If somebody asked me to play a song that everyone would like I’d probably play Africa by Toto. That’s a link right there, I’ll wait the 4:55 until you get back. When I’m writing a game I almost always base it on a single thing or idea and let it […]
I had not seen the trailer before I watched The Dungeon Masters this weekend. Consequently I went in thinking it’d be a documentary about three different Dungeon Masters doing their thing in the context of their life. And it was, for the most part. It was also a brutal affair that left me […]
The Dungeon Masters
What’s The Empire of Beril? The Empire of Beril is a retro-clone-ish game that makes use of a lot of the Open Game License material released by TSR/WotC. As far as what you’ll find, the game play will be similar, mechanically, to the original Dungeons and Dragons. One minor difference […]
The Empire of Beril
Tim Brannan, author of the excellent Ghosts of Albion RPG, wrote an entertaining and incisive post about cross-pollinating Victorian themed roleplaying games. Victoria is included in the list, and he had some flattering things to say about the game. From Tim, who is probably the most knowledgeable Victorian era gamer […]
People are saying nice things about Victoria
Going through my old D&D modules I’m always surprised by things I didn’t see the first, or twentieth, time through. This image from The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh (U1) is a beauty. The box text reads: Leaning on the starboard rail and looking towards the coast are three human figures. […]
The “Saltmarsh Stare”
Way back in 1987, aside from an ill-fated dalliance with the original Traveller (my character died during character creation), I’d only played sword and sorcery rpgs. A friend of mine borrowed a set of Gamma World from an older kid and we had a go. I don’t recall if we […]
What’s in the box? Gamma World
Part One of The Point of Departure, was about how memories of things that happen in games are real memories, and also, that these memories are the only real things about the games we play. Part two is about the titular “Point of Departure” and specifically what miniatures represent in […]
The Point of Departure: Pt. 2
On Monday night I ran a game of Call of Cthulhu, specifically The Haunting, formerly, The Haunted House. It’s a well known scenario found in every edition of Call of Cthulhu as well as in all the free “Quick Start Rules” .pdfs. It’s really a good introduction to the mythos […]
The Point of Departure: Pt. 1
There’s something about the promise of a boxed-set. For me they’re evocative of roleplaying in general, and specifically of MERP. It was the first boxed set I owned. For a lot of folks it’s probably the “red box” or something like that (the first D&D book I owned was the Advanced Player’s […]