Black Friday/Cyber Monday Haul 2024

It's been quite awhile since I published on of these posts. There's a couple of reasons. First, many of my tabletop gaming purchases these days are PDFs. Which don't make for great photos to attract eyeballs. Second, many of my tabletop gaming purchases aren't for the games they were written for. It's to ruthlessly pillage for ideas to use in the games I actually run. This year is actually something of an exception. Third, my previous holiday deal shopping posts feature a fair amount of "these are the exciting plans I have for this stuff!" Which gets depressing when I go back and realize how few of those plans actually materialized.

But let's do this thing again anyway.

The only physical products I picked up during the sales.

From Drive Through RPG (all of theses are PDFs):

BattleTech: Periphery
The original version. These days, I'm more interested in reading BattleTech lore than playing any version of the tabletop game. It's also handy for looting ideas for use in other games.

Dark Star Violet Magazine Issue #1
A sci-fi TTRPG zine. I saw a bunch of what I suspect is AI generated art and not much useful content when I flipped through it. I'll give it a more through read through later.

Delayed Blast Gamemaster Issue #1
A fantasy TTRPG zine. Has an OSR feel. Could be fun and maybe even useful. If nothing else, I like the name.

Technophobia
Something unusual - a horror themed adventure for Lancer. I'll give it a look once Lancer moves up the list of games hitting the table.


From Exalted Funeral (all of these are physical products for Old School Essentials):

Carcass Crawler Issues #1-3
The official Old School Essentials zine. Lots of additional material. Not sure how much will be hitting the tabletop.

Old School Essentials Deluxe Referee's Screen
My relationship with GM screens is complicated. I got this more for the vibe than any expectation that's I'll get much use out of it.

The Incandescent Grottoes
I'm eventually going to need a low level adventure to start a new campaign. This one got good reviews, so it's the one I bought.


From itch.io:

The Karrakin Trade Baronies
A supplement for Lancer. Sourcebook for a bunch of space feudalists - a trope that I'll need throw scorn at sometime. Also has some optional rules that were the main attraction of the book for me. I would've preferred a physical product, but a PDF will do for now.


Those are my holiday sale retail therapy purchases for this year. This lists also serves up some clues about my upcoming tabletop gaming plans. I've found that what I purchase on Black Friday and Cyber Monday tends to influence what I'll be playing and running in the coming year. Previous posts in this series are below:

Black Friday / Cyber Monday Haul 2019, Part One

Black Friday / Cyber Monday Haul 2019, Part Two

Black Friday / Cyber Monday Haul 2020

Black Friday / Cyber Monday Haul 2021, Part One

Black Friday / Cyber Monday Haul 2021, Part Two


Happy Holidays!

My Favorite Stuff 2024

This is a list of stuff that's been working well for me over the past year or two. Handy if you're doing some last minute holiday shopping for a tabletop gamer. Or if you are a tabletop gamer looking to spend some cash or gift cards received over the holidays. Or if you just want to indulge in some retail therapy. I'm not in a position to judge.

I skipped a "My Favorite" post last year due to my tabletop gaming interregnum. Links to past posts along these lines:

My Favorite Things 2018

My Favorite Stuff 2020 and 2019

My Favorite Stuff 2022

My New Dropper Bottle Case



Old School Essentials

I didn't realize that I never stated my opinions about this game until I sat down to write this post.

It's exactly what I wanted.

A question I sometimes see is: "Why not use the classic D&D and AD&D materials directly?" Well, that would mean spending time and money on the following to get what I was looking for:

• Cook Basic D&D down to its heart and soul. Which means purchasing the Dragons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia and throwing out huge chunks of it.
• Take what I most enjoyed about AD&D and convert it to be fully compatible with the chopped down version of Basic D&D from the first step. Which means taking the three AD&D core books and not using most of them.
• Hand our group the resulting document sometime in the 2030s.

Or I could do what I actually did:

• Shop around for a product that already did all that work for me.
• Wait for a sale on the Exulted Funeral site.
• Purchase a pair of books from Necrotic Gnome.
• Be impressed by the clear writing and organization of the Old School Essentials books.
• Download a bunch of free content from Necrotic Gnome, including a checklist of options to bring to our group.

I'm happy with the choice I made.


D&D Module B4 The Lost City

I previously published a couple of posts about this module:

Preparing a Classic D&D Module for OSE

Remodeling B4 The Lost City

This may end up replacing B2 The Keep on the Borderlands as my go-to for starting a nostalgic old school campaign. It's not without flaws. It does need preparation before putting it in front of players. And it does not in any way benefit from modern concepts of layout and organization. But the swords and sorcery flavored dungeon delve at its core? An experience not to be missed.


Mothership Boxed Set

I've posted my thoughts and experiences about this game before:

Countdown to Mothership

Mothership Debrief - Another Bug Hunt

It's a delight to open a tabletop RPG boxed set in the halcyon year of 2024. Good rules. Good presentation. The starter adventure is...

...a tad undercooked.


The Middle Ages: A Graphic History by Eleanor Janega and Neil Max Emmanuel

This book is my new recommendation for "an introduction and/or overview of the Middle Ages" to anybody who asks. Which comes up both more and less often than folks might believe. If everything you know on the topic comes from Gary Gygax and YouTube, you should read this book.


Army Painter Wet Palette

I used to slap my paint on a ceramic plate or cheap plastic artist's palette. Like a savage or something. Now I carefully add water to the absorbent pad, lay on a sheet of parchment paper, and mix my paints like a professional. Has it improved my brushwork? Not one darn bit. But it does keep my paints fresh and perky while I break down sobbing at my inadequate skills while base coating a miniature.


That's my favorite stuff some this year (and last year). Let's see if I remember the next post in this series in 2025.