A pillar of the table top RPG industry, Castles & Crusades embodies the spirit of the old-school gamer with the easy to use modern mechanics. The Players Handbook has all you need to get started in a wild ride of adventure!
It’s easy to learn attribute-based rules system allows players to choose among 13 archetypal character classes and 7 races to create their characters. Spells, equipment, fast-paced combat rules, and all essential information needed to play a game of Castles & Crusades is in this book.
Dice and Monsters & Treasure sold separately.
You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Rumbleor YouTube - Tenkar
I'm a huge fan of Castles & Crusades and have nearly every printing of the Player's Handbook and the C&C White Box. I'm all in on the Castles & Crusades Starter Kit.
In your hands you hold the very font of imagination, where all things can become real. Play as mighty warriors and weavers of powerful spells, face off against terrible dragons, giants, and monsters of lore. Win gold and glory, or die trying.
Castles & Crusades—the best in fantasy gaming is finally available in an introductory box set. Within this box, you will find 3 booklets specifically designed to help new players learn what a role playing game is, how to play and how to use Castles & Crusades to bring to life exciting adventures for you and your friends and family. You will learn how to create scenarios, people them with monsters and how to create characters to embark on unforgettable stories of high adventure.
Book 1 Character Creation is all about players, and includes an immersive and detailed example of play, where YOU get to join the fray without having to know anything in advance. It also teaches how to generate a character, how to inhabit the role of that character, how to equip, create descriptions and use that character’s abilities. With these rules, a character can be taken all the way from 1st to 6th level!
Booklet 2 Directing the Game is all about the Castle Keeper, the world builder. The Castle Keeper acts as the game’s referee and in Directing the Game you learn how to run the game, how to build your own fantasy world, and how to handle any situation.
Book 3 Into the Dark The final booklet is a full-blown adventure where the players test their mettle against a hideous giant and his goblin minions in a quest absolutely bursting at the seams with opportunities for new ideas and scenarios. Into the Dark is designed for three to eight 1st level characters.
The Starter Kit also includes characters sheets where you can track your character name, statistics, abilities, and equipment as well as PDF versions of all the books for you to use.
Even a set of polyhedral dice are Included!! (actual dice may differ from art displayed)
This box set contains absolutely everything you need to learn, play, and master Castles & Crusades!
You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Rumbleor YouTube - Tenkar
My son! The Original White Box begat Swords & Wizardry, which itself begat the Swords & Wizardry White Box. Alas, by then, the Swords & Wizardry White Box had strayed too far from its source material, and this begat Delving Deeper, an attempt to be closer to the "true" White Box. So it is written.
Delving Deeper is a legal emulation of the original 1974 fantasy role-playing game published under the Open Game License. As well as being a game in its own right, Delving Deeper is also a legal platform for publishing supporting material compatible with the “Original Edition” games.
Why Original Edition?
0e games are accessible! A player needs to know so few rules that even a novice can immediately jump in and get involved. The rules themselves are coarse grained and uncomplicated which makes the mechanics easy to grasp, and game play fast.
Delving Deeper is pitched at just the right level of abstraction to facilitate dungeon, town, and wilderness exploration as well as combat scenarios from man-to-man duels to veritable battles involving superheroes, dragons, or scores of orcs. What might take hours to resolve with more “advanced” rules might take mere minutes to resolve in 0e.
You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Rumbleor YouTube - Tenkar
It's no secret that I'm a massive fan of Phil Reed's work as an independent publisher of system-neutral RPG material. Phil likely is responsible for 10% or more of the Kickstarters I've backed (I am, sadly, a SuperBacker).
Adventurer! This Fantasy Sites and Scenes Bundle presents system-neutral city and dungeon encounters from Philip Reed Games for any tabletop fantasy roleplaying game. Light your imagination with dozens of locations, characters, and encounters, and hundreds of rumors and magic items, that help you make any campaign city your own. Funded through just a few of Philip Reed's 104 Kickstarter campaigns (you read that right), these inspirational treasure chests of ideas fit easily in any setting above or below ground level.
For just US$14.95 you get all eight system-neutral gamemastering aids in our Fantasy Sites Collection (retail value $76) as DRM-free ebooks, including all three Fantasy City Sites and Scenes volumes – I, II, and III; The Book of Collected Rumors and The Book of Dungeon Encounters; and three little magic shops: Marco's Market of Magical Merchandise, Zeck's Shoppe of Riches, and Tischler's Tome of Treasures.
