Deal of the Day - FlexTale Infinite Adventures Volume 1: Western Realm of Aquilae (System Neutral)

We've had a nice streak of OSR usable Deals of the Day, and today is no different.

Today's Deal of the Day is FlexTale Infinite Adventures Volume 1: Western Realm of Aquilae (System Neutral). Normally 9.99 in PDF, until tomorrow morning at 11 AM Eastern, it is on sale for 2 bucks.

Summary

Contains 25 significant points of interest (POI).  Each one is designed to be interesting enough for at least an entire gaming session, if not an entire multi-session arc, or even an entire campaign.  Each POI could be its own book :)

Each POI is designed to be immediately usable in any fantasy TTRPG, in any campaign setting, with zero to little preparation.

The entire book has been designed from the ground up to support and enable solo adventuring.

Also contains universally-usable mechanics, guidelines, tables, and general resources for all points of interest in a fantasy TTRPG campaign.

Zero Prep, System-Agnostic

Designed to be immediately usable in any fantasy TTRPG, all Infinite Adventures books require zero prep time.

What is This Thing?

FlexTale Infinite Adventures is a concept that applies the Infinium Game Studio approach to points of interest on a fantasy TTRPG map.  Detailed descriptions, endless permutations of things to keep things fresh, easy-to-use tables and resources, and plenty of ideas and inspiration.

This book is the first in a series describing the various Points of Interest (POI) in the Western Realm of Aquilae.  Though it was created with this setting in mind, everything in this book was designed to be system- and setting-agnostic.

Inside, you'll find:

• Discovery, including read-aloud text, "Why You Might Come Here", "So You Find Yourself Here", Hooks, and more.
• Activities, including Adventure Snippets, Quests, Secrets, Threats, and more.
• Location information, including a heatmap / location guide for the POI's presence in the Realm of Aquilae.
• Rumors & Lore table with true, partially true, and false stories about the POI.
• Events and Quirks, describing unique phenomena that might occur as you explore.
• More interesting for players.  Easier to run for D/GMs.  Full, out of the box support for solo players.
• And above all: NOT BORING!

Contents

Inside, you'll find:

• 149 tables
• 35 FlexTables (each one 4 tables in one)
• 37 pages of Utility Tables: quickly and dynamically generate entire dungeon maps, traps, poisons, diseases, curses, treasure, and spells.
• "Jump Right In" introduciton describing exactly how to use this book based on your needs as a G/DM
• Dedicated discussion on how to use this book as a solo adventurer
• Creature Modifiers to quickly make even the most ho-hum, boring common monster more interesting and unique
• Much, much more!

Points of Interest

Each of the following gets 4 full dedicated pages of description, tools, variability, and resources.  With the tables provided, any one of these POI represents tens of thousands of possible combinations of use in your game!

1. Abbey
2. Ancient Halls
3. Aquifers of Charnel Heights
4. Armory of Armies
5. Army of the Damned
6. Astuterie Galleries
7. Asylums
8. Barbarian Wastes
9. Barrowlands
10. Basin of Welcome
11. Bazaar of the Righteous
12. Behemoth Falls
13. Blackiron Cathedral
14. Blackstack Village
15. Blades of Thyraxis
16. Bleaktract
17. Bloodwater Dam
18. Bone Orchard
19. Bravislatovok
20. Breweries of the Ivory Flight
21. Cagicull Keep
22. Cairn of the Forsaken
23. Cakemount
24. Camels Threat
25. Canyon of the Godswound

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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. 

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Deal of the Day - Low Fantasy Gaming Deluxe Edition

I played in a Low Fantasy Gaming campaign a few years back and it was a blast. It kind of made me think of what 5e would have been if it hewed closer to its old-school roots.

For 4 bucks, Low Fantasy Gaming Deluxe Edition is a steal (normally 20 bucks in PDF, it is the Deal of the Day until tomorrow morning at 11 AM Eastern, so there is still time).

