On this episode of Radio Active, I discuss my daughter StarGirl’s sudden desire to learn chess and my approach to teaching her, contemplate the impending arrival of National Novel Writing Month, check out the Geek Dad Podcast and Simian Farmer blog and offer some thoughts on the 4th edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Getting the Show … Read more
It’s been a while since my last Game Day column, partly because of a crazy amount of work at home and job, but also because I haven’t been gaming as much as I’d like – I’ve missed two sessions in the last month, and will miss another next month. Haphazard schedule aside, my Mutants & … Read more
Martin Rayla has a great thread over on Treasure Tables about using music in your game. He’s not talking just about having something going on in the background, but also crafting a soundtrack that matches the expected actions, fights and drama that the players will be experiencing. I’ve used music in my games before, but … Read more
Somehow Pierce Haligarth has survived his fellow Lightbringer, Donegal, cleric of Daern. The cleric fell while Pierce and his fellow adventurers sought the Amulet of Ravenkind, which they’ll need to fight the dread Count Strahd of Castle Ravenloft. While Donegal rests in his god’s eternal fortress, he’s left the rest of the party to hunt … Read more
The Hellion-class heavy cruiser Cerberus took flight Friday night as my gaming group put the Battlestar Galactica RPG through its paces. As I wrote in my earlier Game Day column, the players took on the role of members of the Hellfire Aces, an elite squad of Marines and pilots attached to the Cerberus, a decommissioned … Read more
The new Battlestar Galactica RPG was a long time coming, and for a while, it seemed as legendary (and as likely to be found) as Earth is in the television series. But Margaret Weis Productions was selling the game at GenCon, and the general public should be able to get their hands on it by … Read more
GenCon is over. And now I’ve got a huge pile of loot sitting in my gaming room, just waiting to be read. Amazingly, there’s not a single Dungeons & Dragons book to be found among the stack, not even the Expedition to Castle Greyhawk, which I was sorely tempted to buy, but resisted at the … Read more
I woke up far too early on Saturday to get to an 8 a.m. Star Wars d20 game. The game let out early, which gave me time to wander the exhibit hall until exhaustion sent me retreating to my hotel room … only to be called back by a phone call from Erilar about a … Read more
Thursday’s D&D 4E buzz subsided by Friday morning, though a bunch of the special 4E t-shirts could be found in the convention hall. I will say there weren’t nearly as many as when 3E was announced in 1999, though admittedly the t-shirts for that edition were much, much cooler (listing all the major changes being … Read more
The big buzz around the con today is the anticipated announcement of Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition, when the game will arrive, how it will be different from 3E, and what this means for the hobby. And that’s just what I heard while waiting in line for coffee. Then again, maybe they should have just … Read more