I really like the Tiny D6 system. Finally, a non-D20 system that I can wrap my head around in my advanced (55) years ;)

Tiny Cthulhu is today's Deal of the Day. Normally 17.99 in PDF, but until tomorrow morning Tiny Cthulhu is on sale for 3.60 - 80% off!

The classic TinyD6 minimalist ruleset delves into the unknowable and horrible mysteries of classic Mythos stories inspired by the works of Chambers, Lovecraft and more!

Using the rules in this book, you'll be able to play investigators, doomed heroes, and classic cosmic horror characters of all types, from scientists and librarians, to WWI veterans, to mysterious guardians defending the world from the dark powers of chthonic entities! Tiny Cthulhu features a myriad of settings set throughout the world and history, ranging from prehistory to the Bronze Age, World War 1, modern day, as well as fantasy and the science fiction future! You can survive cosmic horror in any time or place! (Lucky you!)

Tiny Cthulhu features: 

• Minimalist Corruption rules focused on aiding storytelling. 
• New enemies, new Environment Traits to aid the otherworldly storytelling, and new rules for magic and tomes!
• Support for Pulp-style storytelling! 
• Support for Noir-style storytelling! 
• Gadgets, steampunk themes and more are integrated into Tiny Cthulhu!

 

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Far West. Infamous for lack of any sort of, well, anything. The forums are gone, and the Discord Server has an invite link that only lasted 7 days. You CAN set a Discord link to NOT expire, but it's obvious Gareth doesn't REALLY want to interact with his Kickstarter backers that he's been fucking over for over 11 years.

As of today, it's been over 5 months since the last Far West Kickstarter update, which is the ONLY way Gareth can actually be sure he's communicating with his backers.

We don't care about the fiction. Your backers want what they paid for back in 2011.

Gareth has redefined what a failure at Kickstarter truly is.

How many missed completion dates? You can check here: https://www.mutedhorn.net/far-west-delivery-estimates

But at least Gareth has time to tweet. Imagine if all those tweets over the last 11 years were put into book form. I'd guess they'd dwarf Far West in whatever size it theoretically releases in.

Of course, now he can blame Eric Trautmann for its further delay...

I've always been intrigued by the Hillfolk RPG. When I used to listen to the Ken & Robin Talk About Stuff Podcast, Robin would often talk about the Hillfolk RPG. I simply never could justify buying a copy without a group eager to play in the default setting.

You can get the Starter Bundle of Hillfolk for just US$5.95 you get all six titles in this revived offer's Starter Collection (retail value $22.50) as DRM-free ebooks, including the complete 240-page Hillfolk core rulebook and five "Series Pitches," short treatments that can inspire you to run DramaSystem games in other times and places: Encore, Iron Tsar, Narcocorrido, Sheep's Clothing, and Terminal X.

And if you pay more than the threshold price of $15.15, you'll level up and also get this revival's entire Bonus Collection with ten more titles worth an additional $39.50, including the 208-page companion volume Blood on the Snow, a set of atmospheric MP3 music tracks, the handy Hillfolk card deck, and seven more Series Pitches: Art and Murder, Campus Desk, Honor Among Thieves, No Crowns, Niflgap, Promised Land, and a pitch exclusive to this offer and sold nowhere else, Do What Thou Wilt.

 

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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

I'm a huge fan of Old School Essentials. I am also a huge fan of zines. Put them together and you have a huge winner. That's what you get with the Carcass Crawler series.

Carcass Crawler: Issue Two is Today's Deal of the Day. Normally 7.50 in PDF, but until tomorrow it is on sale for 3 bucks.

Issue 2 of Carcass Crawler — the official Old-School Essentials zine! Each issue is packed with new material for your games, including new character classes and races, new spells and magic items, new monsters, optional and expanded rules, referee advice, news, previews of in-development products, short adventures, and more!

In This Issue

New classes and races: Two new elf variants. The phase elf and the wood elf.

Item-based encumbrance system: A simple system for tracking characters' loads and movement rates, based on the number of items carried. (No more need to add up coins and weights.)

Town services: Guidelines and prices for inns, jewelers, money changers, and traders, including a simple optional rule for haggling.

Hiring retainers: Tables and extra guidelines for locating and hiring retainers.

Quick equipment: A set of tables for expediting character creation by randomly selecting starting gear.

Energy weapons: Complete rules for introducing high-tech energy blades and guns into your game, either as alien relics found in long lost treasure hoards or to accompany the sci-fi inspired classes in Carcass Crawler issue 1 (the hephaestan and kineticist).

Snake cult monsters: 8 brand new monsters: creepy undead, guardian constructs, and devious serpents.

The tomb of Aum-Pharath: A mini-adventure in the trap-filled ruins of a snake cult temple.

