OSR Christmas Kicks Off on December 11th - This Coming Monday!

Yep, OSR Christmas kicks off here at the Tenkar's Tavern Blog in 2 days, this coming Monday. There will be six days of gifting here on the blog side, four days on four consecutive weeks of Wednesday Nights' Talking Crit Live, as well as two of the Friday Night livestreams.

Here's what is currently in The Tavern's OSR Christmas Gift Closet, with much thanks to the generous donors. In no particular order:

From MonkeyBlood:

• 5x digital sets of the all three HandyMaps map content (Dungeons, Caves & Strange Locales; Buildings & Structures; and Towns & Villages) delivered via DriveThruRPG https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/7771/MonkeyBlood-Design/subcategory/22304_47441/HandyMaps
• 1x The Cartomancer 2 Bundle (physical boxed set containing all three HandyMaps content) delivered anywhere in the world for free. https://monkeyblooddesign.co.uk/product/bundle-handymaps-the-cartomancer-2/

From Emperors' Choice:

• An Arduin Bundle with the hardcover trilogy 1-3, all the grimoires 4 - 9, and Vaults of the Weaver, which has 7 Dungeons in It. All printed material worth $155.00 bundle for Christmas Day! (Note - US Only)

From BRW Games:

• A PDF Bundle including Book of Lost Lore, Book of Lost Beasts, and Book of Lost Tables
• A PDF Bundle including Swords of Wuxia and Swords of Cthulhu

From The Knotty Works:

• Four Bundles of BX Game Options Volume I-XII in PDF

From DiceBro:

• 10 PDF Bundles of issues1-3 of Wizard Funk, an OSR zine

From On the Tabletop:

•     2 Softcover copies of Holmes & Clark (OSR Ruleset)
•     1 Hardcover copy of Holmes & Clark (OSR Ruleset)
•    12 PDF copies of Holmes & Clark, along with digital goodies

From James Mishler Games:

• 12 Sets of 12 PDFs (by my count) of James Mishler releases for Shadowdark as well as the Isle of Eldisor for Labyrinth Lord in PDF

From Tenkar's Tavern:

• At least 12 $10 DTRPG Gift Certificates. There may be additional physical gifts mailed out from The Tavern

OSR Christmas Gifting Days will be open for comments for at least 48 hours each. 

OSR Christmas Gifting on the Livestream will happen at approximately 9 pm on the nites of the livestreams in question. Gifting will use the Streamyard Giveaway app to determine gift receivers. You MUST comment in the livestream chat 5 minutes or so before the random determination for the app to include you in the gifting.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

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     

Save Some Kitties - Buy a DCC/ MCC/ Weird Frontiers Insulated Tumbler!

If you know David Baity and you should, it's likely because of his DCC RPG engine-powered stand-alone weird western Weird Frontiers RPG. You may also know David from his yearly Stray Kitty Benefit Raffle.

This year, David is still supporting stray kitties, but this year he is offering 20oz tumblers/ cups with DCC/ MCC/ Weird Frontiers logos with the proceeds helping a kitty in need. I'm simply adding bandwidth.

Heya folks! I won't be doing the annual charity raffle this year to raise cabbage for local feline shelters, but Joseph Goodman was kind enough to give permission to add DCC & MCC logos along with Weird Frontiers to have a limited run of 20oz cups made for charity. 

100% of profits from sales go directly towards helping feline rescues in my hometown. You guys know how dear the felines are to me, so this is my way of helping those who help them. Once the cups are gone they're gone, so please consider making one or more of them a present under the tree for your favorite gamer and helping a cat or kitten in need.

The easiest way for me to set this up is by a direct PayPal link and set a shipping included price of 35.00 for each cup. If you know of anyone not on FB that might be interested please let them know I'm selling them. Upon payment, you'll be asked to provide type/quantity/shipping address

I'll begin mailing cups as soon as boxes arrive this weekend and continue until they're gone. 

paypal.me/mysticmousers

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

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 - Old-School Setting: The Isle of Sedra

I'm a huge fan of Doug Cole/Gaming Ballistic / gamingballistic.com. Doug was a regular part of The Tavern's "B-Team" 7 or 8 years ago - my once-a-month second group running through Joe Bloch's Castle of the Mad Archmage using Swords & Wizardry Complete. Ah, the good old days. 

