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...
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...
A few years ago a skate park got built across the road from my house. I'd always wanted to skate, but never learned how. With a skate park within a 45 second stroll, I figured I had no excuse not to take up a hobby that I'd been considering since childhood.
So I bought a skateboard and started ska...
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...
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 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...
Wargames need soldiers. I own a bunch of miniatures designed for specific games, so I've been feeling the need lately to bolster my all-purpose miniatures. I wanted soldiers I could use across lots of games, from modern scenarios of Black Ops to sci-fi games of Rogue Stars, Space Station Zero,...
In the lore of Warhammer 40,000, the Adeptus Mechanicus is a mysterious organisation. But that's nothing compared to how mysterious the Adeptus Mechanicus is once you start digging into its origins. When I read the 1st edition rulebook for Warhammer 40,000, I was surprised to see my favourite I...
When I've earned enough XP in Pathfinder or Tales of the Valiant, or Requisition Points in a Warhammer 40,000 Crusade, or victories in Mansions of Madness, I convert those game points into real-world currency. The only bank that takes game points in exchange for cash is me, but exchanging ga...
I'm reading The Hobbit again, as I 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 the final 2, Chapter 18: The journey home and Chapter 19: "The last s...
I'm reading The Hobbit again, as I 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 17: The clouds burst.
This review contains spoilers.