdoms, a fantastic world rebuilding itself after an apocalypse. Armed with mechanika and accompanied by mighty steamjacks, you'll play a human, gobber, trollkin, Rhulic dwarf, ogrun, Iosan, or Nyss elf in an adventuring company of gunfighters, gun mages, warcasters, arcane mechaniks, and combat alchemists. Explore the soot-covered cities of the Iron Kingdoms as the world marches onward to industrial revolution.

Iron Kingdoms: Requiem's Starter Bundle for 14.95 includes: "the complete Iron Kingdoms: Requiem Campaign Setting; the 5E version of Monsternomicon; the Game Master's Toolkit; the full-length adventure Legend of the Witchfire; and an introductory adventure originally released for Free RPG Day 2021, An Echo in the Darkness."

The Bonus Collection includes:"five more titles worth an additional $70, including the wilderness expansion Borderlands and Beyond and its Gamemaster companion The Borderlands Survival Guide, along with three adventures: Shadow of the Seeker, Escape the Mind Slavers, and A Strange Light Breaks. 

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.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar 

Kickstarter - Knave 2nd Edition

The Questing Beast toolkit for creating and running sandbox campaigns packed into a lean, beautiful hardback.

It's an exciting time to see OSR Kickstarters doing extremely well. Shadowdark hit over $1.3 Million when funding wrapped up, and Knave 2nd Edition has surpassed $450k in 6 days of funding with 23 days to go. Knave 2nd Edition is likely to surpass $1 million in funding at this rate. Pretty impressive.

Knave 2e is an exploration-driven fantasy RPG and worldbuilding toolkit, inspired by the best elements of the Old-School DnD movement.

This edition expands on the intuitive core of the original game, featuring elegant, modular subsystems for hexcrawling, dungeon delving, potion making and downtime activities, all in a 80-page digest-sized hardcover lavishly illustrated by Peter Mullen.

Knave 2e Features:

• A world-class GM's toolkit. Roll and combine results from over 75 d100 tables to rapidly generate dungeons, overworld regions, cities, monsters, items, spells, NPCs and factions, or just scan the pages for inspiration. These are especially useful for people who enjoy playing RPGs solo.
• Intuitive, unified d20 mechanics that allow new players to make characters and start playing in minutes. Ability scores, armor, and difficulty ratings are placed on a 0-10 scale, yet remain compatible with the adventures and monsters from the last 50 years of fantasy roleplaying. The rules can also effortlessly switch between player-facing and GM-facing rolls.
• A slot-based inventory system that makes tracking what you carry both easy and mechanically meaningful. If you take enough damage, wounds can begin filling items slots, forcing you to drop gear, treasure, or weapons.
• Classless character generation that lets PCs draw from multiple archetypes at once. Any PCs can cast spells, call down miracles and use any weapon or armor. Their effectiveness is only restricted by what abilities they choose to improve and how they fill their limited item slots.
• A d6 Hazard Die system that condenses tracking encounters, clues, weather changes, fatigue, torch burn, and resource depletion into the roll of a single die.

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.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar 

Kickstarter - Zeck's Shoppe of Riches, A Collection of OSR Magic Items (Phil Reed)

This book of D100 magic items and D100 rumors was designed for use with many fantasy OSR roleplaying games.

I've been a fan of Phil Reed and his gaming material for over two decades. I've had lunch with Phil and we've spoken about the hobby, the business, and life in general. I've backed nearly every Kickstarter in print or PDF that Phil has published in the last few years, each with great satisfaction, and Phil has proven to be the master of "The Dollar PDF".

Phil's current Kickstarter is Zeck's Shoppe of Riches, A Collection of OSR Magic Items (along with Tischler's Tome of Treasures). You can snag the pair for 5 bucks in PDF or 26 bucks (plus 6 bucks shipping in the US) in saddle stitched print plus PDF. 

Zeck's Shoppe of Riches

Within this book are 100 different magic items that I created to satisfy my desires and entertain myself. These range from moderately mundane to overpowered objects that might ultimately destroy a campaign when placed in the wrong hands (such as the hands of a player character). As always, I wrote the different items you will soon encounter with a single goal: to provide the gamemaster with enough of a hook to spark their imaginations and trigger ideas that I could have never come up with on my own. 

Tischler's Tome of Treasures

This second book of magic items, written specifically for this Kickstarter campaign and never published before, follows the same physical format as Zeck's Shoppe of Riches . . . with entirely new content! As with Zeck's Shoppe of Riches, everything I wrote for Tischler's Tome of Treasures was designed to inspire gamemasters. I’m a big believer in trusting the gamemaster to do what is best for their own game; my job is to add new tools to the GM’s bag of tricks and let them take it from there.

Note, Friday, May 12th, Phil Reed will be the special guest for the Random Party Generator Livestream on The Tavern's YouTube Channel.  

https://www.youtube.com/tenkarstavern

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