Wolfgang Baur

Post your favorite Lord of the Rings character. Wrong answers only.

This is definitely authentic, and boy do I wish I had kept a copy.

Version 4.1 sounds somewhat baked, though I seem to recall a 4.7 or something. Makes me want to revisit a hard drive from 1996.

This is a stupidly rare item of WoTC history and RPG design. The MtG Roleplaying game itself was never published, though it might have been a huge success in bringing together two tabletop tribes.

I don’t remember if this was an early draft or a later one, but hey, 30 years ago.

Here's a draft manuscript of the Magic: The Gathering roleplaying game from 1996, and I've giving it away as a fundraiser for Planned Parenthood, with permission from the authors. Not sure how much to ask for. Vanishingly rare. $1,872 raised so far. #mtg #ttrpg

YouTube video by The Gaming Gang RiverBank Roleplaying Game Review

RiverBank Roleplaying Game Review - @koboldpress.com #RiverBankRPG #TTRPGs www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vrA...

My photo shows a view looking straight down an ancient street in Pompeii. The road is made of large, unevenly-shaped, rounded gray stone blocks. Running lengthwise through the stones are two shallow grooves—parallel tracks worn into the stone by the passage of wagon wheels centuries ago. On both sides of the street are pedestrian pavements, raised about a step higher than the road. Beyond the pavements are the remains of buildings with thick walls made of rough stone and reddish bricks. The roofs and upper floors are gone. The street stretches straight into the distance, narrowing with perspective. A few small human figures and trees in the distance, emphasize how long the road is. Above the street, the blue sky is streaked with thin, wispy clouds. At the far end of the street, rising behind the ruins, there’s a glimpse of the dark, lower slope of Mount Vesuvius, the volcano whose eruption buried Pompeii in AD 79.

Wheel ruts worn into the roads of ancient Pompeii made by the passage of wagons and carts some 2,000+ years ago.

A reminder to modern visitors of ancient traffic which flowed through busy Pompeian streets.

📷 by me

#Archaeology

Has a bit of a Fallout vibe.

Gen X says it is time to go, grandpa.

Word of the Day: tergiant

In 30 minutes I posit DMs and GMs are NOT simply unpaid entertainers at the game table plus the latest gaming news from @koboldpress.com @ospreygames.bsky.social @theonyxpath.bsky.social and more on tonight's The Gaming Gang Dispatch #1296. 8pm ET/7pm CT/5pm PT 😜 youtube.com/watch?v=K3DXl9pnhQo

Score Huge Savings with the Tales of Sand & Scales 5E D&D Bundle - The Gaming Gang Kobold Press has teamed with Fanatical for the Tales of Sand & Scales 5E D&D Bundle.

Score Huge Savings with the Tales of Sand & Scales 5E D&D Bundle - @koboldpress.com @fanatical.com #DnD #Midgard #Southlands #TTRPGs thegaminggang.com/save-money-o...

I posit DMs and GMs are NOT simply unpaid entertainers at the game table plus the latest gaming news from @koboldpress.com @ospreygames.bsky.social @theonyxpath.bsky.social and more on tonight's The Gaming Gang Dispatch #1296. 8pm ET/7pm CT/5pm PT 😜 youtube.com/watch?v=K3DX... #TTRPGs #Miniatures

The image shows a rectangular Roman dice tower (turricula) made of four copper alloy (bronze) plates with punched cut-out Latin letters and cut-out decorative patterns. At the bottom front is a stepped exit chute with small bronze bells attached to the opening. The tower is a Roman anti-cheating device. It has an open top and is hollow inside except for three staggered, downward-sloping plates, designed to randomize dice as they fall, ensuring unpredictable dice rolls. When the dice rolled out of the exit chute they rang the bells! There is a decorative dolphin either side of the stepped exit chute. The top of the front plate has two decorative pine cone finials. Height 25 cm. There is a single die shown next to the stepped base to illustrate how it was used. The front inscription reads: PICTOS VICTOS HOSTIS DELETA LVDITE SECVRI Translated as: ‘The Picts defeated, the enemy has been destroyed, play in safety’. Around the top of the three remaining sides, a second inscription made with cut out letters reads: ‘UTERI/FELIX/VIVAS’ translated as ‘Use happily; may you live well’. Found at a Roman villa at Froitzheim in Germany in 1985.

