End of Year 2016

We’ve had a pretty good year so far in 2016 despite getting a later start than we intended.  2017 is looking towards a bright future and we’ll continue looking at some topics and things, and since we publish across multiple platforms, we’ll be looking at a lot of interesting things in 2017.  You can expect the following to continue:

• Our Player’s Choices series will continue to look at the options available for Dungeons and Dragons.
• Our Battletech Features will continue, and we’ll be looking at more in depth how to play options for both Battletech and Alpha Strike
• Our Adventurer’s League review will continue with a focus on Season 2 and 3 of that program, and hopefully we catch up with the rest of the series

Now we’re going to restructure things a little bit (and that’s why we’re posting a schedule of when we expect things to go up) and we’re adding some new things

• Star Wars will be getting a brand new weekly feature.  This is most likely going to take the form of the Fantasy Flight Games RPG, as well as their Star Wars: the Card Game line.  We’ve been playing Star Wars for nearly 20 years now, and we thought it was time to feature it again.
• We’re also going to feature the Mystery Box on Fridays.  The Mystery Box represents all the other cool stuff that we bump into on the internet that’s gaming related and doesn’t fit into one of our other categories.  Like
• Product reviews for new dice companies, gaming accessories, and company spotlights on the folks who make cool gaming related stuff.
• Spotlights on specific games that we don’t cover, like Call of Cthulhu, Deadlands, Mutants and Masterminds, and a host of other things that might be cool to see
• Guest Columns from some friends of mine
• Miniature spotlights and looks at companies that are making cool stuff
• Podcasts, Twitch channels, and other programming that we think is the bee’s knees
• Hopefully more people are willing to talk to us for interviews.  
• If things work out well, we might do some podcasting, and hopefully get more media content so we have pictures to go with all of our words words words words.

So that’s where we look like we’re going for 2017.  If you like what we do and think you want us to take a look at your stuff, send us a note.  We’re easy to find on facebook, twitter, and on our blog.  We hope you continue to have safe, happy holidays and a prosperous New Year.  

Game on, Game Fans

We’ll see you next year

Adventurer's League Season 2 (Part 3, Lower Level Track)

All right Game Fans, we’re continuing with our look at the 2nd season of the Adventurer’s League for Dungeons and Dragons, 5th edition.  Unlike last season, we’re not going to take these adventures in numeric order, but we’ve split them up into two different tracks based off of their suggested character level.  Today we’re looking at two adventures for the lower level track, DDEX 2-6: Breath of the Yellow Rose, and DDEX 2-7: Bounty in the Bog.  Let’s dive in, and take a closer look at the next part of Season 2

Barbarian Class Breakdown

Good Morning Game Fans, we’re back to continue our deeper investigation into the mysteries of Dungeons and Dragons, and how it shaped the larger roleplaying game community.  We’ve put a temporary hold on our discussion about races in fantasy roleplaying (We’ll pick back up with the races from Volo’s Guide to Monsters and the Elemental Evil Player’s Companion after this interlude).  We’re going to discuss the role of Classes in fantasy roleplaying games, and then we’ll take a look in turn at each of the character classes in the Player’s Handbook for Dungeons and Dragons, 5th Edition.

Adventurer's League Season 2 (Part 2 Low Level Track)

Adventurer's League Season 2 (Lower Level Track)

All right Game Fans, we’re continuing with our look at the 2nd season of the Adventurer’s League for Dungeons and Dragons, 5th edition.  Unlike last season, we’re not going to take these adventures in numeric order, but we’ve split them up into two different tracks based off of their suggested character level.  Today we’re looking at two adventures for the lower level track, DDEX 2-2: Embers of Elmwood, and DDEX 2-5: Flames of Kythorn.  Let’s dive in, and take a closer look at the next part of Season 2

Unearthed Arcana Playtest: Paladins

So this is the last Unearthed Arcana for 2016, and Wizards of the Coast is ending the year on a grim, dark note.  Today we’re taking a look at two new Paladin Oaths, the Oath of Conquest and the Oath of Treachery.  These Oaths give new options for players wanting to take Paladins down a variety of dark and winding paths, so if you’re interested in playing a dark crusader, check out either of these Oaths.  Now this is the last one of these articles for the year, and we’ll be back when Wizards of the Coast opens back up in January.  We are a little saddened that neither of these paladin Oaths fulfils our Need for Steed, (that’s the third time i’ve made that joke, and i’m still not sorry).  Let’s dive in and take a closer look at the new paladin Oaths.  .

Adventurer's League Season 2 Breakdown

Hey Game Fans, today we’re going to do a quick breakdown of the Experience Points for Season 2 of Adventurer’s League.  There are basically two experience tracks in season 2 (One for brand new characters up to level 4, and one for more experienced characters that are level 5-10).  We’re going to list the adventures, and indicate where they belong on these tracks and maybe some good points to consider hopping from the lower level track to the upper level track.  This season can’t be played in direct order by following the adventure numbers because of these two different tracks.  We’re going to take a deeper dive and see what information we can come up with to thelp you get your stuff together.  Read on, Game Fans.

