My first Gen Con was back in 2004. I was 21 years old, and I had never been to a gaming convention. Because of a thousand different variables in my life, I didn’t get to head back until 2024, right after I was fired from my full-time job.

Right after I was fired, Gen Con went from being a fun event I got to cover on behalf of Geek to Geek to a full-on work trip with networking and contract-seeking in addition to the games coverage.

Since then, I’ve been back every year, and it’s been a blast. Turns out, I love Gen Con more as a member of the press than I did back in the day as a player. And 2026 was no different.

First Thing’s First: Getting the Badge

The first thing you do at Gen Con is get your badge.

If you don’t have the badge mailed to you ahead of time, you have to stand in the Will Call line to get it. Luckily, I can bypass that because I’ve been lucky enough to get media credentials (thank you, Gen Con and Stacia!), but I still wait through it for my physical event tickets I’ve signed up for.

Plus, the friends I went with have to wait on theirs, so we just hang out in line. This year, the line moved pretty quickly on Wednesday evening, and we got through the absurdly long line in about 30 minutes. The Gen Con staff really know how to keep it moving, and it’s basically a well-oiled machine these days.

My Top 3 Games

What would Gen Con be without the games, right? While I don’t spend a terrible amount of time at game tables through scheduled events, I do get my hands dirty across those 4 days of gaming. After all, why else are we there?

Old Gods of Appalachia

The first game that really caught our eye was The Old Gods of Appalachia by Monte Cook Games. It’s been on my radar for years, having heard nothing but good things, but this year, we were able to get some solid, hands-on playtime with the game from a demoer named Chris, who runs the game weekly for his in-person group.

The game takes place in an alternate version of Appalachia, in which there is a war between supernatural forces known as the Green and the Dark. Players are normal people who live there, but might be touched with a hint of magic or supernatural ability themselves.

It runs on an adapted version of Monte Cook’s Cypher game system, and MCG told us that some of the adaptations they made for Old Gods were adopted into the new version of Cypher that just ended crowdfunding earlier this year.

After the game, the kind folks at MCG provided us with a review copy of the core book, and my friends liked it enough to purchase the Player’s Guide to go along with it. So I’ll have a lot more to say about it as soon as we’re able to work it into our gaming schedule.

Tatsumi

Tatsumi is a fun board game where you play as a dragon collecting elemental rings and then depositing them at shrines for bonuses and extra powers.

The gameplay is simple and straightforward, but really engaging as you maneuver across the board, trying to block other players from getting the particular elements they need, while planning ahead enough for you to score enough points by scheduling visits to shrines.

We liked it enough after a single playthrough that we bought the deluxe edition and had it signed by the designer. The base game is fun, but the real depth comes in the asymmetric powers that come with the advanced rules that we haven’t had time to dig into yet. I’ll keep you posted.

Orichalcum

You never know what to expect out of a game that is discounted down to $8, but Orichalcum by Pandasaurus is worth that and a lot more. This was the sleeper hit for us and we played it every night of the con when we got back to the hotel room.

A tile placement game where you fight monsters and manage your resources (soldiers and the titular orichalcum ore), trying to smelt as many victory points together as you can, while gaining the favor of various titans, who count as both victory points and provide special abilities. You construct buildings and statues for new powers, and the game is quick and easy to learn, despite having a lot of moving pieces.

The rulebook makes it seem complicated and overwhelming for what it is, but it’s 100% not. We even picked up extra copies of the game at its discounted price just to give away because we know other friends and family will enjoy it.

Networking and Schmoozing

Like I said, Gen Con became much more about industry connections and getting to know people in 2024 than I expected it to. In other years, I’ve been able to schedule a ton of interviews with designers and developers. This year was a little different because I didn’t think I was going to get to attend the con at all because of hotel and travel costs. (Thanks, unexpected medical bills and US heatlhcare system!)

Some of my friends were going, and they offered to give me a ride and let me stay in their room for free. Because of that, I didn’t get in nearly as much scheduled time with companies as usual, so I don’t have recorded interviews or anything like that this year.

It was a blast this year, and I met some really fun people and talked to some cool folks with different publishers. I went to a few different mixers and meetups, too. For the most part, they went well.

At one in particular, I honestly felt pretty out of my depth.

I learned that I’m not good at unstructured schmoozing. I showed up to the ENNIE awards cocktail hour and saw everyone arriving in their established groups already; being new to the industry means I don’t already have those connections. And inserting myself into them felt awkward. 😬

I also learned that there are pretty wide interpretations of what a “content creator” and designer are, especially whether it’s in a board game or TTRPG context.

I’m hoping to go to GAMA next year, too, though it’s unfortunately moving from Louisville, KY to Baltimore, MD, which makes it a much harder trip for me. Additionally, I’ll be at PAX U this year, working a booth with a group of coworkers from Sordane, which I expect will help break the ice ahead of GAMA time since some of those folks already have the connections I’m hoping to make.

Introductions and “it’s not what you know, but who you know,” and all that stuff, yeah?

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And Then There’s D&D

The past 3 years at Gen Con have been a lot of fun for me regarding D&D, and this year, it was both really great and really disappointing.

The great part was that they did a keynote where they announced a ton of new stuff like the D&D Icons line where they’re bringing back Weis and Hickman for Dragonlance content, same as RA Salvatore for Drizzt stuff, and even a 5.5e Dark Sun mature-rated campaign setting.

In addition, they are bringing back and working on old campaign settings like Greyhawk and subcontracting some out to Ghostfire Gaming (Ravenloft) and Kobold Press (Forgotten Realms). That’s all really cool stuff, I think.

They also had the D&D Carnival, which was a free event everyone could go to and play mini-games that matched the stats of D&D characters. Can you guess who sees a beholder and got a perfect score on the Intelligence Check quiz?

It was super fun to go around and see the sights and play the games. We kicked around an inflatable D20 like it was a soccer ball, and then we got free, fun prizes like blind boxes of various miniatures and sets of dice before we were shown the way to the exit and the merch shop downstairs.

Then there’s the bad stuff, which is basically everything else about the D&D Tower if you ask me. And maybe I’m biased so take this with a grain of salt. But when they advertise there to be 6 floors of awesome D&D stuff, and literally everything except the carnival and keynote was a paid event, I think it’s kind of lame.

And not just that they’re paid events, they were almost entirely Actual/Live Play shows. Outside of a single, hour-long 5.5e scenario being run constantly using the Maps VTT in person (eye roll), all the content in this D&D Tower was a live play show of some sort.

NGL, I found that disappointing and kind of lazy.

I was hoping for exhibits, demos, hands-on kinds of things. I wanted to see cool stuff and the beautiful building they’d decked out. In previous years, there had been displays of old D&D artifacts and books (they weren’t official exhibits, I know), and I was hoping for that kind of thing. Even a third-party merch area.

But no, we got live plays. And then some more live plays. Then an actual play, then back to live plays.

And you know what else? They wouldn’t even let you into the merch shop if you didn’t have a ticket from one of the events. (And my understanding is that even then it was an Exit Through The Gift Shop experience, not a Go In While You Wait one.) Add in that getting in even with a ticket was a long line in a winding corral, and the whole thing just felt off to me.

So yeah, the D&D Tower was a cool idea, but incredibly lackluster in execution. I hope next year there’s more stuff to actually do and experience from D&D instead of just watching other people roll dice.

Onward to Next Year

Needless to say, I’m already planning my trip back to Gen Con next year, and I really hope that I can return the favor to my friends for letting me stay with them this year.

Also, with a hopeful lack of medical emergencies and expenses blocking my way like almost happened this year, next year I’m going to try to secure a hotel close to the convention center so it’s easier to partake in after-hours events in the hotels and game halls, which I haven’t really been able to do since my initial visit back in 2004.

There was also some drama with a tornado warning and flooding in the convention center, but I’m not going into detail about that for two reasons. One, I’m from Alabama, and we have (and ignore) tornado warnings regularly, so it was no big deal; and two, I just went across the street to eat dinner and didn’t experience anything firsthand other than my hamburger, so I got nothing really to say. You can find plenty about it on Instagram and the Fans of Gen Con Facebook group, though.

