So, Justin LaNassa, the main individual apparently behind the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum and the one attempting to license the iconic TSR trademark images to third parties, has had some choice words to say about my prior observations and speculations over on Facebook:
Saturday, October 17, 2020
Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum - Membership Rates and Pay-To-Play Game Table Pricing
X5 Temple of Death & X6 Quagmire! for B/X D&D each 4.99 for POD & PDF at DTRPG
I'm not sure if these were miskeyed or not, but I've already placed my order for X5 Temple of Death & X6 Quagmire! for 4.99 each for the Print on Demand & PDF. Normally WotC would price these around 4.99 for the PDF, 9.99 for the Print version, and 10.98 for the Print plus PDF package, so this is excellent pricing. As someone who has few of the Expert series of D&D modules in my collection, this is an inexpensive way to plug some holes.
This pricing may be limited, so I wouldn't wait long if this interests you.
If you, the gentle reader, find other unexpected bargains at DTRPG or elsewhere and would like to share it with The Tavern's community, you can drop the mention as a comment below or email me at tenkarsDOTtavern at that gmail thing.
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Friday, October 16, 2020
Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum Claims Ownership of "Classic" TSR Logos, Offers to License them to OSR Publishers
The Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum, located in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, is offering to license a selection of "Classic" TSR Logos via a claim of state trademark of "TSR".
Note: The Federal trademark for TSR is WAS owned by TSR Games (edit - the TM was CANCELED last year - wow, this is a magilla) publishers of the Top Secret New World Order RPG. TSR Games registered its federal trademark in 2011. The trademark was formerly owned by WotC, who were determined to have abandoned the trademark in 2004. At this point, TSR Games would be relying upon Common Law, which is shaky ground in trademark law.
Additional note: The iconic images of the various "classic" TSR logos would likely still fall under copyright law. The images created from 1978 onward would then still be owned by WotC. Ownership of images prior to 1977 would need the consultation of an IP lawyer, as the possibility is some may be in the public domain.
Observation. The Dungeon Hobby Shop has filed for at least three federal trademarks regarding the various TSR Logos:
https://uspto.report/TM/90124287
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Thursday, October 15, 2020
Ashley, My Feline Daughter
Originally sharted on Facebook:
This evening Rach & I took our feline daughter to the emergency vet. Our cat Ashley had been acting off the last few days. Her stomach was distended, she had some difficulty walking and no longer was able to jump up on my desk. She no longer was getting up to greet me in my middle of the night trips to the bathroom.
Ashly was 14. That's 86 in human years. She was diagnosed with cancer. As a cancer survivor myself, I couldn't see me potentially putting Ash through such a discomforting and painful experience when she'd have no understanding of why it was happening.
I'll miss the comfort she gave me during some really low times in my life, and her efforts to nurse me and mother me when I was suffering from congestive heart failure earlier this year.
She'd only play with a toy once she figured out how it worked, would ask for food NOW so she would have it for later, actually touched my glasses inside and out to understand how they worked and woke me up for snoring too loudly.
I've lost many pets in my 53 years, but only one feline daughter.
Ashly, you will be greatly missed.
Wednesday, October 14, 2020
Kickstarter - Space Scoundrels - A Not Too Serious Science Fiction RPG
Thom's latest project is Space Scoundrels - A Not Too Serious Science Fiction RPG, which is being funded on Kickstarter. Light-hearted SciFi is right up my alley, and the pricing is certainly right for my wallet. 4 bucks for the PDf and 8 bucks for the at-cost POD and the PDF (really the sweet point I think). I'm in for 12 bucks, same as the above but I get credited as a backer in the final release.
Designed as a beer-and-pretzels game with minimal rules and fast-paced skill progression, Space Scoundrels takes a lot of the science out of science-fiction for those that love the genre but don't want to get mired in lots of physics and math.
