I was searching around DTRPG when I stumbled across the Classic Traveller Facsimile Edition, priced for Free (and only 9 bucks in Print). Everyone should have a PDF of Classic Traveller, especially at this pricing! ;)
This is the original text of the 1981 edition of Classic Traveller based on page image Scans.
It includes Books 1-2-3, with errata and corrections inserted (where possible; and additional material in an errata appendix). This text is essentially an errata corrected edition faithful to the original Classic Traveller of the early 1980's.
The PDF has been OCR'ed. Margins are upgraded to 6x9 (from 5-1/2 x 8-1/2) for better margins.
The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.
DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Rumbleor YouTube - Tenkar
The various Cepheus releases have always been top-notch. Built off of the Mongoose Traveller SRD and the OGL, Cepheus has a very active community of creators.
This universal science fiction RPG allows players and Game Master to emulate most kinds of sci-fi gaming, from time travel or near future cyberpunk, to space opera; from modern-day Solar System exploration to a far future that enjoys antimatter power, matter transportation and food replicators. As much attention is given to low-tech societies as mid-tech and far future, high-tech societies. You'll find options for gunpowder weapons, disintegrators, fusion power, portable shield generators, flint tool production and using beasts of burden. The scope of Cepheus Universal is huge.
The 2D6-based Cepheus rules are adaptable but not complex, and easy enough for players new to sci-fi gaming (or to roleplaying in general). Character creation is purely by design, and features a life path system that adds depth and which connects them to the setting. Create a character in 5 minutes or less.
Packed with material that you can use to build your setting, or adapt your favourite setting from a novel or movie, it includes systems for building not just characters, but starships, animals, robots, vehicles, AI machines, star systems, spacesuits … you name it. Pick the parts you need to build the type of setting you desire. No setting is included, but three examples are provided to give you an idea of the scope of these rules.
Note that the core part of these rules previously featured in Zozer Game’s Hostile and Modern War RPGs. The book contains no AI art. Also available for Cepheus Universal:
Fast Magic - An improvised magic sysyem for use in your setting.
Godstar - A feudal sci-fi setting on a desert planet, full of intrigue and danger.
Player's Book - All the essential sections from the rulebook, for players use.
Street Knight - 80s crime fighting with cyberagents and supercars.
Sundivers - Far-future space pilots compete in the most dangeous interstellar sport.
War of the Worlds - A Victorian campaign pack for adventuring within HG Well's novel.
Academic Specialities - Leveraging Education to create science and academic specialities as skills.
The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.
DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Rumbleor YouTube - Tenkar
I own the Dread Thingnomicon in Print & PDF, one of my collection's most useful and referenced books.
Adventurer! For one week only, this Dread Thingonomicon Quick Deal presents, for a special promotional price, the complete 476-page The Dread Thingonomicon compendium from Raging Swan Press with system-neutral lists for every overworked gamemaster of tabletop fantasy roleplaying games. These 76 chapters, compiling hundreds of tables Raging Swan has published over the past seven years in its 20 Things line of mini-supplements, give you the tools to add flavor and detail to any fantasy RPG session. (Check out Raging Swan's free 54-page Thingonomicon sample.)
Pay just US$7.95 for the fully bookmarked 476-page Dread Thingonomicon (retail value $28). You get the .PDF in two versions, one optimized for printing and the second for screen reading. You also get all 73 chapters as separate text files.
The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.
DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Rumbleor YouTube - Tenkar
Investigator! Kenneth Hite's Cthulhu Bundle is a new collection of diverse Cthulhu Mythos ebooks from Atomic Overmind Press by star tabletop roleplaying game designer Kenneth Hite.
Writer and game designer Kenneth HiteDesigner of Trail of Cthulhu, Night's Black Agents, Suppressed Transmission, and more than 70 other RPGs and supplements, Kenneth HIte has analyzed works of HP Lovecraft in treatises such as the two Tour de Lovecraft volumes, and has reimagined the Mythos in gaming sourcebooks like Dubious Shards, The Tarot of Cthulhu, and Adventures into Darkness. This new offer brings you all this Hite-ean erudition for an unbeatable bargain price.
For just US$14.95 you get all six titles in our Hite Collection (retail value $65) as DRM-free ebooks, including Tour de Lovecraft: The Tales, Expanded Edition and Tour de Lovecraft: The Destinations; three Mythos treatises drawn from our October 2013 Bundle of Tentacles – Cthulhu 101, Tarot of Cthulhu: Major Arcana, and Dubious Shards; and an alternate-history sourcebook describing Lovecraft's comic-book work, Adventures Into Darkness.
The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.
DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Rumbleor YouTube - Tenkar
I've always enjoyed the various Frog God Games / Necromancer Games holiday-themed adventures. As we get closer to the holiday season, Necromancer Games has two such releases in one Indigogo.
The two releases' PDFs will "ship" in November, while the Print copies are expected in December.
Get ready to deck the halls with a double dose of festive thrills in Necromancer Games’ latest holiday adventure releases! This holiday season, we're bringing you two unforgettable quests that promise excitement, mystery, and a touch of magic!
Prepare for a celebration like no other in this exhilarating adventure written by Alasdair Cunningham. This adventure takes place in the rugged Northlands of the Lost Lands, on a small island where the Hardöen River forks under the might of the Andøvan Mountains. Here, the people can be as grim as the lands in which they dwell, and old angers can fester. In one case, a decades-old dispute between rival families decimated both sides until cooler heads finally prevailed. The peace is celebrated annually with a six-day long celebration known as the Feast of the Fork which is filled with bouts of ale-drinking, pie-eating, and singing … until the first body appears. A wandering shapeshifter named Shadovar hopes to open old wounds and set the families against each other once more. Can you thwart Shadovar's plans and restore peace to this beloved celebration?
