Quick, name off your favorite video game villains! A number of characters likely come to mind, even if you only have limited experience with the medium, but while you were able to name a few, many would have been simply "that guy from..." But that's understandable - in the format of electronic games, a villain must, first and foremost, present an obstacle for the player (in addition any characters they may currently be inhabiting) to overcome, with all other concerns such as character and motivation secondary. So what makes a memorable and compelling villain in an electronic game, and how are they developed through narrative and gameplay? Let's spend some time talking about the Best of the Bad and how they got there. Before we can explore what makes a great video game villain, though, we'll need to define what "villain" even means in this context. Is Berzerk 's Evil Otto a villain? Are the ghosts in Pac-Man ? The bonus point saucers from Space Invade

  Another Pi Day (3/14, if you're too square to know) has come and gone, and with it this blog's birthday. As is tradition , we're going to batter you pie jokes like it's graduation day at clown college! Given our love of the ancient (if questionably-honorable) profession of piracy , it's a bit of a sur-pies we haven't been filling up these posts with pie-rate jokes, but we've been known to be a bit flaky at times. Not wanting anything to come out underdone or half-baked, get ready to break off a peg-leg and roll some dough for our fourth annual Pi-naversarry post!  - B PIErate's Curse - Trouble's a-bakin' aboard the badde ship Golden Cruste . The crew has been cut down the middle: one slice longing for meat pies, the other for fruit. With limited ingredients and the ever-present threats of scurvy and mutiny, the captain must carefully measure a course around desserted islands and torte-uous seas, keeping his crew from overheating and staying

It’s-a Mario Time! Once again, we’re warping into the world of Mario to celebrate another Mar10 (or "Mario") Day. If all kinds of corporations can milk this property year after year, then why can’t we return to the Mushroom Kingdom for some more tabletop inspiration? This year though, instead of talking about Super Cereal or Mario’s details , why don’t we take a look at a comeback of sorts - Super Mario Bros 2 . The game actually has a complicated history, but don’t you panic, some of the best games do. Starting here might give us a sound footing in this sidescroller, though the plot itself is a bit mysterious, as well. Somewhere in there, we’re sure to find a few gems (or coins) of inspiration. So without any further loading time, let's select our player and start the level. Life is but a dream Unless you're a video game history scholar, the words "Dream Factory: Heart-Pounding Panic" probably don’t mean much to you... at least not in that order. That, ho

The second of March is important to this blog for a number of reasons. First, and foremost, it marks the beginning of life for Never Say Dice co-founder Bugsy... who happens to share a birthday with the author Dr. Seuss. While his legacy may have seen some controversy over the years, especially these last few, it's spawned another thing important to this blog: Read Across America Week . While that particular holiday week isn’t something we at NSD had in our formative school years, reading is a pursuit that's been important to both of us throughout our lives and continues to be. After all, we couldn’t ask you to read this blog every week, or even have the background in TTRPGs and other games it takes to write this blog if we didn’t support  and appreciate reading  for its own sake. Reading is fun and mental. - A A: I can go anywhere. I can be anything. These lyrics are part of the Reading Rainbow theme song. The show was a way to bring children into the world of reading and a m

In  tabletop adventures, there are certainly a lot of things for the characters to accomplish. You might be hauling around the magic MacGuffin to finally dump into an active volcano. Maybe you’ve slayed your very first dragon. Or perhaps you took down the enemy base with one critical hit to their thermal exhaust port. What does that mean for those characters' players , though? Did they accomplish something as well? They did have a hand in all of their characters' actions, after all, rolling their luck on the dice (or some other determinator, depending on the game). P layer, you are the reason the character achieved what they did. You deserve your own trophy as well. So what are some common personal accomplishments in  the world of tabletop games? Why do some particular moments stick with us? Finally, what can we, as GMs, do to reward our players, and even ourselves in these momentous occasions? - A A : Potential player accomplishments abound. There are all sorts of firsts out

Back in olden times (okay, it was just the '80s, but that seems forever ago), when there was such a thing as Saturday morning cartoons, every show seemed to have a message. The show’s message for that week might have been teamwork, safety, honesty or whatever important thing they wanted to jam into our skulls while they brainwashed us into demanding toys. Besides serving as the legally mandated "educational" content to keep these shows from technically being commercials , these messages might have given them some credibility with parents or allowed shows to run mildly violent content as long as the message played well with the censors. No matter the reason, you'll see examples throughout those cartoon televisions blocks, from Jem and The Holograms and G.I. Joe to The Adventures of the Gummi Bears and Snorks . Some were more obvious about it (I’m looking at you Chief Warrant Officer Flint!) while others may have weaved it more into the story. What if we took that sa

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