Some RPG Definitions I'll Be Using on This Blog

There is an on going debate as to what falls under the OSR and what doesn't. So, I'm setting some definitions for use here at The Tavern. It should make some things easier, at least from my perspective. I'm open to new definitions, but not the whole argument of what does or doesn't fall under the OSR.

So, what is the OSR or Old School Renaissance here at The Tavern? Any AD&D 2e or earlier game system, clone or derivative.  Pretty simple. If it can trace it's roots directly to early D&D or AD&D, it's OSR. (note - this is the definition i'm using HERE starting now. Use your own definition over THERE ;)

Next is OSG or Old School Games. Tunnels & Trolls, RuneQuest, Traveller, Rolemaster, GURPS, the old Pacesetter line and the like are Old School Games. The OSR is a subset of the OSG.

New Wave - Fate, Apocalypse World, Dungeon World and the like are new wave to my eyes. I don't seem to grok the new wave stuff so well but I try.

Indie - Savage Worlds, Umbiquity System and similar systems are under my general Indie Label.

The OSR and the OSG are where most of my interest lies, as long time readers of this blog should know.

Eh, I needed some accurate tags for all of these blogposts, and the above is a start. Feel free to add your suggestions below, such as "Shite" for the WoD line or Insane for the crunch laden Hero line (which is also OSG I guess ;)

The Winner of the: Tell Us About Your Favorite Monster and You May Win a PDF Copy of "Monsters & Magic" is...

Dave and his Gelatinous Cubes!

Congrats Dave, you are the random winner - I need you to send an email to tenkarsDOTtavernATgmailDOTcom so I can send you your code for your free PDF copy of Monsters & Magic. Thanks to Mindjammer Press for the PDF copy.

Hopefully back to reviewing M&M tomorrow - it was a busy Father's Day weekend ;)

An Interesting Old School Kickstarter - Whisper & Venom (Old School Styled Setting / Adventure / Minis in a Box)

I find Whisper & Venom to be a very tempting Kickstarter.

It's got all the things that tempt me - an old school setting, and old school adventure, mini and a box. There really is something to be said about boxed sets.

So yes, I'm very tempted even tho' I probably already have more minis then I'll ever attempt to paint in a lifetime (assuming my Reaper Minis ever arrive - sigh).

See, this is the quote that gets me really hopeful:

We wanted to make the single best fantasy role-playing game product possible. One that was designed with old-school role-playing games in mind but interesting and exciting for any fantasy role-playing system.

The problem is that $75 is the sweet point to get all of the stretch goal, many of which have been met.

At the current stretch goal, you get:

A Guide to Whisper Vale

The Whisper & Venom Adventure Sourcebook

an 11" x 17" two sided map

a set of dice

10 minis

oh, and a PDF copy of the adventure and setting.

Did I mention the Jeff Dee art?

It's not a bad price point but I have some much money tied up in Kickstarter RPG promises.

Eh, maybe I'll ask for it as a birthday present ;)

The OSR Made a Great Showing on Free RPG Day 2013

Let's look at the RPG products actually offered for Free RPG Day in Print - which means we cross off the retailer shirt, the dice tower and the Chessex and Q Workshop Dice. Which brings the 16 offerings down to 12.

The Cosmic Patrol Quickstart is a left over from last year and the Tuese'al Quickstart is only per box, so it's presence is negligible. If we remove them from the count, we really have 10 products being offered in print and new.

Of those 10, 4 are solidly OSR, and as I consider Tunnels & Trolls to be OSR, it's actually 5 out of 10.

"Hall of Bones" for Swords & Wizardry

"Better Than Any Man" for LotFP's Weird Fanyasy

The DCC / XCrawl Double Adventure from Goodman Games

"A Pot of Broken Bones and Halfling Broth": for Castles & Crusades

and lastly "Fire Dwarves of Zorr" for dT&T

not a bad showing at all.

Even RPGNow Recognizes the Death of Free RPG Day 2013 PDFs

How do I know they recognize it? They sent out an email titled "Hundreds of FREE RPG Quickstarts, Maps, Adventures & more!". Many of the items linked? You guessed it - they are from previous years' Free RPG Day promotions.

I'm not complaining about the links. Free is free. I'm just surprised how little attention was paid to the PDF side of Free RPG Day this year, especially for the gamers outside the states.

Some of the grouped links sent by RPGNow:

Quickstarts

Adventures

Maps

The above links are free all of the time, not just for Free RPG Day.

Where Are the "Free RPG Day" PDFs?

This is the first year I haven't seen talk of Free RPG Day PDFs, but it's always possible I'm looking in the wrong places.

Some publishers don't do PDF versions, and some that wait a week or two to release them, but usually there's some info on them.

