Friday, February 16, 2024

The 4th Category

New Year, New Release — and this one is a monument all to itself, a great fit for the 50th Anniversary of the launch of D&D™... 

Introducing The 4th Category, a ground-breaking study which identifies D&D's true origins. Game on!

The 4th Category is Rob Kuntz's major update on Dave Arneson's True Genius, as well as a preview to his upcoming opus, A New Ethos in Game Design

 

After Arneson emphatically captured Gary’s and the LGTSA's attention with his Blackmoor demo game, it was our turn to fully experience this new system.

Several weeks into the new play-tests of the game system Gary, post-game, made an observation that I’ve previously referred to in the preface and is worth noting again: “We’ve created a fourth category in games.” He said this while looking at an indistinct spot in the dining room. He then went on to list the three categories of games that existed at the time… Table-Top Games… Parlor Games… Physical and Outdoor Activity Games… — excerpted from the Introduction to A New Ethos in Game Design.

 

Available NOW from Three Line Studio Store.

Please spread the news far and wide! 


 

P.S: At Three Line Studio Store, we love 'Bundles': two TLS products sold together as a special offer digital bundle. The DATG 4CAT Bundle is codename for The 4th Category + Dave Arneson's True Genius, a cash-savvy way of bagging a bargain on this latest product launch! 

 

*Dungeons & Dragons™/ D&D™ is a trademark owned by Wizards of the Coast and is used in this work for historical purposes only.

Monday, October 2, 2023

The Return of Robilar and El Raja Key's Arcane Treasury: Rob Kuntz's Latest PDF Releases

The Return of Robilar

Fans and friends of ROBILAR, rejoice, we have great news for you! Rob Kuntz's latest digital publication is sure to please all of you as we are celebrating Robilar's 50th birthday! 👑

With The Return of Robilar, Rob Kuntz celebrates the 50th year of his character’s birth in the play-tests of the D&D™ game with this nearly 40,000 word and lavishly illustrated volume! There’s so much meat on this one that we can’t even choose a piece to preview! 
 

 
Lord Robilar’s adventures helped define the D&D™ game as both play-tested and written. Now his original author distills and updates 50 Years of lore for your game table! The Return of Robilar contains the following Goodies! Robilar’s complete statistics, history, items, companions and role-playing notes, his 3 green dragons, what he learned and received from the Dragon Masters of Lynne, what was learned from Zuggmoi and what was given to him by the Demon Queen of Fungi.
 
Included is a section on Robilar’s exploits. Major highlights include releasing the Nine, The Sacking of the Temple of Elemental Evil and an in-depth recounting of his Solo Adventures and how he defeated Gary’s dungeons during the play-tests of the game. How many names does Robilar have and when and where does he use them? Where’s Quij his trusty orc, and who’s left from his ruined castle and what are they doing?



The Barbarous Coast’s (a “Wild” area) notable locations are covered; and one place in particular that has Oerth-changing events now in motion. Its original color map is included. TROR contains a plethora of more goodies... See the in-store product description
 
From dragon rage to Zuggmoi’s Blight, onto Robilar’s true coat-of-arms; from details on his copyrighted publication history starting in 1975 to what Rob Kuntz has in store for him next. You get it all and then some as he celebrates Robilar’s 50th birthday! Many Happy Returns!  



El Raja Key's Arcane Treasury

Alongside the release of The Return of Robilar, we have another exciting piece de resistance for you: El Raja Key's Arcane Treasury – a classic!

Written by Eric Shook and Rob Kuntz, and originally published [as a print product] in 2008 by Rob's Pied Piper Publishing company as "The First Release in the El Raja Key Product Line", El Raja Key's Arcane Treasury [ERKAT] describes itself as a magical resource book for advanced role playing campaigns. Now available again, this time as a digital reprint, ERKAT is a welcome addition to Rob's iconic digital collection on TLS Store


This 72,000 word resource book by Eric Shook and Rob Kuntz takes magic items to the next level. Many of them are adventures in their own right! Included in it is a send-up item to Dave Trampier, TSR's penultimate artist BitD! Extensively illustrated, unique magic items for every level of character and for breathing the enchantment of Fantasy into your 1st Edition game!

From Rob Kuntz's Special Introduction: "Fantasy has always embodied the spirit of impossibilities come to life and the ability to interact within a fictional strangeness, and sometimes, to even understand it. The freshness of mystery and suspense that that brings to the game can be readily manipulated by a competent DM, and so too can it be enhanced by uniqueness, whether self-created or borrowed from books meant to help with that."  


