Let’s see, in 20 years I’ll be 71 … so yeah, the answer will still be Dungeons & Dragons. Hopefully, it’ll be with the Blackrazor Guild, but if not, there’s always the grandchildren and their friends. More important, I think, is how we will play these games and what opportunities for community we’ll have in … Read more
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
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
Out of all the many PCs I’ve played, Merywn the Spellsword is my favorite character. He was my second character for the Blackrazors’ Return to Temple of Elemental Evil campaign (aka the Redshirts campaign, featuring no-name, low-level minions of the Blackrazor Guild getting in WAY over their heads. My first character, Zilanderin, died at the … Read more
From a marketing and design perspective, Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. After 4e split the fan base, 5e reunited it by streamlining the game, resurrecting elements that people loved, and bounding the math so that bonus stacking (and the GM/player arms race it forced) was no longer a thing. It runs fast at low, mid, … Read more
The oldest RPG I played is also the first game I played: D&D Basic Set. It was the red boxed set, where species was your class. Want to play a wizard/fighter? Be an elf. Otherwise, be a human … and a wizard OR a fighter The Basic Set went to level 3, at which point … Read more
Vince Hendricks was my first RPG game master. There were other game masters before him, but Vince ran the first real, ongoing, sustained campaign I played in. Vince was my first college roommate – a senior when I was a sophomore (I transferred in that year) and he introduced me to a ton of gamers … Read more
My first RPG played this year was Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, but that’s almost always the answer. I started 2023 by pitching my Elemental Apocalypse game to the Blackrazor Guild (my Sunday online game). The campaign asks the question: “What if the Temple of Elemental Evil rose … and the World of Greyhawk fell?” Eight months … Read more