Tales of Gaming RSS

Camps are a great way to experience new things. As a kid, you are thrown out of your comfort zone and sent off into the world without your parents. It can be, at the least, intimidating and a little nerve wracking at first. Soon you realize that everyone else is in the same boat and you find yourself quickly making new friends and having the greatest summer vacation ever. As an adult, being a summer camp counsellor is a challenging experience as well, for very different reasons! Despite the setbacks of the COVID-19 pandemic or maybe because of them, I...

Remembering what it was like to be a kid can be easy for some and more of an intense exercise for others. I am not only referring to one’s ability to recall memories or the activities they indulged in their childhood but also to remembering what it felt like when the world was still a small, mysterious and abstruse place. As adults, we all have the ability to play. As tabletop gamers, we have realized that playing make believe is second nature. It’s like doing improv theatre, only much easier, and more fun. You also don’t have to worry about doing it...

What defines a good tabletop role-playing session is its ability to put you right at the centre of exhilarating fantastical adventures through shared storytelling. It’s a social pastime where the only requirement is to have fun. The rules are interpreted as the game master sees fit and in a way that suits the play style of the entire group. Sometimes, a session will be cancelled or maybe your fellow gamers will not all be able to meet for a planned evening of dice rolling. When life gets in the way of certain hobbies, we often resort to substitutes to get...

While on tabletop gaming adventures, the actions we take and the way we resolve encounters, conflicts or other situations requires the use of directives that help us determine their outcome. Depending on the game or the way we play, they can be interpreted loosely, as guidelines, or strictly, to the letter. Regardless of how they are applied, the word we use to describe them feels constrictive and stiff: rules. As you may well know, this means they can, or are meant to, be broken. But before you do that, you should always make sure you learn said rules and fortunately,...

Ever wondered how a real tabletop role-playing game rules expert goes about running his games? Do you think there is a rite of passage to become a great game master? From the outside, looking in, the role of GM (or DM if you play Dungeons & Dragons) can seem like the most complicated pastime ever. Fortunately, it becomes a lot simpler once you start and, to be frank, we've all been beginners at something before. As intimidating as it might seem, the only way to learn is by doing, even though some days will be more glorious than others. You...