Downtime is an important concept in roleplaying games. It represents whatever time passes between adventures, whether those adventures are old-school dungeon crawls or awkward socializing on prom night. While the narrative focus may be off, PCs are intelligent beings with free will, and players will … read more »
Torchbearer is a great game. It makes the environment feel dangerous and ensures every stash of copper pieces feels like a wondrous treasure. Torchbearer has even revitalized my interest in dungeons, something I thought was dead forever. But like any game I play a lot, I … read more »
Arr, me hearties, after a mere four years of development, Rising Tide is finally released for sailors and officers alike to enjoy. The time we spent on this Torchbearer expansion involved a lot of writing, rewriting, and of course, playtesting. So much playtesting. Looking at … read more »
After the Island Empire fell, the seas were lost. Sailors whisper that the ocean air glows and tears open, releasing titanic leviathans that slither out into the sea. They say the very fabric of reality shifts with the wind, sending the crew falling into the … read more »
I love reading roleplaying games. I have shelves of books and folders of PDFs that I’ll never have time to play, but I read them anyway because it’s fascinating to see what different designers come up with, from the cutting edge of modern roleplaying to … read more »
I’ve written about Mouse Guard’s qualities before. It’s one of my favorite systems, from its core dice mechanic to its setting and flavor. But some things are better appreciated with a bit of perspective, and so it is with Mouse Guard’s failure rules. After years … read more »
Most roleplaying games on the market these days take a laissez-faire approach to play. The system will provide detailed rules for character creation and probably combat, but once play actually starts, everything is put in the group’s hands. Any structure a system might have is … read more »
Torchbearer is a new roleplaying game from Burning Wheel HQ, the guys who brought us Burning Wheel and Mouse Guard, among other things. Their games have a great track record, so I rushed out to get this one as soon as it was available. Read more »
