In which MetalJim discusses whether the boardgaming universe is shrinking or expanding…

D&D doesn’t do a very good job of representing and using character talents beyond those defined by class. How typical does the following scenario sound? You put a lot of time into developing your character and persona at first level, sink some skill ranks into knowledge and/or professions if you can, then watch as this [...]

There are many absurd things in the D&D universe…

Got the gang togehter and have nothing to play? Here’s how you can run a fun D&D session for everybody with nothing at all prepared!

The rules for fatigue are simplistic and apply mainly to only one character class on a regular basis - the Barbarian. Sure, there are some spells that cause fatigue, and forced marching also carries a fatigue penalty, but there are no rules to simulate swinging a sword violently for several minutes or slinging spells in rapid [...]

New rules for miniature mayhem!

William Gibson’s latest novel, Spook Country, came out in August 2007. It is set in the same more-or-less recent-past real world as his previous work, Pattern Recognition. This puts it immediately at odds with some of Gibson’s more recognizable works set in the cyber-future (Neuromancer) or steampunk past (Difference Engine) – the ones for which [...]

More fun with alignments…

As I sit here listening to Devo singing “Freedom of Choice” I’m not thinking about the media blitz for the 2008 presidential election, but I am contemplating (re-)starting a completely new project for the year. Sure, I’ve had my hands on more projects in 2007 that I knew what to do with, but I never [...]

Because sometimes a game is more than just a game…

RPGs have taken their cues, traditionally, from literature and storytelling traditions – from myths and legends, to classic literature, to modern comics and pulp fiction, and all stops in between. Another source, if we look back to the historical origins of RPGs, is tabletop tactical mini/wargame simulations, from which RPGs evolved. Pretty well all RPGs [...]

This monday is given over to the underpaid, overworked, and never appreciated mook…

For Christmas this year I got the King in Yellow expansion for Arkham Horror and I was lucky enough to get 4 friends to play it with me last weekend. Yay! Here’s what I thought of it…

MetalJim’s #1 New Year’s Resolution? Shorter Posts…

So here I sit in my corporate cubicle; life is more grand than bland, so no complaints about working for the Man. Like your typical coder, I move through periods of deep concentration, followed by the need to surface, stretch, unwind, and relax a bit before diving back in. That’s part of the general culture [...]

The Epic Skills edition.

For the past week I’ve been watching a lot of Futurama. Read on to see what I’ve discovered…

This Christmas week, instead of playing something new, I ended up making characters for a D&D 3.5 high-level campaign and playing lots of Magic: the Gathering with a friend who only occasionally gets to see me in the flesh. I spent HOURS creating the bare bones of 3 characters: a dwarven conjurer 16, a human [...]