All that said, you can also expect a write-up soon on Assault on Absalom Station, the sequel to last year’s Starfinder novel, Era of the Eclipse (read that review here). Many thanks to the magnificent Rue Dickey for providing a review copy.

And again, thanks to Gen Con for the press pass so I can experience all of this stuff and bring reports back to you all. I’m working on getting better at Instagram, so follow us over at @geektogeekmedia to see various updates and Gen Con-related stuff there, too.

I read and play a lot of tabletop game systems. I started with D&D 3e when it was new, and since then, I’ve dabbled in a little bit of a lot of stuff.

In 2020, I started playing D&D 5e with my friends online—like so many people did. The year after that, I started up an in-person group at my FLGS.

Since then, we swapped from 5e to Dragonbane for a year, then went to Starfinder 2e for over a year after that. Now, we’re mid-Pathfinder 2e, and between all of it, we’ve dabbled in Daggerheart, Pirate Borg, Vaesen, Fallout 2d20, and a bunch of others.

We’ve tried a lot because of me needing to playtest content I write or do some sessions for a review. Because of that, it always made me wonder if there was something better we could have been playing instead of what we were deep into.

Is the Grass Greener? Not Always

I do love to try out new shiny things. Sometimes, those new shiny things are a huge hit. Dragonbane, for instance. Everyone who played it adored it. It is still my favorite TTRPG overall, hands down, above all others.

In the past year and a half, we moved from DB to me GMing Starfinder. And I always felt like I was a little off in my style. I don’t know what it was, but even though I love the system and setting, I never felt like I really fell into it like I did 5e or Dragonbane.

I think that’s because my GM style doesn’t align as well with games where you don’t take as many liberties with the rules.

Now another member of the group is taking over my group with Pathfinder 2e and I’m going to finally get to play in a campaign of “Gatewalkers.” I’m so excited.

It’s also going to let me really see if my preference for rules-lite games and rules without as much crunch is a GM thing for me, or if it’s just an overall preference.

Because I genuinely don’t think I’d be able to continue GMing PF/SF at this point because of the cognitive load it requires to “always get it right.” I love rules, and I love abiding by them and getting them right.

But, like I said, something feels off in my style when running a rules-heavy game. I never feel the freedom in a -finder game, for instance, to adjudicate the rules and move on, as I do in some of the other games.

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Going Back to What’s Comfortable

When I get back into GMing after “Gatewalkers,” I am going to pull for Dragonbane again, and if not that, go back to the old standby—D&D 5e.

It’s been a long time, and after playing both of Paizo’s -finder games for a while, I know it will feel overly simple (it almost did when we did the review testing of the Heroes of the Borderlands Starter Set).

But I think I’ve learned that in terms of running games, even though I love the ideas of rules over rulings, it doesn’t work for me. I definitely prefer rulings over rules, but with a solid structure that I can logically base my decisions on.

Whether that’s 5e or Dragonbane, Daggerheart, or even Shadowdark, I think rules-lite to rules-medium with a lot of room for GM-level improv is my sweet spot. And I’ve had a hell of a lot of fun figuring that out, in the meantime.

What about you? What’s your preferred style of game to GM and play?

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Things are going great with the Storm of the Shadow Realm Kickstarter, passing 425% funded and going strong. (We are literally $10 away from the next stretch goal as I write this.)

I wanted to let y’all know that the mouse cleric enamel pin has been unlocked for everyone making a hardcover pledge, and it’s absolutely adorable.

This little guy is one of the hero STLs and physical miniatures, too, so you may as well go for the hat trick, right?

We still have a couple weeks to go, and we’re confident in unlocking even more cool stretch goals than we already have.

But mainly, I wanted to let you know about that pin because it’s freaking cuuuuuute.

Get Your FREE Mouse Cleric Pin Now!

Just Launched!
Storm of the Shadow Realm from Dice Heads!

My friend Andy over at Dice Heads just launched a brand new Kickstarter project today. It’s a massive undertaking that I am so excited to help promote.

That said, I’m also a part of this project! I’m writing the D&D 5e campaign included in the Storm of the Shadow Realm hardcover, as well as various other bits of game design and development.

We cannot express how much your support for this project would mean, not only to Dice Heads, but to BJK Games as a brand and just regular old me. This one’s a true Kickstarter, in that it’s not simply a pre-order. The total funding for this project will determine the scope of what we can create.

Support Heroes of Zoontalis Now!

Zoontalis is a complete 5e-compatible setting featuring hi-octane, defiantly hopeful animal adventures. A continuation of the Zoontalis: Battle Royale skirmish game, if this is your first trek into Zoontalis, you couldn’t be here at a better time.

Storm of the Shadow Realm consists of 130+ STL miniatures, dozens of physical minis, 2 hardcover books that include a D&D 5e campaign that spans levels 1-10, narrative-driven party growth, and species creation rules that help you make the animal adventurer of your dreams.

Back Storm of the Shadow Realm Today!

What’s Included? What Do You Get?

A lot. We’ve put a lot of love into Storm of the Shadow Realm, and I truly think it’s an amazing project that you guys will really love.

• 2 Premium Hardcover Books: The Awakened Codex is a toolkit for players and GMs, and Storm of the Shadow Realm is a campaign book featuring tons of new, original monsters.

• A full D&D 5e campaign: Go from level 1 all the way to level 10 as you fight the darkness spreading across Zoontalis, threatening to split the world and release a dark god.

• 130+ Highly Detailed STL Miniatures: Hopeful animal heroes, dark and devious foes, terrain, and everything in between.

• 15 Physical Minis, Too! A box set of high-quality resin miniatures of many of the hero species available in Zoontalis, from moose fighters to duck rogues and unicorn paladins, there’s something for everyone.

• Up to 24 New Subclasses: You can get 12 base subclasses for your 5e adventures, and then unlock 12 more corrupted ones as stretch goals!

• Dozens of new magic spells and items: Spell and item cards present the magic of Zoontalis in a tactile way.

• Guild Mechanics: You can take part in the Zoontalis guild network with exclusive side quests, mechanics for building your own home base, and more.

• System Creation: Choose from multiple different traits to make your animal adventurer unique. From burly squirrel fighters to telepathic unicorn clerics, the sky’s the limit (if you choose flying as an option, that is!)

• Hand-Drawn and Human-Created: Dice Heads does not use AI. Ever. All illustrations and sculpting are done by hand, as is all the writing and other content. No AI. Not ever.

• Optimized Shipping: Shipping partners make getting your physical rewards cheap and easy.

As you can see, this project is really cool. There’s a lot of stuff included, and it’s top-tier quality. I really think you’ll love it. Plus, like I said, I’m involved in writing the hardcover campaign, and I know it’s going to be seriously awesome.

Thanks, everyone, and I’m sure I’ll be back to talk about this project more in-depth soon! Stay shiny, and make good decisions!
-Beej

Pledge to Heroes of Zoontalis Today

Heya, friendos. It’s been a while, and I thought I’d update you on what’s going on around here at BJK Games, as well as introduce you to some friends with projects launching soon—some that I’m a part of and some that I just think are neat.

What cool stuff is happening?

Well, the biggest news right now is that I’m settling into working as the marketing manager for Sordane Publishing. You’ve probably seen some of our ads for the 5e book Airship Campaigns or the board game Aldarra.

Right now, we’re working on growing our monthly STL subscriptions on MyMinFactory and Patreon (you can get a free one every month here, too), and we’re developing a massive (1,200+ pages and 500+ plastic minatures) 5-book TTRPG supplement & wargame called Skies Ablaze that will hit Kickstarter later this year.

As we get further into this one’s development, I’ll be posting some cool stuff for you to check out, like behind-the-scenes design work and other stuff like that. I’m really excited about this one, y’all.

