Blockbuster busted out

Final three hundred Blockbuste set to close.

 

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Post World Games Sets Rogues for next set of Tool Cards

Check out a free guide to Tool Cards and be hooked on this game prep product that can also be added seamlessly to your game play to make you look like a Gaming GAWD,

 Follow the link for wonderful product.

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Post World Games on DrivethruRPG

 It is amazing  how much fine product that Post world Games has on  DriveThruRPG

But don't take my word for it Visit  them
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SouJARS Dice Crawl Coming soon to Kickstarter..

Dice Crawl is a fast-paced dungeon-crawling tile board game for 2 to 4 players.

At the heart of the Dungeon lays the Eye of the Dragon. All of the great races seek it. It brings power to those who control it. Weakness to those who face it. The race to the Eye begins now.

Dice Crawl is a quick, fun dungeon-crawling tile game for 2 to 4 players. Players take on the roles of mercenary captains racing to get their team of adventurers to the center of the dungeon, while other captains race do the same thing. But, not all paths lead to the center and some teams may never find the glory they seek.

In Dice Crawl, players select a race and class for their mercenary captain before flipping tiles, rolling dice, and collecting their share of the dungeon treasure. Abstract game mechanics mix with flavorful graphics and theme to make dice crawl a fast, highly replayable game of luck and strategy.

• 4 wooden player markers.
• 60 tiles on XYZ GSM cardstock, printed at XXX" x XXX" (as follows):
• 48 interchangeable dungeon tiles. Each game uses 25 randomly drawn tiles.
• 4 race cards: elf, dwarf, orc, human are in the core set, stretch goals add others!
• 4 class cards: archer, soldier, mage, warrior are in the core set, stretch goals add others!
• 4 quick reference tiles. 
• Dice are provided by the players (25 6-sided dice are needed per player). And we know you have plenty of dice!

Dice Crawl is played using a 5x5 grid of 25 dungeon tiles, each placed face down at the start of the game. Each tile is a room or corridor and when revealed they form a route through to the center of the dungeon.

Each player enters the playing area through one corner and they earn points by controlling tiles or by being the first to reach the center of the dungeon. 

Control is obtained by rolling their dice and matching numbers on the tiles. But the same dice can alternatively be used to unlock race and class abilities, each of which can be very useful in helping the player control tiles, or hindering the other players in doing the same!

Strategy is required to consider a fine balance between the unique class and race abilities (which are randomly drawn and paired by players at the beginning of the game), and keeping enough dice back to control the tiles themselves.

Play proceeds until one player reaching the center tile or uses his/her last die. At this time points are counted for each tile controlled by each player and the highest points wins the game.

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As stretch goals are achieved we will unlock additional races and classes: these are automatically then added to the core game for all $50 and $100 reward level backers (or higher). When we hit these levels we will ask YOU - our backers - which races and classes to add!

Other stretch goals will add whole new expansion packs: 24 themed dungeon tiles, 2 races, 2 classes, and whole new rules for: The Crypt of the Undying, Tricks & Traps, Halls of the Dwarven King, and Goblin Warrens. Expansion packs can then be purchased separately as add-ons or will automatically be included in the $100 reward level.

Only added if stretch goals are met:

Collector's Cards Set #1: Crypt of the Undying 

30 undead-themed expansion cards and new rules:

• 24 crypt cards
• 2 new-rule reference cards
• 2 new class cards
• 2 new race cards

Collector's Cards Set #2: Tricks & Traps

30 Tricks & Traps themed expansion cards and new rules:

• 24 Tricks & Traps cards to turn your core Dice Crawl into a deathtrap for the unwary!
• 2 new-rule reference cards
• 2 new class cards
• 2 new race cards

Collector's Cards Set #3: Halls of the Dwarven Lords

30 dwarven hall-themed expansion cards and new rules:

• 24 dwarven hall cards
• 2 new-rule reference cards
• 2 new class cards
• 2 new race cards

Collector's Cards Set #4: The Goblin Warrens

30 goblin warren-themed expansion cards and new rules:

• 24 goblin warren cards
• 2 new-rule reference cards
• 2 new class cards
• 2 new race cards

The Forgotten Militant Order: the Knights of St. Lazarus

The Forgotten Militant Order: the Knights of St. Lazarus

by Helena P. Schrader

The so-called Militant Orders – monastic orders open to fighting men – were children of the Crusades. Scollins and Wise (in The Knights of Christ ) list no less than 17 military orders, 8 of which were founded in the Iberian Peninsula, 2 of which were Italian, and 2 German. The most famous and most powerful militant orders, however, were the Templars and the Hospitallers, both founded in the Holy Land and international in their structures and membership.

Initially, true to the Word of Christ, the Church of Rome condemned violence of any kind. By the 5th century, however, the Church conceded that there were circumstances under which the use of force – even homicide – was necessary, excusable, and potentially pious. The concept of the “just war” emerged and was recognized theologically by St. Augustine.

Furthermore, the more Islam threatened the Christian world, the more the Church recognized the need for armed men to defend it against armies determined to spread Islam with the sword. Meanwhile, wherever secular power was weak, the need for men willing to protect clerics, women, and peasants against everything from Viking raids to common robbers was equally evident and urgent.

The fact that the Church drew its leadership from the ruling class – the secular lords with strong military traditions – meant that most clerics in the Middle Ages were themselves imbued with a warrior ethos. This fact was borne out by the number of bishops who donned armor and took active part in warfare, from the Battle of Hastings to the Battle of Crécy. Thus it is not surprising that by the end of the first Christian millennium, Christianity recognized the need for armed force and men who wielded it, but that did not mean the Church had completely abandoned its principles.

