Since its inception decades ago, the tabletop roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons has offered an escape from the real world, the chance to enter distant realms, walk in new shoes, and be part of immersive, imaginative tales as they unfold. More so, in Thom James Carter’s opinion, it’s a perfect vessel for queer exploration and joy. Journey on, adventurer, as Dungeon Master Thom invites readers into the game’s exciting queer, utopian possibilities, traversing its history and contemporary evolution, the queer potential resting within gameplay, the homebrewers making it their own, stories from fellow players, and the power to explore and examine identity and how people want to lead their lives in real and imagined worlds alike. Grab a sword and get your dice at the ready, this queer adventure is about to begin. (This book is unofficial and unaffiliated with properties Wizards of the Coast and Dungeons & Dragons.)

Is your roleplaying in a rut? Flip the table and try something new! Proactive roleplaying will re-energize your players – and your game.

Most adventures in traditional TTRPGs start out the same way: Something bad happens and your players have to muster their courage to stand against it. Whether it’s rescuing the little dog that was kidnapped by the local troll, stopping an assassination attempt at the archduke’s wedding or recruiting an army to disrupt the construction of a world-ending ritual site, the party will always find a way to save the day. After all, what kind of heroes would they be if they let the dog, duke or entire population die? Saving the day is fun, but it starts to get repetitive after a while. If you’re using a “bad guys try to do stuff, good guys try to stop them” engine to drive all your sessions, you’re taking all the agency out of your players’ hands. Bad stuff happens, good people have to try to stop it, roll, rinse, repeat.

There’s a better way to play (and prep) your sessions. The Game Master’s Handbook of Proactive Roleplaying shows you how to convert your TTRPG gameplay from predictable action/reaction cliches to player-driven narratives that put all the choices (and most of the prep work) in the hands of your players. The goals are theirs. The decisions are theirs. Everything that happens in the world you’re building together occurs not because you planned it, but because the PCs are following their own paths, rather than Game Master breadcrumbs, to the scene of the next adventure.

The proactive approach ensures every battle has tension, every faction has a function and every session is high-stakes (and an absolute blast), putting the players and their characters in the driver’s seat so you can sit back and simply put giant goal- (and soul-) crushing roadblocks in their way.

You’ll also find:

• Foreword by Ginny Di with an afterword by Jeff Ashworth
• Writer’s block-breaking charts
• Case studies from decades of sessions
• Templates for goal-driven NPCs and factions
• A modular adventure setting and much more!

The Game Master's Handbook of Proactive Roleplaying is compatible with your favorite 5th edition Fantasy Tabletop RPGs!

Will you escape the dangers of Azeroth? Will you escape the dangers of Azeroth? You have 60 minutes to break free of the chains that bind and the evils that threaten the World of Warcraft (R)! Play as honorable members of the Horde and the Alliance and overcome obstacles before time runs out! Stop the spread of Professor Putricide's plague of undeath in his bizarre laboratory, dodge devilsaurs in Un'Goro Crater, and restore order to Karazhan before the tower collapses! Featuring three different scenarios with three difficulty levels: easy, medium, and challenging. Will you be unshackled? Or will time seal your fate?

Global esports explores the recent surge of esports in the global scene and comprehensively discusses people's understanding of this spectacle. By historicizing and institutionalizing esports, the contributors analyze the rapid growth of esports and its implications in culture and digital economy. Dal Yong Jin curates a discussion as to why esports has become a global phenomenon. From games such as Spacewar to Starcraft to Overwatch, a key theme, distinguishing this collection from others, is a potential shift of esports from online to mobile gaming. The book addresses why many global game players and fans play and enjoy online and mobile games in professional game competitions, and therefore, they investigate the manner in which the transfer to, from and between online and mobile gaming culture is occurring in a specific subset of global youth. The remaining focus identifies the major platforms used to enjoy esports, including broadcasting and smartphones. By analyzing these unexamined or less-discussed agendas, this book sheds light on the current debates on the growth of global esports culture.

