Swords & Wizardry Light - Forum

Friday, October 11, 2024

Bundle of Holding - Wulfwald (OSR)

I have a good grasp of the OSR games on the market but have missed Wulfwald. I am correcting that right now!

Outcasts all! For a limited time, this all-new Wulfwald Quick Deal presents Wulfwald, Lee Reynoldson's old-school tabletop roleplaying game from Glasgow-based publisher Lost Pages set in a low-fantasy world inspired by mythic Anglo-Saxon tales. Lost Pages is offering the complete five-book set of Wulfwald core rulebooks, funded in a March 2022 Kickstarter campaign, for a special promotional price.

Your characters are Wolfsheads, rejects from your medieval society of humans, Ælfcynn (elves), Dweorgas (dwarves), or the despised Réþealingas (Outlanders). Seeking redemption, you undertake covert missions and skulduggery for a Thegn, a noble warlord. Together you form your Thegn's Wolfpack, a dire weapon he wields ruthlessly. A Wolfpack is a cross among a special-ops team, mob crew, terrorist cell, and gang. Missions for your Thegn might include threatening, leaning on, beating up, or killing rival Thegns – spying, stealing, cons, capers, stings, and double-crosses – kidnapping, ransoming, bribing, and blackmailing – all the things nobles want done without staining their reputation.

This all-new Wulfwald Quick Deal gives you non-watermarked, DRM-free .PDFs of all five Wulfwald core rulebooks – Wolfsheads, Magic, Campaign, Monsters, and People – a US$13 retail value for just $5.95. Your purchase includes a high-res .PDF of the beautiful black-and-white Wulfwald regional map, one of the last works by legendary British illustrator Russ Nicholson (Fiend Folio, Warhammer, Fighting Fantasy).

 

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Thursday, October 10, 2024

Deal of the Day - Book of Lost Lore (OSR Sourcebook)



Alright, here's the part where I reveal my connections. I first met Joe Bloch in person at the premiere of Gygax Magazine at the Brooklyn Strat back in January 2013. Of course, we'd known each other online before that. Joe has been a guest on The Tavern's live streams, and we often hang out at conventions together. I consider Joe a friend.

Joe wrote and published Adventures Dark & Deep, essentially a "What If EGG Actually Wrote AD&D 2e". The Book of Lost Lore was written for ADD, AD&D 1e, and other OSR games.

New options to expand your old-school roleplaying game!

This book contains new playable races, new character classes, new magic, alternate combat and treasure systems, and much more for GMs and players alike. You'll find classes including the musical bard, merry jester, studious savant, and the villainous blackguard. Scores of new spells and magic items, and much more.

Written for the First Edition of the world's most popular RPG, this book will also be useful to anyone running a game using old-school rules. 

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.

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Note - NEW Humble Bundle Affiliate Link.

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Mazes & Perils IS NOT The First Holmes Retroclone, Even if It Claims It Is!

Holy shit, I don't believe that here we are, over 12 years later, and Vince Florio (The Evil DM/GM) is back to pretending that Mazes & Perils is something that it isn't. Also, see here

The above screenshot is from Vince's Solo.to website

First, Mazes & Perils (2012) is a solid OSR game; there's no taking away from that. I'd expect nothing less, as it is based on the work of R.C. Pinnell and their  Holmes77 retroclone from 2011. That's the link for the freely available source material right there.

Heck, Vince even credits R.C. Pinnell as "Additional Contributor" because of Pinnell's work on Holmes77 in the credits, but somehow Mazes & Perils came first?

Dude, you won an ENnie with Mazes & Perils (2012). Isn't that enough? Why pretend Mazes & Perils is something it isn't?




Tuesday, October 8, 2024

Free RPG Resources - FlexTale Infinite Adventures Volume 1: Western Realm of Aquilae



As I said with yesterday's Deal of the Day, I appreciate the various FlexTale releases series for ease of use and inspiration for running sessions. At the fantastic FREE price, FlexTale Infinite Adventures Volume 1: Western Realm of Aquilae is an excellent resource for the harried GM. 

Contains 25 significant points of interest (POI).  Each one is designed to be interesting enough for at least an entire gaming session, if not an entire multi-session arc, or even an entire campaign.  Each POI could be its own book :)

Each POI is designed to be immediately usable in any fantasy TTRPG, in any campaign setting, with zero to little preparation.

