Deal of the Day - KOBOLD Guide to Plots & Campaigns (Winner 2017 ENnies Silver for Best Aid)

Can you really go wrong with a Kobold release? Nope. +Wolfgang Baur has some of the best system neutral support material in the hobby and the KOBOLD Guide to Plots & Campaigns looks to be more of the same high quality. 128 pages for 3 bucks? Holy crap :)

Whether you’re a new gamemaster or a seasoned vet looking for a new angle to shake up your game, these 19 essays by expert gamemasters help construct your campaign from the ground up—and keep your players engaged until the dramatic conclusion. 

Kobold Guide to Plots & Campaigns shows how to begin a new campaign, use published adventures or loot them for the best ideas, build toward cliffhangers, and design a game that can enthrall your players for month or even years. Want to run an evil campaign, or hurl the characters into unusual otherworldly settings? Want to ensure that you’re creating memorable and effective NPCs and villains? We’ve got you covered. 

Complete with discussions on plotting, tone, branching storytelling, pacing, and crafting action scenes, you’ll find all the tips and advice you need to take on the best role in roleplaying—and become an expert gamemaster, too! Featuring essays by Wolfgang Baur, Jeff Grubb, David “Zeb” Cook, Margaret Weis, Robert J. Schwalb, Steve Winter, and other game professionals. 

This latest volume in the best-selling and award-winning series of Kobold Guides tackles the storytelling and campaign planning at the heart of any great RPG. Improve your game and expand your plotting and scheming skills with the Kobold Guide to Plots & Campaigns!

Remember, your purchases made via The Tavern's affiliate links helps to support The Tavern in all we do. Join our Discord server and be part of the community 24/7 :)

WotC Survey - Some Questions Apply to Us Grognards (Hint - Pick Greyhawk ;)

Surveys are only as accurate as those that take the time to complete them - or some such.

Anyhow, WotC has a D&D Survey posted which even asks what edition(s) of D&D you are / will be playing. Goes back to White Box, 1E, etc. If you play a clone just pick your closest edition.

It also asks which classic settings you'd like to see have new material. I of course voted Greyhawk, Dark Sun and Spelljammer ;)

Its a fairly short survey so what are you waiting for?

Bundle of Holding - Ars Magica 5

I remember when I first came across Ars Magica. While the system didn't excite me the setting was awesome. A faux Europe where magi held the true power. My players didn't really like the idea of exchanging roles between adventures so we didn't get more than two sessions in before it all fell apart, but its always held a special place for me.

Well, now you can get all you need to kick off an Ars Magica campaign for less than 15 bucks. If you want to go full on, its a hair less than 27 for the larger collection.

So many games, so little time...

State of The Tavern - Discord Meets Hero's Brew Equals Huge Distraction! Heh

Some quick updates:

- The Tavern's Discord server is a success. We've had over 60 Taverners sign in thus far and it only went live Wednesday night. There's even a widget on the right side of this very page to get you started. Join us and start your OSR pub crawl!

- The Discord server is such a success I was up past my bedtime chatting away with folks and it wasn't even a Tavern Chat night. Seriously considering dropping Chatwing and moving the chat to Discord.

- We, as in the Hero's Brew podcast, are seriously considering doing some round table discussions with members of the community via voice on Discord and adding them as episodes of the cast. One of us would host the discussion with 3 or 4 members of the community participating. More on that soon.

- The Hero's Brew podcast has lined up its first guests. You may already know them from another OSR podcast. I'm excited as a pig on poop :)

- As I type this, the first episode of the Hero's Brew podcast has 197 downloads. We're stoked!

Deal of the Day - SideQuest Decks: Wilderness & Frontier Fantasy (1.98 PDF / 9.99 Print plus PDF)

Inkwell Designs has an awesome selection of SideQuest Decks. Today's RPGNow Deal of the Day is SideQuest Decks: Wilderness & Frontier Fantasy. $1.98 in PDF (normally $5.95) and $9.95 for the printed cards plus PDF (normally $21.90)

But wait! There more!

There are a total of SIX SideQuest Decks on sale for an extremely limited time for $1.98 in PDF or $9.95 for printed cards plus PDF.

You can grab them here.

I'm in for the Dungeons, Caves and Ruins and the Wilderness & Frontier Fantasy myself ;)

Remember, purchases made via The Tavern's affiliate links go to support everything The Tavern does. Thank you.

Organized Discord at The Tavern - Adding Channels and Members, Oh My!

Last night I announced the creation of the Tenkar's Live Chat Discord Server. Over the last 12 hours we've added nearly 30 members.

We've added Voice Channels for pick up games, so if you normally use Google Hangouts or Skype for you game sessions you might want to try Discord. Sound quality is aces.

