Wayward Kickstarter - Far West - Still MIA & Radio Silence

As I type this, Gareth has tweeted six times in the last 23 hours.

As I type this, Gareth has posted ZERO Kickstarter updates for Far West in the last SIX plus months.

Maybe he's been trying to track me down so he can punch me in the throat and hasn't had any free, non-tweetable time ;)

I'm so glad Gareth thinks "it's just a game!" and cares not about the nearly $50k he took from backers and is coming up on 7 1/2 years late. Damn, that's practically a record for incompetence.

Now, if you follow Gareth on Twitter, you'd see he is now promising a release "sometime this year".

Why not share that on the Kickstarter page itself? Kinda disrespectful of the backers if you ask me.

Kickstarter - Reaping at River's End for 5e and S&W RPG

The town of River's End has lost its mage, Mortimer. Rumor has it he has fallen into the dark arts. Aid the people to save River's End!

I spoke with Ben (Best Hair in the OSR) Barsh of Pacesetter Games yesterday on the Tavern Chat Podcast (Tavern Chat Podcast link). We touched on many things, including the Reaping at River's End for 5e and S&W RPG Kickstarter.

I love the cover :)

So, what is Ben offering us?

Reaping at River’s End (R1) is an 8th – 10th level adventure module optimized for the 5th edition and Swords & Wizardry rules sets.  

This adventure module is meant to be a strong challenge to those who attempt it. I was raised in the old school gaming community, so I do enjoy the challenging aspect that RPGs provide. The player characters (PCs) will be up against a strong enemy and his forces. They will also have to resolve the mission in a timely manner because the harvest of the Dragonberry is soon approaching. If they do not successfully track down Mortimer and either learn his secrets or get him to help, the people of River's End may all die. Since this is being written for two separate game systems, certain encounters, traps, and/or mechanics may be subject to change to fit the system well. However, all content, story, and missions will be the same.

I'm very glad to hear that the 5e version and the S&W version will be tailored to the systems in question and not a sloppy direct port between the two. I support his :)

10 bucks in digital, 20 bucks for softcover print plus PDF (about 5 bucks to ship)

New Release - Gunderholfen (OSR Megadungeon)

I've had a couple of Taverners point me at Gunderholfen over the last few days. This looks like a VERY interesting megadungeon. Maybe I can put this on my birthday list...

Gunderholfen… Ancient, abandoned dwarf hold, battleground of arch-liches, cultist base, wizards’ playground, heroes’ bane and treasure-seekers’ tomb. Gunderholfen is a classic, old school exploratory sandbox-style mega-dungeon consisting of ten levels, a mini-campaign setting and one demi-plane. 

This mega-dungeon and mini-campaign setting is designed for character levels 1-10+. It is compatible with any OSR system. Play it as an integrated, complete mega-dungeon campaign or just pick out individual levels to run as separate dungeons. Gunderholfen includes the following:

• 10 main dungeon levels consisting of 22 sub-levels and numerous sub-areas, with approximately 930 keyed locations, all detailed in 40 maps.
• 1 demi-plane level.
• A mini-campaign setting insertable into any existing campaign that includes a detailed overview of Longfelt, a nearby city complete with NPCs, including possible patrons for PCs, places of interest, encounter tables and rival factions.
• 32 encounter tables with full monster stats for each level of the dungeon and the surrounding lands.
• Extensive ready to play lists of NPCs including 10 pre-generated NPC parties that can be used as foes or allies.
• 1 fully detailed mini-side adventure.
• A brief overview of the history and background to Gunderholfen.
• Rules for a new class of priest including 18 new spells.
• Many new monsters and magic items.

10 bucks in PDF. 47 in hardcover plus PDF.

Yep, that's an affiliate link above. Affiliate links keep the lights on and the beers cold at The Tavern.

There is a D&D 5e Humble Bundle on sale right now. Every Humble Bundle purchase made via The Tavern's Affiliate Link raises monies that help support The Tavern. 
Please don't forget our Amazon affiliate store :)   Amazon.com/shop/eriktenkar. 

Humble RPG Book Bundle: 5th Edition Beast of a Bundle

Yep, Frog God and Friends are back with another Humble Bundle of Gaming Goodness. Actually, they are calling it the Humble RPG Book Bundle: 5th Edition Beast of a Bundle. Yes, it is mostly 5e in flavor, but you will also fund some system neutral and even a Castles & Crusades compatible PDF. Let's look, shall we?

