Matthew Rossi

It's been a rough year.

When you're planning to write your own unique Dungeons & Dragons campaign rather than a pre-made, fully-realized campaign -- also referred to as homebrew -- it can be incredibly fun to go hog wild on the worldbuilding.

Man, I really love Arcane. The only way this show could be better is if everyone was a dinosaur.

The past year has been pretty rocky, but there have been some things I’ve objectively enjoyed this year. Cyberpunk 2077 was a top tier favorite game for me in 2021, loved that. Arcane was super great, loved watching it. I think Wrath of the Righteous is one of the best CRPG’s ever made and have absolutely loved playing that game. Had a lot of fun playing and running D&D and other TTRPG’s, including a fun homebrew Mass Effect game we did here on the site. And several of Diablo 3‘s Seasons have been great. Plus, all sorts of cool new dinosaur news came out this year, I discovered Your Dinosaurs Are Wrong and kept watching old favorites like Eons.

So yeah, it’s been hard, but there have been some points of light out there.

This is the Queue. It’s the last Wednesday of 2021. I am running on fumes.

Why do I love Illidan as the bad guy of The Burning Crusade more than almost any other villain in World of Warcraft?

We've talked about house rules before, and they are a big part of a DM's journey through learning how to run D&D games.

I know that's assuming you picked any up -- I actually didn't, myself, but I have been playing a lot of games this Holiday season.

In Diablo 3 Season 25, you'll be using the power of the seven Evils against them by collecting Soul Shards that contain a fraction of the Demon Lords' own power.

If you're playing Diablo 3's Season 25, you're probably already hard at work collecting Soul Shards, the Season-only gems that can be socketed in helms and weapons which grant powerful bonuses based on one of the seven Evils.

I am an ardent believer that not only is it fun to play a wide variety of TTRPGs, it can also improve your skill as a player or game master in every system you play.

Yes, this is purely my opinion, art and game quality are both subjective, others may prefer a different game. I know all that. I also know that I’ve now played quite a few Assassin’s Creed games, and for me, the best one hands down is Odyssey. It’s three years old and it’s still the one I play the most, by a long margin. I played and liked Valhalla — Eivor’s a cool protagonist, I have no beef with her — but for me Odyssey is absolutely my favorite of the entire series, and it’s not even close.

And since it’s nearly the end of 2021, I felt like a replay was in order. So I’m back flinging myself off cliffs, playing the new DLC for both Odyssey and Valhalla, and generally having a grand time doing it.