Ah well.

Missed out on the Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls adventure and the Goodman Games DCC / XCrawl combo at Noble Knight - guess I should have stayed up last night ;)

edit: +Erik Jensen is working on a list of Free RPG Day PDFs

Tell Us About Your Favorite Monster and You May Win a PDF Copy of "Monsters & Magic"

Thanks to the generosity of Mindjammer Press I have a PDF copy of Monsters & Magic to give away.

All you need to do it comment below about your favorite monster and why it rates that way. See, pretty simple.

For me, its the Flumpf, because it's the first thing I think of when I think of D&D monsters. The Fiend Folio was my first monster book, even before the Monster Manual, and the flumph sticks out as the most useless creature one could ever dream up. For some stupid reason, I still love it ;)

So, comment below before 10 PM NYC time on June 16, 2013 (that's this coming Sunday) for your chance to win a PDF copy of Monsters & Magic. One random commenter will get the loot.

Appendix N Adventure Toolkits Have Arrived! (DCC RPG Kickstarter Adventure Series)

Lo and behold! I have in my possession five (yes five) copies of The Ruins of Ramat and five (yes five) copies of The Vile Worm!

Brave Halfling is in the house and he's made an excellent showing.

Seriously, as much as i enjoyed reading the PDF copies of both of these, the dead tree versions are simply amazing. Professional covers, striking maps, player handouts, nice art. It's almost like Christmas in July - but it's still June ;)

Sure, they would have been nice at Christmas, but I'm happy to have them now.

So, why all of the copies of Appendix N? For the summer of DCC RPG Contests silly! I still have some dead tree copies of DCC Adventures donated by Thick Skull and Purple Duck - so yes, I will be frequenting the post office this summer.

What will be the contest themes? Damn to all heck if I know, but we'll figure that out in time :)

If There's One Thing I Can't Stand It's Blatant IP Theft...

There is an author blatantly ripping off the Mystara setting for her line of fiction. Amazingly enough, she has been getting away with it for years (oh, and stealing art and maps too while she's at it.

+Timothy Brannan has the details here and here at the Other Side Blog and more at the Mystara Facebook Page.

I'm surprised Wizards dropped the ball on this one for as long as they have.

Just adding my voice to increase the volume...

A Kickstarter Whose Call I Need to Resist - Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition

Call of Cthulhu is one of those great games that I never play and pretty much know I never will. I have an earlier boxed set and the 6th edition softcover (and the D20 C0C book and campaign book).

I love to read the associated adventures and even kicked in for the Horror on the Orient Express for $70.

Do I really need yet another edition of the rules that I'll probably never get to play?

Maybe, but I am sure as hell trying to resist the luring call of the CoC 7th Edition Kickstarter. The sweet point on this one is 100 bucks, and I've got enough already tied up in not yet due / due / overdue / way fucking over due Kickstarters that my wife could probably use it in divorce proceedings if she ever found out ;)

15 days left in this one.

So far I'm doing okay.

Just broke out the 6th edition rules to feed my fix ;)

Review - Monsters & Magic - Part 1 - Familiar Yet Strange (OSR "New Wave" Ruleset)

Alright, I know there really isn't any OSR "New Wave" category or label. Maybe I should have used "OSR / Fate hybrid". Monsters & Magic feels very familiar to the OSR that I know until it doesn't. Maybe I need to explain that a bit.

The intent of the author when writing M&M was to combine the classic feel, gameplay and most importantly (at least from my POV) compatibility to the OSR / Classic / pre 3e adventures and sourcebooks while also including more modern gaming concepts from the "narrative" side of the gaming fence.

I guess Dungeon World does this to some sense, but it really isn't "plug and play" with OSR and classic D&D adventures.

Anyway, back to M&M. It's built on the same classic ability score you know and love. You can even roll 3d6 in order if that's the way you make your players roll.  Score range from 3-18.

M&M includes all of the classic AD&D classes (including all of the usual sub-classes), the usual races (even Gnomes and Half-orcs) and the races have the abilities you expect, even if they are redefined as traits. Heck, it even includes racial restrictions to classes (although if every other race can have clerics, I dont see why halflings can't)

Weapon damage pretty much uses the dice you'd expect. It all feels very familiar, until you realize the system has done away with the d20.

I'll let that sink in for a few seconds, as it's near sacrilege amongst much of the old school.

Monsters & Magic does not use a d20.

Instead, M&M uses 3d6 with modifiers added to the total for task resolution / checks / combat / etc. Which actually makes prefect sense, as the bell curve makes a really high roll (or low one) less likely and makes modifiers more important. Look at that. I'm okay with losing the d20 ;)

Did I mention you have two types of hit points, physical and mental? You even get different sized hit dice to roll.

