Blog Archives
sMorale, Emotion, and a Defense of Limiting Player Autonomy
Thursday , 12, January 2017 Tabletop Games 4 CommentsLet me start by making a, perhaps, controversial statement: player autonomy should be limited and a lot of potential for fun resides in player limitation. It is often stated as a clear neophyte mistake for a Dungeon Master to tell players what their characters do. I agree with this as a general principal but, let’s […]
Building a Better Miniature Wargame: The Grand Strategy
Wednesday , 4, January 2017 Tabletop Games, Wargames Leave a commentMiniature wargamers are both blessed and cursed to live in a golden age of the hobby. Thanks to advances in material science and manufacturing, combined with the reduced cost of shipping and ease of cross-border payments, the cost and selection of figures available to wargames have never been better. The revolution in self-publishing has led […]
Welcome to the Tabletop Officer Training Corps, Recruit
Saturday , 31, December 2016 Tabletop Games, Wargames 6 CommentsMiniature wargaming would be the perfect hobby if it wasn’t for the steep learning curve. It covers every hobby base. Consider that miniature wargaming: is both a social and a solo hobby. To get the most out of miniature wargaming, you need to find opponents against which to war, but before you can match wits over […]
There’s no nice way to put it. Oh, I suppose I could invoke differing schools of thought on how this sort of thing is done. I could call one an “old school” approach and another the “new school” way. The latter would still be taken as derogatory. The former would provoke testimonials from people claiming […]
If it was just up to me, I’d only play the best of the best games out there. Yeah, I’d go to a convention and try before I buy, I’d watch box opening videos on YouTube and track down a half dozen reviews. I’d play the game solitaire in order to master the game before […]
A Conversation with Scott Palter of West End Games
Thursday , 6, October 2016 Tabletop Games 4 CommentsNote: Scott owned the first incarnation of West End Games, but not the three that followed it. Also, while he is affiliated with Final Sword Productions and Under the Moon Books, he is semi-retired. His statements here are his own and do not reflect on any of these other entities. — Jeffro: First off, let’s […]
Guest Post by Brian Renninger: Running First Edition Oriental Adventures, Session 5 part 1
Monday , 3, October 2016 Tabletop Games Leave a commentPlay report 5a: 1st Edition AD&D, and 1st Edition Oriental Adventures. Summary: Stern Librarians and Smoking the Panda. Note 1: this one contains spoilers (to some degree) of specific encounters from Vornheim so, if you plan to play it, I recommend skipping this one. Note 2: this session is broken into two parts as there […]
Guest Post by Brian Renninger: Running First Edition Oriental Adventures, Session 4
Monday , 12, September 2016 Tabletop Games 2 CommentsPlay report 4: 1st Edition AD&D, and 1st Edition Oriental Adventures. Summary: Three nights on the town So, our party has made landfall in the big city Okina Ringo. The ship is docked and entry fees paid. Now what? What is Okina Ringo like? Shozu and Yamagato are a faux Nippon (Fo-Nippon). Is the mainland […]
Guest Post by Brian Renninger: Running First Edition Oriental Adventures, Session 3 Part 2
Monday , 29, August 2016 Tabletop Games 3 CommentsPlay report 3b: 1st Edition AD&D, and 1st Edition Oriental Adventures. Anchors aweigh! Part 2 When we last saw our intrepid barbarians they had hit the town like a storm: punched out the town guard; kidnapped the headman and sold him into slavery to a southern pirate queen; signed on as crew to a large […]
The Adventurer Conqueror King System is modern variant of the “Basic” iteration of the original fantasy-role playing game. It has well developed rules for the oft-neglacted domain-level play, a large selection of variant classes and a GURPS-style system for making new ones, an excellent set of mass combat rules, and one of the best mega-dungeons […]
10 Things About 5th Edition Tunnels & Trolls that are Old School
Thursday , 18, August 2016 Appendix N, Tabletop Games 3 CommentsThe only people its creators had to worry about offending was the legal department at TSR. There are no rules for demi-human special abilities such as elves with keen hearing, dwarves that can very nearly smell gold, and hobbits that are good at stealth. All of this sort of thing is covered by the “verbal […]
Guest Post by Brian Renninger: Running First Edition Oriental Adventures, Session 3 Part 1
Monday , 15, August 2016 Tabletop Games 4 CommentsPlay report 3a: 1st Edition AD&D, and 1st Edition Oriental Adventures. Anchors aweigh! Part 1. After the first session total party kill, and the second session introduction of the barbarian übermensch this third session started to hit a stride. The session began with the two Barbarians and the Shugenja at loose ends in the village […]