RPGNow Deal of the Day - Book of Lairs (ACKS / OSR)

Holy crap!

I almost missed this, and if I had missed it y'all would have been screwed. Or at the very least, out of luck.

+Simon Forster 's very own The Book of Lairs in on sale for $3.08 in PDF. It might be a weird price point but the Book of lairs isn't weird, it's simply awesome. Did I mention the art is my the magnificent +Jim Magnusson and his wife?

Need something to throw at the party at a moments notice? It's all here. One page for the map, another page for the creature themed encounter. Approximately 70 pages of such goodness. So easy to print out what you need, when you need it.

And it's dirt cheap. At least for the next 15 hours or so.

Kickstarter - Table Top Blocks - 3D RPG Terrain

"Man, I wish I had some versatile building blocks to use with my gaming mats."

"Why not use lego, or even better, one of the cheaper knockoffs?"

"No! I can build uglier, more expensive blocks on my own using a 3d printer! Kickstarter, here I come with Table Top Blocks - 3D RPG Terrain!"

Really, is there all that much more that needs to be said?

Here's what you get for the basic $25 pledge:

Now, what could you get for about 25 bucks from Lego?

Well, for 30 bucks (shipping Prime from Amazon, so you get it in 2 days, not 4 overly ambitious months) you could get this:

Where's your bang for the buck going?

Kickstarter - Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game (Yep, Stand Alone RPG)

I'm sure most of The Tavern's readers have at least heard of Delta Green. It is / was a supplement / setting for the Call of Cthulhu RPG. Modern day secret society fighting the forces that man is not meant to know about. Or something like that.

Now Delta Green is all grown up. Not content to be an add on to CoC, it is now a stand alone RPG "based on the Basic Role-Playing rules engine, which is available under the Open Gaming License."I thought it was Legend / MRQ I+II that were OGL, not the Basic Role Playing rules engine itself. OpenQuest builds off of Legend if I recall correctly. Ah well, not that it really matters.
(edit - just checked my copy of the BRP Rules Quickstart - there is no OGL attached to it)

Delta Green has always been of the highest quality in the past. I never ran the material, but it was so rich in story hooks and plots and subplots I probably could have run a campaign for years. Not that the characters would have survived that long - heh.

If only I could make heads or tales of the Kickstarter backer levels. Why is there a maximum amount of backers at the $100 "All new in PDF" level? It's in PDF - it's not like they have to worry about a print run. If I was an international backer, this is just what I would want. Sorry, all gone with 23 days of funding left to go.

Talking about funding, they had a goal of $40k, which is fairly rich for a Kickstarter (especially one where most the the rewards are in PDF - only the core book is in print.) Where are they sitting now? $137k and growing.

I told you Delta Green was good. I'm just afraid it's too rich for my blood in it's current incarnation. If I wanted to go in at Hardcover and all of the new PDF releases, it would set me back 150 bucks. Not that it's causing all that many to blink, as they already have over 270 backers at that level. I need to work more overtime...

Nice and clear...

Do PCs and Their Adversaries Operate Under the Same Set of Rules in Your Campaigns?

Some DM's handwave based upon likely results. Some DM's have a roll for everything with success or failure depending on that roll.

Today's question is two-fold:

Do you prefer to handwave, roll or some combination of the two?

and

Do the PCs and their adversaries operate under the same set of rules? If not, why?

Kickstarter - Battletech - (Turn Based Tactical Computer Game)

I've been a Battletech fan since it was Battledroids (damn Lucas and his "droid" trademark.) Although I liked the tabletop game just fine, Battletech really shined on my C-64 as a computer game. Yeah, I guess I'm showing my age.

Anyhow, a new turn based tactical computer game version of Battletech is being Kickstarted. It's already funded and then some. It seriously has the potential to be the most funded computer game on Kickstarter.  The fact that it's releasing in Windows, Mac and Linux flavors is the icing on the cake.

Can you tell I'm excited?

The goal was $250k. It's currently passed $1.3m will 31 days of funding to go. Yeah, this should be a fun ride.

RPGNow Deal of the Day - The Sinister Stone of Sakkara (ACKS Adventure)

ACKS (Adventurer Conqueror Kings System) was one of the first Kickstarters I backed. I'm excited to see they are putting out some adventures for it.