Dice Heads, Monthly Adventures and a Kickstarter

Then there’s Dice Heads, who happened to sculpt the very first STL I ever bought off MyMiniFactory. I wrote an adventure called The Blighted Sky back in December, and I’m working closely with Andy (the creator) on an upcoming Kickstarter called Storm of the Shadow Realm, which is going to be so cool.

Again, if you don’t know Andy, Dice Heads, or the world of Zoontalis, you gotta get on that. It’s good stuff. There’s a push to get as many followers as possible before we launch in March, so give it a follow and help us unlock stretch goals before it even begins!

This one, like Skies Ablaze above, is a true Kickstarter, too. That means it’s not so much a pre-order (like so many crowdfunders are these days) as it is a way for you to support the actual creation of the project. It can’t happen without your help and support, and however much we get determines the scope.

My Work with EverOn Games

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m editing the book and doing Daggerheart conversions for EverOn Games’ Ready, Set, Encounter! project. It’s going great, and they’re some of the coolest people I’ve met in the industry. If you don’t know them, I implore you to check out their stuff, and to consider backing RSE because it’s a superb project. You can still late pledge on Gamefound.

I have some more cool stuff with EverOn coming in the future, but I can’t say anything about it yet. But you folks are going to absolutely love it.

Upcoming Collabs with Storytellers Forge

I don’t have a lot to say about this, but there are some really cool things in the works with Storytellers Forge. Nothing’s been publicly announced, but as soon as I can, you’ll hear about it.

That said, there’s an awesome STF project just around the bend—a Shadowdark conversion of their best-selling 5e book, The Black Ballad. The work’s already done, so when it finishes up crowdfunding, production and delivery can take place immediately.

I’m not directly involved with this one, but I think it’s really neat and love the original Black Ballad.

Gates of Krystalia

Another one I’m not directly involved in is Gates of Krystalia. Alberto sent me a copy of the original launch’s base game, and I am enthralled by it. The art is beautiful, and the card mechanics are a nice replacement for dice and have a good tactile feel. It’s very anime, very JRPG-inspired, and the books are about the size of a manga trade.

The next expansion, called Lumina, drops tomorrow on Kickstarter, and I am so excited for there to be more TTJRPG stuff out on the market. I’m a sucker for JRPG video games, and I’m always down for tabletop versions.

Did I miss something cool?

I’m always looking for cool new games, new creators, and new friends. Leave a comment or reply to let me know about other projects on the horizon I might have missed.

The more I’ve worked in this industry, the more I’ve realized it’s a small world and that we’re all friends here who want each other to succeed. It’s not a zero-sum game where we have to compete against each other for a few spots at the top.

What are you working on?

Are you working on something cool? Let me know about that, too! Maybe we can be friends or swap promos or something.

Until next time, friendos.
-Beej

Hey, friendos! I hope the holiday season is going well for each and every one of you. It’s been a crazy few months around here for me, and I haven’t had much of a chance to write anything that wasn’t contracted—sorry!—but it’s a good problem to have, if you ask me.

Anyway, the reason I’m posting today is because something very surreal happened to me over the past couple of weeks. Corey Plante of Polygon reached out to do a feature on little ole me and my Christmas adventure, Claus for Concern.

Talk about a shock to my system. Especially after posting earlier this year about feeling more than a bit of impostor syndrome.

Anyway, apparently 5 years ago when I started writing D&D adventures, I hit a sweet spot with Claus for Concern, and Corey did an amazing job of talking about the adventure and making me sound like I know what I’m doing.

I’m very excited about this, and I hope you enjoy giving it a gander. Have a happy holiday season, everyone!

Read the Polygon Article Here!

It’s one of my favorites that I’ve done, and I think you’ll really enjoy it. Because of other contracts I have this year, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get a new Christmas adventure out for 2025, but you can definitely still enjoy last year’s at a solid bargain.

So if you’re getting ready for a holiday party with your party, don’t miss out on this one.

Speaking of Christmas

Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of writing a Christmas adventure for Dungeon in a Box. They do an annual Christmas box, and I got to write The Clash Before Christmas that comes out this December.

It was a great opportunity, and I learned a lot working with them. They have a great team, and the adventure turned out great!

This Christmas Eve, chaos reigns at the North Pole! The fiendish Krampus has launched a surprise assault on Santa’s workshop, shattering his ancient bindings and stealing the Naughty and Nice Lists.

Now, with a legion of corrupted holiday creatures at his command, Krampus seeks to claim the mantle of the Lord of Christmas and twist the season into one of punishment and fear.

Your party must save Christmas by “borrowing” Santa’s reindeer and taking over his gift route! Fly across the realms delivering presents, keeping monsters at bay, and restoring holiday cheer.

Earn Nice Points for matching toys to the right children and protecting Santa’s sleigh—or Naughty Points for waking families or letting the sleigh take damage. When the night ends, your total score will determine what reward Santa leaves beneath the tree come Christmas morning.

So head over to Dungeon In a Box’s Wondrous One-Shots page and sign up for the December box and let them know how great it is once you get it.

Unfortunatelty, I don’t have a discount for you on this one, but their Christmas adventures are always a great deal—you get dice, tons of skinny minis, digital tokens, printed maps, a hard-copy of the book, and stuff like that. It’s definitely worth it.

If you subscribe and grab it, let me know what you think!

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Being a Community Manager!

I recently started working with Sordane Publishing (formerly ArcaneMinis) as a community manager and blog writer, and it’s a blast. The team there is fun to work with, and their products are solid. I bet you’ve seen their social media ads for their book Airship Campaigns or their board game Aldarra.

Be sure to give my blogs a read. It’d be really cool, and I’d appreciate it.

Also, we’re working on a huuuuuuuge project that will launch this time next year, and that’s all I can say about that. But I think you’ll all love it.

Much Daggerheart, Many Projects

I don’t think I’ve talked much here about my newfound love of the Daggerheart RPG. I wasn’t interested in the game at all when it was announced, but after reading the quickstart and SRD, I knew the folks at Darrington were really onto something.

There’s a really solid third-party community springing up around the TTRPG, and I am excited to be getting in on the ground floor of building the system up.

I did (and am still doing) the Daggerheart content for EverOn Games’ Ready, Set, Encounter! Kickstarter. Check out the preview here. I’m really excited to see this one get through production—the final product is going to be amazing.

In addition to that, I should have a contract by the end of the week for a Daggerheart one-shot adventure that I can’t say anything else about, and I have meetings set up to work on a couple longer projects in Q1 ‘26. I’m very excited about those.

In addition, I’d like to do a Daggerheart Christmas adventure through BJK Games this year, but that will depend on timing and seeing how some other things fall into place. I have some ideas, though. So if you’re a fan of Claus for Concern or Welcome to GingerDEAD House, you’ll like what I’ve got in mind.

Your Halloween Discount! 🎃

By now, I’m sure you’re like, “That’s all cool, Beej, but you promised me a discount!” and you’d be right on both parts. All that stuff is cool, and I promised you a discount.

So as a Halloween special, you can get my spooky title for D&D 5e, Horrific Encounters in Ravenloft, for just $0.50! Just click the link or the image, and you’re good to go!

Thanks so much for being awesome, and feel free to share this post with your friends and family so they can get the spooky season discount, too!

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So I thought I’d do a sort of roundup for you’uns and point out some neato TTRPG campaigns that are currently running in case you wanted to bleed yourselves dry, too.

EverOn Games: Ready, Set, Encounter!

This one’s personal. I did the editing on the rulebook content as well as the Daggerheart conversion. EverOn is truly one of the best companies I’ve ever worked with, and the project itself is so full of minis and content, it’d be a shame to miss out on it.

Check out my full post, the full Kickstarter campaign, or the quickstart preview.

Sordane Publishing: Gold Dragons

Benny and the team over at Sordane Publishing have a new campaign launching on October 14th for a set of truly massive gold dragon miniatures. The sculpts are beautiful, and the team at Sordane does really excellent work. (You might have seen their other projects for Aldarra airship board game or the Moonsoon campaign setting).

