Ed Grabianowski, Author at Gizmodo

Pulp action game Fortune and Glory brings out your inner Indiana Jones

In the adventure board game Fortune and Glory, pulp heroes travel the world in search of rare and dangerous artifacts while fending off Nazis, zombies, cultists and each other. Watch out for the Nazi War Zeppelin! Flying Frog Productions published Fortune and Glory with the intent to make it as deluxe as possible, and the…

io9 Ed Grabianowski Aug 27 '13

13th Age RPG delivers an incredible fantasy storytelling experience

It would be easy to dismiss 13th Age as another D20-based fantasy role-playing game, albeit one with gorgeous art. But underneath that deceptively simple surface there are elegant storytelling gears that move in surprising ways. We talked to the creators about how it works. 13th Age is published by Pelgrane Press, and was co-designed by…

io9 Ed Grabianowski Aug 26 '13

The coolest things we saw at Gen Con 2013

This year’s Gen Con gaming convention featured a murder mystery, a demonic siege, record attendance and a truckload of exciting new releases that had gamers buzzing. Here are some of the coolest things from Gen Con. Image via Gen Con Facebook Gen Con is North America’s largest tabletop gaming convention, and almost 50,000 unique attendees…

io9 Ed Grabianowski Aug 23 '13

The very best storytelling games to light your imagination on fire

Take an evening joking around with friends, add a pinch of D&D and a dash of Who’s Line Is It Anyway?, and you’ve got some idea of what a story game is. These collaborative storytelling games cover Shakespearean tragedies, the careers of metal bands, heists gone wrong and all that lies in between. The exact…

io9 Ed Grabianowski Aug 16 '13

Take a look at the killer RPG action coming in Gygax Magazine #2

Gygax Magazine launched earlier this year — named for one of the creators of Dungeons & Dragons, and featuring the involvement of Gary Gygax’s sons. Now TSR’s given us a sneak preview of their second issue, due next week, featuring a cover by Jeff Easley. The cover features Easley’s classic and instantly recognizable style, and…

io9 Ed Grabianowski Aug 9 '13

Control the epic sweep of history in the fascinating new RPG Red Aegis

It’s sort of like D&D meets Civilization: Each session advances the timeline of the world hundreds or thousands of years into the future. Red Aegis is an intriguing RPG about dynasties that span centuries and heroic adventures that can carry you from the stone age to the stars. We talked to the creators. This is…

io9 Ed Grabianowski Aug 1 '13

Primeval Thule might be the Conan meets Cthulhu RPG the world needs

It’s a wicked world of desolate wilderness and decadent cities. Thieves and assassins wait around every corner, and worse things — mind-wrecking things — lurk in the shadows of the lost places. In Primeval Thule, a player survives by skill with a sword and a steely will, or doesn’t survive at all. RPG veterans and…

io9 Ed Grabianowski Jul 25 '13

What’s the connection between heavy metal music, horror and fantasy?

Why are horror and fantasy themes so influential and powerful in rock and metal music? Why do fans love performers who act like zombies, vampires and witches? I went to the traveling metal roadshow known the as the Mayhem Festival to find out. Horror has been a part of rock music since the earliest days…

io9 Ed Grabianowski Jul 24 '13

Get a Stack of Indie RPGs with the Pay-What-You-Want Bundle of Holding

Bundle of Holding +4 is a package of innovative and independently created story games that can be had for any price, with some of the proceeds going to Oxfam and Feeding America. There are three games included in the bundle: Psi*Run, in which a government agency is trying to track you down. Witch: The Road…

io9 Ed Grabianowski Jul 18 '13

Deluxe D&D Reprint Against the Slavelords Gains a Bonus Adventure

It is a brutal test of your D&D skills, a gauntlet of sudden-death traps and bizarre monsters strewn across countless dungeon levels. The DM will show no mercy. The dice will grant no quarter. It’s just you Against the Slavelords. In the early days of D&D, TSR held huge tournaments at gaming conventions to see…

io9 Ed Grabianowski Jul 17 '13

Building a home is as vital as zombie headshots in State of Decay

State of Decay is an open world zombie apocalypse video game that puts you in control of a band of all-too-vulnerable survivors. Turning the focus away from guns-blazing action makes this one of the best zombie games I’ve ever played. Not that there’s a shortage of action here, but you won’t be splattering zombie heads…

io9 Ed Grabianowski Jul 16 '13

These RPG Campaigns Will Keep You Busy All Summer Long

The best way to spend summer vacation is playing tabletop RPGs with your friends, obviously. Whether you’re into swords and wizards or prefer technomancers and secret agents, here are eight awesome RPG campaigns to occupy those hazy afternoons and summer nights. The eight role-playing systems here run the gamut, from old-school simulationist dice-fests to more…

io9 Ed Grabianowski Jul 11 '13

The Best Digital Tools for Organizing Your RPG Campaign

Plenty of gamemasters still use graph paper and three-ring binders to organize their role-playing campaigns, but there’s an arsenal of tools available to the tech-savvy GM. I talked to a bunch of experienced GMs to find out how they use digital tools to create and track their RPG adventures. Aside from a twisted, devious imagination,…

io9 Ed Grabianowski Jul 9 '13

Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014: brilliant decks, flawed sealed play

