Category: Reviews

  • Gift guide for nerds like me

    Gift guide for nerds like me

    Maybe you know some people like me — nerds, happily embracing their hobbies that were once considered abnormal but are now mainstream enough they sell out arenas.

    Most who read this blog are here for the dungeons and the dragons. Communal storytelling with dice and friends is what unites us. You probably already have the core elements of the games you love, but your family still wants to get you things over the holidays that stretch from late November to early January. Pass them this guide.

    • Almost all links are direct to the supplier or to Bookshop.org. When you can, shop locally and/or directly.

    Our hobbies and communities grow with support.

    For the experienced roleplaying game fanatic

    First off, expand their Appendix N. The Tolkien-esque stories that founded fantasy RPGs are well known. There’s so much more available now.

    The Hunger and The Dusk volumes 1 and 2 (Bookshop links) tell tales of romance between orcs and humans fighting aliens in a world that’s dying. G Willow Wilson wrote other stories as well, many which fit a fantasy motif, but none apply directly to D&D like The Hunger and The Dusk.

    Lev Grossman’s works like The Magicians and Bright Sword take familiar tales (Narnia & King Arthur) and twist them up. Also on my TBR pile are Children of Blood & Bone, The Fifth Season and Brigands & Breadknives.

    Expand their 5e games outside of Wizards of the Coast. Your RPG nerd friends already buy themselves the official D&D products they want. But you can help them incorporate wider tales.

    Try other games! Talk to your friend and see what they already have or where their interests lie. There are a lot of other popular RPGs out right now. While Daggerheart and Draw Steel are supported by some of my mutuals on Mastodon. The one that intrigues me the most is the forthcoming Plotweaver system. It is the engine behind the Cosmere RPG and supports political stories beyond what D&D does.

    Twilight:2000‘s update is a fun read of the classic post-nuclear exchange apocalypse game that helped me consider the Army. Song of the River Prince is a more cozy fantasy. With light mechanics and tales quite different from the high fantasy of D&D.

    You can always get your geek new dice (Artisan Dice are my dream) or support a mapmaker (Deven Rue or Dyson Logos are two I enjoy) in their name. Or order a custom map. Someday the World of the Everflow, Telse and The Ferments will get custom maps. My favorite dice box maker is Elderwood Academy. A gift card to Hero Forge works too.

    There are other options, but those are some of my favorites.

    For the newbie

    While the Tales of the Valiant Starter Set is below $15, get it. Or, stick to the WotC products because your nibblings or friends’ kids don’t want the off brand stuff. I grew up with the Odyssey video game system and Gobots. I get it — sometimes finances mean support how you can.

    But when the price isn’t significantly different get;

    • Stranger Things: Welcome to the Hellfire Club if they are into Stranger things.
    • Heroes of the Borderlands Starter Set for those that aren’t. Both of those are designed to welcome new people to D&D.

    The battle boards from Beedle & Grim’s look great for a not-quite newbie or someone who consistently plays the same class. I’m currently running an Artificer, and Rogues are my second most played class.

    And for those who want to be a newbie DM, Return to the Lazy Dungeon Master is the best collection of simple advice to focus on the players, their characters and empowering their story options.

    Those shopping in the Renton area should support Shane’s Cards & Games, Wizard Keep Games and Mox Boarding House.

    For flavor dorks

    My preferred geeky coffee is Found Familiar. My current favorite is Fae Magic. My preferred geeky tea is Friday Afternoon Tea. It helps that they’re local-ish too. A friend recently tried Many Worlds Tavern. I’m looking forward to a flavor report.

    For coffees in the South Sound area, I recommend Campfire, Bluebeard, and Boon Boona. I swing by Macadons and Common Ground for sweets.

    Beer people should head to The Brewmaster’s Taproom. My go to wine shop is All Things Wine and when in Walla Walla I support Tempus (we’re in the club), Sleight of Hand (also in SoDo), Balboa and Echolands. If you ever tour the dub-dub send me a message. It’s a fun town for those that love flavor experiences.

    For finer liquors I enjoyed a taste of The Dalmore recently and would love more. It was a rare scotch that my non-peaty-preferring wife would enjoy with its softer, luxurious mouth feel.

