White Star / White Box - Informal Content Request Survey

Sometimes all you need is to get "Your Irish Up" to find some motivation. In this case, it re-awoke my gaming content muse. When I wrote yesterday's Star Marshal class for White Star, it took less than 30 minutes, and that includes the OGL update. Apparently, when the muse is full awake, it works fairly fast.

So, what I want to know is what you want gaming content wise from The Tavern. And when I say "you" I actually mean YOU. The content I plan to create will be for White Star and / or White Box (S&W), but the actual type of content is what I'm asking you about.

Are you looking for character classes, new races, new monsters, NPCs, equipment, spells and / or powers, micros settings, encounters - what is it that will give you the most benefit in the games you are running or playing in?

As an aside, the Dragon White setting is still in the works and parts of it may leak out in upcoming posts.

I'm going to spend the next week or two putting my current White Star / White Box content into 1-sheet / 4 page PDFs for the The Tavern's Patrons on Patreon (long overdue, but I'm blocking out creative time these days, so hopefully shit falls into place ;)

So, tell me what you want in the comments below. I make no guarantees that all will get their wish but everything will be taken into consideration.

Tavern Predictions for 2016 - or - Please Don't Pee in the Scrying Pool

I've been doing Tavern Predictions for the past few years. No idea how accurate I've been, but that's not the point, is it? The point is the predictions themselves.

Of course, we need to bring Grumpy the Dwarf out of his long, alcohol induced nap to make the proper predictions. He'll be using the scrying pool in The Tavern's basement. Just ignore the runoff from the privy. Some of our patrons have poor aim (and even worse bowels, but I digress.)

Here's Grumpy!

Yeah, yeah. Can't let a poor bastid dwarf sleep for a few more months, can ya? Hey, who da' fuk threw a perfectly good cigar in the scrying pool?

1 - No longer known as Ken Whitman, Whit Whitman will change his name to Mike Nystul in an effort to confuse the authorities.

2 - Mike Nystul will take the name of Earl Grey and be forever known as the man who introduced tea to Captain Picard.

3 - Palladium Games will change it's name to Uranium Games in the hopes that the nuclear half-life will be a hedge against any future bankruptcies.

4 - D&D 5e will see the beginnings of a new "5.5" editions, to be known as D&D Forever - or at least until the suits at Hasbro need to milk the cow a bit more.

5 - Frog God Games will seek a princess to kiss the frog in an advertising promotion. Social Justice Warriors worldwide will be so offended, they will go on a frog killing spree. A half dozen SJWs and two frogs will meet their untimely demise.

6 - Monte Cook Games will release yet another game whose text can't be read because of the layers of watermarking beneath it and yet it will raise over $500k on Kickstarter.

7 - White Star will go supernova and destroy not only other sci-fi RPGs, but the very gaming universe itself. Strangely enough, the only game to survive will be Numenera.

8 - Lesser Gnome will produce a 3rd Kickstarter. It will not be named Pimps & Hoes. Or will it...

9 - The Gygax Memorial will itself receive a memorial - The Memorial to the Memorial of Gygax. It will list neither a start nor end date, just an infinity sign.

10- The Tavern will replace the green lights in front with red lights and the barkeep will turn in his navy blues for a pink suit and a white fedora.

White Star - Star Marshal (Character Class)

Whereas the police usually have limited jurisdiction, the Star Marshal has jurisdiction over multiple worlds. Expected to enforce the law and take in wanted criminals on their own, he is given great latitude in how and when to accomplish these goals.

Star Marshals are often mistaken for bounty hunters as many marshals would rather not identify themselves as such and would rather work under the cover of open arrest warrants. It has been said by those arrested that the reason Star Marshals work from arrest warrants is to collect the bounty but few ever make such an accusation to a marshal's face.

Known for self reliance, Star Marshals often know a little bit about many things.


LEVEL      XP      HD      BHB      ST
1                  0        1           +0        13      
2              2,250     2           +1        12
3              4,500     2+1       +2        11
4              9,000     3           +2        10
5            18,000     4           +3        10
6            36,000     4+1       +4          9
7            72,000     5           +4          8
8          144,000     6           +5          7
9          288,000     7           +6          6
10        576,000     7+1       +6          6

Weapons / Armor Restrictions - None / None. Marshals do prefer to capture wanted felons alive, so they will often arm themselves in a manner to make that a possibility.

