Rob Wieland

Recent & Upcoming Releases

September 17 2024

D&D Player’s Handbook (2024)

(Dungeons & Dragons)
Revised 2024 Player's Handbook.
Replies (156)
September 26 2024

Dungeon Master's Screen (2024)

(Dungeons & Dragons)
4-panel screen revised for the 2024 rules.
Replies (59)
October 1 2024

Monstrous Menagerie II

(Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition)
The sequel to the acclaimed monster book!
Replies (58)
November 12 2024

D&D Dungeon Master’s Guide (2024)

(Dungeons & Dragons)
Revised 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide.
Replies (145)
February 18 2025

D&D Monster Manual (2025)

(Dungeons & Dragons)
Revised 2025 Monster Manual.
Replies (91)
July 1 2025

D&D Dragon Anthology

(Dungeons & Dragons)
A book of 10 dragon-themed adventures.
Replies (40)
October 1 2025

Heroes of the Borderlands

(Dungeons & Dragons)
New D&D starter set.
Replies (609)
November 1 2025

Forgotten Realms Player Guide

(Dungeons & Dragons)
First 5E player's guide for the setting.
Replies (291)
November 1 2025

Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide

(Dungeons & Dragons)
DM’s book digs into different parts of the Realms.
Replies (11)

I am a game designer with over 15 years worth of game credits and industry experience. My work includes licensed games based on worlds like Star Wars, Star Trek and Firefly, classic game worlds like Dungeons & Dragons and Shadowrun and my own creations like Camelot Trigger and Save Game. I play a wide variety of games as part of Theatre of the Mind Players and have been the guest of honor at several conventions. I live with my family in Wisconsin, born near the heart of RPGs (and just a few short years younger than they are).

Other Games Reviews

Asunder Brings Primal Flavor To Tabletop Fantasy

Most fantasy RPGs lean into the medievalism of Lord of The Rings, a handful throw things farther back to Iron Age fantasy that mimics the other big influence on fantasy RPGs; Robert Howard’s Conan The Barbarian stories. Here the protagonists are more mercenary, the magic more mysterious and battles less reliant on armor. Asunder, created by Adam Lawson and Landon Tom, leans into this primal...

Oct 8, 2021 2

Reviews Warhammer

Find Powerful Reinforcements For Soulbound In Champions of Order

One of the true joys I’ve discovered over the past year is Warhammer: Age Of Sigmar: Soulbound. It’s the RPG adaptation of Games Workshop’s Warhammer setting. If you see Warhammer and immediately think of grim battles in a gloomy world, this setting will shock you. Instead, it’s a high fantasy hopepunk setting that feels more akin to Thor: Ragnarok than Witchfinder General. Chaos remains the...

Oct 1, 2021

Hearts of Wulin Is A Soaring Swashbuckler

When Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon came out twenty years ago, it exposed a new audience to a new side of the wuxia genre. There were plenty of western fans of the exquisite fight sequences, but many also were hooked on the stoic romance between the main characters. This has always been part of the genre but American releases of these films tended to focus on ones with hard-hitting action...

Sep 25, 2021 2

Dungeons & Dragons Novels Reviews

Rise Of The Drow is Three Good D&D Books In One

There are a lot of solid campaigns out for Fifth Edition Dungeons and Dragons. Wizards of the Coast’s strategy of one new campaign a year seems to be working for them. By focusing on campaigns that run through ten levels with just enough information to get through the storyline, the company has given new players a lot of different ways to play in campaigns. Still, there’s a market out there...

Sep 18, 2021 48

Dungeons & Dragons Reviews

My Five Favorite Things From The Wild Beyond The Witchlight

This month begins one of the busiest periods in the history of Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition. We’re getting three months of back to back to back releases, starting with The Wild Beyond The Witchlight, an adventure path that takes players to the Feywild and back via the spooky Witchlight Carnival. I got my hands on an advanced copy of the book and here are the five things I liked most about...

Sep 14, 2021 34

Get Cozy With Cthulhu In Brindlewood Bay

Mysteries can be one of the trickiest types of game to run. Threading the needle between too much information and too little information changes from GM to GM and group to group. When it works, it’s brilliant. There’s a reason Masks of Nyarlathotep is a favorite of mine. The piles of clues that kick off that investigation makes the game a great player driven sandbox. But when it doesn’t, it’s...

