Mixed Signals

Straight-forward gaming

If you've never read the Lord of the Rings, or you read it a long time ago, then you might not realise that there are 6 books in the series. They're sold in just 3 volumes, called Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King, but each volume is divided into two books ea...

Starting in 2025, I'm mirroring this blog on my Gopher site. What's a Gopher site, how do you access it, and why am I posting content there? That's what this post is about.

What is Gopher

Essentially, Gopher was the Internet before the Internet existed. The infrastructure for computers to commun...

For me, the Blackstone Fortress and Cursed City releases of the Warhammer Quest boxed game from Games Workshop are practically perfect games. They're extremely replayable, but they're board games and are, appropriately, bound to their boards. They each tell a specific story. Blackstone Fortr...

About half-way through the lifespan of Dragon and Dungeon magazines, a company called Paizo was commissioned to take over publication. After the Dungeon and Dragon and Polyhedron magazines were discontinued, Paizo obstinantly continued to publish adventures for D&D. And from magazine t...

I'm reading The Hobbit again, as I live-action roleplay as a Tolkien scholar in an attempt to understand Middle Earth, its lore, and its effect on modern gaming. I'm reviewing each chapter of the book as I read, and this is my review of Chapter 5: Riddles in the Dark.

This review contains sp...

I'm re-reading the Horus Heresy, and this is my review of The Buried Dagger by James Swallow, book 54 in the series. It's also the last book in the series, or at least the last book before the start of the Siege of Terra series. This book (weirdly?) splits its time between two distinct stories,...

After seeing a handful of the remakes, I recently decided to sit down and watch the original 1960s Ocean's Eleven. I assumed, without giving it a second thought, that the remakes inherited their structure from the original movie. Everybody knows that Ocean's Eleven is the original heist movie, a...

In Pathfinder and Tales of the Valiant and similar fantasy roleplaying games, you go on adventures to find treasure and magical items and weapons so you can go on even bigger adventures. That's meant to be exciting. But with great power comes the potential for great boredom, because when you sto...

Everybody has their own tolerance levels for how complex they want a game engine to be. In fact, many of us have a different preference depending on the game. The current trend, and I assume the trajectory games are on in general, is that there's beauty in simplicity. Things are more fun when they r...

I'm re-reading the Horus Heresy, and this is my review of Titandeath: The God Machine Cometh by Guy Haley, book 53 in the series. The book's primary story line is about, obviously, Titans, the battle mechs (think Neon Genesis Evangelion) of Warhammer 40,000. I consider myself a moderate fan of...

I decided that during 2024, I'd make one game every month. I thought it appropriate to finish it off in the way it began. This month, I've created Spelljack, another extreme remix of Blackjack.

One of my previous blackjack remixes had magic-like powers granted to players pretty much at random. Y...

I'm re-reading the Horus Heresy, and this is my review of Heralds of the Siege , book 52 in the series. Heralds of the Siege is an anthology, consisting of several short stories, and I'm going to review each one. The Board is Set is the sixteenth and final short story in the book, written by G...

I'm re-reading the Horus Heresy, and this is my review of Heralds of the Siege , book 52 in the series. Heralds of the Siege is an anthology, consisting of several short stories, and I'm going to review each one. Dreams of Unity is the fifteenth short story in the book, written by Nick Kyme.

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I'm re-reading the Horus Heresy, and this is my review of Heralds of the Siege , book 52 in the series. Heralds of the Siege is an anthology, consisting of several short stories, and I'm going to review each one. Now Peals Midnight is the fourteenth short story in the book, written by John Fre...

I'm re-reading the Horus Heresy, and this is my review of Heralds of the Siege , book 52 in the series. Heralds of the Siege is an anthology, consisting of several short stories, and I'm going to review each one. Magisterium is the thirteenth short story in the book, written by Chris Wraight.

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I'm re-reading the Horus Heresy, and this is my review of Heralds of the Siege , book 52 in the series. Heralds of the Siege is an anthology, consisting of several short stories, and I'm going to review each one. Duty Waits is the twelfth short story in the book, written by Guy Haley.

Placin...