Category Archives Tabletop Games

Luke Crane to Kickstart Torchbearer, Old School D&D Burning Wheel

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Jon Spengler

Though I’ve been snuck a few exciting details, I hadn’t heard much about Luke Crane‘s new Moldvay-inspired Burning Wheel game. While it was called “Dungeoneers & Dragonslayers”, Crane (editor) and Thor Olavsrud’s (writer) have rebranded their game as “Torchbearer”. A fitting name for a game that promises to be an adaptation of the Mouse Guard system that trades the emulation of brave little mice for the emulation of the choking darkness. According to Forbe’s two spreads on the game, we have every reason to be exited for the next book in the Burning Wheel library. Continue reading

Easy Custom Tabletop RPG Tokens Using Rubber Grips

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Jon Spengler

Arts and crafts has always been one of my favorite parts of the table top hobby. Since I didn’t want to throw money at the secondary market to get my hands on out-of-print D&D minis, I have designed, printed, and assembled my own paper tri-fold minis using art ~~stolen~~ repurposed for personal use from Google Image Search. However, I’ve gotten out of the habit of creating these little minis in the last year. I’ve been using dice for enemies, which works just fine until one of my players says “I attack d6 number 2″. Those little cubes are supposed to be ghouls!

But thanks to a trip to Target and my wife’s crazy good ideas I have a new easily portable, extremely durable, and quick to make mini to drop on the table. Introducing the plastic grip token:

Continue reading

Running 13th Age Demos at Norwescon

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Jon Spengler

I was introduced to 13th Age through a demo run at PAX Prime 2012. The demo was so unique and so fun that I preordered the game immediately after PAX. It was the hands-on experience that made me fall in love with the game. When I was asked by Wade Rocket to run a few demo games at Norwescon 36 this past weekend I jumped at the opportunity! Continue reading

Roleplaying Without the Tabletop

Posted on March 29, 2013 by Hannah Craig

We here at Dorkadia are very fond of our tabletop RPGs. But what about when you can’t have the table to play around? As awesome as real life RPGs are, sometimes they just aren’t feasible. So there are times when we nerds turn to the greatest tool mankind has ever invented next to those Japanese ear cleaner things – the internet.

Online games can be extremely rewarding and very unique when you get familiar with running and playing in them. So be it via Skype or IRC, an MMO plotline or a forum-based game, here’s some tips for what a GM can do when the table has been eliminated for the tabletop.

Are you ready for Sakura-con?

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Peter Walbrun

So you’re sad Emerald City Comic-con is over and PAX and Girl Geek Con are a long ways off; you need to go to Sakura-Con!

Pro Tips to surviving Sakura-Con! Continue reading

The Motion of the Ocean

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Nick Bergeron

Kids know how to make ‘fun’. That’s probably why they make such amazing make-believe games. Put three kids under ten together for five minutes and suddenly they’re on the gas planet Xaxon, using their cotton candy boots to hunt down sporns with their death rings. At 33, I really wish I could still find my death ring most of the time. Continue reading

Under the Wire: D&D In Short Sessions

Posted on March 19, 2013 by Jon Spengler

Lich King, Pelgrane Press Ltd

My gaming group started with a large six hour chunk carved out of each Sunday to play make believe. While the quality of our games certainly benefited from such a large time investment, we’ve since moved to a shorter (four hour) mid-week game. The shorter sessions posed unique challenges to us as a group, but thankfully we chose to play Mouse Guard. Mouse Guard’s system is built for shorter play and its structure gives clear instruction on how to make the drama happen in a smaller window of time. Now that we’ve moved on to D&D (13th Age specifically) I’m taking the lessons I learned from Mouse Guard and applying them to more traditional (less structured) play. Even if each mid-week session seems too brief every time, these lessons make sure the fun gets in under the wire. Continue reading

Eclipse Review: Actual Fun in Space

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Jon Spengler

While I love boardgames, I have a hard time spending $50+ on one and an even harder time spending 4+ hours playing a single session. This means that a few classic board games leave me cold, like the venerable and oh so enticing Twilight Imperium. Twilight Imperium is a “4X game“, promising players the joys of building a space empire by exploring, researching, and blowing up enemies. It sounds exactly like something I should love, right?

But Twilight Imperium isn’t fun. The mechanics don’t do a good job promoting the kind of exciting events that the words “space empire” conjure up and it’s tediously long. (The last game I played was cut short well before its conclusion at 5 hours.) There are fun tasks built into “gigantic monolithic space empires” and Twilight Imperium doesn’t provide those things. Thankfully, the clever board game Eclipse was created for those of us that want to explore space and have fun at the same time. Continue reading

13th Age First Impressions on Mechanics

Posted on February 12, 2013 by Jon Spengler

After weeks of flu, cold, and eye trauma, our group finally (finally!) has a few hours of 13th Age under its belt. I don’t want to commit too much to a post yet, but I did want to jot down a few of the impressions I got of the mechanics. I’m happy to report that the game has a strong core of Dungeons & Dragons gameplay that manages to be simple and authentic feeling. Continue reading

Planning for the End

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Nick Bergeron

Tabletop roleplaying games implode, or explode, or some type of plode, on a regular basis. Even getting past character creation is often a feat of monumental will and luck. People are busy, and scheduling a time when five or six people can assemble for a few hours in nearly impossible, particularly once you’re out of college. Also, for whatever reason, people that are drawn to roleplaying as a hobby tend to be relatively high strung, so often drama ensues. I’ve had games end because of new jobs, divorces, physical fights at the table, and any number of other factors. However, last Thursday, I finally had a game I was running end where it was supposed to: at the end of the story. Continue reading