Modiphius Entertainment RollVsEvil Sale - in Print!

I'm always in favor of a good sale, and the prices shown above (and below) are amazing for printing RPG material. Maybe you'll find just what you are looking for in the Modiphius Entertainment RollVsEvil sale ;)

All proceeds from this sale are DOUBLED and go to RollVsEvil frontline work in Ukraine!

RollVsEvil has been created to give the tabletop community a way to support small groups and charities working directly on the ground where we can see verifiable immediate results and know that we are changing lives. The first campaign is in support of people suffering from the invasion of Ukraine, and you can help raise funds by purchasing any of the products in the RollVsEvil collection here - Each $1 you spend is doubled to $2 thanks to RollVsEvil and their friends Paul & Linda Wedgewood. All funds go to support the frontline work of RollVsEvil in Ukraine - you can find out more about the non-for-profit here https://www.rollvsevil.com/ - which was set up by Modiphius founders Chris & Rita Birch.

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Deal of the Day - The Hero's Journey: Second Edition (OSR)

The Hero’s Journey Fantasy Roleplaying, Second Edition is a fantasy roleplaying game that blends classic tradition and modern game design to bring you an experience where players take up the mantle of heroes in a world of danger and magic inspired by classic fairy stories and timeless fantasy literature.

Truth. James Spahn, the author of The Hero’s Journey Fantasy Roleplaying, Second Edition is one of my closest friends. He's not just an amazing creator of RPG materials, but also a damn good person. The Hero's Journey is one of his finest works.

Until tomorrow morning at 11 AM, The Hero's Journey: Second Edition, is marked down from 14.99 to 3 bucks, 80% off. I wish I had a chance to put this post up earlier in the day, but you still have 12 hours to snag it at the reduced price.

Whether you’re taking a Knight clad in shining armor astride your grand steed, a cunning Burglar hoping to use your silver tongue to flatter a terrifying Elder Wyrm while your friends slip away, or a dedicated Yeoman who has given your heart and soul to defend the good and true people of the world from the strange dangers of Fairie and beyond, The Hero’s Journey, Second Edition creates a gaming experience firmly rooted traditional western folklore where the player characters are more than just sword-swinging mercenaries looking to kick in the door, kill the monster, and claim the loot. In The Hero’s Journey, Second Edition, they are all that stands between civilization and the unimaginable dangers just beyond the wild…

Why A Second Edition: It its original edition, The Hero’s Journey Fantasy Roleplaying was explicitly designed to be compatible with Swords & Wizardry: White Box and similar games. While this new edition is still rooted in that classic rules set,extensive changes have been made to almost every element of the game in order to further evoke and emphasize the tone and theme of the game. In addition, more modern elements of game design have been seamless incorporated to keep play fast and simple. Some example changes include, but are not limited to…

New Lineages: In addition to traditional fantasy lineages like Humans, Dwarves, and Elves, players will also have the option of playing the strange and obfuscated Changeling: A fey creature left as a replacement for a child stolen at birth and raised among mortals.

New Archetypes: The original edition of The Hero’s Journey featured thirteen classes. This edition has been streamlined to keep the focus on classic, folklore-infused fantasy and now features only eight classes: the charming Bard, the clever Burglar, the noble Knight, the rugged Ranger, the swashbuckling Swordsman, the stern Warrior, the enigmatic Wizard, and the stalwart Yeoman.

New Monsters: Every single monster in The Hero’s Journey, Second Edition has been given a complete overhaul to bring them more in line with folklore, fairy tradition, and classic fantasy literature. For example: Kobolds, commonly known as yipping dog-lizards to many fantasy gamers, are now strange and diminutive elementals that appear old men fading into the stone as they guide and waylay underground travelers. Several new monsters are also introduced, like the savage draconic Lindworm, which craves the taste of flesh and whose wrath can only be undone when its impenetrable scaled armor is peeled away layer by layer. There is no such thing as a “stock” monster in The Hero’s Journey, Second Edition.

New Spellcasting: The traditional Vancian magic system which previously appeared in The Hero’s Journey has been drastically overhauled. Now Wizards may cast any spell they know and each spell has a myriad of different potential effects! In addition, particularly brave and reckless arcanists may Tap the Essence and sacrifice their own body when they are otherwise unable to cast a spell. Instead of being a stock list of spells found in so many other classic fantasy RPGs, these spells have been modified and re-written to fit the tone and feel of The Hero’s Journey.

Myth Points and Magic Items: Unlike many traditional fantasy role-playing games, characters in The Hero’s Journey, Second Edition acquire magic items by performing heroic deeds that become inexonerably tied forever to the weapons, armor, and strange trinkets they carry on their adventures. As characters progress and grow, they earn Myth Points, which can be spent to create unique magic items specifically tailored by the player to their individual character instead simply finding a “better sword” in the next treasure hoard. Magics grow and develop alongside a character, becoming an important part of their legend.