Welcome to Dungeon Academy, where monsters and creatures train for the dark world that awaits just beyond the Dungeon walls. Something BIG has come knocking on the gates of Dungeon Academy! The undefeated Waterdeep Dragons have arrived for the Tourney of Terror games, which happens every fifty years and features every monster's favourite sport: Goreball! The Dungeon Academy Flumphs are outnumbered, outsized, and outmonstered! But our hero, Zelli Stormclash (a forbidden human, secretly disguised as a minotaur), is no stranger to impossible odds. Just a few weeks ago, Zelli and her crew, the Danger Club, came face-to-face with a maniacal necromancer and his army of undead! If this wasn't enough to raise scales Zelli's reoccurring nightmare of a dark entity annihilating her world may be more than just a bad dream. Something sinister is lurking in the halls of the academy, and only Zelli seems to notice. But when Zelli uncovers a dark past hidden beneath Dungeon Academy, she unlocks something that will concern everyone at school, every dragon at Waterdeep, and everything within the Forgotten Realms. Get ready for humor, heart, magic, and adventure as middle graders and beyond learn to embrace who they are, accept others' differences, and discover the hidden secrets that dwell deep within themselves, and within Dungeon Academy!

Are you the hero that will end the reign of the evil Arch-Illager?

Journey through the world of Minecraft Dungeons in this exciting sticker and activity book, where you'll spot dangerous mobs, protect innocent villagers and unleash a horde of heroes to fight back the sprawl of evil.

Packed with stickers and activities like mazes, sudokus and spot-the-difference, this book has hours of fun that only a worthy hero will be able to complete.

Whisper & Venom Compendium Deluxe Hardcover Whisper & Venom is a complete adventure for fantasy RPG's. Intriguing design and immersive gameplay are showcased in elegant writing. It is suitable for any classic fantasy role-playing game system.

Science Fiction Hobby Games serves as a history and guide to tabletop gaming franchises set in original science-fictional milieux. Its subject is the pen and paper role playing games and model and counter based wargames that preceded modern videogames and still evolve alongside them, as well as the gamebooks, board games, card games and postal games that are their less famous cousins. Included are detailed critical overviews of more than a hundred fantastical universes published between 1969 and 2013, along with essays on popular types of tabletop game and the natures of their settings and stories. Throughout, sf games are treated as an integral part of the long history of science fiction, and as a new way of enabling its explorations of the future and other worlds. Based on the author's contributions to the Hugo Award winning third edition of the Clute and Nicholls Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, this book contains an extra 20,000 words on additional games and other topics, specially written for this new version of the text.

This book addresses the ongoing scientific debates regarding video games and their effects on players. The book features opposing perspectives and offers point and counterpoint exchanges in which researchers on both sides of a specific topic make their best case for their findings and analysis. Chapters cover both positive and negative effects of video games on players' behavior and cognition, from contributing to violence and alienation to promoting therapeutic outcomes for types of cognitive dysfunction. The contrasting viewpoints model presents respectful scientific debate, encourages open dialogue, and allows readers to come to informed conclusions. Key questions addressed include: * Do violent video games promote violence? * Does video game addiction exist? * Should parents limit children's use of interactive media? * Do action video games promote visual attention? * Does sexist content in video games promote misogyny in real life? * Can video games slow the progress of dementia? * Are video games socially isolating? Video Game Influences on Aggression, Cognition, and Attention is a must-have resource for researchers, clinicians and professionals as well as graduate students in developmental psychology, social work, educational policy and politics, criminology/criminal justice, child and school psychology, sociology, media law, and other related disciplines.

What was it that got you through the Covid-19 pandemic? For some it was long walks; others turned to home baking. For millions it was video games, a booming industry which exploded in popularity over the pandemic years. Confined to our homes and with the lines of reality becoming blurred as everyday life shifted to screens, perhaps it was no wonder that so many of us were desperate to be transported to different worlds. In Playing with Reality: Gaming in a Pandemic, journalist and presenter Alex Humphreys, a passionate gamer herself, investigates this extraordinary boom in the gaming industry. Charting its rise, Alex interviews players and developers, sharing a glimpse of what was going on behind closed doors as studios closed and games were finished from home. Playing with Reality explores exactly what it was that made gaming a lifeline for so many, and what the future holds as we look to the metaverse.

