Boss Rush Banter: Do People Care Less About Social Issues in the Gaming Industry?

The Boss Rush Network

Let me begin by stating I’m not accusing gamers for a lack of empathy to social issues; however, the question asked in today’s banter should spark a healthy discussion. Why? Issues ranging from racism, sexism, and harassment run rampant in mainstream media. The dark underbelly of corporations and Hollywood are revealed and draw an uproar to the public. While we are far from expunging social issues I’ve mentioned, it appears that any of the like in the video game industry generally gets overlooked…until the Activision Blizzard scandal blew up. It actually made headlines at non-gaming focused news arenas such as CNN and The Washington Post.

Toxic work environments and inequality in the video game industry exist and rarely make it to mainstream media, and sometimes the indifference is felt in the gaming community (or “mainstream” gaming community). The few outspoken voices tend to be swallowed in the black hole of…

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Low-Points GURPS

Roleplay Rescue’s Blog

I’ve been having a lot of fun with 50-point GURPS characters and thinking a great deal about what a game played at that level would look like. With the grounded feel of GURPS, largely mundane advantages and disadvantages, and leaving special powers to one side, I reckon it’d be a pretty fun challenge.

For those who don’t know, GURPS uses a points-buy character creation system to allow players to build any character they can imagine… within the boundaries set by the GM. As with all things in the toolkit, GURPS needs the GM to set up the parameters. Loads of guidance on this is provided in both the Basic Set Campaigns book and the aptly titled, “How To Be a GURPS GM”.

Typically, at least on my reading of the Basic Set, campaigns for heroic-types are dialled in with players having 150 points and a 40-50 points disadvantage limit (making…

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The Imperial Sewers

Dyson's Dodecahedron

“Deep in the desert of endless sands rests a grove of rocky outcroppings overlooking a landlocked sea that shrinks each year. Its water is briny to the point that no life exists on or between its shores. But this Salted Sea stretches far across the endless sands and those who sail upon it can fast reach the jungle lands beyond. Because of the strategic value in shortening the trips between the City of Splendours to the north and the Great Library in the City of Mud to the south, there exists a city nestled in the rocky groves overlooking the shore of the Salted Sea. This is the City of Tears, sustained by a single water source.“

– Zzarchov Kowolski’s “City of Tears”

The Imperial Sewers (300 dpi promo)

Beneath the Sultan’s Basement are the remnants of the Imperial Sewers – home to undead soldiers still strangely loyal…

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Boss Rush Banter: What Video Game or Moment Made You Fall in Love with Gaming?

The Boss Rush Network

We all love video games, but that passion had to start somewhere.

Video games are an art-form, and we all have artistic preferences that help us fall in love with the medium. It’s always fun to have retrospection and see where it all started for each of us.

I have memories of playing video games back in the early Nintendo 64 days. I used to fondly play Super Mario 64 and Mario Kart 64 along with a host of other games on the system.

Coupled this with Sonic the Hedgehog games on my SEGA Genesis, and that was my early console gaming career. Unsolicited hot take: Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is, in my opinion, the best one of the bunch.

As for handhelds, my devotion went to Pokemon Red and later Pokemon Gold on my Game Boy Color. I used to stay up late with friends taking advantage of the…

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Dungeons & Dragons’ Race Problem

The Nerdd

With the new rules for One D&D, or 5.5e as I call it, we are getting new rules when it comes to character generation, specifically when you choose your Race.

In most of D&D history, including the initial release of 5e, you received Ability Score Improvements based on your Race. Elves got bonuses in Dexterity, Dwarves in Constitution, Half-orcs in Strength, every single Race usually got two bonus points in one stat, and another bonus point in another stat. This is saying that Dragonborns are just inherently stronger than other races, Gnomes are inherently smarter, and Tieflings are inherently more charismatic.

