This edition of my semi-quarterly wish list includes a few non-RPG items for the first time, partly because there I’m there’s not a lot of D&D stuff out there that I’m interested in buying, but mostly because stuff like the Return of the King Soundtrack and the Two Towers Extended DVDs are must-have additions to … Read more
Ogre Cave (www.ogrecave.com) is a multi-person blog offering news and commentary about speculative fiction gaming in its myriad incarnations, from board games to role-playing games to card games. The site’s updated several times a week (and occasionally, several times a day) with short news updates, such as White Wolf Games lawsuit trying to stop Sony’s … Read more
Normally this time of year sees me putting together my GenCon Shopping List, but unfortunately I’m not going to GenCon this year. For the first time since 1999, I’m staying home, largely because a) I want to spend time with my baby daughter and b) I need to give my finances a break. But not … Read more
Tome of Horrors is a 400+ compendium of monsters for Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition culled from the first and second editions of the game.
I watched High Fidelity the other night with my wife. It’s a movie in which the main character, played by John Cusak, is a music geek in love with vinyl. The movie’s peppered with his top five lists (both of music and break-ups) and it got me thinking about my own top five lists with … Read more
I got my latest issue of Dragon yesterday and discovered its section dedicated to a “countdown” to the revised edition of D&D, which is supposed to be released this summer. The new release includes revisions and tweaks based on customer feedback, rules integrated from the various handbooks, and about 25% new material. I’m ambivalent about … Read more
I picked up my copy of d20 Modern last week. I’ve given it a once over, and while I’m not ready to post a full-review, here are my initial impressions. d20 Modern is an adequate book that probably would have been a lot more impressive if it had preceded Spycraft. It provides the underlying structure … Read more
3rd Edition Dungeon Master’s Guide introduces five new non-player character classes (NPCS) to the game which provide Dungeon Masters with some non-adventuring options for the common (and uncommon) folk of their campaign. This article, inspired by a debate on the Greytalk listserv about the merits of having dedicated NPC classes, looks at how I use them to enhance combat, role-playing and meta gaming in my campaign
Crystal Ball is a robust RPG aid for Apple’s Macintosh OS. Created by Joseph Sharp, the program runs under both Mac OS X and the older Mac OS 9. The tool is built to support Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition and includes tools for creating characters and monsters, tracking combat, calculating experience, creating names, rolling … Read more
I got my hands on the revised edition of Star Wars d20 this week, and after paging through it quickly I’m fairly impressed.