The Gammatastic Voyage! Crowdfunding in Progress

The Backerkit project for The Gammatastic Voyage!, an adventure for Mutant Crawl Classics RPG, is in progress and can be purchased as a PDF or a super fancy print copy with a free PDF. The deadline to back the project is 30 June 2025.

According to the project page:

Backers in the first 48 hrs will get a bonus PDF called "The Village" which provides a full-blown post-apoc village, complete with map for you to use in this game and others! Late backers can pick this up as an add-on.

The World's Greatest Screen: The Half Screen

Back in RPGaDay 2024: Day 26, I mentioned I was looking forward to the release of The World's Greatest Screen: The Half Screen. I am happy to report that its Kickstarter project has launched and is doing well, with delivery estimated for mid- to late May 2025. If you are looking for a fully customizable, portable, durable GM screen with a low enough profile to enable you to fully interact with your players and the playing space, this is the GM screen for you. Learn more about it here. The deadline to back it is 17 April 2025.

Martian Crawl Classics Crowdfunding in Progress

The Kickstarter project for Martian Crawl Classics, Tim Snider's alternative setting for Mutant Crawl Classics RPG, is in progress and obtainable for the reasonable price of $5.00 for the PDF and the option to purchase an at-cost, print-on-demand copy. Add-ons include the 0 level funnel Dead in the Water, the 1st level adventure The Desk in Room 8-10, and the 2nd level adventure Phage from Below at $5.00 each for the PDF and the same hard copy option. The deadline to back the project is 24 February 2024.

Phage from Below Crowdfunding in Progress

The Kickstarter project for Phage from Below, Tim Snider's 2nd level adventure for Mutant Crawl Classics RPG, is currently in progress at the low price of $5.00 for the PDF and the option to purchase an at-cost, print-on-demand copy. Add-ons include the 1st level adventure The Desk in Room 8-10 and the 0 level funnel Dead in the Water at $5.00 each for the PDF and the same hard copy option. The deadline to back the project is 15 July 2023.

Knave Second Edition Crowdfunding in Progress

The Kickstarter project for the second edition of Ben Milton's retro-D&D-compatible role-playing game, Knave, has had an explosively big start and it's easy to see why. I'm backing it. Are you?

Accessible Gaming Quarterly Year 4 Crowdfunding Project

I shall be posting this to each of my five gaming blogs because the cause is worthy and time is of the essence. Jacob Wood of Accessible Games has launched Accessible Gaming Quarterly Year 4, a crowdfunding project on Kickstarter to produce four more issues of Accessible Gaming Quarterly, "a zine about accessibility and inclusion in tabletop RPGs." As it states on the project page, "This project will only be funded if it reaches its goal by Thu, March 9 2023 11:59 PM EST." AGQ provides a much-needed service in this hobby, and I hope you will join me in lending support.

Jacob Wood is also the designer of several role-playing games based on Fudge including Monster Kart Mayhem, Psi-punk, and Survival of the Able.

Purchase Accessible Games products here.

Completely Unfathomable Completely Available

Behold!

The magnificent monstrosity that is Completely Unfathomable, consisting of Jason Sholtis' Operation Unfathomable and Odious Uplands, adapted and expanded for use with DCC RPG by Paul Wolfe, is now available in print and PDF right now, right here.

Complete!

Last Minute DCC RPG News

Happy DCC Day! For those fortunate to live near participating stores, DCC Day is a Goodman Games holiday celebrating Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG. And it's today!

Today is also the last day to support the 2022 Purple Sorcerer Games Free Tools Pledge. It's a free resource highly valued by the DCC RPG community. You, too, can be a supporter, so act now!

DCC Dying Earth on Kickstarter

Jack Vance's Dying Earth stories, adapted as a setting with expanded rules for Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG, is currently in progress as a Kickstarter project. This new boxed set promises to be as glorious as the Lankhmar boxed set, and has already surpassed it in pledges. For more details, see the DCC Dying Earth Kickstarter project.

Return of the Rules Cyclopedia

The Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia in PDF form has just been re-released, and although that version (as well as BECMI) was published after my introduction to D&D (via Basic/Expert D&D and AD&D), I know there are others for whom it was the definitive edition. It is currently #1 in the list of "Hottest Items" at dndclassics.com. (I am happy to report that the D&D Basic Rulebook and Expert Rulebook of 1981 are still in the top five.)

If only Basic/Expert could have been integrated into one volume...

Gygax Magazine PDF

Erik Tenkar of Tenkar's Tavern reports that the first issue of Gygax, the Old School Renaissance gaming magazine inspired by Dragon, is now available as a PDF at RPGNow for $4.99. That is all.

Deluxe Ark of the Covenant Features New Packaging

Once again the signal fires have been lit across the Old School Realm: Wizards of the Coast announced the upcoming release (currently scheduled for 19 November 2013) of an Original Edition Dungeons & Dragons Premium Reprint consisting of the original three volumes and four supplements of the 1974 edition of Dungeons & Dragons. According to the product description, "Each booklet features new cover art but is otherwise a faithful reproduction of the original, including original interior art." The price is $149.99.

This is great for collectors, but I hope they will eventually release the PDFs for the frugal and/or merely curious gamers out there.

