Sam Nelson-Staff Writer

Sam Nelson

Contributor Since June, 2017
Expertise
Dungeons & Dragons, Television, Sci-Fi
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  • 17
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Polygon.com logo Profile
https://www.metacritic.com/critic/samantha-nelson/

About Sam Nelson

Sam covers TV, movies, games and books at Polygon, making recommendations about what to watch and play while interviewing actors, writers, and designers about their work. She has spent 15 years working as a journalist and critic, with bylines across numerous publications including IGN, GamesRadar+, The A.V. Club, The Verge, and Windows Central.

What's your origin story?

Sam's mom read her The Hobbit while her dad introduced her to Superman, sparking a lifelong passion for fantasy and superhero stories. She knew she wanted to be a journalist starting in second grade, first learned Dungeons & Dragons in fourth grade, and started playing Magic: The Gathering when she was 11. By high school she was part of The X-Files fandom and watching anime. After graduating from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University she started turning all those geeky passions into writing gigs.

What did you play or watch that changed your life?

Sam watched Gargoyles as a kid, which gave her a deep appreciation for serialized storytelling, rich worldbuilding, and villains with complex character arcs.

What's a recent obsession?

MCDM's Draw Steel is the best TTRPG combat Sam has encountered, offering a faster and richer experience than Dungeons & Dragons. It's cinematic and makes characters feel powerful, while giving the game master plenty of nasty tricks they can use to turn the tide of a fight.

Homelander (Antony Starr) gives a salute in The Boys season 5
Interview

The Boys 'is pro-religion' says creator, just not the kind wielded by power-hungry madmen who think they're Jesus

By  POLY Staff
Slay the Spire: Downfall board and components
Board Games

Slay the Spire board game designer explains how he adapted a hit video game mod

By  POLY Staff
A group of epic level adventurers fight a wormlike monster with a giant maw ringed with many arms in art from Ariadne's Book of Legends
Dungeons & Dragons

Ariadne’s Book of Legends channels Frieren to deliver high-level D&D gameplay

By  POLY Staff
Lyonel Baratheon (Daniel Ings), a shirtless man with a salt and pepper beard and a headband with stag horns attached to it, holds a tankard and dances around a pole with Ser Manfred Dondarrion (Daniel Monk) a smiling bearded man in noble attire in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
Game of Thrones

Knight of the Seven Kingdoms actually justifies Game of Thrones’ unearned ending

By  POLY Staff
A tactical pause view of the Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes videeo game shows the Espadon fleet under assault by the Cylons
Previews

Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes captures the relentlessness of the show’s best episode

By  POLY Staff

Latest

Titan X emerges from the ocean in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
The MonsterVerse's best new Titan was inspired by Alien movies and jellyish
Interview

The show’s VFX director talks about his inspirations and building stakes

Superman in My Adventures With Superman, crouching and ready to face an unknown threat
My Adventures with Superman will return to adapt a classic ‘90s comic arc
News

Adult Swim offers a first look at Cyborg Superman

MSDREEV_EC002
Resident Evil director Zach Cregger didn't watch the previous movies so he could stick closer to the games
Interview

'I was such a fan of the games and they just didn’t look like the games to me'

Bryan (Austin Abrams) runs for his life through the street in Resident Evil 2026
Resident Evil 2026 director reveals his new movie takes place on the periphery of Resident Evil 2
Interview

Director Zach Cregger wanted to replicate the feel of playing the game for the first time

5
Dungeon Crawler Carl TTRPG
The Dungeon Crawler Carl TTRPG won’t be just another D&D reskin
Tabletop Games

‘We didn’t think any existing systems would work’

Homelander (Antony Starr) gives a salute in The Boys season 5
The Boys showrunner breaks down season 5's latest supe death
Interview

According to Eric Kripke, the show actually takes place in a "reasonably just universe"

4
Carl has a fluffy white cat named Princess Donut on his shoulder as he runs from an explosion on the cover of the graphic novel version of Dungeon Crawler Carl
We have the first 10 pages of the Dungeon Crawler Carl graphic novel
Exclusive

The world has ended and Carl is stuck outside in his underwear

18
Steve and Dustin lie on their backs in an industrial space full of pipes, both looking astonished or scared, in Stranger Things: Tales from ’85
Netflix's new Stranger Things show wanted to create a monster as scary as Jaws
Stranger Things

The animated spinoff draws on The Goonies, The Real Ghostbusters, Jaws, and Alien

2
Timothee Chalamet holds a table tennis bat and points in Marty Supreme
Marty Supreme, Netflix's brutal new thriller, and everything else new to streaming this weekend
What to Watch

Watch the latest from Oldboy's Park Chan-wook on Hulu

2
Nikki, a large girl with a spiky pink peak in her hair, holds a mallet and smiles as she prepares to play a carnival game while Will watches in Stranger Things: Tales from ‘85
Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 expanded the party to solve the problem with Will
Stranger Things

The spin-off’s showrunner has big plans for more adventures

1
A split-screen shows Lonnie Lincoln smiling and Spider-Man in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man
A lesser-known Spider-Man villain is quietly connecting Marvel’s movies and shows
Marvel

Versions of Tombstone are appearing in three different adaptations

2
darks souls 3 concept art
15 Universes Beyond crossovers we want to see in Magic: The Gathering
Magic: The Gathering

From Dark Souls to KPop Demon Hunters, here's a chaotic assortment of potential crossovers we're dreaming about

5
Cobra reaches out to grab a puppy stuck in a hole in Dave the Diver In the Jungle
Dave the Diver’s dev says the In the Jungle DLC will be close to an expansion
Interview

‘We want to give existing players a genuinely new experience’

Star City: A Soviet cosmonaut prepares for launch
Apple's next big sci-fi epic makes spy work scarier than space
Trailers

The prequel sets up a tense hunt for an American spy

invincible season 4
Everything we know about Invincible season 5
Explainer

Expect to see more Dinosaurus early next year

invincible
Lee Pace teases what’s next for Thragg after the Invincible season 4 finale
Interview

'We’ve set up a character that will be fun to apply pressure to'

SIlo_Photo_030105-1
Silo's first season 3 trailer unveils more of the pre-apocalyptic past
Trailers

Apple’s sci-fi mystery returns on July 3

Ichiban Kasuga of Yakuza, a man wearing a white T-shirt with a Hawaiian shirt, has his eyes closed and holds a microphone in Dave the Diver
‘I don’t just want to make them a cameo’: How Dave the Diver’s dev has built a better Fortnite
Interview

The game director is considering adding a time portal to enable more crossovers

2
dust bunny
Bryan Fuller’s surreal hitman fairy tale arrives on HBO Max
What to Watch

Mads Mikkelsen slays monsters in the ultra-stylish film

2
Two cute, fuzzy beavers — one of whom is actually a robot beaver housing a human mind — stand next to each other, smiling, in Pixar's Hoppers
When will Hoppers be available on streaming?

You'll need to rewatch the film to spot all the Pixar references

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