 Don't forget to subscribe to the Tenkar's Tavern Youtube Channel to ensure you don't miss an episode. https://www.youtube.com/c/TenkarsTavern

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 affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar 

Indiegogo - Deities of the Lost Lands: Gods of the Empires

This Lost Lands sourcebook details deities of the Hyperborean Empire and Kingdom of the Foerdewaith.

A system-neutral deities book supporting the system-neutral Lost Lands setting from Frog Games? I'm in!

Deities of the Lost Lands: Gods of the Empires is 18 in PDF, 35 in print plus PDF.

The Lost Lands is the campaign world of Necromancer Games and Frog God Games, home to locations now legendary in the annals of roleplaying, from the depths of the massive dungeons of Rappan Athuk to the city of Bard’s Gate, the Desolation of Tsar, the demon-tainted Sundered Lands, and the chaotic tumult of the Borderland Provinces.

The Hyperboreans first entered the historical record of the Lost Lands more than three thousand years ago when their legions marched south into the lands of Akados. For long years, their dominion was uncontested. Yet nothing lasts forever, and after their empire fell, a new one arose upon the ruins of the old, called the Hyperborean Monarchy of the Foerdewaith.

To this day, the worship of the gods of the old Hyperborean Empire and the now decaying Kingdom of Foere have dominated much of Akados, and even today are venerated in parts of the eastern continent of Libynos. These include such renowned deities as Thyr, Muir, Mithras, Jamboor, Belon the Wise, and Archeillus. Information about some of these gods has been sprinkled throughout many of the products published over the years by Necromancer Games and Frog God Games. Never before has the information about all of the gods of Hyperborea and Foere been included in one volume... until now!

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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 affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar 

Deal of the Day - RuneQuest 2nd Edition (1980)

I still remember picking up RuneQuest 2nd Edition back in the summer of 1986(?) at a small gaming convention at Columbia University. In the dealer hall, I was able to pick up RQ2 as well as the Pavis and Big Rubble box sets for 20 bucks. Sure, the boxes were water damaged and the core book had shelf-wear, but in between the worn cover and the slightly damaged boxes, the contents were pristine and new, and oh so well done.

I ran a near-daily RQ2 campaign the rest of that summer and into the fall semester. Seriously, some of the best RPG material I ever ran (I'd put WFRP 1ed in a similar category)

Until tomorrow morning at 11 AM eastern, you can snag the RuneQuest 2nd Edition (1980) rulebook for a mere 2.99 in PDF. Trust me, its well worth the price of a cup of coffee ;)

The classic that founded an industry - An entire fantasy role-playing game in one book

Freshly reprinted from the successful Kickstarter!

In July of 1978, the Origins Game Fair was held in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Over 3500 people attended what was the largest gaming convention in the US at that time. In the main hall gamers could pick up the latest games from all the major publishers: Cross of Iron by Avalon Hill, Atlantic Wall by SPI, and The Hall of the Fire Giant King module by TSR. In one small booth near a corner you could also purchase RuneQuest, the first Roleplaying game published by The Chaosium, a quirky 3 person company from the Bay Area. It sold out over the weekend, and every print run continued to do so for the next several years. 

This is the second edition of the RuneQuest rules in its final form, with all errata incorporated into the text. Additional material has been added to the appendices at the end.

RuneQuest took the young world of roleplaying games by storm; it cast aside many of the approaches most other games took. It had no character classes, no experience points, no levels, and far fewer restrictions on how weapons, armor, and spells could be used. Instead of a D20 it uses a percentile 01-100 system. It also has the built-in fantasy world of Glorantha. 

During what many consider to be the golden age of roleplaying, RuneQuest enjoyed its greatest popularity, second only to AD&D in sales. It won numerous awards, starting in 1978 with the Strategist’s Club Award for “Outstanding Miniatures Rules”, which may sound quirky, but that was because the industry had yet to create award categories specifically for roleplaying games.

Don't forget to subscribe to the Tenkar's Tavern Youtube Channel to ensure you don't miss an episode. https://www.youtube.com/c/TenkarsTavern

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 affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar 

Deal of the Day - Axebane's Deck of Many Dungeons

I'm a huge fan of GM aids, especially those that allow a GM to improvise a game session pretty much on the fly.

Axebane's Deck of Many Dungeons is just such a tool, and at 1.50 in PDF until tomorrow at 11 AM Eastern, it is a steal!

PDF version (Color & Black and White) available now. Printed card version coming soon!

A special deck of full-color playing cards for GameMasters.

Packed with random tables and illustrated in full-color, this deck of 54 cards can generate over 1 MILLION different dungeons!

Designed to be the ultimate "Pocket GameMaster's Tool", these cards can help you make the most of your prep time. You can also use them on-the-fly during your next RPG session when your players decide to go in a completely different direction than you anticipated!