Oh, and the product description mentions that it "features new packaging." There is no actual description apart from the rulebooks, but there is a mock-up depicting a wooden box, ten dice, and eight booklets.

Return to Blackmoor

Randall of RetroRoleplaying: The Blog has pointed out here that the Blackmoor module DA2 Temple of the Frog by Dave Arneson and David J. Ritchie is now available as a PDF at dndclassics.com. I remember seeing the Blackmoor modules at Hobby Center (my first FLGS, which is now nothing but a fond memory), but I never bought them. It probably had something to do with the fact they were Basic modules and I had abandoned Basic/Expert D&D for AD&D when TSR took the Erol Otus-illustrated editions off the market. I am wiser now, however, and Temple of the Frog is now near the top of my PDF wish list.

Striking a Blow for Gaming History

The Dungeons & Dragons PDFs are available once again (as previously noted), and this is cause for celebration in the Old School Renaissance community, but there is something else to celebrate for those of us who care about the roots of our hobby. Not only are PDFs of products from all editions being rolled out, not only are they improved in quality and functionality according to reports, but the product descriptions of the PDFs include their product history (at least for those I've seen). Product history, in this case, means not only the publication history of the product, but its significance in the history of D&D (and consequently the history of role-playing games). These product histories were written by Shannon Appelcline, author of Designers & Dragons, and they provide invaluable insight into the story of the industry and the hobby. If they at Wizards of the Coast wanted to convince me of their sincerity, this demonstration of respect for the game's heritage has done so. Whether or not I decide to use D&D Next, I am reassured that everyone's favorite flavor of D&D will remain available so gamers can make their own choice. Will this curb my appetite for OSR products including retro-clones? No, but it does mean I can mix and match with greater ease and reconnect with the products that brought me into this hobby.

Thank you, WOTC.

[Edit: It's amazing how a typographical error consisting of a single character ("." instead of ">") can foul up an entire post. In the future I'll preview my articles before scheduling them for posting at a later date. In the words of Agent 86, "Sorry about that, chief."]

Unleash the PDFs!

The town criers are crying out the news, and for the near future I expect the hubbub to drown out the discussion of other topics, but the news is big as far as the Old School Renaissance community is concerned. Yes, the rumors were true. Wizards of the Coast has made the Dungeons & Dragons PDFs available once again in their former lair at RPGNow.com as well as their own online store dedicated to D&D classics called, appropriately, dndclassics.com. The site boldly declares "EVERY EDITION AVAILABLE AGAIN," which should warm the hearts and lighten the money pouches of many members of the D&D diaspora. (I really might need to start a separate PDF wish list just to make things more manageable.) Will every grognard be appeased by this news? Well, no, of course not. We're talking about grognards. But many will be heartened, and Wizards of the Coast, many of us will agree, is doing the right thing by mending this particular palisade.

For my own part, I wish to thank Wizards of the Coast for unleashing the PDFs for the enjoyment and education of all role-playing gamers everywhere. Thank you!

[Edit: Oh, yes, I forgot to mention that B1 In Search of the Unknown, the classic Basic D&D module, is free for the opening week of dndclassics.com.]

(In case you missed it, and I'm sure you have, my regularly scheduled post is here.)

The Lost PDFs Return Again Possibly

We interrupt Applied Phantasticality and other arcane goings on to bring you this intriguing news courtesy of Rob Conley of Bat in the Attic.

Code word: dndclassics.com

We now return you to your regularly scheduled Internet-aided procrastination.

AD&D Commemorative Reprints

Wizards of the Coast will be reprinting the three original rulebooks of 1st edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (the Monster Manual, Players Handbook, and Dungeon Masters Guide) on the 17th of July (my birthday, coincidentally). The purchase of these books help "support the Gygax Memorial Fund."

All we know at present is that the content will be the same except for two changes: the few pages of TSR advertising at the end of each book will be missing, and the covers will be different. For anyone who already owns usable copies of the originals, there seems to be little reason to purchase the reprints. Donations can be made to the Gygax Memorial Fund without making a purchase, and used copies can be purchased on the Internet at prices comparable to or less than those of the reprints. I still have the copies I bought when I first started role-playing in the early 1980s. To persuade me to buy the reprints, they would have to offer something as an incentive, such as superior binding and acid-free archival quality paper with full color plates reproducing the original cover illustrations.

There's just one other problem, though. I've recently discovered that I actually prefer the Basic/Expert D&D I started with in 1981 (not to mention Labyrinth Lord and Microlite20). There are still some aspects of AD&D I appreciate, such as the expanded lists of spells, magic items, monsters, and random tables, as well as Mr. Gygax's writing, but now when I play the game, I want to play it with that pre-AD&D mindset that was not obsessed with creating rules for every possible contingency. I don't want to worry about the effects of aging on player characters, or weapon proficiencies, or material spell components for nearly every spell, or training for level increases. It's not that I can't ignore those things, it's just that I prefer the simpler Basic/Expert D&D framework. It's easier to add to that edition than sift through all the rules I don't want in AD&D. That's where Labyrinth Lord gets it right. If anything, I should probably buy the Labyrinth Lord print editions.