Last article I wrote about the Open Gaming movement. One specific use of open gaming has been the creation of what are called 'RetroClones'. Though I have seen a variety of philosophies discussed over what the term actually means, from my outside view it seems to just mean that they are using the Open Gaming License to replicate the rules of older versions of Dungeons & Dragons in a newer, slightly shinier package. Read the Full Article

While running an active (semi-active anyway) Superhero game you naturally don't want to give away too much lest the players find out what you're up to. This is the perfect time to work out the kinks of other worlds running through my head. Enjoy as we take a little tour of Vespera.

What follows is the Legend of Vespera as it came to be. This can be believed or not depending on the piety of the listener. Read the Full Article

Tomorrow is my Pathfinder game. It should be interesting as we're in the middle of a combat, just had two players leave the game for personal reasons, and are bringing in at least one new player to fill that void. I do believe I'll need to smite the dark elf chick who I have declared is my girlfriend. In the mean time, on the ride into work this morning I thought it would be fun to convert my Pathfinder character to ICONS. Read the Full Article

While being touristy in San Francisco's Chinatown, I stumbled across this toy. Senor Misterioso. He is all of 6 inches high and glows in the dark. It brings to mind those little dashboard Jesus figures that people used to have only more awesome.

"You got your Jesus on the dashboard but the Devil's under my hood." - Bloodhound Gang

What really sells the little guy is the back of the box... which is so awesome that I have so far refused to actually open the box. Here is what it says: Read the Full Article

As someone who very often finds himself behind the GMs screen, I'm always excited to get the chance to just play. I had great fun at the last DC Gameday where I made a concerted effort to get in some dungeon crawling adventures. Recently, I was invited to play in a Pathfinder game. First game isn't until next weekend but I already have my character written up. Here, let me tell you about my character. Read the Full Article

For whatever reason, when I first started getting into Dungeons and Dragons it was the AD&D Books that caught my eye. I remember using my allowance to pick up all of the old yellow spined 1st Edition AD&D books. My first experience with the original Red Box (which came out at the same time as 1st Ed AD&D according to Wikipedia) was when my next door neighbor inherited it. I remember that it was used because whoever had had it before had created a whole bunch of index cards for each of the rooms of their dungeons all in pencil. Read the Full Article

When playing an RPG, one of the things I find myself looking for after the game is over is the shining moments of the game. Those times when your character got a chance to 'do his thing' and either succeeded or failed spectacularly. Some of my best moments have been my character's death but that's another story. This past weekend I went to DC Gameday and got to try out a few games that I hadn't played before. Here are a few shining moments from this weekend. Read the Full Article

Back in 2002, Wizards of the Coast had a contest in which they invited players of the game to create a new setting for the Dungeons and Dragons game. In 2004, this resulted in the Eberron Campaign Setting. The contest was the chance of a lifetime and even if you didn't have something BRILLIANT to submit, there was a sense that you'd be missing out if you didn't at least submit something. In retrospect, my submission wasn't particularly fabulous.. what hurts me the most is my overuse of hyperbole. For those of you interested in a read, here is what I came up with: Read the Full Article