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 (147)
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

Those Who Wanderhome Are Not Lost

Stories are rooted in conflict. The main character wants something but can’t get it. They must overcome those obstacles to resolve the story. Role-playing games are no different, but more often than not, those conflicts are resolved through combat. Yes, everyone has examples of times when their group went sessions without rolling initiative, but the rules are still included with most RPGs...

Jan 21, 2022 5

OSR Reviews

The Black Hack Boxed Set Offers (Almost) Everything You Need For An Excellent Hexcrawl

The lure of the boxed set is fairly clear. Everything you need to play the game all in one tidy package. This idea has evolved over the decades but I would be lying if I didn’t still enjoy cracking open a box and exploring everything inside. The Black Hack had a moment in the sun a couple years ago as a game that combined old school hexcrawling and modern game elements. Peter Regan, the...

Jan 14, 2022 4

Other Games Reviews

Mutants In The Now Brings A Fresh Look At Other Strangeness

Licensed RPGs are the shooting stars of tabletop roleplaying games. They burn brightly, hopefully beautifully and then are lost to history once the license ends. Many live on in the library shelves of those who love them. Some are sold for ridiculous amounts on the internet. A few are reborn as retroclones with the mechanics intact and the potentially litigious IP stripped away. Such is the...

Jan 10, 2022 31

Other Games Reviews

New Playsets Aim To Make Your Next Game Night A Fiasco

Fiasco is one of my go-to choices when a friend that’s never played a role playing game asks me about trying one. It’s a simple, clear setup with easy mechanics that plays in two hours or less. It also tends to be gutbustingly funny given the dark humor threaded throughout the playsets available for the game. Bully Pulpit Games sent me some review copies of their latest decks for Fiasco Second...

Dec 31, 2021 1

Reviews World of Darkness

I Wonder Wonder Wonder Who, Who Wrote The Book of Nod Review

In 1993, The Book of Nod appeared on gaming store shelves around the world. It came just as Vampire: The Masquerade’s hardcover Second Edition was truly exploding into popularity. It shed light on the World of Darkness in an unusual way; as an in-game document. The book sold in stores was the same one that could be discovered by vampire characters in the game. There had been flirtations with...

Dec 23, 2021 1

Dungeon Crawl Classics Reviews

Weird Frontiers Takes DCC West

It’s been a good year for fans of Weird Westerns. Deadlands came out with a brand new edition updated to the latest Savage Worlds rules set and a new campaign to take players from novice cowpunchers to Veterans of the Weird West. Haunted West gives tables the tools to tell tall tales from the perspective of the disenfranchised and little heard voices of the west. Designer David Baity recently...

Dec 20, 2021 5

Achtung Cthulhu 2d20 Makes World War II Even Weirder

Modiphius comes full circle with the release of Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20. The company established itself with the Achtung! Cthulhu Kickstarter in 2013. The game was originally released with Call of Cthulhu and Savage Worlds rules and a Fate version came a few years after. Now that 2d20 has become a calling card for the company, it makes sense that an adaptation into the house system would follow...

Dec 3, 2021 28

Dungeons & Dragons Reviews

My Five Favorite Things From Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos

I don’t play Magic: The Gathering but have enjoyed the sourcebooks that they’ve done for Dungeons & Dragons, from the initial Plane Shift PDFs to the current slate of physical books. They are “new to me” settings full of material that I can use in my own games how I see fit. The newest release, Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos is the first one that I’ve considered running more or less straight...

Nov 29, 2021 59

Other Games Reviews

Cyberpunk Red: One Year Later

Of the two big releases in the Cyberpunk setting late last year, the tabletop one seems to have had the better time of it. Cyberpunk Red sparked some nostalgia in old players while introducing a new generation of players to one of the definitive settings in the genre. Surprisingly, that included me, as I spent my youth (and early parts of my career) over on the other side of the fence in...

Nov 26, 2021 136

Reviews World of Darkness

Sabbat: The Black Hand Shows How The World of Darkness Continues To Change

When Vampire: The Masquerade Fifth Edition made sweeping changes to the setting on its release, the sect of the Sabbat were swept right off the table. The political focus reshifted to a struggle between the Camarilla and Anarchs in every domain. Vague rumors of Sabbat cities being abandoned and many of their members being called to fight in battles against awakening elder vampires were enough...

Nov 19, 2021 8

GameHole Con Is My Favorite Convention

Yes, it’s a terrible name for a convention. The organizers will be the first to admit it. The name comes from the organizers’ name for their game space. That game space, much like the convention, is a hidden gem. It’s full of museum quality copies of D&D products throughout the nearly 50 years of the game’s existence. It’s also full of the things you might expect in a modern purpose built...

Nov 13, 2021 12

2d20 Reviews Star Trek

Time For Some Star Trek Adventures In The Shackleton Expanse

One of the strengths of the Star Trek Adventures line is the robust adventure support. Between the two published episode collections, the short starter box campaign, the individual PDF stories, the one page episode briefs and the living campaign adventures, GMs have enough Star Trek stories to tell that they will be well into the Beard Season of a campaign before having to write their own...

Nov 5, 2021 15

Call of Cthulhu Reviews

Call of Cthulhu Celebrates 40 Years of Madness and Mystery With A Deluxe Edition

Forty years may be the blink of an eye to a Great Old One but for the tabletop games industry it’s the sign of an institution. Call of Cthulhu arrived on the scene in 1981 introducing games to the terrifying world of H.P. Lovecraft and has since become synonymous with horror gaming. The RPG has star-spawned books, tabletop games, video games and media of its own.This game arguably introduced...

Oct 29, 2021 8

Other Games Reviews

Count On The Troubleshooters For Heists and Hijinx

Comic books have never been just superheroes. Like any media they’ve explored all sorts of genres from romance to crime to fantasy. Comics like Yoko Tsuno and Tintin, for example, offer worlds full of globetrotting adventure, lost treasures and exotic locations. Comics like these are the inspiration for The Troubleshooters from Helmgast. While I’m not very familiar with these comics, I felt...

Oct 25, 2021 16

Reviews Year Zero Engine

Marines, We Are Reading! (An ALIEN Colonial Marines Operations Manual Review)

The first question nearly every fan asked after the release of Free League’s ALIEN RPG two years ago was “Colonial Marines book when?” It’s an understatement to say that Colonial Marines Operations Manual is highly anticipated. Free League scored a massive hit with the core book and the pressure is on. Not only is it the first book aimed at campaign play, but it’s also an RPG book that fans...

Oct 15, 2021 7

Dungeons & Dragons Reviews

My Five Favorite Things From Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons

Even though the release of Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons has been slightly delayed by the ongoing shipocalypse, Wizards of the Coast still got preview copies out on time. What did I enjoy most on my first pass through the book? A Gem of an Ancestry The first chapter features a lot of cool player options such as dragon themed subclasses, spells, feats and magic items. Of the things you can use...