Dungeons & Dragons

Just before the Gaming Shelf takes an extended break (we’ll be back July 12!) I’m thrilled to be able to spotlight some tabletop games and creators who have been working hard over the past months to bring us some great pieces. We’ve got indie studio Possible Worlds Games as well as a bit of a new direction for the Shelf, a book about text games currently crowdfunding. Creator Spotlight: Tyler Crumrine Also known as the founder and publisher of Possible Worlds Games, Tyler Crumrine has produced some incredible work since…

“Welcome to Athletics, a fantasy magazine for fabulous adventurers. Every issue features the buffest orcs, strongest elves, and muscular humans we could find every month. Whether they’re telling you how they climbed the Mountain Of Doom, swam through the currents of the Infinite Waterfall, or wrestled naked with demigods, the authors of Athletics will regale you with all sorts of tales of triumph!” (A roleplaying game about fantasy muscle mags on the down low) —Riverhouse Games “Welcome to Athletics, a fantasy magazine…

The full Exandria Unlimited: Calamity cast and DM.Photo: Michael SchmidtExandria Unlimited: Calamity is a four-episode miniseries produced by the Critical Role team that explores a time just before an unavoidable apocalypse. io9 spoke to three members of the Calamity cast—Travis Willingham, Aabria Iyengar, and Luis Carazo—about performance, improv, and how playing to an audience impacts the play.Critical Role started in 2015 as a streamed improv storytelling series, using Dungeons & Dragons as a medium for…

Image: BioWare/EAThroughout the years, BioWare has become equally known for both the games it makes and the reactions surrounding those games. Most of the time, this relates to itssci-fi RPG Mass Effect, which is due to receive some type of resurgence within the next couple of years. And while you very much wouldn’t say that’s the only thing the Canadian developer is known for, it can be sometimes easy to overlook Dragon Age, the studio’s equally beloved fantasy-RPG series. But this month in particular has felt like a…

Image: momatoesAs we careen into summer, it seems like the entire tabletop world is recovering from PAX only to prepare for GenCon. But games are still coming out, and this week we’ve got a fantastically introspective collaborative meditation, some incredibly exciting subway-inspired layouts, and even an RPG source book that doubles as a coloring book. Creator Spotlight: momatoesBianca Canoza, also known by her pen name, momatoes, is an RPG designer I’ve admired for years. She’s a constant champion of the RPG Southeast…

Inset of Clyde Caldwell’s cover to Pool of Radiance.Image: Wizards of the CoastNo running at the Pool of Radiance. No rough-housing. No diving. Adventurers should not enter the Pool of Radiance alone, as it is guarded by a bronze dragon possessed by the evil spirit Tyranthraxus. Children should not enter the Pool area either, no matter how many adults are accompanying, because you will all be eaten. And, above all, don’t pee in the Pool—Tyranthraxus just hates that. This is not the plot of Pool of Radiance, the 1989…

Screenshot: NetflixAfter three years, the wait is finally over! There’s no better way to kick off summer this Memorial Day weekend than binging Stranger Things 4 Vol. 1. The Netflix series returns to deliver some long-awaited answers about what happened in the aftermath of last season’s Battle of Starcourt and how evil just won’t leave Hawkins alone. The Duffer Brothers, creators of the series, opted to release the mega-sized season in two chunks, with Vol. 2 due out July 1. So as a new horror reaches out from the Upside…