Free Phone PDFs At DriveThruRPG - Pugmire & Zweihander

I mentioned this on the Tavern Chat podcast last night, but I figured it was a big enough deal to repeat here. DriveThruRPG is offering a limited selection of PDFs specially formatted for use on smartphones and two of those Phone formatted PDFs are available for free (or at least PWYW).

The Pugmire Core Rulebook Phone PDF is free.

Dogs have inherited the world, building the kingdom of Pugmire untold centuries after the Ages of Man are over. These dogs have been uplifted to use tools and language, and they seek to rediscover the ruins of the Old Ones. Some have learned to use the leftover technology of humanity, but they believe it to be magic handed to them by their lost gods. Others seek to create an ideal civilization, using a Code of Man compiled from ancient, fragmentary lore left behind by humanity. The world is dangerous and mysterious, but good dogs will persevere. 

Some highlights of Pugmire include:

• An evocative and mysterious setting that’s both family friendly and deep enough to create compelling stories.
• A traditional fantasy rules system redesigned for streamlined play and easy creation of heroic dogs, with an emphasis on cooperation and action over competition and violence.
• A variety of callings and breeds that give access to several fun and interesting tricks.
• Rival species to interact with, like cats and badgers, along with terrifying and dangerous monsters that roam the landscape.

Will you be a good dog?

The ZWEIHANDER Grim & Perilous RPG: Revised Core Rulebook (Phone PDF + Digital PDF) is available at PWYW pricing:

WELCOME TO GRIM & PERILOUS GAMING Winner of the ENnie gold Best Game and Product of the Year at Gen Con 2018, featured on Forbes, ranked one of the best-selling fantasy tabletop role-playing games at DriveThruRPG and having moved over 90,000 copies worldwide, ZWEIHÄNDER Grim & Perilous RPG is a bloodier, grimmer and grittier version of classical tabletop role-playing games. This revised PDF edition is published in celebration with Andrews McMeel Publishing, and features a refreshed layout, new artwork, rules clarifications, color plates by Dejan Mandic and errata. ZWEIHÄNDER Grim & Perilous RPG is a game where your characters will:

• Live in a gritty, ‘realistic’ fantasy world
• Make morally grey decisions & enact vicious reprisals
• Uncover insidious plots & political intrigue
• Take part in heart-pumping chase scenes
• Venture into the wilderness & survive its perils
• Desperately fight in clandestine & open field combat
• Defend themselves from injuries, madness & mutations
• Encounter sanity-blasting creatures & their minions

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Sale - Oldskull, Hawk & Moor and more Kent David Kelly releases 75% off

Kent David Kelly has a solid line of old school releases, even if it is quite prolific. Heck, Hawk & Moor (the history of Gary and Dave) is just 25 cents!

Here's the link to the complete Kent David Kelly collection.

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Free - Limited Time (Hours?) - Tales from the Loop RPG: Rulebook in PDF

The Tales from the Loop RPG: Rulebook is free in PDF for a very limited time only. ENWorld is stating today only - so it may be there are only hours left to pick up the Platinum Bestseller.

Winner of five ENnies in 2017 including Best Game, Best Setting, Best Writing and Product of the Year!

“RPG Tales from the Loop lets you channel Stranger Things and E.T.”
The Verge

"Tales from the Loop RPG Will Make You Feel Like a Kid Again."
IO9

“Tales from the Loop is both exciting and emotional, fantastical and realistic, and is unlike any other game on my shelf."
Geek & Sundry

The landscape was full of machines and scrap metal connected to the facility in one way or another. Always present on the horizon were the colossal cooling towers, with their green obstruction lights. If you put your ear to the ground, you could hear the heartbeat of the Loop – the purring of the Gravitron, the central piece of engineering magic that was the focus of the Loop’s experiments. The facility was the largest of its kind in the world, and it was said that its forces could bend space-time itself.

Scifi artist Simon Stålenhag’s paintings of Swedish 1980s suburbia, populated by fantastic machines and strange beasts, have won global acclaim. Now, you can step into the amazing world of the Loop.
In this roleplaying game in the vein of E.T. and Stranger Things, you'll play teenagers solving mysteries connected to the Loop. The game rules are based on Mutant: Year Zero, which was awarded with a Silver ENnie for Best Rules at Gencon 2015.

Key features:

• Create your unique player character – including skills, items, prides, problems, and relationships – in mere minutes.
• Explore the secrets of the Loop in two main game settings – one based on the Swedish Mälaren Islands, the other on Boulder City, Nevada.
• Investigate mysteries and overcome trouble using fast and effective rules, based on the Mutant: Year Zero game engine.
• Play the four complete scenarios included, tied together in the campaign named Four Seasons of Mad Science.

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Kickstarter - Wolves of God: Adventures in Dark Ages England

"Experience savage adventures and grim perils in Dark Ages England in this historical fantasy RPG."

When Kevin Crawford releases a new Kickstarter, people pay attention. Kevin never fails to deliver amazing projects. I'd love to see him interviewed on a podcast (hint ;)

The Wolves of God: Adventures in Dark Ages England Kickstarter is Kevin's latest release, and yes, it looks damn good. Dark Ages England is an excellent choice of setting and I'm looking forward to having this project in hand.

