Wednesday 11 November 2015

Inked Adventures Map&Dice Playing Cards reduction code for international customers

X-posted from Inked Adventures 

(I am the main artist for Inked Adventures and this is shameless, so very shameless, self-promotion of the lowest order, no really, I can't sleep at night because my day is filled with things like this...)



inkedadventures_playing_cards_logo_banner

playingcardsmappingexamplephoto

TGCshopbanner

Was $12

Now $6.50 USD plus shipping when using the voucher code below.

Inked Adventures is based in the UK and our Map & Dice Playing Cards are printed in the US.  This is because DriveThruCards provide a print-on-demand and web store service of which there is no equivalent in UK.  However, our UK, Europe and international customers are sometimes reluctant to purchase due to the high cost of shipping.  In the case of the UK the $12 usd cards cost $11.20 to post, that’s $23.20 or £15.25 in Her Royal Sterling.  The prices DTRPG/RPGNow/DTCards charge for postage are standardised and there is almost no work around for us as a the small publisher.  However, by massively reducing the price of the cards for everyone for a limited period (until January 11th 2016), we’re hoping that this will make our playing cards more palatable to customers outside of the US.  In the case of the UK customer the total order for one pack will now will be $6.50+$11.20=$17.70 or £11.65. Still, not the cheapest price for a novelty roleplaying accessory, but  this reduction is close to the wholesale publisher price which we use to sell to stall vendors (i.e. it’s pretty much as low as we can go).  Of course this will mean our US cousins will be able to get them even cheaper, but hey, we probably have to them to thank for inventing money-off vouchers in the first place.  We really want to share these babies with the world, because, let’s face it, sometimes mass cult-like status can be way more satisfying than money.  We’re also hoping that if customers order now they may still be in time to receive the cards before Christmas.
For DriveThruRPG the download code is:

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?discount=97dde8b145  or http://bit.ly/cheapmapcards
RPGNow:

http://www.rpgnow.com/browse.php?discount=97dde8b145
DriveThruCards:

http://drivethrucards.com/browse.php?discount=97dde8b145
The link code will place the playing cards product in the respective sites shopping basket (then proceed to checkout).
Plastic deck boxes are available to purchase with the playing cards, but you can also print your own box with this free download:

IA_PlayingCardsBox_A4_minimal (PDF, A4 size, print at 100% scale)

Product Page on DTRPG: Inked Adventures Map&Dice Playing Cards


Wednesday 23 September 2015

Traveller, Beta the Devil You Know, DTRPG Charity and Sales, White Star, TnT Deluxe and Inked Adventures goes sci-fi self-promotion slot

Savage September is still happening at DTRPG and RPGNow which means money off adventures, rules and supplements for the Savage World system.  Correction: "System" September - it seems to be for all sorts of different rules, inc. d20 titles. Or did Savage September become System September?  I'm not so sure now...  Also there's a charity drive for Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (US).  > $25usd for $200usd value in titles RPG Bundle Here < (Edit: I took too long to type this and the link is no longer valid, d'oh)

Right, Traveller something old-school something something classic something science-fiction RPG, it's new, it's classic, it's rebooted, it's revised etc ...

Mongoose Publishing has
returned Traveller to us (again)
but it's an unfinished beta
playtest rules,
which you have to pay for.
?
If you're into sci-fi RPG pen and paper games and cut-price PDFs, you will not have failed to have noticed a current bestseller is the Traveller Core Rules Beta.  I enjoy reading Traveller rules for the original setting background (i.e. the Imperium cannon borne out of GDW's game of the late 70s).  For me, Marc Millers T4 Traveller, and to some extent Mongoose's earlier adaptation edition of "classic" Traveller  contextualise that setting in clear and concise terms, more so than the LBBs did.  To be fair my collection of for the original system is eclectic: a Starter Set, a bunch of LBB supplements, bits from the past, extras from Ebay, Judge's Guild guides, purchased PDFs, website wikis and a hankering to buy the complete collection from FFE.  What I'm saying is that I enjoy acquiring Traveller rules and modules, old and new, just for the love of the game and perhaps to "mine" material from all sources for the ultimate campaign using which system takes my fancy, however ...
With some many existing systems why would I want to pay for an incomplete "Beta"?  After typing the above, I realise, with irony, that maybe I'm the ideal market for Mongoose.

"Traveller Has Returned!"

No, wait, you did this before and never let it go away.

"The Beta Playtest Core Rulebook, laid out and ready to go! After many, many moons of writing and internal playtesting, this book is now ready to be seen (and commented upon!) by dedicated Traveller players. All that is missing from this PDF is a few pieces of artwork!"