Interestingly enough, most monsters from classic sources are easy enough to convert to M&M. The more comfortable you are with the idea that "close enough" is good enough, the easier the conversion process. That goes with converting characters and NPCs over too. The play is different but the "data" need to run things is pretty much the same, its just the interpretation that differs.

Time to break for the moment. In part II I'll start by talking about "Advancements", which are sorta like powers, feats, skills - and then some. They are integral in personalizing your PC. Oh, and I'll "scales of play", which includes domain level play and more. And of course the more "narrative" aspects of play such as effect points.

Monsters & Magic is a very similar and very different take on the D&D I know.

(Hey, I have a free PDF copy of Monsters & Magic to give away! - expect a post later tonight on the give-away)

When Did You Play Your First RPG Session?

I remember my first RPG session very clearly. It was a one on one session with my friend Kenny as the DM and me with my fighter Cyrus. AD&D DMG, dice and graph paper. Not even a Player's Handbook.

I THINK is was during the 7th grade, after school one winter day, but I'm not 100% sure it was the 7th grade. There is a small chance it could have been 8th grade. Still, most likely my first RPG session was in early 1980.

I would have been 12.

Over 33 years ago.

I did have a huge gap from March of 1997 to late 2007 where I didn't game. I bought, I collected and I read, but I didn't game. I had no group until I took the plunge into Fantasy Grounds 2.

Hmm, so about 23 years of gaming in that stretch. About half a lifetime, as I turn 46 this summer.

I guess I need to make up for that 10 year gap ;)

So, what year did the world of RPGs open up for you?

Mini Review: d20pfsrd.com Presents Open Gaming Monthly #3 (OGL Magazine)

Let me preface this with the following observation: I did not expect this Pathfinder centric magazine to fit my gaming needs and for the most part it met those exceptions.

Moving on to the review:

d20pfsrd.com presents Open Gaming Monthly #3 is an OGL magazine, but the truth is it's pretty much Pathfinder (there is an M&M article). It's well put together, attractive to look at and the articles that are generic / statblock-less are pretty. It's a nautical / pirate themed issue, so it has a lot that would fit into a Razor Coast / Pathfinder game (Swords & Wizardry GMs have their work cut out for them converting).

My highlight was Port Parley, a shared world article. I'd need to go back and grab issues 1 and 2 to see if it's a regular feature, but I assume it is. I like world building. I like new worlds. This was cool.

I'd guess most of this issue would be awesome for Pathfinder players, but in truth, all OGM #3 did for me is remind me why I don't play Pathfinder - a creature's stat block can take up an entire page, endless feats, magic items that can use their own chapter (alright, I'm exaggerating, but not by much).

Actually, before I got back into actually gaming, 3.5 and Pathfinder seemed like cool systems. Once I returned to the fold, I found the complications to be an albatross around my ability to actual play the game.

Yeah, I know, old age and all that shit.

If you are skilled at Pathfinder, this actually looks like an awesome magazine for you. If you don't mind converting Pathfinder to a more OSR suitable format, this isn't a bad investment. For folks like me, there's too much work needed to put this in a format that fits my needs.

My "Free RPG Day" Targeted Acquisition List ;)

Free RPG Day is this Saturday. I really can't think of a better day then the day right before Father's Day.

This year I have the following items on my list of targets:

Hall of Bones from Frog God Games

Better Than Any Man from LotFP

The DCC RPG / XCrawl combo from Goodman Games

Fire Dwarves of Zorr” for dT&T from Flying Buffalo

and maybe Shadows of the Black Sun from FFG

Of course, the family responsibilities will have me at my in-laws in Connecticut for most of the day, so I expect I'll be hitting Noble Knight Games' online store as I did the last two years.

With Noble Knight, you can pick one free item for every $15 (if i recall correctly - I could be wrong) in purchases you make.

So, I have two questions to throw out there to y'all:

1 - What are you looking to pick up on Free RPG Day?

2 - Any suggestions for RPGs I should be looking to buy to qualify for the free rpgs? I know the Warhammer 40k stuff is fun to read, even if I'll never get a chance to run it ;)

"Monsters By Email" Coming to an End? (Stock Art)

Nicholas Cloister does some amazing artwork. Recently, he experimented with the idea of a subscription for fantasy stock art. The art is amazing. Regretfully, the experiment is not as successful as Nicholas had hoped.

