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Yeah, even tweaking a few things, a victory by the Confederacy just wasn't going to happen. The greater industrialization of the North was always going to tell. The Great Ghost Dance is that it caused four volcanoes to erupt at once. Magic had only been around for six years at this point. The...

There will likely be a ton of Adventurers League games at Gen Con, so signing up for one of those should be easy. As far as where to stay, my advice would be to go for a connected hotel if at all possible. Other sundry advice - wear comfortable shoes. You do a lot of walking at Gen Con. Also...

I'd buy that. In some cases, all it would take would be a few subtle tweaks, though I think some of the changes required might need a stronger hand. Interesting. I am not that familiar with Deadlands. I played it back when it first came out and loved it. These days, way more into Cyberpunk Red...

Shadowrun's lore (and, debatably, its mechanics) are rooted in the late 80s and early 90s. A time not necessarily known for its cultural sensitivities. Now, let's be fair, they were not alone in this. Some of the more cringey World of Darkness books spring to mind as well. However, huge amounts...

Most of the time, but not always. It's Ben Riggs and Dr. Scott Bruener's new podcast, spinning off from Plot Points. It grew out of reading the 1e DMG, page by page, sentence by sentence, and discussing it.

Even as a teenager, I noticed the compartmentalization at work here. I remember talking to a hyper-christian classmate in high school who thought D&D was the work of the devil, but was completely fine with Marvel and DC superheroes. I argued the similarities and hypocrisies (Mephisto, anyone?)...

I tune into: Reading D&D Aloud Tabletop Cyberpunk (alas, over, but full of good ideas and advice) Vintage RPG Slovenly Trulls Spellburn

I finished reading Jack Vance's The Languages of Pao. It felt a bit like Vance's take on Dune, except focused on philology instead of ecology. And a whole lot shorter. Now I'm reading Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. Everyone has told me I am long overdue in reading it.

Our parents (as I've mentioned before, I have a twin brother) encouraged gaming as a way to expand our math skill, reading, creativity, and socialization. They didn't necessarily understand it entirely, but they saw that it had positive effects. Later on as teenagers, our parents didn't care a...

If I recall correctly, he was going back and forth between this and filming Requiem for a Dream. That had to be a headtrip for him. There was always that one kid. It still boggles my mind that they greenlit a 7' long toy. Even for the excess of the 80s, that just seems so absurd. My brother...

I finished reading Barnes' Gorgon Child. This book delivers action, character growth, expanded worldbuilding from Streetlethal. It also delivers a much better cover than the first one. And the choice of villain...well, written in 1989, it's an eerily prophetic choice. Now I'm reading Jack...

Watched the original D&D cartoon when it came out. I also remember being super-excited to discover it again in the early 00s on syndication. I remember starting to watch it on VHS, pausing the tape, then calling a bunch of friends because I knew I couldn't make it though watching it alone. In...

Ah, the great Falling Damage Wars of the 80s. Each person chasing realism with an abstracted system (Hit Points).

Throughout TSR's history, it was either that or people with games experience and no business expertise! Had they managed to thread that needle, TSR might still be around today.

It's from Tom Wham's Snit Smashing and Snit's Revenge:

Fascinating that this is pretty much debunked (at least for Gary) by When We Were Wizards. That it was Gary that refused Lorraine's offer to still work at TSR, to have anything to do with TSR if he wasn't in charge.

There's an almost Picasso-like feel to that one.

Considering both my gaming groups are with friends (and my brother), our connections run deeper than just people I game with. We hang out outside of gaming, but it's one of our strongest ways we keep in touch. I haven't run across this particular scenario per se, but I have seen (and at times...

I remember seeing that art for the first time on the cover of Dragon Magazine. Everything about it sells you on Dark Sun being so different, so alien from other D&D settings at the time. And don't forget the Bolotomus in the lower right corner!