If I had to sum up my entire childhood in one word, it would be… HE-MAN! Nostalgia is a powerful thing, but let’s be honest—trying to recapture the magic of our youth often leads to crushing disappointment. I’ve walked this road before, diving into old franchises through games, and while a few hits (looking at you, Star Trek: Fleet Captains) have blown me away, most experiences remind me that some things are best left as cherished memories.
The Masters of the Universe toys were more than just my childhood, they were very much my introduction into the world of fantasy that would culminate with Dungeons and Dragons. In a way, it paved the way for my love for fantasy and science fiction.
Enter Masters of the Universe: Battleground. I approached it with cautious optimism—expecting “meh,” hoping for “fun,” but what I got was an absolute knockout of awesomeness. Holy crap, this game surpassed my wildest expectations!
Now, let me be clear—this is just my gut reaction after a single playthrough, specifically the “learning” starter game. I didn’t think I’d have much of an opinion after such a brief introduction, but Masters of the Universe: Battleground is bursting with nostalgic goodness and mechanical brilliance.
The miniature replication here is fantastic, with clear tributes by fans for fans. Every character in the starter kit was instantly recognizable and it was clear that the point of the game is to tap into the 80’s kid still living inside you.
First off, the game looks fantastic on the table. The miniatures are high-quality, the plastic terrain—while basic—is functional, and the grid board sets the perfect stage for battle. It’s not the kind of visual feast that will blow your mind, but it’s more than enough to put a smile on this old He-Man fan’s face. However, where this game really shines is in its gameplay.
What I expected to be a simple, nostalgia-driven experience turned out to be a streamlined, deeply tactical, and combo-heavy battle of wits. Tough decisions, nuanced moves, and strategic planning take center stage. The mechanics clicked effortlessly from the get-go, offering a multitude of options and interactions that scream replayability. It all comes together to deliver an authentic, action-packed He-Man cartoon showdown.
Between the exploding dice, card-driven play, and clever dice manipulation using mana and special powers, every moment felt like a thrilling push-your-luck gamble. There are no guarantees, but the game gives you plenty of tools to tip the odds in your favor. The heroes feel powerful, but far from invincible—you need to position them carefully and make the most of their unique abilities.
The starter set is chock-full of content, it’s quite astonishing what they squeezed into a miniature game under a 100 dollars. There is no question that this is the best bang for your buck I have ever seen in a published game. I don’t know how they did it, but ordinarily, with a kick-starter like this, I would expect to pay in excess of 200 dollars for a set like this.
Precision is key in Battleground, and while we were a bit sloppy in our first game, by the final round, my gaming partner and I were already buzzing with excitement over the possibilities. We couldn’t stop talking about what we should have done, what we could do next time, and the sheer potential of the list-building system.
While playing the base starter game was fun, this is a game that is all about list building. The structure here is super clear and straightforward, but there is a ton of combos not only in the interaction between various equipment and powers but also between the different heroes. I love the fact that it’s crystal clear what everything is for, it’s one of those miniature games that doesn’t obscure the advantages and disadvantages in the minutia of the rules, it’s all very plain to the eye.
The real kicker? I wanted to play again. Immediately. And that’s always a good sign. In fact, I found myself eagerly browsing expansions the moment I got home. What I expected to be a one-and-done experience turned into something I suspect will see a lot of table time in the near future.
So, if you’re a fellow child of the ’80s—or just someone looking for a solid tactical game—Masters of the Universe: Battleground might just surprise you. It certainly did for me.
Miniature gaming, role-playing games, and board games are becoming more and more difficult to neatly categorize these days as we see more and more cross-over hybrids. Warcrow Adventures, the latest take on the adventure game genre from Corvus Belli has been my gaming group’s latest obsession, and for good reason as this hybrid adventure game has a lot to offer.
Warcrow Adventures is based on the new miniature war game of the same name (Warcrow), using the same setting background and actual miniatures for the miniature game. An app-assisted story-driven dungeon crawler, players take on the roles of adventures using the classic Dungeons and Dragons formula in which they follow along a branching storyline, make decisions, fight monsters, find treasure, and level up!
Corvus Belli, has an outstanding reputation for producing fantastic miniatures and Warcrow is no exception. Dynamic poses, highly detailed, and a good chunky size all contribute to the wonderful quality of these mini’s.
This game borrows from quite a few different gaming genres, but the attraction is the D&D DNA-inspired treadmill. It boasts a lot of very streamlined mechanics that are deceptively simple yet impactful. Every choice you make in the game, every task you complete, and every interaction you have unveils part of a unique story while creating hurdles for you to jump through in a pretty challenging risk vs. reward structure.
I will be doing a full review of Warcrow Adventures once my group completes the adventure, but beware that this is very much a legacy-style adventure game that will take many sessions to complete.
App-assisted games are becoming more and more common and the production values of these apps are improving with each new generation. Warcrow Adventures app delivers fantastic voice-overs, a simpler interface, and a very organized structure that makes it easy to use at the table.
Already now however I can tell you that if you are a fan of adventure games, if you love Dungeons and Dragons, this is an outstanding platform for bringing that classic dungeon crawl feeling to the table.
The hybrid nature of the game, being part miniature game also offers the opportunity for everyone to do some hobby painting. Know that these are not “board game pieces”, these are actual, fully detailed miniatures, and well worth your time to paint. In fact, every miniature in Warcrow Adventures is getting a full profile and will be used in the Warcrow miniatures war game so if you are already collecting and playing Warcrow the miniature game, the adventure game has the side benefit of giving you new units for that game as well.
The Warcrow miniature game on which Warcrow Adventures is based has also indoctrinated itself into my gaming club largely based on the already well-established reputation of our beloved Infinity (the other Corvus Belli miniature game we play). We just can’t help it, one look at these amazing miniatures and you know you just need to own some!
My group immediately got to work painting these mini’s and not only has it built up the excitement to play Warcrow Adventures, but it’s got us all buzzing about Warcrow the miniature game as well the setting itself. If there was ever a setting that deserved to be an RPG, this is it!
In either case, whether you do or don’t get into the miniature game, Warcrow Adventures as a stand-alone product is already proving to be a great time, Corvus Belli has done a fantastic job building an atmosphere with its amazing setting and building a story I think any role-player would enjoy sinking their teeth into.
I’m no master miniature painter, but great minis inspire great paint jobs and I have to say, I’m pretty proud of this one!
Look for a full review shortly, but for now, if you are on the fence about Warcrow Adventures, I can tell you here and now, it’s a fantastic package!
It happened by accident—at least, that’s what I tell myself—but the truth is, I own a lot of miniature games. I’ve painted and played so many that it’s a little scary! I don’t even want to think about how much time and money I’ve sunk into this hobby, especially not around my wife! In today’s article, I’ll take all that hard-earned experience and try to put it to good use by offering some advice on finding the perfect miniature game for you, with a few recommendations sprinkled in.
