EN World: Tabletop RPG News & Reviews
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Triple Review of Call to Arms: Avatar, Inquisitor, & Crusader by Crafty Games
While sailing through the RPG blogosphere a couple months ago, I ran across a writer who expressed the opinion that the Edition Wars and WotC’s “stumble” with D&D 4E was actually good for the gaming community. I was a bit taken aback by this as I’d always felt the Edition Wars was rather hurtful to both sides – Pathfinder/d20 vs. D&D 4E – but this author opined that it was actually a benefit...
Every Hero Needs A Victim
Ah, heroism. The bold confrontation of evil and menace by the brave and occasionally somewhat foolhardy hero for the benefit of someone in desperate need of their help. The RPG hobby was born out of the forge of heroism, and the most popular game within the hobby has always used it as the banner-level promise. "Play Dungeons & Dragons," the cover proclaims in ways overt and subtle, "and you...
Experience Point: Pacing, Pacing, Pacing
On Sunday I had the opportunity to run a new Sky Galleons of Mars (Savage Worlds Space:1889) adventure while visiting friends in Atlanta. This is a series of one-shot games I've been running at Game Days and GenCon for many years. It's a gaming genre with which I'm very familiar and comfortable. And yet I still managed to get the pacing a bit off. I think the backbone of the adventure was...
Pretty Darn Fun (a look at new PDFs)
The GM Sale is still ongoing at rpgnow.com but is scheduled to end later today, so if you haven’t picked up a deal yet, now’s your last chance to get them. In case you are running out time, if you take a look at last week’s PDF column we had a selection of some of the more interesting PDFs available. In this week’s column, we have some new PDFs that came out over the last week or so (and some...
3G: Come On Baby, Light My Fire
Last week I resurrected some salamander gaming material for D&D 3.5, and this week I want to see what can be converted to 4E. The beauty of D&D is that most of the material translates across editions with just a little tweaking. The more diversity we have to draw from, the better our games can be. Salamander Sweat Alchemist’s fire is still in 4E, and the Alchemist’s Fire Ritual allows you...
Minecraft vs. RPGs
So which is better: Minecraft or RPGs? I think it’s high time we took a look at both of them in the ring. Minecraft obviously has the weight of innovation, designers who are still alive, technology, and a huge user base behind it. RPGs have 40+ years of establishment, more versatility, the ability to roll d20s, and a somewhat larger number of monsters you can include. In any debate of one...
Board Game Review: 7 Wonders by Repos Production
I love the whole idea of games where you get to build civilisations, starting from nothing and watching this sprawling creation of yours grow before your eyes.Unfortunately, the vast majority of them require quite the time investment; playing games like A Brief History of the World are,sadly, far from brief. This isn't to say that they're bad, it's just that it can be difficult to get a group...
Gamehackery: Magazines, Apps, and Getting Your Gaming Content
We've seen a few changes in the TRPG magazine market lately. A few months back, Dragon and Dungeon switched from their daily publication schedule to publishing the entire bundle of content once a month. Then Kobold Quarterly decided to end their long run. Then Gygax magazine kicked off with an excellent premiere issue. Meanwhile, in the broader magazine industry, Time Warner is...
XP For You
Do you award XP for slaying a monster? What about for resisting a succubus’s lure? Do you award it for discovering a new land, or for building your character’s relationship with another? How about for resolving a plot point, or disabling a trap? Do you award it for bringing pizza to the game, award it differently depending on the kind of PC, or do you just award it every few sessions? Or do...
Review of The Lazy Dungeon Master by Mike Shea
There are few who would argue with the assertion that the role-playing game fan-base is a very inclusive group. RPG fans come from all walks of life, from nearly every age bracket, and from a diverse range of racial, political, and societal groups. The only criteria that really applies to becoming a role-player is the willingness to just get on with it and ROLE-PLAY an alter-ego/character...
Experience Point: The Price of Admission
It seems economics is in the air everywhere these days. Just when we got past the Fiscal Cliff, we were plunged headlong into a land where you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting three people with the word “Sequestration” coming out of their mouths. None of those politics will be discussed herein. That’s not just because this is ENWorld. It’s because I am way less concerned with the...
Do Not Pass Go
Last week, io9.com posted a list of the 10 Greatest Science Fiction Games of All Time. We like lists, on the internet at least. They're easy to assemble, quick to read and, more often than not, very hit friendly. They drag eyeballs to a page because people want to see what you think the best of the best is and then disagree with it. That generates comments and proves to the author that at...
Pretty Darn Fun (a look at new PDFs)
While there are a number of other sites out there that sell PDFs, rpgnow.com and its affiliate sites are the largest and most used sites for rpg PDFs. So, when they have a sale, it’s kind of a big thing. This week they are sponsoring GM’s Day, an annual sale on a multitude of PDFs on their site with 25% off participating publishers. This sale lasts until 3/12 so you have about a week to find...
3G: Burn, Baby, Burn
Radamond whirled around with his blade, slicing into the creature’s stomach. “Feel the wrath of Radamond the Mighty!” he shouted. His opponent made some type of reply, but Radamond couldn’t understand the hissing and crackling. “What’s that? You are afraid?” he bellowed. A smack across the back caught the barbarian off guard. Garret’s opponent had feinted at the thief with its halfspear...
Micro and Macro Problems in RPGs
To design a good RPG adventure often requires creative thinking. Thinking outside of the box and beyond what you would normally. This is one of the most exciting, entertaining, and rewarding parts of being a GM. If you pull it off correctly, the looks of awe on the players’ faces make this kind of thinking well worth it. One way to start thinking outside of the box is to think of things on a...
Board Game Review: Forbidden Island by Gamewright
The last couple of reviews I've done here on EN World have been about pretty complex games, so this time round I figured I'd look at something a little lighter that won't scare off your average person who thinks that Monopoly and Risk are about as hard as it gets. Today's game is playable by pretty much anyone - even young kids should be able to grasp the core concepts - and best of all...
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D&D (2024) True Polymorph now confers permanent muteness- Latest: Whizbang Dustyboots
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D&D 5E Goodman Games Next Crowdfunding Project: Terror of the Underdeep- Latest: Distracted DM
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