I consider Doug a friend as well as an amazingly prolific publisher of fantasy gaming materials for multiple game systems. I own The Isle of Sedra for The Fantasy Trip and it looks beautiful. I'm also a backer of The Isle of Sedra Kickstarter for OSE and other OSR systems.

On this Friday Night at 8 PM Eastern, over at the Tenkar's Tavern Youtube Channel, youtube.com/@TenkarsTavern on the Random Party Generator Livestream, Douglas Cole of Gaming Ballistic will be our special guest. Join us live to support Doug and/or ask him questions about his current projects and potential future projects.

Located in a vast ocean, the Isle of Sedra (and its neighbor Elazar) forms a compact regional campaign setting small enough to be manageable by the GM but large enough to contain a wide variety of adventures. Sedra provides a unified home for several of the adventures published by Gaming Ballistic for Old-School Essentials (and other systems).

The Isle of Sedra contains supplemental information for the solitaire adventures Vampire Hunter Belladonna, Dark Lord’s Doom, Dragon Hunt, and Monster Hunter Belladonna. 

Use Sedra as a campaign start ... or drop it in as a destination and trading partner a few weeks sail from wherever your current campaign is playing out. 

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

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 Fantasy Bundle Powered by GURPS

Dungeon Fantasy is probably the one RPG I own, that I've never played, that I dearly want to at some point. I ran some GURPS back in the '80s and '90s and always had fun with it, but at times the system was so open it was overwhelming. Dungeon Fantasy seems to be the perfect balance and a nice change from D20-style gaming.

Dungeon Fantasy Bundle Powered by GURPS is currently available on Bundle of Holding.  The Dungeon Fantasy Starter Set is 17.95, and includes the Dungeon Fantasy Core Rules, Companion 1, the GM's Screen, and the Dungeon Planner.

And if you pay more than the (current) threshold price (suggect to change) of $38.06, you'll level up and also get our entire Bonus Collection with five more supplements, including Dungeon Fantasy Companion 2 and Companion 3, Dungeon Fantasy Magic Items and Magic Items 2, and Monsters 2.

 

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

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 - Sword Weirdos (Old School Skirmish Rules)

I tried to get into Warhammer Battles and Space Marines back in my 20s to no avail. The rules were too cumbersome and the number of minis required to field an army was way out of the reach of my gaming group.

So, at the ripe old age of 56, I stumble across Sword Weirdos - 24 pages of skirmish goodness, a Platinum Seller on DTRPG that aims for 5 to 10 units PER side. Did I mention it includes solo rules? If I weren't away for a few days I'd give this a trial run right now ;)

Swords Weirdos is normally 4.99 in PDF, but until tomorrow it is on sale for 2.99

Sword Weirdos is the fantasy sequel to the surprisingly popular Space Weirdos. "When will you write a fantasy version?" people asked. So I did. Sword Weirdos is a skirmish wargame that allows you to build stats for just about any fantasy or historical model in your collection. Your model's class and weapons determine its special abilities. With 26 classes and 54 weapons and other pieces of equipment to choose from the possiblities are...a lot. I'm not that great with math.

You’re wondering what makes Sword Weirdos different from other games. Not much! It takes what I like from other games and mashes it all together.

• Low model count: 5-10 models or so for each side.
• Use any fantasy/historical minis you have.
• Short but comprehensive. Everything in one 24 page zine.
• Minimal tokens, but still a few because I like them.
• No tape measures or rulers, all movement and ranges are measured with 5” sticks.
• Uses all your RPG dice (except the d20, d20's get enough love) because dice are fun.
• A points system, but you shouldn’t worry about it too much.
• Alternating activations, opposed rolls, Maneuver Points, and random tables mean everyone is involved and rolling dice all the time.

Also includes:

• A separate 4-page solo rules document.
• A pdf with tokens, hobby advice, and a warband sheet. 

If you like minis games but giant rulebooks turn you off or seem intimidating, maybe give this a shot.

