The Year of Awesome

Greetings, dear readers, to a brief celebration in honor of Dice Hate Me’s anniversary! It’s been an amazing, wonderfully awesome year, and we are so thankful to our many supporters, peers, and companies for making it possible to live the Dice Hate Me dream. One year ago today, the first game review was posted – an extremely brief look at Red November from Fantasy Flight Games. Seriously, it was so succinct that many of those first few who read it wondered if it qualified as an actual review! Now, a year later, many of you are probably wishing that the reviews around here were half as short as that first one. For better or worse,... Read More

MACE Convention Wrap-up

As many of you dear readers know, I attended a local gaming convention this weekend in Hickory, NC – MACE West, the sister convention to the somewhat-larger MACE held in High Point in November each year. Smaller in no way means that there was less fun to be had, as I and my gaming companions – Michael, Shawn, Scott and Matt – proceeded to play the holy heck out of 11 different games over two and a half days. I was also lucky enough to walk away from the convention with a smorgasboard of gaming goodness; after winning a silent auction, I got great deals on two tickets to Origins Game Fair, as well as the games Infinite City, Mystery... Read More

Magic: The Gathering, or How I Came to Love the Game and Leave the Addiction

As a nifty online experiment, Ben Gerber – of Troll in the Corner – and I came up with a cunning plan, a sort of blogger exchange program. Once a month, Ben and I plan to share our views and musings with the readers of Troll in the Corner and Dice Hate Me. Look for more cross-pollination each and every month, and let us know what you all would like to see in these columns. It was 1995 and I was more than halfway through my undergraduate degree. Nirvana was on the radio. I was an active participant in my college RPG club and I had just moved in to a new apartment with a new roommate. As it so happened, my roommate was not in to RPGs... Read More

Here There Be More Dragons

Last month on Dice Hate Me, we spilled the beans on the newest project over at Clever Mojo Games – Princes of the Dragon Throne. Now – even though this card-drafting game isn’t due out until the end of 2011 – we’re lucky enough to have the first peek at the new card design, as well as some of the fantastic dragon art from trading-card art afficionado Don Aguillo. Check out the sneak peeks below, as well as a special in-house guide to deciphering the dragon cards. We’re not quite sure what it all means yet, but stay tuned to Dice Hate Me for more peeks behind the scenes in the coming months. As usual, click... Read More

Before Nightfall: An Interview with Todd Rowland of AEG

We play a lot of games here at Dice Hate Me, and, therefore, become accustomed to the styles and practices of many different game companies. Recently, one company has risen to the forefront of our attention because of their promising new ventures and their tireless efforts at community outreach – Alderac Entertainment Group. Wanting to know more, we talked with Todd Rowland of AEG and asked him about his role in the company, their upcoming projects – including the horror-themed deck-building game Nightfall – and some of those community outreach programs in which the company strives to participate. Todd Rowland What is your specific... Read More

Races of Twilight Imperium

Space is an awfully big place. In order to fully reflect that, a space boardgame needs to be appropriately-scaled; hence Twilight Imperium, a game that comes in a box as big as a 1980s Hyundai and takes longer to play than it takes Frodo and Samwise to walk to the slopes of Mordor. Twilight Imperium is not for the attention-deficit crowd, nor is it for the non-committed gamers who would rather fast-deal a set of 5 or 6 card games in an hour. However, for those who few gamers who love a good challenge and are committed to excellence, TI:3 can provide one of the most epic board game experiences anyone is likely to encounter. This weekend, I’m... Read More

The Pros and Cons of Cons

Ah, Summer. Tis the season of spray-on tans, silicon, shiny smiles and sparsely-clad young sprites – all crammed into hundreds of ten-foot cubicles, peddling the geekiest things on the planet. Yes, people, tis the season of the booth babe, and thus the season of the Cons. With Comic-Con kicking off its 40th year of grandiose festivities, I thought it was the perfect time to take a look at the good, the bad and the ugly of some of geek culture’s greatest yearly conventions. Consider this a primer for the uninitiated. Feel free to clip and save, people. Origins (late June) You'd better hope you roll high on your plague saving throw... Read More