In the ancient time of 1985, a trailblazing film was released that captured the imaginations of many kids. The Goonies is a classic tale of kids adventuring through caves in search of pirate treasure to save their homes. Along the journey they encountered traps, puzzles, and a family of dangerous yet bumbling bank robbers.

For 80’s kids who were already playing Dungeons & Dragons or going off on their own backyard adventures, this movie found a place in many of their hearts that has lasted until they’re the grown ups. That nostalgia creates the perfect draw for building a board game around The Goonies. Grown-ups who want to revisit their favorite movies and go back to those days of imagination and adventure.

There is a pit trap with many nostalgic property based games that look enticing but fall flat once you play. The nostalgia isn’t a pirate’s treasure hoard but just a bunch of counterfeit fifty dollar bills. In other words, it is superficially that property but once the gameplay is examined it could be any other game. The Goonies Never Say Die is not that. The treasure is in the details and you should explore those unknown tunnels with kids to discover it.

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Domains of Dread

In 1983, Tracy and Laura Hickman introduced the world to Ravenloft and its Darklord, Count Strahd von Zarovich. In that landmark adventure module, players experienced a story involving a villain with complicated motivations and a land of gothic horror trapped in a sea of mists. The module received awards and was popular enough to spawn a sequel and eventually an entire campaign setting.

As the setting expanded, it was revealed that Ravenloft was not just Strahd's domain, Barovia, but possibly countless Domains of Dread where Dark Powers imprison Darklords in their own twisted desires, failures, and despair. Each of these Domains of Dread is its own island in the impenetrable mists, impossible to enter or leave unless the Dark Powers allow it. No two Domains are alike, crossing all possible genres of horror. You might encounter a legion of zombies, a dark carnival, or the cultists of an ancient, forbidden, entity.

When the Dungeons & Dragons team published the adventure campaign Curse of Strahd (which was based on the original adventure) for Fifth Edition many fans of the original setting once again asked for material beyond the land of Barovia. Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft (named…

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Adaptation Leads to Innovation

After Covid-19 changed the field in 2020, many of the live tabletop RPG groups on Twitch (colloquially known as Actual Plays) went on hiatus because players couldn’t come together around their table in person. Some eventually switched to Zoom games, some managed to find a way to come back with physical distancing, and some are still on hiatus until it is safe for gatherings. One of the latter groups is The Chain of Acheron, the Actual Play DMed by games designer and author, Matt Colville for his friends and employees at MCDM Productions. 

Originally a stretch goal from one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns for an RPG product ever, Strongholds and Followers, Matt used The Chain to showcase some of his ideas from Strongholds and Followers as well as some concepts from his long-running YouTube series, Running the Game. Running the Game takes the mystique out of being a Dungeon Master (DM) to encourage players to step behind the screen and run their own game. Sadly, we have not seen an episode of The Chain in over a year even though MCDM’s new book Kingdoms and Warfare is due out soon.

As a way to reward the MCDM Patreons who were contributing to keep The…

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What adventures can a book take you on? That question now takes on a more literal meaning with Candlekeep Mysteries, the latest release from the team over at Dungeons & Dragons. An anthology of standalone adventures, Candlekeep Mysteries focuses on rare and unique books found in the great library of Candlekeep; every one leading those who discover them down a path of mystery. Each of these adventures is written by a notable writer or DM in the D&D community and brings freshness to the variety of adventures that can occur in D&D.

The Great Library of Candlekeep

Candlekeep is the legendary library fortress in the Forgotten Realms where many adventurers go to learn answers and hidden lore while on their quests. Situated on a peninsula overlooking the sea, Candlekeep is one part Mt. Saint-Michel and one part Hogwarts. The castle has a

 small town within its walls and there are secret passages and doorways to other worlds throughout. Entry into Candlekeep is heavily restricted – the admission cost is a written work that the library does not already possess. Once inside, you are assigned a guide from one of the scholars who permanently work here, The

 Avowed. The first chapter of…

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Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything is the latest book to offer up new options for Dungeons and Dragons games. Similar to 2017’s Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, this book offers up new character creation options, new (and updated) character subclasses, magic spells, and items. It also offers up some options for Dungeon Masters to add into their campaigns like group patrons, sidekicks, exotic environments, natural hazards, and puzzles. This book and its predecessor should be must-haves in your campaign kitbashing toolkit.

