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You are here: Home / Archives for 2011

Archives for 2011

Improvisational Safety Limits

July 5, 2011 by Vanir

Last week, I decided to simulate the randomness of dreams for my players in our D&D game. I decided to come up with almost everything on the fly to give it that extra little bit of realism. You know, for all the imaginary stuff. Needless to say, what ensued was a nightmare. GET IT?

Filed Under: Dire Flailings, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: dream, mutation, nightmare, random, wtf

Review: “Masks: 1,000 NPCs for Any Roleplaying Game”

July 5, 2011 by Dave

Masks: 1,000 NPCs for Any Roleplaying Game is what it says: 1,000 NPCs ready to be dropped into any game. While they don’t have any stats (like Eureka, the book is systemless), you’ll find each NPC has a full name, a brieft summary, a quote from the character, appearance, roleplaying advice, a description of personality, motivations, background, and a set of traits (that are shared across multiple entries.)

Filed Under: Featured, Reviews, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: eureka, masks, NPCs

Critical Bits for the week ending 2011-07-03

July 3, 2011 by Gato the News Robot

From the Archives:: Antagonistic Viziers and Fleeing Pickpockets http://bit.ly/kH0Idj #charchive # RT @boardgamegeek: Congrats to Qwirkle for winning 2011 SdJ, and to 7 Wonders for winning Kennerspiel des Jahres- http://tinyurl.com/3wwv9vn # Slight corrections made to 2011 Origins Awards Winners post, also added photo of Evil Hat Productions crew by @Jamie1km http://bit.ly/lDjkno # The Death and […]

Filed Under: Critical Bits Tagged With: twitter

2011 Origins Report

June 30, 2011 by Dave

Another Origins has come and gone, and as always, there were plenty of games. Here are a few that stood out, both old and new.

Filed Under: Board, Card, and Miniature Games, News, Reviews, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 7 wonders, Apocalypse World, ascension, deadlands, fealty, fiasco, gamma world, innovation, magic the gathering, origins, origins 2011, Savage Worlds, seven dragons, star trek: expeditions

The Architect DM: Give Your Cities Some Architecture

June 29, 2011 by Bartoneus

Not every D&D campaign or world map includes nations or regions that break the larger mass into more digestible pieces, but this is one of the features that I’m glad I chose to be a primary element of my current D&D campaign. Inspired by a 3rd Edition D&D campaign run by our friend Dennis (aka The Main Event) where the nationality of the PCs became one of the most memorable parts of the game for me and ended up factoring into the ongoing plots in interesting ways, I decided to present my players with a world divided into various nations each with a unique flair and often divided by racial distinctions. However, one of the elements that I failed to strongly present to my players and that I’m going to discuss today is the idea of giving a unique design and feel to each of those nations when it comes to locations and buildings.

Filed Under: Featured, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: 4e, 4th Edition, advice, architect dm, architecture, campaign, D&D, dnd, Dungeons and Dragons, nations, regions, sandbox, world building

Let Sleeping Dukes Lie

June 28, 2011 by Vanir

Poor ol’ Duke got cancelled and sold to other companies and cancelled and put through the most spectacular development hell any of us have ever heard of. I was incredibly worried the day Duke Nukem Forever came out last month. I was about 12% sure the world was going to end. Conversely, after the Worst Development Cycle Ever, I was over 90% sure Duke Nukem Forever was going to be really terrible. It wasn’t terrible. It was worse than that. It was disappointing.

Filed Under: Dire Flailings, Humor, Reviews, Video Games Tagged With: come get some, disappointment, duke nukem, duke nukem forever, duke nukum, duke3d, shake it baby

Critical Bits for the week ending 2011-06-26

June 26, 2011 by Gato the News Robot

From the Archives:: A 600 lb. Gorrilla http://bit.ly/leSOHF #charchive # RT @matt_james_rpg: Slavicsek to leave #WotC http://bit.ly/iozEtx #dnd #rpg # Live tweeting the 2011 Origins Awards winners to begin soon. Thanks to @rolling20s for use of his connection. # Origins Award for Traditional Card Game: BACK TO THE FUTURE by @LooneyLabs # Origins Award for […]

Filed Under: Critical Bits Tagged With: twitter

2011 Origins Awards Winners

June 25, 2011 by Dave

Here are the results of the 2011 Origins Awards, announced at the 37th annual ceremony.

Filed Under: Board, Card, and Miniature Games, News, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: origins, origins 2011, origins awards

Review: Fiasco Companion

June 22, 2011 by Linnaeus

The Fiasco Companion includes variants, extensions, crunch (in the form of four new playsets designed to illustrate principles explored elsewhere in the text) and advice (including chapters on using Fiasco in the classroom and as a creative tool outside of roleplaying, plus tips for playing online and facilitating in the absence of the GM role).

Filed Under: Featured, Reviews, Roleplaying Games Tagged With: fiasco, fiasco companion

Review: “Conquest of Nerath” D&D Boardgame

June 21, 2011 by Bartoneus

Today we see the release of Conquest of Nerath, the newest D&D board game from Wizards of the Coast. Unlike the last two D&D board games from WotC, Castle Ravenloft and Wrath of Ashardalon, which focused on heroes and dungeon crawling this new game is a take on large scale strategy board gaming along the lines of games like Risk or Axis & Allies. At the same time the game includes heroes that can fight alongside your larger armies and delve into dungeons to uncover powerful treasure that will help your armies attain victory over the other factions.

Filed Under: Board, Card, and Miniature Games, Featured, Reviews Tagged With: Axis & Allies, board game, boardgame, boardgames, castle ravenloft, conquest of nerath, D&D, dnd, Dungeons and Dragons, preview, Reviews, risk, roleplaying games, strategy, wrath of ashardalon

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  • Vanir

    Vanir is the sort of man who has openly wondered aloud about his own armor class in front of his own grandmother. Despite this, he has still managed to somehow become both married and a father. By day, he develops web applications. By night, web applications develop him.

    Email: vanir@critical-hits.comWeb: https://critical-hits.com//category/dire-flailings/

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