Why Goodman Games is Abandoning the OSR for Future 5e Refugees

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

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      

USPS reveals designs for 2024 stamps celebrating Dungeons & Dragons

 

Cool stuff! I haven't collected stamps in over four decades, but I'll snag these stamps for sure!

https://www.linns.com/news/us-stamps-postal-history/usps-reveals-designs-for-2024-stamps-celebrating-dungeons-dragons-ansel-adams-more

On Nov. 30, the United States Postal Service revealed additional stamps to be issued in 2024. Also announced were issue dates and locations for 13 previously announced issues that will debut during the first three months of next year.

According to the Nov. 30 press release, 10 stamps will be issued in recognition of the 50th anniversary of the iconic role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons.

“By inviting participants to imagine themselves as wizards, warriors and other adventurers in exciting and treacherous fantasy worlds, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS opened doors to whole new universes of creativity for generations of players,” the USPS said.

The stamps, which are to be issued in panes of 20 (two of each design), feature richly detailed images of characters and creatures that will be familiar to Dungeons & Dragons players. Veteran USPS art director Greg Breeding designed the stamps and pane using existing illustrations.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

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     

How Much World Building Do You Require to Become Engaged?

Today I had the opportunity to watch a movie.....the type of movie I generally like even if they're bad (the genre isn't actually relevant here), but I was only able to get maybe half-way through when I had to nope out. I thought this movie just sucked and the suckage kind of sat in my head and I spent a few hours just stewing as to why I thought this movie sucked. I clearly didn't like it, but I just couldn't quite grasp why I didn't like it.

Eventually, after a bit more of an expenditure of brain-power than I like to waste on this particular form of entertainment, I realized that this movie tried, and failed, to be set in what should have been a recognizable location, within a world that shouldn't need a lot of explanation. It felt like a ton of disparate details just being crammed together and the audience was just supposed to ....I don't know, get it? It was maybe halfway through the movie, maybe 10' before I turned it off, when I kind of confirmed what country this movie was set in. It felt like the audience was expected to simply absorb all of the exposition and enjoy the ride.

To me it wasn't too unlike many Anime movies. They tend to just drop the audience in and run with the story and you have to figure it out as they go along. The thing is most Anime that I've seen doesn't go so heavy-handed with the details.

It quickly occurred to me that most convention/tournament games kind of do the same thing, but it's not the same because while players may be thrust into a completely unknown setting (heck, even sometimes completely unknown game mechanics!) player at least have some level of agency and can work at their own pace to learn about the setting they're in for a few hours. I'm sure the fact there is some amount of interactivity instead of just passive viewing helps.......

I'm honestly wondering just how much world-building players require in their games, not just the convention game but the home game as well. I'd like to think I'm more easy going myself, but I distinctly recall an online tournament game that essentially started each player all alone in some kind of void, kind of like some existential sensory deprivation tank. One minute your PC is doing their thing then nothingness. I have no clue what the GM was trying to accomplish, but I basically sat silent for 10' then noped out of the game.* For all I knew, from my PC's perspective, was that I was dead and in purgatory. Why would I try to do anything about it, especially since I basically have no sense of, well any senses....

When I'm writing an adventure I really don't like to write a novel for the GMs to have to read and comprehend. If there's more than a single page of backstory I think I've failed. I want to set something up, but I'm not able to anticipate everything the player may want to know and I hope that if there's some kind of framework the GM can decide what the player needs on the fly. I had a quick "learn-to" game that I had to add two paragraphs to for the two most-encountered left-field player actions that I ran into, mostly because players doing a learning session have no desire to see their PC live and want to push the envelope until the PC was dead or the clock ran out (as in convention time-block, not a timed game otherwise).

I think I need to go through an assortment of written adventures and see how widely the world-building parameters are. The aforementioned movie clearly didn't have enough, and when the entire movies was an entire arsenal of Chekhov's Guns....

*One of the hardest lessons I've managed to live in my half-century of learning can be summed up from a quote from one of my favorite cheesy PCs: "If we don't like it we can always leave." I don't know why people....ok, younger me....feel like they have to throw good resources after bad when things aren't worthwhile. Watching a crappy movie, stop. Not enjoying your meal, why finish it? You know, stuff like that.

New Release - Escape from Miklagard (OSE)

I need to confess. My To Be Reviewed Pile continually grows, and with "life happening" all around me, I expect it to keep growing. It isn't just a physical pile either, it co-exists with the digital world of PDFs. There simply is a large amount of gaming material hitting the market and not enough time in my already busy days to do proper reviews.