Pantheons: Gold Dragons is the 3rd in our line of Pantheons miniatures range! In this release of premium STLs, you will get 8 Gold Dragon miniatures posed with a story in mind! The continuation from our Pantehons: Sky Sovereign’s Council and Pantheons: The Chromatic Cabal (both of which are discounted as addons for this campaign!).

Archvillain Games & Titan Forge: VOIDSEA

I’ve worked with Titan Forge and Archvillain Games before, but not on this project. I wish I had, though, because VOIDSEA is awesome. If you’re a fan of Pirate Borg or ships, mimics, eldritch horrors, or staggeringly well-made miniatures, this is a project you need to check out.

VoidSea is a Grimdark-Salted, Eldritch-Infested, High-Seas-Soaked expansion for 5e (both 2024 and 2014). Build the Lovecraftian naval campaign of your slimiest nightmares! Discover reinvented naval combat & keel-crushing kaiju, build characters with abyssal races and subclasses, harvest unique boss monsters, and craft bespoke magic items. Comes with the full gamut of miniatures, STLs, and VTT options!

Also, just look at this horrifying mimic pirate ship!

Black Oak Studios + Eldritch Foundry + Only-Games: The Lost Labyrinth

It’s an Advent-ture Calendar! Getting daily maps and miniatures is one of the most awesome concepts I’ve seen in a while. I’ve been a long-time fan of Eldritch Foundry miniatures, having used their service to create minis that get brought to my table week after week.

The same goes for Only-Games. They’ve been good to me in the past, sending me some fantastic-quality minis. That I’ve had a blast with.

An interactive, choice driven system is provided that brings an added dimension of fun to the normal countdown calendar experience! The Advent-ure System™ is a lightweight rules system that utilizes a single twenty-sided die (custom d20 provided!) to process challenges or resolve tests. Not as simple as a basic choose-your-own style experience and not remotely as involved as traditional tabletop play, this framework will allow you some fun, interactive elements each day as you make your way through the labyrinth. Having a pen and paper handy through the process to record some bits of information will be important! Guidelines for the system are provided as your journey through the calendar progresses. Fans of Black Oak calendars can expect to see this system used in the future!

You can preview Chamber 1 by scanning the QR codes above. Alternatively, for the encounter description, visit this link and to check out the amazing miniature click here! Please note the encounter write-up is still in draft!

On a non-KS note, I think the Eldritch Foundry mini creator makes better minis than Hero Forge. It’s not quite as robust in terms of options, but I do think the minis you can make with EF look a lot better.

Dungeon in a Box: The Clash Before Christmas

Going on sale in November from Dungeon in a Box, The Clash Before Christmas is my newest holiday adventure. It’s full of whimsy as Krampus chases Santa as the heroes help him deliver presents. There are air-combat rules for reindeer riding, puzzle encounters, and aerial dogfights. It’s really cool, even if I am biased.

There are going to be dozens of acrylic Skinny Minis included, two 24x17 printed maps, a full adventure booklet (written by yours truly), a GM Toolkit that’s full of wintry wonder that other fantastic creators have put together, NPC cards, and a bunch of other stuff I’m sure I haven’t even been told about if other DiaB products I’ve bought are an indication.

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The Heroes of the Borderlands is the new, premium starter set for Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition. While 5e has had a slew of starter sets over the past decade, this is the biggest one by far, with not only the most stuff inside, but also the largest scope.

Based on the beloved introductory adventure The Keep on the Borderlands from 1977, this set manages to pack far more content into the box than I ever anticipated. While I didn't grow up with the Keep being a touchstone of gaming, thousands of people did. I can't speak to the quality of the adaptation, only to the quality of what's in the box, and I'm pretty impressed by it.

If I have one quibble with the box out of the gate, it's that Wizards of the Coast is actually calling it a "board game" in their marketing materials, and even on the product page on DDB. When I asked Justice and Makenzie about this at Gen Con, they talked a lot about the amount of focus groups and testing they did with non-D&D players and tabletop gamers, using that as a way to bring them into the game, where calling it a TTRPG or even just an RPG might keep them away.

And while there are definitely cool board game-like elements that I enjoyed a great deal, this is not a board game. I still feel like it might come as a bait-and-switch to board game purists whenever they get it to the table. I've played D&D board games and loved them. This just isn't one. It's a D&D 5e starter set. A dang good one, too. But it's not a board game. That's just marketing spin.

That said, I think there's way more good than bad in Heroes of the Borderlands, so let's talk about that.

Disclaimer: Wizards of the Coast provided me with a complimentary copy of the Heroes of the Borderlands box set to get hands-on experience with, but that in no way has influenced my review.

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What's in the Box

There's a lot of stuff in this box. Way more than was included in any of the other 5e starter sets. I'm a big fan of the starter sets they've done over the years, and I own them all, played them all. The adventures range from really good (The Lost Mine of Phandelver) to Passable I Guess (Stormwreck Isle), but I have a soft spot for them anyway. But they're not necessarily the most well-made box sets I've ever seen. The Heroes of the Borderlands starter set, though, is pretty well-made and includes a lot of stuff. Way more than I expected.

The old sets were made of flimsy paper, the so-called cards could barely be considered to be on cardstock, and there were no tokens, minis, or maps at all. Heck, all the content from the second starter—the one with Dragon of Icespire Peak—didn't even include all the content in the box itself. You redeem a code for D&D Beyond where you could only get part of the adventures digitally. Now, I love D&D Beyond, but that part felt bad.

That's been rectified by the Heroes of the Borderlands set. The box is filled until it's almost overstuffed with fiddly bits and doodads, and I have had a total blast sorting through it, reading it, and most importantly, playing with it with my grubby little fingies at the table.

Dozens of Tokens

The side of the box says there are 273 tokens in the box. That's a lot to pop out of cardboard frames, it's worth it. And not a single token got caught and ripped on its way out, either. I've never had that happen before.

Every enemy in there has a heavy, glossy cardboard token, some terrain features like spider webs and pit traps do, too, and every player character species has a cardboard standee. Unlike some sets I've had, the tokens are thick, so they're not going to bend as you handle them and flip them and move them around the maps. Cheap, flimsy enemy tokens suck; these ain't those.

While I like stand-up pawns better than flat circles, these are just fine in play and easy enough to tell apart. The player characters get standees, though, while all the monsters get appropriately sized circles. You also get tokens for gold pieces, hit points, motes of power that represent your ability charges and spell slots, treasure chests, and gems.

Adventure Books and Rules

There are four booklets included:

• a Play Guide, which includes rules for both playing characters and being the dungeon master

• a set of Wilderness adventures

• a gazetteer and quest book for the Keep on the Borderlands itself

• a dungeon campaign through the Caves of Chaos.

The paper is decent quality, but what surprised me the most is that these are saddle-stitched booklets and not stapled. Stapled books like this come apart fast, and these just feel better to use at the table because I wasn't scared I was going to rip a page out by just flipping through.

So Many Maps

And to go along with every one of those places are encounter maps for you to use the tokens and all the other bits and baubles. They're high-contrast, good art maps, and I love the style they're in. I can say with no hyperbole that I will pull these maps out and use them in other sessions because I like the look of them that much.

They are made out of decent paper, but not cardstock. They hold up a bit better than my printed-at-home mosaic maps on printer paper, but they definitely aren't as tough as something like the Paizo Flip-Mats. They can't be written on with dry-erase markers like some maps, either. But there are 18(!) maps in the box and 15 of those are gridded battlemaps. I've have had to pay $15-25 for only 2 of the thicker, write-on kind.

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Handouts

There are also handouts with a letter from a noble congratulating you when you finish the campaign, and there are also visual aids for players who want to know what's for sale at any given shop within the Keep. They have pictures and prices, and it's a lot cooler to just hand the players that sheet than answer "do they have X for sale here? How much is it? Can I roll Persuasion to get a discount?" multiple times over the course of a few minutes.

