Gnomecast 204 – Running vs. Playing

https://polygamero.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/CG_204_runningVSplaying_finalV01.mp3 Join Ang, JT, and guest Alex Thomas as they talk about the difference in the skills needed to run games versus play games. They dive into what they like about both and why it’s important to have both sets...

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Five Things I Learned in 2024

It being that time of the year, I decided to reflect again on my year of gaming and see what lessons I learned. This is the second year I have done this.  Overall, this year I gamed less than 2023. There were two main reasons. The first was that at the start of the year, I had some terrible back...

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Review: Shadowcat Magazine

Full disclosure before I launch into my review of the promo issue of Shadowcat Magazine: I received the PDF for free (you can too!) from Chaz Kemp, the creator of the magazine. Additional disclosure: Chaz and I have been good friends for a number of years now, but that has not colored my review...

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Tales of the Valiant Monster Vault Review

An interesting side effect of having multiple iterations of D&D 5th edition based on the 5e SRD is that some content allows publishers to produce content that works in their game but may also be helpful to people who aren’t utilizing the entire ruleset. One of the most prominent examples of...

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Gnomecast 203 – Resolutions Old & New

https://polygamero.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/CG_203_Gaming-Resolutions-2025_final.mp3 Join Ang, JT, and Tomas as they look at what they hoped to accomplish RPG wise in 2024, how that turned out, and what they’re hoping for in 2025. Links: Libby JT’s Amazon Link JT’s Website...

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Tome Of Maps: City Battlemap Book Review

Snowys Maps has been kind enough to come to me to talk about their product. They offered me 2 of their spiral booklets for free (just a press review version which is not the complete one) and allowed me to speak my mind of them. When this happens I try not to post negative reviews, talking...

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Tales of the Valiant Player’s Guide Review

You may have noticed some significant developments in fantasy games that rely on the 5e OGL for their core rules. Not long after the Great OGL Debacle of 2023, Kobold Press announced that they were working on their own set of 5e OGL fantasy rules, and part of the draw for this set of rules is that...

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Gnomecast 202 – Surviving the Holidays

https://polygamero.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/CG_202_Survivingtheholidays-Mixdown-1.mp3 Join Ang, Matt, and Senda as they talk about how to help your gaming group survive the inevitable scheduling woes of the holiday season. Links: Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons 1970-1977 Grinding...

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Challenging The Tropes: The Loner

Tropes are frameworks for plot beats and character arcs. Cliches are the overused versions of those beats and arcs. Cliches, generally, should be avoided, but tropes are useful AF. They work like signposts, guiding your decisions when it comes to story elements and, in turn, speeding up your session prep.

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Setting The Table

Recently, one of my gaming groups decided to change games. We decided to go back to an old favorite Forbidden Lands. As we were sitting around the table, finalizing our decision, I started to survey our table situation and thought about how would we arrange all the components of the game. This got...

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Gnomecast 201 – Oops! All Bards

https://polygamero.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/GC_201_oops_all_bard_final.mp3 Join Ang, Jared and Josh as they talk about what to do when you have characters in your game whose mechanical abilities overlap and you can’t rely on traditional ‘niche’ protection to move the...

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