Instead, I'm going to highlight some New Releases and put a small spotlight on some items that I feel deserve some attention.

The first title to be highlighted in this irregular series of posts is Escape from Miklagard for OSE. What I really like about Escape from Miklagard it is essentially a hex, or more accurately, point crawl in an urban environment. Urban hex crawls / point crawls are how I like to run urban adventure sessions, as they literally give your party free rein to explore and take initiative. There is nothing worse than an urban railroad of an adventure.

The fact that it is a low-level adventure - it actually states it is for beginning characters, is a blessing for me, as I usually run Swords & Wizardry Light at conventions. I will need to see if Escape from Miklagard is adaptable for convention use, as I don't recall ever playing in an urban environment in a convention game session, and it would make for a nice change of pace.

Alright, the more I look at this, the more I want to do more than just give it a quick glance and put it back in the To Be Reviewed pile. That's definitely a good thing.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

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 Holdling - Cornucopia 2023

Sometimes when you bring together random games as a bundle, you find some stuff that really interests you. Then, you see it has a Powered by the Apocalypse title and you cringe ;) That just happened to me with the Cornucopia 2023 Bundle over at Bundle of Holding.

I'm actually interested in most everything in this bundle aside from World Wide Wrestling. There, I said it. I hate wrestling and I detest the Apoc Engine with a passion. 

Adventurer! In time for the American Thanksgiving holiday, we present this all-new Cornucopia 2023 Bundle, our eleventh annual offer of top-quality tabletop roleplaying game ebooks. For just US$14.95 you get all four complete rulebooks in our Starter Collection (retail value $68) as DRM-free ebooks, including the swinging superspy dimension-hopping RPG Agents of Concordia; Apollo 47 Technical Handbook by Tim (Thousand Year Old Vampire) Hutchings; The Design Mechanism's Casting the Runes, a GUMSHOE game based on the ghost stories of M.R. James; and Scratchpad Publishing's create-your-own-world superhero RPG Spectaculars.

And if you pay more than the threshold price of $30.35, you'll level up and also get our entire Bonus Collection with four more hit games worth an additional $84, including the cinematic action-hero extravaganza Outgunned from Two Little Mice (Broken Compass); Chris McDowall's newly revised Into the Odd - Remastered from Free League Publishing; Unbound, the universal system from Rowan, Rook & Decard (Spire); and the 2022 Second Edition of World Wide Wrestling, the Apocalypse Engine game from Nathan Paoletta.

 

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

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 - Knock! Issue 4 (OSR Zine)

There are zines, and there are ZINES! KNOCK! is a ZINE!

KNOCK! issue 4 is ready to go to press, just waiting for you to pledge. You know the formula: no theme, all mean. Once again, we've cobbled together a bric-à-brac of game design insight, random tables, rules suggestions, monsters, classes, maps, adventures… the lot. We've also added a short series (12 pages) aimed at post-WotC meltdown 5E refugees (or just your friends who you’d like to bring over to the adventure gaming side of the divide). 

The book is 212 pages (A5 format:  5.9’ x 8.25’, slightly bigger than digest size) in beautiful full colour, printed on quality paper (coated 130 gr, with a cover on coated 300 gr) by Olivier's neighbours in the South Basque country.

The KNOCK! Issue 4 Kickstarter is about 17 bucks in PDF and 29 bucks in Print plus PDF.

I gotta admit, I love my KNOCK!s.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

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  

PWYW - Dragon Warriors RPG

I remember seeing Dragon Warriors advertised in Dragon Magazine in the mid 80's, and damn but if it didn't look good. I could never find it here in the States, and then I found Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, which consumed me for a while and satiated my desire for a British Fantasy RPG.

I never did forget Dragon Warriors, though, and purchased the PDF a number of years ago on DTRPG. I never gave it the proper read-through, but the core rules are now PWYW and there is a free solo adventure for it, Hunt on the Borderlands (which was released today) (edit - did I mention the solo is hyperlinked? Well it is). I snagged the hard-cover Print copy of Dragon Warriors for 20 bucks plus shipping. Not bad at all!