The Robilar ERKAT Bundle

The Return of Robilar and El Raja Key's Arcane Treasury are not only available to purchase as standalone products, but also combined into a digital 'bundle', The Robilar ERKAT Bundle (The Return of Robilar + El Raja Key's Arcane Treasury), a cash-savvy way of bagging a bargain on Three Line Studio Store!
 
The Return of Robilar, El Raja Key's Arcane Treasury and The Robilar ERKAT Bundle were all released as PDF products on 7th August 2023 and are available to purchase exclusively from our Three Line Studio Store. See you there!

Make sure to keep up to date with Rob Kuntz's latest product releases by joining our mailing list: email mailinglist@threelinestudio.com with 'SUBSCRIBE' in the subject line. For Rob's latest news, visit our Three Line Studio company website and blog. We are on Facebook too! We appreciate your custom and loyalty.

Thursday, May 11, 2023

Dark Druids and Dave Arneson's True Genius: Rob Kuntz's Latest PDF Releases

Legendary RPG author and designer Rob Kuntz is adding TWO very sought-after PDF products to his Three Line Studio Store, after those products recently sold out as popular print releases elsewhere on the web (DATG at TLB Games, and DD at Chaotic Henchmen Productions)...

Rob's seminal treatise Dave Arneson's True Genius, and iconic RPG adventure module Dark Druids, have now joined our range of downloadable digital (PDF) products!

 

And here's the double-whammy to all our fans and friends: if you purchase DATG and DD together as a bundleThe DATG Dark Druids Bundleyou will get 20% off your order (*valid until 5th July 2023). Now that's regal!

Tuesday, February 7, 2023

Gargax's Glorious Gewgaws & Pryce's Price

Good Day to You All!

There is no better way to start off a New Year than with -- not just one but TWO -- brand-new, never-before-published creative, exciting products!  Even better, when such creative, exciting products are about a CELEBRATION...

Throughout 2023, Rob Kuntz and Three Line Studio will be celebrating 50 years since the inception and playtesting of the world's first commercial RPG in 1973!

And there is no better way to celebrate than to reward YOU, Rob's loyal fanbase, with our launch of Gargax's Glorious Gewgaws and Pryce's Price, both available to purchase exclusively from our newly-launched Three Line Studio Store
 
Please note that for the very first time, we are 'going' digital as those two products are published in professional high-quality full-colour PDF format, printable and viewable on all electronic devices, PC/MAC/Android
 
Cartography, interior art and Gewgaws cover art by are by a promising young Italian graphic artist, Davide Gambarara, who did a stirling job!  Davide brought a crisp line work to both Gewgaws and Pryce.  We cannot praise him enough and can already hint at the fact that Davide will be involved in forthcoming TLS projects!  https://www.facebook.com/dagamarts/

More information about Davide from our TLS Facebook post.

Rob's two celebratory releases are part of Three Line Studio's Red Book collection, and are send-ups to Gary Gygax:

Gargax's Glorious Gewgaws is divided into two sections.  The first part references in detail some special magic items, while the second part features the films, literature and authors that historically inspired the beginning of the RPG form. 
 
Pryce's Price is a very exciting and captivating action-packed adventure module with gothic undertones, described as "one of the most fantastic adventures written by Rob Kuntz to date!
 
Gewgaws and Pryce are sure to brighten up your day... and your game!  Head off to our store -- only one click away -- and while there please also make sure to download Rob's latest FREE (26-page long) Newsletter: https://threelinestudiostore.company.site/
 
If you wish to purchase Gewgaws and Pryce together, why not take advantage of our SPECIAL OFFER on the Gewgaws Pryce Bundle and save 25%!
 
Happy Celebrations!
 

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Merlynd the Magician on Target for Early December Release

OK. Merlynd the Magician has been laid out and we are going over pre-press proofing today and the next, giving it a final look. It will then, with the 3 special color prints and the 1 special bonus print, be sent along to our printer (uploaded). From there that takes about 7 days until they ship to our fulfiller, Paul Stormberg, in the US. Then he has to weigh the combined single items for shipping costs. Then we will e-mail its availability to those on our list and post here and elsewhere about its availability and go live! And you thought these things were easy?? Nope. But they are a joy in the long road to producing them.


Sign up for our mailing list to be informed 24 hours before we go live:




Saturday, September 28, 2019

New EN World Column: #1



I am now an author for EN World with a monthly column.  Six lead columns have been submitted to EN World with the first being published several days ago:

https://www.enworld.org/threads/the-beginning-1968-and-meeting-gary-gygax-and-the-gygax-family.667636/

This describes my meeting Gary Gygax in 1968.  Take a look and do consider subscribing to EN World to keep up on such discussion I am having with fans, game historians and designers interested in the history of our great hobby.