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You are here: Home / 2009 / Archives for July 2009

Archives for July 2009

Time is running out to vote for Critical Hits! Voting ends Saturday Night!

July 31, 2009 by Dave

You only have until the end of Saturday, 8/1 to vote for us in the 2009 Ennie Awards for Best Website. (Remember, you don’t need to vote for any other category if you don’t want to, and 1 is best!) We just reached 1500 RSS feed subscribers today, and so if we got all of […]

Filed Under: News, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: ennies, shameless pimping

The One Page Dungeon Codex (and More!)

July 31, 2009 by The Chatty DM

For those too excited to read: The One Page Dungeon Codex 2009 The Combined One Page Dungeons These last few weeks, Chgowiz and I have been working at delivering on our promise of creating a special PDF file that brought together the very best entries from the contest One Page Dungeon contest. Well the wait […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: one page dungeon

I Didn’t Know You Could Do That With 4E: Adventure-Length Effects

July 31, 2009 by guest

Hey everybody!  My name is Brad Gardner.  I’m a long time D&D player.  Currently I’m DMing a game for some friends (The “Savage Tide” adventure path, converted to 4E) as well as writing for the RPGA’s Living Forgotten Realms campaign.  As of GenCon 2009, I’ll have the privilege of having five adventures published for the […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games

Quick Review: Adventure Art – Issue #1

July 30, 2009 by Bartoneus

Mythic Design has released a new product called Adventure Art in a series of issues, with the subtitle “Professional Artwork for Use in Your Roleplaying Games”.  They were kind enough to provide us with the first issue which is for May/June 2009, which is a nice looking collection of artwork from the archives of AvatarArt.com.  […]

Filed Under: Reviews, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: adventure art, avatar art, issue 1, mythic design, Reviews, Roleplaying Games, roleplaying games, tabletop

Hands On: Monster Builder Beta

July 30, 2009 by Dave

The Monster Builder was released today to DDI subscribers, allowing us to build our own monsters for 4e. Of course, we could already do that… through Asmor’s Monster Maker, the Dungeonmastering Tools, or WotC’s own bonus tools utility. So what does the new software bring to the table?

Filed Under: Featured, News, Reviews, Roleplaying Games

For new GMs: Worldbuilding is storytelling: complication, complexity, micronarratives, and your precious little fantasy world-baby

July 30, 2009 by guest

It’s the autism-spectrum version of playing god: surveying charts and tables and lists and believing, for just a moment, that a world can be contained in such a form. Elves and dragons are less unbelievable than that power fantasy.

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: advice, world building

Gen Con Hiatus Update: Guest Post Galore and Critical Hits!

July 29, 2009 by The Chatty DM

I got an incredible response to my call for guest posters and we’ve already started posting!  In fact,  I already have 2 posts more ready to be posted and the schedule is almost full! Speaking of guest posts, have you seen the one I did for Critical Hits yet?  I took Dave’s excellent 5X5 campaign […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games

Using the 5×5 Method for Adventure Design

July 29, 2009 by The Chatty DM

In his post, Dave explained how you can build a multi-threaded campaign, featuring 5 interrelated plot-lines by planning your campaign on a 5X5 Grid. When I read about that post, something clicked in my mind. I could feel that this seemingly simple concept had near unlimited potential as a game mastering tool. At the time I didn’t know what it would be, so I let that feeling simmer for a few weeks.

Filed Under: Featured, Roleplaying Games

Dude, You Gotta Try Savage Worlds!

July 29, 2009 by guest

Wrath of Zombies is a recent Blogger.  You can follow his RPG antics over at his blog. Wow.  I feel all sorts of special getting to fill in for Chatty today!  Honestly, for a new blogger like me, these are big shoes to fill but I’ll try not to disappoint! I, ironically at the same […]

Filed Under: Musings of the Chatty DM, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: Guest Post, Savage Worlds

YouTube Tuesday: Chase Dat Gold Edition

July 28, 2009 by Dave

A “gangsta rap” about LARPing. Yes, I’m serious. Keep in mind that there is some potentially offensive things in it (some of which are thanks to the genre) so approach with an open mind.

Filed Under: Roleplaying Games, YouTube Tuesday Tagged With: larp

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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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