Lord of the Rings is seemingly everywhere these days, but recently along with Magic: The Gathering, it has come to board games again. With varying success in the past, I was a little hesitant to dive into this one. But touting a storybook-like adventure with a cooperative play style with up to four players, I was intrigued.  The main goal of Lord of the Rings Adventure Book Game is to play through the events of the movie series, from the beginning of the adventure in the shire all the way to the final battle at Black Gate and Samwise and Frodo’s final encounter with Gollum to destroy the ..read more

The latest offering for Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition, Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants, is a surprisingly applicable education in underappreciated creatures. While a massive number of players are currently embroiled in everything Baldur’s Gate 3 has to offer, the tabletop RPG that powers its gameplay has kicked off a busy fall season of publications with a sourcebook that took me by surprise—no small feat, given the size of the creatures it highlights. Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants falls into the category of RPG supplements that drills down into a particular archetype. When I ..read more

Licensed tabletop-roleplaying games have to strike a tricky balance between evoking what made the source material great while being engaging to play as a game. The best example of this, in my view, is Free League Publishing’s Alien RPG, which nails the tone of the franchise while providing robust and extensive options to create your own campaign and explore a vast array of stories within that world.   Now, Free League has released its second licensed RPG based on a sci-fi film franchise: Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game. Based on the original film and its 2017 sequel, you take on ..read more

There is a very good chance that you and all your tabletop RPG-playing buddies might be looking for a new system with which to roll your dice and act like a bunch of weirdos. The esteemed folks behind all of those dungeons and the dragons within them have made some controversial decisions lately, but I’m happy to tell you about all the freaky-deaky alternatives in the world. Perhaps the freakiest (though not the deakiest) is the remastered edition of 2014’s Into the Odd by Chris McDowell. To give you the gist of it, Into the Odd is a rules-light, heavily themed game system that, as its title ..read more

Generally, I like Free League’s Vaesen tabletop RPG quite a lot. It has a cool setting, turn of the century gentlefolk solved mysteries and discover dark truths about the monsters still lurking in our world. The mechanics themselves place a strong focus on narrative, which is absolutely my cup of tea, and the books themselves are filled with possibilities, concepts, and story hooks to get you through your day. Frankly, the Vaesen source books remind me of a simpler time in RPGs; it’s a very early World of Darkness sort of vibe, for all its good and ills.  Now, the already existing materi ..read more

Dungeons & Dragons closes out a busy year with their most ambitious adventure in years—Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen, a return to the beloved campaign setting. In 2022, the world’s premier tabletop RPG has focused its official releases on bringing established campaign settings into the Fifth Edition, from Critical Role’s Exandria to the long-absent space opera antics of Spelljammer, with a quick stop to establish one intriguing and new playground, the Radiant Citadel. Similarly, Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen introduces the world of Krynn, drawn from the titular novels ..read more

As a player who started in Fourth Edition, I didn’t fully know what to expect from Spelljammer: Adventures in Space, Dungeons & Dragons’ return to its wild spacefaring setting. It’s been about thirty years since the last officially published material in this realm, and since acquiring the game in 1997 Wizards of the Coast has only alluded to aspects of it sparingly. However I’d now argue, as an outsider, that it’s been worth the wait for this triumphant return. Spelljammer: Adventures in Space differs from most other D&D releases in that it’s a box set of three books: Astral Adventure ..read more

Over the last few years, Dungeons & Dragons’ fifth edition publications have largely alternated between exploring established locations like Icewind Dale and Ravenloft, and crossovers with other licenses like Magic: The Gathering and Critical Role. Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel lands on the scene as a true exception—in many ways. First, the titular Radiant Citadel is an entirely new setting for Dungeons & Dragons. Situated in the Ethereal Plane, the citadel can easily be integrated into campaign settings of all kinds. Whether your party hails from the Forgotten Realms or a home ..read more

Middle-Earth is calling in The One Ring: Section Edition and the One Ring Starter Set. This second edition of the award-winning RPG system was first published in 2011 and, after a successful Kickstarter campaign, is now once again available. If you have even the slightest interest in Lord of the Rings and like RPG’s this is a great buy. On a cold, snowy night in Toronto, I called my friends to gather around and take up the role of hobbits for a Lord of the Rings-filled evening. Smaug has been defeated, the Battle of Five Armies has been won, and Bilbo Baggins has returned to the Shire. Now ne ..read more

Dungeons & Dragons is enjoying a renaissance in recent years, reaching its highest popularity levels ever. One factor driving that growth is the success of actual-play podcasts/shows like Critical Role—where a dream team of accomplished voice actors sit down weekly to play the world’s premier tabletop roleplaying game. The two enterprises have enjoyed a symbiotic relationship, so it’s only fitting to see the show jump farther into the game. Thus we have Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep, the latest premade adventure for Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition, and the second Wizards of t ..read more