D&D 5e: Problems in the Warlock Design 10

In case you aren’t already reading it, I’m still writing a weekly column on Tribality.com exploring the history of D&D’s classes. Once I got to the end of the Druid, I took a vote on what I’d write next. It looked like the Paladin would score an easy win, but […]


D&D 5e: Elemental Evil Player’s Companion

The Elemental Evil Player’s Companion is now available for free download on several sites, and since the price is right, people interested in 5e should pick it up even if the Princes of the Apocalypse storyline isn’t something you expect to use. This 25-page PDF, by Sasquatch Game Studios and WotC, offers […]


D&D 5e Playtest: Mass Combat Rules

I love that the new Unearthed Arcana column on the Wizards website offers public-playtest versions of future material for D&D. This week, there are rules for mass combat – always one of the sticky design areas for tabletop games intended for focus on individuals. In part to make sure I understand […]


D&D 5e: Exorcism Domain

Let me start by freely acknowledging that the Cleric class is better-supplied with subclass options than any other class but Wizards. I expect that for a lot of people, adding an Exorcism domain is painfully extraneous. On the other hand, in my homebrewed D&D setting, I specifically need characters specialized […]


D&D 5e: Training as Treasure

There are two little paragraphs in the 5e Dungeon Master’s Guide, plus three bullet points, that offer a wonderful amount of room for expansion: Training, p. 231. In the 4th edition Dungeon Master’s Guide II, there are a few pages on Alternative Rewards, and the group I played 4e with […]


D&D 5e: At-Will Attack Options

This post is about one item on the short list of problems I have with 5th edition D&D. On the whole I think the new edition is brilliant, and if there’s a list of problems… well, they are fewer in number and less egregious than any edition prior. Specifically, I […]


Monsters from Myth II: Soulblighter for D&D 4

Okay, I don’t know how many of you played Bungie’s excellent Myth series of turn-based tactical games, with releases in 1997, 1998, and 2001. Judging by the fact that the series hasn’t seen a release since 2001, I’m going with “not enough of you.” I don’t pretend that I was skilled […]


Review: Paper Sorcerer

Paper Sorcerer, developed by Jesse Gallagher, displays just how far a game can go on a unique visual aesthetic and a classic format and feel. It offers some additions to traditional dungeon crawl that other games could stand to lift, and it deserves considerable praise for that. It is, on […]


Review: Broken Age, Act One

Okay, let’s start this thing off right. If you’ve heard anything at all about Broken Age by Double Fine Productions, it’s a safe bet that you’ve heard it’s the Second Coming of classic adventure games. There are some gaps in my knowledge of adventure games: from the end of King’s […]


Postmortem: Three D&D Sessions

Over the past three weeks, I’ve run three sessions of D&D 5th edition. Across all of these sessions, there have been eighteen different players (Kainenchen played in all three, though very little in the last case; our son was uncooperative). Ranging from people who have played 5e since the earliest […]