I know community playtesting is a real thing, (and Oh God the secretive DnD5 playtest seemed to go on forever), but I'm still having trouble not seeing pre-release launches and community chartered kickstarters as lazy and cynical tickbox marketing, i.e. it's just how they do things now.  There's also some flaws in these approach.

Imagine, you pay for this system, a mere $20usd/£13gbp*.  Let's say you like the rules, you run a campaign, you know that you will get a reduction on the final publication (committing you to the first official print of this new edition).  But wait, there's feedback from the community as a whole, they don't like the rules you like and they are dropped some favourite content of yours from the final piece, leaving your campaign incompatible with new supplements.  But, surely, I hear you say, the final publication will not be that different, maybe they will be just a tinkering with the odd rule here and there?   Well, if that's the case, what's so very wrong with an old fashioned "errata sheet"?  Also, you must ask if Mongoose are pledging that they will support this line for as long as they have the license and won't be releasing a newer edition?

In Mongoose's defence, at least they are still selling their previous publications (I appreciate this brave new world where publishers embrace the past with pride, looking at you, Wizards').  So, is this a relaunch? Why and how is this greatly different from other systems which you can own whole volumes of at modest price?

I'm guessing that for the almost-oldies like me that this will be a curiosity purchase and maybe for new players it's a chance to start from scratch. Maybe it's a competitive response to the prolonged GDW Traveller 5 hardback kickstarter.  By the way, us non-backers of us can buy the PDF for that gem now as well ( T5 Traveller5 Core Rules Book )

Maybe I expect betas to be free and faulty, not alphas claiming to be betas.  A programmer friend had to explain the terminology to me. I guess it's snappier than "work in progress, pre-publication preview".

*I'm so broke at the moment that I'd really have to justify this to myself so I haven't bought it, even out of curiosity, yet.


White Star is finally available in print. :)

If you didn't know, White Star -White Box Science Fiction Roleplaying is an old-style of D&D intersecting with Star Wars and other space operas. Simple, fast, familiar, with blasters.

I printed the rules as an A5 booklet but it didn't turn out too well, so I’m assuming the DTRPG POD versions will be superior.
Naturally, I'm broke this week/ month, but it looks so shiny.
I still have to pay off that freighter, not to mention those bounty hunters we ran into in Milton Keynes.


A D&D Dragon Quest Game boxed set (TSR) thudded heavily onto my door mat last week.  This is a flashback to the missing years.  I didn't play D&D much in the early 1990s, I was playing mostly in the middle of the 80s. In the 90's AD&D went to 2nd edition and for the newbie players TSR brought out several introductory box sets.  Also Game Workshop (my Mecca, my dealer) by then had stopped importing RPGs.   Naturally, I've collected more games since, but one box missing from my collection was D&D Dragon Quest (not to be confused with DragonBall-Z or SPI's DragonQuest RPG). Any how, long story short, a chat in a facebook group led to me buying this shrink-wrapped gem for a song.  If you are fond of the B/X style game or want to introduce people to AD&D or AD&D2e this game is very accessible. Also it's a "complete" game system, much like boxed games such as Hero Quest, with some simplified and unlimited experience rules.  If you choose to keep playing with just this set using your own campaigns, you can.  I feel this is important to mention, since so many of the gateway boxes after BECMI (from TSR and Wizards') were deliberated hobbled to encourage purchase of the main products.  I think I had seen this set in the past and had ignored it, possibly confusing it with Dragon Strike which has that VHS tape and employs photos for PCs instead of art.  I will always will art over oily barbarian photos any day.  This is another reason to perhaps seek out D&D Dragon Quest, because it is an archive of TSR colour art, pulled together from cover and filler art from the different editions and iconic Dragonlance images.
Entry on BoardGameGeek  Review on Lost and the Damned nabble forum


The following item has but been long awaited but is now bookmarked on my shopping list:

Tunnels & Trolls Deluxe Edition is finally available as a PDF (outside of the Kickstarter) on DriveThruRPG. Currently it is $20 USD.  Like many I'm a fan of the 5th edition (plus WIZ/POW house rules), and slowly 7.5 has grown on me.  The nice thing about T&T at it's heart the same authors have kept to similar rules across the editions, but what they have done is expanded aspects and provided a wealth of background and campaign information. Curiously, it was the lack of "world" which made 5 appeal to me, which meant I could fully own the campaigns with my own creations, right down to the monsters, because of the easy to use monster rating system.  Being T&T, the bestiaries only ever resemble the Monster Manual in part and even the seasoned D&D player might not know what to expect from a T&T manticore with regards to how it's special attacks are implemented.  There's usually enough eccentricity in T&T to make a player think twice about where they actually are and what they are actually doing.  Being slightly reserved and rather serious about my tabletop fantasies I sometimes agree that some of the humour throughout the rules isn't necessary for the fun, and it's a mistake to dismiss T&T as silly and puerile, or just for solo games, in the same way that it is wrong to dismiss old D&D as TPK dungeon crawling.  In the right hands, compared with other systems, T&T has always been very powerful and fast moving imagination vehicle.  I am in no doubt that this will still be the case in T&T Deluxe.