Low Fantasy Gaming is a tabletop RPG built for gritty adventures in low or moderate magic settings. It has simple rules, dangerous combat, flexible PC customisation, and mysterious, unpredictable magic. Designed for short, episodic adventures in sandbox worlds, LFG provides the mechanics and tables needed for easy GM improvisation. It’s a heady mix of the best old school, modern, and new game design, wrapped around a familiar d20 core.

Main Features

• Full Colour and B&W Line Art versions.
• 9 Classes: Artificer, Barbarian, Bard, Cultist, Fighter, Monk, Ranger, Rogue & Magic User; only two of which involve magic.
• 12th Level Max eliminates the most powerful spells, and keeps the mightiest monsters scary.
• Unique Features: every 3rd level design your own PC ability in conjunction with your GM. Don't want to make your own? Choose from 36 examples instead. 
• Roll Equal or Under for attribute checks (including degrees of success) makes every stat point matter (rather than just the modifiers).
• Skills provide access to a level based Reroll Pool, smoothing the fickleness of d20 probability distribution.
• Willpower & Perception attributes replace Wisdom.
• Diminishing Luck attribute replaces saving throws and powers some Martial Exploits.  
• Minor, Major & Rescue Exploits on top of damage, not in lieu, promote improvised stunts and moments of greatness.
• Dangerous Combat: Dropping to zero hp requires a roll on the Injuries & Setbacks table and healing is delayed by 1d3 minutes (magical or otherwise). Players don't roll to find out if their PC is All Dead or Mostly Dead until the battle ends and someone checks the body.
• Party Retreat & Chase rules allow the GM to throw whatever makes sense at the party, unshackling them from balanced encounters and quarantined zones.
• 5 minute Short Rests allow PCs to attempt Willpower checks to recover hit points and class abilities, encouraging the party to push on rather than camp.
• Long Rests take 1d6 days (or 1d4 in a safe, comfortable environment), mitigating the nova, rest, repeat problem for adventures with long periods between battles (eg: wilderness treks).
• Dark & Dangerous Magic tests and Divine Rebuke tests make all spell casting inherently uncertain. No at-will, teleport, mind reading or resurrection magic. Magic Users are less reliant on spells, proficient in one handed weapons and light armour.
• Evocative Spells: Spells have been tweaked and renamed, eg: Silent Image, Invisibility, Magic Missile and Hold Monster are instead Shadows & Dust, A Wisp Unseen, Lash of Unerring Pain and Crush of the Warp.
• Rare Magic Items, with obvious and discreet attunements, that unlock as their owners level up.
• GM Tables for Weather, Exploration Events, Random Encounters, Traps, Treasure, Disease, Madness, Tavern Brawls, Hirelings, Mass Battle, Naval Combat, NPC Quirks, Rival Adventurers, Blackpowder, and more.
• 130+ Monsters including effective Boss Monster options (eg: Off Turn Attacks match the party's action economy, and Stronger Luck grants saves even when a save is not normally permitted), plus Custom Monsters guide.   
• Online Play Support: custom LFG character sheets are available for online VTTs Roll20, Fantasy Grounds MoreCore, Foundry, and Tabletop Simulator!
• Open Game Content: 99% of LFG text is "Open Game Content" under the Open Game Licence. Want to make your own adventures or expansions for LFG and sell them? Go right ahead!
• Character Sheets: Illustrated Colour and B&W character sheets (including a B&W Form Fillable PDF) are available as free downloads via DTRPG.
• GM Screen: 4 panel GM Screen PDF is available for free download via DTRPG.
• Starter Adventures: Three starter adventures are available for free download via DTRPG (Revelry in Northgate, Call of the Colossus, and Gift of the Silent God).
• Rules as Guidelines. The GM is the final authority on all LFG rules, which are expected to be tweaked to fit table preferences.

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.  Tenkar 

Deal of the Day - City of Great Lunden

 Glynn Seal does amazing work. All of it. Mapping, art, writing, settings, adventures - if Glynn's name is on it, you know it is good.

