There was a recent article in the Guardian about how playing Dungeons and Dragons had helped siblings bond and cope with the death of their father. It got me thinking about the role that role-playing has played (now there's a phrase) in my own life.

For me role-playing began ...

In designing a good villain character there's a wide range of paths one can follow. From the grandiose villains that want to take over the world and live in volcano islands, waiting for the hero to fall into their elaborate death trap to humanized villains with complex backstories that ...

There is nothing more humbling against human hubris than Nature herself.

Even at humanity's peak expansion, technology, sophistication, education, or intelligence, all it takes for its eradication is for the earth to sneeze in just the right way.

Nature cannot be beaten or tamed. It can only be appeased ...

Diamond Comic Distributors has gone bankrupt. As someone who once worked in a comic book shop, back in the 80s and 90s, it was something of a shock. I came over all nostalgic for their blue logo. I still have a number of cardboard boxes crammed with comics that have ...

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We're chatting about the comics you liked as a little kiddo this week! The topic was inspired by a thread in the DD forums. This is always a fun topic and I always have to mention ...

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We're talking about how technology and design changes so much over the years and how that can change things with plot in story and it can also help pinpoint the date of something sometimes better than ...

It’s time for another Character Deep Dive, this within the amazing political war thriller The Second Crimean War by the awesome and proliferate The Doodler!

The Second Crimean War is an alternate history webcomic, of a different 1995 where, after the collapse of the USSR, the emerging, independent Ukraine ...

There's a difference between a Christmas Special and a Christmas Movie. While the Movie is written around Christmas (or Hannukah or any other Yule-season holiday), the Christmas Special forces the show to be written around Christmas whether it likes it or not.

The hilarity ensues when it falls in ...

It's been a very tough week (as per usual these past few weeks) and I've been sitting here staring at the blank screen of my computer trying to think of a topic to write about for the newspost.

And I got nothing. I keep drawing blanks. I have ...

How do you make a clever character stupid?

You give them an infatuation. A fixation. Something that completely overrides their critical thinking and better judgment. Something that drives them nuts like a switch is thrown.

And when that happens, they're dumber than a bag of rocks. (And they're ...