In WISH 99, Ginger asked (Internet Archive): Pick three to five genres and name the best RPG for that genre. Why do you think it’s the best? What makes it better than others? What are its downsides? Fantasy / Dungeons & Dragons: What makes Dungeons & Dragons the best fantasy game out there isn’t its … Read more
Monte Cooke’s Arcana Unearthed (Amazon) is an alternative Players Handbook for Dungeons & Dragons that ditches the game’s time-honored fantasy classes in favor of wholly new classes that contain echoes of their predecessors, but represent something entirely different. It does an excellent job of breaking the fantasy molds, and it’s surprisingly well-suited for a libertarian campaign. … Read more
In WISH #96, Ginger asked (Internet Archive): Describe one or more occasions when a game went click for you and things fell together. Why do you think this happened? What factors made it possible? What were the consequences? It just happened this past Saturday. It was in the Scarred Lands campaign where I’m a player, … Read more
NukemCon has come and gone, and now that I’ve caught up on my sleep and my caffeine twitches have faded, it’s time to evaluate our first-ever home-grown convention. Overall, I think it went quite well. We got to play a heck of a lot games, although not nearly as many as I’d hoped. The final … Read more
The sun rose on NukemCon to find many a bleary-eyed gamer driving through Phillipsburg looking for breakfast. After snagging sustenance at McDonald’s and Manhattan Bagel, the stalwart dice-throwers returned to Easton and the first session of the day: Dungeons & Dragons. It was the third part of the D&D adventure we’d been playing all weekend, … Read more
The Blackrazor Motor Pool was forced into action on Day 2 of NukemCon, as car troubles harried our otherwise excellent day of gaming. It started with Bill’s car; when we went to get the third television out for our Xbox network, he caught a glimpse of something gleaming in his tire. Yes, in his tire. … Read more
Day One of NukemCon arrived yesterday, bringing with it HeroClix, Illuminati, Dungeons & Dragons and plenty of Halo. We kicked off 12+ hours of gaming by opening a case of HeroClix: Ultimates, the new latest expansion for WizKids’ superhero miniatures game. Then came three increasingly cutthroat games of Illuminati; Jon won the first one, Bob … Read more
Maure Castle is back. The setting for Mordenkainen’s Fantastic Adventure gets the “return to” treatment in Dungeon #112 in a super-adventure penned by Robert J. Kuntz and Gary Gygax. It is truly a wonder to behold. The follow-up to the classic 1st edition module details four dungeon levels, and includes two appendixes featuring new magic … Read more
Master and Commander by Patrick O’Brian: Historical naval fiction set in the waning years of the 18th century, this novel follows the adventures of Captain Jack Aubrey and his enlightened ship’s surgeon, Doctor Stephen Maturin as they wages war against foes of the British Empire. This book inspired half of last year’s movie Master & … Read more
Wish 93 (Internet Archive) delves into an interesting subject: how do you deal with a campaign that has a long-running and detailed history? Here’s what Ginger asked: “Does joining a game with a lot of background thrill or intimidate you? What do you do to try to learn the background, or to compensate for not … Read more