Tavern Chat

Ah, sweet, sweet TSR3. Sometimes you just need to stop and smell the bullshit, because it is heavy in these three letters. And boy, oh boy! Justin decided to troll the Gamers' Health video I did with my niece Shannon on Christmas Day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHju_pmM80M&t=787s Let's Go, Justin! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

Niece Shannon joins Tenkar for a special Christmas Day Gamers' Health. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

Yesterday, Rach and I talked a bit about consent at the gaming table. The conversation that has popped up about that cast has been amazing, both on YouTube and on Facebook, and thanks to that ongoing conversation, I think I missed something yesterday. Communication at the gaming table has to occur before consent can even be an issue, and part of that communication is being honest with your GM before the session even starts. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

Strangely enough, I find myself inching closer to X-Cards at the gaming table for organized play / convention games over completely removing themes that some may find triggering. Rach joins me for this one, as I figured we needed the opinion of one that was NOT a grognard ;) https://owenkcstephens.com/2021/12/13/from-a-freelancer-an-open-letter-to-erik-mona/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

Digging back into the Arduin Trilogy, we take a look at Dave's view of alignment. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

It's the tale of two Kickstarters. Both very late. Both announcing the time for release is finally near. Why do I believe one, and not the other? --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

It's all over the interwebs. WotC has been making stealth changes to the lore of many of its releases, to correct language that it sees as possibly problematic. This is both the advantage and curse of digital content. But has this made earlier 5e printing more valuable and collectible? https://www.wargamer.com/dnd/races-alignments-lore-removed https://boundingintocomics.com/2021/12/16/wizards-of-the-coast-removes-lore-deemed-problematic-from-dungeons-dragons/ https://www.belloflostsouls.net/2021/12/dd-wotc-removes-racial-alignments-retcons-drow-in-new-batch-of-errata.html https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/rg4jut/writeup_of_all_the_lore_thats_beein_removed_from/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

Ah, you've gotta love the internet trolls. On yesterday's video, a troll spammed the comments section with my "real" last name (not a secret, it's been public for years on Swords & Wizardry Light and Swords & Wizardry Continual Light). I figured it was time to explain where the name came from, why I used it, why I continue to use it, and more. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

As it says on the tin, TSR3 has voluntarily withdrawn its legal action against WotC without prejudice. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

TSR3 has surrendered or abandoned nearly every trademark it has named in its legal action against WotC. In 2 weeks, if TSR3 takes no further action, the Star Frontiers TM will be abandoned. So, why the legal action filed against WotC? https://www.trademarkelite.com/trademark/trademark-detail/90276506/STAR-FRONTIERS https://www.trademarkelite.com/trademark/trademark-detail/90893809/STAR-FRONTIERS https://www.trademarkelite.com/trademark/trademark-detail/90148334/mark https://www.trademarkelite.com/trademark/trademark-detail/90148524/TSR https://www.trademarkelite.com/trademark/trademark-detail/90124839/TSR-THE-GAME-WIZARDS https://www.trademarkelite.com/trademark/trademark-detail/90276510/BLACKMOOR https://www.trademarkelite.com/trademark/trademark-detail/90124287/TSR https://www.trademarkelite.com/trademark/trademark-detail/90884176/TSR https://www.trademarkelite.com/trademark/trademark-detail/90124788/mark --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

Banned and posts deleted from the Castles & Crusades FB Group for spamming. Never consulting with the Gygax Memorial Fund before mentioning the fund as a potential beneficiary of monies raised by TSR on their Indiegogo fundraising page. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

If you can believe it, Justin LaNassa is attempting to raise $50k to sue WotC for bullying, libel, slander, and for a bonus action, "will also Fight to Have the WOTC Legacy Disclaimer Removed." I'm glad I can get a front-row seat for free... https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/support-tsr-against-wizards-of-the-coast https://dockets.justia.com/docket/north-carolina/ncedce/7:2021cv00210/191410 https://humphriesfirm.law/team_member/justin-k-humphries --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

I was surprised when one of The Tavern regulars PMed me to let me know he received an email from Paul Stormberg indicating in Paul's signature that Paul was now President of the Gygax Memorial Fund. So, lo and behold, the http://www.gygaxmemorialfund.org/ website has been resurrected. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

Today I take a look at Dave's essay on treasure, and the effects that unbalanced magic items can have on the game, and a creative way to remove such. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

