Game Day: Pax Unplugged

A view of the PAX Unplugged's open gaming area.

My son and I spent the day at PAX Unplugged. Held at the Philadelphia Convention Center from Nov. 30-Dec. 2, 2018, PAX Unplugged in a three-day event dedicated to offline games: card games, board games, role-playing games, their various iterations. We took advantage of PAX’s Kids Day and based on the number of children I saw … Read more

#RPGaDay2018 – Which game do you hope to play again?

A close up view of the spines of numerous role-playing game books.

Star Wars. I’d love to run the legacy follow-up to our Shadows of the Force campaign. Set in the Dark Times following the Mandalorian Wars, it would feature the descendants of our earlier campaign struggling to survive after the collapse of the Jedi Order. It would take place 30 or so years after the end of the previous … Read more

Game Day: Tomb of Horrors

Three Tomb of Horrors-related adventures

Inspired by the novel Ready Player One, I offered to run my friends through the legendary module Tomb of Horrors. Converted to Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition as part of Tales from the Yawning Portal (Amazon), the module promises a lethal challenge for players both new and old. My gaming group last took a run … Read more

Breaking in the New Year

A close-up of my broken ankle.

I broke my right ankle on Dec. 30, 2017. And in so doing, transformed my 2018. Heading into the new year I’d been mulling other things I wanted to accomplish: running another 5K, getting back into swimming, maybe writing another novel, maybe doing Picture-A-Day again, shaking up our gaming group’s routine with a couple of … Read more

Podcast Playlist: December 2017

Art representing Gnomecast, Misdirected Mark, Dungeon Master's Block, and Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

With Nuketown’s re-launch and the return of Radio Active, I’ve been spending time listening to podcasts as a way of getting caught up on the state of the geek community as well as current topics in gaming. As I mentioned previously, my sweet spot for podcasts these days is 15-25 minutes. That corresponds with the length of my commute, … Read more

The Library of Obsidian Bay

An arcane sphere illuminates stacks of books in a fantasy library.

“It’s In a Book” is the theme for December 2017’s RPG Blog Carnival. Books — and the libraries that hold them — drove the later half of our Obsidian Frontier campaign, leading us to explore the written word in the World of Greyhawk campaign setting. It began with the players. After 30-odd chapters in the campaign, we’d hit a natural … Read more

Dicember 2017, Day 12: Accessible Dice

A collection of

Tales of a GM is running the 12 Days of Dicember, a project dedicated dice in all their randomized glory. The question for the twelth day of Dicember is “What is your favourite new dice technology?”. For me it’s accessible dice, which are dice crafted for people who are vision-impaired or blind. They include Braille numbering or raised letters … Read more

Game Day: Let Me Tell You About My Battle Master

Blue and grey dice set on a D&D character sheet.

Odothar Bronzearm is my human battlemaster, my favorite fighter since my first-ever Dungeons & Dragons character “Battle Axe”, and the culmination of a years-long quest for a tactical warrior. Though my favorite class is wizard, I’ve played my share of fighters over the years though most of them were multi-classed (fighter/wizard, fighter/cleric, etc.). Looking back, what I wanted … Read more

Game Day: Prepping for Nuke(m)Con 2017

Covers for the D&D Player's Handbook, Dungeon World, Hollow Earth Expedition, and Tales from the Yawning Portal

Nuke(m)Con 2017 is a week away and I’m scrambling to pull together my events. My gaming group’s homegrown convention is being held September 27-30 at a friends house. We expect 10-12 people to attend over the course of the weekend, but any given slot will likely have 5-6. I’m running three games: Dungeons & Dragons, … Read more