The beginning of every Doctor Who season starts out the same, utter childlike joy. I become a small child waiting wanting a story before bed time, to excited to sleep. This year the start of the season hit me extra hard, with the realization that soon I’ll be able to share this story with my own little companion. No longer will I alone fight Daleks as the silent companion, I’ll have someone fighting along with me, sharing in my joy. As a parent I’m looking forward to sharing the cultural experiences I’ve enjoyed; my first Star Wars viewing; rolling my first d20; watching the Doctor dance. Jack’s not even born yet and I’m planning his first rpg, trying to figure out how I can go about threating the gum drop mountains of Candy Land so he can rush in to save the day.

The amount of response we have received from the Innovate or Die articles has surprised and delighted me.  Comments have been plentiful and insightful, but there seems to be some confusion about my point.

Let me make something clear: I am not trying to replace the face-to-face tabletop experience with a digital one.  The in-person game will always be superior to the digital experience; players like to look their NPCs, and each other, in the eye.  However, life rarely respects my gaming habit these days.  As such, I would like tools that replicate the face-to-face experience online in order to get my fix.

Many of our dear readers have pointed to MapTools and Fantasy Grounds II as ways to get this done.  Wizards of the Coast currently has a virtual tabletop in development, but since I neither have a D&D Insider subscription, nor am I currently playing D&D, I’m not in a position to comment on it. In the future, it will at least be worth some study.  I’ve personally tried to use MapTools and Fantasy Grounds II and found the experience to be headache inducing.  The learning curve for these programs is steep, and leaves much to be desired.

There are three basic types of actions a character would take. There are basic actions that characters plan to take. They plan an attack, or move to heal a teammate. Then there are the emergency actions, taken in reaction to events. Finally, there are the really special, really powerful actions saved for a time when they’re really needed.

I am not an MMO guy. I also believe that tabletop RPGs and videogame RPGs are completely different beasts, but with striking similarities. It is with these two thoughts in mind that I have decided to give World of Warcraft another chance.

Evaluating an adventure is difficult, since the experience is so intrinsically tied to a single group. Still, if we’re to have universally shared experiences, we need to find a vocabulary and methodology for discussion the merits and faults of an adventure. The conversation, started in the comments yesterday, continues with this post.

Once per week we go behind the bar at Apathy Games and discuss gaming in more personal terms and ask you to respond. The best response will be featured the following week. It starts innocently enough. A friend invites you over for a meal, perhaps drinks. Maybe they left some dice lying out on the [...]

Once per week we go behind the bar at Apathy Games and discuss gaming in more personal terms and ask you to respond. The best response will be featured the following week. This week we deviate from our normal personal post to bring you an idea that we thought was to hilarious not to share. [...]

Once per week we go behind the bar at Apathy Games and discuss gaming in more personal terms and ask you to respond. The best response will be featured the following week. A couple of years back I was coming down the GMing bug but I was lacking some good inspiration as to where to [...]

While at PAX: Prime this year I had the pleasure of watching the Acquisitions Inc. panel; Acquisitions Inc. is a D&D game played by the Mike and Jerry of Penny Arcade, Scott Kurtz of PVP and Wil Wheaton of general geek fame. While the group is immensely fun the watch, the most fun I’ve had [...]

Jeff quietly pointed out that the community at large made some great material that he’d used himself and dismissing it all as not working wasn’t quite the best route.