Game Day: Re: Your Brains, HeroClix Redux

Jonathan Coulton’s undead anthem “Re: Your Brains” will lead off our gaming session tonight as our brave band of adventurers faces off against a horde of undead besieging the town of Barovia. But hey, it’s not just the undead we’re dealing with today: super hero gaming returns to the table as we get back to … Read more

Game Day: Talk like a Dwarf, RPGs Go POD, Pierce the Magician

Tonight we’ll be playing Khelez-Mar: The Dwarven Imperative, our dwarf-centric campaign set on the Pomarj in the World of Greyhawk. The last adventure saw the adventurers tracking a large orcish warband comprised of orcs, grey renders and manticores. They engaged and mostly destroyed several of the warbands patrols before breaking off from the main body … Read more

Game Day: Ravenloft, Back to Basics, Heroes of Horror, Pierce Haligarth

Tonight … we begin our horror-filled return to Ravenloft! Erilar will be running us through Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, the updated and expanded version of the original 1st edition module.

I’m excited to play it — the last time I ventured to Castle Ravenloft, I was in 6th grade and playing my fighter Samuel “Battle Axe” Longriver (but, ah, he was just called “Battle Axe” then…) who eventually found and wielded the fabled sun sword. That was years and years ago, and most of my memories of Ravenloft have been consumed by the mists of time. Almost everyone in our group has been to Ravenloft at one time or another, and just about everyone is eager to return.

On Death and Dying in Role-Playing Games

When it comes to pen-and-paper role-playing games, one of things that causes the most consternation for non-gamers is the concept of character death and the effect this has on players in the campaign. While those with religious objections may focus on the spell-casting and pantheonic aspects of games like Dungeons and Dragons, I’ve found that … Read more

The Death of Torthan

The mountain dwarf Torthan of Clan Urtcheck, follower of Luc, dwarven hero of the Grand Duchy of Geoff, died at the hands of a vile undead shadow on Friday, Nov. 24. He was momentarily survived by himself, having risen from the grave as another of the undead creatures to threaten his fellow adventurers. They defeated him and his shadow progenitors, as well as the master they all served: the Mad Marquee of Sterich. His ashes remain lost to the world in the dungeons beneath the Marquee’s castle.

It was not the first time death touched him. During an earlier expedition to the Lair of the Eyebiter in Geoff, the barbaric bard fought and was killed by the evil followers of a rebel noble. His spirit could not be bound to the afterlife however, and he willingly allowed himself to be reincarnated by a druid. This resulted in his return to the land of the living in the form of a human.

Radio Active #39: Nuke(m)Con 2012, Doom, Geeky Media

Soldiers prepare for the worst.

The gaming world has GenCon. My gaming group has Nuke(m)Con. Radio Active #39 starts with a look at our home grown convention and then takes a look at a couple of new geeky media outlets in the form of the Geek Gazette newsletter and Geek Label podcast as well as an exceedingly useful anti-repetitive stress … Read more

D&D Film Festival

Movie geeks can film their way to cinematic glory with the first-ever Dungeons & Dragons Fan Film Contest. The film contest is seeking 5-minute video segments dealing with D&D, with the winner receiving video editing equipment, a computer and a boatload of D&D stuff. The deadline is September 1, 2006, which is unfortunate given that … Read more

Radio Active #29: FreeCiv, Misfit Brew, Does My Geek…, Spell Compendium

Another podcast, another Sunday spent painting. This time around I discuss Battlestar Galactica’s Season 2 cliffhanger and offer a brief review of the film version of V for Vendetta (yes, I’m behind the geek times) before launching into reviews of the turn-based strategy game FreeCiv, the podcasts Misfit Brew and Does My Geek Look Big … Read more

Crawling through Maure Castle

My gaming group is comprised of mid-twentysomething-to-mid-thirtysomething gamers who love role-playing, who enjoy delving deep into the intricacies of a plot, running down leads, fleshing out a setting, and generally immersing themselves in the campaign. Yes, there’s hacking, and yes, there’s slashing, but we’re just as likely to spend a night doing nothing but role-playing. … Read more