Fandom, owner of D&D Beyond and now Cortex Prime, just releases a Cortex Fan License that doesnt seem to do much for Cortex fans. Oh, and WTF is RPGNEWS.com stealing content from other sites? https://www.enworld.org/threads/cortex-fan-license-published.684470/ http://rpgnews.com/?p=151584 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

Bad Mike is on the Texas Shore. Tenkar is in the Pocono Mountains of North East PA. Together they will be bringing you your weekly allotment of Talking Crit... --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

Fandom, owner of D&D Beyond and now Cortex Prime, just releases a Cortex Fan License that doesnt seem to do much for Cortex fans. Oh, and WTF is RPGNEWS.com stealing content from other sites? https://www.enworld.org/threads/cortex-fan-license-published.684470/ http://rpgnews.com/?p=151584 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

ENWorld has a post about various "eccentric" gifts for your favorite GM. It's my belief that GM gifts should be things that can potentially benefit the gaming group as a whole. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

I delve right back into The Arduin Trilogy and take a look at Dave's essay on Player Character Types in fantasy games. After that, I take a short peek at the Individualization of New Player Characters. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

Today I take a peek at The First Fantasy Campaign, in particular, the Original Blackmoor Magic System. There is much hinted at, yet little is detailed. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

TSR Con has been moved from the weekend of July 4th (when every hotel within 15 miles was likely sold out to non-gamers) to the same weekend as Gary Con (where every hotel within 15 miles is likely sold out to gamers). A not so subtle attempt to steal bandwidth. Also, there is a Star Frontiers Game listed for sale at the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum, but it's out of stock. Actually, it hasn't been published yet, nor has it been announced, but the sales page is up. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

Giantlands is trying to virtue signal, and they fail. Badly. TSR3 gets caught in a lie. Rach labels TSR3 The Remora of the OSR :) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

Paizo states it has voluntarily recognized the United Paizo Workers Union. A WIRED article reveals that many full-time Paizo workers also freelance for the company due to working for low wages. https://gamingtrend.com/news/paizo-releases-a-statement-recognizing-the-united-paizo-workers/ https://www.wired.com/story/tabletop-rpg-workers-say-their-jobs-are-no-fantasy/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

About 40 of Paizo's freelancers stopped working last month with a list of demands. Those demands have now turned into a singular demand - for Paizo to recognize the United Paizo Workers Union. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

Paizo staffers have formed a union. It is not yet known if the company will recognize the union. Paizo is likely the only TTRPG company with enough staff to make the idea of unionizing viable. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

Now that we have the episodes uploading to Anchor again, we've been getting voicemails. Randy, Kevin, and Jason call with some observations and follow-ups to some prior episodes. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

Aruin Volume IV, The Lost Grimoire, has a number of essays from Dave Hargrave. Today, I'm looking at Dave Hargrave's article on Dungeon Ecology and how it applies today. https://empcho.com/specials/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

There's an update on the Arduin Grimoire Facebook Page. Not only is it getting a new web store, but it looks like future rights MAY be moving to another. Time to hypothesize. ;) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

An anonymous douchenozzle emailed a threat of potentially tortious interference to Wizard Tower Games for being a sponsor of TSR Con. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

Demiplane (the matchmaking service for TTRPG Gamers) and Paizo have teamed up for Pathfinder Nexus, brought to you by the creator of D&D Beyond. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

Talking Crit LiveStream - Special Guest Luau Lou - November 3rd, 2021 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

Tom V sent me an interesting email describing his interactions with Michael from TST and Larry Elmore. Tom also did an amazing video describing the details and more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4JIN4TSjCM --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

GaryCon sent a follow-up email to its August 31st, 2021 Covid-19 announcement. The most interesting part of the statement is that Ernie Gygax WILL NOT be running games at Gary Con, although he will be there to socialize. I suspect that Ernie WILL be running games at the DHSM sans mask. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

I'm about 11% into Jon Peterson's new book, Game Wizards, and Jon knocks it out of the park. Truly well written, entertaining, and full of amazing bits of history. Here's the Amazon link if you want to support the channel: https://amzn.to/3GDZmlk Note, this is an affiliate link. Also, as I type this we've raised 1467 for St Jude's Children's Hospital. I've just ordered blue hair dye... --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

Joe and Tenkar return for another Friday night of mayhem and D&D memes... --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

