Recent content by M.T. Black

I was shocked and saddened to hear this. Rob and I only had a few interactions over the years, but he always seemed like a terrific guy. My condolences to his wife and daughter - how dreadful.

I felt like Gamma World really got short-changed after they absorbed Ares. While they were still publishing Gamma World articles pretty frequently, most of them were restricted to 1 or 2 pages and didn't appear in the magazine contents.

Yes, it is "damning with faint praise." But I also felt like it was an honest review, rather than Bunnell grasping for something good to say. It's an awkward position for him to be in, given how much focus TSR was starting to put on Dragonlance.

Dragon Publishing released Dragon #98 in June 1985. It is 100 pages long and has a cover price of $3.00. This issue features dragons, magical relics, and apocalyptic monsters! The cover is by Denis Beauvais and is his sixth painting for Dragon Magazine. Called "Allegory," it depicts a...

The party had to travel from Iskandar to Deepwater last night, which is about fifty miles on a well established road. Making these sorts of journeys feel interesting and meaningful has been a long running challenge for me, and I know lots of you have mentioned similar. I really dislike just...

In terms of location, I'm playing in Greyhawk and I've placed the Keep between the Vesve Forest and Whyestil Lake, on the northern border of Furyondy. Given Iuz is to the north, it nicely matches the "borderland between law and chaos" vibe of the original.

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I bought this yesterday and played the first session last night with two people who've never played D&D before. Everyone had a wonderful time. I'm a great fan of the original KotB, but I appreciate the fidelity to the original product while updating it for a new audience. The presentation is...

That's sad to hear. For those interested, here's a short bio of Robin: About Robin Wood - © Robin Wood 2009

Where can we see your reviews?

I enjoyed this issue, but I have to agree with you. The "Point of View" articles were phenomenal back in the day, and when you match them up with things like Greenwood's article on the Nine Hells - well, the current content does not compare.

I have training costs in my 5E game, but they are fairly modest (50 gp at 1st level) and scale with tiers. I also ask the players to write a short explanation of what training looks like for that level, and what skills they gained.

Dragon Publishing released Dragon #97 in May 1985. It is 100 pages long and has a cover price of $3.00. The cover is titled "Music Lover" by Robin Wood, a whimsical piece showing an old silver dragon listening to a bard. It was the first of many covers Wood painted for TSR. The interior...

Thanks for sharing this Mike. Quite a few of us have been concerned about his sudden disappearance, so this is good news. I sent an email to his workplace a few weeks ago asking about his welfare. They responded that they couldn't share any information for privacy reasons, but that my note had...

lol, I must be a curmudgeon as well! I just never found the joke articles very funny - they were clearly straining for a gag. Folk such as Roger Moore who were great at creating gaming content are not necessarily going to be skilled humorists... I'm imagining an alternative timeline where Kim...