Author Archives: mattwandcow

Pendragon RPG: 9 things that excite me, 5 things that scare me

I learned about an old RPG recently. The first edition of it was released in 1985, so it’s been around longer than me. I got my book for it this week, and I’m playing fast catch up. I really want to add it to my repertoire, but it’s very different than D&D (or at least, […]

More thoughts On Palace of the Silver Princess

I sat down on Wednesday morning to prep the game for that night. I started with the map of what I had presented so far, then started drawing a new map to extend the dungeon. And stopped instantly. “Why are these rooms here, like this? It doesn’t make sense!” was my thought.  So I ran […]

D&D Archeology: Using old material for the first time

I like to call myself a D&D Archaeologist. I love buying old books and seeing what secrets the ancients had in their games. By ancients, yes, I refer to earlier editions of D&D, but also any game. I’m not picky about where the sources of interesting ideas come from.

BOFURI x D&D: Thoughts on Pacing

There’s an anime releasing called BOFURI. It’s an Isekai of sorts, set inside a full dive VR video game, but people are just playing, nothing at stake. I just watched episode 8 and I figured out what was rubbing me wrong about the show. (I do recommend the first few episodes. After that, it’s on […]

The King’s Clash: Things Matt figured out while arranging a tournament in D&D

So when I started getting the characters stories for Eberron in, one of my players mentioned he worked in the fighting pits and arenas of Sharn, I knew I was going to have to do some stuff with pit fights. My slight disillusionment with downtime in regards to PCs simulating a day to day existence […]

Overthinking Eberron: Dragonvale Mental Hospital

I read a book recently, that brought to life the mental effects that 4 years of brutal war could have on people. And the whole time I was thinking, man, Eberron has had a hundred years of war that only became more and more brutal. What would their mental hospitals be like?

Culture Quest: The Great Gatsby

This may shock some people, but I’ve never read the Great Gatsby. It’s just never come up. I’ve heard people mention it’s good, and the fact that it appears on a lot of “best classic book” lists, well, means I should have read it. But I never have. This probably won’t be the first such […]

Masks: Teen Heroes Powered by The Apocalypse

(This RPG has its own tagline, but it’s not as cool as this title) A good Superhero RPG is one of my White Whales. I’ve tried it a few times, and it’s not ever really worked out the way I’ve wanted. And I’m never sure if that’s my fault, my players’ fault, the game system’s […]