Kickstarter - Calidar "Beyond the Skies"

Back in the heyday of Dragon Magazine, one of my favorite reoccurring features was The Princess Ark series by +Bruce Heard . It was fiction, but such game-able fiction, that along with the actual game rule bits, inspired my imagination as a DM for years to come. Heck, it's one of the main reasons I want to work on a White Star / White Box mashup. Yes, the airships :)

+Bruce Heard has been working hard on the World of Calidar, a fantasy world of his own design with - airships. I'm ready to swoon like a school girl in a bad 50's movie. Anyhow, Beyond the Skies is the 2nd in the Calidar series (In Stranger Skies was the first and presented the world) and presents the gods, their cults and the special powers their followers can earn. Temple maps. Other goodies as described here. Bruce has done a pretty good job in the past keeping the crunchy parts minimal (thereby making conversion to the system of your choice fairly simple) and I expect much of the same from Beyond the Skies.

Of course, you can always add the first book, In Stranger Skies, to your pledge. $6 in PDF ($10 if you just want to snag a copy on RPGNow)

Alright, all this makes me want to reread the fiction from In Stranger Skies. Maybe tonight at work. In between phone calls. Shhhs! Don't blow up my spot!

Current List of OSR Christmas Gifters and Gifts - Updated with Huge Amounts of New Swag!

Every year the community here at The Tavern never ceases to amaze me.

Below is the current listing of gifters and the gifts they are offering:

(assume US only for Print items unless otherwise noted when the post for said items goes up)


Lesser Gnome / +Zach Glazar              - Death & Taxes Boxed Set (Kickstarter Edition)

                                                              - Death & Taxes Minis

                                                              - Whisper & Venom Hardcover

                                                              - Possibly some assorted TSR era signed stuff

Barrel Rider Games / +James Spahn    -Class Compendium (hardcover)

                                                              -White Star core book (hardcover)

                                                              -White Star core book (x2, softcover)

                                                              -White Box Omnibus (hardcover)

                                                              -White Box Omnibus (x2, softcover) 

New Big Dragon / +Richard LeBlanc  -Creature Compendium (x12, softcover)
                                                              -Basic Psionics Handbook (x12, PDF)

+Reid San Filippo                                 -Under a Broken Moon 1-10, UX01 (PDF)

BRW Games / +Joseph Bloch              - Adventures Dark & Deep core rulebooks - set (softcover)

Precis Intermedia / Brett B                   -PDF of receiver's choice from the Precis Intermedia catalog                                                                    (Lords of Olympus, Shatterzone, Two-Fisted Tales,                                                                                Hardnova, Coyote Trail, Story Engine Plus, Treasure Awaits!,                                                                etc.)      

+Dyson Logos                                       -Dyson's Delves Vol 1 + 2 (print - ships anywhere)

Mark Craddock                                     -Cypher System Rulebook

thunderbunnypress.com / stieha           RND (zine) - (3 print + PDF)

+Dak Ultimak / Stray Couches Press   -1 complete set of Crawl!, printed+PDF.
                                                              -2 complete sets of Crawl!, PDF editions.
                                                              -3 single copies of anything in print.
                                                              -4 copies of no.11.
                                                              -5+ copies of Dungeon Crawl Basics (proof of                                                                                          concept/beta/not final print copies, and free copies of the final                                                                edition when finished.)      

+Matt Snodgrass                                   -6th Printing of C&C PHB
                                                              -$15 RPGNow GC

eric samuels                                          -5e Monster Manual

+Art Braune Skullduggery Press          -1x Art's Polyhedral Dice Super Font Bundle
                                                              -1x Set of all 5 of my Classic Dungeon Tiles PDFs

+Sophia Brandt                                     -2 sets of Swords & Sixsiders, international giveaway
                                                              (1 set consists of: a 24 page Player's Book, a 36 page                                                                               Gamemaster's Book, a few character sheets and 1 adhesive                                                                     label for making a box set (no box).)

+Pete Spahn / Small Niche Games       -Gray Nebula, Star Gods Help Us and Stuck on Etholk (PDF)

Jimm Johnson / The Scribes of Sparn  - HG1 The Kringle Castle Invaders (PDF)

Joe Johnson / Taskboy                          -Manse on Murder Hill and Tranzar's Redoub (Print and PDF)

Forrest Aguirre                                      -Heraclix and Pomp (Novel / Print x 3 US / Canada only)

(big edit / update)

+Tim Shorts / Gothridge Manor            -Starter Adventures
                                                               -a print bundle of Manor Zines

+matt jackson                                         -two large manila envelopes with the original, hand drawn                                                                        maps. Mailed anywhere on the planet

keith nelson                                            -Transylvania Adventures - softcover.
                                                                -Castles and crusades 5th printing set of 3 core books, new.
                                                                -Dyson's Delves I and II - softcover
                                                                -Razor Coast for S&W
                                                                -DCC adventures - In the prison of the squid sorcerer; Cast                                                                      Tower of the Blood Moon Rises!