Enter a world of magic, folklore and danger. Here, superstition covers peoples' lives like autumn mists cover the moors, and terrifying monsters with bizarre powers lurk in the shadows. The king is a weakling, barons scheme against each other, and lordless knights, back from the Crusades without the honour or riches they were promised, roam the countryside in search of adventure - or prey.

Ruined castles and barrows are the lairs of the supernatural, or newer, more sinister masters. Labyrinthine underworlds lie forgotten below ancient temples and city cellars. The dark places of the world hold riches for those who would search for them, and the keys to great power, and death.

These are the Lands of Legend, and they need heroes. Brave knights, courageous barbarians, cunning sorcerers, mystics trained in the powers of mind and body, sword-wielding warlocks, elementalists who command the fabric of reality itself, and assassins trained to bring death to the deserving. All these will be your comrades on the path to glory - and perhaps your enemies too.

Will you accept the challenge of Dragon Warriors?

Dragon Warriors is a classic fantasy roleplaying game, originally released in 1985-6 by Corgi Books, relaunched in 2008 by Magnum Opus Press, and now published by Serpent King. This rulebook contains full details for creating characters and all that players need to adventure in the Lands of Legend. It also holds information on over 110 different monstrous species, 192 spells from four different schools of magic, and more than 80 unique magic items, artifacts and relics, as well as sections on jousts, crime and punishment, disease and madness. There's advice for novice Games Masters and players, suggestions for building your own game-world tailored to your tastes, an introductory scenario to begin your adventures in Dragon Warriors, and much more.

 

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

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 - ToD1 Lair of the Silver Rings - RPG OSR adventure module

A starting adventure in the old-school style. Written for OSRIC or your favorite OSR game system - with a 5e compatible version too!

I'm always interested in peeking at new publishers of old-school material. You just never know if one is going to strike lightning in a bottle.

ToD1 Lair of the Silver Rings Kickstarter looks interesting. Priced at 5 bucks in PDF, and 15 bucks in Print plus PDF (with 5 bucks shipping in the US), I would say this adventure is competitively priced.

This adventure takes the characters through a series of encounters into a dungeon complex and on to a corrupt noble's manor. Both areas are fully detailed in old school style blue/monochrome maps with more detailed colored versions available in the 5e version.

The module is designed to be easily inserted into an existing setting. It takes place in a city which can be any city you decide. However, proper names are given for them under the full story Appendix where the details of the full campaign are provided. 

While the intended hook and direction of the module has the two locales set in a city, you could feasibly drop them anywhere. They could even be used separately as different one-shot adventures.

The module layout is designed to emulate the old school style and is setup for ease of use. The encounters and overall flow of the dungeons are in the same vein as the old school modules with the encounters having been tested but not always balanced. Although, the 5e conversion is tweaked with more balanced encounters.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

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 - Sly Flourish

 

I used to think Sly Flourish releases were overhyped. Then I picked up The Lazy Dungeon Master, and I was hooked. 5.95 for three of Sly Flourish's DM self-help books? You simply can't beat that price. You get 4 more books of content, and 4 books of art, for a bit more than 20 bucks. Damn good deal!

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

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  

Been Thinking About a New D30 Table (Just since this morning.....)

One of the reasons I agreed to be a regular guest poster here at the Tavern is because I was advised to push myself a bit out of my comfort zone creatively and having to post on a schedule here is a big part of that....therapy(?). I have found, however, that the regular schedule....knowing that I have to post something on Sunday tends to kind of "hang out" in the back of my mind, causing me to see a lot of things through the lens of some OSR gaming. Ok...so some HackMaster gaming too, but I'm not trying to go there today.

Because this last week was Thanksgiving, and Black Friday, I'd been thinking of community celebrations and even mercantilism.....BUT I'm not going to share any of those thoughts that had been on my mind for a couple of days.

As I'm sitting down to perform this weekly duty, my home smells absolutely-effing-delicious, savory even. A buddy had gifted me a venison leg roast and I needed to get that thing out of my freezer and into my crockpot. It's been cooking since this morning and won't be ready for several hours more. The smell has been making my stomach grumble and my mind has been churning as well.