Delightful Insanity

So if you’re reading this, i must have had a lack of sense and posted this on the internet.  This is my first attempt to construct a rules addition to the Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition rules set featuring giant, magically powered robots of doom.  Now there are a couple of people to blame and thank as usual, and we’ll get to that eventually.  The important thing to consider in this exchange from a world building standpoint is what makes these robots so necessary to the setting at the level of commonality they are going to exist?  

Unearthed Arcana Monk Playtest kit

Hey guys, we’re gearing up for a happy holiday season and we’re going to kick off by taking a look at the new Unearthed Arcana releases for the last month.  The Mad Wizards of the Coast are playtesting a bunch of new options for the core classes from the Player’s Handbook (my guess is as a prelude to releasing a new player’s handbook or options book).  These offer a lot of new ideas and spins for players looking to spice up the world’s greatest roleplaying game.  Today we’re going to take a look at the Monastic Traditions.  Remember, these are playtest material, so they aren’t compatible with adventurer’s league play, yet.  We’ve got two new monastic traditions to take a look at: the Way of the Kensai, and the Way of Tranquility.

Deadlands (RPG Spotlight)

Deadlands is a horror role-playing game set in an alternate history.  The Old West has become the Weird West, and in the dark places there are monsters lurking, waiting to strike fear into the hearts of honest, hardworking folk.  Someone’s going to have to put these monsters down and bring a sense of peace to the Weird West.  You got the Sand in you to take the fight to zombies, wendigos, and other, stranger dark things?

Unearthed Arcana Fighter Playtest Kit

Hey guys, we’re gearing up for a happy holiday season and we’re going to kick off by taking a look at the new Unearthed Arcana releases for the last month.  The Mad Wizards of the Coast are playtesting a bunch of new options for the core classes from the Player’s Handbook (my guess is as a prelude to releasing a new player’s handbook or options book).  These offer a lot of new ideas and spins for players looking to spice up the world’s greatest roleplaying game.  Today we’re going to take a look at the Fighter archetypes.  Remember, these are playtest material, so they aren’t compatible with adventurer’s league play, yet.  We’ve got four (Four!) new Martial Archetypes to take a look at, the Arcane Archer, The Knight, The Samurai, and the Sharpshooter.

Adventurer's League Season 2 (Starting up and DDEX 2-1)

All right game fans, we’re hoping you’re having a pleasant and passable holiday season as we shoot the straights between Thanksgiving and Christmas (and every other holiday that falls in and around the November-February period). We’re going to take a pretty close look at the 2nd season of the Adventurer’s League for the 5th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons.  This is tied in with the Princes of the Apocalypse Campaign book, and features a full range of adventures, some new options, and some other trouble to get into.  Today we’re going to take a closer look at the things you’ll need as a player to get into the fun of Season 2.  

Unearthed Arcana: Druid Circles Playtest Packet

Hey guys, we’re gearing up for a happy holiday season and we’re going to kick off by taking a look at the new Unearthed Arcana releases for the last month.  The Mad Wizards of the Coast are playtesting a bunch of new options for the core classes from the Player’s Handbook (my guess is as a prelude to releasing a new player’s handbook or options book).  These offer a lot of new ideas and spins for players looking to spice up the world’s greatest roleplaying game.  Today we’re going to take a look at the Druid archetypes.  Remember, these are playtest material, so they aren’t compatible with adventurer’s league play, yet.  We’ve got three new Druid Circles, Dreams, Shepherd, Twilight.  Each one plays a little differently, and adds some new options for our druid playing friends.  Let’s take a closer look at each Circle.

Unearthed Arcana Playtest Packet: Cleric Domains

Hey guys, we’re gearing up for a happy holiday season and we’re going to kick off by taking a look at the new Unearthed Arcana releases for the last month.  The Mad Wizards of the Coast are playtesting a bunch of new options for the core classes from the Player’s Handbook (my guess is as a prelude to releasing a new player’s handbook or options book).  These offer a lot of new ideas and spins for players looking to spice up the world’s greatest roleplaying game.  Today we’re going to take a look at the Cleric archetypes.  Remember, these are playtest material, so they aren’t compatible with adventurer’s league play, yet.  We’ve got three new Cleric domains, Forge, Grave, and Protection.  Each one plays a little differently, and adds some new options for our cleric playing friends.  Let’s take a closer look at each domain..

Unearthed Arcana Playtest packet: Bard

Hey guys, we’re gearing up for a happy holiday season and we’re going to kick off by taking a look at the new Unearthed Arcana releases for the last month.  The Mad Wizards of the Coast are playtesting a bunch of new options for the core classes from the Player’s Handbook (my guess is as a prelude to releasing a new player’s handbook or options book).  These offer a lot of new ideas and spins for players looking to spice up the world’s greatest roleplaying game.  Today we’re going to take a look at the Bard archetypes.  Remember, these are playtest material, so they aren’t compatible with adventurer’s league play, yet.  We’ve got two new bardic colleges to take a look at, the College of Glamour, and the College of Whispers.

