Tabletop roleplaying games are all full of helpful hands, particularly in Dungeons & Dragons . You and your teammates are always helping each other - there's even a "help" action. There are quite a number of hand-y spells such as Chill Touch, Shocking Grasp, Maximilian’s Earthen Grasp, and Vampiric Touch. You even have spells with the word "hand" in them like Burning Hands and Bigby’s Hand. Today, though, we’re specifically focused on one hand in particular. A simple cantrip, but a favorite of many spellcasters, and extremely useful. We’re talking about Mage Hand. While we could expound upon the multiple uses of this utility spell, and maybe we shall eventually, today we’re going to focus on a meme . That’s right, this is another edition of Never Say Dice Ruins Your (shitty) TTRPG Memes. You can see our previous work regarding the Peasant Rail Gun ,  animating skeletons and the Divine Bovine earlier in this series. The set up this time is rather simple: y...

In general, tabletop games are full of competition, from historical dice and card games right up to modern themed board games. There are certainly plenty of tabletop game tournaments out there... something that shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, as there are even jigsaw puzzle competitions. One might argue that there are a number of board games out now that unite the players as a team, but they are still competing against the clock, a target score, or some other metric. One tabletop genre where you see significantly less competition is roleplaying games. (By which I don’t mean there's a lack of games... though D&D still tops the charts, even if they’ve started to stumble). Some might argue that competition in RPGs takes the form if "players vs. the GM" (or at least the GM's BBEG), but that's not really the case. As we’ve mentioned numerous times in our posts, the GM is there to help the players tell a story - it isn’t about "competing" with them. ...

Nazis are the Bad Guys. Saying that shouldn’t be considered going out on a limb, and if you disagree then you probably won’t like this one. In fact, it’ll probably make you pretty angry... although, there are seemingly endless ways to make Nazis angry. If you’ve been a regular reader, it should be no surprise, given some of our other posts , what our stance is. Perhaps you just need a reminder, though. Nazis are the Bad Guys. You should have easily figured that out during your school years by reading and learning of the atrocities they’ve performed and the abhorrent things they continue to espouse. Perhaps you didn’t receive the best education, though, or struggled with your studies, so you might need a reminder. Let me assure you, Nazis are the Bad Guys. You don’t have to take it from Never Say Dice, though, or pour over history books, or visit museums - but you probably should, lest history continue to repeat itself. However, you should still be able to find continual reminders v...

It wouldn’t be the spooky time of the year around here without Never Say Dice digging up some '80s and '90s macabre media or exhuming forgotten toys. In the past, we’ve talked about a myriad of Simpsons " Treehouse of Horror" episodes , had a Mad Monster Party , and played around with finding inspiration in monstrous toys such as Blurp Balls and Boglins . It was an era in which creepiness abounded, and you could find it in just about everything, even things like after-school cartoons and breakfast cereals . Beetlejuice was one media franchise that was adapted into all those things and more... it's even been on Broadway ! (Lets face it, the cartoon was a great kids' show and the action figures did some interesting things you didn’t typically see.) So, with the franchise being revisited on the big screen in the form of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice , why don’t we see what inspiration it can bring to our games? Ghost with the Most Across all of the various forms o...

In Dungeons and Dragons , there have been plenty of "trash" spells over the years. Spells you wouldn’t pick, as they won’t be very useful or are too niche to be worth taking up a slot in your roster. Players and GMs alike will argue over these kinds of spells for hours. Likewise, there are plenty of spells and effects that combine to enhance each other. One example would be casting Grease and Fog over the same area, limiting both your enemies' vision and their mobility. If you’re feeling murder hobo-ish, another might be Sleep and Fireball - keeping your enemies in one spot and then flambéing them. What about Trash Compactor? You don’t know what that is? The thought is to Polymorph an enemy into a small or tiny creature, then cast Resilient Sphere (sometimes known as Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere), release the Polymorph, and watch as your enemy is turned into a thick slurry of meat, blood, and bone. If you follow the blog, you’ll know that seeing a ridiculous description wri...

