Tabletop Roleplaying Games

A collection of 32 posts

Conventions

GameHole Con

Last week, I attended Gamehole Con in Madison, Wisconsin. This was my second time attending, and like the first, it was an absolute blast. Although GameHole bills itself as "one of the largest tabletop gaming conventions there is," large in this context means something over six thousand attendees,

Dragonbane

Some Things Have to Be Seen to Be Believed

Yesterday we played on the biggest map I've ever used. We're running The Secrets of the Dragon Empire in my home game, which is the amazing campaign adventure book that comes in the Dragonbane Starter Set. The set is amazing because it comes with the full

Chronicles

Sneaky Peaky: Lands of Katernia

Lands of Katernia is the next big project from Lazy Wolf Studios. A three-book expansion to the world of Thrones & Bones, it will feature: 1. Creatures of Katernia—a monster book 2. Chronicles of Katernia—a book of adventures 3. Countries of Katernia—a guide to the entire

Tabletop Roleplaying Games

Bundle of Holding Offer

Hi all, great news! Today we are live with a Bundle of Holding offer. If you need to fill out your Thrones & Bones collection, or start it, now is your chance to get a huge number of PDF titles at a deep discount. Choose between the setting collection, which

Actual Play

New Show, New Store

Last night was the premiere of our new stream, The Wyddcallum Curse. We are playing through the adventure of the same name from Kobold Press. Written by veteran designer Steve Winter, our adventures were hired by Thane Wyddcallum, whose family has been banished from their lands for four generations by

TTRPG

Dragonbane

Hi all, I've been running a home game of Dragonbane using the materials in their amazing boxed set. Free League makes wonderful products, and the box set is something else. It's not just a starter set with a Quickstart. You get the full Dragonbane rulebook, in

Actual Play

We're Back...

This past Wednesday night, we returned to our actual play, Norrøngard Unscripted, after a hiatus of a couple months. We stopped to go away and finally finish our Empire of the Ghouls campaign (a great, book-length adventure from Kobold Press). We didn't want to stream the last

Dungeons & Dragons

Two Books, One Adventure

Greetings. Copies of the two latest Thrones & Bone books are showing up in the wild now, as backers of the recent Kickstarter receive their rewards. But both titles are now for sale to everyone on DriveThruRPG. The first is Fury of the Forsaken. From lead writer Richard Pett (WotC,

Dungeons & Dragons

Bense: The Ideal Nordic Setting

I created the city of Bense way back in 2012, for the story that became the novel Frostborn. While other cities in Norrøngard were built on more exaggerated premises—Herkeby is a giant ring fortress, Frekrheim is a lake town—Bense is modeled very heavily on the real world Viking

Conventions

GameHole Con 12 Report

Hi all, Last week, I was in Madison, WI for GameHole Con 12. This was my first time at GameHole and only my second time ever playing games at a convention (after my recent trip to GenCon). And I had a blast. GameHole attendance was around 6,300—6,400,

Actual Play

Proof Copies, VTTs, LivePlay, GameHole Con

Yesterday, I got the proof copies of The Bense Trilogy from the printer. This is the hardcover compilation of three previous separately published adventures, Banner of the Bull by Yours Truly, Keeper of the Drowned by Brian Suskind, and Troll of the Town by Kelly Pawlik. It also includes new

TTRPG

A Rundown of TTRPG News

As I am furious working, nose to grindstone, on the final stages of production for the Fury of the Forsaken Kickstarter (now available on the Backerkit Preorder Store, please check it out), I want to take a moment to shine some light on some other tabletop roleplaying game news of

Actual Play

We're going off script...

Last Wednesday, we played the second half of the 5th level Tales of the Valiant adventure, Tomb of the Frost Giant. And with that, three of my five players have now played through everything that is currently published or forthcoming for Norrøngard. (The bulk of it was played before we

Gen Con

Post Gen Con & Battle Posts

I recently attended my second ever GenCon and the first convention anywhere in which I played RPGs at the con. Held from July 31st to August 3rd in Indianapolis, GenCon pulled in around 70,000 people, but for all that, it wasn't the mad house I expected. In

Dungeons & Dragons

BFRD in the CC!

Hi all, There's a bit of industry news that dropped this morning. It's exciting for folks who make roleplaying game content, more so than those who aren't creators, but it still impacts players in some interesting ways. The thing that enables third party publishers

Actual Play

Tomb Raiding...

Last night we played Tomb of the Frost Giant. Our intrepid crew got most of the way through the adventure, but we left off on a cliffhanger (literally) and we'll finish next Wednesday. We nearly had a TPK in the first encounter, but, as they so often do,

Moonbeam

We're Back

Yup. Our valiant heroes are back tomorrow night for another actual play in the land of Norrøngard. We'll be playing Tomb of the Frost Giant, a one-shot (maybe two shots?) adventure for 5th level characters set in the frozen land of Norrøngard. We'll be steaming

Dungeons & Dragons

Lou's Labyrinth

While I was away, my favorite TTRPG publisher, Kobold Press, brought out their Labyrinth Worldbook and its companion volume, Labyrinth Adventures. The Labyrinth is Kobold Press' new "campaign overlay", a connective tissue between worlds like the Infinite Staircase or Sigil or the river Styx, or any number

Actual Play

Back, if Not Quite in the Saddle

Hi all, I'm back from a wonderful trip to China—Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Changsha—and, unfortunately, down with a bad case of Covid (courtesy of the Tokyo transit system, best guess). So that's why the radio silence of late. However, things are still moving forwards. The

Actual Play

Kickstarter ends in 48 Hours!!!

Wow. We've got just 48 hours to go in the Fury of the Forsaken Kickstarter! Thank you everybody for getting us here. Kickstarters can be stressful, but we're having a blast, and co-author Richard Pett and I are grateful for all the support. It'

Dungeons & Dragons

Sorting the Ingredients with Gnome Stew

Today I am a guest on the Gnome Stew podcast. I sat down with host Jared Rascher to talk all things Thrones & Bones. Jared has played several Norrøngard adventures and has actually read the novels too. This resulted in an informed discussion that encompassed the whole of Thrones &

Dungeons & Dragons

Campaign Builder: Castles & Crowns

I have a pattern of buying a lot more RPG manuals than I will ever read. I like having a big library of my interests, and I do pull them down and refer to specific parts of books as needed for the things that I'm working on. But,

Dungeons & Dragons

More artwork from Fury of the Forsaken

Ksenia Kozhevnikova is an amazing artist whose work features heavily in Fury of the Forsaken, the book length Thrones & Bones adventure on Kickstarter now. Today I want to share more of her fabulous art with you all. We'll look at another bird's eye view of

Dungeons & Dragons

Two New Add-Ons

Two new add-ons just went up for the Fury of the Forsaken Kickstarter. One is the hardcover version of the Player's Guide to Norrøngard, giving you everything you need to create a Tales of the Valiant-style character for the land of the ice and snow! Tales

Dungeons & Dragons

The Bense Trilogy

The Fury of the Forsaken Kickstarter is now 95% funded. But although this Kickstarter is titled "Fury of the Forsaken", it's really a two-book project. The second book, The Bense Trilogy, is just as important and just as exciting.  So what is The Bense Trilogy?