Deal of the Day - Sly Flourish's Fantastic Locations (System Neutral)

I've heard only good things about the Sly Flourish line of releases, and the fact that it is system neutral is even more appealing. Sly Flourish's Fantastic Locations is today's Deal of the Day at DTRPG.

We RPG game masters have a lot of tools to help us run our roleplaying games. Our monster books and bestiaries give us piles of foes to throw at our adventurers. The various guides for game masters often give us non-player characters, treasures, and story-building tips. 

One of the hardest parts of game mastering, however, is coming up with interesting adventure locations for our characters to explore. These locations need to be fantastic, detailed places that capture the minds of our players every session we run. Good locations are hard to improvise and often hard to strip out of a fully-fleshed-out adventure. 

Sly Flourish’s Fantastic Locations is a book, available in PDF and print-on-demand, that gives you twenty system-agnostic locations to drop into your favorite fantasy roleplaying game. Each location builds on a fantastic theme, such as a mysterious ancient structure under the ice, a cursed castle of a mad king, a fallen celestial fortress, and a dwarven mine that cracked into the tomb of a dead god. Each location includes artwork by Brian Patterson of D20Monkey. Sometimes this artwork takes the form of maps. Sometimes it's an overlook of a specific location. 

These sites and structures aren’t full adventures. Instead, you and your players build your own stories in these fantastic locations, then you populate them with the monsters that fit your story. 

Thanks to the support of 779 backers on Kickstarter this book was expanded to include a total of twenty locations each with full color artwork. 

This book is system agnostic. You can use it in just about any fantasy roleplaying game.

Normally 15 bucks in PDF, until tomorrow morning Sly Flourish's Fantastic Locations is on sale for 6 bucks.

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Kickstarter - Ultimate Dinosaur Fighting 2nd ed and Expansion!

"A tactical Battle Game of Dinosaur Pit Fighting in the future. And Triassic Terror, the first expansion for Ultimate Dinosaur Fighting!"

Every year I hear Ben Burns is running a tournament of Ultimate Dinosaur Fighting at NTRPG Con and as of now, I've yet to play a session. I can only blame myself for that omission. I've heard only good things from those that have played and I have spoken with Ben about many a topic, from gaming and beyond - but never Ultimate Dinosaur Fighting. Damn it, he's been dodging me ;)

Now Ben brings us Ultimate Dinosaur Fighting 2nd ed as well as an expansion. Let's take a peek, shall we?

Step into a world where you control these ancient beasts where every stomp of the foot, twitch of the tail or flap of the wings could be their last. The game is easy to learn, fast-paced, quick to set up, has a high replay value, and is just great fun. 

You can play one-off scrimmage battles, a series of battles in a tournament setting or use our campaign rules to run a stable of dinosaurs through an entire league season. You can add in Mutations, Tech Upgrades and Training to ready your prized prehistoric gladiator to take on any beast in the pit.   

Ultimate Dinosaur Fighting is a miniature board game for 2-6 players with a playtime of 30-45 minutes, no downtime and no player elimination.

This is the second edition version of the game, with minor tweaks. We've upgraded the victory point tokens to a victory track and fully overhauled the artwork for the box, board, cards, counters, everything.  

We are also releasing the first Ultimate Dinosaur Fighting expansion: Triassic Terror. Triassic Terror includes two new dinosaurs, the Diplodocus and Pteronodons.  

Oh my. Look at those minis. I may need to get this to play with my niece :)

Kickstarter - Off the Beaten Path, City Excursions - 32 Hours Left

The Off the Beaten Path, City Excursions Kickstarter is wrapping up tomorrow, and I thought a quick update/reminder was appropriate (I seriously love Thom's Off the Beaten Path series of releases)

So, where does it stand right now?

Of note, three adventure added to the book, three additional adventures added in PDF.

And if it raises another 200 bucks (which it will)?

Two more adventures :)

Tavern Chat Tonight - 9 PM Eastern - Hang Out and Yap with Other Gamers

Yep, today is Wednesday and that means tonight is the weekly Tavern Chat hangout. Bring a microphone and talk with other gamers.

You can use the following link:

https://discord.gg/Z7gbzj

We'll see, and possibly hear from you, tonight!

New Release - Far Away Land OSR RPG: Core Rules (Swords & Wizardry)

I must note, I wrote one of the two Forwards in Far Away Land OSR RPG: Core Rules (the other writer was none other than Matt Finch). I've was in the loop fairly early in the project, and was blessed with an early prerelease version of the rules. Suffice to say, they are good.

As a fan of the original Far Away Land RPG from the moment I stumbled across its PWYW adventures, having Dirk give us a version that mines Swords & Wizardry and Swords & Wizardry Light for the system yet keeps all of the flavor and setting of the original is quite simply, awesome :)

Remember what it felt like to open a book when you were a kid and be mesmerized by what was inside? This was our goal in creating the Far Away Land OSR RPG. Far Away Land is weird. Far Away Land is colorful and quirky and super imaginative. Did we mention its really fun too? 

Far Away Land (FAL) OSR is a re-imagining of the Far Away Land RPG – through the lens of OSR-style games and mechanics. This project was inspired by Swords and Wizardry Light, a stripped-down, rules-lite version of Swords and Wizardry that uses only d20s and d6s. FAL was originally inspired by simple, old school gaming mechanics that place emphasis on characters, story, and adventures rather than heavy rules. This version of FAL uses familiar mechanics (6 stats, HP, AC, etc.) mashed into the Far Away Land setting. It maintains the tradition of a rules-lite game while using a more well-known system that is compatible with the world’s most famous rpg and many of its clones. Essentially, FAL OSR is a complete circle, back to what initially inspired the original game, set in the gonzo world of Far Away Land. So, while the rules have changed to be compatible with other systems, the unique world of FAL is the same. 

