Morrus' Unofficial Tabletop RPG News

Sep 05

Veteran gamers and OSR fans have most likely heard of the infamous troll named Grimtooth, and his fantastic assortment of deadly and diabolical traps. (*nod* Flying Buffalo) Well, old Grimtooth has some competition these days from a mere human named Gavin the Trapsmith.

What are we forgetting to remember?

Sep 04

Today I talk about a question for which I have not landed on an answer: Does the convenience of digital storage cause a loss in nostalgia? And is that loss worth the convenience?

500 Pounds of Beef – 5 Meaty Board Games for Long Weekends

Sep 04

Five Games to help while away those long weekends.

More GEN CON coverage than you can shake a stick at!

Sep 02

GEN CON has been over for a couple of weeks now. As you probably inferred form various previous news updates, EN World was there armed with video cameras and microphones capturing as much of the...

Eberron for Two, Part Two

Sep 02

We join our dynamic duo as they lurk outside a ruined tower while Brelish and Cyre forces clash on the Saerun Road below the hill. Each has mission; can they work together to accomplish them? For the first part of this article, see here.

11 Campaign Settings

Sep 01

Creating your own campaign setting is one of the most rewarding parts of being a GM. You get to create fantastic lands, interesting locales, cool NPCs, and more. A good campaign is like a living and breathing world. Not only is it a place with history and character, it’s also a fantastic backdrop for your epic adventures.

The Most Polite and Angriest Game I Own - No Thanks!

Aug 31

The cliche goes that size isn't everything, and that's especially true in games. Sometimes the tiniest boxes contain the biggest challenges, and in No Thanks! you'll be left wondering precisely why you've got all those big games on your shelves when there's so much thought and rage in this little package...

Random Encounters: Friend or Foe?

Aug 31

In the earliest days of D&D, adventure modules came with Wandering Monster tables, meant to create urgency and risk for parties that take their time, prodding each flagstone of the dungeon floor with their trusty 10' pole. Since then, we've see the rise of Random Encounter tables used to do things like provide a sense of the population and flavor of a region or location, as well as keep the players on their toes. And they were handy for us as younger gamers -- we could always rely on them to fill game time with something exciting and new when we didn't have grander plans for our game's story.

Uggggh!

Aug 30

I had a really good, long news page written for today, full of loads of great content and news from publishers and community members. Then my browser crashed, losing me over two hours of solid...

ENNIES Pre-Show Interviews; WotC, Paizo, 13TH AGE at PAX; PAIZO is in Top 5000 Growing Companies; an

Aug 29

ENNIES Pre-Show Interviews; WotC, Paizo, 13TH AGE at PAX; PAIZO is in Top 5000 Growing Companies;and a D20 SHAPED BOWL! ENnies 2013 Pre-show Interviews At the ENnies at Gen Con Indy this year, we...

What Is Worthy of a Class?

Aug 29

What classes should 5e actually embrace? What should be relegated to the subclass bargain bin? Actually. there's a different way to look at the endless debates about what should or should not be a class, one that's more useful and productive than trying to draw lines in this ever-shifting beach sand. Come with me and discover it.

A Treasure Trove for OSR Space-Operas in Suns of Gold: Merchant Campaigns (for Stars Without Number

Aug 29

For some SciFi RPG fans, space-operas are made for exploring planets, blasting the heads off aliens, and rescuing the space princess. Other fans run tactical campaigns as mercenaries and space marines, using battling armies and armadas as the backdrop for their heroes’ saga. But for some fans, turning a profit by trading goods across the galaxy and out-smarting a dangerous trade cartel over a colonial deal worth mega-credits is just as thrilling as shooting a plasma cannon into any four-armed alien monstrosity.

An Impromptu Brit Publisher Panel at Gen Con; plus Cosplay, Costumes, and a Parade!

Aug 28

Other than the ENnies pre-show and ceremony itself (a big editing job - expect that soon!), EN World's video coverage of Gen Con concludes with these three videos. The first is an impromptu...

A new door opens means an old one closes?

Aug 28

Our group is starting a new campaign. We've never been good running two games at once so this means we're shutting down our previous campaign. With excitement about the new game on the rise, was this a foregone conclusion?

Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle: A Railroady Adventure and Exclusive Gen Con D&D Next Softcover Ruleset

Aug 28

Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle / 5E WOTC has done about as well as can expected with this adventure. It contains a lot of very very good content in it; a great number of good ideas and ‘advice through examples.’ It’s also a railroad with a whole of bad ideas thrown in … but maybe that a given these days, at least the railroad part anyway. I suspect the real goal of 5e/Next is to produce content that the entire range of D&D editions can use, as well as the Pathfinder crowd. I don’t think this product does that. But it is close … a lot closer than anything that has come before. It’s close enough that I’m keeping an open mind and will buy the next one.

Eberron for Two

Aug 27

The other day I was working on one of my campaigns in the living room while daughter #3 and her boyfriend were watching an anime called Fairy Tail (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy_Tail). They had been bugging me for a while to run a D&D campaign for them, but I had put it off for lack of inspiration. However, as they watched episode after episode of the young people and talking, flying cat taking on quests and battling rival guild members, I had an epiphany – this was a lot like Eberron!

4 GM Tips

Aug 26

You can never have too much game mastering advice. Just as you can never have too many monsters, too many successful adventures, or too many times the villain reappears and says, “Ha, you thought I was dead, did you?”

Coming Home: A Post-Gen Con Update!

Aug 25

I'm typing this from far above the Atlantic, on my way home after Gen Con and assorted other fun US-based shenanigans. This news page should be returning to normal by Monday (Tuesday at the...

What are your favorite Non-Combat Gadgets?

Aug 24

As we come down from GenCon, lets take a quick look at ideas for game-supporting gadgets that serve the non-combat pillars of our games -- exploration and roleplaying.

Insane in the Brain - A Look at Neuroshima Hex!

Aug 24

In a far flung future where everything has gone really quite badly, the world is very different to what we know today. Governments have collapsed, replaced by warring factions looking to control what little there is left. Neuroshima Hex is far from a happy place... it's a good game though.