Sep 10, 2021 3

Other Games Reviews

Go Back To The Medieval Future of Fading Suns

Every gamer I know has a Pile of Shame. It’s the pile or shelf of books and games that they’ve acquired that go unplayed for whatever reason. Maybe the group isn’t into the theme. Maybe something else came along right after that was more compelling. One of the biggest sections of my Pile of Shame was Fading Suns. I loved the look and feel of this dark space opera but the system never made...

Sep 6, 2021 9

Other Games Reviews

My First Game: Top Secret/SI

For the vast majority of people who get into the tabletop role-playing hobby, Dungeons & Dragons was the gateway. While I enjoy D&D and think my favorite edition of it is the current one, my education in games was much broader. The gaming group that I joined was a bit older than I was and they were sick to death of D&D by the time I started playing. Instead we had four rotating games we played...

Aug 23, 2021 33

Other Games Reviews

A Look Inside The Upcoming Avatar Legends: The RPG

Magpie Games set tongues wagging earlier this year when they announced they had secured the rights to create a role-playing game based on the animated TV shows Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. These shows, heavily influenced by anime, Asian and Indigineous cultures, are beloved by fantasy fans around the world and the setting seems like a good way to interest people in RPGs...

Aug 15, 2021 1

Dungeons & Dragons Reviews

This Potbellied Kobold Is Full of Surprises

Most official 5e adventure collections come in one of two styles; a campaign style storyline meant to be played straight through or a collection of vaguely themed adventures to be dropped in throughout a campaign. That’s the first surprise I discovered upon opening up my review copy of Adventures From The Potbellied Kobold from Jeff Stevens Games. This collection is all of the above. It can be...

Jul 30, 2021 5

Other Games Reviews

Trinity Continuum Reboots Aberrant For The Better

When Aberrant was first released in 1999, comic book superheroes were in a state of flux. The 90s had been a dark period where heroes shied away from the fantastic origins of the genre. Everyone was trying to prove that comics were serious business even as the genre swung back toward a mixture of big stories and grown-up storytelling in comics like Astro City and the Marvel Ultimate universe...

Jul 23, 2021 15

OSR Reviews

The Mecha Hack Packs Big Robot Action In A Small Package

I fell in love with giant stompy robots visiting the Battletech Center for my thirteenth birthday. It seems strange in a modern world of online battle, but once upon a time you had to go to the same location to fight your friends. The Battletech Center went a few steps further by setting each screen inside a massive pod full of booming speakers, toggle switches and cockpit readouts straight...

Jul 12, 2021 1

Other Games Reviews

A Great Solo Game For Aspiring Han Solos

I have had to admire wargaming as a hobby from afar. I don’t have the patience to learn how to paint and I don’t have the money to invest in a ton of scenery and accessories. So I wondered why I was sent a copy of Five Parsecs From Home by Modiphius. The premise intrigued me; a solo wargame? With RPG elements? That uses the minis I already own? After reading the book and playing a scenario or...

Jul 3, 2021 3

Dungeons & Dragons Reviews Video Games

Solasta: Crown of the Magister Offers A Hidden Fifth Edition Computer Gem

Seven years in, one would think there would be an official Fifth Edition video game by now. There are plenty of ways to play D&D electronically, such as the upcoming Dark Alliance action brawler or mobile versions of classics like Baldur’s Gate. Computer versions have yet to completely scratch the itch of playing a game with a Dungeon Master who can react to unexpected plans and adjust...

Jun 25, 2021 65

Other Games Reviews

Partners Puts Procedurals Under The Hot Lights

Role-playing games are a hobby of mimicry. They are a new way to tell the stories we love. We get a chance to be part of the story and make the choices of our favorite heroes and villains. Thanks to the nerdy origins of the hobby, there are dozens of ways to tell stories about magic and the future. One genre that’s popular with the general public that’s under-represented in RPGs? The...

Jun 18, 2021 1

Miniatures Reviews

Welcome to the World of Papercraft

While I am not much of a minis player, I am dazzled by the gorgeous tables and setups I see at conventions and online. Dwarven Forge terrain blows my mind but I don’t have the time, money or energy to properly set it up. When I opt to do more grid or miniatures based combat I’m usually fine with some dry erase markers and tokens. If I have a specific set piece in mind, I’ll breakout something...