The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.
DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Rumbleor YouTube - Tenkar
I enjoyed the West End Games version of Star Wars decades ago. The inheritor of the mantle was the D6 System, which years later became an Open D6 System under the OGL.
Mini Six: Bare Bones Edition distills the Open D6 System into a mere 36-page document. All for the price of FREE!
Mini Six is a slimmed-down version of the original OpenD6 game system. It is a multi-genre RPG that focuses on handling action-oriented games with a light-to-medium amount of "crunch." It serves as a toolkit for designing your own games and has been used as the engine of several published games by third-parties through the use of the Open Game License.
The basic mechanics and character creation are covered in the first few pages. Stock NPCs, creatures, vehicles for a variety of genres, a simple magic system, optional rules, and conversion guidelines for mixing in standard OpenD6 materials round out the middle of the book.
Mini Six Bare Bones Edition finishes with five nearly ready to play mini-settings which showcase some of the possibilities of the system.
Perdition: Space Cowboys surviving on the edge of the frontier.
Rust Moon of Castia: Classic Fantasy
Farnsley's Phantasm Investigations: Spook hunting in the Victorian Age.
Precinct '77: Busting punks in an homage to 70's and 80's cop shows.
Imperium in Revolt: Rebels against the Imperium in classic space op
The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.
DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Rumbleor YouTube - Tenkar
Years ago, when I looked more closely at non-OSR Indi titles, I came across the Ubiquity System. To my eyes, it seemed like an even easier Savage Worlds-type system. But then my eyes wandered to other games, and I lost track of Ubiquity.
Well, Leagues of Adventure is powered by Ubiquity.
Adventurer! This new Leagues of Adventure Bundle presents Leagues of Adventure, the Ubiquity-based Victorian steampunk tabletop roleplaying game from Triple Ace Games. In the Age of Exploration, a semi-fictitious 1890s right out of Sherlock Holmes and Jules Verne, globetrotting scientists, crazed inventors, and daring explorers equipped with airships, mole machines, and Weird Science gadgets venture across the world and to other planets to uncover forgotten cities and civilizations, map the wilderness, and defeat nefarious villains in bare-knuckled Victorian action. The flexible and cinematic Ubiquity rules (Hollow Earth Expedition, Space: 1889) use an easy dice-pool system that puts your player characters in the spotlight, lets them invent their own gadgets, and keeps the story moving fast. Create your own League of Extraordinary Ladies and Gentlemen!
For just US$12.95 you get all four titles in our Starter Collection (retail value $55) as DRM-free ebooks, including the complete Leagues of Adventure Core Rules; Dramatis Personae, an array of more than 100 pre-generated characters; the Weird Science Compendium; and the Globetrotters' Guide to London.
And if you pay more than the threshold price of $25.20, you'll level up and also get our entire Bonus Collection with fifteen more titles worth an additional $87, including The Great Campaign and the lunar adventure Tides of War (the "Black Editions" free of AI-generated art); Letters From the Leagues Vol. 1, V2, V3, and V4; and nine Globetrotters' Guides: Expeditions, Unusual Places, The Ancient World, The Old World, The New World, Cads & Cultists, the Cads Appendix, Dramatic Developments, and Miscellanea.
The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.
DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Rumbleor YouTube - Tenkar
Looking for a Fallout RPG with the serial numbers scratched off from an OSR game designer who avoids using an OSR ruleset this time around?
Atomic Punk 2240 may just be up your alley. It's today's deal of the day, and it's marked down to 8.99 until tomorrow morning.
Atomic Punk 2240 is a post-apocalyptic role-playing game set in an alternate future where, in the 1990s, the nuclear holocaust occurred. The wasteland is full of gangs, raiders, mutants, power-hungry factions, and the player characters themselves, who may or may not be any number of these types.
Atomic Punk 2240 is a 2d10 system where, generally, there is a target number of 11. All rolls are modified by difficulty modifiers, weapon and armor match-ups (references on a weapon vs armor table), and other factors.
The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.
DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Rumbleor YouTube - Tenkar
I was surprised that Tomb of the Serpent Kings had escaped my prior possession in PDF. I'd heard of it, read discussions and posts mentioning it, and knew that it looked familiar when I saw the title, but until tonight, I'd never owned a copy - and damn it! It's free!
You CAN snag a print-on-demand copy of Tomb of the Serpent Kings for 3.99, and I'll be snagging a copy for myself once I have other things in my cart to ship with it.
People keep asking for "beginner" dungeons. Everyone can name "classic" dungeons - Tomb of Horrors, Barrier Peaks, The Temple of Elemental Evil, etc. - but in order for those adventures to make sense, there needs to be some sort of introduction.
It's like all the adventures we have are Bach concertos. People keep writing amazing works of staggering genius, but someone needs to write a book on how to play the piano.
I had the same questions, and since I couldn't find anything satisfactory, I decided to write the kind of dungeon I would have loved to find. I wanted to write the best basic old-school dungeon for new players that I could, and I also wanted to show the design process. And since people keep refereng to it, I figured I'd put up a fancy print version.
Tomb of the Serpent Kings is designed to be easy to adapt to your system of choice to create an old-school dungeon-crawling tomb-robbing experience.
The PDF is free and licensed under Creative Commons NC-BY-SA. Hack it, share it, translate it (there are French, German and Spanish translations available on my blog).
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DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Rumbleor YouTube - Tenkar
Is there ever a point where a GM can have too many random tables? Probably not. Since that's the case, everybody should be jumping on the latest Humble Bundle -More Tabletop RPG Resources. There are simply more tables than you could shake a stick at. 46 collections of tables for 18 bucks - or 4 for a buck if you just want to kick the tires.
The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.
DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Rumbleor YouTube - Tenkar
Content Generators, RPG Tools, and a Campaign Builder. D&D, Pathfinder, and System Neutral. Available on iOS, Android, Steam, and Web.
There was a period when I was genuinely focused on finding the perfect "campaign app." Never saw one that really "clicked" for me, and I looked.
The Oracle RPG App looks REALLY good, not just because of its cross-platform compatibility.
Pricing is either a discounted subscription or a $300 all-in for a lifetime subscription. Decisions, decisions...
What Makes Oracle RPG Special?
Content Generators: Billions of possible combinations in an instant when you use any of the Nord Games content generators.
RPG Tools: Need a small component for your adventure? A trap, some loot, or something to fill out the dungeon? We have an RPG Tool for just about anything.
Campaign Builder: Organize all of the components of your campaign in a clean and organized interface.
Quick Prep: Generate interesting stories, exciting settings, memorable characters, interesting monsters, and thrilling adventures in seconds, cutting your prep time dramatically.
On-The-Fly Editing: Add to, remove from, or change your campaign during your game session with the easy to use interface.
Cross-Platform Compatibility: Seamlessly accessible on any device, Oracle RPG ensures your toolkit is always at your fingertips.
Time-Saving Efficiency: Oracle RPG eliminates the hassle of session preparation so you can focus on the fun of storytelling and gameplay.
Built-In Inspiration: Discover new ideas and endless possibilities with our intuitive content generators designed to inspire.
Quick note! Skeeter Green and Zach Glazar are the Special Guests on Talking Crit Live! Wednesday, June 5th @ 8PM ET - Skeeter worked on the Arden's series of zines for Necromancer Games, and Zach is an executive of Necromancer Games / Frog God Games. Link to the stream here.
Another note! I know Skeeter and Zach not just on a professional level but also on a personal level. Both are close friends and skilled and talented creators of old-school gaming material. 'Nuff Said! Tenkar
I'm a big fan of RPG zines. They are the perfect size for my consumption of gaming goodness and are convenient for both on-the-go reading AND when one HAS to go. Heh :)
Four zines in one Kickstarter for Old School Essentials from Frog God Games / Necromancer Games. Could I ask for more? Probably not.
I'm backing Arden's Adventures/Arden's Notebook Kickstarter at the $40 backer level - all 4 zines in print and PDF. International backers CAN opt for POD, which would make for cheaper shipping.
Arden's Adventures is a full-color zine that brings back the feel of classic adventures, where the characters are as likely to die in the second room as they are to find vast and unimaginable treasures and high adventure!
