In the wake of Wizards of the Coast announcing that they are revoking OGL V1.0a, there have been a bunch of hot takes that the OGL does not matter and it and other licenses never mattered – so I get into a few of the legal cases that made the OGL important, and which makes current open gaming licenses important.
Continue reading “Editorial: Why the OGL Matters”
For the first Anime Appendix N Sidebar episode, I take a look at what use a “Recommended Works” section provides to an RPG, to GMs, and to Players, and how you can use one to help prepare players for your own game.
Continue reading “The Anime Appendix N: Sidebar 1”
This time I’m starting off talking about some Fantasy anime that are worthy of consideration, and introduce a concept I’ll be revisiting over the course of this series – the Axis of Emotional/Comedic Intensity.
Continue reading “The Anime Appendix N: Fantasy (Part 1)”
This week I’m starting a new limited series, spun off from my RPG recommendations. This time I’m giving recommendations for anime by genre, based on how they spur inspiration at the gaming table, inspired by AD&D’s Appendix N. This time, I’m getting into why I’m doing this spinoff in the first place.
Continue reading “The Anime Appendix N: Introduction”
I like Shadowrun a lot – it was the second tabletop RPG I ever played and my first cyberpunk RPG. I also know it’s clunky in a lot of respects. So, when I learned about Sprawlrunners about a more fast-moving way to run a Shadowrun-like game, using the new edition of the Savage Worlds I decided to pick it up.
Continue reading “Sprawlrunners: RPG Review”
I recently picked up the corebook for Cyberpunk Red, and have read through the whole book. I haven’t done anything with the rules yet, so I can’t speak to those. However, I do have some thoughts about the setting, particularly the changes in the Time of the Red.
Continue reading “Thoughts on the Time of the Red”
It’s been a while since I wrote my last adventure review, as I examined the GDQ adventure series (Giants, Drow/underDark, Queen of the Demonweb Pits). This time I’m taking a look at the first adventure in the Competition Series. C1: The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan.
Continue reading “C1 Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan: Adventure Review”I’m about due for one of these Anime & RPG recommendation videos, so it’s time for another.
Continue reading “6 More Tabletop RPGs for Anime Fans”
Dragons of Autumn Twilight ended with the refugees from Pax Tharkas having found a refuge in a mountain pass in the hope of (possibly) making it through the winter. The second book in the Dragonlance Chronicles series begins with the Heroes of the Lance having already gone on another adventure, and having brought the refugees to the Dwarven city of Pax Tharkas. In the roleplaying game modules, your player characters would have gone through this story. However, while much of the Dragonlance modules were adapted to the original Chronicles series, not all of them were. In the late 2000s, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman returned to Dragonlance to adapt this missing chapter into novel form.
Continue reading “Dragons of the Dwarven Depths: Book Review”
When I beat Shadowrun Returns: Dead Man’s Switch, I enjoyed the game but found it lacking in a lot of respects. While Dead Man’s Switch was an RPG that captured a bunch of the feel of the world of Shadowrun and invoked one of the classic adventures from the game, it was missing some of the dynamism of the RPG that other PC RPGs brought to the table. Shadowrun Dragonfall addresses these concerns and creates an RPG that is a more marked improvement over its predecessors.
Continue reading “Video Game Review: Shadowrun Dragonfall”
This time I’m getting into something slightly different. I ordered a copy of the tabletop RPG adaptation of Pool of Radiance, titled Ruins of Adventure, and while I’m getting through the next chunk of the game, I figure this is a good time to talk about that.
Continue reading “Gold Box Playthrough: Pool of Radiance Part 7 – Ruins of Adventure”
This week I have a review of an art book covering the history of Dungeons & Dragons from the start of the game to now.
Watch the video…
In this episode (with its light novel adaptation length title), I give some recommendations for tabletop RPGs based on various video games and anime from the last year.
Continue reading “Vlog: 6 RPG Recommendations based on Video Games and Anime of 2018”
Oriental Adventures was a sourcebook for AD&D 1st edition that sort of re-imagined and re-interpreted the game to fit a setting inspired by various stripes of Asian cinema, with varying degrees of success. However, two things that book did moderately well was to present a setting in microcosm that used the mechanics and the book’s non-weapon proficiency system. What it didn’t do well was to create classes and races that were conducive for adventuring, and it didn’t create a setting that a standard adventuring party could be inserted into.