Far Away Land OSR is a great introduction to rpgs. The book contains simple rules for combat, vehicle combat, naval combat, mass combat, character creation, magic, tons of mini games (like level 0 character grinders and deadly games), like 99 monsters, location descriptions and maps, crazy powers, there is even an adventure included. It’s jam packed with awesomeness. 

The book is full color, about 130 pages, 8.5x11 inches.  

10 bucks for the Far Away Land OSR RPG: Core Rules PDF, 35 for the SC print plus PDF, 45 for the HC print plus PDF. I have the Harc Cover myself :)

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Amazon - Stranger Things Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Starter Set - 14.99

It was pointed out to me that the Stranger Things Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Starter Set is on sale for $14.99 (retail $24.99) over on Amazon. Heck, it even ships free with Prime. Not sure if its a Prime Days sale or not.

• The Stranger Things themed Dungeons & Dragons starter set has everything you need to unleash your imagination and live out the dream of exploring the upside down from the Netflix original series, stranger things.
• Embark on an exciting Dungeons & Dragons adventure, hunt for the thessalhydra, and have hours of fun with the Adventure book "created" by the character Mike Wheeler.
• Get all the essential rules you need to start playing from the D&D fifth edition starter set rulebook with a new colorful Stranger Things theme.
• Battle your way through the D&D universe & The upside down as one of the characters played by the Stranger Things gang. Five Ready-to-Play character sheets are included.
• The starter set also includes 6 Polyhedral dice and 2 Stranger Things Demogorgon figures, including one to paint and customize.
• Special "Red box" Design: a unique replica of the famous 1983 D&D "red box" As seen being played on screen by the Stranger Things characters.

https://amzn.to/2lvx2wl

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Kickstarter - Delayed Blast Gamemaster #2

Phil Reed is back with Delayed Blast Gamemaster #2, an RPG zine, and I'm truly looking forward to it.

Delayed Blast Gamemaster #1 was produced for the Zine Quest promotion over at Kickstarter   and it was an overwhelming success with exactly 600 backers. I'd like to see even more this time around ;)

At project launch, Delayed Blast Gamemaster #2 is a 24-page, saddle-stitched, 5.5-inch by 8.5-inch B&W printed zine. I plan to use the same printer, paper, and construction for this issue as the first, so you know that if we succeed, the physical presentation of the project will be as attractive and professional as I can manage.

Stretch goals can double the size (and have already added 4 pages of adventure hooks to the zine as I type this)

What you will not find in Delayed Blast Gamemaster: Dedicated game rules and an excessive number of details that obstruct your own needs. Everything packed inside the zine is intended to get your creative juices flowing and give you a starting point when sitting down to plan an RPG session. And if something I've written is in your way . . . trash it! Make it your own! What do I know?  

10 bucks for Delayed Blast Gamemaster #2 in print plus PDF, shipping included in the States. 20 bucks for issues #1 & 2 in print plus PDF. PDF only is 3 bucks for issue #2 and 7 bucks for issues 1 & 2. I'm in for 10 bucks myself.

Please don't forget our Amazon affiliate store :)   Amazon.com/shop/eriktenkar.

When is an Interview Not an Interview? When it's on ENWorld...

"Was hoping for an interview. This reads more like an infomercial. That criticism aside, I do like hearing from the creators of TTRPG products and do want to encourage more of these articles. I would just hope that they are more substantial."

Thus goes the first comment on the ENWorld article titled: Matthew Sprange, Mongoose Publishing, Discusses Traveller and Paranoia. The thing is, he doesn't really. At least, not in the normal sense. There is no interview. There aren't even quotes. It almost feels like a happenstance sit down at a bar, where you try and cobble together some memories of the conversation the next morning while fighting a hangover. Oh, and a quick google search of everything said company published to flesh it out.

"This is really an infomercial piece for Mongoose and not anything else. I am quite disappointed." 

Ah yes, it does read like that. But have no worries, no sir! This article was paid for an supported by the ENWorld Patreon! Your donations at work. You DO donate, right?

"I would love to have seen an actual transcript of the conversation."

As would I. If one existed, I expect we would have been reading that instead.

"While I wouldn't go so far as to call this an infomercial, I agree with the other commenters that this would be a lot more interesting if it was a full transcribed interview (ENWORLD: "Tell me about your games" MATTHEW: "Okay, I will now talk about a game"). Or at least if it had full quotes from Matthew mixed with text, like a newspaper article ("This game is coming out. Matthew says "This game is awesome"). Sorry, it just doesn't read well like this."

Remember when ENWorld WAS publishing paid for advertisements - er, articles? Here's a link from 2016 - How Much Actual "RPG News" is There to Report?

"It reminds me of what you might get in high school when the teacher says "Please submit a 1 to 2 page report on the topic of your choice. Please interview someone as part of your research." Also hard to pin down whether this was a quick review of Mathew or of current and future Mongoose products."

So, the Patreon has been in existence at least since 2016. How successful is it?

Assuming it pays for an article a day, it pays about 4 bucks a published piece. I guess you really do get what you pay for.

I will give credit where credit due. Not only is this article still up (it was published Thursday, July 11th - Today is Sunday, July 14th) but the comments are still up too and no one from ENWorld has tried to defend it. It's almost like they don't care.