"No." We all grow up hearing that word a ton. No, don’t put that power cord in your mouth. No, don’t stick your finger in that socket. No, don’t touch the dice. No, you can’t go outside right now. No, you can’t play games right now. No, no, No, NO, NO! No is no. No is always no. If they say no, it means a thousand times no. Wait, I can’t play games right now?! But I’m (legally) an adult now! When you first become a functioning adult, you can start making the choice to say "yes" to things like gaming when you want. Unfortunately, becoming an adult also brings a lot of burdens, as well, and parenthood only compounds those obligations (although the kids can sometimes be a great excuse to get out of things you actually don’t want to do... unlike gaming.)  Recently, I’ve had to say "no" to gaming multiple times, even though I really wanted to say "yes" to each opportunity. So this week, I’d like to talk a bit about saying "no"… to gaming. ...

Good timezone to Never Say Dice fans, adventures in Aardia, TikTok and beyond. No, I’m not the Roll for Sandwich guy (neither of us is), but if you haven’t heard of him already (or especially if you have), this week I wanted to talk about the TikTok/YouTube show Roll for Sandwich hosted by Jacob Pauwels. The premise is exactly what it sounds like: every episode, the host rolls dice to determine the various items that comprise a sandwich (except when the episode is about s’mores). He assembles the sandwich, then actually eats and critiques his random creation. If it sounds pretty niche to you... it is. You should  probably be both a bit of a foodie and a TTRPG fan in order to truly appreciate both the strange layered creations and the roleplaying references. My eldest son has been so interested in the web series that he decided he wanted to try doing it for himself. So, for the last week of summer this year, we took stock of our cupboards, made our own charts, and proceeded to con...

Gaming as a pastime is often a solo venture. You pop in the cartridge, disc, or what have you, take the controller in hand and you’re off into the digital world. Likewise, with TTRPGs, you can find ways to game by yourself (we’ve even written about the very subject.) However, gaming, both digitally and at the tabletop, is often a multi-player pursuit. Modern digital games have even been criticized about not having much, or sometimes any, single-player content. What about when it's just two players though? Even board and card games are usually designed with more than two players in mind, so finding the right thing for you and your significant other can be tough. Before you dive right in to pick something out to play, let's do a broad review of potential options and some things you might consider before making your selections. The Digital World Two player games are not uncommon in the digital realm. This is especially true if you’re into indie games like Journey , Cuphead or It...

Gamification seems to be everywhere these days, with articles on how to incorporate it into the workspace, or boosting your fundraising process. It even invades our personal lives with games that cover everything from learning new languages, getting fit (do we really need a new gamification application for every single kind of fitness trend?) and getting your errands done. It seems you could potentially gamify just about anything. It shouldn’t be too surprising -  as a species we’ve been playing games for an exceedingly long time. As we’ve mentioned on the blog before , the trendy D20 has origins that date back to at least ancient Egypt . While gaming may be old, the term gamification didn’t come around until the early naughties when Nick Pelling came up with it. Even then, the word didn’t really become popular until... Foursquare?! (Hard to believe that was a thing. Gamifying visiting places in the real world? Was this really the precursor to things such as Pokemon Go! and Zombie...