Dice

You get one set of red, plastic polyhedral dice in the Heroes of the Borderland box. They're fine. They're neither great dice, nor are they bad dice. They're dice. It's fantastic that they're included since this is certainly an "everything you need in one place" type of product, but they aren't anything special. I would have loved for them to have a special ampersand logo engraving on the D20 like some do, but since they're for first-time players, that might be confusing why there's no 20 on a d20. There is good contrast on them, at least, so they're very readable at a glance. So that's something.

A Combat Tracker

A pad of tear-away paper for initiative and monster HP tracking comes in the set, too. I didn't think about this being something I'd miss, but it was really nice showing up to my friends' house and only carrying the HotB box and not my usual DM bag. I didn't need to grab an extra notebook or erasable combat tracker. Instead, I just used this nice pad of scratch paper and ripped off the top sheet when we were done and threw it away.

I don't know how many pages are in it, but I'd guess around 50. So there's no reason not to use them. Even if you plow through them, they should last a few months, and if you weekly or less, they'll last you through what is probably going to be your whole campaign. I have no idea, though, if they're going to be offered as a product on their own to refill when you run out.

Cards, Cards, Everywhere

One of the other big draws is the set of 200+ cards that represent everything else. There's a Magic Item deck the DM gets to draw from when PCs get a reward. There are armor and weapon cards that players slot right onto the character sheets (called character boards in this set). Every NPC gets a full art card with a personality and how to roleplay them on the back, and the dozens of monsters get oversized cards with super nice art covering the whole front and the stat block taking up the whole back.

Then there are spell cards so that people can actually play the card when they cast a spell, and when setting up for the first time, players choose their species (dwarf, elf, human, etc.) and their background (charlatan, acolyte, etc.) from a series of cards that, like the weapons and armor, get slotted in right beside everythign else to make the player character feel like a fully fleshed out person instead of just a series of numbers on a white sheet of paper.

I wasn't sure how I'd like the "character board" idea when I heard about it at first, but giving players these fiddly bits to mess with during a session is a really, really smart inclusion. In many games, I can see this keeping people off their phones just because they have something to mess with already.

What's Not in the Box

This is the first D&D 5e starter set not to come with a DM Screen. I understand why they made that choice. As they said in my interview with designers Justice and Makenzie, the team wanted to remove the separation of the dungeon master from the other players. Hiding behind a screen makes it seem as though the DM isn't as much of a "player" as the other people, so the removal of that literal barrier makes it feel like a more cohesive table.

The set doesn't come with a place for players to keep notes of anything, which is done for simplicity's sake, but it actually becomes pretty annoying in practice. There are always things to note, be it for a DM to remember or for players to track as part of the world and their progress along quests.

Additionally, there aren't cards for all the items mentioned in the adventure. Maybe it was just my group, but when a wagon of supplies says there's a bag of flour, they want to nab that bag of flour. There was no card for it, and because there was no "notes" section or scratch paper they could use as they would with typical character sheets, it was just an amorphous thing they had to remember. Minor, but it's something that I can see new players also wanting to interact with everything and then not having the physical resource to do so with an all-in-one box..

Outside of those things, which were undoubtedly done for production/space/logistical reasons, I can't think of anything else that wasn't included in the set that you'd "need." Well, I guess technically, if we're splitting hairs, it could have come with a pencil to use with the combat tracker. Even a golf pencil with an ampersand stamped on it would have made it feel special.

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But How Does It Play?

In the guide to getting started, it says that each of the dozen+ scenarios in the booklets should take around 60-90 minutes. The first night my group sat down with Heroes of the Borderlands, we made it through 2 of them in 4 hours, including swapping DMs at the halfway point, along with the appropriate setup and breakdown. I guess it was 4.5 if we're including setup, because it took a while to get everyone's character boards and all the cards they need sorted out and distributed. But the adventures themselves were spot-on in length.

Some of the scenarios are almost all roleplaying/social (such as those in the Keep on the Borderlands), while others are almost all combat (as in the Caves of Chaos). And then the Wilderness adventures add in the third pillar of RPG design: exploration.

There are dozens of hours of playtime included here. To do everything included at the pace quoted, it would take your party anywhere from 30 to 50 hours. That's insane for a starter set. The Wilderness book comes with 4 adventures, and the Caves of Chaos encompasses 11 different dungeon maps to explore. The Keep on the Borderlands booklet contains 13 individual "quests" that can be done without the use of any of the gridded battlemaps, too, in addition to all the shops and NPC interactions.

It Plays Great

That said, the actual play of the set was great. The character boards, cards, and tokens are way better than simple pregen character sheets, and they were fun to use with the constant moving of power tokens for abilities, sorting through cards to find guiding bolt or ray of frost, and using the monster cards during encounters was really nice when compared to having to flip back and forth between pages in the Monster Manual.

The maps were just as great to use as I expected; the art is incredibly nice with good contrast, and it was never in doubt where they were. The encounters we've done had enough terrain variation that we were able to be pretty tactical with line-of-sight and elevation, too. It was a big step up from the single-level, generic green grass field that usually comes in boxes by default.

Despite being 5e veterans, we did our best to approach this with the mindset of new players. We also made sure to only use the rules that were in the Play Guide and not touch any of the 2024 core books. Which reminds me: Heroes of the Borderlands uses the 2024 rules updates. I figure that goes without saying, but I also don't want anyone to get blindsided by the use of the 5.5 ruleset, either. In our time with the set, there wasn't a single rule that we couldn't look up inside the Play Guide, which is pretty great.

I personally really enjoyed using the circular tokens more than I expected to. One side is labeled with letters (A through F, for example) so you can keep up with which enemy is which. Despite my overall preference for standees over tokens, I do wish the player characters had been circles, too. It was hard to see the action from certain angles with some being flush with the ground and others standing upright beside them. It never truly impeded play, though.

The terrain tokens were fun, too. My character at one point fell into a pit trap, and when the DM pulled an actual pit trap to overlay the map, it made the trap much more an experience than just knocking my standee onto its side to represent the fall. There's a spiderweb terrain token that we never ran into, and when we found a treasure chest, seeing it pop onto the map as a token while looting and drawing from the Magic Items deck was a ton of fun and added to the experience a lot.

The NPC cards and art on monster stat cards were a great addition, too. It was neat to be able to plop a card on the table and say, "and they look like this" instead of having to hold up a hardcover book and try to hide text or maps or something they shouldn't see. It's a small thing, but like everything else in this set, it adds up to make a really fantastic starter set experience.

A Few Quibbles

We ran into a few issues in the way things were set up, though. The first was that no characters came with typical adventuring supplies like rope. That severely limited the active roleplaying and exploration parts because things they wanted to do were simply not possible. The Play Guide suggests you start in the Wilderness with the Trail encounter, so the players have only what they start with and haven't been able to hit the Keep to purchase anything else.

I mean, literally the only item that the wizard board comes with is a spellbook. What this means is that this hyperintelligent sage set out on a journey to the Borderlands to stave off the forces of Chaos with nothing but the shirt on their back and the book in their hand? Mmm hmm...

More starting equipment woes were that not a single one of the characters, cleric included, started the game with a healing potion. And I'm sorry, if the cleric is knocked unconscious (and heaven forbid the hermit wizard who can cast goodberry at the same time), the game slows to a crawl and is pretty frustrating. Every single combat encounter we had ended with only the fighter still standing, and then they had to wait for the Unconscious people to wake up.

It's also a little frustrating because all the encounters we played were set up so that they didn't have to be combat-based. However, despite having a low DC (13), the best Charisma that a character had was +2. Which means a pretty high chance of things going south. Which is precisely what happened with separate instances of a sneaky hunter, a group of bandits, and a cave of kobolds.

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HotB is a Starter Set, First and Foremost

But make no mistake, Heroes of the Borderlands is made for first-time players in mind and not veterans. If you're expecting something like Rime of the Frostmaiden or Descent into Avernus, you're going to be disappointed. Despite being based on B2 - The Keep on the Borderlands, this one isn't for lifelong players of D&D who have fond memories of the OG module. It's a nostalgia trip, sure, but it's meant to introduce players to the game in the same way that the original module in the D&D Basic Set introduced people to the game nearly 50 years ago.

