The first season of Legend of Vox Machina left off on a significant cliffhanger – Vox Machina had overcome the Briarwoods and liberated Whitestone – and had succeeded at their first major act of deliberate heroism. However, the Chroma Conclave were literally on the doorstep. Season 2 kicks off the start of the Chroma Conclave arc.
Continue reading “Legend of Vox Machina Season 2: TV Review”
Things changed a lot since I put my editorial on why the OGL matters – just two days after that video went live in fact. It’s time to go over what had changed, and what my thoughts on the changes are.
Continue reading “Vlog: Getting Up To Date On the OGL”
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”
In writing my review of The Game Wizards, I came to a horrifying realization – I hadn’t given my thoughts on the other previous sequel by Jon Peterson to Playing at the World that I’d read – The Elusive Shift. Considering that all three of these books kind of form a full narrative, I realized I really needed to rectify that situation. So I’m rectifying that situation.
Continue reading “The Elusive Shift: Book Review”
There are not a lot of anime series explicitly based off of tabletop RPGs – Record of Grancrest War, Record of Lodoss War, Rune Soldier Louie, and Night Wizard are some of the few that come directly to mind. None of those – I should mention, are particularly based heavily on Western tabletop RPGs (aside from Lodoss starting as a D&D campaign, before moving through Tunnels & Trolls and eventually becoming a Sword World campaign). So, it is impressive to see Cyberpunk: Edgerunners to be perhaps one of the first anime series to wear the western TRPG connection right on its sleeve. Yes, the show is tied in to CD Projekt Red’s video game – but right from the jump the series credits leads off with “Based on a world created by Mike Pondsmith” – showing how much of its influences it wears on its neon sleeve tattoo. Thankfully, Studio Trigger, who animated this, also does right by its source material far more Cyberpunk 2077 did from the jump.
Continue reading “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Anime Review”
Our third documentary review for this month is a look at a documentary on the history of the art of Dungeons & Dragons, with a focus on the TSR years of the game.
Continue reading “Documentary Review: Eye of the Beholder – The Art of Dungeons & Dragons”
I’m continuing with the tabletop RPG documentaries with a look at the kickstarted documentary “Secrets of Blackmoor”, about the formation of the Blackmoor campaign and Dave Arneson’s early life.
Continue reading “Documentary Review: Secrets of Blackmoor Part 1”
It’s time to review another of the RPG documentaries I’ve previously backed on Kickstarter, with Eye of the Beholder, covering the art of Dungeons & Dragons. For those who prefer video reviews of this, there will be a video review coming later this month.
Continue reading “Eye of the Beholder: Documentary Review”
For the month of GenCon, it’s time to take a look at a documentary about Tabletop RPGs – or in this case dungeon terrain for Tabletop RPGs.
Continue reading “Documentary (Video) Review: The Dwarvenaut”
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”
Season 1 of the Critical Role animated series, Legend of Vox Machina, has finished airing on Amazon Prime, and I have seen all of it. So, I’d like to give my thoughts – in the interest of full disclosure, I did back the series on Kickstarter.
Continue reading “Legend of Vox Machina: Season 1 Review”
Now that I’ve gotten the larger scope spectrum of fantasy anime out of the way, it’s time to get into some specifics for three different anime and manga series and what GMs and DMs can take from them.
Continue reading “The Anime Appendix N: Fantasy (Part 2)”
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 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”
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”
This week I’m reviewing Of Dice and Men, a personal and general overview of the history of role-playing. Continue reading “Book Review: Of Dice and Men”
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”
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