T&T Deluxe, Flying Buffalo.
This is it! The new and improved, Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls. T&T is the second ever fantasy role playing game, and the easiest to use. This book contains everything you need to play the game solo (with the many solo adventures) or with a group of friends. Includes a lot of extra material and descriptions of the worlds played in by the designer and his friends back in the late 1970’s. 
The first 166 pages are the core rules, followed by the Elaborations section which has optional rules and systems you can pick and choose from to add to your T&T games. There is also a 16 page full color section which includes color maps of Trollworld, Khazan, Khosht and Knor along with other paintings and maps. There is a 50 page Trollworld section that includes descriptions of locations on every major continent and three cities, plus a detailed Trollworld timeline. The book also includes a solo adventure that gives you the chance to bring dead characters back to life and a GM adventure on the continent of Zorr, plus a detailed weapons glossary and much much more - over 380 pages of material. 
Note that this version of the rules does not yet have the internal links, BUT once we have that done, you will be able to download an updated copy of the PDF for no extra charge.


Inked Adventures - recent publications...


Rugged Explorer ATV
Having tried to justify this blog by typing about a selection of games which I can barely afford by different publishers, what now follows is shameless self-promotion in order for me to raise funds for this terrible affliction that many of us suffer from, the need to game and failing that, the need to procure and collect games.

As some of you may well know I draw maps and plans for Inked Adventures.  Okay, I sort of am Inked Adventures, but I like the idea of Inked Adventures as a sort of faceless megacorporation hell-bent of world domination, ... one hand drawn product at a time!

Hinged Dungeon Doors
My business plans usually reflect this.

My accountant said that I can't have the second helicopter, not until I sell at least three more pre-print copies Compact & Worn Starship Deck Plan 6x6 Tiles.

He says that I shouldn't be giving away the ATV for free and that no-one wants easy-to-assemble Hinged Dungeon Doors on their gaming table

Lord knows, he says, how many Map&Dice Playing Cards I need to fence, to pay for the marble lining in my office jacuzzi.  I swear that at this level of poverty the caviar will spoil!



From the Inked Adventures site, click for more photos and descriptions
Compact & Worn Starship Deck Plan 6×6 Tiles










Inked Adventures main site: http://inkedadventures.com/main
Store of DriveThruRPG: http://bit.ly/IAstore

Thanks for reading. :)
- Billiam B. Terran Date 20150923.2140

Tuesday 18 August 2015

HB HPL !



It's HPLovecraft's Birthday Week again over at the DriveThru and RPGNow sites.  Some many genres and tropes facing the grim realities of Deep, Dark, Ancient and Tentacled Ones.

Reductions of scenarios and accessories for many things Cthulhu / Cthuloid.  
(affiliate link)

Sanity is for the naive! 

Sunday 2 August 2015

ENnies results 2015 (?!)

The ENnies as announced at GenCon Indy 2015 ...

One day I'm sure I'll eventually play Lamentations of the Flame Princess.  I never quite understand how Chaosium keep winning awards for rehashes when there are so many other publishers and quality games out there, I understand people voting for Paizo and WotC, but in the shops and in the online stores Chaosium are almost invisible.  Maybe my avoidance of kickstarters and love of small publishers means that I'm so far off the map and out of whatever loop that I literally have no idea what's in favour.  Aren't these the same games as last year? (I'm being rhetorical) I love the Achtung Cthullhu concept as much as the next man, new titles, I guess.  Oh well, as long as we can still buy shiny new dice I guess I'm happy.  Go Q-workshop!  (Not being sarcastic here, I genuinely love buying beautiful dice and have a nice set of steampunk Q-workshop polys)

Best electronic book? The WotC's D&D Basic? Definitely deserved being nominated as the best or important free book, maybe not winning, but as electronic texts go for looks and broswability it's far from the best over all.  In fact unless it's seriously improved and acquired illustrations, it's very far from the best.  Again, the PDF /electronic texts market has been totally sold short. 