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Tuesday, October 13, 2020
Amazon Prime Day RPG Sales
Let's just dive in, shall we?
edit: Sigh - the thumbnails and links all work in the preview, but apparently not in the full post share... nevermind, you need to disable your adblocker - Tenkar
Note: Some prices are time-limited.
The following dice have 80% off coupons, making the sets a buck a set with free shipping:
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You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on Anchor, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection.
Monday, October 12, 2020
Watch the Fireside Chat with Vince Florio, Podfather of the OSR
Yesterday I sat down with Vince Florio, Podfather of the OSR. Yes, "Podfather" is a bit of a joke, but the reality is, Vince was the primary force that brought podcasting to the OSR. Other amazing podcasts have followed, either in his footsteps more or less or finding their own path (huge thanks to Anchor.fm for opening wide the doors of podcasting in general, and the OSR in particular)
For The Tavern, YouTube is the Final Frontier. Much of what will appear on the Tavern Chat Podcast will be recorded on YouTube, in a large part to the ability to Livestream. Feedback, as I record, is literally priceless, and I think will strengthen the Tavern Chat Podcast. There will be other content that will be unique to YouTube and Vince did suggest that the return of the dragon puppet Feltothraxis should happen, so it will ;)
If you want to participate in the Livestreams and give realtime feedback, subscribe to The Tavern's YouTube Channel at YouTube.com/ErikTenkar. I truly appreciate your support, and every subscriber to The Tavern's YouTube Channel is important, as is every member of this community.
The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are the affiliate programs that support The Tavern.
You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on Anchor, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection.
Sunday, October 11, 2020
Keeping Track of my Gaming Ideas
Right now is a weird moment for me.....
I probably should be taking part in Gary Con's Autumn Revel Virtual Gaming Event, which I have already played in once so far (so I'm not ignoring it). Now I normally have the TV on when I'm blogging, and my TV of choice is frequently YouTube....
....and I'm seeing Erik's live YouTube interview with "The Evil DM".
Just weird....
Now I have to admit that I'm one of those guys who always seems to be thinking of gaming in one way, shape, or form. Sure, I shut off/down a bit when I'm geeking out on something else (I just finished Season 2 of The Boys this morning!), but even then I see a lot of things filtered through my gaming lens. I get some (I think) awesome ideas when I'm busy doing other stuff. So much so I have to keep something to write with nearby lest I lose a good idea.
In a pinch I can use my cell phone, usually a quick picture or a note written in Evernote, but nothing beats a mini notebook and pen/pencil. I tend to lose digital notes or just forget they are there.....did I save that in Evernote, or did I use Google Docs? Wait....maybe I have a screenshot....
This morning I saw a cool word, Palimpsest, and thought "I could use this in an adventure seed.....again.*" Evidently some ancient word nerds have discovered some new ancient languages, and expanded on others, by looking at ancient texts from a monastery that had to get creative and recycle old parchments they normally wouldn't have. I took a screenshot and of, course I lost it. If not for having to post today I think I'd have lost the idea.....
Just a few minutes ago, just before starting this post (I was going a totally different direction today) I was checking Facebook and mis-read something that has to go into the notebook. Hopefully you'll see what I saw:
Here's a link to the actual article.
I totally need to play a WWI RPG placed on the Eastern Front where we have to face off against Werewolves, or maybe we get to play the Werewolves. As a vet I'm leaning on the side of the soldiers.....
In case this becomes an itch I really have to scratch, I need to ask what system should I use for this? My Initial thoughts were to take and alter Operation Whitebox, which is basically Swords & Wizardry. Anybody have any thoughts on this?
*This came from a news article I was reading over breakfast, and NOT a messed-up segue to my stuff on DTRPG. It's PWYW and if you go there from here.....don't pay anything!
