Tag Archives: roleplaying games

The Week in Puzzles and Games

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There’s so much going on in the intertwined worlds of puzzles and games, so let’s skip the intro and get to the good stuff!

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The Boswords Fall Themeless League Kicks Off Tonight!

There’s still time to register for this year’s Fall Themeless League, which officially starts up tonight! (There was a preseason puzzle last week.)

If you’re unfamiliar, the Boswords Fall Themeless League is a clever weekly spin on traditional crossword tournament-style solving. Instead of cracking through a number of puzzles in a single day (or two), the Fall Themeless League consists of one themeless / freestyle crossword each week, scored based on your accuracy and how fast you complete the grid.

Look at that lineup of talent!

Each week’s puzzle only has one grid, but there are three sets of clues, each representing a different difficulty level for solvers. Smooth is the least challenging, Choppy is the middle ground, and Stormy is the most challenging. (When you register to participate, you choose the difficulty level that suits you best.)

Look how many people are participating this year!

Each week’s puzzle is accompanied by a one-hour broadcast on Twitch, starting with a preseason puzzle and broadcast.

The Fall Themeless League then runs the next nine Monday nights starting at 9 PM.

Congrats to the Midwest Crossword Tournament Winners!

The 2026 edition of the Midwest Crossword Tournament was this past weekend, and by all accounts, it was a massive success.

Organized by Shannon Rapp and Sally Hoelscher, the excellent lineup of constructors and editors guaranteed a lively and occasionally devious experience for all involved!

The Chicago Fire was the tougher division, and Minnesota Nice the less-tough-but-still-devious division.

Congrats to all the winners and everyone who participated this year!

Oh, and if you want to watch the Chicago Fire live-solved finals, check out the video:

My deep dive into this year’s tournament puzzles will be posted on Thursday.

More on The Independent Cryptic Crossword

I have a quick update regarding Thursday’s post about the potential end of The Independent‘s daily cryptic crossword.

There is another email address you can contact to show your interest and support!

All you need to do is message trulyindependentcrosswords@gmail.com with the word “Truly” in the subject line.

Leave the body of the email empty, your email alone will count as another person who wants to see The Independent‘s cryptic crossword continue! You’ll get an automated reply letting you know that your voice has been heard.

Hopefully this will show the managing editor of The Independent that the crossword is worth saving!

Spooky Crowdfunding Roundup!

To close out today’s post, here’s a trio of games to support that fit the Halloween / horror / survival vibe nicely that are currently crowdfunding.

The Mysterious Package Company makes some of the coolest, most immersive puzzle-solving experiences on the market today, and if you were a fan of their Doomensions: Mystery Manor pop-up escape room puzzle game a few years ago, then you’re in for double the excitement this time around.

They’re currently running a Kickstarter for two new Doomensions pop-up puzzle experiences: Cursed Tomb and Crimson Castle.

You’ll get to explore these three-dimensional set pieces as you unravel the mysteries behind each puzzly setting.

The attention to detail with Mystery Manor was fantastic, and I really enjoyed the hours spent revealing the puzzle’s hidden secrets and facing each new twist and mystery as it emerged.

If you like at-home escape room puzzle games, you should definitely give one (or both) of these Doomensions a shot.

Another horror-themed sequel game is crowdfunding right now, as the smash hit game Don’t Go In There has gotten a die-rolling successor in, you guessed it, Don’t Go Back There.

This standalone expansion is built on the same template as the original, but with new foes and new effects to deal with.

Plus you can mix and match this game with the original and test yourself against BOTH games’ mechanics and monsters.

Don’t Go In There was part of my 31 Games of Halloween countdown last year, and rightly so. I have no doubt the Road to Infamy team have exceeded themselves with the sequel.

Click here to check out the Kickstarter!

And since we’ve been talking about The Oregon Trail in game form recently, it’s serendipitous that our friends at 9th Level Games have a Backerkit running right now for their new game, Portland, Oregon Trail.

Here’s the pitch:

Like in the OG Oregon Trail game, you might have to ford a river in your Ford and you’ll definitely be contracting a variety of illnesses. But the main obstacle between you and Portland will be capitalism. Your characters have limited resources (and no health insurance), and your roles as societal misfits will make you a target for capitalist villains who hate that you don’t follow their rules. In this game, though, conformity is as good as death.

This GM-less roleplaying game is a collaborative adventure to endure all the nonsense of road trips with modern day anti-capitalist rebel spirit, all in the familiar flavors of the original Oregon Trail we all know and either love, hate, or love and hate.

Check out the Backerkit campaign here!

Did I miss any puzzly news or fun board game stories from the last few weeks? Let me know in the comments section below! I’d love to hear from you.

A Place For Fallen Friends and Heroic Tales

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One of my favorite places on the Internet might surprise you.

