OSR Christmas 2025 - Day 1

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas :) Rach and I took my parents out for hibachi (today is my mother's birthday), and we drove around Howard Beach afterward, looking at the various Griswald Christmas Displays. Now that we're home, it's time to Kick-Off OSR Christmas 2025!

To be eligible to be gifted for Day 1 of OSR Christmas, you must comment below - anything qualifies so long as it's in the Holiday spirit. Comments must be posted by Monday, December 16th, at 8 PM ET. Gifts will be randomly gifted from a list of those who correctly commented. Gifts will be gifted Monday evening, and the next set of gifts will be posted, so check back frequently. 

Gift 1 - Dragonlock Lost Caverns: Master Set FDG0410 ($50.00)

Gift 2 - Frog God Games 50% Off Coupon

Gift 3 - Frog God OSR Holiday Bundle ($50.00) in PDF includes How Orcus Stole Christmas, Orcus on 34th Level, Orcus in a Winter Wonderland, Beware of the Yule Cat, The 12 Days of Orcus

Gift 4 - $10 DTRPG Gift Certificate

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 Rumble or YouTube - Tenkar 

Free OSR - Blackmarsh (Sandbox Setting by Rob Conley)

Truth in advertising - I've known Rob Conley for over a decade and consider Rob a close friend. Blackmarsh is an OSR Sandbox and one of the finest sandboxes ever written. Coming in at less than 40 pages, it packs a campaign worth of adventuring within its relatively sparse pages. It should be noted that Blackmarsh is also available in soft-cover for 6.99 and hard-cover for 11.99.

In the days when man knew only the working of stone and fought for their existence against the orc and the goblin, the sky turned to ash and down fell the fiery mountain onto the land. The world tore open and the grey waters rushed in. Those who survived the impact were lost as boiling clouds rushed out in all directions leaving a wasteland in its wake.

The Mountain That Fell left a gift; magic. Near and far, those of learning and strong of heart discovered new powers to shape the world. In the desolation around the Smoking Bay the adventurous found viz, magic in physical form. And there was more, scattered amid the landscape were strange artifacts and stranger creatures that survived The Mountain That Fell. For a time men, dwarves, orc, goblins, and other races braved the dangers and fought each other in the wastelands. Then the elves came into Blackmarsh expelled the feuding races, drove the monsters out, and healed the land.

In the present day, many come to Blackmarsh to harvest viz, kill monsters, or seek the strange artifacts left by The Mountain That Fell. The only force that stands against the wilderness is the Blackmarsh Rangers. Anyone who is willing to defend the land and its people are welcomed into their ranks. Powerful kingdoms outside of Blackmarsh are beginning cast a covetous eyes toward the land's riches. Will the adventurers of your campaign become wealthy and powerful? Or will their bones join the many that have sunk into the swamps?

Blackmarsh is a complete, ready to run setting for your campaign. It can be run as its own setting or an expansion of your existing world. Contained in Blackmarsh are 17 geographical entries, 78 described locales, and one detailed town; Castle Blackmarsh. Each entry provide one or more adventure hooks to use in your campaigns.

Rob's Note: If you can afford it the hardcover print option comes with two blank pages in the front and three blank pages in the back that you can use for handwritten notes. The inside covers are also blank. The printing process for hardcovers wraps a heavy paper protector between the covers and the first and last pages of the book.

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 Rumble or YouTube - Tenkar 

Bundle of Holding - The One Ring™ 2E

I'm excited to see The One Ring 2e RPG at Bundle of Holding. I'm looking forward to snagging the Starter Collection and Bonus Collection.

Strider Mode allows for solo gaming. Hmmmm.

Adventurer! The One Ring™ Second Edition (2022) from Free League Publishing is the official tabletop roleplaying game based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Designed specifically to evoke the atmosphere of The Hobbit™ and The Lord of the Rings™, the game contains rules for creating heroes and sending them off on adventures in Eriador, west of the Misty Mountains – a land threatened by the growing Shadow. This new offer brings you the beautifully illustrated full-color The One Ring 2E rules set plus recent sourcebooks and adventures for a great price.

For just US$7.95 you get all five titles in our Starter Collection (retail value $46) as DRM-free .PDFs, including the complete The One Ring Second Edition Core Rules (plus the Character Lifepaths and Peoples of Wilderland), along with two titles previously in our February 2023 One Ring Starter Bundle: the Loremaster's Screen & Rivendell Compendium and the Strider Mode solitaire rules.

And if you pay more than the threshold price of $18.67, you'll level up and also get two more supplements worth an additional $40: Gareth Hanrahan's location guide Ruins of the Lost Realm and its companion adventure anthology, Tales from the Lone-lands.

 

Time Limited Bundle - Shadowrun 5e - 17 PDFs 18 Bucks

This year, Humble Bundle has added some time-limited bundles to its selection. Sure, most bundles last two weeks or so, but with these, it's generally about 48 hours or so.