On the contrary, the Church sought repeatedly to restrict, reduce, control, and direct warfare and violence. Violence against churches and clergy was punished with excommunication, for example, and there were frequent clerical diatribes against the vanity, arrogance, and violence of the warrior class.

When the Byzantine Emperor appealed to Pope Urban II for aid in fighting the Seljuk Turks and freeing the Holy Land, there is little doubt that Urban II had dual motives for calling for a crusade: on the one hand, he wanted to free the Holy Land, but on the other he wanted to free France and Western Europe from excess numbers of violent young men, trained in the profession of arms, who were too quick to fight each other and prey upon the defenseless.

Balderic, one chronicler of Urban II’s speech calling for the First Crusade, quotes the Pope as saying:

"Christian warriors, who continually and vainly seek pretexts for war, rejoice, for you have today found a true pretext. You, who have so often been the terror of your fellow men, go and fight for the deliverance of the holy places. You, who sell for vile pay the strength of your arms to the fury of others, armed with the sword of the Maccabees, go and merit eternal reward …. If you must have blood, bathe in the blood of the infidels …. Soldiers of Hell, become soldiers of the living God!"

What is remarkable in retrospect is the extent to which Pope Urban II struck a chord with his audience. Not only did they take the cross in great numbers (and proceed to bathe in the blood of infidels when they reached Jerusalem), but for the next 200 years fighting men flocked to serve Christ, not just in crusades, but as fighting monks bound by monastic vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience. This was made possible by the creation of new monastic orders that enabled men to be both monks and knights.

While members of these orders were expected to abjure all wealth and property, to attend Mass multiple times a day, to fast, pray, and eat in silence, and to live in controlled communities cut off from the outside world, especially women, members were not required to give up the profession of arms. Rather, these orders were designed to capture the religious zeal of the time and funnel the fervor and energy of fighting men into religious channels.

The most famous of the “fighting orders” or militant orders were of course the Knights Templar, and the Knights Hospitaller (Knights of St. John), two orders founded in the Holy Land and, for their age, truely international in character. Although not powerful and largely forgotten, there was a third military order also founded in the Holy Land, the Order of St. Lazarus.

The Order of St. Lazarus evolved from a leper hospital that had existed in Jerusalem prior to the First Crusade. After the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem was established, it became part of the Hospitaller network of hospitals, but by 1142 the Order of St. Lazarus broke away, and by 1147 it was known as the Leper Brothers of Jerusalem.

About this time the Order also started to expand, eventually having houses in Tiberias, Ascalon, Acre, Caesarea, Beirut, and possibly other cities as well. Furthermore, it began to have military brethren, whose role was primarily the defense of the leper hospitals. These military men were most likely former Templars and Hospitallers who had contracted leprosy, because we know that both the Templar and Hospitaller Rules required members with leprosy to join the Order of St. Lazarus.

Possibly some knights and sergeants joined St. Lazarus without being lepers, however, because there are recorded incidents of the Order of St. Lazarus taking part in military operations – possibly at the Battle of Hattin; certainly at the Battle of Gaza in 1244, at Ramla in 1253, and during the defense of Acre in 1291.

After the fall of Acre, the Order of St. Lazarus moved its headquarters to Cyprus, abandoned all military activities, and thereafter concentrated on its mission of providing comfort and care for the victims of leprosy until the mid-14th century.

Scollins and Wise, The Knights of Christ, Osprey Publishing, London, 1984.
Hopkins, Knights, pp. 82-83.

Templar Tuesday Grand Master of the Order.

Robert de Craon or Robert Burgundio (died 13 January 1147) was the second Grand Master of the Knights Templar from June 1136 until his death. He was a member of the Craon family.

Robert was born around the turn of the 12th century, the youngest of the three sons of Renaud de Craon. He settled in Aquitaine and was engaged to the daughter of the lord of Angoumois, but gave up his wedding and travelled to Palestine after learning of the foundation of the Templar Order by Hughes de Payens. He soon showed his military valour and his piety, and in 1136, after the death of Hughes, he was chosen as the new Grand Master. He proved to be a brilliant organizer and legislator, and turned the Order into a major force in the Crusader states. On March 29, 1139, Pope Innocent II issued the bull Omne Datum Optimum, which exempted the order from tithes and made them independent of any ecclesiastical jurisdiction. The Templars were also granted the habit of a red cross over a white tunic, which has since become the popular image of any crusader.

He was less fortunate as a military leader. As soon as he had been elected, he defeated Zengi, the emir of Aleppo and let his knights plunder the enemy camp; Zengi returned and destroyed the unorganized pillagers. Robert authorized the Spanish Templars to lead a naval expedition of about 70 ships againstLisbon, but this also ended in defeat. In 1140 the Templars resisted a numerically superior Turkish army at the Battle of Tecua. In 1143, after protracted negotiations between Raymond Berenguer IV (the Count of Barcelona and a Templar) the order's mission on the Iberian peninsula was defined. According toWilliam of Tyre, Robert participated in the Council of Acre during the Second Crusade in 1148, but according to the Obituary of Reims, he died in January 1147, and was succeeded by Everard des Barres in April that year.

Religious titles
Preceded by Hugues de Payens	Grand Master of the Knights Templar 1136–1146	Succeeded by Everard des Barres

I See Fire. The Hobbit:TDoS