Kickstarter - Nicomeiden's Tower: A Dungeon RPG Adventure (AD&D and other OSR Systems)

I know. My coverage of various Kickstarter projects has slowed down recently. It's just that the number that truly excites or interests me has shrunk even as the number of "RPG" tagged Kickstarters has significantly increased.

Nicomeiden's Tower: A Dungeon RPG Adventure is a strange choice for me to showcase. While I certainly find it interesting, I also find it to be a Kickstarter that I don't see myself backing, which is a shame.

First things first, I had to dig into this Kickstarter's FAQ to find out if this was written for the OSR, 5e, Pathfinder, or even some non-D20 system. That knowledge should be front and center, one shouldn't have to go looking for it. 

My other main issue is the pricing. $15 for an adventure to be played in a single session seems excessive. $25 for the print is on the high end, and IMHO should include the PDF version at that price, but no, it's $35 if you want print plus PDF.

Simply put, there are cheaper choices with more playability from better-known creators and publishers available. It may certainly be a viable choice for a night of gaming, but for me, not at this price point. I certainly wouldn't pay 15 bucks for a single session PDF on DTRPG.

Did I mention the video hints that there will be color (looks to be computer generated IMHO) and B&W art that isn't consistent in tone within the module? I could be wrong with this conclusion, but not likely.

I wish the creator luck and long-term success, but I won't be backing this one.

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 - Purple Sorcerer Quick Deal

I love me some Purple Sorceror. I've been following John Marr/Purple Sorceror since the early days of the DCC RPG. Amazingly enough, I'm only missing one item from the current Purple Sorcerer Bundle of Holding Quick Deal.

Adventurer! This all-new Purple Sorcerer DCC Quick Deal presents tabletop fantasy roleplaying adventures from Purple Sorcerer Games for the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG from Goodman Games. One of the oldest third-party DCC publishers, Purple Sorcerer produces free online DCC generators and that indispensable DCC utility, the Crawler's Companion. Purple Sorcerer's DCC scenarios feature sandbox settings with gaudy vistas, melodramatic characters, and deadly perils. Send your zero-level DCC characters through some of the most popular "funnels" in the game's history – for an unbeatable bargain price.

For just US$9.95 you get all four titles (with ten complete adventures!) in our Purple Collection (retail value $45) as DRM-free ebooks:

• The Sunken City Omnibus collection of introductory adventures (containing Perils of the Sunken City, Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, A Gathering of the Marked, and Lair of the Mist Men)
• The Sullenlands Adventure Omnibus & Guide (containing Nebin Pendlebrook's Perilous Pantry, Frost Fang Expedition, and Crypt in Cadaver Canyon)
• Carnival of the Damned
• Escape From the Shrouded Fen

 

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 - So You Wanna Try Out Pathfinder 2e

I've never been a Pathfinder player, regardless of edition, but my God, the Pathfinder Beginner Boxes - First AND Second Edition are simply amazing! They certainly do tempt me into the Pathfinder realms. As for the adventures, Pathfinder adventures have always been solid.

So, you say you want to check out Pathfinder 2e. Well, the Beginner Box, the Core Rules, the Bestiary, and more for 5 bucks. Talk about an inexpensive way to check out Pathfinder 2e :)

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 - Cities Without Number (Sine Nomine)

We have a new Kickstarter from Kevin Crawford, Cities Without Number.

A cyberpunk tabletop RPG from the creator of Stars Without Number.

After the sci-fi success of Stars Without Number and the fantastic response to Worlds Without Number, the new cyberpunk age of Cities Without Number is upon us. Within the pages of this tabletop role-playing game, you'll get a full-fledged system-neutral Sine Nomine toolkit for building a cyberpunk world of your own, plus an old-school game system for playing out the reckless adventures of the desperate men and women who live in it. Whether polished metal or flesh and blood, your operators will risk their lives and more to seize those precious things a merciless world would keep from them. In particular, this book contains...

• An old-school inspired game system fully compatible with the sci-fi Stars Without Number game and its fantasy sister-game Worlds Without Number
• Cyberware and sophisticated high-tech gear suitable for chroming the most discriminating cyborg and equipping the most refined of street operators
• Playability-focused hacking rules designed to give hacking-focused PCs useful and important things to do without forcing an entire separate mini-game on the GM
• Gear rules for drones and vehicles, to better equip PCs who want to bring a little extra iron on their next mission
• System-neutral Sine Nomine worldbuilding tools for helping a GM create their own custom cyberpunk world or elaborate the details of existing worlds and settings
• Gang, corp, and city district creation tools for fleshing out your world with people and places that fit
• Fifty Mission Tags for adventure creation, plus guidelines and step-by-step procedures for handling facility infiltrations, managing local heat, fencing loot, and other activities beloved of corp-hating street scum everywhere

And that's just in the free version that will be released on DTRPG for anyone to download. As with SWN and WWN, Cities Without Number will be provided in both a free and a deluxe version, the better to let an interested group jump in and play without having to spend anything. As a backer, you'll be getting the deluxe version, of course, which will also include...

• Variant gengineered human types for PCs who don't fit the baseline mold
• Spellcasting and summoning rules for GMs who want to add a dash of magic into their cyberpunk world
• Additional content creation tools to give an extra boost to a GM's creative efforts
• Several open pages to be filled with the contents that backers seem most interested in having. I've got room to add a little more here, and I'll be listening to backer comments and requests when it comes to filling them.

Here's a link to the Cities Without Number Beta  (shared with permission)

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 - Hero 6e

My introduction to the Hero System was the Champions Boxed set in the mid-80s. I'm not sure we ever got beyond character generation at my friend Lenny's kitchen table and rolling mock battles with buckets of d6s. The Hero System has come far over the last 40 some odd years.

