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The Sorcerers' Enclave:

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Soon coming to Kickstarter:

From the Mythmere Games newsletter:

Swords & Wizardry was originally written in 2008 by Matt Finch, author of the Tome of Adventure Design. It’s an ENNIE award-winning retro-clone of the original 1974-1978 rules for Dungeons & Dragons*, an edition usually called Original D&D or OD&D. As with most early role-playing games, it is very rules-light by today’s standards, which makes it easy to learn and fast-moving to play.

All the rules for the game are contained in one book, 144 pages long, which includes everything needed to play. This new version is backward compatible with the earlier versions, containing several small changes, but nothing that changes fundamental rules.

For those who are familiar with the recent developments with the Open Game License, this new version of the rules is non-OGL. It uses the Creative Commons License, and will have an independent license allowing third-party publishers to use the Swords & Wizardry rules for creating adventures and even new games.

There will be both an offset-print version (the blue cover shown, which will have a high-quality sewn binding) and a print-on-demand version (the Erol Otus cover shown). These will have roughly the same final price to the backer before shipping – neither one is a “premium” or “deluxe” cover, although the blue offset print books will be of a higher quality than a print-on-demand press generates.

In addition to having a print-on-demand option, we will again use our fulfillment partners in the UK to lower shipping costs for UK, EU, Norway, and Switzerland customers. We will be using a new warehouse in the USA, because we have found a fulfillment company that’s very close to our house.

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Hârn kingdoms of Kaldor, Melderyn, Rethem, and Orbaal:

HârnWorld 40th anniversary hardback is being crowdfunded at the moment.

Tome of Adventure Design:

Riddle Register: The Ultimate Book of Riddles:

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The first publisher of OSRIC adventures and supplements is having a 60% sale to celebrate their 20th anniversary. Plenty of good stuff to wade through. Here are some of my favourites.

World-building supplements

Megadungeon

Monsters

#Sale #XRP #OSRIC #OSR

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Wizards of the Coast has announced they'll update the Open Gaming Licence. By update, they of course mean they'll reduce what one is able to do, introduce new ridiculous restrictions, and sabotage their existing fan base who are promoting them for free.

Ever since 4E there's been a lot of discussions regarding how irrevocable OGL really is. In the wake of recent developments, Alexander Macris (creator of the excellent Adventurer Conqueror King System) offers an interesting take:

In short: it is unlikely that the current version of OGL can be revoked. It is very likely Wizards of the Coast will try to do whatever they can to get everyone on their new OGL.

But really, OSR creators don't need anything beyond OGL 1.0 and 1.0a. I seriously doubt new WotC edition will bring any significant innovations worth backporting.

All of this might be a good spark for creating a rock-solid D&D retro-clone released under the Creative Commons licence.

In fact, if you have:

  • an intimate understanding of any of the following: B/X, BECMI, Rules Cyclopedia, New Easy-to-Master D&D, and Classic D&D;
  • are interested in collaboratively creating a comprehensive system reference document licensed under the Creative Commons ; and
  • can write

then send me an email. Perhaps there is enough of us to make a difference.

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The creators of Castles & Crusaders are discounting their whole catalogue until end of the year. Although I don't run their system, I use some of the adventures as well as system neutral aids.

Adventures

Supplements

#Sale #TLG #CC #OSR

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I've just seen that Frog God Games is running another sale with discounts up to 70%. As before, most of my suggestion below are for the Swords & Wizardry system, a retroclone of Original D&D.

In no specific order, I can recommend the following:

  • Monstrosities (Swords and Wizardry). Nearly 500 monsters. Each monster comes with an example encounter/nano-adventure. Includes tables with monsters by challenge level, guidance on creating new monsters, tables of monsters by terrain, and tables of random encounters (3d6, so bell curve).
  • The Northlands Saga Complete (Swords and Wizardry). A compilation of ten adventures set in stereotypical cold north. Probably enough for several years of gaming. My favourite activity is stealing from this book and including parts of it in my own game. Tenfootpole has reviewed first four adventures back in the day (NS1, NS2, NS3, NS4). $18 is a steal for this.
  • The Lost City of Barakus (Swords and Wizardry) (local and regional maps). Perhaps my favourite Necromancer Games mega-dungeon—because it is so much more! You get a starting city (with seven adventures), a wilderness area (with 26 keyed encounters and mini adventures), and a mega-dungeon with interesting factions and cool big-bad. Suitable for low-level parties.
  • Bard's Gate (Swords and Wizardry) (player's guide). A massive city packed with urban encounters and adventures (8 included, from levels 1 to 10+). Very dense book. Some say this is FGG's finest product. The truth is that this is another Necromancer Games revival. And that's why it's great. :)
  • The Book of Taverns (volumes one, two, and three). Had enough of generic taverns and inns, but short on prep time? Steal one from here. Again, these are revivals of old Necromancer Games books. They are good.

#Sale #FGG #NG #SW #OSR

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Two months since announcing his return, Dan has shared Labyrinth Lord 2E preview:

Download it for free at DriveThruRPG.

Update: Dan removed the preview due to feedback. In how own words:

Hey everyone, based on feedback I'm going to need to rethink presentation. The release timeframe will probably change. I'm taking some time to mull it over and I'll update when I can.

Discussion at Dragonsfoot forum.

Discussion at OSR reddit.

Some quick thoughts:

  • Visual feel is reminiscent of later Mystara publications. I'm a big fan of black-and-white, and while I can tolerate the ornamental frame, I don't think coloured background is the way to go.
  • I like the addition of green explainer text. In general, I've observed a lack of instructional language in a lot of modern OSR rule-sets, so this makes for a nice addition.
  • The art is sometimes endearing, and sometimes off-putting.

Either way, I'm still looking forward to it.

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Axian Library:

Designers & Dragons The 70s:

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Robert Conley just shared some delightful news about Majestic Fantasy Realms, the spiritual successor to the Wilderlands of High Fantasy:

By next year I will be releasing stuff for the Majestic Fantasy Realms which is formatted similarly to how Blackmarsh is set up. Except it will be four 12” by 18” maps. There will be some city/town maps included but nothing like the original CSIO. For that I have a long term plan for what I call the City State of Eastgate. Basically picking up from where I left off in 2009...

Here is how the maps look at the moment:

It should come to Kickstarter next year, so keep your eyes open.

In the meantime, the following are available from Rob's DriveThruRPG:

And much more from his website.

#News #OSR #SW #MFRPG

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