For Johan Huizinga, play is the motor of humanity's cultural development, and it has accompanied us through history. However, since the late 20th century, its influence has been more pervasive than ever before, and gamification has become a buzzword in social and cultural life. Hand in hand with this cultural turn, theories of Postmodernism emerged, also privileging interactive playful behavior. If play drives culture, understanding it is therefore understanding culture in Postmodern times. Many of the core concepts of Postmodern thought also inform the new medium of the pen&paper role-playing game that coalesced at about the same time as Postmodern theories, a symptom of and feeding into the processes of cultural change. Analyzing these language games beyond their entertainment value shows how current socio-political conditions affect the shifting dynamic and mutual relationship between individual and society. A deep exploration of the complex interrelationship between narrative, game, players, and society raises questions of authority, agency, and responsibility that provide insights into the crisis of engagement that we see in our societies, while at the same time offering a new and original appreciation of the socio-political potential in games as the leading medium of the 21st century.

The barrier between worlds has shattered. Now, the Dark Judges have returned to exact judgement on Mega-City One. The city is guilty. The crime is life. The sentence is death. The Dark Judges can be played as a team in any game of Helter Skelter, or one player can face off against them in a solo game. Requires a copy of Judge Dredd: Helter Skelter to play. Number of players: 1-4 Ages: 14+ Playing time: 30-60 minutes Components: 4 miniatures, 5 oversized cards, 39 playing cards, tokens

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

Recreate the action and drama of 17th Century warfare on your tabletop with The Pikeman's Lament. Start by creating your Officer - is he a natural leader raised from the ranks, the youngest son of a noble family, or an old veteran who has seen too many battles? As you campaign, your Officer will win honour and gain promotion, acquiring traits that may help lead his men to victory. Before each skirmish, your Officer must raise his Company from a wide range of unit options - should he lean towards hard-hitting heavy cavalry or favour solid, defensively minded infantry? Companies are typically formed from 6-8 units, each made up of either 6 or 12 figures, and quick, decisive, and dramatic games are the order of the day. With core mechanics based on Daniel Mersey's popular Lion Rampant rules, The Pikeman's Lament captures the military flavour of the 17th Century, and allows you to recreate skirmishes and raids from conflicts such as the Thirty Years' War, the English Civil Wars, and the Great Northern War.

This book describes the creation of a wargames' army and provides essential guidance for someone starting out in wargaming through to the more experienced gamer. With over 290 colour photographs, it describes how the armies of the main nations - France, Britain, Russia, Prussia and Austria - were organized. It illustrates the uniforms and battle formations using computer-aided plans. Practical modelling techniques are demonstrated from basic to more advanced. It provides detailed painting guides with accompanying step-by-step photographs, and finally, there is a chapter on the flags carried by these five armies during the wars.

Players: 2-4
Ages: 14+
Playing Time: 30-60 minutes
Contents: Double-Sided Playing Board

Travel into the further reaches of the Wildlands with this new set of maps. Introduce further wrinkles to your game via magical portals which help you rush around the map, or fissures which will slow your progress. Players will have to adapt to their new surroundings if they ever hope to get ahead.

This map expansion for Wildlands adds a new double-sided board to the game, featuring new opportunities and obstacles, and can be used in conjunction with the faction expansions.

This map pack requires a copy of Wildlands to play.

The genius and artistry behind Superbrothers and the making of an indie video game, from inception to its highly anticipated launch. Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery was released in 2011 at the forefront of an exciting era of "indie games" - with the aesthetic of punk rock and the edge of modernist fiction, indie games pushed gaming into the realm of the avant-garde. Superbrothers (Craig D. Adams) was hailed as a visionary in the video game world. Now, his long-awaited follow-up, JETT: The Far Shore, has been released for Sony PlayStation and Epic Games Store. In the decade from inception to launch, Adams brought author Adam Hammond along for the ride, allowing unprecedented insight into the complicated genesis of Jett. The Far Shore offers a portrait of the enigmatic Adams and his team, the genius and artistry, the successes and setbacks, that went into building the world of JETT, in which you're tasked with scouting a new home for a humanoid people after they've decimated their planet. To provide context, Hammond recounts the history of indie games and how their trajectory has followed that of independent art and literature. A riveting insider's look at one of our most popular art forms.

Since Dracula's rise to power a shadow has swept across the nation, but nowhere is it darker than in the Deep South. Throughout the plantations, swamps, and cities, rumours abound of grotesque rituals, hooded figures, and bizarre creatures. Most terrifying of all, however, are the whispers of ancient magic - unspeakable arcane rituals and occult powers that can lead those who wield them towards mystical supremacy. or reduce them to gibbering wrecks.

This new supplement for Dracula's America: Shadows of the West introduces two new factions: the corrupt cultists of the Church of Dagon and the Salem Sisterhood, occult practitioners whose history dates back to the early Colonies. New stealth rules allow for all manner of sneaky and underhanded tactics, while expanded rules for arcane powers offer glory but could cost you your sanity. Alongside these are a host of new scenarios, Hired Guns, monsters, skills, and gear to challenge or assist those who dare venture into the Deep South of Dracula's America.