Best accessory, a DM's screen? (Smacks head) So much for innovation.  

Oh well. 

_____
From 
Best Adventure
Silver: A Red & Pleasant Land (Lamentations of the Flame Princess)
Gold: Horror on the Orient Express (Chaosium)

Best Aid/Accessory
Silver: Black Green Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition RPG Dice Set (Q-Workshop)
Gold: Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Masters Screen (Wizards of the Coast)

Best Cover Art
Silver: Achtung! Cthulhu: Terrors of the Secret War (Modiphius Entertainment Ltd)
Gold: Rise of Tiamat (Wizards of the Coast)

Best Interior Art
Silver: The Strange (Monte Cook Games, LLC)
Gold: Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual (Wizards of the Coast)

Best Blog
Silver: Gnome Stew
Gold: ConTessa Tabletop Gaming by Women for Everyone

Best Cartography
Silver: The Guide to Glorantha (Moon Design Publications)
Gold: Ninth World Guidebook (Monte Cook Games, LLC)

Best Electronic Book
Silver: Ken Writes About Stuff Volume 2 (Pelgrane Press)
Gold: Basic Rules for Dungeons & Dragons (Wizards of the Coast)

Best Family Game
Silver: Atomic Robo The Roleplaying Game (Evil Hat Productions)
Gold: Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set (Wizards of the Coast)

Best Free Product
Silver: 13th Age The Archmages Orrery (Pelgrane Press)
Gold: Basic Rules for Dungeons & Dragons (Wizards of the Coast)

Best Game
Silver: The Strange (Monte Cook Games, LLC)
Gold: Dungeons & Dragons Players Handbook (Wizards of the Coast)

Best Miniatures Product
Silver: Pathfinder Pawns Inner Sea Pawn Box (Paizo Inc.)
Gold: Dungeons & Dragons Icons of the Realms Elemental Evil Boosters (WizKids)

Best Monster/Adversary
Silver: Achtung! Cthulhu: Terrors of the Secret War (Modiphius Entertainment Ltd)
Gold: Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual (Wizards of the Coast)

Best Podcast
Silver: Miskatonic University Podcast
Gold: Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

Best Production Values
Silver: Horror on the Orient Express (Chaosium)
Gold: Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set (Wizards of the Coast)

Best RPG Related Product
Silver: Temple of Elemental Evil (WizKids)
Gold: Designers & Dragons: A History of the Roleplaying Game Industry (Evil Hat Productions)

Best Rules
Silver: MUTANT Year Zero The Roleplaying Game (Modiphius Entertainment Ltd)
Gold: Dungeons & Dragons Players Handbook (Wizards of the Coast)

Best Setting

Silver: The Strange (Monte Cook Games, LLC)
Gold: A Red & Pleasant Land (Lamentations of the Flame Princess)

Best Software
Silver: HeroLab (Lone Wolf Development)
Gold: Roll20 (Roll 20)

Best Supplement
Silver: Pathfinder RPG: Pathfinder Unchained (Paizo Inc.)
Gold: Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide (Wizards of the Coast)

Best Website
Silver: Tabletop Audio
Gold: The Escapist 

Best Writing
Silver: D&D Player’s Handbook by Jeremy Crawford, James Wyatt, Robert J. Schwalb, Bruce R. Cordell (Wizards of the Coast)
Gold: A Red & Pleasant Land by Zak S (Lamentations of the Flame Princess)

Fan’s Choice for Best Publisher
Silver: Paizo Inc
Gold: Wizards of the Coast.

Product Of The Year
Silver: A Red & Pleasant Land (Lamentations of the Flame Princess)
Gold: Dungeons & Dragons Players Handbook (Wizards of the Coast)



Friday 31 July 2015

Transmissions coming in from a convention somewhere

I know most us aren't actually at GenCon2015, but you are following all the feeds, right?  Being a bit of an old-schooler actual news about games is washing over me somewhat, but I'm really enjoying how many people are willing to deliver the experience of actually being there by photographing display stands, stalls and cosplayers.  Just a quick browse of any network with Gencon tags is like snorkelling in a geeky Wonderland.  

Loving it, guys!  Here's to all the one-the-spot reporters and sharers. :)


GenCon Indianapolis 2015 image feeds (using just the "GenCon" tag)
Warning: may contain cosplay.


I would embed these but I fear my blog would break.

Thursday 30 July 2015

Inked Adventures Map and Dice Playing Cards

My labours of ink, love and print on demand ...

