Grilled foods and cold brews are a staple of summer, and with Memorial Day marking the official start of the season in the US, it's no surprise we’ve covered taking tabletop inspiration from both of those subjects on previous holiday weekends. You can already fill some imaginary bellies with a few Risus Burgers and down a cold one from Tapper . It'd be hard to top either of the Risus builds those inspired, so this year we’ve gone with another backyard theme: backyard games! While we’ve talked about incorporating sports into games before, and people have been converting board games into something you can play outdoors for centuries, we’ve never gone into bringing less formal outdoor games brought back to the tabletop.  So let’s jump into our collective backyard to try and find some more tabletop inspirations. A great many backyard games seem to focus on one particular skillset, whether you're hitting a moving target, throwing, or catching, it all boils down to one classic

Star Wars Day may have come and gone, but this May has a different significance for the franchise: the fortieth anniversary of the third film, The Return of the Jedi. Not only did this movie bring the original phase of Star Wars to a close, its significant in the lives of the Never Say Dice founders as the both the first Star Wars movie to be released in our lifetimes, and as the series’ ending during our most formative years (Ewok movies notwithstanding). While it’s no longer Star Wars’s cinematic capstone and many of its plot points have been rendered moot in subsequent installments, Jedi remains an important part of our development, both in our relationship to the franchise and in our understanding of what narrative means and is capable of. So let’s venture to the Galaxy Far, Far Away for the final time… or so we once thought. A : Return of the Jedi is little more than a marketing ploy to get children to buy toys. That's why they put the Ewoks in there. Cute little furry things

This weekend marks a very special holiday that's important to many of us* - National Frog Jumping Day! While one might argue that the holiday started in 1865 with the publication of Mark Twain’s famous short story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," , it wasn’t until 1893 that the tradition of an annual Frog Jubilee complete with frog jumping competition started. Held every May 13th, it's a tradition that continues today, with the record high frog jump still standing from 1986 at 21 feet and 5 ¾ inches. While neither of us here at Never Say Dice had heard of Frog Jumping Day, the jubilee or the record before this week (that we can recall), at the very least we're familiar with the works of Mark Twain, and it got us thinking about some very important frogs from other media. Specifically though, the frog that came to mind this week is none other than the amphibian hero of Frogger (apologies to fellow Marylander Kermit). What exactly is Frogger ? It&

"Tie-in." If you're hearing the term outside of a purely technical sense, odds are it's a pejorative. It's not something we call works we like, even when they fall within the (sometimes blurry) definition. "Tie-in" seems so cold, so mercantile, it might a well be "cash grab" or "knock-off." I'm sure you're already thinking of examples of tie-ins that fit one or both of those descriptions - but I won't name any myself, because all art is experienced subjectively. What might appear as crass commercialization to you may be the take on a character or property that "clicks" for someone else in a unique and meaningful way. Not to mention that, under capitalism, commercialization is inevitable, whether it's an original concept or something adjacent. And if we look at the concept of tie-ins the right way, we can gain some perspective that applies to our own creations... especially, as with most tabletop RPGs, they ex

Wizards of the Coast has been in the news frequently over the last few months, thanks to several PR nightmares. (It's possible that WotC sees all press as good press, but the issues have certainly hurt them some financially - most clearly thorough canceled subscriptions.) The first of which, an attempt to change their long-standing open license rules for Dungeons and Dragons, had us wondering what it even means to own a game . The latest debacle has seen them sending the Pinkerton organization after a single gamer and fellow content creator . Could Never Say Dice be next on their list? We may want to tread lightly when mentioning the Wizards, lest we garner their attention! This did get us thinking about how detective agencies, and law enforcement in general, could appear in our tabletop games. How can those concepts be included and should they? - A A : There are many ways to incorporate detectives or law enforcement into your games. In fact, you’re probably doing it already. Sp

Campaigns are a staple of tabletop adventuring. You and your pals gathering together regularly to tackle challenges in the same game world, session after session. Campaigns can be a great way to explore a tabletop world and your characters' place within it. That continued development and growth, along with the familiarity of that particular fantasy world, is likely what draws us back again and again. When you hear the term "campaign," there's a good chance you picture something pre-made like Curse of Strahd or Ghosts of Saltmarsh . You might think about the running live plays of various groups such as Critical Role, Acquisitions Incorporated or High Rollers. If you’re lucky, maybe your game has a wonderful custom campaign your GM created themselves (or you created if you're the GM.) (Websters' defines campaign as a "white sparkling wine made in the old province of Campaign, France.")   What does it really mean to be "in a campaign," though

I look down at the small disc in my hand. Such a minuscule thing, I think, but its significance and import is matched only by the scope of its historical absence - long-forgotten, even in legend. But this artifact is real, its existence embodying the sophistication of a once-mighty people... as well as the means of their ultimate destruction. I refer, of course, to the copy of 2009's Wolfenstein that I acquired for the PS3, but the description applies, somewhat more accurately (if less poetically) to the Thule Medallion, the mystical artifact that sets this game apart from the rest of the series by giving long-running protagonist B.J. Blazkowicz a taste of the supernatural abilities usually afforded only to his adversaries. First, a history lesson. Never Say Dice scholars may remember I covered the previous game, 20 01's Return to Castle Wolfenstein in an earlier post . While I talked about the experience of visiting that title in the modern day, I didn't discuss why I h