It’s a subreddit called r/AdventuresOfGalder, and it’s a place to celebrate those we’ve lost.

Imagine that you’re in a Dungeons & Dragons campaign with your friends. You’re each playing a different character in the party, adventuring throughout the land, performing good acts and feats of derring-do.

But the real world intervenes in the cruelest way possible. Your friend passes away. And as you are slowly confronting your grief and mourning your loss, you realize a smaller loss.

Your friend’s character is still there, their story unfinished.

There are different ways to handle this. The character could be quietly retired, or become an NPC played by the Dungeon Master. The game itself could end and a new one begin in its wake.

When I lost a friend to suicide who had been part of my D&D game at the time, his character ended up becoming a chosen of his faith, and elevated into my game world’s pantheon. There are still references to him to this day in my other games, since he continues to be a part of my world. It is my small way of honoring my friend.

Every group finds a different way to deal with this at their table.

But you can also honor both your real-life loved one and their roleplaying character at r/AdventuresOfGalder.

Named for Galder the Conjurer, the character played by a man named Laurence who sadly passed away from cancer in 2018, this subreddit is dedicated to those we’ve lost. It is a repository of stories about those people and the characters they played. Their fictional adventures are shared here, their good deeds chronicled.

And sometimes, other Dungeon Masters incorporate these characters into their own home games, bringing new life to these wonderful creations of those we have lost.

It’s an electronic version of lore building, sharing stories of larger-than-life deeds around the campfire, stories that can then go on and evolve and become larger and stranger and funnier and more grandiose as others retell the stories. It’s a part of an ever-growing newborn mythology.

At a time when people feel adrift, alone, confused and hurt and scared, they can come to r/AdventuresOfGalder and find waiting ears and friendly shoulders to lean on. They can share their grief and their love and all the good times for others to enjoy.

Yes, it’s an incredibly sad place, but it’s also beautiful. You should check it out sometime.

Happy adventuring, friends.

Star Wars Games That Are Actually Good!

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I know Star Wars Day was a few days ago — check out the Star Wars crossword I constructed for May the Fourth — but while the spirit of that galaxy far, far away is still being celebrated, I want to recommend some Star Wars-infused fun for board game and RPG fans to savor.

Now, there are dozens, possibly hundreds, of Star Wars-themed games. But, as I proved with my history of Godzilla games, it can take a long time for a beloved franchise to get a tabletop game worthy of the subject matter.

Thankfully, there are some choice options out there with Star Wars sauce for your tabletop enjoyment.

Image courtesy of BoardGameGeek.

Star Wars: Asteroid Escape

In this space-based variation on the game Tsuro — one of my all-time favorite board games — you try to navigate your ship through space by laying tiles and following the path as it connects to other tiles. Each player is laying tiles, quickly filling up the board, so you need to grow more and more strategic with your plays as the stack of tiles dwindles.

But with asteroids also roaming the field of play, can you outlast every other ship on the board? This is a terrific mix of Star Wars flavor with everything that makes Tsuro fun and challenging. It might be hard to find, but it will be a welcome addition to your game shelf.

Images courtesy of BoardGameGeek.

Star Wars: Timeline

I love the Timeline games. (I own nearly a dozen of them!) The simple act of trying to place your card in relation to other events on the table is both a great trivia experience and an opportunity to engage in some deduction and logical thinking.

So when I heard about Star Wars versions of Timeline, I happily snapped them up. With editions for both the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy, it will definitely exact a toll on your memory to see if you can precisely place key moments from the movies in the proper order.

Although easier than some of the other editions of Timeline (like their Inventions edition), this is still great fun for Star Wars fans of all ages.

Image courtesy of BoardGameGeek.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

In this prequel era take on Pandemic, players take on the role of Jedi trying to battle back the onslaught of battle droids across the galaxy. Can you stop the spread of Confederacy forces by saving one world at a time?

While Star Wars versions of Risk and Monopoly are pretty much the same game with Star Wars seasoning, The Clone Wars takes the best of the Pandemic system and feels like it takes it in a fresh direction. This isn’t just another version of Pandemic, this is a very clever marriage of the two that takes the best from both.

Strategy and cooperation is absolutely key in this one, and the cooperative aspect separates it from many of the other games on today’s list.

Image courtesy of BoardGameGeek.

Villainous: The Power of the Dark Side

The Villainous games are amazingly well-designed games. Balancing different mechanics for four different villains as you try to achieve their goals and foil the efforts of the villains played by other players, this Disney franchise continues to expand and never disappoints.

And The Power of the Dark Side, their first Star Wars edition of the game, is one of the best versions of Villainous available today. With five villains to choose from — spanning the original, prequel, and new trilogies, as well as the Clone Wars TV show –there’s truly a villain here for any Star Wars fan.

