A lot of video games feature cool technology or magic that would be really useful to us in our practical, day to day lives. Unfortunately our real life tech overlords are more interested in creating the torment nexus than in actually doing anything that makes life more enjoyable, so it seems unlikely that we will ever get to enjoy the benefits of such fantastical inventions. Luckily we still have our *imaginations* and we can fantasize about what it would be like if people invented something useful instead of a planet-killing engine dedicated to preserving JPEGs. This is precisely the premise ..read more

Part of the fun of fantasy and science fiction is escape. It’s an opportunity to leave the world in which we belong for a time so we can explore new landscapes, new friendships, and new ideas that are impossible in reality. Most of the time we can recognize that desire for escape for what it is and engage with it in a healthy way, but from time to time it’s fun to imagine what it would be like to really live in the fantastic realities of books, films, or games. Who would we be in these fantasy worlds? What set of backgrounds, statistics, and gear would define how we interact with our new home ..read more

Nintendo’s design philosophy when it comes to game development is that each title in a series should have a unique new mechanic (some might say “gimmick”) to set it apart from its predecessor. What this often means is that instead of iterating or refining on something in a particular game that could be improved, they instead move past it completely and just try something else entirely. Now sometimes this leads to interesting new ideas that make a particular entry in a series pop. Other times it leads to losing your favorite elements of the previous game in that franchise. Fire Emblem has certa ..read more

I am a relatively recent appreciator of Persona, having only started playing the series with Persona 5 Royal. But once I experienced one, I started to slowly make my way backwards. The past couple of years have been full of Persona as a result: Royal, Strikers, Golden, Portable, and Reload have all expanded my Persona knowledge and experiences, and I would now say that the series is one that I enjoy quite a bit. I have my qualms with it same as any other series, though, and one qualm I’ve seen shared by a lot of folks online is that a Persona focused on an older cast would be a nice change of ..read more

When I was a kid I would hear whispers of stories about this thing called Dungeons and Dragons. One of my first memories regarding D&D is seeing the Dexter’s Laboratory episode about him trying to roleplay with his friends while his sister caused chaos (as she often did). It piqued my interest. I loved fantasy, gaming, performing, and storytelling; D&D seemed like a shoe-in as far as being a hobby that I would enjoy. As I grew older I learned more about it by playing games inspired by it like Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Dungeons and Dragons Online, as well as reading books set i ..read more

Back when I was studying acting there was a certain type of character whom I would often be typecast as: the bad guy. As a tall, broad shouldered guy with a booming voice, I’m often read by people who don’t know me as intimidating or unapproachable. On stage, this was typically leveraged by casting me as people in positions of power, often ones using that power for wicked ends. I ate that shit up. Being a villain in a play is fun! These larger-than-life characters gave me the opportunity to play-act something very different than my real life persona, and folks usually enjoyed when I got to cut ..read more

Adventure Rules originally came to be in 2015. Prior to that I had no prior blogging experience nor any other kind of formalized outlet to share my thoughts about games. But another big change was coming in 2016 – financial capacity. As a kid I was spoiled to death and got access to lots of video games because my family supported my hobby, but even in that environment it was only a few games per year. Most of my experiences were locked to one specific publisher – Nintendo – and I filled my spare time with replays and challenge runs as a way of milking value from the selection of games I owned ..read more

When playing a video game for the first time, our ideas and expectations about what that game might be have to square off with the reality of what the game is. Sometimes that comparison is favorable and other times it leaves us wanting. But taking the time to recognize which reactions are fair and which ones were instead brought on by unrealistic expectations is a valuable skill when writing games criticism. Sometimes time and distance can be valuable in determining whether or not our initial reactions are based in reality or based on the fiction we built in our heads. As part of Charming and ..read more

I first experienced the world of Pokémon in anticipation of my mother’s wedding. She was getting married in another state, which meant a long drive to the venue, plus all the time spent prepping the venue and doing the wedding rehearsal and all that nonsense. My parents needed something to keep a young boy sufficiently distracted so he didn’t dunk his face in the punch bowl or something, so they decided to buy me a Game Boy Color and my very own copy of Pokémon Blue. The rest, as they say, is history. While my affection for the world of Pokémon has waxed and waned over the years, it’s undeniab ..read more

Adventure Rules is leaving WordPress. It has been a good run here but for a number of reasons I have made the decision to move my writing efforts elsewhere. It’s the end of an era, but it’s an era I’d like to send off with one final event to celebrate the community that has made my time here so precious. So before I say goodbye, I’m going to host one of my classic Adventure Rules community events: Charming and Open. Charming and Open is inspired by the tabletop RPG Dungeon World. It’s a class move for the bard playbook that represents the bard’s social power. Using Charming and Open a bard’s p ..read more