io9: Role Playing Games

Breaking Bad: The Roleplaying Game is extremely depressing

Cyriaque Lamar — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:45:27 PST

Breaking Bad: The Roleplaying Game is extremely depressing" alt="Click here to read Breaking Bad: The Roleplaying Game is extremely depressing" src="http://cache.io9.com/assets/images/8/2012/01/small_1aeb758d6209e0908a71674b167331b1.jpg"/>

Much in the same way Game of Thrones and Battlestar Galactica have received the RPG remix from College Humor, AMC's "chemistry teacher turned meth cook" drama Breaking Bad has also been given the clever 16-bit treatment. More »

Why is the 5th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons a big deal?

Ed Grabianowski — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 07:00:00 PST

Yesterday, roleplaying game publisher Wizards of the Coast announced the development of a new edition of D&D. This revision comes less than four years after the release of the last edition of the stalwart RPG. For years, D&D players have drawn battle lines over which edition of the game they prefer, and Wizards is now hoping this new version will lead to a cease-fire. But how will they reunite these various D&D tribes after 40 years of rules revisions? More »

Battlestar Galactica, in four minutes as a 1990s roleplaying game

Cyriaque Lamar — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 15:30:00 PST

Battlestar Galactica, in four minutes as a 1990s roleplaying game" alt="Click here to read Battlestar Galactica, in four minutes as a 1990s roleplaying game" src="http://cache.io9.com/assets/images/8/2012/01/small_7d0a22496ecbaf8a984e1fc54caa752c.jpg"/>

Did you miss out on Battlestar Galactica? Do you dream of watching all of the show's drama, thrills, and frustrating scenes condensed into a four-minute piss take on 16-bit roleplaying games? More »

The psychological profile of roleplaying gamers (as explained by academia)

Cyriaque Lamar — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 15:25:00 PDT

In the faraway year of 1993, a study in The British Journal of Psychology provided a (somewhat obvious) personality profile of RPG enthusiasts. And guess what? They like to read. More »

Playing Magic: The Gathering as an RPG

Ed Grabianowski - Robot Viking — Sun, 08 May 2011 11:45:00 PDT

We usually approach Magic as a strategic and tactical game with cool flavor, but sometimes it's fun to let the game's underlying premise (that you are a wizard with a collection of spells at your disposal) to run free. More »

The Weird Creatures We Would Have Met in Aliens: Crucible

Charlie Jane Anders — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 11:13:41 PST

Aliens: Crucible was an RPG that never got off the ground, like so many other projects in the Aliens universe lately. But it generated a ton of concept art of weird creatures, and some of it's made its way online. More »

Smallville RPG wields big drama

Ed Grabianowski - Robot Viking — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 14:00:00 PDT

Did you know they made a Smallville RPG? Ed Grabianowski of Robot Viking recently scoped out this new role-playing game and found that this character-driven title offered a lot for Smallville and RPG aficionados alike. More »

46 Swedish RPG character cards from throughout the ages

Cyriaque Lamar — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 06:40:00 PDT

Even if you can't read the language, these old Swedish RPG cards are pretty darn neat. The collection ranges from 1982's Drakar och demoner to modern RPGs. The below cards have a lot of karisma. [Via Piruett. Thanks Magnus!] More »

The Grey, The Blue And The Spandex: Superheroes Of The Civil War

Charlie Jane Anders — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 12:00:00 PDT

You can stop a bullet with your steel-hard skin, but can you stop the roll of the dice? Arc Dream, creators of 1940s superpowered RPG Godlike, are bringing superpowers to the multiverse with Wild Talents, and we've got concept art. More »

Kill Mickey Mouse in a Strange Game of Corporate Brand Slavery

Ed Grabianowski — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 08:20:00 PST

You're a hard-working Rep for AwesomeTech Solutions (ATS), a global corporation that values creativity, the future, and nostalgia. Except it doesn't value any of those things, only profit. And they want you to assassinate Mickey Mouse. The skills to pull it off have been uploaded into your brain, but are you really willing to sell your soul for the good of the Brand? Of course you are! You're playing MSG. More »

Star Wars Goes Online With Their New Old Republic

Graeme McMillan — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 06:30:00 PDT

The rumors are true; Lucasfilm and BioWare announced yesterday that the two companies are working on an MMORPG called Star Wars: The Old Republic that will not only offer players a chance to step into the Star Wars universe, but will also change the way that MMOs are made forever. But that's about all that they were telling. At least they did release some concept art and screenshots, which you can see below. More »

Return to the Future Past of "Gamma World"

Austin Grossman — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 13:47:28 PDT

Gamma World was role-playing game company TSR's attempt at a post-apocalyptic role-playing system. TSR hit the big time with the mega-successful Dungeons and Dragons franchise, but the company's history is littered with non-starters. Still, when it came out, Gamma World felt like a winner - edgy post-apocalypse adventuring humans, robots and mutated bunnies contend in the ruins of a future Earth. The rules themselves are more or less D&D lite - character stats, melee rounds, and randomized combat mechanics. You can play as a Pure Strain Human, of untainted genome, but the fun is in mutated humans, and even mutated animals with human intelligence - if you want to be a panda toting a Mark VII Blaster Rifle, you've got it. More »