Sales
Humble Bundle has 29 Free League Books for $18 and 72 Pathfinder 2e books for $30.
The DriveThruRPG Black Friday sale is here! Check out the whole sale here, the OSR titles here (over 3,500 of them!), or see my top picks below.
Pick up my games: Knave 2e, The Waking of Willowby Hall, Maze Rats, and Summer’s End for 30% off!
A big bundle of some of the best third party Knave 2e adventures is 50% off!
All of Necrotic Gnome’s Old School Essentials rules and adventures.
Most of Kevin Crawford’s books, including Worlds Without Number, Godbound, Wolves of God, and Silent Legions (some of the best GM toolkits out there).
All of Swordlords adventures, like Wyvern Songs, Hideous Daylight, and Temple of 1000 Swords.
The Halls of Arden Vull Complete (one of the biggest megadungeons ever created).
The Gardens of Ynn and The Stygian Library (beautifully evocative depth crawls).
Into the Odd - Remastered (one of the most influential OSR books ever).
UVG 2e: Ultraviolet Grasslands and the Black City (one of the most original and spectacularly illustrated settings of all time).
Neverland, OZ, and Wonderland (three classic children’s worlds converted into OSR settings).
If you want to help me clear out some of my old RPG books I’m not playing, I’m selling a bunch of them through this eBay store!
Reviews
Ten Foot Pole gives “The Best” to Souls for Qovahe (review here). Also, it’s on sale!
The intro tells the DM “With time running out, the dinner is just a lure for contenders. Gladiators. A life-or-death contest will be held until dawn, one that may hold the key to his survival.” Ahh . . . A test your might gladiator fight. Boo! Boo! Except … NO! This thing is great. It delights in its tropes, leaning in to them with glee. Hit after hit after hit after hit comes through the text. The NPC’s, the rooms, the wanderers, all working toward a common goal and theme. This is absolutely the ****ing way how you do it.
At Questing Beast I reviewed The Horrendous Hounds of Hendenburgh, His Majesty the Worm, Reach of the Roach God, and The House Under the Moondial (currently on sale!).
Grognardia reviews the Anglo-Saxon RPG Wulfwald.
If you're looking for a well presented new setting for your favorite D&D-alike that draws on real world folklore and history in a fun way, I'd highly recommend you take a look at Wulfwald. It's one of the best things I've bought this year.
Swamp of Monsters reviews Worlds Without Number (currently on sale!) after six months of play.
Jorphdan’s Jocular Junction reviews the OSE adventure Settlers of a Dead God.
WasabiBurger reviews Gackling Moon by Patrick Stuart and Tom K. Kemp.
Michael from Night Noon Games reviews my game Knave 2e (currently on sale!).
And Now a Word From Our Sponsor…
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You can snag modules packed with bounty hunters, smugglers, rimspace pirates, and troubling AIs. These projects run the gamut of sci-fi horror, offering everything from tower heists to fungal infestations, exploitation film sets, and sandbox murder mysteries. There’s something here for every crew and playstyle.
This is a celebration of everything the Mothership community has to offer. Don’t miss your chance to grab some of the coolest sci-fi horror content out there before December 10th—and support these amazing creators while you’re at it.
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Have an upcoming Kickstarter or an RPG project you want to promote? Advertise in The Glatisant (20,000+ subscribers) using this form or advertise on the Questing Beast channel using this one. If you want to send me books for review consideration on Questing Beast, mail them to Ben Milton, 6446 E Central Ave, Box #127, Wichita, KS, USA 67206.
News
Uncanny Spheres: A Nest of Vipers: Navigating TTRPG contracts and partnerships
In this blog post, I hope to share everything I learned from my misfortunes and triumphs in forming and breaking TTRPG industry partnerships—equipping you (the intrepid indie designer or curious hobbyist) with a foundation of protective business acumen.
I will cover everything from scouting for red flags, to evaluating and modifying contracts, to resolving malfeasance if things go south. While I am not a lawyer, I'll examine real-world situations, real contracts, and real corporations.
In other words: I got screwed so you don't have to.
At False Machine, Patrick Stuart announces his next project after Queen Mab’s Palace: the long-awaited remastered edition of Veins of the Earth, long out of print.
Arnold K. at Goblin Punch releases a free dungeon and a bestiary.
Affinity Publisher, the excellent non-subscription competitor to Adobe’s InDesign, is 50% off.
Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) stars in an upcoming documentary exploring the Grimdark aesthetic and the work of John Blanche.
EnWorld investigates how Kickstarter campaigns are becoming increasingly frontloaded.
Rhystic Studies responds to the news that 50% of Magic: The Gathering sets going forward won’t be in the Magic universe, but instead themed around licensed IPs like Spider-Man and Spongebob Squarepants, and that these sets will be tournament legal.
If the goal is to invite more people into Magic, then what do you do once they’re here? How do you separate your own signals from your own noise? What happens when that Lord of the Rings fan is ambushed by Captain America and Wolverine in the next fiscal year? What do you say to the Warhammer 40,000 players who were lured in by the sci-fi trappings of Abaddon the Despoiler, only to be winked at by the single eye of a homunculus wearing a Stetson? . . . If we’re really going to keep doing this, just change the card back already. You’ve lost the spirit of the game and the rights to its legacy. I can’t imagine how Garfield feels.
Theory and Advice
Beneath Foreign Planets: Ability Scores as Origin Stories
Goblin Punch: Monster Checklist
Occultronics: OSR Social Resolution Procedures
I Cast Light!: AS THE WORLD TURNS: Retrocloning the Regional Events Tables
Liche’s Libram: The d60 on your wrist
All Dead Generations: Gygax’s Fortress
Playful Void: How to overcome your hyperdiegesis allergy and What is an OSR game? and Artisanal Magic Items for Luddite Referees
In my opinion, the games often labelled OSR, NSR, POSR and whatnot are all trying to provide a very similar table experience; it’s pretty meaningless to try to separate them in terms of mechanics and playstyle, because they all share in a core cluster of rules and playstyle features, and vary only in the specifics.
Aboleth Overlords: Gaming is metagaming
Matt Colville: Arguing about D&D in the 1970s
Questing Beast: Roleplaying games aren’t about roleplaying
Worldbuilding
Goblin Punch: Cailish Andorum
Cryptic Keyway: Make Ancestries Distinct By Giving Them Mastery of Their Domain and Fantasy Language Review
Glass Ziggirat: 50 Magical Paradigms
Pointless Monument: d10 Emergent Transgressions
Archons March On: A Market All in Sable
Traipse: 1, 10, or 1000000
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