Classic Fourthcore Adventures Now Available On DriveThru!

I posted a while back about how the Fourthcore crew had written the best 3rd party 5e adventure in existence. This is still the case. They now have all of the classic Fourthcore products up for free or pay-what-you-want. These were the height of 4e design; deadly, old-school, challenging modules that broke the rigid 4e mold and killed an awful lot of characters. Even if you never got into 4e, you owe it to yourself to check them out.

CLICK HERE!

Secret Santicore 2015

So the entries from last year's Secret Santicore are trickling out. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like there will be a compilation pdf this year. I can understand why; it is a ton of work. Honestly I am just thankful to be able to start seeing what folks did. I will probably compile my own personal pdf at some point. EDIT: I just heard that a compilation for last year's submissions is underway and that they just wanted to get it out via blog for the time being. That is GREAT NEWS!

Anyway, I thought I would post a pdf of my entry. It is pretty silly, but overall I am pleased with the spirit of the thing. My request was:

"I request a selection of very British magic items from various layers of the social strata. Artifacts of dubious merit with downsides to balance out upsides preferred."

SEE WHAT I DID HERE

A 5e Must-Buy: Fortress of the Ur-Mage

"The Ur-Mage opens the doors of his Fortress once each decade, allowing the heroes and demigods of the realm to enter."

With the advent of the 5e SRD and DMs Guild, the 3rd party floodgates have been opened. There was already a ton of stuff coming out anyway, but in the scant few months that DMs Guild has been up, there are over 1000 3rd party offerings on that site alone already, with more being added every day. It is probably impossible to read it all, and keeping track of even the adventures seems like a full-time job (but thank you Merric!).

Anyway, how does one sift through all of this to find worthwhile products? For every interesting idea, safe bet, and no-brainer, there are one hundred or more complete and total mysteries, abject failures, and gross money-grabs. 

Well, I can at least point you to one product that I consider the first true 5e 3rd party "must-buy" that I have encountered. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of good stuff out there, but there is only one offering so far that I really think DMs should rush and buy immediately. And that would be Fortress of the Ur-Mage. 

From some of the minds that brought you 4thcore, this "tournament deathtrap dungeon" carries on their rich tradition of turning system assumptions upside down, shaking them, throttling them, then curb-stomping them into oblivion.

This is not an adventure made to gently insert into a campaign. This is a one-shot meant to test the mettle of even the most experienced players. This can be run in a tournament setting, with multiple tables attempting the dungeon at once, or with a single group. The party or parties score points based on how much they accomplish. You know that annoying thing where it is hard to gauge how long a one-shot might take? You won't experience that here. After five hours of play, finished or not, "a horde of summoned Spectral Death Knight Cavaliers atop fleshless horses" gallop through and slaughter the party. Kinky. Determined parties will want to try again and again to reach the final chamber.

This adventure is filled with all of the trappings we have come to expect from the 4thcore crew: fantastically grim set-piece encounters, a myriad of cruel and creative monsters, powerful and interesting magic items, and killer cartography and artwork. I was so pleased to see that the legendary Crypt Thing, Robert Waluchow, had done the maps and art for this. He is a great talent.

This thing comes with everything you need to get right to it: pregens, handouts, magic item cards, everything. Priced at a mere $6.66 (!), the value of what you get here puts a lot of 5e pricing to absolute shame.

If you are looking to run an event at a convention or if you have a group of seasoned players that think they have seen it all, you owe it to them to grind their bones into powder with this module.
Published by "DDE Adventures", it is unclear what future 5e plans these demented souls have in store for us, but follow them HERE to find out.

Review: Tales From The Game Tavern #2

A while back I posted about how we are living in the golden age of the RPG zine, and the passing of time has only reinforced this view. It seems a week doesn't go by without some awesome new zine coming out.

I have been a fan of Grand DM's excellent Ultanya blog for quite some time, and it is great to see that he has thrown his hat into the zine ring. Today I thought I would take a look at issue #2 of Tales From The Game Tavern.

This is a holiday themed issue, but what with all the blizzards and snow going on, it still seems timely. There is a good bit of content for the price, with 28 pages of material (not including the cover). I enjoyed the variety, as you get class material, items, monster stuff, an adventure, as well as a recipe (!) in one issue.

Some of the material focuses around Krampus, which is nice and gameable. Highlights of the issue for me are a very nice hex crawl adventure, and "Krampusnacht Curios", some flavorful items that tykes might find in their shoes. These are minor enchanted items that eventually lose their powers; I like introducing things like that into my games, as they encourage use and do not affect long-term game balance.

An example of the high quality of the layout 

There is a "roast beast" soup recipe, the term taken from The Grinch that Stole Christmas, which I found a nice touch. It calls for a "turkey carcass". Yum...carcass!

This is a very creative and welcome addition to the burgeoning OSR zine scene. The stats provided are loose and generic, and thus fitting for any OSR game. Pick up one yourself and check back frequently at Ultanya to grab past and future issues.