    Straightaway cocktails are the best packaged cocktails for people who want smaller servings on hand.

    For soccer fans in the Puget Sound

    If your soccer friend doesn’t read Sounder at Heart they must. It’s another place I write. There’s a special on annual support right now at 20% off.

    Reign tickets are cheaper than Sounders tickets and you’ll be supporting the best women in the world. For the Sounders fans that don’t have tickets get the two-pack. Avoid getting Men’s World Cup tickets at the current pricing unless your budget is quite a bit bigger than mine.

    Not from the local area? 1996 Designs makes excellent large brick people of your favorite American soccer teams.

    For being prepared without being a Prepper

    Working around emergency and crisis managers is reminding me of a few ways to be prepared.

    Have a plan when the emergency happens. Know your neighbors and the organizations that will help when disasters happen, because they will happen. A communications system that involves receiving alerts from multiple sources is vital — that should include a radio, as well as your local alerts system and free services on social media. Have backup power, even light solar for portable devices is helpful. You need at least three days of food and water, but if your budget of money and space allows a week or two that’s better.

    SHARE AND HELP OTHERS as part of your plan.

    I also keep an Amazon list for my family that lives well away. People can also decide to support the website.

    None of the above products or services pay me except Sounder at Heart, the website I founded and ran from 2008 to 2019 and rejoined in 2022, Factal (and those linked resources are free to the general public) and the two supplements mentioned in line paid me a one-time commission.

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  • Review: Sanguine by Found Familiar Coffee

    Review: Sanguine by Found Familiar Coffee

    Found Familiar is third wave roasting style coffees in bags with geeky art. Their Sanguine Vampire Blend is inspired by, well, vampires.

    As a former professional coffee taster my first, and most important note, is that if you like your coffee you are doing it right. Also, as a former taster, I decided that in 2025 I’m going to do a cupping of each new coffee I taste, because I don’t want to lose the skill.
    This will also help me maintain my sense of taste for wine, beer, food, etc.

    Sanguine Vampire Blend tasting notes

    This coffee was cupped at home, using a Baratza grinder, my kettle, a cup and one of my spoons from back in the day. It was tasted across a few temps. Additionally I’ve enjoyed espresso and cortados with Sanguine from a Breville Barista Touch and pour overs using a Chemex with paper filters with cream and without.

    On the break: Aroma of dark fruit, cherry or blackberries. Medium to strong roast.

    First slurp: Light, medium body without acid. Notes closer to dark cherry, mild acid, cocoa.

    Third slurp: Picks up roast better as cools. Stronger dark chocolate rather than cocoa. Bright cherry rather than dark?

    Lightly drying after spitting — think like eating a walnut

    Who should buy Sanguine?

    This is a great coffee for espresso, macchiato and cortado drinkers. There’s complexity to it, and it does pair well with the heavy chocolate and berry desserts as Found Familiar mentions.

    As a straight black cup of coffee it’s not as dark as I’d want — the vast majority of my 15 years of coffee experience were in second wave places (though I did stints in 3rd too).

    If you enjoy a lot of cream the roast may not get through like you want, unless you mostly go for 3rd wave profiles. Those that don’t use a lot of cream will enjoy it, especially with a bit of sugar, which I’ve found brings out the fruit notes.

    What makes Found Familiar different?

    There are several geek-roasters. What I like about Found Familiar is their support of artists and one of my preferred mapmakers. I’ve also purchased the Run D&D t-shirt twice because like many middle aged people I grew.

    Note: The coffee was purchased by myself and there was no expectation from the company that I would do a review.

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  • Making it easier to DM

    Making it easier to DM

    Being a Dungeon Master is intimidating. At it’s biggest level it can seem like you are supposed to run an entire world, know all the rules to the game, spotlight every player-character equally and help everyone have fun.

    There are many ways to make it simpler than that;

    • Focus only on the world with which the PCs interact
    • Skip rules that aren’t meaningful at the time
    • Rotate the spotlight as appropriate to the table
    • Get feedback from players in order to improve

    There are other ways too. I’m a big fan of the Lazy GM series.

    2024 Dungeons & Dragons helps make it easier in their Dungeon Masters Guide by incorporating some, but not all of SlyFlourish’s ideas. One notable thing is the tracking sheets — theirs and different from his, but that’s fine. Not everything needs to be the same.