There is an unseen world all around you. On the streets and in the halls of power, in your dreams and across the bizarre planes of the multiverse, there are those who walk among us like giants among ants, twisting reality to their wills in their search for ancient knowledge. Now pull back the curtain of the mundane world and learn the secrets of these occult masters-if you dare! Pathfinder RPG Occult Adventures is an indispensable companion to the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. This imaginative tabletop game builds upon over 15 years of system development and an Open Playtest featuring more than 50,000 gamers to create a cutting-edge RPG experience that brings the all-time best-selling set of fantasy rules into a new era. Pathfinder RPG Occult Adventures includes: * Six new occult base classes-the energy-shaping kineticist, the spirit-calling medium, the deceptive mesmerist, the mind-bending psychic, the uncanny occultist, and the phantom-binding spiritualist. * Archetypes for all of the new classes, as well as a broad selection of strange and mysterious archetypes and class options for existing characters. * New feats to flesh out your occult character, plus a whole new way to use existing skills to become a master of faith healing, hypnotism, psychometry, and more! * More than 100 spells using the all-new psychic magic system, plus rituals that grant even non-spellcasting characters occult power! Explore worlds beyond imagining with dream voyage, or defend yourself from mental threats with tower of iron will! * Rules and advice to help you steep your game in the occult, from chakras and deadly mindscapes to possession, psychic duels, and the Esoteric Planes. * A wide variety of new magic items, such as the eerie spirit mirror and the peculiar tin cap, plus new cursed items and powerful artifacts. * ... and much, much more!

Covering the fiercely contested US sectors of D-Day, including the beaches of Omaha and Utah, this new Campaign Book for Bolt Action allows players to refight the fierce American beach landings, beach head breakouts, and Airborne assaults. New, linked scenarios, rules, troop types, and Theatre Selectors provide plenty of options for both novice and veteran players alike.

Hoping to find a way to fight back against the alien, insectoid Swarm, the heroes travel to a distant world already consumed by the deadly invaders. They soon discover they aren't alone in their struggles when they meet a handful of resistance fighters on the ravaged planet. With the group's help, the heroes strike against a massive Swarm creature that is draining the world's resources dry and infiltrate an infested university to search for a dead professor's research that could lead to mythical holy site to the insect goddess Hylax and the secret to defeating the Swarm once and for all! "Huskworld" is a Starfinder Roleplaying Game adventure for four 5th-level characters. This adventure continues the Attack of the Swarm! Adventure Path, a six-part, monthly campaign in which the heroes fight back against a ruthless and nigh-unstoppable foe. This volume also includes a selection of relics from a devastated star system, a study of regions that have survived attacks by the Swarm, and a selection of new Swarm monsters and other alarming threats. Each monthly full-color softcover Starfinder Adventure Path volume contains a new installment of a series of interconnected science-fantasy quests that together create a fully developed plot of sweeping scale and epic challenges. Each 64-page volume of the Starfinder Adventure Path also contains in-depth articles that detail and expand the Starfinder campaign setting and provide new rules, a host of exciting new monsters and alien races, a new planet to explore and starship to pilot, and more!

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.

More Monsters, More Mayhem! More than 300 menacing monsters and fearsome foes await within this compendium of creatures from the world of Pathfinder! From classic adversaries like giants, dragons, and the jabberwock to potential allies and servants suitable for summoners of every alignment, this must-have expansion to the Pathfinder Bestiary seethes with enemies to challenge characters of any level.

The Ardennes, 1944. Driven back by the Allies since D-Day, Germany launches a surprise offensive on the Western Front. This assault against the unprepared Allied lines is the opening move in one of the largest battles of World War II. This new Campaign Book for Bolt Action allows players to take command of both armies in this desperate battle, fighting it as they believe it should have been fought. New, linked scenarios, rules, troop types and Theatre Selectors provide plenty of options for novice and veteran players alike.

With more than 300 classic and brand-new monsters, this 320-page beautifully illustrated hardcover rulebook completes the collection of creatures begun in the first two Pathfinder Bestiary volumes. From classic creatures like clockworks and tooth fairies, returning favorites like imperial dragons and mighty titans, to brand-new menaces found all over Golarion, this must-have tome of monsters designed to challenge characters of any level is an essential companion to your Pathfinder game! This deluxe special edition is bound in faux leather with metallic deboss cover elements and a bound-in ribbon bookmark. The perfect way to commemorate Pathfinder's new edition! (Cover color and design subject to change.)