At the One Dollar Tier (yep, just a buck)

Note that Hazardous Habitats is system neutral (and also has a free preview you can download)

Yes, a buck gets you a discount at Frog God, Kobold Press, Nerdarchy, Nord Games and Troll Lord

Next Tier is Eight Dollars, and it includes everything from the One Dollar Tier.

The Waypoint releases are new and not available elsewhere

Codex of Aihrde is compatible with Castles & Crusades

Now the Big Get. The Fifteen Dollar Tier. It includes everything you already saw in the One Dollar and Eight Dollar Tiers.

Hazardous Habitats are new. 275 VTT tokens from the Tome of Horrors

This is a HUGE amount of material not just for your 5e game, but even for your OSR game - as it is easy as pie to go from 5e to OSR (the other way around is the path to madness ;)

Every Humble Bundle purchase made via The Tavern's Affiliate Link raises monies that help support The Tavern. Don't forget our Amazon affiliate store :)  Amazon.com/shop/eriktenkar

Tavern Chat - Tonight 9 PM Eastern - We Have Much to Talk About!

I've touched on a few topics that have been well received on the Tavern Chat Podcast, and I suspect much of tonight's conversation will evolve around much of what I said in those episodes.

Here are the Tavern Chat Podcast episodes in question:

E401 - The OSR, Inclusivity, Gatekeeping, Walled Gardens, Safe Spaces & a Sweet Gaming Table - pretty much what it says on the tin. It not about politics or justice, its all about control and power. Those that don't have control over their own personal lives wish to exert power over others via social media shaming and fragmenting of communities.

E402 - A Rant about Vagebooking by a Worthless Piece of Excrement - heh - pretty much what it says on the tin too - Here is the screenshot in question:

E403 - Such Positive Feedback - But None Made Publicly for Fear of The Outrage Brigade - although accurate at the time, I have since received many voicemails in support.

If you aren't already a member of the Tenkar's Tavern Discord Server, here's the link to join:

https://discord.gg/Eegc9z

You may be asked to prove you are a live person and not a bot. Shouldn't be hard to accomplish, assuming you are not a bot ;)

Remember, 9 PM Eastern. The voice chat room is on the left side of the page, in the LIVE CHATS section.  We'll be using the Speakeasy channel for voice and #tavern-chat for text and links.

Folks, probably the easiest way to support The Tavern is to use our Amazon link. It costs you nothing more than you were already going to spend on Amazon, and a portion of sales monies goes to support The Tavern. www.amazon.com/shop/eriktenkar "Shop Smart - Shop TenkarSmart" - Ash Williams

I Guess I AM an "Influence" - Amazon has Given Me an "Influencer Page"

I've been using Amazon Affiliate Links to supplement The Tavern's modest income for a number of years. As such, Amazon recently invited me to apply for their "Influencer" Program. Although I have a decent Facebook following, it pales in comparison to the number of viewers the YouTubers and such bring in. Still. the promised a "manual review" and it appears that' what I got. And then I got approved.

Yep. I guess I have "influence." ;)

In any case, the official Amazon storefront to support all of the things the Tavern does - as well as wants to do in the future - can be found here:

https://www.amazon.com/shop/eriktenkar

Use it like you would your regular Amazon link, but this way a portion of the monies you spend will go to support The Tavern. It costs you nothing. It is literally the easiest way to show your support.

I thank everyone in advance.

DriveThruRPG - Goodman Games 3e Sale - $1 / $3 / $5 Sale

Any good GM can convert between D20 rulesets, and stripping D&D 3e stats out of adventures and settings to use with the OSR ruleset of your choice should be trivial.

Here's the link to the Goodman page at DriveThruRPG

Of course, I offer some Tavern Picks:

Dungeon Crawl Classics #51: Castle Whiterock - Castle Whiterock is a complete campaign. This box holds more than 700 pages of material, enough to take new characters to 15th level and fuel a campaign for years. It contains:

Four books detailing the dungeon’s 15 levels and 14 sub-levels, colored according to level: red book, blue book, green book, and black book. Every map location is fully described with stats included.
A 56-page gazetteer of the Kingdom of Morrain, including the town of Cillamar. A 48-page book of maps. A 32-page book of player handouts. A poster map showing Cillamar on one side and the final two levels of the dungeon on the reverse. Six loose-leaf character sheets of the pre-generated heroes, ready to play out of the box, plus one blank character sheet to copy for later use. A 16-page index and glossary. $60  $5