The Sinister Stone of Sakkara is an adventure for levels 1 to 3 written for ACKS. It clocks in at 80 pages for the PDF and surprised me by having some full color interior art.

I haven't read enough to offer a proper review, but I've been happy with Autarch's releases in the past. I expect this to be no different, and at $2.50 until sometime tomorrow morning, I suspect it's a steal.

Over a millennium ago, when the borderlands were in the dark grip of the Zaharan Empire, the empire’s sorcerer-priests erected a profane temple to house the terrible artifact known as the Stone of Sakkara. Using the Stone, the sorcerer-priests could birth monsters and abominations with frightening ease and magically command the loyalty of chaotic creatures. The Stone brought its evil masters great power throughout the fell empire. 

In the centuries since the fall of Zahar, the Stone has lain dormant and forgotten. Now it has awakened, and warbands of beastmen have begun to gather sacrifices to power the Stone’s birthing pools again. Local farms and hamlets have been sacked and pillaged, and entire families have gone missing. The local legate has too few men to even patrol the border; he has none at all to hunt down the source of the evil. Adventurers are needed… 

AX1: The Sinister Stone of Sakkara is a ready-to-play adventure presented for use with Adventurer Conqueror King System™ and other d20-based fantasy role-playing games. AX1 includes a two-level dungeon filled with chthonic horror along with a friendly stronghold from which your adventurers can explore the region. The Sinister Stone of Sakkara is the perfect introductory adventure for a campaign starting in ACKS’s official setting but easy to adapt to your campaign setting of choice. Begin your rise from adventurer to king today!

Kickstarter - Legends of Mesenia - RPG (with adult themes... and beer)

This anthropomorphic something or other has no feet!

When this is your tagline:

Legends of Mesenia is a 18+ role playing game. Filled with monsters, empires, quests, chicks and beer!

and you can't get past 30 bucks of a $9k goal with just over 2 days left to fund, you should have pulled the plug weeks ago.

Just look at the amazing world map:

The first chapter of the game will take place in Erdora. Thank God it's detailed.

Thankfully there is a blog where you can view screenshots and such:


http://legendsofmesenia.blogspot.com

Oops. Looks like that's gone now. Maybe he pulled one of the plugs on this project.

Damnit. The demo was deleted too.

At least there are 2 concept sketches in the first (and only update):

I think I need that beer now...

Extra Life - Children's Miracle Network Hospitals - The Time to Support Gamers Helping Children is Coming Soon

(we have a guest poster and an extremely important post this morning - The Tavern is currently backing for $100 - we may spread more love closer to kick off - Tenkar)

Warning, it’s Extra Life season!  Every year since 2008 gamers have been coming together for 24-hour game-a-thons to raise money for the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.  Although the dates are flexible, most of these happen Nov. 7—just over a month away.  The game-a-thons take all forms from online teenage videogame fests to face-to-face board game benders.  Like all a-thons, they follow the model of persons A-Y giving money to support person Z doing something that A-Y would rather not.  I first heard about Extra Life on NPC Cast, a general gaming podcast, and I thought that was a great plan—for somebody else.

Well, this year one of the players in my home gaming group challenged me to DM twenty-four hours of D&D, and to get my friend and writing partner, +Zach Glazar , to sponsor us.  Well, I tell you—Lesser Gnome is not about to be outdone by a bunch of folks holding their Wiis for 24 hours!  We are here to represent the OSR in raising money for the next generation of gamers.

On November 20th, I will be running Lesser Gnome’s latest adventure Death & Taxes for about eighteen hours with seven players.  The other six hours I’ll get a break and play in some Call of Cthulhu and a midnight special haunted dungeon delve.  But that’s not all—we are planning to broadcast the whole thing on TwitchTV.  You can get a preview from some of our actual play recordings.  And, if we get enough interest, we’ll arrange some real time feedback.  $25 for a potion of healing?  $50 and another dragon shows up?  How much for a reroll?  A critical hit?  It’s all up for grabs. Oh yeah—the best part is that we’ve arranged with a local brewery to host us.  Nothing can wrong with this plan!

