GameHole Con - 926 Events and Growing - 11/4 - 11/6 - Madison WI

I really wish I was going to GameHole Con this year. I've heard nothing but amazing things about it, even from one of the guys who runs NTRPG Con ( +Michael Badolato ) I just need to see how the finances stack up transitioning from paycheck to pension and this is solidly during that "transition". Next year for me.

Now, if YOU can make it, please do. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of events (maybe a thousand before you know it) and the OSR makes a very strong showing. As does 5e. As does just about everything.

I mentioned that Alex Kammer, the main man behind GameHole, is an awesome guy, right? If you are a member of The Tavern's Community and request a card, you even get a $5 discount on registration. You don't need to have the card in hand, I'm way behind on that. Just requests a card and use the link I send you to join  the community (I'm a bit behind on requests, but that should be caught up on Monday.

There MIGHT be something ready in print in time for GameHole. Not saying what. Not saying will. Might.

Kickstarter - Dungeonesque Red & White Box Sets (5e RPG)

I'm working off my new Surface Pro 4 (thanks Rach for the early bday present) and with piss poor internet, so bear with me.

There was a previous crowdfunding project for Dungeonesque, which is basically 5e returned to it's Old School roots. Well, the Dungeonesque Red & White Box Sets (5e RPG) Kickstarter takes it to a new level. Or is that old level.

In any case, I even talked about limiting class and race options in the last Path of Legends podcast, and here we have a reworking of 5e rules that do just that. You don't need these rules to experience old school play with 5e, but if you've never experienced old school play these may very well be a good option if you are coming from 5e.

Oh, and boxes. Real boxes. Never an easy thing to produce and it's being offered in 2 flavors, White Box and Red Box.

I'd back this but I need to see how far my pension stretches before backing new Kickstarters. Besides, I backed the Red Box Book earlier ;)

Piss Poor Internet in the Poconos - It May Be a Quiet Weekend at The Tavern

Yep, I've escaped to the mountains for my final weekend on the books and return to a small party at home on Sunday. Woot!

In the meantime, the internet here in the Poconos has been intermittent at best and unusable at worst. It's bad when you can't open an email in less than 5 minutes.

Good news is I may actually be productive without the internet to distract. Perfect time to put a few posts for the Saturday Knight Special blog in the hopper and ready to go.

Alright, lets see how long this takes to post and share out to the various communities...

Tenkar's Tavern Facebook Community - 603 Members and Growing

I realized yesterday that The Tavern's Facebook Community just broke the 600 mark. I'm in awe. Thank you all.

Remember, don't just be a member but be an active one. Post and comment. It is YOUR community after all. I just serve the drinks.

Tenkar's Tavern Membership cards have SLOWLY been going out. Much slower than I anticipated. Not only has work on Swords & Wizardry: Light been a bit time consuming, but wrapping up before my actual retirement date on the 17th has been a distracting time sink. A significant time sink. Not just with last minute paperwork either.

As of the 18th I am a free man. I expect to be able to focus on the various projects in the works and speed up the processing of The Tavern Membership Cards. This weekend will be a total wash though ;)

No Thank You Evil! Session Two - The Kid's All In

I had "uncle duty" this afternoon. So, after lunch and Friendly's we came back to the house. Shannie played with the dog and uncle tried to catch up on the day's events.

I heard noise in the hall and then little feet running down the stairs.

"Uncle! Come down. I want to play The Game!"

War, the card game, has been the game recently. I figured if I got lucky, I could get some Spongebob in at the same time.

Imagine my surprise when I saw No Thank You Evil! The Deluxe Box, spread out ALL over the living room. I mean, it looked like the game had exploded.

"We're going to play The Game!"

Damn. I wasn't ready. Hadn't read the second adventure in the book - ever.

"Er, yeah Pinky. Give me a few minutes. I need to read and catch up."

"I know you have to read Uncle, but I want to play. Read fast, K?" 5 year olds are not known for their patience.

I'm not going to spoil the adventure by telling it in detail, but the lass impressed me with her diving right in, not just with the pretend / roleplaying, but attempting to circumvent the rules and tell me what she did and how she succeeded before she rolled any dice or roleplayed out the encounter. Surprisingly, when it was pointed out to her that she was jumping the gun, she didn't fight it but went along, explaining what she was attempting and asking how do we find out if she succeeded.

And after she finished the scenario she wanted to keep the roleplay going.

She may be stepping up to Swords & Wizardry: Light sooner than later.

If you have young kids that have an interesting in roleplaying games, the physical components alone make No Thank You Evil! an awesome value. Stickers everywhere and enough pieces that you can lose some and you'd never notice. Wise game design, that ;)

The Gygax Memorial Fund - I Was Asked to Give Gail "a couple of weeks" - It's been 2 1/2 Months

So, just over a month ago the Gygax Memorial Fund posted their 2015 tax return. Before you ask, why so late, it wasn't submitted until June 10th (she was meeting with the accountant in the first week of May - see conversation down below)

We were promised an audit after the taxes were filed. I guess time will tell on that.

