What is it that makes an RPG campaign last? When is it time to decide the current campaign isn’t working and it’s time to try something new? I’ve noticed that the groups I game with tend to go through different stages. Sometimes we’ll have a lot of consistency with games lasting dozens of sessions. Our current…
Category: Musing
Beware, Be Vocal – Demand Better Quality
As consumers, we have expectations about product quality when we purchase something. It matters not if this is a car, food, toys, or roleplaying gamebooks; it’s the latter that this article is concerned with. Think for a moment about the times you have bought gaming books or products from a retailer, crowdfunding site, or sites…
Revisiting a Classic: The Lord of the Rings
“Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.” — The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings by…
Rolling Boxcar’s Best of 2021
This year, like 2020, was a rollercoaster ride, with the continuing global pandemic, lockdowns in various countries, the Delta variant, and vaccines, glorious vaccines! Despite the challenges, it’s been another fantastic year for us here at Rolling Boxcars. So much has happened this year. We’ve re-affirmed our “influencer” relationship with Chaosium, began “influencer” relationships with…
Embracing “Yes, and”
I’d never heard the term “theater kid” back in the 1980s when I was in high school, but given the number of musicals I was part of, it’s probably safe to describe me as one. (I’m not entirely sure how we were able to include the song “Cabaret” in a Catholic High School Musical now that…
Happy Holidays!
Dear Reader, From all of us at Rolling Boxcars, we wish you and yours the happiest of holidays in whatever way you choose to celebrate. May your new year be filled with bright blessings, prosperity, and amazing people. Be safe, be well, and happy gaming! ~ The RB Team
Make a Library Use Check
Some of the people reading this have never used a card catalog. I found myself recently explaining to my 16-year-old daughter what card catalogs were and how they were used. She did not seem impressed. In her defense, that’s probably about as valuable a skill nowadays as knowing how to crank a car to start…
I’m the Map, I’m the Map
In the early 1980s, as an early teen, while on the Staten Island Ferry with my grandfather, I remember seeing the strangest thing—a map of the New York City subway that just seemed wrong. I loved the New York subway system and pretty much had the entire system committed to memory. (I kinda still do,…
The Eternally Problematic Yesterday
On older Wizards of the Coast products on DriveThruRPG.com (exclusively from the TSR-era, I believe), you’ll find the following boilerplate: We (Wizards) recognize that some of the legacy content available on this website does not reflect the values of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise today. Some older content may reflect ethnic, racial, and gender prejudice that…
Gaming in the Age of Enlightenment
I’m writing this article in the week before America’s Independence Day. And that has me thinking about RPGs set in a Colonial or Revolutionary America. Or during the Age of Enlightenment in general, roughly the 17th and 18th centuries. It occurred to me there’s not a bit of a dearth of RPGs set during that period….
Rolling Boxcars 