One of the things that I most love about this community of old school gamers is our willingness to stand together and support each other.  So I’d like to challenge you all, as members of this great community.  Start your own Extra Life campaign and have a 24-hour game fest.  Perhaps it’s finally time to revisit Ravenloft or one of those mega dungeons you bought but have never played.  If you do, let me know, and I’ll kick in some money.  And if you don’t want to do that, be person A-Y and head over to our Extra Life site and throw some money at Team Lesser Gnome Bangor.  As I write this, our team is in the top 200 and I am just below the top 1000 individually.  I really want to see some more good old table top RPG groups in the top fifty, and frankly, if I don’t raise more money than my players, I’m gonna be in trouble.
Thanks.

Edwin Nagy

P.S. I just saw that +Tim Callahan is another OSR gamer doing good on Extra Life.  I’m going to head over there a drop $20 on the man.

OSR Tag Mysteriously Disappears at RPGNow - Should Magically Reappear Tomorrow ;)

The missing "OSR" tag at RPGNow was brought to my attention earlier tonight. I had this whole conspiracy theory running through my head that is was in response to a handful of loud OSR publishers ranting about censorship and the need to come up with a viable competitor to OBS / RPGNow / DriveThruRPG.

So what happens?

+Matt McElroy-OneBookShelf put that theory out to pasture.

Sometimes it's good to be wrong...

SmiteWorks Acquires Tabletop Connect (Fantasy Grounds VTT to go 3D?)

I back LOTS of Virtual Table Tops on Kickstarter. I like VTTs in general, even if the only one I've ever used as a GM is Roll20.

Tabletop Connect was an interesting project when it was kicked on Kickstarter 2 years ago. It raised over $34k and is about a year late on projected delivery but that is not unexpected. Software plus Kickstarter usually means later than sooner.

This isnt the first VTT merge either. Roll20 is itself the result of a successful merging.

Time will tell whether Smiteworks acquisition of Tabletop Connect leads to major changes in the Fantasy Grounds interface, but it should be interesting to follow in the near future.

Here's the press release from Carl Pinder / Tabletop Connect:

I am pleased to announce that Tabletop Connect has been acquired by SmiteWorks USA, LLC, the developer of the industry leading Fantasy Grounds virtual tabletop. As part of this acquisition I will be joining the SmiteWorks team to accelerate the port of Fantasy Grounds to the Unity platform. " 

Doug Davison, President and Co-Owner of SmiteWorks added, "We have a distinct vision of what virtual tabletops can and should look like over the coming years and how Smiteworks can accomplish those things with Fantasy Grounds. For that reason, we began porting the core engine for Fantasy Grounds to Unity so that we could streamline and enhance the experience for players and GM's alike and distribute it more easily across all platforms. We've been following the progress of Tabletop Connect since it launched on Kickstarter and we've been very impressed with what Carl has been able to produce as a one-man operation. He shares the same vision we do on many areas and brings a unique level of talent, passion and creativity that is very hard to find. After some great one-on-one discussions, we believe that together we can do more than we could working separately. Work has been progressing on the Unity rebuild for the last year and I am genuinely excited about how the addition of Carl to the team will allow us to speed up the completion of this project and provide additional enhancements to the resulting product. " 

During the development of Tabletop Connect your feedback and support have been invaluable. This is a unique opportunity to contribute to the next generation of virtual tabletops and to deliver the experience that you deserve. 

As a backer of Tabletop Connect, you should soon receive the details of the realignment to Fantasy Grounds and your options during this transition. 

Sincerely, thanks again for all of your support and I look forward to you joining me on this exciting new adventure!

Tavern Chat Tonight - 9PM Eastern - Where the Cool (Adult) Kids Go

Just a quick reminder before I head to bed - Tavern Chat is tonight at 9PM Eastern until at least 11PM.

What is Tavern Chat and where is it held? It's right here at The Tavern using the chat box on the right hand side of this very page. It's where myself and others talk about this, that and everything in between. You never know just who might drop in.

Hang out with myself and various others. No appointment necessary. Open invites. BYOB ;)

See you then...

