Deliver us from evil isn't quite a horror movie, but a supernatural police thriller. That's not usually my kind of movie, but I didn't know what kind of movie it was when I started watching. To be honest, it captured my attention for a while, as the two lead cops in the story (Sarchie and Butler) t...
My first experiences in hobby shops (specifically, but not exclusively, a Warhammer store) were not great. And yet some of my best experiences in the hobby have happened in a Warhammer store. I think there's a secret to turning a geeky hobby, like building and paintng 28mm toy soldiers so you can pl...
When I find art I love, I'm usually compelled to share and promote it, because that's what we humans do when we're excited about something. With independent art, though, that can be tricky because sometimes the art you love is literally one-of-a-kind, or it's only available from the artist directly,...
In a previous post, I wrote about how tracking encumbrance made loot more "valuable" by enforcing a weight-based economy. However, tracking encumbrance can be hard. In theory, it's exclusively the responsibility of each player, but if the game master (GM) doesn't announce the weight of each item t...
In the Warhammer 40k universe, there were originally 20 chapters of space marines. Two have been lost, leaving 18 today (meaning in the 41st millennium). There's a convenient even split within these 18 legions, with 9 being loyalist troops in service to the fascist Emperor and the other 9 being dedi...
I'm reading the Stardrifter series by David Collins-Rivera, and reviewing each book as I finish it. The second story in the series is Hull Breach. This review contains no spoilers.
Here's the unnecessary but obligatory disclaimer! I know the author, David Collins-Rivera, personally (he and I w...
Last year, I developed and published Skuffle Wammer, the universe's smallest wargame. It's designed to be played in 5 minutes or less, with the intent of being the tabletop gaming equivalent of a good stand-up-and-stretch at work. The play area is an A4 sheet of paper, you throw out some miniature...
In hacker culture, there's the adage that you should always "use the source". In programming, the source is code, like Java or Python. It's usually called, literally, the "source code". In other sciences, it's a series of steps you can repeat to achieve specific rezults (it's an algorithm). It's...
I'm reading the Stardrifter series by David Collins-Rivera, and reviewing each book as I finish it. The first book in the series is the novella Motherload, and it introduces not only the main character of the Stardrifter series but also the sci fi universe that serves as the setting. This review...
I'm rewatching every episode of the Man from UNCLE series from start to finish. This review contains spoilers.
A two-part episode. It's mostly good, although the main plot is the least interesting thing about it. The story is something I feel like we must have seen before, or maybe it's the reve...
Everybody has their own tolerance levels for how much paperwork in an RPG they feel is fun. For some people, updating their character sheet is a milestone system for their character. It's as much a part of the game as NPC interactions, decisions, strategy, solving puzzles, and so on. For others, a c...
I've been watching the Hammer and Bolter animated series on Warhammer+, and I'm reviewing each episode as I watch it. There may be very minor spoilers, but ideally no more than you'd get from the episode description.
A Question of Faith
Warhammer is an impossibly complex world, but nobody re...
The Angels of Death series on Warhammer TV is one of my favourite Warhammer shows. The Origins series provides, as its subtitle implies, prequels to the original story. The first episode, Kill Command provides the history of how Solken came to be in command of the Sword of Baal. This is my r...
I track the passage of time in my RPGs, and so should you, and it's actually easy. This blog post tells you how.
What you need
A deck of cards. If possible, use Pathfinder or Starfinder cards, or something similar. You'll see why.
How to do it
Set your deck of cards on the table. When an...
I'm rewatching every episode of the Man from UNCLE series from start to finish. This review contains spoilers.
There's a mole in UNCLE! Classified documents have been removed from headquarters, and it's Napoleon Solo's job to find out who removed them. Waverly has to go to Japan, so he gives Sol...
I think a lot of us gamers think that tabletop roleplaying games are exhilarating at the beginning, but that they tend to taper off toward the end. Commonly, this is expressed as "the problem with high level play." I sense that it's seen as more of a problem in class-based systems that emphasize the...