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Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Kickstarter - Adventures Dark and Deep Core Rules 2nd Printing

An enhanced and expanded version of the 1st Advanced edition of the world's most popular tabletop roleplaying game.

Interested in the best "what if" version of AD&D 2e? Look no further, as Joe "Greyhawk Grognard" Bloch has you covered with the Adventures Dark and Deep Core Rules 2nd Printing Kickstarter. (Joe will be a Special Guest on the April 24th Talking Crit Live! @ 8 PM Eastern)

Adventures Dark and Deep™ is an expansion of the first Advanced version of the world's most popular roleplaying game. Originally designed to include all of the classes and other material that the original designer couldn't include in the 1980's, the game is even more expanded to include a skill system, more new classes, and much more. 

Adventures Dark and Deep™ is a comprehensive rules system, designed to allow play in a variety of different styles; dungeon crawling, exploration, epic storytelling, and more.

Adventures Dark and Deep™ is my attempt to show what would AD&D would have looked like if Gary Gygax had stayed at TSR. It starts with the AD&D 1E rules, includes all the new character classes he mentioned in Dragon magazine in the 1980's (bards, jesters, mountebanks, etc.), plus other changes and additions he mentioned over the years in online fora.

In recent years, the game has grown beyond that basic concept to include more things, and also includes expansions on things Gygax had pioneered (like the skill system, which is based on the concept he had for a skill system for C&C). This new version brings everything together, reorganizes it, and re-edits everything to make it clearer.

This second printing incorporates numerous errata, expands the material with new classes like the blackguard and skald, and centaurs as a player race, and makes many other improvements to the original three books. In addition, the original three books have been consolidated into two; the Core Rulebook and the Core Bestiary. Everything is being comprehensively re-edited and re-organized to make it much easier to use. 

The Core Rulebook has all the rules you need to play the game: ability scores, character races, character classes, secondary skills, creating characters, cost of equipment/services/etc., combat, magic, treasure, the game environment, creating the setting, and game master advice. See the FAQ for the complete table of contents (subject to change).

The Core Bestiary is a complete collection of monsters, including all of the classic monsters, plus many more, for a total of nearly 900 creatures both old and new. See the FAQ for the complete table of contents (subject to change).   

The books are written, and are estimated to be over 500 pages each once editing and art is complete (all details are subject to change as the editing and layout process progresses). The money raised will be used to pay for new art and editing. The retail price for the books will be around $65 each.

The project will be fulfilled using DriveThruRPG's digital delivery and print on demand services. When the POD versions are available to order, you will receive links to purchase these versions of the books from DriveThruRPG. You will be expected to pay the cost of printing as well as postage and any taxes or fees.

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.

DTRPGAmazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on AnchorYouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar 

Monday, April 22, 2024

Humble Bundle - Dune: The Universe Collection (Fiction)

I am not a huge Dune fan, and in truth, I have never read Dune itself. The first movie was certainly enjoyable and well done, but I came into it as someone who had little previous insight into the Dune universe.

That all being said, there are some HUGE Dune fans in my circle of friends, and this bundle of Dune: The Universe Collection is for them :)



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.

DTRPGAmazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on AnchorYouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar  


Sunday, April 21, 2024

Hasbro Doesn't Seem to be Big on Anniversaries.....

Hasbro Doesn't Seem to be Big on Anniversaries.....
One of my...quirks I guess, is that I like to have the TV on pretty much anytime I'm at home and in my living room, if I can at least pay it half-assed attention. Otherwise it's music for me ...anything but having to listen to the high-pitched tinnitus whine in my head.

Earlier this week I actually tuned in to Tenkar's Tavern on YouTube where Erik, Bad Mike, and Jim Kitchen talked ostensibly about Cynthia Williams resignation. Eventually they talk about D&D's 50th Anniversary celebration, or lack thereof.

That got me thinking......

....did you know that Hasbro just celebrated their 100th anniversary last year? I didn't know until recently. You'd  think a big company celebrating 100 years would put some emphasis on a major division celebrating 50 years, but I really wonder how much of a "major division" D&D (I know WotC) really is to Hasbro. A quick visit to the main Hasbro website doesn't even show D&D as one of their brands, much less a mention of the anniversary. They currently have two D&D board games, one being for the recent movie, and a few D&D toys scattered about.

So no love for WotC or D&D?
No D&D Here!

The main D&D page has the WotC and Habro logos/links at the bottom, but really no reciprocation. The closest I could find was a press release from February. I honestly expected more.

Now while I'd love to talk about what I think is a pitiful set of anniversary offerings, which maybe isn't pitiful if you're 5E fans, but if you're into playing BX or 1st....or even 2nd edition? Pitiful. Thing is Erik, Bad Mike, and Jim did enough talking on the topic that I don't think I can add too much.

Not too much, but maybe a little. See Hasbro had a down year in 2023.....remember this was their 100th anniversary....and they finished down 15% for the year. WotC, on the other hand was up 10%, but I'm not sure about that breakdown because WotC is lumped in with Hasbro's "Digital Gaming Segment".

"Digital Gaming Segment" kind of spooks me a bit because it just reinforces where I think they're trying to push D&D, but that is conjecture for another day.

What really stood out to me was Hasbro's expectations for WotC in 2024: "Wizards of the Coast Segment revenue down 3% to 5% decline largely driven by second half comp in licensed digital gaming; Operating margin 38% to 40%."

Now I haven't done a lot of corpo reading in years, but IIRC that doesn't mean that WotC is expected to be losing money, just not making as much. Now if maybe they would...I don't know....pull their head out of their ass quickly & forcefully (as in we could all hear a loud, audible POP), they could capture the nostalgia market with this large audience of BX/1st Ed players who mostly have disposable income AND have a decent sense of nostalgia!

So I'm reading this 4th Quarter and 2023 Year-End report looking for a specific something and then I finally see this gem......WotC is expected to have an operating margin of 38% to 40%?!! Now if it was 30% or maybe even 35% I wouldn't be surprised, but up to 40% seems like a lot, and that's after they take their cut for all the overhead, like Cynthia William's salary....well her replacement anyway. For year end 2023, WotC's margin is 28.4% which makes more sense (at least from my personal experiences).

Overall Hasbro lost more than $10.73 a share in 2023, which is not good but maybe those of you with a better understanding of corporate stocks & bonds can explain why a company loosing money is planning on giving away $97M worth of quarterly dividends.

Clearly it has something to do with D&D and WotC not making enough money....



Interesting reading:     Hasbro Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Financial Results

                                    Dungeons & Dragons Celebrates 50th Anniversary in 2024 with More than 50 Million Fans

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