Kickstarter - Ascendant: Platinum Edition (Supers)

A revised second printing of the core rules, the game’s first official sourcebook, and our premiere graphic novel, all in one bundle!

First things first. If you own the first printing of Ascendant, it is now out of print but it is fully compatible with Ascendant: Platinum Edition. You do not need the Platinum Edition. If you missed it the first time around, this is your opportunity to snag one of the better supers RPGs I've come across, if not the best. I love the genre, but I have high standards for RPGs in that genre

Ascendant: Platinum Edition is 20 bucks for the core book in PDF, and 60 for print plus PDF.

        In the 496-page Ascendant core rulebook, you get the following:

• Elegant game mechanics that simulate the physics of a comic-book world using easy-to-reference real-life benchmarks.
• A color-coded challenge action resolution table (CHART) that resolves complex actions with super speed.
• An infinitely scalable system that lets you play heroes of any power level, from streetfighters to living gods, and replicate virtually any character from your favorite anime, comic, manga, or movie settings.
• Countless customizable powers using an easy-to-use modifier tag system that matches your powers specific to your character concept.
• Comprehensive detective mechanics for investigating crimes, interviewing witnesses, and finding clues.
• Detailed options for super-geniuses to create inventions, cure diseases, and even bring their outlandish devices into mass production.
• Extensive rules for responding to emergencies such as asteroid strikes, avalanches, disease outbreaks, earthquakes, fires, nuclear disasters, tornados, tsunamis, and volcanoes.
• A huge catalog of pre-built characters and objects, including major military vehicles like aircraft carriers, attack submarines, and ballistic missiles.
• A dynamic mission generation system to help you create challenges for your heroes.
• An optional campaign setting with ready-to-use heroes, villains, and organizations.
• Spectacular full-color artwork by industry-leading pencilers, inkers, and colorists.

An interview with Alex Macris, author of Ascendant

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 

Kickstater - Arcane Adventures - 10 Quests For £10 (OSR & 5e)

Arcane adventures and challenges for D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) 5th edition & OSR TTRPGs

I love the opportunity to grab adventures for my gaming collection, as you never know when you are going to be running an RPG session with minimal prep time. 

10 adventures for 13 bucks (give or take) is almost a no-brainer for me, so count me as a backer of Arcane Adventures.

Arcane Adventures is a collection of one-shot style missions designed for Fifth Edition rules plus OSR TTRPGs, and is tailored to emphasis the Arcane Arts. These adventures are easy to read, easy to include in any session, and can be completed in around 2 to 4 hours each.

Created with the DM in mind, these adventures are made for ease of use and can run alongside any campaign and fit any setting. The intended levels for these adventures will be mostly levels 1 to 4 with a few at level 5 to 8, and are perfect for those who love fantasy adventures and role-playing games.

Unleash the power of magic as you explore forgotten tomes, enchanted forests, and arcane laboratories. Face off against powerful sorcerers, navigate dangerous elemental planes, and delve into the dark arts to stop the forces of evil from overtaking the land.

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 

State of The Tavern - Time to Get Back into the Creative Pool

I've taken a break from the more creative side of gaming - writing material, adventures, and the like, in large part due to the number of distractions life has thrown at me the past few months, both personal and on the family side.

Well, no longer.

Today I received my Monastery of Zimrala Kickstarter for Monsters! Monsters!, and it immediately kickstarted the creative process for the supers supplement I plan on publishing for MM with the assistance of Glen Halstrom. Monastery of  Zimrala is a beautiful book and I'm looking forward to diving into it in depth tomorrow.

I'm going to reach out to a legal mind as to what I need to do to ready Continual Light for release under the Creative Commons (as there is still no word on the 3.1 SRD falling under the CC). I may need to tweak some wording.

Internet may be flakey the next day or so, as Fios is upgrading its service. Time will tell, but I may be more offline than online in the immediate 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 

Kickstarter - Monster & Character Encounters (Stock Art, Monsters, and More)

A zine of 50 new monsters, their traps, and treasures. These aren't your daddy's dragons.

I've known James Shields for a number of years. It was his art that graced the first printing of Swords & Wizardry Continual Light, and it will be his art that will grace the cover of the upcoming Continual Light.

James has recently gone back to working full-time in the gaming industry, and the Monster & Character Encounters Kickstarter is the opening salvo of James' return.

You can back the Monster& Character Encounters Kickstarter for the gaming material, or you can go even further and back in for the 50 stock art critters that you will get non-exclusive rights to. You had better believe I'm in for the stock art plus zine :)

 

These are not your ordinary hack and slash monsters. Each is individually illustrated and designed to present a new type of threat, obstacle, or concern for your players.