Let’s dive right in!
The Three Categories Of Miniature Gaming
Most miniature games can be sorted into three broad categories—though many games blur the lines between them. These categories are: hobby-focused games (sometimes called lore-heavy games), mechanics-focused games (often competitive in nature), and narratively focused games (driven by storytelling and immersion).
Now, every game publisher will tell you their game does everything, and technically, they’re not wrong—but the reality is, most games lean heavily into one category more than the others, often to an extreme. Knowing what kind of game you’re getting into and understanding how the community that plays that game sees it is a big part of the key to picking the right game for yourself.
Categorization is key because all miniature games are marketed in a visually exciting way because they ARE visually exciting. If you pick a game like Star Wars: Shatterpoint, you likely have certain expectations and imagery about what the experience might be like (player expectations), but Shatterpoint is a highly mechanized game designed for competitive play, about playing King of the Hill on generic objectives. It’s closer to being a board game than being a miniature game, falling heavily into the Mechanic-Focused category.
Let’s break down these categories for clarity.
Hobby-focused games
Hobby-focused games are all about the experience—stunning miniatures, immersive lore, and endless collection opportunities. Here, the gameplay often takes a backseat to the joy of building, painting, and diving deep into the game’s rich world.
These games are usually supported by expansive novels, army books, special terrain, and a constant stream of new releases. They demand a serious investment—not just in time, but in cold hard cash. Hobby-focused games are easily the most expensive, often costing two to four times more than other types.
A prime example? Warhammer 40k by Games Workshop. To even get started, you’ll need at least a 1,000-point army (2,000 points being standard), translating to anywhere from 50 to 100 models. Before you can even think about playing, you’re looking at hundreds—if not thousands—of dollars spent on miniatures, terrain, rulebooks, and accessories.
While most miniature games can be classified as a hobby to some degree as you will often be assembling and painting miniatures, there is a distinct difference between miniature games being a hobby and a game being hobby-focused. Warhammer: Underworld for example aims to get you playing the game right away with easy-to-assemble miniatures that have colored plastic with a game that is played on a hex board with all the accessories (cards, tokens etc..) included in the box. You can play a full game like Underworld a few hours after you open the box, it is not a hobby-focused game even though you will get the opportunity to paint some miniatures and experience the miniature gaming hobby element inherent in all miniature games.
When all is said and done, you’ll likely spend over $500 and 100+ hours before experiencing the full game of Warhammer 40k as it is intended to be played. No ad will tell you this, and hardcore fans might argue otherwise, but trust me—after 35+ years in the hobby, I’ve yet to meet anyone who’s done it for less.
Warhammer 40k is a hobby-focused game, you will spend just shy of 100 dollars to get into the starter set and after assembling and painting these miniatures you will discover that what you have purchased is not even close to the full game. You are still hundreds of dollars and hours away from experiencing Warhammer 40k from this point. In fact, the starter set doesn’t even teach you the real game, it gives you a sort of “sub-game” of the real thing. Warhammer 40k assumes a lot about what you will spend in terms of dollars and hours preparing to play a full game.
The trick is that this is exactly what Hobby-Focused games are designed to be and it’s what fans of such games want. If it was easy and fast, it would not have the same appeal. To hobby-focused gamers, this long road is seen as an opportunity, not a drawback.
But here’s the thing—fans of hobby games love this level of commitment. The journey of collecting and painting is the whole point. You’re never done, and that’s exactly the appeal. To fans of these hobby-focused games, the journey is the juice.
Mechanics-Focused Games
If hobby games are about immersion, mechanics-focused games are about playing—and playing now. These games prioritize tight, balanced rules over deep lore or hobby elements, often designed for competitive tournament play.
Many of these games require little to no hobby work at all. most come with pre-painted miniatures, easy-to-assemble miniatures and/or low model counts, making them much more accessible for casual or competitive players.
Examples? Star Wars: X-Wing and Star Wars: Armada, with streamlined mechanics and pre-painted minis that let you jump straight into the action. Even hybrid games like Star Wars: Shatterpoint leans into this category, focusing on accessible, tactical gameplay with minimal prep.
Most mechanic-focused games are going to try very hard to make the hobby parts of miniature gaming as painless as possible, even going so far as offering pre-constructed, pre-painted miniatures. The goal of a mechanic-focused game is not only to get you playing right away but more specifically to get you competing right away. Star Wars: X-Wing is a prime example of a game that took this to the furthest extreme. You need roughly 3-6 models, everything is pre-painted and assembled, and essentially you are ready to sign up for tournaments after the unboxing.
Side Note: Star Wars X-Wing has been discontinued by the publisher, but don’t fret, miniature games never truly die and X-Wing is no exception. Communities keep these games alive and there were so many products produced for X-Wing that there are more miniatures available for purchase today than there ever was when the game was still being published.
Mechanics-focused games often feel closer to board games than traditional miniature games, with precise, clearly defined rules that leave no room for “eyeballing it.” These games are generally much cheaper to get to the table while getting the intended full gaming experience.
Narratively Focused Games
Narratively focused games sit on the opposite end of the spectrum from mechanics-driven ones. These games aim to capture a feeling—bringing iconic franchises, historical moments, or unique settings to life in a cinematic way.
Balance and precision take a back seat to storytelling and thematic immersion. Instead of symmetrical matchups, expect scenario-driven play that tries to replicate key moments—whether they’re historical battles or epic fantasy showdowns.
Bolt Action is a fantastic example of a narratively driven game that hybrids a bit into the hobby-focused element. The point of Bolt Action is to create (or use) scenarios that depict historical battles, but the game is not about simulation or exacting rules, it’s about creating the atmosphere of a great action-war movie. It’s about the sensation at the table, the atmosphere of the setting, and quick execution. The extra effort to put together a nicely painted army and building nice terrain is to quench that creative appetite, though I would still argue it leans far more into the narratively driven games rather than the hobby-focused games.
Two great examples of Narrative-focused games are The Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game and Bolt Action. MESBG tries to replicate the lord of the Rings movies, while Bolt Action tries to replicate a movie version of historical World War II battles. In both cases, the games exaggerate the cinematic fantasy to bring the feel and style of their chosen setting to the table.
Understanding Your Interest In Miniature Games
Now that we’ve established a way to categorize games, the next step is figuring out how to use this information to guide your decision and ultimately select the right game for you.
You might already have a gut feeling based on the categories we’ve outlined, leaning more towards one over the others. Preferences are often instinctive and valid, but it’s important to remember that while most games lean toward a particular focus, they usually incorporate elements from all three categories. Even games with a clear identity—like Warhammer 40k being hobby-focused—venture into narrative and mechanics to some extent.
