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I will not miss the challenge dice. I've only ever liked them in Fallout and Achtung Cthulhu which are games that are much more tactical. A lot of these systems were part of Dreams and Machines. I like how stress is a flip on how Fate does it: it assumes you are out if an attack hits you. You...

There's not much in the way of direct alternate hooks in the text. That space is taken up by fostering discussion between the players about their character's childhood friendship that summer and how everyone was connected when Ossie died. The idea here is to let the players figure out why they...

I think this is all part of the session zero discussion if you are using this as the campaign kickoff. Plenty of time for players to voice railroading concerns and the table to figure out a setup that works for everyone. If it's a con game, well, you only have so much time to play and you are...

Convention adventures are built to highlight the cool parts of a role playing game. In theory, they are made to make the players wander over into the dealer hall and pick up the main rulebook. They have lives beyond this original purpose. They can be taken home and played with friends as a break...

The core book and the Kang campaign are also available via Kindle though I can't speak to how they look in that format. I think that we will see a shift as more players use digital tools like DDB and Nexus that phones will be part of the experience rather than distract with cat videos.

Nobody's prefect. My main beef with the no PDF policy is how it hamstrings one of the game's main strengths. I should be able to ask everyone at the table who their favorite Marvel character is, print out those profiles and jump into a game.

They did recently release Revenge of the Super-Skull on PDF. Hope springs eternal.

It’s been about 10 months since the Marvel Multiverse Role Playing Game officially released. It seems to be doing well with a ranking on ICV2’s 10 ten sales chart and a hotly anticipated X-Men Sourcebook hitting on the heels of a revamp of the classic animated series. While Marvel Heroic...

Game worlds like Warhammer 40,000 operate under a double edged sword. On the one hand, the world of Warhammer has decades of lore and history to discover. On the other hand, mountains of information can be intimidating for new players to figure out where to start. The key for an introductory...

Not all my reviews are of new product. Nobody has been able to afford my time travel rate yet.

The basic gameplay loop of Dungeons & Dragons and other fantasy RPGs is pretty simple. The players head into the dungeon to bring back loot. They use the loot for better stuff to go back out into the dungeon to get more loot. Some Dungeon Masters add in a third step where they must survive the...

Games like Savage Worlds Adventure Edition are toolkits for enterprising Game Masters to use in building their own worlds. But even the best carpenter can use help from time to time with solid instructions and advice. That’s where the genre companion books for Savage Worlds come in. They’ve got...

Dragonbane remains one of my favorite products to recommend to new role playing gamers. It contains everything for a lovely campaign in the Misty Vale. Free League Publishing recently released the first expansion for the game with Dragonbane Bestiary. For a game that’s steeped in classic fantasy...

I think that was a deliberate choice for players who are reluctant to try games outside of D&D. It still highlights how deadly mythos creatures are and how you have to outthink them rather than grind down hit points. That's also a vital part of playing CoC.

Time is of the essence when running a game demo. I try to keep the demo sessions I run at cons to about two hours. The goal is to get in, show off what makes the game fun and get the players back on the con floor to buy the game from the booth. When I picked up Gateways To Terror from Chaosium I...