For some RPG players, the concept of building a character seems like an unecessary chore. Sometimes I agree, and I happily admit to a healthy appreciation of pre-generated characters. Because pregenerated characters are possible, some people might wonder why they would ever bother building a chara...
One of my favourite games is Dungeoneer by Thomas Denmark and published by Atlas Games, partly because of its carefully crafted ruleset, and partly because of its mysterious lore. Dungeoneer is sold as card decks, although it's actually also a board game, with some of the cards in the deck servi...
One of my favourite games is Dungeoneer by Thomas Denmark and published by Atlas Games, partly because of its carefully crafted ruleset, and partly because of its mysterious lore. Dungeoneer is sold as card decks, although it's actually also a board game, with some of the cards in the deck servi...
One of my favourite games is Dungeoneer by Thomas Denmark and published by Atlas Games, partly because of its carefully crafted ruleset, and partly because of its mysterious lore. Dungeoneer is sold as card decks, although it's actually also a board game, with some of the cards in the deck servi...
I was looking for some sci-fi soldiers for a game of Space Station Zero, and I stumbled upon Wargames Atlantic. They had a shipping centre nearby, so I decided to give them a try. The closest thing to generic sci-fi soldiers I could find, at the time, was their Iron Core product line, which then...
One of my favourite games is Dungeoneer by Thomas Denmark and published by Atlas Games, partly because of its carefully crafted ruleset, and partly because of its mysterious lore. Dungeoneer is sold as card decks, although it's actually also a board game, with some of the cards in the deck servi...
Imagine everything you think you knew about the cosmos was wrong. Forget what you've learnt from the Forgotten Realms, or from Planescape, or Pathfinder, or Midgard. The Labyrinth can be your new reality.
The Labyrinth is a source book by Kobold Press for Tales of the Valiant or any DnD 5e varia...
The term "roleplaying" has been long an overloaded term. You can play a Lone Wolf or Fighting Fantasy game book, or a campaign of solo Tunnel & Trolls adventures, or play an RPG with a gaming group, or a computer game, and we call it "roleplaying". Just as people think of "D&D" when they hear...
Assume there are two approaches to game delivery: Books and boxes. Actually there are other methods but these two methods of defining a game, which somebody can buy off of a shelf, encapsulate a good portion of the market. The difference is that a book is just text, and a box has everything in the b...
I've been running a Tales of the Valiant game for about a year, and it's been a lot of fun. I've thrown all kinds of surprises at the group, and they've certainly surprised me in return. As many of my RPG campaigns are, this one has been a highly unfocused one, with most of my hints at a plot goin...
I love the game Zambicide, and I've written in the past that every wargamer should own a copy. The more I play it, the more I realise that actually every boardgamer ought to have it. Aside from my friends who just don't feel comfortable with horror, everyone I've introduced to Zombicide has an ama...
I've written before about how I play games for mechanics, puzzles, atmosphere, power, and even just for music. There's yet one more thing that attracts me to a game, and that's a good story.
It's pretty widely recognised that we humans are suckers for a good story. We love sharing experi...
Roleplaying games are often thought of as a game about storytelling. With no set script, a conglomerated story emerges even when major milestones and plot points have been predetermined. A story, of course, is a kind of journey from one state to another. A humble villager defeats a notorious villa...
I have fun playing wargames as campaigns and even as solo roleplaying games. There are lots of great ways to turn a game of 50 miniatures battling it out into a story, including making decisions based on key character models and just pausing to conceptualise why certain events during the previous ro...
I never had any interest in Tyranids, but recently I found a few spare sprues on Trademe (a local auction site) and it so happened that I needed some threatening aliens for a campaign I was about to run. Of course I had other options, but the price was good, there were a lot of them, and a good vari...
It's a constant battle. You can't get enough of the hobby you love, but you also can't possibly handle everything your hobby has to offer. But conversely, nothing is as annoying as wanting more from your hobby and suddenly finding you've got it all and there's nothing left. You want the perfect pace...