Rule of the Dice

3 Mini Reviews: Costumes, Content, and Posters.

2012-05-10T11:30:00.000-04:00

Today we have a fun trio of goodies to look at, including a free system for your superhero needs, a magazine of content for OSR gaming, and a poster handout for your next Pathfinder session! HiLo Heroes. Jeff Moore. 36 pages. Free. Ahh, Jeff Moore. If you check his page, he has maybe a half-dozen (maybe more now) mini-systems freely available for download, and most of them are actually

3 Mini Reviews: Adventures, Gunslingers, and Doors

2012-05-03T11:30:00.000-04:00

Hey all! It's been a while and, unfortunately, I don't have as nice an excuse for my absence as C.D. had (congrats on the little one, C.D.!). Mostly a new job with a revolving schedule that has sucked my gaming time dry. And with my gaming time so goes my writing time. But now, as things begin to settle, I'm going to crack my knuckles and try and get some kind of regular writing habit going

Teaching My Son About D&D Using Facebook

2012-03-27T08:14:00.001-04:00

(Sorry I've been gone so long. If you read the following post very closely, you'll understand why.) Last night was an auspicious event. I didn't plan for it to happen, didn't expect it to happen, it was just one of those things that come out of the blue but in hindsight is one of those days that can change the course of your life, like the assassination of a political leader or the day you

Help me not suck at Google+

2012-02-27T06:30:00.000-05:00

After my last post I've been using my sorely neglected Google+ account more and have realized that that's where all the cool kids are hanging out. It seems like the whole rpg gaming community is all on Google+ and I've more or less missed it all. So help me not suck and look like such a noob and be so kind as to add me to your rpg circles, and I will add you to mine. Maybe I'll get it

If you use Google+ for gaming this looks very promising

2012-02-17T06:30:00.000-05:00

Just saw this over at the ConstantCon Blog, and it looks really cool. I haven't done any gaming on Google+ yet but things like this inspire me to try. Feel free to add me to your Google+ circles - just leave a message saying you're a reader of the rule of the dice so I know why you're adding me (social networking still kind of scares this old Luddite).

Woodland Supplements

2012-02-16T11:30:00.001-05:00

Last week, I talked a little bit about Woodland Warriors, a fun rules-lite adaption of Brian Jacques animal adventure novels. Today, I'm going to look at two of the expansions available for that game. Each expansion is written by Simon Washbourne with art by Darrel Miller.The first is called Greyrock Isle. It's a short, 19 page, book that details a new setting and several new classes.The main

Woodland Warriors Review

2012-02-09T11:30:00.001-05:00

It might seem a little hard to fathom that the creator of Barbarians of Lemuria, one of the most unapologetically sword & sorcery games I can recall, would also craft a game based around the idea of medieval animal adventures, in the same vein as the late Brian Jacques and his Redwall series of novels, but here it is.Woodland Warriors, the 114-page core rulebook by Simon Washbourne, is a game

What Does 5th Edition Mean to Me?

2012-01-12T11:30:00.001-05:00

As you may have heard (and if you didn't, welcome to the Internet fellow gamer!), the 5th Edition of the World's Most Famous Roleplaying game is definitely in progress. At least according to Wizards website. And everyone has an opinion about it, with a lot feeling that Wizards didn't give enough support to 5E, a lot feeling that this will be just as bungled unless they do this or that. I have

Merry/Happy (please insert your prefered inoffensive generic politically correct word here)

2011-12-25T06:34:00.000-05:00

Now for some kick ass Santa pictures... Have a safe and happy holiday and all the best in the new year from everyone here at Rule of the Dice.

Playing by Blog

2011-12-01T11:30:00.003-05:00

One of the greatest things about our hobby is its progressive nature. And I'm not talking about elven politics or any such malarkey. No, I'm talking about how the hobby thrives as more and more options to play are made available.Whether you play face-to-face, or via email or forum, or even through a service like Google+, there are more ways to get your roleplaying fix than ever before.And now you

DIY RPG

2011-11-26T16:05:00.001-05:00

DIY RPG/D&D people, you need to read this.

Teach your kids to game week

2011-11-17T11:30:00.000-05:00

In case you missed it, it's Teach your Kid to Game week, an idea that I 100% approve of, even if the idea of an entire week to it seems a bit unnecessary.What's next? A week to remind us to breathe?However, on its intended purpose, I can lavish nothing but praise. I've had the opportunity to run games for young kids before and, let me just say, that it was highly rewarding and actually quite fun.

Let loose the Dogs of WAR

2011-11-10T11:30:00.004-05:00

When I was fourteen or so, I discovered my dad's old collection of paperback men's action novels and spent an entire summer reading them, from the adventures of American super spy Nick Carter, to the sardonic violence of the Destroyer, I devoured them all with a fresh zeal, with my favorite being the violent adventures of the Executioner, who would later serve as the basis for Marvel's Punisher.