+James Carpio / TSR                              -Tales From the Fallen Empire Hard Cover
                                                                -Tales From the Fallen Empire Soft Cover
                                                                -2 Copies of Gygax magazine issue 6




I'm sure I missed something from someone ;)

Some gifter's I have neither email nor G+ for contact. Please, if you only added a comment and didn't email me nor do you see a valid G+ link for you, I need your contact info to make this work. tenkarsDOTtavern at that gmail thing. Put OSR Christmas in the email subject line.

OSR Christmas will kick off in a few days...

A Wayward Kickstarter - After the Apocalypse - Bad Math and No Details Make it a Failure Out of the Gate

A tip of the hat to +Andy Kitkowski over at the Kicksnarker Community.

So, just how bad is the After the Apocalypse Kickstarter? They can't even center their art correctly:

But wait! There's more!

Actually, no there isn't. Well, not much more:

That's it. That's the whole description of the game. Mechanics? Who gives a fuck! Setting? Fogetaboutit! Because as we all know, games that can cover all possible end of the world situations just aint out there. If you want a Mad Max meets Gamma World meets Walking Dead meets Mars Attacks, this is you game. No other game can do the same.

Or not.

But hey! Look at the amazingly affordable support levels and low goal:

But math! Only $5k can be raised by print backers, so I hope the other 1,500 backers like their 50 dollar PDFs. Or 7,500 backers like their $10 PDFs. How many backers did Numenera have? 3,317...

Sometimes the Brain Box Rattles

Something has been on my mind for the last few days. Nothing major. Nothing urgent.

Just a definition of a simple word. One I've seen thrown around in politics, on Kickstarters and even other crowdfunding endeavors.

Transparency.

Does it mean what we think it means? Does it mean the same to you as it does to that Kickstarter creator? At what point does transparency become opaque?

Here ares some definitions of Transparency:

The first doesn't apply to much of what we come across in gaming, unless it's at the gaming table. The fourth doesn't really apply at all.

The second and third seem really important when trying to vet any project that is seeking crowdsourced funding.

How important is transparency to you and the crowdfunding you back?

Tavern Chat Tonight - 930 PM Eastern Till Whenever

Topics?

Gygax Memorial Fund and the responses received? Check!

New Tenkar's Tavern Facebook Group? Check!

Piss poor amount of gaming content posts? Check!

Latest Whit Whitman witticisms? Checkity check check!

Remember, it's the chat box on the right side of this very page...

Update: Tenkar's Tavern Opens on Facebook - Ask and Ye Shall Enter - And Stuff

What a day.

The Tenkar's Tavern Community over on Facebook is currently at 140 members. Pretty much all in the last day and a half. Simply amazing. You all rock. I expect it will be a fairly active community and it will be a vetting place for some post topics and themes.

I've been laid up on the couch most of the day will a rebellious stomach, so no work for me tonight. If I had been at work, I'm sure today's events in California would have been on everyone's lips.

+Dyson Logos drew this with The Tavern in mind earlier (no ill intent - I'm sure it relates to some pushback I've received for my more active use of Facebook) but it has a further meaning for me today. I'd like to send this out to ISIS and their sympathizers:

I'm getting really close to swapping out my off duty 5 shot 38 for my duty 9mm 15 + 1 with some extra mags. That's a whole 'nother non gaming discussion.

Tenkar's Tavern Opens on Facebook - Ask and Ye Shall Enter ;)

Yep, I finally did it. I formed a Tenkar's Tavern group on Facebook.

Why?

Because it has been requested numerous times.

What goes on there?

That's for you all to decide ;)

Seriously, it's a semi private place for discussions and lord knows at times we all need that.

Alright, time to shake the cobwebs and work on the updated OSR Christmas post...

It Appears Ken Whitman's Old D20 Entertainment Website Has Gone Rogue

Priceless.

Here is the actually link:

http://d20entertainment.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Screen-Shot-2015-11-29-at-6.44.52-PM1.jpg

Gail Gygax Responds to the Community's Questions Regarding the Gygax Memorial Fund

Gail Gygax has responded to the questions posed by the gaming community and previously posted here at The Tavern.

I am posting her responses as screenshots below. You can read the questions asked at this previous Tavern post.