Dachshunds... In... Space!!! (Magnusson Does Sci-Fi Canines)

When I suggested to +Jim Magnusson that he do a sci-fi version of his humanoid dachshund hybrid, I never expected to actually see it, let alone so quickly.

I'm going to try and work on racial write ups for both Swords & Wizardry and White Star. Jim is simply an inspiration machine for me :)

How Do Adventurers Track Time in a Dungeon?

I got to thinking about how time passes in a dungeon as my work hours changed - and changed again. Sleep cycles are strange things. I work overnights 5 days a week and am in bed by 7 am when I return from work, but the two nights that I don't work, my body wants to sleep like a "normal" person. This is with the help of clocks and alarms to keep track of time.

Just how well do adventurers keep track of time in a dungeon or the like? Perhaps by burning torches or lanterns, but that often get's replaced by the light of magic swords and such. How does the spell caster know he spent 8 hours resting and can now memorize new spells? I don't see the party bringing along a water clock just for the occasion ;)

I'm not saying these thoughts keep me awake at night, but they certainly make me think.

More Magnificent Magnusson - Canine Warrior - The Deucheragh

+Jim Magnusson is quite simply amazing. I've got the workup of a new race for Swords & Wizardry bouncing around my head now because of him. All because of the man's Patreon page (when he refers to "The King", that's me ;)

Jim, if you have any more in you, how about a sci-fi outfitted Deuchheragh? (hint hint)

What Do You Get When You Cross a Dachshund with a Bugbear?

What do you get when you cross a Dachshund with a Bugbear? According to +Jim Magnusson , you get the following ;)

edit: (I back Jim's Paetreon and have influenced a number of Jim's releases - and I'm damn proud of it)

Surprisingly, Jim captured the essence of our Dachshund "Danke" perfectly. I know I've posted a few pics of her on G+, but I doubt Jim used them for reference. Yes, even Rachel approves.

I really like this pic (and the other one that Jim is releasing to his Patreon backers - I'll post that up soon.) One of my favorite things from Palladium Fantasy was the Wolfen. I'd love to do a Swords & Wizardry work up of a canine interpretation of such.

Where I Return to Podcasting - The Grievances Podcast

It's been a while since I've sat down and recorded a podcast. I've recorded them in the Poconos, I've recorded them on my commute home from work. Working the evening shift was the major hiccup. It really limited my ability to match up my hours with other hosts. Strangely enough, working the overnights has made podcasting workable again.

Roll For Initiative has a sub-podcast for supporters of the Wild Games Productions Patreon Program. So far there are two episodes in the bag hosted by +Vincent Florio and Sal ( +Ordo Monstrum ) and I should be coming on board with either the 3rd or 4th episode. I'm excited. Vince, Sal and I have an excellent chemistry and I am looking forward to working with them again.

So, what is The Grievances Podcast like?

Each show we take a topic and explore that topic from the DM’s point of view and air our the “grievances” about how we believe it should go down and what MOST DM’s think. 

Will it be a bitchfest? Sure 

Will it be funny? We think so. 

Don’t like it? We don’t care.

Yeah, it should be fun :)

Mini Review - GM's Miscellany: Wilderness Dressing (System Neutral Edition)

Tables. It seems like everyone is publishing tables these days. 101 Names for the Tavern Keeper's Wife is probably on sale somewhere. I like tables but they need to be useful. GM's Miscellany: Wilderness Dressing (System Neutral Edition) is extremely useful, especially if you like to run sandboxes as a DM.

See the sample above? The full table is 100 entries. How many tables are there? Here's the Table of Contents:

That's a sandboxing DMs treasure trove of content. Hell, the Folks section alone is giving me about a half dozen hooks I'd like to use and that's from just a quick read.

There's lots of stuff to love here if you are on the improvising side of the gaming table.

Much of this has appeared previously in individual releases. GM's Miscellany: Wilderness Dressing (System Neutral Edition) is a compilation of those releases and some new content, but if you have the prior releases the added value might not be enough to justify the complied purchase.

GM's Miscellany: Wilderness Dressing (System Neutral Edition) is currently $8.39 in PDF.

Kickstarter - Small Dungeon Maps (Map Tiles for Your FtF Game)

I must say, even though I have absolutely no use for the product of the Small Dungeon Maps Kickstarter (I game via Roll20 these days, and moving virtual map pieces together is not my thing) the quality appears to be high and best of all - it's all print at home and play.

