Robot Viking

Planechase, Magic’s latest casual format, came out a few months ago, but it took me this long to find some people and play a few games. This updated version of the old Vanguard rules is an unpredictable trip through Magic’s many planes.

Robot Viking is taking the rest of the week off. Enjoy your favorite Thanksgiving Day traditions (and for non-American readers, have a nice week). See you all on Monday.

A certain 1980s action toy/cartoon property was recently remade into a live-action movie that was so bad it almost destroyed all possible nostalgia for the mindless fun of that era. The sad thing is, that doesn’t even narrow it down enough: I’m talking about the G.I. Joe movie. Anyway, Crafty Games is here to restore [...]

One of the common complaints about D&D 4th edition is that it’s too hard to differentiate one character from another; that the game’s design leads to cookie-cutter clerics and factory floor fighters. To put this to the test, I’ve decided to closely examine my current character to see if oddball choices, player vision and unique [...]

Since I’m pretty much committed to the dark arts these days, I decided to sell off my one and only Baneslayer Angel. Is this some kind of crass marketing ploy to drive traffic to my Baneslayer ebay auction? Yup.
If the winner mentions they’re a Robot Viking reader, I’ll throw in some random swag.

I’ve become a regular contributor to sci-fi culture blog io9.com again, and while most of the time my weekly articles there will be about cutting edge science and technology, this week io9 Overlord Annalee Newitz suggested…nay, demanded that I write about gaming instead. So today I’m sending you away from Robot Viking to visit io9’s [...]

So far, we don’t know much about the Eldrazi other than that they made a weird monument that bestows awesome power, yet requires brutal sacrifice. Now we know a little more — next April, they will rise. With the tag line, “And Carnage Shall Follow,” we can assume things won’t be pleasant for planeswalkers when [...]

It’s been far too long since the days of breathless anticipation and constant page refreshing as we waited for each new preview figure from whatever HeroClix set was upcoming. On November 18, HeroClix will be reborn as Wizkids/NECA releases the first HeroClix set in more than a year.

One thing all DMs (and plenty of players) enjoy about homebrew RPG settings is the process of worldbuilding. Several years ago, I hammered together the initial idea for a fantasy world based on our own world. The geography is the same; the populace, flora and fauna? Not so much. Here’s why this might be the [...]

Pre-painted plastic miniatures have made it so much easier and yet so much harder for DMs to have cool creatures for their players to battle. On the one hand, you don’t have to prime and paint a dozen orcs before game night; on the other hand, random booster packs make it hard to find just [...]

A while back I pointed out that miniatures maker 6D6 Fireball was holding an adventure writing contest, and lo and behold, I forgot to follow up. Not only can you find out who won, you can download a nice PDF of the adventure. (Horned) hats off to Viking Gavin for reminding me of this.

There are technical difficulties occurring with my host. It’s out of my control. We’ll be back with your semi-regularly scheduled programming as soon as things are patched up. Dreamhost is usually pretty on the ball, so hopefully we’ll be back to normal for Tuesday.

If you look back fondly on the joys of Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale, miss the beauty of a top-down isometric view and relish the delights of massive dungeons full of monsters and loot, then today is a happy day for you. The old-school RPG is not dead! Torchlight has all the delving you could [...]

Playing in Magic tournaments is fun, but sometimes budget restrictions can keep you out of constructed events. For that reason, each “season” (each set rotation, roughly) we’ll present to you a budget-friendly Magic deck that’s effective enough to be fun, but filled with mostly commons, uncommons and cheap rares. With Lorwyn gone and Zendikar here, [...]