For use with most fantasy RPGs, and especially well suited to the 5th edition of the most popular role-playing game.

PLEASE NOTE: This deck of cards is not a stand-alone game. It is a tool for GameMasters to use with tabletop fantasy role-playing games!

Don't forget to subscribe to the Tenkar's Tavern Youtube Channel to ensure you don't miss an episode. https://www.youtube.com/c/TenkarsTavern

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 affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar 

Humble Bundle - Storied Strategy & Roleplaying (Computer Games for Win and OSX)

I don't cover many computer games here at The Tavern. I don't play them nearly as much as I did 20 years ago, and having moved on to an OSX environment nearly 20 years ago (coincidence?) finding CRPGs that work on an iMac often leave me depressed ;)

So color me VERY surprised when all six titles in the current Storied Strategy & Roleplaying from Humble Bundle were available for Windows and OSX for only 12 bucks. Joy of joys, I have some new (for me) games to play :)

Time to find time for distractions!

Don't forget to subscribe to the Tenkar's Tavern Youtube Channel to ensure you don't miss an episode. https://www.youtube.com/c/TenkarsTavern

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 affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar 

Thoughts About Starting Off a New PC/Game

This last week I've been playing (probably too much) Tiny Tina Wonderlands, which is a D&D themed(ish) Borderlands game. It's different, and I think I preferred the D&D themed Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragonkeep (link to the standalone...it does occasionally come up for free on Steam) DLC for Borderlands 2. I know this is lot of...exposition, but whatever. This week I decided to try out the new Blightcaller class and trying to run through the whole game up to level 40 so I can get to the end-game and the 50 (?!) levels of the Chaos Chamber. Thankfully, much to my surprise, at least the first 17 levels have allowed my new PC to skip through two levels at a time. Not sure if there is some weird requirement in order to do so, but I'm taking it.

Since I'm playing in a D&D themed 1st person loot shooter I'm definitely thinking about table-top RPGs while I slog through the grind to Chaos 50. I'm kind of wishing I didn't have to start at level 1 and work my way up, but really only because playing through the game a second time is exactly like playing through the first time. Clearly the level skipping in the Chaos Chamber is more than fine by me.

Up until recently I've never started out a TTRPG PC at beyond 1st level, well at least not in a home game. In a tournament setting one-off, it's a normal thing. Outside of a convention setting I've never GM'd PCs starting out at higher level. Currently in my home game I have a secondary PC that I use when our entire group cannot get together: Gunnhilder (Goon-hill-dur), a kick-ass 4th Level Fighter....(well I am biased). Since we've had a few sessions now I'm starting to get a bit of a feel for the PC, but really on starting. That's the problem with starting off at a higher level, there's no history: personal or shared. No biggie for a one-off, but a mini-campaign....it can be a little...disconcerting at times. Hell, after three games I still can't get the GM to say my PC's name right.

Clearly I'm a fan of starting out at 1st level and I'm also a fan of creating PCs as a group, even though there is something to be said for the chaos of randomness in parties. Want four 1st level Magic-Users and one 1st level Thief? Good luck with that.

So along with thinking about starting off new PCs I naturally (let's be honest, it takes a long time to level up a Borderlands character) segue from new PCs to new players...and not just new new players (like never rolled dice before), but new to a specific game players. Learning the ins-and-outs of a new game can be a bit much sometimes. If there was only some sort of training dungeon you could configure to learn some tips, tactics, and whatnot. 

Now my wandering thoughts were...well way too similar to the Chaos Chamber mentioned above, but...well that idea kind of sucks. Yeah, basically I'm beatings *someone* here to it! Thing is, I've done a training adventure before for the newest edition of HackMaster. Just something I put together to help out with newbs at conventions when the 5th Edition HackMaster came out. Danger in Drakesville (free on DTRPG) wasn't terribly difficult to play, or run, and really served to get a bit of experience (in and out of game), and I had fun with it for a couple of years, well maybe after the first convention season. That first convention was a PITA. Too many people basically said "fuck it" and just went off the rails in the most spectacularly-stupid fashion and I had to tweak the adventure to accommodate the two biggest fuck-offs I experienced: 1) Players thinking it would be "cool" to have their PCs down a pint of what was described as 190 proof Everclear (a pint and half would have a 50% chance of being fatal for 180# person, give or take). 2) At the clear end of the adventure, let's go into this obvious death-trap 'cause why the fuck not?

Thing is, I totally forgot I literally (in this case) wrote an adventure that the back-story is that it was a configurable dungeon, but your group was just a bunch of 1st level newbs going through it last and there were a bunch of spectators watching the group and betting. It was for 4th Edition HackMaster, which is OSR and I figure at least one person here might want a copy. Normally it's a $2 item for me on DTRPG, but I went ahead and made a special freebie discount code for "The Test" (link to the freebie). It's my hope that *somebody* could get some use from this and use it as a starter dungeon to help someone new learn to play.