Tenkar's Tavern: 2009-08-09

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Midnight the Movie is released on RPGNow

Midnight, the straight to download on RPGNow movie has been released (link is to the trailer). Twenty minutes into the full movie and it is already better then the first Dungeons and Draons movie by leaps and bounds... not that that feat is all that hard.

Midnight is a setting where the Dark Lord defeated the forces of good, and has enslaved the world for the past 100 years. This is the Lord of the Rings gone bad, story wise that is. Production quality is on par with some of SciFi Channels mid to lower end made for tv movies. Still, the first 20 minutes have been enjoyable so far ;)

As a RPG setting it is one I have wanted to play or DM for a while. Assuming the other players don't mind a world where things are hopeless and success in the long run is damn near impossible. Kinda like Warhammer in that regard I guess... heh

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Korgoth Of BARBARIA!!!!!!

Oh My Freakin' God! How did I ever miss this? Korgoth Of BARBARIA!!!!!! Best frickin cartoon evah! Heh, shame its just a pilot and was never picked up by Adult Swim.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Astak 5” EZ Reader Pocket PRO to Ship at the end of August

Yeah, I know I seem to have ebook readers on my mind recently... well, ore so then usual. It just seems that there are more new releases then usual ;)

Here's the skinny on the Pocket Pro: 8 shades of greyscale, PDF reflow (may or may not be a selling point... was spotty on my sony), uses SD cards up to 16 gb, text to speech (and at 100 bucks cheaper then the Kindle 2), and reads a crapload of formats: ADE (Adobe Digital Editions), PDF, TXT, PDB, DOC, HTML, FB2, LIT, MP3, EPUB, PRC and some others.

I'm not going to call this a Kindle killer, but PDF use and text to speech for less then 200 bucks is damn attractive and tempting. Hmmm, if it could read PDFs to me I could go to sleep with an RPG lullaby...

So, before you ask, yes I placed a preorder on a black one... I have Lit files that I just can't read on my Kindle ;)

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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