Choosing the right game is about balancing your interests with realistic expectations. To help narrow down your options, consider these three key factors:
Time & Money?
It’s easy to be drawn to what excites you most, but miniature games require a significant investment of both time and money.
Games generally fall into three price categories:
Cheap: Around $60-$100, comparable to the cost of a typical board game.
Standard: Ranging from $150-$250 for a full experience.
Expensive (a.k.a. “Go F* Yourself”)**: $500+ for the complete experience.
The BattleTech Alpha Strike box set is an outstanding value for a game, coming in on the “cheap” category, this box set costs about 90 dollars US and quite literally comes with more than what you need to play a full game. You can buy this box set, never buy any more stuff for Battletech, and play the game forever. This kind of value is rare in the miniature market, but if you love giant robot battles, you can’t do better than this.
Price is not the only consideration however, Battletech can take upwards of 6+ hours to play a single game, so you have to ask yourself that question too. Will you ever have time to play a 6+ hour game?
It’s worth noting that you can spend more or less on any game. For example, you could grab an intro set for Warhammer 40k at $50, but that won’t give you the full experience Games Workshop intends. On the flip side, a core set for Battletech at $90 can offer a well-rounded experience, though diving deeper could cost thousands.
Time commitment follows a similar pattern. You might grab an X-Wing starter set and be playing within minutes, while something like Warhammer Old World could demand 60+ hours of assembly and painting before your first match.
Infinity is a fantastic example of a game that respects your wallet and your time but still offers a very robust gaming experience with extreme collection and expansion opportunities. They do this through masterful design, ensuring that the game is every bit as exciting and fun on a smaller scale with simplified rules as it is with large scale and nearly bottomless rules expansion. A small game from a basic starter kit can cost less than 50 bucks to get into and offer a game session as short as 45 minutes, to larger scale and elaborate battles with deep rules that can cost hundreds of dollars to collect and create play times exceeding 5+ hours.
Some gamers (this one included) love games that have varying scales like this, it makes collection (acquisition) easier and you get to play as you collect, build, and expand. In my eyes, Infinity is one of the best miniature games out there, especially when it comes to respecting your time and money!
Many games market “quick start” options, but the reality is that each game has a clear overhead. Take the time to research what’s truly required to enjoy the full experience and compare it with your available resources.
Miniature Games are a group activity
No matter what game you choose, remember that miniature games are fundamentally social. While they can be enjoyed as a solo hobby (through collecting and painting), the core experience revolves around playing with others. Most games require at least two players, but the best experiences often come from being part of an active community.
Don’t have any friends to play miniature games with but you still want to get into it? Don’t worry, Warcrow Adventures has your back! Ok, I’m going to say this up front, games like Warcrow Adventures (just like any game) are always more fun when you have friends to share them with. But if you want to get into miniature games and you are living in isolation or simply don’t have anyone around to play with, Warcrow Adventures offers a fantastic game that can be played completely solo. It offers fantastic miniatures for you to paint and enjoy the hobby part of miniature gaming with expansion opportunity and because the game’s miniatures are directly connected to Warcrow the miniatures game, you could potentially in the future expand your collection to that game as well.
That said, I still think the best option is to find some friends to play games with, community is just a huge part of this hobby and often it almost doesn’t matter what miniature game you play, as long as you have people to play it with.
Before diving in, make sure your chosen game has a local presence. There’s nothing worse than investing time and money into a game you never get to play because no one else in your area is into it. Online communities can help bridge gaps, but nothing beats in-person matches and events. After all, if you’re going to invest time and money into building an army for a game, playing some digitized version of it is going to be very anticlimactic, don’t expect that sort of thing to fill any voids.
Competative or Casual
Some games are designed with competition in mind, while others lean into a more relaxed, narrative-driven approach. While this often aligns with a game’s core category, community culture can shift things in unexpected ways.
Take Warhammer 40k, for example—designed as a hobby-focused game, yet many local communities treat it as a highly competitive experience. Conversely, Star Wars: X-Wing, built for competition, has embraced the mantra “Fly Casual,” encouraging players to focus on enjoying the thematic experience rather than strict competitive play despite its clear design goals.
These community-driven shifts can be confusing for new players, so it’s crucial to research how a game is actually played in your area rather than relying solely on its marketing or official design.
The concept of the current state of the game as seen through the eyes of the community should be an important consideration when selecting your game. Marketing is one thing, game state is an altogether different thing. Take Warmachine for example. A few years back I would have recommended this game without hesitation, it was once, a fantastic game. Today I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. Privateer Press has done a very poor job taking care of this game and it’s in terrible shape right now, unlikely to survive going forward. It’s a real mess!
It’s also worth noting that any game has a “current state” defined by the opinions of the community which defines the mood of the community. This is an important pulse to have your finger on, because the rules and governance of a game by it’s publisher can have a tremendous amount of impact on the game and the gaming community. It’s important to know that being negative gets more clicks, so look for positive feedback on any game you’re considering, but beware that every game has a “this game sucks” anti-fan club on social media.
The Miniature Games – Overviews!
I have already offered a bit of insight on a few games in the article, but I will do a few more here just to give you some ideas and inspiration for your own research, that said, here comes the golden advice.
DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH! This is so critical to the process, before you whip out that credit card you should know everything there is to know about a game. Don’t go into miniature games likely, even the most basic game is going to demand a lot more from you than a typical board game, so miniature games should never be an impulse buy!
Star Wars Legion
It’s truly a rare gamer that I run into that doesn’t love Star Wars on some level and it’s natural for gamers to gravitate towards familiar franchises. As such, Star Wars Legion always comes up in conversations about miniature games because it is, in a nutshell, Star Wars on a grand scale.
In Star Wars Legion you are going to have mass battles on large battlefields with Jedi’s, AT-AT walkers and the countless troops each with their own personality from the Star Wars universe. Visually, it’s every kid’s dream to play Star Wars on this scale.
That said you have to be weary here. This hybrid game, has a heavy hobby element requirement, it’s quite expensive to get a full game on the table and the game state right now is a bit confusing.
It’s a great game, but be sure to check on the status of this game thoroughly and do some calculations. Once it’s all said and done you will spend a solid 300-400 dollars to get a complete army with many hours of hobby time to pull it all together. It requires a commitment!
Marvel Crisis Protocal
Like Star Wars Legion, the Marvel Universe has been popularized in recent years by the never-ending influx of Marvel movies, so gravitating towards a miniature game with all of your favorite superheroes is perfectly natural.
What you have to know about Marvel Crisis Protocol is that it’s a very structured mechanic-focused game with a very stern competitive style and objective-oriented game. This is not a narrative-focused game at all, it plays more like a board game than a miniature game. The scenarios in the game are just “adjective” driven excuses for what amounts to a game about holding objectives (positions) on the board.
