Iron Tavern Press – GM’s Day Sale

Posted on March 4, 2014 by Jeffrey Tadlock

March 4th marks GM’s Day – a day to show your GM how much you appreciate them. What started as a post on EN World way back in 2002 has evolved into a major sale day/week at many of the online RPG stores. How big? About 30% off big!

Iron Tavern Press is happy to participate in the sale at the two locations our products are sold – shop.d20pfsrd.com and RPGNow.com. Both Kajak’s Kave and The Hive are at the lowest prices you are likely to see them. In fact, once the GM’s Day sales end, The Hive will be going back up to normal pricing, its introductory price it was release at expiring. If you have been curious about what I’ve been releasing under the Iron Tavern Press name this is a wonderful opportunity to check them out.

Pocket-Sized Encounters are small scenarios ready to be dropped into your campaign with very short notice. Whether to offer a side-trek to your players or using one of the ‘Where To From Here’ hooks to expand them into more is up to you. The product includes maps, adventure hooks, suggested ideas for expansion, and in some cases new monsters and new magic items. And don’t forget the random treasure hoard tables useful in any situation.

Written to be compatible with the Swords & Wizardry system, these products are easily converted to your fantasy system of choice.

Here are the summaries from each.

Kajak’s Kave

Livestock disappearing from their pastures, children discovering large humanoid footprints along the creek, rumored sightings of a lumbering giant, and Shaerie the Huntress’ disappearance several weeks ago leave only one conclusion. An ogre has taken up residence too close to town! Are you the brave adventurers to help rid the town of this threat and discover the whereabouts of Shaerie?

Available at shop.d20pfsrd.com and RPGNow for $1.93.

The Hive

Lord Oakensun was fascinated by insects, spending hours cataloging and classifying his collection. Discontent led the man to experiment with forces he did not fully comprehend. Now farms outside the village have been found abandoned. Lord Oakensun’s daughter is missing, last seen near rocky hills a short distance away. A local thief reports his partner was snatched away in the dark amidst sounds of buzzing and chittering. Has Lord Oakensun’s experiment gone wrong? What is behind the rash of disappearances from the village?

Available at shop.d20pfsrd.com and RPGNow for $1.40.

The Hive Now Available

Posted on February 25, 2014 by Jeffrey Tadlock

The Hive, written by Dustin Clark, is the second release in the Pocket-Sized Encounter line and is available at RPGNow and shop.d20pfsrd.com.

A Pocket-Sized Encounter compatible with the Swords & Wizardry rules system for 4th to 6th level characters.

Pocket-Sized Encounters are designed to drop into an existing campaign with ease. Several adventure seeds are included and a Where To From Here section if you want to expand the scenario beyond what is written. The Hive also includes a set of new monsters and a new magic item.

More questions about Pocket-Sized Encounters? Check out the Iron Tavern Press page.

Upcoming: The Hive

Posted on February 14, 2014 by Jeffrey Tadlock

Not only is today Valentine’s Day, but one month from the initial launch of Iron Tavern Press’ first product – Kajak’s Kave! Kajak’s Kave is the first in the Pocket-Sized Encounter line and written to be compatible with Swords & Wizardry, though easily converted to most fantasy RPG systems. The series focuses on short adventures that can be placed in existing campaigns.

I have been quite happy with how the initial product has been received! Sales have been going well and exceeding my expectations. I thank everyone for the support as Iron Tavern Press seeks to increase its presence.

You may be asking where’s the next one. The Hive, the next release in the Pocket-Sized Encounter line will be released next week! This one is written by Dustin Clark and like Kajak’s Kave includes several hooks to integrate with your Swords & Wizardry campaign, an encounter map, seeds for expansion, new creatures, and more! I am really happy with how it has turned out!

To tide you over a bit, here is a sneak peek at some of the art for the soon to be released The Hive.

Behind the Curtain: Default System Choice

Posted on January 21, 2014 by Jeffrey Tadlock

In the week following the debut of Iron Tavern Press and our first product, Kajak’s Kave, I suspect some folks are wondering why I chose Swords & Wizardry for the “default” system. There is a plethora of well-written OSR systems available today and to choose one seems a very difficult task.

I wanted to take a little time and explain why that choice was made, specifically for the Pocket-Sized Encounters series I launched Iron Tavern Press with.

Background

I got my start in the role-playing world with D&D Basic, the Moldvay version. Even today the cover of that boxed set is etched into my mind. That set is what launched me on what has proven to be a lifetime hobby. From playing games, to running games, to blogging, to starting Iron Tavern Press. The roots can be traced back to that system.

Of course over the years I drifted away from that initial edition. 1st Edition AD&D, then on to 2nd Edition, and even to D&D 3.x. From there I drifted to Pathfinder and in recent years even more dabbling in various systems. Some just picked up and read through and others taken for more extensive test drives.

Regardless of system I will hold a fondness for the OSR. Especially as my available time diminishes and I need to work the hobby into a fuller and fuller schedule. The light nature of many of the OSR systems allow me to spend more time on the creative and less time on the “crunch”.

System Choice

When I first wrote Kajak’s Kave and the idea of Pocket-Sized Encounters percolated the adventure was written to be systemless. The creatures were simply referenced by name and how many were present with directions to look up the actual creature stats in your rule system of choice. While this led to great versatility it did push work off on the GM.

Around this same time I was doing on the fly conversions of some Dungeon Crawl Classics and Labyrinth Lord adventures to Swords & Wizardry. Converting on the fly was pretty easy, but I was glad I had at least some stats to work off of. Even the inclusion of basic stats for a different system gave me the ballpark of what I would use in Swords & Wizardry.

This experience had me second guessing my choice to go completely systemless for this series. But what system should I use as the default assumption?

It came down to three top contenders for choice of system that I felt were good fits for the series and still adaptable for people to convert to their system of choice. OSRIC, Labyrinth Lord, and Swords & Wizardry.

Each of these systems have their strengths, but in the end I chose Swords & Wizardry for the default system for the Pocket-Sized Encounters line. Let’s take a closer look as to why.

Swords & Wizardry

I’ve posted before about why I like Swords & Wizardry as a foundation system. But there are some factors that also influenced my decision from a publisher’s point of view.

The biggest factor? Swords & Wizardry stat blocks include both ascending and descending AC. To me this is huge. Yes – one can convert even AC on the fly, but to some that seems a mystery or at the very least, not something they feel like doing at the table. Swords & Wizardry includes both a number for ascending and descending AC in the same stat block which removes what I consider one of the larger hurdles for at the table conversion. It also lends itself well to conversion to more complex rule systems such as Pathfinder as well.

Another major reason I like Swords & Wizardry is that the ruleset is available online at d20swsrd.com. It is easily searchable and very handy for a rule lookup when you are away from your books. I find online resources such as these invaluable. Having the ruleset online in such a clean format simply lowers the bar to entry that much more. It even makes things easier for me as I write to be able to look things up quickly.

Though the decision was made after I had chosen Swords & Wizardry as the default assumption for Pocket-Sized Encounters, the fact the Swords & Wizardry Complete PDF is now free to the public doesn’t hurt! Yet another step to keep the barrier to S&W low.

In general I find S&W a very solid foundation for people that like OSR gaming. It is easy to build upon by “borrowing” rules from other places or layering your own house rules on.

All of these factors contributed to why I chose Swords & Wizardry as my default system for this line of products.

Kajak’s Kave Now Available

Posted on January 16, 2014 by Jeffrey Tadlock

Kajak’ Kave Now Available!

Kajak’s Kave, the first release in the Pocket-Sized Encounters line is now available at RPGNow!

A Pocket-Sized Encounter compatible with the Swords & Wizardry rules system for 4th to 6th level characters.

Questions about Pocket-Sized Encounters? Check out the Iron Tavern Press page.

What is Iron Tavern Press?

Posted on January 8, 2014 by Jeffrey Tadlock

Iron Tavern Press Teasers

During the previous few weeks I have slowly been dropping teasers for one of my 2014 projects – Iron Tavern Press. First the Iron Tavern Press ads you might have seen popping up here, in your social media streams, and even over at d20swsrd.com. Then there was last week’s blog post about Pocket-Sized Encounters explaining a little more about that product line. This week we look at Iron Tavern Press itself!

What is Iron Tavern Press?

Iron Tavern Press is a venture I have wanted to try out for a while. Over the years I have read a lot of advice about RPG publishing and I’ve also experimented with several different aspects of the RPG world – some public and some not so public. 2014 is the year I bring Iron Tavern Press to life.

The initial product offering is the Pocket-Sized Encounter line which I’ve described previously. I have several products in this line already lined up and they will be releasing on a semi-regular basis over the course of the next several months. Pocket-Sized Encounters are something that would handily fill a niche in my own gaming and campaigns. Shorter scenarios that can be run in single session or dropped into an existing campaign as an option without derailing the whole campaign.

While Pocket-Sized Encounters are the initial focus point for the launch of Iron Tavern Press – I do have some other products in mind as well. Some are one-offs and some are entire lines. Some are already in motion and others are waiting until the time is right (or perhaps more appropriately – for a gap in time!).

Keep an eye out for the first release from Iron Tavern Press coming later this month!

Pocket-Sized Encounters

Posted on January 2, 2014 by Jeffrey Tadlock

What are Pocket-Sized Encounters?

Pocket-Sized Encounters are compatible with Swords & Wizardry and easily adaptable to other OSR systems or even your favorite modern fantasy RPG. They are written to fit into the shorter gaming session slots that are so prevalent today. Designed to be run with minimal preparation, this line of products can be run on a moment’s notice for when your party takes a turn in an unexpected direction.

Or maybe you want to provide additional depth for your campaign. You want to present the players with options and choices that help your campaign world come alive around them. But at the same time, you don’t want these other options to derail the main theme of your game. You need something that can be run in a single session. The Pocket-Sized Encounters line fills this niche.

Each Pocket-Sized Encounter provides possible Adventure Hooks you can use to integrate these encounters into your existing campaign. They also offer seeds for expanding what is presented in the Pocket-Sized Encounter into something spanning more than one session if you want to expand upon what is presented.

The Pocket-Sized Encounter line provides random treasure tables, new monsters, or new magic items that can be used with the encounter area or borrowed for your own campaign.

Pocket-Sized Encounters from Iron Tavern Press bring this to you in a digest sized PDF. This format makes for easy reading on your favorite tablet based device and easier to keep a library’s worth on-hand for those times you need something to run at the spur of the moment.

Keep an eye out for the first Pocket-Sized Encounter to be released later this month!

Iron Tavern Press

Posted on December 23, 2013 by Jeffrey Tadlock

Some may have seen the mention made over a few of the social media networks last week of an up and coming project I have been working on – Iron Tavern Press. The official unveiling will happen in January, but an update or two releasing some additional information will occur before the official launch.

If you are interested in following only posts relating to Iron Tavern Press and not the myriad of other topics here at The Iron Tavern, you can use the following feed to only see Iron Tavern Press information.

Iron Tavern Press RSS Feed

Here is a teaser…