    The Game Expectations tracking sheet features space for the DM's name, player names, theme, flavor, sensitive elements and more

    The layout of the new book is much better for new DMs. It also has excellent examples on how to spiral out from the characters while building a world, using Greyhawks as an example. There are micro adventures, which may not give enough information, but they do show that one doesn’t need a lot of notes to run a session. My sessions are usually a single notecard for example.

    Overall the ’24 DMG is a good to great book for Dungeon Masters early in their experience. It’s also handy that those tracking sheets are all available for free!

    But, (sorry WotC), there is a flaw in how easy it is to be a DM in this modern era.

    Those wonderful tracking sheets aren’t really part of DnDBeyond.com

    They exist, but without integration.

    What could make it easier to DM in the DnD Beyond era?

    When you Create a Campaign on Beyond it should start with that Game Expectations sheet. The notes should be replaced with the Campaign Journal.

    These are wonderful tools, and they are completely unsupported.

    Adding the sheets or similar fields to the campaign page would help a DM as they introduce the players to the game-to-be. They’d all be able to see what the story is about.

    Right now those pre-session one-sheets and the like need to be shared on the web, via email, Discord, at the table, or other tools rather than in the platform that Wizards of the Coast owns. It’s a silly gap in integration.

    Make it easier to share variant rules and setting information

    Currently, Beyond lets you share all of your books or none of your books. But that doesn’t help for a specific campaign.

    Currently, Beyond lets you share books in a deeper layer of content sharing, but doesn’t let you pick and choose rules (like attributes, extra feats, no feats, encumbrance)

    The above was updated at 8:57 pm on Nov 27, 2024

    My current Age of Myths campaign would make sense to permit Strixhaven, Theros and Dragonlance rules. It’s absurd for it to include the Illrigger, Ravenloft, or Lord of the Rings (TM).

    Imagine how much easier it would be for a DM and the table to say “these are the rules we are using for this campaign” and then toggle those rules and books either on our off.

    Currently that’s a player-by-player decision within the character creator.

    But what type of encumbrance a table is using isn’t a player-by-player decision. That’s a table decision. The appropriate setting and adventure rules aren’t most or none, but a delicate basis that sets the tone for the next several months or years of hanging out with your friends.

    Wizards of the Coast and the D&D team can make it even easier for DMs by changing some architecture of their semi-walled garden in such a way that they already believe works, because it’s in their brand new book.

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  • Tasting the official D&D coffee: Dragonfire Roast

    Tasting the official D&D coffee: Dragonfire Roast

    Licensing incongruent products is hard. We’ve all seen poor attempts at Big Screen Movie + Pancake House, or French Fries and that other Big Movie Franchise. Getting the proper fit for tie-ins is art and science.

    Dungeons and Dragons attempted bologna in the 80s and these days the lifestyle brand has a $70 two-slice toaster. Those don’t work. Their t-shirts have been great — I strongly recommend the Harper Motto shirt.

    Merging coffee and a brand is also difficult. I’ve been part of this with a major morning show and a coffee brand in the past, that was a fairly natural fit. Gamers of all types and caffeine tends to be a good fit too. Mt Dew and various energy drinks have partnered with numerous video games over the decades.

    D&D’s official coffee does a couple things really well. There’s also a major miss.

    Dungeon's & Dragons Dragonfire Roast bag with the zip-pull opened. The art shows a red dragon breathing fire on a solitary fighter with a shield. The bag is black. In the background are two cafe art pieces.

    The art and branding continuity is perfect. This coffee looks to be a perfect extension of official Dungeons & Dragons and presented by Wizards of the Coast. Easy access to the art is a big reason for that.

    But there are plenty of these kinds of partnerships that get the art and branding wrong, despite the easy legal and marketing access.

    The bag’s language is very 5e D&D in writing style. The ampersand is all over the sidewalls of the bag. That central art piece is tremendous — matching the aesthetic of modern D&D.

    When I was a full-time apprentice coffee taster we focused on four major elements to coffee flavor — body, acidity, flavor and finish. Despite not working in that field for a decade now, that’s still how I approach flavor, including when selling beer or tasting wine for pleasure.

    This is where Dragonfire fails.