BlizzardActivisionKing employees are seeking to organize and possibly unionize. Was Paizo's Workers Union merely a move on the chessboard for the Communications Workers of America (CWA)? https://cwa-union.org/news/releases/employees-of-activision-blizzard-file-unfair-labor-practice-charge-against-gaming https://www.inverse.com/gaming/activision-blizzard-union-abetterabk-could-change-the-games-industry --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

Why do so many players enjoy player Murder Hobos? I strongly suspect its the adrenaline rush attached to risk and reward. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

Glen and Tenkar are back with a Friday Night Livestream --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

When George from Emperors Choice offered to send me a few copies of various Arduin releases for me to cover, I never expected this amount, not just the pure number, but literally the amount of gaming content. Christmas arrived early for your Tavern Keeper ;) https://empcho.com/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

Last week Geek Native posted an article that Paizo was changing the word "phylactery" to "Soul Cage", and that they mentioned such change in the preface of their newest release in their current Adventure Path. Aside from the fact that "Soul Cage" is simply boring, it appears that Paizo is making such change more for getting the credit for doing so instesd of such change being "the right thing to do." https://www.geeknative.com/136257/soul-cages-paizo-drops-religious-phylacteries-from-pathfinder/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

How detailed do we need our adventures? At what point is too much detail detrimental to adding a commercial adventure to your campaign. Is less more? --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

Diamond Comics got hit with a ransomware attack and has yet to fully restore functions 3 days later. Robinhood - the stock trading company - got hacked by a hacker who got access to the data of 7 million customers. Just how vulnerable is OneBookShelf, Frog God Games, Paizo, Goodman Games, Itch.io and so many others? https://bleedingcool.com/comics/diamond-comics-switches-to-emergency-website-reports-delays/ https://bleedingcool.com/comics/diamond-comic-distributors-targeted-by-ransomware-attack/ https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/8/22770861/robinhood-7-million-customers-hacker-breach-extortion-security --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

Back in the old-time, Google+ and Forums ruled the roost. Blogs were looming large. Today, Google+ is dead, blogs are dying, and forums are suffering. It is the day of social media, podcasts, and YouTube. Do you read RPG forums? Which ones? If you don't, why not? --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

No one has "game designer" as a fall back position in their potential jobs list. You become a "game designer" because you want to create games, not because you failed in some other occupation. There are so many would be game designers, and so few positions that pay a fulltime salary, that anyone going into the "game industry" as their primary occupation better think good and hard. Because if game design isnt your side gig but your primary occupation, you likely need a lucrative side gig. This does not mean that creatives are paid what they are worth. They are, however, likely paid what the market can bear. The opportunities to make a living wage in game design are few, and as a general rule, only go to the most skilled. Being "good" at game design simply isnt good enough, not when there are thousands of would be game designers vying for a small handful of well paying spots. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

The failed G4 Network will return later this month and Invitation to Party is one of the network's new shows. Live audiences on Twitch and Youtube will affect the direction of each episode. https://www.thathashtagshow.com/2021/11/11/g4-announces-dungeons-and-dragons-presents-invitation-to-party/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

Well, it looks like "Duck" Leason is returning home, leaving the Dungeon Hobby Shop without its curator. Ernie Gygax states that the DHS Museum is closed, but will open to gamers by appointment. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

There is a potential deal in the making between Gail Gygax and Luke Gygax, re: the EGG Revocable Trust (Gary Gygax's Estate) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

I read this in a thread at ENWorld, announcing the recruitment by WotC of a Senior Game Designer position. It is a painful truth. https://www.enworld.org/threads/wizards-is-hiring-a-senior-game-designer-for-dungeons-dragons.684230/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

Bad Mike & Tenkar are joined by Douglas Cole (Gaming Ballistic, Dungeon Grappling, Dragon Heresy, and much more. Nordland Bestiary and Enemies Book launched 11/18/21 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gamingballistic/nordlond-bestiary-and-enemies-book?ref=39cpby&token=7308c8b7 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

As I've been delving into Arduin, I've been treating it almost like an archeological dig. I've been more interested in essays than crunch, and I've been focused on finding how the earlier works have influenced later and current game design. Is this the path the viewers want me to walk? --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support

Continuing my perusal of Arduin, I take a look at Space Aliens & Other Aliens in Fantasy RPGs. Dave's words are likely more inciteful than he had envisioned, and I'm glad to have found them. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/support