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You are here: Home / Archives for 2008

Archives for 2008

Inq. of the Week: Bad Movie Ideas

November 17, 2008 by Dave

As we are oft to do, we wanted to find out what kinds of games you play. 94% of you play Tabletop Roleplaying Games (only 4 people who voted do not), 71% of you play console games, and 67% play boardgames. Amazingly, 0% are not gamers at all… they have all fled from our gamerdom. […]

Filed Under: Board, Card, and Miniature Games, Featured, Inquisition of the Week, Movies

Chatty’s Online D&D 4e Game: Genesis of the Project

November 16, 2008 by The Chatty DM

As many of you know, I made a lot of friends and contacts around the time of Gen Con 2008. Among those friends was Don, one of the members of the Wizards of the Coast Development team working on D&D insider. Don was one of the Seattle Wizards who read my Open Letter to WotC […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, Chatty's Online game

Paying the Buy-In

November 14, 2008 by Dave

When starting a new campaign (or even just planning a one-shot), it’s tough to get people into a new game. Thus, the game usually ends up being D&D. Now, there’s nothing wrong with it being D&D, but with so many RPGs out there, I enjoy a bit of variety when I can get it.

Why is it so tough? Because the “buy-in” total for the game is too high.

Filed Under: Critical Threats, Editorial, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: campaign, D&D, dark heresy, dread, roleplaying, Roleplaying Games, star wars

4th Edition Encounter Planner

November 14, 2008 by Bartoneus

Earlier this week I was talking to Asmor and idly mentioned to him how I was trying to make an Encounter Planner for 4th Edition that used the DMG encounter templates. I was hoping to have something where I input a level, choose a difficulty, and it outputs a list of the monsters that will […]

Filed Under: Critical Bits, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4th Edition, asmor, D&D, dnd 4e, Dungeons and Dragons, Roleplaying Games

The long Journey, 500th post!

November 14, 2008 by The Chatty DM

Musings of the Chatty DM started a little over 1 year ago, with a bad colour scheme and a 34 year old nerd with limited editorial and web design skills. The first 200 posts were about finding my voice, the next 200 were those that established me as a credible blogger and building an incredible […]

Filed Under: blogging, Musings of the Chatty DM

Robin Laws’ Revisited: Part 6, Being Spontaneous!

November 13, 2008 by The Chatty DM

This post is part of a series where I discuss Robin D Laws’ seminal work on GMing: Robin Laws’ of Good Game Mastering, written at the end of the 90’s . I compare it to my personal experience and opinions and I check how well the guide has ‘aged’. The other posts of this series […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Robin Laws

Winter is Coming (to HBO)

November 12, 2008 by The Main Event

George R.R. Martin’s fantasy epic has been greenlighted. The plan is to adapt one novel each season, starting with 1996’s “A Game of Thrones.” – AintitCool Martin himself will be doing some of the writing chores (further pushing back Dance of Dragons, eh?) along with others.  Frankly, I’m really excited.  After seeing Rome/Deadwood I have faith […]

Filed Under: Critical Bits, News, Science Fiction & Fantasy Genre, Television

Adventure Prep: Keeping it Simple and Stupid

November 12, 2008 by The Chatty DM

All right so last night I sat down to prep for my game as I planned it here and here.  My goal of the night was to be done with the first half of the adventure: Getting on the Fey Airship and reaching the player’s destination. I got out all the battle maps (I have […]

Filed Under: Adventure Prep, Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games

Adventure Prep: Fitting everything in one evening

November 11, 2008 by The Chatty DM

Since I’m running a D&D 4e home brewed adventure for my gaming group this week, a lot of my creative energies will be focused there for the next few days. A guy needs his priorities straight and my D&D game is pretty much at the top of my ‘use of free time’ list. This means […]

Filed Under: Adventure Prep, Musings of the Chatty DM Tagged With: 4e, Chatty's 2008-2009 campaign

YouTube Tuesday: Singing about Kissing Wookies Edition

November 11, 2008 by Dave

An a capella version of various John Williams songs, with new lyrics around Star Wars. Oh, and it’s composited very well, as you’ll see.

Filed Under: Movies, Music, Science Fiction & Fantasy Genre, YouTube Tuesday

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  • Dave

    Dave "The Game" Chalker is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of Critical Hits. Since 2005, he has been bringing readers game news and advice, as well as editing nearly everything published here. He is the designer of the Origins Award-winning Get Bit!, a freelance designer and developer, son of a science fiction author, and a Master of Arts. He lives in MD with e and at least three dogs.

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