Yet again, I'm using this blog to cross-promote my Inked Adventures products. Seemingly mercenary, I genuinely want to share this with you, for some players, this product may, in fact, enhance your overall quality of life, in the way that practical, yet novel, luxuries always do.  I appeal, dear reader, to your honest must-have inner drive, which keeps our humble roleplaying industry, nay, capitalism itself, trudging along through recession, like a hardy soldier in mud, spurred on by a rolling of cents and shillings across counters.   

These playing cards (to call them merely "playing cards" seems so wrong) are a genuine labour of love, not merely a cynical recycling of my previous geomorphs (not a "cynical" recycling, at least).  It is a creation of a thing that I wanted in my own life.  No doubt there are many similar products out there, in your local store, on the web, but this feels one relatively unique as far as accessories go, at least aesthetically, and perhaps, conceptually. 

No, wait, come back!  I had strange experience this week.  I thought that I had saturated my social networks and circles with links to the Inked Adventures Map & Dice Playing Cards, but followers and friends are still asking "what is this?"  So, maybe I'm far too well mannered in my abuse of social sites for marketing.  Perhaps, as always, I'm a little embarrassed that the product isn't my next tile pack for 25-30mm minis (see IA products), since I tease my customers with pre-colour art for most of the year and promise glorious caverns, dungeon expansions, forests and now spacecraft, but completion is slow. This is my first printed product from DriveThruCards (my second on TheGameCrafter) and boy, I am proud of it.  


The idea is that if you're an improvising DM who is caught short without dice or a dungeon adventure, perhaps on a holiday ruined by poor weather, you can "wing it" with this pack of playing cards.  If all else fails, the people you are with can just play card games, such as poker, blackjack, or go-johnny-go-go-go-go.  

On each card (apart from the 2 jokers and a guide card) is (A) a reduced size hand drawn dungeon geomorph area map with descriptive title; (B) three random dice results and (C) a normal card suit and number.



A. Dungeon geomorph area maps.

A dungeon master can use the cards as an inspiration for drawing his/her own dungeon, or pre-planning a map or use the cards randomly in play (as a random dungeon builder).  The titles are purely for atmosphere and reference.  Naturally, there are some limits to the non-square format of the cards, but overlapping cards on the table can help with this. 


The area maps in the spades suit are main entrances/exits and "end of row" geomorphs, these can be removed if you to create an unending "mega-dungeon" level.   The geomorphic area maps on the cards can also be used in conjunction with the Inked Adventures large geomorphs set for minis


B. Dice rolls / random numbers

Although not tied to any specific system, the choice of dice is inspired by older D&D systems where the d20 and d6 are paramount (OD&D, Holmes D&D and clones such as S&W WhiteBox and Delving Deeper), and percentile based games.  The dice rolls represented are a d20, d6 and d100.  Now, I, know what you're thinking: the probability of those number ranges will not work when spread across 52 cards and that we must never mix cards and dice!  Granted, it's a bit of a fudge, so you may want to get the agreement of the other players at the table before you start using the cards for life and death rolls.  Playing cards retain fixed probability if cards are always returned to the deck.  In the gaps in the maths we've slipped in a few "critical" results, i.e. there's a few extra 1s and 20s on the d20 result and some a bonus 01 and 100 on the d100.  In some ways, cards can be better than dice. ;)  





(uncropped card art)

The optional Jokers prompt a drawing of two cards and a discarding of the most favourable or least favourable result, depending if it's the "Good Luck" or "Bad Luck" Joker, respectively (see above).

It's important to remember that if you're going to use the cards as random number generators that you may need the whole deck, so this may not be possible if you are using the cards to make a dungeon level map.  I'm guessing you can always buy a second deck. ;)


C. Normal Bridge Playing Cards. 

Many RPG systems use standard 52/54 card deck for special item effects, NPC traits, character rules, storytelling or even in-play Tarot card substitution.  So even as a plain old mundane deck of cards it's is still of use to the tabletop roleplayer.  (Hint: they make the perfect gift!)


Creating your own dungeon card games.