Area Knowledge and Customs - Marshals often know some of the terrain, locals and customs of the locations they are to travel to. They are assumed to know the basic details of all but the most exotic locations and will know one or two more specific piece of knowledge when arriving on a new world (location of a bar their target might frequent, contact to buy restricted items, etc). Star Marshals with an Intelligence Score of 13 or better receive 1 extra piece of specific knowledge.

XP Bonus for Constitution: Star Marshals with a Constitution of 13 or 14 receive a 5% Experience Bonus, and those with 15 or higher get 10%.

Assistance from Local Police: Star Marshals may request the assistance of the local police force. Assistance granted may be large or small depending on the department and the Star Marshal's reputation.

OGL

The Tavern is Not a Whore and Other Recent Thoughts (Rant Time)

Earlier today I got a G+ notification that I was mentioned in a comment. I went to peek and it was in a closed community, one I was not a member of. Which meant I could read it but not comment.

"Great stuff man! Maybe your XXXXX XXXX tables will inspire +Erik Tenkar

It gets better. Now apparently I owe this individual free publicity because I like White Star and have posted about it therefore he deserves his own share of free Tavern publicity.

"If Erik put in a third of the effort into XXXXX XXXX that he's already put in for White Star, I wouldn't need any more promotion and advertising."

I pimp what I like. I don't pimp what I have no interest in.

I should be flattered that the perception is that I can make or break a product but that simply isn't true. Quality products speak for themselves. All I do is increase the volume for those that I like.

I owe the readers of The Tavern my truthful opinions on gaming releases, Kickstarters, whatever. I owe creators the same thing if I write about their products - truthful opinions. What I don't owe to anyone is that I WILL write about their latest product. Wow. What a surprise. I can write what I WANT to write about. Shit, that's nearly unheard of!

Am I pissed? More so because this bullshit came up in a community that I can't respond to from an individual that has been relentless in their effort to get me to cover their recent releases. Well, this is as close as we're going to get with "promotion and advertising."

It has, however, inspired me to work on some more White Star this weekend. Maybe not the inspiration they were hoping for, but I'm going to get some creativity done, so all in all, it's working out ok on my end ;)

OSR Christmas 2015 The Winner of the Remix Mini - Android PC is...

Slowly but surely OSR Christmas 2015 is wrapping up. Today it's time to award the Remix Mini, a pretty neat Android PC. And it happened to be a Kickstarter that shipped pretty much on time ;)

Who is the gift receiver?

+Dak Ultimak !

Dak, I have your address already I think. Might not ship for a week though. Congrats!

Tavern Chat Tonight - 9 PM Eastern - Be There or Be Not

Tavern Chat is a weekly chat session where folks can hang with random personalities from the OSR and just random OSR fans. It's always fun and often it's an unexpected source of inside info.

Tonight is the first Tavern Chat of 2016.

Pretty cool if you ask me :)

How do you participate? Just log into the chat box on the left side of this page.

Tonight should run from 9 PM to 11 PM Eastern, more or less...

Kickstarter - Open World RPG "like" Star Wars Game (What Could Go Wrong?)

Anyone want to make bets on how the Open World RPG "like" Star Wars Game Kickstarter is going to be up before the C&D?

Now, this is always a basic thing to me - if you are going to ask folks for money, (in this case looking to raise $200k) how about capitalizing proper names like "obi jim Kemobi." (who the fuck is obi jim anyhow?) Maybe be consistent with "Star Wars" and "star wars."

Best part?  The guy who wants your money has written "a story in the star wars universe that will fit inside an RPG video game that I have not created." Yep, no game, no art, just a story and we don't even know the plot.

Still, it's only $200k, right? Because $200k can give you a video game with the art level of Witcher 3. Right?

Gotta love the Risks and Challenges

Basically the whole project? It's a challenge...

(P.S. star wars should be Star Wars you nitwit!)

(P.P.S. Read the comments!)

OSR Christmas - Extended Edition - Lots of in Print Goodies for the Good Boys and Girls (US Only)

And here you thought OSR Christmas was over ;)

As a Happy New Year & overall thanks to the OSR community, I have a series of doubles, older editions, and less utilized material that I'd like to pass on, to 1) share the goodness; 2) expand people's knowledge and playing of some of systems and resources; and 3) clear off valuable shelf space...

Without further ado, I have the following items up for the OSR Christmas giveaway drawings. Unfortunately, these are only available to US recipients, as the postage costs get too high for sending them overseas. These will be given away in the following sets of items:

Dungeon Crawl Classics system

1) Transylvania Adventures - softcover + 3rd party DCC adventures - In the Prison of the Squid Sorcerer, Cast Tower of the Blood Moon Rises!

