The Burnt Offering The Music and the Dice By Stu Horvath • September 11th, 2023 Like any live performance, a tabletop roleplaying game’s greatest power resides in the moment, experiencing the event as it happens.
The Burnt Offering The Kosmische Cosmos By Stu Horvath • June 6th, 2023 Electronic music is thoroughly modern music. And the truth about the folklore that these sorts of projects score is that it’s thoroughly modern folklore.
More Like Gilga-meh! By Stu Horvath • April 21st, 2022 This supposed epic, this paradigm-shifting piece of literature, is just another flood myth! Do you know how many flood myths we already have lying around?
The Burnt Offering Notes on a Train Trip By Stu Horvath • September 16th, 2021 In Chaosium’s Horror on the Orient Express the journey is your final destination.
The Burnt Offering Fracas in Freshtovia By Stu Horvath • November 5th, 2019 Wendy’s admittedly committed attempt at a tabletop RPG is every bit the corporate advertisement it tries not to be.
The Burnt Offering Grab Bag By Stu Horvath • July 5th, 2019 Stu has a handful of thoughts on everything from The Name of the Rose to dungeon synth.
The Burnt Offering The One Good Dog By Stu Horvath • June 6th, 2019 When pitches came in for the Pets Issue, Stu expected to get several pitches about the dog from Fable II. He got zero. So he wrote his own, goddammit!
The Burnt Offering The Incorrect Way By Stu Horvath • May 8th, 2019 Stu and David delight in playing serious games on their own terms.
The Burnt Offering Metal is My Church By Stu Horvath • April 4th, 2019 Stu Horvath ponders the alchemy behind taste as he reconsiders a “cheeseball” artist from his nascent metal education.
The Burnt Offering Scimitar By Stu Horvath • January 15th, 2019 Pronunciation may not be at the front of the player’s mind as they slash through baddies, but it can prompt some interesting discussions.
The Burnt Offering The Feels By Stu Horvath • December 3rd, 2018 What happens when a horror story tries to manifest in the real world?
The Burnt Offering Binge Reader By Stu Horvath • October 29th, 2018 There are many books sitting on my shelves that I have read in a single sitting. I can’t tell you a single thing about most of them. Re-read responsibly, kids.
The Burnt Offering The Rulebook Tarantella By Stu Horvath • October 12th, 2018 The mind behind Unearthed Arcana stumbled on a roleplaying publishing paradox: you need rulebooks to make money, but the more rulebooks you publish, the more unwieldy your game.
The Burnt Offering Dungeons & Dragons Is a Double-Edged Sword By Stu Horvath • August 15th, 2018 Dungeons & Dragons is the gateway into tabletop roleplaying, but for many players, it is also the final destination.
The Burnt Offering Powers of Darkness By Stu Horvath • July 4th, 2018 DontNod’s Vampyr, creating something disappointingly human out of our the monster of our collective nightmares.
The Burnt Offering The Shadow of Lovecraft By Stu Horvath • May 22nd, 2018 It’s time to retire the word “Lovecraftian.”
The Burnt Offering False Memory By Stu Horvath • May 14th, 2018 Whats the French phrase for the feeling you get when you watch a classic movie you’re sure you’ve already seen only to find you never have? In English, it’s probably “disorienting embarrassment.”
The Burnt Offering The New Make-Believe By Stu Horvath • February 28th, 2018 When most folks have a mid-life crisis, they buy a sports car. Stu Horvath frets about his ability to run tabletop roleplaying games.
The Burnt Offering Signs & Portents By Stu Horvath • February 13th, 2018 In Gorogoa, nothing is what it appears to be.
The Burnt Offering Stranger Songs By Stu Horvath • December 6th, 2017 With soundtracks, sometimes too much of a good thing can be terrible. Evidence: the in-your-face 80s soundtrack of Stranger Things 2.
The Burnt Offering A Miscellany By Stu Horvath • November 7th, 2017 This month’s column is the equivalent of a clip show – horror movies, criticism of toxic fandom, fretting about fatherhood and more inside!
The Burnt Offering Nostalgia Bomb By Stu Horvath • August 18th, 2017 Nostalgia is the bottomless pit into which we willingly throw ourselves.
The Burnt Offering The Perils of Realness By Stu Horvath • July 28th, 2017 Forget all that other trash. This is the real deal.
The Burnt Offering Unpopular Opinions By Stu Horvath • June 23rd, 2017 All my unpopular opinions, gathered in one convenient place.
The Burnt Offering The Past is Never Dead By Stu Horvath • May 26th, 2017 I recently took a lengthy vacation at Rusty Lake, a resort known primarily for its mental health benefits and its fishing.
The Burnt Offering When the Void Looks Back By Stu Horvath • April 21st, 2017 If the cosmic gods of horror are utterly indifferent to mankind, why do human cultists worship them?
The Burnt Offering On Preconceived Notions By Stu Horvath • February 21st, 2017 How do you create criteria to find more surprises that defy your criteria?
The Burnt Offering The End By Stu Horvath • November 23rd, 2016 “Endings are a kind of freedom. If a story never ends, you’re bound, shackled to it forever.”
The Burnt Offering On Shelves By Stu Horvath • August 23rd, 2016 The library as a focus for meditation, or Stu stares at his shelves a lot.
The Burnt Offering Summer Reading By Stu Horvath • August 2nd, 2016 There’s nothing like reading about cosmic meaninglessness while laying on the beach!
The Burnt Offering Spring, 1988 By Stu Horvath • May 18th, 2016 Can a supplement for a (not very good) role-playing game change the course of your life?
The Burnt Offering The Ambivalent Side of the Force By Stu Horvath • December 18th, 2015 Stu Horvath doesn’t mind if the Force decides to sleep in.
The Burnt Offering Shaving with Tweezers By Stu Horvath • December 11th, 2015 Stu Horvath has a deep compulsion to play Assassin’s Creed games.
The Burnt Offering Content is the Opiate of the Masthead By Stu Horvath • November 6th, 2015 A website that chases advertising dollars with lists and re-writes is the same as a factory that pumps toxic waste into the ecosystem.
The Burnt Offering The Howls of the Damned By Stu Horvath • October 30th, 2015 Where are the songs that make us scream in terror?
The Burnt Offering A Sense of Place By Stu Horvath • October 16th, 2015 How much can a place give you? How much can you take away?
The Burnt Offering The End of the Campaign By Stu Horvath • September 25th, 2015 Stu Horvath reflects on the end of his ten year D&D campaign.