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You are here: Home / Archives for 2010

Archives for 2010

The Guest DM

July 23, 2010 by The Main Event

Occasionally, DMs need a break. In long-running highly developed game worlds players may find that there are parts of the campaign or the world that they are particular interested in. If they notice that the DM needs a break, but is still is gung-ho about his game, this presents a golden opportunity. Running a single adventure in the regular DM’s game world is an unusual break for him and a change of place for the players.

Filed Under: Pain of Publication, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: DM advice, gming advice, star wars

Mouse Guard Chronicles, Session 1, Part 4: The Players’ Turn

July 22, 2010 by The Chatty DM

In which Chatty concludes his telling of his 1st Summer 2010 Mouse Guard session. In this post, the players experiment with the very Indie concepts of Shared Narrative and setting their own scenes.

Filed Under: Actual Play, Campaign Logs, Musings of the Chatty DM, Newest Critical Hits Tagged With: Chatty's 2010 summer campaign, Mouse Guard

Minions Are Spice

July 22, 2010 by Chris Sims

A minion is a tiny onion used for flavor, especially in soups. That’s what my father told me when I was a kid. Even then, though, the D&D game had imparted enough for me to see the lie and the humor. In fact, if analyzed closely, this quip from dear ol’ dad, and my assimilation of it, might explain a lot about me. Talk about analysis paralysis.

Filed Under: Analysis Paralysis, Columns, Editorial, Featured, Newest Critical Hits, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, D&D, DM advice, encounter design, minions, monsters

Greetings from the New Initiate

July 21, 2010 by Logan Bonner

When Chris Sims extended an offer to joining Critical-Hits a while back, I was intrigued. I liked the site, and its reputation as a good group of people who usually stay positive about games (but while remaining honest about their opinions). My existing blog, while mostly about gaming, didn’t cleave strictly to D&D discussions. Or at least I didn’t plan for it to always do so. Also, I’ve made a long tradition of following in Chris Sims’s footsteps ever since I became an editor on D&D shortly after he did, so here was another chance.

Filed Under: Board, Card, and Miniature Games, Comics, Minor Quests, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, conventions, D&D, Dungeons and Dragons

Mouse Guard Chronicles, Session 1, Part 3: The Unarmed Hero

July 20, 2010 by The Chatty DM

In which Chatty continues his multi-part series detailing his 1st Summer 2010 Mouse Guard session where he tackles a combat conflict and describes the rest of the GM-controlled narrative before turning it over to the players in the next post.

Filed Under: Actual Play, Campaign Logs, Musings of the Chatty DM, Newest Critical Hits Tagged With: Chatty's 2010 summer campaign, Mouse Guard

A DM’s Look at D&D Essentials

July 20, 2010 by Mike Shea

Like many of you, I was very interested to hear more about D&D Essentials. A lot of people whisper the threat of “D&D 4.5” and narrow their eyes as they grab a hold of their wallets for fear that Mike Mearls will pluck it out of their hands. We have a lot of questions rolling around in our heads. As primarily a dungeon master, I have a lot of questions about what this will do to my game. Today we’re going to take a look at what D&D Essentials could mean for us dungeon masters.

Filed Under: Editorial, Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, essentials

Inquisition of the Week: Best Game Nominees

July 19, 2010 by Dave

This week, as we’ve been beating the drums, Ennies voting is going on now (obligatory plug- category #18, vote us #1 in Best Blog!) Of course, the big category, of which there are 10 nominees, is Product of the Year. These games exemplify excellence in everything from writing, design, and presentation. Though all the nominees are worth notice, it is these that have some of the highest honors in the industry.

Filed Under: Inquisition of the Week, Roleplaying Games

Critical Bits for the week ending 2010-07-18

July 18, 2010 by Gato the News Robot

New 4e project announced from @KoboldQuarterly , with lead design by @loganbonner http://is.gd/doto1 # RT @CharlesMRyan: The cat's now out of the bag: the Ryans are leaving England after four glorious years. Full scoop at http://www.charlesmryan.com # RT @gamefiend: New blog post: Threshold http://at-will.omnivangelist.net/2010/07/threshold/ # RT @warrenellis: Harvey Pekar reported dead. Very sad. http://bit.ly/9sBpmS # […]

Filed Under: Critical Bits Tagged With: twitter

Mouse Guard Chronicles, Session 1, Part 2: The Lost Patrol

July 18, 2010 by The Chatty DM

After we ordered and ate our evening meal I asked if they wanted to play a Mouse Guard session now that the PCs were made and that we’d had some time to take a break from char gen and do something else. All players were willing to start playing…

…So I actually had to prep an adventure, like right now!

Filed Under: Actual Play, Campaign Logs, Musings of the Chatty DM, Newest Critical Hits Tagged With: Chatty's 2010 summe, Mouse Guard

CONTEST: Want To Go To GenCon/Can’t Go To GenCon

July 16, 2010 by Dave

For those of you without tickets to GenCon, whether because you haven’t bought them but could go or because you can’t go at all, we offer the following multi-part contest. Choose the one that best fits your situation: I Want A Ticket To Go To GenCon, I Can’t Go To GenCon, I Have A Ticket And I’m Going To GenCon.

Filed Under: News, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: contest, gencon

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