Unearthed Aracana Barbarian Playtest write up

Hey guys, we’re gearing up for a happy holiday season and we’re going to kick off by taking a look at the new Unearthed Arcana releases for the last month.  The Mad Wizards of the Coast are playtesting a bunch of new options for the core classes from the Player’s Handbook (my guess is as a prelude to releasing a new player’s handbook or options book).  These offer a lot of new ideas and spins for players looking to spice up the world’s greatest roleplaying game.  Today we’re going to take a look at the Barbarian archetypes.  Remember, these are playtest material, so they aren’t compatible with adventurer’s league play, yet.  

Battlemech Manual Ideas

Randall (All Hail Randall) is developing his new Battlemech Manual project with fan input, and he wants to know what we the fans think are critical rules/information/ideas that 95% of Battletech Players use 95% of the time.  He’s also wanting to make this a book that’s clocking in at right about 200 pages, which is a lot of information to cram into a tiny space, so let’s take a look at the deep thoughts involved in creating basically a shortform version of how to play battletech (that focuses on the battlemechs).

 

The Amaris Coup (Part I)

The Amaris Coup, The Amaris Civil War, or any of a dozen different potential names all describe one of the most singularly destructive events in the history of the Battletech Universe.  Hundreds of worlds were scarred by the war, and billions upon billions of lives were lost in the conflict.  The Star League tore itself apart trying to unseat a despot who’d claimed the throne with violence and a willingness to use any means necessary to accomplish his goal of destroying the Cameron family and taking what was theirs.  Today we’re going to take a look at some of the build up to the Coup itself, and as we move forward we’ll dive into the conflict itself.

House Kurita (Battletech)

The Draconis Combine is another of the major political states in the Inner Sphere in the Battletech Universe.  Founded in 2319 by Shiro Kurita, The Combine is a military powerhouse that owes it existence to the quality of its armed forces and the determination of its leaders..  Unlike most of the other major powers, the Draconis Combine is a military dictatorship, with final authority and power resting with the office of the Coordinator.  The Coordinator is a hereditary position, handed down within the Kurita line (there have been a couple of exceptions, but those prompted major internal conflicts). Like the other successor states, the Draconis Combine is a signing member of the Star League Accords (Actually, the first signer, as a political concession from the First Lord).  

Volo's Guide to Monsters (First Look)

Hey guys we’re back with a quick look at the brand new Volo’s Guide to Monsters for Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition.  Volo’s Guide is written from the in setting perspective of Volo, a contemporary of Elminster who may or may not be factual accurate about everything he writes down.  Let’s take a look at the book and see if we can find any treasures within the tome of Volo’s Guide to Monsters.  Volo’s Guide to Monsters is broken into 3 primary sections, and has several appendices.

Never In Doubt

I’m not sure how to start today off but with a sobering look at what america just did.  We have elected a Republican candidate to the highest office in the land despite the fact that he is vastly unqualified for that position by any reasonable measure of professional political experience.  He brings with him an Evangelical Christian with social policies towards distinct groups of our population that are barbaric.  We also managed to elect a Republican House of Representatives and a Senate that by all accounts should be perfectly capable of helping him accomplish whatever tomfoolery he’s decided to build his presidential legacy upon.  For those of us sitting in marginalized groups staring into a very dark hole, this feels like the end of everything.  

 

Player's Choice (Tiefling Edition)

Player's Choice (Tiefling Edition)

So you’ve taken a hard look at Dungeons and Dragons and decided that it’s time to make your first character for Dungeons & Dragons.  First off, welcome to the family.  You’ve taken your first steps into a world of shared storytelling and high adventure.  We’re going to take a look at the process for building your character and go over the options you have available in the Player’s Handbook (we use the 5th edition, as it’s the most recent, and we think it’s one of the most accessible systems we’ve seen in a long time.).  So grab your scratch paper, your pencil, and your character sheet as we explore the magical world of Dungeons and Dragons.

Battletech Essentials: House Steiner

The Lyran Commonwealth/Alliance are one of the major Inner Sphere factions in the Battletech Universe.  Ruled by House Steiner, they have been a major player in the political and military landscape of the Inner Sphere.  A strong mercantile tradition and industrial base have made the Lyran state an economic and military powerhouse throughout their history.  They are signing members of the Star League Accords, and one of the earliest interstellar nations in human space.  

The Nobility of Yeltharan

Yeltharan has a complex government that does its best to represent the people and regions of the continent with equal capability and zeal.  Yeltharan has a Constitutional Monarchy ruled over by The Empress.  Each of the major geographical regions has a Governor, who is responsible for the day to day operations within his or her region.  Every major city is governed by a Mayor, who manages the city’s needs.  Smaller towns and locales can have any number of appointed magistrates/keepers/supervisors as appointed by the Governor.  Let’s take a closer look at each level of Government, and work our way down.  