The entire book has been designed from the ground up to support and enable solo adventuring.

Also contains universally-usable mechanics, guidelines, tables, and general resources for all points of interest in a fantasy TTRPG campaign.

Zero Prep, System-Agnostic

Designed to be immediately usable in any fantasy TTRPG, all Infinite Adventures books require zero prep time.

What is This Thing?

FlexTale Infinite Adventures is a concept that applies the Infinium Game Studio approach to points of interest on a fantasy TTRPG map.  Detailed descriptions, endless permutations of things to keep things fresh, easy-to-use tables and resources, and plenty of ideas and inspiration.

This book is the first in a series describing the various Points of Interest (POI) in the Western Realm of Aquilae.  Though it was created with this setting in mind, everything in this book was designed to be system- and setting-agnostic.

Inside, you'll find:

  • Discovery, including read-aloud text, "Why You Might Come Here", "So You Find Yourself Here", Hooks, and more.
  • Activities, including Adventure Snippets, Quests, Secrets, Threats, and more.
  • Location information, including a heatmap / location guide for the POI's presence in the Realm of Aquilae.
  • Rumors & Lore table with true, partially true, and false stories about the POI.
  • Events and Quirks, describing unique phenomena that might occur as you explore.
  • More interesting for players.  Easier to run for D/GMs.  Full, out of the box support for solo players.

And above all: NOT BORING!

Contents

Inside, you'll find:

  • 149 tables
  • 35 FlexTables (each one 4 tables in one)
  • 37 pages of Utility Tables: quickly and dynamically generate entire dungeon maps, traps, poisons, diseases, curses, treasure, and spells.
  • "Jump Right In" introduciton describing exactly how to use this book based on your needs as a G/DM
  • Dedicated discussion on how to use this book as a solo adventurer
  • Creature Modifiers to quickly make even the most ho-hum, boring common monster more interesting and unique
  • Much, much more!

Points of Interest

Each of the following gets 4 full dedicated pages of description, tools, variability, and resources.  With the tables provided, any one of these POI represents tens of thousands of possible combinations of use in your game!

  • Abbey
  • Ancient Halls
  • Aquifers of Charnel Heights
  • Armory of Armies
  • Army of the Damned
  • Astuterie Galleries
  • Asylums
  • Barbarian Wastes
  • Barrowlands
  • Basin of Welcome
  • Bazaar of the Righteous
  • Behemoth Falls
  • Blackiron Cathedral
  • Blackstack Village
  • Blades of Thyraxis
  • Bleaktract
  • Bloodwater Dam
  • Bone Orchard
  • Bravislatovok
  • Breweries of the Ivory Flight
  • Cagicull Keep
  • Cairn of the Forsaken
  • Cakemount
  • Camels Threat
  • Canyon of the Godswound

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Monday, October 7, 2024

Deal of the Day - FlexTale Adventure Generator: Dungeons (System Neutral)



I just saw this pop up in my feed and snagged it immediately. I've been impressed with other releases in the FlexTale series and expect more of the same high quality.

Normally,10 bucks in PDF, until tomorrow morning FlexTale Adventure Generator: Dungeons is on sale for 5 bucks.

This book aims to be the most complete, most comprehensive, most innovative authority on designing, creating, and running Dungeon-based adventures ever produced.

Simply put: If you are playing, or plan to play, any sort of fantasy tabletop roleplaying game, this book will help you.  

Bringing together 35 years of gaming, both old-school through to today's most popular systems, the FlexTale Adventure Generator (FTAG) culminates a lifetime's passion for the hobby into a massively useful volume that can be instantly invaluable to any gaming group, in any context, using any rules system.

Whether you enjoy complex design and superbly intricate options, or if you prefer the calm simplicity of a straightforward six-sided die roll, the FTAG has been designed with you, and the time you have available, in mind.

All FlexTale books are designed with the many demands upon the G/DM in mind--they can be used immediately, with zero preparation, with any TTRPG rules system, in any campaign setting, at any gaming table.  This book was created to be supremely useful to inspire grognards who have been gaming since the hobby's inception, yet accessible enough for complete novice and first-time G/DMs to find immediate excitement.

Who is This For?

If you're any of the following and you're reading this, then I'd recommend you click on the preview to get a sense of what's involved here.  :)

A time-pressed G/DM, who doesn't have time to prepare for tonight's session but still wants to present a ton of exciting options for the PCs.