Player Options

First off, let’s go straight to the loxodon in the room - yes, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything has rules for customizing the existing races. Ever since the announcement was made that this would be available there has been quite the dialog in the D&D community about breaking racial stereotypes vs purity of the game. To be honest, neither of those are really addressed in this book. The rules for this are pretty simple and straightforward and state that if you want to play a character with more variety, here’s how to do it. It also explains that the traditional stats (ex. +2 Constitution for dwarves) are the archetypes for that race and are presented in the Player’s…

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Worldbuilding Through Kitbashing

[caption id="attachment_24966" align="alignleft" width="300"] ILM model makers Paul Huston and David Grell kitbashing the exterior of the Millennium Falcon with shelves of model kits behind them.[/caption]

I recently rewatched the documentary Empire of the Stars about the production of Star Wars and came to the realization that everything about the creation of the first movie, A New Hope, was the product of kitbashing. If you’re not familiar with the term “kitbashing”, it literally means to take pieces from many different model kits and put them together to make something new. The practical special effects artists at Industrial Light and Magic, the special effects wing of Lucasfilm, used this technique to masterfully create starfighters, sets, and props that seemed to truly exist down to all of the little bits of machinery exposed as natural wear and tear of a galactic civil war.

But, as I thought about George Lucas’ influences in crafting this world, I realized that he was kitbashing in his imagination all along. Even a cursory study of his work will reveal that Lucas borrowed things from Kurosawa’s Hidden Fortress, Buck Rogers serials, and Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With a Thousand Faces. By borrowing and modifying preexisting concepts and then synthesizing them, Lucas created a rich galaxy far,…

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When Wizards of the Coast released Dungeon Mayhem in 2018, they had an instant hit on their hands. The premise behind the game was that a somewhat typical Dungeons and Dragons adventuring party had all turned on one another, each hoping to be the last man standing with their dungeon loot. Cards contained different types of actions and could be chained together for greater impact. The game was fast paced, had simple rules, and was easy to learn. It was also their first foray into games designed for a younger audience. The result was a great little game that could be played in 20 minutes or less but had enough “gotcha” moments to keep players coming back.

Join the Mayhem

The basic game came with four decks of cards each representing a different character. The decks are fairly similar to keep the rules simple, but each deck has a set number of unique cards representing the abilities of that character’s class (Wizard, Rogue, etc.). The standard cards have a combination of symbols that determine what they do: crossed swords for a single attack, a shield that adds armor, a card for drawing a card, a heart for healing one point of…

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Greetings Roleplayers!

In 2019 Meeple Mountain published more role-playing game content than we ever have before. We even devoted an entire week in June to RPG articles! But that’s not enough. In 2020, we want to really expand our RPG coverage to include more reviews and articles. In order to do that we need a passionate team of RPG content contributors. If you love RPGs then we want to talk to you about writing for Meeple Mountain!

We want to hear from people with interesting stories and perspectives, especially from groups whose voices might not be heard as frequently. We welcome readers from all social, ethnic, and economic backgrounds. Our goal is to expand Meeple Mountain’s presence in the gaming industry, but more importantly we want to speak with authenticity and integrity

To that end our call for contributors has three stated goals:

1. Expand our RPG coverage

[caption id="attachment_17790" align="alignleft" width="150"] Look for our upcoming Weave review![/caption]

First and foremost we are looking for content contributors who are passionate about RPGs of all kinds. Dungeons & Dragons has risen to heights not seen in 40 years and deserves the appropriate coverage, but there are so many more great RPGs out there! Whether it’s traditional crunchy numbers and dice roleplaying or…

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A great Role Playing Game should above all facilitate the telling of memorable stories. In order to do that, it should not only meet but excel at two criteria: concept and system.

First, it should have an engaging concept. This could be a unique world setting or interesting premise. Whatever it may be, players should want to tell stories within that concept. This could be facilitated by great artwork, great writing, or simply an idea that is so interesting that people will choose it over others.

Second, it should have a refined system. The rules and mechanics define an RPG as a game. Without them it is improvised storytelling. The rules can be simple or complex, with a GM or without, but they must be easily defined, understandable, and not get in the way of the storytelling component.

Don’t forget to cast your ballot in our 2019 Fan Favorite voting.

We’ll be announcing the rest of the nominees over the next few weeks; then check back on Friday, January 17th when we announce the winners of the 2nd Annual Diamond Climber Awards.

