Mixed Signals

Straight-forward gaming

The 5th Edition book for the Dragonlance setting has turned out to be less a setting book and more an adventure with some setting data. In an attempt to make up the difference, I recently purchased two Dragonlance books written by fans from DMs Guild. In this post, I'm reviewing Tasslehoff's Pouche...

I've been reading through the Starfinder source book, Pact Worlds. It's a small book, but fits a lot of information into it, so I'm going to post about sections as I finish them.

Chapter 4, the final chapter of the Pact Worlds book, contains player options. This includes character archetypes,...

There's a lot of overlap between D&D and Pathfinder. Pathfinder was, originally, the D&D 3rd edition rule set copied and pasted, with a few nominal adjustments, into a book labeled "Pathfinder". This was legally permitted by the Open Game License. With D&D on its 5th edition (and heading toward it...

The Pathfinder Companion book series are short books of in-depth lore about a single subject. I recently read the Gnomes of Golarion, and now I know everything about gnomes, or at least the gnomes as they appear in the default setting of the Pathfinder roleplaying game.

In the Golarion setting...

I usually enjoy environmental effects in D&D. It adds variety to each game session, and it keeps the players on their toes. For instance, when I run games in Barovia, I have players roll a d6 every new day (as long as Strahd is in power.) They get a penalty to the corresponding attribute during that...

As is often the case, the 5th Edition books for the Dragonlance setting leaves out a lot of detail. In the page it provides for the Kender race, it doesn't mention the culture's fondness for the topknot hairstyle, the use of the hoopak, pouches and pockets, or maps. One of the defining traits of the...

I've been reading through the Starfinder source book, Pact Worlds. It's a small book, but fits a lot of information into it, so I'm going to post about sections as I finish them.

Chapter 3 contains a "supporting cast" of non-player characters. As a frequent GM, I appreciate this enormously, and...

After the original three Dragonlance books, also called Chronicles, comes the Legends trilogy. The Legends books addresses, within a surprisingly narrow scope, life after becoming legendary war heroes. The books focus on Caramon and Raistlin, however, although there's a healthy dose of Tassleh...

Sometimes, a story just begs for a double-cross. Somebody hires the player characters to complete a job, everything goes fine, until right at the very end the PCs discover their employer was the baddie all along! Now their employer wants them dead, or refuses to pay, or intends to conquer the world...

Kender are my favourite variety of halfling, and as a longtime fan of Dragonlance, I have some pretty high expectations for what a Kender plays like in D&D. So how has D&D 5th Edition translated the Kender into a playable ancestry?

If you don't have time to read this post right now, you can also v...

The digital edition of the 5e Dragonlance Shadow of the Dragon Queen pre-order has been delivered, and I eagerly read through it in a day. I've been waiting for this book since the start of 5th Edition, but I wasn't sure what its scope would be. Now I know when in Krynn's long history the book is...

I've been reading through the Starfinder source book, Pact Worlds. It's a small book, but fits a lot of information into it, so I'm going to post about sections as I finish them.

Chapter 2 contains new starships. From the perspective of a sci fi geek who loves to look at starship designs, a bun...

Now that D&D is on its 5th edition (and heading quickly toward its next incarnation), and Pathfinder has released a 2nd edition of its own, the two gaming systems borne of literally the same rule set have diverged substantially. They both still implement essentially the same game, though, so I decid...

Paizo's Book of the Dead is a source book about both the dead and the undead, describing the ecology, life cycle, ethics, advantages, and dangers of time spent after all your time is spent. I picked up a copy at my game store, and I'm going to review it chapter by chapter. This post covers chapter...

Growing up, the The Lord of the Rings books was the canonical fantasy epic. It was the standard bedtime story, and all other fantasy was defined by or compared to it. I love the Lord of the Rings. Heck, I went to great length to ensure that I could work on The Hobbit movies. But I also have to...

I'm rewatching every episode of the Man from UNCLE series from start to finish. This review may contain spoilers.

Like the previous episode, this one's is a little light on plot. It's another strong premise, though. An evil local ruler in a province of India is stealing supplies from a humanitar...