Hero! We've resurrected our February 2021 HERO System 6E Bundle featuring the 2009 Sixth Edition of the HERO System tabletop roleplaying game rules from Hero Games. The matchless flexibility of the HERO System lets you create any character, super power, spell, equipment, vehicle, or headquarters you can imagine, and the 6E version is the most detailed and comprehensive ever. See why, among high-crunch universal systems, HERO still holds pride of place after four decades.

In both page count and discount off retail price, this February 2021 offer once again brings you one of the best values we've ever presented. For just US$9.95 you get all three titles in this revived offer's Core Collection (retail value $55) as DRM-free ebooks, including the complete two-volume 6E rulebook (V1 Character Creation and V2 Combat and Adventuring), as well as the HERO System Basic Rulebook that, at 138 pages, provides a concise introduction.

And if you pay more than this revived offer's threshold price of $40.15, you'll level up and also get this revival's entire Bonus Collection with ten more expansions and campaign supplements worth an additional $203, including both the Advanced Player's Guide and Player's Guide II rules expansions; the 6E Equipment Guide and Skills; the Grimoire, Martial Arts, and the 6E Bestiary; the Sixth Edition versions of Star Hero and Fantasy Hero; and your guide to building any headquarters from a walk-in closet to a kingdom, The Ultimate Base.

 

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 - The Toxic Wood (OSE Hexcrawl)

I'm very partial to a good hex crawl. As a mostly improv-style DM, or at least, that is where my comfort zone is, hex crawls appeal to my sense of wonder. 

Lazy Lich is well known for their hex crawls, and I'm looking forward to running headfirst into The Toxic Wood ;)

Normally 6 bucks in PDF, The Toxic Wood is on sale until tomorrow morning for a mere 3.40

The toxic wood is home to many strange entities; spiteful mutated horrors, ancient insectoid witch sisters, bloodthirsty redcaps, a mushroom witch and a corrosive dragon cult. Noxious gases produced by alien plants slowly coil through the air creating an endless red haze. Anything that is not part of the woods lethal eco-system is rapidly corroded, with all evidence of its existence erased within days.

Details:

• 32 pages
• Single column text
• 8.5 x 5.5 aspect
• Black & White
• Bookmarks
• Hyperlinks
• Random tables 
• Hooks and rumors for your players
• Rules for surviving in the toxic wood using the orb and other means
• 16 keyed hex locations
• Backgrounds for characters to aid roleplay
• New monsters 
• Key NPCs 
• A timeline of events for the DM to structure their sessions around
• Floraof the wood
• Random treasure tables
• Prompts and resolutions for what happens if players take different actions

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  

So Ha$bro Called for an Armistice...

While I'm glad to see that Ha$bro has called a CHECK FIRE on the OGL 2.0 mission, I'm not convinced (clearly) that this isn't the end of things. I don't think we won anything.....hell, I don't think there were any winner here, everybody lost. I'm a big fan of win-wins, but this was a loss all around.

WotC has traditionally devalued previous editions of Dungeons & Dragons, favoring the current/upcoming edition. It's arguably the reason we're on edition...5, 6....is 7 already in the works somewhere? It's the reason my beloved HackMaster exists (WotC traded off the rights to 1st & 2nd Edition because they were producing D&D 3.0). Things changed a little bit when Ha$bro figured out they could make a few bucks "reprinting" older AD&D material, really just printed PDFs. I'm of the belief that Ha$bro realized that they could squeeze a little more profit out of "the old stuff", but their focus was on the upcoming edition and this OGL re-write was really to maximize their margin here.

Ha$bro didn't expect the huge backlash largely because they didn't value those earlier editions. They still should have due to how messed up things would be for creators going forward, but that's what happens when marketers and analysts operate in a vacuum. I'm also of the belief that this withdrawal of the current OGL 2.0 is also monetary based in that Ha$bro doesn't want to spend what cash they have on lawsuits, especially when they already have enough bad press. Sales are down for the company and they're laying off 15% of its workforce.....not a good sign, even if WotC is doing (relatively) well.  

No, it's lose-lose for the most part. The player base knows that Ha$bro can't be trusted and they know that the player base can, and will, be vocal. Yes, they threw in an olive branch by making the 5.1 SRD a Creative Commons license, but they deliberately left the OGL 1.0a "untouched". I think that if WotC/Ha$bro wanted to really make a statement and address the real elephant in the room they would have come out with OGL 1.0b that simply made the OGL "irrevocable". The 5.1 SRD doesn't do a whole lot if you're making OSR material.....

What I think, and I'm clearly a pessimist, is that Ha$bro is biding it's time. There will be a OGL 2.0 and while it might not be as far-reaching as the last attempt, it will be the end of OGL 1.0a. Ha$bro will make sure they have their ducks in a line, plug any and all leaks that they can, and ram it down our collective throats when they think they can get aways with it. We taught them how not to disseminate bad news to the community, and they probably know who will be the most likely to bring expensive lawsuits. The 5.1 SRD changes might very well be to placate some of these other companies......like why would Paizo care about the OGL if they're covered by the 5.1 SRD? Now this is speculation on my part, I haven't done, and for my sanity probably will never, do a deep dive on Pathfinder &/or the 5.1 SRD.

Now is not the time to sit back and think that this is over and "we've won". Sure, the shelling has stopped....for now, but it can pick back up. At best Ha$bro called for an armistice, not a peace treaty.....

Please, continue to support the smaller publishers that would have been affected by the OGL 2.0 disaster, basically anybody wanting to use the Open RPG Creative License, but also those that are still sticking with the OGL 1.0a.

I hope it'll be years before we have to revisit this...maybe in time for D&D Ten....so maybe 2035?