Can you achieve your villainous dreams, or will the other evildoers at the table outmaneuver you and realize their darkest ambitions?

Image courtesy of Nerds on Earth.

Star Wars: Outer Rim

Embrace your inner scoundrel with this game, where each player strives to complete jobs for their employers, collect bounties, smuggle cargo… you know, your usual day-to-day shenanigans in the Star Wars universe.

This game sorta gives you the roleplaying experience in a one-session microcosm. You’ll make your character, make your choices, upgrade your gear and your ship, and make some money, all while dealing with shady and dangerous folks. It’s a whole narrative arc crammed into a single sitting.

Image courtesy of Entertainment Earth.

Star Wars: Rebellion

While Outer Rim is a personal journey, Rebellion is Star Wars on a galactic scale. This is full-blown war between the Rebellion and the Empire, where one side has a Death Star to build and an insurrection to crush, while the other builds alliances, plays cat-and-mouse with the Empire, and plots to destroy the Empire’s greatest weapon.

I’ve only played this game a few times — it’s expensive, a bit overwhelming, and takes a while to get good at — but it’s been a blast every time.

The tabletop scene for Star Wars sure is stacked, but there are plenty of terrific immersive options out there as well for roleplaying fans looking to explore the universe of Star Wars.

And while officially licensed games are great (I’ll be mentioning one below), sometimes the best stories are told in the shadows by companies that understand the spirit of that franchise, but can’t afford all the bells and whistles.

Here are two of my favorites:

Rebel Scum

If, for any reason at all, you felt like punching a Nazi in the face, you can do so in Rebel Scum by 9th Level Games. Yes, they’re space Nazis running an evil empire, and you’re an intrepid anti-fascist trying to save the galaxy, but hey, punching Nazis, amirite?

This game manages to feel like an epic battle across the stars AND a session of playing with your favorite action figures all at the same time. It’s childhood wonder and all the heroic action we wish we could undertake as adults.

Will you stop Baron Deathray and his Killtroopers with a handful of dice and a lot of gumption? Only one way to find out.

Scum and Villainy

If you really like the Han Solo-esque scrappy smuggler making his way through the universe sorta thing, Evil Hat Productions have you covered with Scum and Villainy.

While the Evil Galactic Hegemony is ever-present, this game is more about criminal dealings, clever negotiation, devious schemes, and profiteering adventure. It feels like the day-to-day trials and tribulations of a struggling spaceship crew.

I love the focus in Scum and Villainy on the roleplay aspect of RPGs. So much of the game is about character and the worlds you visit, and not as much about swinging lightsabers and dodging turbolasers.

As you can see, there are many different ways to play a Star Wars game. It can be a war game, an exploration game, a scheming game, a storytelling game… sometimes all of them at once. And Fantasy Flight Games brings a seriously impressive narrative tool to the table with their Star Wars Roleplaying Game.

There have been Star Wars RPG games since the 80s, but I don’t think any of them offered the same spirit of choice, chance, and adventure that the FFG edition of the game does.

Like most RPGs, you pick a class and build your stats and roll dice to determine the outcome of your choices. But unlike many RPGs where the number you roll declares your action a success or a failure, the narrative dice of Star Wars FFG offer a much more exciting and engaging answer.

It’s not just a binary option, you succeed or you fail. With narrative dice, you can have additional complications, both positive and negative.

You could fail, but with some unexpected advantage: You missed a swing of your lightsaber, but you cut through the awning supports and blinded your foe for a round.

You could succeed, but with some negative consequence: You might have caught the bad guy with your blaster, but you also shot the engines of your ship, and now they need repairs.

Your actions tell a story that goes well beyond yes and no. And in a world where scoundrels often make mistakes while trying to do good, it’s a more interesting, more immersive journey every time, and it truly brings those adventurous moments to life.

Whether you’re a scoundrel on the Edge of the Empire, a hero during the Age of Rebellion, or someone caught between the Light Side and the Dark Side in Force and Destiny, they’ve got a place for you to tell your story.

Did your favorite Star Wars game or RPG get mentioned? Or are you miffed I left out Star Wars Trivial Pursuit and its bweepy little R2-D2 dice roller?

Let me know in the comments section below! I’d love to hear from you.

DICE… IN… SPACE!

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Resin space dice…

Storytelling has been with us as long as humanity has existed. From the first stories told around the campfire to podcasts and television shows and novels, stories are not just part of the human experience, but one of the most crucial parts.

It’s a significant reason why I enjoy roleplaying games so much. I get to sit around with my friends and tell stories, and that story is a magical once-in-a-lifetime combination of the actions each of us take and the random results of dice rolls.

The same people could gather around the same table a hundred times, and each time, the story would turn out a little bit different.

That’s MAGIC.

