When finishing up my read through of Elminster’s Candlekeep Compendium, I just happened to see another product that piqued my interest almost as much. That product has many of the same contributors, this one being Darkhold: Secrets of the Zhentarim. Going way back to some of my earliest Forgotten Realms memories, I’ve loved Manshoon as a villain. I’m not sure
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Anyone that has followed me for a while knows that certain aspects of the Forgotten Realms setting inspire a deep, nostalgic love within me. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Candlekeep is definitely one of those elements of the setting that remains dear to me. I love the concept of this wild mish mash of knowledge from all over
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Who knew when I started doing reviews that I would be able to create a subset of reviews for games inspired by Dishonored. Including Dishonored. What’s interesting is looking at what elements of the game generate what kind of design space. Modiphius’ Dishonored is more about generally recreating the experience, without narrowing in on one aspect of the game’s themes.
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I’ve been a fan of Kobold Press’ setting of Midgard for a while now. Part of what makes me appreciate the setting is that it manages to walk the line between feeling just right for level-based fantasy RPGs and pushing into territory that many of the currently published settings don’t touch. There is just enough difference to make that difference
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I have mentioned before that monster books are hard to review, because the rules are hard to evaluate before they are used, and stat block after stat block can numb the gamer brain and make it easy to miss cogent details. Everything that was true of monster books is also true of a book whose contents are primarily new spells.
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I have a whole lot of formative media that sunk into my young skull. Among all the other influences, there was a time when tiny me was obsessed with Clash of the Titans. I loved the questing, the monsters, meta-story of the gods discussing Perseus and his adventures. Plus I had to learn more about the Greek pantheon because my
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Growing up, I remember Thundarr the Barbarian, a cartoon set in a future where modern society had fallen apart, magic had returned, and the setting was populated by strange animals, cyborgs, and sorcerers. I also remember my first impressions of Masters of the Universe, from the original storybooks that came with the action figures. This was a world with advanced
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I haven’t had as much of a chance to mention it on the blog, but I’ve been running Star Trek Adventures for a while now, and really enjoying the system. From a mental health standpoint, I’m enjoying running games in a future where humanity gets it collective act together and works for the greater good, and from a creative standpoint,
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Magic items in Dungeons and Dragons started off as one of many, many tropes that got added to the game to emulate all the various sources that inspired the game. Everything from classic mythology and folklore to pulp stories describe various items, which got stats and could show up across the board. In early D&D, this meant people could randomly
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I’ve got another article on the way that is going to dig a little bit deeper into some of the current issues with Wizards of the Coast and some of the missteps they have made recently, and what that could mean for D&D going forward. I’m not going to advocate for a boycott, and I’m not going to tell you
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