Graph Paper Games

Boy, it feels good to see a project through to completion.  The color scheme looks really good.  It was a good first run, especially in getting an idea about much terrain a single box can hold. So what's next?  A dungeon?  A crypt?  Science fiction?

For a while I was really getting into Kickstarter for various 3D printing options, and while there are still some out there, I found myself often getting more than I could ever reasonably print, but still paying for the files. To compromise between being practical and still enjoying the thrill of finding new things to do with my printer to support my hobbies, I decided to explore Patreon instead, finding a couple of artists who do work I like who could then keep me in a steady flow of new material for a reasonable rate. Four artists I support are Aaron Mulder , Rocket Pig Games , Pinyo , and PrintYourMonsters .  Of those four, Aaron Mulder tends to make items to use with Fat Dragon Games' modular dungeons and Pinyo tends to make buildings (incredible ones). It's Rocket Pig and PYM that ship out monthly designs of miniatures, which I want to incorporate into my games somehow. In August, Rocket Pig released a ton of undersea creatures.  I'm not entirely sure how those get ...

This post may contain spoilers to the D&D Adventure "Waterdeep: Dragon Heist" I think the last time I used a pre-generated adventure was the prior time I ran D&D a couple of years ago, and that was an old Goodman Games module for 3E that I updated for 5E (which wasn't without its challenges).  But with several of our regular GM's in my gaming group unavailable, but my still having a lot on my own plate, I thought I would consider doing it again, only this time trying out one of WotC's up-to-date publications. After doing some research, I decided on their most recent product, Waterdeep: Dragon's Heist .  I'm a big fan of "caper" movies and the whole premise seemed to be a nice change from your typical murder-hoboing.  The whole adventure takes place in a city, there's a ton of investigation and roleplaying, and it serves as the prequel to their release of the latest iteration of the Undermountain megadungeon, which is being relea...

What do you do when you tell yourself you should dedicate more time to blogging right when you're not doing much in regards to the subject of the blog? Just write stuff, I guess. Yesterday I saw on Facebook that the local high school had a D&D club who was doing a fundraiser by selling shirts, so I went over and bought three for myself and the kids.  The young people I met were really friendly, and I think a little surprised.  In my work clothes I am the most ordinary looking person: middle aged, average height, nondescript dress and appearance.  But get me talking about D&D and my gaming group, etc. and I'm definitely a gaming geek through and through.  As I said the kids seemed really friendly and I wish I had met more people like that thirty years ago when I got into this pasttime.  Plus the shirts were cool and for a good cause. My current campaign is taking a few weeks off.  May is always a busy month here, and this year my son is graduat...

The past couple of weeks saw the gaming group launch two new games--one just in the trial period, the other for a longer haul. My friend John ran Unity , which is still in Beta from a Kickstarter project.  The game is a techno-fantasy RPG heavily influenced by sources like Final Fantasy and RWBY.  There's a lot of anime/cinematic action with over-the-top powers and a strong reward for colorful descriptions of what your PC is doing.  We played the sample game in the world of RWBY, which is a favorite of mine and the kids.  It's a little reminiscent of 4th Ed D&D with at-will powers, powers that drain a pool of points (e.g. mana or focus) and daily abilities.  I kind of like the popcorn style of 4E and this was a good lighthearted game.  Hopefully I can provide a more in-depth review later. I also kicked off my D&D campaign "Down Among the Dead Men," a gothic-horror megadungeon.  Looks like I have seven players, which I'll cull down to fiv...

One thing I've been slowly working on for the last year is another fantasy sandbox campaign.  My prior one was generally map-based, although a city featured prominently in it.  As time went by, it lost a lot of its "sandbox" quality and became more directed on my part.  In the process, I think it lost something. So, after being away from fantasy for a solid year, it's time to get back to it.  I spent some of that last year thinking about cities.   Some fantasy RPG treat cities on a very detailed level, with maps of streets, etc.  But while that's fun "map porn" for GM's, how often would the players actually be seeing or using a map like that?  And how long would it take for them to just accrue that knowledge by exploring the city.  I've lived in my current city seven years, with a car, and I don't know how all the cities line up.  What I know are areas, neighborhoods, etc. some intimately, others not so much.  And if I was going to a n...