Today's Deal of the Day is Glynn's City of Great Lunden. Until tomorrow at 11 AM Eastern, it is on sale for 5.56.

The City of Great Lunden is a city setting for use with old school roleplaying games. It is designed to be used alongside The Midderlands setting and hence is 'The Midderlands Compatible'. Game stats are presented for use with Swords & Wizardry Complete, which means they are easily adopted for old school games/retroclones. Much of the content is designed to be as system-neutral as possible, so feel free to use it with any fantasy game system you like.

This book DOES NOT require The Midderlands setting, but it is greatly enhanced with it. There might be references to things found in the other books. Don't worry if you don't have those previous settings books, you can still get them here.

The download files contain:

• 224-page book detailing the city.
• Map of the entire City of Great Lunden and its environs
• Enlarged map of the Inner Wards
• Enlarged map of the Sewer Network
• Enlarged map of the Rooftops of part of the Inner Wards (Rooftop Chase map)
• Enlarged Northeast quadrant of the City and its environs
• Enlarged Northwest quadrant of the City and its environs
• Enlarged Southeast quadrant of the City and its environs
• Enlarged Southwest quadrant of the City and its environs
• Ward map
• PDF containing 6 pregenerated characters feature in the book

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 - RPG Legends: Baldur's Gate & Beyond

I was just thinking that I needed to explore some of the recent classics in computer RPGs. In my mind, that means the era of IBM PCs, instead of my old Commodore C-64 ;)

What pops up on my feed? I new bundle from Humble Bundle - RPG Legends: Baldur's Gate and Beyond. My classics are here!

There are three price points, depending on your budget (OSX folks are in luck too!)

20 bucks give you as pictured above. Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous is currently 50 bucks on Steam with decent reviews. Of course, you get all of the other titles too.

10 bucks give you everything except for Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous.

For a measly buck, you get Planescape: Torment EE as well as Icewind Dale EE.

Looks like I'll be lost in nostalgia for a few weeks ;)

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

 

Kickstarter - The Valley Out of Time for S&W DCC MCC Part 5&6 FINAL!

Sometimes MORE literally is better. In this case, we are talking about more Skeeter Green. No. I've known Skeeter for years. I consider him a friend. I've also been nearly violated by Skeeter (listen to one of the livestreams where Skeeter has guested on Talking Crit and you'll probably hear the story told), so pissing off Skeeter might not be a "good thing". Thankfully, I've enjoyed the prior parts to the Valley out of Time and I'm eagerly awaiting parts 5 and 6 to wrap this fucker up. Now I'll need to find time to run them ;)

I'm backing The Valley Out of Time for S&W DCC MCC Part 5&6 FINAL! for the Swords & Wizardry flavor in Print & PDF. 18 bucks plus shipping, I think is a steal.

The Valley Out of Time is a series of 'zine-sized adventures from SGP. This valley can be placed in any ongoing campaign and is set in the "Neanderthal Period" of tech development. Huge monsters – both dinosaurs and otherwise – and devolved humanoids plague the area, and only the hardiest of adventurers will prevail! This series of adventures borrows heavily from classic dinosaur art, books, and movies; if you have ever seen a classic Frank Frazetta or Roy Krenkel painting, or read or watched The Land that Time Forgot, The Lost World, Journey to the Center of the Earth, One Million Years B.C., The Flintstones, any Ray Harryhausen film, etc., you are going to feel right at home.

All the books in the series are 5 1/2" x 8" saddle-stitch (stapled) or perfect-bound (glued) "zine size" offerings, ranging from 20 to 30 (or more!) pages. The price for the books is based off calculations for the 20-page book, so the larger books are just more content! Enjoy!

