DDOCentral

Following a thoroughly interesting and deep conversation with Simon Williams from the Legend of the Bones podcast about solo roleplaying last evening, I found myself curiously drawn back to an old favourite d20-based roleplaying game. Picking up my copy of the Castles & Crusades box set, I found myself seriously considering using it for some solo gaming.

The idea arose because of two colliding thoughts: first, Simon had been explicit about how playing a game solo could be so much more richly focused on Otherworld-immersion when one focuses away from the rules and mechanisms to instead truly engage with roleplaying – i.e., playing in role and making decisions in role.

The second thought was the idea Simon asserted of playing in a game that is what you would enjoy playing and not being beholden to the tastes of any other player. As I considered this, I realised that I’ve been…

Time for our regular roundup of quick-fire reviews and impressions of everything under the spotlight at Retro Arcadia this week, old and new and a bit of both…

Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown has been sitting unloved in my Xbox game library for far too long – in fact, I don’t think I’d ever even fired it up before, so I did, and then a happy accident happened… While I’ll normally take the, er, “bounciest” option when I’m starting out on any new fighting game, this time I got a bit button-happy in the menus and ended up choosing the oversized sumo guy, Taka-Arashi, by mistake on my very first character-select screen. Rather than more menus, though, I thought I’ll try him out, and then we really clicked – hell of a brutal fighting style! We even got to the end of the arcade mode together. I don’t know much…

Walking across the school yard this morning, I had my hands in my pockets and felt the three six-sided dice I usually carry drop into my hand. As I sensed the dice it also occurred to me that it’s been several weeks since I rolled them in a game. The sense of loss and sadness was suddenly overwhelming: I need to roll these dice!

As I have entered into a deeper and deeper hibernation within my hobby, I’ve also felt myself increasingly saddened by the loss of enjoyment that ceasing to play causes. On the one hand, I don’t have the energy and interest to drive my motivation – especially given how hard running a game can be – but on the other hand I am drawn towards the dice, maps, and imaginary worlds that I love.

The answer, as I have mentioned before, is not to rely on…

We recently moved house. Something I haven’t done by choice or necessity for almost a decade. And you don’t really realize how stiff the roots you put down are until you have to dig them back up. To extend the metaphor, you also don’t realize how much dirt goes flying when those roots finally give! The literal mess I’m left with is made up of unmarked boxes, stuff I forgot I owned and don’t need that is unpacked and looking for a new home, and essential stuff, like my Play Station, that is boxed up and waiting for its spot under the TV. It’s responsibly out of reach until just as soon as I’ve settled in enough to deserve a little down time.

But this forced sabbatical from games has really got me thinking about what I’ll fire up the moment that last crate of clothes is in our closet…

After over a year’s worth of suffering, angst and all-around bad times for our characters, ourCurse of Strahdcampaign had its season finale last Sunday.

In short, we decided to move on to another campaign for a while, leavingCurse of Strahdon a cliffhanger we will return to at a later date.

Oh man, it’s been a wild one. We have all lost at least one character during this campaign and my friend Becca even lost two! This was my first time dealing with character death which sucked since I liked my good boy Zyn Zoland. Anyone who has playedCurse of Strahdknows how brutal a campaign setting it is.

So, what happened in our final session?

To make a very long story short, a former member of the party that we thought might be dead turned out to be alive and was due to marry…

Reign of Ruin is an adventure for a 7th or 8th level party by Richard Moore, published by Jon Brazer Enterprises, in their Deadly Delve series.