Celebrate your campaigns and conquests with these 75 fun, RPG-inspired cocktail recipes your whole gaming group will love! Make your next gaming adventure even more fun with this collection of 75 RPG-inspired cocktails! Featuring fantasy-themed libations from the boozy Dragon the Beach and a Potion of Strength to a sneaky Stealth Check shot and a Never Split the Party Punch, you'll keep spirits high and your friends happy during your next dungeon-crawling tabletop adventure. Complete with easy-to-follow, accessible instructions, Dungeonmeister also includes funny jokes and hilarious asides that will take your campaign (or your next gathering) to the next level!

In Orlandes City, nobles are being systematically murdered by a ruthless assassin no-one seems able to catch. Finding yourself thrust into the middle of a large conspiracy, you must make decisions that may put yourself and another most precious to you in great danger. Can you locate the Assassin in Orlandes before it is too late?

Punish or put your dice in a time-out when they roll critical fails or put your friends (and yourself) in danger with the Mini Dice Dungeon. * LIGHT-UP DICE DUNGEON: Includes a 3 inch mini dungeon with LED light feature in green * SPECIAL BRANDED D20: A translucent d20 branded with the D&D ampersand for the 20 * ILLUSTRATED MINI BOOK INCLUDED: With tips, advice, and the basics of dice care, and tear-out shame cards * PERFECT GIFT FOR D&D FANS: Display on a shelf, desk, or bookcase and show off your love of Dungeons & Dragons * OFFICIALLY LICENSED: Authentic Dungeons & Dragons collectible Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, their respective logos, and the dragon ampersand, are registered trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC. (c)2021 Wizards of the Coast. All rights reserved.

Learn how to paint exciting miniature creatures and elevate your tabletop experience, with Arcane Arts. Professional miniature painter and instructor Noxweiler Berf has created an immersive guide to painting miniatures for tabletop games. In his engaging and playful style, Berf demystifies the miniature painting process for the beginner and offers new perspectives and encouragement for advancing hobbyists. The guide offers the reader a number of milestone "quests" that will take them from the first steps of selecting a miniature figure, to understanding the visual cues that come from their choice of color and texture, to even developing scenic basing and preparing your miniature for game-play.

A new world beckons... Ancient magic flows through the grimy streets of Lawbrand's bustling Trade-Cities. Tensions between the ruling Sularian Church and the new generation of upstart adventurers threaten to ignite a firestorm of societal upheaval. In the wilds beyond Lawbrand's borders. Long-forgotten races and newly formed cults rise to claim their own territories - and exert their will upon civilization. And beneath it all, the ancient World-Serpent, Auroboros, awakens to devour all...

Eat delicious snacks and game-friendly meals in between dice rolls and encounters with this easy-to-follow RPG themed cookbook perfect for every game group. Feed your gamer group with this collection of 75 game-friendly bar bites, finger foods, and easy-to-share meals. With recipes from the passable Goodberries Baked Cheese-wrapped dates to the one-handed Dragon on a Stick Easy-Eat Meat Skewers to the player-favorite Inspiration Points Peanut Butter White Chocolate Pretzels, this cookbook has you covered for any game night adventure. Complete with easy-to-follow recipes and the wit and wisdom of the authors of A Dragon Walks into a Bar and Dungeonmeister, this book will hit the spot for hungry fighters, spellcasters, and anyone else at the table. Additional recipes include: -Goblintzes-Cheese Blintzes -Genasi's Delight-Masala Peanuts -Remarkably Movable Rods-Candied Bacon -The Picked Pocket-Hamburger Stuffed Rolls -Healing Words-Lavender Cupcakes with Honey Frosting -Shards of Elemental Chaos-Candy Bark -Hex Grid Cookies-Map-Based Sugar Cookies