Novels

Recent & Upcoming Releases

April 16 2024

Vecna: Nest of the Eldritch Eye

(Dungeons & Dragons)
Bonus prequel adventure for Eve of Ruin.
Replies (161)
May 31 2024

Vecna: Eve of Ruin

(Dungeons & Dragons)
Adventure for levels 10-20.
Replies (499)
June 3 2024

Vecna: Eve of Ruin Platinum Edition

(Dungeons & Dragons)
Boxed deluxe set from Beadle & Grimm.
Replies (23)
June 4 2024

Voidrunner’s Codex

(Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition)
Take your A5E games to space!
Replies (19)
June 18 2024

The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons: 1970-1977

(Dungeons & Dragons)
History of D&D.
Replies (118)
July 16 2024

Quests From The Infinite Staircase

(Dungeons & Dragons)
Adventure anthology for character levels 1 to 13.
Replies (127)
September 17 2024

D&D Player’s Handbook (2024)

(Dungeons & Dragons)
Revised 2024 Player's Handbook.
Replies (155)
October 1 2024

Monstrous Menagerie II

(Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition)
The sequel to the acclaimed monster book!
Replies (43)
November 12 2024

D&D Dungeon Master’s Guide (2024)

(Dungeons & Dragons)
Revised 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide.
Replies (118)
February 18 2025

D&D Monster Manual (2025)

(Dungeons & Dragons)
Revised 2025 Monster Manual.
Replies (89)

Worlds of Design: Games vs. Novels - Part 1

There’s a big difference between novels and role-playing games. If you want to to make the RPG much like a novel, you remove it from the realm of “game”: that is, something that you can fail at/lose, something where the opposition is dangerous.

Jun 11, 2021 11

Call of Cthulhu Conventions Dungeons & Dragons Novels

RPG Crowdfunding News – Legendary Adventures, Inferno, Trinity Continuum, and more

This week, I look at RPG crowdfunding projects and quickstarters that end between April 8th and 29th. These projects include some epic 5e offerings, options for Call of Cthulhu, Storypath, Powered by the Apocalypse, and more. In addition, I write about a few RPG adjacent projects at the end.

Mar 31, 2021 16

Dungeons & Dragons Novels Reviews

Tracking Down the Elusive Shift: A Review

In Jon Peterson’s Playing at the World, he correctly pointed out that Dungeons & Dragons, despite being known as the first role-playing game, didn’t actually explain how to role-play. His follow-up, The Elusive Shift, explains how RPGs came to define themselves.

Feb 22, 2021 10

Dungeons & Dragons Novels Star Wars

Worlds of Design: Magic vs. Technology

In connection with my discussion about differentiating science fiction and fantasy, here’s a related question: How do we tell what’s magic, and what’s technology, especially in light of A. C. Clarke’s famous maxim?

Dec 18, 2020 62

Dungeons & Dragons Novels Reviews

Heroes' Feast: A Cookbook & DM's Resource

Upon hearing that an official Dungeons & Dragons cookbook, Heroes' Feast, was coming out, my first thought was that they'd take some normal recipes, slap a few cute D&D-themed names on them, and that would be it. After all, a lot of themed cookbooks have been exactly that. I'm happy to say that Heroes' Feast was a very pleasant surprise. Not only is it a very good cookbook, it can serve as a...

Oct 27, 2020 34

Basic Roleplaying Novels

Rivers of London RPG: An Interview

Lynne Hardy of Chaosium was kind enough to tell me more about the upcoming Rivers of London RPG. Based on the best selling-book series by Ben Aaronovitch, Rivers of London combines police procedural with modern urban fantasy. Thanks also to Michael O’Brien for setting up the interview and to Ben Aaronovitch for creating his magical world and sharing it with Chaosium so we can all roleplay in...

Oct 22, 2020 18

Dungeons & Dragons Film & TV Novels

Worlds of Design: The Chain of Imagination

In this article I try to rank forms of entertainment, including tabletop games, in how much imagination is needed and why they don’t always translate across different types of media.

Oct 16, 2020 10

Dungeons & Dragons Film & TV Novels

The Horror! of Labyrinths

Adventures in Dungeons & Dragons have always been rooted in dungeons, mazes where branching paths lead to different rooms, constricting player choice but not limiting it to one path. Labyrinths are a slightly different beast, and given they lead to a single path, provide unique challenges in gaming.

Oct 5, 2020 15

Call of Cthulhu Dungeons & Dragons Novels

The Horror! of Player Agency

Gamebooks provide a branching-path framework for a single player to determine their fate, with more advanced gamebooks using dice to resolve conflicts. But what happens when the choices you make are determining not just what but how the adventure takes place?

Oct 2, 2020 9

Dungeons & Dragons Novels Savage Worlds

RPG Crowdfunding News – Scarlet Citadel, Over the Next Hill, Good Strong Hands, and more

This week’s RPG crowdfunding projects end by October 22nd. I look at a number of RPGs as well as a new prose novel by Dragonlance alum, Richard A. Knaak, and an ice tray that makes dice out of ice. Last week, I moved up the date I use to determine if these RPG projects should appear in this article. This was prompted, as Morrus mentioned, because he and Peter Coffey are creating a new podcast...

Sep 30, 2020 2

Dungeons & Dragons Novels

Where's the American Fantasy RPG?

L. Frank Baum's Oz series established American Fantasy as a genre, and yet it hasn't had much influence on popular tabletop role-playing games despite several fantasy authors providing the inspiration for co-creator Gary Gygax's Dungeons & Dragons. Why not?

Aug 25, 2020 345

Film & TV Novels Savage Worlds

Robots & Cyborgs & Oz, Oh My!

The Wizard of Oz has become iconic thanks to the titular movie that established L. Frank Baum's world. And yet, there are over a dozen of books set in Oz in the public domain that go well beyond the world we glimpsed in the film that have in turn spawned several role-playing games.

Aug 18, 2020 28

Dungeons & Dragons Film & TV GURPS Novels Video Games

Was The Witcher Inspired by an AD&D Campaign?

We previously discussed how The Witcher may have been inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, concluding that although author Andrzej Sapkowski may have seen a tabletop role-playing game, he never played a RPG. We now know that's untrue. Why? Because Sapkowski wrote one.

Feb 10, 2020 39

Dungeons & Dragons Film & TV Novels

The D&D Series Has Arrived

While we wait for the official Dungeons & Dragons movie to make its debut, fans of the tabletop game have something else to tide them over: a fantasy series that hews closely to its source material. No, not Games of Thrones – which forged its own unique path despite distinct from role-playing games – but The Witcher. Please note that this discussion involves spoilers.

Feb 3, 2020 64

Basic Roleplaying Call of Cthulhu Novels

Rivers of London and Chaosium – Talking to Michael O'Brien

A crop of novels are coming to your gaming table: Altered Carbon, Broken Earth, Dune, The Witcher, and more. For their part, Chaosium joins the party with an amazing entry, Rivers of London. Between that and Jonstown Compendium, their community content program for RuneQuest and Greg Stafford’s Glorantha, Chaosium continues to demonstrate why they dominate at the ENnie Awards. After returning...

Jan 7, 2020 1

Dungeons & Dragons Film & TV Novels

Yes, You Can Turn Your Campaign Into a Novel

Anyone who has ever attended a panel on writing novels has likely heard a frequently asked question: Can I turn my role-playing game into a novel? In the past, Dragonlance was frequently cited as an example of how this was possible, but now we have so many examples that fans frequently don't realize their favorite novel's origin began with a tabletop RPG.