Recent content by Ralif Redhammer

Oof, The Brothers Karamazov can be a tough read already, let alone with bad narration!

We had the torch go out while we were exploring a room, but I immediately could see how dangerous it going out in combat would be. As it stood, just getting another torch lit in darkness made the dark feel scary in a way it hasn't in years in D&D. The way it handles that, plus the inventory...

Looking forward to diving in and never hearing "I have darkvision" again! But seriously, I'm reminded of when Castles and Crusades came along, just when I was so over 3e. Now, I find myself again done with the complexity of the current edition of D&D, and this game seems to marry the old school...

There were multiple conventions going on at the Greater Columbus Convention Center at the same time as Origins. Including a meat scientist convention.

I would say that this was the first time there was an overwhelming and omnipresent funk. At past Origins, there'd be the occasional person with poor hygiene, but this was something else.

It was weird - even when there weren't people around, it smelled. One morning I went to the Center of Science and Industry, a little over a 20 minute walk. It was fine on the way there, but the temperatures had spiked on the way back. I went right to my hotel room and took a shower. Also saw...

Public access shows have in some ways relocated to YouTube. But that changes an essential nature of public access shows - that you pretty much just stumbled across them. Tuning into a public access station, I never knew if I was going to see heavy metal videos, a cooking show, preachers, weird...

Played Shadowdark at Origins and am now 100% sold on it! Was even able to pick up a copy of the core book in the dealer's hall the next day.

Origins felt more crowded this year, definitely. Also, by about the third day, the entire convention center smelled of sweat. Not a fan of that.

Finished reading Mona Lisa Overdrive. It boggles my mind that back in the day I read the first two books and never got to the third. It ties the whole Sprawl Trilogy together, while leaving some tantalizing questions for readers to ponder. Now I'm dipping back into fantasy with Lin Carter's...

Unless I've got a weaponized car or am working with a netrunner build, yeah, I find vehicle combat a little rough.

After running so many of the official campaigns for 5e, I'm fairly burnt out on "save the world" style campaigns. Give me a basic dungeon or hex crawl, or something else with lower stakes than facing forces out to destroy the world.

The idea of a someone thinking that Runequest would be a better fit for a ten-year-old than the Red Box is amusing. I get that people are passionate about their particular game of choice, but that seems a tall order for a kid to start with.