Adjudicating traps: Advice and optional guidelines for making traps a fun and engaging part of the game.

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Part 5 of a new AD&D and 5E Mega-Dungeon Adventure Set, The Virgin Mine!

This is far from the first time I've highlighted a Kickstarter from Art of the Genre. If I were actually organized, I'd be able to show off a gaming shelf of Folio goodness. I'm not organized, so that isn't happening anytime soon ;)

Scott has an amazing ability to grab the right cover artist for his projects, and this time is no different. Detachable covers, much like the classic TSR era covers of old, are always an appreciated touch.

Folio #30 is the 5th of 6 in a series of Kickstarters. 22 bucks (plus shipping) gets you print plus PDF. PDF only is 12 bucks. All 5 releases in the series in print plus PDF is 110 plus shipping.

Join the adventure as Art of the Genre continues to add content to its first new mega-dungeon in over three years!  This fifth part of a six phase mega-campaign is based around 5th level characters in a completely revolutionary setting.  I've specially designed the dungeon to breathe new life into those low-level adventuring levels while allowing the DM the ability to create incredible story arcs with old favorite monsters like lizardmen, giant serpents, huge toads, and even early fantasy RPG video game monsters inspired from classic crawls like Wizardry and Bard's Tale!

The Virgin Mine setting revolves around an adventuring company moving into the wild jungles ruins around the Imperial Capital city of Nextyaria.  Here, they will match wits against other treasure-seeking adventuring companies as well as the intelligent dungeon that hosts relic treasures with nearly unlimited power.

Folio #30 will introduce characters to the next section of the massive Virgin Mine Dungeon, The Great Maze! Unlike normal dungeons, this one carries various mysteries and wrinkles that 'bend' the rules of character advancement, and strategy will need to be employed as the party learns the ropes within the Virgin Mine Dungeon setting.  Dungeon details include 2D standard hex maps as well as fully 3D renderings of The Great Maze section of The Virgin Mine.  A gazetteer section will give background on the new rules for the dungeon.  Five new monsters lurk within, as well as new magical treasure.  It also features a fully removable and stand-alone cover in perfect OSR tradition that acts as a DM Screen!

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I remember snagging 13th Age when it was first released. It was D20 based, so it was familiar, but too far from my OSR comfort zone, so it went on the bookshelf. That was 10 years ago, and now having heard so much good said about 13th Age over the past few years, I regret not giving it a closer look.

From the 13th Age website:

13th Age combines the best parts of traditional d20-rolling fantasy gaming with new story-focused rules, designed so you can run the kind of game you most want to play with your group. Created by Rob Heinsoo and Jonathan Tweet, 13th Age gives you all the tools you need to make unique characters who are immediately embedded in the setting in important ways; quickly prepare adventures based on the PCs’ backgrounds and goals; create your own monsters; fight exciting battles; and focus on what’s always been cool and fun about fantasy adventure gaming:

• Icon relationships and One Unique Things offer exciting storytelling possibilities
• Backgrounds provide a simple, flexible skill system drawn from characters’ personal histories
• Escalation dice enable fun, fast-moving D20 combat.
• Owlbears will rip PC’s limbs off to feed their young.

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Today instead of doing something "fun" I've bee trying to fix a mistake I made. What was my mistake? Well despite knowing better I utterly failed in properly backing up some important RPG files.....

I'm one of those guys who should know better, but can still manage to mess stuff up anyway, despite my best efforts (i.e. my best isn't good enough). I generally believe in the adage that if you don't have your important files backed up in three places, you don't have your important files. Most of my files are saved on a couple of computers and I have a couple of larger (8TB) portable drives that I use to keep a tertiary backup at my family's farm, which is a good 12 hour drive away. Whenever I visit I bring one drive and swap it out with the one that is already there.

Thing is I cannot afford to back up ALL of my files because I have my entire video collection on a home server....I will be fixing that soon, but not soon enough to save all of my 3d printing files. I had a lot of .stl's on a portable drive and I-kid-you-not as I went to pick it up to make a copy of everything on my home server I knocked it off of the table. Now the drive doesn't work.....

"Luckily" a good chunk of my files are available to download again from DriveThruRPG and MyMiniFactory, but most of the stuff I had picked up on Patreon over the years...... *POOF*. Anything that was actually conveniently organized........*POOF*.

I'm probably 30 hours into downloading what I can......and once it's organized I'm thinking that I need to burn these to some M-Discs.

Now all of my "regular" RPG files are at least thrice back-up, but please....take my pain-in-the-ass (it's actually a little sore as I'm taking a break from downloading and organizing a bazillion files.....to type this) as a mental note for you to back your files up. Have at least three copies and one off-site.