I’m back from GenCon 2014. As always it was an exhausting-but-fun four days of gaming, preceded by a few days visiting with my wife’s relatives relatives in southern and central Indiana. Adventuring with D&D 5th Edition My Dungeons & Dragons 5e events were decent — I played a pre-gen wizard who I was able to … Read more
One of the big reasons I come to GenCon is to play games, but it’s not the only reason: shopping is another. In 2000 I bought my first Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition Player’s Handbook there, in 2014 I’ll by my first 5th Edition PHB. This is where I got my Battlestar Galactica and Serenity RPG books, as well as more d20 sourcebooks than I care to mention.
I’m on the road to GenCon 2014. In seven hours I’ll be in Indianapolis, rendezvousing with friends, checking into the hotel, picking up my registration pack … and getting reading to roll some dice. As I wrote a few months ago, this is my first trip to GenCon since 2007. A lot has changed since then — from what I’ve heard, the convention has gotten even bigger than it was then (and it was hella big then, having outgrown Milwaukee a few years earlier).
I’ve been creating campaign websites for most of the Blackrazor Guild websites since 1996. We have an extensive wiki for our Greyhawk campaign and experimented with blogs for our Mutants & Masterminds and Star Wars campaigns. Blogs had been difficult to use because they’re oriented more towards serial writing and less about publishing (and extensively … Read more
After seven years away, I’m going back to GenCon. It’s been far too long since I was last there, and even longer since the late 1990s when GenCon was an annual pilgrimage for my gaming group. I’m looking forward to going back.
A hundred years after the Battle of Yavin, the New Republic is ash, crushed by a resurgent Galactic Empire and it’s Sith allies-turned-usurpers. Darth Krayt sits upon the throne, maintaining his power by forsaking the Rule of Two and anointing a half-dozen Sith Lords. A ragtag fleet of Republic ships thwarts his will, as does the Roan Fel, the deposed emperor who resists the Sith from the Imperial home world of Bastion.
The Jedi Academy Training Manual looks to be the definitive sourcebook for Jedi and Force-using characters in the Star Wars: Saga Edition Role-Playing Game, introducing new force powers, talents, lightsaber forms, rules for holocrons, variant lightsaber crystals, alternative Force traditions, monstrous opponents and exotic locals.
After a successful playtest of Savage Worlds, my gaming group — the Blackrazor Guild — decided to launch a short-to-mid-range Weird Pulp campaign. The campaign began in early Spring 2014, and we’re expecting it to run through at least Summer 2014.
The Rebellion Era is one of Star Wars most iconic settings. Paradoxically, this can make it one of the hardest to write a campaign guide for. Much of the setting was covered in the Star Wars: Saga Edition core rule book or covered in supplements like Threats of the Galaxy and Scum and Villainy. The Rebellion Era Campaign Guide addresses this by doing its best to document the unexplored corners of that galaxy, far, far away.
My lunchtime campaign has transitioned from Dragon Age to Numenera. Two of us backed it in the Kickstarter, and the others were sufficiently intrigued to want to playtest the game. As I wrote before, my regular gaming group ran an extensive playtest of Numenera that involved two adventures spread out over several real-world months. With … Read more