Mixed Signals

Straight-forward gaming

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...

I'm reading through the published adventures available for Cubicle 7's Wrath and Glory Warhammer RPG. Litanies of the Lost is a book containing four adventures that can be run independently or as a continuous campaign. The framework requires the IMPERIUM keyword, and the first adventure is for T...

Some people have the impression that solo games, or playing multiplayer games by yourself, are consolation for people with no friends. The assumption is that it's "normal" to buy a game for your family or your game group, and that you'd only resort to a solo game when there's something wrong. Maybe...

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

Tiny.

Killer.

Bees.

That's the episode. But the actual plot is about failure.

Everything Kuryakin tries in this episode fails spectacularly. He fails to apprehend the villain, h...

I've run Sunless Citadel, originally published for 3rd Edition and most recently printed in the Tales from the Yawning Portal book, a few times and thought I'd give my thoughts on running it in either Pathfinder or D&D. In my experience, it's more or less a perfect adventure for almost any purpo...

I play a lot of tabletop RPG and wargames and board games, and I'll admit I'm often drawn to the ones with complex rules, but that doesn't mean I want every game I play to have complex rules. Sure, part of the fun of tabletop gaming for me is seeing how the interaction of rules affect the simulated...

I picked up Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft and have been reading it cover to cover. This is my review of the book, chapter by chapter. The final chapter is a bestiary with an assortment of new monsters for Ravenloft. D&D monsters are a pretty easy target. Dungeon Masters always need new monsters...

I'm reading through the published adventures available for Cubicle 7's Wrath and Glory Warhammer RPG. Null hypothesis is an adventure for Tier 3 or 4 characters. The framework isn't specified, but the quest giver is a rogue trader, while the subject of the rescue quest is Imperium, so there's an...

I decided that during 2024, I'd reinvent one game every month. This month, I decided to fix Monopoly.

I can't think of a board game as famous, or as reviled, than Monopoly. Nobody's ever accused Monopoly of good design, and while probably some people enjoy the game it's usually because they've...

I decided that during 2024, I'd remix one game every month. Last month I created Rebel Blackjack. This month, I've created Magick jack, an extreme remix of Blackjack.

Colour pie

The colour pie in Magic: The Gathering (MTG) isn't often appreciated by people who don't play the game, but it's...

I picked up Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft and have been reading it cover to cover. This is my review of the book, chapter by chapter. Casually hidden away at the end of chapter 4, there's a Ravenloft adventure called The house of lament. The back of the book says nothing about this, so I was...

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

In this episode, the UNCLE agents go to a small Hellenic island called Circe, after the goddess. In myth, Circe's island was called Ææa and I'm assuming that the show producers were equ...

I picked up Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft and have been reading it cover to cover. This is my review of the book, chapter by chapter. Chapter 4 contains Dungeon Master advice, and several new mechanics including a whole new type of playable character. That's a lot of content, but that's not all...

I'm reading through the published adventures available for Cubicle 7's Wrath and Glory Warhammer RPG. Affliction Ascendant is the fourth and final book in a quartet of adventures, preceded by Bloody Gates, On the wings of Valkyries, and Lord of the Spire. The books aren't quite sequential,...