Castles and Crusades 

2) 5th printing set of 3 core books (Players Handbook, Castle Keepers Handbook, and Monsters), new.

Swords and Wizardry 

3)  Razor Coast hardcover

4)  Razor Coast hardcover + GM's shield & modules (Grimmsgate, MCMLXXV, + others)

d20 Necromancer/Frog God Games

5)  Modules - Six Spheres of Zahheiss, Coils of Set, Vindication, Dread Saccaroth, Hex Crawl Chronicles-the Golden Meadow, etc.

OSR Resources

6)  Dyson's Delves I and II - softcover

7)  Selection of early role playing magazines (mostly 1980's) - Alarums & Excursions; White Dwarf; Dragon; Expeditioners Journal

RPG Related

8) Snarfquest Compilation (softcover) + The Fantasy Roleplaying Gamers Bible

These will be randomly given away to commenters listing their favorite OSR or just plain old-school system, sourcebook, or resource (blog, document, whatever).  Everyone is welcome to put in multiple entries of favorites, but each individual commenter will get only one chance for each giveaway.  The gifting will be done in 2 waves, with 4 randomly determined sets being given away January the 9th and the other 4 on the 10th, in honor of my personal tardiness for all things, even contests...  Winners will be announced in the comments section here and contacted for addresses if at all possible, but please check back here after the 10th to see if your name was pulled. Eligibility will end sometime in the early AM EST on both those days.

Thanks to all of you for rekindling my interest in roleplaying over the past few years and, more to the point, helping me give my children the interest in it (how many 9 year olds list DCC as their favorite game of the year?).  

-Keith (edit - The Tavern is just hosting - Keith is the one gifting)

New Years Day - 2016 - So, How are Gareth, Mike, John and Ken doing with their Kickstarters?

New Year, same old drama. Time for some brief updates on some of the bigger Kickstarter dramas in the RPG hobby.

Where do we start? Let's go with Far West, otherwise known as "Gareth Sharka's Albatross". The latest update (December 15th) said we should have the next chapter by Christmas and the complete book (I'm assuming PDF) by the end of January (six weeks from December 15th). Today is January 4th and the December Chapter never arrived. Not a surprise. Ah well, at least Gareth's consistent in failing to meet even self imposed deadlines over the past four years. As an aside, I wish Gareth best of luck with his dog's illness. Our girl had seizures and canine dementia nearly two years ago. The decision wasn't easy.

Onward to Mike Nystul, the man who parlayed a unique last name into taking credit for the inspiration of a spell he had absolutely nothing to do with (but he's certainly made sure to live up to it's definition). In July, Mike promised weekly updates to Nystul's Infinite Dungeon. That lasted three weeks. No updates since then. Last update on Axes & Anvils? Back in May. Do I expect to even see finished PDFs from either of Mike's projects that I backed? I have more faith in Gareth.

What about John Adams and his Appendix N Adventures for the DCC RPG? Word is he's still sending out the first round of adventures. If memory serves me right, I got my first 2 adventures nearly 3 years ago. Lets not even think about the stretch goals.

As for Ken Whitman? Holy shit, the man is simply amazing and not it a good way. Supposedly there will be an update to the Spinward Traveller Pilot on the 15th of this month. What can the man say that won't be a lie? This shit is already a year late. Add in the rest of Ken's bullshit with Pencil Dice, KotDT Webseries and the Castles & Crusades TV Pilot and I'm moderately surprised no one has sucker punched him at the local bar.

As a side note apparently the Jamie Chambers' Metamorphosis Alpha Kickstarter isn't fully dead yet. He does make a very interesting statement in today's update: "Delays are one thing, but delays and silence are not the way I want to conduct myself, run my business, or represent the people I work with on this and other projects." Yep, when you take money from folks and then put your head in the sand, you set yourself up for future failures. Unless you are Ken Whitman and use his Jedi Mind Powers. It's so obvious he's a Sith...

I've Got Something to Read During the Downtime Tonight at Work - And I'm NOT Batman!

Look what arrived in the mail today! Batman, The Role-Playing Game, which is basically a condensed version of Mayfair's DC Heroes game.

Now, why would I purchase an out of print game that I probably could never get my group to play? Or if they agreed to, I'd probably owe them all beers.

You'll have a chance to hear all about it in a few weeks. Yes, I chose those words carefully ;)

Tenkar Household Medical Drama Continues - Gonna Need to Start a Triage Soon ;)

First it was colds and sinus infections for everyone around Christmas.

