Robot Viking

The third Monster Manual for D&D 4E is a cornucopia…nay, a cavalcade of beasts and aberrations, ghouls and dragons, norkers and mimics. Yes, norkers.

This weekend, I got together with friends and Vikings to play some fun, casual games of Magic, grill and devour sausages and drink a fair amount of beer and Mountain Dew. We gave the new Archenemy multiplayer format a whirl, and as you can see my wife also discovered the bizarre special effects my digital [...]

Ok, it’s not actually a secret, since Gamma World playtests have been discussed publicly and Rich Baker has blogged specifically about it. But it’s still awesome. What could possibly get me more excited about Gamma World than I already was?

Have you ever wanted to find out what life would be like as a soulless cubicle drone grinding out 12-hour days in some dreary office building with neurotic and irritating co-workers? Yeah, me neither. But pretending to be one for a few hours could be fun and hilarious.

The default setting for most fantasy RPGs is high-magic, with a wizard in every party and a potion shop in every podunk village. What happens when you strip a campaign down to bare steel?

I’ve had this card idea kicking around in my head ever since Grand Prix D.C., when I had to take Gallows Road to get to the convention center. I immediately decided it would be an awesome name for a Magic card, and would naturally be a land. But what would it do?

It’s been years since you’ve seen those guys, your old high school friends that all learned and played D&D together, shared hilarious mishaps and adventures that remain etched on your memory to this day. Wouldn’t it be great if you could all get together again? And if it could be at Gen Con this year? [...]

Robot Viking has been sadly lacking in coverage of Paizo’s excellent Pathfinder extension of the D&D 3.5 rules (and accompanying campaign world). That’s not by design — I just don’t play Pathfinder, and I always look like a twit when I try to speak authoritatively about things I know very little about (not that that [...]

One of the most surprising successes in the gaming industry could be due for another big surprise — a movie! And not just some direct-to-DVD Sci-Fi Originals lameness either. There’s a major Hollywood director attached to this project.

Intrepid dungeoneer Gavin O’Brien headed to his local game store to try out D&D Encounters and get an early taste of the Dark Sun campaign setting. It turns out flying razor sharp shards of obsidian are unhealthy for characters and monsters alike.

Last week at Wizards of the Coast headquarters I had an interesting conversation with Rich Baker about the latest D&D campaign world, Dark Sun. He explained some of the original inspirations for this unique world, and told me why the new Dark Sun timeline is a major retcon.

If you thought 4E D&D meant the end of third party releases, you’re wrong. Under the Game System License (GSL), Wizards of the Coast allows other companies to produce material for fourth edition D&D. The Perilous Secrets of WIlford Manor is a great example of a high-quality indie adventure for 1st level 4E characters.

I was going to write some kind of coherent narrative encapsulating the entire journey, but quickly realized that was going to be impossible. It was like visiting the sausage factory, but instead of being grossed out, you discovered that sausages are made of rainbows and dipped in elementally pure Awesome, then packaged by elves and [...]

Ok, I’m at the airport now with a lot of time to kill. Here’s the last installment of my Community Cup Challenge report.