Recent content by Allen Varney

An Innocent at Essen In 2010 the world's largest tabletop gaming event, Germany's annual Essen Game Fair, overwhelmed our novice correspondent. Prepare for this year's Spiel by seeing where he went wrong. Read Full Article

The Escapist's Bold Experiment Many industry insiders thought that it wouldn't work, including some of its contributors. Allen Varney eats his words as he speaks to the founders of The Escapist and learns the history of the magazine and what has made it the mouthpiece of the gaming generation...

Jane McGonigal Lives the Game Suffering from a concussion, the noted designer of Alternate Reality Games tested her theories by turning her own recovery into a game. In this profile, Allen Varney expresses why Jane McGonigal could be the first game designer nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize...

Days of High Adventure: Satanic Panic Allen Varney gives an in-depth look at the ridiculous moral panic surrounding the "Satanic" Dungeons & Dragons in the 1980s. Read Full Article

Honoring the Man Who Started Everything There are two competing factions of the Gygax family who disagree on how to properly memorialize the life and work of the inventor of D&D. Somehow both groups have lost sight of the fact that, as Allen Varney explains, the entire roleplaying industry is...

Rolemaster, Puppetmaster, Catan Master: Pete Fenlon From drawing the world of Tolkien for Middle-earth Role Playing and designing Rolemaster to fostering the spread of Settlers of Catan, few people have had an impact on tabletop gaming as Peter Fenlon. Read Full Article

Behind the Masks of Nyarlathotep: Larry DiTillio Allen Varney spotlights Larry DiTillio, designer of the prestigious Masks of Nyarlathotep adventure. Read Full Article

Batmanalyzed Batman is one of the most fascinating, multifaceted superheroes in all of comics ... as long as you don't think about him too much. Allen Varney digs a bit too deeply into the Batman Mythos and unearths some rather unpleasant character traits in the process. Read Full Article

A Perpetual Traveller - Marc Miller Allen Varney interviews Marc Miller, the man behind the Traveller games. Read Full Article

Gaming's Renaissance Man Paul Jaquays is the most prominent and influential game designer you've never heard of. Read Full Article

An Offer You Can't Refuse According to Zynga's figures, Mafia Wars now claims 26 million active players, many of them playing online games for the first time. But thanks to Zynga's shady business practices, the browser game may not be the best ambassador for the form. Allen Varney dives into...

Greg Stafford, Mythmaker Greg Stafford - creator of Pendragon, practicing tattooed shaman, shares his views on myths, Glorantha and the virtues of roleplaying. Read Full Article

The Age of Hero Before Champions was an MMOG, it was a tabletop game. Read Full Article

Retro-clones Retro-clones allow you to play the classic RPG games without having to shell out the extra cash. Read Full Article

Dominion Over All The age of Magic: The Gathering may be coming to an end if one upstart game designer's meteoric rise continues. Allen Varney looks at Donald X. Vaccarino's debut card game, Dominion, and how it's taking over the genre one gaming group at a time. Read Full Article