It always rains in Nuln

As an avid roleplayer a lot of things that I do in life are connected with my hobby. That said, I would have never imagined that my friends would organise me a... Hunter-themed bachelor party! Oh yeah, it happened. Last year, during late Autumn I got married. Before the ceremony my closest friends decided to threw me a bachelor party that I'd never forget. It was a tricky task, since I'm not into clubbing, strippers (obviously my wife is reading this), not even racing or gambling! So these absolute madmen gathered together one day, and decided that Hunter: The Reckoning-themed bachelor party is the right way to go. Oh boy, do these boys know me well! Survive your bachelor party, inherit the Earth! Simply put - it was awesome. Those of you who follow my blog for some time, know that I'm a huge Classic World of Darkness fan. In fact my favorite CWoD splat is the underdog of this whole line - Hunter: The Reckoning, a game from 1999. I will write a comprehensive review/love let...

This is it, the final chapter of my favorite character series. I'm not gonna lie, these posts were a joy to write, and this particular one is especially dear to me. Of all the Classic World of Darkness games, Hunter: The Reckoning is my personal favorite. Yeah, I know it's an underdog and the red-headed stepchild of the whole setting, but to me it's one of my favorite RPGs of all time. One day I will write a full review of this title, but for now let me just tell you that some of my best role-playing memories came from playing Hunter with my close friends years ago. The chronicle, the atmosphere, the props that we were using during our games, and finally... the characters. The characters were simply epic, and since HTR was the game in which we've played a single, longest campaign of all, they took a lot of time to develop, mature and evolve. Seeing their progress, their journey - it was pure joy. As much as I love WFRP, it is Hunter: The Reckoning with which I have, ...

You all know that I'm a huge Warhammer buff. That said, there's one setting which is even closer to my heart - the Classic World of Darkness. When it comes to its many splats, I've always adored Hunter: The Reckoning the most. I will write an entire post about my all-encompassing love towards H:TR, but for now let's just say that I'm all about the common folk, facing off against the myriad terrors of the night. I've always rooted for the underdogs and the Imbued, as the hunters of this setting are known, perfectly encapsulate this term. That said, I will write a legthy post about this game, as well as the Classic World of Darkness in general, in the near future. I have so many great memories, associated with this logo I was very lucky to be able to interview Ed Hall, one of the original creators of Hunter: The Reckoning. He's an incredibly nice man who was patient enough to answer all of my fan-fuelled questions, and there were a lot of them! You ...

Quite a lot of things is happening right now in our fandom. The 4th edition ofWarhammer Fantasy Roleplay is right around the corner, Zweihander will recieve yet another expansion and Titanicus is making everyone sweaty! I will try and cover it all in no particular order, but first we must talk about some very sad news. After many years online, the fantastic Strike to Stun forums will be closing down this year. It's all because of the European Union's privacy policies, potentialy aimed towards the social media giants like Facebook. In reality, as is often the case, the main victims of such a law are relatively small internet communities, like StS. It's very sad to see it go. For many years it was home to people who loved WFRP, as well as those who created various editions of this venerable game. There are alternatives, like the Ratchater's Guild Discord server and the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay reddit community, but Strike to Stun is one of a kind. It will be archived...

There are a lot of things that can make a single, ordinary RPG session, truly awesome. One of them is a climactic soundtrack, specifically tailored for the oncoming game. But how to utilise it to its fullest extent? Game music (and possibly ambient sounds) is a tricky medium to master. First of all, I'd suggest to not base your entire game on it. I've known people who have created entire adventures, based on a single track from a movie or video game. While it usually worked rather well, more often than not a single derail on the PC's part made the whole thing change its course, and the final, dramatic tune had to be either abandoned or used in a different matter. Life sucks, I know. From my experience it's a great idea to base a single scene or maybe a chapter, on your favorite "Gladiator" OST. They are usually short enough to warrant success, not to mention it's easier to control what's going on during a single chapter, than an entire campaign. Jus...

I'm a huge fan of the White Wolf's Classic World of Darkness. I love the lore, I love the characters and I love the overgrown metaplot. Since I have a few fan-made addons for CWoD laying on my HD, I've decided to share them with a wider world. Of all my RPG collections, this one is certainly the smallest of all. It's hard to find any, remaining old World of Darkness fansites, those from the really old day. Many of them Geocities-based and many other were closed, due to legal reasons, even if not all of the materials that were available on them, were illegal. I guess it's not completely true what people say about the internet - things tend to disappear from it. I, however, intend to save as many of them, as possible. Well... at least those, related to the hobby, anyway. This girl is having as much fun, as I am, every time I'm reading a CWoD book Anyway, with some help from the people on Old (Classic) World of Darkness fanpage on Facebook (which I thor...

The biggest lie one can hear in today's world is that you can do anything, no matter what. This is true not only in real life, but also in various hobbies, including role-playing games. I love playing RPG's. This hobby really did gave me a lot of good things. I've met fantastic people, trained my imagination and greatly improved my self-esteem. Altough I always read a lot, my book count increased greatly, after I've begun to roleplay regularly. I could go on and on, how awesome this hobby is, but chances are that if you're reading this article, you already know this. You probably also know, that RPG's, just as any thing really, can be a source of intense frustration for everyone involved in them. From the so-called "problem players", about whom I'll write later, to the dreaded "Gamemaster's Withdrawal" - there are many things that can be extremy irritated about narrative games. For me, one in particular can be irksome: a player'...

This hobby hasn't been kind to me lately. The flare is gone, it seems, and more and more I reminisce about the old times, better times. Which in turn brings me to rethinking some important stuff. Important for a gamer, that is. Melancholy aside, the thing that I've wanted to talk about this day is the notion that "mine is better, you are wrong". You know how it works, like when one of your friends buys a new bike from company X and he'll do everything to prove to you that all other bike companies are for plebeians. Yeah, everyone knows a person or two like that. Well, I've found out that in the RPG fandom, such people are more numerous that flies on a piece of crap. Worst of all, I think I am one. Why hello there It's very easy to become like that. You start of small - find yourself a favorite game system, be it a tabletop miniature game or an RPG. It dosen't necesserily have to be a little known, obscure title. Where I live most elitist s...

Didn't had one of these in a while, so I've figured that I'd write one. Today I want to share with you my opinion on overthinking players and Gamemasters. In RPG's, just like in real life, people tend to overthink a lot of things. Even when there's a clear, straight path to the finish line, some folks will still opt to take the longer, winding road. Why's that? Why choose the more difficult way? "Because it's more interesting you Twit, it'll hurt more! (R.I.P. Alan Rickman)" I honestly have no friggin' clue, but I do know one thing: overthinking things can be disastrous. In my long and prosperous career as a Gamemaster, I've encountered many people who were too cunning for their own good, and eventually ran into self-made obstacles or even death traps. Because that's what happens when you try to be too smart for your own good - you end up screwed, literally, by yourself. I can think of a couple of examples. One time...