 

Some new ideas from Catalyst Game Labs

So Catalyst is showing off a couple of new products for Shadowrun and Battletech.  Let’s take a quick look at these new books and see if we can’t tease a couple more ideas from the big brains.  

What's a Battlemech? (Battletech)

A Battlemech is in most cases a bipedal (there are some quads) exoskeleton that is piloted into battle by a Mechwarrior.  They stand between 10 and 12 meters tall (exceptions exist on both ends) and weigh between 20 and 100 tons.  Armed with extensive batteries of missiles, energy or ballistic weapons (in some cases all three), the Battlemech is often considered the apex of human ingenuity in the field of warfare.  It is an incredibly complex amalgamation of technological innovation and has changed the way humankind has waged war since their introduction 2439.  Let’s take a closer look at what went into creating the technological underpinnings of a battlemech.

The Nobles of Yeltharan (Open Legend Part 4 or 5)

Yeltharan has a complex government that does its best to represent the people and regions of the continent with equal capability and zeal.  Yeltharan has a Constitutional Monarchy ruled over by The Empress.  Each of the major geographical regions has a Governor, who is responsible for the day to day operations within his or her region.  Every major city is governed by a Mayor, who manages the city’s needs.  Smaller towns and locales can have any number of appointed magistrates/keepers/supervisors as appointed by the Governor.  Let’s take a closer look at each level of Government, and work our way down.  

The Hidden Wars (Star League Era)

While the Star League is often referred to as an era of peace and prosperity, there are several conflicts that help shape this period.  We’re going to briefly cover these topics and the effect that they had on the Star League at the time, and how they shaped future policy decisions.  There are four pivotal events that had lasting effects on the Star League and its member states.  

 

The People of Yeltharan (Open Legend)

Yeltharan has a population of around 14 million people.  Aside from a few large cities with populations over 100,000, most of these people are scattered into either small towns or independent farm and home steads. About half the population is involved in agrarian pursuits of some kind, and the other half are fairly evenly split between lumbering and mining.Yeltharan is a closed economy that neither imports nor exports, so it provides everything that its people need internally.

Gearing up for Cthulhu (Last step of Character Building)

All right Game Fans, it’s Halloween and we’re going to cover the last step of building an Investigator for Call of Cthulhu today.  The last thing we’re going to need for our Investigator is to gear up for the myriad of potential things you could bump into while investigating the Mythos. Bear in mind, you aren’t playing Oregon Trail, so you need to figure out exactly what your character has on hand, and what he or she can lay his or her grubby mitts on when the situation demands. Let’s take a closer look at equipping yourself in Call of Cthulhu.

Player's Choice (Half-Orcs)

Player's Choice (Half-Orc Edition)

So you’ve taken a hard look at Dungeons and Dragons and decided that it’s time to make your first character for Dungeons & Dragons.  First off, welcome to the family.  You’ve taken your first steps into a world of shared storytelling and high adventure.  We’re going to take a look at the process for building your character and go over the options you have available in the Player’s Handbook (we use the 5th edition, as it’s the most recent, and we think it’s one of the most accessible systems we’ve seen in a long time.).  So grab your scratch paper, your pencil, and your character sheet as we explore the magical world of Dungeons and Dragons.

Open Legend (Work in Progress Part II)

Let's take a look at the land and the important areas of Yeltharan. 

Filling in the Background (Character Building advice for Call of Cthulhu)

All right Game Fans, we’re back to finish up our character building for Call of Cthulhu

We’ve Rolled our Attributes, generated our statistics, picked a profession, and assigned our skill points.  We’re coming in on the home stretch but we’re at one the most important parts of constructing a character, building the Backstory.  Let’s take a look at Building a Backstory, Call of Cthulhu style.  Call of Cthulhu gives you a lot of leeway for building a backstory, and they offer a variety of tables to help inspire you.  We’re going to use that narrative tool for building a backstory, to give you folks at home an idea of how the tables works.  

 

Puzzle Quest (Dungeon Mastering Advice)

All right Game Fans, today we’re going to talk about Puzzles and how to include in your encounters.  Puzzles are a staple of the fantasy genre and really came into their own with the rise of video games. Puzzles can include Movable blocks, hidden floor panels, and other combinations of environmentally based scenic elements  that can be manipulated to effect a change in the environment of the area.  They also represent password protected areas or barriers that prevent movement forward (The secret door into the Mines of Moria, for example).  Let’s take a closer look at puzzles and some of the best ways to incorporate them into your game, and some suggestions on puzzle traps to avoid.  

