My all-time favorite con module is “Barbarian Lives”, which was the featured module for the RPGA Dungeons & Dragons Open at GenCon in Milwaukee back in … 1998? 1999? A three-round event, the D&D 2nd Edition scenario rewarded role-playing, with people voting on who should advance to the next round. The story itself was a … Read more
Forge of Fury is my favorite published adventure, for sheer playability through two generations of gamers. The first time I encountered it, the Forge of Fury formed the foundation of our dwarven Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition campaign. We all played dwarves intent on reclaiming the forge for our clan, eventually re-establishing a hidden dwarven … Read more
At this point in #RPGaDay2023, you’d probably guess my favorite game system is Savage Worlds or Dungeons & Dragons 5e, and you’d be right. So let’s talk Fate instead. Descended from the earlier Fudge role-playing game, the earliest incarnation of Fate I played was Spirit of the Century. A pulp-y game of capable people ready to … Read more
Many years ago, the Blackrazor Guild was one of the most prominent (and notorious) adventuring guilds of the Free City of Obsidian Bay. The guild’s adventurers fought in wars against the orc despot Turrosh Mak, did their best to repel the invasion of Obsidian Bay by the Scarlet Brotherhood (they failed), and accidentally flooded the … Read more
The games I wished I owned are the announced, but never published, supplements for The Day After Ragnorak. I loved Ken Hite’s “Conan the Barbarian: 1948” setting when it came out in 2009 (a tagline I stole from an RPGnet review at the time; it’s accurate). The basic setup is that in the waning days … Read more
My favorite convention purchase is Savage Worlds: Explorers Edition, which I got at GenCon 2007. At the time, I think I had the 2nd edition Savage Worlds hardcover book, which was a standard RPG format. It didn’t particularly excite me or my group; I bought it more out of curiosity than anything else. The Explorers Edition … Read more
My most memorable character demise was Zilanderan, at the hands of the resurgent Fire cultists of the Temple of Elemental Evil. He was a starting character in the Blackrazor’s Redshirts campaign, in which we all played first-level characters who belonged to the Blackrazor Guild (our fictional adventuring guild in the world of Greyhawk). We had … Read more
The answer to the question “Old Game You Still Play?” could go a couple of ways, but I’ll change it up to be “the oldest game you still play”. The answer had been GURPS Lite (1998) which powered our Generically Fast and Furious lunchtime game but that campaign wrapped in January 2023. D&D 5th Edition … Read more
If by “weird” we mean a game that consistently introduced unexpected encounters and nonsensical reactions, then the answer has to be PARANOIA. For those unfamiliar with this game, you are a Troubleshooter working for Friend Computer in Alpha Complex, the sole surviving human settlement. Or maybe not – Friend Computer isn’t telling. What we know … Read more
My favorite tie-in fiction is the Dragonlance novels for Dungeons & Dragons. Reading Dragons of Destiny for this summer’s reading list, I realized just how much this series influenced me as a dungeon master and storyteller. Do the tales have their flaws? Sure. The early books read like something ripped from a person’s campaign … … Read more