A while back at My Play, Gerald Cameron proposed the idea of the “BHAC” (Big, Hairy, Audacious Campaign), the sort of campaign that’s earth-trembling huge its shear audacity and (I’m assuming) its variance from the norm. He throws out one example: normal D&D campaigns usually have a home town or city … what happens if … Read more
The Star Wars: Saga Edition Role-Playing Game is the third Star Wars RPG released by Wizards of the Coast. Like it’s predecessors, its based on a variant of the d20 engine that drives Dungeons & Dragons. Unlike the previous editions though, this one truly feels like Star Wars. My friends and I (collectively known as … Read more
The headline says it all. I’m reviewing the new Star Wars: Saga Edition as a freelance gig. My review copy arrived Wednesday; my playtest of the game was scheduled for Friday and the game review is due Monday. At the same time, my Knights of the Dinner Table column was due Friday, my next freelance … Read more
Friday was utterly consumed by an all-day staff retreat at work, denying me my normal lunchtime opportunity to write my Game Day column. But here we go again, one day late, but a little wiser nonetheless as I take some time to look at the new Star Wars: Saga Edition RPG, consider lessons learned during … Read more
You can always tell how frantic my Fridays are (and thus, how much I really, really need a Game Day) by how long it takes this column to get online. Yesterday I had a working lunch out of the office, and didn’t even sit down at my desk until 3 p.m. Fortunately though, there was … Read more
This weekend saw my home improvement efforts redoubled as I patched and primed the walls of our third-floor bathroom, dug up a third of our admittedly-small backyard in order to sow grass and clover seed, and pulled staples from our hardwood floors in anticipation of getting them re-finished. And naturally, all of this gave me plenty of time to listen to podcasts.
The first day of GenCon registration was a frustrating, aggravating experience that took an hour and a half to complete, with most of that time spent trying (and failing) to “check out” and purchase my events. I’d be astounded by just how badly registration behaved … if I hadn’t heard how it took hours to complete registration last year. Instead, I’m just disappointed by a process that clearly needs some quality time with some load-testing specialists.
There comes a point in every expedition to Ravenloft Castle where the stalwart adventurers must seek out a certain Vistani woman for advice … and to have their “Tarokka” (a fantasy version of the Tarot) read. The cards drawn set the objectives of the expedition, and determine where certain random elements — like the fabled sun sword — can be found.
We have reached that point. Tonight we will visit the fortuneteller, get our futures told … and the real adventure will begin.
A few years ago, I decided I wanted to try a different kind of role-playing game campaign: a medieval urban fantasy that combined traditional story telling with the sort of open-ended, sandbox-like openness of games like Grand Theft Auto. The setting would be Obsidian Bay, the homegrown metropolis that my friends and I had spent … Read more
Board games return to the forefront this week as we prepare to play the game of Risk 2210 that got snowed out in March. Risk 2210 is a supercharged version of regular Risk that adds sea and moon colonies, special commander units that allow people to buy and play diplomacy, naval, space, land and nuke … Read more