It’s a fun and fantastic game, but be sure you match your expectations with the actual gameplay.
Wings of Glory
Speaking of managing expectations, let’s talk about Wings of Glory. As an avid historical war gamer, I love a good heavy war simulation, so one look at Wings of Glory and it is easy to get excited.
The important thing to know about Wings of Glory is that it’s not a simulation at all, in fact, this is the UNO of miniature games, one that can be taught to children. It does not take itself seriously, there is no hobby element (everything is pre-painted) and it’s not designed for narrative-focused play.
This is a very simple dog-fighting game, with board game-like mechanics. It’s light, fast and super fun, but this is not the historical simulator you might hope it would be.
Ok that’s it for today guys, I hope you found the article useful, good luck out there!
As of September of 2024, GamersDungeon.net turns 10 years old and I felt like, that in itself deserves an article at the very least. After all, running a blog for a decade while making me feel old, also makes me feel mature and professional. I know I’m absolutely not, in fact, I’m a fumbling idiot for the most part but still, hitting the 10 year mark feels great.
I thought the way I would celebrate is by going through the posting history to talk about some of my favorite articles as well as those I hate. Sort of a flashback, a look at GamersDungeon.net over the last decade.
The first article I ever wrote for this blog was about D&D, in a way this blog was founded on talking about D&D and I have done so quite continually throughout the blogs life. This article was triggered by the big event at the time, the release of 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons and as I was excited by having a new edition in my hot little hand, I was very generous with my words.
Since this article I have written quite a few articles about 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons, either being mentioned as part of a larger theory article or directly addressing the edition itself. Over the years I have gone back and forth about my feelings about 5th edition but sitting here now with the 2024 edition released, I can say these definitive words about 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons.
It’s ok. I still prefer the classic playstyles of 1st edition D&D, the Dungeon Crawl, The Dungeon Survival, that deadly game where players aren’t heroes because they have powers, they are heroes because of the risks they take for the greater good against all odds.
Still, I do enjoy 5th edition D&D. It’s an easy game to the table and looking at this article, though I was a bit generous, I still believe 10 years later that the general assessment remains true. 5th edition is as close as the franchise has gotten over the years to returning to the original, classic formula of 1st edition. It’s a bit high powered and has plenty of exceptions, but all and all, it’s a fine game.
My first Top 10 of all time list was published in 2015 and I have to say, looking at it today, I still think most of these games are great, but it does feel a bit strange to see some of these titles today. There are some exceptions like Star Wars X-Wing and Twilight Imperium, both of which I consider top notch games still today.
Star Wars X-Wing in the number one spot feels great, I still love this game, I still have my collection and believe it or not it still comes out on occasion. It’s a fast moving fun dice chucker and while it’s no longer on my list today, I proudly stand by this one.
Twilight Imperium is still on my top 20 list today (no. 7 spot) and this game has remained on the list the entire decade. I love Twilight Imperium and true love lasts forever!
The rest of the list gets a bit shaky. Fury of Dracula in the no. 4 spot is the eye sore here, I’m not sure what I was thinking but I probably haven’t played this game since 2015. Formula D also feels a bit odd. I do like it but its a very niche game, quite random and way too long for what is effectively a kind of push your luck dice chucker. Dominion is the really painful one, I culled that one from my collection many moons ago and just the thought of playing it gives me the shivers.
This however is exactly why I update my best of list each year, these lists don’t age well.
In September of 2015 I created my rating system that I would use from this point forward when receiving games and I have to say, even today, I still think its one of the best and most fair way to review games.
I think it’s actually the most brilliant thing I have ever done on this site to be honest, I love this system and I actually wish it was more standardized. I really dislike the arbitrary way in which boardgames are reviewed. It’s like, I give it a 7 out of 10… how? why? My rating system really quantifies things and gives categories of judgement weight based on the intended design so that way a game intended to be a short, fun dice chucker doesn’t get judged the same way a big, complex strategy game would. These are different games that require a different review approach and I really think my rating system captures that.
The What Makes It tick was an article series that I never really fully explored. I did some decent work here but what I discovered is that these sort of articles aged really poorly, especially when applied to a constantly evolving game like miniature games.
I didn’t write very many as a result, but I do think they were pretty good for the 5 minutes they were actually valid.
I have done a lot of reviews over the years and most of them I stand by, but there are a few that I cringe when I read them, the most famous of these blunders was my review of 7 Wonders Duel.
Man I feel like a fool for this one. I crapped all over this game and I was wrong about all of it. 7 Wonders Duel is a fantastic game, I still play it today nearly 10 years later quite regularly with my daughter, its actually one of my favorite games that I play with her and I’m pretty sure its one of her favorite board games of all time.
If there is a review I would love to re-write its this one.
Every year my friends and I disappear for 4 days to a place called Hassela, where we lock ourselves in a house in the country and do absolutely nothing but play boardgames all day, eat good food, drink good drink and be merry. It’s the gaming highlight of every year and we have been doing it now for nearly a decade. In fact, we will be celebrating our 10th year anniversary for this event.
Writing these articles is pure joy and it’s also probably the most diverse list of games you will ever see bunched up together in a single article. Great for when you want to find something new to try.
In April 2018 I met a guy online that created the Lord of the Rings LCG companion, a website dedicated to Lord of the Rings. He was looking for a webspace to put the companion, I was a super fan of the game and basically I decided to host the sub-site and have been doing so ever since.
This site has been and continues to be updated and maintained, I have gladly paid to keep it up and running and will do so as long as the creator who by the way, I have almost no contact with, keeps it current. It’s been a fantastic resource provided to the community, I use it myself all the time and I love the idea that I keep it alive, there is something felathrapic about it.
Theory articles have become a kind of staple of my site over the last few years, but it all started back in 2018. In fact, I do far more of these types of articles these days than I do boardgame reviews.
Part of the reason is that I’m not really all that interested in keeping up with the latest and greatest when it comes to boardgames. I choose my games rather abstractly based on current interest, I really don’t pay that much attention to new releases.
RPG’s however are a staple of my gaming life and I find myself playing, thinking about and writing about them all the time.
It also helps that these are the most commonly read articles. A single theory article can get more hits in a day, than most articles will get in a decade. They are very popular and generate a lot of traffic and while I’m not making money on this blog, I do like to see it getting traffic, it feels good.
I’m a huge battletech fan and writing this three part Battletech guide was one of the most fun articles I have ever written and it was one I was very heavily invested in.
I think all together there was over 100 hours worth of research and work that went into this three part series and personally I think its the single most relevant information you will ever find on the subject of Battletech anywhere on the internet and I’m quite proud of that.