Continue reading “RPG Book Review: Dungeoneer’s Survival Guide”
AD&D 1st Edition received a smattering of different settings. The longest lasting of those were the Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, and Dragonlance settings. However, a little less memorable one is Kara-Tur, which was born out of the Oriental Adventures sourcebook. While it would later be folded into the Forgotten Realms, on the outset it was very much its own thing. Continue reading “Book Review: Oriental Adventures (1e)”
Tomb of Horrors is quite possibly the most infamous D&D module of all time. It’s an adventure that has been credited with annihilating campaigns, and is claimed to be the most broken and unfair adventure ever put out by TSR. However… I think this reputation might be because people are approaching the scenario the wrong way. Continue reading “Adventure Review: S1 – Tomb of Horrors”
I off and on have been reviewing the parts of the first AD&D adventure path – Against the Giants (in two parts – Part 1 & Part 2), and Descent into the Depths of the Earth. Well, now the time has come to the conclusion of the Adventure Path, and while for an inventive ending, it’s kind of a rough one. Continue reading “Adventure Review: D3 – Vault of the Drow & Q1 – Queen of the Demonweb Pits”
The Against the Giants series (the first adventure reviewed here, and the other two here) wraps with a hook for further adventures within the Underdark, based on the premise that the Giants were backed by the Drow. This leads to the party heading into the Underdark to do battle against the Drow. Continue reading “Adventure Review: D1-2 Descent into the Depths of the Earth”
A while back, I reviewed G1: The Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, an adventure that launched AD&D’s first real adventure path, and had some really interesting adventure design concepts. The other two adventures in the series – G2: The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl and G3: The Hall of the Fire Giant King, are much more conventional dungeon crawls, so they’re worth discussing together. Continue reading “Adventure Review: G2 & G3 – The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl & The Hall of the Fire Giant King”
Back when I was getting actively into gaming again, I started reading Knights of the Dinner Magazine, and some issues of Dragon Magazine when I could. In those issues of the magazine, I encountered ads for Dwarven Forge, a company making miniature dungeon terrain out of really durable material, what I presume is plastic resin, called Dwarvenite. It was incredibly well sculpted, beautiful to look … Continue reading Documentary Review: The Dwarvennaut
It’s time for another RPG Roundup video. This time I’m making my recommendations based on Anime series! Whycalibur’s Log Horizon Actual Play RPGs Recommended: 13th Age: Amazon, DriveThruRPG Maid: Amazon, DriveThruRPG Champions: Amazon, DriveThruRPG Icons: Amazon, DriveThruRPG Mutants & Masterminds: Amazon, DriveThruRPG Wild World Wrestling: DriveThruRPG Please support my Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/countzeroor Member of The Console Xplosion Network: http://www.theconsolexplosion.com/ Watch my Live-Streams on http://twitch.tv/countzeroor/ Footage … Continue reading 6 Tabletop RPGs for Anime Fans
When I read an analysis of a work of fiction – and the person doing that analysis looks at the world presented in this fiction, sees how it’s fleshed out, and because it’s fleshed out goes “This would be better/best as a video game!” I become kind of frustrated. In particular, I become frustrated because it would also work just as well for a tabletop RPG … Continue reading Editorial: Tabletop RPG Publishers need to promote themselves better.
The concept of the “adventure path” – a series of adventures or vignettes strung together to form a larger campaign – has become increasingly more prevalent in tabletop gaming. Even standalone adventures, like some of the adventures for Dungeon Crawl Classics, are built around the idea of being part of a larger world, with the idea that the player characters would have further adventures brought … Continue reading Adventure Review: G1 – The Steading of the Hill Giant Chief
AD&D 1st edition and Original D&D started out without much in terms of first party setting support, with the first setting that was commercially published for the games being from a third party – the Judges’ Guild’s City State of the Invincible Overlord. Eventually, TSR got around to putting out their own first campaign setting, the World of Greyhawk, as an official setting – first as … Continue reading RPG Book Review: World of Greyhawk Boxed Set