Arden's Notebook is a serialized supplement inspired by Arden's Adventures. The Notebook delivers useful information for the adventure, ideas to make your own, and regular columns such as Helman’s Haberdashery, Role Call!, Igbat's Incantarium, Zoo-Illogical, and more. And Tropes, our original comic strip, illustrated by the wonderful Chet Minton, is pretty darn cool!
All four zines are 28 to 32 pages, A5-sized, and saddle-stitched. To be precise, the page counts are as follows:
Arden's Adventures Volume 1 is 32 pages.
Arden's Notebook Volume 1 is 28 pages.
Arden's Adventures Volume 2 is 32 pages.
Arden's Notebook Volume 2 is 32 pages.
The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.
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A Dystopian Fantasy Roleplaying Game Of Vengeance & Survival With OSR-Inspired Design, But Based On Simple d6-Mechanics.
Rick Hershey and Lucus Palosaari make one heck of an interesting collaborative team, and they're the creative minds behind 13 Screams Beneath the Withering Sky.
Promising a streamlined OSR-inspired system using d6 mechanics, it apparently has a grim-dark aesthetic, which I am drawn to. Damn, my experience with WFRP 1e has forever corrupted me ;)
I'm in for the POD hardcover and PDF.
13 Screams Beneath The Withering Sky is a dark fantasy tabletop RPG designed for players who crave tension, exploration, and the thrill of facing insurmountable odds. The core rulebook includes everything you need to create characters, navigate a cursed world, and challenge the 13 Warlords that dominate the land.
The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.
DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Rumbleor YouTube - Tenkar
PAGE 2025, held in January of this year, was a blast, plain and simple. For a con only in its second year, things ran very smoothly. Everyone appeared to be having a great time, and the weekend went by in the blink of an eye.
I am pleased and flattered to have been invited to return to the Philadelphia Area Gaming Expo (PAGE) as a Special Guest in 2026. Get your tickets NOW, as the Special Guest list will simply grow to a ridiculous size, and you'll kick yourself for missing out on the festivities. You can get more info about PAGE here.
Apparently, for the candid shout used above, I was inspired by THIS man below ;)
The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.
DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Rumbleor YouTube - Tenkar
"A zine about zines." It's almost Seinfeld-esque in nature. Of course, you are going to see me backing or buying pretty much anything that Phil Reed puts his name to - it's simply a no-brainer for me.
Quest for Zines is a Kickstarter to support a month's worth of interviews for Phil Reed, and Lex Morgan are doing the interview. At the end of the month, they will put the interviews in zine format, in PDF and print. You can back Quest for Zines: a Zine Quest Zine About Zinesfor the PDF for 3 bucks, and POD (at cost plus shipping) plus PDF for 5 bucks.
This zine is a celebration of indie RPGs, indie RPG supplements, and their creators. Within this work, 28 engaging interviews will be featured with creators of all experience levels. We'll connect with designers, artists, and publishers. We also include conversations with those involved in crowdfunding, promotion, and beyond.
Join us each day in February! We'll be posting an interview every single day, each as individual updates! At the end of the month, we'll take all the updates, give them a polish, add some nifty art, and make them into a zine. And that zine can be shipped directly to your door.
Not a fan of physical zines? You can just get the PDF, too.
The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.
DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Rumbleor YouTube - Tenkar
I really enjoy finding OSR rulesets that push the game into less-used genres. Arcana Rising imagines a "modern-day urban fantasy" setting "that posits a world where magic and the supernatural have awakened once more after millennia of slumber beneath the frozen ice of the Antarctic."
Generations ago, the source of all raw magic was sealed away beneath the frozen ice of the southernmost continent, but now, with the breaching of the ancient seal by Russian scientists, magic once again flows throughout the world as it once did. Wizardry is once more a genuine calling, the divine influence is making itself known in greater strength than has been seen on the Earth in human memory, and with the return of magic, supernatural creatures that had long fled to the outer planes where magic still held sway are once again encroaching into the material realm and threatening mankind.
Players will take on classic fantasy roles thrust into our world, modern day wizards, adventurers, and holy champions, who seek out the knowledge of the lost era of magic and attempt to protect mankind from the supernatural beings that now threaten it, while juggling their mundane lives around the demands of a life of danger confronting unholy threats from beyond the veil.