There are all kinds of roleplaying systems out there. Many use dice, but some use tarot cards, or playing cards, or a Jenga tower, or even more esoteric mechanics.

So there are lots of ways to play. But have we ensured that we can play in other environments?

I haven’t encountered an underwater roleplaying game yet, for instance, but I imagine it would be doable with scuba tanks, laminated character sheets, and some weighted dice so they don’t just float to the surface.

Check out these Steve the Scuba Diver dice…

But what about roleplaying in SPACE?

No, I don’t mean playing Starfinder or Traveller or Mothership or Orbital Blues or See You Space Cowboy. I mean actually playing roleplaying games in space.

Well, thankfully, our best and brightest are already investigating the possibility!

Check out this Instagram post from astronaut Rabea Rogge, who was experimenting with how to roll a D20 in space.

Yes, as one of the commenters pointed out, there’s a chance for biasing the die by rolling it so it doesn’t change its axis, but for the most part, Rabea’s technique seems solid.

(Though we really need to get her dice that are easier to read!)

It just goes to show that wherever we go, we will take our stories with us.

Is Burger King Coming for the Wendy’s RPG Crown?

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Timing is a fascinating thing. You never know what will suddenly become relevant again, or how something from the past will reemerge with new context and impact later.

Last month I wrote about Feast of Legends, the Wendy’s roleplaying game released back in 2019, because I had fast food and RPGs on the brain.

Now, Feast of Legends made a big splash in 2019, but it’s fair to say that six years later, it’s not as relevant in RPG circles as it once was.

However, it’s funny that I wrote about it just a few weeks ago, and now it seems like Burger King is suddenly getting in on the roleplaying game scene!

Yes, Burger King’s Quest is a playable supplement for Dungeons & Dragons, featuring the Burger King Kingdom as its setting, and resurrecting several characters from Burger King’s promotional efforts in the 1970s and 1980s to counter McDonalds’ McDonaldland and its characters.

You definitely know the Burger King, but do you remember Sir Shake-A-Lot, the Duke of Doubt, or The Wizard of Fries? I sure don’t! (Who knew that The Home of the Whopper was a real place, not just a slogan?!)

Well they’re getting new life in this RPG supplement, which was unveiled at Lucca Comics & Games as part of Milan Games Week.

Right now, the game is only in Italian, so we’re not sure if English-speaking roleplayers will get their own version in the future. But thankfully the hardworking crew at the Burger King WIKI have some details on the game for non-Italian readers.

I don’t speak Italian, but I did download the game’s PDF, naturally. The art is beautiful, and clearly a lot of work went into this promotional stunt.

But you can already see a rivalry brewing with the Feast of Legends loyalists in the RPG community. (After all, I only found out about Burger King’s Quest BECAUSE of the Feast of Legends subreddit!)

I reached out to the Burger King Public Relations team to try to learn more about the promotion and any plans for it to expand beyond Italy, but I haven’t heard back yet.

So, for now at least, this remains a roleplaying curiosity. But who knows what the future holds. Wendy’s, Arby’s, and now Burger King. The fast food/roleplaying crossover space is certainly heating up!

Happy gaming (and eating), everyone!

An Online Holiday Market! (Plus a Free Puzzle Pack!)

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The PuzzCulture Holiday Puzzly Gift Guide launches next Tuesday — it would have launched this week, but sadly I’ve been ill AND took a tumble down the stairs, good times.

But, to be fair to all the puzzlers and board game fans in the audience, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention a huge, first-time-ever collaboration between a plethora of companies to offer great deals before the holidays.

It’s the Backerkit Holiday Market, and it’s live now!

Running from November 18th to December 1st, you can grab bundles of games as well as brand-new games, miniatures, stuffed animals, enamel pins, roleplaying games, and more!

A lot of great companies are represented here, including RPGs from 9th Level Games and Hit Point Press and puzzles from Scarlet Envelope and Morgan’s Escape Puzzles.

Seeing this kind of collaboration is so cool, especially after a year where tariffs wreaked absolute havoc with the puzzle and game industry. Hopefully people will enjoy discounts and these companies will do well. It would be fantastic to see the Backerkit Holiday Market return next year.

But how about a little more festive cheer before I go today?

Our friends at Penny/Dell Puzzles have put out a free puzzle packet this week in celebration of National Game & Puzzle Week!

I didn’t know it was National Game & Puzzle Week. To be honest, EVERY week around here is Game & Puzzle Week. Who decides these things anyway?

BUT I DIGRESS.

Click here to check out this awesome puzzle pack.

It’s a great mix of art puzzles, deduction puzzles like Logic and Sudoku, plus some of my favorite Penny Press offerings, like What’s Left? and Stretch Letters.

Happy puzzling, playing, shopping, and gaming, everyone!