Live video streams and vidcasts are the big thing in role-playing games right now. Combined with the throwback Netflix series Stranger Things and the 80s-infused gamer novel Ready Player One the shows have helped produce a resurgence of Dungeons & Dragons and other RPGs. Unfortunately aside from Tabletop (which is more of a board game … Read more
As I wrote last week, the Blackrazors and their children will be running through the venerable module B2: The Keep on the Borderlands as part of our D&D Kids campaign. We’re playing D&D 5th Edition, and are running a version of the module updated for that edition. We chose B2 for a couple of reasons: … Read more
The next generation of Blackrazor Guilders have strapped on their fathers’ swords, sat down at the gaming table, and begun slinging dice. We have three kids (two boys, one girl) in the immediate group who want to play, and we have two of my son’s friends (both boys) who are also eager to start casting … Read more
I finally knocked one of the items off my RPG bucket list: “Play Eclipse Phase“. My gaming group has been kicking around ideas for an alternate game we can run when we’re not playing D&D and Eclipse Phase is a game that two of us had wanted to play for a while. The game is … Read more
Last year saw an array of family games invade the Geek Tree. This year it’s all about the RPGs.
The first two books to hit the Geek Tree’s space-and-rockets themed tree skirt were Savage Worlds books that I received for my birthday.
It’s been a little over a year since my gaming groups started playing D&D 5th Edition. We began with the D&D Basic Rules when they were released in July 2014 and quickly moved to the core rules (Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, Monster Manual) as they released. My Sunday group ran two playtest campaigns during … Read more
This winter’s never-ending parade of Northeastern snowstorms has played havoc with two things in my life: skiing and gaming. The storms marched through the region with exhausting regularity on Sundays and Mondays, spoiling the Sunday game and then canceling skiing.
My family’s big Christmas present this year was an Xbox One. The kids and I are loving it — I’m battling my way through the Halo: Master Chiefedition, and the kids are questing for the Lonely Mountain in LEGO: The Hobbit. Unfortunately while Halo looks great and the voice controls are very 21st century, the damn thing unexpectedly turns … Read more
Every hero’s path to glory to starts somewhere. In The Crypt of the Everflame, a 32-page, 1st-level adventure for the Pathfinder RPG, that path begins with a centuries-old crypt and an initiation ceremony gone horribly wrong.
Five years ago, I wrote about the dangers of the mega dungeon. Now my group has returned to Dungeons & Dragons, and I’m contemplating the role of dungeons in the campaign. Time has shown that the folks in my group aren’t big fans of mega dungeons, but I think we still enjoy the challenge of … Read more