RPG a Day 2023 – Favorite Game You Never Get to Play

A space suited human with a head lamp pointed toward the viewer. An Alien appears ominously in the background.

Favorite game you never get to play?  Easy: the ALIEN RPG by Free League. I bought the books and boxed sets during the pandemic, slowly accumulating a collection I never got to play. I love ALIEN and ALIENS, but even I admit that getting killed by alien monsters was a bit too much during the … Read more

RPG a Day 2023 – Most Recent RPG Bought

Cover art for the Marvel Multiverse RPG, featuring heroes battling villains.

Thanks to GenCon, the answer to the question “Most Recent RPG Bought?” is a two-way tie between the Marvel Multiverse RPG (which I played at the con as well) and the Captain’s Log Solo RPG for Star Trek Adventures. The Marvel Multiverse RPG captures the feel of superhero play very, very well … and does … Read more

RPG a Day 2023 – First RPG Bought This Year

A humanoid riding a bipedal lizard mount.

Forbidden Lands is the first RPG I bought this year and I ended up with two copies: one in English … and one in Swedish. The Swedish one arrived first due to a shipping mishap. Now granted, my family is Swedish – my grandfather and grandmother came to America as teenagers – so I’ve always … Read more

RPG a Day 2023 – First RPG Game Master

Three rulebooks for Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition, which powered my first game master's college campaign.

Vince Hendricks was my first RPG game master. There were other game masters before him, but Vince ran the first real, ongoing, sustained campaign I played in. Vince was my first college roommate – a senior when I was a sophomore (I transferred in that year) and he introduced me to a ton of gamers … Read more

RPG a Day 2023 – First RPG Played This Year

Gargoyles guard a lightning-illuminated entrance to a temple

My first RPG played this year was Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, but that’s almost always the answer. I started 2023 by pitching my Elemental Apocalypse game to the Blackrazor Guild (my Sunday online game). The campaign asks the question: “What if the Temple of Elemental Evil rose … and the World of Greyhawk fell?” Eight months … Read more

Getting Ready for GenCon 2023

The GenCon 2023 logo

I’m going to GenCon! For the first time since 2014, I’ll be in Indianapolis, Indiana playing games and geeking out with gamers, fans, and publishers. I’ll be tag-teaming the event with David Moore, my co-host at the Lair of Secrets podcast. In previous years, I focused on playing as many games as possible. This year, it’s … Read more

Spacewar! – Ready Player One Video Game Replay

The title screen for Spacewar!, featuring the game's logo and instructions for playing the game.

Spacewar! is the world’s second video game. Created by MIT students in 1962, it – like Tennis for Two – earned a shrine in Ready Player One. Quote The museum’s bottom level, located in the planet core, was a spherical room containing a shrine to the very first videogame, Tennis for Two, invented by William Higinbotham in 1958. The … Read more

Battlezone – Ready Player One Video Game Replay

The title screen for Battlezone, depicting a line-drawn tank and the game's title.

Battlezone is a first-person tank game released by Atari in 1980. Like Star Wars Arcade, it uses vector graphics to create a three-dimensional representation of its gaming world. It helps inform the visuals of Ready Player One. Quote On the surface, Archaide looked exactly like the environment of the 1981 game Battlezone, another vector-graphic classic from Atari. In … Read more

Star Wars Arcade – Ready Player One Video Game Replay

A vector graphic version of the Death Star from Star Wars Arcade.

Star Wars Aracade is a vector graphics-based video game released by Atari in 1983. Additional versions were released for home consoles (albeit with inferior graphics). The game plays a minor role in Ready Player One, serving as the inspiration for the arcade museum planet of Archaide. Quote The planet’s only surface feature was a web … Read more