I remember when DC Comics published Dungeons & Dragons, Forgotten Realms, and Dragonlance comics. I bought them as I found them, and they were good, if popcorn, reading.
One of the latest bundles over at Humble Bundle is the Return to the World of Dungeons & Dragons Bundle, which appears to include some of the DC-era titles as well as later releases, including Baldur's Gate.
Damn it! I'm in at 18 bucks for the full collection. Popcorn reading for the win :)
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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
Ah. Cepheus Engine. We almost lost the open Traveller clone with the whole OGL debacle earlier this year. Thankfully, Cepheus Engine is here to stay and it is well supported.
Adventurer! This all-new Clement Sector 3E Bundle presents the 2021 Third Edition of the space-opera tabletop roleplaying game from Independence Games that uses the Cepheus Engine based on the First Edition of Mongoose Traveller. Set in a distant space sector stranded after a wormhole collapse, Clement Sector has grown and matured through three editions to become one of the largest and best-supported lines based on this popular open license. Fight epic space battles – explore new worlds – become a pirate or bounty hunter – it's all possible in Clement Sector, and this big bundle provides the foundation for many exploits.
For just US$17.95 you get all seven titles in our Starter Collection (retail value $87) as DRM-free ebooks, including the complete standalone 673-page Clement Sector Third Edition core rulebook (2021), the character expansion Diverse Roles, the world and star system generation sourcebook Unmerciful Frontier: The CCA Sourcebook, and four starship supplements: Anderson and Felix Guide to Naval Architecture 3E, Wendy's Guide to the Fleets of Hub Subsector, Pleiades-class Light Freighter, and Roosevelt-class Intercept Destroyer.
And if you pay more than the threshold price of $35.62, you'll level up and also get our entire Bonus Collection with nine more titles worth an additional $123, including Port of Entry; three subsector sourcebooks – Hub, Sequoyah, and The Colonies; and five background sourcebooks: Manhunters: Bounty Hunters, Outlaw, Skull and Crossbones, Tree of Life: Altrants, and Wondrous Menagerie: Uplifts.
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've been a huge InkwellDesigns fan since their first Dungeonmorph Dice Set years ago. Currently, Inkwell has a sale on their SideQuest Decks Collection. There are a total of 16 decks, each at 1.99 in PDF. Print decks are available too (and I own most decks in print) and I find the decks extremely useful when you need an adventure "on-demand" on short notice.
I do not know how long the sale will continue for, so don't wait too long.
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
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
Swords & Wizardry (White Box plus Supplements) is one of the original three retro-clones, including OSRIC (AD&D 1e) and Labyrinth Lord (B/X) (others may include Castles in Crusades in this discussion but I see C&C as more "proto" retro-clone).
One of the major changes Swords & Wizardry made from its source material was whittling the number of saving throw categories down to a single save number.
I am, personally, a great fan of Swords & Wizardry in all of its flavors - White Box for its streamlined ruleset, Core for its expanded rules while keeping the classes to the core four, and Complete for being, well, essentially "complete".
Matt Finch and his company, Mythmere Games, are kickstarting Swords & Wizardry Complete Revised Rulebook, which is essentially the 5th printing of S&W Complete and the first to not be released under the OGL, but most likely the upcoming ORC license or something similar.
The S&W Complete Kickstarter has already hit $50k in funding in less than 12 hrs. Now that's impressive!
Looks like I'll be adding another printing of Swords & Wizardry Complete to my collection :)
For anyone who's completely unfamiliar with the game, Swords & Wizardry is a tabletop fantasy roleplaying game. All the rules are in this book, and all you'll need in addition are a set of gaming dice (20 sided, 8 sided, etc.), paper, and pencil. Many people also play with miniatures, but they aren't necessary.
Swords & Wizardry is one of the oldest of the Old School Renaissance ("OSR") games, originally written in 2008, with a large following throughout the world. Hundreds of adventures have been written for use with the system by multiple publishers, and these are still compatible with this version of the game.
The game is much more "rules-light" than most fantasy roleplaying games, so it's fast and easy to learn the basics and start playing.
Swords & Wizardry contains a full set of 9 character classes, all the rules you need to play, including all the monsters, spells, and treasure tables.
The game rules of OD&D are similar to the B/X rules, so this game can be viewed as an "advanced" version of the B/X rules in many ways.