There have been a lot of box sets when it comes to the history tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons . Red boxes , Blue boxes , white boxes , reprints , fan collections , etc. That isn’t the kind of box we’re talking about this time, though. On the surface, roleplaying games may look like the ultimate sandbox: you can do or create anything within the context of the agreed-upon rules. When it comes to actually running your own campaigns, of course, your actual mileage may vary. One key factor in that is the nature of the Game Master's role. Even a seasoned storyteller with years of experience may not have the bandwidth to keep up with a campaign that allows a very wide latitude - this is likely why pre-printed campaigns and adventures remain fairly popular. While we all want to tell our own stories, it's a huge benefit for the GM to have a framework of  pre-made challenges, pre-rolled bad guys, and previously-seasoned flavor text . For those running game, the time savings ...

Peasants are the common commoner amongst the NPCs of many a tabletop role playing game. It doesn’t matter the setting, there's going to be a variety of "common" NPC that's peasant-like in some way. The subject of peasants has come up in my Dungeons and Dragons gaming group once again as the Peasant Railgun meme makes its way through the internet once again. A crazy idea that's been around for many years. Not sure what we’re talking about? The concept goes something like this: we find a big bad target, line up a group of 2,280 peasants all in a row over the distance of two miles, have them all ready their action, and then have them pass an object (usually a spear) down the line over the course of a six-second round, until it reaches the last person in line who throws the ammo at the target - gaining  "velocity damage" based on falling object damage, and dealing somewhere near 400d6 worth of damage. If this idea sounds ridiculous to you, and you’re a reg...

Quick, what’s your favorite tabletop RPG and why? What led you to deciding that was your favorite? Is it the first game you ever played, and if so, how have your opinions about it developed since your first experience? If not, what was the sequence of events between playing your first and playing your favorite? We may not be thinking of it when we’re playing or planning the games we choose to put time into, but there have been a myriad of decisions and experiences going all the way back to our first exposure to TTRPGs. Last week, we talked about using a quick, generic pitch to introduce potential new players to the concept of roleplaying. This time, let’s discuss how to get more specific in teasing apart your gaming lives and loves, and how you can take what you’ve found on your own journey to help someone who’s just starting theirs. - B B : With the way that games model a person’s entire life, or at least a significant part of it, it’s a wonder we don’t get metaphysical with it all th...

How do you teach a person gaming? Back when I was in high school, it's no surprise I was a bit of a nerdy outcast. Lunchtime was a big concern, even more so than in middle school. The mix of kids there was different, and many of my friends from former years had gone to different high schools - even the two of us at Never Say Dice, were split up. However, this time I was fortunate: a group of card players sat next to me. As creatures of habit, we pretty much stuck to those same seats throughout the year. Every day while they ate, they’d play round after round of Spades. Occasionally they might mix it up with poker, hearts, or some other game, but Spades was the go-to. After a month or two, one of them was out sick and the rest were bummed that they wouldn't be able to pursue their favorite pastime. Showing unusual courage and social acuity, I piped up and offered to play a hand. I’d never played before, but had picked it up by watching them. From then on, I was always an alterna...

Tabletop roleplaying games are, the majority of the time, about accomplishing something despite limited resources. Sure, there's a story with heroes (or anti-heroes, depending on your game), characters' individual plotlines, and plenty of other aspects, but, much non-game life, it typically boils down someone facing challenges using only what they have. It's no wonder so many adventuring parties are money-hungry, near lusting for coin or credits. That isn’t any real shock, though - if we go back to the original Dungeons & Dragons’ Men & Magic back in 1974, characters' experience was literally tied to the amount of treasure they were able to collect. When our tabletop games are originally rooted in that concept, can we really blame players for being money hungry? While experience generally isn’t directly tied to money any longer, and we’ve even slowly moved toward many games advancing player characters according to the development of their personal story, money ...

It has happened before, and will happen again. You’ve spent your time aligning schedules and everyone can make it. You’ve been making sure everyone has the things they need to play, the dice, and the pens. Everyone has been well-fed or food has been otherwise arranged. All the details are taken care of... except you’ve spent so much time on all of that other stuff that you’ve neglected to plan for the session. Maybe you have a few ideas in your head, but no solid map or villain for the night. What the heck are you going to run as an adventure this evening?! Does all that sound familiar to you? You could always forgo the scheduled RPG session and just break out a board game. That may be fine every once in a while, but all the scheduling and everything else involved in gathering people (even virtually) is always going to be  next time. Before you break out that (non-roleplaying) other tabletop game, or even while you’re doing it, we might be able to take some inspiration from it for ...