I wanted to get the word out about this as it is both a good cause and a good purchase. This is what Fabled Environments is saying:

Fabled Environments is proud to announce a .PDF Charity Bundle to benefit the Michael Rohan Memorial Fund. 100% of the net proceeds from this bundle will go to The Michael Rohan Memorial Fund. The bundle will go live July 2nd and run until August 1st. The bundle features over $160 worth of amazing products for only $12 ( that’s a savings of over 90%!)

Publishers/Artists currently included in the bundle are:

Pinnacle Entertainment Group (The folks behind Savage Worlds), Fat Goblin Games (Hardboiled, Classifieds, RPG accessories) , Scaldcrow Games( Dark Fantasy of Sundrah, Bare Bones Multiverse), Artist -Aaron Acevedo, Triple Ace Games (Hellfrost, Daring Tales of Adventure, Necropolis),  Fabled Environments (Modern Floorplans series), Silver Gryphon Games (Wellstone City, Ingenium, Aether system), Arion Games ( Paper Minis), Mystical Throne Entertainment (Savage Insider), ProFantasy Software Ltd for Encompass (Encompass line of 2d maps), Reality Blurs (Old School Fantasy, RunePunk, Agent Of Oblivion), Savage Mojo (Savage Suzerain, Story Maps) and Misfit Studios (products for a variety of current systems)

To  purchase the bundle, click here! or paste this link into your browser http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/103422/The-Michael-Rohan-Memorial-Fund-Charity-Bundle-%5BBUNDLE%5D

The Michael Rohan Memorial Fund

On June 10th of this year, the Creative Director of Silver Gryphon Games, Kevin Rohan, lost his 6-year-old son in the aftermath of a tragic accident while swimming at a local water park.This loss has deeply affected the Rohan family as well as the friends of the Rohans and hundreds of families that they are close to and through out the community.

Seeking to turn this tragedy into community outreach, the Rohan family has decided to start the Michael Rohan Memorial Fund which will be used to help pay for swimming lessons for local families, assistance for CPR and lifeguard training, as well as help with grief counseling in the wake of a tragic loss. There are plans for more and bigger things as well, and with the appropriate funding we will be able to achieve some great things and extend our assistance beyond just our local communities. 100% of the money raised through this bundle will go to the fund and will allow us to begin helping other families almost immediately.

If you have questions concerning this tragedy or the Michael Rohan Memorial Fund, please do not hesitate to contact Kevin directly at krohan@silvergryphongames.com.

I’ve been out and about for the last month or so and haven’t had a chance to do anything fun or spend time with my family. I’m now back home, surfing them IntarTubes, having beers on patios, and watching my daughters have fun. Sometimes I’m up to my knees playing crazy games with the girls.

We have a safe and secure home in which we sleep. We have pretty clothes we can wear. We aren’t hungry.

Most of the world isn’t like that. Yeah, I’m throwing a wet towel on the fun, but listen, shit is truly getting’ real in a place called the Sahel, a region of desert and sparse grasslands stretching from west to central Africa, just south of the Sahara. This is a tough place to live, and since the 1960s, it’s been getting tougher due to a cycle of desertification, droughts, and political violence. This year is part of the drought cycle, and though almost everyone saw this coming, no one has money enough to save the innocent lives threatened by  this natural disaster–made worse by man-made factors like war, ethnic conflict, and food-as-a-weapon.

I’m going to point you to a couple of places where your money can do some good. These are charities that I support, but feel free to do your homework and find someone you trust that you believe can make an impact in the region.

I am very, very cognizant of the arguments regarding the dysfunction created by aid, but I’m setting that aside because I honestly can’t stomach enjoying my comfort while there are so many people suffering so greatly when this is an instance of money being able to alleviate, if not entirely solve, the immediate problem. Not the long term issue of food insecurity in the Sahel, but just this one particular drought cycle.

Sorry to take up so much of your time, but people are dying, and a lot more of them will. If North Americans collectively took their coffee money for a week and supported immediate aid efforts in the Sahel, we’d avert a crisis. If we took our alcohol money for a month, we’d be able to make a huge dent in the medical crisis in Africa. I’m not asking for that. I’m just asking for all of you of good heart to give what you can to help those who truly need it.

Here endeth the lecture.

Give to Oxfam.

Give to World Vision.

Cross-posted at Sword’s Edge Publishing.

Here’s the deal. My daughter is fundraising for the Heart & Stroke Foundation through her school’s Jump Rope For Heart. Don’t know how many of you out there have a few spare dollars, but if there’s anything in the SEP PDF catalogue that you would like (other than Sword Noir or Kiss My Axe, as I owe people money on those), I’ll be happy to send it along as a thank-you for any pledges.

This offer is good until 0600 GMT on Thursday 12 April 2012.

I’m pretty sure the donations page provides some information on who is donating what, so if you donate $50 or more, I’m going to offer you one of two “rewards” for your generosity.

First Option: I will run a game over Skype or Google Hangout for you and up to two of your friends. If there is more than one $50 donator (I have my doubts this will be a problem), maybe we can all join in together. The game will be for a minimum of 3 hours, and I can run it using Sword Noir, Kiss My Axe, Centurion, Head Crushers, Sword’s Edge System, Old School Hack, or True20. You can pick the genre, if you like.

OR

Second Option: I will write you a short story on the subject of your choice with the main character of your choice, minimum of 2,500 words. If there is more than one $50, (again, highly unlikely) I may have to do a mashup, with the highest donation providing the main plot and character and any other donations providing secondary characters and subplots. We’ll work something out whatever the case.

So, if you are feeling charitable and want some SEP swag, now’s the time to donate. Please follow the link below to donate before 0600 GMT on Thursday 12 April 2012.

