Mixed Signals

Straight-forward gaming

Although one of the most famous characters in Lord of the Rings is a wizard, I think many people consider Tolkien's setting to be "low magic". It's a matter of comparison, but in RPG settings like Pathfinder's Golarion or Frog God's Lost Lands, powerful violations of the law of physics can be...

I recently got the Attack of the Swarm adventure path from Humble Bundle, and I've been reading through it. The first module in the series is Fate of the Fifth. This review may contain minor spoilers.

Fate of the Fifth opens up with the players forced into a role as soldiers in the Suskillon...

From Games Workshop, Battle in Balin's Tomb is a skirmish wargame thinly disguised as a board game. One player controls the Followship of the Ring, and the other player controls goblins of Moria. Is this game meant for boardgamers as an easy introduction to wargames? Or is it meant for wargames wh...

I'm reading the Stardrifter series by David Collins-Rivera, and reviewing each book as I finish it. The short story Another Show at Twenty-Two is a sequel, of sorts, to the haunting Street Candles novel.

This review contains spoilers. It's a short story, so by discussing it at all there are...

I've run the mega-dungeon Rappan Athuk twice so far. Once in AD&D, and currently in 5e. From its marketing, Rappan Athuk is "legendary," but I'm honestly unclear whether that's a claim about real live people knowing and loving the book, or whether it's a reference to fictional people in the game wor...

I'm preparing for a historic wargame between Roman Imperial and Egyptian armies, and while I paint the miniatures I wanted to listen to a relevant audio book. Unfortunately, I wasn't exactly able to find anything beyond some documentaries on Youtube. There are some really good ones on there, and I'v...

I've been watching the Angels of Death animated series on Warhammer+. I thought the series was over, but there have been releases of prequel episodes lately, the latest of which is In the company of Death. This review contains minor spoilers, but nothing you wouldn't learn from the episode des...

The Curse of Strahd (5e) and Expedition to Castle Ravenloft (3.5) modules feature the use of fortune teller cards to determine certain aspects of the adventure. For Curse of Strahd, the deck of cards is called a Tarokka deck, and in Expedition to Castle Ravenloft you're told to use a Thre...

I'm a lifelong Lord of the Rings fan, to the point that (for better or for worse) my name is even in the credits of some of the movies. I've yet to read the Silmarillion, I can name the individuals in the Fellowship but I couldn't tell you all the stops they make along the way, and I don't love...

Pariah Nexus on the Warhammer TV streaming service has reached its third and final episode. I hadn't expected such a short series, so this episode came as a surprise to me, but it didn't disappoint. And if the series wasn't dark enough for you so far, this episode 100% remedies that.

In this epis...

Before there was Curse of Strahd (CoS), possibly the most famous 5e adventure, there was the 3rd edition adventure Expedition to Castle Ravenloft. Instead of running CoS, I sometimes run Expedition. It's fun for players who have never experienced Ravenloft before, and it's got a few surprises...

I'm reading the Stardrifter series by David Collins-Rivera, and reviewing each book as I finish it. The second novel in the series is Street Candles and it's one of the most intense and emotionally taxing things I've read in a long time. This review contains no spoilers beyond what you'd read on...

Before there was Curse of Strahd (CoS), possibly the most famous 5e adventure, there was the 3rd edition adventure Expedition to Castle Ravenloft. Instead of running CoS, I sometimes run Expedition. It's fun for players who have never experienced Ravenloft before, and it's got a few surprises...

I've written before about how much I love Citadel's Contrast paints. I recently decided to try out a similar line of paints from Vallejo, not because I'm looking to replace Citadel Contrast but because I want more. I love painting with auto-shading pigments, so I wanted to see what colours Valle...

I've been watching the Angels of Death animated series on Warhammer+. I thought the series was over, but there have been releases of prequel episodes lately, the latest of which is Patience of iron. This review contains spoilers.

In the first series, Tech Priest Magos Domina Castia Theta 9 i...

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...