Death Notice - Edward Pugh - Reaper President & CEO

 

I'll be donating to a local no-kill shelter in Ed's name.

Huge Discounts *some over 50%) on D&D 5e Books at Amazon - D&D Starter Set: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle 10 Bucks!

There are some huge discounts on D&D 5e books over at Amazon, some discounted AND priced at "get 3 books for the price of 2". If there are holes in your 5e collection, now is likely a good time to plug them.

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I am VERY surprised to find the NEW D&D Starter Set: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle priced at 10 Bucks. At that price, I may buy copies for my niece and nephew and let them possibly find their own interest in RPGs ;)

D&D Starter Set: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle (2022 Release) - $20 $10

There's more, of course ;)

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Black Friday Sales Have Gone Live at DTRPG

This year's Black Friday Sale is live over at DTRPG, and will be live through Monday, 11/28/22. Discounts appear to range from 20-30% off a ton of titles.

Tomorrow, Black Friday, and 11/28, Cyber Monday will have special deeper discounts on a few titles.

I'll follow this short post up with one tomorrow highlighting the special titles and some OSR picks.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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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 - Paranoia Perfect Edition

I've been a huge fan of Paranoia since the very first edition - my awesome boxed set that was missing the 2d10 dice that were supposed to have been included. I even playtested a scenario for Hill Sector Blues, and the Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues is still one of the finest RPG adventures ever written.

Mongoose Publishing is Kickstarting a new edition of Paranoia. Sure, there have been a number of editions over the years, but damn, it's such a great game for conventions and one-shots.

About 60 bucks get you the new edition of Paranoia, the Paranoia Perfect Edition in print and PDF, and that includes shipping. I'm in. There are other backer levels, but this one is mine ;)

Say hello to Paranoia Perfect Edition, otherwise known as ‘that cool game with a computer and Troubleshooters, and you shoot everything, and the GM lies, and you die repeatedly but holy cow is that game fun’.

Paranoia created controversy simply by being created. It took the traditional RPG tropes of cooperation, problem-solving and epic adventures against evil and turned them on their heads. Paranoia uses competition, problem-blaming and confusing missions against whatever you were told was evil: a villain, a convenient patsy or evidence of government corruption. Above all else, Paranoia is a roleplaying game that knows it should be fun and entertaining, so it focuses on those and not silly things like plausibility or internal consistency.

You play a Troubleshooter, which is like a volunteer fireman but for police, except it’s not voluntary and people hate you. You receive missions from everyone’s leader and best friend (as required by law), an AI called The Computer. Your job is to find trouble and shoot it. What kind of trouble? Mostly those declared traitors, which includes anyone with a mutant power or who belongs to an illegal secret society.

Oh, your character has a mutant power and belongs to an illegal secret society. So do the other players. And each of you has a laser pistol. Now, play nice! Or shoot each other in the back. That’s more likely.

 

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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  

Frog God Games Sale - 50%-60% Off Nearly Everything! Early Black Friday is Here!

Frog God Games is running some Black Friday Sales at DTRPG and their own Frog God storefront and the price cuts are DEEP. 

Everything Frog God Games has in digital format at DriveThruRPG is  60% off. All of the new releases from Necromancer Games are 60% off at DriveThruRPG.

Over at the Frog God Webstore, the discount is 50% off print and PDF prices using the coupon code: MOST-ORCUS-TIME-2022

Did I mention Frog God Games is also offering a holiday-themed freebie? Grab The Terrible Yule Cat for OSE, C&C, and 5e for free!

So, some of my picks are, in no particular order and no preference to the storefront (get your print copies directly from the Frogs and your PDF only from DriveThruRPG)

Lost Lands (Setting Book) - one of the best fantasy settings available, bar none. System neutral, so run it with S&W, OSE, Dungeon Fantasy, The Fantasy Trip - whatever you desire.

Tehuatl (Setting Book) - a mesoamerican themed setting, it is very well done and does a great job showing respect to the setting. Like the Lost Lands setting, it is system neutral.

Rappan Athuk (mega-dungeon) - a timeless mega-dungeon. Available in the "classic" S&W version or the new shiny 5e version, either way, you can't go wrong.