The annual refresh of the casual console version of Magic: The Gathering gets high marks for fun, well-constructed decks, but the highly anticipated sealed deck mode leaves a lot to be desired. It’s still a great MtG fix for $10. The core of the DotP experience is playing the game’s built-in preconstructed decks, unlocking new…

io9 Ed Grabianowski Jul 5 '13

Dark Horse is adapting Hour of the Dragon, Howard’s best Conan story

A few weeks ago at the comic shop, I stumbled across a new Conan series. But not just any Conan series. Dark Horse is adapting the only Conan novel, The Hour of the Dragon, over two six-issue runs. I had to check it out. So is it any good? Yeah, it’s really good. The Hour…

io9 Ed Grabianowski Jul 3 '13

Deep Magic brings exotic spells and wizard schools to your RPG

There’s one thing a D&D campaign can never get enough of: magic. More spells. Weirder spells. New ways to interact with the magical forces in our favorite fantasy worlds. With Deep Magic, Kobold Press has harnessed some big RPG names (including Ed Greenwood) to give us all the magic we could possibly want. Deep Magic…

Books & Comics Ed Grabianowski Jun 14 '13

Summon a Sliver Hive in Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014

The Magic: the Gathering video game, Duels of the Planeswalkers, gets its annual refresh this summer, and we’ve an exclusive deck full of slivers to show you, along with some strategy to get the most out of your sliver swarm. Each edition of Duels of the Planeswalkers comes with new decks to play with and…

io9 Ed Grabianowski Jun 4 '13

D&D Knights Help Oklahoma Tornado Victims

The Merciful Cousins is an order of cavaliers for the Pathfinder role-playing game that functions as a sort of D&D Red Cross. Now, if you buy the PDF that details how to use them in your D&D campaign, you can help the actual Red Cross bring aid to Oklahoma tornado victims. The Merciful Cousins (aka…

io9 Ed Grabianowski May 29 '13

Magic: the Gathering’s Summer Set Preview — Megantic Sliver

The weird hive-mind creatures known as slivers are returning for Magic: the Gathering’s summer core set, M14. But they seem… different. Slivers first appeared in 1997’s Tempest set, reappearing every few years (in the Legions and Time Spiral sets). They haven’t been around since 2006. Although slivers have gone through some complicated storylines over the…

io9 Ed Grabianowski May 16 '13

Deluxe Reissues Take You Deep into Dungeons & Dragons History

Dungeons & Dragons has numerous editions and hundreds of sourcebooks and adventures — and most of them are out of print. But now, Wizards of the Coast has opened up a treasure trove of classic reprints and digital books. D&D is in a weird place right now — it’s literally in between editions, as Fourth…

io9 Ed Grabianowski Apr 29 '13

Ed Grabianowski

Pulp action game Fortune and Glory brings out your inner Indiana Jones

13th Age RPG delivers an incredible fantasy storytelling experience

The coolest things we saw at Gen Con 2013

The very best storytelling games to light your imagination on fire

Take a look at the killer RPG action coming in Gygax Magazine #2

Control the epic sweep of history in the fascinating new RPG Red Aegis

Primeval Thule might be the Conan meets Cthulhu RPG the world needs

What’s the connection between heavy metal music, horror and fantasy?

Get a Stack of Indie RPGs with the Pay-What-You-Want Bundle of Holding

Deluxe D&D Reprint Against the Slavelords Gains a Bonus Adventure

Building a home is as vital as zombie headshots in State of Decay

These RPG Campaigns Will Keep You Busy All Summer Long

The Best Digital Tools for Organizing Your RPG Campaign

Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014: brilliant decks, flawed sealed play

Dark Horse is adapting Hour of the Dragon, Howard’s best Conan story

Deep Magic brings exotic spells and wizard schools to your RPG

Summon a Sliver Hive in Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014

D&D Knights Help Oklahoma Tornado Victims

Magic: the Gathering’s Summer Set Preview — Megantic Sliver

Deluxe Reissues Take You Deep into Dungeons & Dragons History

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