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

Bundle of Holding - Novel Writing Game Tools

Now, I expect a certain number of you are saying to yourselves: "What the fuck! Tenkar, what IS this?" I'll admit, I said the same to myself, but I find the whole concept novel. Yeah, I know, bad pun but Whatever ;)

I KNOW many of my readers are frustrated potential writers, and since almost all of my readers are tabletop gamers, I figured it might be a good fit, even if many don't wish to self-identify as so. Heh!

I don't know if there is enough value to justify the Bonus Collection at nearly 24 bucks, but for 7.95, you get the 4 titles in the Starter Collection at less than 2 bucks each. Yep, the four titles in the Novel Writing Games Tools Bundle are available for 7.95.

Writers! To help you prepare for National Novel-Writing Month in November, this all-new bundle of Novel Writing Game Tools brings you tabletop roleplaying ebooks and creativity aids that help aspiring novelists everywhere. Each year on November 1, hundreds of thousands of people around the world begin to write, determined to end the month with 50,000 words of a new novel. They enter the month as teachers, mechanics, stay-at-home parents, or gamers; they emerge as novelists. It's a fun, free, seat-of-your-pants approach to creative writing. In 2021 427,000 writers participated. Join them! Lay the foundation for your novel by first creating a setting, characters, and timeline using these .PDF ebooks of solo journaling, group story-making, and mapmaking games.

For just US$7.95 you get all four complete games in our Starter Collection (retail value $35) as DRM-free ebooks, including Artefact (Mousehole Press), Apothecaria (Blackwell Games), Epitaph (Less Than Three Games), and Mappa Imperium (Nookrium).

Bucket of Bolts solo journaling gameAnd if you pay more than the threshold price of $23.38, you'll level up and also get our entire Bonus Collection with five more games and expansions worth an additional $57, including The Magus (momatoes), Bucket of Bolts (Mousehole Press), Back Again From the Broken Land (Cloven Pine Games), and two Apothecaria supplements: Maker's Market and The Wild Highlands.

 

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

I Get to Roll Up a Psionicist

OK, this is my second go because I didn't care for the 1st one.*

I don't want to post any spoilers for my fellow player who I know sometimes reads these posts, but I'm getting the opportunity to create a new PC...read that however you want to.

I managed to talk my GM into letting me create a psionic character, which means I finally have a reason to read the Basic Psionics Handbook. The GM was a little hesitant, thinking that he will have to re-work the entire "campaign", but one of my fellow players was like, "....but do you really?"

That kind of struck a nerve with me, and not in a bad way. As a GM, I get it.....someone wants to bring in this whole other thing into your game and it's natural to think about all the stuff you need to do to accommodate, or I even dare say cater to, that player in order to make it work. As a GM I think we all default to how our campaigns are these little well-balanced masterpieces and if we introduce something new it'll wreck everything.

Clearly laughable in this particular case because these sessions aren't "masterpieces" and our GM is introducing new shit all of the time. Just an observation, not a dig. If the game wasn't fun I wouldn't be playing.

Game balance is important, but I also feel it's more important within the party. Everyone needs to feel like they contribute and get an opportunity to "do their thing" or to even shine occasionally. If I have a PC that can just go in Mind Blasting everything in sight, well that's unbalanced.....

......but after reading the rules that's not really something I'd be able to do. The rules, so far, seem pretty balanced. Nothing like what I remember from 1st Edition, not that I ever rolled up a PC with the requisite stats for those rules antyway.

Now I'm totally thinking of tweaking things to be a great supporting character. Not going to be having my moment in the middle of a dungeon combat and in many ways this PC might be boring, but I'll have fun checking out the rules.

Besides, if my PC gets too powerful I'm sure the locals will rise up and a mob will tear her apart for being a "witch".

*I had a long-assed post about this whole Defamation suit and why I thought it was bullshit, but IANAL and if you're interested you can look that shit up yourself. I'm of the opinion that this is clearly a SLAPP suit and somebody either has a lawyer that will do anything for some more billable hours or said somebody has more money than sense because if I hire a professional to advise me I generally want to follow that advice...that I paid for.

For now though.....