On this episode of the Dorkadia podcast, the staff talks about the importance of player preparation for tabletop RPGs. The consensus seems to be that you need to do more than just show up with a bag of random dice. So take some notes, learn your character sheets, and bring some enthusiasm. These and many more illuminating tips are waiting for you in the podcast.
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I’ve been patiently refreshing my inbox since I heard that Blue Manchu was sending out a new bevy of beta invites for their tactical RPG Card Hunter. I wasn’t lucky enough to get one in the first wave, but much to my F5 button’s relief, Charles was. He knew exactly how frothy I was to get my hands on the game after playing it at PAX 2012, so he reluctantly handed over his beta key to allow me to write this piece.
Card Hunter already seemed like a polished and fun experience at PAX, but demos are a hard beast to judge. Whole teams can be whipped up to create an alluring and functional facade while all that lies behind is a mess of a game. Now that I’ve had the opportunity to spend a few hours with the beta, does Card Hunter deliver the fun experience it promised at PAX?
Fuck yes it does, and more. Continue reading
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
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:
I think it’s clear from what I’ve written that I really enjoy roguelike games. However, it’s a hard love to share with others. Roguelike games are cold and unwelcoming. Their unforgiving difficulty, lack of tutorials, and overall lack of polish make them a hard sale for the uninitiated.
However, Tales of Maj’Eyal (TOME) seems to be a roguelike that refuses to have the shortcomings that are taken for granted in the genre. The winner of Ascii Dream’s top roguelikes for two years in a row, TOME is a genuinely enjoyable game that also happens to be a successful roguelike. It’s free, so you should go download it right now, but if you want to find out what exactly is different, read on. Continue reading
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
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.
A week ago, a new free to play MMORPG called Scarlet Blade began a public closed beta test. I’ll tell you right now that this game and things related to it are NSFW. Yes, this is a new “mature” MMORPG which features as much T&A as you would probably want from any game. Is that what you want out of a game? Is that really your top priority? Because this may be your kind of game if that’s what you’re concerned about. That isn’t to say that there isn’t some hidden potential for a good game here, but it’s buried under a mountain of lingerie clad women and bad sexual innuendo. Continue reading
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
Nostalgia and parody are two great tastes that taste great together. That makes Saturday Morning RPG the tastiest morsel available for iOS platforms. Yeah, I don’t normally review games for mobile platforms, but I was looking for an indie title to play and I latched onto this the minute I read the description. Not only does SMRPG go straight for strings that hold my childhood memories in the form of parody, but they actually got Vince DiCola and Kenny Meriedeth to do the soundtrack. I love everything about this game and I would imagine that most gamers that grew up in the 80s will feel exactly the same. Yes, I’m old – deal with it. Continue reading
