D&D

On this episode of the Tavern Watch Podcast, we're talking about the return to Strixhaven (where their undergraduates can now prepare spells like D&D Wizards), some of our upcoming favorite crowdfunding projects -- among them the multiplayer expansion to Ion Heart, Austin Walker's debut game Realis, and the genre-straddling Cypher System megadungeon Jewel in the Sky -- and also how when you leave fans alone with high-quality free products they'll do things like convert the core rules of Ars Magica into the easy to read and use Markdown format.

On this episode of the Tavern Watch Podcast, the team gets a win -- a win in naming things, it turns out, as Wizards of the Coast (in addition to finally announcing some products for 2026) also has started referring to the 2024 revision of D&D as "D&D 5.5e." Considering it ended up being more a balance update than the massive revolution in tabletop gaming that we were originally sold, we're all of the opinion this is for the better (and is easier to say, to boot).

Keeping things tense and exciting in tabletop games without just resorting to throwing the players into a fight is a central part of our discussion today on Tavern Watch -- we're talking torches burning down in Shadowdark or Crows, using the spotlight like a TV show director to keep things tense in Monster of the Week, or the Chaos mechanic in Triangle Agency that makes every roll a balancing act.

ThunderCats was one of the big names in animated 1980's toy commercials disguised as children's entertainment, and soon it will have its own TTRPG.

It's the beginning of one year and the end of the next here on Tavern Watch, and so we're both looking back with fond remembrance on the games we played this year (including the ones we played on Tavern Watch Plays, which you should check out!) and the ones due to come out next year.

We're entering the winter doldrums of game scheduling, and many of our TTRPG adventures have been coming to a halt (or at least a slow) for the winter due to the difficulty of getting this many adults in a room, even a virtual one, for the holidays.

DMsGuild is calling all TTRPG content creators to participate in their premiere game jam, an event where you can create and submit themed Dungeons and Dragons-compatible content to DMsGuild starting October 1 and ending November 2, with a large release of all submitted content on November 4 at 2pm pacific time.

Ever since Critical Role announced campaign 4, we've obsessed over one question: what's everyone playing?

Dropout TV's Brennan Lee Mulligan is formally the Game Master for Critical Role's fourth campaign coming in October 2025.

Dragon Delves is the newest Dungeons & Dragons release and the first content to utilize the new 2024 rules and stat blocks.