This article series is a deep dive into Battletech that explains every resource, how it all fits together and all the options, variations and nuances of the game. It’s pure gold in my opinion, a effort well worth it for me.
While the 7 Wonder Duel review is something I’m not very proud of, my original review of Great Western Trails triggered me to do a “re-review” article, the only of its kind on this blog to correct some of those errors in judgement.
To some extent it was a kind of response to certain readers, who complained about some of these reviews and rightfully so as a few of these reviews were pretty terrible. I was glad I wrote this article but I had to swallow my pride when doing so.
Blood Rage is the first and only game in 10 years to receive a perfect 5 out of 5 score using my rating system and frankly, I still believe today that it’s the only game that deserves it.
I think this actually speaks to the objectivity of the rating system itself as well of the quality of Blood Rage as a board game because, believe it or not, this one doesn’t even crack my top 20 list.
There is no question in my mind in every category from components, gameplay, theme and replayability this game nails the landing with perfection. It is, genuinely in my opinion the only game I have ever played to which I could not find a single thing to complain about. It really is, the perfect game.
Now personally I think its a fun game and I always enjoy playing it, but it doesn’t really fit my style of game. For me, a game doesn’t need to be perfectly designed and published, to make the list. In fact, I usually prefer my games with some nuanced flaws, it gives them character.
I really do try my absolute best to be as objective on this blog as I can, especially when it comes to reviews, but in the case of Napoleon’s Imperium it was simply impossible.
This heartwarming story about a game developer publishing his first game, based on a life time spent designing it, with a fascinating and inspiring long road to that publications was enough to shake the foundations of objectivity. I however had the pleasure to meet and befriend the designer Andrew Roland and that really sealed the deal for me, throwing any sense of objectivity out the window.
All I can say is that I love this story, it is without question in my mind, one of the most fascinating and inspiring tales I have come across as a writer and I loved writing this article and this review.
For what it’s worth, after writing the article which did include some criticism, Andrew contacted me and not only thanked me for writing the review, but told me that this was the most accurate and most insightful review of the game he had ever read.
I’m not surprise at that comment as I spent the better part of 40 hours agonizing over every word of this article.
I was very proud of that and I was happy to help Andrew promote his game because I have never met anyone more deserving of success.
Empire of the Sun by famed historical war game designer Mark Herman was a very coincidental and rather rash purchase on my part, but would end up completely changing the way I think about and what sorts of games I love. It was one of my first foray’s into serious historical war gaming and I have not been the same since.
This absolute masterpiece was one of the most difficult games to learn and dissect, without question one of the toughest reviews I have ever written. I have never worked harder to get words onto a page than the ones put together for Empire of The Sun.
I really hope I did the game justice, as it is one of my favorite games of all time, a lifestyle game I plan to play until the day I die.
Probably one of the strangest articles and projects I ever took on was trying to create my own arcade system. I only wrote two articles for this one, something I hope to remedy one day when I actually finish the project, but I can tell you that I do in fact have a working prototype at home.
In fact my daughter and I play our homemade arcade every week like clockwork, we absolutely love and I really hope to finish this article and this project over the next couple of years because I had a ton of fun building and playing with it. It’s a unique experience that I would encourage any nostalgic gamer to pursue, if I can do it, anyone can do it.. I’m a fumbling idiot!
When I wrote this article, I can tell you that the 5th edition D&D community was not kind. For a gaming community that claims to be all about tolerance and inclusivity, their true colors really shined through when I dared to write an article suggesting that there are other RPG’s out there that might replace 5th edition D&D as “THE” role-playing game.
In fact, I will call it out here and now just for the record. The 5th edition D&D community is predominantly populated by gatekeepers completely intolerant to anything other than their version of D&D. They are hostile, rude and bigoted, their defense is of course that everyone else is the bad guy and they are just innocent snowflakes. I don’t want to throw the entire community under the bus here, because of course this is a generalizations, I have met plenty of nice people but as a community a bigger group of assholes has never existed, the whole lot of them can fuck off.
A Song of Ice and Fire the miniature game played a huge role in my gaming life during the pandemic era thanks mainly to Table Top Simulator which allowed us to play this miniature game online. I think I must have played 100 matches over the course of two years and I got to know this game really well. Well enough to trigger a rebirth of the What Makes It Tick articles.
As was the case before, these articles did not age well as the game is constantly being adjusted, adapted and updated. Suffice to say, while I enjoyed writing them, they are all very much obsolete at this point.
It never occured to me to write a top 10 list of gaming experience, but when I did I found it a rather refreshing way to look at a top 10 list. As I was not bound by the quality of the game, but rather the play experience at a given moment, it allowed me to write an article free of trying to justify what is and isn’t good about a game in a sort of review style. Instead I was just writing about how things went and that was really fun.
I definitely will do more of these in the future.
Q&A – Time to answer some questions
I don’t interact with my readers very much, I don’t have a comment section and usually while I read every email anyone sends to me, I rarely respond. There is a reason for this. My blog is my space, it’s a white board for my thoughts, ideas and opinion and these things are not up for debate. Generally I don’t care what people think, what other people think is not what this blog is about, its a very narcissistic thing, it’s my opinion that matters here and it’s a one way, take it or leave, train.
That said, I figure after 10 years, perhaps this one time I will break the silence and answer some direct questions. I will not reveal any personal information here and I will paraphrase the questions for brevity.
Q1: Why don’t you have a comment section? What are you afraid of?
Already answered to a degree in the intro but to be plain and blunt about it, I don’t really give a fuck what you think and I’m not going to provide you with a space for it on my blog. I know there are a lot of snowflakes out there that think there opinion must be heard and to those I say, write your own fucking blog!
To answer the second part, I’m not afraid of anything, I just don’t care to hear or debate people’s opinions about my opinions. I see no value in it, some people agree with me, some people don’t. We can make that assumption without me having to moderate assholes who take advantage of an anonymous space to vent their bullshit.
Q2: Editorials and repost request
I get a metric ton of requests from people wanting me to re-link or publish articles on their behalf on this blog, which I can understand, I have a fairly sizeable audience for a small gaming blog.
Here is the thing. I’m not a professional, I’m not even a writer, I’m just a gamer with a blog that use it as an outlet to express my opinions and ideas. It’s really that simple, one voice in a larger chorus.
I have never felt comfortable exposing this space to other publications and authors, to me, it doesn’t make sense. Every word on this blog I have written, errors, run-on sentences, terrible opinions and stupid articles mixed in with some good content (I hope) is mine. The point is for it to be mine so I have no interest in sharing the space with anyone. I know there is money in it, but I have plenty of money, I don’t need to make more on my hobby.
