Tavern Chat

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 h...

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.

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/...

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.

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.

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

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...

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

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.

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.

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.

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 pu...

Giantlands is trying to virtue signal, and they fail. Badly. TSR3 gets caught in a lie. Rach labels TSR3 The Remora of the OSR :)

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/

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.

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.

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.

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/

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. ;)

An anonymous douchenozzle emailed a threat of potentially tortious interference to Wizard Tower Games for being a sponsor of TSR Con.

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.

Talking Crit LiveStream - Special Guest Luau Lou - November 3rd, 2021

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

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.

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...