DCC Combat Is the Chaos D&D IS Missing
Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC) is a wild ride, and if you’ve been feeling like modern gaming has turned into a predictable slog of encounter balancing, this game is the wake-up call you’ve been looking for. Goodman Games has put together a system that perfectly nails that gritty, pulp-fiction vibe from Appendix N, but they’ve cranked…
D&D Forgot How to be Gritty. Is This Game the Fix? (w/Reaper’s Joe Wolf)
Modern fantasy TTRPGs – including D&D – have drifted away from the gritty, “mud-under-your-fingernails” spirit of classic pulp fantasy like Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser or Conan. Instead, we are often left with characters who feel more like superheroes. In this week’s video, I sat down with Joseph Wolf, the lead designer for Reaper Miniatures’…
D&D Magic is Broken. Draw Steel Fixed It.
Spell lists. Spell slots. Spell levels. If you’ve spent half your turn mid-combat trying to remember if you’re allowed to cast that spell at a higher level, you know the pain. D&D’s Vancian magic – the “fire-and-forget” approach – has been the standard for decades, but let’s be honest: it’s an accounting exercise. It’s ammunition…
Draw Steel Flips D&D’s Most Boring Mechanic: A Conversation with James Introcaso
I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with James Introcaso, the lead designer at MCDM Productions, to discuss the philosophy behind their game, Draw Steel. We talked about how they subverted traditional mechanics and fixed what many consider to be the most boring part of D&D: resting and resources. The Problem with Resting When…
5 Sci-Fi RPGs Worth Skipping D&D For
If you’re tired of repetitive traditional fantasy loops and wading through bloated rulebooks, shifting your campaign into the cosmos gives you high-stakes space exploration, tactical mech combat, and gritty survival without the standard D&D tropes. Dungeons and Dragons is a classic, but sometimes your table needs to shake things up. There is a massive multiverse…
Why I’m Giving Up D&D for Nimble (And You Should Too)
If you’re tired of unending combat slogs and wading through 900 pages of rules, Nimble gives you deep tactical combat and tons of character choices without the traditional D&D bloat. Dungeons and Dragons 2024 is a marked improvement over 5e in many ways. But there is another game that delivers exactly what a lot of…
Is This the Death of D&D?
How’d we get here? Dungeons & Dragons originated from war games, which are adversarial by nature. When you combine that history with two creators who had a rocky relationship, it’s easy to see why conflict’s baked into the DNA of the hobby. Over the last couple of years, the community has felt more fractured than…
How to Build Random Dungeon Maps Fast with This Dice Hack
Generating unique settings for your tabletop sessions doesn’t have to be a chore. If you’ve been looking for the fastest and easiest way to create random dungeon maps for D&D or your favorite TTRPG, I’ve found a fantastic hack in the ShadowDark rulebook. It’s a clever method that turns a handful of dice into a fully fleshed-out…
Mastering Rule Zero: Is Your Cheating DM Breaking the Game?
Ever heard of rule zero? In the world of tabletop roleplaying games, this concept states that the rules are not in charge of your game. The GM is. While some players might get frustrated and claim their cheating DM is ignoring the book, the reality is that nearly every RPG is designed with this authority in mind. Most…
10 Essential New Dungeon Master Tips from the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide
Since the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide is now an established part of the hobby, it is a great time to look back at the most enduring new Dungeon Master tips it introduced. Whether you are just starting your first campaign or you are a veteran looking to refine your style, the core advice in this edition remains a vital…