    Per the bag it is a medium roast, preground “for any filter” which basically means for various drip techniques/filters and wholly Brazilian beans. The label did not call out 100% Arabica (the website does), but there are no tell-tale signs of robusta or other varieties. It also says that it is “medium flavor.”

    I did not perform a cupping, as the coffee was pre-ground.

    I tasted multiple Chemex pourovers using a metal filter over the past week — my current traditional coffee preference. I also attempted to use it in an espresso machine, but was unable to tamp sufficiently enough to make up for the different grind size.

    Body: fairly low body for a Brazil
    Acidity: essentially neutral
    Flavor: no spikes of premium flavors such as nutty, vanilla, etc
    Finish: very clean, no roughness which can be common in lower grown Brazils (this is where robustas would have been obvious)

    For a coffee fan Dragonfire would not be a coffee I would suggest. As a gift to a non-flavor nerd who likes D&D and drinks coffee with sugar and/or cream it’s a decent choice.

    For the flavor nerd who likes D&D I prefer Found Familiar coffees. I have a bag of Fey Magic waiting for a cupping, espresso tasting and pourover just as soon as I’m through my Middle Fork roaster and right before switching back to Campfire’s Summer Camp.

  • The Hunger and The Dusk is story fuel for your hot orc summer

    The Hunger and The Dusk is story fuel for your hot orc summer

    As a lover of fantasy fiction and storytelling my friends have consistently suggested comic books for more D&D source material, for further stories. Unlike many in the space, I was not a comics fan and certainly not a collector in my youth.

    I came to comics through soccer — the friends that I made through the game. The first person who really convinced me to give comics a shot was ETHAN HD, owner of Destiny City Comics and real life superhero in Tacoma.

    We chatted about subcultures, genre and the power of story. I picked up a couple comics, different formats — March, Dungeons & Dragons, some supers stuff.

    Later, again through soccer, I met G. Willow Wilson. We chatted about the paths to fandom, embracing stories of others and discovery of commonalities in differences. I now have a Poison Ivy book, because I loved and learned from Wilson’s Kamala Khan and her Empty Quarter.

    Wilson has a new series coming out and it’s right up my alley. The D&D vibe is strong. The Hunger and The Dusk is set in an enviro-apocalypse with an invasion of alien and/or planar beings. I’ll probably create the main characters as NPCs in my world.

    Releasing to the public on July 12, The Hunger and The Dusk from G. Willow Wilson and Chris Wildgoose is story fuel for any Dungeon/Game Master who tells fantasy stories. You’ll immediately recognize the first issue’s story of destruction, sadness and tiny bit of hope.

    This preview is from a pdf of issue given by G. Willow Wilson. I had already pre-ordered the issue based on earlier reviews.

    I will attempt to not spoil anything.

    An interior cover of The Hunger and The Dusk. The left frame shows a building on fire. The right of the frame has the title The Hunger and The Dusk wrapping around a dark cloud. The character Will walks away from the fire, his head hanging.

    This is an interior cover, effectively the transition from prologue to main story. The prologue shows the multiple dangers facing the world. There’s environmental destruction forcing migration, there are the conflicts between human and orc, and there are the Vangol — an alien and superior being destroying all living things.

    They came out of the Dusk

    A view of orcs and humans after a Vangol raid. The colors and reds and oranges, with several bloody figures on the ground. The few standing are helping each other treat wounds. The main characters are in the distances, walking away from the destruction.

    The introduction of the Vangol is violent, swift. They are more powerful than orcs and humans acting on their own. Whether warrior or farmstead the peoples of this world cannot stand up to the Vangol.

    They came as an Omen

    The combination of language, color and layout are powerful. You see scale of story and individual depth in equal parts. The main characters are Gruakhtar Icemane, and Callum Battlechild (I think that’s Will too in later scenes). They have complimentary fantasy tropes and there’s depth to them behind just tropes early in issue 1.

    The Hunger and The Dusk mixes color themes in a way to signify despair and hope. Lush green fields are rare, a brief respite in a world where there is drought up and down the coast. The ending image of issue one is a transition from the oranges of a violent dusk to a soft, dark green hillside show that our protagonists might just be heroes, if things work out.