This venison was shot locally and it's been a while since I've dined on wild game. It got me thinking about hunting on the trail, in game of course. The earliest mention of foraging or hunting for food I can find in D&D is from back in 1983, specifically in the Expert rules (page 21 if you want to see for yourself). Of course I think it's a little too simple (TL;DR move 2/3 rate for the day and only a 1/3 chance of finding food). The next mention is in the 1986 Wilderness Survival Guide (page 53) and I won't bother to summarize it here because it's way too cumbersome. Holy crap, the foraging and hunting rules went from two small paragraphs in Expert to over three pages of content in AD&D.

First off, I'm definitely going to have to create a d30 Hunting/Foraging table that falls somewhere between these two extremes. Not sure I knock it out in a week (I have stuff going on this week) but it's officially on my to-do list. I've got some ideas.....

First off, I think the rules for foraging are a little light...period. Mostly because the simple side of the equation includes not just foraging for vegetation, but also meat from small game. I like the time cost personally, but I think 1/3 success rate, generically, is too low. Don't even get me started on the WSG data. Holy crap, it's way too complicated and success rates are abysmal.

I really think that both sets of these rules are a bit skewed, presumably due to current ideas of foraging/hunting, especially in more densely populated areas that make up the majority of the US. When you're talking about a less populous fantasy world, I think small game has to be in abundance, probably to recockulous levels sometimes (read some frontier/early American accounts....bison herds to the horizon or flocks of birds that took days to pass overhead). Factor in the plethora of monstrous humanoid species and just, well actual monsters that populate the various encounter tables. Tons of monsters, if not apex predators, tend to be towards the top of the food chain and in order to be towards the top, well, there has to be a substantial base. 

While I get that there would be background vs. environmental factors (like an Elf underground), the average PC probably has a much more...rural(?) background than we as players do. Foraging for food wasn't so much a "thing", as just a minor aspect of life in general. It's much harder to forage as a thing these days (illegal in some places, overharvesting, etc.), but it still exists. In an environment rich with wildlife, there should be a corresponding increase in edible vegetation as well (you know, stuff my food eats).

Anyway, as I typed earlier, I've got me some ideas......hopefully they will coalesce well. 

Humble Bundle - Solo RPG Library by Parts Per Million

This past summer, I went down the Solo RPG Rabbit Hole. Wasn't sure I found what I wanted, but certainly found many options to try out. The Solo RPG Library Humble Bundle might be just what i was looking for. 18 bucks for 42 titles, there likely is something for everyone.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

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  

Doorbuster Sales at DTRPG - up to 80% Off!

 Without further ado, here are today's Doorbuster Offerings at DTRPG:

Fantasy RPG Deals for Black Friday

Apocalyptic RPG Deals for Black Friday

Horror RPGs for Black Friday

There are other titles on sale, with discounts ranging from 20 to 40%.

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Death Notice - Aaron Koelman Has Passed

Aaron, Tenkar, and David Baity

I've been doing death notification posts here at The Tavern for the better part of a decade. There's usually a bit of a disconnect when I do them because it is rare that I know the person in more than passing. I call it "falling into cop mode", with just enough distance to make the responsibility seem slightly less onerous. It's always worked in the past.

I've had to wipe my eyes a number of times simply typing the words above. I was blessed to have been given the opportunity to assist in the fundraising to support Aaron's son for just this moment in time. 

I met Aaron this past June for the first, and only time, at NTRPG Con. I beleive it was Sunday, around noon on the last day of the convention. There was this tall, thin guy, looking slightly lost and distracted, standing in front of the entrance to the dealer hall, across from the registration desk. Something prodded me to see if there was anything I could do to help...

Me: You look a bit awestruck :)

Aaron: I am. I'm actually here at North Texas. It's amazing!

Me: Yeah, I love this place. I never miss it.

Aaron: Noticing my con badge - You're Tenkar? I'm speaking with you!

Me: Confused - You are...

Aaron: Aaron Koelman. You helped with the fundraiser for my son...

At this point, it all gets muddled. We hugged, cried, laughed. Spoke of his upcoming wedding. Shared cancer stories. Cried some more, to the point a con volunteer approached us with a box of tissues. 

I'm a cancer survivor. I understood where Aaron was, and we both knew each day for him was going to be a fight.

The fight is over now, Aaron. 

Rest well.

Aaron peacefully passed away this morning at home, surrounded by family.