RPGNow Deal of the Day - A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore (OSR Rules Supplement)

If I missed telling y'all about A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore being today's Deal of the Day at RPGNow, I'd have no one to blame but +Joseph Bloch himself. Good thing I get email notifications. Now I just need to read the emails ;)

At $4.23, A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore is a steal. I've had my print copy for a while now, and have used bits and pieces in my Swords & Wizardry campaigns without my players' knowledge. Needless to say, it's been fun ;)

So, what is A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore? Here's the blurb:

A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore is a rules supplement that will enhance most old-school role-playing games. The rules are based on Gary Gygax's plans for a 2nd edition of the world's most popular role-playing game (that unfortunately never happened), and are the product of years of meticulous research. The book contains: 

Five new character classes: the bard, jester, mystic, savant, and mountebank 

Hundreds of new spells 

A new alternative combat system that is at once streamlined and more realistic 

Rules for shipborne adventures and combat 

Quick and easy rules for common hazards and weather 

New magic items 

New monsters 

And much more! 

The rules are designed to be completely modular; take what you like, leave what you don't. Want mountebanks and savants but not the new combat system? No problem. Everything will still work fine.

At $4.23 its a bargain and then some.

Kickstarter - DCC RPG 4th Printing (Already Funded and Knocking Down Stretch Goals)

There is just something about the DCC RPG. It's massive yet approachable. If you buy into the fairly random magic system, it's an amazingly solid game. The art is some of the most evocative in the OSR and the adventures work well with other OSR systems (so long as you are comfortable converting on the fly.) It's the first and only game that brought back that magical feel of my first few sessions of D&D as a teenager. It's familiar and yet comfortably different.

If you haven't checked out the DCC RPG system you really should, and Goodman games is giving old fans and new players an excellent opportunity to get the new DCC RPG 4th Printing. $40 for the new edition of the rulebook PLUS an adventure module PLUS free swag? If you want in, know is the time to do so. Backer spots are limited for the extras .

Me, I like the new Mullen cover. Damn it looks sweet.

Sure, it's an extra 20 bucks, but it includes an art folio and for the DCC completist, this is awesome.

Did I mention the stretch goals?

I just put the project over $30k, so you can thank me for the judge's reference panels ;)

Ken Whitless, Come on Down! You are the Next Contestant on "Which State Attorney General is Going to Sue My Ass?"

I apologize, as I've been remiss in following up on the Ken Whitman's various scams and sagas. Normally I'd be checking up on his Kickstarters for his "Whit-icisms" but the new work hours have run roughshod over my free time.

Lo and behold, I awoke from a nap this afternoon (it happens when you work overnites and then try and adjust on your days off) to an interesting piece over at the Kicksnacker Community at G+. This bit was originally posted over in the Pencil Dice Kickstarter comments section, and it is Whitman Gold:

Now, I've read that D20 Entertainment doesn't actually exist as a legal entity, which would leave Ken holding the bag without corporate cover. I wonder if that's why he's bee so quiet on his Kickstarters these days...

As an aside, I see Brave Halfling is in the State AG mix. Not a surprise, as John has handled Appendix N in about as poor a manner as is possible. Of course, John is more "business incompetent" whereas Ken is "scam artistry taken to new highs and lows."

Bundle of Holding with Halloween in Mind - Bundle of Nerves +3 (Savage Worlds Horror, Silent Legions and More)

Silent Legions is +Kevin Crawford 's entry into the horror genre using an OSR styled ruleset. Savage Worlds is, well, Savage Worlds. This offering includes the Horror Companion for Savage Worlds.

Two games, three books, 40 bucks worth of gaming for $10. A pretty good deal.

At approximately double the price you add in the Rippers storyline for Savage Worlds, Shadows of Esteren Book 0 - Prologue and Book 1 - Universe and Accursed. A $60 value for about 20 bucks more.

My only disappointment is that it lacks any Call of Cthulhu in the bundle. That being said, Bundle of Nerves + 3 is a very good bundle for the price.

Best Ruleset to Introduce Noobs to RPGs?

So, last night it happened. Well, actually, it started on Saturday night, but I was off so it really happened last night.

What am I talking about?

One of my Lts. and another Sgt. spent Saturday night tracking down my blog and attempting to track down my podcasts.

I was greeted by my blog shown on phones, +Douglas Cole 's interview of me playing on YouTube and questions about RPGs in general AND a desire to have me run a session. For cops that have never played before. Damn tall order, I know.

I'm so damn deep into RPGs I'm not even sure what would be the best choice to introduce them to the hobby. Free in PDF is obviously good, but I work with folks that want to READ the rules and come away with some knowledge of how it plays out.