This adventure is compatible with 5e, OSR, and Castles & Crusades and suitable for 4-6 adventurers (Tier 1, Level 3-4, and Level 6-8, respectively).
In this thrilling adventure penned by Rhiannon Louvre, Old Father Yule needs help cleansing Yuletown of foul magic that corrupts the great Yule Tree and makes the citizens fall ill. If the town isn’t cleansed in time for the Yuletide, Father Yule won’t be able to deliver his gifts and blessings to all good children — possibly never again! Even more importantly, winter itself may fall into the domain of a terrible evil, a grave danger to all living things. In The 12 Days of Orcus it’s up to you to defeat the malevolent minions of Orcus and save Yuletown from an unthinkable fate. Will you rise to the challenge and restore the magic of the season? Your epic holiday adventure begins here!
Perfect for fans of 5e, OSR, and Castles & Crusades, this adventure invites 4-6 brave souls (Tier 2, Level 5-7, and Level 9-12) to confront an ancient evil threatening the very essence of Yuletown.
The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.
DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Rumbleor YouTube - Tenkar
With great sadness, I must report that James Carpio has passed. I have no details yet of the cause of his passing, but James was a kind soul and well-loved in the gaming community and beyond. I have the honor that the only Swords & Wizardry game I ever played as a player was run by James himself. James recently offered to tutor me on the ins and outs of Streamlabs for recordings and live streams, and I regret not having had the time to take him up on his kind offer.
Rest well, James.
I will post an update when more info is available.
Red Sorceress
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"Go into the woods he says..." Irene says to herself, holding the torch
aloft. "No magic, he says..." The forest was dark, and the torch
illuminated just a...
The Other OSR: Omega City
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In the far future of broken landscapes, stretched landscapes, and lost
landscapes there is often only the appearance of the Gunslinger and the
power of h...
Test of Arms (1988)
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From the web:
*Test of Arms* is part of GDW's First Battle series. It covers post-WWII
tactical engagements, with scenarios for Ogaden War, the Angolan C...
Swan Maidens
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The Swan Maiden Class is a new 14th level Old-School Essentials class from
Tim Brannan of The Other Side Blog. The 19 page pdf uses a great selection
of pu...
How did I miss this? Power-Ups 10
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Thanks to Blind Mapmaker for reviewing this . . . I completely missed this
GURPS release.
Given that I've spent a bit of work on compressing the number of ...
Achilles
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This 1:100 scale (15mm) M10 17 pounder Achilles has been sitting on my desk
for quite a while, waiting for me to pull finger and finish it off.
The bas...
This Old Dragon: Issue #176
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[image: Dragon Issue #176]
Time once again to dip into the box of old Dragon Magazines under my desk.
Today's magazine takes us back to December 1991. AD...
The Desecration
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By Jonathan LoySelf PublishedOSELevel 2 The guardian of the Shrine of
Ismene has been slain! The cries for vengeance ring out! Will you aid in
this noble d...
Journeys through Space
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As with the trade system, I think any space travel system prompts the
question "okay but why?"
You've got niche stuff like "how many hours does it take t...
Comfort Reading and the Escape to Fish Pie
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As I get older I get increasingly po-faced and Spartan: I no longer believe
in holidays, days off, video games, TV, leisure, smiling, friendship,
politen...
‘Level Up’ exhibit at the Chicago Writers Museum
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While Toronto is my ‘home base’ these days, as my wife and I own a condo
there (and her job is based there), I also currently live part of the time
in Chic...
The Bramble Marches
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The Bramble Marches is a campaign I've been working on that's meant to
include TSR-era exploration and end-game content into 5e D&D. A friend of
mine ha...
My statement on design 'copying'
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I am a firm believer in that we, as humans that have been on this planet
for 200k years, are inherently creative but almost nothing we make is
'original'. ...
Players Companion for Shadowdark
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*This post includes affiliate links. *
A grabbed a copy of Greg Christopher's Player Companion for Shadowdark a
while back. And since then it has been ...
[CAMPAIGN JOURNAL] News on the March! Episode V.
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This post continues the series of brief play reports I have been posting on
Discord. This does not cover every single session (sometimes, recon and
setup...
The Three Prongs of Art's Dilemma...
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Okay, so the title's a bit misleading. There's lots of great artwork in the
gaming hobby, with something good for everyone, whether old school's amateur
...
Hobby Bingo 2025: January Progress
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Welcome back to the Vault! I've painted a few bits and pieces in January
and made a dent into my Hobby Bingo card! First up is a Chaplain in
Terminator ...
NTRPG Gaming Weekend
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[image: NTRPG Gaming Weekend]
This weekend was a "game day" for North Texas RPG Con, held at the same
hotel the con is held at. I haven't slung dice since...
The Stats of a Dave Arneson Player Character.
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If you want to find the details for one of the characters that Gary Gygax
made and played as a PC, perhaps to use as an NPC in your own game, it
isn't t...
Brink of Calamity proofs ordered
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Hello, blog family. It’s been a minute. I’m happy to inform you all that
I’ve just ordered a proof copy of *Brink of Calamity* from DriveThruRPG.
When I ...
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...
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 ...
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 ...
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...
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!
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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...
It's been a bit
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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...
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
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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!
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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
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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
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*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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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!
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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
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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.
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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!
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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!
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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
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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?
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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
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We had another successful delve into the dungeon yesterday. The delvers:
Moira, the Magic-User
Radovan - Human Cleric (of Odin?)
Khazgar Stonehand - Dwarf ...
Bundle of Fantasy Age
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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
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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
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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 ...