Tavern Update - Christmas Time and All That Jazz

You can tell it's the holiday season. The days have gotten shorter, the air is crisp and folks at work are piling up on annual vacation - yep, it means overtime for me ;)

I'm hoping to get out the master list for OSR Christmas 2016 tomorrow. I was going to attempt it today, but stayed late this morning, head in early tonight and stay late at the end (tomorrow morning.) The list is huge and full of awesomeness and generosity. It's going to be lots of fun to watch this take off.

Yes, I'm still playing catch up as certain issues and events took priority at The Tavern and the community at large. Hopefully we'll have some answers about the state of the Gygax Memorial Fund by the end of the week. The questions posed by the community were well thought out and many are probably questions that need more that a sentence or two to answer.

Alright, time to get my shit together for tonight's shit...

Kickstarter - RuneQuest: Classic Edition - RQ2 is BACK!

Sometimes what is old is new again. Sometimes old is simply better than new.

Much like with Dungeons & Dragons, there is a certain charm and simplicity to RuneQuest's earlier editions. RQ2 (Chaosium)is what I cut my RuneQuest teeth on back in the day even if technically RQ3 (Avalon Hill Edition) was my first encounter with RuneQuest.

Ducks! You have to have ducks!

In just over a day the Kickstarter to bring RuneQuest 2 back into print has raised over $65k. In just over a day. Holy shit. It's knocking over stretch goals like they're bowling pins (unless I'm the one bowling - I have a knack for gutter balls)

Pavis and Big Rubble might just see their first use by me in nearly 30 years this spring...

A Closer Look at the Gygax Memorial Fund - Some Questions for Gail Gygax

+Gail Gygax has kindly agreed to answer questions posed by the gaming community regarding the Gygax Memorial Fund. I've done my best to present those questions in a coherent manner. The questions are being presented to the gaming community via this blog post as I concurrently pass them on to Gail. I appreciate the time that Gail will need to set aside to answer these questions and look forward to the responses and the opportunity to present the community with an updated post with said answers.

-As of the end of 2013 there was $222k in the Gygax Memorial Trust Fund according to the Tax Filing. What is the current asset total of the Memorial Fund? How much more is needed before work on the memorial can commence?

-When will the 2013 and 2014 tax returns for the fund be linked on the Memorial Fund's website?

-How much was donated by WotC / Hasbro from their sales of the AD&D 1e reprints? What year(s) did the fund receive those monies?

-What, if any, legal expenses have been incurred by the fund?

-How much money has the Memorial Fund spent on things not directly related to the creation of the memorial (salaries, litigation, auto expenses, etc)?

-While 5 hours a week, as reported on the tax returns, may not seem like much, time, that is still 260 hours a year or 6.5 full work weeks. In that time per year, what HAS been accomplished versus what has not?

-How many bricks will be sold and at what cost to the buyer? What is the expected margin on the bricks that will go to the Memorial Fund?

-What is the hard-line number needed to make the memorial a reality and how far is the fund from achieving that number?

-The Gygax Memorial Fund is a 501 (c) (3) organization under Wisconsin Law. When was the last time the Board met? (it must meet at least once per year) Where can we view copies of the minutes of previous board meetings? (this is a public record) Yearly audits of the fund's expenses and income must be made. Again, these are public records. How can one obtain copies of these audits?

-Is this the actual listing of the current board members. I've been told by multiple sources that Jim Ward has never been informed that he is no longer on the board. Board members must be elected on a yearly basis. Who votes for the board members?

-Apparently Tim Hutchings had no idea he was the Memorial Fund's "Audio Visual Engineer" and hasn't been contacted by the fund in years. Ryan Browning says he didn't design the logo, just took the old shield and turned it into vector drawings. Is the page currently displaying those listed as affiliated with the fund accurate to the best of your knowledge? When was the last time this web page was updated?

-What is the current state of the project?

-Have you considered a more modest monument?

-Is there more planned than just the monument?

Again, I would like to thank Gail Gygax for agreeing to take the time to answer the community's questions regarding the Gygax Memorial Fund. If I may make an observation of my own, I think some of these questions would have been answered on the fund's website if it was updated more often (monthly perhaps?) Hopefully the fund's website will see more regular updates in the future.

Thanks again to all who submitted questions.

-Erik Tenkar

RPGNow Deal of the Day - Castle of the Mad Archmage

Today's RPGNow Deal of the Day is Castle of the Mad Archmage by +Joseph Bloch .The Adventure Book is on sale in PDF for a mere $4.97.

