Tag: Lulu

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Tabletop RPGs

Lulu coupon codes

I buy a lot of gaming books on Lulu (here’s my list of 85+ recommendations), and I can’t remember the last time I didn’t use a coupon code.

Like Steam, Lulu has taught me to never buy anything unless there’s a sale. I don’t know if it’s the healthiest business model, but there’s always a sale (and healthy or not, this model does prompt me to order more books on Lulu than I otherwise would).

For about six months there, it was the glorious LULURC, now sadly no longer working.[1] They ran other coupons alongside that one, which seemed odd, but LULURC just kept on working.

Always-on coupons

I used to Google “lulu coupon code” before ordering, and poke through the first few links for codes to try. These days, I search on G+, or go through the last couple days of my stream, and find them that way — or I just try a few default options until one works.

Lulu likes to use the same taxonomy for coupon codes, so I always try these:

  • LULU30
  • LULU25
  • GETIT25
  • LULU15
  • GETIT15

The number is the percentage off. 15% is my “floor” for placing an order, but if I can’t do better I generally wait for another coupon to roll around.

The taxonomy changes; the year used to be part of their mainstay coupons, until it wasn’t. But once you have a current coupon to work from, experiment with different numbers and variations and see what happens.

Lulu will also sometimes[2] proactively email you a coupon if you sign in, put some books in your cart, close your browser window/tab, and wait a few hours.

Almost a corollary

I coined Lulu’s Law to describe what happens basically every time I place a Lulu order: I immediately hear about another book I should have ordered. (Once in a great while, I escape this curse, but not often.)

But I realized yesterday that there’s a corollary to that law, albeit a “soft” one: The same thing frequently applies to Lulu coupons. Use a sweet 25% off code? Lulu will put out a 30% off coupon the next day. Not always, but often enough to be noticeable.

And at the end of the day, that’s okay: I like Lulu. A lot.

I like the gaming books I can find there, including many that are only there. I like their customer service, which has had my back when I have an order issue (which is rare). I like that they offer an inexpensive shipping option, that their coupons around Christmas and Black Friday tend to be quite good, and that if I’m patient, a good coupon is just around the corner.

[1] All hail LULURC, may it long be remembered.

[2] Maybe always? I’ve only done it a couple times, by accident, so I’m not sure.

Out now: The Unlucky Isles

The Unlucky Isles [affiliate link], the first system-neutral guidebook for my Godsbarrow fantasy campaign setting, is now on DriveThruRPG.
Categories
Old school Story games Tabletop RPGs

The Lulu coupon code that keeps on giving

Lulu has all sorts of great RPG stuff, and I quite like shopping there. I never shop without first Googling whether or not they’re running a coupon, and you can almost always count on at least 15% off. Also nifty: Lulu coupons always come out of their end, not the publisher’s end.

Typically, they run a handful of deep discounts a year, usually Black Friday, Christmas, and at least one more. But since December 2015, one of the all-time best coupons they’ve ever offered has just . . . kept on working.

Make with the coupon already

So what is it, and what does it get you?

Free shipping completely eliminates Lulu’s Law from the equation, and 25% off is a fantastic discount. And unlike some of their past coupons, this one works over and over.[1]

What should I buy?

If you need recommendations, here are 80+ RPG products on Lulu that I like, mostly OSR and story games.

When does it expire?

Will it stop working tomorrow? Maybe! But probably not. In a month? Who knows! Has Lulu forgotten that LULURC is still working? Also maybe! But while it works, make the most of it.

[1] While writing this post, I checked how many times I’d used it. The answer frightened me so much that I peed a little.

Out now: The Unlucky Isles

The Unlucky Isles [affiliate link], the first system-neutral guidebook for my Godsbarrow fantasy campaign setting, is now on DriveThruRPG.
Categories
Old school Tabletop RPGs

Doodle Temple and Gormand’s Larder: illustrated DIY dungeon generators

Doodle Temple and Gormand’s Larder, both illustrated by Cédric Plante, are two of the coolest gaming books I’ve bought in recent memory.