I definitely love The Lost Mine of Phandelver from the first starter set as much as I ever have; it's still a fantastic adventure. But Heroes of the Borderlands is a much, much better starting point for new players. The 11 years of lessons learned and experience gained by Wizards of the Coast are apparent in this set, from the meticulous design of the adventures that ease players into how RPGs work, all the way to the tokens, maps, and saddle-stitching on the booklets.

If you want quick, episodic quests that you can play with friends at a game night without the pressure of a full campaign, or something that you can use to introduce TTRPGs to a total newbie, Heroes of the Borderlands is definitely that. Especially when considering that's what the set was meant to be, there's no way this product doesn't succeed with flying colors.

Heroes of the Borderlands is, down to the letter, precisely what it sets out to be, nothing more, nothing less: a premium starter set for Dungeons & Dragons.

Score/Rating

I've waffled on whether or not I should give this a 4* or 5* review. It is undoubtedly...both. So 4.5* it is!

You see, for new players and those looking to dip their toes into TTRPGs and D&D for the very first time, Heroes of the Borderlands is probably the best introduction Wizards of the Coast has ever provided for the game. And like I said, it succeeds fully at being a premium, all-inclusive starter set. That's what it's intended as. Five-stars.

But for veteran players who are looking for a box set adventure to enjoy as a full campaign, I don't think it hits the mark. The encounters are generally simpler than you'd find in a hardcover adventure path, and even though there's 30+ hours of content here, it may not hold long-timers' attention like it will newcomers'.

With all of that in mind, regardless of which side of the line you fall on, there's so much stuff in here that, even at $49.99 for the set, it doesn't feel overpriced. I've paid close to that for a pack of flat maps before without all the other stuff. I thought it was a bit much for a starter set when it was first announced. But now, after getting my hands on it, I am kind of amazed they got all this stuff in the box at this price point and managed to make it not feel cheap.

This post originally appeared on Geek to Geek Media.

Over the past few months, I’ve been working with the amazing people at EverOn Games to prep for their Kickstarter “Ready, Set Encounter! - Vol. 1 - The Dragoning.” And it went live today!

If you don’t know EverOn, or any of their partner brands, you should. They put out hilarious TTRPG content like Rise of the Honk, and make some hellaciously cool miniature sculpts. This project, if you couldn’t tell by the name, is all about dragons.

You can pledge to get a massive slew of kobolds, wyrmlings, and dragonborn minis, as well as that neato huge adult dragon mini in the image right up there. But the whole concept is that you can use these minis to have a cinematic, plug-and-play encounter with very little prep.

Some of the cool stuff that makes that possible is:

• new statblocks with awesome new attacks and abilities

• encounter rules for cinematic, mid-battle goals and objectives

• various battlefield elements that the GM can pop into a slugfest to make them more dynamic and interesting, including traps and large-scale events

• storyline hooks that activate in the middle of your own combat encounters

The new monsters are cool, and I am particularly fond of the kobold lizard rider. The attacks, abilities, and encounters that EverOn has put together for them are a lot of fun. I can’t wait to have them scamper around and harass my party.

The whole project is a win from start to finish, and I couldn’t be happier working with these folks. They are some of the most genuine and nicest people I’ve had the pleasure of working with in the tabletop industry.

Don’t Forget Daggerheart!

The project is not only 5e, but also for Daggerheart. I’m working with the team to make sure that the Daggerheart version of the booklet is distinct for that system while maintaining the same feel they’re going for in the 5e version.

Because the systems are so different, there’s no way to simply swap numbers around, and I think those of you who are giving DH a shot will enjoy the care we’re taking to ensure not just cross-compatibility, but also a meaningful translation of mechanics.

All that said, it would be awesome if you’d check out the project, support it if you can, and share with your friends, Discord communities, or on other socials.

Take Me to Kickstarter!

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I love the SF2e GM Core. It includes pretty much everything I could want in a GM guide, save just a couple nitpicky things. A lot of the community felt that the Starfinder Second Edition release was a letdown because the core books were staggered on release. I didn't feel that way, but I can understand why people felt that way.

Now that I've had some time to read through and use the Starfinder Second Edition GM Core at my table, I can say that I am even more invested in Starfinder Second Edition than I previously was. I truly hope that any feeling the broader community has about SF2e being incomplete is assuaged. The game now feels "complete" to me, even without the Alien Core being released yet. (There are a ton of creatures freely available from adventures and scenarios at this point, and if you have the PF2e NPC Core, they don't need much adaptation in many cases.)

Because I spend over 90% of my time with TTRPGs behind the screen, I was waiting for the GM Core with bated breath. So was it worth it?

Disclaimer: Paizo provided me a complimentary copy of the SF2e GM Core for this review. That has not influenced the outcome of this review.

I'm a Forever GM, and I Approve This Message

I have mixed feelings about GM guides. Some are good, some are okay, and some are...less than good. I'm not a big fan of the fifth edition Dungeon Masters Guide, either the original one or the 2024 remake. They're too focused on new DMs without enough content for veterans to take and run with (though the 2024 version does have more of that with the Greyhawk stuff and Bastions). Kobold Press's Gamemaster's Guide for Tales of the Valiant, on the other hand, was filled with alternate systems and rules that I could incorporate into games without feeling like I was an afterthought.

I hoped that the Pathfinder Second Edition GM Core was a roadmap for the SF2e one, and I was right. In many places, the content is similar, if not exactly the same. The rules for building and running encounters and creatures are very similar, and the numbers line up 1:1 from my comparisons:

The differences are what you'd expect. Hazards like laser webs and zero gravity and solar flares aren't something most Pathfinder games have to deal with, but are incredibly common in sci-fi settings. So it's definitely not a copy/paste situation, and there's a lot of stat blocks and rules I'll be referencing a great deal as the sessions go by.

The lore in the book is a great supplement to the Galaxy Guide, and the different kinds of hazards and obstacles, environment rules, and afflictions are organized well and aren't just repeats of Pathfinder ones. After all, you can't get the "social media addiction" affliction in the past, nor can you get caught in "microtransaction hell." I have read rules on airlocks and catwalks and radiation sickness. These are all things I've needed during the playtest but didn't have.

If you already have the Pathfinder GM Core, you have the most basic parts of this book already. You can create creatures and such, and run the numbers already. However, there's so much more to this book than just that. It's worth picking up on its own merits, for sure, 100%.

The Big Selling Points

I do a lot of homebrew and content creation, so having the charts and numbers to create things is always going to be the biggest selling point for me. So once I verified those were there, as were the standard treasure levels and stuff I've come to depend on throughout the playtest from the PF GM Core, I needed to know about computers and hacking rules, starships and space combat, and anachronisms.

Starships and Space Combat

The biggest exclusion from the Starfinder Second Edition Player Core was certainly space combat. While tactical ship combat is due to come out in next year's Tech Core, along with the technomancer and mechanic classes, the GM Core has an updated-for-2e version of cinematic starship combat first seen in the first edition Starfinder Enhanced sourcebook.

In this version of ship-to-ship pew pew pew, the GM will run them like complex hazards, a system that already exists in the game. Players have specific actions they can take based on the different roles they fulfill on the ship, such as captain or science officer, or gunner. You go through initiative, and resolve the encounter based on the victory conditions.

The system is...fine. It works as it's presented, and if you have a really flavorful GM, I think it can be a lot of fun to give your crew some truly operatic moments. But it's very dependent on how well your GM and group handle hazards and obstacles, whether it works well for everyone.

I look forward to seeing what the tactical combat looks like when Tech Core comes out. That said...there are no spaceships in this book. While there is a "Vehicles" section with some pretty neat stuff, and my party has already bought a helicopter...err...an enercopter.

They did the beginning part of an adventure path earlier this year, where they were given a starship, but what I wanted out of the GM Core was pricing for ship upgrades, even buying a new ship wholesale. Instead, the GM Core says "starships, buildings, businesses, and other such assets don't cost the PCs credits to purchase and can't be sold for credits—they're a narrative device meant to help you tell a story."