Why I Love Nu-Skool D&D

2011-11-01T18:25:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago I raved about how great Old Skool D&D is. At first glance, you may infer therefore that I believe Nu Skool (and 4E in particular) sucks. While it's really easy to make fun of 4E, I don't actually believe that it's bad. The two games are very different and fill completely separate rolls and niches. I love them both in different ways, like my iPhone and my wife. The

D6 Zombies

2011-10-25T05:30:00.000-04:00

BRAAAAAAAINSSS!!!! In honour of Halloween and the second season of the Walking Dead (not to mention the soon-to-be-released Issue Three of d6 Magazine featuring material by yours truly), I thought it was time to revisit d6 Horror and share with you some of my designs for everyone's favourite brain-devouring, drooling masses of near-human monstrosities... ZOMBIES!!! You thought I was

REVIEW: Resident Evil Deck Building Game

2011-10-18T05:30:00.000-04:00

I was walking past a FLGS* last week and noticed a new Resident Evil board game in in the window. Now, I am a huge Resident Evil fan, (at least of the original and RE: Zero for GameCube) so I had to check this out. Turns out it wasn't a board game so much as a card game, but it was reasonably priced and I was intrigued so I picked it up. I got the "Alliance" intro set because it specifically

Dames Don't Belong in Dungeons (unless they're bound and scantily-clad)

2011-10-11T06:34:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago (yeah, I'm really behind on my blogging) there was some debate floating around in certain dark corners of the Onling Gaming Blog Community (which I affectionally like to call the Ogbloc) about how closely role-playing games (and by extension, "fiction" and "history" in general) should or should not adhere to historical accuracy. A quick glance at these blog posts - here and

Steal This Other Map

2011-10-07T06:30:00.000-04:00

Everyone seems to have enjoyed the free map I posted a while back. It's made the rounds, been awesomed up and found a place in the Dragonsfoot forums. So I decided I may as well post another one. I was going for a kind of comic book style with this map. It was an experiment, mostly hand drawn on a wacom tablet in photoshop. It turned out pretty good. You could pretty easily use it for some

Looking at Microlite74

2011-10-06T11:30:00.001-04:00

Microlite20, the ultra slim version of the d20 SRD, has been available for some time now, and it has been modded up and down so many ways that you can find a hundred different games using the same basic ideas, from westerns to space operas. It's nice, I've played it, but it wasn't until I sat down this last weekend and gave a version called Microlite74 a try that I truly appreciated its

Why I Love Old-Skool D&D (OR: The 58-Year Old D&D Virgin)

2011-10-04T05:30:00.000-04:00

So a few weeks ago, after much debate and discussion, we finally introduced my father-in-law to the intricacies of Dungeons & Dragons. He's played World of Warcraft for several years, and he loves anything fantasy-related (I've often said he will read anything with a sword or a dragon on the cover), so he was long overdue to be initiated. He's been listening to us talk about table-top RPGs

How to Screw Up a Game of Thrones Campaign in 3 Easy Steps

2011-09-27T05:30:00.000-04:00

I'm back! It's been awhile. So long, in fact, that Blogger seems to have finally caught up with the 21st century while I was away. Mobile-compatible sites? Updated, more user-friendly post-editor? I guess I don't have to bug John to switch to Wordpress after all. But enough about Blogger. What have you missed in my gaming world?? Our PBEM Battlestar Galactica came to an abrupt end when

Dungeons & Dragons Character Cake

2011-09-13T14:11:00.000-04:00

At some point in our lives all gamers have asked... "Can I have a cake made in the likeness of my favorite D&D character?" Well, yes you can... Click the pic to visit the Regali Kitchen blog for more pictures. Follow Rule of the Dice on Twitter, or become our fan on Facebook.

Sometimes people use your stuff to make awesome stuff...

2011-08-29T06:35:00.012-04:00

I posted a blank map a while ago here on the blog, and lo' and behold someone has gone and awesomed it up. From Ohio Metal Militia at the Antediluvian Witchery blog. Check it out... This is the kind of thing that makes me very happy. Like this...

This is Badass

2011-08-25T11:30:00.001-04:00

I love bad action movies. Big explosions, loads of inconceivably impossible gunplay, one-liners galore...what's not to love? I also love free. Free as in beer. What do you get when you combine the two? Badass, the game of pure, unadulterated action. Designed by Jay Steven Anyong (of the blog Life and Times of a Philippine Gamer), I first noticed this little game thanks to Michael Wolf and

Gaming Radio

2011-08-04T11:30:00.001-04:00

I've never just sat back and not participated in a game. I'm always either a player or, more likely, the gamemaster. It just wouldn't be fun to sit around while everyone else got in on the gaming, right?So why have I found myself spending a disturbing amount of time listening to live-play roleplaying podcasts of games I have literally no stake in?I have no idea. And yet I can't stop