Category Uncategorized
Reviewing Art & Arcana: A Visual History
I didn’t know what to expect when I got my copy of Art & Arcana. I guess I expected an art book, which A&A technically qualifies as, but it’s also a lot more than that. I want to call it a history book but even that, while technically accurate, doesn’t feel right. Art and Arcana […]
Kickstarter Spotlight: Dungeon Dreams
Dungeon Dreams is an indy game that blends the JRPG, Roguelike, Dating Sim genres and you can find it on Kickstarter now! All of those genres may sound like a lot to throw into one game and sounds exceptionally ambitious for an indy project, but having played the demo I can tell you that the […]
Turning the Gears: Party Reputation and NPC Reactions
An important part of good DMing is creating reasonable and realistic consequences for player’s actions. Not just in the sense of heroes getting experience and loot for killing the bad guys, but also in the reactions of the NPCs around them. Instinctively, we want to keep track of it in our heads, and let things […]
Classics Corner: The Super Mario Brothers
Everyone knows about the Mario Brothers, and there’s not a lot to be said about them that hasn’t shown up in a dozen other “did you know” videos and listed articles already. Because of that, I’m not here to talk about Mario trivia or give you a history lesson (there’s plenty of that out there […]
Not Gaming: A BtVS Spike/Vampires in General Fan Theory
Alright, so I’m taking a break from writing about games to talk about something entirely different. I’m not really a fandom sort of person, but I live with someone who has watched the entirety of Buffy the Vampire Slayer something like seven hundred times, and as a result I’ve seen the whole series about six […]
Five Things that Made Super Metroid a Perfect Game
In 1994 Nintendo released Super Metroid for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and, honestly, we could have just stopped right there. I mean, I’m glad we didn’t, but really if you got your hands on that game when it was released then you didn’t really NEED another one. Bold statements about the industry aside, Super […]
Videogame Investigations: Black Closet
Black Closet is a relatively obscure but very good title by Hanako Games, a relatively obscure but very good developer. The game is set at an all-girls boarding school where you take on the role of Elsa Jackson, the newly elected president of an absurdly powerful student council. Your responsibilities as president include keeping the […]
Indy Spotlight: The Witch is Dead
“The Witch is Dead” is a free one-page free RPG by Grant Howitt. Designed to be played in a single session, “The Witch is Dead” gives its players control over one of the late witches familiars and a single goal: revenge. You see, the witch was not the wicked kind. She was wise and benevolent […]
Buff Spells, Action Economy, and Time as a Resource
Buff spells are powerful. Buff spells are almost necessity level powerful, to the point that clerics and druids are arguably better classes for straight up combat classes and spell casters in general are always considered top tier. However, I’ve noticed that a lot of combat works like this… DM: Alright, you can see through the […]
My Problem with Planes
(This article is about extraplanar adventures in roleplaying games, not flying machines.) “We’re about to hit the next story arc of our campaign,” I said to my players, visibly very excited, “Does anyone want to suggest a theme?” Now, for those of you who don’t know, this is a dangerous proposition. This is how you end up […]
The Game Detective 