Q3: Your wrong and I demand you correct it
There are certain communities out there like miniature gaming communities, original D&D communities and 5th edition communities who actually believe that I have some sort of obligation to them when I write. They insist that if I don’t word things the way they think I should that they have the write to not only tell me about it, but in some cases even do actionable stuff like send me fake cease and desist letters (yeah that actually happened).
I get it, people are passionate but I can’t stress enough how few fucks I give about people’s opinions about my opinions. I’m not saying I’m always right, but what I think is what I think, if you disagree, your barking up the wrong tree telling me about it, I really don’t care and I’m not going to alter my articles. I know that frustrates people, I can’t tell you guys enough how much it means to people that I listen and respond, which is exactly why I never do.
Q4: Review My Game
I get a lot of requests to review people’s games, even from large publishers who are willing to send me free copies if I do so. I’m not going to claim I have never done this, I have made exceptions but I generally avoid this sort of thing.
Writing articles and reviews for this blog is not my job, it’s my hobby, I do it for fun when I fancy to do so. I do not keep schedules, perform “task assignments” or anything else of the sort. In fact, I rarely ever do “new release” type stuff. I write and talk about things I’m doing in that moment and that can be just about anything.
So probably the answer is no, I’m not saying “stop sending me requests”, I’m just saying that in most cases I’m probably not going to respond.
The Gilded Griffon stands at the village’s edge, deep in the unexplored frontier, its weathered stone walls are bathed in torchlight, the sign of a majestic griffon hanging above the door. Inside, the scent of roasting meat and exotic spices fills the air, while shadows dance across scarred oak tables. A grand hearth crackles, its mantle adorned with ancient weapons and relics of past adventures. Patrons from distant lands murmur in hushed tones, and a minstrel’s haunting melody drifts through the room. Behind the bar, a silver-haired barkeep watches with a knowing eye, recognizing you with a nod as adventurers looking for work.
DM: What do you want to do?
This is the moment, this is how D&D kind of started for me. Not this exact start, but it’s how I imagined it. I was 10 years old, it was 1985, I was for the first time invited to a D&D game, I had my 1st level fighter (Darius) character sheet in front of me and all I knew about the game I was about to play was that my job was to pretend I was this fighter in a fantasy world in which terrible monsters existed.
It was a magical moment, one that would define how I would spend my free time over the next 4 decades. It made me a prolific reader, it drove a lifelong passion for creativity, and resulted in the most memorable friendships of my life.
As far as the game went there was an important discovery that I would not make until nearly 40 years later about how and why this moment was not only unique but why I would spend the next 40 years trying to re-create it every time I sat at a gaming table.
See the magic of this moment is not about nostalgia, it’s not really about old-school gaming, or the OSR, or something about the “edition of the game” or game mechanics specifically either. There were many theories I and others would come up with that would try to explain this moment and why D&D back then was different than today and what has changed and why but they would all turn out to be dead wrong.
The magic of this moment it turns out was simply that, I didn’t know what was about to happen and I was not following any script filled with assumptions. There was nothing that happened before the game other the mechanical work of producing an abstract character which we knew nothing about except a race and class and maybe a name. Meaning, I had virtually no information about the game I was about to play. All I knew was that I was a “Fighter” and that meant I knew how to use weapons and armor, a generalization at best. I knew that the goal of the game was to explore the game world (somehow) and we were told by the DM that “you can do whatever you want, go wherever you want”.
The question was “Why”? Why would I go anywhere? I was instructed that as a 1st level fighter, I was not very good at fighting yet, that I would need more experience (which notably I was unsure how to get), and that the world outside of the tavern was dangerous and you could die easily.
Here was the thing, It was scary and though I just made this character, I was already quite attached to Darius. The act of writing down his name on a funny looking, but intriguing page called a character sheet had built him up in my head, he wasn’t just a “character”, he was a person I cared about and I didn’t want him to die, I didn’t want to do anything “stupid” that would put him at risk. The DM was well known for cruelly tearing up character sheets of dead characters right there at the table, we had all heard this rumor, so I knew and believed in the danger of the game.
One of the tricks of the trade among DM’s in the early days of D&D was that they did not reveal much to the players. It would be several months before any of us even realized that we were actually near the City-State of Greyhawk, a famous place in the D&D “world” we would eventually have the pleasure to visit.
But the DM of course did not make my life easy. He said, “You are hungry and thirsty and tired as you have traveled many weeks to get here and are low on supplies”. The DM told me that you can die of thirst and hunger and you can even die from exhaustion. So we did the natural and perhaps predictable thing, (we being a couple of my friends in similar situations with similar characters in our adventuring party) we walked into the tavern, ordered food and drink, and asked for rooms so that we could rest. It seemed logical and it was our idea, our plan, we made the decision to do that, our first act as role-players. It felt powerful, even though it was very simple.
The DM then, in the voice of the tavern keeper told us that this would cost 2 silver for the food and drink and 3 silver for a night in a room. And in that moment, that split second of pretending to exist as characters in a fantasy world, we all realized what this game was really about. We were about to spend the rest of the money we had collectively together just to eat and sleep for a day. If we didn’t get more money soon, we would probably die of thirst and hunger, it was the harsh reality of the game.
We….. needed money!
And so a purpose was born, we were adventurers, fighters, clerics, and thieves and we needed money because we were just about out of it and we had no jobs and no way to make more and so the game truly began. We were promptly approached by an old thief who had a treasure map of a ruin nearby and offered us 100 gold, not to explore it, but just to find the entrance hidden somewhere in the nearby forest. You can’t imagine what an exciting moment that was. We had a mission..ney, a quest and it felt real, it felt important. We were role-playing and it didn’t take much to get us there.
The 1st edition AD&D DMG had a lot of very strange rules, but of course, none of us ever looked inside of it. It was only sometime in 1992 when I became a DM that I finally read this book, getting my own copy. It never occurred to me that the game we were playing really didn’t have any firm rules and was built on abstract philosophies like 1 gold = 1 XP, things that defined the metagame, but were mere suggestions at best, not really rules.
There was no session zero, no elaborate rules or explanations, no backstory writing, and no “defining” anything about what was about to happen. We relied on our natural and very basic instincts and imagination to create a game of make-believe that we would make every bit as real to us as the world we lived in. We were playing Dungeons and Dragons, a magical fantasy world of pretend, not rules.
This was Dungeons and Dragons to me from 1985 well into 1995. That little gaming group was together for over 10 years and though my fighter from that first session would quickly perish in a terrible incident with a Gelatinous Cube as did many characters that followed, I will never forget him, his adventures, or any of the characters I played in Dungeons and Dragons during these years. Oddly, I never wrote a single word about them down, yet I remember each with crystal clear clarity. I remember their deeds, their adventures, how they grew into power and often how their story ended tragically in some dungeon as we (the avatar and I) pursued our ambitions in the game.
