Sneak Peek - White Lies (S&W White Box Powered RPG of Espionage and Paramilitary Operations)

+Bill Logan was kind enough to give me an early reviewer's copy of White Lies, his Swords & Wizardry White Box compatible RPG of espionage and paramilitary operations. Holy expletive, but there is so much here that could be dropped whole cloth into a White Star campaign. The two together would be like peanut butter and chocolate - great on their own but something totally different and awesome together.

I haven't read enough for a proper review, but I love what I've read thus far. The class options are top notch and cover many of the roles one thinks of in modern day spy thrillers.

Bill calls White Lies a toolbox. I'd say he's right about that. Much like White Star is a toolbox. If you didn't like White Star, I expect you'll find similar complaints about White Lies. If you liked White Star, I strongly suspect your find much to like (and steal) from White Lies.

White Lies releases on RPGNow on November 5th  6th. I'll try to get a proper review done in time for release. In the meantime, I really like what I see here.

I just realized, the X-Files return in January. White Lies + White Star could make for a nice X-Files campaign...

Frog God Games has a 40% Off Sale on ALMOST Everything on their Site (Ends at the stroke of Midnite 11/1/15)

Frog God has been bringing some early holiday cheer recently with big price drops on a single item each day. This weekend they are offering 40% off of EVERYTHING* (with the exception of The Northlands Saga Complete and Borderland Provinces.)

Somehow I'm tempted to do my own twist on the Dusk to Dawn spiel at the Titty Twister:

"Frog God has all kinds of D&D! 

Old D&D, New D&D, not so old but not new D&D. D&D sandboxes, D&D adventure paths, D&D mega dungeons. If you can find better D&D elsewhere - play it!"

Alright, that was pretty bad.

The sale IS good though.

Frog God link

Here's the code: HALLOWEEN-40%

Yes, I know shipping outside the states is expensive as hell. At 40% off, you might actually cover those shipping costs ;)

What's Your Horror? Games to Run on Halloween

Back in my High School and College days, I made a point of running a proper (more or less) horror session for my players on the weekend closest to Halloween.

Call of Cthulhu, Chill (old Pacesetter boxed set) and even a Ravenloft setting one-shot where the PCs get dragged temporarily into the mists of Ravenloft - the one that was a Pinocchio rip was probably the most disturbing for my players.

I don't do it these days, though I should. Good, or bad horror roleplaying is just perfect for the Halloween season.

So, do you run horror for the Horror-days? What's your go to system, setting, adventure?

Frog God Spooky Sale - Book of Lost Spells (5e) - 50% Off Until Midnight Tonight

Frog God Games has been running Spooky Sales pretty much every night this week. Of course, I get the emails around 6PM - just as I've been heading out the door for work (yay overtime!)

I happen to be off tonight, so I actually get a chance to include the rest of you in the Frog God Goodness.

First, the pitch:

Here's the link: https://www.froggodgames.com/book-lost-spells?utm_source=Book+of+Lost+Spells+Sale+10-30-15&utm_campaign=Book+of+Lost+Spells+Sale+10-30-15&utm_medium=email

and here's the code:

OSRGaming.org Forums have a New Owner (NOT an April Fool's Joke)

+Vincent Florio , the main man behind Wild Games Productions and the OSRGaming.org Forums informed me earlier this afternoon that OSRGaming.org was sold to a regular at the OSRGaming.org forums earlier this afternoon(Vince was not forthcoming with the name of the buyer at this time.)

Not a joke.

The sub-forums for the various WPG Podcasts will remain as is and Vince will be very much involved with the various forums.

When I asked Vince why he was selling the forums, he basically said "now was the right time."

It will be interesting to see what new blood brings to the table.

Next on the Agenda - Tavern Chat Podcast (Real Short / Multiple Per Week Episodes)

Tavern Readers: "Er, don't you have enough shit on your plate right now? Your Beer Blog is on hiatus since you went to overnights at work."

