POW! BIFF! ZOT! Fight scenes have been a part of narrative media for... well, as long as there has been narrative media . The Illiad , for instance, is full of the granular blow-by-blow we expect of fight scenes today, regardless of medium . So this is not a topic for which I can do any kind of justice - I'm sure there are people who have dedicated their entire careers to the study of narrative combat, and there will always be more to talk about, more to discover. Rather, this post will explore some recent thoughts inspired by (what else) a mostly-forgotten twenty-year old video game. Oni is a third-person action game with a focus, despite the arsenal of weapons featured in the official art, on melee combat. Today, it's remembered mostly as the game Bungie made after Marathon and Myth , but before Halo . Culturally, it's a rather bizarre relic: a western attempt at making an "anime game" based on limited reference points that the creators lifted wholesale, partic

Father’s Day isn’t a holiday I typically come to with a lot of excitement. While I love my kids, and care about my own father and other dads in my life, Father’s Day just isn’t something that I love to celebrate as a holiday. In honor of the day, though, and for those that do enjoy it, I’ve decided to use this week’s post to talk a bit about being a parent and a gamer. Both gaming (whether it be video games, board games, tabletop RPGs, or even all three) and being a parent can take up a ton of time in day-to-day life. If gaming is one of your passions, it's likely something you had to significantly reduce to make up for the time requirements of being a parent. Those unavoidable visits to the doctor, diaper changes, potty training, homework...the list of parenting responsibilities is endless. The list of games I’d like to play has also seems to have become endless in a very short amount of time. What can one do about it? (Besides obsessively organizing and cataloging your game colle

The COVID era, as we’ve taken to calling it, ain’t over yet - not by a long shot. But as vaccination percentages rise, restrictions are being eased at both jurisdictional and individual levels, and, while the decision is up to you and the other members of your pod (at least we get to use some cool futuristic terminology!), options are starting to open up. This week, we'll talk about our ideas for getting back to in-person gaming and and talk about how you can set up your own Post-Vax Agenda. - B    A : Strangely enough, despite how much we talk about it, I haven’t done any in-person tabletop games since over a year before the pandemic even started. Sadder yet, that campaign left a bad taste in my mouth like burnt pizza. I enjoyed it for what it was at the time, but now I wince at that burnt tongue feeling and nasty aftertaste. I have picked up a few games online since the pandemic started, and that’s been fantastic. Fortunately, those people are spread across multiple states, and t

One year ago, following the murder of George Floyd, Never Say Dice posted "a moment of silence" in memory of Black Americans who have died as the result of police violence, and out of solidarity to those who stand up to a system designed to break the bodies, minds, and souls of people of color. One year later, we thought we should reflect on what has transpired since then, and where we can go from here. There is always another story, ask anyone who works in words, images, and sounds, including those artists of ephemera who concoct fleeting tales around a table, shaped by dice and panic, lost instantly to time and the savageries of recollection. Every story that's told makes space for those that aren't. The "before" stories. The "after" stories. And the stories beneath. If someone has lived their life privileged enough to never hear the stories of those who suffered and died creating the world they take for granted, even acknowledging the existence

Food disagreeing with you lately? The summer holidays are often full of greasy burgers and hot dogs. I know I’ve been grilling more than usual. That wasn’t what I was referring to, though. Does your food want to make hamburger out of you ? Then perhaps you need help from Peter Pepper. You might be asking yourself, “who?” Don’t worry, we’ll cover that in a moment. First we have the "how." We don’t need IntelliVision’s arcade-like super graphics for this post. We need Risus: The Anything RPG . What is Risus ? I won’t bore you with all the details here. (Besides, you can read our very own Introduction to Risus post.) In short, Risus is a rules-lite, versatile, and down-right fun “anything” TTRPG. In previous Risus posts , we have looked at converting the characters from Gauntlet , and taken inspiration from the Pole Position properties for an arcade themed setting I’ve been working on. In actual play, the game world would look something like Wreck-It-Ralph or ReBoot . For

We should start this post off with a minor disclaimer: I am involved in the running of Balticon , our regional literary science fiction and fantasy convention, and have been for a number of years. There is no financial incentive for me to promote this or any other volunteer-run convention - as the descriptor implies, there's no money to be made. I simply would like to use this platform to share something I care about, and that I think Never Say Dice readers will get a lot out of. With that out of the way, let's define what we're talking about here. There are a number of different types of conventions for the nerdly-inclined and they all have their own culture, history, and goals. A "literary" convention like Balticon is different from a comic con, a media con, or a fandom con. The first two have blended together over the past few decades, with less of a focus on comics (and the collecting thereof) and more on the proximity of media properties and celebrities, freq

The owlbear rushes forward beating aside your comrades. They now lay on the ground fighting the throes of death to regain consciousness.  The owlbear is wounded though, and you’re up. This is it. Now is the time to charge forward and end the battle. You swing your broadsword, roll a d20 and get...a 4. You duck into a shadowed doorway as stormtroopers march down the hallway. Their blasters are drawn, but you think you’ve found a good spot to avoid them. You’ve almost made it out of the compound. The GM has you roll for stealth. The escape all comes down to this one check. You throw the dice and get...3. The Players and DMs alike yearn for that critical success at a clutch moment, but failures can mean just as much. These situations can even become the defining moment for a character, adventure or campaign. What is the best way to handle those disappointing moments? -A A : Critical successes are something all players are hoping for. Even if skill checks don’t technically “crit”, there is