Shadowrun 5e is one of those Time Limited Bundles. You get 17 titles in PDF, including the core rules, for 18 bucks.

Enjoy!

Tenkar

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 Rumble or YouTube - Tenkar 

Updated With More Gifts! OSR Christmas 2024!

Update - We have two more publishers in the mix - North Wind Adventures & BRW!

I'm still gathering some info from some last-minute gifters. OSR Christmas will run from December 14th, 2024, through January 6th, 2025, give or take. Restream has yet to have a giveaway tool like Streamyard, so the giveaways will be here on the blog side, AS WELL AS The Tavern's Substack.

So far, the gifters include:

North Wind Adventures / Hyperborea

$125 worth of Hyperborea PDFs via DTRPG - You Pick!

BRW Games

The New Adventures Dark and Deep Core Rulebook and Core Bestiary in pdf. 

(Not even been released to the public yet)

Fat Dragon Games (3 sets of each = 12 Days)

Dragonlock Lost Caverns: Master Set FDG0410 ($50.00) 

Dragonlock Lost City of the Dwarves: Master Set FDG0411 ($25.00)

FDG0349 DRAGON TILES: Dungeon Core Set ($25.00)

FDG0351 DRAGON TILES: Caverns Core Set ($25.00)

Frog God Games

Frog God Games 50% off Coupon (one for each day - 12 Days)

$200 Frog God Games Store Credit (x1)

OSR Holiday Bundle in PDF includes: (x2)

• How Orcus Stole Christmas
• Orcus on 34th Level
• Orcus in a Winter Wonderland
• Beware of the Yule Cat
• The 12 Days of Orcus

Tenkar's Tavern

1 x $50 DTRPG Gift Certificate

12x$10 DTRPG Gift Certificates

If you wish to join in on the gifting fun, email me at tenkarsDOTtavern at that Gmail thing with "OSR Christmas Gift Giving" in the subject ;)

Last Minute Prep for OSR Christmas 2024

I'm gathering some info from some last-minute gifters. OSR Christmas will run from December 14th, 2024, through January 6th, 2025, give or take. Restream has yet to have a giveaway tool like Streamyard, so the giveaways will be here on the blog side, AS WELL AS The Tavern's Substack.

So far, the major gifters include:

Fat Dragon Games (3 sets of each = 12 Days)

Dragonlock Lost Caverns: Master Set FDG0410 ($50.00) 

Dragonlock Lost City of the Dwarves: Master Set FDG0411 ($25.00)

FDG0349 DRAGON TILES: Dungeon Core Set ($25.00)

FDG0351 DRAGON TILES: Caverns Core Set ($25.00)

Frog God Games

Frog God Games 50% off Coupon (one for each day - 12 Days)

$200 Frog God Games Store Credit (x1)

OSR Holiday Bundle in PDF includes: (x2)

• How Orcus Stole Christmas
• Orcus on 34th Level
• Orcus in a Winter Wonderland
• Beware of the Yule Cat
• The 12 Days of Orcus

Tenkar's Tavern

1 x $50 DTRPG Gift Certificate

12x$10 DTRPG Gift Certificates

If you wish to join in on the gifting fun, email me at tenkarsDOTtavern at that Gmail thing with "OSR Christmas Gift Giving" in the subject ;)

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 Rumble or YouTube - Tenkar 

Deal of the Day - The Road To Hell (OSR Adventure)

I'm a big fan of Newt Newport and his D101 Games publishing company. Newt does some great stuff, from Crypts & Things to OpenQuest, Simple Quest, and beyond.

Today's Deal of the Day at DTRPG is The Road to Hell, an OSR adventure for 5th-level characters (including pregens if needed). Usually, 10.19 in PDF until tomorrow morning. The Road To Hell is on sale for 5.33 in PDF.

Some of the encounters awaiting the players in this adventure:

Headless Zombies, flesh-eating demonic assassins, all-seeing oracles, screaming mad women, cowardly men hiding in water closets, The Death and Resurrection Show, at least one bar room brawl (two, if the adventures like to pick fights), a black knight of the realm, his gang of knaves, a stone circle of menace, and a tower made of twisted flesh that writhes in agony.

Features of the Book

• Six Premade characters so you can pick up the adventure and play it straight away. Unlike many other OSR adventures, these characters are hardened adventurers of 5th Level. Each character will have a portrait by Peter Town (Hearts in Glorantha, Mythic Russia).
• Black and White Illustrations by Daniel Barker (Monkey, Tales of the Reaching Moon) of the monsters that the characters will meet in the adventure.
• Five black and white detailed maps by Golden Ennie award winning cartographer Glynn Seal (MonkeyBlood Design, The Midderlands).
• A colour cover by Jon Hodgson (Warhammer Fantasy 1st-4th edition, D&D 4th & 5th, The One Ring).
• The book is 74 pages long 6 inches by 9 inches hardback

 

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 Rumble or YouTube - Tenkar