The 2 year delay has been blamed on the fight with the city council on the actual location of the monument. That fight is still ongoing. Here we are, 2 1/2 months after the last update of the Fund's Facebook page, promising a "call to order". I hope Gail realizes that she will get very little response to her call when she can't even bother giving fans, friends and backers regular updates.

Now, how about part of a conversation that I had with someone that claimed to have talked directly with Gail via phone. He (who shall currently remain nameless, but I have have screenshots of the entire Facebook chat) told me the following back on April 29th (just posting highlights of what was told to me):

Ahoy ahoy! Got a sec? 

I spoke to Gail today and made some headway. 

She's going to have an audit done of the memorial and share it with the public in the next week or so. (That never happened)

Please don't quote that. Let's see if it rolls out within the next week or two. 

Speaking/exchanging messages with her is frustrating but I made some big progress today. 

I hammered her today and finally got through. Let's give her a couple of weeks. She meets with the accountant next week and told him to get a third part auditor to do the audit. 

If she fails on deliverables I'll take our entire conversation public via youZ 

You 

She "gets it" now about why silence is failing her. 

Have had two different people confirm she's in negotiations for print. (Games, maps, notes.) 

She gets it now. 

As I said I hammered her. 

Gamers. She has been burned. Badly. 

My advice is let me share my conversations with Ken Whitman with you and change the conversation for a couple of weeks. (WTF, right? I mean, Whitman writes his own updates. Is this considered bribery in the world of Journalism?)

Let's give her a chance to do right. She's asked for my help in writing updates. 

Told her she misses a deliverable I walk away. Publicly. 

I will keep you updated. Would like to trade notes. 

I think she gets it.

No, I don't think "she gets it." I don't think she ever will. I think the gaming community is seen as a tool for Gail to fund the Memorial and have it placed where she wants it, but that the Memorial was never about the gaming community. Personally, I don't think Gail has much respect for the gaming community. I could be wrong, but actions speak louder than words, and she has very little of both for the gaming community that she needs the support of.

No updates.

No deliverables.

No public walking away.

This is no longer "a couple of weeks." It's now 2 1/2 months.

All in all you're just another brick in the wall - Pink Floyd

About those bricks...

Tavern Chat Tonight - 9PM Eastern - Let Us Chat

Yep, tonight is another Tavern Chat at 9PM Eastern.

Topics?

How the hell should I know? It's not like I actually run this shit or something ;)

It should be a good time for all :)

Free RPG - Godbound: A Game of Divine Heroes (Free Edition)

+Kevin Crawford 's latest Kickstarter project, Godbound: A Game of Divine Heroes released to the general public two weeks ago, in both a free version and an expanded deluxe version.

Needless to say, Kevin was early in completion of yet another Kickstarter :)

You can grab a copy of the free 191 page Godbound: A Game of Divine Heroes (Free Edition) from this very link.

Here's the blurb:

Godbound is a game of divine heroes in a broken world, men and women who have seized the tools that have slipped from an absent God's hands. Bound by seeming chance to the Words of Creation, these new-forged titans face a world ravaged by the mad ambitions of men and the cruel legacy of human folly. Their foes are many: the jealous parasite gods that suck at the wounds of the world, the furious Angelic Host that once held Heaven against the armies of men, and the endless legions of sorcerers, god-monsters, mortal tyrants, and eldritch relicts that scourge the shattered realms. The Godbound stand against these horrors, determined to forge a better world from the fragments of the old. Still, not all these newborn divinities have a hero's soul, and some nurture red dreams of glory and unfettered rule. Will you be a merciful god to your people, or will you make them dread your holy name?

Godbound does more than simply give you the tools to create these wielders of the Words. Within these pages, a GM will find the guidelines they need to challenge the mightiest of heroes and mark tremendous deeds on the face of their world. Inside this book, you'll find… 

Everything you need to take a Godbound hero from their first uncertain awakening to the pinnacle of divine supremacy, with mighty Words of Creation, divine gifts, and enormous works of celestial Dominion. 

Fearsome god-monsters and terrifying foes to tax even a pantheon of Godbound. More than that, you'll find specific instructions and advice for matching martial challenges with situations and groups. 

Sine Nomine-style system-neutral tools for building demigod-worthy adventures and Former Empire ruins. Create noble courts, lost shards of Heaven, hidden ruins, and dire perils for your heroes to overcome. Play a different game? Lift these tools out and use them with your system of choice! 

A system-neutral Dominion and faction mechanic that lets heroic deeds have mechanically-supported effects on the campaign world. Your hero wants to build a fortress in her native village, or ward an allied nation from the scourge of a Host-spawned disease? These rules show you how to do so, and how to make it count in play. Need to find out what happens when the pantheon's holy nation declares war on an insidious empire of evil? The rules here will give you an answer you can use. 