Arcana Rising is powered by the same core system as the critically-acclaimed Hulks and Horrors science-fiction role-playing game. The H&H Engine brings a simple to learn set of rules inspired by the classic fantasy role-playing games of Gygax, Mentzer, and Ward.
7 core classes with rules up to level 12 and beyond, each a new spin on the classics: Gunfighter, Gladiator, Rogue, Wizard, Cleric, Champion, and Forestwalker
A Day Job system, representing the characters' day to day careers
A new skill system that aims to provide the skilled with better talent and success without blocking off options
Arcane magic and Divine prayer, with spell lists for each up to level 6
Rules for generating magical treasures and artifacts from the ancient era
Over 100 classic fantasy and folkloric monsters
GM advice and tools for modern and urban fantasy adventuring
Alternate 'genre packages' and rules for other game concepts from traditional medieval fantasy to post-apocalyptic horror
The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.
DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Rumbleor YouTube - Tenkar
Well, the more I learn aboutStars & Sails, the more I can't wait to give it a play-through at Wizard Con in April.
Now that we have a sneak peek at an S&S character sheet, we can learn more about Stars & Sails. Apparently, resources are essential (rations and water have their own tracking boxes ;)
The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.
DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Rumbleor YouTube - Tenkar
Back in my college days, I was a huge fan of the ElfQuest series of comics. Well, for 18 bucks, you can own The Compete ElfQuest Bundle. I'm all in, 'nuff said!
The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.
DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Rumbleor YouTube - Tenkar
Here's the point where I talk about "connections." I've known Jeff Jones for several years. He laid out and edited the two issues of our Torchlight zine. He simply does good, professional work in a timely fashion.
Dark Visionsis a current Kickstarter project for the ShadowDark RPG. Starting as low as 12 bucks in PDF (I'm backing at $50, BTW), Dark Visions is:
"An expansion for the Shadowdark RPG focusing on cults, their gods, and their domains. Featuring 3 Player Classes (Cultist, Inquisitor, and Knight of the Covenant), 25 New Spells, and 16 Cultist Domains, each containing their own dedicated creatures, magic items, and tables. Not just a resource guide, DARK VISIONS includes a pair of stand-alone adventures that have the party following an occult trail into dank dungeons. You can string both of the adventures together plus add THE TOWER OF SIX companion zine to form a three adventure campaign!"
The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.
DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Rumbleor YouTube - Tenkar
The DOOM of the DARK is coming...
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The Black Casket of Night has indeed been opened beneath our feet, soon,
only days will remain!
I have been posting here and there about ‘Doom of the Dar...
Jackson, IL: Am I Evil? NPCs of the Satanic Panic
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Last week, I talked about running two different 80s-style teenage horror
campaigns. My Sunny Valley, OH game with Dark Places & Demogorgons and my
curren...
Free GM Resource: 1shotadventures
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[image: Free GM Resource: 1shotadventures]
I came across this blog consisting of adventures written by J.C. Connors.
The adventures are for a variety o...
Jonstown Jottings #106: Marsh Attacks!
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Much like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition,
the Jonstown Compendium is a curated platform for user-made content, but
for ma...
Music Monday - Go Monkey Go
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This one is a blast from the past. Released in 2000 and performed by Devo,
Go Monkey Go is a tribute to Mojo Jojo, the primary antagonist of the Power
Puff...
The Singing Lake
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By Nicole Mattos, Icaro Agostino, Davide TrammaAngry Golem GamesOSELevels
2-4 After being denied recognition as the supreme lord, Severo cursed the
region,...
Dungeon Crawler Carl (book review)
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This was a fun read if not particularly meaningful. It takes place in an
RPG world that works like a televised tournament, similar to The Running
Man and...
d100 Worst Weird Inn & Guest Rooms
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My current map with player exploration of my D&D5.5 game
Yellow is where players been and exploration has been fun
While we had 3 clerics nobody really imv...
The Great Nobility of Harry Potter
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I am of the view that there is no pursuit that is more noble and no task
that is more worth doing than writing novels. Call me romantic; call me
delud...
Circuits and Rallies
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I'm back from holiday! I guess coming back to familiarity after a few weeks
of novelty got me thinking.
