Racism in Role-Playing Games
Recently there was a discussion on social media about whether the depiction of orcs in some (if not most) tabletop roleplaying games was racist. As with all discussions of this nature on social...
April 29, 2020
Stargazer
“May you live in interesting times”
Even though this is not a traditional Chinese curse as often claimed, it makes for a perfect title when you intend to sum up what’s going on right now. The current times are...
April 23, 2020
A Look At The Latest Humble RPG Book Bundle
At the time of this writing the Humble RPG Book Bundle: Cypher System and The Strange (quite the mouth-full) is available for another 33 hours or so. I already owned quite a few...
March 3, 2020
Lazy Monday Video post: Tales From The Loop
A few days ago a trailer for the new Amazon Prime Video series “Tales From The Loop” has gone life. It is based – like Fria Ligan’s award-winning roleplaying game – on Simon...
March 2, 2020
Mental Health in Roleplaying Games
Please note that this post contains mentions of mental illnesses, ableism, and suicide. When it comes to the roleplaying games community there’s no shortage of scandals and constant drama. The latest controversy is...
February 5, 2020
Let's Have A Look At Everywhen
Everywhen by Filigree Forge is a 145-paged genre-agnostic roleplaying game using a modified version of the Barbarians of Lemuria mechanics created by Simon Washbourne. Barbarians of Lemuria is one of my favorite roleplaying...
February 3, 2020
Star Trek Adventures: Gamma Quadrant – A First look
A while back Modiphius offered me a review copy of their latest Star Trek Adventures sourcebook, Star Trek Adventures: Gamma Quadrant. Since I haven’t touched Star Trek Adventures since I got the core...
January 27, 2020
Thoughts On Night's Black Agents Solo-Ops
I’ve played countless tabletop roleplaying games over the years, but only a few experiences come close to what Night’s Black Agents Solo-Ops by Pelgrane Press offers. What sets NBA Solo-Ops apart is, that...
January 20, 2020
Happy New Year
The new year is now about a week old and I’m enjoying the last days of my winter vacation. I used the last weeks to relax and recuperate. Basically at the last minute...
January 8, 2020
Genesys and the End of the Year
Although I have been reading various roleplaying games during the last months, I irregularly direct my attention towards Genesys, FFG’s generic roleplaying game based on the mechanics popularized by their Star Wars RPGs....
December 18, 2019
Lazy Friday Video Post – Adam Koebel's First Look At Bastionland
Yesterday I watched Adam Koebel’s (of Dungeon World fame) video about Chris McDowall’s Electric Bastionland which is currently being kickstarted. Even though I was already quite excited about the game, I couldn’t help...
December 6, 2019
Secrets of Blackmoor
Yesterday evening I finally had the chance to watch “Secrets of Blackmoor“, the two-hour documentary film about the influence Dave Arneson and the Twin Cities wargaming community had on Dungeons & Dragons in...
December 3, 2019
FTL and Setting Design
As I am currently working on my own settings for use with Traveller or the Cepheus Engine, I’ve thought about faster-than-light (FTL) travel and its influence on the setting. A setting without FTL...
November 26, 2019
Cepheus Subsector Generator
About two and a half years ago I wrote a simple Python script which generates subsectors for me in the Cepheus Engine format. Why? Because I find rolling up a full subsector by...
November 22, 2019
In My Traveller Universe: Near Space
One of my favorite sourcebooks for Traveller and the Cepheus System is definitely Stellagama Publishing’s Near Space. It’s a small booklet containing maps and stats for the stellar systems in the vicinity of...
November 19, 2019
The Cepheus Engine As Multi-Genre RPG?
First and foremost the Cepheus Engine like the game it tries to emulate, Traveller, are science fiction roleplaying games. But instead of being limited to just sci-fi adventure stories, could Cepheus handle games...
November 18, 2019
Alternate Character Creation Rules For Cepheus
Traveller (and Cepheus for that matter) are (in)famous for their character creation. Being able to die during character creation is one of the quirks for which we love that game. But there are...
November 15, 2019
IN MY TRAVELLER UNIVERSE … Part 2
Yesterday I have put some more thought into my planned Traveller universe. The idea of using the Spinward Marches as a canvas for my … well … ideas. I also reached out to...
November 15, 2019
In My Traveller Universe …
My relationship to Traveller is … complicated. Classic Traveller was the first tabletop RPG I bought, but I was never really comfortable with its rules. I skipped MegaTraveller and eventually got Traveller New...
November 14, 2019
SKALD: Against the Black Priory
Way before I even knew what tabletop roleplaying games were, I was a fan of computer roleplaying games. But unfortunately modern CRPGs often seem to miss something. In the games of my youth,...
November 13, 2019