Open Bar is the main voice channel. I'll be hosting it on Wednesday nights from 10 PM Eastern until whenever. I'll also pop in and be available for chat random times and days. If you see my icon in the Open Bar, I'm probably available.

As for Text Channels, when you log in you'll land in General. We have a channel for SWL questions, one for Tavern updates and an Ask Your Tavernkeeper channel. Oh, and of course, Requests for those of you that have requests.

As always, this is your community. Let me know what can be done to improve it and most of all, have fun,

Want an invite to The Tavern's Discord Community? The link is below.


https://discord.gg/fReGmuD

Experience some Discord at the Tenkar's Tavern Community Discord Channel

Now we've gone and done it! The Tenkar's Tavern Community now has its own Discord Channel.

What is Discord? Its a voice and text chat service that is free. Voice is high quality and its the same service we use to record the Hero's Brew Podcast.

Want an invite to The Tavern's Discord Community? The link is below.

https://discord.gg/fReGmuD

Chat with other members of The Tavern's Community. Heck, chat with me :)  I'll be in and out throughout the day.

We'll set some "official" times for some voice hangouts. Heck, some of these may even become podcastable ;)

Right now, its a work in progress, but an enjoyable work in progress...

Tavern Chat Tonight - 9 PM Eastern - Lets Talk "Hero's Brew"

Its Wednesday, which means tonight is a Tavern Chat night. There's lots to talk about, not the least of which is the new Hero's Brew podcast with my co-hosts James Spahn and Glen Hallstrom.

All you need do is use the ChatWing widget on the right side of this page.

I've been considering setting up a Discord Channel for The Tavern and doing a "voice hangout" in addition to the usual chat. We'll discuss tonight ;)

Dented & Dinged Sales at Troll Lord Games - C&C Player's Handbook 10 bucks and More

Get all three core Castles & Crusades books for $30 total. Now THAT is a steal. Dinged and dented just means the work has already been done for you ;)

There's more on sale, all dinged and dented, and the prices won't last long because once they are gone, they are gone.

Always a fun system to fall back on, if you have holes in your collection, now is the time to shop.

Why iTunes and Google Play Music labeled The Hero's Brew Podcast "Explicit Content"

Yep, the Hero's Brew is "explicit content." Note, this is AFTER Glen went through and scrubbed every "shit" and "f-bomb" from the recording - yeah, James and I dropped a few.

So, why the "explicit content" label. The following exchange is my guess:

Tenkar - As of today, somebody got silver. 

Glen - Yeah, somebody got silver. 

Tenkar - It wasn't me. 

Glen - Are we talking suppositories here?

There you have it folks. WE are now officially "explicit." ;)

As of this morning, episode #1 has 135 downloads. Not bad for less than three days. No idea what numbers other podcasts do as I was never privy to the inner workings, but a pretty good start I think.

So, what are folks saying about The Hero's Brew podcast?

"I made my wife suffer through the new Hero's Brew podcast. She actually laughed a few times and didn't force me to replace it with her music!" - Ian 

"I really enjoyed. It sounded like y'all have fun" - Buddy 

"Great podcast! I really need to spend more time in the tavern." - Chuck 

"I love your focus on gamers not sleazy publishers!" - Name withheld 

Matt Finch Breaks Down the OGL (YouTube)

Thinking of publishing under the OGL? Well, none other than our very own +Matt Finch has a series of YouTube videos explaining the license for the common man. For example, someone like your bartender ;)

Matt doesn't provide legal advice but her does break down legal definitions and the wording of the OGL.

Two parts are up. Part 1 is the first one, Part 2 is the second one.

GoFundMe - Braille Printer for Visually Impaired Gamers

I don't know why this hasn't been thought up by the RPG community in the past. The GoFundMe is to buy a braille printer to be able to supply converted RPG material AT COST to visually impaired gamers.

In the video, they use The Black Hack as a sample book to convert, so the OSR is certainly part of this.

For those that don't know, Rach is legally blind. For her, large print (or digital with zoom) is the way to go but we are both very passionate about getting books into the hands of the visual impaired and I think this project is awesome

Their goal is $1,800 to purchase the printer and they are about half way there.

It's a good project to back IMHO with goals we all should be supporting.

Thanks you so much for taking a look at our fundraiser. The DOTS Tabletop Roleplaying Gaming Project is devoted to raising awareness in the gaming community for the need for accessible gaming books and gaming aids for the visually impaired community. 

I am attempting to raise $1,800 ($1,500 for the printer $300 to cover funding fees, sales taxes, and shipping) to fund the purchase a braille embossing printer to be able to produce braille materials for visually impaired gamers. Additionally, the printer comes with a full suite of braille translation and tactile graphic design software. 