    I’m excited to see where the story goes. In interviews Wilson has said that this is a “hot orc saga.” I expect there’s some romance, there’s certainly found family to come, and there’s probably hope, because the world of The Hunger and The Dusk deserves hope.

    The final frame of issue one, this frame shows the main characters walking away from the destruction behind them. They enter a green land, still dark. Tara and Callum are out front, a third character is chasing them.

    The story of Gruakhtar Icemane, Callum Battlechild and the Last Men Standing is available in The Hunger and The Dusk at your favorite local comic book shop (like Destiny City Comics) or online on July 12 and throughout the hot orc summer.

  • Beer Review: +1 Charisma Pale Ale from Boundary Bay

    Beer Review: +1 Charisma Pale Ale from Boundary Bay

    A beer? For nerds! It’s getting to be more and more common these days. Classic Bellingham brewery Boundary Bay’s +1 Charisma took a journey down to me via a coworker.

    Once upon a time I was a distributor for Boundary Bay. I’m not any longer. Their Scotch Ale was one of the beers at my wedding, and I consider it one of the best of that variety.

    This beer was a gift from a friend.

    Boundary Bay +1 Charisma Bay Ale

    Close up of +1 Charisma's 12 ounce can. It looks like a character sheet.

    Beer Review

    First, let’s talk about the beer like a beer.

    Reminiscent of their classic IPA with lighter hop character. It has bitterness, like a classic pale or western IPA. There’s some malt character, providing a crispness. A good balance with the mosaic and moteuka hops.

    Boundary Bay didn’t overdue anything and for someone in the PNW or who regularly drinks strong beer this could be considered a session at only 5.5% ABV and 42 IBU.

    If you are looking for a easy drinking, quality beer that treads that line between West Coast IPA and classic Pale Ale with no haze or sweetness this should be on your game table.

    It currently isn’t on the tap list nor available for order on the website, which tells me this is a Bellingham, WA only release.

    D&D Character Review

    The can art is a Dungeons & Dragons character sheet, and properly done.

    Vorlauf the Great is a 5th level sorcerer with a brewer background. The art makes it look like a custom lineage (hop plant humanoid).

    Str: +1
    Dex: -2
    Con: +2
    Int: -2
    Wis: +1
    Cha: +1

    That’s a valid set of stats for the AC 14, speed 30, initiative -2, +3 proficiency bonus character with the Saving Throws all correctly done. Their preferred spell is Fireball, though I would have been tempted to use something with acid or Hideous Laughter, because it’s a beverage.

    The available spell slots are true to the game, as is the Brewer’s Tools. There is a custom magic item, an Ale of Bewitching (Wondrous, Rare). The section Features and Traits includes the tasting notes.

    Unlike many who dabble in D&D inspired merchandise, Boundary Bay’s artist seems to actually play the game. This character isn’t merely an homage, it’s the real deal. This is a playable, if not quite optimized character. I’ll be adding Vorlauf as an NPC to one of my games.

  • The Willow trailer is more proof that there’s never been a better time to be a fan of fantasy

    The Willow trailer is more proof that there’s never been a better time to be a fan of fantasy

    Back in the 1980s there was a cute little movie called Willow. Featuring Warwick Davis, Val Kilmer and others, the film opened well and then petered out. But among certain fans it maintained this legacy and appeal. There’s a little person (Davis), even littler people (two Brownies), Kilmer with a sword! and extraordinary effects. The story is quite a traditional tale of people without anything in common trying to save the world.

    Eventually when it was on video tape it developed a reputation as a grand adventure and we all loved it.

    Now, there’s a new Willow — with the same message, better effects and even more of everything. The cast is wider and the story more grand. It looks like an epic Dungeons & Dragons tale.

    That trailer shows every member of the party featured in the spotlight. Some are noble. Others are urchins. There are sorcerers and fighters. Davis is back and so are the Brownies. The princess is now longer a baby. Where the original Willow explores just a single continent in the world the new series explores the world and more.

    It’s an epic fantasy tale and another example of the wide variety of fantasy that is available in the 2020s. Sword & Sorcery, Epics, Grim dark, Magipunk, comedy and more subgenres of fantasy are available. Every streaming platform is hoping for a tentpole series, with none dominating right now.