Blogs of Inspiration & Erudition
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Jonstown Jottings #96: Rings of Glorantha - Much like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, the Jonstown Compendium is a curated platform for user-made content, but for ma...2 hours ago
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March '25 In Review - This month went way too quickly. It started with the 25+ year old oil furnace/boiler breaking, sprinkling a big leak, and a few days without hot water. Tha...4 hours ago
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Reference material and background tables for Ethyria setting - I've considered doing some underground maps for Chagrinspire with a rail lines layer and a deep cavern layer but no hurry. Having a b...6 hours ago
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Titan’s Throne: Infested Archives - By Mitchell DoucetteThunder Toad GamesOSELevels 1-3 The Quorth are dying. Their stone bodies erode to dust by the will of their own god, and a swarm of gia...8 hours ago
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Music Monday - Cold Slither - I am a huge GI Joe fan. Not a franchise I talk about a lot, but it was one of my favorite cartoons and action figure lines growing up. To coincide with the...10 hours ago
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Supplement I: Greyhawk (1975) - From the web: The first supplement to the original Dungeons and Dragons first edition. To quote the forward by Gary Gygax: "There are new characters, n...12 hours ago
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36 units sold on day one - Not big Kickstarter-type numbers or anything but still pretty personally gratifying to me, because 1) it'a more copies than the first book sold on its fi...15 hours ago
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Praise for Songs of the Dying Earth - Among my favourite works of fantasy fiction are the *Dying Earth* stories and the *Lyonesse *trilogy by Jack Vance. I’ve read the *Lyonesse *trilogy three ...16 hours ago
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GURPS DF Session 207, Felltower 134 - Exploring the Gate Level - Game Date: 3/30/2025 Weather: Cold, clear, dry. Characters Chop, human cleric (362 points) Duncan Tesadic, human wizard (346 points) Hannari Ironhand, dwarf...19 hours ago
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Best OSR Cartographers - A video about some my favorite cartographers in the game. This is not an exhaustive list, but the ones I go to the most and ones that have influenced my st...1 day ago
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PzJg38(t) Hetzer - Continuing with my plan of painting all the stuff I printed ages ago and then forgot about — this time it's a 15mm (1:100) Hetzer, or to be pedantic, a...1 day ago
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Review & Commentary On The Hostile Situation Report #017 For The Hostile rpg - " HOSTILE Situation Reports - Free one-page NPCs or adventure situations for the gritty HOSTILE setting."CONAM 17"A waystation, off the traffic routes, wit...2 days ago
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Geeky SKAturday: Gettin' RUDE with the Sybians... - Happy SKAturday, all! Thank you for stopping by to hopefully make it just a little bit brighter, nerdier, and more skankable with me. As a reminder, these...2 days ago
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Kickstart Your Weekend: More Witches! More Adventures! - These people want to keep making a liar out of me. Both of these have already funded and blown past their funding goals. *Sickest Witch RPG - Core Rule...3 days ago
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When the Clouds Come Down - On certain days, at twilight, the clouds gather themselves down along the horizon and become indistinguishable from hills. At such times, the onlooke...4 days ago
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Niv Lova, s3 (solo AP) - This is a continuing playtest of the Niv Lova (link)RPG playtest. Previous sessions: Session 0, Session 1, session 2.Departing for the Factory Ruins Andre...5 days ago
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Landmark Sites - Dwelling - Sites read like a bit of a side-dish in Mythic Bastionland. I wanted to include a simple little system to create more zoomed-in locations, but the game i...5 days ago
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DTRPG print costs will increase on April 1 - DriveThruRPG is set to significantly raise the cost of print-on-demand products, with an increase ranging from 20% to 80%, as mentioned on Reddit (see belo...6 days ago
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Gary Con XVII - I attended Gary Con this year. Last year, I was supposed to go, but something came up and I had to cancel. This year, I ran a scenario I created called The...1 week ago
