Month: January 2022

The past 3 years, after each month of Dungeons & Dragons articles (this years theme was Realism and Verisimilitude) I went through some tips for new Dungeon Masters. Let’s do it again!

Year 1, Year 2

Keep an Open Mind

D&D is a very expansive game. There are a million different ways to play, between the adventures, characters, and even rules that you can choose to use or not use. Every time there is a new campaign beginning, the game is a little different, even if you are playing with the same people you’ve always played with, what they want out of the game might have changed. Perhaps you just finished an Underdark dungeoncrawl, and now they want to go into the Abyss to do a dungeoncrawl, that slight change could still be enough for you to consider changing how you play. If a player, whether or not…

This is a new rule I came up with recently. Over the last year, maybe a little bit longer I have been receiving video game codes for review from different studios and publishers. I have a Google Sheet with all of the games I need to play, their release and embargo dates and other information I may need.

Many times, I have received multiple game codes with the same embargo or release date. It’s hard as a one person team to play all of these games and write or post about them. I sometimes get truly excited for a game and will start playing it right away. Other times I may realize that the embargo is up the next morning so I have to quickly play one game all night and write about it as I play it.

I enjoy playing all of these games. I especially get excited when…

Time for our regular quick-fire reviews and impressions of what’s been on the go this week, old and new and a bit of both…

I’ve been continuing my schmup for beginners journey with YouTube’s Schmup Junkie, and if you remember, last week I said I wouldn’t be finishing lesson two, PC-Engine vertical shooter Blazing Lazers, any time soon, but guess what! What I think I’m deducing here is that with these conventional shoot ‘em ups, you need to learn what’s coming well enough that you can get powered-up and stay powered-up. If you do, you can brute force your way through a lot of danger before it’s even on the screen. And I’ve also learnt that continues are fine in early levels, but unless you’re some kind of expert, once you lose those power-ups you’re more often than not screwed no matter how many times you try! Anyway, this…

After the huge success of Super Mario Odyssey, many fans and journalists speculated that Nintendo might make a direct follow-up. Sequels are rare for 3D Mario games, but it’s not entirely without precedent. Super Mario Galaxy was given a sequel, which suggests it’s possible that Super Mario Odyssey could receive the same treatment. However, in early 2021, Nintendo released an updated port of Super Mario 3D World that included a brand new 3D Mario experience, Bowser’s Fury. Bowser’s Fury took 3D Mario in a new direction, away from Cappy, by bringing back Shines and utilizing elements of Super Mario 3D World. This suggests Nintendo may instead be aiming for Mario’s next 3D adventure to be more similar to this newest iteration of the formula. Where will 3D Mario go next? Do you hope that a new game will be a follow-up to Super Mario Odyssey, Bowser’s…

So many Dungeons & Dragons campaigns are about Human(oid) heroes, going from town to town, slaying monsters, and saving the people. What if this time, we play the monsters? That doesn’t necessarily mean we have to be evil, killing innocent people, but I want to see the story of what happens when a monster wants to be a mercenary.

I think this idea gained a lot of popularity with 5e players when, in Critical Role, Sam played a goblin rogue named Nott the Brave, however the idea has gone back to early editions of the game, with the AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide saying the following:

On occasion one player or another will evidence a strong desire to operate as a monster, conceiving a playable character as a strong demon, a devil, a dragon, or one of the most powerful sort of undead creatures. This is done principally because the…