Dungeons should be hazardous, but there are dangers worse than death. How will you negotiate the plague-ridden Gore Ox that blocks passage through the dungeon? Your ally already lost an eye to the eye thieves — how do you get any rest tonight? Will any of your team escape the affections of Mamarex? Why is a TimeLok interrupting your adventure now? Who is whispering about Kel-enroth Maccabah of the Desecration?

Look! An interview with James Shields!

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 - Mork Borg 2

I really enjoyed reading through the Mork Borg rules. I feel it would be a blast to run at a convention or as a short campaign. As for a long campaign, I think I'd need to see the rules in play first.

One of the current bundles at Bundle of Holding is the Mork Morg 2 Bundle. While it doesn't include the core Mork Borg rules, it does include a large selection of third-party releases for the system.

Adventurer! This all-new Mörk Borg 2 Bundle presents gloomy and dispiriting third-party supplements compatible with the doom-metal apocalypse-artpunk tabletop fantasy roleplaying game Mörk Borg from Free League Publishing. (Misery alert! This offer does not include the Mörk Bork core rulebook you need to use these supplements!) Published under a permissive Third Party License, these English-language indie titles transport you to dark, joyless worlds that send foolhardy adventurers to despair, death, and Purgatory – for an unbeatable bargain price!

For just US$14.95 you get all nine titles in our Starter Collection (retail value $60) as DRM-free ebooks:

• Galgenbeck: Sacrifice by Christian Eichhorn (Vaults of Torment)
• Richard Kelly's conversion-hack Cthork Borg, which brings Mörk Borg into the Jazz Age for cosmic-horror investigations, plus five Cthorkian supplements: Bork Cthorg, Faces in the Crowd, Miserere Mei Deus, Rumrunner's Arsenal, and Seven Strangers
• Dire Mutterings by Greg Saunders (Warlock!)
• Philip Reed's micro-hexcrawl Curic's Cursed Chapbook

And if you pay more than the threshold price of $28.66, you'll level up and also get our entire Bonus Collection with ten more titles worth an additional $71:

• Three more horrific imaginings by Christian Eichhorn: Bergen Chrypt, Dungeoneer's Black Book, and Purgatory (a way for your character to return from the dead, which you need a lot in Mörk Borg)
• Five Cthork Bork investigations: All's Well at the Macallen Farm, Moonlight and Tide, A Quiet Country Home, Signs in the Entrails, and Tombs of Our Ancestors
• A Wizard's Dying Wish, five quick encounters by Philip Reed
• Richard Kelly's treatise on good bois in dark times, Bork Borg

 

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 Saw the D&D Movie So You Don't Have to! (Mostly Spoiler-Free Post)

 

Ok, kind of kidding with the title. I did see the movie Friday at the 1st "regular" showing my local theater had, but I had an afternoon date and it was the best movie time that worked with both our schedules.

I mention the date thing because she is not a gamer and had pretty much no clue about anything RPG related, so I was able to get her completely different perspective on the film.

It is important to note that this isn't so much of a review because I don't want to spoil things, but assume there will be at least one important spoiler that you may actually want to hear....I think it is important to hear, because I think this alone makes it worth seeing the film:

If, like me, you saw pretty much all of the previews and teasers, you already know the rough storyline. No....no you don't. The movie I saw was NOT the story that was presented in the teasers and trailers.

This is HUGE....at least to me. I am sooooo tired of already knowing what's going to happen when I sit down for a film. I mean it can still be a good time, but films hardly surprise you unless they go out of their way to do so. I can think of a couple of examples, but one is a big spoiler (the most recent Red Dawn flick) so I'll mention the Southpark: Bigger, Longer & Uncut movie. When the boys went hard R singing a few minutes in it was like a refreshing slap in the face if all you were used to was the TV show.....to me that was a great surprise.

Anyway, there was some good humor, plenty of Easter Eggs that didn't get in the way of the film (so no biggie for those that didn't recognize them) and I'll admit when the BBG fight went down I was going all Gamer and thought the PCs were going to zig...and they zagged. Did not see it coming at all and while I thought my idea was gamer-creative, I think it'd have been lost on the non-gamers in the audience and probably not a good cinematic/storytelling way for the PCs to win.

The only thing I didn't really like about the film is it just felt like there was a bit of name-dropping that might not have really added much, but my date didn't really notice because to her one name was just as good as another.

Honestly though, I think it has been the best D&D movie to date, which might not be saying much. It was enjoyable and I'll get it when it comes on Blu-Ray for sure. I would recommend seeing it, even if you bring a non-gamer. I'm hoping that they'll release a tie-in adventure or even a campaign (for all I know they've already done this) because there is plenty of main-storyline adjacent stuff to work with.....