Old-school inspired play mechanics derived from the Scarlet Heroes game system that are easy to pick up and let you loot decades of material for foes and challenges for the players. Just grab a classic arch-enemy, run it through the conversion notes in the bestiary chapter, and you've got your next campaign nemesis. 

Do you demand more? Then get the Godbound Deluxe Edition, with fifty additional pages crammed with thunderous revelations, showing you how to create mortal heroes, wield supernatural martial arts, forge titanic godwalkers, and devise themed Godbound to fit your specific campaign world! 

Every download includes the full-color, DRM-free Free Edition PDF, character sheets, .MOBI and .EPUB file versions for easy reading, and a special lightweight PDF version optimized for fast rendering and small file size. Bookmarks, topic indexes, and a full index of divine gifts are in each PDF, the better to speed your play at the table.
So get it now. Together with the calamitous woes a GM can build with the Sixteen Sorrows guidebook, Godbound gives you what you need to run a fast, smooth, easy-to-learn system for bringing the light of a new age to a world too long plunged into Uncreated Night!

Ennies Voting is Live - The Tavern Makes it's Picks

Although voting for the ENNies really has no more value than voting for the All Stars in the Baseball Classic (it more popularity contest than anything else), it does have an effect on sales. So, The Tavern, being the Bastion of the OSR (it must be so, as I said it ;) does have some suggested picks for the discerning reader.

2017 Judge - who cares?

Best Adventure - Maze of the Blue Medusa is the only thing vaguely OSR

Best Aid / Accessory - Non-Player Cards: Artful and Inspirational (misspelled on the ENNies page) NPC Generator

Best Art, Interior - Baby Bestiary Handbook Vol 1

Best Blog - The Other Side

Best Cartography - Maze of the Blue Medusa

Best Family Game - No Thank You, Evil! (my niece is having a blast)

Best Miniature Product - Death & Taxes Collector's Set (go +Zach Glazar )

Best Monster / Adversary - Baby Bestiary Handbook Vol 1

Best Production Values - Death & Taxes Collector's Set

Most categories I couldn't give a crap about. Vote and vote often (from other devices). Come on, you know everyone is doing it ;)

Over 4,700 Copies of Swords & Wizardry Complete Downloaded from The Tavern since November, 2013

I was just checking the download figures for Swords & Wizardry Complete and it looks like over 4,700 copies have been downloaded since November of 2013 from The Tavern. Not too shabby, and of course that doesn't include all the other ways to grab this free PDF from other sources. Initially I was distributing the copies via email, but a bit.ly link and a Dropbox folder did the trick for my sanity. If you don't have a copy yet, grab it here at  http://bit.ly/TenkarsTavern 

I'll be doing something similar for Swords & Wizardry: Light when it releases, but instead of the bit.ly link directing you to a folder, it will be a page here at The Tavern with assorted links and downloadable resources. At the moment, the page is fairly sparse (just the map of the immediate setting), but I suspect by the end of the summer there will be an assortment of links and downloads. http://bit.ly/SWLight

Another WTF Kickstarter - Games of Thrones RPG With Online play (License? We don' need no steenken license!)

First, it's GAME of Thrones - not plural.

Second, you are looking to raise nearly $325K - just who the fuck are you?

Third, you don't have the license, so how can you even raise money?

Fourth, as you apparently have difficulty using proper English or punctuation in your pitch (and can't even get the title of your Kickstarter correct), why would anybody give you anything?

You don't really exist, do you?

State of The Tavern - Updates and Notes - July 10th, 2016

Just a few quick notes.

Tavern Cards are going out, but much slower than I had hoped. It is a time consuming activity, and one that my cat likes to interrupt by lying on lop of cards, pens, keyboard - whatever she can do to stop the process. Patience. They will get to you.

The Tavern, just like the associated G+ and Facebook Communities, is a place for gaming talk. Does the real world intrude at times? Sure, events like the assassination of 5 cops in Dallas the other night might intrude on that. 20 years as a cop will do that. That does NOT mean that politics, social justice and other assorted distractions have a place at The Tavern or it's associated communities. I never knew Facebook had a report function that went to a community owner until yesterday afternoon. Apparently a number of people knew how to use it and the offending post (which I assume was mis-posted in the first place) was removed by me. Don't take it personally if I do so.

Do we need a place to talk politics? I don't know. Practically all the political discussions I've seen take place on Facebook have led to friends defriending other. In any case, The Tavern is not the place for such discussions.

Work continues on Swords & Wizardry: Light. For now, the temporary heading / logo for it is as follows:

The Saturday Knight Special blog will come back to life next week. It will be stories from my 20 year career and observations of current events from a law enforcement perspective. Probably next Monday. Fore reasons ;)