 

Arcana (WIP Open Legend 1)

Another look at some setting material for Open Legend

The History of the World (Open Legend)

Here's a look at the idea I had for a campaign setting for the Open Legend RPG, from 7th Sphere:

 

Bluebeard's Bride (A Closer look)

Bluebeard’s Bride is horror roleplaying game from the wonderful minds at Magpie Games.  They’ve put together a dark and sinister fairy tale of survival and determination, written from a feminine perspective.  Based off of the dark fairytale Bluebeard’s Bride, the players take the role of “sisters”, each of which represent a portion of the Bride’s mind as she explores the house her new husband has given her the keys to.  Let’s take a closer look at some core thoughts and ideas for the game.

 

The Star League Era (Technology Ascendant)

Hey Game Fans, we’re back with another look at the Star League Era for Battletech.  Today we’re going to take a look at the Military technology of the Era and how it shaped both the Star League Era and the Eras that followed.  We’re going to feature specifically Unit types that have their time in the sun during this period as well, and hope you can see how many of the in-universe experts in Battletech refer to this as the peak of humankind’s technological development.  

 

The Rise of Tiamat (Review for D & D)

Hey Game Fans, today we’re going to cover the last component of the Tyranny of Dragons story arc for Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition.  We’ve dealt with the Hoard of The Dragon Queen, and we’ve taken hard looks at the entire 1st season of the Adventurer’s League organized play campaign.  The last book in this arc is a doozy, The Rise of Tiamat.  It picks up where Hoard of the Dragon Queen left off, and i think it would be very possible if you had played the entire way through the Adventurer’s League season 1 to be able to take that character and start Rise without being under leveled compared to the book’s expectations.  Let’s dig in and see what we find, shall we?

 

Player's Choice (Half-Elf Edition)

So you’ve taken a hard look at Dungeons and Dragons and decided that it’s time to make your first character for Dungeons & Dragons.  First off, welcome to the family.  You’ve taken your first steps into a world of shared storytelling and high adventure.  We’re going to take a look at the process for building your character and go over the options you have available in the Player’s Handbook (we use the 5th edition, as it’s the most recent, and we think it’s one of the most accessible systems we’ve seen in a long time.).  So grab your scratch paper, your pencil, and your character sheet as we explore the magical world of Dungeons and Dragons.

Open Legend Character Creation and Basic Rules

Open Legend is the new hot Universal Role-playing Game from Seventh Sphere.  We’ve talked about it a couple of times so far during their Kickstarter campaign, and today we’re back with a look at the Core mechanic (I do like games that have a core mechanic, “One mechanic to rule them all” so to speak), and the character creation process.  Open Legend is a story first game, and anytime the player or the GM pick up the dice, it’s always for a specific, story driven reason.  Let’s take a closer look at the core mechanic, and the character creation process.

 

Shadowrun: Anarchy (Time to Bake the Cookies, Part III) Keebler Harder

All right Chummers, we're back with the third and final part of our character creation example for Shadowrun: Anarchy.  Shadowrun: Anarchy is the brand new, rules lite, story heavy alternative rules set for telling stories and playing games in the Shadowrun Universe.  It's a story telling focused game, and the mechanics of the game are built for players to tell awesome stories that look and feel like Shadowrun.  Now Last time, we were working through the many steps of building your own character, and got through the first five or so.  If you're new to the blog, check out https://zardozgames.blogspot.com/2016/10/shadowrun-anarchy-time-to-bake-cookies.html for the first part of the article.  If you missed the second part of the series, check it out at http://zardozgames.blogspot.com/2016/10/shadowrun-anarchy-time-to-bake-cookies_24.html Let's dig into the chrome and the meat of building a character.

Shadowrun: Anarchy (Time to Bake the Cookies, Part III) Keebler Harder

All right Chummers, we're back with the second part of our character creation example for Shadowrun: Anarchy.  Shadowrun: Anarchy is the brand new, rules lite, story heavy alternative rules set for telling stories and playing games in the Shadowrun Universe.  It's a story telling focused game, and the mechanics of the game are built for players to tell awesome stories that look and feel like Shadowrun.  Now Last time, we were working through the many steps of building your own character, and got through the first five or so.  If you're new to the blog, check out https://zardozgames.blogspot.com/2016/10/shadowrun-anarchy-time-to-bake-cookies.html for the first part of the article.  If you missed the second part of the series, check it out at http://zardozgames.blogspot.com/2016/10/shadowrun-anarchy-time-to-bake-cookies_24.html Let's dig into the chrome and the meat of building a character.

Shadowrun: Anarchy (Time to Bake the Cookies, Part II)

All right Chummers, we're back with the second part of our character creation example for Shadowrun: Anarchy.  Shadowrun: Anarchy is the brand new, rules lite, story heavy alternative rules set for telling stories and playing games in the Shadowrun Universe.  It's a story telling focused game, and the mechanics of the game are built for players to tell awesome stories that look and feel like Shadowrun.  Now Last time, we were working through the many steps of building your own character, and got through the first five or so.  If you're new to the blog, check out https://zardozgames.blogspot.com/2016/10/shadowrun-anarchy-time-to-bake-cookies.html for the first part of the article.  Let's dig into the chrome and the meat of building a character.