Planners, who want to devote a great deal of time, care, and attention to each and every aspect of their dungeon adventures, and who want to make sure that they have provided against every possible contingency that their players might pursue.

A G/DM who is planning an adventure with intention, but wants creative inspiration and to be prompted with ideas, starting points, and to provide structure to their own notions.

Writers who are authoring their own adventures, either to accelerate the process or to aid with areas in which they welcome assistance.

World-builders who hope to drive the generation of their world in adaptation to the discoveries of the PCs at the more personal level, evolving the nature of their campaign world and its contents in a way that echoes the players' experience.

G/DMs who want to run a one-shot adventure designed on the fly dynamically, with the option to turn it into an arbitarily-longer campaign.

Anyone with plenty of great ideas and creativity, who is looking for structure and a way to organize all of their inspiration into something that can be put in front of players.

A solo adventurer, who is looking for a system that generates entire, endless, interesting, unpredictable, and engaging campaigns.

Designed with Solo in Mind

The FlexTale Adventure Generator has been designed at every level to fuel exciting, engaging, and surprising solo adventuring.  Arguably the biggest challenge for any solo player is how to maintain the element of surprise--how can you be shocked, inspired, or excited about twists and turns that you yourself created?

Every single concept and tool in this book was designed with easy-to-use randomization, and explicit descriptions of how and when to keep revelations about the adventure's design a secret, or undetermined, until it's necessary.

What is This Thing?

The FlexTale Adventure Generator (FTAG) is over 400 pages, and contains over 380 tables, dozens of optional rules, tons of tools and templates and other powerful resources that can be used immediately, by any D/GM, in any gaming context.  

Whether you're playing a published adventure, creating your own, or want to generate an entirely dynamic adventure on the fly during a game session with no prep beforehand, this book provides simple instructions, easy-to-use tables, and straightforward dice rolls to spawn a truly infinite variety of engaging, interesting adventure content, no matter what your experience level.

How Do I Use This?

There are two types of things you can do with this book.

1: Make dungeon maps.

2: Create dungeon adventure content.

You can use this book for one or the other of these.  If you do both of them together, you're literally generating an entire adventure, from start to finish--or, more likely, not to a finish, so much as to an infinitely-unfolding narrative and exploraton of an entire gaming world.  All with some simple dice rolls!

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Sunday, October 6, 2024

Free OSR - Cha'alt



Love him or hate him, it's hard to argue with Venger's talent as an old-school creator. If you like gonzo, Cha'alt will likely be a subtle choice for your palette. If you aren't a fan of gonzo, at the price of FREE Cha'alt is an excellent source of inspiration for its less gonzo pieces.

Cha'alt is the beast of a book (218 pages) I've been working on for the past year.  It's a ruined world focusing on a couple of introductory dungeons before getting to the main event - the megadungeon known as The Black Pyramid.  

The Black Pyramid is like nothing you've ever seen before.  Unique design, purpose, feel, magic items, NPCs, monsters, factions, motives, agendas, strangeness, the works!

There's a decent amount of setting detail besides dungeoncrawling - space opera bar, domed city, mutants, weird ass elves, desert pirates, a city ruled by a gargantuan purple demon-worm, and much more!

Cha'alt is compatible with both old school and 5e D&D purposefully blended for maximum usability.  Full disclosure: aside from advantage/disadvantage and bounded accuracy, there isn't much in the way of 5th edition mechanics. It's predominantly OSR.

I've included my own Crimson Dragon Slayer D20 as an appendix, but you can use any of the hundred RPG systems available to run Cha'alt as your own.  The rules-language is fairly neutral, and my priority was helping the Game Master at the table.

The world is gonzo, eldritch, science-fantasy, and post-apocalyptic.  It's a wild ride, perfect for those players seeking something a little bit different, but also recognizable. 

The interior is gorgeous full-color art, layout, cartography and Lovecraftian aesthetics.  Gold ENnie winner Glynn Seal of MonkeyBlood Design went above and beyond his usual fantastic job.  Give the new 32 page preview a look.  I spared no expense making Cha'alt fantastic - this world is alive and spilling over with possibilities.

Cha'alt should give you years of solid, non-standardized gaming. 


 

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.

DTRPGAmazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Rumble or YouTube - Tenkar