Robot Viking

Some months ago, we started work here on a “pretend” Magic set. Work on the unnamed set stalled for a while, but now it has a name and I think it’s time to get back to work.

If you’ve been playing fantasy RPGs for a while, you’ve probably grown tired of playing the tough but slow-witted fighter, the bookish wizard and the sly, shifty thief. You can go in the opposite direction, but then your character’s personality becomes a constant refutation of the cliche: “No, I’m a very smart fighter, and somewhat [...]

This week’s MotW might make you question the veracity of the word “miniature” in this context. Courtesy of Robot Viking contributor Billy Gibbs is this insanely elaborate model of some kind of industrial structure. This is what happens when engineering students play RPGs.

A while back Ed posted an article about “gritty” campaigns and referenced one that I was running for our group. Addressing all the mechanics for such a campaign will take several articles, so I decided to start with equipment, both because I think it’s very important to a gritty campaign and because it’s on my [...]

Today I’m looking at what makes a license valuable. I’m not talking paid licenses for settings like The Walking Dead or the Marvel Universe of Superheroes (that is for a different day). Today I’m just looking at free system licenses. D&D 4E, Pathfinder, Traveller, and Savage Worlds just to name a few. What makes some [...]

Today, io9.com published a great gallery of New Phyrexia preview art (which I might have had something to do with). The art is great and there are nice hi res versions of them, so you should go there and check it out. Meanwhile, we’re going to talk about Surgical Extraction.

This Friday is Jon Brazer Enterprises’ second anniversary. Two years ago we released our first product (a 16-page character sheet for the Traveller RPG). Now here we are, two years later and going strong. It’s times like this that I like to reflect and see where we’ve been and where we are going.

Yeah, I just rolled up a new character. He’s a paladin, but, like, a dark paladin. He’s really dark. And tormented, with, like, scars and he’s sort of angry and mysterious and brooding and dark. No, he’s still a good guy, just really dark. Even his sword is dark, man. I thought of making a [...]

This week’s Miniature of the Week comes from SSDC and their classic Battlelords of the Twenty-Third Century sci-fi RPG. They’ve got a collection of new Battlelords minis available, plus a limited supply of original series minis.

Many an RPG splat book has been written about military campaigns, but not very many were written by an author with both a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. Filled with interesting historical notes, campaign flavor and plenty of new 4E rules and options, Soldiers of Fortune presents an in-depth look at how and why [...]

I’m currently in the final stages of getting the Book of the River Nations: Complete Player’s Reference for Kingdom Building ready to go to the printer. There is a lot of work involved in that. Getting all the edits in, making sure the artwork looks good on the page, arguing with my editor over one [...]

This week’s MotW comes courtesy of Super Genius Games, showing that minis can come in many forms and fit many budgets. For just a few bucks, plus the price of some ink and paper, these papercraft cardstock minis can bring some three-dimensional color to your RPG battlefield.