This is Fantasy Adventure, this is what D&D was and I have to be honest and this will make me sound like an old Gronard, but it was so much better, so much more fun and narrative than anything that happens at a gaming table in the modern day. A fact that would plague my group for the many years that followed.
Is it possible to learn this power?
In 1995 my group had been together for 10 years, we had played through 1st and 2nd edition AD&D and while we loved our games, like all gamers do we started noticing that there were “other games” and everyone wanted to try their hand at some new stuff. After all, we loved D&D and we loved role-playing so, doing it with other settings and rule systems sounded awesome. It sounded amazing to be a Jedi in the Star Wars universe, or a Highlander or a Star Trek Captain. The opportunities of other games were very attractive to us and we began exploring them.
For about 5 years we went through what I would call a sort of “role-playing ring around the rosy”. We played everything that wasn’t D&D you could think of. All the world of darkness stuff, various science-fiction games and every system under the sun from GURPS to Warhammer Fantasy. You would be hard-pressed to name a game my group and I didn’t try, we did it all, and nothing was off the table.
It was fun, and I really want to nail this point home here that no one was disappointed, we really enjoyed these games, but….. We all realized by around 1998 that we didn’t get together as often, campaigns didn’t last as long, people got bored and often games died when people didn’t show up to sessions, and really, the entire “magic” of D&D that kept our crew fully dedicated for 10 years prior was missing from all of these games. These games were all a bit empty, absent of the magic and wonder that we found in D&D. By 2000 we barely even played RPG’s anymore.
Then 3rd edition D&D came out and we of course got excited again. We all got back together with fresh new books in hand, everyone read every rule, cover to cover and we were ready to play, invigorated by the hopeful return to those amazing and magical D&D games which at this point were distant, nostalgic memories. There was a promise of a new golden age, a return to the wonderful world of Dungeons and Dragons that we all missed, that in our eyes was “true role-playing”, the only game that ever really gave us that intangible gaming experience.
I think we had all hoped that 3rd edition D&D would bring the magic back to the table, but as I discovered many years later, the problem wasn’t the game system so much as gaming culture that led game design. I don’t want to suggest that AD&D was the only way to create magic at the table, but it was the only game that didn’t get in the way of the attempts to do so. 3rd edition had too many explicit rules that defined what characters could and could not do, a trend that would catch on and became the methodology for game design. It was in a way, the death of role-playing as I knew it. Games no longer lived in our imaginations, we could no longer “do whatever we wanted”. Games now lived on the table with very strict rules about what was and was not possible and we would spend most of our time arguing about whether these rules were good or not rather than playing D&D.
By 2002, role-playing in our group was all but over. 3rd edition D&D, even though it was Dungeons and Dragons and felt very familiar just had no magic in it, that much was clear. There was no excitement, no mystery, and no mystical spirit in the game. The rules were convoluted and far too explicit and we argued about their abstracted representation of the game worlds living in our head constantly. These rules killed the imagination because they sought to place it with game mechanics.
In many ways, the rules of the game became the only point of any conversation about D&D between us, we no longer wondered about what D&D was, or what mysteries were hidden within its intangible imaginary words. We spent an ungodly amount of time instead trying to fix the rules as we fought among ourselves and the world (internet) over them. To put it plainly, it just wasn’t fun anymore, the year was 2002 and Dungeons and Dragons was over, it was dead and 3rd edition would create 2 decades of terrible game design that would slowly drown out any life D&D had in it. I know that is cruel to say and one might even challenge its accuracy given the popularity of 5th edition, but, modern D&D is popular in the same way McDonalds is popular. It’s a processed and manufactured game for the masses, reduced to the most basic, lowest common denominator. When I tell people about the intangible magic of D&D, they call be a Gronard, a relic that doesn’t know what he is talking about. For a time, I almost believed it.
Our group was pretty much fully disbanded by 2003 and I would not play D&D or anything else with any of those guys until nearly 2 decades later. I did continue playing with other groups myself though. As much as I enjoyed the many people I shared RPG experiences with over the years the games were simply never as good as those original AD&D experiences of the mid 80’s and 90′.
In fact, most of the time I was quite bored and have continued to be quite bored with most role-playing games since, it’s really a rare game that even marginally excites me these days even though I’m constantly chasing that dragon. I still like playing them, I still enjoy the pursuit, but more in a conceptual and philosophical way rather than actually playing. When I play, most of the time, I’m just disappointed that these games are just not as good, not as much fun and lack that intangible spirit of the classic D&D that we played for over a decade in the 80’s and 90’s.
So what really happened? What is the problem with other games? Why is there no magic, no spark, no heart in any of these other RPG including the latest and greatest versions of D&D from Wizards of the Coast? Why did Dungeons and Dragons die around the 00’s? Did it die or did I change?
Not from a Jedi..
I have contemplated this for years, I have researched, I have reflected, I have tested a wide range of theories to try to understand what was so special, what it was that was so unique and/or different that altered the experience and made it so much better in those 80’s and 90’s D&D games that I find missing in modern RPG’s and the modern RPG experience?
For a time I wrote it off as nostalgia and my age. I was between 10 and 20 years of age when I played AD&D, I’m nearly 50 now, it was during a much simpler time in my life and I just presumed that back then I just had more imagination, more energy, and more appreciation that today I lack. The game didn’t change, I changed.
It seemed like a fair and reasonable assessment, one I could accept, but…. then something magical happened. Almost like a fairy tale, as if some genie appeared out of thin air and granted me the wisdom I needed to understand and to find perspective and of course a little help from a little show, maybe you heard of it “Stranger Things”.
One of the oddest elements of Stranger Things is that it’s a show driven by classic D&D tropes and specifically 1st edition D&D fantasy adventure which is played and represented on the show. The very game and very experience I had and missed was right there on the screen, yet oddly enough modern fans would take this inspiration and instead of playing AD&D they would play 5th edition that does not in any, way, shape or form represent what you see on Stranger Things. It’s bizarre to me.
A friend of mine called me up, an old friend from my old gaming group and said “Hey, the old crew wants to get back together and play some D&D, we want to do an AD&D 1st edition one-shot”.
I thought to myself, holy shit yes.
I have the high ground..
In the first 30 seconds of our first session, I was back in 1985 as a 10-year-old playing Dungeons and Dragons for the first time. It required nothing more than the DM using the old formula, the most basic introduction and the simplest core element of D&D to bring it all back.
There was nothing to it, we made characters, essentially randomly generating them as one would in AD&D. Made some basic choices about equipment and who would play what roles, we gave our characters names and we were dropped into the game world with a very basic plot hook to “investigate the evil temple”. It all fell perfectly into place like dominos.