I've already been asked by several people whether or not this pack of cards is a game in it's own right.  Technically, it's not.  It's a map creation and dice accessory, plus it doubles as a novelty pack of bridge playing cards.  However, just playing around with the cards can reveal potential.  A simple (but flawed) solitaire game I play is a "route finding" adventure.  I draw cards at random and place them in a line - North-South or East-West.  The object is to escape the dungeon by heading in one direction. Generally cards cannot be rotated (unless the edge of the table is reached or it's an end of row/dead end card).  I usually start by heading North (overlapping the cards so the maps join). You must be able to travel from a corridor exit/entrance on the South of the card to the North side of the map on the card.  If your way is blocked, you must double back to the starting card and then lay out a new row, heading South or East or West.  You win by dealing any (main) stairs or a dungeon exit/entrance card (one of several in the spades suit), but it also depends that the corridors take you there without a dead-end or bypass.  The trick is to get out in the fastest time (the least number of cards), but the reward for a slow exit is a pretty dungeon map.  Two player race-to-win variants with counters are also possible. In a more advanced game, the d100 result can represent gold coins found in an area, or a "danger rating". A high or low total at the end of play may influence the choice of winner.  This probably doesn't read very clearly, but it's an example of random fun which can be had with the deck on it's own, no rpg rules etc.  I'm fantasising about designing an extra deck of monsters and treasure with simple system for solitaire dungeoneering, but you may find that you can come up with something far superior using your own system mechanic.   The dice results can also be compared like stats in a Top Trumps deck, where the player declares his/her choice of stat (d6, d20, d100 or card value) against their opponent, and the highest wins the card.


On DriveThruRPG$12 USD + p&p
Not nominated for an "Ennie"; not on a Kickstarter; and dinosaurs with dice tattoos

I would like to point out that this deck of cards has not been seen at GenCon and has never been on a nomination list, and is not on a Kickstarter, so there will be no reminders of deadline dates and level-up pledges or whatever they are called.  But I am fickle man, and it a moment of self-criticism I will tear them from the shelves, to be burnt with other older works in the Stalinist fires of historical perfection.  I do, however, reserve the right to spam all my own accounts, until I have a new favourite in my life. Next week it might be dinosaurs with dice tattoos, but for now I worship at this humble altar.

Thanks for reading. May your dungeons be beautiful.


Map & Dice Playing Card Links

DriveThruCards: http://bit.ly/IAcards
The Game Crafter: http://bit.ly/IAcardsTGC


Try-before-you-buy micro-cards download: 




Thursday 23 July 2015

Finally! The three main AD&D rulebooks are available on DTRPG and DnDClassics




The AD&D 1e premium reprints are now available as PDFs on DriveThruRPG and DnDClassics.  We are living in strange and interesting times. After so many downloadable retro clones, after the mighty OSRIC, finally the three main rulebooks for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (1st edition) can be bought together in an electronic player-tear-proof format. :)

DriveThruRPG:



DnDClassics:


I’ll probably be picking up Fiend Folio too because of my love for Russ Nicholson’s illustrations. ( http://bit.ly/DTRPG_FF )  :)

(Some of these links are affiliated, but that doesn't detract from the awesomeness that is AD&D)

Saturday 23 May 2015

$8K raised by roleplayers through charity product bundles to help in Nepal

The recent charity bundles DTRPG/RPGNow to raise money for earthquake relief in Nepal were both an astounding success. Thank you to anyone reading this who purchased either the Games 4 Nepal (hosted by Kabuki Kaiser) and/or Cardboard Warriors Charity Bundle for Nepal (hosted by Brave Adventures). After some transaction costs the total amount raised and donated to CARE Nepal and Doctors Without Borders were $3320 from the Games 4 Nepal bundle and $4665 from the Cardboard Warriors bundle (US dollars).  When you think about it these are incredible results in terms the support from any community or customer base.  Massive respect to Kabuki Kaiser and Ryan of Brave Adventures for hosting the bundles, hats off to the publishers who donated products and a firm salutary celebratory handshake to every single person who purchased and donated to the cause.  It's also thanks to the OBS sites (DTRPG/RPGNow/WGV etc) that the bundle facility and charity donations were possible.  Hopefully Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and CARE Nepal will be able to put the money to good use in their ongoing disaster relief in earthquake hit Nepal. 

Nice one. :)

#faithinhumanityrestored

Monday 4 May 2015

Bring a little OSR into your Star Wars Day

For Star Wars (I have a lisp) Day, I couldn't resist a special offer over at Tenkar's Tavern for a copy of White Star - a scifi game which builds on the simplicity of Swords&Wizardry's WhiteBox rules (OD&D simulcrum).  Naturally the Star Knights aren't actually called "Jedi". But we know. ;)  It could be just the terminology, but so far it reminds me a bit of Tales of the Space Princess.  These games go to the heart of cinematic soap opera, conjuring images of swashbuckling Flash Gordon right through to the battered technology in  Star Wars.

May The Way/Force/Psionics Be With You!

