deerstalker

Writers: E.L. Thomas, Tristan Tarwater, Justin Peniston / Artists: Brandon Reese, Max Bare, Jemma Salume, Meaghan Carter, Jade Feng Lee, Naomi Franquiz, Ben Sears, Nicole Goux / Lion Forge Comics

Goblins in the Sky!

I talked at length about my enjoyment I got from reading Rolled & Told #0 and afterwards, I got a chance to play it with my regular tabletop. Now, my regular tabletop group have been together for almost a year so we were familiar with enough of the fundamentals that we took some liberties with our character creations. I ended up being a Warforged Cleric that essentially was a walking lighthouse. We had a cat-person-esque rogue, a Tiefling Druid, a lizardperson fighter, and your typical human Warlock and we went through the barcrawl. I only had vague memories of the encounters, and the resulting experience was a fun refresher into the world of Dungeon and Dragons 5e. So course, when I saw that Rolled & Told #1 was coming out and there were airships involved I knew I had to take a peak. You don’t know this about me, but there are two universal things that happen in every campaign I’m in:

• My PC is always the first one to die and I have reroll a new character.
• I successfully manage to steal and/or commandeer every single airship I have come across the last decade of play with several different groups and DMs.

Now, Rolled & Told #1 continues to be a fantastic gateway into tabletop roleplaying. Thomas’ quirky adventures involving a runaway airship has a lot of heart and a good mix of approaches for different types of player. Whether you go in with a group of hardened veterans or a ragtag punch of misfits, there is plenty for the DM and PCs to grasp onto during the daring ride.

In additional to the main adventure, the additional essays in the issue provide a necessary personal component that illuminates the strange joy to be found in tailoring content for your friends and playing for fun rather than by the rules. These essays provide great anecdotes and advice for players of all experience levels. Plus, there’s a whole bunch of nautical themed objects that you can add into the loot pool.

Rolled & Told #1 has a fantastic charm to its pages. The wonderful illustrations are vibrant and capture the liveliness only D&D antics can bring. The premade characters are wonderful archetypes that continue to help new players jump right into the game or help develop their sense of trope. I’m personally picking a copy up because I can’t wait to use it as an introduction to tabletop gaming, and if you’re in a similar situation I think you should too.

Rolled & Told #1 comes to a local comic shop near you September 26, 2018.

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The post Set Sail Your D&D Airships with Lion Forge’s Rolled & Told #1 appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.

It would have been a miracle if they hadn’t made any jokes about diversity, #MeToo, and politics, so here we are. Get your bingo cards out, because we’re going to check everything off here: an awkward opening song, some really, really bad jokes, and of course, all of us wondering why they didn’t hire women to host the show.

First off, we opened with Kenan Thompson, Kate McKinnon, and a variety of other stars (ranging from Sterling K. Brown to John Legend) singing a song about how we solved Hollywood’s diversity solution and all the bad guys have been kicked to the curb. It was awkward, literally; they were all off-beat. Also given the studies that have come out about how little representation there actually is on television, it came off as a little, as they even said in the song, cart before the horse. Of course, it was all very self-deprecating, so there’s that. But when Hollywood is hardly making steps in the right direction as it is, it all feels a little… forced? Like, “hey, this is what the cool kids are all talking about, so let’s put it in the show and make it all a fun joke!” But maybe I’m just being sensitive.

Of course, the sensitivity sort of faded when Colin Jost and Michael Che took to the stage and immediately put their feet in their mouths. I mean, the joke about how apparently the oppression in The Handmaid’s Tale is only bad when it affects white women (which is true, and more people should probably say it). Still, they just keep on coming with bad takes! And so far, many of the presenters have also decided to bring up how diverse the categories are as if to pat themselves on the back for recognizing that talent exists outside a white, male sphere.

Of course, Jost and Che made #MeToo jokes. Which, really, aren’t that funny coming from a male perspective. I’d have much preferred to hear women talking about #MeToo, because for the most part, women making those jokes would make sense. Making a joke about how everyone at the event just hasn’t been caught yet? Eh. No thank you. I’ll skip that joke, thank you very much, especially when it’s after a long day of people dismissing and trying to undermine the movement.

Honestly, trying to keep up with all the bad takes that were dropped on stage during that opening monologue is difficult, so instead I’ll focus on a really good moment, which is Rachel Brosnahan telling everyone to go register to vote and to make their voices heard as she celebrated her win for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, a show about a woman redefining and finding her own voice. Let’s focus on that wonderful moment, which is using the platform for good, instead of for really bad jokes that we’ll be insulting for the next year.

We’ll be updating you with winners throughout the evening, so stay tuned for more really bad attempts at Hollywood laughing at their own meager attempts at leveling the playing field while really doing nothing at all.

(Image: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

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If only more people had the courage to just express they are "just not into you."