The best I've got right now is that a space-faring jetski called a wakeskimmer costs 28,000 credits, and a drop pod costs 2,500 credits. I can extrapolate it out, but my PCs have straight-up asked me how much they'd need to buy a new ship. While I am all for handwavium in TTRPGs for many things, specifically excluding spaceship pricing in a space game—especially one that's as reliant on rules and numbers as a -finder game is—is a glaring oversight.

Again, I am really looking forward to the Tech Core to hope we can at least get some examples.

Anachronistic Adventures

In the Starfinder Core Rulebook for first edition, there are stats and lore entries for the "standard" fantasy races like elves, dwarves, and so on because Starfinder is a science-fantasy game. Those aren't included in the 2e Player Core or GM Core, however, because you can straight-up use the ones from the Pathfinder Player Core.

What is included, though, are sections on running what they call "anachronistic adventures." These are broken up into 4 subsections:

• Timeshifted Adventures, where either a PF character finds themselves in the SF world. (I currently have a Wizard in my party like this, and it's great.)

• Archaic Adventures, where SF elements are used in a Pathfinder campaign.

• Anachronistic Creatures, which deals with using one game's monsters in the other. How does a plain ol' dragon compete with its teched-up kin, anyway?

• Anachronistic Gear, in which you get guidelines on the major differences in gear between the two games.

But are these sections useful? Yes. And for one big reason: they explain that even though Pathfinder and Starfinder use the same engine, they aren't 100% backward compatible.

For instance, crafting takes much less time in Starfinder. Why? Fabrication technology exists. Medicine is better, not even considering healing magic in the world. Buying items is different because of fast delivery via drones or searching via the Infosphere to find just the right thing.

Armor is better in the future, laser rifles are straight-up better than bows and arrows, etc. These chapters go through the classes and various things that you can bring back and forth between games, and then tell you how to adapt them without breaking things.

And, if you're like me and running a PF game a couple of days after a Starfinder one each week, it has been a help in figuring out balance with how easy it is to get darkvision and flight in SF versus in Pathfinder. Things like that change the game dramatically, and these sections break them all down one by one.

Dynamic Hacking

Like the starship combat, the dynamic hacking is based on complex hazards. I like that these exist with some examples because just a few weeks ago, I was having a hard time coming up with some mid-battle hacking consequences and could have used something simple like this I could drop in.

I expect that later on, there will be a whole "drop into cyberspace" system once the technomancer is released officially, but until then, the specific hacking rules and statblocks here will do. There are different types of computers discussed, how to set the stats, and a chart of sample vulnerabilities and countermeasures that you can slot in as needed.

Is it as robust as I'd hoped for when I heard it was coming initially? No. But it's what I expected it to be based on some playtest hacking hazards, which is so much better than simple "roll Computers—or Thievery if you're a Hacker" calls.

Conclusion and Rating

I guess the big question is whether or not it's worth picking up. And the answer is an unwavering yes. If you GM Starfinder, you're missing out on a lot if you don't grab this one. Between the lore for various places in the setting, tons of example hazards, afflictions, etc. that you can just slot in, and not having to adapt things from the Pathfinder GM Core anymore, it's the book I've been waiting on.

Do I wish that it had better starship and space combat in it? Yeah, I really do. But my party spends most of their time on the ground, and I tend to be a pretty dramatic guy, so the cinematic rules work well for us. At least for the moment. My biggest issue is not telling me how much various kinds of spaceships cost, and that's something that was handwaved in first edition, so I had just hoped 2e would do better on that.

In the end, the PDF of the GM Core has stayed open on all of my devices since I got it. I've referenced and cross-referenced, looked stuff up, CMD-F searched, and found an answer to pretty much every question I've had when running my weekly game. The SF2e GM Core is well-organized, easy to understand, and a perfect complement to the Player Core.

Rating: 5 out of 5 Missing Starship Prices

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If you've been paying attention to some of my recent posts, you've probably gathered that I am pretty into Starfinder Second Edition. We started playing back in 1e, but really dug in when the 2e playtest came out. While the Galaxy Guide was technically the first SF2e book to hit shelves, the Player Core marks the official release of the ruleset and move out of playtest. So how is it, officially?

Well, to TL;DR the whole thing: It's great, and Starfinder Second Edition has become my primary TTRPG system. We've had to cut games down recently, and we were choosing between D&D 5e, Dragonbane, Starfinder 2e, and Pathfinder 2e. The group unanimously voted that we stick with SF2e for the time being. With that said, let me walk you through why.

Disclaimer: Paizo provided me a complimentary copy of the SF2e Player Core for this review. That has not influenced the outcome of this review.

Pathfinder 2e Backward Compatible

So right off the bat, I want to address the elephant in the room: SF2e is an expansion of the 3-action system that Pathfinder Second Edition runs on. Whether that's a good thing for you or not, it's how it is. I personally think it's a really good change, because as great as I think the first-edition Starfinder rules are, I adore the simplicity of having 3 actions that cover everything, from small interactions to movement to huge, full-turn effects.

What that also means is that you can bring Pathfinder classes and ancestries into your Starfinder game,and vice versa. As Jenny and Thurston mentioned in my Gen Con interviews with them, the games aren't 100% balanced to be mixed, but there aren't really any barriers to doing so.

Heck, my SF campaign currently has a PF Fighter and Wizard right alongside the SF Mystic, Technomancer, and Mechanic. It just works, and the players are having a really good time.

So while there are balance issues, such as laser rifles being massively more powerful than a bow and arrow, those are easily rectified by GM fiat.

I do think, though, that bringing PF content into SF is a lot easier than porting futuristic content into the world of Golarion. Not saying that you can't, or even that it would be hard, but it's just a simpler time going from the past to the future since the sci-fi tech is generally tuned toward higher numbers.

The upcoming Starfinder GM Core has a section on anachronistic storytelling and bringing porting bits of content between the two games, too, that I've found to be quite helpful in the time I've spent with it so far (review of it coming soon).

All that said, Starfinder Second Edition is a whole game and in no way has to ever touch Pathfinder. While the playtest required you to use the Player Core and GM Core from PF, that's no longer the case. SF2e is standalone and works amazingly as a system. So don't worry about the need to invest in two games if you want to try it out. You don't.

(Plus, all the PF and SF content is free via the Paizo-approved Archives of Nethys, anyway.)

The Good Stuff

So much! The actual Player Core is a solid 450+ page book that contains all the player ancestries, heritages, classes, spells, and rules that you need to run a session. It doesn't have any adventures in it, which is a shame, but there are plenty of cheap ones available digitally on Paizo's website.

The art in the book is truly phenomenal. I love the brighter, more saturated look that Second Edition took over the first one's more serious, dark tone. The world, I think, works better this way, because it's not a grimdark, serious universe. There are six-armed skittermanders and pop stars and nihilistic bug poets all over the place.

That's not to say you can't tell serious stories. You very much can. Eldritch gods, exploding planets, and genocidal ancient races make up most of the current storylines, after all.

There are 10 ancestries and 6 classes, though two of the most-wanted classes, Technomancer and Mechanic, are still being playtested and will come in the much-anticipated Tech Core sometime next year. The ones that are in here aren't slouches.

The Witchwarper is maybe the most powerful spellcasting class I've had the pleasure to GM for in a long time. Same for the Mystic; I am one-hundred percent certain that without its unique healing via its Vitality Network, the party would have TPK'd by now.

The floating jellyfish of the barathu (check the pic below), the lizard-like vesk, and the Disney's Stitch-esque skittermanders all make the cut. I love SF androids, which is what I'll be when I get a chance to be a player over the GM. All the available ancestries bring something fun to the table, literally, and of all the ones I've worked with so far, they feel pretty unique, whether it's because they only speak via telepathy or have 4-6 arms.