I ran this once a month for about a year before work threw it's ugly head into the gears of my gaming time. It was loads of fun. Watch out for the sloping halls ;)

The legendary megadungeon is here at last! 

More than thirteen levels and over 1,500 keyed encounters of perils, monsters, traps, and treasure to bedevil your players. Find levels of warring humanoids, the deadly Arena, ancient artifacts, lost temples, portals to other worlds, and the ultimate secret of the dungeons... the Mad Archmage himself.

Originally released as a free electronic book in serial format, the Castle of the Mad Archmage has been completely revised, expanded, and updated. It is a complete adventuring environment, from the surface ruins to the deepest caves and caverns. 

You and your players could literally spend years exploring the dungeons beneath the Castle and still not discover everything. It can accomodate characters from first to fifteenth experience level and beyond.

Castle of the Mad Archmage is written using the Adventures Dark and Deep™ rules, and is compatible with most Old School type rules with little or no conversion needed.

Note: You must also purchase the Map Book and the Illustration Book in order to run this adventure (due to a technical limitation of the site, you need to add each to your cart separately).

Frog God 40% Off Black Friday Sale (Print & PDF) and 50% off Lesser Gnome in PDF

I expect there will be a lot of posts going up among the gaming community of various Black Friday Sales.

This one is huge, as 40% off Frog God products may even make purchases affordable-ish for those on the other side of the pond (damn that shipping.) This is a one day sale

Lesser Gnome has put it's PDF releases at 50% or more off. Whisper & Venom for $5 in PDF isn't a bargain - it's a steal! These prices are in effect until Christmas, which is good as RPGNow is suffering from high traffic at the time I type this.

OSR Release - The Golden Scroll of Justice (Chinese Themed OSR Supplement)

I am WAY behind on announcing recent OSR releases. I thought this week of vacation would lead to some catch up time, but "uncle duties" ran from 10 AM Sunday through 7 PM Tuesday. "Pinky" was awesome but this uncle is exhausted. It is now Thanksgiving, catch up commences NOW.

The Golden Scroll of Justice is an interesting release. Most Asian themed RPG supplements I've read or seen in the past seem to make a hodgepodge of various Asian cultures, histories and mythology and churn out something that is less than the sum of it's parts. +Joseph Bloch went the other way, bringing "your old-school RPG into a whole new world of wuxia/kung fu action based on Chinese mythology, history, and folklore."

Sticking to a single culture and making it true is probably the best thing your can do to make it come to life. The Pundit ( +Kasimir Urbanski ) did such with Arrows of Indra and his recent Dark Albion: The Rose War

Two things that never clicked with me as far as RPGs go have been superhero games and Asian settings. The Golden Scroll of Justice is temping enough to make me want to invest the time in it to see if it clicks.

From the blurb:

The Golden Scroll of Justice lets you bring your old-school RPG into a whole new world of wuxia/kung fu action based on Chinese mythology, history, and folklore. The book contains:

Two new PC races: the shanxiao (monkey-man) and gouren (dog-man)
Two new character classes: the wu and the fangshi, along with guidelines on how to use your existing classes in a mythic China setting
Hundreds of new spells
Rules for kung fu that fit seemlessly into the existing combat and skill system, but still allows for cool "cinematic" moves
New weapons and armor
New magic items
New monsters
And much more!
The rules are designed to be completely modular; take what you like, leave what you don't. Want fangshi and gouren but not the kung fu system? No problem. Everything will still work fine.

Note that this is not a complete game! This is a supplement intended for use with your existing old-school role-playing game

Tavern Update - Gobble Gobble!

Yep, it's Turkey Day here in the states. For some it is Ham day. If I had time before heading to my sis's I'd stop in the pub for a few and make it a Tavern Day ;)

It's been busy the past few days. Planning for the 12 Days of OSR Christmas. Gygaxian (not yet a trademarked) Drama. Catching up just never seemed to happen.

I plan to submit the list of questions regarding the Gygax Memorial Fund to Gail Gygax on Friday (tomorrow.) I'll post the questions here at The Tavern so you have access to the same list of questions Gail will be answering. When I have the answers I'll post them with their questions again here at The Tavern.

Gail is promising full transparency. Hopefully this will resolve questions folks have regarding the Gygax Memorial Fund.

Batman vs Darth Vader - Possibly the Best Fan Film I've Seen

Just watch it.

A Closer Look at the Gygax Memorial Fund - Looking for Questions to Ask Gail Gygax in Regards

Gail Gygax has taken an interest in my previous post (you can read her comments over at Facebook.) I told her I'd have questions to ask her about the Gygax Memorial Fund. She stated she's "looking forward" to the post in question.

