Tenkar's Tavern

Thursday, April 18, 2024

So It Is Written, So It Is Done - LaNasa v. Tenkar - Case Dismissed With Prejudice

What can I say other than to thank everyone for their support and kind words over the last year and a half. No more shackles ;)

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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 Anchor, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar

Tuesday, April 16, 2024

Humble Bundle - Pathfinder 1e Kobold & Frog God Bundle

I am very much NOT a Pathfinder fan, regardless of edition. That being said, I own a surprising amount of Pathfinder 1e material, mostly setting-related, as I find I can convert such to the OSR system of my choice with minimal effort. YMMV.

The latest RPG-related bundle on Humble Bundle is a Pathfinder 1e Kobold & Frog God Bundle. 69 books for 25 bucks. Seriously, go big or go home :)

The Lost City of Barakus, Rappan Athuk, and Stoneheart Valley are worth the price of admission on their own.

Monday, April 15, 2024

Bundle of Holding - Ars Magica 5

I really loved the concept of Ars Magica. I have some of the first-edition releases. The whole idea of having a stable of characters to choose from, sometimes you're the mage, sometimes you're the grunt, fits my style of play just fine. It simply never fit with the rest of my gaming group. Ah well.

The Ars Magica 5 Bundle over at Bundle of Holding is for the Fifth Edition of the Ars Magica rules.

Magus! We've cast Creo Corpus to resurrect (for a sixth time!) our August 2014 Ars Magica 5E Bundle featuring the Fifth Edition of the Atlas Games tabletop fantasy roleplaying game of medieval myth and magic, Ars Magica. This bargain-priced offer, with .PDF ebooks of the core rulebook and key supplements and scenarios, gives you everything you need to start your own saga of wizardly Covenants in Mythic Europe.
This revival helps promote the forthcoming Atlas Games crowdfunding campaign on Backerkit for Ars Magica Fifth Edition Definitive. All the books in this offer are compatible with the upcoming release. And there's more ArM5 magic ahead!
[Note: This is the fifth version (2004) of the venerable Ars Magica rules first published in 1987. It's not related to Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition.]
For just US$14.95 you get all five titles in this revived offer's Starter Collection (retail value $55) as DRM-free ebooks, including the complete Ars Magica Fifth Edition core rulebook plus the supplements Covenants, Houses of Hermes: True Lineages, and Apprentices.
And if you pay more than the threshold price of $25.91, you'll level up and also get this revival's entire Bonus Collection with five more supplements and scenarios worth an additional $70, including two more Houses of Hermes sourcebooks – Mystery Cults and Societates – plus the introductory saga The Broken Covenant of Calebais, the Normandy Tribunal location book The Lion and the Lily, and the scenario collection Tales of Mythic Europe.

Why "Swords & Wizardry?"

Believe me when I say I have them all in dead tree format. I have OSRIC in full size, trade paperback and the Player's Guide. I have LL and the AEC (and somewhere OEC, but I can't find it at the moment). Obviously I have Basic Fantasy RPG. Actually, I have the whole available line in print. Way too much Castles & Crusades. We all know my love for the DCC RPG. I even have Dark Dungeons in print, the Delving Deeper boxed set, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. BOTH editions of LotFP's Weird Fantasy and some dead tree copies of the Greyhawk Grognards Adventures Dark & Deep

I am so deep in the OSR when I come up for breath it's for the OSR's cousin, Tunnels & Trolls

So, out of all that, why Swords & Wizardry? Why, when I have been running a AD&D 1e / OSRIC campaign in Rappan Athuk am I using Swords & Wizardry and it's variant, Crypts & Things, for the second campaign? (Actually, now running a S&W Complete campaign, soon to be with multiple groups)

Because the shit works.

It's easy for lapsed gamers to pick up and feel like they haven't lost a step. I can house rule it and it doesn't break. It plays so close to the AD&D of my youth and college years (S&W Complete especially) that it continually surprises me. Just much less rules hopping than I remember. (my God but I can run it nearly without the book)

I grab and pick and steal from just about all OSR and Original resources. They seem to fit into S&W with little fuss. It may be the same with LL and the rest, but for me the ease of use fit's my expectations with S&W.

Even the single saving throw. That took me longer to adjust to, but even that seems like a natural to me now. Don't ask me why, it just does. Maybe it's the simplicity of it. At 45 52, simplicity and flexibility while remaining true to the feel of the original is an OSR hat trick for me ;)

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