Articles > Rants & Raves

F:AT looks back at the state of fantasy, adventure games (this article was originally published March 9, 2009). Fantasy role-playing games have an irresistible, almost fatal attraction for me. It stems from my childhood exposure to Tolkien, I have no doubt and fantasy role-playing was where I started my exposure to hobby games in general, and remained the focus of my hobby time for many years. I delight in the mythic quality of the settings, the feeling of magic and mystery that pervades (as contrasted to cold, mechanical science fiction), the evocation of a world...

Every community, no matter how big or how small, has its founding myths, a filter through which it comes partly to define itself. For what is, after all, a relatively small community, The Fortress seems to have rather a lot of them. I’m not sure quite why this should be the case, but after having had a user suggest it might be of interest to some of our newer members to go over how this site came to be, and not being one to pass up an excuse to bang my own drum, I figured to might be a...

The continuing nightmare saga that started with my son lighting my house on fire is coming to a close, and has allowed me to come up with a few tips for potential disaster victims that I would like to share. Hopefully most of you will never have any need of these little tips, because hopefully none of you will have something terrible happen to your house that forces you to live in a crappy rent house owned by an Armenian immigrant who thinks 'slumlord' is a term of endearment.

Neverr again...in RL, at least. On the Table I actually don’t have anything to review this week. The tide has waned, at last. I’m not running on empty- I got a package from the fine folks at Stronghold containing their very awesome-looking Revolver and the very Citadels-looking Lost Temple. Both should be reviewed shortly- maybe even next week since they’re smaller titles and I can probably get in a bunch of plays between Hellfire Club and some home sessions. Destined Hero is coming up too.

Regular readers will by now be familiar with my personal tale of the woe which, as a nascent board game hobbyist, arose out of the difference in what I’d been lead to believe Eurogames represented, and what they actually are. I’ll wager that many users on this site could tell you a similar story of disappointment so I won’t go over it again in its entirety. But one of the key things I took away from learning about early Eurogames is that, potentially, they were family games that most people could learn, play, and enjoy. ...

When I was a little boy, I loved playing Monopoly. It’s quite clear from the stories and memories that you hear from a lot of board gamers (and pretty much anyone for that matter) that a lot of people hated the game as children. It’s also pretty clear if you look at the mechanics that a lot of this hate is due to misguided but extremely common house rules like pooling fine money on Free Parking and allowing anyone that lands there to collect it. We didn’t use any of those house rules, and that certainly is a big...

I have failed. This week, I've failed to file some new material. Sorry about that. So instead I present to you this Arkham Horror session report from my archives. The opening line should tell you just how old it is, since I've played 20+ games of Arkham. Normal service resumed next week, I hope. This was my fourth solo attempt at Arkham Horror, with one of my previous three games ending in success by beating back the ancient one when it appeared. I'd heard a lot of advice that it was worth trying the game with...

Last week I got to play a game for the first time that just bowled me over with the quality of its presentation. This isn’t about overproduction, or artwork, just a simple appreciation that laid out on the table in active play the thing was a veritable feast for the senses, a smorgasbord of texture, colour and sculpture. So it inspired me to have think about what my favourite looking games of all time were. What titles draw admiring looks from gamers and non-gamers alike when they’re laid out of the table and being played in a flurry...

So, we are come to the start of a new year. I did my wrap for 2011 with a run down of what I thought were the five best games although, sadly, I wasn’t able to play two of the big-name contenders Eclipse and Mage Knight that were released right at the end of the year and which might have altered my list somewhat. But I thought it might still be interesting to have a quick look at some numbers regarding the games I’ve played this last year, and what I hope to have lined up for 2012. ...

That's right, guys and gals...another year has gone by, and it's time to let YOU the readers weigh in on this year's favorites.  This was an incredibly loaded year for great games.  How will your faves stack up this year?  It's time for you to VOTE!