So, I'm throwing a net far and wide in search of questions to ask Gail Gygax with the intention of posting / asking on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.

Simple rule - the questions must pertain to the Gygax Memorial Fund. Questions about trademarks, family, Gygax magazine and TSR, Gary's old properties like Lejendary Adventures and Castles & Crusades work that he did and wasn't released and the like are for another day.

Keep your questions to the topic at hand - the Gygax Memorial Fund.

Alright - lets get 'er done!

A Closer Look at the Gygax Memorial Fund - Why Does it Seem to be Spinning Its Wheels?

With yesterday's news that Gail Gygax was asserting her rights to the Gygax name (and pushing the Gygax sons from the new TSR board) it got me thinking about the Gygax Memorial Fund. It's strange how Gail and her legal legal team can be so involved in protecting the Gygax name when it's used by family but there has been little if any recent movement on the side of the Gygax Memorial Fund.

What do I mean?

The Fund's website is rarely updated, so I went to Facebook. On the Fund's Facebook page, we have this update from nearly a year ago:

So, the sale of bricks is going to help fund the memorial. How many brinks? There has to be a low end number. It's nearly a year later. No footprint has been finalized?

Actually, this very article says there's going to be about 250 bricks. The maintenance fund requires $25k (as per the linked article). Do the math at home...

The following is from November 6th, 2013. Its from the Lake Geneva Board of Parks Commissioners Minutes.

and from December 4th, 2014

Gail's been talking bricks for 2 years now. The footprint is 10x10. Sure, some space is going to be covered by the base of the statue but how many bricks does she expect to sell?  How much is the statue? (actually, in the above article Gail estimates the statue / memorial at $250k)

Holy shit! $250k for the piece pictured above? Someone is getting robbed. I guess those bricks will need to be priced using "new math."

How much money does the fund currently have? Damned if I know. The last tax return posted on the Fund's website is for 2012 and it lists $129,162 in net assets. $123,196 was raised in 2012 alone, which means it carried over less than $6k from 2011. Why the huge bump in funds? Safe to assume it's from the sale of the AD&D 1e reprints by WotC. No, wait, that can't be right. The reprints went on sale in 2013 so that huge shot in the arm was from elsewhere. The fund must be sitting in mountains of money after WotC donated a portion of the proceeds from the sales of the reprints.

In 2012 Gen Con had a Gygax Memorial Fund Auction. That must be where the 2012 donations came from, right?

Nope, just a drop in the bucket.

Anyhow, why no posted tax returns for 2013 and 2014?

Laziness? Perhaps. There doesn't seem to be much effort to get eyes on the Gygax Memorial Fund website. The last update on the website appears to be from June 12th of this year.

Incompetence? Not likely. Certainly not if the same legal team is helping with the fund that is steering Gail's iron grip on the Gygax legacy.

Something else? Perhaps. Earlier this morning I sent the Gygax Memorial Fund a request for the Tax Documents related to 2013 and 2014. Those tax returns are supposed to be available to the public.

See, if 2013 and 2014 were posted on the Fund's website, I wouldn't have to make such a request.

I'll post more as I dig more. At the moment I can't figure out why the sale of bricks hasn't happened yet. If and when I get the tax returns I'll post that info also.

Earlier article from April 10th, 2014 for those interested:

Gygax Magazine All Out of Gygaxes - Ernie and Luke Leave to Settle Suit with Gail Gygax

Remember how the new TSR arose out of the ashes of... well, nothing really. It was just three letters and it was grabbed for nostalgia purposes.

Same as Gygax Magazine - named and laid out to evoke nostalgia of Dragon Magazine in the mid 80s but not aimed at the D&D player, old or new. Instead, it's a shotgun aimed at pretty much all RPGs. Which means it's value to the old school gamer is fairly lacking.

Well, it seems that Gail Gygax had a lawsuit against the new TSR for using the Gygax name (I wouldnt be surprised if trade dress was also an issue.) The suit is now settled. TSR has non-exclusive rights to use the name Gygax and in the process Luke and Ernie Gygax have left the new TSR. That leaves Tim Kask as the only true heir to the Gygax legacy at TSR.

You can read the article over at ENWorld, as Gail sent the notice to +Russ Morrissey

In the end, I doubt this will have much of an effect on the viability of Gygax Magazine. The content is too scattered to appeal to many and I suspect the initial excitement of Dragon nostalgia has worn off for the grognards. A friend just predicted Gygax won't make it past issue #10. Even if it does, I doubt few will notice.

Now, any updates on the Gygax Memorial, or has that become a forgotten project?