God Bless James Shields re: Jonathan Thompson Funeral Fund

As I was winding down Day 3 of Total Con at the Best Western hotel bar with Rach and a few other friends, I received a PM from James Shields. Yes, James Shields the artist and prominent member of the OSR Community.

I've known James Shields for a number of years. It is his art that graces the cover of SWCL 1e and will grace the cover of CL 2e. James is an amazing artist and simply a very good person.

In any case, James asked me if the $250 matching goal had been met for the Jonathan Thompson Funeral Fund. I told him, it had not yet been met, with $50 of matching funds raised thus far.

Well, James decided to correct that deficiency, and immediately donated $200 to meet the matching goal.

Now, if James can be generous, so can The Tavern. I'll leave the matching offer open until February 28th, and will now match the first $500 raised by members of the community. Here's the link: https://www.gofundme.com/f/jonathan-thompson-funeral-fund. Let me know in the comments below if you donate or email me at tenkarsDOTtavernAT if you wish to remain anonymous.

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 

Death Notice - Johnathan M Thompson (Battlefield Press)

Johnathan M Thompson, brother of Adam Thompson, publisher at Battlefield Press, passed earlier this week.

Adam shared the following about his brother on Facebook:

Today my heart has shattered into a million pieces. My big brother Jonathan M. Thompson passed away today at the age of 51. My life will never be the same. Jonathan was a historian with a Bachelors and Masters from ULM, a prolific game writer, the owner of Battlefield Press and an avid gamer. He taught me D&D four decades ago on our families farmland in Arkansas so he would have someone to play the game with. His love and subsequently my love of the hobby grew from there. 

My greatest critic, my biggest supporter. My first friend and my lifelong battle buddy against the world. He was a son, a father but most importantly my big brother and I really have no idea what I will do without him.

Joe Bloch is donating 30 days of profits from the 5e conversion of Castle of the Mad Archmage to help with expenses related to Johnathan's passing.

As you may have heard, Jonathan M. Thompson passed away recently. He was the gentleman who did the conversion of Castle of the Mad Archmage to 5th Edition D&D, and was well-known in many gaming circles. 

To honor his memory, 100% of the profits from the sales of the Castle of the Mad Archmage 5th Edition adventure book (and bundles that contain it) for the next 30 days will be donated to his family, through his younger brother Adam R Thompson.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/342738/Castle-of-the-Mad-Archmage-5E-Edition-Print-Bundle-BUNDLE

His brother, Adam, has set up a GoFundMe to assist in funeral expenses: 

Hi, my name is Adam Thompson.

I'm fundraising for the funeral expenses of my brother, Jonathan Thompson, who passed away unexpectedly on Sunday, February 20, 2023.

Jonathan owned Battlefield Press International, a tabletop roleplaying game company, and had many friends in the industry.

I'm starting this fundraiser because Jonathan had no life insurance, and the family is facing financial hardship. Anything you can do to help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/jonathan-thompson-funeral-fund

The Tavern will match the first $250, dollar for dollar, raised by The Tavern's Community Members by March 3, 2023. Please indicate in the comments to this post how much you donated. If you wish to remain completely anonymous, email me at tenkarsDOTtavern at that gmail thing. Please put GoFundMe in the subject line.

TotalCon 2023 - Day One

Returning to the scene of the crime! TotalCon 2023!

I can't thank Steven & Angelia Parenteau enough for going out of their way to make sure Rach and I returned to TotalCon this year.

For those that don't know the history, while 2020 was generally known as The Year of Covid, for me it was literally a year of life or death, and the road to healing started at TotalCon in 2020.

I came down with an upper respiratory infection that weekend and left the con early (my first con crud in many years of convention attendance). After 2 weeks, the URI progressed to pneumonia and sepsis and a short hospital stay as Covid kicked off, followed by Congestive Heart Failure over the course of nearly 2 months before seeking medical attention (and getting hospitalized 12 hours after my hospital opened a Covid Free Wing). 3 weeks and 3 stents later, and after losing over 60 pounds of water weight, I was home with a new lease on life and a new awareness.

I was told by my Heart Failure Specialist at the time that my CHF was set off by my pneumonia and sepsis, which in turn were set off by my URI. Without that specific chain of events, I likely would have simply not awoken one morning from straight-up heart failure, as my heart had been damaged over a decade prior from chemo and radiation treatment for Hodgekin's Lymphoma.

