Digital Romance

No, I’m not going to talk about online pick-ups, MMO cybersex or eRP. I’m going to talk about one of the few games that allow for a step into the Uncanny Valley, where you romance completely scripted characters in a single player roleplaying game. I am of course talking about the Dragon Age and Mass […]

Freedom at the Bottom of a Box
Part 2

On further contemplation, I’ve realised the gradual insidiousness of the happiness that imagination, fantasy worlds and creatures, involvement in heroic deeds, and the general escapism of such things, brings to a person. It’s taken me this long to get so totally involved because I actively kept it out of my lists of potential enjoyment bringers. […]

Freedom at the Bottom of a Box
Part 1

I’ve been thinking about how things change, how things can be changed by a shift in perspective or by a little bit of experience. I’m quite a bit older than Kaly, so my life experiences are very different from hers, not better or worse necessarily, but different. It’s important to understand that bit right from […]

Board Games: The Gateway Drug to Roleplaying

I admit it, I have a gaming addiction. I came to accept that recently when I added a $50 boxed set of miniatures to an order just to make it up to $100 for free shipping. I was ordering new six sided dice for a board game. I have plenty of six sided dice already, […]

Game Mastery Part 1
Core Components

I have had the pleasure to be both a player of Tabletop RPGs and as a Games Master (GM), or Dungeon Master (DM) if you prefer. I run games because I enjoy the creative outlet, but I also run games because people like how I run them. There is no hard and fast rule to […]

Immersive Play Made Easy

I turned off Map Chat and it’s really enhanced my enjoyment of the game. I play these games to immerse myself in them; that’s where I derive my enjoyment, in the escapism. That one simple act of turning off Map Chat has helped so much, yet it’s so very simple. That got me thinking about […]

Character Development
in Role Play

Role Play is a dying art. The more I talk to people about role play, the more I realise people are interested, but have no honest idea about what role play is. This is especially true of role play in MMOs, where even the most hard core role players seem to have somewhat questionable ideas […]

Where have all the Heroes gone?

Why do people play role playing games? Over my years as a gamer, transitioning between table top and computer RPGs, I’ve seen the term RPG change a lot in meaning. At its core, role play is about adopting a role other than yourself, and in that ‘role’ you ‘play’ a game. So what role do […]

GW2 Build: Warrior
The Rampager

I have tried a lot of warrior builds. I started out with a Shout based warrior who was awesome, but sometimes felt a little boring without a party to support. I tried a full on Phalanx Might stacking warrior who could easily maintain 22-24 stacks of Might. He was incredibly deadly with his greatsword and […]

Building Characters for Duo Play

I often see people in chat and on the forums, asking what two character classes will compliment each other well for two players. Many people play with just one friend or a significant other, and they want to ensure that they play characters that are complimentary, making the game content more manageable. These requests do […]