    Like, there’s a lot of fantasy and there’s more to come.

    Honor Among Thieves looks like it will great. Wheel of Time is still in the Top 10 for Prime Video Streams. House of the Dragon and Rings of Power are battling every week to be the most watched non-sports/awards show. Legends of Vox Machina season two is still to come. Witcher season three. Shadow and Bone.

    Outlander, Last Kingdom and Black Sails are genre adjacent in that they are period shows that people who play D&D think of when they play D&D.

    All of this isn’t powered by franchises like Marvel, DC, Star Wars or Star Trek.

    Fantasy is capturing global imaginations and our dreams. We’re watching. We’re playing. We’re creating new stories with the old tropes seen a right angle so as to capture the people who we’ve always been. Fantasy is built around tales of cooperation among those with different backgrounds, skill sets and races. Fantasy is built around the authentic statement that the diverse group is the strong group — it’s been true for the millennia of myths about dragons and the people who fight them.

  • Reblogging — TV Series Review: The Legend of Vox Machina (2022)

    Source The first three episodes of The Legend of Vox Machina were just released on Amazon Prime Video. The show is based on the first campaign of “Critical Role”; a Dungeons and Dragons live play podcast and twitch stream. So far three episodes have been released; it is difficult to judge whether or not the […]

    TV Series Review: The Legend of Vox Machina (2022)
  • The Black Dice Society is more than an introduction to the Domains of Dread

    The Black Dice Society is more than an introduction to the Domains of Dread

    Unfamiliar with the Domains of Dread, besides a short dip into Barovia back in my original gaming group’s Interview with a Vampire phase, I’ve been drinking up the recent Lore You Should Know segments in Dragontalk, which helps. But, as a pandemic-retired DM and current player it helps to see the different angles to horror. The Black Dice Society does that.

    The show involves an intricate plot, with dream sequences and appearances by various Darklords who are pushing the characters through the mists, using them as pawns in the struggles between various Domains. Those Lords of Dread are ever present, even if merely as shadowy figures that the characters know could interfere with their lives and hopes. Sometimes they are much more than that.

    Within BDS is a group of characters who have grown up within the Domains and those who are from “normal” places. This dynamic leads to some characters having powers that are a bit creepy for the normies. This twist helps immerse the viewer or listener in the Mists. You are made as uncomfortable as the characters, who roleplay this quite well. As the group bands together these outsiders will become familiar with each other, but until then there will be a bit more creepy factor that is unusual within streamed shows. This dynamic is perfect for the story and genre of Black Dice Society.

    The whole thing is horror, PG-13 horror. Fear is ever present. Death and afterlife are significant themes. B.Dave Walters has crafted a tale that is much more complex than my other listens (NADDPod, D20 Dames). The buy-in from the players helps create a tale that is full of apprehension and unease.

    Then he spins another story over the PCs, creating a dizzying disquiet Walters has the Darklords observing. Their plots and treatment of the PCs as potential minions keeps a watcher-listener worried about betrayal. There is a sense of cosmic horror because they are all just so puny against those that rule the Domains. So far, the balance has allowed success with a constant fear of failure. That delicate string could break at any time.

    And that’s why I keep watching. What started as a desire for me to learn more about Ravenloft became an attachment to the story. What started as background audio is now foreground audio – no longer my second screen, but my first.

    How to Watch: Playlist of The Black Dice Society on YouTube

    It’s live on Twitch.TV/DnD on Thursday, without interfering with your Critical Role schedule. You can also catch up on the D&D YouTube channel.

    That’s their session 0.5 at GaryCon and a link to the full official D&D playlist for The Black Dice Society.

    Cast of Characters

    • B.Dave Walters – DM
    • Deejay Knight – Desmond, a human Ranger or light Fighter
    • Tanya DePass – Fen, a Bloodhunter dhampir drow
    • Becca Scott – Tatyana, a genasi Barbarian
    • Saige Ryan – Valentine, a reborn abberant mind Sorcerer
    • Mark Meer – Brother Uriah, a Cleric of the Grave
    • Nora Ibrahim – Nahara, a reborn fallen aasimar Warlock
    via their twitter

    How to Follow The Black Dice Society on Social

    Their billboard with Patreon, social links, and a way to buy dice inspired by the show.