I am a healthier and happier individual for the trials and troubles of 2020, and if it weren't for TotalCon 2020, I might not have been around to attend this year's convention.

I can play my RPGs on a VTT, but I get to socialize and connect with the gaming community at conventions like TotalCon, NTRPG, and others. Heck, it may even save your life in a most roundabout way too ;)

Kickstarter - Legend of Keepers 5E Reverse Dungeon and STL Miniatures (not The Folio)

It seems like everywhere I turn, someone is telling me in no uncertain terms that I need a 3d printer. One of the first, and loudest, to proclaim such was likely Fat Dragon Games, but there have been many others since. Now, with Scott Taylor's latest Kickstarter, which is certainly NOT another release in The Folio series, we have Legend of Keepers 5E Reverse Dungeon and STL Miniatures. My God but the STL minis are amazing.

Legend of Keepers is a 5E compatible series of four unique reverse dungeon adventures inspired by the Legend of Keepers video game by Goblinz Studio.  Building on the video game’s ingenious theme of a monster-driven company defending its net worth of dungeons from marauding heroes, this campaign fully creates a 5E experience in which players can decide if they would rather play each dungeon as heroes or monsters, or both, even going so far as competing against each other in role-playing teams!  

The campaign features an incredible array of heroes and monsters, all fully rendered as epic printable minis that can be placed in 3D printable dungeons.  Each dungeon is a unique setting within the Legend of Keepers world but can be easily relocated to any fantasy setting a DM desires. Legend of Keepers is designed for customization with replayability at its heart.

Kickstarter - STRANGERS - 10 Adventures For £10 (5e and OSR)

NPCs & Adventures for D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) 5th edition + OSR TTRPGs

I can never have enough short adventures in my GM's "Go-To" Folder. Whether needed on short notice or simply to inspire some creativity, having something ready to go is priceless. The NPCs & Adventures for D&D - 5e and OSR Kickstarter looks like it will fill that bill admirably and for only 13 bucks American!

What you will find inside STRANGERS:

• 10 Unique NPCs with fleshed-out backgrounds, wants, and needs.
• 10 Story driven adventures tied to each NPC.
• Maps, items, and sprawling conclusions for future games.
• As with all my previous adventure-based books, my aim is to design easy-to-implement adventures, to fit all play styles, where the objective can be completed in 2 to 4 hours of playtime.

This book will ONLY be released digitally! There will be no print runs of this book in the future.

 

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 

PWYW - Monolith (OSR SciFi)

Its been a while since I covered a new PWYW release, and good things come to those that wait ;)

Monolith is a table-heavy, stat-light OSR-inspired sci-fi RPG, that appears, upon quick inspection, to be fairly flexible in its focus with little implied setting. When I say table heavy, the book is mostly tables, but they can easily be used as a resource with the sci-fi game of your choice.

The price is certainly right :)

Monolith is a Science fiction adventure game for one Game Master (GM) and at least one other player. Players act as daring adventurers exploring a vast & mysterious galaxy filled with weird aliens, lost worlds, and ruthless factions. Inspired by old school role-playing games.

What's Inside?

• Rules-lite mechanics and procedures inspired by Cairn, Into the Odd, Knave, and other OSR games.
• 12 backgrounds for PC and quick character creation (or optional stat-aligned gear packs).
• Rules for starships, psionics, weird space powers, experimental weapons and technology, ancient artifacts, factions, quick planet generation & inspiration, and more.

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 - 2000 AD Character Spotlight (Comics)

I think I've mentioned this before, but I'm a huge fan of digital comics. If you had asked a younger me if that would ever be the case, I'd have scoffed. The thing is, as an adult, I no longer have the space to store endless comics, and the superhero comics I read in my youth no longer interest me in any case. 2000 AD has ALWAYS interested me, and I jump on the various 2000 AD collections when they show up on Humble Bundle the moment they appear.

It's 18 bucks for the 2000 AD Character Spotlight Bundle, and you get 34 releases, ranging from Judge Dread to Slaine and beyond. I do believe the Absalom Collection appeared in a prior bundle, but that's a small quibble. You can buy a smaller, and cheaper, bundle, but I do think $18 is by far the best value with months of reading in your future.

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