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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
Created by Philip Reed (PDFs available at DriveThruRPG), this collection of D100 encounter hooks was designed for use with most fantasy roleplaying games. Primarily a source of inspiration for the gamemaster, each of the enclosed hooks details just enough of an idea to get the GM's imagination running. Mix, match, and modify every single one of the d100 hooks to suit the specifics of your preferred game system and campaign setting.
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
One of the biggest perks of this Sunday gig that Erik has given me is that I have carte blanche to type whatever I feel like. Probably doesn't help drive numbers here at the Tavern, but I do get to share cool things I come across from friends and internet associates......
....like the Kickstarter for Black Pudding Issue 7 "from" JV West (The Kickstarter is from a publisher, but it's his stuff). While I'm not a fan of all his stuff, I love that he does his own thing and so much of his art, and writing, just screams "cool gonzo OSR". Now I'm just a fan of Zines in general, but the Black Pudding series is chock full of odd/weird character classes, monsters, and art....lots of art.
One Page PC Class
The Kickstarter is specifically for a print copy of #7 along with a gaming journal, but if you just want the Zine as a PDF, they're currently PWYW over at DTRPG. I just picked up issue #7 (I have already backed the Kickstarter).
If you aren't familiar with JV West/Random Order Creations, I'd recommend starting with the Black Pudding Zines, but if you need a cool one-off adventure I was a big fan of Howler. I did a spoiler-free review of that adventure back in.....2014(?!).
Caves of Chaos: Heading West!
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Session 7 was played on 9/19
Io the thief
Theiss of Gond, cleric
After returning to the keep, the party brings the bodies of their fallen to
the chapel...
Music Monday - Peg Leg Silly-Billy
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This collaboration between Patty Gurdy and Alestorm's Christopher Bowes is
some nautical fun. Listening to it reminded me of how much I want to run
Secret ...
The Final Voyage of Draengr Thar
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By J.C. Conners1Shot Adventures BlogOSR/5e/GURPS/Cthulhu Dark AgesLevels
3-5 […] Drængr survived the initial attack and ordered his men to barricade
the lo...
Miskatonic Monday #332: Heart of Horror
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Much like the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha
and The Companions of Arthur for material set in Greg Stafford’s
masterpiece of...
Al-Qadim Arabian Adventures (1992)
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From the back cover:
Magic carpets, ghoulish vixens, genies rising from the sand in a whirlwind
of smoke and fire--such wonders, spun into tales by the f...
FGM Review: How to Draw Fantasy Art & RPG Maps
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[image: FGM Review: How to Draw Fantasy Art & RPG Maps]
I've had my eye on this one book for a while now and I was hesitant to pick
up *How to Draw Fantas...
Check out this fashionable fellow.
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I was looking at the *Tunnels & Trolls* stuff on the ebays and stumbled
across this guy. I love his visor, though I think it would be better if it
was p...
Do DF Felltower foes play by the rules?
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This is expanding on Rules & Rulings for Session 203.
Do DF Felltower foes play by the rules?
Yes.
*Why not cheat?*
I'm the GM. I define the parameters o...
d100 Hex Crawl Landmarks for Chagrinspire
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*Just stuff to add detail to a hex and are places to use and landmarks or
avoidedd12 Landmark Additions*1 Garbage mounds
2 Road or rail or garbage-fille...
Magic Item inflation in AD&D
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Modern D&D is sometimes accused of turning PCs' into "superheroes".
I have been accused of similar transgressions for daring to add feats to my
OSR games....
Chaos Goblins - VotE Remastered Development
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Anarchists of the infinite dark. Chaotic where nothing so uncertain should
be able to survive. By chance alone they thrive, by chance they die
Russ Nichols...
Distance and Vastness in Hexmaps
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The world is extremely big. It's hard to appreciate how big it is without
spending a lot of time of it on foot, and without making the effort to
notic...
Waiting to Exist
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What is this little underground complex? A basement. A dungeon of some
sorts? Maybe a resupply station? Or a prison? Maybe. Maybe all of them.
It's a pl...
Character Creation Challenge: The Ravenloft Weekend
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[image: Characters from the The Ravenloft Weekend]
Back in 1991, Grenda and I ran a weekend-long game of Ravenloft. We ran it
as the "Dreams of Barovia" var...
Electric Broadcasts
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Bastion is full of broadcasts. The very air you breathe is filled with
transmissions waiting to be received. Radio, telly, machines silently
pinging thei...
My Life in Roleplaying Games: 2024 and 2025
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As we head into 2025, here are some brief reflections on my role-playing
activities in the recent past and near future.
I've been really enjoying running ...