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[BLOG] News on the March! Episode VI. - This post continues the series of brief play reports I have been posting on Discord. This does not cover every single session (sometimes, recon and setup...1 week ago
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On the Success of the VOTE - You voted for it, and it's here! All the prices on the books I sell on DTRPG will be rising in price, 40-50% so I can maintain the same margin as now! ...1 week ago
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A Review of 'Appendix N: Weird Tales From The Roots Of Dungeons & Dragons' - Weird Tales From The Roots Of Dungeons & Dragons Revised and Expanded Edition Edited by Peter Bebergal (Disclosure - Strange Attractor Press sent me this...1 week ago
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Lexicon of Klarkash-Ton, Hierophant of Atlantis: Lupanar - This time, we follow the good High Priest to the far future, to the final continent of Earth, Zothique, for a a tale of ennui and love: Morthylla. Witho...2 weeks ago
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Nine Questions: A Retrospective... - So there's not much to offer this month. Real life is intruding, as it often does, and we haven't found the time to do much of anything worth reading. An...3 weeks ago
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Fight On! number 16 is out. - The new issue of *Fight On!* has been out for a bit. You can get copies via drivethru or lulu. I haven't finished reading my copy, but I'd like to reco...4 weeks ago
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Wandering through the Majestic Fantasy Realms - It's time for another Bat in the Attic update! I am halfway through the first draft of my upcoming project, Into the Majestic Fantasy Realms, the Northe...4 weeks ago
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The Hungering Dark - Go into the earth, and reality will walk alongside you. Walk further, and you will eventually be walking alone. The world is plastic down there. Tar Lat...4 weeks ago
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Hobby Bingo 2025: January Progress - Welcome back to the Vault! I've painted a few bits and pieces in January and made a dent into my Hobby Bingo card! First up is a Chaplain in Terminator ...1 month ago
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NTRPG Gaming Weekend - [image: NTRPG Gaming Weekend] This weekend was a "game day" for North Texas RPG Con, held at the same hotel the con is held at. I haven't slung dice since...2 months ago
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The Stats of a Dave Arneson Player Character. - If you want to find the details for one of the characters that Gary Gygax made and played as a PC, perhaps to use as an NPC in your own game, it isn't t...2 months ago
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Into the Wild Blue Yonder: A Journey Through Blackmoor's Dark Realm - *We have been thinking about you.* *We know what you want from Rob Kuntz.* You want more than another brand-new RPG module. It has to be a *First Edition ...2 months ago
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Articulations - Creating house rules, custom rules specific to a local group or campaign, has been common throughout the history of D&D. What makes an effective house rule...2 months ago
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A Fiftieth Anniversary Year - The 50th anniversary year of *Dungeons & Dragons *is drawing to a close. A number of projects I'd been planning for this year finally came out, and I ...3 months ago
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A Quick Look at The Wizard’s Scroll II - October of this year saw the release of The Wizard’s Scroll II, the second issue of a White Box Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game (FMAG) zine whose first ...3 months ago
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Writing playlists for all occasions - Hello again! Going off the idea of inspiration elaborated on by the prior post, I also have music playing while I write my various games and fiction pieces...3 months ago
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The Tarot of Pips - Somewhere in your dice collection is a die like this one, the humblest of dice. Although you don't know it, this small white die carries with it a secr...3 months ago
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Pirates and Necromancers, a Play Report - Over the Thanksgiving weekend we did a lot of gaming ranging from “off-table” domain level stuff to some solo adventures to spell and magic item rese...3 months ago
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OSR: Magical Industrial Gunboats - Here's some useful information for river-based adventures using *Magical Industrial Revolution*. Skip to Part 3 or click this PDF link if you just want t...4 months ago
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Welcome new Greyhawk Fans! - With the publication of the new Dungeon Master’s Guide, there are doubtless going to be a lot of new D&D players interested in my favorite setting, the Wor...5 months ago