Roman anti-cheating gaming accessory!

This Roman ‘turricula’ (dice tower) was used to ensure a fair roll of the dice! 🎲🎲🎲

Dice dropped into the top, tumbled over sloping internal levels, and appeared randomly below.

From Froitzheim, Germany, AD 300-400

📷 LVR-Landesmuseum Bonn

#Archaeology

Seems like only yesterday!

20 Years of Kobold Press! The state of Kobolds from 2006 to 2011- March 4, 2026 It's our 20th anniversary! Join CEO, Wolfgang Baur as he recalls the first few years of what we now call Kobold Press.

I blog about the dawn of Kobold Press: the weird and wonderful DIY phase from 2006-2011, with a motley cast of layabouts and geniuses. #ttrpg #history #20years

koboldpress.com/20-years-of-...

Hastening Doom soon on Backerkit April 2026

Hastening Doom is a sprawling megadungeon from Kobold Press coming to BackerKit in April.
Hastening Doom is an exercise in monster-slaying, trap-outwitting, and puzzle-solving inspired by the oldest of old-school adventures.
Sign-up to get notified here: bit.ly/490SbCy

Kobold Press 20th Anniversary Sale!

Twenty Years. Four Weeks. Endless Adventure!
This March, Kobold Press celebrates 20 years with a special “Era” Anniversary Sale. Check back each week and explore two decades of bold design at 20-40% off.
koboldpress.com/kpstore/20th...

The world’s most elusive colour is worth billions – if we can find it The discovery of bright yet stable pigments is vanishingly rare, making them hugely valuable. Now chemist Mas Subramanian is unpicking the atomic code of colour and homing in on our most-wanted hue

The discovery of bright yet stable pigments is vanishingly rare, making them hugely valuable. Now chemist Mas Subramanian is unpicking the atomic code of colour and homing in on our most-wanted hue

Disney comic artist Carl Barks has a street in the Netherlands named after him, Carl Barksweg. There’s also Mickey Mousestraat, Donald Ducklaan, Goofystraat, Asterixstraat, Obelixstraat, & Popeyestraat.

Brannon Blackrose Human Vanguard Tales of the Valiant Kobold Press

Missed Kobold Chats on Friday? Kendo revealed the Human Vanguard - Brannon Blackrose. Watch it here: bit.ly/4rYpAXb

It is Mexican-Catalan jargon of the Yukon, so probably not quite standard Spanish. I got the spelling from a 1971 history of mule trains in the gold fields.

A diagram of the Kootenay sturgeon-nosed canoe with a pointer prow like a Greek galley. Caption: This peculiar craft was especially suitable for rough lake waters and was used in only one other area in the world; the Amur river region in Asia.

The Kootenay sturgeon-nosed canoe!! I live for Gold Rush period detail.

Cover of Canada West magazine issue Winter 1971 with B&W cover photo of three “miners drifting for gold on Spruce creek - Arlington District-1899”. Big western hats and a mine cart are in evidence.

Sigh, “terms” not teens. This is the zine in question

My daughter gave me a 1971 magazine that includes a clear description of 19th century gold rush mule trains and I totally sincerely delighted! Teens like carigador, aparejo, and manta from the Spanish-Catalan tradition! Daily schedules! Photos!

This is a graph of the death of US science.

For me, the value of an autograph is always the joy of meeting the author at a signing.
It’s a memento, not an investment.

WELL NOW, would you look at that?

A massive, 26-YEAR-LONG study of MORE THAN 2.4 MILLION people in Sweden found found NO EVIDENCE to support a causal link between acetaminophen (the API in Tylenol) use during pregnancy and increased risk of autism, ADHD, OR intellectual disability in children.

The 2024 versions are new. But if you are looking for more 2014 items, Kobold Press has a monster book and others on DDB and in print.

Yes, they are also available for 2014 in the Book of Ebon Tides! That is what they were published for first.