Hello, fellow geeks and welcome to the second edition of the new MetaGaming article series! This week I am going to take a look at the 3rd Edition Dungeon Master's Guide (aka DMG). Just as the Player's Handbook is the Core Rulebook I, the DMG is next in line, as the Core Rulebook II. As I said in my last article, in order to run a fully successful and intense D&D campaign, the three core ruleb... more.

Greetings, fellow gamer, and welcome to the first article of MetaGaming! What is MetaGaming? Well, there are a couple different ways I can answer that. First and foremost, the term "meta gaming," as most people know it, refers to the world outside the game being played, or in terms of gamer slang, meta gaming can mean applying outside knowledge to a game. For instance, if there are a few people pl... more.

by Brandon Galm You all sit sipping ale from flask and flagon alike. As you enjoy the burn and beauty of the swallow you all notice a dark-cloaked gentleman enter and immediately slip into the most shadow-filled corner of the room. He immediately takes not one but two detailed looks around the slightly empty tavern. Then his eyes rest on each of you, and you feel him penetrating your soul. ... more.

4th Edition has been out for just over a year now, and I think that at this point we as gamers should take a step back and really take a good, long look at the system. Naturally there were a slew of reviews when the core rulebooks first hit shelves, but those were based on beta-tests and hurried week-long campaigns designed with the specific purpose in mind of testing out the system, not to get to... more.

While recently browsing for some free online boredom reducers, I came across this new freeware download at apple.com. It's called the D and D Manager, and it's actually pretty cool. Like anything free it certainly has it's flaws, but it's definitely worth the minute or less it takes to download--especially if you are a DM. The D and D Manager is a pretty easy program to navigate around. The man... more.

I’ve been in a reflective mood lately, ever since I heard the news last weekend that Dave Arneson, co-creator of the legendary role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, lost his battle with cancer at the age of 61.  That makes two losses within the world of D&D with the death of Gary Gygax the other, and perhaps more well-known, co-creator of the venerable fantasy role-playing game within a... more.

by Reggie Allison Journey with me, fellow geeks, on a path of memories and into a world of fantastic fantasy and geeky goodness . . . all created by yours truly! Way back in the time before time existed (when I was in high school, circa 1996-2000), before any of my friends and I knew what D&D was, we decided that we wanted to make a game that allowed us to play other characters (knight... more.

Hey, folks.  This week's episode brings you an in-depth, and oft meandering, discussion of what it means to be a geek and a gamer.  We struggle to define the limits of geekiness, as well as debate which games we ought to focus on so that we don't exclude people from our conversations. And, as always, we're giving away some free crap. This week's Geeks. Games. Beer. Challenge asks you to cr... more.

Some of my fondest memories of college were staying up ungodly hours on Fridays and Saturdays drinking pop, Kool-Aid, crunchy coffee (don’t ask), and adventuring through my friend, Drew’s, mythical world of Phase. In addition to earning my Bachelor’s degree in English, I inadvertently released a dark vampire god, fought the forces of the undead, killed enough monsters and people to populate ... more.

by Reggie Allison I am blessed. Not only was I born and raised in an age where instead of playing basketball (or really anything else) outside, I could play it from the comfy air-conditioned confines of my own home via video game console, but I also have always had great friends with whom to enjoy such experiences. Together we have proximity-mined the hell out of each other with Goldeneye, we h... more.