Then my son got diagnosed with "post concussion syndrome".

Last night, my wife broke out with a rash on her stomach.

Today, she was diagnosed with shingles.

And the guy with unlimited sick time?

Health as an ox.

For now ;)

Awarding the Day 9 OSR Christmas Swag - Cards, Cards and Reference Sheets

It's about time, right? The end of 2015 was one heck of a ride, but I've finally gotten around to awarding the SBA cards, business card character sheets and combat reference cards. These will be going out to the gift receivers in legal sized envelopes - they are small ;)

So, who are the five fine folks that need to send their snail mail addresses to tenkarsDOTtavern at that Gmail thing?

Five random folks are:

Stu Ordana

Nick 'Volrath'

Will Tijerina

Dak Ultimak

Peter V. Dell'Orto

Woot! to all :)

OSR Christmas 2015 - Finale - Remix Mini - Android PC - (US Only)

Found pic online

Time to wrap up OSR Christmas as best I can. I still have to award some gifts to award (business card sized character sheets and such - will do so later today) but here's the final offering from The Tavern: a Remix Mini. It's an Android PC that fits in your hand (size is 5" x 3 1/2" x 1"). Just add monitor, keyboard and mouse and you have a fully working PC. It should be low power consumption for those that worry about such.

Actual back of box being offered

For me, mine is going to be set up on the mini bar we'll have built into our living room in late spring.

How do you get your hands possibly on one?

Just comment on this post with "how I use computers with my gaming". Comment by January 6th, 1PM Eastern or so. I'll pick a person to receive the gift at that time. Remember, US only.

Winding Down OSR Christmas - or - How this Most Generous Community Overwhelmed Me - Again!

I know there are gifts that were offered up that never got posted. Simply put, the amount of generosity from members of the OSR community and beyond simply overwhelmed me. It's not the first time you folks have done so, but the new work schedule and other issues away from work have cut into my free time - severely.

So, I'm winding down OSR Christmas 2015. If you have gifts that you still want to give out, post it up (or send me the post - someone offered to do so - I'll need to look in the AM) and I'll amplify the signal. I still have some gifts to award that should be able to be shipped out this weekend - I'll award those tomorrow.

Oh, and I still have the Remix Mini to give away. That post should also be coming tomorrow. An Android PC with the following specs:

Sure, you'll need a monitor, keyboard and mouse, but for that secondary (or tertiary) computer station, this little piece should fit the bill. Mine will be set up in the living room in late spring when we build in the little corner bar ;)

This was $30 on Kickstarter and the 2GB version goes for $70 on Amazon. Pretty solid 4.3 Star rating on Amazon.

Alright, time for bed.

Kickstarter - Ultimate NPCs: Skulduggery for 5e, Pathfinder and S&W

My first Kickstarter post of 2016. I figured it should be for something good (I'll save the Nystulian drama for the SECOND post ;)

So, what is that good Kickstarter release? Ultimate NPCs: Skulduggery for 5e, Pathfinder and S&W. You probably already know of +Christopher Haskins . He's one of the Frogs over at Frog God Games. Unknown to many (including me until recently) he's also one of the main honcho over at Nord Games. Ultimate NPCs: Skulduggery is Chris' baby and I was lucky enough to get a preview of this product (I posted about it here) Quick summary of the post - this is good shit.

A bit from the Kickstarter page:

The book has 30 uniquely designed characters at levels 1, 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20. This gives maximum versatility for minimal cost and shelf space. Some of the characters are ones that we, the designers, have run in our campaigns for years, some are NPCs we've used to challenge or aid our players, and others are brand new builds incorporating the newest concepts from 5th Edition.

Why did we choose levels 1, 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20? Well, it seemed to us that these specific levels allow for the maximum options for the Game Master or player, with the minimum amount of pages. 

Now, I'm a Swords & Wizardry kinda guy, so the 16th and 20th level builds (do we even call it that in S&W?) will probably be more "personalities pulling strings behind the scenes", but it's still good info to have.

Did I mention it's over halfway to it's $10k goal with only half a day into it's funding?

I'm backing for the S&W HC. This will be on my desk along with my other go to gaming resources (the D30 product line by New Big Dragon comes directly to mind)

PS - I forgot to mention the Risks and Challenges:

All of the characters are well designed and finalized, and all of the artwork for the book is complete. That really only leaves stretch goals and production as the two variables that could delay us. We will be finishing the additional content unlocked by stretch goals as we achieve them, and we will be working with a printer with a good track record for on time delivery and excellent quality books.