Tavern Barkeep: "Right. But drinking at 7 AM is just not socially normal. I do have an occasional glass of wine when I get home from work though. Seems more... classy"

TR: "Whatever. How on God's green earth are you going to find the time to record a podcast multiple times each week? When you drive home from work?"

TB: "The thought did occur to me, just not sure how feasible it would be. I'm thinking 10-15 minute long podcast episodes up to three times a week."

TR: "Talking about what? Isn't that why you have the blog? To yap away at your readers?"

TB: "True, but podcasts can be listened to while driving, shopping, ignoring your teacher. Don't drive while reading The Tavern or any other blog. Don't operate heavy machinery or garden tools while blog reading. Listening to a podcast? You have our blessings ;)"

I've been toying with the idea of recording my own podcast for a while now. Once you get bit by the podcasting bug, it's hard to let go.

Here's what I'm thinking:

- Tavern Chat Podcast. Just because. Open to suggestions for another title.

- 10-15 minute long episodes. Short and sweet.

- talking about timely events in the OSR hobby - interesting / active blogposts from around the blogosphere of the OSR, active Kickstarters, new releases, Gareth & Whitless updates as applicable and the like

- corresponding post at The Tavern, linking to everything mentioned and pointing to the podcast

- ideally three times a week, but I suspect that won't be hit until March of next year. We'll start at once a week and go from there.

- occasional guests hosts - those would potentially be double length episodes and would be noted as such. no more than once a week on those, probably closer to once or twice a month.

- clear, quick and dirty - goal is to be clean (as in clear audio - I do NOT guarantee clear language), quick (record monday, release tuesday) and dirty (few bells and whistles - just the basics here)

- aiming to kick off Thanksgiving week. No idea if it will happen at that time. Life likes to throw curveballs.

So there you have it. if nothing else it should be an interesting time sink on my end ;)

Just in Time for Halloween - Paradox Buys White Wolf – Vampire The Masquerade finds a New Haunted Home

What happens when an RPG IP goes from one computer game company to another? In this case, it's World of Darkness / White Wolf, and it's going from CPP (best known for Eve Online) to Paradox (best known for Crusader Kings.)

I'm not sure how much this will effect the RPGs themselves (which are currently being published under license by Onyx Path.) It's more immediate effect will be on the computer gaming side of things, at least that's my guess.

Interesting piece from Rock / Paper / Shotgun:

Wester said that Paradox paid cash for the acquisition, and notes that Vampire is particularly exciting as it is “the world’s second best-selling role-playing and is special because half of all players are women.”

I'll give them "half of all players are women" but "the world's second best-selling" RPG? Someone is caught in the 90s.

Anyhow, interesting times in the RPG hobby.

Tavern Chat Tonight - 9 PM

I can't believe we are at the end of October. Halloween is right around the corner. Normally I'd be thinking of running something spooky around the horror-day, but I'm working the night of the 31st.

In any case, tonight is Tavern Chat. I'm sure horror and spookiness will be on the list of topics ;)

See you at 9 Eastern.

Far West Announces November Release Date - Fails to Mention "Year"

Ah, you gotta love the fall. The leaves change colors, the air gets crisp and we are given yet ANOTHER Far West "release date." Trying to predict a Far West release date is like predicting snow fall amounts - no one really know but God, and he ain't talking.

Strangely enough, it wasn't mentioned on the Far West Kickstarter site. Instead, the question was asked by a "pre-order" customer on the Far West forum page. Somehow I never realized Gareth took money for this pink elephant and then took more money for this pink elephant.

I'm guessing November 2017. Gareth still has like 4 chapters to go on the book and his rate seems to average one chapter per season. Yeah, we need a Farmer's Almanac to predict this shit. Would probably be more accurate too.

Tip of the hat to +Eric Franklin

Barrel Rider Games Puts White Star / White Box Releases on Sale for 30% Off in PDF

+James Spahn is celebrating his birthday or some such nonsense.

