I saw these dice on Etsy and thought they would be perfect for Walton Glaives, Investigative Wizard Extraordinaire & Abjuration Savant. But they were expensive and I couldn't justify the purchase. Still can't, but I got into a mood and bought them anyway. The fact that they offered a 11-die set was the kicker. They're very wizardry. These are the Sapphire Blue Astrology Dice Set by CrystalMaggie on Etsy. I picked them up on sale, 25% off, but they still cost me $85. Which is more than I paid for the beautiful metal Die Hard Dice I picked up a few years back. I can be a spendthrift, but dice are not a thing that should cost a lot of money. The dice arrived today, so how does the reality of them compare to the website? The first three pictures are from the website and make the dice look stunning. The pictures above are just me snapping a couple quick shots with my phone, they look less stunning, but still nice. I added the grey d20 in there to show that these dice are sli...

I enjoy The Alexandrian and think the author puts out solid advice and RPG commentary, so I preordered Justin Alexander's book as soon as I heard about it. But after buying the book in November, I realized my too be read pile is very large and I had no idea when I was going to get around to reading So You Want To Be A Game Master . But when I saw it available on audible, I threw a credit at it immediately and added it to my library. Having finished listening to it, I can say that it is very good, very well written, and packed full of good advice. I am looking forward to digging into my paper copy, doing the exercises, and giving it a more thorough going over. You don't need me to review this book for you. There are many reviews out there of this book by luminaries in the RPG industry, YouTubers, and regular folks like me. It's good. Lots of good advice for running games, coming up with campaigns, building adventures, and managing your table. It listens well, if a little o...

We use the Cyberpunk themed version of these Loke books in our game and they work really nicely. So I was inspired to buy myself some and of course I went overboard and bought three two-book sets. These aren't quite as large as the Cyberpunk maps, the giant books are 12x16 inches and these are 12x12 inches, but that still makes for a good size map. 12x24 if you use the two page spread or 24x24 if you combine two books as Loke intends them to be used. The quality is good. The art is fair. The usefulness... well, time will tell. I'm excited to use them and can envision a whole bunch of possibilities. Besides, each one of them comes with a blank grid map to increase their versatility.  I picked up three of the 2 book sets; The Dungeon, Castles, Crypts & Caverns, and Towns & Taverns. Like I just mentioned, each is a 2 book set of paired map sets. Meaning they can combined or used alone, depending on your needs and wants. You get 40 maps in each book, one per page or half th...

I have used a Chessex vinyl battle mat for years and outside of ruining a few of them with the wrong markers, have had no complaints. But as I've played more and more in public spaces the one thing I've noticed repeatedly is that identical tables do not line up identically when you push them together. And the more tables you bring together, the greater an issue this creates. This is not ideal for a supple and luxurious rolling battle mat. They much prefer a uniform level surface. This is true of the cheaper rolling mats and the large folded poster sheets as well. Even the folding stiff mats get wonky when the table heights don't match up. So, I started looking for options. These Andvari Battle Boards by GSM seem like they'll span the ridge without too much flex and solve at least part of the problem. I picked up the 9 board Mega Pack to give them a try. I don't know that I've found the ideal solution, but these ridged battle boards will work well with the foambo...

All the social media hype about the Dungeons & Dragons product hitting the discount outlets was mostly not something I was interested in. The stuff they were offering was either product I didn't want or had never heard of, but I was next door to Ollie's today and figured I'd just take a little look see at was on offer. They had some D&D stuff like action figures, the campaign packs, and a board game. Nothing I wasn't expecting. No surprises. I couldn't bring myself to buy the Dragonlance Warriors of Krynn game for $9.99, but at $2.99 each buying both of the Campaign Cases seemed like a fair trade. I'll show you a picture of the contents, but I'm not going to waste much digital ink describing them or their content. You can see what comes in the boxes in the pictures above. The boxes are cool looking and hold all the stuff that comes in them. Handy. You get a bunch of bases/tokens in the creature box and some dry/wet erase boards in the terrain box, bu...

A very handy thing that I did not think would be or a ridiculous money grab by Wizkids . Turns out it's the first one. I was gifted a full set of these book tabs by a friend, the same friend who bought everybody dice mats at the start of our Adventure: The 3-Dragon Problem campaign. Apparently, he's a gift giving powerhouse... who knew. Anyway, that's one set of tabs for the Dungeon Master's Guide, one set for the Monster Manual, and one for the Player's Handbook.  That's a lot of tabs. Took a long time to put on, but they are quite nicely repositionable. All three of my core books are now tabbed out and I've got to say, it's super handy. I didn't think I would like it, didn't think it was needed, and didn't want to clutter my books all up. Foolishness. It makes finding different parts of the book so much easier. So much faster. And yes, I know you could the same thing with some post-it flags or even with tape. These are all preprinted with a...

Cool, playing card holder. I'd never seen a thing like this before. I know, I live in a cave with my head buried in the sand, what can I say. Whatever, my mother had one of these she was using as we played cards during our Florida vacation. I thought it was brilliant and it keeps your hands free for grabbing drinks and pretzels and whatever snacks you got. I was so impressed that I ordered a set of them as soon as I got home. Set of 4 Playing Card Holders by Yuanhe : Hands Free Cards Holders for Poker Parties or Family Card Game Nights. I'm sure there are dozens of companies making similar things, but these are the ones I bought. I think they're pretty sweet and a useful game accessory that I wanted to share with you. They come in a set of four, each a different color (red, green, black, and red). My mother has her name on her's. I put my logo sticker on mine.

I love this idea, question cards (150 of them) to spark discussion and create connections between the characters in your campaign. The idea is simple, your party of adventurers make camp or roll into the tavern, everybody draws two cards and the character development begins. But will it work? Seems like it should, but players have a way of taking the wind out of my sails when it comes to clever ways to improve the game. The cards are divided up into six categories: Past, Present, Companions, Dreams, World, and Hypotheticals. These are subjects for discussion and discovery. Use two, use three, use them all, you decide. Everyone draws two cards, one for their character to answer and one to ask another players character. Roll around the table until everyone has had a chance to ask and answer their questions. Everyone gets to know the characters better, maybe bonds are made or strengthened. And there you go, one boring night around the campfire turns into a fabulous session of roleplaying ...

I have a tip for you. I saw this on Facebook, in a YouTube video, or somewhere. It's not my thing. Credit goes to someone else. When using a regular palette to paint my miniatures, I often put too much paint out. But using these fidget popper things works just as well, gives you a smaller pot, and makes clean up a breeze. You let the paint dry, pop the pot, and your dry paint comes right out. Easy peasy. I have three of them, which is probably two more than I need, but excess is kind of my thing. Also, if you take this tip find a fidget popper made of silicone to guarantee the paint wont bond to the plastic. My football shaped one is just plastic and it doesn't work near as well as the round silicone ones. Oh, and try and find white, the colored ones sometimes make the paint color look off and I forget which is which.