Robot Viking

A closed “friends and family” playtest of the new D&D edition has been going on for a few months. Only certain <ahem> select people and sites were allowed to participate. But now they’re throwing the gates open and letting any old riff raff try out the new rules and offer comments and suggestions. Are you [...]

Have you ever played a dark hero? Maybe someone who throws dead bodies down stairs to see if they set off any traps? What alignment is he? That might be chaotic, or even evil. What if he squeezes every copper from a mercenary contract? Technically that’s pretty lawful. But then, what if he sets aside [...]

Not all RPGs have an alignment system, but the classic nine alignments are a traditional part of D&D. I think alignment is a crucial aid to role-playing that gives players a quick thumb-sketch of how their character might react in a given situation.

I’ve been following the development of DnDNext with intense curiosity. I really like where it is going. I think the designers are making quality choices and I hope the feedback that they are getting is influencing their design decisions. I would like to share my own hopes for DnDNext; things that would be helpful for [...]

Sometimes you want to do more than just stand around and let your armor take the hits in combat. Can the newest edition of D&D accommodate active defenses? 4E created an elegant mechanic that allowed active defenses to be used easily, and that’s something I don’t want to see lost.

There’s a lot of back and forth on the question of damage resistance and the role of magic weapons in D&D. Many players are opposed to the antiquated +1 or better to hit mechanic. How can the damage rules provide an underlying mechanical skeleton that describes the physics of the game world without bogging the [...]

Since the big announcement of 5E, or D&DNext, or whatever you prefer to call it, there hasn’t been much concrete info on what the new edition would be like. Mike Mearls revealed a few interesting morsels of data in an interview at Gameinformer. What exactly will it mean to “unify” players of previous editions?

Happy New Year everyone. Anything insteresting happen so far this year? Any big announcements?

Admit it, you’ve been waiting to see that headline for like five years now. The nerdy parts of the internet are burning down, of course.

I don’t even have to say its name and you know what I am talking about. Rumors of 5E have been hotly circulating since Mearls announced that Monte Cook is taking over his column. That’s a pretty huge announcement in my opinion. A company that is known for laying off higher paid staff does not [...]