So, I'm looking for suggestions from the fine readers of The Tavern.

Tavern Chat Tonight - 9PM Eastern - I'll Have Questions

Tonight is Tavern Chat Night. It's something I look forward to these days after a long week at work (my work week ends at 6AM Thursday morning and kicks off again at 930PM Saturday Night.)

I'll have some questions for those that drop by, mostly related to my cover being blown at work. Yes, the blog and some podcasts have been found and aside from the usual ribbing, it's generated lots of curiosity in my hobby.

I may run a bit late tonight as I'll be taking my wife out to a well deserved dinner after some stressful weeks at her new job.

See y'all tonight :)

D&D 5e Most Played Game on Roll20 for the Last Quarter

I like that Roll20 makes it's stats public on a quarterly basis. There really is a small mountain of date for those that want to drill through such.

I get quarterly updates on those stats from the Orr Group, the parent company of Roll20 (the big daddy of virtual table tops, or VTTs.)

The most interesting thing to note from the latest update, from my perspective at least (and I guess the folks behind Roll20, as they made a specific mention of it in the email) is that Dungeons & Dragons 5e is the most played RPG on Roll20. Doesn't matter whether you use the yardstick of games played or players self identifying- 5e is number 1 in each case.

The percentage of players identifying with a certain system is actually greater than 100%, as they may identify with more than one system in the time the data was captured.

Less shiny snapshot with more detail:

What's Your Standard? Gold, Silver, Gems, Shells?

I know D&D is based on a gold standard, but it's never felt right to me. Somehow bringing hundreds of pounds of gold out of a dungeon just never seemed right to me. It just seemed to devalue gold.

Switching to the silver standard helps, so long as you treat silver in all ways like gold,except that it's silver. Or something like that.

Gems. Gems always felt better, travelled easier but were much harder to actually spend. The average barkeep is not going to cash out gems.

Letters of credit aren't too loot-able.

So, what's the standard in your campaign? Why?

Kickstarter - The Folio #5 & #6, in 1E & 5E Format

I've posted about previous releases in The Folio before. Here's the quick summary:

- On time or early

- Detachable covers

- Quality adventures

If you like Old School feel with modern production values, The Folio is the way to go. You can get The Folio 5 & 6 for a mere 10 bucks in PDF.

I'll be running this series of adventures come March / April when I enjoy some downtime ;)

P.S/ Did I mention I love the cover art to #5?

Frog God Games Free Adventure - Rogues in Remballo (S&W, PF and 5e flavors)

Quick and dirty post as I'm in the middle of an 18 hour work day.

Frog God Games has generously released Rogues in Remballo in PDF format to the gaming public.

How do you get your copy? Just go to the Borderland Provinces Kickstarter page and follow the link for the free adventure.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/froggodgames/the-lost-lands-borderland-provinces/description

posted from Bloggeroid

Had a Small Surprise Waiting for Me at Work Today

I got to work a little early this afternoon for the first of my two back to back tours and noticed a small change to my mailbox:




Kingggg! I will have my revenge!

Good investigative work though...

The Tenkar's Tavern - NTRPG Con Mini-Con G+ Community is Live

Yep, I did it. I sponsored a room for NTRPG Con 2016 for use by OSR Bloggers, Podcasters and Small Publishers (and the rest of the community that is involved in all things OSR.) Bad Mike bills room sponsorship as a sort of mini-con, and he's right. There's a lot we can do to make this ours.

I'll be looking for suggestions for games to be run at our sponsored table, requested GMs to run games at the table run by NTRPG Con in the room (we have 2 gaming tables in the room - one for us and one for the con, but we can request GMs for the NT table), podcasts that are interested in reserving time at one of our 2 vendor tables, blogs that want to be represented (either with banners, flyers, small giveaways, in person or other), small publishers that might want a piece of the 2nd vending table and much more.

The more being simple members of the community that want a voice in a little corner of the OSR universe for 4 days in June of 2016. Hopefully we can also use the room as a meet-up for OSR bloggers, podcasters, small publishers, readers, listeners, consumers and the like.

If you are going to be at NTRPG Con in 2016, I'm hoping you'll participate in the Tenkar's Tavern - NTRPG Con Mini-Con Community on G+. More importantly, I hope to see you there. If you aren't going, you can still participate. There's been talk of arranging some live (or nearly so) podcasting or video-casting from NTRPG Con, and if the logistics work out, the Tenkar's Tavern Mini-Con will be in the thick of it.

You can join the Tenkar's Tavern - NTRPG Con Mini-Con G+ Community by following the link. I'll see you there ;)