Monstrosities (monster book) - for S&W, every creature has a hook or mini-adventure attached to it. If you don't already have a copy, snag it now.

Moon Daughter's Fate (adventure)- for S&W and 5e, Moon Daughter's Fate has its root in traditional Chinese folklore, not something that you find all that often in an RPG adventure.

The Midderlands (setting) - this is the 5e version of Glynn Seal's fantastic faux Britan setting.

How Orcus Stole Christmas (adventure) - James Spahn at his best. Available in S&W, PF1e, and 5e flavors.

Much, much more ;)

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Bundle of Holding - Engine GM Guides (System Neutral)

I've picked up each of these Engine GM Guides over the years and they are excellent resources, both for game prep and for improv in session. I really can't recommend them enough, and for less than 10 bucks for the six titles, it really is a steal.

Gamemaster! This Engine GM Guides Quick Deal gathers ebooks from Engine Publishing that help improve your skill in running tabletop roleplaying games. Written by the experienced GMs at the widely read gamemastering blog Gnome Stew and by many of the field's leading RPG designers, Engine's system-neutral guides show how to prepare and run a game session, conjure interesting characters and storylines, manage an ongoing campaign, and (ahem) improvise when your players gleefully destroy your sessions, characters, storylines, and campaign.

Odyssey the Complete Gamemaster Guide to Campaign ManagementEach of these terrific guides has appeared in one of five past Bundle of Holding offers, 2013-2020. If you missed any of those, or if you're new to the collected wisdom of the Gnome Stew bloggers, this Quick Deal gives you the complete six-book collection for less than the retail price of one guide. For just US$9.95 you get all six complete gamemastering guides in our Engine Collection (retail value $78) as DRM-free ebooks:

Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots to Inspire Gamemasters (previously in the November 2013 Worldbuilder's Toolkit 1)

Focal Point: The Complete Game Master's Guide to Running Extraordinary Sessions (in Toolkit 4, Nov 2016)

Masks: 1,000 Memorable NPCs for Any Roleplaying Game (in Toolkit 1, Nov 2013)

Never Unprepared: The Complete Game Master's Guide to Session Prep (in Toolkit 3, Dec 2015, and in Bundle 5, Aug 2013)

Odyssey: The Complete Game Master's Guide to Campaign Management (in Toolkit 2, Nov 2014)

Unframed: The Art of Improvisation for Game Masters (in Toolkit 3, Dec 2015)

 

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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  

Getting Ready for the "Off" Season....

Note: Since I know that some of my home group read this....please know this isn't about "us".

This week marks the beginning of what I kind of refer to as the "shitty season" as far as table-top RPGs go. Because of the impending holidays, there aren't any conventions and there really aren't any weekly games going on. I'm used to there being attempts to game, but they almost never pan out. At best maybe there is a gaming group get-together that's a bit of a Christmas party, but that's about it.

Now this isn't really a complaint or condemnation, just an observation.

Gaming is important to me on a couple of levels, one of which is straight-up mental health. Most of my friends I have through gaming and sitting around slinging dice is probably one of the most beneficial social interactions I have outside of work. It's kind of important for me and I'm willing to bet that many, if not most, of us are somewhere on a similar line. 

Yeah, sure....you are perfectly fine, socially well-adjusted and all that. You've probably already rolled your eyes at least once and are only reading this far 'cause you got nothing better to do the Sunday before Turkey Day. In that case, make a quick mental review of your group and see if any of your fellow dice chuckers fit the bill.

Now I'm lucky in that I'll get to go home for some time this holiday season and I don't necessarily have co-workers, but brothers....so I should be good. Add in a little online gaming and a few extra trips to the FLGS, along with at least one Christmas Party...and I should be good.

.....should be. I'm lucky enough that I can send up a flare if I'm wrong.

At this point in this one-sided discussion I have but a simple ask: do a low-level reach out this holiday season to your gaming buddies and see if they might need a little more non-holiday social interaction if you're not getting together as much as you usually do...even those that are a bit more on the introverted side.