Like many geeks, I'm a fan of a well-designed system. When I look at something and see harmony and cohesion and logical dependencies, I consider it a thing of beauty. I also enjoy a system that's robust, and built to last. It's why "my" edition of D&D will likely always be 3rd edition (in the form o...
I helped fund a Kickstarter for dice with unusual number ranges. I ended up with several sets that include a d22, d19, d18, d17, d15, d13, d11, and d9, plus a hexadecimal dice (1 to F), a d3 in Roman numerals, and a d26 alphabet dice. My intent was to spring them on my players when their character h...
Recently, Mantic Games released the PDF version of the Epic Warpath rulebook to Kickstarters. I appreciate this, because it means that while I wait for my game assets to arrive, I can start learning the game. As a player of Firefight, I predicted the rules would be at least a little familiar, bu...
In 2023, Games Workshop re-released the first edition (titled Rogue Trader) of Warhammer 40,000 to celebrate the game's 30-ish year anniversary. I'm a sucker for nostalgia for things I missed out on, so I bought a copy and now I'm reviewing it as I read. This post covers Chapter 4: The Advanced...
As obvious as it may seem, when I play a tabletop game with a roleplaying element to it, I never lose sight of where I am. I'm always aware that I'm sat at a table, manipulating game tokens or character sheets, flipping through pages of rules, rolling dice, and so on. After the game is over, and I'm...
Games Workshop re-released the first edition (titled Rogue Trader) of Warhammer 40,000 to celebrate the game's 30th anniversary, and I'm reviewing it chapter by chapter. This post covers the second half of Chapter 3: Age of the Imperium.
So far, Age of the Imperium has provided a little lo...
Everybody knows that a wargame doesn't require a Games Master. You grab a friend, you each put an army on the table, and you play. Nothing could be simpler or, for a busy roleplayer tired of trying to find the convergence of an available date and time across 5 people's schedules, more liberating. An...
Games Workshop re-released the first edition (titled Rogue Trader) of Warhammer 40,000 to celebrate the game's 30th anniversary. I purchased it upon [re]release, and I'm reviewing it chapter by chapter. This post covers the first section of the very long Chapter 3: The Age of the Imperium.
C...
Games Workshop re-released the first edition (titled Rogue Trader) of Warhammer 40,000 to celebrate the game's 30th anniversary. I bought a copy to taste the nostalgia that, as someone who started out in 40k in the 2000s, I never got to experience. I'm reviewing it chapter by chapter, and this p...
Within any gaming tradition, there emerges a myth that a "perfect" example of a game exists. A perfect game doesn't exist, of course, because we all have a unique definition of perfect. That said, if a game is close to being perfect, it's Firefight by Mantic Games, and here's why.
I'm a fan of...
Games Workshop re-released the first edition (titled Rogue Trader) of Warhammer 40,000 to celebrate the game's 30th anniversary. (I'm not sure about their maths. The book was released in 1987, and the re-release was announced in 2023 and shipped to customers in 2024.) What little nostalgia I hav...
In the third battle report of the Tran'Lo Tribute campaign, the Adeptus Mechanicus team plundered the archeotech vault of the heretical Vo family. When the emerge from the tunnels, however, they find that the city they just left behind is already in ruins. It seems that once they understood they...
I've been building a Vindicare Assassin for Warhammer 40,000. I have the rules for Assassins in the Imperial Agents 10th edition codex book, but by chance I saw the 3rd edition Assassins codex at a second-hand bookshop. It's only 12 pages long, so I picked it up, and this is my review of it.
W...
When you hear the term "wargame", you probably think "big" because a war is big. It's not a skirmish, it's not a battle, it's not an operation or a sting or astrike, it's a war. Because a war is big, there's a general admiration and excitement in the wargaming community for an expansive game board...
In the second battle report of the Tran'Lo Tribute campaign, the Adeptus Mechanicus team escaped from prison and made its way into the secret archeotech vault of the Vo family.
Having gained access to the vault, the Skitarii have discovered access back to the surface. Through this access port,...
My introduction to miniatures was through D&D. When I started out, miniatures weren't generally found in board games (or at least, not any I'd been exposed to) and I didn't know about wargaming, so miniatures were a thing for "pen and paper" RPGs. By the time I started buying them for myself, the ea...