Get White Star at a reduced rate:
http://www.tenkarstavern.com/2015/05/white-star-is-now-get-it-at-discounted.html

If code has expired the White Star PDF is here on DTRPG: http://bit.ly/WhiteStarRPG

Sunday 3 May 2015

Cardboard Warriors paper models minis and tiles in $15 Nepal Charity Bundle

Cross posting from Inked Adventures.
I feel really proud to be listed amongst these other publishers.
 All products are paper models, minis, floor plans and scenery. For $15 (USD) it's also a great bundle to boot.

Cardboard Warriors Nepal Charity Bundle graphic

This Nepal earthquake relief product bundle is now live on DriveThruRPG. $15 for 30 products by nine publishers. All proceeds going to Doctors Without Borders/MSF
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/148493/Cardboard-Warriors-Nepal-Charity-BUNDLE
or
http://bit.ly/CWNepalDWB

Thursday 30 April 2015

Nepal Earthquake Relief Charity Bundles on DTRPG

I shouldn't do this but this is a direct cross-post from my Inked Adventures site but it's in the name of a good cause and involves several different games publishers. :)
__


It’s really cool to see that many game publishers have been so willing to set up and donate profit directly from their products to charities who will, and currently are, helping in the utterly tragic Nepal earthquake disaster zone.  Inked Adventures were pleased to have been approached by Kabuki Kaiser, who has allowed us to submit our Crypts, Tombs and Catacombs pack to their Game For Nepal charity bundle.  The bundle includes some really high quality Asia/Wuxia fantasy themed Old School Renaissance RPG rules and accessories.  Already this PDF bundle is going down a storm with tabletop gamers, who were willing to donate to the fund whilst picking up some damn fine tabletop RPG products.  Check out the description and you’ll see that it is really something very special as far as gaming deals go.





We are also donating four products to the (yet to launch) Cardboard Warriors charity bundle.  This will contain 20+ printable papercraft minis, vehicles, monsters, floorplans etc from some of the most innovative publisher-designers in the industry. Cardboard Warriors Forum.

Check out the other charity donation deals on DriveThruRPG: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/rpg_charity.php

Thanks for reading.

Tuesday 28 April 2015

Player's Handbook D&D 3.5 in PDF, less glossy but kinder to trees

Just in case you didn't already know but the DnD 3.5 PH is now available as a PDF.  My only worry is that it just won't smell right!
http://bit.ly/DnD35PH <-- D&D Classics Store.



Monday 30 March 2015

PDF Paper-crafting Power! Okumarts, Kev's Lounge Papercraft Dungeon, Inked Adventures and some waffle about layers in PDFs

Flammable paper civilians do
well to run from the 
Alien Death Ray / Gojira
/ Supervillain-heat-vision.
DTRPG $0.99
http://bit.ly/okumcivs
Okay. Super quick post, I promise, on one of my favourite topics: printable tabletop accessories.

First up - I'm really liking these Panicked Civilians minis by Okumarts (99c on DTRPG).  Twelve unique double-sided designs of the kind of fleeing people you'd expect in almost any contemporary action setting - I'm mainly thinking of superheroes and B-movie monsters, almost unaware of the "little people".  Interestingly, when printed to card or paper, I'm assured that they burn faster than real people. Not a bad PDF for a dollar (that's 67 pence in real money).  As well as a clean, dynamic, graphic novel style of illustration, Mr Okum has provided a choice of colours of attire, selectable through the layers feature. He often does this with his minis and it multiples the number of individual figures significantly.  It's definitely worth a download if you're planning a campaign where hopeless citizens of God Fear City are being terrified by unimaginable terrors... Mwhahaha.


A stupendous number of options, for terrain, features, grids.
Ridiculously good value.  Ridiculous, I tell you!
Kev's Lounge Battlegrounds Meadow Tiles
$3 on DTRPG, RPGNow and PapercraftDungeon
Now, talking of layers, I'm always astonished at the sheer vast humongous range of designs which can be created from customisable PDFs.  I've just been browsing Kev's Lounge Battlegrounds Meadow Tiles ($3/£2 on DriveThru). Not only are flippable layers used here, but there's randomiser button for those moments when inspiration is dragging.

There's a video below which shows off all of the features, and to be honest I get a little jealous when I see such high production values and variety in one pack at such a low price, I mean, I get impressed if I can produce a hand drawn pack (for Inked Adventures) which can print ten different designs, never mind 2 trillion.



