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Free RPG Day 2012: The Price of Free-dom

June 14, 2012 by Ross Watson

Coming soon to a game store near you is Free RPG Day—on June 16th, you can find a wealth of RPG material free for the taking. Free RPG Day has been occurring annually since 2007, and has included material from some of the largest and most prestigious RPG companies in the industry today, including Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro, Fantasy Flight Games, White Wolf, and Paizo Publishing.

Filed Under: Editorial, Featured, News, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: deathwatch, fantasy flight games, ffg, free rpg day, rogue trader

Origins 2012 Report

June 13, 2012 by Dave

I almost didn’t attend Origins this year, despite having attended for many years prior. The date change meant that a number of people I knew would not be attending this time around, cutting down reasons for attending. Likewise, I was already making other plans for that time off. Then Get Bit! was nominated for an award, and that pretty much settled that. Despite the changes, I still had a good time. Here are some of the highlights for me.

Filed Under: Board, Card, and Miniature Games, Critical Threats, Editorial, News, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: avacyn restored, eventide, flowerfall, get bit!, king of tokyo, magic the gathering, marvel heroic roleplaying, mtg, planechase, set cubed, shelter in place, summoner wars

Casual Magic: Nico’s Tolarian Academy Deck

June 13, 2012 by The Chatty DM

Yes, Chatty plays Magic the Gathering sometimes… he even blogs about it sometimes. Today he discusses a Legacy Artifact deck he built for his son, who brags that it is unbeatable. Oh to be 10 again.

Filed Under: Board, Card, and Miniature Games, Musings of the Chatty DM Tagged With: Casual Gaming, magic, magic the gathering, playing with children, playing with kids

Talking To Yourselves

June 12, 2012 by Vanir

I’m not going to lie. I really like it when my players have a problem. When they’re unhappy, I always have plenty to write about. Not only am I going to write about one of my players’ problems this week, I’m going to tell you about his character and several of mine. I think I’m a bad person.

Filed Under: Dire Flailings, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: bat loaf, character growth, gucci, in their shoes, lumbar, peer pressure, pressure, roleplay

Collateral Damage #3: The Avengers Initiative Part 2: Hydra does Dallas

June 12, 2012 by The Chatty DM

Having cheated their way to great success on their second day of Avengers training at Camp Hammond, Connecticut, our heroes are scrambled to Texas to face a Hydra raid on the President’s Ranch.

Filed Under: Actual Play, Campaign Logs, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Collateral Damage, marvel, marvel heroic roleplaying, Marvel RPG

D&D: Advantage vs. Flat Bonuses

June 11, 2012 by Bartoneus

Photo Credit: MegaBee

There are a lot of people talking about the D&D Next open playtest, and one of the subjects I hear about a lot is the way Advantage/Disadvantage are currently working. The general opinion I’ve heard is that it is overpowered when compared to the +2/-2 bonus we’re used to from previous editions of D&D. My gut reaction to hearing that something is overpowered isn’t to jump into the mob and swing my nerf-bat around, it’s to look at as much data as I can and figure out if I agree or not. So that’s what I’m going to do!

Filed Under: Editorial, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4th Edition, advantage, combat advantage, comparison, D&D, D&D next, disadvantage, dnd, dndnext, Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeons and Dragons, math, numbers, open playtest, playtest, statistics, stats

Critical Bits for the week ending 2012-06-10

June 10, 2012 by Gato the News Robot

Complete list of Origins Awards winners for 2012 posted on RPG Examiner: http://t.co/Jao19DGa # More complete list of winners of the 2012 Origins Awards available from @purplepawn http://t.co/WLPeBSyW # Never Unprepared: The GM's Guide to Prep now available for preorder from @gnomestew http://t.co/GOWmaa54 # RT @RyanMacklin: You guys probably already know about the Dungeon World […]

Filed Under: Critical Bits Tagged With: twitter

Collateral Damage #3: The Avengers Initiative Part 1: Training Day, Prise Deux

June 7, 2012 by The Chatty DM

Collateral Damage is back, our cheating, barely heroic characters try to complete Avengers training… of course, they’re not going to do it by the book… that would be boring.

Filed Under: Actual Play, Campaign Logs, Featured, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Collateral Damage, marvel, marvel heroic roleplaying, Marvel RPG, MRH, Super Heroes

Thirteen Books Nerds Should Read

June 7, 2012 by guest

Do you collect facts like little boys collect dirt? Do you read nearly all morphemes that flit past your eyes (including cereal boxes and the fine print on DVD cases?) Did you already know the definition of morpheme? If you didn’t, do you have at least five apps on your phone that could tell you? If you said yes to two or more of those questions, read on.

Filed Under: Editorial, Roleplaying Games, Science Fiction & Fantasy Genre Tagged With: beowulf, endurance, frankenstein, grendel, hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, I have no mouth and I must scream, if on a winter's night a traveller, into the wild, johnny got his gun, OD&D, the big sleep, the eyre affair, the name of the rose

Flying By The Fill In Your Gaps

June 5, 2012 by Vanir

The D&D Next public playtest opened a couple weeks ago, and already we have angry sabers rattling and joyful hearts overflowing with weird smelling creepy pink froth. Thing is, nobody really knows what they’re talking about. Not yet. Thing is, this playtest is an entirely different beast than anything most gamers have ever encountered. Read on to find out how.

Filed Under: Dire Flailings, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: alpha, beta, D&D next, gamma, greek letters, it's not finished yet, playtest, software development, testing

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About the Author

  • Ross Watson

    Ross Watson is an award-winning game designer with more than 50 RPG books under his belt, many as Lead Developer for the Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay line. He was a core developer on the Dust Warfare and Shadowrun: Sprawl Gangers miniature game teams, and the lead writer for the Darksiders II console and PC game. He has written or contributed to books for 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons, Star Wars: Edge of the Empire, and Malifaux: Through the Breach. Ross consults with companies on narrative, design, development, and IP management issues.

    Email: spyrer@clansmith.orgWeb: http://rosswatson.blogspot.com

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