HeroQuest (and HeroQuest-Adjacent)
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Some years ago, when I was making some dungeon tiles, a guy gave me these.
They'd taken all the miniatures out, but apart from that they appear to be
c...
Musk and the Moral Homebrew...
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Our hobby is essentially homebrewed. But it's also an industry eager to
appropriate that which its players inevitably do themselves, whether
through deli...
Articulations
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Creating house rules, custom rules specific to a local group or campaign,
has been common throughout the history of D&D. What makes an effective
house rule...
Bat in the Attic Games and 2025
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Happy New Year Folks!
This would be a good time to update everyone on what has been happening
with me and my plans for the upcoming year.
Personal
I ...
Happy New Year from the Vault
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Welcome back to the Vault, and a Happy New Year to you all! 2024 was quiet
on the blog front, but busy painting and gaming wise culminating in a
Cawdor ...
A Fiftieth Anniversary Year
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The 50th anniversary year of *Dungeons & Dragons *is drawing to a close. A
number of projects I'd been planning for this year finally came out, and I
...
A Quick Look at The Wizard’s Scroll II
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October of this year saw the release of The Wizard’s Scroll II, the second
issue of a White Box Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game (FMAG) zine whose first ...
[BLOG] Towards Fomalhaut – and What It Is
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The City-State of Pentastadion
(as depicted in a 1932 university yearbook)
“OK, but what actually is Fomalhaut?” is not a question I get asked
specificall...
Writing playlists for all occasions
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Hello again! Going off the idea of inspiration elaborated on by the prior
post, I also have music playing while I write my various games and fiction
pieces...
On Manifestos
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The paid media was instructed to not print this.
To the Feds, I’ll keep this short, because I do respect what you do for our
country. To save you a leng...
The Tarot of Pips
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Somewhere in your dice collection is a die like this one, the humblest of
dice. Although you don't know it, this small white die carries with it a
secr...
Blue Sky Temple, Revised
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Last week, we made a crowdsourced dungeon on Bluesky.
It was fun and it yielded a cool dungeon with a lot of good ideas mashed
together.
This week, I ...
Pirates and Necromancers, a Play Report
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Over the Thanksgiving weekend we did a lot of gaming ranging from
“off-table” domain level stuff to some solo adventures to spell and magic
item rese...
OSR: Magical Industrial Gunboats
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Here's some useful information for river-based adventures using *Magical
Industrial Revolution*. Skip to Part 3 or click this PDF link if you just
want t...
Welcome new Greyhawk Fans!
-
With the publication of the new Dungeon Master’s Guide, there are doubtless
going to be a lot of new D&D players interested in my favorite setting, the
Wor...
Grimdark vs. Eucatastrophe
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Noisms has some interesting ideas in this post about his desire for some
depth to his grimdark, and turns to Gene Wolfe and Tolkien for relief.
Now, it ...
It's been a bit
-
Hey everyone, I hope you are doing well! I've had a lot going on and
haven't had much time to blog lately. Heres a recap of gaming events and
other st...
Session #12 & Adventure Sites Compilation
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Firstly, I wanted to let everybody know that Adventure Sites I by Coldlight
Press is now available as a free download on DriveThruRPG. It includes my
own...
The Economy Engine, v0.2
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I made a thing. For D&D 3rd edition, so it might not be that interesting to
a lot of people. But I made it and I think it’s cool. The 3rd edition
Dungeon M...
*'s in SpaaaaaAaaaace
-
A lot of SF (including a certain 2D6 RPG grandaddy) deal with ancient
aliens taking humans from Earth and dropping them, fleas and all, on one or
more w...
Last move - to self-hosting!
-
As my vote regarding Substack in the “marketplace of ideas”, I’m moving to
self-hosting.
I’m now at (and hopefully staying for a long time at)
Blog: ht...
Time Rolls On
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Today is December 31, 2023, in the mid-afternoon. In less than ten hours it
will be 2024. 2023 2023 was a good year. But all years are good years. Both
goo...
This is an Important Game Mechanic
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*"That's the GM's Regional Map from my AOWG. And it's a damned good
regional map. It's not a good map for a Simple Homebrew Campaign. It does
some s$&...
Clean Your Room
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Looking back at my little blog here. That last post… wow, I was having fun
playing WOW Classic! That was August of 1999 and I was having a blast… it
was ...
Steve Jackson Interview
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James Maliszewski recently did an interview with Steve Jackson over on his
Grognardia blog. Steve chats about the beginnings of The Fantasy Trip and
upcomi...