Sometimes you repeat the same stuff over and over...
AD&D's Demi-Foot Forward...
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AD&D's demi-humans are primarily known for their multiclassing abilities.
After all, what adventurer doesn't occasionally dream of casting spells
from th...
Adventures Dark and Deep (Lite)
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This arrived for me today, a PoD hardback via DriveThruRPG.
Including postage, it cost me about $40 yankeebucks, so about $65 Kiwibucks.
I got it purel...
[BLOG] News on the March! Episode XIV
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This post continues the series of brief play reports I have been posting on
Discord. This does not cover every single session (sometimes, recon and
setup...
Moldvay Basic D&D now Available in Print
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Just a quick note that (finally) Moldvay Basic D&D is available in POD from
DTRPG – previously, only the Cook/Marsh …
Continue reading →
Abstraction in My Liege,
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I think the aspect of *My Liege,* that could potentially put off the most
people is its lack of accounting granularity. It does not track Court
wealth in...
SoloDark: Four Drunk Priests
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Dabbling into some solo play using SoloDark. Rolled up the party last
night. 3d6 down the line and pick the best class for the results. It was
tragic.
ht...
Consolidated AD&D Weapon Characteristics List
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Having spent the last few days down a research rabbit hole, I ended up
compiling a chart of AD&D weapon characteristics, adding some "missing"
entries an...
Referee Sabotage
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It is an old saw that players are bad at executing their plans. Imagine
this common scene: the party have some big job that requires planning;
perhaps robb...
The March 1636 Lantern is Published
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Okay, The March Lantern is available. Those fast on the draw may have
noticed that I mistakenly published it as free access for 56 minutes. I
was just so ...
Gary Con 2026 Registration
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Silver Badges get to register for events at Noon Central today (February
21, 2026). Somehow I thought I failed to register for running games this
year and ...
On a Happy New Year
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We are about to experience the most social upheaval since industrialization.
What will that look like in sixty years?
Sinless is starting it's third yea...
Mutants and Wizards
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Heya folks, long time no see.
I've just started working on something new called Mutants and Wizards. It's
going to be an OSE/OSR post-apocalyptic game t...
Ten Friggin Hill Cantons Wizards
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10 Wizards of the Hill Cantons
#
Name
Description
1
Magister Dobromil the Cauterizer
Specializes in magical “cleaning” of reality leaks. Wears fou...
Rob Kuntz at Lucca Comics & Games 2025
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If you are planning a trip to Europe (like right now) and wish to catch up
with me in person, make sure to book a detour via *Lucca Comics & Games*,
...
How do you do piracy… in SPACE!?
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Interstellar space travel in Iridium Moons was always going to be a form of
hyperspace jump like in Star Wars or Traveller. Simply because it’s the one
for...
A long overdue hobby update!
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Welcome back to the Vault everyone! 2025 is going by in a blur; I last
posted in February, almost started a post in March and now it's the end of
May. W...
Playing at the World 2E V2 Arrives
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With the release of its second volume, the second edition of *Playing at
the World *is finally complete. The two books combined total well over
1,000 ...
Articulations
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Creating house rules, custom rules specific to a local group or campaign,
has been common throughout the history of D&D. What makes an effective
house rule...
Writing playlists for all occasions
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Hello again! Going off the idea of inspiration elaborated on by the prior
post, I also have music playing while I write my various games and fiction
pieces...
The Tarot of Pips
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Somewhere in your dice collection is a die like this one, the humblest of
dice. Although you don't know it, this small white die carries with it a
secr...
Pirates and Necromancers, a Play Report
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Over the Thanksgiving weekend we did a lot of gaming ranging from
“off-table” domain level stuff to some solo adventures to spell and magic
item rese...
It's been a bit
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Hey everyone, I hope you are doing well! I've had a lot going on and
haven't had much time to blog lately. Heres a recap of gaming events and
other st...
*'s in SpaaaaaAaaaace
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A lot of SF (including a certain 2D6 RPG grandaddy) deal with ancient
aliens taking humans from Earth and dropping them, fleas and all, on one or
more w...
Last move - to self-hosting!
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As my vote regarding Substack in the “marketplace of ideas”, I’m moving to
self-hosting.
I’m now at (and hopefully staying for a long time at)
Blog: ht...