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New Planar Magic Items - Hellsguard, Mephrytis, Ring of Planar Vision, and Four New Potions - I've been busily working away on various projects since the end of April, including attending the North Texas RPG Con in Dallas from 5-10 June 2024 (and ...9 months ago
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It's been a bit - Hey everyone, I hope you are doing well! I've had a lot going on and haven't had much time to blog lately. Heres a recap of gaming events and other st...10 months ago
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The Economy Engine, v0.2 - I made a thing. For D&D 3rd edition, so it might not be that interesting to a lot of people. But I made it and I think it’s cool. The 3rd edition Dungeon M...1 year ago
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*'s in SpaaaaaAaaaace - A lot of SF (including a certain 2D6 RPG grandaddy) deal with ancient aliens taking humans from Earth and dropping them, fleas and all, on one or more w...1 year ago
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Housekeeping 2024 - Coactus Illustration © Heather Gwinn. A gift she gave me in 2013 for an edition of Miscreated Creatures which I hope exists someday. Coloring by me. I am a...1 year ago
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Last move - to self-hosting! - As my vote regarding Substack in the “marketplace of ideas”, I’m moving to self-hosting. I’m now at (and hopefully staying for a long time at) Blog: ht...1 year ago
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Osamu Tezuka (1928 - 1989) - [image: Osamu Tezuka - Shonen Magazine Cover, 1970]Shonen Magazine Cover, 1970 [image: Osamu Tezuka - Shonen Magazine Cover Illustration 1970]Shonen Maga...2 years ago
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This is an Important Game Mechanic - *"That's the GM's Regional Map from my AOWG. And it's a damned good regional map. It's not a good map for a Simple Homebrew Campaign. It does some s$&...2 years ago
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Clean Your Room - Looking back at my little blog here. That last post… wow, I was having fun playing WOW Classic! That was August of 1999 and I was having a blast… it was ...3 years ago
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Steve Jackson Interview - James Maliszewski recently did an interview with Steve Jackson over on his Grognardia blog. Steve chats about the beginnings of The Fantasy Trip and upcomi...4 years ago
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The Hero’s Journey 2nd Edition, Campbellian roleplaying at its best! - (this review done using the reviewers own purchased copy) I have been a James Michael Spahn fan since he wrote his Swords & Wizardry Companion. His writing...4 years ago
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ToAD Monster of the Week: Crocoman - Now that I'm back doing the blog thing I thought I would use Tome of Adventure Design to create monsters for The Black Hack. Using the monster tables in th...5 years ago
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More Arden Vul Art - Another great piece from Del, this one's the Forum of Set: a place that the PCs may spend quite a bit of time within.5 years ago
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OCHRE SAND - Init +0 Ranged Atk • fire burst +3 (1d14+1, 20') AC 17 HD 3d6 MV 60 Act 1d24 SP 'breath' weapon, sideslip, perfect silence, morphing Fort +5 Ref +8 Will...5 years ago
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Strange, Dangerous, and Inhuman: The Fey and Fairie - When I was a boy I loved fairy tales. Jack and the Beanstalk, Puss in Boots, Rumpelstiltskin - I devoured all of it. My fascination that there was a strang...5 years ago
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New Map of the Elf Empire and Southern Isles - I’ve been having fun developing a new map-drawing style that I think is finally reaching a certain level of maturity. And yeah, it owes a lot to Matthew Ad...5 years ago
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The Faithful - An Optional Archetype for Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells Revised Edition - Work on the revised edition of Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells is moving along. This will be a hefty tome, with a LOT of tools and new options to customiz...5 years ago
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Dungeons & Dragonmead Fall Schedule - *As you know, I run public classic Dungeons & Dragons games at **The Loaded Die**/Metro Detroit Game Night's Board Game Nigh at **Dragonmead**, in Warren...5 years ago
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Fiction in Airhde - On a whim this weekend, I picked up some fiction off the TLG store. *A Houseless God & Other Tales* and *The Mirrored Soul & Other Tales*, both by the T...5 years ago