Naturally, stock up on ink before tackling this beasty.  Kev has been producing excellent tiles for some time now and has many low price and free sets of ingenious design to download at papercraftdungeon.com and Kev's Lounge on DTRPG 


Inked Adventures: Arcane Library Tile
& Sections
$3.95 on DTRPG

http://bit.ly/ArcaneLibrary
Alright, I'll come clean, this post is an elaborate ruse to sneak in some self-promotion of my latest Inked Adventures title, which just so happens to also be a printable tabletop accessory: Arcane Library Tile and Sections  ($3.95usd/£2.65gbp)

By way of contrast, my sets don't use layers, for which I've had some flack from reviewers, because I will sometimes provide a duplicate document for a different styles/ textures - in the case of the Arcane Library there is colour art and black/white line art, both with their own PDFs - since I've had requests from customers who want to save on ink and like to colour the work in themselves by hand with their children.  In Teach Your Kids to Game Week, many gamers online posted how the creation in preparation for games was almost as fun as the games themselves.  It goes without saying that I often provide separate documents for Letter and A4 page sizes - definite less complaints about that (except maybe that the formats are too small).  With square tiles, my personal preference is to think in terms of pages and not as an editing layer.  This might also make life easier if you're assigning printing to a third party (like a copyshop, some of my US customers seem to love copyshops, which are hopefully cheaper than their UK counterparts), i.e. "Extra copies of pages 5, 11 and 20, please".  That doesn't meant that I'm impressed by multifunction PDFs, I'm very impressed, they are currently just not my style.

In defence of flat one-layer PDFs, they can be browsed on almost any platform or device without needing Adobe's proprietorial software.  Basically, I can browse, print and plan from my iPad or even my phone if I need to like all my other DriveThru downloads (not that I recommend planning dungeons from a phone...).  Another reason is that I like the idea of publishing a set of pages as browsable documents - maybe because maybe it's more like a book?  (There must be a self-publishing vanity or 80's thing going on here, my ego can be strange)  Also constructing PDFs without layers can produced from open source software and I'm going through a LibreOffice phase at the moment. Besides, I'm rubbish at adding code to PDFs.  So for the moment I'm hiding my technical shortcomings and lack of content behind a principle of sorts. ;)

Arcane Library Tile with modular antechamber sections
A handful of possible arrangements. ;)
(click for low res -larger view)
But back to the library... this product is so overdue that it almost has it's own CV.  As a slightly paranoid artist, I'll dumbly point out here that it has flaws, stemming from the hand drawing to paper (then scanning) process. Tiny, tiny flaws, imprecision in the joins, and the occasional graph paper mark showing through. Most of those flaws are only visible when you zoom right into the page on the screen, but again I have to protest that as a printed product, players' eyes are not set to a zillion DPI. All that aside, as a four page "tile" I think the size on the gaming table gives it a solid Pow! factor that some of my previous modular designs lack.





If the hand drawn (slightly 1980's boardgame) illustrative style, multi-level dungeon rooms, is your thang, you might like to check out the Arcane Library Pack (on DTRPG) and keep me in pens and guacamole for a little while longer.

http://bit.ly/ArcaneLibrary
http://inkedadventures.com/main

Yes, that's what my prices are based on, fresh guacamole and fine-line pens, and cat food pouches (for emergencies, and muggings by street cats).



Saturday 7 March 2015

Ponies!?



Is there actually a niche of gamers out there for players who love both the Pathfinder system and My Little Pony? So much so that they want to play different classes of pony and go on quests in equine themed fantasy worlds?  Apparently there is. The Ponyfinder RPG titles (Silver Games LLC) are doing very well in the Hottest Small Press listings on DriveThru at the moment.  It’s times like these when I realize that I really don’t have a clue about what people are really playing these days. 
Hay, I have absolutely neigh idea what this is all about. ;)

Silver Games LLC / Ponyfinder range on DTRPG: http://bit.ly/ponyfinder


Thursday 5 March 2015

Happy GM's Gygax Day (and Sale on DTRPG)



Happy Gygax Memorial / GM's Day / Cheap PDF Games Week!
30% off many titles, way too numerous to mention. I'm sure your Dropbox account could squeeze in just a few more scenarios. ;)
Until March 10th.
LLAP in order to play more games... ! \\//
(Or just download rules for your reading pleasure)

Friday 27 February 2015

$20 for so many games - RPC's GM Memorial Fund Charity Bundle

An astonishing number of RPG and tabletop titles are being made available for $20, organised by Aaron Huss of Roleplayers Chronicle to raise money in support of a bereaved family and memory of their, by all accounts, beautiful, 5 year old daughter who died suddenly and tragically.


DriveThru:
-Until mid-March 2015.

A very moving tribute / Persephonee's story

I'll be honest and say it's heart warming to know of so many generous, caring gamers and publishers, so willing to donate titles and buy products for causes such as this and at such short notice. Awesomeness. RPGers rule!