Clean Your Room
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Looking back at my little blog here. That last post… wow, I was having fun
playing WOW Classic! That was August of 1999 and I was having a blast… it
was ...
Steve Jackson Interview
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James Maliszewski recently did an interview with Steve Jackson over on his
Grognardia blog. Steve chats about the beginnings of The Fantasy Trip and
upcomi...
ToAD Monster of the Week: Crocoman
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Now that I'm back doing the blog thing I thought I would use Tome of
Adventure Design to create monsters for The Black Hack.
Using the monster tables in th...
Strange, Dangerous, and Inhuman: The Fey and Fairie
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When I was a boy I loved fairy tales. Jack and the Beanstalk, Puss in
Boots, Rumpelstiltskin - I devoured all of it. My fascination that there
was a strang...
Dungeons & Dragonmead Fall Schedule
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*As you know, I run public classic Dungeons & Dragons games at **The Loaded
Die**/Metro Detroit Game Night's Board Game Nigh at **Dragonmead**, in
Warren...
Fiction in Airhde
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On a whim this weekend, I picked up some fiction off the TLG store. *A
Houseless God & Other Tales* and *The Mirrored Soul & Other Tales*, both by
the T...
Ravensburg Reboot: Streamlined City Map
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I mentioned in my last post how I was tweaking and reworking parts of my
Ravensburg setting. Today I streamlined the city map. The old map had lots
of redu...
The Withered Crag available now
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I just enabled the sale of the PDF version of The Withered Crag at
DriveThruRPG a few minutes ago, and the custom print version will be
available startin...
Annihilation Rising Goes live
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The latest in Fail Squad Games’ Quick Kick projects has gone live and needs
your support!! This project is only running 11 days and ends on 5/28/2019!
...
James's Celebration of Life
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We could not have asked for a prettier day for James's service. It was a
bit chilly and windy but gorgeous. A heartfelt thank you to all that joined
us tod...
Trap Tuesday: A step back
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I will get back to Tomb of Horrors soon. I found a topic that was
interesting enough to take a break. While interacting in a 5E group on
Facebook I talked ...
Let's Talk About Pacing!
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The idea, I think, is that the RPG is ultimately about the long game. Even
rolling back to the early days of Basic & Expert, the goal of the player
was...
Profane and Profound Prep Part 2
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This is part 2 of my work to edit my magic items for a DMsGuild release,
along with adding cursed items along the way. Here is part 1. Bone of a
Saint 8000...
Please, I don't do paid advertisements - don't ask.
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A little note since people have asked me about this. My video channel's
*not* an advertising platform, so I'm not available for hire if you want to
promote...
New website!
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Slowly but surely, all the content here will make its way — in updated
form! — to my new website: timbannock.com. For fairly obvious reasons, that
site wil...
Please Update Your Link!
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If you're seeing this, it means your link to the Greyhawk Grognard blog is
out of date.
Please update your link to www.greyhawkgrognard.com (RSS feed is
h...
Total Sales for WB:FMAG
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Hi Folks,
It's been a long time since I provided an update for the sales of White
Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game.
*LULU*
Print: 396
PDF: 433
*OBS*...
How can We Destroy this Campaign World?
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d12
1. You must trick a bard into strumming the *Chords of Fate* on the *Lute
of Annihilation*
2. Legends tell of thermonuclear weapons beneath megadunge...
Mord Mar - Session 5
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We had another successful delve into the dungeon yesterday. The delvers:
Moira, the Magic-User
Radovan - Human Cleric (of Odin?)
Khazgar Stonehand - Dwarf ...
Bundle of Fantasy Age
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Bundle of Holding: Dragon Age/Fantasy Age: Available until March 12. PA
Presents: Fantasy AGE Freeport live play Green Ronin in 2018 The Fantasy
Age RPG ma...
New Free PDF Module: The Hyqueous Vaults
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A new dungeon module—written in celebration of OSRIC's 10th Birthday—by
Rebecca Dettmann, Allan T. Grohe, Jr., Jimm Johnson, Matthew Riedel, Alex
Zisch, a...
Swords & Wizardry Light: Session # 6
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Two months after our last session (thanks to things like 8th grade finals,
a 4 year-old's birthday and party, Father's Day, etc.), we finally had our
next ...