4th October
Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we’ve been playing over the past few days. This week, we’re preoccupied with castles, it seems. We visit one in real-life and then we make a few in make-believe land. We also show our appreciation for the sheer coolness of a brand new super-violent action game.
What have you been playing?
Catch up with the older editions of this column in our What We’ve Been Playing archive.
Dungeons & Dragons’ new rules, tabletop
My obsession with Dungeons & Dragons continues, and there’s a lot that’s been going on in that world of late. Number one: I went to a castle to play it. My partner and I drove all the way up to a place called Brackenhill Tower, near Carlisle, which is pretty much on the Scottish border, to play D&D fairly solidly for two days, with our newish Chaotic Questers group (shameless plug: we stream). It was lovely to meet them in person and it was lovely to play in person rather than online – there’s definitely a difference. However, the trip was sullied somewhat by our car breaking down on the way back, stranding us in Preston, then needing to be scrapped shortly after. We rolled a natural one.
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The other big thing that’s been going on is that Dungeons & Dragons has evolved and a new version of the game has come out. Well, sort of. A new Player’s Handbook has come out, which is one of the core rulebooks, and which tells you how to play, but without the new Dungeon Master’s guide, due out this month, and the new Monster Manual due out early next year I think, the entire core rule set isn’t complete. Nevertheless, we are on new ground, and I excitedly read through the 2024 Player’s Handbook recently. Alas, I was a bit underwhelmed.