Currently the printer is on sale with a $2,000 discount, and if we can purchase the printer in the next couple of weeks, the company will add in a second year warranty for free! So I have to raise the money quickly. 

The cost for outsourcing braille books is astronomical. For example, I just finished translating a roleplaying game into braille and tried outsourcing the printing of a few copies for my visually impaired friends to edit. The companies wanted over $200 for four copies of an 80 page book. With the printer I'm hoping to purchase, it would only cost $1.50 per book. 

Here's something esle exciting! This printer will print tactile graphics...imagine how exciting it would be for a visually impaire game master to be able to feel a dungeon map!

Kickstarter - 28mm High Detail Pre-Painted Plastic Miniatures (what it says on the tin)

So, why am I highlighting the 28mm High Detail Pre-Painted Plastic Miniatures Kickstarter? A few reason and they all come down as lessons for others.

Pre-painted minis is a damn good idea. I love minis and have neither the skill nor the time to paint them. Then why is this campaign so unexciting to me?

First, the Kickstarter title should be something like "Role 4 Initiative Presents Pre-Painted Plastic Minis for RPGs" or such. As it is, the title is so generic as to be forgettable.

Then there are the pics of the samples. Could they have found worse lighting? Seriously, when you are trying to sell a physical product, presentation is everything and this is simply a failure to execute.

For five bucks a painted mini I don't expect much, but I do expect pics that show some sort of details, even if the details are a lack of details. The project is called "28mm High Detail Pre-Painted Plastic Miniatures".

The following has slightly better lighting and shows some detail (and promise)

Still, the colors are muddied from the lack of lighting.

Then there are the stretch goals that have the potential to drive this project into the red - if it had any hope of funding -

Physical stretch goals change the cost to complete the project. While fun to add, they are dangerous.

Oh, and don't sit in shorts in your video. Sometimes less is more. No video would have been more.

There you have it. Good idea poorly presented.

Hero's Brew Podcast - Now Available at Google Play Music! (I think that covers all)

It appears that the Hero's Brew podcast is now available at Google Play Music. Its already up on iTunes.

The feed is:

http://HerosBrew.podbean.com/feed/

Alright, everything going forward should be smooth as silk, right? ;)

Oh, and thanks to all that have already given the first episode a listen!

Hero's Brew Podcast - Now Available at iTunes! (Google Play is pending)

Yep, iTunes just approved the Hero's Brew podcast. Please, download it and give it a rating. It's also been submitted to the Google Play store. We are waiting on approval at Google :)

Thank you all in advance!

Oh, find it on iTunes by searching for Hero's Brew.

Have You Ever used a Solar Eclipse as a Plot Device in an Adventure / Campaign?

So, with today's eclipse over parts of the Continental U.S. today, it got me thinking - "who among us has used a solar eclipse as a plot device in an adventure / campaign?"

ry as hard as I might to remember, I don't ever recall using a solar - or even a lunar - eclipse as a plot device in gaming. That's a damn shame as there are so many superstitions associated with an eclipse.

Shit, simply think how much of the population might go blind by staring at an eclipsed sun and you could have numbing fear for the next time. That isnt even counting the "world is coming to an end" drama it often brought.

Have you used an eclipse as a plot device? Tell us if you have :)

Hero's Brew Podcast - Episode #1 - The Trio Unleashed - IS LIVE!

We did it!

The Hero's Brew Podcast is here!

First episode is live and embedded right above. You can also play it on your IOS or Android device using the Podbean app and in a day or so it should be fully into the wilds of iTunes and other services.

We'll also be putting together a page here at The Tavern that will link to all of the epidodes as they release.

Should there be show notes? Definitely. Are there? Not yet.

What do we talk about? Listen and find out. You never know. Maybe we talked about you ;)

I'm just a screenshot to allow visual imaging on social media ;)

Swords & Wizardry Light is Trending at #3 of the Hottest Small Press Releases

We're #3!

We're also #9 and #14...

I'd LIKE to see Swords & Wizardry Light hit #1 :)

Anyhow, here are the links for SWL and the others:


Swords & Wizardry Light Rules

Swords & Wizardry Light Character Cards

Swords & Wizardry Light Tome of Horrors Light Volume I

Remember, purchases made via The Tavern's affiliate links help support The Tavern and its various projects. That being said, grab the above for FREE!

Announcement - Mark Rein-Hagen Joins Vampire 5e Dev Team

This was announced yesterday on the White Wolf Facebook page.

Vampire 1e (and the GURPS Conversion) are the only editions I own.

Lots of strong personalities on the dev team. Should be interesting times.