As it looks right now, Monsters By Email hangs by a thread. Before I actually started the subscription, I was able to gather enough interest every day, to make it look very hopeful, but since I started the actual work on the product, that has not been the case. It seems I need to promote MonstersByEmail full time to attract enough attention, but when I do, there is no time to create the content.  : )

The funds will last me two more months, but a subscription period is four months, so I’m very uncertain at this point, whether or not I should initiate another round, or go back to full-time freelancing, keeping MonstersByEmail in hibernation. The number of subscribers is about 1/4 of what it needs to be, and 1/8 of what I prefer it to be.

I love the art, but the restrictions on use are severe:

A subscription to 'Monsters by eMail' includes non-exclusive rights to 50% of the creatures received. Creature number 1,3,5,7,9,11,13,15... and so on (every odd number) - yes, you can only use half of the art you receive

You cannot publish the creatures visibly on the Internet, without my permission (just write and ask). This restriction includes displaying previews of printed t-shirts, book-covers, and other printed products online. Can't use the art on blogs or to advertise without asking for permission

You must wait at least one month from the point when you receive the creatures before you publish any of them. why does one need to wait to use it?

There are other restrictions, but these are the most onerous.

Great art, good idea but a failure to execute is due to the restrictions place on the use of the art, not the art itself.

Is There a Current List of all the OSR Zines?

I ask, because I'd like to list them and their associated websites when I get Unofficial OSR out at the end of the summer.

Our corner of the hobby is small but tight, and additional exposure does the OSR as a whole a good thing.

I may also include a listing of all of the OSR games, but I think I'm more likely to finish that list on my own than the zine list. Zines are more like to fall through the cracks and can be harder to track down.

Print, PDF or both. I know of a bunch that are defunct these days, but I'd like to support the ones I haven't found yet ;)

More "Pay What You Want" Products, Now From UnderCity Games - Lairs and Nightmares

Nope, never heard of them before, but they do seem to have two products that appear to be potentially useful in the OSR-verse.

The first is Nightmare of Tarring Hollow, a low level OSR adventure. It's short at about a dozen pages.

The second is Classic Lairs, which is an assortment of small dungeons and lairs.

Do i think either one is worth the suggested $9.99 price?

Lets see, I could get Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea for just a penny more.

I put these two in the "try before you buy category", although Classic Lairs certainly has more potential for use.

"Unofficial OSR" Envelopes the "Copper Droppings" Zine

Here's today's second announcement:

I'm going with the title "Unofficial OSR" for the fanzine under The Grumpy Dwarf as the publisher, as feedback that I've gotten indicates that many folks would prefer a zine that covers the whole of the OSR.

So, with a spread starting with ACKS and Ambition & Avarice and running through Raggi's Weird Fantasy and everything in between, there is a lot of ground to cover.

That doesn't mean the end of Copper Droppings before it even starts. Copper Droppings will be it's own section, edited by +Michael Garcia and will be exclusively Swords & Wizardry - so yes, a zine within a zine. Think of the old Dragon issues with the Ares section.

I'll be aiming for Sept 1, 2013 for release - if we can hit earlier, great, but this timeline gives me 2 weeks of vacation a and 2 1/2 months to get things up and running.

Same payment plan for submissions - beer money and you keep the rights to your work ;)

submissions for Unofficial OSR should be sent to tenkarsDOTtavernATgmailDOTcom

submissions for Copper Droppings should be sent to socialATdeadratpublishingDOTcom

Cut off for Issue 1 submissions is August 3, 2013

(if time and ability permits, there may be a "Zero Issue" release -

"The Grumpy Dwarf" Tries His Hand at Publishing

Yep, I'll be putting some gaming stuff out under my own "label" if you will. I'm still involved with Dead Rat Publishing, but certain projects work better under different set ups. The Grump Dwarf will allow for those projects.

Huge thanks to +Greg Christopher who put the above together without being asked. It is inspirational :)

I'll have another announcement later today with a bit more substance ;)

Not so "Grim" Reaper - Shipping to Start... Soon?

From today's Reaper Bones Kickstarter Update:

First, a quick note about Origins. We had been looking forward to seeing you there, but unfortunately we won't be there this year in a booth. Our brother Tim Peaslee will be running demos, so be sure to say hi to him when you're there. We can't do a proper booth this time around because we simply can't spare the labor right now. 

Why can't we spare the labor? 

Friday, June 7th, we received two 40ft containers full of Bones! For those of you keeping track at home, those containers were filled with over 470,000 models. We're still looking for the last container to be delivered next week, but we have enough to start shipping now. 

What's next? 

We've unloaded the containers (we have the bruises to prove it). We're getting those models organized into our system and firing up our fulfillment line this week.
We know we're behind our estimated ship date of March, so we've added a second shift for fulfillment so we can process the packages very nearly 'round the clock. We're doing everything we can to blast through these pledges so you can receive your Bones as quickly as we can manage it.

Dare I hope for delivery before the first week of july?