That moment I realized that this game had more story, those characters had more meaning and this game had more role-playing magic than everything I have done at the table for the last 20 years combined. I recall writing entire books of lore, of story, players writing 20-page backgrounds in preparation for a game, doing session 0’s, and endlessly preparing mass plots for my players and none of it compared to the simplicity of the game we were about to play. By comparison, those experiences were lifeless husks, meaningless, about the equivalent of doing your taxes for fun.
So, what was the secret? How did I go from RPG’s feeling dead inside to being back in 1985 as a 10-year-old playing and feeling Dungeons and Dragons again? What did this magical DM do to bring it all back?
Actually, it was pretty simple. It turns out, that it’s not nostalgia, it’s not age or some sort of expertise of the DM, there is no secret knowledge or method. It wasn’t even the system or an edition of the game really, though I do hold that 1st edition AD&D allows classic Fantasy Adventure to happen a lot easier. In the end it was just the simplicity of the role-playing philosophy the system brought to the forefront, plain and simple. It didn’t need to be AD&D and you didn’t need weird old-school rules, what you needed was a system that just got out of your way. That cleared the path for the imagination and allowed you to experience the world in your mind without a lot of input and rules to govern your thoughts and instruct you about what you can and cannot do.
In our game we didn’t have skills and feats and countless “buttons” to press. We had to make decisions, use our imagination, and form plans and our actions weren’t mechanical executions, they were narrative ones. This is what Fantasy Adventure was and in a sense, I feel always should be. I was filled with regret because I realized in that moment that we could have been doing this all along for the last 20 years. There was nothing keeping us from playing this way, but we got distracted and wasted 20 years of gaming out of stubbornness.
For years I had been playing every system under the sun, every game, under every DM, every format, every style, using every method you could imagine. Oddly enough, it never occurred to me to pick a system that just did a lot less, I always thought the more robust the mechanics and infrastructure of the game the more direction you had. So it was just about finding that right system that had the right balance of mechanics. It never occurred to me that the only thing that I actually ever had to do was just to apply the old Gygaxian philosophy about running an RPG, good old 1st edition AD&D thinking was all that was needed.
The feeling, the intangible quality, and the wonder of that moment that made D&D this unique, one-of-a-kind experience, it was all right there perfectly preserved and it wasn’t in rules so much as it was just a philosophy, a way to think and a method to approach the game.
Make a character, give them a name, drop him into the world and see what happens. That’s it…. that’s the magic.
The dark side of the force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural..
It’s true and I have to be honest about this, it was awkward. Playing 1st edition AD&D after years of modern mechanics felt strange but It was the philosophies of AD&D that made all the difference, which in modern game design and modern gaming culture are seen as barbaric and out of date. Hell some even consider using such philosophies antimine to role-playing, as if using them somehow makes you a terrible person.
Does that mean I like THAC0? Am I fan of descending armor class or 1 gold = 1 XP? Am I ok with female characters having reduced max strength or racial ability scores?
hmmm… I want to say no, I really do. I feel like AD&D is like the dark side of the force, that lures you to it by some dark power, some evil energy that is quick, dirty, and easy to attain. That somehow by using this game I have become a lesser man… but then I think about it and realize that…. well, it’s only a game and I think that is the trouble I have always had.
You see, in around the 90’s “being a role-player” became this very serious thing. It was an identity and there was a definitive “right way” to role-play and the right way to setup an RPG campaign. You had to write a really big backstory for your character, it was absolutely paramount. Your DM was expected to take those backstories and write a massive plot with twists and turns that incorporated your backstory into the campaign. You needed to have many many books of rules and options to make sure that the players could “fine-tune” the vision of their characters. There were so many new cultural RPG requirements, things that still persist to this very day that if you don’t follow you are not really role-playing, you are not a good GM or player and, probably you should just not be playing RPG’s if you can’t follow these cultural norms. It is considered virtuous to play this way, it makes you a better person. This is the weird mindset of modern gamers.
More than that, in modern gaming it has become synonymous with using old game systems like AD&D to be a bigot, sexist and homophobic, so not only are you not a virtuous person for not buying into modern gaming cultural norms and expectations, but you are clearly an evil person if you play these old games that teach this old philosophy.
I realized recently however that this is a hobby, I do it for fun, and I think a big part of the reason why I and so many role-players feel kind of lost in finding the game is that we have created way too many rules for ourselves as barriers to entry. Both culturally and literally. I mean as players and GM’s we have far too many expectations, and place far too many demands on the games and as gamers, we demand way too many rules and mechanics to “support role-playing”, a concept that should never even be part of a conversation about the game in my opinion. We have sort of broken the spirit of the original D&D game and modern games never really tried to understand, how and what this spirit was and so it never found its way into other RPG’s. We sort of killed the magic with our own ignorance and pride.
What I want is to feel the energy and the magic of D&D, that thing that Gary Gygax and his cohorts invented not how the pretenders that followed him tried and failed to re-invent. I want to have THE D&D experience and the only way I know how to do that is with these older systems like AD&D and B/X systems which have that magical simplicity instilled in them, but I don’t think that is the only way to do it.
Today gamers and game designers are making the same discoveries and it catching on. ShadowDark for example won 4 Ennie awards, a game that instills the classic gaming philosophies and uses a modern, digestible system to do it and actually does a masterful job of bringing that magic to the table.
For many years the only way to get the true Fantasy Adventure experience of old was through the original game or retro-clones, but today you have amazing new game designs that are modernizing the game while ensuring that the magic of D&D fantasy adventure is firmly built in. Its a great time to be a D&D fan.
I am Vinz, Vinz Clortho, Keymaster of Gozer. Volguus Zildrohar, Lord of the Sebouillia. Are you the Gatekeeper?
It’s the original, it’s the classic, it’s the only true D&D experience and this is not conjecture, it’s not opinion, it’s not even objective truth, it just is AD&D and games that follow its philosophy like ShadowDark. I know that sounds like gatekeeping but it really isn’t.
To gatekeep you have to want to keep people out and I’m trying to do the opposite, I’m trying to let people in on this strangely kept secret. There is a game that exists and you probably haven’t played it, even if you have been playing role-playing games for years, even if you have been playing D&D. It’s truly a magical experience but it only exists under one philosophy, using one very specific playstyle built into the classic game of D&D. Its a very explicit act to play AD&D and games like it, it doesn’t follow any of the cultural gaming rules of modern RPG’s and lives outside of the sphere of influences on which most modern RPG’s actually function today. Modern RPG’s are not based on AD&D, they are based on 3rd edition D&D which is an entirely different thing.
For this magical, intangible experience, there is only one path, only one way and it lays between the pages of the 1st edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide. It took me 40 years to realize it, hopefully, you won’t have to wait that long and thankfully that magic is finding its way into other modern games so you don’t even have to go out searching for copies of 1st edition AD&D.
You must be logged in to post a comment.