They’re both dungeon generators, but instead of random tables, they consist entirely of Cédric’s beautiful illustrations. And they’re weird. I love weird! Mundane dungeons are boring, and neither of these books will turn out a mundane dungeon.

Doodle Temple is for making a peculiar temple, while Larder covers a small dungeon/lair. There are no stats or rules, just pictures of what to roll and indicators for what die roll produces what result. Totally system-neutral.

But oh, those pictures! They’re creepy, esoteric, graceful, twisty, sometimes quite dark, and above all they’re imaginative. I can’t flip through these books without thinking about what they might mean in-game, and how my players might react to them.

They’d work well in just about any old-school fantasy campaign, and probably in other genres, too — there’s nothing about the temple, for example, that wouldn’t fit right into a sci-fi game. Fantasy-wise, they’d be a perfect fit for a darker setting, which I wouldn’t have guessed beforehand.

Doodle Temple

(I didn’t have great light for these photos, so please ascribe any oddities to me, not Cédric.)

Doodle Temple opens with rooms and dungeon dressing (larger version):

What do the doors and windows look like?

And what lives there?

This is my favorite creature in the book, but it was by no means easy to choose just one. The temple denizens are all equally strange and wonderful.

Gormand’s Larder

The Larder is in black and white, and ups the creepy factor quite a bit. Here’s the foyer and its potential denizens and dungeon dressing (larger version):

You don’t need a written room description — it’s all there, clear and detailed, including the contents of the chamber.

What happens when you eat that weird thing in the recipe room? Why, this, of course!

This dude hangs out in the meat zoo. The meat zoo. I’m going to have weird dreams about this room.

On the whole, Larder feels more distilled. It’s denser with ideas, and the skin-crawl factor appeals to me, as does its strong sense of place. Doodle Temple is more loosely themed, and instead of lots of small pictures, you get fewer illustrations, but they’re larger and in color.

For Doodle Temple, Cédric collaborated with Benjamin Baugh, Ian Reilly, and Edward Lockhart; for Larder, Baugh was his sole co-contributor. Hats off to all of these folks, especially Cédric, for coming up with such a nifty idea and executing it so well.

If I had to pick just one, it’d be Larder, but I’m glad I don’t have to pick just one. Gormand’s Larder and Doodle Temple both get starred entries on my big list of Lulu RPG recommendations. I highly recommend them both!

Out now: The Unlucky Isles

The Unlucky Isles [affiliate link], the first system-neutral guidebook for my Godsbarrow fantasy campaign setting, is now on DriveThruRPG.
Categories
Tabletop RPGs

Lulu’s Law

Lulu’s Law for tabletop RPGs:

“Within 24 of hours of placing a Lulu order, you’ll find out about a gaming book you should have ordered.”

Here’s how that usually breaks down for me, step by step:

  1. Place Lulu order for gaming book(s). (Use coupon, of course!)
  2. Bask in warm glow of a job well done.
  3. Note release of new awesome gaming book(s) on Lulu within 24 hours of order placement.
  4. Curse the gods and the heavens above.
  5. Place Lulu order for gaming book(s). (Use coupon, of course!)
  6. Repeat 1-5 until living in warm cocoon of gaming books.
  7. Die alone in moldering heap of gaming books.

(If you’re looking for Lulu recommendations, here’s my list.)

Out now: The Unlucky Isles

The Unlucky Isles [affiliate link], the first system-neutral guidebook for my Godsbarrow fantasy campaign setting, is now on DriveThruRPG.
Categories
Old school Story games Tabletop RPGs

Gaming books on Lulu.com that I enjoy

I often see posts asking for Lulu RPG recommendations, and Lulu’s search functionality is pretty lacking, so rather than type mine up every time I wrote this post for easy reference. It’s up to several dozen recommendations, mostly old school products and story games, and I keep it more or less up to date with new purchases (latest update: May 29, 2018).

If you just want one recommendation, you should buy ASE1: Anomalous Subsurface Environment, which I liked so much that I bought Brian Thomas’ original art for the sasquatron (seen above, as yet unframed). The sasquatron, a robo-yeti with a crab claw, is just the tip of ASE’s iceberg of gonzo awesomeness.