Crescent Hawks (Shining a light)

I’ve heard rumors for several months now about unit specific force briefings coming down the road for Battletech.  The first one of these, Spotlight on: Crescent Hawks released earlier this week and i have to say, it hits a lot of good buttons but misses a few as well.  Let’s take a closer look at this new product, and show off one of the most famous units in Battletech’s history.  

Open Legend RPG (thoughts and ideas)

Hey Game Fans, we’re going to be taking a closer look at the Open Legend RPG from our good friends at Seventh Sphere Publishing.  They’ve just started a Kickstarter to fund their first core book release along with a campaign setting, Amaurea’s Dawn.  At around 33K in on their Kickstarter with 29 days to go as of me sitting down to write this, they’re going to have an excellent campaign, and we sincerely hope that they crush their stretch goals.  Let’s take a closer look at the character creation system, and some thoughts on the underly mechanisms.  

Shadowrun: Anarchy (Time to Bake the Cookies)

All right Chummers (See, we know at least one piece of Runner Slang), we’re back and taking a look at creating a new character for the Shadowrun: Anarchy rules set.  We’ve talked about how characters drive stories, and today we’re going to show you how to build your own.  Remember this is a collaborative storytelling game set in the Shadowrun Universe, so let your creativity run wild when you come up with your concept (You’ll see how whacky we’re going to get).  

Exploring your World (Dungeon Mastering Advice)

Whether you’re a little boy or girl exploring a cave with a flashlight, or a member of the Fellowship of the Ring exploring the Mines of Moria, every adventurer is going to confront an area they’ve never been to before.  Exploration forms a key pillar of adventure gaming, and i would suggest that it is the third primary struggle for adventurers.  Struggling against the environment has been a storytelling tool since we started telling stories, and as a Game Master, you can use exploration to create wonderful encounters and stories for your players.  Let’s take a look at some of the tools you can use for exploration.

Shadowrun: Anarchy (Characters Drive Stories)

Shadowrun Anarchy is loose on the streets and it is a completely new way of looking at how the Shadowrun Universe can be interacted with.  Stories are the driving force behind this new way of looking at Shadowrun, and i’ve long maintained that Characters drive stories.  Let’s take a look at some of the character ideas for Shadowrun, (we’ll compare them to Shadowrun 5th edition and yes, i’ll cover Shadowrun’s character creation system at some point)

Bluebeard's Bride (First Looks)

Another great find on Kickstarter is Bluebeard’s Bride.  Some roleplaying games are big, and full of epic adventures and cover many different types of stories.  Bluebeard’s Bride takes that idea and says “no.”  It focuses on one specific story that it can tell over and over again, rivalling a 1,001 nights in terms of depth and interaction.  I have been reading and playing roleplaying games for over 25 years, and i think that i’ve seen a lot of the different ways that you can present roleplaying games.  Then i see something like this and it just blows my mind.  Let’s take a look at Bluebeard’s Bride.

Open Legend RPG (First Looks)

A couple of interesting games popped across my Kickstarter Feed this week, and i have to admit i have been mightily impressed by both of them.  I’ll talk about the first one, Open Legend, in this article, and the other one, Bluebeard’s Bride, should get a feature later this afternoon.  Open Legend is an Open Source, System Agnostic Role-playing Game and features a lot of heavy talent from the RPG community, including, Ed Greenwood (Yes, that Ed Greenwood) and Matt Mercer (Yes, that Matt Mercer) to name just a couple of the people that are involved.  My connection is tangential, as it is through my internet friendship with Ryan Schapals, one of the many hard working folks who help bring Hyper RPG to life every week.  It’s a brand new kickstarter campaign that’s only been up for a day, but when last seen had allready cracked two stretch goals.  Let’s take a closer look under the hood of the game.

Player's Choice (Gnome Edition)

So you’ve taken a hard look at Dungeons and Dragons and decided that it’s time to make your first character for Dungeons & Dragons.  First off, welcome to the family.  You’ve taken your first steps into a world of shared storytelling and high adventure.  We’re going to take a look at the process for building your character and go over the options you have available in the Player’s Handbook (we use the 5th edition, as it’s the most recent, and we think it’s one of the most accessible systems we’ve seen in a long time.).  So grab your scratch paper, your pencil, and your character sheet as we explore the magical world of Dungeons and Dragons.

The Reunification War (Battletech)

Hey Battletech Fans, we’re back with another feature on the Star League Era for Battletech.  Today we’re taking a look at the conflict that serves as the origin of the Star League, the Reunification War.  The Reunification War has several different perspectives to take a look at, and I’m going to cover the broadest strokes of that conflict.  If you’re interested in more, I strongly encourage you to dive into the Historical: Reunification War book from Catalyst Game Labs.  It’s the book i’m using to put this write up together for you, and will hopefully give you depth of details you’re looking for.