Dungeon Crawl Classics #35: Gazetteer of the Known Realms - Certain adventures only come around once. Like when the grizzled old warrior decides to go after the dragon, and asks who’s coming with him. Or when the dark-eyed sorceress slowly surveys the crowd of peasants, waiting for one to step forward and pull the sword from the stone. This boxed set contains those adventures. Dungeon Crawl Classics #35: Gazetteer of the Known Realms brings together the Dungeon Crawl Classics modules into one comprehensive world. This magnificent set includes: Gazetteer of the Known Realms, a 120-page book describing the archetypal fantasy world of Áereth. Three 24"x36" poster-sized full-color maps of Áereth ready to host your adventures. GM’s Guide to the Known Realms, a 136-page sourcebook describing deities, equipment, creatures, and NPCs, plus rules for starting campaigns with 0-level characters and adventure paths that you can build from existing DCC modules. A 24"x36" poster-sized players’ map of Áereth. Halls of the Minotaur, a 32-page adventure module for 0-level characters perfectly suited to starting off your campaign in Áereth. The Thief Lord’s Vault, a 32-page adventure module for levels 4-6 that sends the heroes into the legendary treasure vault of Cazül the Chaotic. $29  $3

Dungeon Crawl Classics #48: The Adventure Continues - Remember the good old days, when adventures were underground, NPCs were there to be killed, and the finale of every dungeon was the dragon on the 20th level? Those days are back. Dungeon Crawl Classics adventures don’t waste your time with long-winded speeches, weird campaign settings, or NPCs who aren’t meant to be killed. Each adventure is 100% good, solid dungeon crawl, with the monsters you know, the traps you remember, and the secret doors you know are there somewhere. The adventure continues! This compilation of all-new 4th-level adventures is especially designed to continue new campaigns. They’re perfect sequels to DCC #29: The Adventure Begins, or any other level 1-3 adventures. Written by experienced adventure authors, these stand-alone modules will challenge your heroes with feral elves, undead fiddlers, evil fey, dreamscape nightmares, ghostly Neanderthals -- and more!  $19.99  $3

Dungeon Crawl Classics #29: The Adventure Begins - Remember the good old days, when adventures were underground, NPCs were there to be killed, and the finale of every dungeon was the dragon on the 20th level? Those days are back. Dungeon Crawl Classics don't waste your time with long-winded speeches, weird campaign settings, or NPCs who aren't meant to be killed. Each adventure is 100% good, solid dungeon crawl, with the monsters you know, the traps you fear, and the secret doors you know are there somewhere. Let the adventure begin! This compilation of twenty all-new 1st-level adventures is especially designed to kick-start new campaigns. Written by experienced adventure authors, these stand-alone modules will challenge your heroes with war-worms, hang-gliding kobolds, a hundred-foot-tall colossus, giant bees, an ancient wizard's tower, trained monkeys, dangerous mushrooms, a gigantic white salamander -- and more! Features:
All-new cover art by legendary TSR artist Jim Roslof! TWENTY adventures for 1st-level characters, every one of them suitable for kick-starting an entire campaign. A wide variety of plot hooks and unique encounters to spice up your game. $19.99  $3

Yes, those are affiliate links above. Keep your bartender in cold, fresh beer by using The Tavern's affiliate links.

Kickstarter - Dungeons & Delvers: Red Book

So, what would a modern rngin build of an OSR themed game look like? From the sounds of it, the Dungeons & Delvers Kickstarter might be that game...

What is Dungeons & Delvers 

In a nutshell: the World’s First Roleplaying Game how I’d do it. A hack that does what I always wished the game would do, that changes or discards the bits and pieces that always rubbed me the wrong way, while not overly complicating things and still delivering the same classic dungeon-crawler experience I’ve loved since I was a kid. 

Don’t get me wrong: I’ve enjoyed the game for over twenty years. I wouldn’t have kept playing it and writing about it if I didn’t. But everyone has their issues with it, everyone cooks up their own homebrew rules whether or not they end up using them at the table, or even bothering to fully flesh them out. I just ended up with enough that I felt collectively it justified a new game. 

People have described it as a more customizable-yet-simpler take on 5th Edition, something between 3rd and 5th Edition, and even a kind of modernized B/X or Rules Cyclopedia. Pretty much everyone agrees it fits the old-school aesthetic, which is good because it was intended to be a kind of homage to the "easy to master black box" that I grew up on. 

You can also check out a quick-start version of the rules and content by clicking here (this incorporates some of the changes that will be going into Red Book). It's a direct Google Drive link, so you'll just need to click and download, no other steps necessary!

Color me interested. 15 for the PDF. 20 for the POD plus PDF (estimated cost of the POD itself is about 10 bucks.

About 2 weeks left to fund.