Written except for stretch goal. All artwork accounted for. This is my kinda project ;)

 

 

Post 800 for 2015 - Lowest Tavern Post Tally Since 2010

Yeah, 2015 has been a hell of a year. Not necessarily bad, but life and work became much more time consuming than I can recall in a damn long time.

800 posts in a year may seem like a lot, but when you compare the total to 2012 (1115) and 2013 (1112) and even last year (920) it's a serious drop off.

2016 should be closer to the numbers of 2014 at least, or at least that's the plan.

There have been numerous requests for a return to a series of reviews and overviews of the various OSR rulesets, big and small, free and and not. Maybe I can scratch out an outline during the downtime of one of my night shifts ;)

New Year's Gaming Resolutions for 2016

I don't normally make New Year's resolutions, let alone ones that relate to gaming, but with the way the last half of 2015 kicked my gaming (and creative juices) in the privates, I figure I need some for 2016.

So, here it goes:

1 - Get back into active gaming - My gaming slowed down greatly from the beginning of July and shut down totally from the beginning of December. New work hours were to blame. Starting in January I've reserved four day weekends for every other week (my normal weekends ends ay 930 PM Saturday night these days.) Aim is to game every other Saturday Night and one Friday a month starting in January.

2 - Get creative again - My juices were flowing fairly well until the work schedule changed. I'll be putting aside Fridays for creative time, at least until the end of March. Starting April every day should be a creative day :)

3 - Podcasting - I enjoy it and miss it. It certainly doesn't mesh well with my current work hours. That being said, the four day weekends should help. I'm involved as a host in two forthcoming podcasts (both deeply gaming related) and an experimental gaming news podcast I'd like to kick off as a solo endeavor. The solo podcast may need to wait until the end of March.

4 - More Cons - I'm going to attempt to hit cons within about 250 miles or so from NYC when I can starting in April. We'll see how well this works out. I'll be retired. Rach will be working. I'll need to roll a high saving throw ;)

5 - An Online OSR Con - I've had this discussion with others in our corner of the gaming universe. Many would like it to happen. I'd like to see it happen. I won't even have the time to look at how to make it happen before spring of 2016.

That's enough for now I think.

To infinity and beyond!

What Does One Do When They Can Not Game? They...

buy more games ;)

That's what I've been doing recently. I've been stalking eBay for the old collectibles. Snagging an OCE White Box for $75 has just whetted the appetite ;)

My Tunnels & Trolls collection doesn't have too many holes. T&T 1e is impossible to find (so I'll settle for the reprint). I have Ken St. Andre's personal copy of 2e. I'm still looking for a 3e copy and from 4e on I have multiples and various variants.

So I think Judge's Guild will be my next target :)

Actually, I could target early RuneQuest releases, but I expect the time to do so is when the 2e reprints start hitting the market with the recently successful RQ2 Kickstarter.

I guess I could actually read the stuff I already own, but if I had the time for that I'd be gaming ;)

So, what do you do when you can't game for an extended period of time?

Last Tavern Chat of 2015 - 9PM to 11PM Eastern - Tonight

Yep, it's the last Tavern Chat of 2015. Time to escort the old year out the door and welcome in the New Year.

Wow.

2015 is certainly not ending like I had expected. This past week - especially the last 4 or 5 days or so, have been hectic. Yes, even today. My son has a new symptom of post concussion syndrome and is back in the ER getting checked out. So, I may pop out of the chat to pick him up when he's done. Thankfully, this too shall pass.

But on the gaming side the new year will mean new campaigns, new games and new podcasts - did I say "podcasts?" Yep, two different podcasts with two different sets of hosts AND work continues on getting the solo gaming news related podcast off the ground.

So, check into Tavern Chat tonight and help shuffle out the old and bring in the new. It's that chat box on the right side of this very page...

Troll Lord Games is Having a Scratch & Ding Sale - C&C Rulebooks for $10

Looking to play some Castles & Crusades on the cheap?

Well, The Trolls are having a sale on their slightly dinged and damaged books:

My picks?

Classic Monsters for 10 bucks is a steal. After Winter's Dark Campaign Setting for 5 bucks? That a gift. The C&C Flip Book (Player's Handbook and Monsters & Treasure in one package) for $10? How do you beat that?

My books get dinged after the first game session. Might as well save some time and a huge amount of cash ;)

Here's the link for the C&C Sale