Lulu runs coupons so regularly that I never order without Googling “Lulu coupon code” first. Coupon discounts come out of Lulu’s end, not the publisher’s end.

Notes about the list

Some of the links below are to specific versions (like softcover or standard paper), so you might want to check for other versions.

If I loved something and want to have little game babies with it, I *ed it. (To be clear, I like everything on this list.) If you’re curious what I think about a book in more detail, I eventually rate and comment on every gaming book I own: Here are my RPGGeek ratings.

Looking for tabletop RPG products on Lulu? Try these!

Here are a whole mess of gaming books I’ve bought on Lulu that I would recommend, in alphabetical order with links:

  1. * Advanced Edition Companion
  2. * Adventures on Dungeon Planet
  3. Adventures on Gothic Earth
  4. Agon
  5. * ASE1: Anomalous Subsurface Environment
  6. * ASE2-3: Anomalous Subsurface Environment
  7. * Augmented Reality
  8. * Barbarians of Lemuria: Legendary Edition
  9. The Barrow Mound of Gravemoor
  10. Dark Dungeons
  11. * DCC RPG Reference Booklet
  12. * Delving Deeper Reference Rules Compendium
  13. DemonSpore
  14. diaspora
  15. A Dirty World
  16. * Dodecahedron 2015 Cartographic Review
  17. d30 DM Companion
  18. * d30 Sandbox Companion
  19. Drowning & Falling
  20. * The Dungeon Dozen
  21. Dyson’s Delves
  22. * Elysium Flare
  23. Encounter Critical
  24. * Fight On! Compiled Compilation +4
  25. * Fight On! Foliated Folio +8
  26. 43 AD
  27. * 44: A Game of Automatic Fear
  28. Grey Ranks
  29. The Hell House Beckons
  30. Hollowpoint
  31. * The Hyqueous Vaults
  32. * KEFITZAT HADERECH – Incunabulum of the Uncanny Gates and Portals
  33. Knives in the Dark
  34. Knockspell 1-3
  35. * Labyrinth Lord: Revised Edition
  36. Lair of the Unknown
  37. Last Train Out of Warsaw
  38. * The Lazy Dungeon Master
  39. * Love in the Time of Seið
  40. * METAL SHOWCASE 11PM
  41. * The Metamorphica
  42. NOD Magazine (link is to issue 1, but there are many more after that one)
  43. * Norwegian Style
  44. Original Edition Characters
  45. OSRIC
  46. * Petty Gods: Revised & Expanded Edition
  47. Planet Motherfucker
  48. * Play Unsafe
  49. * A Quick Primer for Old School Gaming (direct link to free PDF)
  50. Realms of Crawling Chaos
  51. REIGN
  52. Santicore 2011
  53. * Santicore 2013
  54. Seven Voyages of Zylarthen, Volume One
  55. Seven Voyages of Zylarthen, Volume Two
  56. Seven Voyages of Zylarthen, Volume Three
  57. Seven Voyages of Zylarthen, Volume Four
  58. * Shadowbrook Manor
  59. * The Shadow of Yesterday
  60. SlaughterGrid
  61. * Stalker RPG
  62. * Stonehell Dungeon: Down Night-Haunted Halls
  63. Stonehell Dungeon: Into the Heart of Hell
  64. * Super Mission Force[1]
  65. Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox Rules
  66. * Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque
  67. * Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque II
  68. Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque III
  69. Teratic Tome
  70. 3d6 Supers!
  71. * Tomb of the Iron God
  72. * Transylvanian Adventures
  73. Ulverland
  74. * Uresia: Grave of Heaven
  75. Warriors of the Red Planet
  76. * Whitehack
  77. * Wizards Mutants Laser Pistols! Volume One Compilation
  78. ZeFRS

I apologize to your wallet in advance. Happy gaming!

[1] Super Mission Force is a skirmish miniatures game, but it supports campaign play, features characters with skills useful outside of combat, and deliberately straddles a the fuzzy line that separates RPGs from wargames, so I included it here.

Out now: The Unlucky Isles

The Unlucky Isles [affiliate link], the first system-neutral guidebook for my Godsbarrow fantasy campaign setting, is now on DriveThruRPG.