You can find the donation page here.

I just wanted to mention that Wikipedia is on a donation drive. Wikipedia is something I use regularly to get some general information or a general idea on a topic. Its summaries of film noir and hardboiled novels have provided endless inspiration for my Sword Noir games. Further, it’s generally my first stop for research before I start getting deeper into a topic. Its accuracy compared to – for example – the Encyclopedia Britannica is favourable. It is, for me, both a valuable tool and a source of entertainment.

So I made a donation.

If you use Wikipedia as much as I do, you might want to consider doing the same.

You can donate to Wikipedia here.

Cross-posted at SEP

For those of you who follow the news even slightly, you’ve seen that Japan was rocked by an earthquake, struck by a tsunami and there are now reports of a volcano. To try to help support disaster relief, Sword’s Edge Publishing has created two products from which all proceeds go to the International Committee of the Red Cross for its operations in Japan.

I’ve put together a bundle product of some of our items for $5.00. That’s more than ½ off the cover prices! Second, I’m re-releasing our Modern Medieval products, which took some of the tropes of d20 Modern for use in the Medieval and early Renaissance eras. That’s $5.00 as well. All proceeds from these products will go to the ICRC.

You can also donate directly to disaster relief through RPG Now or through one of the many humanitarian organizations, like ICRC or Oxfam.

Posting directly from the press release:

(Atlanta, GA) – DriveThruRPG, an online marketplace for traditional dice-and-paper roleplaying games, recently conducted a fund-raising program in the wake of the devastating earthquake that affected Haiti. The effort resulted in an amount of $178,900.00 being wired to the international relief organization, Doctors Without Borders.

“Nothing like this has ever happened in our community,” said Sean Patrick Fannon, Marketing Manager for DriveThruRPG. “The response of the publishers and the gaming community has been nothing short of miraculous. I am extremely proud of what we’ve all done here. It can’t take away the misery and tragedy faced by the people of Haiti, but we are hopeful that our efforts can bring some relief and recovery to them.”

DriveThruRPG chose Doctors Without Borders because of their flawless reputation for bringing medical and humanitarian aid to those in need without any partisan or philosophical agenda attached. Already on the ground when the earthquake struck, Doctors Without Borders is perfectly positioned to make immediate and efficient use of the funds collected.

“We are extremely grateful to DriveThruRPG and the roleplaying game community for choosing to contribute to Doctors Without Borders. Their generosity will help provide lifesaving and urgently needed humanitarian assistance to the victims of the recent earthquake in Haiti,” said Jennifer Tierney, Director of Development for Doctors Without Borders-USA. “As Doctors Without Borders provides surgery for victims of the earthquake, as well as post-operative care, mental health support, and other medical care, this contribution will make a real difference in Haiti.”

Reports from Doctors Without Borders indicate that over 11,000 have been treated by them, with over 1,300 surgeries performed (most of them major). The money donated by DriveThruRPG will go directly to helping rebuild their supplies and expanding their operations during the recovery of the Haitian nation.

“This is just the beginning,” said Steve Wieck, CEOof DriveThruRPG. “We’ve tapped into a real power for positive social change and charitable good here, and we’re looking ahead to future opportunities to use our technology to help game publishers and game fans network to provide assistance to those in need.”

DriveThruRPG.com is the world’s largest source of roleplaying game products available for download. It is an industry leader in modern business and technology developments for the tabletop gaming fan. For more information, contact Sean Patrick Fannon (sean@onebookshelf.com, 614-946-9371).

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international medical humanitarian organization working in nearly 70 countries to assist people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe. For more information, contact Emily Linendoll, Press Officer (emily.linendoll@newyork.msf.org, 212-763-5764).

This is being cross-posted everywhere I can.

I’m betting you’ve all heard about the disaster in Haiti. I’m sure that you would love to be able to positively contribute to helping the people of Haiti. There are lots of ways to do so, from the Red Cross to Worldvision, but I’m going to let you know about a way to donate and get a huge thank you in return.

Go over to RPG Now or Drive-thru RPG and donate $20. In return, you’ll get over $1,000 in RPG PDFs. That includes Albenistan: Election Day, Line Zero, and Cyber-state Avatar Toolkit.

The deal is tremendous, and I applaud all the publishers who have provided gifts. If you use PDFs at all or have any interest in checking out gaming PDFs, go get these now. Even if you are soulless, it’s more than $1,000 in product for $20.

Go donate now and get a huge RPG thank-you in return.

I was a huge fan of the late 1980s early 90s Suicide Squad. That means I was a huge fan of John Ostrander. Over at Comic Mix, there’s an article regarding some hard times that have hit Mr. Ostrander. It seems Mr. Ostrander’s medical bills are threatening.

Thankfully, there’s been a movement to raise funds to help Mr. Ostrander. Go check out the article and do your part. If you’re moved to donate, head on over to comix4sight. Spread the word at the very least.

If you’re a fan, do what you can.

David over at the PodgeCast put together a little Chipin action for Daniel Perez, not only a cornerstone of the podcasting and gaming community, but a really nice guy as well. I’ve tossed in a few bucks. If we all do the same, we can help out someone who really deserves it.

The RPG community lost one of its founders with the passing of E. Gary Gygax on March 4, 2008. As a way of thanking the late Mr. Gygax for his contribution to the creation of the hobby we all love, Sword’s Edge Publishing will be donating its revenues from March and April to the Christian Children’s Fund, a charity to which his family has indicated Mr. Gygax was much endeared.

If you are not interested in purchasing products from Sword’s Edge Publishing, we would ask you consider a donation to the Christian Children’s Fund in memory of Mr. Gygax. After all, there would be no d20 without D&D, and no D&D with EGG.