Hark, let us once again gaze upon those skills that do nothing. It was fun the first time, after all. Roleplaying games are full of skills: social skills, combat skills, magic skills – the list goes on. Some are obviously good. It doesn’t take a … read more »
Oren, Mike, and Johnathan get into the weeds with roleplaying rulesets. They discuss problems with rules-as-written and when to follow designer intent vs. establishing house rules. Johnathan also gleefully explains why roleplaying games are just like practicing law. Read more »
Created by F.E.A.R. (FarEast Amusement Research) and translated by Andy Kitkowski, Tenra Bansho Zero (TBZ) is the first Japanese pencil and paper roleplaying game I’ve ever played. It is unlike any of the Western games on my shelf, which is both good and bad. Instead … read more »
Skills are put into roleplaying games for a reason. They allow characters to do something they otherwise couldn’t – most of the time. Once in awhile, you come across a skill with no clear use. Some are overshadowed by another, better skill. Others simply never … read more »
If you’re not familiar with Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn, it’s an epic dystopian fantasy series set in a world where ash drifts down from the sky. Warrior-sorcerers called Allomancers derive magical power from common metals, and a violent aristocracy maintains their rule on the backs of … read more »
Mike, Oren, and Johnathan discuss systems for tracking a character’s health in roleplaying games. They cover why games do or don’t need to track health, and describe a variety of systems for representing damage or otherwise imposing consequences on players. Oren talks about nipples, Mike … read more »
Oren, Mike, and our returning guest Johnathan discuss the pros and cons of different character advancement systems. Leveling up in class based systems, ability point buy systems, and learn by doing systems are all discussed. What is best? Who will win? Listen and find out! Read more »
The first in Fantasy Flight’s End of the World series, Zombie Apocalypse is a game about… well, you know what it’s about. The dead rise, and you must fight to survive or have your brains devoured. Zombie survival stories are natural fodder for roleplaying games, … read more »
Third Edition D&D was widely hailed as a massive improvement over Second Edition. 3.5 refined the game further but still had a number of problems. Fourth Edition made radical changes to solve those problems and created entirely new ones. Now we’re in Fifth Edition, which … read more »
In all the hubbub about Dungeons and Dragons, some of you might have missed that another venerable roleplaying game spawned a new edition this year. Call of Cthulhu (CoC) 7th Edition is upon us, ready to make our sanity drop like a stone. At time … read more »