Building your Investigator, One Job at a time (Professional Help for Call of Cthulhu)

Hey Mythos Fans, we’re back for another article in our series on putting together an investigator for the Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game from Chaosium.If you’re curious, check out the first part of our series further back in our archives, just look over on the right side at the article list and find the ones on Call of Cthulhu.  Today we’re going to take a closer look at one of the more critical decisions that you get to make when you’re building a character.  What is your character’s occupation?  In some games this represents your character’s class, or primary job.  CoC takes this in a different direction, and looks at your character’s occupation as the penultimate piece of your background before you found your way into the Mythos.  What were you before the madness started to leak into the world?

Adventurer's League Season 1 (Part VIII, the finale)

All right Game Fans, we’re back with our final look at the first season of Dungeons and Dragons organized play, The Tyranny of Dragons.  We’ve had a heck of a ride so far folks, but we’re at the final adventure in this season, DDEX 1-14, Escape From Phlan.  We will still be covering the Rise of Tiamat Hardcover adventure and take a bit of a break before we start the write up for Season 2.  We have looked at this from the perspective of participating in the Adventurer’s League organized play campaign, so we’ll focus on it from that and go from there.    Let’s see how this particular adventure season ends, and prepare to bid a fond farewell to the city of Phlan.  

DFA: Renegades Week 2

Hey Game Fans, Sorry we didn't post anything, we were out of the office with the flu.  Today we're back with a look at the second episode of Death From Above: Renegades.  For those not aware, Renegades is an eight week mini-series put on by Hyper-RPG and the fine folks at Zombie Orpheus Entertainment and is a parallel story to the main Death from Above plot.  It centers around Jackrabbit, a MechWarrior for a frontier/wild west style travelling show, and his two companions Cade and Mack.  The rest of the principal cast are Cotton, a successful mercenary MechCommander and Smalls, a young and freshly tested MechWarrior.  This week's episode starts with the return of Cotton's mercenary command and then things just go sort of wrong...

Social Encounter Building Ideas (Part II)

Hey Game Fans, last week we took a look at some ideas for how to setup your encounters for your role-playing games.  The crux of what we looked at revolved around what you expected your players to gain/glean/suffer for engaging the encounter.  Today we’re going to look at another important part of encounter building, the antagonist.  I’ve called them the Challenge in the past, and i’m sure there are dozens of other titles and names that people have used in the past.  Let’s take a closer look at what the antagonist is supposed to do, and the role they play in the story you’re setting up for your players to experience.  

Guardians of the Galaxy (MUMG)

Continuing our series on the teams for the Marvel Universe Miniatures Game, we’re going to take a closer look at the Guardians of the Galaxy team.  Currently the smallest team, it has the core members of the team from the movie, Nova, the Thing, and Dr. Doom.  There are several potentially fun additions that Knight Models can make to the team, and the Guardians have a surprisingly deep bench of potential team members.  Now we’ve all ready covered the Thing and Dr. Doom with our feature on new releases, so if you’re interested, dig back through the archive on the right hand side of the screen and take a look. Let’s take a closer look at the starter set then and see what sort of trouble we can get into.

Last Days (Huge News)

Congratulations are in order to our good friend Ash Barker and his Last Days Project.  Details came down last night about his contract with Osprey Games to bring Last Days to the market place.  This is the culmination of a lengthy process of testing and revision, and we wish the absolute best to Ash and his happy future as a Games Designer.  We also hope he lets us review this game in the future.  Look for it in about a year, so it should be ready for a potential Halloween release in 2017. That sounds like good marketing to us. 

You can find Ash teaching this game on youtube at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzrPO7KIAtwVvZ4CR78eVOYBFtQLiUS7p

Check it out, we've done several articles on it, and would love to add even more. 


Big Ups, Ash

Game on, Game Fans

Player's Choice (Dragonborn Edition)

So you’ve taken a hard look at Dungeons and Dragons and decided that it’s time to make your first character for Dungeons & Dragons.  First off, welcome to the family.  You’ve taken your first steps into a world of shared storytelling and high adventure.  We’re going to take a look at the process for building your character and go over the options you have available in the Player’s Handbook (we use the 5th edition, as it’s the most recent, and we think it’s one of the most accessible systems we’ve seen in a long time.).  So grab your scratch paper, your pencil, and your character sheet as we explore the magical world of Dungeons and Dragons.

 

Star League Era (Amaris and the Rim Worlds Republic)

I did make a minor goof when i mentioned societal constructs that wouldn’t survive the Star League Era.  House Amaris and their Rim Worlds Republic would also be lost to the fires of Interstellar war, and by the end of the Star League Era, their systems would either be destroyed by the rigors of war, or absorbed by the Lyran Commonwealth.  Stefan Amaris, the last ruler of the Rim Worlds Republic, would be the architect of the fall of the Star League, but he had some some help along the way.  