If you've played Pathfinder Second Edition, then you'll see some repeated content. That's because this is a standalone game, and the rules have to be there. However, there are tweaks for them to match the Starfinder world, so make sure you don't just ignore them outright and keep using the PF Player Core for rules. Compatible doesn't mean identical.

Also, I use Demiplane, and the Starfinder Nexus as an online resource to tie into Roll20 as a VTT and to give my players access to the content and character builder, and we love it. Because my Paizo account, Demiplane account, and Roll20 account sync with one another, it's been so easy to have the content precisely where I need it, even hopping back and forth between the table with 3D printed minis and the TV for VTT maps. I can't recommend Demiplane for Starfinder 2e enough. And there's a basic set of rules for SF2e for free on there, called the Starfinder Primer, which includes a ton of stuff.

Treasure and Items

Like most TTRPG parties, my group loves treasure and items. The items in SF2e do work differently than in Pathfinder because you don't add runes to them; instead, you upgrade their quality such as commercial to tactical to advanced, etc., with each upgrade becoming more expensive and powerful.

In some ways, this limits the joy of finding new items since they're invested in a particular gun already. But as GM, you can add in whatever you want, and the Pathfinder Treasure Vault is a great way to do that. Not all magic items have to be weapons and armor, and since it's a science-fantasy game, there is magic woven into everything anyway. I do look forward to there being an items book for SF, though, because the Armory books for SF1e were great.

Don't sleep on serums, either. The Fighter in my group discovered Commando Serum, and he's a complete beast in combat with that. It's a lot of fun to see the players find items in the Player Core and immediately set out to find them when they get to a place with shopping available.

What's Not Great?

Honestly, the only negative that I have about the system is that it's new. All the core books aren't even out yet.

The GM Core is out today, as this publishes, and it's really solid. There is cinematic starship combat, advanced hacking rules, anachronistic advice, and monster-building rules packed inside. As a GM, waiting for it was tough, but I've read through it now (thanks again to Paizo for the review copy!), and it was worth the wait.

We still have to wait for a monster manual, aka the Alien Archive. But there are plenty of monsters to use in the Starfinder Society adventures themselves, as well as the playtest modules. (I've also stolen some straight out of the PF2e NPC Core. Shhhh.)

There aren't many adventures yet, even with the playtest ones out there. They're not badly tuned, either, so playing them after release is just fine. For instance, I am going through the playtest scenarios Wheel of Monsters and leading into Empires Devoured with my group, as we wait on Guilt of the Grave World, the first official 2e adventure path, to release this fall.

Some of my players are a little disappointed with feats they liked in the playtest being removed from the Player Core, but I expect to see them back in the Tech Core because it was dealing with crafting and programming and that sort of thing.

As I mentioned above, the GM Core is where the starship combat is included, and people have been upset it's not in the Player Core. Even the starship combat there isn't tactical and grid-based, but more narrative-focused, like hazards and obstacles. So that's not great for a sci-fi game not to have space combat, but as of today, there's some version at least.

By the end of the year, with a hardcover adventure path and all three core books released, a lot of the small irritations you might feel right now will be smoothed over.

Wrapping Up and Rating

Minor irritants aside, Starfinder is my game right now. While I don't think it's my favorite system ever (that goes to Dragonbane), it's a great system, and I am having a blast playing it. My party is having a ball, and they're so excited to have their own starship to call home and do what they want with. Honestly, it's a lot cooler than having a building to call their own.

It's well-organized and easy to navigate, as I've come to expect from Paizo. The graphic design work is solid, the art is pretty, and you can tell that there was some serious love put into this product.

I'm torn between giving this book a 4 or a 5. You see, on its own, when it was released at the beginning of August, it would be a 4 because of content that didn't exist yet, but would soon. Now, even with the GM Core being brand new today, there's a full game there to play that wasn't available. With that in mind, I've decided to give it a 5 because that time has passed, and having already used it in conjunction with the GM Core, the idea that anything is missing from this or is less-than, doesn't really matter.

Would it have been even better to have Technomancer and Mechanic in this book? Absolutely, 100%. But the classes that are here aren't diminished by their being included in the Tech Core instead. For what it is, and how it interacts with the other Starfinder core books, it definitely deserves a 5-star rating. There's love in this book, so be sure to show it some.

Rating: 5 out of 5 Barathu Tentacles

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It was a lot of fun to get to have all these conversations at Gen Con this year, and I hope you enjoy getting to listen to them just as much.

In this conversation, Thurston Hillman, the associate publisher at Paizo, discusses his journey in the gaming industry, the evolution of Starfinder and Pathfinder, and the challenges of game mechanics and compatibility. He shares insights on upcoming adventure paths like Guilt of the Graveworld, organized play, and the exciting developments in 3D printing and miniatures with Titan-Forge that are coming soon.

We discuss all sorts of things from the power differential between Pathfinder 2e characters and SF2e—which is a big deal now that the two systems are backward compatible!

She even gives me some advice on what might become errata based on one of my own players using the Witchwarper’s quantum field to scout out areas they can’t see. RAW it works, but not RAI, apparently. Should only be in Line of Sight, which…goes into effect at our table tomorrow night. Booya. There shall be secrets again!

But in all seriousness, so much cool stuff was talked about, like what one of the most surprising things that came out of playtesting was, the upcoming Guilt of the Graveworld adventure path, and whether or not we should continue playing the playtest adventure paths like Empires Devoured now that the full version is out.

Thanks a bunch and enjoy!

We discuss all sorts of things from the power differential between Pathfinder 2e characters and SF2e—which is a big deal now that the two systems are backward compatible!

She even gives me some advice on what might become errata based on one of my own players using the Witchwarper’s quantum field to scout out areas they can’t see. RAW it works, but not RAI, apparently. Should only be in Line of Sight, which…goes into effect at our table tomorrow night. Booya. There shall be secrets again!

But in all seriousness, so much cool stuff was talked about, like what one of the most surprising things that came out of playtesting was, the upcoming Guilt of the Graveworld adventure path, and whether or not we should continue playing the playtest adventure paths like Empires Devoured now that the full version is out.

Thanks a bunch and enjoy!

At Gen Con this year, I was able to sit down with two of the main designers for D&D, and we had a fantastic discussion about upcoming products and what it is like being a part of the nuts-and-bolts of making D&D products.

I started out talking with Makenzie De Armas, and Justice Arman came in about halfway through. It was so much fun, and I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I did having the conversation.

Plus, Makenzie was awesome enough to DM a game for me and some other folks, which was a true delight. I was going to get to play in one DM’d by Justice, too, but I had a scheduling conflict with another interview (Jenny Jarzabski from Paizo, which is coming and you can listen to soon!) Check out the pictures of the cool room we got to play in, though. It was definitely a highlight of Gen Con this year.

Let me know what you think!

Cool dragon head on the wall in the D&D room we played in.

A view of the whole room as we were getting set up to play!

At Gen Con this year, I was able to sit down with two of the main designers for D&D, and we had a fantastic discussion about upcoming products and what it is like being a part of the nuts-and-bolts of making D&D products.

I started out talking with Makenzie De Armas, and Justice Arman came in about halfway through. It was so much fun, and I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I did having the conversation.

Plus, Makenzie was awesome enough to DM a game for me and some other folks, which was a true delight. I was going to get to play in one DM’d by Justice, too, but I had a scheduling conflict with another interview (Jenny Jarzabski from Paizo, which is coming and you can listen to soon!) Check out the pictures of the cool room we got to play in, though. It was definitely a highlight of Gen Con this year.

Let me know what you think!

In it, the adventurers find themselves in the village of Cragfall before being approached by a mousekin couple whose children were, as you might have guessed, stolen by a band of kobolds.

While this quick one-shot doesn’t have the adventurers spend a lot of time in Cragfall, the adventure path I’m writing that includes it does. This is the first quest in a much longer book that deals with the mysterious Blacksteel Dwarves and their history of magma drake husbandry.

It’s going to be really cool, so I wanted to show y’all the first version of the hub town that is gonna play a prominent role in that. Enjoy!