The crew of the Oliphaunt have been living paycheck to paycheck for too long; now they've got a chance to become richer than they've ever imagined... by stealing one of the Kalistocracy's legendary treasure barges! But this heist turns out to be more than anyone bargained for when the crew ends up stranded on a hidden resort in the Drift where Kalistocrats outbid each other for the plundered wealth of the galaxy. The only way off this rock is to win the auction, steal the keys to the commerce barge, and outrun both the competition and the law! "The White Glove Affair" is a Starfinder adventure for four 7th-level characters. This adventure continues the Fly Free or Die Adventure Path, a six-part monthly campaign in which players take on the role of a merchant crew with an experimental starship, trying to get rich, escape interplanetary assassins, and outwit their rivals. This volume also includes a series of "Side Jobs"-short mini-adventures the GM can insert into the campaign at any time-and shines a spotlight on the Prophecies of Kalistrade, including the golden commerce barges that carry their treasure off to Fortune's Heart, a secret auction house in the Drift. Each monthly full-color softcover Starfinder Adventure Path volume contains a new installment of a series of interconnected science-fantasy quests that together create a fully developed plot of sweeping scale and epic challenges. Each 64-page volume of the Starfinder Adventure Path also contains in-depth articles that detail and expand the Starfinder campaign setting and provide new rules, a host of exciting new monsters and alien races, a new planet to explore and starship to pilot, and more!

With Duel in the Sun, players can take command of the doughty Desert Rats of Montgomery's 8th Army, the fast-moving and hard-hitting raiders of the Long Range Desert Army (LRDG), or Rommel's mighty Afrika Korps, to recreate some of the most iconic battles of World War II - Operations Compass, Crusader and Torch, Tobruk, and Alamein, amongst others. Offering scenarios, special rules and new troop types, this Theatre Book for Bolt Action also takes players across the Mediterranean from North Africa, where they can follow the Italian Campaign from the invasion of Sicily, through the battles for Anzio and Cassino, to the final assaults on the Gothic Line.

Far from the battlefields of Europe and North Africa, Allied forces fought a very different war against another foe, from the jungles of Burma to the islands of the Pacific and the shores of Australia. This new Theatre Book for Bolt Action allows players to command the spearhead of the lightning Japanese conquests in the East or to fight tooth and nail as Chindits, US Marines and other Allied troops to halt the advance and drive them back. Scenarios, special rules and new units give players everything they need to recreate the ferocious battles and campaigns of the Far East, from Guadalcanal to Okinawa, Singapore, the Philippines, Iwo Jima and beyond.

The Pathfinder Society is a globe-trotting organization of adventurers, scholars, and warriors all dedicated to exploration, collecting lost knowledge and treasure, and sharing it with the world. Lost Omens: Pathfinder Society Guide details everything players and GMs need to know about the Pathfinder Society, from the basics of membership, to the Society's various factions, to the various lodges littered throughout the Inner Sea region. This book is the go-to source for the history and lore of the Pathfinder Society and features new rules content including new equipment, wayfinders, and support for Pathfinder-related archetypes! A useful book in its own right, this helpful volume is a must-have for participants in Paizo's massive Pathfinder Society worldwide organized play campaign, and a great way to get involved in the international campaign! Written by: Kate Baker, James Case, John Compton, Vanessa Hoskins, Mike Kimmel, Ron Lundeen, Dennis Muldoon, kieran t. newton, Michael Sayre, Clark Valentine, Tonya Woldridge, and Linda Zayas-Palmer

Hold a galaxy of science-fantasy worlds in your fingertips with the Starfinder Deck of Many Worlds!

Arriving in a new system and curious about who (and what) lives there? Want a unique home planet for your player character?

Simply combine a few random cards from this 110-card deck to generate one of millions of possible worlds, complete with physical statistics, resident creatures, and much more—including intriguing story hooks that spur countless science-fantasy adventures!

The second title in The Paperboys on Campaign series, some 46 pages of artwork enabling you to make French, British, Portuguese, Spanish, and several other countries' troops which fought for and against the Iron Duke in his epic campaign against Napoleon's forces.

Take a look back at the last 12 months of Dungeons & Dragons Discover all there is to know about the latest campaigns, explore legendary locations and brush up on fearsome monsters you might meet on your adventures. With activities, interviews with awesome podcasters and streamers and more epic content, this will keep fans rolling for another twelve months.

The ultimate guide to the blockbuster Assassin's Creed game franchise. This richly illustrated guide is the definitive guide to the blockbuster Assassin's Creed game series. Packed with information on characters, technology, locations, historical settings, storylines, organisations, and backstory, this guide encompasses the whole franchise to date and is essential reading for fans and newcomers alike.

In the years between 1776 and 1815, grand square-rigged sailing ships dominated warfare on the high seas. Fighting Sail is a tabletop wargame of fleet battles in this age of canvas, cannon, and timbers. Players take on the roles of fleet admirals in battles ranging from the American War of Independence to the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. Each fleet has access to different ships, tactics, and command personalities - each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Offering a unique blend of detail and simplicity, the scenarios included enable the recreation of historic actions or 'what-if' scenarios. Join the battle and experience the adventurous age of the fighting sail!