Op-ed (Political, only going to do this once, ever)

Well, I would like to thank both parties for putting on the most amazing, absolutely classiest debate about substantive policy issues and action plans to help ensure the future of our country last night.  St. Louis could barely contain the statesmen (women) at their finest, discussing their political perspectives and engaging each other on their policy positions rather than any of a myriad of potential social and personal issues.  America absolutely deserves these two candidates right now.

Star League Era (House Cameron and the Terran Hegemony)

Hey Battletech Fans, we’re going to continue our long look at the History of Battletech by continuing our look at the Star League.  Today’s feature is twofold, and covers two very important things that defined the Star League, and are largely destroyed by the end of the Era.  House Cameron, and the Star League Defense Forces.  

Vanquished: Valiant RPG show (A show you should be watching)

One of these days i’m just going to put up a link to Hyper RPG on twitch and just leave it there.  I am consistently impressed with their analog role-playing shows and their digital games are fun to watch.  Longtime Readers (i think i actually have a few of those now) will remember my absolute love of Death From Above and CorporateSINs, as well as the fantastic work from Strix on Weekly Affirmations.  Today we’re going to add another show to the things we think you should be watching.  Vanquished is a wonderful show that features the Valiant comic book universe and the roleplaying game created by Catalyst Game Labs.  Let’s take a closer look at the game setup and the principal players.

Oh The Places You'll Go (Battletech)

Battletech has a rich science fiction background full of interesting places to go, things to see, and potential enemies to shoot at you.  There are thousands of inhabited solar systems in the Inner Sphere, and the Periphery expands that number even further.  At the furthest edges of occupied space lay the Clan Homeworlds, settled after an exodus by the Star League Defense Forces in the aftermath of the fall of the Star League.  We could spend years going over all of these star systems (and Catalyst Game Labs has released a series called Touring the Stars that explores a fraction of these worlds), but we’re going to take a look at five spectacular planets that you can visit while playing Battletech.  Some of these are era dependent, but we’ll try to make that notation when it comes up.

Encounter Building Ideas (Part I)

In the same vein as our other articles on helping new Game masters figure out how to build their own worlds and settings, we’re going to be putting together a series of articles on how to put together your own encounters and how to link them together for building your own adventures and campaigns.  We’re going to start at the small scale, and building low level encounters for your party.  We prefer to express things in terminology for Dungeons and Dragons, but we try to remain system agnostic, this advice should help you build encounters for whatever game you’re planning to run.  

 

Shadowrun: Anarchy (First Look)

Shadowrun: Anarchy is an alternative rules system for playing games and telling stories in the Shadowrun Universe.  Shadowrun has the distinction of being the 2nd role-playing game i’d ever played, and is one of the oldest of its kind still in publication.  Across the last five editions, Shadowrun has pushed the boundaries of the cyberpunk trope and thrown in some old world black magic for fun.  It’s a world where elven wizards take tea with ork hackers while plotting their next move against the Dragon sitting atop the corporate throne.  You can tell so many different stories in the Shadowrun Universe and make flavorful, neat characters that can do a lot of things.  

Adventurer's League Season 1 (Part 7)

ll right Game Fans, we’re back with another look at the first season of Dungeons and Dragons organized play, The Tyranny of Dragons.  We are looking at this from the perspective of participating in the Adventurer’s League organized play campaign, so we’ll focus on it from that and go from there.    Today we’re going to check out DDEX 1-12 Raiders of the Twilight Marsh, and DDEX 1-13 Pool of Radiance Resurgent

Player's Choice (Human Edition)

So you’ve taken a hard look at Dungeons and Dragons and decided that it’s time to make your first character for Dungeons & Dragons.  First off, welcome to the family.  You’ve taken your first steps into a world of shared storytelling and high adventure.  We’re going to take a look at the process for building your character and go over the options you have available in the Player’s Handbook (we use the 5th edition, as it’s the most recent, and we think it’s one of the most accessible systems we’ve seen in a long time.).  So grab your scratch paper, your pencil, and your character sheet as we explore the magical world of Dungeons and Dragons.

Caravaneers Warband (This is Not a Test)

First things first, we made a little boo boo in our last article.  Specialists are not an exclusive ⅓ ratio for determining their inclusion in a warband, they are inclusive ⅓ .  What this means is that as long as the ratio is 1 specialist plus 2 other guys is maintained, you can include as many specialists as you like.  The previous reported way was 1 specialist to 3 other guys, and is incorrect.  Our bad.  

Now then, onto our article for the day, a look at the Caravanners warband for This is Not a Test.  The Caravanners have a lot of options for a player, though they are the only warband in the core rulebook that has a single leader choice.  Let’s take a look at each section of the roster and see what fun we can find.

Creating an Investigator (Call of Cthulhu)

Hey Game Fans, today we’re going to take a closer look at building a character for the Call of Cthulhu 7th edition.  If you want to follow along, grab your copy of the Investigator’s Handbook, and I’ll try to give you page numbers to follow along with.  Sound Good?  Wonderful, let’s dive right into the atmospheric horror adventures of the Call of Cthulhu.