Embrace the savage darkness of post-Roman Britain with Wolves of God, a semi-historical tabletop RPG from the creator of Stars Without Number, Godbound, Scarlet Heroes, and other best-selling role-playing games. 

It is the year 710 of our Lord as brother Bede reckons it. The barbaric English have long since swept over Britain, their passage shrouded by the smoke of burning cities. For six generations they have been masters of the best part of the island, driving the native Britons before them with bloody iron or taking them as thralls and subjects, until the wretched heirs of the Roman kings can have refuge only in the western mountains or the cold northern lands. The magnificent Roman cities of old have been thrown down, the roads have grown wild and perilous, and even the kings of the English must live in thatched wooden halls and ride from one royal villa to the next merely to feed their companions. It is an age of darkness, poverty, and unsleeping war. 

Four generations ago the English turned Christian under the ministrations of Roman missionaries and Irish monks. Scattered across their untamed lands are the minsters of these clergy, strongholds of learning and Roman civilization against the hard ways of the English tribes. Only in the minsters can stone buildings be found, with windows of glass and artisan-monks fashioning wonders to adorn their altars and reward the generosity of great lords. Brave abbots and wise abbesses rule these strongholds, always seeking to lift their kinsmen from their cruel ways and iniquities, and always in need of strong heroes to help them in their work. 

Yet there are worse things in the dark than raiding warbands and embittered pagan remnants. The Roman sorcerers, the Artifexes of old, carved cysts into the world where they and their slaves could hide from the fury of the English. These Arxes were sealed until help could come, but help never did; now they canker and rot, old magic gone sour and strange, and those that dwell within them have been terribly changed. The Arxes burst open within the fallen Roman cities, monstrous beasts and twisted men going forth to scourge the innocent and take revenge for the crime of their conquest. The minsters stand fast against their diabolic power, but the abbots and lords need brave heroes to venture into the cities and purge these Arxes of evil before they can swell greater still. 

You are one such hero. Whether a spear-wise gesith, a young ceorl of broad back and stout heart, a wild-eyed waelcyrige-maiden of battle, a charm-muttering galdorman, or even a blessed and pious saint, your ambition is to earn a deathless name of glory and an honored place among your people. Whether offering your aid to warring lords, plundering the riches of fallen Roman cities, delving the dark halls of a festering Arx, or acting as agents of some cunning abbot, you will dare great deeds with your brave warband of companions and win yourself a place in the songs of kings… or a nameless grave in some blighted earth.

20 bucks for the PDF. 60 for POD Print plus PDF. 80 for offset Print plus PDF.

I'm probably going in for 60 bucks.

Kickstarter - A Dozen Sinister Rumors, for use with Fantasy RPGs

I've enjoyed all of Phil Reed's Kickstarters. They are inexpensive and overflowing with ideas I can use in my RPG sessions. The fact that he keeps everything systemless is damn near priceless in my opinion. The A Dozen Sinister Rumors, for use with Fantasy RPGs Kickstarter, looks to be of the same high quality, and you can back it - with stretch goals - for a mere buck. How the hell do you beat that?

Each rumor is designed to fit on a single page (with artwork), so that you may print only the page that you need for your next game session. A Dozen Sinister Rumors comes in at 14 pages and includes -- as you may have guessed from the title -- twelve different rumors + a cover page and a page outlining the anatomy of a rumor (as well as tips on using the rumors in your game). 

The content is systemless and for use with any fantasy roleplaying game. 

What are the stretch goals?

A Dozen Sinister Rumors is currently sitting at $1200 with 9 days to go.

Reminder - Old School Fantasy Roleplaying Bundle - Two Days Left

Yep, this is a repost. There are two days left in the Old School Fantasy Roleplaying Bundle over on Humble Bundle. If you missed the earlier post, know about the bundle but haven't pulled the trigger yet or simply forgot, the time to wait is over. Heck, even a buck gets you some amazing books :)

This is probably the best and greatest Old School bundle anywhere - forget Bundle of Holding - the Humble Bundle - Old School Fantasy Roleplaying Bundle is what you want to grab!

Why? Well, if a picture says a thousand words, I've got a couple of thousand words for you ;)

Let's look at the One Dollar level. You get all the following for a buck:

All the above plus the following for Eight Bucks:

All the above and the following for 18 bucks:

I dare you to find more old school gaming value for your gaming dollar.

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News - Top RPG Rulesets for Fantasy Grounds through 2019-Q3

Smiteworks released the above piechart showing the top Fantasy Grounds games run by ruleset for the last 12 month period, and I think its a very interesting graphic.

It certainly shows the dominance of D&D 5e, with 70% of the games played on Fantasy Grounds using the ruleset. Pathfinder, both 1e and 2e, combine to about 10%. If you add Starfinder into the Paizo slice of the pie, its probably around 12%. Paizo is now a very distant number two.

What really brings a smile to my face is the fact that AD&D comes in with over 11k games run. That's about half the Starfinder numbers (and more than the number of 4e games run) and not bad at all for a ruleset from the late 70s ;)

Here's the link: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/entry.php?360-Top-Rulesets-for-Fantasy-Grounds-through-2019-Q3

Note, you need to be logged in to view the graphics.