Category Archives: rpg and tabletop

In the previous installments of this series I tackled all kinds of fantasy tropes – now it is time to re-invent magic users. I want to come up with a slightly different, off-beat magic interpretation tying it to my old … Continue reading →

In most fantasy settings Dwarfs are brave trustworthy and honorable but a wee bit greedy and selfish. They are known for never breaking their oaths, and always making good on their promises and also for holding life-long grudges against those … Continue reading →

Zombies are not strictly a fantasy concept. In fact, they tend to be heavily under-utilized in that setting, perhaps for a good reason. In modern day or futuristic settings when the living dead show up, you can pretty much guarantee … Continue reading →

Here is an idea worth pondering: what happens to fantasy setting when the technological progress kicks in? The obvious answer is nothing. Nothing can happen, because once a universe leaves the medieval like “sweet spot” it ceases to be fantasy … Continue reading →

So here is a new thing that I’m doing. I’ve been writing a lot of articles about reinventing standard fantasy tropes. This is a really fun thing to do, but it is sort of repetitive. Does all fantasy must involve … Continue reading →

I’m having a lot of fun doing this whole reinventing fantasy races thing lately so I decided to do Trolls this time. What do we know about these creatures? Well, in most settings Trolls are big, dumb and extremely dangerous. … Continue reading →

The other day I stumbled upon a pair of articles titled The Ecology of the Goblin and The Ecology of the Kobold on the Blog of Holding. It reminded me that once upon a time I had this thing going … Continue reading →

Cyberpunk is a bit overplayed these days. Or at the very least the classic Gibsonian model that we all consider a proper standard. Kids these days like other versions of *punk – like Steampunk or Dieselpunk. Cyberpunk was big in … Continue reading →

I think I mentioned it once or twice, but last week I had pretty bad case of writers block. Nothing I hated pretty much everything I drafted up, and struggled to actually release content on my self imposed schedule. Naturally … Continue reading →

I often rag on Fantasy for being a genre populated solely by novels derived almost directly from either the writings of Tolkien, Robert E. Howard or hybridized from both. The fact that I am critical of it, does not mean … Continue reading →

If you have ever played Warhammer 40,000 or even visited the forums devoted to the game, you know that discussion of the day is usually “which unit is better”. Sometimes this is just plain ePenis wagging, bragging and blustering – … Continue reading →

Quick confession: I have never played actual D&D. I played quite a few other things, but D&D and AD&D have always somehow evaded me. I knew a lot about these systems. I would often scan through their adventures and modules … Continue reading →

Time to talk about real role playing games. You know, pen and paper stuff. It should be a nice break from the ongoing discussion of Oblivion and things related to it. How do you feel about railroading? It is an … Continue reading →

Magic exists in almost every fantasy world out there. In some worlds magic is scarce and feared, while in others it is ubiquitous and commonplace. However the archetype of a wizard in most fantasy settings is modeled after medieval alchemists … Continue reading →

Do you like to roll a lot of dice when you play RPG games? This is not really an invitation to discuss the Big Model or the GNS Theory. You can discuss them but be aware that my attitude and … Continue reading →

Recently I realized that traditionally evil races such as Orcs, Goblins, Kobolds and etc. in RPG games rarely have fleshed out social backgrounds, or detailed descriptions of daily lives. It’s as if every member of each respective evil race was … Continue reading →

Have you noticed how most RPG games (both pen and paper, as well as video games) always seem to introduce some sort of additional game play mechanic to handle spell casters? In most cases wizards and mages always have an … Continue reading →

I never played D&D. This is probably due to the fact that I grew up in Poland where D&D and AD&D manuals were not easily available. Besides, we had a home grown clone called Kryształy Czasu (Crystals of Time) had … Continue reading →

My brother Ark owns bunch of Nerf guns that we occasionally use for an all out nerf war. His arsenal includes several Mavericks, a Longshot and a funky crossbow that I can’t find anywhere online. Since we are both Warhammer … Continue reading →

Some time ago I came up with this “to ambitious for your own good” prop that could be used in essentially any setting. It could be an ancient artifact, weird piece of mysterious alien technology, magical arcana, mystical object and … Continue reading →

Anyone around here is into RPG? How about tabletop battle games? Collectible Card Games? If you are, check out the Nearby Gamers site. If you are not, you can still check it out for yet another cool use of the … Continue reading →

You might have seen this image in /dev/random feed (btw, there is a link to it in thesidebar now): img found @ knuttz.net This is actually a sculpture by an artist who goes by Pierre Matter. Pierre doesn’t seem to … Continue reading →

Over the holidays me and my brother were playing a lot of Dawn of War over the LAN. Its tons of fun even though I’m getting my ass royally kicked cause Ark has beat this game like 7 times by … Continue reading →

Wohoo! I just got the brand new Eldar Codex in the mail: Please be warned that a rant about how GW nerfed the shit out of x, y and z and how they awesomized q is in the making. :mrgreen: … Continue reading →

This is a most awesome Lego creation I have seen in my life! found on the internets; author unknown I wonder if it is up to scale. I would figure that it would be a little bigger than a standard … Continue reading →