Dracula by Edgar Alfred Holloway Long before I was ever known as the "witch guy" I was the "vampire guy." A lot of my peers came to Dungeons & Dragons via the tales of Conan, Elric, and John Carter. Not me. I came to it from Hammer Horror, Dracula, and Dark Shadows. Many players wanted to play mighty thewed barbarians or fighting men. I wanted to play Van Helsing. This is not my first time doing vampires for the A to Z challenge either. 2011: V is for Vampire 2013: V is for Vampires vs. Demons 2015: The A to Z of Vampires (all month long!) 2016: A to Z of Adventure ..read more

 Often times the campaign settings of Dungeons & Dragons are known as "worlds." If there are multiple worlds then there must be a Dungeons & Dragons Universe.  So what are these worlds, and where do they come from?  My "map" below features the names of the worlds, so when I talk about them below, I'll go by the "Campaign Setting."   Let's start with the three "Core" worlds and work our way out. Greyhawk (Oerth) Greyhawk was one of the first campaign settings released. It was certainly the first full setting. Blackmoor, created by D&D co-creator Dave Arneson, wa ..read more

 It has been a month since I have done one of these. My plan was NOT to do one during April with the whole A to Z thing, but today is St. George's Day and he rather famously killed a dragon. It is also still year of the Dragon and the 50th Anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons, so my choice was made for me. This is also the second book in the series, after Wizards and Witches. Dragons by Editors of Time-LIFE Books, 1984 (144 pages)  ISBN 0809452081, 080945209X (US Editions) While I have mentioned the Eurocentrism of the other volumes, this one does a good job of presenting both ..read more

Delving into the history of Dungeons & Dragons, one must spend some time discussing the company (or companies, as it were) that produced and published it. Most of them went by the initials TSR.  To the outsider and indeed to the casual insider, there was only one TSR. This is largely true, but the details are a bit more complicated once you dig into them. It's sort of the theme all month, right? Tactical Studies Rules (1973–1975) The first TSR was Tactical Studies Rules, and it was a partnership between Gary Gygax and Don Kaye.  The goal of this company was to produce and s ..read more

Click to get your own!  Now, this is always a fun topic.  It would be difficult to talk about the history of Dungeons & Dragons and not talk about the 1980s moral panic known as The Satanic Panic. Note: I will liberally use outside links in this one because I want to cite my sources and educate.  Background Let me set the stage first. It is the start of the 1980s. Regan is in office riding a wave of conservatism and backed by "The Moral Majority." The 1970s were a time when there was a great Occult Revival (mentioned many times here) and this was the natural reactio ..read more

 While working on my post for earlier today on Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition, I can't help but think about the lost opportunities that game had. I read through the books and they are barely used compared to my 1st and 5th Edition books. Though if you scratch the surface of 5e you will find some 4e DNA. It is too bad, really, since 4e had a lot going for it. Or maybe I had invested a lot in some of the ideas that came out at the same time as 4e. I mean, if I am honest, there isn't anything I can do in 4e that I also couldn't do in 5e or BECMI, really. In any case, while going over my ..read more

This Sunday A to Z special we are talking about the most controversial version of D&D put out. That would be 2008's Fourth Edition Dungeons & Dragons. Dungeons & Dragons, 4th Edition Again, lets set the stage. It is 2007, and Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition, now in its 3.5 edition, has been going on for 7 years. There are hundreds of D&D 3e books out there, and if you count the ones released by 3rd party publishers, then there are thousands. Rumor has it that the Powers that Be at Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro saw all that money these publishers had made and also saw that the ..read more

 This has been a favorite feature of my A to Z posts over the years, with two of my earliest A to Z posts covering the same topic. 2011: R is for Ravenloft 2012: R is for Ravenloft: Masque of the Red Death One would think I didn't have any more to say, but those are just two of 56 posts I have here about Ravenloft (soon to be 57). But yet here I am with more to say. What is Ravenloft? Ravenloft was originally an adventure for First Edition AD&D, released back in 1983, and written by Tracy and Laura Hickman's husband and wife team. It was part of the "I" or intermediate se ..read more

 Ah. Two of my favorite topics. Let's see what this weekend has in store for us on the Kickstarter front. The Witches of Oz #1 - A Mature Magical Queer Romance https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/comicuno/the-witches-of-oz-1-a-mature-magical-queer-romance?ref=theotherside The next comic in Kat Calamia and Phil Falco's "Ever After Verse" features two of my all-time favorite witches. The Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch.  I love this "Wicked" inspired cover too. The story should be fun and I am always here for a retelling of the Wizard of Oz story. If it is half as ..read more

 A bit of a divergence today for, well, a bit of divergence.  Let me set the stage a bit. It is 2007, and Wizards of the Coast has decided to end the publication of the wildly successful Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition line and will now produce Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition.  D&D 3e was the edition that brought many back to the game. It was the edition that rekindled my enjoyment of the game after so many years. The idea that this would end only after 7 years (10 years per edition had been the average) seemed a bit odd. In any case, 4th edition was released, and ..read more