Who cares!

What we care about is that he's put his best selling White Star RPG on sale for 30% off in PDF (along with his excellent collection of White Box releases for Swords & Wizardry.)

What are you waiting for?

Now is the time to buy! Well, at least before the sale ends on November 8th.

Of course, I own the whole collection already...

A WTF Kickstarter - The Dangerzone RPG (I THINK it's a Computer RPG)

Let me just say this:

Watch the video.

Then look at The Dangerzone RPG Kickstarter page, which purports to be about funding a computer game RPG.

Remember what you saw in the video.

Search the Kickstarter page for any hint of art or graphics from the supposed game.

Pour yourself a shot of Fireball Whiskey. You earned it.

I think the game IS a boob...

Patreon Highlight - Genius Loci Games (Johua De Santo)

I've been remiss in highlighting some of the Patreon Projects I support. (Actually, I'm behind in almost everything these days) +Johua De Santo is one of those that get's my backing.

Why?

Because he's consistently putting out small adventures / encounters that are easy to prep and run with short notice. When you have as little free time as I have these days (I'm in the midst of 7 days of overtime in an 8 working day stretch) it's nice to have short pieces, even if it's just to read in the moments between.

These days he's giving away a one-sheet to show the type of adventures his Patreon backers have access to. Just go to Johua's Patreon, download the free adventure and treat yourself. You won't be sorry.

Nap time for the old man before heading to work this evening ;)

New Big Dragon Games releases Basic Psionics Handbook (Mind Powers that Don't Cloud the Mind)

If there was one part of the AD&D 1e ruleset that never made much sense to me (there was more than one actually, but this was probably the worst) was the Psionics Rules section. It didn't follow the rest of the AD&D rules in flavor or mechanics. They felt shoved in, not even tacked on. We tried to use them and never could really figure out how to make them mesh with the core rules.

+Richard LeBlanc has found a way to bring psionics to the common gamer with the Basic Psionics Handbook. It looks very usable with a quick glance through (and if Rich's previous works are any indication, it should be immensely useful.) This is going to the top of my long neglected review pile and has already been uploaded to my tablet ;)

The normal price is going to be $7.95 but it's currently at $5.95. I'm not sure how long the lower price is in effect, so I wouldn't wait to long to bite at this one.

Here's the blurb:

Unleash the powers of the mind into your BX/LL campaign! 

Finally, after 40 years of waiting, there’s a psionics system for the classic editions of the world’s original fantasy role-playing game. It’s simple, intuitive, andprovides a gameplay experience that feels at home alongside the original rules of the game. Within this jam-packed 56-page book, you’ll find: 

a simple, easy-to-play psionics system, tailor-made for classic versions of the world’s first role-playing game 

2 complete BX/LL character classes—the mystic and the monk—specifically designed to support the system 

support for basic and expert player levels 

an easy-to-use psionic combat system based on the classic attack and defense modes
complete descriptions for 114 psionic abilities... broken into 6 different chakra/discipline groups... adapated from the best existing resources 

tables for generating wild psionic abilities in non-psionic player classes 

full stats and descriptions for 38 psionic monsters 

tables for generating phrenic creatures 

instructions on converting psionic monsters from other classic editions 

conversions and additions for 8 monsters from Old School Adventures™ Accessory CC1: Creature Compendium

background information on psionic items, and descriptions for 13 specific items
support for mixing spellcasting and psionics 

And much more!

A Look at The Tavern's Demographics (According to Google Analytics)

I saw +Russ just did this over at ENWorld, and I was curious as to how The Tavern shook out.

Nothing all that surprising. We are a bunch of middle aged, male gamers ;)

(I rounded off the numbers)

1) 35-44   39%

2) 45-54   33%

3) 25-34   19%

4) 18-24     6%

5) 55-64     2%

6) 65+        1%


Male       95%

Female     5%

Then we have some self identifying categories: