http://diceofdoom.com/blog The Dice of Doom is a blog about gaming, being a gamer and general interest content suitable for nerds. Tue, 01 May 2012 13:26:59 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 The Dice of Doom podcast is a lively discussion about role-playing games, focusing heavily on Dungeons & Dragons, Call of Cthulhu and Warhammer along with many other gaming systems. We have been gaming for longer than we care to freely admit and we have a wide range of interests and experiences in gaming in general (everything from obscure games printed in the 1980's to the most recent tabletop wargames). We like to take a lighthearted approach to our discussions and mix them up with other nerdy news and content as well. RupertG yes RupertG rupertg@diceofdoom.com rupertg@diceofdoom.com (RupertG) © Dice of Doom Dice of Doom Podcast dnd, d&d, dungeons & dragons, rpg, roleplaying, gaming, roleplaying games http://diceofdoom.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Podcast-Logo-New-SQ-SM.png http://diceofdoom.com/blog Sydney, Australia http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2011/09/dice-of-doom-podcast-032-riddles-and-puzzles-in-rpgs-favourite-components-of-rpgs-dice-and-randomness-in-games/ http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2011/09/dice-of-doom-podcast-032-riddles-and-puzzles-in-rpgs-favourite-components-of-rpgs-dice-and-randomness-in-games/#comments Wed, 07 Sep 2011 12:10:27 +0000 RupertG http://diceofdoom.com/blog/?p=3503 In this episode we discuss using riddles and puzzles in your roleplaying games, our favourite components of RPGs, are dice important and is a linear or bell curve of randomness more 'heroic'? Continue reading →]]> http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2011/09/dice-of-doom-podcast-032-riddles-and-puzzles-in-rpgs-favourite-components-of-rpgs-dice-and-randomness-in-games/feed/ 6 dnd, rpg, dungeons, dragons, D&D, roleplaying, games, gaming, Dungeons & Dragons DoD Podcast 031: Riddles and Puzzles in RPGs, Favourite Components of RPGs, Dice and Randomness in Games There is a lot going on in this podcast, so instead of writing my usual introductory blurb on this one, I thought I would do a list instead. * We issue commands to Play a New RPG for the month of October * We discuss using riddles and puzzles in your game and whether or not they are a useful tool in your GMing belt * We debate another question from reader Disemvowel where he asks us what our perfect system would be in terms of individual mechanics from various systems * We answer questions from Samaldanach about whether or not randomness is useful in a roleplaying game and a related question from Beefgriller about randomness and dice mechanics in roleplaying games There are references to an article we wrote a while back on polarising roleplaying game between left and right style systems (much as we do political ideologies) which you may find useful to read before listening (if you haven't read it already). RupertG yes 53:23 http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2011/08/dice-of-doom-podcast-030-dealing-with-a-bad-gm-running-short-and-long-term-games-and-tabletop-accessories/ http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2011/08/dice-of-doom-podcast-030-dealing-with-a-bad-gm-running-short-and-long-term-games-and-tabletop-accessories/#comments Mon, 15 Aug 2011 12:25:37 +0000 RupertG http://diceofdoom.com/blog/?p=3447 In this action packed episode of the podcast we discuss ways in which to deal with a bad GM (mostly by talking about what NOT to do…), the differences we've experienced in running short term games as part of our gaming experiment vs the normal long term games that are usually played and we answer questions about gaming accessories and dice from Donny on our Facebook page and Symatt on Twitter. Continue reading →]]> http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2011/08/dice-of-doom-podcast-030-dealing-with-a-bad-gm-running-short-and-long-term-games-and-tabletop-accessories/feed/ 6 Dungeons and Dragons, D&D, DnD, roleplaying, spirit of the century, sotc, games mastering DoD Podcast 030: Dealing with a bad GM, short vs long term campaigns and listener's questions about tabletop accessories In this action packed episode of the podcast we discuss ways in which to deal with a bad GM (mostly by talking about what NOT to do…), the differences we've experienced in running short term games as part of our gaming experiment vs the normal long term games that are usually played and we answer questions about gaming accessories and dice from Donny on our Facebook page and Symatt on Twitter. RupertG yes 1:00:00 http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2011/04/a-study-in-the-randomness-of-dice/ http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2011/04/a-study-in-the-randomness-of-dice/#comments Tue, 26 Apr 2011 12:05:30 +0000 RupertG http://diceofdoom.com/blog/?p=3118 If ever you thought you were the most unlucky gamer ever and you rolled more than your fair share of ones, well, you might be right... There are some very serious nerds who have gone to extraordinary lengths to check it all out... Continue reading →]]> http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2011/04/a-study-in-the-randomness-of-dice/feed/ 1 http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2011/04/review-dragon-chow-dice-bags/ http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2011/04/review-dragon-chow-dice-bags/#comments Mon, 18 Apr 2011 05:53:34 +0000 RupertG http://diceofdoom.com/blog/?p=3075 In a recent podcast we talked about Dragon Chow Dice Bags and how awesome we thought they were. To do them justice, we thought we'd take the time to do a full review of the two that we received. Continue reading →]]> http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2011/04/review-dragon-chow-dice-bags/feed/ 4 http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2011/04/dice-of-doom-podcast-019-dragon-chow-dice-bags-all-flesh-must-be-eaten-review-and-adding-social-themes-to-your-rpg/ http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2011/04/dice-of-doom-podcast-019-dragon-chow-dice-bags-all-flesh-must-be-eaten-review-and-adding-social-themes-to-your-rpg/#comments Sat, 16 Apr 2011 04:14:33 +0000 RupertG http://diceofdoom.com/blog/?p=3071 In this episode of the Dice of Doom podcast we review our Dragon Chow dice bags, we review the Zombie Apocalypse roleplaying game All Flesh Must Be Eaten and we discuss how to add social themes to your games. Continue reading →]]> http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2011/04/dice-of-doom-podcast-019-dragon-chow-dice-bags-all-flesh-must-be-eaten-review-and-adding-social-themes-to-your-rpg/feed/ 4 afmbe, all flesh must be eaten, rpg, dnd, dragon chow, dice bags, dice, social themes, dungeons & dragons, d&d, roleplaying DoD Podcast 018: Dragon Chow Dice Bags, All Flesh Must Be Eaten Review and Adding Social Themes to your Roleplaying Games In this episode of the Dice of Doom podcast we review our Dragon Chow dice bags, we review the Zombie Apocalypse roleplaying game All Flesh Must Be Eaten and we discuss how to add social themes to your games. During our All Flesh Must Be Eaten campaign, Paul (who was the Zombie Master) decided to try and add social themes to the game. The idea was to highlight the importance of personal relationship networks and how they collapse of these can add to the horrific nature of a catastrophe. This is not a new concept, Vampire: The Masquerade recommends attempting the same thing, but it was not something we had consciously done a lot of previously. We discuss whether or not it worked, how it could be improved upon and did it actually contribute to the game. RupertG yes 38:11 http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2011/02/dice-of-doom-podcast-014-at-the-mountains-of-madness-movie-zombie-cthulhu-dice-review-and-choosing-balanced-or-unbalanced-encounters/ http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2011/02/dice-of-doom-podcast-014-at-the-mountains-of-madness-movie-zombie-cthulhu-dice-review-and-choosing-balanced-or-unbalanced-encounters/#comments Sun, 27 Feb 2011 06:01:35 +0000 RupertG http://diceofdoom.com/blog/?p=2842 In this episode of the Dice of Doom podcast we discuss the recent news that James Cameron is planning to make the H.P. Lovecraft novella At the Mountains of Madness into a movie, we review Zombie Dice and Cthulhu Dice and we debate the value of balancing encounters or leaving them more realistic. Continue reading →]]> http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2011/02/dice-of-doom-podcast-014-at-the-mountains-of-madness-movie-zombie-cthulhu-dice-review-and-choosing-balanced-or-unbalanced-encounters/feed/ 4 rolemaster, rpg, dnd, dragons, dungeon, cthulhu, lovecraft, roleplaying, d&d, gaming, zombie dice DoD Podcast 014: At the Mountains of Madness Movie, Zombie & Cthulhu Dice Review and Choosing Balanced or Unbalanced Encounters In this episode of the Dice of Doom podcast we discuss the recent news that James Cameron is planning to make the H.P. Lovecraft novella At the Mountains of Madness into a movie, we review Zombie Dice and Cthulhu Dice and we debate the value of balancing encounters or leaving them more realistic. One of the key components to a lot of Roleplaying Games is the inclusion of a mechanic to balance encounters, or in other words, make sure that the players will always have a chance of winning a combat. This leads to a situation where players may feel that they are always in a position to win a combat and will likely behave as such. It also