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Ravensburg Reboot: Streamlined City Map - I mentioned in my last post how I was tweaking and reworking parts of my Ravensburg setting. Today I streamlined the city map. The old map had lots of redu...5 years ago
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And Now the News Draft Download on Patreon - It's self-styled Throwback Thursday and *having just released the 34-page draft booklet of Hill Cantons news to my Patreon backers* I am going to indulge m...5 years ago
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The Withered Crag available now - I just enabled the sale of the PDF version of The Withered Crag at DriveThruRPG a few minutes ago, and the custom print version will be available startin...5 years ago
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Annihilation Rising Goes live - The latest in Fail Squad Games’ Quick Kick projects has gone live and needs your support!! This project is only running 11 days and ends on 5/28/2019! ...5 years ago
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James's Celebration of Life - We could not have asked for a prettier day for James's service. It was a bit chilly and windy but gorgeous. A heartfelt thank you to all that joined us tod...5 years ago
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Trap Tuesday: A step back - I will get back to Tomb of Horrors soon. I found a topic that was interesting enough to take a break. While interacting in a 5E group on Facebook I talked ...5 years ago
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Let's Talk About Pacing! - The idea, I think, is that the RPG is ultimately about the long game. Even rolling back to the early days of Basic & Expert, the goal of the player was...6 years ago
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Profane and Profound Prep Part 2 - This is part 2 of my work to edit my magic items for a DMsGuild release, along with adding cursed items along the way. Here is part 1. Bone of a Saint 8000...6 years ago
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MIDDLE DUNGEONS LEVEL FIVE 158 STAIRS. - 158 STAIRS. These stairs descend thirty feet to Area 79 on Level 6.6 years ago
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Please, I don't do paid advertisements - don't ask. - A little note since people have asked me about this. My video channel's *not* an advertising platform, so I'm not available for hire if you want to promote...6 years ago
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New website! - Slowly but surely, all the content here will make its way — in updated form! — to my new website: timbannock.com. For fairly obvious reasons, that site wil...6 years ago
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Please Update Your Link! - If you're seeing this, it means your link to the Greyhawk Grognard blog is out of date. Please update your link to www.greyhawkgrognard.com (RSS feed is h...6 years ago
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Total Sales for WB:FMAG - Hi Folks, It's been a long time since I provided an update for the sales of White Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game. *LULU* Print: 396 PDF: 433 *OBS*...6 years ago
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How can We Destroy this Campaign World? - d12 1. You must trick a bard into strumming the *Chords of Fate* on the *Lute of Annihilation* 2. Legends tell of thermonuclear weapons beneath megadunge...6 years ago
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Mord Mar - Session 5 - We had another successful delve into the dungeon yesterday. The delvers: Moira, the Magic-User Radovan - Human Cleric (of Odin?) Khazgar Stonehand - Dwarf ...6 years ago
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Yodeling For Yokels or The Further Misa(d&)dventures - This is the one of those posts that points out the lack of current posts. Over the last week or three, there has been postponed Labyrinth Lord (twice, one...6 years ago
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Bundle of Fantasy Age - Bundle of Holding: Dragon Age/Fantasy Age: Available until March 12. PA Presents: Fantasy AGE Freeport live play Green Ronin in 2018 The Fantasy Age RPG ma...7 years ago
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New Free PDF Module: The Hyqueous Vaults - A new dungeon module—written in celebration of OSRIC's 10th Birthday—by Rebecca Dettmann, Allan T. Grohe, Jr., Jimm Johnson, Matthew Riedel, Alex Zisch, a...7 years ago
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Session XCIII: One Pissed Off Dragon! - Our ongoing Swords and Wizardry sandbox campaign... *Current Player Characters:* *Thenus* (Ranger) *Wang Du* (Monk) *Wolfheir* (Viking) *Arg* (Half-orc) ...7 years ago
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Swords & Wizardry Light: Session # 6 - Two months after our last session (thanks to things like 8th grade finals, a 4 year-old's birthday and party, Father's Day, etc.), we finally had our next ...7 years ago