The post schedule around this blog hasn’t been the smoothest as of late. Between life’s pressures and unexpected tragedies such as rock legends (and personal heros) dying , it's not hard to imagine how that would impact a regular day. Unfortunately for our dear readers, one of the things that has kept me from writing over the past few weeks is vacation. Though, while one might expect they'd get more writing done on a vacation, the fact of the matter is that taking your whole family on a trip, even limited to those living in your own household, is something of a job in itself. Vacation is what I want to talk about this week, though, so perhaps it works out after all. While I may have previously talked about gaming while on vacation and finding inspirations in your trips , or even taking a vacation from your weekly gam e,  this week I want to look at something a bit different: giving the characters a vacation.  Time to Party Our characters in tabletop roleplaying ga...

How often do you visit the barber in your electronic games ? It could be as easy as revisiting the character creation screen. Or it may require you to visit a specific contact in the game, spend some of the game’s currency (special or not)  and select your new hair style. Rarely does a game have some mechanic where your hair, and preferred styling of such, needs to be maintained in some way. That's a huge departure for something so eventful and important in real life, and something that's ever-changing... whether we want it to or not. It grows, it greys, it falls out - all mostly out of our control. We style it, cut it, dye it, and get it as close as we can to how we actually want it to look. It's something we spend a lot of time on, and yet in most media, including tabletop games, it's largely ignored. So this week, let's do up your hair and bring the barber shop into your tabletop games with Never Say Dice.  Do the New 'do Changes in appearances for your table...

Collecting, and curating those collections, is something that seems to span cliques, cultures, and economic statuses, even throughout history.Though there are some major differences: one would imagine the upper crust collects things such as cars and yachts, and historically what gets collected has certainly changed over time along with tastes change... though you still see Hummel figurines, pressed pennies, and fancy spoons in tourist destinations. Ask any average person today, and they'll likely say they collect something themselves. It might be as simple as coins or stamps (if you’re thinking booooorrriiinnnggg , you're probably right, but don’t yuck their Yum !), as widespread as trading cards, or as nerdly as dice (shout out to our fellow dice goblins ). We even have games based around collecting - the writers of Never Say Dice are certainly no strangers to Magic: the Gathering and other collectible card games, even if we’re not currently wizard-dueling each other. They al...

A phrase that's probably most associated today with the Marvel What If…? animated series, the concept predates it by some time. Before the phrase even came up in comics (Marvel's original What If series started in 1977), the concept was over all sorts of media. Not necessarily in a What if "B" happened instead of "A", but certainly in a sense of “what if you took a vigilante detective series" (already a popular genre at the time) "and made it bat-themed ?” Often, the answers are very satisfying. They scratch some sort of brain itch we may not even be aware we had. You see it come up in comics, TV shows, movies, even our old favorite Choose Your Own Adventure  books, which are essentially founded on the question. One place where you typically don’t see it, oddly enough, is in our tabletop roleplaying games. So this week on Never Say Dice, let's explore the concept of “What If” sessions in tabletop gaming. - A Book(mark) It! A : In the original ...

The environment is a pretty big thing in TTRPGs. Perhaps you’re out in space, or in some post-apocalyptic game, but even in D&D, the environment is a big part of the game, with event-specific classes and spells to drive this point home. Specifically, the Druid (not to downplay the Ranger) is one big call-out of D&D. They’re even mentioned as far back as the original Greyhawk supplement from 1975 (you may have already seen our Greyhawk posts ), though they didn’t become playable as a character class until 1976. Along with that, there are plenty of nature-based abilities and spells. It should be no surprise, then, that those spells and abilities get misused. Yes, once again you’re in for another round of Never Say Dice Ruins Your (shitty) TTRPG Memes . This one comes from a frequent offender, and we’re going to stop naming them to (hopefully) discourage these things from happening, or at least going quite as viral. The setup goes something like this: Player : I’m going to use Pl...

In pre-printed tabletop games, and even morein freeform adventures, we know our location from the start. Your pre-published map shows all three levels of the castle, along with a a list of shops and other points of interest in the town. The spaceship blueprint has a list that covers crew quarters, the engine room, gunner stations, etc. Or maybe your book doesn’t have maps or blueprints, and presents flavor text and broad descriptions of the the people and places it covers. Both maps and descriptions, even general ones, are helpful when you’re running a game, and can cut down prep time for a scene. For those of us who fly by the seat of our GM pants in sessions, though, these may sometimes become a hindrance when we haven’t had a chance to go over them in advance. When presenting players a location, knowing where things are placed, what's secret or hidden, what doors are sealed/locked, where all of the traps are and so on, are all things you should probably know ahead of time. But ...

Some five years ago, when it seemed like the world was coming apart, two friends decided to create something together - a space where they could talk about the things they cared about, where they could share their thoughts and maybe a few people might even listen in. And this endeavor was inaugurated, naturally enough for 3/14, with a series of riffs on pie puns. We find ourselves in a similar situation today, with uncertainty, chaos, and cruelty swirling around us. But we’re still putting out this blog, and every year, we’re still putting out another round of terrible pie riffs. (Not about terrible pie, mind you - everyone knows there’s no such thing.) And this year is no different. As the world falls apart around you, take time for each other and make an effort to keep doing the things you care about. Even when it’s a bunch of pie jokes. -  B Save the Twin Pies Mall! For 80s movie-inspired games like Kids on Bikes or Tales from the Loop . The PCs come from a town centered around...

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. ...

For two people who are not very sporty, and not even particularly interested in sports, this blog brings them up quite often . While neither of us were ever experts, and especially when we were younger, video games (and even tabletop games that included sports) have always filled in knowledge gaps and provided opportunities where in-person skills prevented inclusion. Sports do seem to be important though, even if it's a little less so when it comes to tabletop players. There are even annual ritual championships where those at the peak of their games can attempt to gain some sort of…honor? I suppose. This time around, it's the Superb Owl Super Bowl that's brought sports to mind. While it isn’t hard to avoid watching it, even those of us less inclined to partake of sports viewing still find ourselves at watch parties - if not for the game itself, then to catch advertisements that play during such things. Fear not, though, if you do find yourself headed for just such a pred...

It seems like, at the end of things, we tend to get introspective. Certainly, even here at Never Say Dice we have a history of posting our New Years' resolutions - and this year was no different. We seem to have a need for chances to reflect on what has been and pontificate about what the future could be. It even happens in the video game world. We talk about what we loved and hated in the games we've played, and, from there, make wild predictions about what potential sequels might contain. While they’re often hilariously wrong, it's a common activity we all gravitate towards when it comes to the media we collectively love. It shouldn’t be any different for tabletop games. We all need some time to think about what we did wrong (and right!) in our previous sessions and how we might change things the next time an opportunity appears. So, sit back and get organized with Never Say Dice for some post-adventure postmortem. Feedback You’re probably going to get feedback from a nu...

You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen. Comet, Cupid, Donner…ah, you probably recall all of them including Rudolph - the most famous department store mascot reindeer of all. If you're a regular reader of the blog, it shouldn’t be any surprise we’re bringing up a Rankin-Bass Special yet again . Previously, we've dissected Mad Monster Party , frequently referenced their animated Tolkien adaptations , and taken inspiration from both Santa Claus is Coming to Town and, yes, Rudolph .  This time though, especially after having just passed the 60th anniversary of the original airing, we revisit Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and take a look through the lens of a classic tabletop adventure. So pull up your ice blocks, lend your ears, and keep an open mind about treating this holiday classic as an adventure. Peppermint! The story itself works best as a starting point, or even backstory followed by a shorter truncated adventure. You get introduced to a few of the main cha...