does not reflect the real world (well, in-as-much as a Fantasy RPG could be considered 'real'). We discuss the relative merits of each methodology and look at examples of games that handle it differently. RupertG yes 37:31 http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2010/07/zombie-dice-on-the-iphone-review/ http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2010/07/zombie-dice-on-the-iphone-review/#comments Sat, 31 Jul 2010 00:25:33 +0000 RupertG http://diceofdoom.com/blog/?p=2080 A game we've been hanging out for for the iPhone for a while now is Zombie Dice by Steve Jackson Games. Many of you would be familiar with the dice game by now, and if you're not, you probably should be. The premise of the game is simple - you and you're fellow players are all zombies trying to eat as many brains as you can without getting shotgunned. Now, with the release of the iPhone version, you can play anytime, anywhere. Continue reading →]]> http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2010/07/zombie-dice-on-the-iphone-review/feed/ 4 http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2010/04/understanding-the-maths-behind-4e-dnd-combat/ http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2010/04/understanding-the-maths-behind-4e-dnd-combat/#comments Fri, 30 Apr 2010 11:37:51 +0000 Ellisthion http://diceofdoom.com/blog/?p=1809 Is there something wrong with 4E maths? Some say using 3d6 instead of a d20 improves the system. Should we get inspiration for changing the rules from computer games like World of Warcraft? Continue reading →]]> http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2010/04/understanding-the-maths-behind-4e-dnd-combat/feed/ 28 http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2009/12/zombie-dice-from-steve-jackson-games/ http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2009/12/zombie-dice-from-steve-jackson-games/#comments Tue, 22 Dec 2009 06:25:06 +0000 RupertG http://diceofdoom.com/blog/?p=1751 Zombie Dice, a new game from Steve Jackson Games, has us pretty excited here at Dice of Doom. The premise is pretty simple – you are a zombie, hungry and desperately attempting to eat brains whilst trying to avoid the … Continue reading →]]> http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2009/12/zombie-dice-from-steve-jackson-games/feed/ 0 http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2009/06/list-of-the-best-8-iphone-rpg-dice-rolling-apps/ http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2009/06/list-of-the-best-8-iphone-rpg-dice-rolling-apps/#comments Thu, 11 Jun 2009 08:17:45 +0000 RupertG http://diceofdoom.com/blog/?p=1162 We have covered a lot of different dice rolling applications for role-playing games that are available in Apple’s App Store on this site. Over the past year that the app store has been around, these apps have started to fall … Continue reading →]]> http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2009/06/list-of-the-best-8-iphone-rpg-dice-rolling-apps/feed/ 12 http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2009/05/zom-b-gone-day-03-still-no-zombies/ http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2009/05/zom-b-gone-day-03-still-no-zombies/#comments Fri, 29 May 2009 10:46:47 +0000 RupertG http://diceofdoom.com/blog/?p=1081 While I can safely report no zombies on day three (boring I know…) we did have an interesting discussion over lunch at work. Where are the Vampire Repellent soaps? I thought that that was a very good question. There was … Continue reading →]]> http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2009/05/zom-b-gone-day-03-still-no-zombies/feed/ 0 http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2009/05/custom-nerd-jewelry-chessex-polyhedral-dice-pendants/ http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2009/05/custom-nerd-jewelry-chessex-polyhedral-dice-pendants/#comments Fri, 22 May 2009 08:54:33 +0000 RupertG http://diceofdoom.com/blog/?p=1038 Long promised on their home page, Chessex (our favorite dice people…) have finally released their gaming dice jewelry.  As of writing their website still says they are coming soon, but order numbers and pictures are available in their catalog (link … Continue reading →]]> http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2009/05/custom-nerd-jewelry-chessex-polyhedral-dice-pendants/feed/ 4 http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2009/05/upcoming-post-zombie-soap-repellent-roadtest/ http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2009/05/upcoming-post-zombie-soap-repellent-roadtest/#comments Fri, 15 May 2009 07:30:09 +0000 RupertG http://diceofdoom.com/blog/?p=1027 Just today our ‘office’ made an order at Geeky Clean for their Zom-B-Gone soap. Apparently this soap will help repel zombies and we think that that is awesome. We, of course, want to make sure that this claims actually hold … Continue reading →]]> http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2009/05/upcoming-post-zombie-soap-repellent-roadtest/feed/ 0 http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2009/01/iphone-dice-roller-dynamicdice/ http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2009/01/iphone-dice-roller-dynamicdice/#comments Mon, 19 Jan 2009 02:22:01 +0000 RupertG http://diceofdoom.com/blog/?p=800 One of the great perks of writing for the Dice of Doom blog is getting asked to play with loads of iPhone dice rollers. We get a few gentle requests to try a new one out, and generally speaking we … Continue reading →]]> http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2009/01/iphone-dice-roller-dynamicdice/feed/ 2 http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2008/12/iphone-rpg-dice-roller-pip-reminds-us-simple-is-often-better/ http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2008/12/iphone-rpg-dice-roller-pip-reminds-us-simple-is-often-better/#comments Mon, 08 Dec 2008 04:33:05 +0000 RupertG http://diceofdoom.com/blog/?p=705 A few days ago the developers of iPhone polyhedral dice rolling application ‘Pip’ (Mystery Coconut) sent me a request to look at their application and offer my thoughts. Well, we have had a play around with it and we have … Continue reading →]]> http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2008/12/iphone-rpg-dice-roller-pip-reminds-us-simple-is-often-better/feed/ 0 http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2008/10/iphone-polyhedral-rpg-dice-rolling-applications/ http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2008/10/iphone-polyhedral-rpg-dice-rolling-applications/#comments Thu, 30 Oct 2008 21:00:22 +0000 RupertG http://diceofdoom.com/blog/?p=557 Some of you might remember my previous rant on this topic. Back when the iPhone 2.0 was released, the App Store contained a pretty poor collection of RPG dice rollers. And some were asking extraordinary amounts for them. Well, that … Continue reading →]]> http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2008/10/iphone-polyhedral-rpg-dice-rolling-applications/feed/ 0 http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2008/09/new-uses-for-your-iphone-dice-apps/ http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2008/09/new-uses-for-your-iphone-dice-apps/#comments Sun, 14 Sep 2008 21:00:58 +0000 RupertG http://diceofdoom.com/blog/?p=380 TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog) has an article by one of their many resident nerds about new games to play using the multitude of Dice Rolling Apps available on the iPhone. Some of these are amusing. I myself, have posted … Continue reading →]]> http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2008/09/new-uses-for-your-iphone-dice-apps/feed/ 0 http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2008/08/very-very-pretty-dice/ http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2008/08/very-very-pretty-dice/#comments Tue, 12 Aug 2008 07:08:41 +0000 RupertG http://diceofdoom.com/blog/?p=201 My very very pretty Elven Dice from Q-Workshop arrived the other day. These are absolutely beautiful. Each set that they produce is extraordinarily detailed and perfectly cut. Currently they produce dice themed for Cthulhu and Munchkin (big dice that show … Continue reading →]]> http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2008/08/very-very-pretty-dice/feed/ 6 http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2008/08/rolling-with-purpose/ http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2008/08/rolling-with-purpose/#comments Thu, 07 Aug 2008 23:23:57 +0000 RupertG http://diceofdoom.com/blog/?p=157 When I roll for my character to hit something, I really want to mean it. Seriously, big dice are awesome. There’s something tremendously rewarding about knocking over models, glasses, plates and anything else that gets in the way whenever your … Continue reading →]]> http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2008/08/rolling-with-purpose/feed/ 10 http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2008/08/unbelievably-sucky-state-of-iphone-dice-rollers/ http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2008/08/unbelievably-sucky-state-of-iphone-dice-rollers/#comments Wed, 06 Aug 2008 07:48:42 +0000 RupertG http://diceofdoom.com/blog/?p=133 Update: The situation has improved immensely since this post was written. While I don’t think that dice rollers on your phone will ever replace the tactile awesomeness of rolling a handful of dice, I have investigated the growing number of … Continue reading →]]> http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2008/08/unbelievably-sucky-state-of-iphone-dice-rollers/feed/ 4