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We have a lot of sales and game bundles going on this week. Plus, there are some sweet new OSR releases and some zines.

Bookkeeping Notes: Some of the links below are affiliate links. If you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. This commission comes at no extra cost to you. But please do not spend any money on these products unless you feel you need them.

Story Games and Mini Games

HACK THE PLANET is a free 1-page RPG with technobabble and mandatory rollerblades.

OSR

Christopher Salvatore has written a free adventure for Pits & Perils: The Isle of Mists.
Pits & Perils is a lightweight old school RPG inspired by Chainmail.

Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells - Addendum is now released! And it is PWYW, like the core game. SS&SS is a tasty OSR game with snug mechanics. It is akin to D&D clones but geared towards pulpy action. Read more about it here.

B/X Essentials: Core Rules has hit the (virtual) shelves:

The B/X Essentials line is a restatement of the classic Basic/Expert fantasy adventure gaming rule set, distilled down to its purest essence and given a fresh, new presentation:
Basic and Expert rules seamlessly combined.
Streamlined presentation optimised for ease of reference during play.
Meticulously researched; a guaranteed 100% accurate rendition of the classic rules of yesteryear.
Carefully clarified, ironing out ambiguities in the original rules.
This first book lays out the core rules of the game, including: encounters, combat, dungeon and wilderness exploration, seafaring, spell casting, and magical research.

It is a 100% faithful combinatorial rewrite of B/X rules as written. Systems like Labyrinth Lord make changes to the original game. The PDF costs USD $4.99.

A free plain text edition of this book is also available.

Back to BasiX - Issue #2, a fanzine, is available for USD $1.50.

And even more B/X! Eric from Swords & Stitchery is here with a list of expansions: B/X Dungeons & Dragons Free & Pay Resources For Your Old School Campaigns.

And how did I miss Marvels & Malisons?

A new magic system and spells for old school fantasy RPGs. Based on and expanding Wonder & Wickedness, but still being usable stand-alone, Marvels & Malisons presents five Sorcery Schools.

Print edition available at the Lost Pages store.

Weekly old school awesome at OBS Sept 1 is a list with new OSR titles by Shane Ward.

Tools

Here is a free browser hex mapper: Hextml. (Thanks, Ben Milton.)

Sales

There is a Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund Charity Bundle. It costs USD $25 and has some cool stuff in it.
Examples: Deep Carbon Observatory, Mythic Mortals, Stay Frosty, Strange Stars, the two new books for Hot Springs Island, Weird Adventures, Don’t Walk in Winterwood, etc.
It’s much more expensive to buy these individually. You need to get the bundle; it is a steal.

The Bundle of Holding currently offers the Apocalypse Engine +2 Bundle. You’ll get Apocalypse World 2e, Spirit of ‘77, Headspace, and more for USD $12.95. A portion of the sale goes to the Southern Poverty Law Center charity.

Fat Dragon Games have a Papercraft 2017 Mega Deal [BUNDLE].

And there is a September sale of OSR publisher Barrell Rider Games: 20% of the whole catalog.

Lulu has a coupon until September 10th: Save 10% On Orders Of Print Products Plus Free Mail or 50% off Ground Shipping with Code: BOOKSHIP17. Check out my Lulu recommendations.

Patreons

Gauntlet’s Discern Realities Annual is out:

The DR Annual is a collection of material from the first 40 episodes of our Dungeon World podcast, Discern Realities, as well as select contest entries from listeners. It features custom techniques, procedures, and hacks; magic items; custom moves; compendium classes; and an adventure starter called The Dreamer Palace. It features 19 pieces of original art by Nery Mejicano and a terrific layout by Oli Jeffery.

And the current zine issue Codex - Joy is also available. USD $2+/month. Great value for money.

Solo Gaming

Alto Dizi has created Player Emulator with Tags, a “framework for running your favorite system with virtual players”:

system agnostic; use your favorite mechanics
uses a 2d6 pbta-style Oracle based on your desired outcome
supports intraparty conflict (you can totally replicate those early D&D experiences where the rogue got bored and murdered the paladin for his stuff) an entire page of plot-pushing random tables

Here is an example of the tool in play.

And Spencer Salyer has written an introductory post for solo role-playing. It’s part of an upcoming series. I’m looking forward to that.

This Blog

The dieheart blog has moved to a new server and publishing platform! It is now faster and SSL encrypted.

The story:
Up until now an online friend hosted this blog on his server and was owner of the domain. I wanted to change that to have more control over the backend site of things. Unfortunately, I underestimated the move from one install to another.

Things went wrong and I spent the last week fixing things. In the end, I gave up on Wordpress and moved the blog to a self-hosted Ghost install. That means, it is now lightning fast! And probably more secure, too, because I don’t need countless PHP plugins.

The theme is minimalist and I ditched the comment section. But things are still in flux, so that might change. There is a search bar to help you navigate the site.

Thanks to all that reached out and offered advice and help on the migration. And thank you for reading my blog.

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#grab bags