A Town Called Malice

A Town Called Malice brings players into a world combining isolated small-town suspense stories like Twin Peaks and Nordic Noir stories…

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A Long Time Ago...

In 2014, after a very extensive playtest period, Wizards of the Coast (WotC) released the Fifth Edition of Dungeons & Dragons. With lessons learned from the previous edition, this new edition started out slowly with the core rulebooks (Player’s Handbook, Dungeonmaster’s Guide, and Monster Manual) rather than springboard in a large body of supplements. Instead, this edition leaned on digital media for supplemental material and even a freely available Basic Rules set.

When the time came for the first published adventure material, WotC looked to the veteran adventure module writers at Kobold Press to help write something memorable. The new adventure would follow a different model than those of previous editions. Rather than the 30-50 page modules designed for a small range of character levels, Hoard of the Dragon Queen came out at 97 pages and would allow for characters to advance from 1st to 7th level. This mini-campaign could be completely played with just the Basic Rules found on the Dungeons & Dragons website. To keep the page count under 100 pages and thus keeping the entry cost just under USD, a free digital supplement was made available containing any monster or NPC stats required that…

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Experience a world of endless wonder (and traitors)

In 2009, a fantastic show debuted on the SyFy network about a group of secret agents combing the world for historical  artifacts that have been imbued with special powers because of their significance in history or the significance of their owner. Warehouse 13 chronicled the perils of this work as the agents brought these artifacts back to the titular location, a secret repository for housing these dangerous treasures. In the words of Senior Agent Artie Nielsen, they were to “snag it, bag it, tag it.”

Sadly, in 2014 Syfy cancelled Warehouse 13 after five seasons. Many fans were disappointed to see the series go, including my wife and myself. We have since watched it many times over and are currently making our way through the series again.

In 2017, a pair of small game publishers, Infinite Dreams Gaming and Conquest Gaming here in Nashville, TN, opened a Kickstarter to produce a board game based on Warehouse 13 with support from the cast of the show who still love what they created.

The game is finally out and we snagged a copy for bagging and tagging. So get your Tesla guns and Farnsworth communicators ready as…

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A First Look at the Latest Hellacious Campaign Book for Dungeons & Dragons

“Welcome to Thunderdo… er, Avernus!”

Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus is a full campaign book for Dungeons & Dragons, 5th Edition. As the name suggests the campaign revolves around Baldur’s Gate and…well…Avernus. Longtime fans of D&D and video games may recognize the name Baldur’s Gate as the troubled city in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, but you may not be familiar with Avernus. 

Avernus is the first layer of the Nine Hells. Hell in the D&D cosmology is divided into nine layers similar to the Hell of Dante’s Inferno. In D&D, the first layer is not Limbo, a place for those whowere good but had not been accepted into Heaven. That’s somewhere else! In this version of Hell, Avernus is a blasted, horrific landscape on the front lines of the Blood War, a never-ending conflict between the devils of Hell and the demons of the Abyss (there’s a difference!). In the wastes left by the Blood War’s battles, vile warlords carved out their own territory. These warlords roam the desolate world in infernal warmachines seeking out soul coins. This currency, made from the souls of the damned, fuels their nightmarish vehicles.

Warlords driving twisted machines across an…

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We here at Meeple Mountain have been playing through Ghosts of Saltmarsh, the latest adventure module collection for Dungeons & Dragons. We gave our first impressions of Ghosts of Saltmarsh when it was released and now we’ve returned to give you an update on how the playthrough has gone so far. As the DM, I will also be giving my observations on running the adventures and providing some tips if you are looking to run your own game.

Fair warning - there will be spoilers about the first adventure, The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, along with some of the overarching Saltmarsh campaign setting provided with it. If you want to know our overall impressions of the first adventure as well as the setting without getting into detail, feel free to skip to the Wrap-Up section.

The Party Comes Together

Our weekly group of Meeple Mountain writers consists of myself (Than Gibson) as Dungeon Master, Andy Mathews as Gorebash - the Goliath Fighter, Marcus Cathey as Peile - the Human Fighter, Jonathan Elder as Kolyan - the Water Genasi Sorcerer, and Kurt Refling as Scamper - the Gnome Rogue. Since we were starting at the beginning, everyone made 1st level characters and we found appropriate places to work…

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