<Sam Santala>

Then, we got to Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, where those Ability Score Improvements were open for you to place wherever you felt made the most sense with your character. Now, with the One D&D playtest rules, your Ability Score Improvements are based on your…

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The Games I Didn’t Cover (But Wanted To)

Frostilyte Writes

In life, there is only one rule I try to abide by: live your life without regrets. After squandering so many opportunities throughout my time, I decided one day that enough was enough. Now I ask myself the following whenever I’m presented with a decision: how are you going to feel if you don’t do this? If I determine that I’ll regret ignoring it, then I jump on the opportunity.

While my philosophy of living without regret manifests daily, the best recent example of it would be Chives. I was out on a walk and saw a stray cat curled up in a bush. She clearly needed medical attention as her eye was all goobery. I decided to take her home, and nurse her back to health. Ever since I’ve had a tiny white goblin running around my living quarters.

Adopting Chives was a fairly big decision to make, but…

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One D&D and the Subscriber Model of Doom

Vytautas Malesh

Whenever anyone starts talking about “creating an experience,” it’s time to watch your wallet, and that’s not even the worst of your worries.

I’ve been playing dungeons and dragons, and games like it, since the 1980s. I’m hardly a grognard – I’m wide open to change in the form of streamlining and simplifying rules, expanding inclusion and representation, and making the product and role playing more accessible for all.

While there are things in D&D I maybe don’t always love all the time, D&D has generally been “my thing” for about 40 years now.

And yeah, now I’m looking at this next iteration of Dungeons and Dragons, One D&D, and getting a little bit of the “icks.”

All images are from the old 4th edition VTT – which was basically sadtrombone.wav

It’s not the rules per se – I think that with the first release of the character generation rules…

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D&D and Video Games

Dungeon Dudes Tryo

D&D a popular series of tabletop RPG’s has been around for a while… since 1974 to be exact. Early video game adaptions were a products of their time to say the least. Archaic by what we have today they were ground breaking back then. The first official video game adaption appears in the late 80’s. Pool of radiance(circa 1988) is the first official game that was licensed officially as a D&D video game.

Pool of Radiance’s was designed by designersJim Ward,David Cook,Steve Winter, andMike Breault. Many of these people were very influential in the development of AD&D and the further development of tabletops and and writing for other Intellectual properties over the years. Several sequels were released over the next few years for Poole of Radiance. Curse of the Azure Bonds(1989),Secret of the Silver Blades(1990), andPools of Darkness

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5RD – The Traveller’s Well

Dyson's Dodecahedron

The Traveller’s Well (300 dpi promo)

A strange gate to distant lands is under the badlands near Fort Redshield. Stairs lead down to a cavern / sinkhole that is partially open to the sky above. The bottom of the space contains a pool that is refreshed by the rains and occasionally overflows in inclement weather, leading to the flooding of the cavern to the west which has a near-perpetual pool of scummy stagnant water in it.

The Traveller’s Well (1200 dpi)

In the southern cave are a number of near-perfect spheres protruding from the cave walls. These iridescent orbs are inherently magical and are probably the fruit of some bizarre otherworldly mushroom who’s spores came here through the gate…

And that brings us to the gate. Massive pillars of bismuth stand 30 feet apart with a strange magical field between them – a portal to other places, other worlds, even…

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Spelljammer Box Set Review

Game Night Blog

Dungeons & Dragons is the best RPG in the universe. What could possibly make it better? D&D in Space!

I am a traveler of both time and space, to be where I have been…

In the glory days of old school D&D, the parent company, TSR Inc. (R.I.P., good buddy), had created a number of Campaign Settings for players to adventure in. Greyhawk, Mystara, Dragonlance, and the one we currently all play in, The Forgotten Realms. Well, way, way back in 1989, they created a new campaign setting that could bridge the gap and connect all these different universes. That’s right kids, long before the MCU confused you with the multiverse, D&D confounded its players with Spelljammer!

Ah, the good old days. When heroes were good, squids were evil, and bikinis counted as armor.

At its core, Spelljammer is a rules-light, fantasy world where heroes sail the skies on magical…

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