'Hack and Slay' or Remix and Play

A full range of RPG gameplay options can include stealth, investigation, mystery, construction, characterisation, planning, intrigue and all manner of on-going challenges, missions and quests. These options, (and the list is far from exhaustive), open up opportunities for a wide variety of open-ended tabletop roleplaying and design gaming. At the same time, sooner [...]

Design Games

Design games set out to help players to go beyond following the rules and gameplay presented by game designers. Most games can offer some level of design gaming in terms of making it easy to adjust or adapt the basic format of a game, e.g. minor changes to the rules when playing a [...]

MMORPGs: Part 2

After checking out over twenty Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games (MMORPGs), it’s safe to say that there’s a bewildering choice of MMORPGs out there. They range from the fairly familiar and straightforward World of Warcraft (WoW) series, through to Player v’s Player (PvP) focused titles like Aion, and more demanding titles, (such as [...]

MMORPGs: Part 1

In an ideal world there’d be gaming cafés on every street corner and plenty of local players always looking to try out new boardgames and Tabletop RPGs. Unfortunately, this is probably never going  to happen, because most cafés can’t afford to set aside enough tables and a great many potential players find it [...]

Fortune's Fool

A copy of a completely new version of Tabletop RPG Fortune’s Fool arrived a few days ago. It was difficult to know exactly what to expect, as the game is set in a fantasy Renaissance Europe and uses a pack of Tarot cards to resolve outcomes.

A complex Renaissance RPG like Ars [...]

Netbooks, ION 2 and Optimus

If we’re to believe the hype, 2010 is a year packed with dramatic new gaming and media technologies. Much of this is attributed to the iPad, 3D TVs and new motion controllers. In reality, only a portion of the overall market will have access to these technologies in 2010.

Which is good, [...]

FLGS: Battle Games, Adventure Games and Fantasy Art: Part 2

After collecting a bit of information from and about Kingdom of Adventure, we’re confident we’ve a few suggestions that can help to grow the business without jeopardising the existing customer base. They’re offered informally and presented as ‘zero cost’ options, so it’s up to the owner, or any other FLGS owner, to make [...]

FLGS: Battle Games, Adventure Games and Fantasy Art Part 1

An interesting email arrived from Favourite Local Game Store (FLGS) Kingdom of Adventure, which is based in the Scottish town of Kirkcaldy. The store’s owner runs a successful ‘comics, RPGs and wargames’ model that’s ideally suited to delivering a loyal customer base.

A quick look at the website, (and related [...]

Homemade ARGs

Don’t think we’ve had to stick a safety warning on anything since posting about Parkour. Just to be clear: SAFETY COMES FIRST WITH ANY KIND OF ACTION GAMING!

The modern, promotional Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) beloved of movie and videogame studios are, essentially, multimedia remakes of familiar social games. If you take [...]

Warriors Adventure Game

The second free Tabletop RPG promo featured this week is an interesting offering for kids. The Warriors Adventure Game is a short RPG based around the popular ‘warrior cats’ books by Erin Hunter. Unsurprisingly, players roleplay the adventures of  the wild cats featured in the books.

The Warriors franchise adopts the Dragon [...]