The Dash Action

Image by Wizards of the Coast [15 min read] Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms Dragonlance Planescape What's next? About a year ago I started thinking about my legacy. Not my positive impact on the world. Not the balance of the family trust fund. No - even more importantly   -  which of my favourite imaginary worlds might my kids explore and fall in love with?   That thought sent me down a rabbit hole - which stories are worth preserving? What content might still bring joy even today? And how do I make sure they're not lost to time, from a flooded basement or an impenetrable wall of digital rights management? Read all about that here.   Welcome to my  "Why I love..."  series, a collection of love letters to the creative works that have shaped my love of games. I'll share what they are, why I love them, and how you can step into them yourself, based on my experience of getting joyfully lost in them.  And I'm starting with th...

  2nd Edition - the Talisman I grew up with. 5th Edition - the Talisman my kids are growing up with. Image by Avalon Hill, part of  Hasbro [10 min read] How It Plays A Dash of Data Summing Up Talisman 2nd Edition was an important part of my childhood many decades ago. So I was excited when Hasbro relaunched the classic board game franchise with a 5th Edition back in July 2024. Since then, my family and I have played over a dozen games at multiple player counts, including the cooperative expansion. If you're curious about whether it's for you, check out How It Plays . But why Talisman and why now? In a world where board game demand has softened since the explosive growth enjoyed during Covid, production costs have risen due to inflation, and there is future uncertainty around tariffs, why did Hasbro bring back this venerable product? If you want to dig further into the rationale behind the relaunch, wonder if it hit the mark sales-wise and what might come n...

 New year, new name, (slightly) new focus When you take the Dash action, you gain extra movement for the current turn Image inspired by Larian Studios from Baldur's Gate 3 [2 min read] Welcome to The Dash Action - the artist formerly known as A Dash of RPG .  After over three years of writing articles once or twice a month, my blog has largely centred on my own Dungeons & Dragons campaigns , exploits into many other tabletop role-playing games , and more general musings about the broader tabletop industry and preserving my burgeoning collection of purchases therein. But the cadence of articles at the end of 2024 and early 2025 has dropped off significantly. I suspect the reason for this slow-down is two-fold: one, I have been running multiple, medium-level preparation, role-playing games at once (2x D&D campaigns still ongoing, 1x The One Ring campaign which has recently concluded); and two, I have burned out a little creatively on the topics I had been covering. Aft...

  Leaving a legacy Image courtesy of Rebecca Parker on Pinterest [5 min read] It's been a while since I posted, life getting in the way and all. Actually, I've been running more Dungeons & Dragons sessions than I expected, and that doesn't leave a ton of time for other parts of my hobby. This year, I resolved to preserve my favourite content for my two boys in case either (a) reliance on digital media and their complicated rights management somehow removes access to these, or (b) gulp, I am not around to see them grow up, and I want an easy way for my wife to expose them to it. You can see how I structured this in my  first content preservation post . Spoilers - it is expensive and a lot of work. Having secured the majority of the content on my list, I turn now to how I want to introduce my sons to it at the appropriate age, with the presumption that I am not here to do so personally. I started a google doc, which I will build over time, to explain why each is important...

You're still Phandalin's Finest to me Bringing the light of civilisation to the Sword Coast frontier for over four tendays Map by Wizard of the Coast [12 min read] And so it ends! Frontier Forays , the little drop-in campaign that could, has concluded. And being the non-adversarial DM that I am, I can say that it was just as satisfying a conclusion for me as it was the players. Cryovain, the self-styled mastermind behind the assault on Phandalin, was vanquished with the last throw of the dice (or in this case, the last bead of a Necklace of Fireballs) . The remaining orc army disbands, the townsfolk rejoice, and Sildar appoints our heroes "Champions of the Lord's Alliance". Take a bow, Alucard, Terach, Wick and Wiggity, and maybe a free beverage or two at the Sleeping Giant tavern, you've earned it! But let us relive the final session while it still lingers in our collective memories... Sortie before dawn Before dawn, the group assesses the information brought...