No shipping costs or delay.

Unlimited number of copies for the home user.

Extremely low buy in (first set is a mere 3 bucks)

If you use minis at home in your games this might just be for you.

It's already funded (it's goal was $90 Canadian) and is a low risk / high potential Kickstarter.

Heck, for 3 bucks (Canadian) I may just add to the tip jar myself.

Kickstarter - Mermaids VS Zombies (a visual novel rpg hybrid - err?)

13 year old me would be all over this. The mermaid pictured above, not the game itself. Or is it a novel. Mermaid's VS Zombies is something, but I'm not even sure the creator knows what it is.

Why do I say that? Because their goal, which has been reached, is only $250.

So, what is the game about:

Mermaids vs. Zombies is about the underwater apocalypse. In short it's essentially about you and your cousin princess Bubbles, trying to find a way to end the zombie apocalypse, that's infecting Mertopia. It's an rpg visual novel hybrid.  The visual novel portions are almost all completed, however the rpg elements have yet to be implemented due to a lack of budget. (this is a huge flag, because wouldn't the RPG elements be the story itself?) 

Right now the most of the budget raised here will go into three categories. (finding a way to spilt that $250 goal equitably should be interesting) Advertisement. Programming and the main one, the Art resources (wait, I thought the visual novel parts were almost completed).  Right now I'm hesitant to show any game footage due to the game not being fully polished (not confidence instilling) . Shall I get requests from backers I'd be more then happy to show off what we have so far, but the reason I have yet to do so independently is because it's not fully polished.

But wait, there's more:

The programming aspect I have mostly covered. However I would like to recruit at least two more programmers so I'm not as swamped with work as I have been. (and pay them with what? there is no budget to speak of even with this being funded) 

Lastly Advertisement: shall we make it over three hundred I will do my best to not only get this game on consoles, but also on platforms such as Steam. Steam alone cost's around 100$ for you to even be considered. (well, there goes the ability to even buy those two programers lunch) 

Budget aside I plan to have this game, be very diverse. With characters across the board in marginalized groups. Right now the game has a racially diverse cast, with one or two disabled characters, and lgbtqia+ characters as well. Princess Bubbles, and the player are both Black, Zib and Pilo are asian, Zib is agender and visualy impaired, and Billino is bisexual. The only one not in some sort of marginalized group is Jerins, and he's...kind of a joke as a character.  (The creator self identifies as transgender, so I understand where it is coming from, but the only "non marginalized" character is the comic relief?)

Then we have the Risks and Challenges section. I'm just going to opt for the screen shot and avoid commenting. It really speaks for itself.

Red Tide on Sale for $4.79 in PDF This Weekend Only

You know about +Kevin Crawford 's Red Tide I hope. It does for fantasy OSR sandbox play what Stars Without Number did for sci-fi OSR sandbox play. It's one of the resources that sits on my desk, waiting to be used at a moment's notice. 

It's on sale for this weekend at $4.79 in PDF.

In this book a Labyrinth Lord will find all that is required to run a sandbox game of adventure in the Sunset Isles. In addition to the races, classes, and sorcery of this savage land, a referee will find special tools and resources for creating shadowed courts of quarreling nobility, cities rife with struggle, wild border settlements that cry out for the help of heroes, and dark places in the earth known only to the dead and the damned. These tools will aid not only campaigns in the Sunset Isles, but also those games set in other lands of savage mystery and bloodstained blades. 

Expanding on the tag system found in the free Stars Without Number sci-fi role-playing game, Red Tide includes more than fifty new tags for fantasy cities and borderland settlements, along with more than 25 pages of GM resources including culture-specific name and place lists, unkeyed blank maps for quick sandbox use, four pages of room dressing and treasure possibilities, and a new "diagram dungeon" method of quick dungeon generation with a worked example.

And if you are looking for something that would work directly with Stars Without Number - Suns of Gold is a merchant sourcebook for Stars Without Number. Suns of Gold is also 40% off for the weekend, coming in at $5.99 in PDF.

Did I mention Stars Without Number is free?