ToAD Monster of the Week: Crocoman
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Now that I'm back doing the blog thing I thought I would use Tome of
Adventure Design to create monsters for The Black Hack.
Using the monster tables in th...
Strange, Dangerous, and Inhuman: The Fey and Fairie
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When I was a boy I loved fairy tales. Jack and the Beanstalk, Puss in
Boots, Rumpelstiltskin - I devoured all of it. My fascination that there
was a strang...
New Map of the Elf Empire and Southern Isles
-
I’ve been having fun developing a new map-drawing style that I think is
finally reaching a certain level of maturity. And yeah, it owes a lot to Matthew
Ad...
Dungeons & Dragonmead Fall Schedule
-
*As you know, I run public classic Dungeons & Dragons games at **The Loaded
Die**/Metro Detroit Game Night's Board Game Nigh at **Dragonmead**, in
Warren...
Fiction in Airhde
-
On a whim this weekend, I picked up some fiction off the TLG store. *A
Houseless God & Other Tales* and *The Mirrored Soul & Other Tales*, both by
the T...
Ravensburg Reboot: Streamlined City Map
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I mentioned in my last post how I was tweaking and reworking parts of my
Ravensburg setting. Today I streamlined the city map. The old map had lots
of redu...
And Now the News Draft Download on Patreon
-
It's self-styled Throwback Thursday and *having just released the 34-page
draft booklet of Hill Cantons news to my Patreon backers* I am going to
indulge m...
The Withered Crag available now
-
I just enabled the sale of the PDF version of The Withered Crag at
DriveThruRPG a few minutes ago, and the custom print version will be
available startin...
Annihilation Rising Goes live
-
The latest in Fail Squad Games’ Quick Kick projects has gone live and needs
your support!! This project is only running 11 days and ends on 5/28/2019!
...
James's Celebration of Life
-
We could not have asked for a prettier day for James's service. It was a
bit chilly and windy but gorgeous. A heartfelt thank you to all that joined
us tod...
Trap Tuesday: A step back
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I will get back to Tomb of Horrors soon. I found a topic that was
interesting enough to take a break. While interacting in a 5E group on
Facebook I talked ...
Let's Talk About Pacing!
-
The idea, I think, is that the RPG is ultimately about the long game. Even
rolling back to the early days of Basic & Expert, the goal of the player
was...
Profane and Profound Prep Part 2
-
This is part 2 of my work to edit my magic items for a DMsGuild release,
along with adding cursed items along the way. Here is part 1. Bone of a
Saint 8000...
Please, I don't do paid advertisements - don't ask.
-
A little note since people have asked me about this. My video channel's
*not* an advertising platform, so I'm not available for hire if you want to
promote...
New website!
-
Slowly but surely, all the content here will make its way — in updated
form! — to my new website: timbannock.com. For fairly obvious reasons, that
site wil...
Please Update Your Link!
-
If you're seeing this, it means your link to the Greyhawk Grognard blog is
out of date.
Please update your link to www.greyhawkgrognard.com (RSS feed is
h...
Total Sales for WB:FMAG
-
Hi Folks,
It's been a long time since I provided an update for the sales of White
Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game.
*LULU*
Print: 396
PDF: 433
*OBS*...
How can We Destroy this Campaign World?
-
d12
1. You must trick a bard into strumming the *Chords of Fate* on the *Lute
of Annihilation*
2. Legends tell of thermonuclear weapons beneath megadunge...
Mord Mar - Session 5
-
We had another successful delve into the dungeon yesterday. The delvers:
Moira, the Magic-User
Radovan - Human Cleric (of Odin?)
Khazgar Stonehand - Dwarf ...
A Small, Quiet Plea
-
There has been a great deal of discussing political agendas, social
grievances, and personal attacks within the little corner of gaming that is
my hobby....
Bundle of Fantasy Age
-
Bundle of Holding: Dragon Age/Fantasy Age: Available until March 12. PA
Presents: Fantasy AGE Freeport live play Green Ronin in 2018 The Fantasy
Age RPG ma...
New Free PDF Module: The Hyqueous Vaults
-
A new dungeon module—written in celebration of OSRIC's 10th Birthday—by
Rebecca Dettmann, Allan T. Grohe, Jr., Jimm Johnson, Matthew Riedel, Alex
Zisch, a...
Swords & Wizardry Light: Session # 6
-
Two months after our last session (thanks to things like 8th grade finals,
a 4 year-old's birthday and party, Father's Day, etc.), we finally had our
next ...