Hey loyal readers, my post is going to be a little late this week but here are a few links to help kill the time.

Yet another super-early preview of Fourth Edition D D…

On occasion I play around with the freeware (ahem, unlicensed) computer version of Ra that MetalJim referenced in his August post on digital cardboard. Random and I have debated whether getting good at this version helps in real live face-to-face play. I think it’s a mixed bag – it’s been good to get a lot [...]

Disclaimer: All negative connotations of cheating expressed in the following article are not valid in discussions of Illuminati. In Illuminati ‘Do what thou wilt’ is the whole of the law. Hail Eris!

After several years of running D&D in pre-packaged campaign settings and a failed attempt to make a dynamic and exciting world of my own in college, I’ve been toying with the idea of making my own “perfect” fantasy campaign setting for a while now. The challenge here is coming up with a unique setting that [...]

In which MetalJim once again ventures into economic theory…

I was thinking about what a friend had said; I was hoping it wasn’t a lie…

Big things are coming in the world of computer games, especially as far as paper and cardboard gamers are concerned. I’ve been following Microsoft’s XNA initiative so closely that it’s easy to forget that it’s been public for less than a year, [...]

I have been playing a lot of video games lately and this had lead me to certain realizations. Here is what I have learned…

After a few months off from the duties of Gamemaster, I’m back in the DM seat! And you know what? I think the players learned a bit from the death of my Greyhawk campaign, and they’re really trying their hardest to enjoy this new experience!

We’ve played only three session so far. It’s been an interesting [...]

Can you walk through a dungeon corridor without falling into a deadly cliché ?

This is the third and final installment in my astoundingly unpopular (it’s no wild boast – I read the site statistics!) series on rules, algorithms, and interfaces for computer versions of board games. See parts one and two here.

What’s left to talk about today is AI modularity. As a way of getting there, I want to start with [...]

Game conventions are large congregations of players and gamemasters with only one goal - to play until it hurts! Usually-sane people burn the candle at both ends, with a flamethrower, trying to cram a year’s worth of activity into a few days of constant activity, binge eating, and dramatically-appropriate over-acting. Some conventions offer games that last [...]

In which MetalJim reviews an incredibly complex WWII strategy game…

This is a continuation from last week’s post about board games, rules, and computer algorithm’s. This week’s installment is entitled “Orders as Written”.

Consider for a moment the possibility that you’re an itchy Comp-Sci PhD student who likes board games, and your flash of inspiration is to devise an algorithmic language of sorts that can describe not [...]