Tag Archives: Gaming
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: Spectacular Settlements
I talk quite a bit about world building and the importance of a living, breathing world in your tabletop RPGs. Spectacular Settlements is a comprehensive tool for building settlements in a way that will let the DM build fully realized settlements that can definitively answer not only common questions like “Who is in charge” and […]
Five of D&D’s Most Bizarre Creatures (And How to Use Them)
When a game has as wide a range of monsters as Dungeons and Dragons, it’s inevitable that some enter common usage, and some are forgotten. In the weird in-between area, though, there are the weird ones that are remembered and recognized for their strangeness but either go unused or get thrown in for giggles without […]
Five Awesome Creatures in the D&D Monster Manual and How to Use Them
The world’s oldest roleplaying game has had no shortage of amazing creatures throughout its history, from the terrifying Tarrasque to bizarre but brutal Behir. Nonetheless, in any population there are those that stand above the rest and monsters are no exception, so let’s look at the coolest monsters in the Dungeons and Dragons 5e Monster […]
Kickstarter Spotlight: Blueshift
I am a huge fan of 4x strategy games and it is exceptionally rare to see this genre represented well in board games. Sure, there are a lot of good strategy games out there, Catan comes to mind most readily, but for a game to capture all four of the X’s well is exceptionally rare. […]
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 […]
Four Things That Made Final Fantasy Tactics the Perfect SRPG
Happy New Year everyone! I want to start the year off right, by talking about one of the few games that is, in my opinion, just about as close to perfect as a game can be. So let’s get started. Nearly 20 years ago Squaresoft released the actual perfect videogame in Final Fantasy Tactics. At […]
Video Game Investigations: Super Dungeon Tactics
Super Dungeon Tactics, for those that don’t know, is a tactical RPG video game based on the “Super Dungeon Explore” board game made by Soda Pop Minis. Super Dungeon Tactics was developed by Underbite Games and appears to be their first official video game (as it is the only game on their website). The trailer, […]
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 […]
Heroes in the Darkness: A Look at Roleplaying Horror Adventures
Horror is a genre that’s very easy to do poorly. Whether we’re talking literature, cinema, or games it’s really easy to screw up being scary because fear is a difficult emotion to effectively manipulate, particularly in an observer. It can be really difficult, for example, to take advantage of certain primal fears in the mind […]
The Game Detective 