Anthropomorphic USR now released into the Wild

Since I'm dithering on completing my POD USR Sword & Sorcery supplement Horrors Material and Magic Malignant I made a push to finish another USR project which has been sitting on the shelf for a while. 

Anthropomorphic USR is now available and posted for sale on RPGNow/DriveThruRPG. A 24 page PDF it contains character creation tables, simple rules for making far out equipment and vehicle combat, plus it includes an introductory adventure. 

A perfect rules lite tool kit to leverage your old comic book collection or all those old Palladium books you have collecting dust on the shelf. Like all of my USR products they work best with source material you want to use without a crunchy rules system attached. Streamline play and get into the action fast with Anthropomorphic USR.

BRP versus Savage Worlds Combat, a look at Minions

Someone  by the online handle of "pansophy" created a short pdf file offering rules for managing minions in your Basic Roleplaying Game. I downloaded and saved this file, looks like June of 2012, for future use.

While putting these rules in action depends on the genre being played, what I truly enjoyed about the article was the comparison of BRP combat mechanics to Savage Worlds. I was taking a look at as many different game systems in 2012 because I was just getting back into gaming. I was dead set on making sure my campaigns were going to have the "right" system for the game. By right I mean I didn't want the rules to get in the way of having a great time at the table and restricting unfettered imagination during campaign creation/prep.

I post the link above for anyone similarly on the fence and doing system research into the difference between BRP and Savage World combat mechanics.

Hobbs & Friends talk USR Sword & Sorcery Podcast

+Jason Hobbs released his first episode of Hobbs & Friends with an opening discussion on my World of Xoth campaign I run with my USR Sword & Sorcery rules.

Enjoy!

Tales from the Classic Portal Yawning Wide

Tales from the Yawning Portal, is the new book announced recently by WotC promising "seven of the most compelling dungeons from the 40+ year history of Dungeons & Dragons. Some are classics that have hosted an untold number of adventurers, while others are some of the most popular adventures ever printed. For use with the fifth edition Player’s Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master’s Guide, this book provides fans with adventures, magic items and deadly monsters, all of which have been updated to the fifth edition rules."

I can't but help wonder how the Classic Modules Today project launched last February with WotC's permission on the DM's Guild web site contributed to the release of this book? Probably just good timing. At 38 completed conversion guides (and growing) of classic 1e modules released to date at DM's Guild I've definitely seen first hand the thirst for original adventures for those playing with 5e rules. Individual ametuer authors just going for it are a much more nimble crowd and the amount of conversion guides we've been able to release in the last year is proof of that. It will be interesting to see how the cheap conversion guides continue to compete with high dollar, professionally published hardbacks, but more importantly I see gamers are getting more choice. You want to go cheap you can get a PDF of the original module plus a conversion guide instantly. Heck, now you are starting to be able to get POD copies of the original adventures at a modest price. Or if you are really stoked about these adventures you can get a super polished book with original art. 

Combined this treasure trove of adventure content with all the original stuff being released daily by the DIY OSR community (Broodmother, MotBM, Yoon-Suin, DCO to name a few...) 5e D&D looks to become one of the most popular editions of the world's greatest role-playing game ever.